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If I should be able to you help out in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. Please also contact me should you need any help with setting up a Mediation with Cummins Mediation Services. Trending over the past year were a number of notable Pennsylvania federal court decisions handed down reviewing the issue of jurisdiction over foreign or out of state Defendants. A common thread in a number of the decisions was an agreement that, if a foreign business had registered to do business in Pennsylvania, that minimal contact in and of itself was sufficient to allow for jurisdiction over that defendant. See Mendoza v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc., No. 4:17-CV-02028 (M.D.Pa. 2018 Brann, J.). In a number of other decisions, the federal courts addressed whether jurisdiction could be had under a stream of commerce theory. For example in Wylam v. Trader Joe's Co., No. 3:16-CV- 2112 (M.D.Pa. 2018 Mariani, J.), the court noted that neither a single sale directed at the forum state nor the fact that the Defendant's products were carried by national retailers was sufficient to establish jurisdiction. In 2018, federal court bad faith Complaints were getting bounced left and right for being rife with conclusory allegations lacking sufficient factual support. Decisions in the Western District, Eastern District and the Middle District tasked plaintiffs with the need to offer facts to support claims of poor claims handling, delays in payment, and lack of investigations by carriers. Lucky for the plaintiffs, in most cases leave to amend was granted. A number of those cases can be accessed at this LINK. Judge James M. Munley of the Federal Middle District Court of Pennsylvania denied the carrier’s Motion for Summary Judgment on a UIM statute of limitations defense in the case of Legos v. Travelers Cas. Ins. Co., No. 3:16-CV-1917 (M.D. Pa. Oct. 11, 2018 Munley, J.), by holding that the statute of limitations for a UIM is four (4) years from the date of a breach of the automobile insurance contract and not the date of the third party settlement. The breach of contract was noted to be the carrier's denial of the request, or settlement demand, for payment of UIM benefits. In so ruling, the court referenced the Pennsylvania Supreme Court case of Erie Ins. Exch. v. Bristol, 174 A.3d 578 (Pa. 2017), in which it was held that the statute of limitations in an uninsured (UM) motorist case does not begin to run until there is an alleged breach of the insurance contract, i.e., the denial of a claim or a refusal to arbitrate. The Legos decision can be viewed HERE. Some argue that these cases serve to eradicate the statute of limitations in UM/UIM cases by basing the start of the statute of limitations upon the alleged breach of the auto insurance contract by the carrier. When filing such Complaints, Plaintiffs typically allege that auto insurance carriers breach the contract by not paying the Plaintiff's request for UM or UIM benefits. As the argument goes, every time a carrier declines to pay a Plaintiff's settlement demand, another breach occurs which causes the running of the statute of limitations to start again (and again and again and again, every time a demand is rejected). Look for the defense bar to challenge this issue in the future. A number of decisions handed down over the past year confirmed that there is no liability under the Hills and Ridges Doctrine if a person slips and falls during the course of a snowstorm. The Collins decision is also notable for the court's ruling that the Defendant's alleged failure to pretreat a walking surface was not a basis upon which to impose liability under Pennsylvania law. Another case from the past year along these lines was the case of Bless v. Pocono Mountain Recovery Center, LLC., No. 8167 - CV - 2016 (C.P. Monroe Co. May 17, 2018 Zulick, J.). In Bless, which is noted to be the most viewed case of 2018 on the Pennsylvania Law Weekly's Instant Case Service, Judge Arthur L. Zulick, of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas granted the Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment based upon the hills and ridges doctrine in a case where the record contained evidence that the Plaintiff's fall occurred right after a recent snowfall which caused slippery conditions. In the case of Gintoff v. Thomas, No. 2016-CV-2155 (C.P. Lacka. Co. May 4, 2018 Nealon, J.), Judge Terrence R. Nealon of the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas granted a Defendant hospital’s Motion for Summary Judgment in a medical malpractice case given the Plaintiff’s failure to support the claims against that Defendant with expert opinion testimony on those particular claims. This decision was the fourth most viewed case on the The Pennsylvania Law Weekly's Instant Case Service in 2018. In Gintoff, the court found that the Plaintiff's medical expert report, which only addressed the care provided by the defendant doctor, lacked sufficient expert opinion to establish a prima facie case for vicarious liability or corporate negligence on the part of the defendant hospital. As such summary granted was entered in favor of the hospital. Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision by Judge Nealon may click this LINK. Notable social media discovery and evidentiary decisions continued to trend over the past year. Earlier this year, in the case of Commonwealth v. Mangel, 181 A.3d 1154 (Pa. Super. 2018), the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that social media posts are inadmissible in criminal cases unless prosecutors can present evidence of who actually authored the commentary, that is, unless the evidence is authenticated under Pa.R.E. 901. Both the trial court and the appellate court in Mangel found that merely presenting evidence that the posts and messages came from a social media account bearing the defendant’s name was not enough to allow the evidence in. The court noted that Facebook posts and messages must instead be authenticated under Pa.R.E. 901 in a manner similar to how text messages and email messages are authenticated. The Superior Court in Mangel relied on its own 2011 decision in Commonwealth v. Koch, 39 A.3d 996, 1005 (Pa. Super. 2011), affirmed by an equally divided court, 106 A.3d 705 (Pa. 2014), which dealt with the admissibility and authentication of cell phone text messages. It can be expected that a similar ruling will also be handed down in the context of a civil litigation matter should that issue come before the trial or appellate courts. In terms of social media discovery decisions, in Kelter v. Flanagan, PICS Case No. 18-0266, No. 286-Civil-2017 (C.P. Monroe Co. Feb. 19, 2018 Williamson, J.), Judge David J. Williamson granted a defendant’s motion to compel a plaintiff to provide the defense counsel with the plaintiff’s Instagram account log-in information. public pages on the plaintiff’s profile showed that more information may be found on the private pages of the same profile. A contrary result was handed down in the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas ruling in Allen v. Sands Bethworks Gaming, No. C-0048-CV-2017-2279 (C.P. North. Co. Aug. 6, 2018 Dally, J.). This case arose out of the plaintiff’s alleged slip-and-fall in a bathroom at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After reviewing the record before the court, the court in Allen ruled that the defense had failed to establish the factual predicate of showing sufficient information on the plaintiff’s public pages to allow for discovery of information on the plaintiff’s private pages. In a footnote, the court also emphasized that such a factual predicate must be established with respect to each separate social media site the defendant wishes to access further. For a comprehensive compilation of social media discovery decisions, one can freely access the FACEBOOK DISCOVERY SCORECARD on the Tort Talk blog. Many of the decisions handed down to date can be viewed and even downloaded from that page. With the continuing absence of any appellate authority on the issue to date, the trial courts of Pennsylvania have developed a common law on the issue of whether punitive damages are a viable part of an auto accident claim involving cell phone use by a defendant driver. In the Cumberland County case of Manning v. Barber, No. 17-7915 Civil (C.P. Cumb. Co. 2018), preliminary objections were granted and a plaintiff’s punitive damages claim was dismissed in a case in which the plaintiff alleged that the defendant driver was texting while driving. According to the opinion, the plaintiff’s vehicle was stopped at a red light with another vehicle stopped behind it. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to stop for the traffic light and rear-ended the second vehicle, causing it to strike to the rear of the plaintiff’s vehicle. The plaintiff additionally alleged that, at the time of the accident, the defendant was not looking at the roadway because she was distracted while looking at and texting on her cell phone. The Manning court concluded that the mere use of a cell phone absent additional indicia of recklessness was not enough to sustain a claim for punitive damages. This decision can be viewed at this LINK. Over the past year, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has continued to hand down important decisions that are marked as "Non-Precedential" by that Court, rendering the decisions to be of minimal or no persuasive value going forward. One rationale voiced at CLE seminars for marking the decisions as "Non-precedential" is that the Superior Court writes hundreds and hundreds of opinions every year. Huh? With all the room in the online world for continuing publications of everything in this Digital Age, including numerous court decisions, the hope is that the Pennsylvania Superior Court begins to publish all of its decisions so as to render them precedential and, therefore, useful. The Superior Court internal rules or customs pertaining to marking Opinions as "Non-precedential" are as necessary as its old, repealed rules that use to make litigators waste time needlessly looking up and citing to both the "A.2d" citation and the "Pa.Super." citation to cases back in the day. Here's to hoping that a change is coming in 2019. In what may be the first reported Pennsylvania decision in an Uber personal injury litigation matter, the court in Fusco v. Uber Technologies, PICS No. 18-0944 (E.D. Pa. July 27, 2018 Goldberg, J.)(Mem. Op.), conditionally granted Uber’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s negligent hiring, retention and supervision claims in a case of an Uber driver who allegedly attacked the plaintiff-customer. In this matter, when the Uber driver arrived to pick up the plaintiff, the driver refused to take the plaintiff to his requested destination as it was too far. The plaintiff, apparently knowing the rules that Uber imposes on its drivers to honor the customer's request to be taken to a certain destination, remained seated in the car and repeated his request to be brought home. At that point, the driver dragged the plaintiff out of the car, kicked and beat him, leaving the plaintiff unconscious and bleeding. The plaintiff later filed this suit against Uber asserting a negligent hiring claim, fraud and misrepresentation claims and vicarious liability claims. According to the opinion, the court had originally granted Uber’s motion to dismiss on the negligent hiring and related claims given that there was no record of any alleged instances of past misconduct by the offending driver. The court noted, however, that, after the plaintiff filed his complaint, news outlets in the area reported that the driver involved in the incident had a prior criminal conviction. In light of this development, the court granted the plaintiff leave to amend his complaint as to these claims. Accordingly, the claim against Uber was allowed to proceed. Anyone wishing to review this memorandum decision may click this LINK. The companion Order can be viewed HERE. And so, with the dawn of the age of Uber and Lyft litigation arising, it may be wise to read up on any case law you see in this regard. Please email me a copy of any decisions you see to be posted here on Tort Talk so that all can benefit from this knowledge. For an article by myself and Steve Kopko, Esquire on the law pertaining to required insurance in Uber and Lyft cases, click HERE. Twelve (12) years of precedent was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the case of Cagey v. PennDOT, 179 A.3d 458 (Pa. Feb. 21, 2018) (Maj. Op. by Donohue, J.)(Saylor, C.J., Concurring) (Wecht, J., Concurring), thereby exposing PennDOT to more litigation relative to accidents involving guiderails along Pennsylvania state roadways. In Cagey, the court expressly overruled the long-followed 12-year-old Commonwealth Court decision in Fagan v. PennDOT, 946 A.2d 1123 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2006), along with its progeny, which had previously held that PennDOT is immune from liability in guiderail cases. With the Cagey decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down earlier this year, PennDOT is now only immune when it fails to install a guide rail. With this reversal of many years of legal authority that protected PennDOT from liability pertaining to guide rail claims, it is expected that there will be a dramatic increase in litigation for the government in defending accidents that involve alleged issues with a guiderail. Anyone wishing to review the Majority Opinion written by Justice Christine Donohue may click this LINK. The Concurring Opinion written by Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor can be viewed HERE. The Concurring Opinion written by Justice David Wecht can be viewd HERE. In a monumental reversal in the case of Balentine v. Chester Water Authority, 191 A.3d 799 (Pa. Aug. 21, 2018 Mundy, J.) (Justices Todd, Dougherty, and Wecht joined in the majority Opinion) (Baer, J., concurring) (Saylor, dissenting, J.), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned 30 years of precedent by holding that the involuntary movement of a vehicle can constitute the operation of a motor vehicle for purposes of the vehicle liability exception to governmental immunity under 42 Pa. C.S.A. Section 8542(b)(1). The plaintiff’s decedent in Balentine was a contractor working at a site just off the side of a roadway. The Plaintiff was fatally injured when one car struck a parked car that was running and propelled that parked car into the pedestrian plaintiff. The parked car was government inspector's car which gave rise to claims being pursued against governmental agencies that are generally protected with immunity under the Tort Claims Act. One exception to the immunity provisions is the motor vehicle exception, for accidents involving government motor vehicles in operation. In this case, the appellate ladder, the majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reviewed the law behind the Tort Claims Act and decided to overturn 30 years of precedent by holding that movement of a vehicle, whether voluntary or involuntary, is not required by the statutory language of the vehicle liability exception in order for that exception to apply. The Majority Opinion of the Court in Balentine can be viewed HERE. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Balentine was recently followed by Judge Julia K. Munley in the Lackawanna County case of Sands v. Hamilton, No. 2013-CV-55 (C.P. Lacka. Co. Nov. 5, 2018 Munley, J.). In Sands, the court addressed a defendant municipal bus company’s Motions In Limine seeking to preclude evidence and testimony related to negligent supervision, negligent training, and negligent retention of the bus driver. The defense was asserting that such evidence was irrelevant given that such evidence did not relate to the central issue of whether the “operation” of the motor vehicle at issue fell under an exception to the governmental immunity provided under42 Pa. C.S.A. §8542(b)(1). Based in part upon the Balentine decision, the court denied the motion in limine and allowed the evidence in at trial. Splits of authority continue to abound on many issues in Post-Koken Litigation in the continuing absence of much needed appellate guidance. Hopefully, the Superior Court will get a chance to decide some of these issues this year and issue published decisions to provide valuable precedent for the courts below. The Pennsylvania Superior Court had another chance to view the issues in Tincher as that case continued its ride up and down the appellate ladder. In this latest decision, the court again confirm that the Azzarello decision is no longer good products liability law. Yet, the plaintiff's and the defense bar continue to battle over proper language for jury instructions. Anyone wishing to review the Pennsylvania Superior Court’s decision in Tincher may click this LINK. In the case of Trigg v. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, No. 2018 Pa. Super. 129 (Pa. Super. May 14, 2018 Kunselmen, Olson, J.J.; Bowes, J., concurring) (Op. by Kunselmen, J.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court noted that, if trial court judges want the benefit of a favorable standard of review on appeal, they better be on the bench during voir dire in order that they may assess a juror's demeanor in person when deciding whether or not to strike a juror for cause. Both the Board of Governors and the House of Delegates of the Pennsylvania Bar Association have adopted a Report and Recommendation with regards to submitting a request to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to issue a new rule allowing attorneys to earn up to 2 CLE credits a year, and judges up to 2 CJE credits a year, for their participation in the annual Mock Trial Competition. With this adoption of the Report and Recommendation, it is now the official position of the Pennsylvania Bar Association to submit a request - on behalf of all Pennsylvania lawyers - that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court change the Rules of Continuing Education to allow for two CLE and two CJE credits for mock trial participation. That request has been submitted. Here's to hoping the Supreme Court grants the request and thereby provides great assistance to a great program that helps high school and college students all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by increasing the number of attorneys and judges who will be more willing to volunteer their time. In 2018, Cummins Mediation Services was launched and began to provide mediation services to assist in bringing all types of personal injury civil litigation matters to a close with much success. Should you wish to mediate a case in the year ahead, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 570-346-0745 to request a CV or a proposed fee schedule. In the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas case of Smith v. Riverside Rehab Center, No. 1146 - CV -2017 (C.P. Monroe Co. Oct. 9, 2018 Zulick, J.), the court found that the Plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of negligence in this slip and fall matter given that the hills and ridges doctrine served to prevent the Plaintiff’s recovery and since the Plaintiff provided no expert medical opinion on the issue of causation. The Plaintiff allegedly fell when he slipped while walking up a ramp to the entrance of the Riverside Rehabilitation Center. After discovery, the Defendants filed a Motion for Summary Judgment asserting, in part, that they were entitled to summary judgment based upon the hills and ridges doctrine. The court reiterated general rule of law that, under the hills and ridges doctrine, landowners are protected from liability for generally slippery conditions resulting from snow and ice where the owner has not permitted the snow and ice to unreasonably accumulate in ridges or elevations. In this matter, Judge Zulick found that liability was not established under the hills and ridges doctrine. The record revealed that a severe snowstorm had begun as the Plaintiff traveled to the Riverside Rehabilitation Center. Evidence presented to the court indicated that the snowstorm was continuing when the Plaintiff arrived at the center and slipped and fell while going into the center. As such, the court found that the record established that there was no evidence presented which otherwise indicated that any of the Defendants allowed hills or ridges or snow or ice to unreasonably accumulate. To the contrary, the court found that the case presented as involving a slippery ramp created by an ongoing storm. As such, summary judgment was granted on this basis. The Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment was also granted on the basis that the Plaintiff failed to provide a report by a medical expert on the issue of causation. The court had previously directed the Plaintiff to produce a medical expert report, which the Plaintiff failed to do. The court agreed with the defense contention that the Plaintiff was unable to prove factual causation of the injuries allegedly sustained as a result of the slip and fall event. In this matter, the Plaintiff had a complicated history of both pre-existing and subsequent injuries. One of the subsequent incidents occurred only two (2) weeks after the subject slip and fall event. The Plaintiff had allegedly struck his head in both the subject slip and fall incident as well as during the subsequent accident a few weeks after the slip and fall event. Moreover, the defense produced a report from the Plaintiff’s doctor indicating that the Plaintiff’s alleged trauma was related to the injuries sustained during the Plaintiff's more recent incident. The record also revealed that the Plaintiff was involved in a motor vehicle accident approximately two (2) months after the slip and fall event. Other evidence showed that, in the following year, the Plaintiff sustained yet another head injury. Given this complicated medical history, the court concluded that the Plaintiff was required to produce expert medical testimony to prove causation with respect to the injuries alleged to have resulted from the slip and fall event at the Riverside Rehabilitation Center. The court noted that the Plaintiff did not comply with the court’s Case Management Order requiring the production of a medical expert report within a certain deadline and the Plaintiff offered no excuse for failing to do so. Based upon these reasons, the court granted the summary judgment motion. Anyone wishing to review a copy of this case, may click this LINK. Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions,” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Nov. 13, 2018). Tort Talk was recently invited to join LexBlog, a worldwide webpage for compiling and publishing content from legal blogs from all around the world. In joining this site, Tort Talk joins over 19,000 legal bloggers, including over half of the 1,000 blogs from the United States' Top 200 law firms. Nothing will change about Tort Talk. This is just announcement to show that Tort Talk has been invited to be a part of a global network designed to provide real-time updates and insights from those in the legal community. Thanks for helping me to keep Tort Talk relevant. In the case of Dittman v. UPMC, No. 43 WAP 2017 (Pa. Nov. 21, 2018), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court addressed the duty of an employer to safeguard sensitive personal information of employees. The court ruled that an employer has a legal duty to use reasonable care to safeguard an employee’s sensitive personal information stored by the employer on internet/accessible computer systems. The court additionally noted that recovery in negligence for these types of purely pecuniary damages raised in this type of case are permitted under the economic loss plan since the recovery asserted is based upon an application of an existing duty to a novel factual scenario as opposed to imposing a new affirmative duty requiring consideration of other factors under Pennsylvania law. Anyone wishing to review a copy of the Majority Opinion written by Justice Baer may click this LINK. Chief Justice Saylor's Concurring and Dissenting Opinion can be viewed HERE. This article of mine was recently published in the December 18, 2018 edition of the Pennsylvania Law Weekly and is republished here with permission. These are invigorating times for those engaged in the study and practice of law in Pennsylvania. Over the past year there have been dramatic reversals of long-standing law by a newly activist Pennsylvania Supreme Court. There have been clarifications of recurring civil litigation issues by both the Superior Court and Commonwealth Court. There has also been a continuing development of a new common law by the Pennsylvania state and federal trial courts grappling with novel questions in the absence of appellate guidance in post-Koken matters and with respect to social media discovery and evidentiary disputes. Keeping apprised of these dramatic changes and developments is more important than ever. Over the past year the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made its presence known with its new brand of judicial activism evidenced in several civil litigation decisions that have created new avenues for plaintiffs to seek additional compensation and which will likely trigger more litigation in the future. In Cagey v. PennDOT, 179 A.3d 458 (Pa. Feb. 21, 2018), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court expressly overruled the long-followed 12-year-old Commonwealth Court decision in Fagan v. Commonwealth, DOT, 946 A.2d 1123 (Pa.Cmwlth. 2006), and held that PennDOT is now only immune from suit in guiderail claims in limited circumstances. Under the prior Fagandecision there was essentially no liability on any claims against PennDOT relative to guiderails in motor vehicle accident matters. Now, under the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in the Cagey case, when PennDOT has installed a guiderail, sovereign immunity is waived if it is established by the plaintiff that the agency’s negligent installation and design created a dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the happening of a motor vehicle accident. A dramatic increase of lawsuits against PennDOT on this theory of recovery is anticipated. In another stunning reversal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned 30 years of precedent with its holding that the involuntary movement of a vehicle can constitute an “operation” of a motor vehicle for purposes of the vehicle liability exception to governmental immunity under 42 Pa. C.S.A. Section 8542(b)(1). In the case of Balentine v. Chester Water Authority, No. 119 MAP 2016 (Pa. Aug. 21, 2018 Mundy, J.), the plaintiff’s decedent was working as a contractor hired to rehabilitate a section of a water distribution system. At the time of the accident, the decedent was working just off to the side of a roadway. A government inspector pulled up to the scene and parked his car and left it running. The decedent-contractor was unfortunately killed when a third car struck the parked government inspector’s car and propelled that stationary vehicle into the decedent. The majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reviewed the law behind the Tort Claims Act and held that movement of a vehicle, whether voluntary or involuntary, is not required by the statutory language of the vehicle liability exception in order for that exception to apply. As stated, in so ruling, the court eradicated 30 years of precedent on the issue in one fell swoop. This decision is also expected to give rise to an increase in lawsuits on this theory of recovery. The Pennsylvania Superior Court also handed down a number of notable decisions over the past year. The case of Trigg v. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 187 A.3d 1013 (Pa. Super. May 14, 2018), has already changed how jury selection will work in the trial courts across the Commonwealth. In Trigg, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed a trial court’s denial of post-trial motions in a medical malpractice case regarding, in part, jury selection issues. According to the opinion, in certain trials in Allegheny County, only a court clerk presides over voir dire. Any issues raised during jury selection would require the litigants and the clerk to go to another office to meet with the judge for a decision on whether to strike a juror. As such, the trial court judge would not have any first-hand perception of a juror’s demeanor in response to questions posed by the attorneys during jury selection. The Superior Court in Trigg ruled that, given the fact that that first-hand perception of a juror’s demeanor is the basis for a palpable error deference standard of review on appeal for voir dire issues, decisions on jury strikes made by judges who do not attend jury selection should not be afforded that type of deference by the Superior Court. The Superior Court’s decision in Trigg is in line with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s jury selection decision last year in the case of Shinal v. Toms, 162 A.3d 429 (Pa. 2017). In Shinal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that whether a juror is to be stricken during voir dire is dependent upon the trial judge’s assessment of the juror’s demeanor and the juror’s answers to the questions posed regarding whether the juror is capable of putting aside any biases so as to serve in a fair and impartial manner. Going forward, it is anticipated that this line of decisions will keep trial court judges on the bench during voir dire so as to avoid any jury selection objections being upheld on appeal. Notable social media discovery and evidentiary decisions were handed down over the past year. In Kelter v. Flanagan, PICS Case No. 18-0266, No. 286-Civil-2017 (C.P. Monroe Co. Feb. 19, 2018 Williamson, J.), Judge David J. Williamson granted a defendant’s motion to compel a plaintiff to provide the defense counsel with the plaintiff’s Instagram account log-in information. The court ruled in this fashion given that the defense had made a predicate showing that the public pages on the plaintiff’s profile showed that more information may be found on the private pages of the same profile. In addition to granting the defense limited access to the private pages of the site for discovery purposes, the also court ordered that the defense not share that information with anyone not related to the case. The court’s order also directed that the Plaintiff not remove or delete any content from that account in the meantime. During the course of discovery, the plaintiff provided limited information in response to social media interrogatories seeking information regarding her online activity. The plaintiff confirmed in her responses that she used Facebook and Twitter but declined to provide any more detailed information other than to confirm that nothing had been deleted from her accounts since the date of the incident. The defense responded with a motion to compel for more information, including information from the private portions of the plaintiff’s social media profiles. In his detailed opinion, Northampton County Judge Craig A. Dally provided an excellent overview of the general rules of discovery pertinent to this issue as well as a review of the previous social media discovery decisions that have been handed down not only by various county courts of common pleas but also courts from other jurisdictions. No Pennsylvania appellate court decision was referenced by the Allen court as there is apparently still no appellate guidance to date. In his opinion, Dally noted that the defendant had pointed out discrepancies between the plaintiff’s deposition testimony regarding her alleged limitations from her alleged accident-related injuries and photos available for review on the public pages of the plaintiff’s Facebook profile depicting the plaintiff engaging in certain activities. Nevertheless, after reviewing the record before the court, Dally still ruled that the defense had failed to establish the factual predicate of showing sufficient information on the plaintiff’s public pages to allow for discovery of information on the plaintiff’s private pages. Dally additionally noted that, in any event, he “would be disinclined to follow the line of Common Pleas cases that have granted parties carte blanche access to another party’s social medial account by requiring the responding party to to turn over their username and password, as requested by the defendant in this case.” The court found that such access would be overly intrusive, would cause unreasonable embarrassment and burden, and represented a discovery request that was not properly tailored with reasonable particularly as required by the Rules of Civil Procedure pertaining to discovery efforts. In light of the above reasoning, the defendant’s motion to compel was denied. The above cases show that a decision on the discoverability of social media information can be dependent upon the personal assessment of the evidence by a particular trial court judge. It is anticipated that when faced with the issue, the appellate courts will apply a similar method of allowing for social media discovery, i.e., requiring a predicate showing of information on the public pages of a profile that lend support to an assertion that discovery of the private pages should be allowed as well. But perhaps the appellate courts will apply more concrete parameters of the analysis so that the litigants can predict with greater confidence how a trial court judge may be required to rule upon the issue. For a comprehensive compilation of social media discovery decisions, one can freely access the Facebook Discovery Scorecard on the Tort Talk blog. Many of the decisions handed down to date can be viewed and downloaded from that page. Although there has been no appellate guidance in Pennsylvania on the issue of the discoverability of social media information, the appellate courts have weighed in on the issue of the admissibility of social media evidence at trial, albeit in the criminal court context. The court ruled in this fashion after noting that social media accounts can be easily hacked or faked. In so ruling, the court affirmed an Erie County trial court decision denying a prosecutor’s motion in limine seeking to introduce into evidence Facebook posts and messages allegedly authored by the defendant. Both the trial court and the appellate court found that merely presenting evidence that the posts and messages came from a social media account bearing the defendant’s name was not enough to allow the evidence in. The court noted that Facebook posts and messages must instead be authenticated under Pa.R.E. 901 in a manner similar to how text messages and email messages are authenticated. The Superior Court in Mangel relied on its own 2011 decision in Commonwealth v. Koch, 39 A.3d 996, 1005 (Pa. Super. 2011), affirmed by an equally divided court, 106 A.3d 705 (Pa. 2014), which dealt with the admissibility and authentication of cellphone text messages. In the 2018 Commonwealth v. Mangel case, the court noted that the Koch court had previously held that “authentication of electronic communications, like documents, requires more than mere confirmation that the number or address belonged to a particular person. Circumstantial evidence, which tends to corroborate the identity of the sender, is required.” The Mangel court ruled, in a case of first impression, that the same analysis should apply to social media posts in the criminal court context. Sometimes the future, like an Uber ride, arrives sooner than you expect. One of the first Pennsylvania court decisions in a personal injury matter involving an Uber ride was handed down this year. In the case of Fusco v. Uber Technologies, PICS No. 18-0944 (E.D. Pa. July 27, 2018 Goldberg, J.)(Mem. Op.), the court conditionally granted Uber’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s negligent hiring, retention and supervision claims in a case of an Uber driver who allegedly attacked the plaintiff-customer. By way of background, the plaintiff had attended a party Philadelphia and then contacted Uber for a ride to his home in New Jersey. According to the opinion, the Uber app conceals the customer’s destination until the start of a booked trip. Accordingly, when a driver arrives to pick up the plaintiff, he does not know the plaintiff’s destination. The app is apparently set up in this way so as to the prevent drivers from declining routes they deem to be less profitable or less desirable. According to the opinion, Uber does not allow drivers to refuse a trip after learning of a customer’s destination. In this matter, when the Uber driver arrived, he refused to take the plaintiff to his home in southern New Jersey. The plaintiff, apparently knowing the rules that Uber imposes on its drivers, remained seated in the car and repeated his request to be brought home. At that point, the driver dragged the plaintiff out of the car, kicked and beat him, leaving the plaintiff unconscious and bleeding. The court noted, however, that, after the plaintiff filed his complaint, news outlets in the area reported that the driver involved in the incident had a prior criminal conviction. In light of this development, the court granted the plaintiff leave to amend his complaint as to these claims. Accordingly, the claim against Uber was allowed to proceed. In 2018, the law continued to trend with respect to the issue of the availability of punitive damages in claims involving drivers involved in accidents while using their cellphones. Under Pennsylvania’s Anti-Texting Law, 75 Pa.C.S.A. Section 3316, it is provided that no driver shall use a handheld device to send, read or write a text while the vehicle is in motion. Noncommercial drivers are otherwise still currently allowed to use their cellphones to make and receive calls while driving. As for commercial drivers, Pennsylvania’s Distracted Driving Law, 75 Pa.C.S.A. Section 1622, makes it illegal for commercial drivers to use handheld devices in any fashion, except in emergency situations. That law also provides that it is illegal for an employer to permit or require a commercial driver to use a handheld device while driving, except in emergency situations. According to the opinion, the plaintiff’s vehicle was stopped at a red light with another vehicle stopped behind it. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to stop for the traffic light and rear-ended the second vehicle, causing it to strike to the rear of the plaintiff’s vehicle. The plaintiff additionally alleged that, at the time of the accident, the defendant was not looking at the roadway because she was distracted while looking at and texting on her cellphone. The court did note that there were a number of trial court decisions from across Pennsylvania regarding claims for punitive damages in cellphone cases. Based upon these trial court decisions, the Manning court concluded that the mere use of a cellphone absent additional indicia of recklessness was not enough to sustain a claim for punitive damages. In reviewing the plaintiff’s complaint, the note noted that the plaintiff simply pleaded boilerplate allegations that the defendant was inattentive and going too fast. The court in Manning found that these allegations only amounted to a classic claim of negligence, and not recklessness. The court in Manning additionally rejected the plaintiff’s presentation of a policy-based argument that texting while driving should constitute per se recklessness. The court stated that, while this argument maybe considered by a future appellate court, in the absence of any such appellate guidance to date, the Manning court declined to accept the plaintiff’s argument in this regard. The Manning decision is consistent with other prior trial court cellphone decisions requiring additional aggravating facts over and above mere cellphone use in order for a court to allow for a punitive damages claim to proceed. Such aggravating factors in other decisions in which punitive damages were allowed to proceed have included the fact that the defendant is driving a large commercial vehicle, excessive speed on the part of any driver, heavy traffic in the area, looking down or intoxication. It remains to be seen whether 2019 will bring us an appellate decision on the issue of cellphone use and punitive damages claims in the auto law context. There were no appellate decisions handed down in 2018 in the separate auto law context of post-Koken matters. The only published appellate decision to date remains the Pennsylvania Superior Court’s decision from five years ago in Stepanovich v. McGraw and State Farm, 78 A.3d 1147 (Pa. Super. 2013) appeal denied 89 A.3d 1286 (Pa. 2014). In that case, the Superior Court approached the question of whether an insurance company defendant should be identified as a party to a jury in a post-Koken trial but, unfortunately, did not provide a definitive holding on that issue. Incredibly, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to hear that appeal thereby missing a rare opportunity to dole out much needed guidance on novel issues of law. Ever since, the trial courts of Pennsylvania continue to struggle with post-Koken issues. According to the post-Koken Scorecard on the Tort Talk blog, which has been compiling post-Koken decisions over the past decade, there are splits of authority among, and sometimes within, the county courts across the commonwealth on many different important questions of law pertaining to pleadings, discovery, evidentiary and trial issues. For example, in terms of whether post-Koken claims not containing a bad faith claim should be consolidated or severed in terms of the third-party allegations against the defendant driver and the breach of contract claim for UIM benefits, at least 24 county courts favor the pretrial consolidation of such cases, while at least 23 favor the severance of these types of cases. In terms of those post-Koken cases in which a bad faith claim is also alleged, there are at least 10 county courts that deny motions to sever and stay the bad faith claims, while at least 19 other county courts have ruled in favor of granting motions to sever and stay discovery on the bad faith claims. The majority trend in the Pennsylvania federal courts, regardless of whether a bad faith claim has been pleaded, has been in favor of the consolidation of post-Koken claims through the life of the litigation. It is expected that the above trending areas of law will continue to grab the headlines in 2019. Perhaps one of the most important decisions to watch for in 2019 will be the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling in Roverano v. Crane, No. 58 EAL 2018 (Pa. July 31, 2018). In Roverano, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is expected to address the issue of first impression involving the question of whether the Pennsylvania Superior Court misinterpreted the Fair Share Act in terms of apportioning liability among defendants in the context of this products liability case. That decision could have an impact across all types of civil litigation matters involving multiple defendants. At the Superior Court level, the hope is that that court will publish any decisions in these trending areas of law as opposed to releasing them as nonprecedential decisions. In this day and age of digital information there should not be any concern with respect to filling too many casebooks—those books are (unfortunately) falling by the wayside. As appellate guidance is desired by both civil litigators and the bench on these emerging areas of concern, such decisions should all be published as a matter of course. The hope also remains that if the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has an opportunity to review any of the above issues on appeal that it will grant certiorari and also provide the much-needed appellate guidance in these important areas of the law.

2019-04-24T14:30:57Z

http://www.torttalk.com/2018/12/

Welcome to the 4th week of the 4th season of the SFCCL. Currently, with 32 members the average number of match that should be played is thru Week 4 should be at least 5 matches (1.29 per week). Again, this is just a reminder to play and a way to gauge your progress thru the season. Next week, we currently have one new member, so that average will go up to 1.33 next week. Onto the activities around the league this past week. I played my first two matches this week (against new members KILLA_KITANA_ and STRONGERRISE). Not off to a good start, but I was able to upload my video replays to YouTube and this site. I expect to play every match this season, so there should be at least one video of everyone. The division leaders have remained the same from last week. Hursh191 from California still leads the A Division with his main fighter, Dee Jay. DrPepper20 from Texas still holds the #1 spot in B Division with his main fighter, E. Honda. Since our numbers will be growing to 33 members (66 fighters) soon, I am still mulling over the idea of adding a second tournament at the end of season for the next group of fighters that don't qualify for SUPER BRAWL IV. The purpose of this second tournament would be to have a tournament for next level of skilled fighters, like the intermediate skilled figthers. If you have begun playing some of your matches, it won't take long to notice the competition is much stronger this season. SUPER BRAWL IV will be a great event to close the season. However, for members like myself, some will be luck to reach SUPER BRAWL IV, and even then, will most likely get beatdown in the 1st round. So, in order to keep more members playing their matches trying to collect every single win until the season, a second tournament would keep more people playing. Winning a 'junior' tournament is also a great to guage your skill level to see who are the next group of fighters ready to reach that next level to compete with the top members in the league. I still don't have a name for the second tournament nor a title for the eventual winner (Junio Champion? Silver Champion?). Plenty of time to decide. With 33 fighters per division as of next week, the top 8 in each division would advance to SUPER BRAWL IV while the next 8 fighters would advance to the second tournament. The remaining 17 fighters would have their season end on November 18th. Note, all new members will have to wait at most two weeks before offcially joining the season. We are now less than 4 days from the first live event of the season, the STARDUST TOURNAMENT. You ready? I am getting there! Note above that the location in PS HOME has changed from my personal space to the SFCCL CLubhouse. I will be glad to move the event to my Mansion Garage for a tour, but it is best we all meet in the SFCCL Clubhouse first. The Clubhouse is open 24/7/365, so members can begin entering the space anytime they want. Personal spaces are only open as long as I am there. Also, if I have to leave to play a match, everyone would be kicked out of the space. If I leave the Clubhouse, everyone can still hang out and play the other games. I will be updating the tournament as it progresses in the Clubhouse. That will now be the hub for all events. All members are encouraged to hang out during the event and possibly play if the BPs leaders don't play. Remember, this an invite-only event. To get an invite, you must hold the #1 spot in Battle Points for one of the 39 characters in SSFIV:AE Ver. 2012. Below is an updated list of who leads in each of the 39 leaderboards. Don't fret if you don't see your name next to your favorite fighter - you still have some time to raise your Battle Points. Currently, DRPEPPER20 has the most fighters locked in with 17 of the 39 fighters. Of course, if he doesn't show up, all 17 fighters go to the next member on their respective BPs leaderboard. I'll update these numbers one final time tomorrow night (late Saturday night or early Sunday morning depending where you live) and post the final numbers for Sunday, July 1st. I will close the competition shortly after midnight Central time on Saturday night. The final numbers (video or pictures) will be posted with the winning members who have locked in a specific character. Once the final numbers are posted, I will send a PSN message to all members who locked in their fighters to check if they will be playing Monday night. This will hopefully give me a headsup who is playing and who is not. I will also update the CHALLONGE! bracket to list the member locked into each character. The bracket updates every two minutes so everyone can follow the event Monday night by watching the bracket on the STARDUST page. Any member who doesn't paly or showup will lose the right to play that character in the STARDUST tournament. The next member on the BPs list will then have the option of playing. FAIR WARNING!!! Those playing must be online to play, obviously. All members (locked in for playing and those wishing to play) should be online (better yet in the SFCCL Clubhouse) by no later than 7:45 pm Central. The event will start at 8:00 PM Central sharp. All fighters will be assigned to a member no later than 7:45 PM. If you show up at 8:00 PM, you are late and will NOT play. I will be in the Clubhosue no later than 7:30 myself to start getting ready. So be sure you have your HOME avatar ready to go and I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone to visit the Clubhouse before Monday night. This is to make sure you know how to get there first & foremost (don't want to be late cause you've never visited the HOME spaces) and also to be sure you've received the invite to the SFCCL Clubhouse. Clubhouses are private so I need to send you an invite before you can enter the Clubhouse. I don't want to be giving directions and invites to members on Monday night. I will have plenty of other things to do. So no excuses. Get ready! The only changes I've made since last Monday's post was updating the Player Points and Battle Points as mentioned above and the usual updated schedules and division standings. STARDUST Tournament one week from tonight! Just a reminder that the first event of the 4th season is one week from tonight. The STARDUST Tournament will begin at 8:00 PM Central. All members are encouraged to get online early to be invited to the PS Home Mansion Garage, the virtual meeting place prior to the event. Get your Home avatar ready to go! Also, keep playing your online ranked matches and get as many points as can get. Even if you don't own the top spot, if the members listed above you are a no-show, your favorite character could still be yours to play in the tournament. As of last Friday, 18 different members are controlling the 39 characters, but I don't expect all 18 members to show up. Any unclaimed fighters will automatically forfeit their match. Final full day for Battle Points will be this Saturday (June 30th), as final numbers will be posted Sunday morning. Another update will be posted with Friday's weekly roundup. Welcome to the 3rd week of the 4th season of the SFCCL. With the number of matches mounting up (31 per fighter as of this week), each fighter in the league should have 4 matches complete this season. How many have you played so far? Don't worry if haven't started or have played less than the average as I have yet to begin my season as well. Still shaking off the rust myself but I am starting to get that itch for real league matches. Currently, with 32 members the average number of match that should be played is 1.29 per week. This is just a suggestion in order to play all matches on your schedule by the end of the season. As we continue to expand, look for that number to increase as well. Only a few matches played since my last update on Monday. So far, of the 992 total matches scheduled over two divisions, 89 have been played (about 9%). For the first time this season, both division leaders remain the same for consecutive weeks. Hursh's mai fighter, Dee Jay, holds the #1 spot in the A Division, while DrPepper20's Honda remains atop of the B Division. For the first time this season, one additional match has been played in one division. RAMMA and CRUSADER only played their B Division match this week, thus, causing the total discrepancy. Not a big deal since both members agreed to meet up again at a later day to play their A Division match. This is the great thing about the league's current format - the flexibility. Since our numbers will be growing to 33 members (66 fighters) soon, I may make another change to how many fighters will qualify for SUPER BRAWL IV. I still want to keep the top spots reserved for the event, but with more figthers each week, the number of spots may increase. I am currently brainstorming if the spots will be increased from 12 to 16. At 33 figthers per division, that would still be less than half of the figthers advancing to the end-of-season tournament. However, another idea I am working on is creating a separate tournament for the next 8 to 12 spots in the rankings. These next group of figthers would not play in SUPER BRAWL IV, but could battle it out in a secondary tournament for the intermediate members. We all know the best figthers will secure the top spots in the division standings, so it would be nice to have a second tournament for the next skill level to battle it out for their own title. There is still plenty of time to decide which format is best, so stay tuned. None since last post on Monday. So far, we only have one new member set to join the league during Week 5. Some of the veteran members of the league might recognize the name. Note, all new members will have to wait at most two weeks before offcially joining the season. CLOUD is only one of very few members of the SFCCL to hold the title of Grand Champion. He captured the top spot during season two. Back then, the Grand Champion could change from week to week as the league operated under a different format. With the format change last season, only one Grand Champion is crowned each season. With CLOUD's addition on July 2nd, each fighter's schedule will increase to 32 matches each. Below is a list of all the former Grand Champions. * became the Gold Champion after winning the first-ever Super Brawl tournament to end season one. Continued as Gold Champion to begin season 2 based on his overall winning percentage and Super Brawl victory. Became the 2nd ever two-time Grand Champion by winning the Fall Brawl Gold Division tournament during Week 11 of season two. Regained Grand Champion title for a record third time by winning Super Brawl III. * became the first-ever Grand Champion not from the USA or Canada following a defeat of Cuby's KEN during Week 18 of season two. Lost the championship to Epedemicc’s Gouken in Week 20 of season two. * became the Grand Champion following the defeat of Fran_Gil’s BALROG during Week 20 of season two. Lost title in 4thround of Super Brawl II. * became the first European Grand Champion by winning Super Brawl II. Did not finish the 3rd season. Here is last Monday's NEW MEMBER poster I forgot to post. We are now less than 2 weeks from the first live event of the season, the STARDUST TOURNAMENT. Remember, this an invite-only event. To get an invite, you must hold the #1 spot in Battle Points for one of the 39 characters in SSFIV:AE Ver. 2012. Below is an updated list of who leads in each of the 39 leaderboards. Don't fret if you don't see your name next to your favorite fighter - you still have little more than a week to raise your Battle Points. I'll update these numbers one more time next Friday before I post the final number son Sunday, July 1st. The numbers posted next Sunday will be the final numbers and the members with the #1 spot will have 1st choice to play that character in the STARDUST Tournament. As mentioned in a previous blog, I will post a sldeshow or video showing where I got my final numbers. Finally, even if you don't own the top spot in BPs with your favorite character, keep playing. The memebrs listed above you may not show up to the event, in which the next member listed on the BP leaderboard will get the option of playing the character in the tournament. Just show up in PS Home at the time of the event and you might stil get to play! The only changes I've made since last Monday's post was updating the Player Points and Battle Points as mentioned above. Just wanted to post a blog about the upcoming STARDUST Tournament. Lots of excitement based on the feedback I've heard from members around the league. A comment from new member, RAMMACRICKET, on my last blog made me want to post this update to hopefully curtail any future problems with the Battle Points leading up to the event. The Battle Points listed with my weekly update yesterday were taken Monday morning (June 18th). It is very likely these numbers are already outdated. Actually, I guarantee it. As we all play online ranked matches, these numbers change from match to match. If you had a good or a bad streak, your numbers below no longer apply. So don't be too concerned about these numbers below not being 100% accurate. Perhaps you now have more points with a specific character than what is lsited below. Good for you! I've always updated these numbers in past seasons as a tool for members to see where other members ranked with certain fighters. Also, as a way for members to spar with another member who specialized in a character who might be giving them problems. Prior to this season, these numbers were just 'window dressing'. Meaning, they didn't affect the SFCCL whatsoever. The league operated completely outside the Capcom stats. However, with the STARDUST Tournament, this will be the first time these numbers will make a difference in league play. Following the event, I will continue to update the numbers but they won't mean anything again. So, to prevent any disagreements in two weeks, I will post pictures (maybe even video) of the final point standings I take on Sunday, July 1st. Posting the actual Capcom stats will let everyone see what I see when I post the final rankings for the STARDUST Tournament. Blame the Capcom servers updating (not me) if you don't like your rank or point level. Best advice...play thru Saturday, June 30th until midnight. After that, your matches may not count in time. Two bits of advice: first, just because you rank #2 or #10 in the rankings, you still may play your favorite character in the STARDUST Tournament since the other guys above you may not show up. The event is a live event, meaning you have to be online to play. So keep playing and raising your point level. Second, add all members of the league to your Friends List. Doing this will allow you real-time rankings anytime you get online. The rankings can be sorted by region (use NORTH AMERICA) and players (use FRIENDS). If you are playing ae character that is in a tight race (like Rose and Juri), having the other members on your list will give you the chance to see the latest rankings real-time. The rankings below are out of date by the time I post them on this site. Apologies for the tradiness for this Week 2 update. Took a mini, well-needed beach vacation this past weekend. Het, even I can have fun once in a while, right??? The season is now 2 weeks old. Lots of new matches played, new members added, and two weeks closer to the STARDUST Tournament. Our 5 new members (10 total since the season began) should read carefully all the details here to catchup with the rest of the league. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions! A total of 72 matches were played in the last week (since the last Week 1 roundup). Keep up the great work guys! With 32 members and 64 fighters, a total of 496 matches are scheduled this season. HURSH191 from Californa still holds the #1 spot in the A Division with a (10-1) record with his main fighter, Dee Jay. He (along with member TEAMEMPORERA) has played the most matches so far, 11 of 31. Meanwhile, in the B Division, DRPEPPER20 from Texas is now in the #1 spot with a (7-1) recod with his main fighter, Honda. DRPEPPER20 just joined the season last week. With these five new members, the total number of members will increase to 32 members total. If someone would have told me that we could have more Americas Region members this season than we had in Season 3, I would never have believed them. Thank you very much for your interest in joining the SFCCL! As a result of these new members, each fighter will now have 31 matches to play this season (up from 21 matches to begin the season). I promised everyone more matches! Also, while I doubt we keep adding 5 new members each week, I do not enjoy all the work involved in updating this site when we have new members joining the league. It reminds me of the long days of season 1 when I had to update the whole website weekly. So, going forward, new members will have to wait two weeks before they can join the league. Any new players that sign up from today on will have to wait until July 2nd, 2012, to officially join the season. After that, every two weeks I will open up the league for new members. All players that signed up will be notified of this waiting period. We are 2 weeks from the first live event of the season, the STARDUST Tournament. Remember that this event is exclusive to the top ranked members in Battle Points for each of the 39 characters. Keep playing online ranked matches and raise your numbers for your favorite characters. The deadline for Battle Points to qualify will be Saturday, June 30th. The following day, I will update the Battle Points one final time, and list who will be controlling each of the 39 fighters. Live tournaments are only open to SFCCL members. Depending on how many members participate, we will first assemble PS Home in my personal space, the Mansion Garage. Personal spaces can only hold 12 people total, so if more than that are playing, we'll move to the SFCCL Clubhouse which can hold 30 people. I'll post pics of the space next week as I am still designing both spaces. Stay tuned...and get your PS Home avatar ready to go! Not waiting around for you to play on the nite of the event. The last time I updated the Player and Battle Points was with the launch of season 4. Since then, we've had 10 new members, so the leaderboards look completely different than what they used to. For example, I had three figthers locked in so far. Now, with the new members included, I have none. Not to worry, we all have about two weeks to keep raising our online stats. Remember, even if you don't own the top spot, if the members above you on the leaderboard do not show for the live event, then the next listed member gets a chance to play the character in the STARDUST tournament. So keep playing! Below is a list of the leaders for each of the 39 characters. Congrats to DRPEPPER20 from Texas for leading with 12 different characters. If none of the members are present, the participating members in the event can choose to play any available fighters. If no one picks up a fighter, then the character forfeits their matches. The STARDUST Tournament is the first opportunity to earn additional 'wins' for your two figthers in the league. With the fighter changes and five new members, I've updated all schedules for all members. (Note - while all members are allowed two changes per fighter during the season, I ask of you to NOT change. Only because it forces me to re-post everyone's schedule again with the new fighter. Not fun.) Be sure to click on the schedules to see a larger, easier-to-read view. Works great on mobile devices! I am going to make one request of all members, and I will send it out specficially via PSN message to be sure everyone reads it. Please send all match results to me via PSN message. In the past, I have offered the choice of using email, message board post, Facebook message, or PSN message. The problem with that is I have to check 5 different places to get all results. Some are repeats, but most are just one member letting me know. I don't want to miss a single match result because I overlook the post or message with tired eyes. On the PSN, all my messages are lined up for me easy to read. Also, I have a documented original copy for reference versus other palces where messages can be deleted or changed. Feel free to post all those other places for conversation or to get in contact with me. But please send me match results via PSN message only. Thank you! No videos of any matches yet? Surprised. I have yet to play any matches (you guys are keeping me too busy with league updates!), but when I do finally start playing, I will be posting videos of all matches. So, at least there will be one video of each members playing me in a league match. Well thats it! Sheesh...I need another vacation. Until this Friday for another udpate. Good luck! Week 2 update posponed until Monday. Happy Father's Day! Please join me in welcoming 5 new members this week to the SFCCL! Only GuurenLagen has past experience in the SFCCL. In fact, his Makoto made the Final Four last season in Super Brawl III. I am never quite sure how new players hear about the SFCCL, but I remember inviting TeamEmporerA and DrPepper20 to join the SFCCL after a random online ranked match. I hope to earn and keep their commitment now that they are officially part of the league. Some players join by word of mouth from current members, so I am always appreciative when new players join. The biggest compliment you can pay the league is to recommend it to other players. I've said it many times in the past but it is worth saying again. Without the members of this league, the league does not exist. Period. All 5 members have beed added to the Season 4 division standings, schedules, and member database. All are now invited to play in the live online tournaments this season, including the STARDUST Tournament in just 3 short weeks. I will update the Player and Battle Points with the Friday weekly update to include these 5 new members. I've updated some of the pics around the site as well, including a new look to the member schedules. Send our newest members Friend Requests on the PSN and start battling it out! Just a reminder that all SFCCL regular mataches are best 2 out of 3 five-round matches. Report all results directly to me. We are five days into the 4th season, and things are already heating up! Each Friday, I hope to post an update on this blog giving some of the news around the league in case you miss it. Consider this a summary of the past week. With the season starting on Monday, there are only 5 days worth of updates this week. New member, HURSH191 from Californa, is off to a (5-0) start in the A Division. He is the only member to play multiple matches thus far in the season. percentage. The more you play, the more opportunities for more wins. NOTE - All results of matches played with the previous fighter are honored in the standings. Only remaining unplayed matches can be played with new fighter. A member can change their fighters no more than two times each during the season. With these new members, the total number of members will increase to 28 members total. As a result, each fighter will now have 27 matches to play this season (up from 21 matches to begin the season). I promised everyone more matches! Remember the STARDUST Tournament is a live event. If the above members do not show up at the event, then the next person on the Battle Points list for each character can then play the fighter in the tournament. So raise your Battle Point level just in case the guy above you doesn't show! If none of the members are present, the participating members in the event can choose to play any available fighters. If no one picks up a fighter (i.e. - Honda), then the character forfeits. The STARDUST Tournament is the first opportunity to earn additional 'wins' for your two figthers in the league. Also, it shines the first spotlight on the winner, ala the first star of the season. You can be sure the rest of the league will give you their best shot during league matches. The rest...they are dust! I've listed the PS Home location as "pending" this week as I am still not sure where we will assemble prior to the event, the SFCCL Clubhouse or my new surprise-to-me Home, the Mansion Garage (see photos below). The Clubhouse can hold up to 30 people while the personal home spaces can only hold up to 12, last I read. Also, the Clubhouse is open 24/7 to club members while the personal space is only available if I am in there. The Garage is a much cooler place to hangout as the Clubhouse has seen little updates since it launched 4 years ago. Past season members will be familiar with all members meeting up in the SFCCL Clubhouse prior & during events. It's a great palce to chat with other members, play other games, and launch into the SFIV game. Kind of like a virtual hangout. PS Home is no longer in the Beta testing stage anymore, as the full program is now available. It looks a lot sharper and much easier to navigate. I'll update the Battle Point listings each week leading up to the event. Some may change with the 6 new members joining the league next week. I also spent some time this week updating the previous season webpages. Previously, the drop-down menu ran off the edge of the screen making it hard to click on the section you wanted to view. Now, all the additional menus are easily accesible simply by going to the main page of each season. From the main page, you can click on any of the icons (member database, rankings, match archive, Super Brawl, etc) to view that page. Hope everyone is finding the updated website easy to navigate and view on their mobile devices. Season 4 is officially open! The day that I didn't think would arrive...has arrived. Season 4 of the SFCCL begins today! Back in January, I didn't think there would be a 4th season of the SFCCL simply because interest in SF4 was dying. I wasn't interested in expanding the SFCCL to the new flavor of the month, Street Fighter X Tekken. So, the future looked bleak. However, after a 4-month hiatus and time for members to sample the new flavor, the league is back and ready to rumble once again. We have a great mix of veterans from seasons past as well as brand new blood in the league. To begin the season, we have 22 members confirmed, half of which are brand new to the league although two (Jay19000 & King-Sun) have been in previous seasons. For the newcomers...welcome to the SFCCL! Over the past couple of days, I have received 3 more signups (2 brand new members), which will increase our numbers to 25 members by next week. There is at least a one-week waiting period before a new member can be added to the season. Hopefully, everyone will take the time to explore the newly updated SFCCL website. I've organized the past seasons into sub-categories for convenience. I plan to add more 'picture buttons' to help with the navigation of the site since the drop-down menus are a bit tricky. For the current season, all the vital data is located across the top of the webpage. I've also split the various bits of data from members into different pages for convenience, including member profiles, locations of members, most popular characters, Player and Battle Points of all members, member/fighters schedules, divisions standings, and live tournament events. These pages still need some improvement as I am seeing them for the first time live today. Prior, I was only seeing them from the design point. Please leave any feedback to better improve the website. Some of the 4th season pages are very heavy in terms of images loading. There is a strong reason for this. If you view the 3rd season fighter schedules on a mobile device (iPad, Kindle, tablet, mobile phone, etc.), the schedules are impossible to read. Weebly has done a lot of improvements to their webpages in the past 4 years that I've used it. However, when using mutiple columns to display data, mobile devices will not display the date correctly horizontally. Instead, the mobile versions of the pages stack the columns on top of each other, which makes them impossible to read correctly. Therefore, whenever possible, I will use images/graphics to display data (see Schedules). I hope everyone likes the new look to that page! * Set up an Endless Lobby before inviting your opponent. Be sure to select "5" rounds when setting up your lobby. * All SFCCL matches are best 2 out of 3 five round matches. * Place all (or as many members) on your PSN Friends List. This makes meeting up online much easier and allows you to see who else is online at any given time. All members must keep SFCCL-SALONGHORN on their Friends List. * Send Friend Requests or PSN messages to members to setup times to play your matches. Don't wait to be contacted. If everyone is active, more matches will be played. * All members have 2 matches versus each other. One is with their Main Character, and the other is their Secondary Character. See the SCHEDULES page to see who each of your figthers play. Technically, you only have to meet up with 21 time with other members as you can play both of your matches back-to-back. Of course, you can choose to only play one of your matches per meeting. Just be sure to meet up again to play your other match at a later time. * This season, like season 3, is to be played at your own pace. Some members may play all of their matches in the first two weeks. Others may play a couple of matches each week. Some may play one of the character's matches first. And some members may want to wait a few weeks before starting their matches. All options are available, just as long as you plan to play ALL of your matches by the end of the season (November 18, 2012). Personally, I am contemplating about playing my secondary character's matches first, and then playing my Main. * Always be sure to save the REPLAYS of your league matches. These replays have proven important when trying to settle a disagreement between members. Feel free to upload replays to YouTube. Let me know and I can then add the videos to this website under the VIDEOS page. * As I receive results, I will update the DIVISION STANDINGS on a daily basis when possible. Remember, the top 8 figthers from each division with the most number of wins advance to the season-ending tournament known as SUPER BRAWL IV. Most number of wins are important, not best winning percentage. A fighter who is (8-8) will advance over a figther with a (6-0) record because of the number of wins. This also rewards the figther with 16 matches played versus the figther with only 6 matches played. * Please report ALL results directly to me via email ([email protected]), PSN message, SRK SFCCL Season 4 post (http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/sfccl-4th-season-discussion-ps3-online-league.154935/), or SFCCL Group post on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sfccl.salonghorn#!/groups/SFCCL/). With this first post of the 4th season, I wanted to give everyone a heads up on the first live tournament of the season, the STARDUST TOURNAMENT. The first event will be held 3 weeks from today on Monday, July 2nd @ 8 PM Central. This is a brand new event to the SFCCL. The name originates from the opening tournament designed for my offline league with friends and family earlier this year. That tournament was designed to generate the first rankings for the offline season. However, for purposes of the SFCCL, this new event will have the same intent......to give one member the opportunity to become the league's first "star" this season while making all other members turn to "dust". Get it? The event, similar to Super Brawl, is an invite-only event. Meaning, members will have to earn their right to participate. We begin the season with an invite-only event just like we end the season with an invite-only event. Two things makes the STARDUST Tournament unique. First, it is a 39-fighter single elimination tournament. Each of SSFIV:AE Ver 2012 characters are represented in the tournament just once. Who plays these specific characters? That is the second reason this event is unique. The characters will be played by the member who holds the #1 spot in Battle Points in the league (see current Battle points here: http://sfccl.weebly.com/player-points--battle-points.html). Whoever holds that top spot will automatically play the character in the tournament. This is how a member 'earns' their right to play in this event. We have 4 weeks until the event, so start raising your points for your favorite characters. The winner of the event will receive an additional win to each of their season characters. In a season where every win counts, this is a very valuable prize. Since this is a live event being held on Monday night, June 25th, any member who does not show up will give up their claim to a specific fighter. The next member on the Battle Points list for each character will then have the option of playing him/her. If no one is present from the list, any participating members can play the character. If no one wants to play that character, their match is forfeited. For example, I currently hold the #1 spot for in Battle Points for Ken, Bison, and Fei Long. If that remains the case for the event, I will be the only member playing Ken, Bison, and Fei Long in the STARDUST Tournament. Final point standings will be posted the Saturday prior to the event. This is the first time the league has used those independent number for an event. For this event, all matches will be 3 rounds max in a single elimination tournament. The character matches are already set. I used the random feature at Challonge.com to create the matches. So look for your favorite characters down below, and start practicing! I plan to post weekly blog updates every Friday during the season as way to keep everyone updated in the standings and other league news. So check back weekly or stay updated by joining the SFCCL Facebook group. Be sure to check out the SFCCL Season 4 trailer in the blog post below. The trailers have become a suedo tradition every season and part of the advantage for signing up early! 1. With new members joining the league, more matches will be added to everyone's schedule. Currently, to begin the season, we all have 21 matches to play with each of our fighters. With 3 more members confirmed to join next week, that number will increase to 24 matches per fighter. For this season, it is not required to play all of your matches on your schedules. However, only the figthers with most number of wins will advance to SUPER BRAWL IV, so play as many as you can can to get as many wins as you can. 2. With more fighters playing, I do expect to make a change to the number of fighters who can qualify for the SUPER BRAWL IV tournament. With 25 figthers in each division, the number of spots to qualify will change from the top 8 to the top 12. The first 4 spots will receive a 1st round bye in the tournament and the remaiming fighters will fight to advance to the 2nd round to play the fighters with byes. Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks on these slight changes. Let the games begin! Good luck!

2019-04-22T22:03:53Z

http://sfccl.weebly.com/blog/archives/06-2012

I’ve always been really interested in the history of Manchester, and the stories and people that made the city what it is today. Recently, this has become a bit of a fascination with the almost-hidden echoes of Manchester’s past—things that you might walk past every day without realizing the story behind it. I’m planning to write a few posts about some of my favourite places to glimpse Manchester’s history. Today’s post is about a few Manchester street names that tell a story. One of the side streets leading off Peter Street (in the city centre) is called Museum Street. It’s a short street, leading from Peter Street to Windmill Street. It’s fairly nondescript and there’s not really much to see. One thing that you definitely won’t find on Museum Street is a museum. The story of Museum Street begins with John Leigh Philips, a wealthy textile manufacturer and collector of natural history specimens. When Philips died, his collection (or ‘cabinet’) of specimens was bought by a group of scholarly Mancunians who formed the Manchester Natural History Society in 1821. In 1835, the Society made its home in a grand building on Peter Street. Philips’ cabinet was added to with donated specimens and, in 1850, the collection of the Manchester Geological Society. By the 1860s, the Society had filled its Peter Street premises (and run low on funds) and so the museum was transferred to Owens College (later to become the University of Manchester). In 1868, the Peter Street museum was closed, and the college commissioned architect Alfred Waterhouse to build a new home for the museum and the university. This building, opened to the public in 1890, still forms the heart of the University of Manchester’s Oxford Road campus—and the museum lives on as the Manchester Museum. For more information about the history of the Manchester Museum, you can check out the museum’s website. If you’ve read our earlier blog posts, you might also remember that this venue is particularly close to our hearts, as we held our wedding there in March this year. So there might not be much to see on Museum Street now, but the name of this little road remains as a tribute to the cabinet of John Leigh Philips, and to the Society that played such an important part in shaping the cultural and intellectual landscape of nineteenth-century Manchester. But it wasn’t all serious intellectual study in Manchester… my next choice of street is all about fun. This next street is one of my current favourite stories about Manchester’s history (not least because it is about North Manchester, where we live), so I will be expanding this into a blog post all of its own at some point. Another blink-or-you’ll-miss-it street—and another one that doesn’t really go anywhere or house anything—Vauxhall Street is hidden away on the edge of the city centre and North Manchester. If you head out of town on Dantzic Street, until it turns into Collyhurst Road—or head down Collyhurst Road if you’re coming from North Manchester—you’ll spot a side street called Vauxhall Street. There isn’t really anything there—in fact it’s a dead end, and you’ll just run up against the crumbling walls of this area’s imposing industrial past. To the side of Vauxhall Street, you’ll see an empty patch of land, which stretches up to Sand Street (and, beyond that, to Rochdale Road). Currently part of the Irk Valley Area Action Plan, this patch of land is still designated as contaminated below surface-level (and there’s a stern sign to this effect on Sand Street), as a result of heavy-duty industrialization in the later nineteenth century (specifically, here, dye-works). In the 1700s, the same patch of land was described as a ‘wild, uncared-for dell’. But in between these periods of wildness and contamination, this little bit of North Manchester greenery was Tinker’s Gardens—a popular pleasure garden created by Robert Tinker, proprietor of the Grape and Compass Coffee House. Although the gardens appear to have been most commonly known as Tinker’s Gardens, they went through a few names—including Elysian Gardens (as a nod to Greek mythology) and Vauxhall Gardens (after one of London’s most famous pleasure gardens). I think that Robert Tinker and his pleasure gardens deserve a post of their own, so I can say a little more about the gardens’ heyday and their sad demise. But, for now, if you should go past Vauxhall Street, close your eyes and listen for the echoes of the 50000 jubilant people who (allegedly) filled the gardens to watch the ascent of the coronation balloon in 1827. Back to the city centre for the next one, though this one might be a bit more well-known. But I like it, so I’ve included it. Earlier in the year, I had a conversation with someone from Poland who mentioned that he found UK street names a little confusing, and it reminded me that my American friends have had similar problems navigating UK addresses. The issue is that UK street names rely on both parts of the name to make sense: so we don’t speak about driving down Oxford, or meeting someone on the corner of Market and Corporation. You have to remember whether it is Oxford Street or Oxford Road—the ‘street’ and ‘road’ designations are important. In the case of Oxford Street/Oxford Road, our quirky UK naming conventions don’t pose too much of a problem. (To be honest, most Mancunians don’t really know when Oxford Street ends and Oxford Road begins, so we tend to forgive visitors who get them confused.) Elsewhere, though, you can get in a bit more of a pickle if you don’t know your streets from your roads, lanes and avenues. Most people familiar with Manchester city centre will know Tib Street, the busy road that leads up the side of Debenhams in Piccadilly into the heart of the Northern Quarter. Tib Street has its own place in Manchester’s history—from the early development of the city to more recent cultural and social events—and the Manchester City Council website is a good place to start to find out about the history of this part of the city centre. But, for now, the important thing to remember is that this is Tib Street. Forget the second part of the name and you could end up somewhere rather different. Although it’s within walking distance of Tib Street, Tib Lane is in quite a different part of Manchester. This small side street is found at the top of Cross Street, just before the junction with John Dalton Street and Princess Street. It’s another one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it streets—I mostly use it as shortcut to Fountain Street, and I probably wouldn’t have paid it much attention if it wasn’t for the name. When I mentioned Tib Street/Tib Lane to my Polish friend, his first question was: why? Why would you have two streets with the same name on opposite sides of the town centre? But if you know the origin of these streets’ names, then it’s all completely clear. Tib Street and Tib Lane are both named after the River Tib—one of Manchester’s ‘lost’ rivers. A small stream that rises in Miles Platting, travels down what are now Oldham Road and Tib Street, through the city centre to Castlefield, where it eventually meets the River Medlock, the River Tib was gradually culverted in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The river is now completely underground, but old maps of the city remind us that it used to be a (small) feature of the town’s landscape. From written accounts that mention it, it seems that the River Tib was probably at its fullest at Tib Street. But I’ve also read accounts that suggest the river was a significant reason for the development of the part of town around Tib Lane—which was once much more than a mere side street. One book I’ve read (written in 1793) describes this part of Castlefield as the former home of fustian dyers’ crofts, which were relocated to the banks of the river after the nearby springs failed. Now, the River Tib is underground. But, like the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writers before me, I’ve become completely fascinated by this cheeky little brook that was elevated to the status of river and had not one, but two streets named after it. It’s my second favourite Manchester river (after the River Irk) and I’ve done a lot of research into its exact location, so (like Tinker’s Gardens) I think it deserves an entire post to itself and I’ll be writing that up at some point in the future. From rivers to… erm… other liquids now, and a story that might be familiar to Mancunians but definitely deserves retelling. Manchester is an industrial city—in fact, for a time, it was the industrial city. Known as Cottonopolis, Manchester during the industrial revolution was home to cutting-edge manufacturing, millionaires and the world’s first passenger railway station. But all these advancements came at a cost. Large areas of the city were turned over to cheap dwellings for labourers, and certain locations were almost synonymous with ‘slum’. One such area was found in Ancoats, which has been claimed as the world’s first industrial suburb. By the late nineteenth century, housing conditions in Ancoats had hit an all-time low, with tiny cramped dwellings piled on top of each other and inhabitants suffering from appalling ill health and high mortality rates. In 1885, Manchester Corporation formed the Unhealthy Dwellings Committee, and areas of Ancoats (specifically at Oldham Road end) were cleared in preparation for new, healthier residences to be built. The five-storey Victoria Square dwellings (completed in 1894), also known simply as ‘The Dwellings’, was the grandest of these new municipal housing projects. Now a Grade II listed building, Victoria Square survives to this day as retirement housing, and is currently managed by Northwards Housing. As well as this red-brick housing block, the city council also built new tenement housing on surrounding streets. One such street saw the construction of two rows of two-storey housing (with ground-floor and first-floor tenements sharing a common entrance), separated by 36 foot wide thoroughfare—and you have to remember that this thoroughfare itself would have been a bold departure from the previous back-to-back housing that had filled the area. Even more excitingly, these new tenements each boasted an individual sink and WC (replacing previous shared facilities). The council were so proud of these new healthier dwellings, they named the new street ‘Sanitary Street’. By the 1960s, the slums of the nineteenth century had fallen out of living memory, and an individual toilet was no longer a selling point for a flat. Residents of Sanitary Street came to dislike the sound of the street name. The story I’ve heard is that it was the residents themselves who forced the council to change the street’s name; they took to covering up the ‘S’ and the ‘ry’ and referring to their address by the much prettier ‘Anita Street’. Whether this is true or an urban legend, the street name was changed and the ‘model housing’ of Anita Street remains as part of the Ancoats Conservation Area. The final street name in this post is often misunderstood, which is a shame because there’s a great story (and a great Mancunian character) behind it. When I was 15, I did my work experience in the Zeneca (formerly ICI) archives at Hexagon Tower in Blackley. Sadly, the archives are no longer housed in Blackley, but in the 90s they were an amazing repository for information about the history of dyeing in North Manchester. Among the many stories I was told during my short time working in the archives was that Lever Street in Manchester was named after the Lever Brothers, creators of Lifebuoy soap and builders of the Port Sunlight model village in Merseyside. The Lever brothers, I was told (a little vaguely), had some connection to Alkrington, near Middleton—perhaps a factory on the banks of the River Irk. Lever Street in the centre of town is named in recognition of this connection. When I was older, I found out that this wasn’t true. There is no connection between the Lever Brothers, Port Sunlight and Manchester. It seems to be a persistent story though, as a number of people I spoke to have heard it before (or, they’ve heard that Lever Street was named after Harold Lever, Baron Lever of Manchester or his brother Leslie Lever, Baron Lever of Ardwick. Let’s lay it to rest for good now though—Lever Street has been Lever Street since way before the Lever Brothers started their business in 1885, and it definitely pre-dates Harold and Leslie. Here’s Lever Street on a map of Manchester from 1797. You’ll see it’s in just the same place as it is today, running parallel to Newton Street and Oldham Street. However, while Lever Street is most definitely not named after the Lever Brothers, it is named after someone. And there is a connection to Alkrington, Middleton. If you look closely at the 1794 map, you’ll notice a significant difference to a modern map of Manchester. The street that runs perpendicular to Oldham Street, Newton Street and Lever Street, which is called Piccadilly today (and is a row of shops and restaurants facing Piccadilly Gardens), is named as ‘Lever’s Row’. Lever’s Row, in fact, predates Lever Street and is one of the earliest streets in this part of town. In the eighteenth century, the part of Manchester town centre (which wasn’t really a town centre at this time) that is now bounded (on its four sides) by Lever Street, Piccadilly Gardens, Great Ancoats Street and Market Street, belonged to Ashton Lever (1729-1788), the son of Sir James Darcy Lever, former High Sheriff of Lancashire. Ashton Lever was born in Alkrington Hall, near Middleton, but he also had a house constructed at the edge of the Daub-Holes (now Piccadilly Gardens) in Manchester. The new street on which his Manchester home was built was named after its owner – Lever’s Row. This house stood until after Lever’s death, when it was replaced with a coaching inn. While Wikipedia simply notes that Lever became bankrupt as a result of purchasing items for his museum, other sources paint more of a picture of a man who lived life rather large. Sir Ralph Assheton refused a young Lever consent to marry his daughter Mary, and the story goes that this was a result of Lever’s reputation for being a ‘wastrel’. He went on to form and join a number of eminent Manchester societies, and apparently was particularly fond of hunting, and his museum became known as ‘second only to the British Museum’. Ashton Lever died in 1788, and his death was recorded as being the result of a chill; however, there is a persistent suspicion among his (admittedly few) biographers that his death was, in fact, a suicide. Either way, Lever seems to have sadly fallen into obscurity. However, a few people are seeking to put this right. A recent film by Anthony Dolan—Enlightenment Middleton—includes Lever in its catalogue of eminent Middletonians. And in my own humble way, I’ve offered a nod to Lever’s contribution to the early formation of Manchester city centre. My short story ‘Lever’s Row’ (published in an anthology called Hauntings) travels through the history of Piccadilly Gardens to the days when Ashton Lever’s home stood alone among cornfields and clay pits. Like many other Manchester luminaries, Ashton Lever still has a street named after him. It’s just a shame everyone seems so keen to claim it’s named after someone else. In 1834, the last of Ashton Lever’s family died without heir, and Alkrington Hall and estate was sold to the Lees of Oldham, who broke up and sold off the estate. I’m not sure what happened in the intervening period, but the local council acquired Alkrington Hall in 1942 and eventually transformed the glorious Georgian building into bedsits. Local people remember these as being rather ‘squalid’. In the mid-1990s, private developers bought the building and converted it into four luxury homes that are now privately owned. The building still stands, as it has done since the 1700s, above the River Irk, and is visible as you travel into Middleton on Manchester Road. Rob and Hannah went down to Somerset for a steam-powered trip across the Bristol Channel. This post is about the second day of their short break. Our previous post was about the first day of our recent short break in Somerset – and our trip across the Bristol Channel on board the PS Waverley, and then on to the Brecon Mountain Railway. Originally, we’d intended to travel straight home the following day, but we changed our plans when we got back from Clevedon and decided to stop off at Wookey Hole caves on the way back north. We’re both rather fascinated by caves and caverns. When we first came up with a list of all the places we wanted to visit this year, Rob made sure that ‘caves or something underground’ was high up the list. So when we decided to slightly prolong our trip to Somerset this September, a visit to one of the cave systems seemed like an obvious choice. We chose Wookey Hole over Cheddar simply because Hannah visited Cheddar several times as a kid, but neither of us had ever been to Wookey Hole. So… what did we make of Wookey Hole? It was certainly a rather unusual experience. Let’s take it step-by-step: we’ll look at the good, the bad, and the baffling. For most people—though not, perhaps, all people—it’s pretty obvious that the main attraction at Wookey Hole is the series of limestone show caves on the southern escarpment of the Mendip Hills. ‘Hole’ is used here in its Anglo-Saxon sense, meaning ‘cave’. The ‘Wookey’ part of the name (and, confusingly there are two villages in Somerset that bear this name—Wookey Hole and Wookey—which are just a couple of miles apart) either comes from the Old English word wocig (meaning ‘animal trap’) or from the Celtic/Welsh word ogof (meaning ‘cave’). If the latter etymology is correct, then ‘Wookey Hole’ really means ‘Cave Cave’, and Wookey Hole Caves means ‘Cave Cave Caves’ (so good they named it thrice). So, what about those caves then? They’re actually a series of limestone caverns, formed when natural acid in the groundwater dissolves the bedrock, forming openings and fissures that have expanded over epochs to create caves—this type of cavern is called a ‘solutional cave’, and is often characterized by the presence of calcium carbonate formations, such as stalagmites, stalactites, helictites and flowstones (created when water slowly precipitates through the limestone). There are at least 25 chambers in the Wookey Hole cave system, though only three are open as ‘show caves’. So far, over 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) of the system have been explored, but the full extent is still unknown. For rock fans, there are a number of unique or unusual geological features in the system. The first part of the cave, for instance, is formed from Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate—a cemented fossil limestone scree—which reveals evidence of the erosion of the Mendips in the Triassic period and the infill of the valley as a result. Passages in the twentieth cavern may well be the result of a Vauclusian spring (a spring that originates within a cave system, forcing water upwards at high pressure). In addition to this, the River Axe—which rises in Wookey Hole caves and is formed by water that has entered the cave system—flows through two of the chambers, then through the valley and westwards, until it reaches the sea at Weston Bay. For biological and geological reasons, Wookey Hole caves are now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). However, they’re also of interest for the fascinating evidence of human habitation and use that has been discovered within them. It appears that the caves were inhabited by humans in the Palaeolithic period, as tools and fossilized animal remains have been discovered. Stone Age and Iron Age artefacts have also been found, as well as evidence of occupation during the Roman period. Evidence of a Romano-British graveyard (c. 2nd-4th century AD) has been discovered in the system’s fourth chamber, as well as possible domestic occupation from the same period. In the twentieth century, the caves were owned and managed by Gerald Hodgkinson. Up until the Victorian period, the main business concern on the land was the paper mill (and more on that shortly). However, the continued and increasing interest in the cave system encouraged Hodgkinson to consider the potential for transforming the area into more of a dedicated tourist attraction. He opened the caves to the public for the first time in 1927, though this decision was not uncontroversial. In 1930, John Cowper Powys wrote the novel A Glastonbury Romance, in which the myths and legends (including grail legends) of Glastonbury and the surrounding area come into conflict with the capitalist ambitions of local industrialist (and mine owner) Philip Crow. Hodgkinson claimed that the character of Philip Crow was based on him, and he successfully sued Powys for libel in 1934. Nevertheless, the caves remained a popular tourist destination, and remained in the ownership and management of Hodgkinson (and, after his death in 1960, his heirs), until they were finally sold to Madame Tussauds in 1973. As well as having (probably) one of the longest histories of tourism of any show cave in Britain, Wookey Hole caves also boasts an interesting history of cave diving. In the 1930s, the first cave dives were undertaken by Jack Sheppard and Graham Balcombe. Since then, a huge amount of diving and exploration has been undertaken, with over 25 chambers discovered and charted by divers. This is not without its dangers, of course, and the divers Gordon Marriott (d. 1949) and Keith Potter (d. 1981) both tragically died while diving in Wookey Hole. But work continues, and the discovery of just how far the cave system extends is testament to the boldness and devotion of successive generations of divers. We’ve already briefly mentioned the paper mill, so it’s only right that we say a little more about the non-cave-related history on the site as well. The River Axe was navigable from the Middle Ages until the early twentieth century. It was also used to power watermills, and there is a record of a corn mill on the Axe listed in the Domesday Book. By the early seventeenth century, there was a paper mill on the river (the earliest deed of sale is dated 1610, but the mill must have existed prior to that). Production and development seem to have continued apace until 1855, when a disastrous fire led to the freehold being sold off to W.S. Hodgkinson, whose family played such a pivotal role in the development of the site (and the surrounding area). It was the paper mill, rather than the caves, that brought the Hodgkinson family to Wookey Hole, and the paper-making business continued to grow until it hit its peak in 1891. Throughout its history, the Wookey Hole paper mill only ever made handmade paper—the Hodgkinson family never installed new technology to enable them to switch to machine-made paper. As a result, their paper became something of a niche product in the twentieth century, and business began to decline. In the early 50s, the family sold the mill to the Inveresk Paper Company, who continued to produce handmade paper until 1972. When Madame Tussauds bought the caves in 1973, they also bought the paper mill, bringing the two sites back together as part of a combined tourist offer. Although commercial production ceased, paper was made on a smaller scale as part of an exhibition. So to summarize ‘the good’: Wookey Hole caves are a spectacular natural attraction, and the caverns that are open as show caves are very impressive. (And the approach to the caves, with the wall of the Mendip escarpment towering over you, is stunning.) There’s also a small museum dedicated to cave diving at the site, and there’s a fascinating film about the history of diving at Wookey Hole that plays on a loop as a part of the exhibition. This is without doubt the most informative part of the attraction—but we’ll come back to that in a moment. There is also a small exhibition dedicated to the paper mill on site, with a single vat and some equipment on display. However, this is very limited, as the majority of the historic equipment was sold by the current owner in 2008. Apparently, paper-making demonstrations are sometimes given for visitors, but we didn’t see any evidence of this during our visit. But it’s still nice to see some vestige of the site’s former use, as well as the inclusion of an anonymous eighteenth-century verse about paper-making (and capitalism) in the display. Rags make Paper—Paper makes Money—Money makes Banks—Banks make Loans—Loans make Beggars—Beggars make Rags. Finally, there’s the cheese. Due to the caves’ consistent temperature of 11℃, Wookey Hole has the perfect conditions for maturing cheddar. We got a quick look at the ‘cheese cave’ on our tour, and then could try a sample in the gift shop. Cave-aged cheese is really very tasty! Ah… the bad… well, the first thing to be aware of is that almost none of the information above was actually gleaned from our visit to Wookey Hole, but rather from reading up about the site before and after we went. Despite the fact that the place is literally called ‘Cave Cave Caves’, the show caves are now only a small (and somewhat undervalued) part of the tourist offer. And there’s very little information given as to the geological, biological or historical significance of the cave system itself. The tour of the open chambers lasts around 20-25 minutes, and is dominated by the story of the ‘Witch of Wookey Hole’. This is an old tale, which seems to have sprung up over a century ago when visitors to the cave decided that a vaguely human-shaped stalagmite in the first chamber deserved a bit of folk history. There are various versions of the legend (usually involving a monk from Glastonbury chasing a witch into the caves and petrifying her with holy water), and the story has been around for quite some time. In 1912, a thousand-year-old skeleton of a woman was discovered by archaeologist Herbert Balch (and now housed at the Wells and Mendip Museum), and this came to be associated with the story of the witch. When the Romano-British burial site was excavated in the fourth chamber, suggestions were made that the bodies were victims sacrificed to the witch. While there may or may not be some historical basis for the folk legend, what is clear is that it has become garbled into a mish-mash of vague ideas about the ‘spooky’ past, and the way it is now presented as part of the cave tour is borderline gibberish. Human sacrifice, curses, avenging monks—even King Arthur—are all thrown into the mix, while creepy music and colourful lights attempt to draw visitors’ attention to a lumpy petrifaction that—if you squint a little bit—sort of resembles a seated woman. Add to this that the venue now employs a woman to wander around in a cloak and a black pointed hat, posing for photographs with children, and the actual history is diluted beyond recognition. We assume that the long-standing legend of the witch is the reason for the venue’s current branding. As you can see from the picture at the start of this post, there’s a distinctly ‘Harry Potter’ feel to the marketing. The gift shop is full of generic witches’ hats and wizards’ wands, that seem at odds with the intriguing history of the site. But the ‘mish-mash’ doesn’t end there. When you exit the caves, you arrive in one of the site’s other ‘attractions’ (their website currently boasts that there are twenty of these included in the ticket price, though the definition of what counts as an attraction varies wildly). The next thing we encountered was the dinosaur park—a small patch of land outside the old paper mill building, crammed full of fibreglass dinosaurs. While there were some information boards about each of the species presented, there was no attempt made to suggest any actual link to the site. Not all the species represented have been discovered in Britain—let alone in Somerset—and the whole thing was further undermined by the inclusion of a giant fibreglass model of a gorilla, which purported to be the ‘Mighty King Kong’. Nestled amongst the dinosaurs and King Kong are fibreglass models of other prehistoric animals. In some respects, this ‘attraction’ made a little more sense than the dinosaur park. There’s a replicated hyena den, for instance, which is in-keeping with archaeological discoveries on the site. Cave hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaean) fossils have been discovered in the caves, and the model accurately depicts the ‘hyena cave’ being used by Stone Age humans—which is borne out by the evidence of excavations. However, these models might gesture towards accuracy, but they aren’t for the pedantic. During our tour of the caves, the word ‘Neanderthal’ was used to describe the prehistoric hunters who occupied the hyena cave. Worse still, we were presented with a model of dire wolf (Canis dirus), as though this species had also roamed the prehistoric landscape. While cave wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) fossils have been discovered in Somerset, this is the only megafaunal wolf that inhabited Europe; dire wolf lived south of the Wisconsin glaciation, in the Americas. Having dire wolf, King Kong and the Wicked Witch of the West happily cohabiting with cave hyenas and Stone Age hunters might not be the worst sin in the world, but it’s symptomatic of a general disregard for historic (or geographic) accuracy. There really is very little attempt to offer anything educational to inform a visit to the spectacular caves. And this is also true for the paper mill. The Victorian buildings have now been converted into the site’s indoor attractions, including the cave diving museum (which, admittedly, is very interesting) and the paper-making display. However, these gestures towards history are hardly signposted, and a visitor would be forgiven for missing them entirely. What is more boldly advertised is the ‘Witch’s Laboratory’ 4D cinema experience, where visitors are told they will encounter the witch and her companion in the middle of an experiment that has ‘gone horribly wrong’, before being led into the cinema to watch a 20-minute film accompanied by physical effects. Never mind that this attraction seems to have merged the legend of the ‘Witch of Wookey Hole’ with a Hammer Horror-esque Frankenstein plot, the cinema itself only shows films about dinosaurs! This hodge-podge of generic ‘child-friendly’ concepts—witches, dinosaurs, spooky laboratories—is compounded by the incongruous inclusion of pirates in other parts of the venue. One of the site’s cafés is now designated as ‘Captain Jack’s Restaurant’, and is adorned with fibreglass statues of nearly-Disney pirate characters. To the rear of this eatery is the Pirate Island Adventure Golf, complete with a large wooden ship flying a tattered skull and crossbones. The construction of the crazy golf course was the subject of some controversy, as the current owner of Wookey Hole demolished the site’s Victorian bowling green to make room for the pirate ship in 2009, without obtaining prior planning permission. The bowling green was one of the amenities built for mill workers and villagers when the Hodgkinson family owned the paper mill. There’s one final strand of the attractions on offer at Wookey Hole. We’ve classed this strand as ‘baffling’, because that’s how we felt about it during our visit. Reading up about the recent history of the site has offered some explanation as to why these attractions have ended up housed on the site of a Victorian paper mill and show caves, but we wanted to give a flavour of how confused we felt at the time. In addition to the pirates, witches and dinosaurs, Wookey Hole also boasts a circus school (complete with theatre), a clown museum, a mirror maze, and a room full of Edwardian penny arcade machines. The penny arcade machines are mostly a collection of oddities—there’s a series of ‘execution’ machines, for instance, in which your penny would have bought you the rather gruesome pleasure of watching the workings of the electric chair, the gallows or the guillotine. Most of the machines no longer work properly, so although visitors have the chance to exchange modern coins for old pennies, the display promises more than it offers. We didn’t visit the theatre, as there wasn’t a performance on while we were there, but we did visit (or rather stumble into) the clown museum. Unsignposted and unexplained, this little corner of Wookey Hole is the stuff of a coulrophobic’s nightmares. Glass cases are crammed with memorabilia, programmes, costumes and props belonging to professional clowns; a clown car hangs from the ceiling by a set of chains; there is a full suit of clothes in a large glass frame. In one cabinet sits row upon row of eggshells (some cracked or broken), each painted with the face of a professional clown. Against one wall is a set of life-sized mannequins depicting famous clowns (including Coco the Clown, Lou Jacobs and Charlie Carioli). Like so much of the material on show at Wookey Hole, there was no information given as to the background of this collection, but it turns out that it’s not quite as baffling as it seems. The penny arcade/mirror maze display and the clown museum have different provenances, but they both become a little bit clearer when you know who owned Wookey Hole after Gerald Hodgkinson’s heirs sold the site. The circus school and clowns came later. In 2004, Wookey Hole was bought by circus-owner Gerry Cottle, who was looking for a permanent home for his circus. Cottle started the circus school, which trains children and young people in various performance skills. Obviously, a theatre was also constructed for the school’s performances (which are, on occasion, accompanied by an appearance by the Witch of Wookey Hole). The clown museum was brought into Wookey Hole in 2007. It is, in fact, the museum of Clowns International (originally the Circus Clowns Club), an organization formed in 1946. The club originally met at St James’s Church in Islington, the burial place of Joseph Grimaldi, to commemorate and celebrate the ‘father of clowning’ and to hold an annual memorial service. When St James’s was deconsecrated in 1959, the club moved to Holy Trinity Church in Dalston, and it began to acquire a collection of clown-related memorabilia and art. This became known as the Clowns’ Gallery, incorporating both artefacts and archives relating to the profession. Eventually though, the museum outgrew the space in Dalston, and so the main part of the collection was moved to Wookey Hole in 2007 (offered a home by the Vice President of Clowns International, Gerry Cottle). And those eggs? Far from being just a slightly creepy curiosity, these eggs are actually the utterly unique (and really interesting) way in which professional clowns protect their intellectual property. In the late 1940s, circus enthusiast Stan Bult began painting clown faces (copying the unique face paint of individual performers) onto hollowed out eggshells. Although this was originally intended to be just a hobby, the Circus Clowns Club (of which Bult was a founding member) soon realized that the eggs could be used as a record of its members’ make-up designs. Bult’s collection was stored at his home until his death in 1966, after which it was moved to a London restaurant. Sadly, some of Bult’s eggs were broken or damaged over the years, but the remaining ones (24 of which survive) were moved to Wookey Hole in 2007. The Egg Register (as it is known) was revived in earnest in 1979, when Clowns International formalized the practice as a means of copyrighting performers’ designs. An ‘egg artist’ is now employed, who paints a (pottery) egg for each registered performer and incorporates swatches of fabric, tufts of hair, and other unique elements of an individual’s costume. These pottery eggs are also housed at Wookey Hole, alongside the remainder of Bult’s collection. So, to end then, the clown museum at Wookey Hole isn’t so baffling after all. But it is very frustrating. The collection represents an archive of a performance tradition that most people know almost nothing about. The artefacts that have been so carefully preserved are testament to a history—and a practice—that is shrouded in mystery, and yet still so very familiar. But there is no information about any of this in the museum or on the Wookey Hole website. While the clown museum is listed as an attraction, it is merely titled ‘Clown Town’, and the contents and history of the collection are left undescribed. Now we know what we were looking at, we’ve revised our initial opinion of the clown museum at Wookey Hole. Aside from the caves, it is probably the most interesting ‘attraction’ on offer. But, like the caves, it feels rather undersold—and, also like the caves, it is woefully overshadowed by the ramshackle collection of fibreglass pirates, incongruous dinosaurs, and a woman in a pointed hat paid to scare children. Rob and Hannah went down to Somerset for a steam-powered trip across the Bristol Channel. This post is about the first day of their short break. In September, we travelled to Somerset for a trip on a paddle steamer, a mountain railway ride, and then a visit to some caves. Our journey began in Clevedon, where we boarded the PS Waverley. The PS (Paddle Steamer) Waverley is the last seagoing passenger paddle steamer in the world. The original PS Waverley (named after Sir Walter Scott’s novel) was built in 1899, and served as a minesweeper. The older vessel was sunk in 1940, during the Dunkirk evacuations, but is commemorated by its successor. Work began on the new Waverley in 1945, in the Clyde shipyards, and the ship was completed and launched in 1946. The Waverley’s maiden voyage was in June 1947, when the ship entered the service of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). PS Waverley originally sailed the LNER’s Firth of Clyde steamer route from Craigendoran Pier, via Loch Long to Arrochar. In 1948, Britain’s railways were nationalized, and the Waverley was brought into the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (a branch of the Railway Executive), which eventually merged with the West Highland ferry company David MacBrayne Ltd to form Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) in 1973. Sadly, by the time CalMac was formed, there was little use for the PS Waverley. Passenger numbers had declined, and the ship was in need of work to ensure it remained seagoing. The company decided that the Waverley wasn’t worth the investment, and so withdrew it from service after the 1973 season. However, CalMac were still keen for the ship to be preserved, and so they sold the Waverley to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society for the token sum of one pound in 1974. In order to preserve the PS Waverley for future generations, funding was sought for renovation, and the Waverley Steam Navigation Company was set up to operate the ship. This began the Waverley’s second life as a well-loved tourist attraction, and the final restoration work—returning the ship to its original 1940s style—was completed in 2003. The Waverley has now carried over five million passengers on its various tourist trips, sailing from over sixty ports around the UK. Although there are now many trips to choose from, Hannah had a yearning to travel the Bristol Channel, and so we booked on the Clevedon-Penarth sailing. This was doubly attractive because, as well as the sailing, the ticket included a coach trip up into the Brecon Beacons and a trip on the Brecon Mountain Railway (more on that shortly). We met the PS Waverley at Clevedon Pier, which is a fascinating attraction in its own right. Built in the 1860s, the pier was famously described by John Betjeman as ‘the most beautiful pier in England’. It opened in 1869 and was used as an embarkation point for paddle steamer trips to Devon and Wales for almost a century. The pier was designed by local architect Hans Price, and construction was carried out by engineers John William Grover and Richard J. Ward. It stands at 1,024 feet (312 metres) long, with eight spans (supported by Barlow rail legs) and wooden decking. But just like the PS Waverley, the history of Clevedon Pier wasn’t a smooth journey. Although the pier began life as a new, fast route to South Wales, it was quickly superseded by the opening of the Severn Railway Tunnel in 1886. By 1891, ownership of the pier had transferred to Clevedon Council, and the pierhead was in need of some expensive repairs. A new landing stage was constructed, and a pagoda-style pavilion (also designed by Hans Price) was erected at the pierhead. The pier continued to serve as a boarding point for paddle steamers—and as a tourist attraction in its own right—until the 1960s. However, disaster struck in 1970, when two of the eight steel spans collapsed under routine stress-testing. The first six spans passed the test, but Span No. 7 collapsed, bringing down its neighbour and leaving the pierhead and pavilion standing (rather lonely) out at sea. The Clevedon Pier Preservation Society was formed in 1972, and its members campaigned for the pier’s restoration (successfully fending off the district council’s application to demolish the pier in 1979). In 1984, funding was secured from English Heritage and the National Heritage Memorial Fund (as well as other sources), and the restoration work began. Other restoration worked was funded by a passionate local campaign, and the reconstruction work to the spans and decking was completed in 1989. Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (and yet more campaigning), the pierhead was restored and reopened in 1998. It is now a Grade I listed building (sadly now the only pier in the country to have this status, as it had previously shared the accolade with Brighton’s West Pier). Seeing the beautifully restored PS Waverley arrive at the beautifully restored Clevedon Pier feels very appropriate, and the sight really makes you grateful to all those people who campaigned, and worked, and fundraised to preserve these two gems for the future. We didn’t linger long at Clevedon, though, as we were soon heading out over the Bristol Channel to Wales. The weather was nice, and the crossing was very calm. We spent our time exploring the PS Waverley—there is something wonderfully hypnotic about watching the machinery at work in the engine room—and just sitting on deck, enjoying the calmness of the water around us. At 750 feet (230 metres) long, Penarth Pier is quite a bit shorter than Clevedon, but the two constructions have a shared history of welcoming the pleasure steamers and ferries that travelled between England and Wales. Opened in 1898, Penarth Pier was constructed from cast iron and wooden decking. After it was sold to Penarth Borough Council in 1929, a ferro-concrete Art Deco pavilion was constructed at the shoreward end of the pier. The pavilion has seen a number of uses during its life—including being a dance hall, a restaurant and a snooker hall—and in 2008 the charity Penarth Arts and Crafts Ltd was formed to restore and maintain the spectacular building. After securing a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the PACL were able to fully restore the building, and it is now in use as an art gallery, restaurant and community cinema. But aside from admiring the beautiful exterior of the pavilion, we didn’t get much time at Penarth Pier. Our coach was waiting to take us through the Vale of Glamorgan and up into the Brecon Beacons—our destination was the Brecon Mountain Railway (Rheilffordd Mynydd Brycheiniog). The BMR is a narrow gauge tourist steam railway, which operates on a five-mile stretch of track that runs from Pant, on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, to Torpantau. The BMR runs on a section of the trackbed of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway. This railway line was constructed and opened in stages in the 1860s. Its southern section linked Bassaleg (now a suburb of Newport) with the ironworks at Rhymney, and was mainly a mineral line transporting coal. The northern section travelled on through Pant, Pontsticill, and then via tunnel to Brecon, operating mostly as a passenger line servicing the isolated rural villages and farms. At Torpantau (north of Pontsticill), trains entered a 666-yard (609-metre) single line tunnel—which, at 1,313 feet (400 metre) above sea level, was the highest railway tunnel in Britain. The Brecon and Merthyr Railway continued on through the nationalization of the railways in 1948, but the service had never been particularly profitable. Gradually, its timetable was cut down (in the 1950s), passenger services from Pontsticill were stopped (in 1961), and—in the end—goods service were withdrawn. The line was closed completely in 1964. In the 1970s, an idea was had to construct a heritage railway along part of the old B&M track, operating restored steam engines from around the world. The section of the line between Pant and Torpantau was selected for the project, and work commenced in 1978. Although there were certain obstacles to be overcome—the site of the original station at Pant was unavailable, and the BMR team discovered that scrap merchants had removed both the track and the bridge girders—a narrow gauge line was constructed and opened to passengers in 1980 (using engine Sybil and a single carriage). A new station was constructed at Pant, on land near to the original site, and this became the entrance to the new railway (including the car park, ticket office and café) and a workshop where engines could be restored and maintained. At Pontsticill, the shell of the station house was renovated, with the waiting room being converted into a small workshop and storage shed. Until 1994, the tourist line ran from Pant to Pontsticill, with work being done behind the scenes to restore additional carriages and engines to accommodate the increasing popularity of the line. Work was also done to extend the line up the steep incline to Torpantau (as well as to renovate locomotives powerful enough to handle this climb). The first stage of the extension—between Pontsticill and Dol-y-Gaer—opened in 1995. The original Dol-y-Gaer station has now been renovated and converted into accommodation for the Plas Dolygaer Scout Mountain Centre, and so the line extension ended at a passing loop just before the site of the station. In April 2014, the BMR was able to open a further extension to the line, taking passengers all the way to Torpantau. A single platform was constructed for the new northern terminus, and it sits just a stone’s throw from the southern entrance of the old Torpantau Tunnel, at the summit of the original Brecon and Merthyr Railway line. And so, a few months later, we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the charming five-mile line (with plenty of restored carriages—there were a lot of people booked onto the trip that day!). Leaving Pant, the views from the train are amazing. On the left-hand side, you can see the gorge of the Taf Fechan river, and on the right is a disused quarry. This gives way to a wooded valley, as the train approaches Pontsticill. On the outward journey, the train travels straight through Pontsticill without stopping. To the left, you can see Pontsticill Reservoir. (We spent much of the ride in the gap between the carriages in order to better enjoy the views, though this did result in us both getting quite a bit of soot in our hair! Totally worth it.) After Pontsticill, the train passes through Dol-y-Gaer and begins the steepest part of its climb—you can now see Pentwyn Reservoir to the side of the line. After a short break at Torpantau (to stretch our legs mostly, though if we hadn’t been on a schedule we could have had a bit of a longer walk and returned on a later train), we returned back down the line. On the way back, the train stops at Pontsticill, which now houses a small museum and workshop in the old station house. There’s a café at Pontsticill, but we were much more interested in visiting the Steam Museum and seeing the collection of small stationary engines and locomotives. And then, we reboarded the train, wound our way back to Pant, and rejoined the coach. We had a (very) brief stop in Brecon, and then we returned to Penarth to rejoin the PS Waverley. Another beautifully calm sailing over the Bristol Channel—and another chance to enjoy the metal and power of the engine room—and then the lights of Clevedon Pier came into view. The York Mystery Plays are a cycle of Middle English mystery plays that were performed each year at the Feast of Corpus Christi (which fell on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday). These plays told the Christian story from Creation to Last Judgement, with individual plays (or ‘pageants’) being performed by the craft guilds of the town. Each guild presented a particular story, taking responsible for the script, the performers, the costumes and the decoration, and the pageant was then performed on the back of a waggon that was rolled through the town to the twelve ‘playing stations’. While many medieval towns would have had similar entertainment at Corpus Christi, the York cycle is unusual in the amount of information that has survived to the modern day. Forty-eight pageants have survived—making the York cycle one of only four (almost) complete sets of plays—and there’s surviving evidence of performers (usually guild members, but occasionally professional players), costumes and props for some of the pageants as well. There is no record of the earliest performance of the cycle, but they had probably been performed many times prior to the earliest surviving records, which date from 1376. The plays continued to be performed annually until the Reformation, after which they carried on for a short time (adapted to remove reference to the adoration of the Virgin) before being suppressed in 1569. After this suppression, the plays were pretty much forgotten until the end of the nineteenth century—though manuscript evidence of the pageants survived, squirrelled away in various collections. In 1885, an edited transcription of one of the manuscripts was published, and then in 1909 a selection of the plays was performed to raise funds for St Olave’s Church in York. This early revival paved the way for the study and performance of the plays in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The revival of the plays has seen two different strands of performance. Since 1951, plays have been staged at three- and four-year intervals, at which a selection of pageants is performed at a single static location with a single cast made up of amateur and professional actors (usually a professional actor takes the role of Jesus, and sometimes that of Lucifer/Satan). Alongside this, from the 1970s, attempts have been made to revive the waggon plays—in which various casts ‘bring forth’ pageants, performing their plays on waggons (usually brewers’ drays) at several playing stations around the town. 1994 saw the first processional waggon plays to be performed in modern times, and this event had nine amateur dramatic groups taking a play each and touring it around five locations in York. Since then, the waggon plays have been performed at four-year intervals (currently two years out of step with the static plays). Hannah went to the 2010 performance of the waggon plays (before we met), and was keen for us to go to the next event. While the revival of the static plays has seen some ambitious performances, wonderful actors and talented direction, there’s something about the waggon plays that’s very appealing. Since 2002, production of the plays has been managed by a committee made up of the Guilds of York, and the 2010 and 2014 performances were played by a mixture of Guild members, amateur dramatic and student actors, church groups and other local volunteers. The sets are designed to be housed (or carried) entirely on a single waggon, and each pageant has a different cast. This feels more ‘authentic’—or at least, closer to the spirit of the medieval play cycle—and it makes for a very fun day out. In 2014, twelve pageants were staged, moving between two playing stations. Each group had creative and interpretative freedom to present the story in their own way, and it was interesting to see the differences in the plays that were also performed in 2010 (which included Creation, The Slaughter of the Innocents, The Crucifixion and The Last Judgement—which are kind of the ‘biggies’), as well as to see new interpretations of other pageants. The plays were performed in two sets—so you could watch both halves at the same location (with a break in the middle), or watch the first half at one station and then move on for the rest (which is what we did). We began at Dean’s Park, at the side of York Minster, for the first seven pageants. As we waited for the first waggon to arrive, music was provided by the Minster Minstrels. This year, accompanying music for the pageants was provided by the International Guild of Town Pipers and The Taborers Society, and a chorus was included to offer some exposition on the stories presented. In the Middle Ages, this pageant was performed by the Guild of Plasterers. Following the opening chapters of Genesis, the pageant presents the beginning of God’s creation, ending with life being brought forth. The revived pageant is brought forth by the Guild of Building, and it really brings out the references to construction and craftsmanship found in the surviving script. It’s important to remember that these pageants weren’t simply straightforward dramatizations of Bible verse—there was a lot of creative interpretation, humour and invention. As we’ll come to shortly, a number of the pageants were based on stories that aren’t actually found in the Bible—but even in the ones that have a Biblical source, they’re often adapted by the guild to which they belong. So, in the Creation of the World, we find God imagined as a Yorkshire builder (complete with charts, compass and a Thermos of tea), surveying the construction of the world with a shrewd eye. Even though the players remain fairly faithful to the language of the surviving Middle English script, it’s pretty easy to follow (and laugh) along with the affectionate and comic presentation. This pageant presents the story of Adam and Eve’s temptation by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and it was traditionally performed by the Cooper’s Guild. In the 2014 plays, the pageant was brought forth by Canon Lee School and the Gild of Freemen. The performers (playing the roles of Satan, Eve, Adam and God) were all GCSE students, who managed to fit rehearsals around their final exams. We were particularly impressed with Ben Franks, who played the role of Satan. His performance was very charismatic—he was quite the persuasive Devil! Of the 48 surviving pageants, only eleven draw on Old Testament stories—the rest of the plays are concerned with the birth, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ (and Mary). The 2014 performance roughly followed this ratio, as we leapt from Genesis to the Nativity without stopping on the way. The ‘Angels and Shepherds’ play is traditionally known as the Annunciation to the Shepherds or the Adoration of the Shepherds, and it was performed by the Guild of Chandlers (candle-makers). This year, it was brought forth by the Guild of Scriveners, with an angelic choir provided by SoundsFun community choir. Even though it was a nice sunny day, it was hard not to get a touch of Christmas spirit as we moved into familiar territory of Nativity plays and carols. Quite a dramatic shift in tone and style now. The Slaughter of the Innocents is a moving and poignant pageant, and this was the first play to use modern costumes and design this year. The pageant is based on the Christian story of Herod’s massacre of all young male children following reports of the birth of Christ. While the story does have a Biblical source (Matthew 2:16-18), the medieval version was much expanded and was recounted in a number of pageants. The Coventry pageant of the sixteenth century (performed by the Shearmen and Tailors) included the ‘Coventry Carol’—perhaps the least cheerful Christmas carols that’s still sung today—a lament by the mother of one of the murdered infants. The York play of the Massacre of the Innocents similarly focuses on the pain and grief of the bereaved mothers (which is only referred to prophetically in the biblical account), offering a sharp counterpoint to Mary’s joy at the Nativity and a painful moment of identification for mothers in the audience. The pageant was traditionally performed by the Guild of Girdlers and Nailers; in 2014, it was brought forth by Heslington Church. As we’ve said, the decision was taken to present the play in modern dress—with Herod appearing as a despotic military leader—and the set was a recreation of the façade of Heslington Church itself. In a creative addition to the script, the pageant featured a vicar who attempts to intervene but is killed for his efforts. We moved ahead now to the life of Christ, specifically the baptism by John that marked the beginning of his public ministry. Traditionally performed by the Barbers’ Guild, the pageant was performed in 2014 by the HIDden Theatre Company (which was founded by members of the Lords of Misrule after their performance in the 2010 Mystery Plays). Like several other plays in the cycle, the Pageant of the Baptism focuses on the humanity of Christ—Christ is both human and divine at the moment of baptism—but also that of John the Baptist (much of the script is concerned with John’s uncertainty about worthiness to perform the task in front of him). In this year’s selection of pageants, it was the first to clearly point ahead to the issues of salvation and revelation that would lead us forward to the Last Judgement. In the Middle Ages, this pageant was performed by the Guild of Capmakers, but here it was brought forth by staff and students of York St John University. The stories are drawn from the Gospel of John (8:1-11 and 11:1-44), and are probably fairly familiar to modern audiences. The York St John adaptation sought to focus on the role(s) of women in the two Bible stories, offering a dramatic contrast between the imposed silence of the Woman Taken in Adultery and the very vocal grief of Martha and Mary at the death of their brother Lazarus. The end of this pageant was one of only two points in the day’s entertainment where we didn’t skip ahead too far. This play is No. 24 in the surviving medieval cycle, and the next one to be performed would be No. 25. Christ’s final words in this pageant signal his intention to travel to Jerusalem—and his encouragement to others to follow him—and so, it was to Jerusalem that we travelled next. This pageant was traditionally performed by the Skinners’ Guild, but today we saw it as imagined by the York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem with his disciples and is met by enthusiastic citizens. As he carries out several miracles (including redeeming the tax collector), Jesus is celebrated with great joy—however, this is subdued by Christ’s knowledge that his betrayal and death will quickly follow. In the full cycle of plays, the Entry into Jerusalem is contrasted by the later Christ Led to Calvary—as the latter play wasn’t being performed this year (there was a very good version performed in 2010), the contrast was shown instead through the rather downbeat and detached depiction of Christ (played here by Laurence O’Reilly). Nevertheless, the Entry into Jerusalem was a lot of fun. The costumes were styled on early twentieth century fashions (there were even a couple of suffragette sashes to be seen) and the set was floral, bunting-heavy and picturesque—less Entry into Jerusalem, more Entry into an English Village Fete (And did those feet, in ancient time…)—which made the whole thing a rather jubilant end to the first half of the programme. We picked up the story after Christ’s betrayal and arrest. This pageant—which was traditionally performed by the Bowyers and Fletchers—depicts the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, with priests Annas and Caiaphas taking centre stage. The 2014 version was brought forth by the York Settlement Community Players on behalf of the Company of Cordwainers. The adaptation was staged in modern dress, with the conflict between Caiaphas (the older, politically powerful priest) and Annas (his younger rival) brought to the fore. The York Play of the Crucifixion is one of the best-known pageants in the cycle (at least, among people familiar with medieval literature). There’s been a lot of academic work done on the play, and, like many tutors of medieval literature, Hannah has taught it to undergraduate students on a number of occasions. It’s a (literally) stunning piece of drama that has retained its power to shock audiences with its combination of uncomfortable humour and arresting stagecraft. The 2014 production combined the Pinners’ Pageant of the Crucifixion with the Butchers’ Pageant of the Death of Christ, and it was brought forth by the Company of Butchers with the parish church of St Chad on the Knavesmire. The soldiers’ treatment of Christ is uncomfortably prolonged, with their squabbling and incompetence creating a sense of cruelty, but also mundanity. These bumbling soldiers are far removed from the corrupt power of Caiaphas—they are just jobsworths trying to get their task finished as quickly as possible. If the audience begins to snigger along with these jokey characters, it makes them complicit in the betrayal of Christ (an important lesson in much medieval literature and drama). All this comes to a dramatic climax as the soldiers raise up the cross, allowing Jesus to face the audience for the first time. When Christ speaks to/of the soldiers, it feels a lot like he’s talking about the assembled viewers as well. It probably goes without saying that the Crucifixion was one of the pageants selected for the 2010 performance as well—it’s hard to imagine this iconic play being missed out of the modern performances. Although the Harrowing of Hell is alluded to in the Bible (1 Peter 3:19-20), this story doesn’t really have a Biblical source. Nevertheless, the story of Jesus’s triumphant descent into Hell between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection can be found in Old and Middle English literature, as well as Western and Eastern art. The purpose of Christ’s descent was to offer salvation to the souls of all the righteous who had died since the creation of the world—in Middle English pageants, this was often illustrated through the saving of recognizable Old Testament figures, such as Adam, Noah and Abraham, who died before the birth of Christ (and therefore weren’t Christian). In the 1300s, this pageant was performed by the Guild of Saddlers. Today, it was brought forth by the Parish Church of St Luke the Evangelist. The production was striking for its post-apocalyptic sets and unusual portrayal of Satan (played by Willow Pollock, as a tiny but utterly arresting punk devil). The Carpenters’ Pageant of the Resurrection presents the fearful reactions of Pilate, Caiaphas, Annas and the soldiers to Christ’s return, as well as the joyful response of Mary. The 2014 version was brought forth by the Company of Merchant Taylors, with much of the cast drawn from Helperby and District Dramatic Society. The dialogue from the surviving medieval script had been edited down in this version, with the reactions to Christ’s resurrection instead being carried through music and song. One musical number—entitled ‘Resurgens’—encouraged audience participation, and percussionist Janet Fulton (of the Manchester Camerata and the Halle Orchestra) provided accompaniment on the tubular bells. The York Play of the Judgement Day (or the Last Judgement) has always been a pretty lavish affair. In the Middle Ages, it was the province of the Guild of Mercers (purveyors of expensive and exotic textiles), and surviving evidence of the production reveals the time and expense that went into the pageant (including the creation of gilded props and costumes and the hiring of professional players). The Mercers were a powerful guild, and their pageant was a show of wealth and authority—as well as being the final, awe-inspiring (in the truest sense) ‘message’ of the pageant cycle. The Last Judgement is the true climax of the mystery plays—both in terms of its theological significance and of its status as the ‘grand finale’ of the Corpus Christi entertainment. Brought forth by the Company of Merchant Adventurers—the descendant of the medieval Guild of Mercers, who have revived tradition by ‘re-adopting’ their play and performing it each year—and Pocklington School, this year’s Apocalypse was a steampunk end-times fiesta. As the souls of the righteous were separated from the souls of the damned, and a heavenly platform was slowly erected on the waggon, the cast of performers spread across the gardens with their chaotic jumble of props, clothes and musical instruments. Christ’s arrival and ascension to the throne of Heaven was stylishly done, but our favourite bit was undoubtedly the dancing by Ravens Morris, a steampunk Morris troupe from Yorkshire. We’re not totally sure that the underlying doctrinal message of the pageant (drawn from the Book of Revelations) was as clear this year as it was in 2010, when members of the audience were invited to participate, before being led to the left or right as they were judged. But for sheer spectacle, we think this year’s pageant takes the cake. It might be a terrifying prospect if you stop and think about it, but the York Play of Judgement Day has long proved that the Apocalypse can be a lot of fun to watch. And with that, the waggon rolled away for another four years. We’re really hoping that the waggon cycle of mystery plays will be back in 2018 as planned, and we’re looking forward to seeing the new adaptations and developments. In May, we went on a little overnight trip to London for a bit of culture (and comedy). We booked theatre tickets, hotel and train tickets with SuperBreak, who we’ve used before to get good deals on London theatre tickets. The package we got was very reasonable—but, as always, we had to make sure we had enough time to get from the hotel to the theatre, as the ‘1.2 miles’ distance feels like an awful lot further when you’re switching between Tube lines! We stayed at the Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf Hotel (bit of a mouthful)—which is an awful lot bigger and fancier than the places we normally stay. By booking through SuperBreak, we’d got a room and breakfast for a very low price, so we were a bit taken aback by how shiny and polished everything looked (most of the places we’ve stayed in London have been a bit more ‘budget’). Unfortunately, when we went to book in, there was a bit of a panic as our booking hadn’t actually been sent through to the hotel so they had no record of our reservation—for a moment it looked like we wouldn’t be staying in the big shiny hotel after all. However, we really could not fault the attitude of the staff members we spoke to. They were so pleasant and helpful, and rang straight through to resolve the issue with SuperBreak. Within ten minutes, they’d confirmed our reservation, apologized profusely, given us drinks vouchers to make up for it, and shown us to our room—which was an awful lot fancier than we were expecting! I don’t know if we got upgraded because the hotel was busy (there was a wedding on) or if that’s a standard room in this hotel, but the bedroom was huge! Anyway, enough about the hotel—though it did deserve a mention for being the nicest we’ve stayed in on a SuperBreak deal and for having absolutely lovely staff—and on to our real reason for visiting London. We’ve titled this with the name of the theatre, but that’s perhaps a bit misleading, as it was the show we came to see rather than the building. We had tickets for Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s irreverent musical The Book of Mormon. Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park fame) and Robert Lopez (co-writer of Avenue Q), The Book of Mormon first opened on Broadway in 2011 and made its West End debut in 2013. As fans of South Park, we were pretty aware of what to expect from the show: it’s a religious satire that is simultaneously wildly offensive and deeply critical of offensive ideologies. It tells the story of two naïve young Mormons—Elder Price and Elder Cunningham (played by Gavin Creel and Jared Gertner, reprising their Broadway roles) who are sent to Uganda as missionaries. Once there, they meet people whose lives are blighted by AIDS, poverty and war—but, nevertheless, Elder Price and Elder Cunningham blithely cling to their understanding that their new acquaintances’ lives will improve once they are introduced to the teachings of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. The above paragraph is an awfully dry way of describing the show, and it doesn’t really do it justice. We were expecting something funny, obnoxious and controversial—being familiar with Parker and Stone’s other work—but that description also doesn’t do justice to The Book of Mormon. Although it is just as outrageous as South Park—with very few topics that are off-limits for comedy purposes—and it is darkly satirical of Mormon practice and doctrine, it’s also a surprisingly sweet and heart-warming story about two well-meaning (though misguided) young men who truly believe they can make a difference in people’s lives. While the religion itself is roundly mocked (along with an awful lot of other things), its practitioners are treated with a sort of affection. In terms of the show’s depiction of Uganda, the show treads a really difficult line between using horrible circumstances to get (sometimes uncomfortable) laughs and poking fun at the naivety of Western attempts to understand these circumstances. Some of the jokes are pretty cheap and crude, and some rely on horrendous stereotypes, but—as with South Park—the ground is constantly shifting, with everything and everyone becoming a potential target for mockery. We expected this sort of humour—surely no one would buy a ticket for The Book of Mormon if they expected something different?—but we weren’t really sure what to expect in terms of the music. Obviously, knowing the sort of songs that have appeared in South Park and Team America: World Police, we knew there’d be some very silly—but very catchy—songs, but we weren’t sure how it would stack up as a musical. On this score, we were very pleasantly surprised, as The Book of Mormon is a show that knows its musical theatre history and presents it (just as it presents everything) with a mixture of satire and fondness. The show’s narrative follows a very familiar arc for fans of musicals—even resolving the seemingly impossible crisis that faces the protagonists with an utterly ludicrous musical salvation—and the songs themselves are written in the usual Broadway styles. In fact, the musical numbers almost work as a rundown of the key styles found elsewhere in musical theatre, gently lampooning these through the contrast of the ‘nice’ style to the (often) crass and controversial lyrics. Many of the songs are almost—almost—spoofs of other famous Broadway hits, though this is done with a surprisingly light touch in places. Perhaps the clearest parodies are ‘Hasa Diga Eebowai’ and ‘You and Me (But Mostly Me)’, in which you can clearly hear the musical echoes of ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘Defying Gravity’ at various points in the song. What’s great about these numbers is that, not only is the musical inspiration really clear, the lyrics of each also lampoon the content and sentiment of their inspiration. That’s abundantly clear in the case of ‘Hasa Diga Eebowai’, which is pretty much a straightforward parody of the message of ‘Hakuna Matata’ (and this is underlined by Elder Cunningham asking if the phrase means ‘no worries, for the rest of your days’—‘not exactly’ is the answer he receives), but we really liked the way ‘You and Me (But Mostly Me)’ mocks the idea of friendship as presented in Wicked by repeatedly reminding the audience that one of the friends is a bit more of a diva than the other (which, to be honest, is exactly what happens in ‘Defying Gravity’ as soon as Elphaba hits that high note). The Book of Mormon is probably not for everyone, but if you’re a fan of Parker and Stone’s other work then it’s a definite recommendation. The following day we decided to take a trip to the British Museum. I’m not sure that this institution needs much of an introduction, and it’s somewhere we’ve been several times. On this occasion, we had tickets for the museum’s Vikings: Life and Legend exhibition, a collection of hundreds of artefacts with a 37-metre-long warship at the centre. We actually heard about this exhibition in a rather unusual way—when we were on honeymoon in Norway in March, we visited Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History, where we saw that several items had been removed from display in order to go on loan to an upcoming British Museum exhibition. So we were very keen to visit the BM Vikings exhibition when it opened. I don’t know if Oslo spoilt us—we visited the Viking Ship Museum as well as the Historical Museum—but we found the BM’s exhibition very disappointing. It was very overcrowded, making it almost impossible to see some display cases. The information accompanying the displays was patchy—some boards had ‘dumbed down’ explanations too much, and there were a number of places where the information contradicted what we’d learnt in Oslo (and, in the case of one board about literature and storytelling, contradicted what Hannah knows from her doctoral research in Medieval Studies). All in all, it seemed a rather poorly thought-out experience—though it clearly succeeded in drawing big crowds (surely Vikings always do?), it failed in an attempt to educate or enthuse people about history. We ended up squeezing through the last little bit of the display as quickly as we could, so that we could go and look at some of the better arranged displays in the rest of the museum. Fortunately, while the ‘big name’ exhibitions can be rather hit-and-miss, the museum itself remains as wonderful as ever. The museum was established by an act of Parliament in 1753, to house the collection of Hans Sloane. In 1757, King George II donated the Old Royal Library collection of around 2000 manuscripts, which carried with it the privilege of copyright receipt. The museum was housed in Montagu House, Great Russell Street and opened to the public (‘all studious and curious Persons’) in 1759. The library expanded massively in the decades that followed, receiving donations of natural history specimens, antiquities and books from a variety of bequests. By the time George IV donated his father’s King’s Library collection in 1822, Montagu House had been deemed insufficient for the museum’s needs. Sir Robert Smirke was commissioned to design a new building for the museum and library. His quadrangular neo-classical building replaced Montagu House, and was opened to the public in 1857. However, the museum’s collections continued to grow, even while the new building was under construction, and so decisions were made to augment Smirke’s designs with additional galleries, and even to move some collections to alternative premises. In the 1880s, the natural history collections were moved to premises in South Kensington, initially called the British Museum (Natural History) but later renamed the Natural History Museum. The British Museum Library also continued to expand rapidly, and it also needed a new home. The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke’s original design was also filled with the now-iconic cast iron, concrete and glass Reading Room (designed by Robert’s brother Sydney Smirke), which was also opened in 1857. This remained the library’s home until the British Library Act 1972 created an independent entity (the British Library), which was finally moved to purpose-built premises in St Pancras in 1997. Between 2007 and 2013, the Reading Room hosted a number of special exhibitions. In fact, the last exhibition we went to was housed in the Reading Room—Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum. However, by the time the Vikings exhibition was staged, a new gallery had been constructed for housing temporary exhibitions—the future of the Reading Room is currently uncertain (and the museum have been carrying out consultation on its potential future use). The new gallery was certainly better suited to the Vikings exhibition—we’re not sure how well they could’ve displayed a 120-foot warship in the Reading Room—however, we did miss the ‘feel’ of the historical Reading Room, which had been used to good effect in previous exhibitions (Hannah’s personal favourite was the Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe in 2011, which made very good use of the exhibition space). On this occasion, we cut our visit to the (ticketed) exhibition short and meandered around some of the other galleries instead. We didn’t have any particular items or artefacts that we wanted to see, though it was good to be able to get a (peaceful, unhurried) look at some pieces that were contemporaneous with the items selected for the Vikings display (e.g. the Lewis Chessmen—only a couple of which were moved to the temporary exhibition, the rest remained in their usual display—and the Sutton Hoo helmet). And with that, our trip to London came to an end. Unusually, we travelled home separately—Rob had to book an earlier train to Manchester so he could get back to Manchester for a Nine Inch Nails gig, while Hannah waited for the (very cheap) train that she’d booked as part of the package deal. So, by the time we both got home, we’d managed to cram in a controversial West End musical, a fancy hotel, Vikings, the British Museum and Trent Reznor—not a bad weekend, all in all. The Manchester Medieval Society (founded in 1933) runs an excursion to sites of historical interest each year. As Hannah is currently the society treasurer, we always go along on the excursions. Since we’ve decided that this blog will just be about places we’ve visited since our wedding, the first excursion we’re going to write about is the 2014 trip to Denbighshire. The ruins of this Cistercian abbey lie in Llantysilio, near Llangollen. ‘Valle Crucis’ means ‘vale of the cross’, and the name derives from the nearby Pillar of Eliseg, a ninth-century stone pillar that was once surmounted by a towering cross. The abbey was founded in 1201 by Madoc, ap Gruffyd Maelor, and was dissolved in 1537. It is now looked after by Cadw. Valle Crucis was the last Cistercian abbey to be founded in Wales. As with other Cistercian abbeys, its location was selected for its isolation—although apparently the ‘isolation’ in this case was achieved by relocating the population of the village that stood in the way. The monks of Valle Crucis came from Strata Marcella, an older abbey near Welshpool. According to the rules of their order, the ‘choir monks’ (who wore white habits) lived in devout seclusion, while a community of lay brethren (who wore brown habits) attended to the manual labour and the more public aspects of abbey life. It seems that the original design of the abbey included accommodation for around twenty choir monks and forty lay brothers. The abbey suffered a number of crises in its early years. Shortly after Madoc’s death in 1236, the abbey was ravaged by fire. It is also believed that the abbey suffered damage during Edward I’s invasion of Wales in the late thirteenth century. As with many abbeys, the number of monks at Valle Crucis fell as a result of the Black Death in the mid-1300s, and the building was apparently also damaged during Owain Glyndŵr’s revolt in the early fifteenth century. But the abbey bounced back. In 1535, it was the second richest Cistercian abbey in Wales (after Tintern, and known for its association with the literary arts. In the fifteenth century, the abbey (more welcoming now that the Cistercians had relaxed the austere rule of their order) had offered hospitality to Welsh poets, including Gutun Owain, Guto’r Glyn (who died and was buried at the abbey in 1493) and Tudur Aled. Nevertheless, when the Reformation came, this wasn’t enough to save Valle Crucis, and the abbey was identified for suppression in 1537. On its dissolution, Valle Crucis was leased to Sir William Puckering, then Baron Wotton, but the estate was eventually sequestered by parliament in 1651. By the late 1700s, the abbey was being used as a farm. Eventually, though, Cadw took over—and Valle Crucis is now the best-preserved monastery in North Wales. This is a really beautiful place to visit, and a significant part of North Wales’s medieval heritage. Just wandering around Valle Crucis gives you a sense of the abbey’s imposing past—but also its importance to the landscape and people that surrounded and inhabited it. The abbey church and west range are in ruins, but the east range is mostly intact—with the dormitory and abbot’s rooms being particularly well-preserved (and unusually accessible, given that they’re on the first floor of the building). The dormitory now houses a collection of medieval grave slabs, including that of Madog Crypl. Elsewhere, there are beautiful surviving window traceries and evidence of nineteenth-century restoration. Llangar Church (also known as All Saints Old Parish Church) was built in the fifteenth century—though there’s evidence of an earlier church at Llangar in documents dating to 1291. This isolated little church is reached by a rocky footpath just off the B4401, and its late medieval heritage is ostensibly obscured by bright whitewashed walls (which was actually the norm for parish churches until Victorian times). The church at Llangar really is a testament to Cadw’s restoration and conservation work. Although the building had served as the parish church for several centuries, it was abandoned in the 1800s as a result of people moving away from Llangar (and its neighbouring township of Cymmer). When the Church of St John the Evangelist at Cynwyd was consecrated in 1856, it became the new parish church, and the decision was taken not to restore All Saints. And so the old church languished in a state of disrepair and dilapidation until the late twentieth century. In 1974, Cadw began a major rescue operation. In a way, the church’s disuse had some benefits, as a number of features had remained untouched—or were lying in wait beneath the veneer of later centuries. The medieval arch-braced roof trusses are still visible, as is the barrel-vaulted canopy over the altar. Restoration work was also carried out on the church’s (mostly Georgian) furnishings—including the dramatic pulpit, the box-pews (for the gentry) and the benches (for the rest of the congregation). The singing gallery and music stand are also preserved. Undoubtedly, one of the most captivating features of Llangar Church is the series of wall paintings. When the restoration work was carried out, eight layers of wall paintings were uncovered, dating from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. On the south wall, the fragmentary remnants of a painting of the seven deadly sins (in which each of the sins is represented by a human figure riding on the back of an animal) and seven corresponding works of mercy are (just) visible. The north wall displayed the text of Gweddi’r Arglwydd (the Lord’s Prayer). But by far the most dramatic wall painting is the eighteenth-century skeleton who faces you as you enter the church. This grisly spectre of mortality wields a dart and an hourglass, and has a set of gravedigger’s tools between its legs. We were very curious about the skeleton’s pelvis, though, as it seemed to some of us that there was something else depicted in this painting. Although it’s not very clear, it does seem like there’s something nestled under Death’s ribcage—and a few members of our group suspected that it might, in fact, be a baby. If this is the case, then the picture is designed to offer a grim reminder of the inevitable path of human existence—all the way from the cradle to the grave. Outside the church is a picturesque sloping churchyard which still houses a jumble of tied tombstones. Llangar Church is now a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument. It’s not the most accessible heritage site in the country (which is, of course, part of its charm), and (I believe) it has rather limited opening times. Because we were visiting as part of an excursion by a historical society, we’d been in touch ahead of time and were shown in by a Cadw guide, but we’d advise you check their website before planning a trip. Rug (or Rhug) Chapel isn’t actually medieval—it was commissioned in 1637 by William Salesbury—so it wasn’t an immediate choice for a Medieval Society excursion. However, this beautiful private chapel, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is just too lovely to miss. The rather plain exterior and garden setting of the chapel is misleading. This deceptively modest little stone building houses an incredible interior, filled with lavish carved and painted decoration. The Cadw website describes the chapel’s decoration as being the result of ‘high church pretensions and a zany style’, and this seems like a fair assessment. One of the most impressive features is the chapel’s roof, with its coloured panels running the full length of the building. It’s adorned with cut-out angels and a decorative frieze—and it’s just spectacular. Looking down from the roof, though, you discover that all the timberwork in the chapel is highly decorated. From the pews and the bench-ends, to the screens, altar rails and parapets. And, if the skeleton at Llangar Church wasn’t enough to remind you of your mortality, the chapel also boasts an imposing wall painting of its own—a skeleton (complete with hourglass and additional skull) surrounded by verse in Welsh warning of the fleeting nature of life. Surmounting the Welsh is the Latin motto Ut hora sic vita—as is an hour, so is life. Standing outside Rug Chapel is a stone-based pillar that appears to be an old town or market cross. This is a little bit of a mystery, as the chapel was built several centuries after a cross like this would’ve been erected. And there’s also no clear evidence of a settlement on the site that would’ve warranted such a marker. We didn’t really have time to ponder this puzzle, however, as we had to return to the coach and continue to our final site of the day. Denbigh Castle (Castell Dinbych) stands on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Vale of Clwyd. Construction began in 1282, under the instruction of Henry de Lacy. It was intended to be part of Edward I’s ring of fortresses around North Wales, and it was completed (after building was halted when the incomplete castle was temporarily captured in 1294 during the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn) in 1305. The castle was heavily defended by its enclosure wall and by its seriously unwelcoming gatehouse that was buttressed by octagonal towers, but also by the walled town that occupied the rest of the promontory. One of the gateways to the walled town (Burgess Gate) still survives, and sections of the wall (which also survives) are accessible to visitors. But, sadly, we only had time to visit the castle—though we did get a fantastic guided tour (and our guide coped admirably with the fact that he had to show a group of academic medievalists around a medieval castle). While the castles of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech (also part of Edward I’s ring of castles) might be better known, Denbigh Castle is a pretty breath-taking site. Although it was allowed to fall into ruin after its abandonment in 1660, large parts of the structure survive—enough to help visitors build a mental picture of the castle in its prime. Parts of the triple-towered gatehouse survive, including the large carved figure (possibly Edward I himself) who greets visitors as they arrive. Inside the walls (parts of which are preserved and accessible to the bold vertigo-less visitor), some of the buildings of the castle’s inner ward are still identifiable. In particular, the hexagonal kitchen tower can be identified by its two massive fireplaces and its proximity to the castle’s gigantic well. Other features of the castle can also be discerned—including the sally port (or sneaky back door) in the southwestern corner and the Postern Tower. All of these remind you of the castle’s formidable defences, and its role as a fortress as well as a place of residence. In fact, the castle ruins paint a picture of a structure that is very creative in its strategic complexity—for instance, the sloping pathway leading up from the Postern Gate to the castle has a tight, sharp turn in it, which was intended to disorientate and expose enemy soldiers seeking to attack from this side. It’s quite dizzying to look at this defensive construction and imagine how an invader would feel if they got caught there. Like all the sites we visited on this trip, Denbigh Castle is in the care of Cadw. In addition to being told the story of the castle’s construction and habitation, we were also shown some of the more recent restoration work that has been carried out to preserve this site for future generations. This work included the removal of cement-based mortar (a remnant of earlier restoration work) and the stabilizing of masonry with locally-sourced materials that are sympathetic to the original stonework. And with that, our trip to medieval Denbighshire came to an end. Time to return to our coach and head back to Manchester.

2019-04-22T02:03:17Z

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Evan Morre Educational Publishers. Fernandez, Edroslyn J. (2016). Oral communication for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing, Inc. Gonzales, Edward D. (2016). Media & Information literacy. Pasay City : JFS Publishing. Hay, Julie. (2014). Reading phonics. Quezon City : Anvil Publishing. Hughes, Kai. (2017). Introduction to journalism. New York : Larsen & Keller. Jayanthi Dakshina Murthy. (1998). Contemporary English grammar. Delhi : Book Palace. Joaquin, Nick. (2011). The summer solstice and other stories. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Keene, Carolyn. (1995). The secret of shadow ranch. New York :” Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Keene, Carolyn. (1996). The spider sapphire mystery. New York : Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Keene, Carolyn. (1993). The phantom of pine hill. New York : Grosset & Dunlop Publishers. Keene, Carolyn (1997). The invisible intruder. New York : Grosset & Dunlop Publishers. Menoy, Jesus Z. and Guia F. Constantino. (2016). Oral communication in context. Mandaluyong City : Books Atbp. Publishing Corp. Palencia, Marjueve M. (2017). Contemporary Philippine arts from the regions. Sampaloc, Manila : Fastbooks and Educational Supply. Redman, Peter Maples, Wendy. ( 2017). Good essay writing : a social sciences guide. 5th ed. Los Angeles : Sage Publication. Sandagan, Luzviminda D. (2016). Reading and writing skills. Manila : JFS Publsihng. Sipacio, Philippe John. (2016). Oral communication in context for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Solmerano, Ernesto Thaddeus M. et al. (2017). Creative writing.Sampaloc : Fastooks Educational Supply, Inc. Solmerano, Ernesto Thaddeus M. et al. (2017). 211st century literature from the Philippines and the world. 2nd ed. Sampaloc, Manila : Fastbooks Educational Supply, Inc. Tayao, Ma. Lourdes G. (2017). 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the world. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. The Staff of the Princeton Review. (2014). Grammar smart. Prime, Parkway Suite :” Random House Publishing. 3G ELearning FZ LLC. (2017). Media and information literacy. United Arab Emirates :3G Elearning FZ LLC. _________. (2006). Shakespeare for everyone : Julius Caesar. New Delhi : Sterling Press Private Limited. _________. (2006). Shakespeare for everyone. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. New Delhi : Sterling Press Private Limited. _________. (2006). Shakespeare for everyone. Much Ado About Nothing. New Delhi : Sterling Press Private Limited. _________. (2006). Shakespeare for everyone. Richard III. New Delhi : Sterling Press Private Limited. Amoruso, Sohpia. (2014). Girlboss. New York : Penguin Books. Armentrout, Jennifer L. (2014). Don’t look back. Los Angeles : Hyperion. Aveyard, Victoria. (2016). Glass sword : kneel or bleed. New York : Harper Teen. Aveyard, Victoria. (2015). Red queen : power is a dangerous game. New York : Harper Teen. Aveyard, Victoria. (2017). King’s cage : all will burn. New York : Harper Teen. Baxter, Stephen. (2013). The long war. New York : Harper. Buxbaum, Julie. (2017). What to say next. New York : Delacorte Press. Coyiuto, Mae. (2015). The year we became invincible. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Freed, Alexander. (2016). Battlefront twilight company. New York : Del Rey. Gray, Claudia. (2016). A million worlds with you. New York : Harper Teen. Green, John. (2008). Let it snow. New York : Penguin. Gonzaga, Alex. (2016). Dear Alex, we’re dating, tama, mali? love, Catherine. Quezon City : ABS-CBN Publishoing. Haddix, Margaret P. (2008). Palace of Mirrors. New York : Simon & Schuster. Han, Jenny. (2017). Always and forever Lara Jean. New York : Simon & Schuster. Han. Jenny. (2014). To all the boys I’ve loved before. New York : Simon & Schuster. Han, Jenny. (2015). P.S. I still love you. New York : Simon & Schuster. Hattemer, Kate. (2016). The land of 10,000 Madonnas. New York : Ember. Herbert, Frank. 1976). children of Dune. New York : Ace Books. Hoover, Colleen. (2014). Maybe not.New York : Atria Paperback. Holub, Joan. (2014). Aphrodite the fair. New York : Aladdin. Javellan, Stevan. (1976). Without seeing the dawn. Quezon City : Phoenix Publishing House. Kazuo Ishiguro. (2005). Never let me go. New York : Vintage International. Kinney, Jeff. (2009). The last straw. New York : Amulet Books. Kwan, Kevin. (2017). Rich people problems. New York : Doubleday. Lim, Velden. (2017). Bakit single ka pa rin? Quezon City : Shepherd’s Voice Publications, Inc. Martin, George R.R. (2000). Storm of swords. New York : Bantam Books. Martin, George. (1999). A clash of kings. New York : Bantam Books. Martin, George. (2011). A dance wioth dragons. New York : Bantam Books. Martin, George. (1996). A game of thrones. New York : Bantam Books. Martin, George. (2011). A feast for crows. New York : Bantam Books. girl. New York : Weinstein Books. Minato, Kanae. (2008). Confessions. New York : Mulholland Books. Miller, Walter M. (2007). A Canticle for Leibowitz. New York : Bantam Books. Moyes, Jojo. (2002). Sheltering rain. New York : William Morrow. Moyes, Jojo. (2003). Wind fallen. New York : William Morrow. Oliver, Lauren. (2015). Vanishing girls. New York : Harper. Oliver, Lauren. (2014). Panic. New York : Harper. Pilkey, Dav. (2003). Captain underpants and the big, bad battle of the bionic booger boy. New York : Scholastic. Pilkey, Dav. (2006). Captain underpants and the preposterous plight of the purple potty people. New York : Scholastic. Pilkey, Dav. (1999) Captain underpants and the invasion of the incredibly naughty cafeteria lasied from outer space and the subsequent assault.. New York : Scholastic. Poston, Ashley. (2017). Geekerella. Philadelphia : Quirk Books. Roemmers, A.G. ((2016). The return of the young prince. Great Britain : Oneworld. Sanderson, Brandon. (2015). Shadows of self. New York : Tom Doherty Associates Book. Sanderson, Brandon. (2007). The well of ascension. New York : A Tom Doherty Associates Book. 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A suitcase full of ghosts. New York : Scholastic. Stilton, Geronimo. ( 2010). Ghost pirate treasure. New York : Scholastic. Stilton, Geronimo, (2012). I’m a scaredy-mouse. New York : Scholastic. Tahir, Sabaa. (2016). A torch against the night. New York : Razorbill. Todd, Anna. (2015). Before.New York : Gallery Books. Todd, Anna. (2014). After. New York : Gallery Books. Todd, Anna. (2014). After we collided. New York : Gallery Books. Todd, Anna. (2015). After ever happy. New York : Gallery Books. Todd, Anna. (2016). Nothing less. New York : Gallery Books. Todd, Anna (2016). Nothing more. New York : Gallery Books. Tolkien, J.R.R. (2013). The Hobbit. Hammersmith, London : Harper Collins Publishers. Wendig, Chuck. (2016). Aftermath life debt. New York : Del Rey. West, Kasie. (2014). On the fence. New York : Harper Teen. Weir, Andy. (2014). The Martian. New York : Crown Publishers. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2015). Libby and the class election. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2016). Clover’s parent fix. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2016). Astra’s mixed-up mission. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shan Muldoon. (2016). Piper’s perfect dream. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2016). Adora finds a friend. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2016). Tessa’s lost & found. Los Angeles : Disney Press. Zappa, Shana Muldoon. (2016). Gemma and the ultimate standoff. Los Angeles : Disney Press. _______. (2010). O Level physics. Singapore : Singapore Asian Publications. Alave, Jun C. (2016). Physical education an dhealth book 1. Manila : JFS Publishing. Barrot, Jessie S. (2016). Academic reading & writing for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Bravo, Becky. (2016). Ang lakambini at ako. Quezon City : Adarna House. Bravo, Becky. (2017). Ang kaibigan kong si Mabini. Quezon City : Adarna House. ______. (2014). Market day. Quezon City : Adarna House. Cahiles, Weng D. (2017). Ang maraming ngalan ni Emilio. Quezon City : Adarna House. Colburn, Alan. (2017). Learning science by doing science. California : Sage Books. Caintic, Helen E. (2016). Physical science. Quezon City : C & E Publishing, Inc. Camarista, Genesis G. (2016). The art of problem solving. Quezon City : Lorimar Publishing Inc. dela Pena, Renato A. et al. (2016). Earth and life science. Pasay City : JFS Publishing. dela Pena, Renato A. et al. (2016). Earth science. Pasay City : JFS Publishing. Duyanen, Joselito P. (2016). Earth and life sciences for senior high school. Quezon city : C & E Publishing, Inc. ___________. (2016). Earth & life science. New York : McGraw Hill. __________. (2016). Introduction to earth science. New York : McGraw Hill. Jimenez, Gidget Roceles. (2009). Can we live on Mars? Quezon City : Adarna House. Jimenez, Gidget Roceles. (2007). Can we drink the ocean? Quezon City : Adarna House. Lopez, Christhotel C. et al. (2017). Earth science for senior high school. Quezon City : Lorimar Publishing Inc. Moore, John W. (2016). Chemistry : the modern science. 5th ed. Andover : Mc Graw Hill. Nucum, Zenaida T. (2017). General chemistry 1 for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Oris, Bong. (2017). Ayun, o! pasukan na!. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Papa, May Tobias. (2014). Can we live without trees? Quezon City : Adarna House. Reynolds, Stephen J. (2016). Earth science. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Salandanan, Gloria G. (2016). Earth and life science. Quezon City : Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Serway, Raymond A. (2016). University physics, vol. 1 Andover : Cengage. Serway, Raymond A. (2016). University physics, vol. 2 Andover : Cengage. Sheares, Suyin. (2012). Top English examination papers : modeled after top schools’ examination papers. Old Toh Tuck Road, Singapore : Educational Publishing House. Silberberg, Martin S. (2016). General chemistry 1 & 2. New York : McGraw Hill. Starr, Cecie. (2016). Biology today and tomorrow with physiology. 5th ed. Andover : Cengage Learning. West, David. (2016). Ano ang nasa loob ng eroplano? Quezon City : Adarna House. West, david. (2016). Ano ang nasa loob ng sasakyang pangkalawakan?. Quezon City : Adarna House. West, David. (2016). Ano ang nasa loob ng tren?Quezon City ; Adarna House. Aduana, Nick L. (2017). Entrepreneurship in Philippine setting for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Aduana, Nick L. (20116). Fundamentals of accountancy, business, and management 1 for senior high school (procedural approach). Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Aduana, Nick L. (20116). Fundamentals of accountancy, business, and management 2 for senior high school (procedural approach). Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Alferez, Merla S. (2010). Math competition Book 1 High school level. Cainta : MSA Publishing House. Alferez, Merle S. (2006). Mental math. Cainta : MSA Publishing. Alferez, Merla S. (2010). Math Competition Book Grade 6 Level. 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Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing Inc. Bacani, Jerico B/. (2017). Business mathematics for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Bluman, Allan G. (2016). A brief version elementary statistics : a step by step approach. 7th ed. New York : McGraw Education. Egarguin, Neil Jerome A. (2017). Basic calculus for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. EE Teck Ee. (2013). Maths gym. Singapore : Singapore Asia Publishers. Flores, Maricar. (2016). Worktext in general mathematics activity-based, scaffolding of student learning approach for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publshing. Goldberg, David E. (2002). How to solve word problem in chemistry. New York : McGrawHill. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions year II. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions year I. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions year III. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions year IV. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions gr.6. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions gr.5. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions gr.4 . Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions gr.3. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Coronel, Illuminada C. et al. (2013). Math Challenge questions gr.2. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Cueno, Anthony. (2016). Pre-calculus for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. De Guzman, Danilo. (2017). Statistics & probability. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Dimasuay, Lynie. (2016). General mathematics. Quezon City : C & e Pubishing Inc. Ee Teck Ee. (2013). Maths gym. Singapore : Singapore Asia Publishers Pte Ltd. Hartman, Laura P. (2016). Business ethics : decision making for personal integrity & social responsibility. 3rd ed. New York : Mc Graw-Hill. Manalaysay, Benedick G. (2017). Fundamentals of accountancy, business, and management. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing Inc. Ong, Flocer Lao. (2016). Fundamentals of accountancy, business, and management 1. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Sova, Dawn. (2002). How to solve word problems in geometry. New York : McGrawHill. Zarate, Cynthia A. (2017). Principles of marketing for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Adaya, Joamr G. et al. (2016). Pagbasa at pagsusuri sa iba’t-ibang teksto tungo sa pananaliksik. Malabon City : Jimczyville Publications. Alejo, Carmelita T. (2015). Pagbasa at pagsulat tungo sa pananaliksik. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Atanacio, Heidei C. (2016). Pagbasa at pagsusuri ng iba’t-ibang teksto tungo sa pananaliksik. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Casanova, Arthur P. (2011). Mga kuwentong-bayan ng katimugang Pilipinas. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Eliserio, U Z. (2016). Malikhaing pagsulat para sa senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Garcia, Fanny A. (2012). Surinaysay : wika-panitikan-malikhaing pagsulat-feminismo-medya. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Gonzalvo, Romeo P. (2016). Pagbasa at pagsusuri ng iba’t-ibang teksto tungo sa pananaliksik. Intramuros, Manila : Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing Inc. _______(2015). Matutong magbasa. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Jesse Robredo Foundation. (2015). Jesse Robredo : the quest for good governance, a selection of writings and speeches of Jesse Robredo. Quezon City : Jesse Robredo Foundation. Landicho, Domingo G. (2010). Banyuhay ni Lam-ang. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Landicho, Domingo G. (2010). Pusod. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Landicho, Domingo G. (2012). Sulyap sa mga bayani. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Nuncio, Rhoderick V. (2016). Sidhaya 11: komunikasyon at pananaliksik sa wika at kulturang Pilipino. Quezon City : C & E Publishing,Inc. Nuncio, Rhoderick V. (2017). Sidhaya 12 : pagbasa at pagsusuri tungo sa pananaliksik. Quezon City : C & E Publishing, Inc. Nuncio, Rhod V. (2012). 100 aklat sa aking pagkamulat : pagbasa, dagling-suri, at paanyaya. Quezon City : C & E Publishig. Reyes, Edgardo M. Isla : si Tarzan at si Jane, at si Chito. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Yu, Rosario Torres. (2016). Talinghagang pang-araw-araw. Quezon City : C & E Publishing, Inc. Apolonia, Marcelita L. et al. (2017). Dance for life. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Balabagno, Araceli V. et al. (2008). Guide for teaching health and wellness : a sourcebook for teachers gr.3 Pasig City : Anvil Publishing. Balabagno, Araceli V. et al. (2008). Guide for teaching health and wellness : a sourcebook for teachers gr.6 Pasig City : Anvil Publishing. Burnard, Pamela and Murphy, Regina. (2017). Teaching music creatively. London : Routledge. Carandang, Ma. Lourdes A. et al. (2016). Personal development. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Calixihan, Jovita O. (2010). Games Filipinos play. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Delena, Mary Irene O. et al. (2017). Personal development beyond selfies. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing, Inc. Dy, Diana N. (2017). Sports for life. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Manuel, Regine D. (2017). Recreation for life. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Porto, Jerome A. (2016). Fitness for life. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Sedano Roel, compiler. (2001). 345 games to give life to your parties. Manila : SoundPublishing Corp. Teo Aik Cher. (2015). Why be a champion? : a teenager’s guide to a sporting champion’s mindset. Malate, Manila : Shepherd House Publishing. Abella, Roberto D. (2016). Introduction to the philosophy of the human person. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. de Mesa, Jose M. (2017). Jesus God’s way of friendship. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. Pirlo, Paulo.(2014). My first catechism. Paranaque City : Quality Catholic Publications. Pirlo, Paulo. (2014). My first history of the church. Paranaque City : Quality Catholic Publications. Pirlo, Paulo. (2014). My first book of Saints. Paranaque City : Quality Catholic Publications. Ramos, Maria Lourdes Llaneza. (2017). Personal development : a journey to self-awakening for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing, Inc. Reuter, James B. (2017). Mama Mary and her children. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Serapio, Maria Perpetua Arcilla. (2016). Introduction to world religions. Manila : Mindshapers, Co., Inc. _______. (2017). Jump in. Ortigas Center, Pasig city : VRJ Book Publishing, Inc. King, David. (2017). Tawa na : the ultimate collection of pinoy humor. Manila : WorldlinkBooks. Lyda, Hope. (2006). One-minute prayers for my daughter. Malate, Manila : Shepherd HousePublishing. Lyda, Hope. (2007). One minute prayers to end your day. Malate, Manila : Shepherd House Publication. Lyda, Hope. (2006). One-minute prayers for singles. Malate, manila : Shepherd House Publication. Miller, Steve. (2006). One-minute promises of comfort. Malate, Manila : Shepherd House Publishing. Miyaki, Lee. (2017). Hugot ng bitter. Paranaque City : Acts 29 Publishing. Molmisa, Ronald. (2014). Lovestruck sakit edition. Mandaluong City : OMF Literature. Munar, Marlene Legaspi. (2011). Add mo ‘ko as friend : your link to real relationships.Mandaluyong City : OMF Literature. Sicat, Aurora Ma. L. (2011). Funny bones pinoy edition. Makati : Sound Publishing. Walsh, Sheila. (2016). A fresh infusion of joy. Illinois : Thomas Nelson. Walsh, Sheila. (2001). Peace for today. Illinois : Thomas Nelson. Walsh, Sheila. (2017). Quiet time for your soul. Illinois : Thomas Nelson. Walsh, Sheila. (2015). Five minutes with Jesus : making today matter. Illinois : Thomas Nelson. Barber, Barrington. (2017). Introduction to drawing : practical easy steps to great artwork. London : Arcturus Publishing Limited. _____. (2017). Almanac 2018. Washington D.C. : National Geographic Partners, LLC. _____. (2015). Student world atlas. Hongkong : Penguin Random House. Ceere, Kiki. (2017). Journey through the Philippines : an unforgettable journey from Manila to Mindanao. Hongkong : Tuttle Publishing. Fernandez, Elvira C. (2007). Biofuels from Philippine plants.Mandaluyong City : Asia-Pacific Biofuels Corporation. Gray, Peter. (2015). The essential book of drawing & illustration : a step-by-step guide to artistic excellence. London : Arcturus Publishing Limited. England : John Beaufoy Publishing. Reyes, Elizabeth V. (2001). Exciting Philippines : a visual journey. Hongkong : Periplus Ed. ______. (2017). Ripley’s believe it or not : shatter your senses. London : Ripley Entertainment. Yuson, Alfred A. 2003). The Philippines islands of enchantment. Tokyo : Tuttle Publishing. ______. (2017). Guinness world records 2018. London : Guinness World Record Limited. Abad, Heidi Emily Eusebio. (2004). Polliwog’s wiggle. Quezon City : Adarna House. Anonuevo, Rebecca. (2003). Ang mahiyaing manok. Quezon city : Adarna House. Almario, Virgilio S. (2003). Alpabetong Filipino. Quezon City : Adarna House. Almario, Virgilio S. (1993). Isang mayang uhaw. Quezon City : Adarna House. Almario, Virgilio S. (2005). Manik Buangsi. Quezon City : Adarna House. Almario, Virgilio S. (2005). Ang mabait na kalabaw. Quezon City : Adarna House. Almario, Virgilio s. (2002). Ang kamatis ni Peles. Quezon City : Adarna House. Bellen, Christine S. (2011). Ang Prinsipeng Unggoy. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Bellen, Christine S. (2011). Ang Pag-Ibig ni Maryang Sinukuan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Bellen, Christine S. (2011). Ang mahiwagang kuba. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Bellen, Christine S. (2011). Pedrong walang takot.Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Bellen, Christine S. (2011). Labindalawang masasayang Prinsesa. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Bigornia, Mike. (2003). Kain, kumain, kinain. Quezon City : Adarna House. Canon, Kristine. (2001). Bakit matagal ang sundo ko? Quezon City : Adarna House. Canon, Kristine. (2012). Naaay! Taaay!. Quezon City : Adarna House. Canon, Kristine. (2008). Sampung magkakaibigan. Quezon City : Adarna House. Carroll, Lewis. (2007). Alice in wonderland. New Delhi, Learners Press Private Limited. Coroza, Michael M. (2015). Nawawala si Muningning. Quezon City : Adarna House. Dyquiangco, Excel. (2015). I don’t like to eat. Quezon City : Adarna House. Evasco, Eugene Y. (2016). Hindi ako papasok ngayon. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Fajardo, Fiona. (2012). Mario’s special day. Quezon city : Adarna House. Gatmaitan, Luis P. (2011). Ang ambisyosong istetoskop. Quezon City. Adarna House. Guzman, Gloria. (1981). Munting patak-ulan.Quezon City : Adarna House. Haggard, Henry Rider. (2005). King Solomon’s Mines. New Delhi : Sterling. Lumbao, Annie Pacana. (2013). But that won’t make me sleep. Quezon City : Adarna House. Lumbao, Annie Pacana. (2010). But that won’t wake me up. Quezon City : Adarna House. Magnuson, Robert. (2006). Diego and Marie. Quezon City : Adarna House. Molina, Russell. (2009). Ako si Kaliwa, ako si kanan.Quezon City : Adarna House. Ng, Clara.2017). Dru at and kuwento ng Limang Kaharian. Quezon City : Adarna House. Ngo, Patricia Celina. (2016). Blanket . Mndaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Pacis, Carla. (2004). Hipon and biya. Quezon City : Adarna House. Papa, May Tobias. (1995). Estrellita. Quezon City : Adarna House. Papa, May Tobias. (2008). Araw sa polengke. Quezon City : Adarna House. Plantel, Equipo. (___). Ito and diktadura. Quezon City : Adarna House. Philipzig, Mila Bongco. (2016). Good night Philippines, good night world. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Philipzig, Mila Bongco. (2016). Sandy beaches to snow. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Plantel, Equipo. (2015). Mga uring panlipunan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Remigio, Corazon. (1995). Bru-ha-ha-, Bru-hi-hi-hi. Quezon City : Adarna House. Saguisag, Lara. (2016). Animal games. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Salvador, Maita S. (2013). When zero left the numberland. Quezon City : Adarna House. Stevenson, Robert Louis. (2005). Kidnapped. New Delhi : Sterling. Uma Krishnaswami. (2015). Si Tito Libro at ako. Quezon City : Adarna House. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Claysaurus explores with Terry. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Claysaurus shares with Trina. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Claysaurus helps Rex. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Claysaurus the Little Dino. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Si Macky and maliksing paniki.Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2011). Si Gilas, ang haring agila. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Si Pao, ang mapaglarong Tamaraw. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2017). Si Jan, ang mausisang pawikan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Momike. (2017). Si Dong, ang matakaw na dugong. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Villanueva, Rene (1980). Tiktaktok Pikpakbum. Quezon City : Adarna House. Tejido, Jomike. (2015). Sino po sila : sa paaralan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2015). Sino po sila? sa daanan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2015). Sino po sila? sa pamayanan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2015). Sino po sila? sa bayan. Mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Tejido, Jomike. (2015). Sino po sila? sa tahanan. mandaluyong City : Anvil Publishing. Xi Zuq. (2017). Operation Taka. Quezon City : Adarna House. ______. Treasure Island. New Delhi : Pegasus. ______. Pinocchio. New Delhi : Pegasus. ______. Hansel & Gretel. New delhi : Pegasus. _______. The ant & the grasshopper & other stories. _______. Jack & the beanstalk. New Delhi : Pegasus. Cabalfin, Edson. (2015). What kids should know about Filipino architecture. Quezon City : Adarna House. Laing, Gordon. (2016). In camera : how to get perfect pictures straight out of the camera. United Kingdom : Ilex Press. Sta Maria, Felice Prudente. (2016). What kids should know about Filipino food. Quezon City : Adarna House. Yuviengco, Joel C. (2017). Empowerment technologies : making small shift towards a big difference for senior high school. Quezon City : C & E Publishing. This entry was posted in New Acquisition and tagged New Acquisition. Bookmark the permalink.

2019-04-21T04:37:02Z

https://maryhillcollegelibrary.wordpress.com/2017/10/25/list-of-available-books-as-of-september-2017/

This sermon is found in Erl. 10:109; W. 2:132; St. L. 2:96. John 1:19-28. And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. And they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, even he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. I. THE WITNESS AND CONFESSION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. This was surely done in order to extol the beautiful constancy of John in a sore trial, when he was tempted to a flagrant denial of the truth. And now consider the particular circumstances. 2. First, there are sent to him not servants or ordinary citizens, but priests and Levites from the highest and noblest class, who were Pharisees, that is to say, the leaders of the people. Surely a distinguished embassy for a common man, who might justly have felt proud of such an honor, for the favor of lords and princes is highly esteemed in this world. 3. Secondly, they sent to him not common people, but citizens of Jerusalem, to wit, the capital, the sanhedrim, and the leaders of the Jewish nation. So it was as if the entire people came and did honor to him. What a wind that was! and how he might have been inflated, had he possessed a vain and worldly heart! 6. Fifthly, seeing that he would not be Elijah, they go on tempting him and offer him the homage due to an ordinary prophet, for since Malachi they had not had a prophet. John, however, remains firm and unshaken, although tried by the offer of so much honor. 8. They sent to him, why did they not come themselves? John had come to preach repentance to the entire Jewish people. This preaching of John they did not heed; it is clear therefore, that they did not send to him with good and pure intentions, offering him such honor. Neither did they truly believe him to be the Christ, or Elijah, or a prophet; otherwise they would have come themselves to be baptized, as did the others. What then did they seek of him? Christ explains this, John 5:33-35, “Ye have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth. He was the lamp that burneth and shineth, and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in his light.” From these words it is clear they looked for their own honor in John, desiring to make use of his light,” his illustrious and famous name, in order to adorn themselves before the people. For if John had joined them and accepted their proffered honor, they also would have become great and glorious before all the people, as being worthy of the friendship and reverence of so holy and great a man. But would not hereby all their avarice, tyranny, and rascality have been confirmed and declared holy and worthy? Thus John, with all his holiness, would have become a sponsor for vice; and the coming of Christ would justly have been regarded with suspicion, as being opposed to the doings of the priests and tyrants, with whom John, this great and holy man, would have taken sides. 9. Thus we see what rascality they practice and how they tempt John to betray Christ and become a Judas Iscariot, in order that he might confirm their injustice and they might share his honor and popularity. What;cunning fellows they are, thus to fish for John’s honor! They offer him an apple for a kingdom, and would exchange counters for dollars. But he remained firm as a rock, as is shown by the statement: “And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.” To John’s confession comprises two things: First, his confessing, and secondly, his not denying. His confessing is his declaration about Christ, when he says, “I am not the Christ.” To this belongs also that he confesses to be neither Elijah nor a prophet. His not denying is declaration of what he really is, when he calls himself a voice in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. Thus his confession is free and open, declaring not only what he is, but also what he is not. For if some one declares what he is not, such a confession is still obscure and incomplete, since one cannot know what is really to be thought of him. But here John openly says, what is to be thought of him, and what not, this giving the people a certain assurance in confessing that he is not the Christ, and not denying that he is the voice preparing his advent. 12. The Jews, as said above, had the prophecy concerning Elijah, that he was to come before the day of the Lord, Malachi 4:5. It is therefore also among Christians a current belief that Elijah is to come before the last day. Some add Enoch, others St. John the Evangelist. Of this we shall have something to say. 13. In the first place, all depends upon whether the prophet Malachi speaks of the second coming of the Lord on the last day, or of his first coming into flesh and through the Gospel. If he speaks of the last day, then we have certainly yet to expect Elijah; for God cannot lie. The coming of Enoch and St. John, however, has no foundation in Scripture, and is therefore to be considered as a fable. If, on the other hand, the prophet speaks of Christ’s coming in the flesh and through the Word, then assuredly Elijah is no more to be expected, but John is that same Elijah announced by Malachi. 14. I am of the opinion that Malachi spoke of no other Elijah than John, and that Elijah the Tishbite, who went up to heaven with the chariot of fire, is no more to be expected. To this opinion I am forced first and foremost by the words of the angel Gabriel, Luke 1:17, who says to John’s father, Zacharias: “And he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just.” With these words the angel manifestly refers to the prophecy of Malachi, adducing even the words of the prophet, who also says that Elijah is to turn the hearts of fathers to children, — as cited above. Now then, if Malachi had meant another Elijah, the angel doubtless would not have applied these words to John. 15. In the second place, the Jews themselves of old understood Malachi to speak of Christ’s coming into the flesh. Therefore they here ask John whether he is Elijah, who is to come before the Christ. But they erred in thinking of the original and bodily Elijah. For the purport of the text is indeed that Elijah is to come beforehand, but not that same Elijah. We do not read, Elijah the Tishbite is to come, as the Bible calls him in 1 Kings 17:1 and 2 Kings 1:13 but merely Elijah, a prophet. This Gabriel, Luke 1:17, explains as meaning, “In the spirit and power of Elijah,” saying, as it were, He will be a real Elijah. Just as we now say of one who has another’s manner and carriage, He is a true!; as I may say e.g., The Pope is a real Caiaphas; John was a real St. Paul. In the same manner does God through Malachi promise one who is to be a true Elijah, i.e. John the Baptist. 16. Yet would I not trust the interpretation of the Jews alone, were it not confirmed by Christ, Matthew 10:10ff. When, on Mount Tabor, the disciples saw Elijah and Moses, they said to the Lord, “Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?” They meant to say, “You have already come; yet Elijah has not come first, but only now, after you: and was it not said that he was to come before you?” This interpretation was not rejected, but confirmed by Christ, who said, “Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elijah is come already; and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.” Then the disciples understood, says St. Matthew, that he spoke of John the Baptist. 17. Now there is no other prophecy concerning Elijah’s coming but this one of Malachi, and Christ himself applies it to John. Thus it has no force if someone were to object, Christ says that Elijah is to come first and restore all things, for Christ interprets his own words by saying, “But I tell you that Elijah is come” etc. He means to say, It is right and true what you have heard about Elijah, that he is to come first and restore all things; thus it is written and thus it must come to pass. But they do not know of which Elijah this is said, for he is come already. With these words, therefore, Christ confirms the Scriptures and the interpretation concerning the coming Elijah, but he rejects the false interpretation concerning an Elijah other than John. 18. Most strongly, however, does Christ assert, Matthew 11:13ff., that no other Elijah is coming. He says, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Here it is made clear that but one Elijah was to come. Had there been another he would not have said, “John is Elijah who was to come,” but he would have had to say, “John is one of the Elijahs,” or simply, “He is Elijah.” But by calling John that Elijah whom everybody expects, who, doubtless, was announced to come, he makes it sufficiently clear that the prophecy of Malachi is fulfilled in John, and that after this no other Elijah is to be expected. 21. Now the question arises, Did John really confess the truth when he denied that he was Elijah or a prophet, whereas Christ himself called him Elijah and more than a prophet? He himself knew that he had come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and that the Scriptures called him Elijah. To say, therefore, that he did not consider himself a prophet because he was more than a prophet, is disgraceful and makes him an empty boaster. The truth of the matter is, that he simply and in a straightforward manner confessed the truth, namely, that he was not that Elijah about whom they asked, nor a prophet. For the prophets commonly led and taught the people, who sought advice and help from them. Such a one John was not and would not be, for the Lord was present, whom they were to follow and adhere to. He did not desire to draw the people to himself, but to lead them to Christ, which was needful before Christ himself came. A prophet foretells the coming of Christ. John, however, shows him present, which is not a prophet’s task. Just so a priest in the bishop’s presence would direct the people away from himself to the bishop, saying, “I am not priest; yonder is your priest”; but in the bishop’s absence he would rule the people in the place of the bishop. 22. John likewise directs the people away from himself to Christ. And although this is a higher and greater office than that of a prophet, yet it is not so on account of his merit, but on account of the presence of his Master. And in praising John for being more than a prophet, not his worthiness but that of his Master, who is present, is extolled. For it is customary for a servant to receive greater honor and reverence in the absence of his master than in his presence. 25. Now this is the answer which no learned, wise, and holy men can bear; therefore John must surely be a heretic and be possessed of the devil. Only sinners and fools think him a holy, pious man, listen to his crying and make room for the Lord, removing whatsoever obstructs his way. The others, however, throw logs, stones and dirt in his way, aye, they even kill both the Lord and his forerunner for presuming to say such things to him. And why? John tells them to prepare the way of the Lord. That is to say, they have not the Lord nor his way in them. What have they then? Where the Lord is not, nor his way, there must be man’s own way, the devil, and all that is evil. Judge then, whether those holy wise people are not justly incensed at john, condemn his word, and finally slay both him and his Master! Shall he presume to hand such holy people over to the devil, and denounce all their doings as false, wicked and damnable, claiming that their ways are not the Lord’s ways, that they must first of all prepare the Lord’s ways, and that they have lived all their holy lives in vain? 26. Yet, if he quietly wrote it on a tablet, they might still hear it in patience. But he gives utterance to it, yea, he cries it aloud, and that not in a corner, but openly under the sky, in the wilderness, before all the world, utterly disgracing before everybody those saints with all their doings and discrediting them with all the people. Thus they lose all honor and profit which their holy life formerly brought them. This certainly such pious men cannot bear, but for God’s and justice’s sake they cannot damn that false doctrine, in order that the poor people may not be mimed and the service of God be not corrupted; aye, finally, they will have to kill John and his Master, to serve and obey God the Father. 27. This, then, is the preparation of Christ’s way and John’s proper office. He is to humble all the world, and proclaim that they are all sinners — lost, damned, poor, miserable, pitiable people; that there is no life, work, or rank however holy, beautiful and good it may appear, but is damnable unless Christ our God dwell therein, unless he work, walk, live, be and do everything through faith in him; in short, that they all need Christ and should anxiously strive to share his grace. Behold, where this is practiced, namely, that all man’s work and life is as nothing, there you have the true crying of John in the wilderness and the pure and clear truth of Christianity, as St. Paul shows, Romans 8:23: “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” This is truly to humiliate man, to cut out and annihilate his presumption. Aye, this is indeed to prepare the way of the Lord, to give room and to make way. 28. Now here are found two kinds of people: some believe the crying of John and confess it to be what he says. These are the people to whom the Lord comes, in them his way is prepared and made even, as St. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:5: “God giveth grace to the humble”; and the Lord himself says in Luke 18:14: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” You must here diligently learn, and understand spiritually what the way of the Lord is, how it is prepared, and what prevents him from finding room in us. The way of the Lord, as you have heard, is that he does all things within you, so that all our works are not ours but his, which comes by faith. 29. This, however, is not possible if you desire worthily to prepare yourself by praying, fasting, self-mortification, and your own works, as is now generally and foolishly taught during the time of Advent. A spiritual preparation is meant, consisting in a thoroughgoing knowledge and confession of your being unfit, a sinner, poor, damned, and miserable, with all the works you may perform. The more a heart is thus minded, the better it prepares the way of the Lord, although meanwhile possibly drinking fine wines, walking on roses, and not praying a word. 30. The hindrance, however, which obstructs the Lord’s way, is formed not only in the coarse and palpable sin of adultery, wrath, haughtiness, avarice, etc., but rather in spiritual conceit and pharasaical pride, which thinks highly of its own life and good works, feels secure, does not condemn itself, and would remain uncondemned by another. Such, then, is the other class of men, namely, those that do not believe the crying of John, but call it the devil’s, since it forbids good works and condemns the service of God, as they say. These are the people to whom most of all and most urgently it is said, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” and who least of all accept it. 31. Therefore John speaks to them with cutting words in Luke 3:7-8: “Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.” But, as said above, the more just people are urged to prepare the Lord’s way, the more they obstruct it and the more unreasonable they become. They will not be told that their doings are not the Lord’s, and finally, to the glory and honor of God, they annihilate the truth and the word of John, himself and his Master to boot. 32. Judge, then, whether it was not a mighty confession on the part of John, when he dared to open his mouth and proclaim that he was not Christ, but a voice to which they did not like to listen, chiding the great teachers and leaders of the people for not doing that which was right and the Lord’s pleasure. And as it went with John, so it still goes, from the beginning of the world unto the end. For such conceited piety will not be told that it must first and foremost prepare the way of the Lord, imagining itself to sit in God’s lap and desiring to be petted and flattered by having long ago finished the way, before God even thought of finding a way for them — those precious saints! The pope and his followers likewise have condemned the crying of John to prepare the Lord’s way. Aye, it is an intolerable crying — except to poor, penitent sinners with aggrieved consciences, for whom it is the best of cordials. 33. But isn’t it a perverse and strange manner of speaking to say, “I am the voice of one crying”? How can a man be a voice? He ought to have said, I am one crying with a voice! — But that it speaking according to the manner of the Scriptures. In Exodus 4:16 God spoke to Moses: “Aaron shall be to thee a mouth.” And in Job 29:15 we read: “I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.” Similarly we say of a man that gold is his heart and money his life. So here, “I am the voice of one crying” means: I am one who cries, and have received my name from my office; even as Aaron is called a mouth because of his speaking, I am a voice because of my crying. And that which in Hebrew reads vox clamantis, the voice of one crying, would be translated into Latin: vox clamans, a crying voice. Thus St. Paul in Romans 15:26 says pauperes sanctorum, the poor of the saints, instead of pauperes sancti, the poor saints; and 1 Timothy 3:16: mysterium pietatis (the mystery of godliness) instead of mysterium pium (the godly mystery). Instead of saying: The language of the Germans, I had better say, the German language. Thus “a voice of one crying” means “a crying voice”. In Hebrew there are many similar phrases. And they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him: Why then baptizest thou if thou be not the Christ, nor Elijah, neither the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water; in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, even he that cometh after me is preferred before me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. And in Acts 1:5 we read, “John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” But, although he here says nothing of this other baptism, be sufficiently indicates that there is to be another baptism, since he speaks of another who is coming after him and who, undoubtedly, will not baptize with water. 35. Now begins the second onset, whereby John was tried on the other side. For not being able to move him by allurements they attack him with threats. And here is uncovered their false humility, manifesting itself as pride and haughtiness. The same they would have done had John followed them, after they had had enough of him. Learn therefore here to be on your guard against men, particularly when they feign to be gentle and kind; as Christ says. Matthew 10:16-47: “Beware of men, be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” That is to say, Do not trust those that are smooth, and do no evil to your enemies. 36. Behold, these Pharisees, who professed their willingness to accept John as the Christ, veer around when things turn out as they desired, and censure John’s baptism. They say, as it were, “Since you are not Christ, nor Elijah, nor a prophet, you are to know that we are your superiors according to the law of Moses and you are therefore to conduct yourself as our subordinate. You are not to act independently, without our command, our knowledge and without our permission. Who has given you power to introduce something new among our people with your baptizing? You are bringing yourself into trouble with your criminal disobedience”. 37. John however, as he had despised their hypocrisy, likewise scorns their threats, remains firm, and confesses Christ as before. Moreover he boldly attacks them and charges them with ignorance, saying, as it were: “I have no authority from you to baptize with water. But what of that? There is another from whom I have power; him you do not know, but he is amply sufficient for me. If you knew him, or wished to know him, you would not ask whence I have power to baptize, but you would come to be baptized yourselves. For he is so much greater than I, that I am not worthy to unloose his shoes’ latchet. 38. John’s words, “He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me,” three times quoted by the Evangelist in this chapter, have been misinterpreted and obscured by some who referred them to Christ’s divine and eternal birth, as though John meant to say that Christ had been born before him in eternity. But what’s remarkable is the fact that he was born before John in eternity, seeing that he was born before the world and all other things? Thus he was also to come not only after him, but after all things, since he is the first and the last ( Revelation 1:11). Therefore, his past and his future agree. John’s words are clear and simple, referring to Christ when he already was a man. The words “He will come after me” cannot be taken to mean that he would be born after him; John like Christ, was at that time about thirty years old. 39. These words then evidently apply to his preaching. He means to say: “I have come — that is, I have begun to preach but I shall soon stop, and another will come and preach after me.” Thus St. Luke says, Acts 1:22, that Christ began from the baptism of John; and, Luke 3:23, that Jesus was thirty years old when he began. And Matthew 11:3: “Art thou he that should come,” that is, he who should begin to preach; for Christ’s office does not begin till after his baptism, at which his father had acknowledged and glorified him. Then also began the New Testament and the time of grace, not at the birth of Christ, as he himself says, Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Had he not begun to preach, his birth would have been of no use; but when he did begin to act and to teach, then were fulfilled all prophecies, all Scriptures, then came a new light, and a new world. 40. So we see what he means by saying, “He will come after me.” But the meaning of the words, “He is preferred before me; he was before me,” is not yet clear, some referring them to Christ’s eternal birth. We maintain in all simplicity that those words also were spoken concerning their preaching. Thus the meaning is: “Although he is not yet preaching, but is coming after me, and I am preaching before him: nevertheless he is already at hand, and so close by that, before I began to preach, he has already been there and has been appointed to preach. The words “before me” therefore point to John’s office, and not to his person. Thus, “he has been before my preaching and baptism for about thirty years; but he has not yet come, and has not yet begun. John thereby indicates his office, namely, that he is not a prophet foretelling the coming of Christ, but one who precedes him who is already present, who is so near that he has already been in existence so many years before his beginning and coming. 41. Therefore he also says: “In the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not.” He means to say: “Do not permit your eyes to wander off into future ages. He of whom the prophets speak has been among you in the Jewish nation for well nigh thirty years. Take care and do not miss him. John now wishes to show that this “raising up, arising, standing,” etc. was fulfilled in Christ, who was already standing among them, as God had prophesied; the people however knew him not. 42. This then is the other office of John and of every preacher of the Gospel, not alone to make all the world sinners, as we have heard above (Section 24ff.); but also to give comfort and show how we may get rid of our sins; this he does in pointing to him who is to come. Hereby he directs us to Christ, who is to redeem us from our sins, if we accept him in true faith. The first office says: “You are all sinners, and are wanting in the way of the Lord.” When we believe this, the other office follows and says; “Listen, and accept Christ, believe in him, he will free you of your sins.” If we believe this, we have it. Of this we shall say more anon. These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 43. So diligently does the Evangelist record the testimony of John, that he also mentions the places where it happened. The confession of Christ is greatly dependent on testimony, and there are many difficulties in the way. Undoubtedly, however, he wished to allude to some spiritual mystery of which we shall now speak. II. THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THIS GOSPEL STORY. 44. This is the sum and substance of it: In this Gospel is pictured the preacher’s office of the New Testament, what it is, what it does, and what happens to it. 45. First, it is the voice of one calling, not a piece of writing. The Law and the Old Testament are dead writings, put into books, and the Gospel is to be a living voice. Therefore John is an image, and a type, and also a pioneer, the first of all preachers of the Gospel. He writes nothing, but calls out everything with his living voice. 46. Secondly, the Old Testament or the Law was preached among the tents at Mount Sinai, to the Jews alone. But John’s voice is heard in the wilderness, freely and openly, under the heavens, before all the world. 47. Thirdly, it is a calling, clear and loud voice, that is to say, one that speaks boldly and undauntedly and fears no one, neither death, hell, life nor the world, neither devil, man, honor, disgrace nor any creature. Thus Isaiah says in 40:6ff: “The voice of one saying, cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.” And further: “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; lift. up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid.” The world cannot bear the Gospel, and hence there must be a strength, which scorns it and can call against it without fear. 48. Fourthly, John’s raiment is of camel’s hair and has a leather girdle ( Matthew 3:4). This means the strict and chaste life of preachers, but above all it points to the manner of the preachers of the Gospel. It is a voice not given to soft phrases, neither does it deal in hypocrisy and flattery. It is a sermon of the gross, a hard, rough sharp speech for the natural man, and girds the loins for spiritual and bodily chastity. This is taken from the life and words of the patriarchs of old, who like camels have borne the burden of the Law and of the cross. “He eats locusts and wild honey.” This means those that accept the Gospel, namely, the humble sinners, who take the Gospel unto and into themselves. 49. Fifthly, John is on the other side of the Jordan. “Jordan” really means the Holy Scriptures, which have two sides. One, the left side, is the external meaning which the Jews sought in Holy Writ; here John is not. For this interpretation does not produce sinners, but saints proud of their works. The right side is the true spiritual understanding, which discards and kills all works, in order that faith alone may remain, in all humility. 50. Sixthly, here begins the dispute between true and false preachers. The Pharisees cannot bear to hear John’s voice, they despise his teaching and baptism, and remain obdurate in their doings and teachings. On account of the people however they pretend to think highly of him. But because he opposes their will, he must be possessed of the devil, they say, and finally he must be beheaded by Herod. So it is now and so it has always been. No false teacher wishes it to be said of him that he preaches without or against the Gospel, but on the contrary that he thinks highly of it and believes in it. Nevertheless he does violence to it, making it conform to his meaning. This the Gospel cannot permit, for it stands firm and never lies. Then it is reviled as heresy and error, aye as a devilish doctrine, and finally they apply violence prohibiting it and striking off its head so that it may nowhere be preached or heard. This was done by the pope in the case of John Huss. 51. Thus he is a truly Christian preacher who preaches nothing but that which John proclaimed, and firmly insists upon it. First, he must preach the Law so that the people may learn what great things God demands of us; of these we cannot perform any because of the impotence of our nature which has been corrupted by Adam’s fall. Then comes the baptism in Jordan. The cold water means the teaching of the Law, which does not kindle love but rather extinguishes it. For through the Law man learns how difficult and how impossible of fulfillment the Law is. Then he becomes hostile to it, and his love for it cools; he feels that he heartily hates it. This of course is a grievous sin, to be hostile to God’s commands. Therefore man must humble himself, and confess that he is lost and that all his works are sins, aye, that his whole life is sinful. Herewith then John’s baptism has been accomplished, and he has been, not only besprinkled, but properly baptized. Then he sees why John says, “Repent ye”. He understands that John is right, and that everyone must needs become a better man and repent. But Pharisees and those holy in their works do not arrive at this knowledge, nor do they permit them selves to be baptized. They imagine that they do not need repentance, and therefore John’s words and baptism are foolishness in their eyes. 52. Furthermore, when the first teaching, that of the Law, and baptism are over and man, humiliated by the knowledge of himself, is forced to despair of himself and his powers; then begins the second part of John’s teaching, in which he directs the people from himself to Christ and says: “Behold the Lamb of God that takes upon itself the sin of the world.” By this he means to say: “First I have, by my teaching, made you all sinners, have condemned your works and told you to despair of yourselves. But in order that you may not also despair of God, behold, I will show you how to get rid of your sins and obtain salvation. Not that you can strip off your sins or make yourselves pious through your works; another man is needed for this; nor can I do it, I can point him out, however. It is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He, he, and no one else either in heaven or on earth takes our sins upon himself. You yourself could not pay for the very smallest of sins. He alone must take upon himself not alone your sins, but the sins of the world, and not some sins, but all the sins of the world, be they great or small, many or few.” This then is preaching and hearing the pure Gospel, and recognizing the finger of John, who points out to you Christ, the Lamb of God. 53. Now, if you are able to believe that this voice of John speaks the truth, and if you are able to follow his finger and recognize the Lamb of God carrying your sin, then you have gained the victory, then you are a Christian, a master of sin, death, hell, and all things. Then your conscience will rejoice and become heartily fond of this gentle Lamb of God. Then will you love, praise, and give thanks to our heavenly Father for this infinite wealth of his mercy, preached by John and given in Christ. And finally you will become cheerful and willing to do his divine will, as best you can, with all your strength. For what lovelier and more comforting message can be heard than that our sins are not ours any more, that they no more lie on us, but on the Lamb of God. How can sin condemn such an innocent Lamb? Lying on him, it must be vanquished and made to nothing, and likewise death and hell, being the reward of sin, must be vanquished also. Behold what God our Father has given us in Christ. 54. Take heed, therefore, take heed, I say, lest you presume to get rid of the smallest of your sins through your own merit before God, and lest you rob Christ, the Lamb of God, of his credit. John indeed demands that we grow better and repent; but that he does not mean us to grow better of ourselves and to strip off our sins by our own strength, this he declares powerfully by adding, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” As we have said above (Section 29), he means that each one is to know himself and his need of becoming a better man; yet he is not to look for this in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. — Now may God our Father according to his infinite mercy bestow upon us this knowledge of Christ, and may he send into the world the voice of John, with great numbers of evangelists! Amen.

2019-04-25T07:27:24Z

https://oursaviormuscatine.org/sermons/2018/12/20/luther-on-john-119-28

Timothy ETHERTON, Petitioner–Appellant, v. STeven RIVARD, Respondent–Appellee. Before: KETHLEDGE and DONALD, Circuit Judges; McCALLA, District Judge.* ON BRIEF:James Sterling Lawrence, Southfield, Michigan, for Appellant. David H. Goodkin, Office of the Michigan Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellee. On February 15, 2007, a Michigan jury convicted Timothy Etherton of possession with intent to deliver cocaine. After exhausting both direct and collateral appellate review procedures in Michigan, Etherton timely filed a petition for writ habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The district court denied Etherton's petition but certified for appeal four issues: (1) whether the anonymous tip presented at trial denied Etherton's right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment so as to result in prejudice; (2) whether the prosecutor improperly vouched for the credibility of a witness during closing argument; (3) whether Etherton's counsel's failure to object to the anonymous tip, as well as other alleged shortcomings, amounted to prejudicially ineffective assistance of counsel; and (4) whether Etherton was prejudiced by ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal. For the reasons discussed below, we AFFIRM IN PART and REVERSE IN PART the district court's decision, and REMAND with directions to issue a writ of habeas corpus unless Etherton is afforded a new appeal or, in the alternative, is granted a new trial. During trial, the prosecution called six witnesses, (R. 5–3 at PageID 314, 342, 370, 380, 388, 421), and introduced three exhibits into evidence: a video tape of the stop and search of Etherton's car (R. 5–3 at PageID 322); a bag of cocaine (R. 5–3 at PageID 354); and a plastic bag (R. 5–3 at PageID 354). The following facts were not contested at trial: Etherton was driving a white Audi on I–96 between Detroit and Grand Rapids at the time he was pulled over for speeding; Etherton admitted that the Audi was his car; co-defendant Ryan Pollie was in the passenger seat; Etherton initially did not consent to a search of the car, but then quickly did consent to a search; Trooper Trevin Antcliff did a preliminary physical search of the car, but did not find anything illegal; a K–9 unit was called to the scene and searched the car, but also did not find anything illegal; Detective Adam Mercer then searched the car and ultimately found a 125.2 gram bag of cocaine under an empty bag of potato chips in the map compartment of the driver's side door. Although the bag was tested, neither Etherton's nor Pollie's fingerprints were found on the bag. The only evidence that Etherton had knowledge that the cocaine was in the car—aside from potential inferences that could arguably be drawn from the above-mentioned evidence—came from two sources: first, the testimony of Etherton's co-defendant, Pollie; and, second, an anonymous tip that was introduced for its truth. [W]e pull out of the parking lot and we're about to get onto the highway and that's when the package of cocaine became known to myself. He showed it to me. I held it like kind of, wow you know that's quit [sic ] a bit. Gave it back to him. [Etherton] met a guy down by McDonald's, I think it was further down the road from the Ruby Tuesday's․ What initially was supposed to happen was the title for his vehicle was supposed to go up to pay for the—I guess as collateral and the vehicle had got transferred from his dad's name the previous day into his name so he didn't have the title. So he was supposed to return there by Sunday to go ahead and pay the money for the cocaine that was given to him that day․ [Etherton] made a comment about, you know, I can do a certain amount of it and then still be able to go ahead and sell the rest for payment. Q. Now there was testimony that the cocaine was found on the driver's side door and there were chips—a bag of chips covering it. A. I don't know what was covering it. I wasn't able to see that side of the vehicle when the cop took that out—took that out of wherever he found it. Q. Okay but you admitted that you had chips that day? Q. And you plead[ed] also not just for a deal but because you knew your finger prints were going to come back on the—or you thought they were going to come back on the bag, didn't you? Q. Because you had handled the bag? A. I do not have a driver's license, so no I did not drive. Q. Well, that doesn't mean you can't drive. Have you never driven without—you're telling—how long have you not had a license? A. I'm not sure actually. Probably about a year. Q. Okay and you're telling the jury that in a year you have never driven a vehicle? A. Oh, I have. But I didn't on that day. Q. Okay and also sir you said that you don't drive or that you wouldn't have driven that day but isn't it true that Mr. Etherton actually passed you driving in a truck, I think it was his brother's truck or roommate[']s Blazer, when he went to pick you up? A. Yeah, I went to cash my check. That's correct. Q. Okay, so you admit that you were driving earlier that day when you just said you wouldn't have been driving. A. I didn't drive his vehicle but I can admit to driving to cash my check. Well, on our radio I received a call from Lieutenant that the CMET team, Lieutenant Roe, and he advised that there was a white Audi matching the description from an anonymous tip that we were looking for. A BOL was put out for us, a be on the look out [sic ] for a white Audi with two while [sic ] males traveling from Grand Rapids to Detroit back to Grand Rapids, possibly carrying cocaine in the vehicle․ So Lieutenant Roe advised that he had—the possible suspect vehicle in sight. I was in position near Lieutenant Roe's vehicle, he advised me that the suspect vehicle was in front of him. We wanted, based on the tip, we wanted to try and separate the two passengers of the vehicle, the driver and the passenger and give a short interview and see if their stories matched up and if they didn't that would add to our probable cause and go along with the tip that we had received. What [the witnesses] did talk about was this tip that they received and coincidently, the defendant and his car matched the tip headed west from Detroit to Grand Rapids. Was there another Audi stopped that day, yeah and they told you about that. But this is the Audi that was found later in the day that matched the tip, two white males heading from Detroit to Grand Rapids, and coincidently they have a hundred and twenty-five grams of cocaine in the car. Etherton timely filed a petition for habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 on May 4, 2011. (R. 1.) His petition asserted the same six grounds that he had raised on collateral review in the state courts of Michigan. (Id.) On February 26, 2014, the United States Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued an opinion denying Etherton's petition for relief and certifying four issues for appeal: (1) whether the admission of the anonymous tip violated Etherton's right to confrontation and was prejudicial; (2) whether the prosecution improperly vouched for Pollie's credibility; (3) whether trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective; and (4) whether appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective. Etherton now argues that each issue entitles him to a new trial. Rivard argues in response that the first three issues certified for appeal were procedurally defaulted by Etherton when he failed to raise them on direct appeal and that, in any case, none of the four issues raised entitles Etherton to relief on the merits. Guilmette v. Howes, 624 F.3d 286, 290 (6th Cir.2010) (en banc) (quoting Tolliver v. Sheets, 594 F.3d 900, 928 n. 11 (6th Cir.2010)). Etherton argues that there is no state procedural rule that barred him from raising new arguments in his motion for relief from judgment. He is mistaken. As noted in Part I.B, supra, M.C.R. 6.508(D)(3) prohibits granting a petitioner relief on grounds “other than jurisdictional defects, which could have been raised on appeal.” Etherton does not argue that the first three grounds certified for appeal were jurisdictional defects, nor does he argue that they could not have been raised on direct appeal. We therefore conclude that Etherton failed to comply with a state procedural rule. As to the second condition, the Supreme Court has held that there is a presumption that a state court denying a federal claim “adjudicated the claim on the merits in the absence of any indication or state-law procedural principles to the contrary.” Harrington v. Richter, 131 S.Ct. 770, 784–85 (2011). As we noted in Barton v. Warden, the presumption is rebuttable. 786 F .3d 450, 460 (6th Cir.2015). “The presumption may be overcome when there is reason to think some other explanation for the state court's decision is more likely.” Richter, 131 S.Ct. at 785 (citing Yist v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 803 (1991)). In general, however, “we may only treat a state court order as enforcing the procedural default rule when it unambiguously relied on that rule.” Peoples v. Lafler, 734 F.3d 503, 512 (6th Cir.2013). Although the Ionia County Court's decision is far from clear, it unambiguously relies on a procedural rule in dismissing the first three claims certified for appeal in this case. The court begins its opinion by questioning “whether the court can even grant relief under MCR 6.508(D)(3).” (R. 5–12 at PageID 987.) According to the court's opinion, “[w]ith the exception of the failure to appoint counsel, constitutional violations, including the denial of effective assistance of counsel, do not constitute a jurisdictional defect under MCR 6.508(D).” (Id.) The court then addressed only one of Etherton's claims on the merits: his claim for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. (R. 5–12 at PageID 988.) Without further discussing any of his other claims, the court denied Etherton's motion. (Id.) Because of the unambiguous references to MCR 6.508(D)(3)—which applies only in cases of procedural default—and the context of the opinion that makes a ruling on the basis of procedural default as opposed to a finding on the merits the more likely explanation, we find that the state courts enforced their procedural default rule as to Etherton's first three claims. Procedural default is not, however, an absolute bar to habeas relief. See McFarland v. Yukins, 356 F.3d 688, 699 (6th Cir.2004). “Ineffective assistance of counsel can supply the cause that, together with prejudice, would excuse a procedural default.” Id. (citing Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488 (1986)). We therefore turn to the fourth issue certified for appeal: whether Etherton's appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective. Because the Michigan courts ruled on the merits of Etherton's ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim (see R. 5–12 at PageID 988), Etherton is only entitled to relief if he can demonstrate that the ruling was either: (1) “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court,” or (2) “based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). At issue in this case is whether the Michigan court's ruling was “an unreasonable application” of clearly established Federal law. Under the “unreasonable application” clause, habeas relief is available in two scenarios: first, if “the state court correctly identifie[s] the correct legal principle from Supreme Court precedent but unreasonably applie[s] that principle to the facts of the case before it,” Dennis v. Mitchell, 354 F.3d 511, 517 (6th Cir.2003); and second, when a “state court decision either unreasonably extends or unreasonably refuses to extend a legal principle from the Supreme Court precedent to a new context,” Keith v. Mitchell, 455 F.3d 662, 669 (6th Cir.2006). We first consider whether the Michigan court “identified the correct legal principle.” Dennis, 354 F.3d at 517. To prevail on a habeas petition on the basis of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, a habeas petitioner must demonstrate that his appellate counsel's failure to raise a potentially meritorious argument rose to the level of a constitutional violation under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). Smith v. Robbins, 528 U.S. 259, 289 (2000). To meet this burden, a petitioner must satisfy two prongs: deficiency and prejudice. In order to demonstrate deficiency, a petitioner must show his “counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688. To demonstrate prejudice, a petitioner must show “that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. at 694. Consequently, in the appellate context as to counsel's failure to raise a claim, a petitioner must show that “there is a reasonable probability that the claim would have prevailed at the time counsel failed to raise it.” McFarland, 356 F.3d at 699. The Michigan court applied the correct legal principal from Supreme Court precedent. (See R. 5–12 at PageID 988 (considering, under state law, an analogous two prongs in evaluating the merits of Etherton's ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim).) Accordingly, we consider whether the Michigan court “unreasonably applied that principle to the facts of the case before it.” Dennis, 354 F.3d at 517. That requires us to determine whether, once a Strickland violation is found, “it is possible fairminded jurists could disagree.” Harrington, 562 U .S. at 102. Etherton argues that his appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to raise any of the five issues raised in his Motion for Relief from Judgment (R–11). We address each in turn. We begin by considering whether the Michigan court unreasonably applied Strickland in addressing Etherton's argument that his appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to argue that his confrontation rights were violated. The admission of the content of an anonymous tip should have alerted Etherton's appellate counsel as to the presence of a serious Confrontation Clause issue. Many less meritorious issues were raised on direct appeal in this case, which suggests that the failure to raise the issue was an oversight and not deliberate strategy. See Smith, 528 U.S. at 288 (“ ‘[W]hen ignored issues are clearly stronger than those presented, ․ the presumption of effective assistance of counsel [is] overcome.’ ”) (quoting Gray v. Greer, 800 F.2d 644, 646 (7th Cir.1986)); Joshua v. DeWitt, 341 F.3d 430, 441 (6th Cir.2003); Roe v. Delo, 160 F.3d 416, 419 (8th Cir.1998). In these circumstances, “the ineffectiveness prong of Strickland turns on whether an objectively reasonable attorney would have presented the issue for plain error review because it had a reasonable likelihood of success.” Roe, 160 F.3d at 419. In other words, both prongs of Strickland in this case turn on the same issue regarding appellate counsel's failure to present a Confrontation Clause argument: whether there is a reasonable probability that Etherton would have prevailed on appeal if the issue were raised. As a threshold matter, we note that without a constitutional violation, there would have been no chance of success on appeal. Consequently, we first address whether Etherton's confrontation rights were violated. We then address whether the violation was sufficiently serious such that there was a reasonable probability Etherton would have prevailed on appeal. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. The Confrontation Clause categorically prohibits the introduction of a certain class of out-of-court statements. Cf. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 54 (2004). There are two necessary and mutually sufficient conditions to identify whether an out-of-court statement implicates the protection of the Confrontation Clause. See id. First, the statement must be testimonial. Id. Second, the statement must be introduced for its truth. See id. The Supreme Court stated in Crawford that “the principal evil at which the Confrontation Clause was directed was the civil-law mode of criminal procedure, and particularly its use of ex parte examinations as evidence against the accused.” 541 U.S. at 50. Consequently, the Court held that “[t]he Sixth Amendment must be interpreted with this focus in mind.” Id. The Court explained that “[t]he text of the Confrontation Clause reflects this focus. It applies to ‘witnesses' against the accused—in other words, those who ‘bear testimony.’ “ Id. at 51 (quoting 2 N. Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)). The Court noted that various formulations of what might constitute a testimonial statement existed, id. at 51–52, and held—without endorsing any particular formulation-that “[s]tatements taken by police officers in the course of interrogations” are per se testimonial. Id. at 52. Davis v. Washington was the next case that presented the Supreme Court an opportunity to elaborate on what constitutes a testimonial statement. 547 U.S. 813 (2006). Davis concerned the admission of a recorded statement made to a 911 operator. Id. at 817. The Court carved an exception to its ultimate holding in Crawford to mirror the emergency exception to Miranda announced in New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 658–59 (1984). The Davis Court held that when the totality of the circumstances objectively indicates that the primary purpose of police interrogation is “to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency,” statements made in response are not testimonial. 547 U.S. at 828. Although in both Crawford and Davis, the Court's holdings applied to statements made in response to police interrogation, the Court made clear that it was not implying that “statements made in the absence of any interrogation are necessarily nontestimonial.” Davis, 547 U.S. at 822 n. 1. In fact, the Court reiterated in Melendez–Diaz v. Massachusetts that volunteered testimony can trigger the protections of the Confrontation Clause. 557 U.S. 305, 316–17 (2009). The Court asserted that “ ‘[t]he Framers were no more willing to exempt from cross-examination volunteered testimony or answers to open-ended questions than they were to exempt answers to detailed interrogation.’ “ Id. at 316 (quoting Davis, 547 U.S. at 822 n. 1); see also Davis, 547 U.S. at 822 n. 1 (noting that “[p]art of the evidence against Sir Walter Raleigh was a letter from Lord Cobham that was plainly not the result of sustained questioning”); Crawford, 541 U.S. at 51–52 (describing one formulation of testimonial statements as “statements that were made under circumstances which would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the statement would be available for use at a later trial” (internal citations and quotation marks omitted)). In this case, an anonymous tipster made a formal accusation to government officers. It was therefore testimonial.2 See Davis, 547 U.S. at 824 (“ ‘An accuser who makes a formal statement to government officers bears testimony ․‘ ”) (quoting Crawford, 541 U.S. at 51). The content of the tip was also admitted into evidence for its truth. It was elicited by the prosecution from three different witnesses during its case-in-chief, and the prosecution emphasized the tip during closing argument: “[T]his is the Audi that was found later in the day that matched the tip, two white males heading from Detroit to Grand Rapids, and coincidently they have a hundred and twenty-five grams of cocaine in the car.” (R. 5–4 at PageID 476:8–16.) The prosecutor's repeated references both to the existence and the details of the content of the tip went far beyond what was necessary for background—thereby indicating the content of the tip was admitted for its truth. Accordingly, it was error to admit the content of the anonymous tip in this case. We now consider whether, if Etherton's appellate counsel had raised the issue on appeal, there would have been a reasonable probability that his appeal would have been successful. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. On direct appeal, a preserved objection to a federal constitutional violation necessitates reversal unless the error was “ ‘harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.’ “ Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116, 139–40 (1999) (quoting Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24 (1967)). In contrast, an unpreserved objection to a constitutional violation is subject to a state's procedural forfeiture rules. See Osborne v. Ohio, 495 U.S. 103, 122–23 (1990) (finding no constitutional violation when the state court procedurally barred review of an unpreserved objection of a violation of the defendant's due process rights)). Although defense counsel ultimately objected to the tip at trial as hearsay (R. 5–4 at PageID 427:19–21), this did not amount to preservation of a Confrontation Clause objection under clearly established federal law. See United States v. Hadley, 431 F.3d 484, 498 (6th Cir.2005) (“Because Defendant raised only a hearsay objection to these statements at trial, and did not challenge their admissibility on constitutional grounds, our review here is governed by the plain error standard.”). Accordingly, we consider whether the Confrontation Clause violation would have been forfeited under Michigan's procedural forfeiture rules. Michigan's procedural forfeiture rules are modeled on the plain error rule in Rule 52(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731–34 (1993). See People v. Carines, 597 N.W.2d 130, 138 (Mich.1999). In Michigan, to avoid forfeiture under its plain error rule, “three requirements must be met: 1) error must have occurred, 2) the error was plain, i.e., clear or obvious, 3) and the plain error affected substantial rights.” Carines, 597 N.W.2d at 138 (citing United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731–34 (1993)). “The third requirement generally requires a showing of prejudice, i.e., that the error affected the outcome of the lower court proceedings.” Id. Once a defendant establishes these requirements, reversal is warranted “when the plain, forfeited error resulted in the conviction of an actually innocent defendant or when an error seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings independent of the defendant's innocence.” Id. (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). As explained in Part III.A.1, supra, Etherton's right to confrontation was violated when the trial court admitted the content of the anonymous tip. Because of the clear, consistent, and voluminous precedent indicating that the admission of the content of the tip violated Etherton's rights, we find that the error was plain .3 We therefore turn to whether the tip was prejudicial. The district court found that the tip did not prejudice Etherton for two reasons: (1) because of “the trial court's jury instruction”; and (2) because of “the overall strength of the prosecutor's case apart from the hearsay testimony.” Etherton v. Rivard, No. 11–11958, 2014 WL 764843, at *8 (E.D.Mich. Feb. 26, 2014). We respectfully disagree. The trial court's attempt to issue a curative instruction did nothing to alleviate the prejudice of the tip. The trial court stated that the tip was “not evidence per [se] of the defendant's guilt.” (R. 5–4 at PageID 487.) The instruction was vague, and could have been taken by a jury to mean that the tip by itself was not sufficient to find Etherton guilty, but that it could otherwise be considered for its truth. The instruction was therefore not in fact curative. As to the strength of the prosecutor's case absent the tip, the evidence was underwhelming as to Etherton's knowledge of the presence of the cocaine. The government's case turned almost entirely on the uncorroborated testimony of a codefendant. Although the bag of cocaine was found in the driver's door next to Etherton, the evidence strongly indicated that it would not have been obvious to the driver. The video indicates that it took two officers and a K–9 unit more than ten minutes of searching before the bag was discovered under an empty bag of potato chips. As a result, absent Pollie's incriminating testimony, the evidence that Etherton knew the cocaine was in the car amounted to only the following three facts: (1) the cocaine was well-hidden; (2) Etherton was near the cocaine; and (3) the car belonged to Etherton. On their own, these three facts, especially in light of the presence of another person in the car, would have fallen far short of establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that Etherton had knowledge of the cocaine. See, e.g., United States v. Newsom, 452 F.3d 593, 609 (6th Cir.2006) (holding that a “defendant's mere presence in a car where [contraband] is found and proximity to [contraband] are insufficient proof of constructive possession”—even when the defendant is the only person in a car); United States v. Campbell, 549 F.3d 364, 374 (6th Cir.2008) (holding that “incriminating evidence must supplement a defendant's proximity to [contraband] in order to tip the scale in favor of constructive possession”). Given the prosecutor's heavy reliance on the otherwise uncorroborated testimony of a codefendant to establish mens rea, Etherton was vulnerable to being prejudiced by error. See United States v. Necoechea, 986 F.2d 1273, 1283 (9th Cir.1993) (“[A] defendant is more likely to be prejudiced by error or misconduct when the government's case rests on uncorroborated accomplice testimony.”), as amended on denial of reh'g (Apr. 15, 1993). Both Rivard and the Circuit Court for Ionia County overlook the most prejudicial aspect of the tip in this case: the tip tends to suggest improper inferences precisely because it is consistent with the admitted evidence. The content of the tip that was introduced described: (1) two white men; (2) in a White Audi; (3) driving from Grand Rapids to Detroit and back to Grand Rapids on I–96; and (4) possibly with cocaine in the vehicle. As Respondent–Appellee correctly notes, each element of the tip was ultimately corroborated by largely undisputed evidence. The corroboration, though, does not render the tip harmless. The high-degree of corroboration exacerbates the error. Any jury would be unlikely to view the similarity between the tip and the other evidence at trial as a matter of mere coincidence. As a result, the jury was likely to find the tip reliable, and thereby to draw improper inferences from the tip. For example, the tip's reference to two white men could very well have indicated that both were involved with the possession with intent to deliver the cocaine—an inference that could have been thoroughly examined given the opportunity for cross-examination, which was lacking at trial. The entire case from opening statement to return of the verdict was less than a day. The proof presented lasted a mere four hours and nineteen minutes. In that time, the prosecution relied on the tip as a critical piece of evidence to support and corroborate the otherwise unsupported testimony of a cooperating co-defendant who admitted to having lied to the police—and to having the opportunity and motive to fabricate. Under the circumstances of this case, it is apparent that the admission of the anonymous tip was prejudicial. Because Etherton has established each of the three conditions stated in Carines, we now consider whether the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings independent of the defendant's innocence. We find that there is a reasonable probability that Etherton would have prevailed on this argument on direct review. People v. Shafier, 768 N.W.2d 305 (Mich.2009) is particularly instructive, as it was decided less than four months after the Michigan Supreme Court denied Etherton leave to appeal on direct review. In Shafier, the prosecutor repeatedly referred to the defendant's post-Miranda silence throughout trial, including during closing argument. Id. at 315. “[T]he strength of the prosecutor's overall case against defendant hinged entirely on the jury's assessments of the witnesses' credibility.” Id. In light of the repeated nature of the error and the involvement of a constitutional right, the Michigan Supreme Court held that “there is no question that this is the sort of error that compromises the fairness, integrity, and truth-seeking function of a jury trial.” Id. at 316. The Michigan Supreme Court elaborated, stating that the constitutional violation “rendered the trial fundamentally unfair and cast a shadow on the integrity of [Michigan's] judicial processes.” Id. This case bears striking similarities to Shafier. The constitutional error was made repeatedly throughout Etherton's trial. The prosecutor's case against Etherton hinged entirely on the jury's assessment of the credibility of witness testimony—in this case of one witness with the motive and opportunity to fabricate. Accordingly, there is a reasonable probability that Michigan courts would have found on direct review that the constitutional error in this case seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings independent of the defendant's innocence. Shafier illustrates why an objectively reasonable attorney would have raised this issue for plain-error review, and why there is a reasonable probability that Michigan appellate courts would have found plain error had the issue been raised. Etherton has therefore established that he was denied the right to effective assistance of counsel on his first appeal as of right. Moreover, having considered the arguments raised by Rivard and relied on by the Michigan courts, we hold that it was an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law for the Michigan court to hold otherwise. Fairminded jurists could not disagree. Etherton is therefore entitled to a belated appeal on the issue that counsel ineffectively failed to raise. Next, we consider Etherton's argument that he was denied effective assistance of counsel on appeal as a result of appellate counsel's failure to argue ineffective assistance of trial counsel. He argues that appellate counsel should have raised three grounds for ineffective assistance of trial counsel: (1) that trial counsel should have objected to the admission of the content of the anonymous tip on Confrontation Clause grounds; (2) that trial counsel failed to object to improper explanations offered by the prosecution on closing argument; and (3) that defense counsel was unprepared for trial. We agree with Etherton that appellate counsel should have argued that failure to object to the admission of the content of the anonymous tip constituted ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Because there was a Confrontation Clause violation that resulted in substantial prejudice, there is a reasonable probability that Michigan appellate courts would have found trial counsel constitutionally ineffective. See Part III.A.3, supra. The failure to include this compelling argument was therefore prejudicial and, in light of the less meritorious arguments raised on appeal, amounted to deficient performance of appellate counsel. See id. For the reasons stated above, we find that it was an unreasonable application of Federal law to hold otherwise. Consequently, we hold that Etherton is also entitled to a belated appeal on this issue. Etherton's second argument, however, is unpersuasive. Minor improprieties in a prosecutor's closing argument can be corrected “by instructing the jury that closing arguments are not evidence.” United States v. Crosgrove, 637 F.3d 646, 664 (6th Cir.2011). The trial court instructed the jury in this case that “[t]he lawyer[s'] statements and arguments are ․ not evidence.” (R. 5–4 at PageID 486.) There was therefore no prejudice-and thus no ineffective assistance—due to trial counsel's failure to object to the closing argument. Finally, Etherton's third argument is inconsistent with the record. Appellate counsel in fact argued that trial counsel was ineffective as a result of being unprepared. Accordingly, there was no ineffective assistance of counsel due to any failure to make such an argument. We now turn to the remaining three issues that Etherton argues should have been raised by his appellate counsel: (1) that the prosecutor improperly explained on closing argument why he had given a plea deal to the codefendant but not Etherton; (2) that the prosecutor acted improperly in closing argument by vouching for Pollie's credibility; and (3) that the prosecution elicited false testimony. None of these arguments are persuasive. First, as noted in Part III.B, supra, there was no prejudice as a result of the prosecution's explanations offered during closing argument. Appellate counsel was therefore not ineffective in not raising it. Second, for similar reasons, we find no ineffectiveness in appellate counsel's failure to argue that the prosecution improperly vouched for Pollie's credibility. As the district court correctly noted, any comments that improperly bolstered Pollie's “were not extensive.” Etherton, 2014 WL 764843, at *10. Any minor improprieties that may have resulted from the prosecution's comments as to Pollie's testimony were thus corrected by the trial court's jury instructions that lawyers' statements are not evidence. Accordingly, appellate counsel was not ineffective in choosing not to argue this issue. Finally, we find that appellate counsel was not ineffective in failing to argue that the prosecution introduced false testimony about the rate at which fingerprints are found on plastic bags. In order to establish a denial of due process as a result of the introduction of false testimony, a petitioner must show: “(1) the statement was actually false; (2) the statement was material; and (3) the prosecution knew it was false.” Brooks v. Tennessee, 626 F.3d 878, 894–95 (6th Cir.2010) (quoting Coe v. Bell, 161 F.3d 320, 343 (6th Cir.1998)). Even assuming the evidence was material and false, Etherton has put forward no evidence or argument at any stage of the proceedings that the prosecution knew it was false. Etherton has therefore not established reasonable probability of success as to this argument, and his appellate counsel was thus not ineffective in failing to argue it. Although Etherton has established a violation of clearly established federal law sufficient for relief under § 2254, that relief is circumscribed by the nature of the error and “AEDPA's purpose to further the principles of comity, finality, and federalism.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 420, 436 (2000). When a federal court grants a petition under § 2254 for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, the petitioner is entitled only to have the opportunity for the state courts to review the merits of the claims that appellate counsel ineffectively failed to raise, consistent with the substantive and procedural rules of the state and the requirements of the United States Constitution. See Mapes v. Tate, 388 F.3d 187, 194 (6th Cir.2004); see also Payne v. Stansberry, 760 F.3d 10, 18 (D.C.Cir.2014); Shaw v. Wilson, 721 F.3d 908, 919 (7th Cir.2013), cert. denied sub nom. Brown v. Shaw, 134 S.Ct. 2818, 189 L.Ed.2d 785 (2014). “This remedy avoids unnecessarily interfering with [the State's] interest in correcting its own errors.” Mapes, 388 F.3d at 194. Accordingly, we hold that Etherton is entitled to have Michigan courts consider the issues that, absent the ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, would have been raised on direct appeal. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED IN PART and REVERSED IN PART. The case is REMANDED with directions to issue a writ of habeas corpus unless, within whatever reasonable period of time the district court deems appropriate, Etherton is afforded a new appeal in which he may raise the Confrontation Clause and ineffective assistance of trial counsel arguments omitted from his original direct appeal or, in the alternative, is granted a new trial. The problem with the majority opinion is not that it misapplies the habeas standard, but that it fails to apply that standard at all. The opinion nowhere gives deference to the state courts, nowhere explains why their application of Strickland was unreasonable rather than merely (in the majority's view) incorrect, and nowhere explains why fairminded jurists could view Etherton's claim only the same way the majority does. The opinion, in other words, does exactly what the Supreme Court has repeatedly told us not to do. I grant that one could argue the merits of Etherton's Strickland claim both ways, though personally I have a hard time seeing the putative prejudice upon which the majority rests its decision. The issue at trial was whether the cocaine in Etherton's Audi belonged to him or to Pollie. Had the tip taken a position on that issue—had it included, for example, some suggestion that Etherton purchased the cocaine before picking up Pollie—then Etherton would have had a solid argument as to prejudice. But in fact the tip was agnostic as to whom the cocaine belonged: it relayed only that two white men would be travelling down I–96 in a white Audi containing cocaine. All of those facts were consistent with Etherton's defense. All of them, indeed, were undisputed. One may therefore ask why a “fairminded jurist,” Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 102 (2011), could conclude only that the tip was so prejudicial that Etherton's counsel in state court was constitutionally required to make eight arguments on appeal rather than six. The majority does not answer that question—its analysis sticks to Strickland rather than Harrington—but it does try to make out a case for prejudice simpliciter. The argument boils down to this: the tip was prejudicial precisely because all of the information contained in it was already common ground at trial. Specifically, since all of the tip's information was undisputed at trial, and because Pollie's testimony included (among many other things) that same information, the tip tended to bolster Pollie's credibility at trial. If Pollie was right about the color of the Audi and the interstate number and the fact that cocaine was in the car, the argument seems to go, maybe a juror would think he was right about who possessed the cocaine too. That argument is creative—in the sense that making do with the ingredients on hand is often creative-but it is hardly constitutionally required. Meanwhile, the cocaine was found in a driver's-door compartment only inches away from Etherton in a car that he owned and was driving at the time. That the cocaine was found under an empty bag of potato chips—as opposed to lying in plain view by the time the officers approached—does not help Etherton's case much. In short, a fairminded jurist could conclude, as the state court concluded, that Etherton had bigger problems at trial than the tip. Too often in habeas cases the petitioner's brief, or an opinion granting the writ, read just like they would in a direct appeal. The court's opinion here illustrates the point. Respectfully, it takes more to apply the fairminded-jurist standard than to perform a direct-review analysis and then simply announce that “[f]airminded jurists could not disagree.” Maj. Op. at 20. What it takes, rather, is a willingness to take seriously the arguments that supported or “could have supported” the state-court decision, Harrington, 562 U.S. at 102; and then to ask not merely whether we agree with those arguments, but whether they are coherent and grounded enough in the facts and applicable law that an unbiased jurist could agree with them. See, e.g., Drummond v. Houk, ––– F.3d ––––, 2015 WL 4774940 at *2–3 (6th Cir.2015). But we have none of that here. In sum, the governing Supreme Court precedent in this case is not Strickland but Harrington. One passage in particular: “Federal habeas courts must guard against the danger of equating unreasonableness under Strickland with unreasonableness under § 2254(d).” Harrington, 562 U.S. at 105. Our decision today falls prey to that danger, and thus I respectfully dissent. 2. We had occasion to consider directly whether the content of an anonymous tip is testimonial in United States v. Cromer, 389 F.3d 662 (6th Cir.2004). In that case, we held that “statements of a confidential informant are testimonial.” Id. at 670. We stated in Cromer not just that the admission of an anonymous tip was unconstitutional, but further held that “[t]he allowance of anonymous accusations of crime without any opportunity for cross-examination would make a mockery of the Confrontation Clause.” Id. at 675. Every other circuit court that has considered this issue is in accord. United States v. Maher, 454 F.3d 13, 22–23 (1st Cir.2006); United States v. Adams, 628 F.3d 407, 417 (7th Cir.2010) (finding a Confrontation Clause violation in the admission of a confidential informant's statement to a police officer that stated the defendant “was involved in drugs, had a large amount of money on him[,] was on his way to buy crack, and describ[ing] the car [the defendant] was driving”); United States v. Holmes, 620 F.3d 836, 841 (8th Cir.2010); United States v. Lopez–Medina, 596 F.3d 716, 730 (10th Cir.2010). 3. Even before Etherton's judgment became final, appellate courts in Michigan consistently held that statements of anonymous and confidential informants made to police officers are testimonial. People v. Chambers, 742 N.W.2d 610, 616 (Mich.Ct.App.2007) (“A statement by a confidential informant to the authorities generally constitutes a testimonial statement.”) (citing Cromer at 675); People v. Montgomery, No. 269682, 2007 WL 3085513, at *2 (Mich.Ct.App. Oct. 23, 2007) (same); People v. Demann, No. 268657, 2007 WL 2404534, at *4 (Mich.Ct.App. Aug. 23, 2007) (same); People v. Thompson, No. 258336, 2007 WL 2051977, at *4 (Mich.Ct.App. July 17, 2007) (same); People v. Tolbert, No. 262792, 2006 WL 2924577, at *2 (Mich.Ct.App. Oct. 12, 2006) (same). 4. Indeed, in the context of evaluating law enforcement's quantum of suspicion, corroboration renders an anonymous tip more reliable. See, e.g., Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 331 (1990). McCALLA, D.J., delivered the opinion of the court in which DONALD, J., joined. KETHLEDGE, J. (pp. 24–25), delivered a separate dissenting opinionp.

2019-04-18T15:36:40Z

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1712322.html

An apparatus and method are provided for gathering flat articles (5) into stacks (9) by conveying stacks in production successively along a gathering route (1) past feed stations. The stacks (9) are conveyed on stack supports (2) with supporting surfaces (7). Leading edges (5.1) of the articles (5) to be added to the stacks are held by holding elements (4) that move in a supply route (3) that traverses the gathering route (1) at the feed stations. Each article (5) is inserted between successive stacks (9) or stack supports (2), with the leading edge (5.1) being inserted first. The inserted article is released from its associated holding element (4) and then positioned on the upstream or downstream stack (9) or stack support (2) by the force of gravity and/or by its own inertia, and the holding element (4) is conveyed onwards in a downward direction. The present invention generally relates to the field of conveying and further processing of flat articles and, more particularly, to the conveying and further processing of printed products. The present invention also concerns a method and a device for gathering flat articles and collating printed products. In the printing field, a method for gathering or collating comprises forming stacks, each comprising a plurality of printed products. The printed products contained in each stack generally differ from one another, and usually all of the gathered stacks essentially contain the same printed products in substantially the same sequence. In dispatch station technique, for example, a multitude of finished printed products are gathered respectively into dispatch units which can then be welded into a foil. Additionally, in dispatch station technique different supplements are gathered and then inserted as an enclosure into a main product such as a newspaper. Both of the finished printed products noted above, as well as the supplements, may have very different formats and different thicknesses. Furthermore, it is becoming more common to process other flat articles, such as CDs or different varieties of sample packages, with the printed products. In the field of book printing, for each book to be bound, a plurality of signatures is gathered. Each signature comprises a plurality of the book's pages, and all signatures usually have the same format. In the same manner, “stacks” can be produced that only comprise a single flat article. According to the prior art, printed products are gathered or collated by conveying stacks being produced behind each other along a collating route past a plurality of feed stations, and by adding one printed product to each stack at every feed station. The stacks are conveyed along the collating route parallel to their flat expanse and lying in a horizontal or inclined position on a stack support, which is either conveyed along with the stack or else is stationary and extends in the conveying direction. The printed products to be added to the stacks being conveyed past the respective feed station are, in most cases, supplied and deposited on the stack in a direction perpendicular to the stack conveying direction. Instead of conveying the stacks parallel to the flat expanse of the printed products, it is also known to convey the stacks with each one lying on an inclined stack support that extends transversely to the direction of stack conveyance and, while being supported in the downward direction, the stack supports are conveyed along together with the stacks in production. The printed products to be added to these stacks are usually supplied in the stack conveying direction. Stacks being conveyed parallel to the flat expanse of the stacked printed products or the stack support surfaces (parallel conveyance) are conveyed along the collating route substantially one behind the other and the distance between stacks along the collating route is essentially determined by the largest product formats to be processed. In the case of stack conveyance that is not parallel, but instead is substantially transverse to the flat expanse of the printed products or stack support surfaces (transverse conveyance), the stacks are arranged along the collating route substantially lying one behind the other, so that the distance from stack to stack in essence is determined by the greatest stack height or stack thickness to be anticipated. Because the stacks usually have a relatively small height or thickness in comparison with their width and length (flat expanse of the stacked products), this means that for an equivalent conveying capacity, parallel conveyance calls for a much higher speed than transverse conveyance. The length of a collating route in each case is determined by the number of feed stations to be provided and by how much space each feed station requires along the collating route. Using parallel conveyance, it is possible with relatively simple layouts to arrange the feed stations such that the distance between two neighbouring feed stations is not much larger than the actual stack expanse in the conveying direction. Accordingly, in each conveying cycle a product can be added to the stack. In transverse stack conveyance, if this was also possible, collating routes could be significantly shorter than collating routes with parallel conveyance. Unfortunately, however, this is not possible according to the prior art. Therefore, very compact collating layouts comprise combinations of parallel and transverse conveying systems. Examples of such combinations are drum-shaped arrangements, in which stacks in production are conveyed transversely around the circumference of the drum, while parallel conveyance is simultaneously employed in an axial direction, which results in a spiral-shaped collating route. The same is achieved in linear layouts, in which the stacks in production are conveyed transversely together with V-shaped compartments and simultaneously are displaced in a parallel manner within the compartments, resulting in a route with a diagonal course. One of the reasons that feed stations to collating routes with transverse conveyance require a relatively large space is that every printed product to be supplied must first be inserted between two successive stacks or stack supports before it can be positioned on one of the stacks. The smaller the distance between stack supports, the higher the accuracy must be in the insertion step. Usually the products are supplied from above, held at upper edges in a hanging position. They are then inserted between the stack supports while still hanging, and are then released while the held upper edges are still positioned above the stack support. This means that during insertion the leading edge is substantially unguided. For a product with a relatively small length from leading to trailing edge when compared to the height of the stack, the free fall after release is relatively long. This means that insertion is to be carried out relatively slowly and, therefore, requires several conveying cycles. Accordingly, feed stations along the collating route need to have a corresponding length. Thus, a system of this kind imposes tight limits on the variations in format of the printed products to be fed, and the absolute conveying speeds have an upper limit, particularly when the products to be fed are not very stable and may already be deformed by a low relative wind speed. A collating system with a multitude of V-shaped compartments that a printed product is inserted into at every feed station from a hanging position and laid against the trailing wall of the compartment, is described in the publication CH-668245. The feed stations in this system are arranged one behind the other, with a distance between one another that is almost twenty times greater than the extent of the compartments in the conveying direction (i.e., there are approximately twenty conveying cycles between two successive feed stations.). In the publication EP-0857681, it is proposed to insert hanging products between L-shaped stack supports from one side and above, and to release them when their upper edge is laterally aligned with the stack support and is still positioned above it. In this manner, it is possible to arrange the feed stations along the collating route overlapping one another so that the distance between feed stations may be reduced, depending on the arrangement, resulting in very few conveying cycles. However, in this system the leading edges of the products are unguided during insertion so that the limitations regarding insertion speed and absolute conveying speed are the same as in the case of the insertion from above without a lateral component. It is an object of the present invention to create a method and a device for gathering or collating flat articles that makes it possible not only to combine transverse conveyance along the gathering route with small distances between feed stations in conveying cycles, but also significantly expand the limits applicable up until now with respect to the processing of articles having different formats and with respect to conveying speed, even when processing not very stable articles. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is a method and device for gathering or collating in more compact layouts with higher piece per time unit capacities than was possible for gathering or collating according to prior art. In accordance with the present invention, flat articles are added to the stacks between the stack supports while being held at their leading edges, and are released only when the inserted article is substantially aligned to the stack position with only a very small, unguided movement required for positioning the article on the stack or laying it against the stack support. Immediately preceding insertion and during insertion, the articles are moved in a direction comprising a component that is parallel to the direction of stack conveyance. The articles may be inserted into V-shaped compartments as mentioned above, with the lower edge of each article to be inserted being held by a holding element and the holding element, and is only deactivated when the held edge has essentially reached the floor of the compartment. The floor supports the released article for further conveyance. It is possible to feed the articles from the side or from below in substantially the same manner. Held guidance of the leading edges during insertion between successive stacks produces significantly higher insertion accuracy than held guidance of the trailing edges. Therefore, insertion is rendered less dependent on the stability of the articles and insertion speed. The higher insertion accuracy also makes it possible to have the stack support surfaces follow one another more closely, which once again either enables the stack conveying speed to be reduced, or using the same stack conveying speed, the piece per time unit capacity to be increased. A further advantage resulting from held guidance of the leading edges between stack supports and from the insertion accuracy associated with it is that it becomes possible to add articles with different formats and thicknesses to the stacks without risking conflicts between them during insertion or during positioning on the stacks. With regard to the device for inserting articles according invention, articles are held by their leading edge between stack supports. A stack conveying means with stack supports being conveyed behind each other and feed means with holding elements being conveyed one behind the other, are arranged such that the conveying path of the holding elements traverses the conveying path of the stack supports. This means that the two conveying operations are to be matched to one another such that in traversing, one holding element is moved between each two successive stack supports. Furthermore, control means are to be provided for deactivating the holding elements during the traversing, advantageously right at the end of traversing. The conveying system with traversing conveying paths is implemented in such a known manner in that the stack supports are arranged on a first conveying organ (e.g., traction chain), the holding elements on a second one, the two conveying organs being independent of one another and arranged in planes parallel to one another. Stack supports and holding elements are arranged facing towards each other on the corresponding conveying organ in such a manner that at the crossing they pass through one another in a combing manner. It is also possible to provide more than two conveying organs in such a manner that the holding elements pass between two stack support parts at a distance from each other, or two holding element parts are conveyed on either side of the stack supports. FIGS. 7, 8, and 9 show three different, exemplary embodiments of the traversing conveying means with stack supports and holding elements (viewed parallel to the conveying planes). FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the method according to the invention and depict a part of two exemplary embodiments of the arrangement for gathering in accordance with the invention. Schematically depicted are a gathering route 1 with stack supports 2, conveyed one after the other in the stack conveyance direction, extending transversely to the gathering route 1 and slanting in the stack conveyance direction, and a supply route 3 with holding elements 4. The holding elements are grippers that are closed to pick up an article 5, and opened to release the gripped article 5, by corresponding control means (e.g., cams; not illustrated). The arrangement is viewed both transversely to the conveying directions and parallel to the stack supports 2, so that of the stack supports and of the articles 5 to be gathered only the edges or narrow sides respectively are visible. The gathering route 1 and the supply route 3 intersect in the zone of the feed station at an angle α smaller than 90°, i.e., the supply direction has a component parallel to the stack conveyance direction. The L-shaped stack supports comprise a supporting surface 7 and a stop ledge 8 which, in both illustrated cases, is located at the bottom of the supporting surfaces 7. The stop ledge 8 supports from below articles or stacks 9 lying against the supporting surfaces 7. The supporting surfaces 7 extend transversely to the conveying direction and form an advantageously acute angle with vertical. The supporting surfaces 7 can also be arranged to be flatter, or in the extreme case horizontal, and therefore parallel to the stack conveyance direction. The supplied articles 5 are represented as relatively flexible printed products, which are held at a fold edge (gripped edge 5.1). However, this is not a condition for the invention. The articles 5 can also be rigid and/or can be held at any specific edge. In accordance with FIG. 1, the stack supports are arranged such that their upper edges are positioned further upstream than the lower edges. The supplied articles 5 are held by holding elements 4 such that the gripped fold edges 5.1 are facing forward. This means that each one of the articles 5 is pulled over the upper edge of a supporting surface 7 when being inserted between the stack supports 2. These upper edges may be slightly bent backwards or rounded in order to assure that the articles slide down without complications. For releasing the articles 5, the holding elements 4 are opened immediately ahead of the height of the stop ledge 8. When an object is released in this way and is not driven after release, the supporting surface 7, and if applicable, the articles already stacked on it (stack 9), catch up with the object because of its inertia. In this manner it is laid against the supporting surface or against the stack and is driven towards the stop ledge 8 by the force of gravity. As shown by FIG. 1, the position of the holding element 4 is located approximately at the midpoint between the two stack supports during the four conveying cycles needed for traversing the stack supports 2. This means that a stack 9 already present is not allowed to be thicker than half the distance between the stack supports 2. If this condition is fulfilled, then the leading guided edge 5.1 cannot come into conflict with any previously stacked article, even if these extend very little in the direction of the height of the stack supports 2. The speed v.1 of the stack supports 2 being given, the holding elements as illustrated in FIG. 1 need to have a speed v.2, with a component in the direction of the gathering route 1 being greater than v.1 by a relative speed v=and a component v⊥ perpendicular to the gathering route 1 and corresponding to the desired insertion speed. The angle α and the distances L.2 (or their projection L′.2 onto the gathering route 1) between the holding elements 4 result from the ratio of v.1+v= and v⊥ and from the distances L.1 between the stack supports, wherein in the illustrated case v= is determined by the inclination of the supporting surfaces 7. The higher the insertion speed v⊥ is to be and the steeper the stack supports 2 are, the greater α becomes. In the case presented here, L′.2 and also L.2 are greater than L.1. FIG. 2 illustrates a process of inserting articles 5 between consecutive stack supports 2 and positioning them on the supporting surface 7 of the downstream stack support 2. The supporting surfaces 7 have leading upper edges. Before they can be supplied, the objects 5 are aligned such that the gripped leading edges are facing upstream. The down-stream facing unguided parts of the supplied articles and the unguided edge 5.2 first meet with the upper edges of downstream stack supports 2 and during insertion are drawn over these. In order to prevent problems when the articles are drawn over them, the upper stack support edges may be equipped with corresponding freely rotating rollers 10. The supplied articles 5 are drawn downwards over the supporting surfaces 7 or over articles (stack 9) already stacked on these, wherein the holding elements 4 at the beginning of the insertion are positioned closer to the supporting surface 2 downstream and at the end of the insertion closer to the supporting surface upstream. Because of this, the inserted article 5 is positioned on the supporting surface 7 or on articles already stacked on it (stack 9), and is conveyed along with it before it is released from the holding element 4. After being released, it slides down onto the stop ledge 8 under the force of gravity. The supporting surfaces 7 are advantageously arranged in a manner that is less steep than the case illustrated in FIG. 1. In this case, the effect achieved by the inertia of the released articles in the embodiment according to FIG. 1 is taken over at least partially by the force of gravity. The speed v.2 of the holding elements 4 for the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 comprises a component parallel to the gathering route 1, which is smaller than v.1 by a relative speed v=. L′.2, and is therefore smaller than L. 1. As mentioned above, the stop ledges 8 on the stack supports 2 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are located at the bottom, and the articles 5 are inserted from above between the stack supports 2, wherein for the final positioning of the articles 5 on the supporting surfaces 7 or on articles already stacked on them, the force of gravity can be exploited. This, however, is not a condition for the method and the device according to the invention. FIGS. 1 and 2 can be quite readily understood as views from above instead of as side views, this in the meaning of a supply to a gathering route 1 from the side. In such a case, the stop ledge 8 as depicted solely serves to stop the released articles 5 and these are driven by the force of gravity against a not depicted edge of the supporting surface 7 inclined along the stack conveyance direction. An arrangement in accordance with FIG. 1, also in which the inertia of the released objects is exploited for their positioning, in such a case will be more advantageous than an embodiment according to FIG. 2, in which this inertia is not exploited. FIG. 3 shows in the same way as FIGS. 1 and 2 a further embodiment of the method according to the invention. The articles 5 are supplied with the gripped edges directed forwards (as in FIG. 1) and are then laid against the downstream supporting surface 7. To do this, it may be advantageous to make use of holding elements 4 (or 4′), which are capable of being swivelled relative to the supply route 3 or 3′, so that the articles prior to being released can be swivelled against the leading supporting surface 7. This is particularly applicable in particular for rigid articles 5′ being supplied to the first feed station, as shown in FIG. 3 (feed route 3′, holding element 4′). FIG. 3 also makes it clear how close together the feed stations can be positioned along a gathering route 1 according to the invention. In the illustrated case, the distance between the feed stations amounts to only three conveying cycles. FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 depict supplied articles 5 during successive phases of their insertion between the stack supports 2. In FIGS. 4 and 5, the functions of the supporting surface 7, the stop ledge 8, and an adjacent stack support are taken over by the corresponding parts of a V-shaped compartment 20, into which a flat article 5 is inserted from above. In FIG. 6, the stack support 2 is L-shaped and the article 5 is inserted from below. The illustrated insertions are viewed from a point conveyed along with the stack support 2 (direction of view transverse to the gathering route). Therefore, in order to see the absolute movements, stack conveyance (in all Figs. having a horizontal direction) is to be superimposed on the illustrated movements. The depicted movement of each holding element and gripped edge 5.1 along the supply route 3 has a relative speed v.2−v.1 (vector difference) with the components v= (relative speed) and v⊥ (insertion speed). In FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, the article to be inserted 5 is depicted as being rigid. Thus, it is necessary that the holding elements (not shown) are designed for at least passive swivelling relative to the supply route 3 during the insertion. Bendable articles do not require swivellable holding means. Insertion, however, takes place in an analogous manner to insertion when the articles are bent. FIG. 4 illustrates insertion from above into a V-shaped compartment 20. Of this compartment, one side wall takes over the function of the supporting surface 7 and the floor assumes the function of the stop ledge 8. The second side wall 21 of this embodiment has no function. The gripped edge 5.1, which during supply is directed away from the supporting surface 7, is guided against the stop ledge 8 in a direction substantially parallel to the supporting surface 7 and shortly before the ledge, it is released. During insertion, the article 5 or its edge 5.2 opposite the gripped edge 5.1, respectively, is drawn over the top edge of the stack supporting surface 7 and then slides downwards along the stack supporting surface 7 or along a stack 9 lying on it, as is already illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. When the gripped edge 5.1 is released, it is driven against the stop ledge 8 by the force of gravity. If stack conveyance is directed from left to right (positioning on the upstream stack support), then the article 5 is driven against the supporting surface 7 by the force of gravity and by its inertia. If stack conveyance is directed from right to left, then the inertia of the article 5 acts in a direction away from the supporting surface 7. In such a case it might be necessary to provide further means, for example, a slider acting from the opposite wall 21, for the final positioning of the article 5 on the stack 9 in addition to the force of gravity. The direction of stack conveyance along the gathering route 1, however, does not play an essential role for insertion. FIG. 5 illustrates in the same manner as FIG. 4 insertion into a V-shaped compartment 20 wherein, during insertion, the article 5 is drawn over the opposite wall 21 of the compartment 20. The movement of the gripped edge 5.1 is in this case perpendicular to the gathering route 1, and the relative speed v= of the holding element relative to the stack support is therefore equal to zero (L′.1=L.1). From FIG. 5 it is clearly evident that for the final positioning of the inserted article 5 at least the inertia (stack conveyance from left to right) has to be effective or else further means, as already mentioned, must be used. FIG. 6 shows in the same way as FIGS. 4 and 5 a further way for inserting articles 5 between successive stack supports 2. The articles 5 are supplied from below and are substantially suspended. They are guided over the outside edge of the stop ledge 8 and, by the force of gravity, positioned standing upright on the stop ledge 8, leaning against the supporting surface 7. The stop ledge 8, therefore, in this embodiment does not have an actual stop function, but only a stack supporting function. For the stop function a second stop ledge 8′ can be provided in the upper zone of the stack support 2. It is obvious that in this case the direction of the stack conveyance along the gathering route 1 plays a very subordinate role. A disadvantage of the insertion illustrated in FIG. 6 is shown by the fact that the gripped edge 5.1 (top edge) is to be positioned opposite the stop ledge 8. Therefore, the movement necessary for the final positioning of the article 5 (free fall) is longer for articles having a shorter distance between the edges 5.1 and 5.2 than for articles with a correspondingly longer distance if the release position of the gripped edge 5.1 is not changed. This disadvantage, however, can easily be remedied in that the position of the holding element in which it is deactivated and the position of the second stop ledge 8′ (dot-dash position of 8′) are adapted to the distance. FIGS. 1 to 6 illustrate exemplary methods for inserting articles between stack supports conveyed along a gathering route, wherein from the illustrated methods further methods can be easily derived. Successful application of one method or the other is dependent on the manner in which the articles to be supplied are advantageously taken over and on the orientation in which they need to be stacked. In all FIGS. 1 to 6, both the gathering route 1 as well as the supply route 3 are depicted as straight lines, which in the case of constant conveying speeds v.1 and v.2 results in a straight-line insertion with a constant speed. This is in no way a condition for the method in accordance with the invention. In particular, for generating an insertion speed v⊥ diminishing towards the end of the insertion, the supply route 3 can be designed as correspondingly curving towards the direction of the gathering route 1. FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 illustrate three exemplary embodiments of the arrangement according to the invention, viewed in a direction generally vertical to the viewing direction of FIGS. 1, to 3, or in the case of a supply from below or from above, equivalent to a bird's eye view. Schematically depicted are a plurality of stack supports 2 (or 2.1 and 2.2) being conveyed along a gathering route 1 (or 1.1 and 1.2) and a plurality of holding elements 4 (or 4.1 and 4.2) being conveyed along a supply route 3 (or 3.1 and 3.2). The stack supports 2 and the holding elements 4 are each arranged on at least one separate conveying organ 30 (or 30.1 and 30.2) and 31 (or 31.1 and 31.2). The conveying organs, for example, are traction chains. FIG. 7 illustrates stack supports 2 each with a supporting surface 7 and a stop ledge 8 as well as pairs of holding elements 4 arranged on bars 32. The stack supports 2 are arranged on a first lateral conveying organ 30. The bars 32 are arranged on a second conveying organ 31. The second conveying organ 31 is arranged laterally opposite to the first conveying organ 30. The stop ledges 8 have passages 33 for the holding elements 4. The conveying organs 30 and 31 are driven synchronously in such a manner that the holding elements 4 while traversing the gathering route 1 pass in a combing manner between stack supports 2 and through passages 33, and therewith out of the traversing zone. Immediately prior to passing through the passages 33, the holding elements 4 are deactivated and an article 5 gripped at its edge 5.1 is leaned against the supporting surface 7 and is conveyed onwards standing on the stop ledge 8. For the layout in accordance with FIG. 7, the distances L.1 and L′.2 between stack supports 2 and holding elements 4 in the direction of the gathering route 1 are equal. This signifies that the position of the holding elements relative to the stack supports 2 remains unchanged in the direction of the gathering route 1 during insertion, as has already been described in connection with the FIG. 5. The arrangement, however, can also be implemented with different distances L.1 and L′.2. FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate in the same manner as in FIG. 7 two further embodiments of the arrangement according to the invention. The stack supports and the holding elements in these cases are not designed to be passing through one another in the manner of a comb for the traversing of the two conveying tracks, but move separately from one another in parallel conveying planes, which are vertical to the paper plane. FIG. 8 depicts an arrangement in which the stack supports each comprise two stack support parts 2.1 and 2.2, which at a distance between one another are conveyed synchronously along the gathering route, each respectively by a first conveying organ 30.1 and 30.2. The holding elements 4, which are arranged on a second conveying organ 31, move between the stack support parts 2.1 and 2.2. The distances L.1 are greater than the distances L′.2, that is, the holding elements 4 move between the stack supports against the stack support further upstream, as has also been described in connection with FIG. 2. FIG. 9 illustrates an arrangement in which the holding elements 4 each comprise two holding element parts 4.1 and 4.2, each of which respectively is conveyed by a second conveying organ 31.1 and 31.2 along the supply route at a distance from the other and synchronously with one another. The stack supports 2, which are arranged on a first conveying organ 30, move between the holding element parts 4.1 and 4.2. The stop ledges 8 of each stack support 2 reach underneath the supporting surfaces 7 of the preceding stack support further downstream, as is also depicted in FIG. 1. The distances L.1 and L′.2, (i.e., the holding element parts 4.1 and 4.2), move between the stack supports 2 towards the stack support further downstream, as has also been described in connection with FIG. 4. In all Figures, only parts of the conveying systems for conveying stack supports 2 and holding elements 4 are illustrated. The complete systems comprise advantageously circulating conveying organs. (i.e., the stack supports 2 are conveyed from the supply stations to a delivery station where the stacks 9 are delivered, and from there back to the beginning of the gathering route.) The holding elements 4 are conveyed from the feed station to a take-over station where they are activated for taking over further articles 5. They are then conveyed back to the feed-in station. The course of the circulation systems is to a great extent freely selectable and can be adapted to the most diverse conditions, which do not have to be directly associated with the gathering operation. positioning the inserted article on one of the two successive stacks (9) or supporting surfaces (7) of stack supports respectively, wherein the supply direction comprises a component parallel to the stack conveyance direction, and wherein the articles (5) are inserted between two successive stacks (9) or stack supports (2) while being gripped on their leading edges (5.1). 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the stack supports (2) comprises a stop ledge (8) at a bottom edge of the supporting surfaces (7), the articles (5) are inserted between the stacks (9) or the stack supports (2) from above, the gripped edges (5.1) are directed downwards and the articles (5) are released from being held when the gripped edge (5.1) is positioned immediately above the stop ledge (8). 3. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the articles (5) are conveyed towards the feed station with their gripped edges (5.1) directed forwards and are positioned on the upstream stack (9) or on the upstream supporting surface (7), respectively. 4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the articles (5) are conveyed towards the feed station with their gripped edges (5.1) directed backwards and are positioned on the downstream stack (9) or on the downstream supporting surface (7), respectively. 5. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein, during insertion of the articles between the stacks (9) or stack supports (2), respectively, the gripped edges (5.1) are conveyed more rapidly or more slowly in the stack conveyance direction than the stack supports (2). 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the supporting surfaces (7) are positioned inclined or slanting relative to the gathering route (1) and wherein, during insertion of the articles between the stacks (9) or stack supports (2), respectively, the gripped edges (5.1) are conveyed in parallel to the supporting surface inclination. 7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the articles (5) are conveyed towards the feed station in a suspended manner and are inserted between the stacks (9) or stack supports (2), respectively, from below, the gripped edges (5.1) being directed upwards. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the articles (5) are conveyed towards the feed station with their gripped edge (5.1) oriented towards one side and wherein the articles are inserted sideways between the stacks (9) or stack supports (2), respectively. wherein the device further comprises means for deactivating the holding elements (4) during their conveyance between the stack supports. 10. The arrangement according to claim 9, wherein the stack supports (2) are arranged on at least one first conveying organ (30) and the holding elements (4) are arranged on at least one second conveying organ (31), and wherein the conveying organs (30, 31) are arranged in planes parallel to one another at least in the area of the feed station. 11. The arrangement in accordance with claim 9, wherein the supporting surfaces (7) comprise lower and upper edges aligned transverse to the gathering route (1) and lateral edges aligned inclined relative to the gathering route (1), as well as stop ledges (8) located on the lower edge. 12. The arrangement according to claim 11, wherein the supply route (3) traverses the gathering route (1) from above to below and the means for deactivating the holding elements (4) is arranged such that the holding elements (4) are deactivated when positioned in a lower zone of the stack supports (2). 13. The arrangement in accordance with claim 11, wherein the supply route (3) traverses the gathering route (1) from below to above and the means for deactivating the holding elements (4) is arranged such that the holding elements (4) are deactivated when positioned in an upper zone of the stack supports (2). 14. The arrangement according to claim 13, wherein a second stop ledge (8′) is provided in the upper zone of each supporting surface. 15. The arrangement in accordance with claim 11, wherein the supply route (3) traverses the gathering route (1) from a first side of the stack supports (2) to a second, opposite side and the means for deactivating the holding elements (4) is arranged such that the holding elements (4) are deactivated when positioned in a zone of the second, opposite side of the stack supports (2). 16. The arrangement according to claim 10, wherein the stack supports (2) are arranged laterally on a first conveying organ (30), the holding elements (4) are arranged laterally on a second conveying organ (31), and the first and second conveying organs (30 and 31) are arranged such that the holding elements (4) and the stack supports (2) pass in combing manner through one another in the traversing area. 17. The arrangement in accordance with claim 16, wherein the stop ledges (8) of the stack supports (2) comprise passages (33) for the holding elements (4). 18. The arrangement according to claim 10, wherein each of the stack supports (2) comprises two stack support parts (2.1, 2.2) arranged at a distanced from one another transverse to the gathering route (1), each of the two stack support parts being arranged on one of two first conveying organs (30.1 and 30.2), and the holding elements (4) and the second conveying organ (31) are arranged to pass in the a traversing zone between the stack support parts (2.1, 2.2). 19. The arrangement in accordance with claim 10, wherein each of the holding elements (4) comprises two holding element parts (4.1 and 4.2) distanced from each other transverse to the gathering route (1), each holding element part being arranged on one of two second conveying organs (31.1 and 31.2), and the stack supports (2) and the first conveying organ (30) are arranged between the holding element parts (4.1 and 4.2). 20. The arrangement according to claim 9, wherein the stack supports (2) are V-shaped compartments (20) arranged transverse to the gathering route (1) and comprising side walls arranged one behind the other in the stack conveyance direction and a floor joining the side walls, wherein one of the side walls serves as supporting surface (7) and the floor as stop ledge (8), and wherein the other side wall (21) is capable of taking over the function of the next upstream or downstream stack support (2). ES2145189T3 (en) * 1994-09-07 2000-07-01 Paal Kg Hans Device for grouping bags. CH668245A5 (en) 1985-09-27 1988-12-15 Ferag Ag Means for collating different printed products.

2019-04-21T09:42:27Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6749190B2/en

900 sqm of Versatile ZXT Rubber Tiles were installed at a roof garden for the ISAGEN Building in Medellin, Colombia. ISAGEN is a Colombian company dedicated to power generation, construction and marketing projects for energy solutions. The ISAGEN building will be Gold LEEDS Certified. A 423 sqm indoor sports hall will be surfaced our Decoflex Universal LITE Indoor Sports Flooring System for The Seed Montessori School in Quezon City, The Philippines. The Seed Montessori School was founded on October 15, 1988. 1,776 sqm of 4 mm Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at the National Theatre in Manama, Bahrain. The Kingdom of Bahrain, "the land of the two seas", features an insular landscape. The design of the National Theatre symbolizes the union between Bahrain and the sea. The National Theatre is organized around a void central space, in the manner of an Arabian palace. The patio turns here into a hall/foyer. The main auditorium is located in the middle of this majestic area. 800 sqm of Decoflex D8 Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed this summer at the English School Foundation’s King George V School (also known as KG 5 School) in Hong Kong. The Curriculum is International with most of the students pursuing the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The school achieves excellent academic results because of the outstanding attitudes of the students, energetically supported by their parents, and the School’s deep commitment to teaching and learning. 1,320 sqm of Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring will be installed at the Higher Colleges of Technology – Women’s College, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The system of the Higher Colleges of Technology is a community of more than 19,000 students and almost 2,000 staff based on 17 campuses throughout the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - the largest higher education institution in the UAE. 655 sqm of Decoflex Indoor Sports Flooring will be installed for a Municipality Gym/Sports Hall in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, México. We thank the Team at DIDSA Mexico for continuing their efforts in trying times! We Celebrate Global Achievements, our Community, Staff, Customers and Stakeholders. The date was August 8th in 1985 (08/08/85) when Mike Brinkers started Rephouse, selling sports and recreational flooring in Hong Kong. The number “8” is viewed as an auspicious number in Chinese tradition and being assigned three (3) eights on the date of incorporation is considered lucky. Much has changed since then, but the principles on which the company was founded have not wavered: provide a fair price, excellent service and integrity. Today, Rephouse is a diversified, leading rubber flooring business with global achievements. Many businesses disappear within a few years of their founding. What sets us apart? In the case of Rephouse, the answer is staying true to the principles on which the company was founded and still operates: honesty, ethics, fair price, wide selection of good products and customer satisfaction. Add to that strong leadership and smart business decisions, and you have a formula for success and longevity. Rephouse has come a long way from being a local supplier to becoming a strong, well established rubber flooring manufacturing company. We expect this to be the beginning of many more years of success and prosperity as we count on the talent, dedication and determination of our employees, colleagues and customers to march forward to a great future. 760 sqm of Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring was installed at St. Michael’s Lutheran Primary School, in Adelaide, South Australia. St. Michael’s Lutheran Primary School is an R – 7 co-educational school nestled in the historic township of Hahndorf in the picturesque Adelaide Hills. Catering for up to 390 students the school has a long and proud tradition of educating students to be responsible citizens and life long learners. 1,190 m2 of Decoflex Universal 9 mm (7+2) Indoor Sports Flooring was installed for St. Charbel’s College in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. St Charbel's College is a coeducational non-government school located in the metropolitan location of Punchbowl, New South Wales. The school has a total enrolment of 1,066 students, 52% are boys and 48% are girls. The school caters for years Kindergarten to grade 12. 4 mm thick Neoflex 700 Series BFC Rubber Flooring was recently installed as a pool surround for The International School of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Founded in 1993, the International School Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) is the oldest and most established international school in Ho Chi Minh City. ISHCMC is a non-denominational, co-educational and multi­cultural international school with over 40 nationalities represented. A 700 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed soon at the British School Al Khubairath in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The British School Al Khubairat is a British curriculum school for children aged from 3 to 18-years-old. It is one of the most established schools in the region, with some of the best facilities, and enjoys an enviable reputation. 345 sqm of 8 mm thick Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for Celebrity Fitness at their Setia Walk facility in Puchong. Celebrity Fitness is one of the largest fitness chains in Malaysia. 702 sqm of 6 mm Neoflex 500 Series and 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at the SAFRA Tao Payoh facility for their fitness gym. SAFRA stands for Singapore Armed Forces Reservists Association (SAFRA) and is a renowned organisation with a network of 5 clubs to provide quality social, recreational, sports and educational facilities for National Service men and their families. 850 sqm of Decoflex Universal IH Indoor Sports Flooring will soon be installed for the “Asian Hockey Institute” in Ipoh, Malaysia. This venue is a training center for the Asian Hockey Federation. We are very proud to be associated with the Asian Hockey Federation - Decoflex Universal IH Indoor Sports Flooring is the approved sports flooring system for indoor hocket by the Asian Hockey Federation. We thank Dato' Alfred Chan of Far Eastern Sports for all his efforts in the promotion of our unique sports flooring products! Over 650 m2 of 8 mm Neolfex 500 Series Rubber Flooring, supported by 8 mm Isodec Rubber Underlay was installed for Fitness First in Jeddah City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Neoflex 600 Series Rubber Flooring was installed at the Newcastle Knights Energy Stadium fitness center. The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League(NRL) premiership. 390 m2 of Neoflex Rubber Flooring will be installed at the Fitness Center of The Laguna Resort & Spa in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. This resort is one of The Luxury Hotels Collection of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide amongst their other brands like The Westin, Sheraton, Four Seasons and “W” Hotels. A brand new concept club was recently opened by Pure Fitness at Asia Square, Singapore. This club raises the bar in premium global fitness with over 32,000 sq-ft (3,000 sqm) of space with world-class design features. Neoflex Rubber Flooring as well as Neoflex High Impact Tiles was installed for the Stretch & Power Zone, Mixed Martial Arts Zone, Core & Recovery Zone as well as Heart Rate Cardio Zone. In addition, Decoflex D14 Athletic Track Flooring was installed for a dedicated athletic area with 4 x 35m indoor running track. Located in the heart of Marina Bay, Singapore this incredible concept club provides the most exceptional workout experience ever. Our compliments go out to Floorspect Singapore who have performed the most perfect installation witnessed so far! 800 m2 of Neoflex Rubber Flooring will be installed at the new fitness facility at Aberdeen Marina Club, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. Founded in 1984, the Aberdeen Marina Club is a unique private community where members and their families enjoy superb facilities, outstanding restaurants and an impeccable level of service. Covering an area of more than 550,000 square feet, the Club operates six restaurants and ten banqueting venues, with an unparalleled range of sporting and family oriented facilities. World-class Shangri-La service is their distinguishing feature, and caring, friendly employees strive to ensure that each experience exceeds all expectations. 601 sqm of 8 mm Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for the library at the Lumut Secondary School in Kuala Belait, Brunei. Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring has been installed at the Burj Dubai Development. Burj Khalifa, known as Burj Dubai, prior to its inauguration, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is currently the tallest structure in the world, at 829.84 m (2,723 ft). Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring was installed at the Sheraton Hotel, Phuket, Thailand. A 1,288 m2 Decoflex Outdoor Sports Floor was installed for La Salle College, Perth, Western Australia. Situated in the Swan Valley region of Western Australia, the College caters for the educational, spiritual and pastoral care needs of 1400 students in Years 7-12. We wish all our customers, suppliers and friends a Prosperous and Happy New Year! A 2,030 m2 6mm thick Neoflex™ 500 Series Floor, color #527 and in die-cut tiles, will be installed for the Fitness Factory Club in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Fitness Factory broke ground in 2006, creating fitness centers unrivaled in Taiwan, surpassing even the most renowned existing facilities to become Taiwan's only truly first class health club operator. 420 m2 of Decoflex Universal LITE Indoor Sports Flooring will be installed at Coliseo Cerrado Pumacahua in Sicuani City, Cusco, Peru. The facility will primarily be a futsal court but also host other events. Well done the Tea at Sport Business Peru! 315 m2 of Decoflex Univeral Indoor Sports Flooring as well as 120 m2 of Decoflex D8 Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed at the French International School (FIS) campus based in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, SAR, China. Founded as a "small French school" in 1964 for a handful of children, FIS enrolled its 1000th students in January 1994 and today has almost 1800 students. Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring has been installed for the indoor sports hall at Lycee Georges Pompidou French School. The Lycee Georges Pompidou is located in Academic City Dubai and is a co-educational French-medium school. The Lycee offers the French national curriculum and receives annual inspections to retain its accreditation by the French Ministry of Education. A 1,200 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed at La Salle CollEge in Perth, Western Australia. La Salle College is a co-educational Catholic secondary school founded by the Lasallian Order in 1954. Situated in the Swan Valley region of Western Australia, the College caters for the educational, spiritual and pastoral care needs of 1400 students in Years 7-12. 458 m2 of 10 mm Neoflex Rubber Flooring will be installed at a fitness gym at Port Baku Towers, Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. Port Baku Towers development is the first redevelopment project scheduled for the Port of Baku. The scheme consists of towers, varying in height from 14 - 32 floors. Approximately 65,000 SM of Class A Offices, double height street front shopping, International SPA and Health Center, Restaurants and Cafes. Owned and built by the PASHA Group which is one of the largest established companies in the Republic of Azerbaijan and is engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily in property development and construction, tourism, insurance and banking. A big thanks to the Team at Fenno Scandia in the UAE to secure such a prestigious project! 324 m2 of 10 mm thick Neoflex 503 BFC Rubber Flooring will be installed at Gymbox in Holborn, London, England. This centrally located gym offers some of London's most witty workouts from its 'Tour de Holborn' spinning class to jolly 'Cheerleading' class (pom poms optional). Located underneath High Holborn, this compact space combines the atmosphere of a nightclub with state-of-the-art facilities. A full-size boxing ring dominates the main space, along with a large movie screen. 510 m2 of Decoflex Universal 7 mm (5+2) Indoor Sports Flooring was installed for a Multipurpose Court at Sungai Puluh Sport Complex in Klang, Malaysia. A 880 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed at Kolbe Catholic College, in Rockingham, Western Australia. Kolbe Catholic College is a co-educational secondary college comprised of 960 students from Year 7 to 12 serving the Parish Communities near Rockingham. Join us at Milipol Paris 2011! Between October 18 - 21, we will be showcasing Rephouse’s Ballistic Rubber Products. Stand 1A 090. Milipol Paris is recognized internationally as the flagship event of the security sector. This world event of Internal State Security is held under the auspices of the French Ministry of the Interior and brings together all international players, showcasing their solutions, services and expertise to professionals. Rephouse will be displaying our complete array of Ballistic Products including Ballistic Rubber Tiles, Ballistic Rubber Shooting Blocks, Ballistic Seamless Flooring, Ballistic Rubber Interlocking Pavers, and Ballistic Fragmentation Rubber Sheet. Milipol Paris 2011 Internal State Security Trade Show October 18 - 21, 2011 | Paris, France | Paris Porte De Versailles - Pavilion 1. A 600 m2 Decoflex D Outdoor Sports Flooirng System will be installed at the Chinese International School, Braemar Hill, Hong Kong, SAR, China. The Chinese International School is an elite private school offering the years Reception-Year 13 (K-12). It is famous for its bilingual program taught in English and Chinese (Mandarin), outstanding academic program and excellent matriculation. It is known as one of the best international schools in Hong Kong providing the IB Diploma Program. Students come from diverse backgrounds, with over 30 nationalities represented. At the Secondary level, students pursue the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years and Diploma programs. The campus is located in the residential neighborhood of Braemar Hill in North Point, adjacent to country park green areas. It is a member of the prestigious G20 Schools. The school has also been chosen as one of the top private international schools in Hong Kong in the Top 10 Private International Schools in Hong Kong list in the China Service Mall site. Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Flooring was installed for a fitness gym at Saigon Star City Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Conveniently connected to the airport in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, Starcity Saigon Hotel is close to Ho Chi Minh City National University, Ho Chi Minh City Hall, and Jade Emperor Pagoda. Also nearby are War Remnants Museum and Reunification Palace. Congratulations to the AIM Protech Team in scoring this work! 598 sqm of Neoflex 500 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for Gold’s Gym Borja and Gold’s Gym Higuereta in Peru. A great effort thanks to the Team at Sport Business Peru! A 1,745 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed at West Moreton Aglican College in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. West Moreton Anglican College is a private school affiliated with the Anglican Church of Australia. The school encompasses all years of non-tertiary education including Pre-school and is coeducational. Its student body is divided into five houses, Patterson, Gilmore, Wright, Lawson and Mackellar. The majority of the students are from rural families as the school supplies agricultural education in which it has achieved a high degree of excellence. A 756 sqm Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor will be installed soon at the Nilai International School, Nilai, Negri Sembilan, Malaysia. Nilai International School is one of Malaysia's largest international schools situated in the lush suburb of Putra Nilai. A Decoflex D14 warm up track was installed for the Goa Cricket Association at their Parvorim facility in North Goa. 870 m2 of Neoflex 500 & 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for a fitness gym at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Performance Gym in Singapore. Ngee Ann Polytechnic's 8,000 State-of-the-Art Gymnasium is specifically designed for their students. The gym is fitted with the latest range of cardiovascular with built-in TVs, strength machines and free weights. Playflex Rubber Safety Tiles will be installed for a public school in Jämsä Finland. 450 m2 of Decoflex Universal 11 mm (9+2) Indoor Sports Flooring was installed recently at the Maritime Services Training Institute in Tai Lam Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong. The Ministry of Education, Kuwait has confirmed another 7,500 sqm of Decoflex D10 as their outdoor sports surface for numerous schools around the Country. This is a repeat order as done in 2008. A 555 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor has been installed at Aquinas College in Southport, Queensland. Aquinas College (Years 8-12) and Guardian Angels School (Years P-7) are situated on 40 acres of land on the border of Southport and Ashmore at the northern end of the beautiful Gold Coast. The schools are surrounded by the green of a number of ovals, lawns and gardens. A 1,000 m2 facility for ROSS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE in St Kitts, Virgin Islands, USA has just been completed using our proprietary Evoflex™ Seamless Polyurethane Flooring System for their Large Animal Teaching Facility (LAT). 276 m2 of Neoflex 800 series will be installed for a fitness gym at Haijing Wanhao Hotel in Zhuhai, Guangzhou, China. 1,950 m2 of Decoflex D8 Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed at Tebnine Sports Club in the South of the country. Tebnine SC is a Lebanese sports club most known for its basketball program. It originates in Tebnine, Tyre District, Lebanon. A 7,297 m2 8-lane Decoflex™ T14 Athlteic Track Flooring System will be installed for the municipality in Caborca, Sonora State, Mexico. Congratulations to DIDSA and their team in scoring this very prestigious project! A 221 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed at Ascot Vale Special School in Melbourne, Australia. Ascot Vale Special School is a State Government school that provides high quality education to students with mild intellectual disabilities. 968 m2 of Decoflex Universal IH 8 mm will be installed for a Multipurpose Hall in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia. Decoflex Universal IH is a special seamless indoor sports flooring which is approved by the Asian Hockey Federation. Neoflex™ 600 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for a pool surround at the Recency Hotel in Doha, Qatar. A Decoflex™ T14 IAAF Certified Track Flooring System was recently installed at the Regional Sports Center in Kochi, India. A 1,100 m2 Decoflex D9 Outdoor Sports Floor was installed for Christchurch College, Perth, Western Australia. Christ Church Grammar School is an Anglican day and boarding school for boys from Pre-Primary to Year 12. Located in Perth, Western Australia, the School overlooks the Swan River at Freshwater Bay in Claremont. Rephouse Ballistic Tiles will be installed for a shooting range at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) located in the capital, Manila. 621 m2 of Decoflex D10 (10 mm) Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed at Fu Cheung Estate in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. Fu Cheong Estate was constructed on the former site of the Shamshuipo bus terminus. Its name, "Fu Cheong", comes from nearby Nam Cheong Estate and means "Wealthy and Prosperity" in Chinese language. It consists of 10 residential buildings and a shopping centre completed in 2001 and 2002. A 600 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor will be installed for an indoor basketball court in Kota Baru, Indonesia. More than 5,000 m2 of Evopave™ Rubber Interlocking Pavers will be installed for a jogging track/walkway at Centro de Alto Rendimiento, Tijauna, Baja California. This sports center's goal is to support and encourage the development of sporting talents in Mexico with facilities that comply to the highest international standards. Centro de Alto Rendimiento is destined to be the most modern in Latin America. A 500 m2 Decoflex Universal LITE Indoor Sprots Flooring System will be installed at the Gulf Medical College in Ajman, U.A.E. THE Decoflex Universal LITE Indoor Sprots Flooring System is FIBA approved. A 900 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed for St Hilda’s College, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. St Hilda’s has been offering a caring community life for boarders for almost a century. Along with their traditional intake of girls from rural Australia, they also have boarders from the local Gold Coast region and the nearby Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. 621 m2 of Decoflex D12 (10 mm) Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed at Tai Hing Estate, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong. There are 8,602 flats in the estate with capacity to house 21,100 people. The International School of Uganda (ISU) has chosen both the certified Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring and Decoflex ‘D’ Outdoor Sports Flooring for its sporting facilities. Located in Kampala, ISU is one of 119 schools world-wide authorised by the International Baccalaureate to offer the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. ISU is also accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the United States and the Council of International Schools, two prestigious international accreditation organisations. Located on beautiful thirty-three-acre campus in Lubowa ISU has state of the art facilities. They are among the best in Africa. A 525 m2 12 mm thick Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor will be installed at The International School, District 2 in Hochiminh City, Vietnam. The floor will be installed at the new extension wing for their multipurpose room/gym. A 1,650 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed for All Saints College in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1981, All Saints’ College is an independent Anglican co-educational school, in the southern suburbs of Perth. A Decoflex Softcourt Sports Flooring installation has been completed for Mount Helena Primary School, in Mount Helena, Western Australia. Mt. Helena Primary School can be found in the eastern reaches of the Darling Ranges. Surrounded by native forest, the school provides an opportunity for students to engage in a rich curriculum with a focus on environmental education. The school provides a positive and friendly learning environment, and is highly regarded by all who pass through its portals. A 4,448 m2 Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track System as well as 1,080 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed soon for a school in Brunei: Bangunan Sekolah Menengah Kampong Rimba II. A 952 m2 Decoflex Softcourt 3 mm Sports Floor will be installed for tennis courts at “Lapangan Tennis Misaya Mitra” in Kota Baru, Indonesia. PT Misaya Mitra is a shrimp processor and exports these world wide. 483 m2 Neoflex 700 and 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at the Long Beach Maritius Hotel in Mauritius. Long Beach is a major new resort opening on the east coast of Mauritius. It brings carefree piazza-style living to the longest and widest stretch of white-sand coastline of any Mauritian resort. Beyond the beach, the tropical lagoon with its crystal clear blue waters and rare coral formations is a snorkelling paradise. A 555 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Floor was installed for Bishop Tyrrell Anglican School in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Bishop Tyrrell Anglican College is a K-12 Anglican school in the Newcastle suburb of Fletcher. 700 m2 of Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for the Holiday Villa Doha Hotel in Qatar. A 500 m2 indoor sports hall using the certified Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for GEMS Education Group at the Jumeirah Primary School in the United Arab Emirates. Over 100,000 students from 125 countries attend GEMS Schools around the Globe. Neoflex 500 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for a sports activity center of the Makro Department Store in Johannesburg. Makro is a West-Flemish (Belgian) chain of Warehouse clubs, also called cash and carries. The first one opened in 1968 in Diksmuide, Belgium. In the following years stores opened in the Netherlands and in several other countries within Europe. During the 1970s and 1980s Makro extended its business to the Americas, Asia and Africa. The stores are not open to the general public, only to businesses which must be registered members in order to gain entry to the store. 1,187 m2 of Decoflex Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed at the English School Foundation (ESF) Kennedy Road Campus. The English Schools Foundation (ESF) makes a vital contribution to Hong Kong by providing high quality and cost-effective education through the medium of English. ESF runs 21 schools across Hong Kong. A 3,600 m2 IAAF Certified Decoflex T14 Athletic Track Flooring System will be installed for ARAMCO in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. This facility will be installed at 3rd Street. A 510 m2 installation of Neoflex Rubber Flooring for the Information Comunication Technology Centre (ICTC), formerly known as Computer Services Centre, in Brunei Darrusalam will be installed shortly. A 1,539 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for the Jordanian Handball Federation, in Amman, Jordan. The Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System has the Seal of Approval of the International Handball Federation [IHF]. A 3,674 m2 Decoflex D10 Outdoor Sports Flooring Systems will be installed for the Schola Europea in Alicante, Spain. Schola Europea , or European Schools are co-educational free public schools providing nursery, primary and secondary education. They are established to provide free education for children of personnel of the European Institutions. 6 mm thick Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for the fitness gym at the Trou Aux Biches Hotel in Mauritius. The Trou Aux Biches Hotel is part of the Beachcomer Hotel Group, the pioneer and leader of the hotel industry in Mauritius. Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at St. John’s College in Johannesburg, South Africa for their dormitory. Our unique color #750 was chosen. St John’s College has an illustrious history spanning over 106 years. It is with great pleasure for us to announce that our Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System has received the Seal of Approval of the International Handball Federation [IHF]. We view this endorsement by the IHF as another significant confirmation of our commitment to supply only the highest quality indoor sports flooring that meet or exceed International Standards. Hundreds of thousands of square meters of completed installations are a proof of this. The IHF Seal of Approval can be downloaded from our web site at the following link: www.rephouse.com/products/sports/indoor/specifications Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring is also certified by FIBA - Fédération Internationale de Basketball, Fédération Internationale de Volleyball [FIVB] and Badminton World Federation (BWF) and is truly a multi-purpose sports floor. Should you have any questions or require any further information, please feel free to contact us. 1,230 m2 of Neoflex™ 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at an indoor play area for a kindergarten at Al Quo’a in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 540 sqm of Decoflex D8 (5+3) will be installed soon at Sekolah Pelita Harapan, one of the most prestigious and well known domestic schools in Indonesia at Kemang area, South Jakarta. A Decoflex™ Universal Indoor Sports Flooring installation has been completed for the Bargara State School in Bundaberg, Queensland. Bargara is a beachside community situated 15 minutes drive from the heart of Bundaberg. With wonderful access the sporting clubs, shopping, beaches, fishing and beautiful natural landscapes Bargara is the perfect place to live, learn and work. 600 m2 Evoflex™ Seamless Polyurethane Floor will be installed at Aramco’s Elementary School in Ras Tanura. The facility will be a covered sport area for inline skating and basketball. 800 m2 of Decoflex™ Softcourt 7 mm Sports Flooring will be installed for an outdoor play/sports area at the Kang Chiao Bilingual School in Taiwan, R.O.C. 1,655 sqm of Decoflex™ Universal 9 mm (7+2) Indoor Sports Flooring will be installed for Gym #3 at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Decoflex™ Universal Indoor Sports Flooring has also been installed in Gym #1 and Gym #2 previously at the same facility. A 1,079 m2 Decoflex™ D8/D14 Outdoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for the Shek Kip Mei Public School in Hong Kong, SAR, China. A 7,450 m2 Decoflex™ T14 IAAF Certified track was installed recently at Unidad Deportiva “Reforma”, Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. A beautifull job completed by our exclusive distributors and installers in Mexico: Distribuciones e Instalaciones Deportivas [DIDSA]. Contact Mr. German Aello at DIDSA for complete installation details. 960 m2 of Neoflex™ Rubber Flooring, colour #755, will be installed for Celebrity Fitness in Jakarta. A 574 m2 Playflex™ Play Tile installation will proceed shortly for the American School in Doha, Qatar. It is with great pleasure for us to announce that our Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System is now officially certified by the the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball [FIVB]. We view this endorsement by the FIVB as a significant confirmation of our commitment to supply only the highest quality indoor sports flooring that meet or exceed International Standards. Hundreds of thousands of square meters of completed installations are a proof of this. The FIVB certificate can be downloaded from our web site at the following link: www.rephouse.com/products/sports/indoor/specifications Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring is also certified by FIBA - Fédération Internationale de Basketball and Badminton World Federation (BWF) and is truly a multi-purpose sports floor. Should you have any questions or reuire any further information, please feel free to contact us. A 5,800 m2 Decoflex™ T14 IAAF Certified 8-lane athletic track was installed recently at Unidad Deportiva “Martin Alarcon Hisojo” in the city of Metepec. Compliments to the team at DIDSA for doing such a wonderful job. 432 m2 Neoflex™ 500 Series Flooring will be installed at Body Express VIP Fitness’ flag ship outlet in Subang Jaya. It is the 1st fitness center to adapt the “Personalized Fitness” formula which has become so popular in across the USA and Australia. 408 m2 8 mm thick Neoflex 500 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for a Gold’s Gym in San Borja, Lima, Peru. A 3,344 m2 Decoflex™ BSD Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed at the Sulaiman Futsal Centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be used at a display area for the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park. Opening in this year, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is set to be the world’s largest indoor theme park, sitting under a roof designed in the style of a classic double-curve body shell of a Ferrari GT car. With over 20 rides and attractions, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, Ferrari World is more than a theme park – it is where Ferrari’s legendary story is unveiled. 900 m2 of 3 mm Neoflex™ 700 Series Rubber Flooring, supplied in die-cut tiles, will be installed for an archery site in Tokyo, Japan. The color selected was #720. 1,034 m2 5 mm thick Decoflex™ Softcourt Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed as a multipurpose sports surface at the Shatin Givernment Primary School, Hong Kong, SAR, China. A 648 m2 tennis court, surfaced with our Decoflex D8, 8 mm thick, Outdoor Sports Flooring System will be installed a private residence in Arvaniti on Paros Island. A 1,000 m2 of 6 mm Neoflex #525-BFC will be installed at The Fitness Factory’s Kaoshiung, Taiwan gym. Fitness Factory has created a fitness center unrivaled in southern Taiwan, surpassing even the most renowned Taipei facilities to become Taiwan's only truly first class health club. Their mission is to spread an appreciation of health and fitness to their members and to create an environment that allows everyone to reach their fitness goals and begin a sustainable, healthy lifestyle for the future. A 1,387 m2 Decoflex Universal 7 mm Indoor Sports Flooring system will be installed for a private school at Al Quoz, Dubai, UAE. Al Quoz is located in western Dubai and is being promoted as an exclusive industrial area. A 1,300 m2 Decoflex™ S4 Outdoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for Aquinas College at the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The sports facility will be for 2 x volleyball courts and 1 x tennis court. Aquinas College (Years 8-12) and Guardian Angels School (Years P-7) are situated on 40 acres of land on the border of Southport and Ashmore at the northern end of the beautiful Gold Coast. The schools are surrounded by the green of a number of ovals, lawns and gardens. Aquinas College (Years 8-12) and Guardian Angels School (Years P-7) are situated on 40 acres of land on the border of Southport and Ashmore at the northern end of the beautiful Gold Coast. The schools are surrounded by the green of a number of ovals, lawns and gardens. A 6,100 m2 8-lane Decoflex™ SW14 Athletic Track Flooring System will be installed at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsan Gunung Rapat School in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. A 205 m2 Neoflex™ 800 Series Rubber Flooring Systems will be installed at the prestigious Raffles Residences Makati condominiums developed by Ayala Land. Our compliments to the E-Sports Team for scoring with such a high ranking developer. A 1,017 m2 Decoflex™ Universal 7 mm Indoor Sports Floor will be installed at the The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The HCT was established in 1988, and is the largest institution of higher learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over 16,500 students. The HCT provides post-secondary education in business, education, engineering technology, information technology, communications technology and health sciences. We shall be showing at the 2009 FSB Exhibition held in Cologne, Germany from October 28th to October 30th, 2009. Our stand will be located in Hall 11.2, Aisle M, Stand 072. You are cordially invited to visit and see the latest offerings in our product range. See you there! A 1,000 m2 of Decoflex™ Softcourt 7 mm Sports Flooring will be installed for 2 x tennis courts at a Private Residence in Amchit, Lebanon. About 2 km north of Byblos, this ancient coastal town climbs briefly up the lower elevations of Mount Lebanon. Amchit is known for its many traditional houses including the residence of French writer, Ernest Renan, who lived in Amchit in the 19th century. Neoflex™ 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at the prestigious Yas Marina Hotel adjoining the Formula F1 race track on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE. 4mm Neoflex will be installed as the gym area flooring while the 3mm will be installed on the walls columns and ceiling. We are pleased to announce that we have now successfully achieved a Class 1 IAAF certified track facility, in Hong Kong for the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground utilizing the Decoflex™ SW14 Athletic Track Flooring System. This is our first Class 1 IAAF Certified facility as well as the first Class 1 IAAF Certified facility in Hong Kong. Photos of the completed project can be found on the opening page of this web site or on our Reference Gallery. This venue will be used for the athletics competition of the 2009 EAST ASIAN GAMES. The green track is the main 8-lane track, whilst the blue/gray one is the training track. There is a separate 'D' area, also supplied in green, for the high jump. The Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground is a significant public works project of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The sport ground will not only serve as the track and field venue for the 2009 EAST ASIAN GAMES but will also be a base for athletic training. A copy of the IAAF Class 1 certificate can be downloaded from this web site. Of course, we have achieved a Class 2 IAAF certified track facility as well, in Peru, South America. See a copy of the IAAF Class 2 certificate. These certificates demonstrate that Rephouse is capable of offering the HIGHEST class of products to any International Standard. 5,158 m2 of Decoflex D14 Outdoor Sports Flooring will be installed for the jogging trail at the District Open Space at Po Kong Village, Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon, Hong Kong. This park is Hong Kong’s first low carbon urban park, which covers 94,600 sq.m. It includes sports pitches, a covered spectator stand with some 1,000 seats, cycling areas, play areas, jogging trail, gardens, a covered performance area and car parking. 1,850 m2 of 5 mm Neoflex 600 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed for a conference hall and two offices for the Nigerian Judiciary in Abuja, Nigeria. Our company officially celebrated its 24th Anniversary, today, August 8th, 2009. Thank you to all our friends, colleagues and clients for helping us become the success we are today. Cheers to another year of growth, success and good times! A prestigious project was recently completed for the New Zealand Academy of Sports at their QEII Christchurch facility. A 410 m2 Decoflex™ Universal Indoor Sports Flooring system was installed as their high performance sports floor with a 667 m2 built-in Decoflex™ D14 Athletic Track Flooring insert used as the running strip as well as free weight training zone, designated for heavy weights. In addition, the sauna room, medical room and athlete testing areas were covered with 168 m2 Neoflex™ 600 Series Rubber Flooring. Featured through these main areas include a swimming/plunge pool, sauna and hot tub. The New Zealand Academy of Sport, South Island co-ordinates, manages and delivers high quality athlete and coach services, providing a world-class training and preparation environment to support high performance athletes across the South Island. Their vision is to see New Zealand athletes winning on the world stage. To realize this, the Academy’s mission is to maintain: • A world class environment inspiring, supporting and enabling athletes and coaches to win in world events. • An organization that excels in leadership, innovation and the delivery of sports performance services. An 885 m2 Decoflex D10 Outdoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for the Hong Kong International School Tai Tam campus. Hong Kong International School (HKIS) is an international private school in Tai Tam and Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Founded in 1966 by a group of businessmen, HKIS spans from reception one to the twelfth grade. Its Lower and Upper Primary Divisions are located in Repulse Bay, and the Middle and High Schools are located in Tai Tam. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has continuously accredited Hong Kong International School since 1971. A 900 m2 Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed at the Hanoi Academy International School, Hanoi, Vietnam for their multipurpose indoor sports hall. A 128 m2 of Neoflex 800 Series Flooring will also be installed at their fitness room. The Hanoi Academy is a new bilingual school newly built in Hanoi for Vietnamese children in kindergarten, primary and secondary school. Hanoi Academy is considered a highlight in Vietnamese Education investment with modern infrastructure, advanced learning facilities and a curriculum that meets international standards. Thanks to the Team at AIM in scoring this contract! Neoflex™ Rubber Flooring, color #750, will be used at a ski rental center at the Cataloochee Ski Area located on Moody Top Mountain in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. A 1,420 m2 Decoflex Universal 9 mm [7+2] Indoor Sports Floor will be installed for the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School in the Philippines. Located at the heart of Ayala Alabang Village, De La Salle Santiago Zobel answers the educational needs of Southern Metro Manila for quality basic education. Jacobo Santiago Zobel, after whom the school is named, was the eldest son of Enrique Zobel who was then President of Ayala Corporation when the School was established. A big Thank you! To the Team at E-Sports for working so hard on this project. A 1,680 m2 8 mm thick Neoflex 700 Series special color floor will be installed for a special weight training room for CODESON [Comisión del Deporte del Estado de Sonora] in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. CODESON is the Sports Commission for the State Government of Sonora in Mexico. 1,200 m2 of Decoflex™ Softcourt Sports Flooring is to be installed for tennis courts at the Choi Hung Road Sports Centre for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in Hong Kong. The centre is located in Wong Tai Sin. A 960 m2 Decoflex T18 Resilient Flooring System has been installed at Al Sahra Desert Resort, Dubailand, UAE. Al Sahra (Arabic: the Desert) is a desert resort situated in Dubailand, a multi-billion dollar urban complex situated in Dubai. This unique eco-tourism resort offers visitors an experience of Arab hospitality and culture; arts and crafts in a natural environment featuring typical clay-plastered stone pillars and arched structures - all conceived to afford visitors an unforgettable experience in the desert. Al Sahra represents Arabian culture and heritage from Persia, the Maghreb, the Levant, the Gulf region, Oman and Yemen. The main entertainment complex encompasses an amphi-theatre with a seating capacity for up to 2,500 spectators. The amphi-theatre façade incorporates a traditional Arabic craft souk, restaurants and a coffee shop, surrounded by indigenous regional flora and fauna in a typical desert oasis landscape. A Bedouin style working farm with live animals and a date plantation; a camel farm; and stables complete the setting. Neoflex™ 600 Series Rubber Flooring, Color # 633, will be installed for the dressing/locker rooms at the beautiful Saujana Golf & Country Club in Subang, Selangor, Malaysia. A 4,400 m2 Decoflex T14 Athletic Track Flooring System will be installed at Club de Fútbol Pachuca. Also known as C.F. Pachuca, or usually simply Pachuca Pachuca is a Mexican football team based in Pachuca, Hidalgo, and competes in the Mexican Primera División. It is the oldest professional football club in Mexico. In the last ten years, the club has been one of the most successful clubs in Mexico, winning five national championships, three CONCACAF Champions' Cup, the 2007 SuperLiga and one Copa Sudamericana in 2006. Pachuca was the first Mexican team to win in a CONMEBOL tournament. Pachuca has played La Primera División since 1998 after decades of being an irregular team that spent most of the time between the 1st and 2nd level leagues in Mexico. A 2,500 m2 Neoflex™ 600 Series Floor will be installed for the “Basisschool De Coppele” in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands. Oisterwijk, The ‘Pearl of Brabant’ [Brabant is a provence in The Netherlands], is a dynamic, green district council in Central Brabant. The district council is made up of the Oisterwijk and Moergestel cores and the community of Heukelom and boasts over 25.000 inhabitants. Neoflex™ Natural Series Flooring can now be supplied in roll form. Previously, Neoflex™ Natural Series Flooring could only be supplied in tile form but with our continuing development of our product techniques, Neoflex™ Natural Series Flooring is now also available in rolls. 5,000 m2 of Playflex Impact Absorbing Rubber Tiles will be installed at The Emirates National School in Towaya, AL Ain. Our compliments go to the Team of Fenno Scandia, our exclusive distributors in the UAE, in cooperation with their commercial flooring partners MBM Abu Dhabi, for securing the work. A 912m2 Decoflex Universal 6 mm [4+2] Indoor Sports Floor will be installed shortly for 8 x badminton courts for Hepta Innovations in Balakong. Our compliments go to the Team of Far Eastern Sports, our exclusive distributors in Malaysia, for securing the work. A 500 m2 Decoflex D10 Outdoor Sports Floor will be installed at the L.S.T. Yeung Chung MIng School in Ngau Tau Kok, Kowloon. A 547 m2 Decoflex D8 [4+4] 8 mm will be installed at the Kwai Chung IVE School. The school is a member of the Vocational Training Council (VTC) which is the largest vocational education, training and professional development group in Hong Kong. IVE (Kwai Chung) is the only campus offering courses in Fashion Design and Product Development, Fashion Merchandising and Retailing, Fashion Image Design, Hairdressing, Textiles Design and Product Development as well as Textiles Merchandising. Students of the Department of Fashion and Textiles have won numerous local and national awards. We are pleased to confirm that Rephouse [M] Sdn Bhd has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001. We may now publicly state that we are "ISO 9001 certified". Achievement of ISO 9001:2000 in the factory facilities demonstrates Rephouse's commitment to industry leadership and our employees’ dedication to providing the highest quality products for our customers worldwide. In today's competitive business environment, effective quality management is indispensable, and ISO 9001:2000 certification assures Rephouse customers that we now have an internationally recognized quality management system in place. Rephouse firmly believes that customers want to be confident that they are doing business with an organization that can meet or exceed their needs. A 587 sqm Decoflex D10 Outdoor Sports Floor will be installed at King’s College, Hong Kong. King’s College is a secondary school in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, and was founded on its present site in 1926. Ever since its founding, King's has played a significant role in the history of education in Hong Kong. Its contribution was highly commented on in the St. John's Review, which remarked that "to thousands of former students, many of whom are leaders in commerce and public life of the Colony, to be without King's and Queen's was to be like an Englishman without his Oxford and Cambridge and an American without his Yale and Harvard." A 680 m2 Decoflex Universal 9 mm [7+2] Indoor Sports floor will be installed in a sports hall at the Euro Village Compound, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Euro Village Compound is one of the largest residential compounds in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is comparable to a small village of more than four hundred villas occupied by expatriates mainly from Europe & America. Euro Village is situated in Prince Sultan Street Dhahran adjacent to Sport City Dammam - Al Khobar Highway not far from King Fahad International Airport. A 870 sqm of Decoflex Universal 6 mm [4+2] Indoor Sports Floor will be installed at Al Raha International School Phase II in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Compliments to the Raymond Sport LLC Team in securing this work! A 675 sqm Decoflex D10 Outdoor Sports Floor will be installed for the Hong Kong Government Sau Mau Ping Government School II. A 5,800 m2 Decoflex T14 Athletic Track surface [IAAF Certified] will be installed in Metepec, Mexico. Metepec is a town about an hours drive West of Mexico City. A 6-lane athletic track will be installed for ARAMCO in Dharan Hills using our IAAF Certified Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring System. The facility will be used by both schools and local residents in the area. Two projects will be installed using a truly resilient Decoflex Softcourt Sports Flooring. One tennis court will be supplied & installed for the British Community Club in Jordan. Another tennis court will be supplied and installed for the British Commissioner. Playflex Playground Tiles and Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Flooring has been installed at Frasers Suites in Tay Ho District, Hanoi. Fraser Suites Hanoi is a prime address for expatriates who desire a home close to the place of business, and yet offers a tranquil repose from the bustle of the city. The Gold-Standard serviced residence is in the scenic Westlake district, the residential enclave preferred by foreign executives and their families. A 1,200 m2 Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring has been completed for the British Council in Hanoi, Vietnam. Today the British Council is well established in Vietnam as an educational and cultural center. They have 85 national and UK staff, eight classrooms in which 2,500 people are taught English annually and manage over 30 projects ranging from fashion design to malaria research. They also run a national network for English language teacher training for over 1,000 English teachers. A 2,586 m2 Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Floor will be installed for Telstra Brisbane - the telephone service provider. The floor will be installed for one of Teltra's call centers. An 1,860 m2 9 mm Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring System will be installed for the Nakharin Grand Condotel in Bangkok, Thailand. The public facility will have 18 x badminton courts. Toyota Motors has confirmed an order for 1,900 m2 of 9 mm Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring as well as 240 m2 of Neoflex 800 Series Flooring for their staff sports center. Facilities will include basketball courts, badminton courts and table tennis. Neoflex Rubber Flooring will be used for the fitness facilities. 1,850 m2 of Neoflex 700 Series Flooring will be installed for the Saenstroom School in Wormerveer. 2,418 m2 Neoflex 800 Series Flooring will be installed at the offices of Dutch Social Network "Hyves". Hyves is a free Dutch social networking site which has been online since October 2004. A 960 m2 special edition Decoflex Universal IH 8 mm Indoor Sports Floor was installed at the Indera Mulia Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia for the indoor hockey Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2008 hosted by the Asian Hockey Federation. A 1,186 m2 Decoflex D10 project has been secured for Sau Mau Ping Government School (Phase I). A Decoflex D8 [4+4] Outdoor Sports Floor will be installed soon at the King Lam Estate Catholic School in Hong Kong. We are pleased to confirm that Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Flooring will be used in the fitness center at the FOUR SEASONS HOTEL in Singapore. A 2,160 m2 of 4 mm Neoflex #809 Rubber Flooring order has been confirmed as a swimming pool surround surface for 6 x swimming pools for the King Fahd Medical City, Riyadh. A special color Neoflex 700 Series Rubber Floor will be installed at the Diamond Peak Ski Resort at Incline Village, Nevada. A special color 1,300 m2 Neoflex 600 Series Flooring will be installed for Amstelveen City in Holland. A 2,016 sqm Neoflex 800 Series Rubber Floor will be installed at the Sport Club "Olympic" in St. Petersburg. A 1,300 m2 Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring System, IAAF Certified, will be installed in a sports arena in Osijek, Croatia. There are only five of such sports arenas in Croatia so we are proud to have achieved this success with our partners. A 6,000 m2 custom color Neoflex 700 Rubber Floor will be installed for the CWI offices throughout Holland. The CWI (Centre for Work and Income) is an independent governing body (ZBO) that works for the Ministry of Social Affairs and employment (SZW) in Holland. CWI is centrally controlled. The policy is locally supported by six district offices. The tasks of CWI are carried out on approximately 150 CWI-establishments and - these offices are spread over the Netherlands. Decoflex has reached Cebu City in the Philippines! Thanks to the great effort of our exclusive distributors, E-Sports, a 627 m2 Decoflex Universal 9 mm [7+2] Indoor Sports Floor will be installed at the Amara Clubhouse in Cebu City which is being developed by prominent Ayala Land Premier Properties. A 1,400 m2 Decoflex Universal 13 mm [11+2] Indoor Sports Floor will be installed for the Higher Council for Youth, Jordan. An ± 1,860 m2 Decoflex Universal 9 mm [7+2] Indoor Sports Floor has been confirmed for the Nakharin Grand Condotel, in Samutprakran, Thailand. The surface will be installed for an 18 x court badminton complex. The Municipal Puerto Natales Stadium in Puerto Natales, Chile has confirmed an order for a 5,200 m2 8-lane athletic track using the IAAF certified Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring System. We look forward to making this project a success with our partners! August 2008 signals The Rephouse Group's 23rd birthday. The company continues to do well, expand and supply quality, innovative rubber flooring products, world-wide. Rephouse Ballistic Tiles will be installed at the firearm discharge stations for the security personell of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Institution, located in Washington D.C. is the world's largest museum complex and research organization composed of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo. A 746 m2 Decoflex D10 OUtdoor Sports Floor will be installed for a school yard in Sofia, Bulgaria. This project is a part of a reconstruction and renovation effort of Bulgarian schools and is financed by European Union funds. Recently, orders for 506 m2 of 3 mm thick Neoflex 600 Series Rubber Flooring for the Ramkhamhaeng Advent School as well as 324 m2 of 5 mm thick Neoflex 500 Series Rubber Flooring for the Chiangmai Zoo have been received. Neoflex Rubber Flooring has been chosen for a call center at Safaricom. Safaricom are the leading telecommunications company operating in Kenya. They provide a host of products and services for Telephony, GPRS, 3G, EDGE, Data and Fax. ASE Group is the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services, including assembly and testing. Recently, a 660 m2 Neoflex installation was completed for their staff gym. A big thanks to our dealer, Wallthings Corporation for their good work and service. Neoflex Rubber Flooring, Decoflex D8 (4+4) Sports Flooring and Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring will be installed at the Thomas Sport Center at Byerly Park, Hartsville, SC. This facility will have a mezzanine track [D8], Weight Room [Neoflex 500 Series], Multipurpose Area and Entrance [Neoflex Natural #1009] as well as Multipurpose Indoor Sports Hall [Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring]. The American Club in Singapore has gone with Neoflex Rubber Flooring for their gym facilities. The gym has 3 levels all to be covered with Neoflex. The order is for 3 areas; the office, stretching area and some cardio areas on level 1, another cardio area and and a strength equipment area. Compliments to Mr. Ibrahim Atan and his Team at F1 Singapore in securing this prestigious reference. We are pleased to confirm that a 760 m2 Decoflex Universal 11 mm (9+2) Indoors Sports Floor will be installed for a handicapped school in Duhail. A 5,500 m2 Playflex AMP 50 mm play tile order was received for Saudi Arabia Aramco. Saudi Arabian Oil Company produces, manufactures, markets and ships crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products to meet the global demand. The play tiles are used for play facilities for their residential compounds. The Bahrain Rugby Football has chosen Playflex Play Tiles for their children's play area. In addition, more Playflex Play Tiles will be used at a new private school for autistic children with a small indoor area to be installed with Decoflex Universal for two clean/safe play areas in the school. A 430 sqm Decoflex D8 (4+4) will be installed for Tseung Kwan O LHT (Housing) School. The Decoflex 'D' System is an approved and registered sports flooring product by the the Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong, SAR, China. 1,000 ,2 of Decoflex T18 [a thicker variant of our IAAF Certfied T14 System] will be installed for the Safa Park Jogging Track. The surface is for a jogging track around and within a Dubai municipal park. The old park is being demolished and a new park is being constructed. A 600 m2 Evoflex™ 12 mm Seamless Polyurethane Flooring will be installed for Dhahran Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for a Skate Park. We are pleased to confirm that a 1,011 m2 Deoflex D6 Outdoor Sports Floor will be installed at the Lishan Eleimentary School in Taiwan. The school will also use 360 m2 of 10 mm Neoflex 500 Series for their fitness gym. A 710 m2 Decoflex D8 Multipurpose Sports Flooring Systems will be installed for the Hong Kong Housing Authority at Fu Tung Estate, Tung Chung area. We are pleased to confirm that a 7,000 m2 Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring Systems will be installed at the Maktab Sains Secondary School in Brunei Darrusalam. This will be Rephouse's first athletic track project in Brunei and we are looking forward to working with our dealers, Hi Biz Sdn Bhd, and making it a big success. A 1,200 m2 specially designed 7 mm Decoflex surface will be installed for a walkway in Toluca de Lardo - it has been classified as a Decoflex T7 - 7 mm thick. The build up is identical to the Decoflex T14 System, except for the thickness. A 1,230 m2 installation of Decoflex Universal 9 mm will proceed for a school at Riffa Views, Bahrain. The project is complimented by a 156 m2 Neoflex Rubber Floor for a gym. A 1,700 m2 [url=/products/commercial/700-series/description]Neoflex 700 Special Color Floor will be installed at the entrance of the Jaarbeurs Utrecht. It is a special color: black on black. Jaarbeurs Utrecht organises fairs, events, congresses, conferences, and meetings; from its central location, Jaarbeurs Utrecht forms the stage for business and entertainment. Check out www.jaarbeursutrecht.com. A 3,000 m2 Decoflex D6 order has been confirmed for a Health Club in Sochi, Russia. Sochi is the host the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Ministry of Education, Kuwait has confirmed another 8,000 sqm of Decoflex D10 as their outdoor sports surface for numerous schools around the Country. This is a repeat order as in 2007. An IAAF Class 2 Certificate has now been achieved for Club Regatas de Lima in Peru. The surfacing installed was Decoflex™ SW14. Decoflex SW14 Athletic Flooring will be installed at two schools in Abu Dhabi - Gayassi School and Delam School. Decoflex T14 Athletic Flooring will be installed for the Indian High School in Dubai. A 520 m2 Decoflex Softcourt 7 mm installation is now complete in Peru. The project was for Fundo Odria Club de la FAP in Lima. The surface is to be used for volleyball, basketball and futsal. 1,000 m2 of Decoflex Softcourt 7 mm will be installed shortly for the Municipality of Carreau Lalliane as well as at the Grannum Complex. 1,914 m2 of Decoflex T14 will be installed at Tukums Stadium, Latvia. 780 m2 Neoflex 500 Series Rubber Flooring will be installed at the Harb Kusakabe Gymnasium and Loco Indoor Tennis School in Osaka. Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring, IAAF Certified, will be installed at the Athletic Stadium in Lensk, Sakha -Yakutia. We are pleased to confirm that a Decoflex Universal 7 mm (5+2) Indoor Sports Floor was selected for the Red Cross Social Centre. In addition, a Decoflex D10 (6+4) Outdoor Sports Flooring System was selected for a multipurpose sports area at Long Tim Estate of the Hong Kong Housing Authority. A Neoflex 500 Series installation has been completed at Cafe Gallery of the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Kyoto, Japan. A Decoflex D8 surface for a futsal court will be installed shortly at Bangar Camp for the Ministry of Defence. A 1,050 m2 Decoflex Universal 7 mm [5+2] floor will be installed for a futsal center in Labuan, Malaysia. Two customers have chosen our IAAF Certified Decoflex T14 athletic track surfacing for their athletic facilities. 6,000 m2 for Unidad Deportiva Gil Cabrera Gudiño in Villa de Alvares, Colima. Another 6,000 m2 for Unidad Deportiva 5 de Mayo in Manzanillo, Colima. Well done German and Ruben at Distribuciones e Instalaciones Deportivas [DIDSA] for securing the work! A Neoflex 700 Series flooring installation has just been recently completed to great acclaim at KRAANSPOOR, an office development in Amsterdam developed by ING Real Estate. Visit www.kraanspoor.nl [Dutch language only]. ING Real Estate is market leader in the Holland in commercial real estate development, commercial real estate finance and real estate investment management. Their total business portfolio is EURO 70 billion and they have offices in 15 countries worldwide. A 912 m2 Decoflex Universal floor will be installed at the Al Khark Sports Club in Iraq. Decoflex Universal Indoor Sports Flooring was selected for a school in Heinola, Finland. Our compliments and thanks go out to the team at RTV-Yhtymä Oy, to gain this project against stiff competition. An 18,680 sq ft Neoflex 800/700 Series Flooring installation was recently completed for Boeing Corporation at their headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The product was installed for several cafe areas as well as the fitness center. Melbourne Cricket Ground - Decoflex Universal, Decoflex D14 Athleltic Track Flooring and Playflex play tiles have been selected for the new National Sports Museum. Opening in March 2008, the National Sports Museum will reaffirm the MCG as the spiritual home of Australian sport. Sunpower Philippines, designs and manufactures high efficiency solar electric technology world wide. They have selected a 5+2 Decoflex Universal Flooring System for their plant's sports facility. Our compliments and thanks go out to the team at E-Sports, to gain such an important reference. Neoflex™ Rubber Flooring will now be installed for Levi's Jeans Stores - the next store to be surfaced will be in Trinoma, Manila. Fitness First in India has confirmed orders for Neoflex Rubber Flooring for three of their new fitness centers: Central Court Hotel, Mega Mall Mubai + Ambi Mall Gurgaon. Rephouse supplies this prominent fitness center chain throughout Asia. An 8-lane 6,000 sqm Decoflex T14 athletic track is currently being installed for the Colima University in Mexico. Decoflex Universal was selected for the Maryborough Council Sports Hall, Maryborough Queensland for a 1,020 m2 Multipurpose Sports Hall including 300m2 Neoflex. 900 m2 of Decoflex Universal will be installed at the Bli Bli State School, Bli Bli Queensland for a Multipurpose Sports Hall with 80 m2 of Neoflex. This project is for the Department of Education Queensland. 1,220 m2 of Neoflex 700 Series will be installed The University of Groningen for one of their Academic Buildings. The University of Groningen is a university with a high reputation for academic teaching and research and a large international network. Visit www.rug.nl for more information. 1,500 m2 of [url=/products/commercial/700-series/description]Neoflex 750 was recently installed at the Pantar Amsterdam Project . The product was chosen by Rietmeijer Consultancy - visit their web site at www.rietmeijer.nl. Click on English section [if necessary]. Specific details of the Pantar Amsterdam Project can found by clicking on the PROJECTS link and then proceed to page 3 of 4. Two noteworthy Decoflex installations recently completed in France. A D8 installation of a French Police Station in Marseille and a Universal 9 mm [7+2] installation for the Municipality of Jean Saint of Angely in the Western part of France. Our compliments to Patrice Baumier and his team. Club Regatas has recently confirmed Rephouse™'s first track installation in Peru. A blue colored Decoflex SW14 Athletic Flooring Systems was selected for the Club™'s track facility. This very prominent Club was founded in 1875 and has more than 16,000 members. It provides all Olympic sports disciplines to its members and has yielded world class athletes. The club has 4 locations: 2 x at the beach and a location at the major Port of Lima. It hosts multiple restaurants, a full turkish bath, theaters, gymnasia and a super bar on the seventh floor of a magnificent building overlooking the Bay of Lima. Our compliments go out to Oscar Vega, Alvaro Marroquin and their Team at Sport Business Peru in securing this work. We look forward to making this track installation a success. A 1,900 sqm sprint track will be installed at the Wan Hua Primary School in Taiwan. Product selected was Decoflex Softrack 13 mm in blue color. A 660 sqm futsal court using Decoflex Softcourt 3 mm installation for the Ministry of Defence in Brunei Darussalam. Our compliment to Mr. Mir Altaf Ahmed and his Team at HiBiz, our exsclusive dealers in handling and finishing this project. A Neoflex installation has recently been completed for the Arigato Tae-Kwan-Do center in Estonia. The Decoflex SW14 Athletic Track Flooring, supplied in blue, is now complete at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento, Tijuana, Baja California. This center was designed and built to forment the development of sports to the highest international standards. The installation was lead bu our exclusive distributor Distribuciones e Instalaciones Deportivas [DIDSA]. The American International School has confirmed that they will be using Decoflex D8 for their multipurpose sports ground. Installation will commence during the New Year holidays. Neoflex 800 Series Flooring, color #806, is now being installed throughout Holland at KPN's [major mobile phone service provider] 110 x Primafoon shops. A 1,548 sqm Decoflex D8 installation is now complete for a 2 x tennis court complex in Kedainiai, Lithuania. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates will get its own indoor ski slope at the Marina Mall. The mall's Snowworld will have a 100-metre ski slope, ice skating rink and shopping complex. Neoflex Rubber Flooring will be installed throughout. Installation is to proceed in a few months time. Our compliments and thanks go out to Mr. Rosh D'Costa and his team at Fenno Scandia, to achieve such an important reference. The Ministry of Education, Kuwait has confirmed another 10,000 sqm of Decoflex D10 as their outdoor sports surface for numerous schools around the Country. This is a repeat order as in 2006, The Ministry of Education, Kuwait also placed more than 10,000 sqm of the same product. Our compliments go to the team of Al Ryadh Group Co w.l.l., Kuwait our exclusive distributors in Kuwait for securing the work. The University of Melaka 8-lane track installation is now complete. The IAAF Certified Decoflex SW14 Track Surface was installed in red color. Texas A&M University has confirmed an order for over 34,000 sq ft of Versatile 2 ft. x 2 ft. rubber tiles to be installed around their Kyle Field. The product will be supplied complete with ramped edges as well as the adhesive. Installation is proceeding. We are pleased to announce that Rephouse has been awarded the contract to build the athletic tracks for the 2009 East Asia Games, to be held in Hong Kong. The flooring system selected was Decoflex SW14 for both the main 8-lane track as well as the 6-lane training track. Visit www.2009eastasiangames.hk for more details on this event. We are pleased to launch our new web site. Please feel free to browse! Check out this news section again for the latest happenings and project updates.

2019-04-22T04:18:38Z

http://www.rephouse.com/news

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nyotron, provider of the industry's first OS-Centric Positive Security solution to strengthen endpoint protection, today published the results of its study of the efficacy of leading antivirus (AV) solutions against known malware, including samples that first appeared over 20 years ago, such as 2001's infamous ILOVEYOU virus. The top findings: even for decades-old malware, detection rarely lives up to vendors' claims of 99.9% efficacy, and that rate drops dramatically with facile file modification or when not connected to the Internet. Detection efficacy dropped dramatically with facile single-byte modification of the original virus, to as low as 60%. "Today there are over one billion known viruses, with an additional million created every day, and that sheer volume renders modern AV tools ineffective even against decades-old, well-known malware," said Nir Gaist, CTO, Nyotron. "If your entire protection stack is based on only chasing the bad, you will always remain vulnerable to both used and new viruses. Even if an AV product could deliver on its marketing collateral's plight of 99.9 percent efficacy - and their research shows it rarely does - when you're talking about billions of attacks, that's noiseless inadequate." About NyotronNyotron pioneers a new generation of automatic Endpoint Detection and Response with integrated protection called Endpoint Prevention and Response (EPR). Their product prevents damage from malware that evades existing security layers and offers granular visibility into the attack. Based on the OS-Centric Positive Security, Nyotron's PARANOID automatically whitelists trusted operating system behavior and rejects everything else. No manual threat hunting, baselining, machine learning or cloud connectivity required. With PARANOID organizations gain honest defense-in-depth protection against the most advanced attacks. Nyotron is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA with an R&D office in Israel. Helsinki, Finland, September 2, 2003 – F-Secure Corporation (HEX: FSC), a leading provider of content security solutions, today announced the immediate availability of F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security. Recent virus outbreaks highlight exigent necessity for companies to upgrade protection to a centrally managed solution integrating antivirus, distributed firewall, application control and intrusion prevention into a seamless cost-efficient solution to protect desktops and laptops against network worms, such as Blaster/Lovsan. F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security is the first antivirus solution to fully satisfy the new requirements. “The past few weeks Enjoy been the busiest in virus history. In the case of Blaster a traditional antivirus, even with the most recent update, allowed the worm to enter the computer. This proves that the era of traditional antivirus products is over. Antivirus with an integrated firewall is the only protection against these attacks”, says Kimmo Alkio, Chief Operating Officer of F-Secure’s Anti-Virus Business. F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security is designed to protect company desktops and laptops against today’s intricate threats. The product offers unique protection against viruses, hackers, network worms as well as the utilize of networking software that violates corporate security policies. The centralized management system, F-Secure Policy Manager, provides an facile and cost efficient pass to deploy the product and to monitor the security smooth of the total network. “The recent virus outbreaks (Blaster, Sobig.F) Enjoy started a new era in the fight against viruses. You necessity a robust and scalable solution to breathe properly protected. F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security provides a complete and fully manageable solution against modern threats. Thanks to its unique features they can concentrate on their core commerce even in the case of major virus outbreaks”, says Ola Johansson, Technical Manager of The National companionable Insurance Board of Sweden. F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security furthermore features virus word delivery, location based security levels and centrally managed application control. The virus word feature delivers instant notification messages of solemn security events around the globe and informs the user when the computer is protected against the new threat. The product is furthermore able to raise its security smooth based on the location, e.g. the security smooth is higher when the laptop is connected to the network outside office premises. With the application control the network administrator can obviate the utilize of networking software that violates company security, such as spy ware, peer-to-peer and internet relay chat (IRC) software. F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security can breathe bought as partake of the multi-layer solution F-Secure Anti-Virus Total Suite or separately. About F-SecureF-Secure Corporation is the leading provider of centrally managed security solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company’s award-winning products involve antivirus, file encryption and network security solutions for major platforms from desktops to servers and from laptops to handhelds. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since November 1999. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, with the North American headquarters in San Jose, California, as well as offices in Germany, Sweden, Japan and the United Kingdom and regional offices in the USA. F-Secure is supported by a network of value added resellers and distributors in over 90 countries around the globe. Through licensing and distribution agreements, the company’s security applications are available for the products of the leading handheld rig manufacturers, such as Nokia and HP. Endpoint security is noiseless dominated by traditional anti-virus solutions, with Gartner ranking Symantec, Sophos, Trend Micro and Kaspersky as leaders in the field. But new next-generation endpoint security solutions are generating buzz as either replacements or supplements to existing security investments. These new solutions plight to cease zero-day attacks and ransomware, two august security threats that often slip by traditional anti-virus solutions. The endpoint security solutions featured here utilize a variety of emerging approaches and technologies. In general, though, next-generation endpoint security relies on one of two methods to cease new attacks. Many utilize some profile of advanced analytics -- whether from a pre-determined analysis of malware or by learning your network -- that monitors endpoint behavior and stops unusual events. Others leverage virtual sandboxes, whitelists or containers to ensure insecure endpoint activity remains cleave off from the network. To encourage cleave through the hype, we've focused on how each endpoint security solution works and what's unique about the company. We've furthermore identified whether the solution tries to replace or complement existing security tools. You'll find information on which endpoint OSes each supports and whether the utensil can provide security analytics. How it works: Bufferzone creates a virtual container around any applications you deem insecure. This can involve browsers, email, Skype, FTP and removable storage devices. Essentially, it segregates the corporate network into two zones: trusted and untrusted domains. The utensil creates a virtual sandbox around the entire application environment, including related files, registries and network access that your administrator deems insecure. This allows the solution to contain malware, protecting not only your network but the leisure of the conclude user's computer. What's unique: Bufferzone does not attempt to detect or screen malware but instead focuses on containing complete "untrusted" sources. Any infections are automatically confined to the container. The upside is it doesn't require maintenance of a blacklist or whitelist and, unlike traditional endpoint detection solutions, it doesn't necessity to learn to detect new, suspicious behaviors. "It simply isolates threats relish ransomware and zero-days so that they cannot attain any harm," the company notes. Replace or complement: Bufferzone integrates existing SIEM solutions and august Data analytics tools to identify targeted attacks. How it works: Barkly relies on proprietary behavioral analytics to detect techniques and behaviors common to complete malware. An agent called Rapidvisor is installed locally on your endpoints and managed via a cloud-based portal. The agent watches in real-time across multiple levels of the system, including user space, operating system functions and CPU instructions. When Barkly detects something malicious, it stops the process and blocks the attack, notifying the conclude user and administrators. What's unique: Barkly says it is the only solution to cease advanced attacks by applying sophisticated behavioral analytics on the endpoint. It monitors processes across complete levels of the system and instantly blocks malicious behaviors on the endpoint, even without an internet connection. This enables Barkly to cease new and never-before-seen attacks that traditional solutions miss. Replace or complement: Barkly is designed to toil with traditional solutions, offering another layer of protection. Analytics: Barkly leverages real-time behavior analytics to identify malware while avoiding unfounded positives. How it works: Carbon Black Endpoint Security Platform is another system that combines advanced analytics and behavior recognition to cease attacks. The platform incorporates three components: an advanced analytics, data science and behavior recognition core; a lightweight endpoint sensor that records complete critical activity on the endpoint, flagging malicious activity for your security team; and an element that can thwart attacks by locking down critical systems using multiple levels of application control. Each of these elements is powered by Carbon Black's Collective Defense Cloud, which aggregates security data from more than 7 million endpoints to strengthen the entire customer base. What's unique: Carbon Black's platform approach combines next-generation endpoint security with security policy controls, including the competence to whitelist applications. It furthermore records complete endpoint activity, and supports search so your team can amass security forensics and respond to attacks. Analytics: Carbon Black has built-in analytics. It furthermore integrates with existing SIEM, network security and threat intelligence solutions so you can discharge user-behavioral analytics and other forms of analysis. How it works: CrowdStrike's Falcon platform is a SaaS solution that's built on top of a massive graph database. This allows CrowdStrike to yoke machine learning with behavior-based detection and prevention to detect attacks on endpoints. It delivers both detection and response in a lone endpoint agent. Analytics: CrowdStrike analyzes security events, then delivers findings immediately so customers can cease an assail while it is actually happening. Big brag: "Virtually limitless" scalability, thanks to the cloud architecture. A leading financial institution deployed 77,000 endpoint sensors globally within two hours - a chore that would typically retract a traditional security vendor 18 months to complete, the company notes. How it works: Secdo's OS Mirroring technology proactively records complete OS-level events. It furthermore incorporates a causality engine, which uses advanced analytics to find connections between other security system alerts and endpoint events. This allows the utensil to determine whether an event is suspicious behavior or a unfounded positive. The thread-level endpoint monitoring coupled with causality analytics allows analysts to visualize the assail chain, so your security team can understand the context of any unusual activities. What's unique: Secdo's solution includes an anti-ransomware deception utensil that forces ransomware to disclose itself early. Once ransomware is exposed, Secdo's proprietary technology, IceBlock, automatically freezes the ransomware before files are encrypted, thus preventing further damage. It then pinpoints the root antecedent for the attack, as well as the entire assail chain, including the presence of ransomware on an organization's endpoints. Once the root antecedent is identified, the security team is alerted, allowing analysts to discharge a forensic analysis on any of the endpoints and servers in an organization. Analytics: The solution supplies detailed endpoint and server data to other systems so your security team has the complete context of an attack. Big brag: Named a Gartner glacial Vendor in 2016. How it works: Morphisec takes what is typically a hacker utensil -- a polymorphic engine for encrypting or scrambling code -- and turns the technology into a security shield for an application. It calls this moving Target Defense technology; essentially it conceals vulnerabilities and web browsers by making recollection space unpredictable to attackers. This stops attacks from running, according to the company, and is managed with a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) agent that sits on endpoints. This means it doesn't require signature updates or learning algorithms. What's unique: Its utilize of a polymorphic engine as a security tool. Morphisec says it's furthermore proven current in companies with a august usage of VDI, Citrix and Xenapp. Analytics: Protector Morphisec Dashboard supports role-based views so users can view attacks, view and filter assail information, and obtain insights for conducting forensic analysis. The company is furthermore developing a real-time crowdsourced investigation and threat intelligence product to encourage identify and cease attacks faster. Big brag: Morphisec was named a 2016 Gartner glacial Vendor in Security for Technology and Service Providers. How it works:SentinelOne learns gardenvariety registry behavior and then monitors for specific deviant behaviors, such as attempting to maintain persistence, modify a registry or interject code into processes. This allows it to protect against complete major assail vectors, including file-less malware and insider attacks. It does this using a lightweight agent that sits on the endpoint. SentinelOne furthermore eliminates threats upon detection with fully automated, integrated mitigation and remediation capabilities and real-time forensics. Analytics: SentinelOne offers integration with current SIEM solutions, with champion for standard data export formats. How it works: TrustPipe compares its approach to DNA markers. After analyzing terabytes of data on malicious attacks and harmless traffic, the company identified a template of about 1,000 markers for malware. It distilled these markers into a lightweight client that sits on the endpoint and maps every digital conversation against those markers. If a marker set is a match, the assail is stopped while the code is noiseless being transmitted -- and before the assail can launch. It furthermore looks for unique indicators that exhibit when a machine has been compromised and automatically stops the endpoint from transmitting that the assail worked, seals off the compromised instance of the services and creates a new marker set so the endpoint won't descend to that assail again. What's unique: TrustPipe relies completely on the endpoint agent without additional software. Because it uses common assail markers, it can Go months without requiring an update. Trustpipe furthermore goes to market through partners, rather than selling as a standalone solution.

2019-04-21T04:40:42Z

http://tractaricurteadearges.ro/pass4sure-cert.php?exam=250-504

The primary optimization that the compiler would try to make here is the elimination of explicit branch instructions. Although conditional move operations were added to the x86 instruction set around the time of the Pentium II, the Microsoft C compiler still does not use them by default when targeting x86 platforms (in contrast, x64 compiler uses them extensively). However, there are still some tricks that the compiler has at its disposal to perform such conditional assignments without branch instructions. The key trick here is the use of a setcc instruction, followed by a dec instruction and an and instruction. If one takes a minute to look at the code, the meaning of these three instructions in sequence becomes apparent. Specifically, a setcc followed by a dec sets a register to either 0 or 0xFFFFFFFF (-1) based on a particular condition flag. Following which the register is ANDed with a constant, which depending on whether the register is 0 or -1 will result in the register being set to the constant or being left at zero (since anything AND zero is zero, while ANDing any particular value with 0xFFFFFFFF yields the input value). After this sequence, a second constant is summed with the current value of the register, yielding the desired result of the operation. This sort of trick is also often used where something is conditionally set to either zero or some other value, in which case the “add” trick can be omitted and the non-zero conditonal assignment value is used in the AND step. A similar construct with the sbb instruction and the carry flag can also be constructed (as opposed to setcc, if sbb is more convenient for the particular case at hand). For example, the sbb approach tends to be preferred by the compiler when setting a value to zero or -1 as a further optimization on this theme as it avoids the need to decrement, assuming that the input value was already zero initially and the condition is specified via the carry flag. Yesterday, I outlined some of the general principles behind how guest to host communication in VMs work, and why the virtual serial port isn’t really all that great of a way to talk to the outside world from a VM. Keeping this information in mind, it should be possible to do much better in a VM, but it is first necessary to develop a way to communicate with the outside world from within a VMware guest. It turns out that, as previously mentioned, that there happen to be a lot of things already built-in to VMware that need to escape from the guest in order to notify the host of some special event. Aside from the enhanced (virtualization-aware) hardware drivers that ship with VMware Tools (the VMware virtualization-aware addon package for VMware guests), for example, there are a number of “convenience features” that utilize specialized back-channel communication interfaces to talk to code running in the VMM. While not publicly documented by VMware, these interfaces have been reverse engineered and pseudo-documented publicly by enterprising third parties. It turns out the VMware has a generalized interface (a “fake” I/O port) that can be accessed to essentially call a predefined function running in the VMM, which performs the requested task and returns to the VM. This “fake” I/O port does not correspond to how other I/O ports work (in particular, additional registers are used). Virtually all (no pun intended) of the VMware Tools “convenience features”, from mouse pointer tracking to host to guest time synchronization use the VMware I/O port to perform their magic. Because there is already information publicly available regarding the I/O port, and because many of the tasks performed using it are relatively easy to find host-side in terms of the code that runs, the I/O port is an attractive target for a communication mechanism. The mechanisms by which to use it guest-side have been publicly documented enough to be fairly easy to use from a code standpoint. However, there’s still the problem of what happens once the I/O port is triggered, as there isn’t exactly a built-in command that does anything like take data and magically send it to the kernel debugger. For this, as alluded to previously, it is necessary to do a bit of poking around in the VMware VMM in order to locate a handler for an I/O port command that would be feasible to replace for purposes of shuttling data in and out of the VM to the kernel debugger. Although the VMware Tools I/O port interface is likely not designed (VMM-side, anyway) for high performance, high speed data transfers (at least compared to the mechanisms that, say, the virtualization-aware NIC driver might use), it is at the very least orders of magnitude better than the virtual serial port, certainly enough to provide serious performance improvements with respect to kernel debugging, assuming all goes according to plan. Looking through the list of I/O port commands that have been publicly documented (if somewhat unofficially), there are one or two that could possibly be replaced without any real negative impacts on the operation of the VM itself. One of these commands (0x12) is designed to pop-up the “Operating System Not Found” dialog. This command is actually used by the VMware BIOS code in the VM if it can’t find a bootable OS, and not typically by VMware Tools itself. Since any VM that anyone would possibly be kernel debugging must by definition have a bootable operating system installed, axing the “OS Not Found” dialog is certainly no great loss for that case. As an added bonus, because this I/O port command displays UI and accesses string resources, the handler for it happened to be fairly easy to locate in the VMM code. Our mission here is really to just patch out the existing code with something that knows how to talk to take data from the guest and move it to the kernel debugger, and vice versa. A naive approach might be to try and access the guest’s registers and use them to convey the data words to transfer (it would appear that many of the I/O port handlers do have access to the guest’s registers as many of the I/O port commands modify the register data of the guest), but this approach would incur a large number of VM exits and therefore be suboptimal. There’s a slight problem with this approach, however. There needs to be a way to communicate the address of the shared memory region from the guest to the modified VMM code, and then the modified VMM code needs to be able to translate the address supplied by the guest to an address in the VMM’s address space host-side. While the VMware VMM most assuredly has some sort of capability to do this, finding it and using it would make the (already somewhat invasive) patches to the VMM even more likely to break across VMware versions, making such an address translation approach undesirable from the perspective of someone doing this without the help of the actual vendor. There is, however, a more unsophisticated approach that can be taken: The code running in the guest can simply allocate non-paged physical memory, fill it with a known value, and then have the host-side code (in the VMM) simply scan the entire VMM virtual address space for the known value set by the guest in order to locate the shared memory region in host-relative virtual address space. The approach is slow and about the farthest thing from elegant, but it does work (and it only needs to be done once per boot, assuming the VMM doesn’t move pinned physical pages around in its virtual address space). Even if the VMM does occasionally move pages around, it is possible to compensate for this, and assuming such moves are infrequent still achieve acceptable performance. The astute reader might note that this introduces a slight hole whereby a user mode caller in the VM could spoof the signature used to locate the shared memory block and trick the VMM-side code into talking to it instead of the KD logic running in kernel mode (after creating the spoofed signature, a malicious user mode process would wait for the kernel mode code to try and contact the VMM, and hope that its spoofed region would be located first). This could certainly be solved by tighter integration with the VMM (and could be quite easily eliminated by having the guest code pass an address in a register which the VMM could translate instead of doing a string hunt through virtual address space), but in the interest of maintaining broad compatibility across VMware VMMs, I have not chosen to go this route for the initial release. As it turns out, spoofing the link with the kernel debugger is not really all that much of a problem here, as due the way VMKD is designed, it is up to the guest-side code to actually act on the data that is moved into the shared memory region, and a non-privileged user mode process would have limited ability to do so. It could certainly attempt to confuse the kernel debugger, however. After the guest-side virtual address of the shared memory region is established, the guest and the host-side code running in the VMM can now communicate by filling the shared memory region with data. The guest can then send the I/O port command in order to tell the host-side code to send the data in the shared memory region, and/or wait for and copy in data destined from a remote kernel debugger to the code running in the guest. With this model, the guest is entirely responsible for driving the kernel debugger connection in that the VMM code is not allowed to touch the shared memory region unless it has exclusive access (which is true if and only if the VM is currently waiting on an I/O port call to the patched handler in the VMM). However, as the low-level KD data transmission model is synchronous and not event-driven, this does not pose a problem for our purposes, thus allowing a fairly simple and yet relatively performant mechanism to connect the KD stub in the kernel to the actual kernel debugger. Now that data can be both received from the guest and sent to the guest by means of the I/O port interface combined with the shared memory region, all that remains is to interface the debugger (DbgEng.dll) with the patched I/O port handler running in the VMM. In the previous post in this series, I described some of the functionality in place in the V740’s abstraction module for the Verizon connection manager app, and the fact that as it was linked to a debug build of the Novatel SDK, reversing relevant portions of it would be (relatively) easy (especially due to the numerous debug prints hinting at function names throughout the module). As mentioned last time, while examining the WmcV740 module, I came across some functions that appeared as if they might be of use (and one in particular, Diag_Call_End, that assuming my theory panned out, would instruct the device to enter dormant mode – and from there, potentially reacquiring an EVDO link if available). However, several obstacles remained in the way: First, there were no callers for this function in particular, potentially complicating the process of determining valid input arguments if the purpose of any arguments were not immediately obvious from the function implementation. Second, the function in question wasn’t in the export table of the DLL, so there existed no (clean) way to resolve its address. The first problem turned out to be a fairly trivial one, as very basic analysis of the function determined that it didn’t even take any arguments. It does use some global state, however that global state is already initialized by exported functions to initialize the abstraction layer module, meaning that the function itself should be fairly straightforward to use. // packet parameters are defaults. It’s a good thing the debug prints were there, as there isn’t really anything to go on besides them. All this function does, from the perspective of the code in the DLL, is simply set up a (very simple) request packet, send it to the firmware, receive the response, and return to the caller. This same structure is shared by most of the other Diag_* functions in the module which communicate to the firmware; in general, all those functions do is translate C arguments into the over-the-wire protocol, call the functions to send the packet and wait for a response, and then unpackage the response data back into return data for the C caller (if applicable). The firmware is responsible for doing all the real work behind the requests. Putting it another way, think of the SDK functions embedded in the WMC module as RPC stubs, the driver that creates the virtual serial port as the RPC runtime library, and the firmware on the card as the RPC server (although the whole protocol and data repackaging process is far simpler than RPC). Now, because most (really, all) of the logic for implementing particular requests resides in the device firmware on the card, the actual implementation is for the most part a “black box” – we can see the interface (and sometimes have examples for how it is called, if a certain SDK function is actually used), but we can’t really see what a particular request will do, other than observe side effects that the client code calling that function (if any) appears to depend upon. Normally, that’s a pretty unpleasant situation to be in from a reversing standpoint, but the debug prints at least give us a fighting chance here. Thanks to them, as opposed to an array of un-named functions that send different unknown bitpatterns to an opaque firmware interface, at least we know what a particular firmware call wrapper function is ostensibly supposed to do (assuming the name isn’t too cryptic – we’ll probably never know what some things like “nw_nw_dtc_sms_so_get” actually refer to exactly). Back to the problem at hand, however. After analyzing Diag_Call_End, it’s pretty clear that the function doesn’t take any arguments and simply returns an error code (or success) indicator to the caller. All of the global state depended upon by the function is the “standard stuff” that is shared by anything using the firmware comms interface, including functions that we can observe being called indirectly by the connection manager app, so it’s a good bet that we should be able to just call the function and see what happens. However, there’s still the minor snag relating to the fact that Diag_Call_End isn’t exported from WmcV740.dll. There are a couple of different approaches that we could take to try and solve this problem, with varying degrees of complexity, depending on our requirements. For example, in an attempt to provide some level of automatic compatibility with future (or previous) releases, we might implement some kind of code fingerprinting that could be used to scan code in the DLL to look for the start of this particular function. In this instance, however, I decided it wasn’t really worth the trouble; for one, WmcV740.dll is fairly well self-contained and doesn’t depend on anything other than the driver to set up the virtual serial port (and the device, of course), and from examining debug prints in the DLL, it became clear that it was designed to support multiple firmware revisions (and even multiple devices). Given this, it seemed an acceptable limitation to tie a program to this particular version of WmcV740.dll and trust that it will remain backwards/forwards compatible enough with any device firmware updates I apply (if any). Because the DLL is self-contained, the connection manager software could even conceivibly be updated after placing a copy of the DLL in a different location, since it isn’t tied into the rest of the connection manager software in any meaningful way. As a result of these factors, I settled on just hardcoding offsets from the module base address to the start of the function in question that I wanted to call. Ugly, yes, but in this particular instance, it seemed like the most reasonable compromise. Recall that in Win32, the HMODULE value returned by LoadLibrary is really the base address of a given module, making it trivially easy to locate a loaded module base address in-memory. From there, it was just a matter of adding the offsets to the module base to form complete pointer values, casting these to function points, and making the call. After all of that, all that’s left is to try the function out. This involves loading the WMC module, calling a standard export, WMC_Startup to initialize it, and then just making the call to the non-exported Diag_Call_End. As luck would have it, the function call did exactly what I had hoped – it caused the device to enter dormant mode if there was an active data session. The next time link activity occured, the call was picked back up (and if the call had failed over to 1xRTT and an EVDO link could be re-acquired, the call would be automatically upgraded back to EVDO). Not quite as direct as simply commanding the card to re-scan for EVDO, but it did get the job done, if in a slightly round-about fashion. From there, all that remained was to add an automated component to this – periodically ask the card whether it was in 1xRTT or EVDO mode, and if the latter, push the metaphorical “end call” button every so often to try and coax the card into switching over to EVDO. This information is readily available via the standard WMC abstraction layer (which was fairly well understood at this point), albeit with a caveat: The card appears to not even try to scan for an EVDO link after it has failed over to 1xRTT (or if it does, it doesn’t make this fact known to anything on the other end of the firmware comms interface as far as I could tell), meaning that it’s not easy to distinguish between the device being in 1xRTT mode due to there really being no EVDO coverage locally, period, or because you went under a bridge/into an elevator/whatever for a moment and temporarily lost signal, and the device picked the wrong network up when it re-acquired signal. Still, all things considered, the solution is workable (if a major hack in terms of architecture). For those in a similar predicament, I’ve posted the program that I wrote to periodically try to re-acquire an EVDO link based on the information I arrived at while working on this series. It’s a console app that will display basic signal strength statistics over time, and will (as previously mentioned) automatically place the device into dormant mode every so often while you’re on 1xRTT, in an attempt to re-acquire EVDO access after a signal loss event. To use it, you’ll need the VC2005 SP1 CRT installed, and you’ll also need WmcV740.dll version 1.0.6.6 (exact match required for the dormant mode functionality to operate), which comes with the current version of VZAccess Manager for the V740 for Windows Vista (at the time of this writing, that’s 6.1.8). Other versions may work if they include the exact same version of WmcV740.dll. You’ll need to place WmcV740.dll in the same directory as wwanutil.exe for it to function, or it’ll bail out when it can’t load the module. Also, only one program can talk to the V740’s firmware communication port at a time, which means that while you are running wwanutil, you can’t run VZAccess (or any other program that tries to talk to the V740’s firmware communication port – if you try to start wwanutil while VZAccess is using the card, you’ll get error 65, and likewise, if you try to start VZAccess while wwanutil is running, VZAccess will complain that something else is using the device). You can still dial the connection manually via Windows DUN, however – the “AT” modem port is unaffected. Of course, software considerations aside, you’ll also need a V740 (otherwise known as a Merlin X720) ExpressCard as well, with a corresponding service provider plan. (As far as I can tell, the Sprint and Verizon Novatel Rev.A ExpressCards are all rebranded Novatel Merlin X720’s and should be functionally identical, but as I am not a Sprint customer, I can’t test that.) Theoretically, the WmcV740 module supports other Novatel devices, but I haven’t tested that either (I suspect that the protocol used to talk to the firmware is actually a generic Qualcomm chipset diagnostics protocol that may function across other manufacturers – it sure seems to be very similar to the protocol that BitPim uses to talk to many Qualcomm phones, for instance – but the Wmc module will only detect Novatel devices). Also, given that the program is calling undocumented functions in the device’s firmware control interface, I’d recommend against trying it out on every single device you can get your hands on, just to be on the safe side. Although the module is theoretically smart enough to detect whether it’s really talking to a Novatel device of a sufficiently high firmware/protocol revision, or something else, I can’t help you if you somehow manage to brick your card with it (though I don’t see how you’d possibly do that with the program, just covering all the bases…). The usual disclaimers apply: no warranty provided (this program is provided “as-is”), and I can’t provide support for your device or add support for (insert X random other device here). If you hit Alt-2 while the wwanutil console window is up, you’ll get some statistics akin to the field test mode available in VZAccess manager, although I can’t guarantee that the FTM option in VZAccess was actually accurate (or tell you how to interpret many of the fields). Since the verbose display is based on the same information as the connection manager GUI, it is probably just as accurate (or inaccurate) as the normal RTM display, though perhaps in a more readable format. Alt-3 will also display a log of recent connection events (Alt-1 to return to the main screen), and you can use the Ctrl-D keystroke combination at any of the screens to manually force the device into dormant mode (though it may immediately pick back up into active mode if there is link activity, just as if you hit “end call” on a tethered handset and the link was still active). With a workable solution for my original predicament found, this wraps up the V740 series (at least for now…). Hopefully, at some point, support for things like periodically auto-reacquiring EVDO might find itself into the stock connection manager software, but for now, this will have to do. Last time, I described (at a high level) the interface used by the Verizon connection manager to talk to the V740, and how it related to my goal of coercing the V740 to re-upgrade to EVDO after failing over to 1xRTT, without idling the connection long enough for dormant mode to take over. As we saw previously, it turned out that the V740’s abstraction layer module (WmcV740.dll) was static linked to a debug version of a Novatel SDK that encapsulated the mechanism to talk to the V740’s firmware and instruct the device to perform various tasks. ; "Diag_Get_Time: End: Old Firmware\\n" strings WmcV740.dll | find /i "Begin" In particular, the Diag_Call_End routine looked rather interesting (recall that at least for my handset, pressing the “end call” button on the device while a data connection is active places it into dormant mode). If this routine performed the same function as my handset’s “end call” button, and if “ending” the data call also put the V740 into dormant mode (such that it would re-select which network to use), then it just might be what I was looking for. There were several other functions that looked promising as well, though experimentation with them proved unhelpful in furthering my objective in this particular instance. At this point, there were essentially two choices: Either I could try and re-implement the code necessary to speak the custom binary protocol used by WmcV740.dll to communicate with the device, or I could try and reuse as much of the already-existing code in the DLL as possible to achieve the task. There are trade-offs to both approaches; reimplementing the protocol would allow me to bypass any potential shortcomings in the DLL (it actually turns out that the DLL is slightly buggy, and the commands to reset power on the device will result in heap corruption on the process heap – ick! – fortunately, those functions were not required for what I wanted to do). Additionally, with a “from-scratch” implementation, assuming that I was correct about my theory that the the driver’s virtual serial port is just a pass-through to the firmware, such a re-implementation would possibly be more portable to other platforms for which Novatel doesn’t supply drivers (and might be extendable to do things that the parts of the SDK linked to WmcV740.dll don’t have support for). However, taking the approach of reimplementing a client for the firmware control interface also would require a much greater investment of time (while not extremely complicated, extra work would need to be done to reverse enough of the protocol to get to the point of sending the desired commands as performed by the “Diag_Call_End” function that we’re interested in) compared to simply reusing the already existing protocol communications code in the DLL. Furthermore, reimplementing the protocol client from scratch carries a bit more risk here than if you were just reverse engineering a network protocol, because instead of talking to another program running on a conventional system, in this case, I would be talking to the firmware of a (non-serviceable-by-me) device. In other words, if I managed to botch my protocol client in such a way as to cause the firmware on the device to do something sufficiently bad as to break the device entirely, I’d have a nice expensive paperweight on my hands (without knowing a whole lot more about the firmware and the device itself, it’s hard to predict what it’ll do when given bad input, or the like – although it might well be quite robust against such things, that’s still a relatively risky decision to make, because it could just as well fall over and die in some horribly bad way on malformed input). Not fun, by any means, that. To add to that, at this point, I didn’t even know if the Diag_Call_End function would pan out at all, so if I spent all the time to go the full nine yards just to try it out, I might be blowing a lot of effort on another dead end. Given that, I decided to go the more conservative route of trying to use the existing code in WmcV740.dll, at least initially. (Although I did research the actual protocol a fair bit after the fact, I didn’t end up writing my own client for it, merely just reusing what I could from the WmcV740.dll module). However, there’s a minor sticking point here; the DLL doesn’t provide any way to actually reach the code in Diag_Call_End that is externally visible to code outside the module. In other words, there are no exported functions that lead to Diag_Call_End. Actually, the situation was even more grim than that; after a bit of analysis by IDA, it became immediately clear that there weren’t any callers of Diag_Call_End present in the module, period! That meant that I wouldn’t have a “working model” to debug at runtime, as I did with the interface that WmcV740.dll exports for use by the Verizon connection manager GUI. Nonetheless, the problem is not exactly an insurmountable one, at least not if one is willing to get their hands dirty and use some rather “under-handed tricks”, assuming that we can afford to tie ourselves to one particular version of WmcV740.dll. Next time: Zeroing in on Diag_Call_End as a potential solution. Continuing from the previous article, the first step in determining a possible way to kick the V740 back into EVDO mode is to understand how the Verizon connection manager software interfaces with it. In order to do this, I used WinDbg and IDA for debugging and code analysis, respectively. The software that Verizon ships presents a, uninform user interface regardless of what type of device you might be using. This means that it likely has some sort of generic abstraction layer to communicate with any connected devices (as the connection manager software supports a wide variety of cards and tethered phones, from many different manufacturers). Indeed, it turns out that there is an abstraction layer, in the term of a set of DLLs present in the connection manager installation directory, which are named based off of the device they support (e.g. WMCLGE_VX8700.dll, WMC_NOK_6215i.dll, WmcV740.dll). These DLLs implement a high level interface in the form of a (fairly simple) exported C API, which is then used by the connection manager software to control the connected device. The abstraction layer is fairly generic across devices, and as such does not support a whole lot of advanced device-specific features. However, it does provide support for operations like querying information about the network and over the air protocols in use, link quality (e.g. signal levels), sending and receiving SMS messages, manipulating the phone book (for some devices, not the V740 as it would have it), powering on and off the device, performing over the air activation, and a handful of other operations. In turn, each device-specific module translates requests from the standard exported C API into calls to their associated devices, using whatever device-specific mechanism that device offers for communication with the computer. This is typically done by building a sort of adapter from the connection manager’s expected C API interface to a vendor-specific library or SDK for communicating with each device. The fact that none of the APIs did what I set out to look for (though I did determine how to do some interesting things like determine signal strengths and what sort of coverage is present) is not all that surprising, as there doesn’t appear to be any sort of support for forcing a device to change protocols on-the-fly in the connection manager app (or support for forcing a dormant mode transition). Because the abstraction layer essentially implements only the minimum amount of functionality for the connection manager software to function, extra device-specific functionality that isn’t used by the connection manager isn’t directly supported by the standard exported C API. All of this essentially translates into there being no dice on using the exported APIs to do what I wanted with forcing the card to upgrade back to EVDO on-the-fly. First, the debug version of the Novatel SDK would appear to have handy debug prints all over the place, many naming the function they are called from, providing a fair amount of insight into what internal functions in the module are named. Essentially, the debug prints made it essentially the same as if public symbols had been made available for the Novatel SDK part of the module, as most non-trivial functions in the SDK appear to contain at least one debug print, and virtually all the debug prints named the function they were called from. Second, the SDK itself and the abstraction layer module appear to have been built without a certain type of linker optimization (/OPT:REF) that removes unreferenced code and data from a final binary. (Disabling this optimization is a default setting for debug builds.) This meant that for the most part, a large part of the Novatel SDK (with debug prints included) happened to be present in the V740 abstraction layer module. As a result of this, there existed the possibility that there might be something of use still there inside the V740 module, even if it wasn’t directly exposed. At this point, I decided to continue down the road of examining the abstraction layer module, in the hopes that some portion of the baked-in Novatel SDK might be of use. Next time: Taking a closer look at the V740 abstraction layer module and the Novatel SDK embedded into it. Recently, I got a V740 EVDO Rev.A ExpressCard for mobile Internet access. Aside from a couple of shortcomings, the thing has actually worked fairly well. However, there are some problems with it which prove fairly annoying in practice. Aside from blinky lights gadget syndrome, the other major deficiency I’ve encountered with the V740 (really a rebranded Novatel Merlin X720) so far is a problem with the 1xRTT<->EVDO handoff logic. You see, the way the card works is that it supports both 1xRTT-based networks (which are fairly common as long as you’re not completely in the middle of nowhere) for rougly dialup modem speeds, and 1xEVDO-based networks, for low(er) latency, high(er) bandwidth. EVDO is still limited to populous areas – e.g. medium to large size cities and the surrounding areas, and isn’t as ubiqitous as 1xRTT coverage is, at least in the US. Because EVDO is hardly universal in the US, most CDMA data devices supporting EVDO can actually use both 1xRTT or EVDO, depending the local coverage. Beyond that, most such devices also support (mostly seamless) handoff between EVDO and 1xRTT, such that when you move out of an EVDO coverage area and into a 1xRTT-only coverage area, the data session is transferred without any interruption other than a momentary blip in latency as the air interface is changed from EVDO to 1xRTT. This can happen even while data is being actively transferred on the link without dropping TCP connections or anything as intrusive as that, which is very nice; aside from an increase in latency and decrease in bandwidth as you move to 1xRTT, everything otherwise continues to magically “just work”. However, there is a minor problem with this logic: Sometimes, if you happen to pass through an area with spotty cell coverage (bridge, elevator, whatnot), you’ll lose one or both of the EVDO or 1xRTT signals temporarily. Depending on whether the device reacquires the EVDO signal fast enough, this sometimes results in the call being handed over to 1xRTT even though you’re really still in an EVDO coverage area. The result is that all of a sudden, everything is high latency and low bandwidth, as the device has decided to use the lower quality network. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be support in the V740 to automatically “fail upwards” from 1xRTT back to EVDO if the device re-enters an area with EVDO signal. This means that your data session is now stuck in “slow mode” due to a minor coverage blip – not so good. The typical solution that people take to this problem is to instruct their device to disable 1xRTT support and only use EVDO, which does work fine if you are really ever only in an EVDO coverage area. However, I really didn’t want to take this approach, as it means manually futzing around with the card’s configuration when you travel. Worse, it makes you less robust against situations where there really is better connectivity to the 1xRTT network than the EVDO network, even if you’re in an EVDO coverage region. Normally, dormant mode is only activated when both ends of the link have been idle for some pre-set period of time, usually several seconds. While this means that if you have a fairly idle connection, you’ll eventually get switched back over to EVDO, if your connection is active, it will not enter dormant mode and will thus continue to run on 1xRTT. Now, if you’re using a conventional handset in tethered mode (Bluetooth or via USB cable), you can often forcibly enter dormant mode on the device with the “end call” button, and as soon as either end of the link tries to send data, the device will pick up the call on the best network, essentially offering a manual way to force the device to consider switching back to EVDO. (At least, that’s how it works on my LG VX8100 – your mileage my vary based on your device, of course.) While that’s not ideal (it’s a completely manual process to hit the end call button, of course), it does get the job done. With an ExpressCard, however, the problem is a bit more severe, simply because there is no “end call” button. (Sure, you can disconnect the session, but that kind of defeats the whole point – the goal is to re-establish the high speed network connection without dropping your active TCP connections). Unfortunately, as an end user here, you’re pretty much out of luck without the device vendor (or the network operator) providing a tool to coax the device into reconsidering which data network to use (and as far as I know, neither Verizon nor Novatel provide such a utility). Not satisified with this, I decided to take matters into my own hands, so to speak, and see if there might be a way to programmatically tell the card to switch back to EVDO, or at least enter dormant mode on-demand without idling all data traffic, so that it can automatically select EVDO when resuming from dormant mode. The end desired result would be a program that I could either manually run or that could run continually while a session is active, and try to re-establish the EVDO link where appropriate. While Novatel does appear to make some mention of an SDK for their devices available on their website, it doesn’t appear to be readily available to individual users, which unforunately rules it out. That leaves reverse engineering the way the V740 is controlled from the computer in the hopes of finding something to achieve the desired results. Next time: Popping the hood on Verizon’s connection manager app (“VZAccess Manager”), and how it talks to the V740 ExpressCard. You are currently browsing the archives for the Reverse Engineering category.

2019-04-19T20:23:52Z

http://www.nynaeve.net/?cat=8

Plotting the future, attempting to foresee how a society will come to think about and configure itself in the world is, perhaps, an impossible task. How can we know with any great certainty how people will determine the policies, attitudes, strategies, values, identities, and behaviors that will come to define the shape of their societies? Likewise, how can we have any inkling as to the type of groups and communities which will form or grow in influence and come to determine the quality of everyday lives, decisions and the playing out of individual life-courses? And, how can we have any idea as to how, in the conglomeration of these and other processes, individuals and groups will come to think and feel about themselves as members of wider cultures, regions, nations, or as part of the world as a whole, in the years and decades to come? In order to begin even to touch upon these questions, this collection of papers first sets out to compile a range of observations of how individuals and groups from a variety of walks-of-life experience and interpret their lives in contemporary Japan. From these observations the various authors seek to identify particular social trends that they determine maybe growing in influence. Under analysis, these trends are variously seen to provide evidence for the emergence of new or re-configured attitudes to living life, or ways to imagine what it means to be a member of a group, region, nation or the world. Each chapter author is then tasked to give their evaluation as to how powerful such emerging communities and ideas will be in rising-up to define Japan’s present and to tentatively predict the possible futures that may unfold if the transformative dynamics they identify continue to exert influence. In order to help the collection question the potential extent and reach of social transformation in Japan as whole, the chapters herein consider a diverse range of individuals and groups. Among those represented in this collection are: husbands and wives, jobseekers, ethnic and regional minorities, Japanese expatriate workers, new religious groups, political organizations, TV drama characters and their fans and producers, survivors of natural disasters, novelists, and the creators and celebrators of sports mega-events. Through observations of life as experienced by these people, the collection (1) examines new ways in which Japanese society is being structured and thought about from within, (2) considers what kind of new communities are being created in Japan and abroad, and (3) investigates how the society is choosing to redefine itself as a culture and nation to itself, the wider region, and the outside world. These areas of investigation help the collection to focus on key “pivots” of potential transformation-zones of contest that the book sees as central to the playing out of contemporary and future Japanese social life. It is within these zones of contest that the collection sees path-breaking struggles underway for the definition of Japan’s possible futures. From the turn of this century a number of English language volumes investigating the nature of social transformation in Japan have emerged (Eades et al, 2000; Edgington 2003; Kingston, 2004; Mathews and White, 2004; Nakano, 2004; Im Lee et al, 2006; Willis, and Murphy-Shigematsu, 2007; Chan, 2008; Vinken et al., 2010; Ronald and Alexy, 2010). Together, these studies and collections of studies reflect not just a growing interest in charting change in Japan, but also in attempting to bear witness to, and to document, a particular kind of social change. For while these studies are certainly distinct in their respective themes and focuses-e.g., globalization, youth, the family, economics and politics, gender, race, citizenship, and civil society-common to the vast majority is that Japan is in the midst of a transition that broadly entails transitioning from the conservative, static, consensus-based and exclusive influence of postwar structures and ideas, to defining and representing itself (to itself and the outside world) as a dynamic, contested, plural and inclusive society. Perhaps most starkly representative of this “coming-of-(global)-age” paradigm of change is the role that discourses of homogeneity, or sameness, have played. Here, 21st century studies have largely attempted to find a way to understand Japanese society as operating beyond the confines of the “theories of Japaneseness”, or nihonjinron, literature and its embodied notions of cultural homogeneity that seemed to have represented so much of what late 20th century social science found important to unearth and comprehend about “unchanging” postwar Japanese society (c.f. Befu, 2001). In stark contrast, the new turn of 21st century attention has moved away from seeing Japanese society as dominated by a logic of conformity and sameness, to seeing it as increasingly expressed through contest and difference. The reasons for this new pluralism are various-younger generations’ new opportunities to connect to global images and ideas; a general inability for individuals and communities to socially and intellectually express their diversity through postwar social and ideological structures; new senses of global citizenship and universal rights; economic pressures from increased global activities and relationships; and new notions of freedom to decide and negotiate key decisions on employment and marriage in the life course (to name but a few observations from the many studies). While these newer studies have helped to make a 21st century vision of “dynamic global Japan” de rigueur, there are still important caveats in much of this literature as to the force of these wide ranging changes in entirely displacing postwar thinking and structure, or even in winning-out against the status-quo in ways that will genuinely transform society. The bulk of these turn-of-the-century studies, for instance, have been cautious not to conclude that Japan is on the verge of social revolution and that the postwar status-quo is still, in many sectors (e.g., gender, employment, national identity and citizenship), powerfully influential if not dominant. Indeed, this common concern not to overemphasize transition over stasis is expressed in Kingston’s notion of Japan’s being a “quiet transformation”, a “work in progress rather than a big bang” (2004: xvi). Despite a quiet optimism that such change will come “from below” across these studies, social change in Japan is commonly seen as aggregative, occurring through the sum of subtle component changes, such as through the force of many millions of people making individual decisions that affect very gradual larger societal shifts. Despite the fact that taken as a whole 21st century studies of social transformation in Japan do not see an overhaul of the postwar status quo taking place in the highly visible sectors of, say, politics, education, or enterprise, the quiet transformation that is being observed seems to be present across an amazingly varied landscape of social life. The astonishing breath and yet subtly layered nature of this emerging picture of social transformation in Japan is, in itself, transforming the way in which observers are looking to Japanese society to monitor and track change. Indeed, at least one study asks whether this new form of wide-spread aggregative change is challenging because it requires a generation of observers accustomed to seeking out and identifying change in the comparatively large social and cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s to adapt and narrow their focus to reveal these new forms of transformation (Mathews and White, 2004). If it is the case that such change does require new kinds of observational and theoretical instruments, the early 21st century literature could be seen as a collective effort to refocus and re-calibrate the barometers used to measure and quantify social transformation in Japan (and beyond). One sector of Japanese social transformation where such recalibration is clearly underway is the attention that newer studies are giving to civic engagement and civil society in Japan (Nakano, 2004; Chan, 2008; Vinken et al., 2010). Civil society is a theme that cuts to the heart of social change as the sector itself is often engaged in attempting to positively transform society. Changes in the nature of, for instance: how individuals “identity-hop” from one persona and role (activist) to another (office-worker), or how new senses of local, national and global citizenship are transforming the imagined spaces, and therefore concrete work of advocacy and volunteer groups, (c.f. Vinken et al, 2010; Chan, 2008; Nakano, 2004, respectively), are subtle and require sensitive observational lenses to reveal their full potential impact. Likewise, in studies that examine more subtle arenas of social change and transformation, such as in the efforts of local citizens to set out and claim a right to their sense of local town history (Brumann, 2012), social action is seen as highly obscured and mediated by the social, political and economic machinery of the status quo. And yet, even here, these local citizens are winning important battles through their actions, forever influencing the physical and imaginative landscape of their locales. Reconfiguring the instruments that measure social transformation in Japan, observers are revealing complex sets of intra and inter group dynamics and peer-to-peer and cross-generational negotiations that seem to be guiding 21st century social change in Japan. Again, these dynamics are far more subtle than, say, the larger student movements of the 1960s and 1970s and, in comparison, seem to revolve around a gradual, yet steady and society-wide, erosion of post-war identities and social systems through a targeted and conscious contesting of norms. This targeting of erosive contest is seen to be precise in its concentration of specific areas or “zones” of public or private life (i.e. gender, minority rights, environment etc.), and, again, some studies observe that such specific social action (rather than social movements focused on general societal change) may represent new forms of national and global citizenship (e.g., Vinken et al., 2010). Current and future observers may wish to conclude as to the fidelity of such interpretations and make the perhaps important provision that the changing nature of the way that social science is perceiving social transformation in Japan (and elsewhere) may have an impact on the degree to which it is seen as present and influential. What is clear is that the reconfigured social science perspectives on social transformation in Japan draw our attention to new forms of resistance and change and how they are revealed to be operating within specific “zones of contest”. Looking at the extent to which these zones are so widespread yet markedly distinct from one another, we may expand the perspective to talk about “nested zones of contest”. Doing so raises an interesting set of questions: which areas of society are undergoing the most intensive contest? How is this contest underway in those areas and what is the likely result? To what extent will victory/failure of the contesters to postwar structures in a given zone come to impact upon other zones, or Japanese society at large? How will such contests and their projected outcomes potentially define one or more possible versions of a Japanese society of the near and far future? This collection of papers is an attempt to document and quantify the kind of contests that are in motion across Japanese society and to give some idea of their potential in ushering in significant social transformation if their efforts to erode the postwar social order ultimately succeed or fail. Through their desire to portray their given contests as “pivots of social transformation” that will shape possible Japanese futures, some of the papers in this collection go further than previous 21st century studies in predicting significant social transformation (both progressive and regressive). Given the mission of the chapter authors to address “futures”, this is perhaps inevitable, and despite the authors’ care to build their possible futures from the observable present and past, in the years to come, while some of the identified trends may continue to wield influence, others may appear, in hindsight, to have been momentary and insignificant. While the chapters that follow, therefore, attempt to outline the range of possible futures that await Japan, in so doing what they comment on most explicitly is Japan’s present state of flux and ongoing negotiation. The tensions that they reveal between relationships, ideas, and social systems pushing for an understanding and utilization of diversity and pluralism, and those counterbalancing and resisting these represent the key grist of the collection and anchors it to the other perspectives on changing Japan referenced herein. The attempt to map the contested nature and possible futures of one society also illuminates its connections to and dependence upon others in the region and beyond. This collection is no exception and in every chapter the authors consider Japan’s relationship with other regional and/or world systems or relationships. In the 21st century it is not just Japan’s relationship with itself that requires attention-the creation of self-images, identities and discourses of its various intra-cultural regions and sub-groups-but the ways in which these are expressed on and up a series of social layers to create and reinvent representations of “Japan in the world”. How these global senses of place work to define the quality and legitimately of social life in Japan in the 21st century is a key thread of enquiry and one that I will return to shortly. Such a focus is perhaps particularly important at a point in time where Japan and its neighbors are adjusting to internal and region-wide re-inventions of local and national systems, identities, discourses and relationships. In the midst of the local and global changes that characterize the East Asian region, the media portrayal of nations subject to old political and economic tensions, missed opportunities, and a lack of economic and cultural innovation may be less informative than observations gathered by social science; observations potentially enriched through a more nuanced gaze on the contested and diverse reality of everyday lives. While this collection cannot hope to do justice to the range of areas in which social transformation is impacting upon larger global processes and vice-versa, it attempts to build upon the broader and more subtle understanding of social transformation that other 21st century studies have set-out, drawing attention to the need to plot out the pivotal influence of particular zones of contest in defining the quality of local and global life in Japan. In organizing its findings into “possible futures”, the collection hopes to bring attention to the potential significance of certain dynamics gaining traction against their competitors and going on to shape the future of life in Japan and beyond. Indeed, this collection sees that the quality of that future may be determined by decisions taken in the present and that the choices that Japanese people from all walks of life face are increasingly those that determine the trajectory of many of the world’s diverse and complex societies. This collection brings together the work of experienced observers and commentators on Japanese society. The focus of the chapters is social anthropological or sociological. The perspectives aim to enrich the reader’s understanding of the kind of lives lived in day-to-day Japan and to populate images of the society with detailed and intimate portraits of contemporary Japanese individuals and the intellectual and social discourses that regulate, set free and constrain those lives. Analytically, the social science lens seeks to reveal how the contexts of ordinary lives reveal the important and contested nature of society. This collection sets out to utilize the descriptive and analytical strengths of the authors to map Japan’s possible futures based on the historical and contemporary dynamics revealed by each of the chapters’ topics. The first three papers can be seen to address the need to Rethink Japanese Society by respectively emphasizing three areas in which the internal policies, relationships, and communication strategies that affect and influence the living out of life in Japan are under renegotiation or change. In so doing, these three papers all examine a topic fundamental to the forming of the social, cultural, political and/or metaphysical character of day-to-day Japanese life. Firstly, Mori throws the focus on one of society’s most intimate zones of social life-the home, and more specifically, how (predominately married) couples are encouraged by society to divide work across gender lines inside and outside the home. In so doing, Mori exposes an intricately connected system of domestic cultural identities, home and work lifestyles, and individual and organizational expectations put upon couples by Japanese society. It is the interdependence of these factors which sustains the gender stereotypes and imbalances which Japan has experienced to date, and the unraveling of the interdependence that will serve to usher in a new era where men and women can be truly free to make life decisions without their genders playing a key role. Mori sets out to document this vision of a Japan on the cusp of transformation through an analysis of how gender equality policy came to be made into the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society. An innovative law by any international policy standards, the law was established not as the result of moral or feminist pressure on the government, but rather because of two rather practical concerns. The first was on the part of senior politicians who conceived that putting more women into the workforce might help to alleviate the domestic labor shortage and avoid the thorny issue of immigration. Secondly, in what Mori terms a “rhetoric of international accordance”, Japan’s leaders were pressured by the lawmakers to see themselves as “lagging behind” other countries, so that they would take “face saving” action. Despite the fact that he sees the creation of gender equality law stemming from motivations far removed from a concern with equality per se, Mori seems cautiously optimistic that the true objectives of the Law as it is worded may be slowly growing in salience. Mori is encouraged by his (younger) interviewees who already seem to be seeking out familial and work models which challenge traditional gender-work stereotypes. Likewise, Mori sees the breakdown of the dependence on the traditional management structures of Japanese companies to be improving the likelihood that the law may come to reflect a gender equal society rather than merely be manufactured to solve unrelated problems in an unequal one. While Mori is perhaps rightly unable to offer a definitive vision of a gender-free future for Japan, his chapter conveys the degree to which home and work life and the gender roles to which they have seemed inseparable are now far from certain in a society that debates the meaning of gender in all major arenas of public and private life. If, for Mori, Japan’s future pivots upon opposing cultural definitions of gender roles and identities (rigid vs. free), Ackermann’s possible Japanese future hinges on the society’s ability to be adaptable-or not-in its definitions of the cosmos, person, and of what constitutes an appropriate mode of communication. In a paper deeply rooted in a concern to understand the metaphysical foundations of Japanese-specific worldviews and identities, Ackermann outlines a Japanese society locked into highly particularistic reworkings of Daoist, Confucian and Buddhist thinking. This is a Japan where a preoccupation with “tying people into circles”, of metaphysical, interactive and/or communicative interdependence predominates and permeates many areas of life. Whether interacting with people from other cultures, attempting to act as a responsible member of society, and/or engaging in a host of other actions, activities and/or “ways of being”, dominant notions of metaphysical and real interdependence are reproduced through a variety of influential “normative materials” (such as guides to productivity in the workplace). In Ackermann’s treatment, we are given the first of many of this collection’s takes on how Japan may progress to either find links, or to further distinguish itself as different, from its East Asian neighbors. Ackermann observes, for example, how cosmologies originally imported from East Asia are today, in their contemporary renditions, transformed into worldviews that stress a Japanese cultural approach to defining the person, interpersonal communicative strategies, and approaches to living life within a universe that offers up particular rules and guidelines. Indeed, for Ackermann, the Chinese are often astonished to see the orderliness and “superstitious” nature of their highly industrious neighbors. Such differences lead Ackermann to observe that the contemporary Japanese are very far apart from their Asian neighbors in the conception and enactment of core behavioral and communicative strategies. Ackermann thus attempts to reveal the deep encoding of important conceptual and behavioral norms that together help to preserve and reproduce “Japanese culture” over time. This encoding is shown to be pervasive and, despite some optimism that younger generations may slowly be offering up a less culturally-specific set of approaches to “being” and communicating, Ackermann seems to conclude that the continuation, or non-diversification of these worldviews, while having the potential to lead to a continued integration within Japan, will run the risk of alienating others who do not share the concern to be “tied into circles”. In Creighton’s paper, we see that as well as the key junctures of gender and metaphysical place, rethinking Japanese society also involves rethinking how Japanese identity is configured in relation to “outsiders” inside Japan. For Creighton, Japan struggles with the dilemma of defining itself as a racially homogeneous-easy to do given its past efforts to create linkages between language, culture and race-or understanding itself as a society exhibiting “diversity within diversity”. In the aptly entitled “Up to what kinds of people are we able to love?”, Creighton sets out a well-balanced case for the power and influence of both worldviews on the Japanese cultural identity and how thinking about what kind of people Japan consists of affects the day-to-day lives of immigrants, minorities and the “Japanese” themselves. Creighton begins by supplying a list of historical and contemporary contexts which illustrate the degree to which the notion of racial and ethnic homogeneity has been, and is, put to use in debates and nation-building projects. From the official governmental denial that Japan had “minorities” at all (1980), to Prime Minister Nakasone’s claim that Japan’s homogeneity meant that the country could claim a higher intellectual level than the US whose collective intellect could be seen as damaged by too many minorities, it is clear that Japanese worldviews and identities based on social Darwinist principles and the notion that race and culture are one-and-the-same have been and continue to be pervasive. However, demonstrating a range of fault lines in this embedded take on society and human nature, we begin to see the parallel emergence of a society that sees itself as the polar opposite of homogeneous-one that celebrates an internal diversity as a rich cultural asset. There are ironies here too-in that in some areas of Japanese society homogenous worldviews and actions based upon them have been their own undoing. For example, what began as an attempt to supply Japan with a worker immigrant population that shared “Japanese blood”, (Brazilians of Japanese descent whose ethnic heritage was perceived as a propensity to be able to assimilate into Japanese culture), ended when large numbers of these “nikkei” populations lived amongst local populations, and were seen to be culturally and linguistically very different. In these and other points, rather than emphasize the permanence of 20th century cultural and biological determinist worldviews, Creighton’s paper ultimately exposes a Japan gradually coming-to-terms with the inappropriateness of race as a way to divide up the world, looking at the alternative ideas (new and not always successful forms of multiculturalism) that are being used to construct meaningful local and global identities. Just as is the case for Mori and Ackermann, here too we see a Japan at a key transformative juncture in understanding and setting out the cultural and intellectual templates it uses to make life within its borders meaningful. For Creighton, if Japanese society can further refine and solidify its existing celebration of an intracultural pluralism, its future may be characterized by a state of adaptable cultural innovation that its recent history’s emphasis on homogeneity has in large part precluded. Together, the three papers that focus primarily on Rethinking Japanese Society reveal a Japan that is highly contested across fundamental social, theoretical, political, metaphysical and biological understandings of itself and of the models that have traditionally been seen to guide and define it. Indeed, the degree to which the topics are fundamental to the day to day workings of society-the prevalence of home/work gendered divisions of labor; the dominance of deterministic models of the universe and communication; and the very perception of who can be and cannot be seen to be part of the society-reveal a society potentially on the precipice of significant transformation. The second thematic focused on one of the collection’s papers is New Communities at Home and Abroad and investigates the emergence of new or reconfigured social collectives through a distinct ethnographic portrayal. Economic systems and relationships and how they are interpreted and made into shared solidarities is the focus that Mathews and Sone see as central to the importance of their contribution. In their paper, we are transported to Hong Kong to observe a changing sense of Japaneseness taking place as Japanese with different visions of their society compete to redefine “the soul of Japan” on foreign soil. Here, successful senior expatriate Japanese company workers (mainly men) meet younger more transient Japanese migrants to Hong Kong (mainly women). The conflicts that ensue reveal a deeply contested view of the home nation, one separated by generation, gender and conceptions of what constitutes the Japanese race and culture. Despite the otherwise plausible assumption that an international Hong Kong setting might lift individuals out of their cultural/national contexts, the clashes that Mathews and Sone identify demonstrate how a foreign context can serve to generate key discourses through which different cohorts of the same society struggle to define and legitimize their (vastly different) understandings of who they are and what kind of society they represent. The degree of proximity that their informants have to local Hong Kong workers and Chinese/Hong Kong language/culture; their interpretation of the cultural differences exhibited by Hong Kong workers; the gender roles and work-life choices of the two types of Japanese nationals that result in them being in Hong Kong; the general rigidity/flexibility inherent in the making of life choices that do/do not adhere to conventional Japanese norms; all of these key discourses reveal the existence of two versions of Japan, each seemingly at odds with the other. Mathews and Sone’s paper speaks to an active struggle where two opposing groups representing new and old both seek to cling on to and advance the legitimacy they have won or are winning. The fight, as we see, takes us back to the homeland of Japan where an analysis of wider changes in employment, attitudes towards foreign travel and culture, and a general growing acceptance that people can live out non-conventional life choices, leads the authors to make a decisive prediction: the future of Japan will be won by those fighting against the older forms of cultural/national community as the newer more flexible forms are the only ones that can hope to adapt and survive to the dynamic cultural and capitalist forces of the 21st century. In the final thematic, Intersections of Regional, National and Global Identities, the concern moves from providing ethnographic portrayals of concrete cohorts or communities of people to considering how discourses on the nature of identity are being influenced by certain events, trends, or social/media phenomena. Here, the papers broadly ask two related questions: (1) under what kind of conditions are pathbreaking discourses of what it means to be part of a region of Japan, Japan itself, or the world at large being created? and (2) What kind of direction-changing identities are emerging from these discourses? In order to locate and reveal these discourses, this section’s four respective paper authors focus on recent events, trends or social phenomena that they argue reveal links between conceptions of local, national and global life. Their interpretations of how these links are configured become the basis of their respective paper’s predictions on Japan’s possible futures. In the first of these papers, Nishimura demonstrates how the multiple March 11, 2011 disasters in Tohoku have exposed two kinds of discourses of regional, national and global identity-one utopian and one dystopian. The utopian configuration contains an ideal vision of a new Tohoku which combines its unique regional cultural traditions and linguistic heritage with its worldly ecological innovative spirit. The result is an idealized Tohoku which reverses the region’s victimized and marginalized (by Tokyo and the Kanto region) past to build a highly relevant and well-adapted set of values and visions of how it can contribute to a national and global society of the future. The dystopian mirror-image to this expounds that March 11th (or 3.11) has set into motion a 21st century rendition of all the historical inequalities between, and injustices wrought upon, Northern Japan (the periphery) from Tokyo (the center). The dystopia sees the victimization and marginalization of the past to continue indefinitely, and to intensify in scale and effect. In a chapter clearly deeply sympathetic to the continuing social, cultural, political marginalization of the people of northern Japan, it is the linkages that Nishimura makes between the historical and contemporary regional, national and international identities that stand out in this treatment of the topic. With a concern to map the historical particularisms of socio-cultural forms and identities in the North and how these express themselves in terms of difference vis-à-vis the Center (Tokyo) and sameness in accordance with the International West, the chapter reveals the importance of deep intra-cultural and international narratives in defining post-3.11 discourses on the future of Japan. In this coming together of the discourses of region, nation and world, it is interesting to observe the interdependent and yet contested nature of each layer of representation. As Nishimura demonstrates in one example of this: it is largely the fact that the world’s media imaginary (mediascape) of 3.11 rendered it as a Japanese tragedy with Japanese victims, rather than a series of disasters that affected Northern Japan (Tohoku), with Tohoku victims, that has led to the continued disenfranchisement of the North by the Center with little room for a (internationally acknowledged) narrative that would address the (continuing) historical inequalities/injustices. Nishimura’s conclusion, likewise, points to globalization’s lack of utility when it comes to revealing or resolving the internal inequalities of nations. And, more vividly, while the chapter’s conclusion draws on its findings to summarize how the symbolic definition of, and relationship between, Tohoku, Japan and The World may be re-configured in order to give the utopian reality a chance to gain traction, it is a dystopian warning on which Nishimura chooses to end the chapter. If Nishimura’s chapter is somewhat skeptical that the building of positive utopian national and global identities can be achieved in the wake of 3.11, Clammer’s focus is to see successful ways in which local and global narratives and imaginaries are being weaved together to provide fresh new ideas for Japanese citizens to both imagine themselves in the world and to engage with Japanese society. Clammer’s subject is Japan’s new religions and the ways in which they increasingly seek to connect their members to new and/or regenerated ideas of who they are as members of their Japanese ethnic group, Japanese nation and the world at large. Indeed, for Clammer, these new religions are to be seen as comparatively progressive, involved in projects of largely expansive identity production that set out to emphasize international connections, real and spiritual models for achieving peace, and environmental and other development-oriented worldviews. Clammer advances an argument for a future where these new religions come to play an increasingly important role in Japanese society and maybe more effective at creating positive intersections of local and global forms of identity than their counterpart intellectual and/or political communities or movements. Longer-term observers of Japan may be surprised by Clammer’s seemingly open-arms approach to these organizations. New religions in Japan have traditionally been associated with closet (or even overt) nationalism (nihonjinron-style). But as Clammer himself argues: it is not accurate to see them as such and a framework that allows them to be understood as potentially powerful, often positive, social movements in their own right is necessary. Despite their relative divergence as to whether a more positive or negative future awaits Japan, both Nishimura and Clammer demonstrate that the production of local and global imaginaries determine how contemporary individuals and groups perceive their place in the world. For Clammer, specifically, that sense of place is one that is systematically constructed in largely positive ways by new Japanese religious organizations who see it as their mission to connect their followers to more empowered visions of themselves and their potential to change the world for the better. Indeed, Clammer concludes that these religious organizations may go on to expand their work of connecting the local to the global, playing an increasing influential role in shaping Japan’s vision of itself in the world. If Nishimura and Clammer examine Intersections of Regional, National and Global Identities through large world-changing events or highly influential religious movements and communities, Gossmann and Kirsch set out to demonstrate how the comparatively mundane world of television soap-operas can reveal deep complex discourses of sameness and difference. Their paper is also this collection’s third, and perhaps most explicit, examination of a Japan situated within a wider East Asian cultural landscape. The chapter’s focus utilizes the portrayal of Chinese, Koreans and Japanese characters in television dramas to investigate the intersecting discourses of Asian vs. Western values, and, ultimately, Japan’s perceived cultural proximity to the West and its Asian neighbors. In the television dramas that Gossmann and Kirsch analyze, “Asian” (non-Japanese) characters are shown to be “in touch” with “Asian values” that echo common Asian-wide traditional family and community life, while, typically, the Japanese characters have somehow, in their Western/global modernity, forgotten the importance of such ways of life. The oscillation between portrayals of this modern/Western Japan and its traditional Asian Other demonstrates the power that an East Asian experience of (Western and perhaps now Japanese) modernity are seen to exert on the characters’ life courses, gender and generational identities and romantic and family relationships. The conflicts and resulting ideological messages of these dramas combine to act as a way of scolding Japan’s youth for “selling-out” their rich local Asian roots to a globalism devoid of core traditions and values. Through their vivid descriptions and interpretations of these TV dramas Gossmann and Kirsch set out a Japan deeply conflicted by its own modernity and loss of connection to a once-embodied “Asian Energy”. This internal conflict results, however, not in setting out attainable visions for the future shape of a more Asian Japan, but rather, in what the chapter authors see as a partial and potentially unsustainable attempt to link Japanese audiences to their traditional Asian roots. The de-politicized rendering of these cross-cultural relationships; the fact that despite their celebration of their Asian neighbors’ energy and vitality Japan is mostly portrayed as superior in other important respects (e.g., economy); and the fact that attributing “special qualities” to others is likely to merely maintain and reinforce difference and their “other” status rather than provide a genuine challenge to adjust cultural proximity; for all of these reasons, the authors conclude that without meaningful cross-cultural dialogue and real relationship building, there is little chance that such dramas will make a difference to the integration of Japanese and Asian historical/contemporary narratives and identities. If Gossmann and Kirsch focus on how Japanese cultural identity production takes place through the careful manipulation of images and character representations of Japanese amongst other Asians, then Manzenreiter expands this to the Whole World. Returning to the factual realities, as well as investigating the present legacy, of the 2002 Soccer World Cup co-hosted by Japan and Korea, Manzenreiter’s investigation sheds significant light on the opportunities provided by such “mega-events” to produce and maintain national identity. Indeed, the intersections of global, regional (Asian) and national discourses and identities with which this section of the collection concerns itself, are in this paper shown to be deliberately interfaced or (perhaps more appropriately) “mashed-together” at such mega-events. As such, these events are shown to provide a host of opportunities to find/confirm/introduce/maintain new and existing concepts of, and relationships between, self and other. In his examination of the 2002 World Cup, Manzenreiter is keen to demonstrate the role of sport more generally to facilitate identity-building projects. He refers, for instance, to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the Nazi use of the event to stage their own ideological and political version of that era’s German national identity. For Japan and Korea, of course, the 21st century setting and the needs of both countries to represent themselves in ways appropriate to a shared ideology of peace and goodwill are vastly different. And, yet, despite the vast differences, we see how in all contexts mega-events seem to at once reveal the universal need to build and express identities (using a variety of images and communication devices) at the same as providing a perfect container environment with which to do so. Perhaps most importantly for 2002, it was the hosting nations’ respective sense of proximity to one another, as old rivals/enemies now involved in co-hosting one the world’s biggest events, that makes this chapter’s focus unique. In short, while both countries broadly met the conditions of their own promotion of cultural nationalisms, Manzenreiter is unsure of the event’s lasting influence on Japan-Korea relations. While 2002 may have firmly planted Japan on-the-map with regard the sport of soccer and solidified and represented its desires to be seen as hospitable and culturally rich, it has yet to be seen whether it will come to act as a point of historical departure for a new era of healthy Korea-Japan relations. Despite this, Mannzenreiter ends the chapter suggesting that through their power to communicate to and represent people so powerfully and broadly, the world’s mega-events may eventually find that they can go beyond their utility of merely setting out to bolster cultural nationalisms. The mega-events of the future may truly be able to supply the material and social capital to genuinely contribute to positive integration of the world’s nations. Whether Japan can lead the way in such innovation remains to be seen, however, and the questions and conclusions raised in this chapter are of course ones to be noted as Tokyo approaches, hosts, and comes to terms with, its legacy from the 2020 Olympics. Broadly, Intersections of Regional National and Global Identities, and the four papers that pay the theme the most attention, tells a story of a deep interlaced search for identity and representation. Depending on the paper, “region” is either within the nation (Tokoku), or a geographic area of which the nation is a part (East Asia). The concept of “nation” too can represent vastly different imaginaries. It can: be a powerful central force for cultural colonization and appropriation; embody the meta-narratives for a real and spiritual global peace; represent global modernity; or be a container for global sport and various rich cultural forms and practices. And lastly, the Global is also given a different weight and imagery depending upon the focus, shifting from: The West as technological leader, to the World’s peoples as embodying completing spiritual forms and cultural ideologies, to the globe as a source of culturally neutral (empty) modernity, and finally to the World as a conglomeration of different nations and cultures all with their own distinctive traits and characteristics. As in the previous two thematics, the paper authors work to reveal an intense negotiation and competition, not just in terms of how to define a given community (i.e. Tohoku, Asia or Japan), but how to configure that group’s linkages to the local and global discourses that surround it. At the most fundamental level, this theme thus exposes the deeply contested visions of how to represent Japan to itself, its neighbors and to the world. In a collection sporting as ambitious a title as this one, it is important to establish the limitations of our multiple and collective focuses and admit that there are important areas, issues and topics which have not been included. For example, although we have a paper on gender, there is no explicit focus on the many contemporary issues surrounding sexuality. While many of the papers discuss political issues and developments, there is no study specific to civil society or governmental local or national party trends or dynamics. Likewise, although we have a study discussing company employees in Hong Kong, we have no paper explicitly focusing on Japanese companies or organizations in general. We have no paper that explicitly deals with developments/issues in social welfare or education, nor do we have a contributor focusing on new media or youth delinquency or any of the topics related to social change in the structure of local community groups in urban or rural settings. Despite the collection’s many omissions, I hope the reader will find the range of voices that are here to be revealing. Together, the authors have aimed to infuse the coverage of their respective themes with intimate portraits of lives lived within and without its borders as well as carefully constructed visions of how a range of events and social phenomena are contributing to the possible directions that Japan may make in the coming years. Together, these observations reveal that looking towards the future reveals not only the past social trends that have led Japan to where it is now, the historical roadmap of transitions and worldviews. In considering Japan’s Possible Futures, what this collection attempts most to starkly reveal is the immediate concerns of Japan’s highly contested present. As the authors have tried to make clear in various ways, this present is one characterized by an impressive diversity of visions and worldviews. How much this current diversity will crystallize into senses and systems of and within future Japanese society is open to question, but what seems certain is that whatever kind of future awaits Japan, it is a future that through the nature of these interconnected systems and relationships, awaits the parallel futures of other societies in the East Asian region and beyond. Finally, through our social scientific approach, we hope to illustrate that understanding the relationships that people have with each other as well as the quality of their imagined social spaces-their identities, narratives and discourses-is at least as important as any other perspective in unmasking the key dynamics of stasis and change in a society. Understanding what props people up in the world socially, emotionally and intellectually can help us to better understand what we need to achieve in order to help steer ourselves towards societal states which work to improve opportunity, encourage growth and sponsor innovation. In large part, Japan’s possible futures, and those of all nations, will be determined by the extent to which their citizens can understand, fulfill and positively apply their social and imaginative needs to encourage expansive policy-making, political reform, economic development, and innovation across all other areas through which societies consciously re-shape themselves and the world at large. Befu, H. 2001. Hegemony of Homogeneity: An Anthropological Analysis of “Nihonjinron” (Vol. 5). Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. Brumann, C. 2012. Tradition, Democracy and the Townscape of Kyoto: Claiming a Right to the Past. London: Routledge. Chan, J. (ed.). 2008. Another Japan is possible: new social movements and global citizenship education. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Eades, J. S., Gill, T., & Befu, H. (eds.). 2000. Globalization and social change in contemporary Japan (Vol. 2). Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. Edgington, D. W. (ed.). 2003. Japan at the millennium: Joining past and future. Vancouver: UBC Press. Kingston, J. 2004. Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in 21st Century Japan. New York: Routledge. Im Lee, S., Murphy-Shigematsu, S., & Befu, H. (eds.). 2006. Japan’s diversity dilemmas: Ethnicity, citizenship, and education. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. Mathews, G., & White, B. (eds.). 2004. Japan’s Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society?. London: Routledge. Nakano, L. Y. 2004. Community volunteers in Japan: everyday stories of social change. London & New York: Routledge. Vinken, H., Nishimura, Y., White, B, & Deguchi, M. (eds.). 2010. Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan. Established and Emerging Repertoires. New York: Springer. Willis, D. B., & Murphy-Shigematsu, S. (eds.). 2007. Transcultural Japan: at the borderlands of race, gender and identity. London: Routledge.

2019-04-20T11:10:34Z

https://globalethnographic.com/index.php/introduction-japans-possible-futures-pivots-of-social-transformation-bruce-white/

In mathematical expressions the carat character (^) indicates that the following term is an exponent. PRESS OPINIONS ON "THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES." "It is a book of remarkable ingenuity and interest."—Educational Times. "The most ingenious brain in England ... a fascinating new book."—Evening News. "A capital book of posers."—Daily News. "The Puzzles ... reach the limit of ingenuity and intricacy; and it is well for the sanity of his readers that the author gives a list of solutions at the end of the book."—Observer. "A book that will provide much entertainment for Christmas gatherings ... ingenious puzzles and problems invented by 'Sphinx,' the Puzzle King."—The Captain. "Mr. Dudeney, whose reputation is world-wide as the puzzle and problem maker of the age ... sure to find a wide circulation ... as attractive in appearance as its contents are fascinating."—English Mechanic and World of Science. "An exceedingly ingenious constructor and solver of fascinating puzzles, mathematical and otherwise."—School Guardian. "A book which ought to be highly popular ... it is all mighty ingenious, and very intelligently put before the reader."—Sheffield Telegraph. "It is matter for delight that Mr. Henry E. Dudeney has collected into a volume those mysterious puzzles of his which have appeared in many journals ... contains quite a number of ingenious new mental problems ... a valuable introduction."—The Lady. "For the long winter evenings Mr. Dudeney's book of puzzledom is to be recommended. Mr. Dudeney has made a study of every kind of puzzle there is ... he supplies you with every kind of brain-twister."—The Daily Chronicle. "Took up more of the reviewer's time than he could well afford to give it; he wanted to solve some of the curious problems that it contains, and for ingenious persons who want employment on a wet day, he promises from it abundant scope."—Yorkshire Post. "A well-known master puzzler ... provides an abundance of seasonable occupation for the ingenious, with an introduction on the general question of puzzles, which is one of the most interesting parts of the book. He is a skilful inventor."—Nottingham Guardian. "Will enjoy the entertainment provided ... ingenious and witty."—The Guardian. "Extremely ingenious book, which abounds in problems that will keep the reader busy for hours—until in despair he turns to the answers at the end."—Manchester Guardian. "The setting of these perplexities is novel ... a dramatic background being thus provided which prevents too great aridity.... The book should be much in request."—The Morning Leader. By the same Author "AMUSEMENTS IN MATHEMATICS" 3s. 6d. Author of "Amusements in Mathematics," Etc. When preparing this new edition for the press, my first inclination was to withdraw a few puzzles that appeared to be of inferior interest, and to substitute others for them. But, on second thoughts, I decided to let the book stand in its original form and add extended solutions and some short notes to certain problems that have in the past involved me in correspondence with interested readers who desired additional information. I have also provided—what was clearly needed for reference—an index. The very nature and form of the book prevented any separation of the puzzles into classes, but a certain amount of classification will be found in the index. Thus, for example, if the reader has a predilection for problems with Moving Counters, or for Magic Squares, or for Combination and Group Puzzles, he will find that in the index these are brought together for his convenience. Though the problems are quite different, with the exception of just one or two little variations or extensions, from those in my book Amusements in Mathematics, each work being complete in itself, I have thought it would help the reader who happens to have both books before him if I made occasional references that would direct him to solutions and analyses in the later book calculated to elucidate matter in these pages. This course has also obviated the necessity of my repeating myself. For the sake of brevity, Amusements in Mathematics is throughout referred to as A. in M. THE AUTHORS' CLUB, July 2, 1919. The answer is simply that it gave us pleasure to seek the solution—that the pleasure was all in the seeking and finding for their own sakes. A good puzzle, like virtue, is its own reward. Man loves to be confronted by a mystery, and he is not entirely happy until he has solved it. We never like to feel our mental inferiority to those around us. The spirit of rivalry is innate in man; it stimulates the smallest child, in play or education, to keep level with his fellows, and in later life it turns men into great discoverers, inventors, orators, heroes, artists, and (if they have more material aims) perhaps millionaires. In starting on a tour through the wide realm of Puzzledom we do well to remember that we shall meet with points of interest of a very varied character. I shall take advantage of this variety. People often make the mistake of confining themselves to one little corner of the realm, and thereby miss opportunities of new pleasures that lie within their reach around them. One person will keep to acrostics and other word puzzles, another to mathematical brain-rackers, another to chess problems (which are merely puzzles on the chess-board, and have little practical relation to the game of chess), and so on. This is a mistake, because it restricts one's pleasures, and neglects that variety which is so good for the brain. And there is really a practical utility in puzzle-solving. Regular exercise is supposed to be as necessary for the brain as for the body, and in both cases it is not so much what we do as the doing of it from which we derive benefit. The daily walk recommended by the doctor for the good of the body, or the daily exercise for the brain, may in itself appear to be so much waste of time; but it is the truest economy in the end. Albert Smith, in one of his amusing novels, describes a woman who was convinced that she suffered from "cobwigs on the brain." This may be a very rare complaint, but in a more metaphorical sense many of us are very apt to suffer from mental cobwebs, and there is nothing equal to the solving of puzzles and problems for sweeping them away. They keep the brain alert, stimulate the imagination, and develop the reasoning faculties. And not only are they useful in this indirect way, but they often directly help us by teaching us some little tricks and "wrinkles" that can be applied in the affairs of life at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways. There is an interesting passage in praise of puzzles in the quaint letters of Fitzosborne. Here is an extract: "The ingenious study of making and solving puzzles is a science undoubtedly of most necessary acquirement, and deserves to make a part in the meditation of both sexes. It is an art, indeed, that I would recommend to the encouragement of both the Universities, as it affords the easiest and shortest method of conveying some of the most useful principles of logic. It was the maxim of a very wise prince that 'he who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign'; and I desire you to receive it as mine, that 'he who knows not how to riddle knows not how to live.'" How are good puzzles invented? I am not referring to acrostics, anagrams, charades, and that sort of thing, but to puzzles that contain an original idea. Well, you cannot invent a good puzzle to order, any more than you can invent anything else in that manner. Notions for puzzles come at strange times and in strange ways. They are suggested by something we see or hear, and are led up to by other puzzles that come under our notice. It is useless to say, "I will sit down and invent an original puzzle," because there is no way of creating an idea; you can only make use of it when it comes. You may think this is wrong, because an expert in these things will make scores of puzzles while another person, equally clever, cannot invent one "to save his life," as we say. The explanation is very simple. The expert knows an idea when he sees one, and is able by long experience to judge of its value. Fertility, like facility, comes by practice. Sometimes a new and most interesting idea is suggested by the blunder of somebody over another puzzle. A boy was given a puzzle to solve by a friend, but he misunderstood what he had to do, and set about attempting what most likely everybody would have told him was impossible. But he was a boy with a will, and he stuck at it for six months, off and on, until he actually succeeded. When his friend saw the solution, he said, "This is not the puzzle I intended—you misunderstood me—but you have found out something much greater!" And the puzzle which that boy accidentally discovered is now in all the old puzzle books. Puzzles can be made out of almost anything, in the hands of the ingenious person with an idea. Coins, matches, cards, counters, bits of wire or string, all come in useful. An immense number of puzzles have been made out of the letters of the alphabet, and from those nine little digits and cipher, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. It should always be remembered that a very simple person may propound a problem that can only be solved by clever heads—if at all. A child asked, "Can God do everything?" On receiving an affirmative reply, she at once said: "Then can He make a stone so heavy that He can't lift it?" Many wide-awake grown-up people do not at once see a satisfactory answer. Yet the difficulty lies merely in the absurd, though cunning, form of the question, which really amounts to asking, "Can the Almighty destroy His own omnipotence?" It is somewhat similar to the other question, "What would happen if an irresistible moving body came in contact with an immovable body?" Here we have simply a contradiction in terms, for if there existed such a thing as an immovable body, there could not at the same time exist a moving body that nothing could resist. Professor Tyndall used to invite children to ask him puzzling questions, and some of them were very hard nuts to crack. One child asked him why that part of a towel that was dipped in water was of a darker colour than the dry part. How many readers could give the correct reply? Many people are satisfied with the most ridiculous answers to puzzling questions. If you ask, "Why can we see through glass?" nine people out of ten will reply, "Because it is transparent;" which is, of course, simply another way of saying, "Because we can see through it." Puzzles have such an infinite variety that it is sometimes very difficult to divide them into distinct classes. They often so merge in character that the best we can do is to sort them into a few broad types. Let us take three or four examples in illustration of what I mean. First there is the ancient Riddle, that draws upon the imagination and play of fancy. Readers will remember the riddle of the Sphinx, the monster of Boeotia who propounded enigmas to the inhabitants and devoured them if they failed to solve them. It was said that the Sphinx would destroy herself if one of her riddles was ever correctly answered. It was this: "What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?" It was explained by Oedipus, who pointed out that man walked on his hands and feet in the morning of life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his infirmities with a stick. When the Sphinx heard this explanation, she dashed her head against a rock and immediately expired. This shows that puzzle solvers may be really useful on occasion. Then there is the riddle propounded by Samson. It is perhaps the first prize competition in this line on record, the prize being thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments for a correct solution. The riddle was this: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." The answer was, "A honey-comb in the body of a dead lion." To-day this sort of riddle survives in such a form as, "Why does a chicken cross the road?" to which most people give the answer, "To get to the other side;" though the correct reply is, "To worry the chauffeur." It has degenerated into the conundrum, which is usually based on a mere pun. For example, we have been asked from our infancy, "When is a door not a door?" and here again the answer usually furnished ("When it is a-jar") is not the correct one. It should be, "When it is a negress (an egress)." There is the large class of Letter Puzzles, which are based on the little peculiarities of the language in which they are written—such as anagrams, acrostics, word-squares, and charades. In this class we also find palindromes, or words and sentences that read backwards and forwards alike. These must be very ancient indeed, if it be true that Adam introduced himself to Eve (in the English language, be it noted) with the palindromic words, "Madam, I'm Adam," to which his consort replied with the modest palindrome "Eve." Then we have Arithmetical Puzzles, an immense class, full of diversity. These range from the puzzle that the algebraist finds to be nothing but a "simple equation," quite easy of direct solution, up to the profoundest problems in the elegant domain of the theory of numbers. Next we have the Geometrical Puzzle, a favourite and very ancient branch of which is the puzzle in dissection, requiring some plane figure to be cut into a certain number of pieces that will fit together and form another figure. Most of the wire puzzles sold in the streets and toy-shops are concerned with the geometry of position. But these classes do not nearly embrace all kinds of puzzles even when we allow for those that belong at once to several of the classes. There are many ingenious mechanical puzzles that you cannot classify, as they stand quite alone: there are puzzles in logic, in chess, in draughts, in cards, and in dominoes, while every conjuring trick is nothing but a puzzle, the solution to which the performer tries to keep to himself. There are puzzles that look easy and are easy, puzzles that look easy and are difficult, puzzles that look difficult and are difficult, and puzzles that look difficult and are easy, and in each class we may of course have degrees of easiness and difficulty. But it does not follow that a puzzle that has conditions that are easily understood by the merest child is in itself easy. Such a puzzle might, however, look simple to the uninformed, and only prove to be a very hard nut to him after he had actually tackled it. The number composed of seventeen ones, 11,111,111,111,111,111, has only these two divisors, 2,071,723 and 5,363,222,357, and their discovery is an exceedingly heavy task. The only number composed only of ones that we know with certainty to have no divisor is 11. Such a number is, of course, called a prime number. The maxim that there are always a right way and a wrong way of doing anything applies in a very marked degree to the solving of puzzles. Here the wrong way consists in making aimless trials without method, hoping to hit on the answer by accident—a process that generally results in our getting hopelessly entangled in the trap that has been artfully laid for us. Occasionally, however, a problem is of such a character that, though it may be solved immediately by trial, it is very difficult to do by a process of pure reason. But in most cases the latter method is the only one that gives any real pleasure. When we sit down to solve a puzzle, the first thing to do is to make sure, as far as we can, that we understand the conditions. For if we do not understand what it is we have to do, we are not very likely to succeed in doing it. We all know the story of the man who was asked the question, "If a herring and a half cost three-halfpence, how much will a dozen herrings cost?" After several unsuccessful attempts he gave it up, when the propounder explained to him that a dozen herrings would cost a shilling. "Herrings!" exclaimed the other apologetically; "I was working it out in haddocks!" [A] See footnote on page 198. It sometimes requires more care than the reader might suppose so to word the conditions of a new puzzle that they are at once clear and exact and not so prolix as to destroy all interest in the thing. I remember once propounding a problem that required something to be done in the "fewest possible straight lines," and a person who was either very clever or very foolish (I have never quite determined which) claimed to have solved it in only one straight line, because, as she said, "I have taken care to make all the others crooked!" Who could have anticipated such a quibble? Then if you give a "crossing the river" puzzle, in which people have to be got over in a boat that will only hold a certain number or combination of persons, directly the would-be solver fails to master the difficulty he boldly introduces a rope to pull the boat across. You say that a rope is forbidden; and he then falls back on the use of a current in the stream. I once thought I had carefully excluded all such tricks in a particular puzzle of this class. But a sapient reader made all the people swim across without using the boat at all! Of course, some few puzzles are intended to be solved by some trick of this kind; and if there happens to be no solution without the trick it is perfectly legitimate. We have to use our best judgment as to whether a puzzle contains a catch or not; but we should never hastily assume it. To quibble over the conditions is the last resort of the defeated would-be solver. Sometimes people will attempt to bewilder you by curious little twists in the meaning of words. A man recently propounded to me the old familiar problem, "A boy walks round a pole on which is a monkey, but as the boy walks the monkey turns on the pole so as to be always facing him on the opposite side. Does the boy go around the monkey?" I replied that if he would first give me his definition of "to go around" I would supply him with the answer. Of course, he demurred, so that he might catch me either way. I therefore said that, taking the words in their ordinary and correct meaning, most certainly the boy went around the monkey. As was expected, he retorted that it was not so, because he understood by "going around" a thing that you went in such a way as to see all sides of it. To this I made the obvious reply that consequently a blind man could not go around anything. He then amended his definition by saying that the actual seeing all sides was not essential, but you went in such a way that, given sight, you could see all sides. Upon which it was suggested that consequently you could not walk around a man who had been shut up in a box! And so on. The whole thing is amusingly stupid, and if at the start you, very properly, decline to admit any but a simple and correct definition of "to go around," there is no puzzle left, and you prevent an idle, and often heated, argument. When you have grasped your conditions, always see if you cannot simplify them, for a lot of confusion is got rid of in this way. Many people are puzzled over the old question of the man who, while pointing at a portrait, says, "Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." What relation did the man in the picture bear to the speaker? Here you simplify by saying that "my father's son" must be either "myself" or "my brother." But, since the speaker has no brother, it is clearly "myself." The statement simplified is thus nothing more than, "That man's father is myself," and it was obviously his son's portrait. Yet people fight over this question by the hour! There are mysteries that have never been solved in many branches of Puzzledom. Let us consider a few in the world of numbers—little things the conditions of which a child can understand, though the greatest minds cannot master. Everybody has heard the remark, "It is as hard as squaring a circle," though many people have a very hazy notion of what it means. If you have a circle of given diameter and wish to find the side of a square that shall contain exactly the same area, you are confronted with the problem of squaring the circle. Well, it cannot be done with exactitude (though we can get an answer near enough for all practical purposes), because it is not possible to say in exact numbers what is the ratio of the diameter to the circumference. But it is only in recent times that it has been proved to be impossible, for it is one thing not to be able to perform a certain feat, but quite another to prove that it cannot be done. Only uninstructed cranks now waste their time in trying to square the circle. Again, we can never measure exactly in numbers the diagonal of a square. If you have a window pane exactly a foot on every side, there is the distance from corner to corner staring you in the face, yet you can never say in exact numbers what is the length of that diagonal. The simple person will at once suggest that we might take our diagonal first, say an exact foot, and then construct our square. Yes, you can do this, but then you can never say exactly what is the length of the side. You can have it which way you like, but you cannot have it both ways. All my readers know what a magic square is. The numbers 1 to 9 can be arranged in a square of nine cells, so that all the columns and rows and each of the diagonals will add up 15. It is quite easy; and there is only one way of doing it, for we do not count as different the arrangements obtained by merely turning round the square and reflecting it in a mirror. Now if we wish to make a magic square of the 16 numbers, 1 to 16, there are just 880 different ways of doing it, again not counting reversals and reflections. This has been finally proved of recent years. But how many magic squares may be formed with the 25 numbers, 1 to 25, nobody knows, and we shall have to extend our knowledge in certain directions before we can hope to solve the puzzle. But it is surprising to find that exactly 174,240 such squares may be formed of one particular restricted kind only—the bordered square, in which the inner square of nine cells is itself magic. And I have shown how this number may be at once doubled by merely converting every bordered square—by a simple rule—into a non-bordered one. Then vain attempts have been made to construct a magic square by what is called a "knight's tour" over the chess-board, numbering each square that the knight visits in succession, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.; and it has been done, with the exception of the two diagonals, which so far have baffled all efforts. But it is not certain that it cannot be done. Though the contents of the present volume are in the main entirely original, some very few old friends will be found; but these will not, I trust, prove unwelcome in the new dress that they have received. The puzzles are of every degree of difficulty, and so varied in character that perhaps it is not too much to hope that every true puzzle lover will find ample material to interest—and possibly instruct. In some cases I have dealt with the methods of solution at considerable length, but at other times I have reluctantly felt obliged to restrict myself to giving the bare answers. Had the full solutions and proofs been given in the case of every puzzle, either half the problems would have had to be omitted, or the size of the book greatly increased. And the plan that I have adopted has its advantages, for it leaves scope for the mathematical enthusiast to work out his own analysis. Even in those cases where I have given a general formula for the solution of a puzzle, he will find great interest in verifying it for himself. A Chance-gathered company of pilgrims, on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket at Canterbury, met at the old Tabard Inn, later called the Talbot, in Southwark, and the host proposed that they should beguile the ride by each telling a tale to his fellow-pilgrims. This we all know was the origin of the immortal Canterbury Tales of our great fourteenth-century poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. Unfortunately, the tales were never completed, and perhaps that is why the quaint and curious "Canterbury Puzzles," devised and propounded by the same body of pilgrims, were not also recorded by the poet's pen. This is greatly to be regretted, since Chaucer, who, as Leland tells us, was an "ingenious mathematician" and the author of a learned treatise on the astrolabe, was peculiarly fitted for the propounding of problems. In presenting for the first time some of these old-world posers, I will not stop to explain the singular manner in which they came into my possession, but proceed at once, without unnecessary preamble, to give my readers an opportunity of solving them and testing their quality. There are certainly far more difficult puzzles extant, but difficulty and interest are two qualities of puzzledom that do not necessarily go together. The Reve was a wily man and something of a scholar. As Chaucer tells us, "There was no auditor could of him win," and "there could no man bring him in arrear." The poet also noticed that "ever he rode the hindermost of the route." This he did that he might the better, without interruption, work out the fanciful problems and ideas that passed through his active brain. When the pilgrims were stopping at a wayside tavern, a number of cheeses of varying sizes caught his alert eye; and calling for four stools, he told the company that he would show them a puzzle of his own that would keep them amused during their rest. He then placed eight cheeses of graduating sizes on one of the end stools, the smallest cheese being at the top, as clearly shown in the illustration. "This is a riddle," quoth he, "that I did once set before my fellow townsmen at Baldeswell, that is in Norfolk, and, by Saint Joce, there was no man among them that could rede it aright. And yet it is withal full easy, for all that I do desire is that, by the moving of one cheese at a time from one stool unto another, ye shall remove all the cheeses to the stool at the other end without ever putting any cheese on one that is smaller than itself. To him that will perform this feat in the least number of moves that be possible will I give a draught of the best that our good host can provide." To solve this puzzle in the fewest possible moves, first with 8, then with 10, and afterwards with 21 cheeses, is an interesting recreation. The gentle Pardoner, "that straight was come from the court of Rome," begged to be excused; but the company would not spare him. "Friends and fellow-pilgrims," said he, "of a truth the riddle that I have made is but a poor thing, but it is the best that I have been able to devise. Blame my lack of knowledge of such matters if it be not to your liking." But his invention was very well received. He produced the accompanying plan, and said that it represented sixty-four towns through which he had to pass during some of his pilgrimages, and the lines connecting them were roads. He explained that the puzzle was to start from the large black town and visit all the other towns once, and once only, in fifteen straight pilgrimages. Try to trace the route in fifteen straight lines with your pencil. You may end where you like, but note that the omission of a little road at the bottom is intentional, as it seems that it was impossible to go that way. The Miller next took the company aside and showed them nine sacks of flour that were standing as depicted in the sketch. "Now, hearken, all and some," said he, "while that I do set ye the riddle of the nine sacks of flour. And mark ye, my lords and masters, that there be single sacks on the outside, pairs next unto them, and three together in the middle thereof. By Saint Benedict, it doth so happen that if we do but multiply the pair, 28, by the single one, 7, the answer is 196, which is of a truth the number shown by the sacks in the middle. Yet it be not true that the other pair, 34, when so multiplied by its neighbour, 5, will also make 196. Wherefore I do beg you, gentle sirs, so to place anew the nine sacks with as little trouble as possible that each pair when thus multiplied by its single neighbour shall make the number in the middle." As the Miller has stipulated in effect that as few bags as possible shall be moved, there is only one answer to this puzzle, which everybody should be able to solve. This worthy man was, as Chaucer tells us, "a very perfect, gentle knight," and "In many a noble army had he been: At mortal battles had he been fifteen." His shield, as he is seen showing it to the company at the "Tabard" in the illustration, was, in the peculiar language of the heralds, "argent, semee of roses, gules," which means that on a white ground red roses were scattered or strewn, as seed is sown by the hand. When this knight was called on to propound a puzzle, he said to the company, "This riddle a wight did ask of me when that I fought with the lord of Palatine against the heathen in Turkey. In thy hand take a piece of chalk and learn how many perfect squares thou canst make with one of the eighty-seven roses at each corner thereof." The reader may find it an interesting problem to count the number of squares that may be formed on the shield by uniting four roses. 5—The Wife of Bath's Riddles. The frolicsome Wife of Bath, when called upon to favour the company, protested that she had no aptitude for such things, but that her fourth husband had had a liking for them, and she remembered one of his riddles that might be new to her fellow pilgrims: "Why is a bung that hath been made fast in a barrel like unto another bung that is just falling out of a barrel?" As the company promptly answered this easy conundrum, the lady went on to say that when she was one day seated sewing in her private chamber her son entered. "Upon receiving," saith she, "the parental command, 'Depart, my son, and do not disturb me!' he did reply, 'I am, of a truth, thy son; but thou art not my mother, and until thou hast shown me how this may be I shall not go forth.'" This perplexed the company a good deal, but it is not likely to give the reader much difficulty. Perhaps no puzzle of the whole collection caused more jollity or was found more entertaining than that produced by the Host of the "Tabard," who accompanied the party all the way. He called the pilgrims together and spoke as follows: "My merry masters all, now that it be my turn to give your brains a twist, I will show ye a little piece of craft that will try your wits to their full bent. And yet methinks it is but a simple matter when the doing of it is made clear. Here be a cask of fine London ale, and in my hands do I hold two measures—one of five pints, and the other of three pints. Pray show how it is possible for me to put a true pint into each of the measures." Of course, no other vessel or article is to be used, and no marking of the measures is allowed. It is a knotty little problem and a fascinating one. A good many persons to-day will find it by no means an easy task. Yet it can be done. 7.—The Clerk of Oxenford's Puzzle. The silent and thoughtful Clerk of Oxenford, of whom it is recorded that "Every farthing that his friends e'er lent, In books and learning was it always spent," was prevailed upon to give his companions a puzzle. He said, "Ofttimes of late have I given much thought to the study of those strange talismans to ward off the plague and such evils that are yclept magic squares, and the secret of such things is very deep and the number of such squares truly great. But the small riddle that I did make yester eve for the purpose of this company is not so hard that any may not find it out with a little patience." He then produced the square shown in the illustration and said that it was desired so to cut it into four pieces (by cuts along the lines) that they would fit together again and form a perfect magic square, in which the four columns, the four rows, and the two long diagonals should add up 34. It will be found that this is a just sufficiently easy puzzle for most people's tastes. He produced a beautiful piece of tapestry, worked in a simple chequered pattern, as shown in the diagram. "This piece of tapestry, sirs," quoth he, "hath one hundred and sixty-nine small squares, and I do desire you to tell me the manner of cutting the tapestry into three pieces that shall fit together and make one whole piece in shape of a perfect square. "Moreover, since there be divers ways of so doing, I do wish to know that way wherein two of the pieces shall together contain as much as possible of the rich fabric." It is clear that the Tapiser intended the cuts to be made along the lines dividing the squares only, and, as the material was not both sides alike, no piece may be reversed, but care must be observed that the chequered pattern matches properly. The Carpenter produced the carved wooden pillar that he is seen holding in the illustration, wherein the knight is propounding his knotty problem to the goodly company (No. 4), and spoke as follows: "There dwelleth in the city of London a certain scholar that is learned in astrology and other strange arts. Some few days gone he did bring unto me a piece of wood that had three feet in length, one foot in breadth and one foot in depth, and did desire that it be carved and made into the pillar that you do now behold. Also did he promise certain payment for every cubic inch of wood cut away by the carving thereof. "Now I did at first weigh the block, and found it truly to contain thirty pounds, whereas the pillar doth now weigh but twenty pounds. Of a truth I have therefore cut away one cubic foot (which is to say one-third) of the three cubic feet of the block; but this scholar withal doth hold that payment may not thus be fairly made by weight, since the heart of the block may be heavier, or perchance may be more light, than the outside. How then may I with ease satisfy the scholar as to the quantity of wood that hath been cut away?" This at first sight looks a difficult question, but it is so absurdly simple that the method employed by the carpenter should be known to everybody to-day, for it is a very useful little "wrinkle." 10.—The Puzzle of the Squire's Yeoman. Chaucer says of the Squire's Yeoman, who formed one of his party of pilgrims, "A forester was he truly as I guess," and tells us that "His arrows drooped not with feathers low, And in his hand he bare a mighty bow." When a halt was made one day at a wayside inn, bearing the old sign of the "Chequers," this yeoman consented to give the company an exhibition of his skill. Selecting nine good arrows, he said, "Mark ye, good sirs, how that I shall shoot these nine arrows in such manner that each of them shall lodge in the middle of one of the squares that be upon the sign of the 'Chequers,' and yet of a truth shall no arrow be in line with any other arrow." The diagram will show exactly how he did this, and no two arrows will be found in line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Then the Yeoman said: "Here then is a riddle for ye. Remove three of the arrows each to one of its neighbouring squares, so that the nine shall yet be so placed that none thereof may be in line with another." By a "neighbouring square" is meant one that adjoins, either laterally or diagonally. "I trow there be not one among ye," quoth the Nun, on a later occasion, "that doth not know that many monks do oft pass the time in play at certain games, albeit they be not lawful for them. These games, such as cards and the game of chess, do they cunningly hide from the abbot's eye by putting them away in holes that they have cut out of the very hearts of great books that be upon their shelves. Shall the nun therefore be greatly blamed if she do likewise? I will show a little riddle game that we do sometimes play among ourselves when the good abbess doth hap to be away." The Nun then produced the eighteen cards that are shown in the illustration. She explained that the puzzle was so to arrange the cards in a pack, that by placing the uppermost one on the table, placing the next one at the bottom of the pack, the next one on the table, the next at the bottom of the pack, and so on, until all are on the table, the eighteen cards shall then read "CANTERBURY PILGRIMS." Of course each card must be placed on the table to the immediate right of the one that preceded it. It is easy enough if you work backwards, but the reader should try to arrive at the required order without doing this, or using any actual cards. Of the Merchant the poet writes, "Forsooth he was a worthy man withal." He was thoughtful, full of schemes, and a good manipulator of figures. "His reasons spake he eke full solemnly. Sounding away the increase of his winning." One morning, when they were on the road, the Knight and the Squire, who were riding beside him, reminded the Merchant that he had not yet propounded the puzzle that he owed the company. He thereupon said, "Be it so? Here then is a riddle in numbers that I will set before this merry company when next we do make a halt. There be thirty of us in all riding over the common this morn. Truly we may ride one and one, in what they do call the single file, or two and two, or three and three, or five and five, or six and six, or ten and ten, or fifteen and fifteen, or all thirty in a row. In no other way may we ride so that there be no lack of equal numbers in the rows. Now, a party of pilgrims were able thus to ride in as many as sixty-four different ways. Prithee tell me how many there must perforce have been in the company." The Merchant clearly required the smallest number of persons that could so ride in the sixty-four ways. 13.—The Man of Law's Puzzle. The Sergeant of the Law was "full rich of excellence. Discreet he was, and of great reverence." He was a very busy man, but, like many of us to-day, "he seemed busier than he was." He was talking one evening of prisons and prisoners, and at length made the following remarks: "And that which I have been saying doth forsooth call to my mind that this morn I bethought me of a riddle that I will now put forth." He then produced a slip of vellum, on which was drawn the curious plan that is now given. "Here," saith he, "be nine dungeons, with a prisoner in every dungeon save one, which is empty. These prisoners be numbered in order, 7, 5, 6, 8, 2, 1, 4, 3, and I desire to know how they can, in as few moves as possible, put themselves in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. One prisoner may move at a time along the passage to the dungeon that doth happen to be empty, but never, on pain of death, may two men be in any dungeon at the same time. How may it be done?" If the reader makes a rough plan on a sheet of paper and uses numbered counters, he will find it an interesting pastime to arrange the prisoners in the fewest possible moves. As there is never more than one vacant dungeon at a time to be moved into, the moves may be recorded in this simple way: 3—2—1—6, and so on. When the Weaver brought out a square piece of beautiful cloth, daintily embroidered with lions and castles, as depicted in the illustration, the pilgrims disputed among themselves as to the meaning of these ornaments. The Knight, however, who was skilled in heraldry, explained that they were probably derived from the lions and castles borne in the arms of Ferdinand III., the King of Castile and Leon, whose daughter was the first wife of our Edward I. In this he was undoubtedly correct. The puzzle that the Weaver proposed was this. "Let us, for the nonce, see," saith he, "if there be any of the company that can show how this piece of cloth may be cut into four several pieces, each of the same size and shape, and each piece bearing a lion and a castle." It is not recorded that anybody mastered this puzzle, though it is quite possible of solution in a satisfactory manner. No cut may pass through any part of a lion or a castle. We find that there was a cook among the company; and his services were no doubt at times in great request, "For he could roast and seethe, and broil and fry, And make a mortress and well bake a pie." One night when the pilgrims were seated at a country hostelry, about to begin their repast, the cook presented himself at the head of the table that was presided over by the Franklin, and said, "Listen awhile, my masters, while that I do ask ye a riddle, and by Saint Moden it is one that I cannot answer myself withal. There be eleven pilgrims seated at this board on which is set a warden pie and a venison pasty, each of which may truly be divided into four parts and no more. Now, mark ye, five out of the eleven pilgrims can eat the pie, but will not touch the pasty, while four will eat the pasty but turn away from the pie. Moreover, the two that do remain be able and willing to eat of either. By my halidame, is there any that can tell me in how many different ways the good Franklin may choose whom he will serve?" I will just caution the reader that if he is not careful he will find, when he sees the answer, that he has made a mistake of forty, as all the company did, with the exception of the Clerk of Oxenford, who got it right by accident, through putting down a wrong figure. Strange to say, while the company perplexed their wits about this riddle the cook played upon them a merry jest. In the midst of their deep thinking and hot dispute what should the cunning knave do but stealthily take away both the pie and the pasty. Then, when hunger made them desire to go on with the repast, finding there was nought upon the table, they called clamorously for the cook. "My masters," he explained, "seeing you were so deep set in the riddle, I did take them to the next room, where others did eat them with relish ere they had grown cold. There be excellent bread and cheese in the pantry." The Sompnour, or Summoner, who, according to Chaucer, joined the party of pilgrims, was an officer whose duty was to summon delinquents to appear in ecclesiastical courts. In later times he became known as the apparitor. Our particular individual was a somewhat quaint though worthy man. "He was a gentle hireling and a kind; A better fellow should a man not find." In order that the reader may understand his appearance in the picture, it must be explained that his peculiar headgear is duly recorded by the poet. "A garland had he set upon his head, As great as if it were for an ale-stake." One evening ten of the company stopped at a village inn and requested to be put up for the night, but mine host could only accommodate five of them. The Sompnour suggested that they should draw lots, and as he had had experience in such matters in the summoning of juries and in other ways, he arranged the company in a circle and proposed a "count out." Being of a chivalrous nature, his little plot was so to arrange that the men should all fall out and leave the ladies in possession. He therefore gave the Wife of Bath a number and directed her to count round and round the circle, in a clockwise direction, and the person on whom that number fell was immediately to step out of the ring. The count then began afresh at the next person. But the lady misunderstood her instructions, and selected in mistake the number eleven and started the count at herself. As will be found, this resulted in all the women falling out in turn instead of the men, for every eleventh person withdrawn from the circle is a lady. "Of a truth it was no fault of mine," said the Sompnour next day to the company, "and herein is methinks a riddle. Can any tell me what number the good Wife should have used withal, and at which pilgrim she should have begun her count so that no other than the five men should have been counted out?" Of course, the point is to find the smallest number that will have the desired effect. "There is a little matter that hath at times perplexed me greatly, though certes it is of no great weight; yet may it serve to try the wits of some that be cunning in such things. Nine kennels have I for the use of my dogs, and they be put in the form of a square; though the one in the middle I do never use, it not being of a useful nature. Now the riddle is to find in how many different ways I may place my dogs in all or any of the outside kennels so that the number of dogs on every side of the square may be just ten." The small diagrams show four ways of doing it, and though the fourth way is merely a reversal of the third, it counts as different. Any kennels may be left empty. This puzzle was evidently a variation of the ancient one of the Abbess and her Nuns. Of this person we are told, "He knew well all the havens, as they were, From Gothland to the Cape of Finisterre, And every creek in Brittany and Spain: His barque ycleped was the Magdalen." The strange puzzle in navigation that he propounded was as follows. "Here be a chart," quoth the Shipman, "of five islands, with the inhabitants of which I do trade. In each year my good ship doth sail over every one of the ten courses depicted thereon, but never may she pass along the same course twice in any year. Is there any among the company who can tell me in how many different ways I may direct the Magdalen's ten yearly voyages, always setting out from the same island?" 19.—The Puzzle of the Prioress. The Prioress, who went by the name of Eglantine, is best remembered on account of Chaucer's remark, "And French she spake full fair and properly, After the school of Stratford-atte-Bow, For French of Paris was to her unknow." But our puzzle has to do less with her character and education than with her dress. "And thereon hung a brooch of gold full sheen, On which was written first a crowned A." It is with the brooch that we are concerned, for when asked to give a puzzle she showed this jewel to the company and said: "A learned man from Normandy did once give me this brooch as a charm, saying strange and mystic things anent it, how that it hath an affinity for the square, and such other wise words that were too subtle for me. But the good Abbot of Chertsey did once tell me that the cross may be so cunningly cut into four pieces that they will join and make a perfect square; though on my faith I know not the manner of doing it." It is recorded that "the pilgrims did find no answer to the riddle, and the Clerk of Oxenford thought that the Prioress had been deceived in the matter thereof; whereupon the lady was sore vexed, though the gentle knight did flout and gibe at the poor clerk because of his lack of understanding over other of the riddles, which did fill him with shame and make merry the company." 20.—The Puzzle of the Doctor of Physic. This Doctor, learned though he was, for "In all this world to him there was none like To speak of physic and of surgery," and "He knew the cause of every malady," yet was he not indifferent to the more material side of life. "Gold in physic is a cordial; Therefore he loved gold in special." The problem that the Doctor propounded to the assembled pilgrims was this. He produced two spherical phials, as shown in our illustration, and pointed out that one phial was exactly a foot in circumference, and the other two feet in circumference. "I do wish," said the Doctor, addressing the company, "to have the exact measures of two other phials, of a like shape but different in size, that may together contain just as much liquid as is contained by these two." To find exact dimensions in the smallest possible numbers is one of the toughest nuts I have attempted. Of course the thickness of the glass, and the neck and base, are to be ignored. The Ploughman—of whom Chaucer remarked, "A worker true and very good was he, Living in perfect peace and charity"—protested that riddles were not for simple minds like his, but he would show the good pilgrims, if they willed it, one that he had frequently heard certain clever folk in his own neighbourhood discuss. "The lord of the manor in the part of Sussex whence I come hath a plantation of sixteen fair oak trees, and they be so set out that they make twelve rows with four trees in every row. Once on a time a man of deep learning, who happened to be travelling in those parts, did say that the sixteen trees might have been so planted that they would make so many as fifteen straight rows, with four trees in every row thereof. Can ye show me how this might be? Many have doubted that 'twere possible to be done." The illustration shows one of many ways of forming the twelve rows. How can we make fifteen? "A Franklin was in this company; White was his beard as is the daisy." We are told by Chaucer that he was a great householder and an epicure. "Without baked meat never was his house. Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous, It snowed in his house of meat and drink, Of every dainty that men could bethink." He was a hospitable and generous man. "His table dormant in his hall alway Stood ready covered all throughout the day." At the repasts of the Pilgrims he usually presided at one of the tables, as we found him doing on the occasion when the cook propounded his problem of the two pies. One day, at an inn just outside Canterbury, the company called on him to produce the puzzle required of him; whereupon he placed on the table sixteen bottles numbered 1, 2, 3, up to 15, with the last one marked 0. "Now, my masters," quoth he, "it will be fresh in your memories how that the good Clerk of Oxenford did show us a riddle touching what hath been called the magic square. Of a truth will I set before ye another that may seem to be somewhat of a like kind, albeit there be little in common betwixt them. Here be set out sixteen bottles in form of a square, and I pray you so place them afresh that they shall form a magic square, adding up to thirty in all the ten straight ways. But mark well that ye may not remove more than ten of the bottles from their present places, for therein layeth the subtlety of the riddle." This is a little puzzle that may be conveniently tried with sixteen numbered counters. The young Squire, twenty years of age, was the son of the Knight that accompanied him on the historic pilgrimage. He was undoubtedly what in later times we should call a dandy, for, "Embroidered was he as is a mead, All full of fresh flowers, white and red. Singing he was or fluting all the day, He was as fresh as is the month of May." As will be seen in the illustration to No. 26, while the Haberdasher was propounding his problem of the triangle, this young Squire was standing in the background making a drawing of some kind; for "He could songs make and well indite, Joust and eke dance, and well portray and write." The Knight turned to him after a while and said, "My son, what is it over which thou dost take so great pains withal?" and the Squire answered, "I have bethought me how I might portray in one only stroke a picture of our late sovereign lord King Edward the Third, who hath been dead these ten years. 'Tis a riddle to find where the stroke doth begin and where it doth also end. To him who first shall show it unto me will I give the portraiture." I am able to present a facsimile of the original drawing, which was won by the Man of Law. It may be here remarked that the pilgrimage set out from Southwark on 17th April 1387, and Edward the Third died in 1377. The Friar was a merry fellow, with a sweet tongue and twinkling eyes. "Courteous he was and lowly of service. There was a man nowhere so virtuous." Yet he was "the best beggar in all his house," and gave reasons why "Therefore, instead of weeping and much prayer, Men must give silver to the needy friar." He went by the name of Hubert. One day he produced four money bags and spoke as follows: "If the needy friar doth receive in alms five hundred silver pennies, prithee tell in how many different ways they may be placed in the four bags." The good man explained that order made no difference (so that the distribution 50, 100, 150, 200 would be the same as 100, 50, 200, 150, or 200, 50, 100, 150), and one, two, or three bags may at any time be empty. The Parson was a really devout and good man. "A better priest I trow there nowhere is." His virtues and charity made him beloved by all his flock, to whom he presented his teaching with patience and simplicity; "but first he followed it himself." Now, Chaucer is careful to tell us that "Wide was his parish, and houses far asunder, But he neglected nought for rain or thunder;" and it is with his parochial visitations that the Parson's puzzle actually dealt. He produced a plan of part of his parish, through which a small river ran that joined the sea some hundreds of miles to the south. I give a facsimile of the plan. "Here, my worthy Pilgrims, is a strange riddle," quoth the Parson. "Behold how at the branching of the river is an island. Upon this island doth stand my own poor parsonage, and ye may all see the whereabouts of the village church. Mark ye, also, that there be eight bridges and no more over the river in my parish. On my way to church it is my wont to visit sundry of my flock, and in the doing thereof I do pass over every one of the eight bridges once and no more. Can any of ye find the path, after this manner, from the house to the church, without going out of the parish? Nay, nay, my friends, I do never cross the river in any boat, neither by swimming nor wading, nor do I go underground like unto the mole, nor fly in the air as doth the eagle; but only pass over by the bridges." There is a way in which the Parson might have made this curious journey. Can the reader discover it? At first it seems impossible, but the conditions offer a loophole. Many attempts were made to induce the Haberdasher, who was of the party, to propound a puzzle of some kind, but for a long time without success. At last, at one of the Pilgrims' stopping-places, he said that he would show them something that would "put their brains into a twist like unto a bell-rope." As a matter of fact, he was really playing off a practical joke on the company, for he was quite ignorant of any answer to the puzzle that he set them. He produced a piece of cloth in the shape of a perfect equilateral triangle, as shown in the illustration, and said, "Be there any among ye full wise in the true cutting of cloth? I trow not. Every man to his trade, and the scholar may learn from the varlet and the wise man from the fool. Show me, then, if ye can, in what manner this piece of cloth may be cut into four several pieces that may be put together to make a perfect square." Now some of the more learned of the company found a way of doing it in five pieces, but not in four. But when they pressed the Haberdasher for the correct answer he was forced to admit, after much beating about the bush, that he knew no way of doing it in any number of pieces. "By Saint Francis," saith he, "any knave can make a riddle methinks, but it is for them that may to rede it aright." For this he narrowly escaped a sound beating. But the curious point of the puzzle is that I have found that the feat may really be performed in so few as four pieces, and without turning over any piece when placing them together. The method of doing this is subtle, but I think the reader will find the problem a most interesting one. 28.—The Great Dispute between the Friar and the Sompnour. Chaucer records the painful fact that the harmony of the pilgrimage was broken on occasions by the quarrels between the Friar and the Sompnour. At one stage the latter threatened that ere they reached Sittingbourne he would make the Friar's "heart for to mourn;" but the worthy Host intervened and patched up a temporary peace. Unfortunately trouble broke out again over a very curious dispute in this way. At one point of the journey the road lay along two sides of a square field, and some of the pilgrims persisted, in spite of trespass, in cutting across from corner to corner, as they are seen to be doing in the illustration. Now, the Friar startled the company by stating that there was no need for the trespass, since one way was exactly the same distance as the other! "On my faith, then," exclaimed the Sompnour, "thou art a very fool!" "Nay," replied the Friar, "if the company will but listen with patience, I shall presently show how that thou art the fool, for thou hast not wit enough in thy poor brain to prove that the diagonal of any square is less than two of the sides." If the reader will refer to the diagrams that we have given, he will be able to follow the Friar's argument. If we suppose the side of the field to be 100 yards, then the distance along the two sides, A to B, and B to C, is 200 yards. He undertook to prove that the diagonal distance direct from A to C is also 200 yards. Now, if we take the diagonal path shown in Fig. 1, it is evident that we go the same distance, for every one of the eight straight portions of this path measures exactly 25 yards. Similarly in Fig. 2, the zigzag contains ten straight portions, each 20 yards long: that path is also the same length—200 yards. No matter how many steps we make in our zigzag path, the result is most certainly always the same. Thus, in Fig. 3 the steps are very small, yet the distance must be 200 yards; as is also the case in Fig. 4, and would yet be if we needed a microscope to detect the steps. In this way, the Friar argued, we may go on straightening out that zigzag path until we ultimately reach a perfectly straight line, and it therefore follows that the diagonal of a square is of exactly the same length as two of the sides. Now, in the face of it, this must be wrong; and it is in fact absurdly so, as we can at once prove by actual measurement if we have any doubt. Yet the Sompnour could not for the life of him point out the fallacy, and so upset the Friar's reasoning. It was this that so exasperated him, and consequently, like many of us to-day when we get entangled in an argument, he utterly lost his temper and resorted to abuse. In fact, if some of the other pilgrims had not interposed the two would have undoubtedly come to blows. The reader will perhaps at once see the flaw in the Friar's argument. "The sun from the south line was descended so low that it was not to my sight more than twenty-nine degrees. I calculate that it was four o'clock, for, assuming my height to be six feet, my shadow was eleven feet, a little more or less. At the same moment the moon's altitude (she being in mid-Libra) was steadily increasing as we entered at the west end of the village." A correspondent has taken the trouble to work this out, and finds that the local time was 3.58 p.m., correct to a minute, and that the day of the year was the 22nd or 23rd of April, modern style. This speaks well for Chaucer's accuracy, for the first line of the Tales tells us that the pilgrimage was in April—they are supposed to have set out on 17th April 1387, as stated in No. 23. Though Chaucer made this little puzzle and recorded it for the interest of his readers, he did not venture to propound it to his fellow-pilgrims. The puzzle that he gave them was of a simpler kind altogether: it may be called a geographical one. "When, in the year 1372, I did go into Italy as the envoy of our sovereign lord King Edward the Third, and while there did visit Francesco Petrarch, that learned poet did take me to the top of a certain mountain in his country. Of a truth, as he did show me, a mug will hold less liquor at the top of this mountain than in the valley beneath. Prythee tell me what mountain this may be that has so strange a property withal." A very elementary knowledge of geography will suffice for arriving at the correct answer. 30.—The Puzzle of the Canon's Yeoman. This person joined the party on the road. "'God save,' quoth he, 'this jolly company! Fast have I ridden,' saith he, 'for your sake, Because I would I might you overtake, To ride among this merry company.'" Of course, he was asked to entertain the pilgrims with a puzzle, and the one he propounded was the following. He showed them the diamond-shaped arrangement of letters presented in the accompanying illustration, and said, "I do call it the rat-catcher's riddle. In how many different ways canst thou read the words, 'Was it a rat I saw?'" You may go in any direction backwards and forwards, upwards or downwards, only the successive letters in any reading must always adjoin one another. The Manciple was an officer who had the care of buying victuals for an Inn of Court—like the Temple. The particular individual who accompanied the party was a wily man who had more than thirty masters, and made fools of them all. Yet he was a man "whom purchasers might take as an example How to be wise in buying of their victual." It happened that at a certain stage of the journey the Miller and the Weaver sat down to a light repast. The Miller produced five loaves and the Weaver three. The Manciple coming upon the scene asked permission to eat with them, to which they agreed. When the Manciple had fed he laid down eight pieces of money and said with a sly smile, "Settle betwixt yourselves how the money shall be fairly divided. 'Tis a riddle for thy wits." A discussion followed, and many of the pilgrims joined in it. The Reve and the Sompnour held that the Miller should receive five pieces and the Weaver three, the simple Ploughman was ridiculed for suggesting that the Miller should receive seven and the Weaver only one, while the Carpenter, the Monk, and the Cook insisted that the money should be divided equally between the two men. Various other opinions were urged with considerable vigour, until it was finally decided that the Manciple, as an expert in such matters, should himself settle the point. His decision was quite correct. What was it? Of course, all three are supposed to have eaten equal shares of the bread. Everybody that has heard of Solvamhall Castle, and of the quaint customs and ceremonies that obtained there in the olden times, is familiar with the fact that Sir Hugh de Fortibus was a lover of all kinds of puzzles and enigmas. Sir Robert de Riddlesdale himself declared on one occasion, "By the bones of Saint Jingo, this Sir Hugh hath a sharp wit. Certes, I wot not the riddle that he may not rede withal." It is, therefore, a source of particular satisfaction that the recent discovery of some ancient rolls and documents relating mainly to the family of De Fortibus enables me to place before my readers a few of the posers that racked people's brains in the good old days. The selection has been made to suit all tastes, and while the majority will be found sufficiently easy to interest those who like a puzzle that is a puzzle, but well within the scope of all, two that I have included may perhaps be found worthy of engaging the attention of the more advanced student of these things. They had nine holes, 300, 250, 200, 325, 275, 350, 225, 375, and 400 yards apart. If a man could always strike the ball in a perfectly straight line and send it exactly one of two distances, so that it would either go towards the hole, pass over it, or drop into it, what would the two distances be that would carry him in the least number of strokes round the whole course? "Beshrew me," Sir Hugh would say, "if I know any who could do it in this perfect way; albeit, the point is a pretty one." Two very good distances are 125 and 75, which carry you round in 28 strokes, but this is not the correct answer. Can the reader get round in fewer strokes with two other distances? Another favourite sport at the castle was tilting at the ring. A horizontal bar was fixed in a post, and at the end of a hanging supporter was placed a circular ring, as shown in the above illustrated title. By raising or lowering the bar the ring could be adjusted to the proper height—generally about the level of the left eyebrow of the horseman. The object was to ride swiftly some eighty paces and run the lance through the ring, which was easily detached, and remained on the lance as the property of the skilful winner. It was a very difficult feat, and men were not unnaturally proud of the rings they had succeeded in capturing. At one tournament at the castle Henry de Gournay beat Stephen Malet by six rings. Each had his rings made into a chain—De Gournay's chain being exactly sixteen inches in length, and Malet's six inches. Now, as the rings were all of the same size and made of metal half an inch thick, the little puzzle proposed by Sir Hugh was to discover just how many rings each man had won. Seated one night in the hall of the castle, Sir Hugh desired the company to fill their cups and listen while he told the tale of his adventure as a youth in rescuing from captivity a noble demoiselle who was languishing in the dungeon of the castle belonging to his father's greatest enemy. The story was a thrilling one, and when he related the final escape from all the dangers and horrors of the great Death's-head Dungeon with the fair but unconscious maiden in his arms, all exclaimed, "'Twas marvellous valiant!" But Sir Hugh said, "I would never have turned from my purpose, not even to save my body from the bernicles." Sir Hugh then produced a plan of the thirty-five cells in the dungeon and asked his companions to discover the particular cell that the demoiselle occupied. He said that if you started at one of the outside cells and passed through every doorway once, and once only, you were bound to end at the cell that was sought. Can you find the cell? Unless you start at the correct outside cell it is impossible to pass through all the doorways once and once only. Try tracing out the route with your pencil. "Methinks," said he, "yon window is square, and measures, on the inside, one foot every way, and is divided by the narrow bars into four lights, measuring half a foot on every side." "Of a truth that is so, Sir Hugh." "Then I desire that another window be made higher up whose four sides shall also be each one foot, but it shall be divided by bars into eight lights, whose sides shall be all equal." "Truly, Sir Hugh," said the bewildered chief builder, "I know not how it may be done." "By my halidame!" exclaimed De Fortibus in pretended rage, "let it be done forthwith. I trow thou art but a sorry craftsman if thou canst not, forsooth, set such a window in a keep wall." It will be noticed that Sir Hugh ignores the thickness of the bars. 37.—The Crescent and the Cross. "I have thought much of late, friends and masters, of the conversion of the crescent to the cross, and this has led me to the finding of matters at which I marvel greatly, for that which I shall now make known is mystical and deep. Truly it was shown to me in a dream that this crescent of the enemy may be exactly converted into the cross of our own banner. Herein is a sign that bodes good for our wars in the Holy Land." Sir Hugh de Fortibus then explained that the crescent in one banner might be cut into pieces that would exactly form the perfect cross in the other. It is certainly rather curious; and I show how the conversion from crescent to cross may be made in ten pieces, using every part of the crescent. The flag was alike on both sides, so pieces may be turned over where required. To-day we know that Abracadabra was the supreme deity of the Assyrians, and this curious arrangement of the letters of the word was commonly worn in Europe as an amulet or charm against diseases. But Sir Hugh had never heard of it, and, regarding the document rather seriously, he sent for a learned priest. "I pray you, Sir Clerk," said he, "show me the true intent of this strange writing." "Sir Hugh," replied the holy man, after he had spoken in a foreign tongue with the stranger, "it is but an amulet that this poor wight doth wear upon his breast to ward off the ague, the toothache, and such other afflictions of the body." "Then give the varlet food and raiment and set him on his way," said Sir Hugh. "Meanwhile, Sir Clerk, canst thou tell me in how many ways this word 'Abracadabra' may be read on the amulet, always starting from the A at the top thereof?" 39.—The Snail on the Flagstaff. It would often be interesting if we could trace back to their origin many of the best known puzzles. Some of them would be found to have been first propounded in very ancient times, and there can be very little doubt that while a certain number may have improved with age, others will have deteriorated and even lost their original point and bearing. It is curious to find in the Solvamhall records our familiar friend the climbing snail puzzle, and it will be seen that in its modern form it has lost its original subtlety. "They do say, Sir Knight, albeit I hold such stories as mere fables, that the snail doth climb upwards three feet in the daytime, but slippeth back two feet by night." "Then," replied Sir Hugh, "tell us how many days it will take this snail to get from the bottom to the top of the pole." "By bread and water, I much marvel if the same can be done unless we take down and measure the staff." "Credit me," replied the knight, "there is no need to measure the staff." Can the reader give the answer to this version of a puzzle that we all know so well? Sir Hugh's young kinswoman and ward, Lady Isabel de Fitzarnulph, was known far and wide as "Isabel the Fair." Amongst her treasures was a casket, the top of which was perfectly square in shape. It was inlaid with pieces of wood, and a strip of gold ten inches long by a quarter of an inch wide. When young men sued for the hand of Lady Isabel, Sir Hugh promised his consent to the one who would tell him the dimensions of the top of the box from these facts alone: that there was a rectangular strip of gold, ten inches by 1/4-inch; and the rest of the surface was exactly inlaid with pieces of wood, each piece being a perfect square, and no two pieces of the same size. Many young men failed, but one at length succeeded. The puzzle is not an easy one, but the dimensions of that strip of gold, combined with those other conditions, absolutely determine the size of the top of the casket. THEIR QUAINT PUZZLES AND ENIGMAS. "Friar Andrew," quoth the Lord Abbot, as he lay a-dying, "methinks I could now rede thee the riddle of riddles—an I had—the time—and—" The good friar put his ear close to the holy Abbot's lips, but alas! they were silenced for ever. Thus passed away the life of the jovial and greatly beloved Abbot of the old monastery of Riddlewell. The monks of Riddlewell Abbey were noted in their day for the quaint enigmas and puzzles that they were in the habit of propounding. The Abbey was built in the fourteenth century, near a sacred spring known as the Red-hill Well. This became in the vernacular Reddlewell and Riddlewell, and under the Lord Abbot David the monks evidently tried to justify the latter form by the riddles they propounded so well. The solving of puzzles became the favourite recreation, no matter whether they happened to be of a metaphysical, philosophical, mathematical, or mechanical kind. It grew into an absorbing passion with them, and as I have shown above, in the case of the Abbot this passion was strong even in death. It would seem that the words "puzzle," "problem," "enigma," etc., did not occur in their vocabulary. They were accustomed to call every poser a "riddle," no matter whether it took the form of "Where was Moses when the light went out?" or the Squaring of the Circle. On one of the walls in the refectory were inscribed the words of Samson, "I will now put forth a riddle to you," to remind the brethren of what was expected of them, and the rule was that each monk in turn should propose some riddle weekly to the community, the others being always free to cap it with another if disposed to do so. Abbot David was, undoubtedly, the puzzle genius of the monastery, and everybody naturally bowed to his decision. Only a few of the Abbey riddles have been preserved, and I propose to select those that seem most interesting. I shall try to make the conditions of the puzzles perfectly clear, so that the modern reader may fully understand them, and be amused in trying to find some of the solutions. 41.—The Riddle of the Fish-pond. At the bottom of the Abbey meads was a small fish-pond where the monks used to spend many a contemplative hour with rod and line. One day, when they had had very bad luck and only caught twelve fishes amongst them, Brother Jonathan suddenly declared that as there was no sport that day he would put forth a riddle for their entertainment. He thereupon took twelve fish baskets and placed them at equal distances round the pond, as shown in our illustration, with one fish in each basket. "Now, gentle anglers," said he, "rede me this riddle of the Twelve Fishes. Start at any basket you like, and, always going in one direction round the pond, take up one fish, pass it over two other fishes, and place it in the next basket. Go on again; take up another single fish, and, having passed that also over two fishes, place it in a basket; and so continue your journey. Six fishes only are to be removed, and when these have been placed, there should be two fishes in each of six baskets, and six baskets empty. Which of you merry wights will do this in such a manner that you shall go round the pond as few times as possible?" I will explain to the reader that it does not matter whether the two fishes that are passed over are in one or two baskets, nor how many empty baskets you pass. And, as Brother Jonathan said, you must always go in one direction round the pond (without any doubling back) and end at the spot from which you set out. 42.—The Riddle of the Pilgrims. "You will put them," he said, "in the square dormitory that has two floors with eight rooms on each floor. There must be eleven persons sleeping on each side of the building, and twice as many on the upper floor as on the lower floor. Of course every room must be occupied, and you know my rule that not more than three persons may occupy the same room." I give a plan of the two floors, from which it will be seen that the sixteen rooms are approached by a well staircase in the centre. After the monks had solved this little problem and arranged for the accommodation, the pilgrims arrived, when it was found that they were three more in number than was at first stated. This necessitated a reconsideration of the question, but the wily monks succeeded in getting over the new difficulty without breaking the Abbot's rules. The curious point of this puzzle is to discover the total number of pilgrims. 43.—The Riddle of the Tiled Hearth. "I trow, my Lord Abbot, that a riddle is required of me this day. Listen, then, to that which I shall put forth. Let these sixteen tiles be so placed that no tile shall be in line with another of the same design"—(he meant, of course, not in line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally)—"and in such manner that as few plain tiles as possible be required." When the monks handed in their plans it was found that only Friar Andrew had hit upon the correct answer, even Friar Richard himself being wrong. All had used too many plain tiles. 44.—The Riddle of the Sack Wine. "Forsooth," said he, "I am no good at the making of riddles, as thou knowest full well; but I have been teasing my poor brain over a matter that I trust some among you will expound to me, for I cannot rede it myself. It is this. Mark me take a glass of sack from this bottle that contains a pint of wine and pour it into that jug which contains a pint of water. Now, I fill the glass with the mixture from the jug and pour it back into the bottle holding the sack. Pray tell me, have I taken more wine from the bottle than water from the jug? Or have I taken more water from the jug than wine from the bottle?" I gather that the monks got nearer to a great quarrel over this little poser than had ever happened before. One brother so far forgot himself as to tell his neighbour that "more wine had got into his pate than wit came out of it," while another noisily insisted that it all depended on the shape of the glass and the age of the wine. But the Lord Abbot intervened, showed them what a simple question it really was, and restored good feeling all round. 45.—The Riddle of the Cellarer. "Now, varlet," said the Abbot, as the ruddy-faced Cellarer came before him, "thou knowest that thou wast taken this morning in the act of stealing good wine that was forbidden thee. What hast thou to say for thyself?" "Prithee, my Lord Abbot, forgive me!" he cried, falling on his knees. "Of a truth, the Evil One did come and tempt me, and the cask was so handy, and the wine was so good withal, and—and I had drunk of it ofttimes without being found out, and—" "Rascal! that but maketh thy fault the worse! How much wine hast thou taken?" "Alack-a-day! There were a hundred pints in the cask at the start, and I have taken me a pint every day this month of June—it being to-day the thirtieth thereof—and if my Lord Abbot can tell me to a nicety how much good wine I have taken in all, let him punish me as he will." "Why, knave, that is thirty pints." "Nay, nay; for each time I drew a pint out of the cask, I put in a pint of water in its stead!" It is a curious fact that this is the only riddle in the old record that is not accompanied by its solution. Is it possible that it proved too hard a nut for the monks? There is merely the note, "John suffered no punishment for his sad fault." 46.—The Riddle of the Crusaders. "My Lord Abbot, knowing full well that riddles are greatly to thy liking, I will, by your leave, put forth one that was told unto me in foreign lands. A body of Crusaders went forth to fight the good cause, and such was their number that they were able to form themselves into a square. But on the way a stranger took up arms and joined them, and they were then able to form exactly thirteen smaller squares. Pray tell me, merry monks, how many men went forth to battle?" Abbot David pushed aside his plate of warden pie, and made a few hasty calculations. "Sir Knight," said he at length, "the riddle is easy to rede. In the first place there were 324 men, who would make a square 18 by 18, and afterwards 325 men would make 13 squares of 25 Crusaders each. But which of you can tell me how many men there would have been if, instead of 13, they had been able to form 113 squares under exactly the like conditions?" The monks gave up this riddle, but the Abbot showed them the answer next morning. 47.—The Riddle of St. Edmondsbury. "It used to be told at St. Edmondsbury," said Father Peter on one occasion, "that many years ago they were so overrun with mice that the good abbot gave orders that all the cats from the country round should be obtained to exterminate the vermin. A record was kept, and at the end of the year it was found that every cat had killed an equal number of mice, and the total was exactly 1,111,111 mice. How many cats do you suppose there were?" "Methinks one cat killed the lot," said Brother Benjamin. "Out upon thee, brother! I said 'cats.'" "Well, then," persisted Benjamin, "perchance 1,111,111 cats each killed one mouse." "No," replied Father Peter, after the monks' jovial laughter had ended, "I said 'mice;' and all I need add is this—that each cat killed more mice than there were cats. They told me it was merely a question of the division of numbers, but I know not the answer to the riddle." The correct answer is recorded, but it is not shown how they arrived at it. 48.—The Riddle of the Frogs' Ring. One Christmas the Abbot offered a prize of a large black jack mounted in silver, to be engraved with the name of the monk who should put forth the best new riddle. This tournament of wit was won by Brother Benedict, who, curiously enough, never before or after gave out anything that did not excite the ridicule of his brethren. It was called the "Frogs' Ring."

2019-04-19T15:18:25Z

http://hotfreebooks.com/book/The-Canterbury-Puzzles-And-Other-Curious-Problems-Henry-Ernest-Dudeney.html

Valerie is a highly energetic, results oriented human resources leader. By institutionalizing learning agility, building critical capabilities and driving alignment across Novartis Oncology, Valerie and her team have helped the organization achieve record results. Through her leadership, passion, work ethic and relentless focus on providing solutions, Valerie is a well-respected role model across Novartis, who inspires others with her integrity, openness, collaboration and desire to help others continually contribute to the organization’s success. Cindy is an internationally renowned scientific leader working in the area of predictive preclinical safety, and influencing Amgen’s ability to be competitive in developing both small and large molecules. She is a prolific producer of high- quality results whilst developing the reputation of her group internally and externally. Cindy is a role model of the Amgen Values, demonstrates exceptional judgment, and is thoughtful in all her interactions and decisions. Miriam exemplifies customer service, which is a key element to our success. Miriam takes on new challenges daily in this ever-changing environment. Her role has been affected the most by the changes in the industry and she continues to learn and adapt while thinking outside of the box to service the needs of our clients. HWP, our clients, and employees all benefit from her dedication and leadership. After earning her PhD in analytical chemistry from Oregon State University in 1999, Cheryl honed her craft in academic and government institutions before joining Life Technologies in 2006. A highly capable R&D leader, Cheryl manages multi-disciplinary teams driving innovative product development. Additionally, Cheryl serves as the North America chapter president of the Life Technologies International Women’s Influential Network, a women-led organization that creates opportunities for networking, mentoring, and leadership development for all employees. Since joining Quintiles in 1999, Michelle has quickly become a Rising Star within the company and has contributed immensely to Quintiles’ standing as the industry leader in clinical research. She is analytical, detail-oriented and highly strategic; in addition, she has the proven ability to lead her teams through immense periods of change. Michelle is a trusted leader and mentor to staff, providing them with the guidance and tools to succeed. Quintiles is proud to recognize Michelle. The word linchpin best describes Lisa. She is the essential element that draws together academic leadership, global collaboration, and operational excellence in support of DCRI’s large pragmatic clinical trials. She has melded operational expertise with faculty thought leadership. She is the voice of our investigational sites and the center of our global academic collaborations. Her orchestration of global data surveillance and its use for effective operations forms the foundation of her legacy of evidence-based operations. Laura is always up for the challenge. She delivers desired results for both her clients as well as her internal customers. As a solutions oriented thinker, Laura has created many unique programs to address the ever-increasing difficulty in healthcare professional access. Her pharmaceutical marketing days at Roche and Abbott combined with her time at Elsevier make Laura’s creative strategic approach truly well rounded. She understands her client’s challenges and helps them reach their goals. Gwen’s leadership and commitment to her clients have made her integral to the growth of our business. She is a motivator, contributor and action oriented force possessing endless energy. Gwen establishes a deep understanding of her clients’ needs and positions our solutions to fit the client’s priorities as opposed to selling what interests her. Putting the client first has been a very successful strategy for Gwen and AdvantageMS. Beth is a distinguished leader and plays a critical role in Watson’s ability to bring new and distinctive pharmaceutical products to patients around the world. As Watson’s vice president, global generic regulatory affairs, Beth is responsible for overseeing geographically and culturally diverse regulatory affairs teams. She exemplifies Watson’s vision and values, and is committed to building a culture of accountability, commitment and collaboration within the groups she directs. Heidi is a key member of the Lundbeck Inc. commercial team overseeing the sales organization for the company’s main business franchise: neurology. Since joining the company in January 2010, she has helped drive sales for the company’s key products in the areas of epilepsy and Huntington’s disease. Through tenacity and focus, along with a sense of personal accountability, Heidi has brought a strategic approach to redefining Lundbeck’s specialty sales model. Stacy is a born leader and a trusted advisor to both her clients and her team. She has a unique ability to build trust through her sense of humor, honesty, integrity, and keen listening skills. She is driven to find the best solutions for her clients by challenging the team to not only meet the needs of the client, but also provide value to the patients and caregivers in the rare disease community. Carla currently leads the growth of Novo Nordisk’s primary care physician market segment, generating more than $100 million in sales. She is active in Women in Novo Nordisk (WINN), where she helps to develop field personnel, and serves on the board of the New Jersey American Diabetes Association. For these and many other reasons, Carla has been featured in a Working Mothers Magazine cover story and recognized by Essence Magazine as a woman of inspiration. With a strong background of both healthcare and consumer strategy and analytics, as a senior director of marketing analytics at Ogilvy Healthworld, part of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, Nami brings her masterful skill set to projects involving extensive customer analytics like segmentation, churn analysis, hypothesis testing and modeling. She’s driven, focused and passionate about her work, our clients and the business of healthcare. Nami is one to watch; the embodiment of a Rising Star in our industry. Here at Group DCA, we consider Chrissy the best kind of leader, combing the passion of purpose with a strong (yet humble) guiding hand. Her innovative spirit has helped keep us at the vanguard of new media promotional integration. In a challenging professional landscape, Chrissy delivers solutions that work, and she does so in a way that instills confidence and inspires pride. We’re proud to call her our own. Sharlene is being recognized because of her passion for oncology patients and her positive impact within the oncology team. She has mentored several peers who have taken on new leadership roles, is a role model for the GSK core values, and has earned the respect of our team for her intellect and willingness to go above and beyond. She is an outstanding business leader, having recently led the commercial launch of a GSK oncology treatment. Jennifer is a key driving force for PwC’s Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences Practice and leads our commercial operations & transparency/aggregate spend practice. She is a dedicated professional with a passion for consulting within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and is recognized by her clients as a trusted advisor and thought leader. Jennifer’s enthusiasm and energy has catapulted her as a mentor and role model within PwC for many aspiring women. An innovative leader at IMNG Medical News, Kathryn is the managing editor of the publications and daily medical news websites Internal Medicine News and Hospitalist News. With her 16 years of experience at reporting and editing medical news, Kathryn led last year’s editorial redesign of the publications as well as the launch of their new interactive websites. Kathryn is a mentor to new editors and reporters, sharing her news sense, editorial skills, and enterprise. Stephanie builds her PR agency career on the foundation of hard work and excellent results for her clients and peers. Her unflinching work ethic and disciplined approach to tackling challenges makes her a ‘go to’ manager. Most endearing is her commitment to not only growing her own skills, but finding talent and advancing the careers of others. As Tonic’s Rising Star, Stephanie encompasses all the qualities you look for in a colleague, employee, agency partner and friend. Karen’s broad understanding of our business has allowed her to contribute beyond the role of human resource expert. Her ethical business practices have helped Ferring grow significantly. Karen is not only a star to us but to others as well. She has received national recognition from SHRM, been a guest speaker at women’s sponsored conference and most recently was honored by her alma mater for the 2011 Excellence Award for her efforts on behalf of her community. Business Process Owner, International, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc. Meghan has been a champion of mentoring at the Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems and pioneered the application of a model that leverages a web-enabled service to maximize reach, facilitate connections and accelerate development. This work is now being expanded and is benefiting women and men in multiple locations across the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. Anna Maria is the kind of person you wish you could clone. With 15+ years’ experience in sales and marketing, she knows the ins and outs of our business, generating ideas and solutions, and never letting a detail slip. Anna Maria is a valued partner to clients and a strong role model for younger staff. While we wish there were more Anna Marias, we are pleased to have the one-and-only working with us. In the past 11 years, Nidel has worked in various functions and has assumed increasing responsibility throughout her career with us. She is highly client focused, committed to continuous improvement and exhibits an incredible work ethic. She is known as the “go-to-person” and participates in nearly every key initiative. As a leader, she invests time coaching and mentoring colleagues and sharing her organizational and industry knowledge and experience. She is truly a Rising Star. Donna’s passion for operational excellence and her strong experience managing multidisciplinary teams have made her a Rising Star within the PHCG family. Donna has distinguished herself by consistently being a forward thinker when reaching strategic operational efficiencies. Whether it is helping to shape the expanded project management role and responsibilities, or integrating digital and technology expertise within day-to-day operations, her dedication to our clients’ needs and proactive nature come shining through. Heather is a dynamic leader focused on building high performance teams and developing talented people. Joining Epocrates in 2010 as VP of client services, she rapidly improved the strategic and customer centered focus of the marketing, operations, and client services teams. Heather leads by example, and carries a genuine passion for the business and the customer. Her collaborative, problem solving style has gained her the respect of both colleagues and customers. As a member of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, North Operating Unit, Kathy is a charismatic leader who inspires teams to achieve exceptional business results in a period of significant industry change. She is a role model to her colleagues, and offers the right balance of vision, optimism, and execution. Kathy’s strategic approach, skills as a coach, and passion is apparent in how she develops people and builds high performing teams. Cori has proven to be a strong advocate for clients, focusing her practice on compliance and regulatory matters affecting the health care industry. Cori focuses on food and drug law issues, but her general compliance practice has broad reach. She has worked tirelessly with medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and other health systems to resolve regulatory issues through internal investigations and self-disclosures. She is a trusted advisor to many, and truly a Rising Star. A star every year, Carolyn soared to new heights in 2010. Building on an already impressive resume of brand building successes, Carolyn’s contribution to the phenomenal launch of Pradaxa, a groundbreaking new therapy from Boehringer Ingelheim, can be defined as equal parts fearless leader, mind reader, and mother hen. Colleagues and clients alike praise her tireless work ethic, critical thinking, and, most important, her grace under pressure. Simply put, Carolyn is a born leader. Susan is accountable for the business, scientific and technical assessment for licensing and acquisition deals. Susan joined Roche in 1995 in technical operations. She has extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical business, having held positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing, sales, market research, marketing and business development. Susan earned an MBA from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Purdue University. Sandra symbolizes the core values of TLM…she’s igniting, courageous, and certainly tenacious. A 9-year veteran of the company, she transitioned as one of our most talented copywriters to strategic planning, helping it grow into a formidable offering for the agency. Whether it’s insight mining initiatives or setting new precedents with interactive experiential workshops, Sandra is an indispensable strategic partner for her teams and our clients. Always looking to excel, Sandra is also completing a master’s degree in comparative literature. Tara exemplifies the ideal of a selfless, team-oriented professional. She is an innovative problem solver who has had a consistently positive impact on all areas of SDI, from sales to finance to customer operations. She leads by tireless example and, with her guidance, her team redesigned, implemented, and monitored an entirely new system of sales metrics that significantly improved SDI’s sales results and customer service. Evaleen exudes enthusiasm and energy and has a real ability to bring everyone together and boost morale. You’re happy just standing next to Evaleen. In her role as HR manager, she is able to tease out great candidates and help build a top performing team across the agency. Evaleen is the secret sauce to the well being of our agency, and we all just love her! Rekha has been a leader within Exelixis since joining in 2003. Her combined expertise in the investment banking and biotech industries has enabled her to identify, assess and negotiate a wide range of strategies and transactions. She is a strong leader and mentor because she has both strategic vision and solid execution. She has made valuable contributions to the health care industry through her multitude of creative partnering deals as well as her commitment to nonprofit organizations. Christa truly embodies the spirit of the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at Johnson & Johnson. Within her Pharma North America WLI Chapter she has contributed countless volunteer hours to create exceptional programming for women. At the corporate level, Christa has led confidently to bubble up winning ideas and creative solutions to enable new communications initiatives to take shape—all to better connect our women. She’s a convener, a collaborator and a catalyst for women’s leadership. Leigh is the new breed of innovator. Deep in the art of digital community construction and stewardship, she has become an industry social media thought leader and trendsetter. She’s made immediate impact with significant contributions in new business, strategy and mentoring. Leigh has built exceptional depth and expertise in the digital space, but it’s her overt passion as a problem solver, her dedication and tireless work ethic that make her a leadership example, the epitome of a Rising Star. Amy is a results-driven leader. Her brands succeed because she has a tireless dedication to strategic excellence and superb customer service—a reason why she is a sought-after account leader at Palio. Amy is always focused on improving and developing not only her own skills but those of her teammates as well. Her incredible work ethic, dedication to her team, drive to succeed, and exemplary leadership make Amy a Rising Star. Sheri is the leader for the cardiovascular and diabetes franchises within global marketing communications at Merck. Sheri is an outstanding role model who combines strong strategic thinking and superb people manager skills. She excels at building diverse, high performing teams that drive business results. Her inspirational leadership, drive towards business results, strong support of diverse people and thoughts, and respect from her colleagues around the world make her an exemplary Rising Star. As a part of McKesson since 2002, Stacey has led the company’s innovation around pharmacy based medication adherence programs. Most recently, she spearheaded the design and launch of the Pharmacy Intervention Program, where pharmacists trained in health behavior change provide eligible patients with adherence coaching. Stacey has built a tight-knit team of professionals and is an admired leader who works alongside her team and industry stakeholders to further the goal of improving medication adherence. A veteran of the VisionCare Group, Angela directs the editorial content and acquisition process for a line of custom publishing initiatives, which grew 35% during the past year. While managing this increase, Angela expertly exceeded the expectations of both industry and physicians. Her work has generated a brighter spotlight on our unique position in the marketplace, where she has impressed clients with her meticulous attention to detail and can-do attitude. Marina is essential to the strength and growth of the AgencyRx. Marina’s unique background as a surgeon with a fellowship from MD Anderson, and as a consultant working directly with biopharmaceutical companies, gives her an unsurpassed ability to provide innovative and cutting edge thinking to our clients. As an internal leader, she has built up, and expanded the capabilities of the strategic services group of AgencyRx to be one of the strongest in the industry. Melanie’s strength in marketing, agency operations, and client relationships has earned her the trust and confidence of her clients and colleagues. She leads one of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Innovations largest client teams, leveraging her understanding of the business issues facing the healthcare industry. Her intelligence, drive and leadership make her an invaluable member of the team. Melanie’s steady rise within the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group over the past 8 years is well deserved. Sarah exemplifies the GA Way. She is always a trusted, reliable and dedicated team leader who is invaluable to our agency’s success. Sarah gives more everyday to our agency and our clients than anyone I know. She is always trying to push the envelope with what our digital team can bring to our healthcare clients on time and within budget. Sarah truly is an amazing asset to have at GA. Kim has driven sustainable business performance and cultural change to benchmark levels. Through the implementation of a lean manufacturing operating system and our move to a self-managed coaching culture, we have achieved world class results in key metrics, including, throughput time and productivity. Kim exemplifies transformational leadership qualities in all she does. Her pride, passion, professionalism and commitment are contagious. Kim motivates and drives each individual to be the best they can be. Lisa has been a role model and top performer in every position she has been in at IMS from practice area leader to vice president. She combines a tremendous passion for the customer with a unique ability to create innovative solutions. Lisa gets up every day thinking about how she can help her customers achieve their objectives. Lisa is excellent at rallying and leading diverse teams, aligning them to common objectives and delivering on goals. Linda is that rare talent who combines strategic vision, scientific fluency, and creative flair in one compelling package. Even on the most data-heavy brands, Linda has the ability to find those nuggets of relevance and turn them into persuasive copy. In addition to her impressive skills, Linda always acts as the consummate professional, displaying unflagging dedication to the challenges at hand, and treating colleagues and clients alike with grace, warmth, and respect. Marni is a core member of the leadership team in MS and oncology and has built a finance organization that supports Genzyme’s largest product portfolio. Marni demonstrated tremendous leadership, patience and tenacity throughout a year-long process to acquire a complex global organization resulting in a fully integrated global business. She provides invaluable judgment concerning both direction and execution for these businesses…with good humor and a “can-do” approach. Genzyme couldn’t have done it without her. A passionate marketer and strategist, Jesse really cares about making a difference in people’s lives through the products that we help our clients bring to market. She brings freshness and enthusiasm to these product assignments, along with a unique ability to transfer that engagement to all members of her team. ‘No risk, no reward’ is Jesse’s mantra. There is no challenge that she deems insurmountable. She’s not just a Rising Star, she’s a superstar. During her 20+ years with Purdue, Janet has progressed through the sales and marketing organization and now leads the sales representative training and development group. In addition to responsibility for the training and development of more than 500 representatives, she mentors talented women in the sales force and has helped recruit many into the home office. Janet is well respected by her peers industry-wide and has been recognized as a leader by The Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers. Jeana truly exemplifies passion, leadership, and dedication. Since joining Big in 2006, Jeana has been an instrumental member of the client services team. On even the most challenging programs, Jeana demonstrates her unwavering commitment to excellence. Jeana also has a natural ability to build deep and lasting client relationships. As one client commented, “Jeana never ceases to astound me. She is a pro from top to bottom.” Jeana is a role model for her team and our Rising Star. Congratulations! Jessica has been instrumental in creating visibility for QPharma through her marketing efforts within the life science industry. With more than 10 years of experience, Jessica is well respected by her peers and is considered a team player who will mentor less experience personnel. She has taken on volunteer roles within the industry as evidenced by her participation in the HBA. Jessica’s dedication to the industry and to QPharma makes her a Rising Star. Since joining ImpactRx in 2006, Stacy has continued to display exemplary leadership qualities and a commitment to advance the service levels and insights we provide clients. She continually steps up to new challenges and has excelled in her new role as account director, managing a diverse book of client business within the oncology marketplace. Stacy is a highly valued team member within our company - we are proud to name her our 2011 HBA Rising Star. Commitment. Teamwork. Enthusiasm. These are just a few of the leadership traits Maribeth displays every day, no matter the size or complexity of the project. During her tenure as head of corporate communications, Maribeth has transformed the department and raised Astellas’ industry profile. Maribeth is a trusted adviser to her staff and leaders around Astellas—and a role model of how to live the company’s corporate values. Anne exudes enthusiasm and energy. Through challenges with deadlines and often demanding clients, she remains highly professional, operating smoothly and ensuring client expectations are fulfilled. Her “can do” attitude has made her a trusted advisor to the client and her colleagues, leading her to be sought after for insight, opinion and comment. Anne is indeed a Rising Star and emerging leader. Ann is a talented and respected leader in Genentech’s research and early development organization. She provides valuable input to our strategic plans and leads a group whose mission is to lead world-class drug development teams and deliver therapies that can change patients’ lives. Ann combines her scientific knowledge with business acumen, and always remains patient focused. She currently serves on the AWIS National Board, and is a role model and mentor not only to women, but to all aspiring leaders. Loretta’s passion for learning and future-focused leadership make her a Rising Star. Guided by her sharp business acumen, Loretta helps life sciences stakeholders think through and develop innovative approaches that advance strategies and achieve operational excellence. Her insights come from work in Asia, Europe and the Americas and cross-industry expertise developed in the in consumer products, IT, healthcare, and transportation spaces. Leading by example, Loretta also is a respected role model and colleague. Wendy is a dedicated leader and role model at The CementBloc and one of the most insightful client services partners I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She successfully delivers efficient and outstanding results each and every day by providing proactive solutions to our clients. In our dynamic and converged agency model, Wendy constantly looks for new challenges and opportunities and has become an indispensible partner to her client and brand teams. Rhonda skillfully leads highly successful implementations and teams as a client services director at Publicis Touchpoint Solutions. Since joining Touchpoint in 2009, Rhonda has emerged as a true leader and role model. Consistently providing an unwavering commitment to our clients’ businesses, she is known for her superb customer service. Rhonda brings extraordinary passion and leadership to every program in which she works and Touchpoint is thrilled to see her honored as a Rising Star. Karen is the director of human resources for the cardiovascular metabolics business unit with BMS’s US Pharmaceuticals business, where she is responsible for leading the talent and workforce planning for commercializing Bristol- Myers Squibb’s largest current asset and planning for the evolving portfolio. She has been with BMS for ten years, where she has supported the research and development organization with specific remarkable results in improving team effectiveness and developing and implementing a talent and organization strategy. Debi brings more than 20 years of experience to her role as senior practice executive in our sales practice, including management positions at Abbott and Eli Lilly. Since joining Campbell Alliance, Debi has been instrumental to building our business in the Chicago region, helping clients maximize effectiveness of their commercial operations, including training, brand management, and sales force effectiveness. Always a team player, Debi is a valued mentor and coach to many of her colleagues. Following a successful career with Auger Inc., Nancy Logue joined Compas in 2009 as director of human resources. In her short tenure, Nancy has initiated a human capital transformation within our organization. With an eye towards long-term organization development, she has implemented critical staff, executive management, and organizational development initiatives. Nancy’s dedication to her colleagues and our organization’s success makes her a true Rising Star. We congratulate Nancy on this honor, and look forward to her continued success. Julie is currently a regional director in Shire’s ADHD sales force. Since joining the company, she has received numerous sales accolades including being named regional director of the quarter on six different occasions. Over the last few months, Julie has been collaborating with colleagues in marketing to develop new ways to support Shire’s customers. Julie is an accomplished leader who pours an endless supply of energy and passion into developing her people to achieve higher performance. Karen’s enthusiastic and engaging leadership style, commitment to innovation, and exceptional business acumen were the driving forces behind many of her successes in US primary care last year. Her passion for our business and unwavering dedication to customers led to her most recent position as Arizona state manager. Karen is a valued business partner and highly regarded throughout Pfizer. She has a very bright future, and we’re proud to present her with this honor. Anna is an integral part of CMI’s media planning team and is frequently acknowledged by her clients and co-workers for her in-depth brand knowledge and ability to produce strategic media analyses. She is a mentor to our junior staff on complex media planning skills and CMI’s proprietary planning tools. Anna’s responsiveness, attention to detail, and commitment to producing strategic, channel-neutral media plans guarantees client satisfaction. Anna was also recognized as CMI’s 2010 Employee of the Year. Lorraine is a shining example of rational leadership and a role model within Cephalon. She leads with competence and professionalism, promoting collaboration across the global organization with integrity and respect. She encourages team members to proactively identify opportunities and develop innovative solutions. Lorraine’s leadership and contributions to process improvement initiatives consistently result in enhanced outcomes across functions and most importantly for the patients we serve. We congratulate her achievement as a Rising Star. As an accomplished team leader, Susie has consistently delivered a high level of sales performance earning top sales honors for herself and her team. She is consistently asked to lead projects and was the sales lead at our most successful international congress. Susie has the perfect balance of leadership skills – she is gentle and non-threatening yet commands respect from her team and is warm and appreciative of her team’s strengths. Susie is an exceptional leader with an authentic personal style that inspires others. Laura is an inspiring leader and role model for both women and men. She has championed many initiatives that have had a tangible impact on shaping an inclusive work environment. Her ability to create a trusting and collaborative environment combined with asking the difficult questions consistently drives the talent and the business agendas. Laura’s integrity, openness, strong work ethic and sense of humor are just a few reasons why she is our Rising Star. Shuet’s exceptional leadership manifests itself in many ways…building strong cohesive teams, mentoring and creating opportunities for growth for others, upholding the highest standards for our clients, transforming chaos into order, proactively offering solutions to enhance organizational function, and developing strong client relationships built on trust, customer service and brand building thinking. Additionally, with an eye toward the future in healthcare communications, Shuet’s enthusiasm to take on new challenges is always inspiring. Kim exhibits a combination of strategic vision, sought-after mentoring skills and infectious enthusiasm that drives her involvement in many organizational initiatives. Leading her One a Day team to unprecedented business results and fostering strong team spirit and bonding are just the beginning of her leadership efforts. Her major role in developing and communicating the strategic direction for the Women’s Leadership Initiative and in attracting top talent through MBA recruiting, epitomize her Rising Star status. Since joining Dowden Health Media in 2004 as a managing editor in the Dowden Medical Communications Group, Meredith has risen rapidly through a succession of posts of increasing responsibility, and now oversees the formulation and implementation of strategy for some of the medical-communications agency’s most important accounts. Her many contributions include envisioning and driving adoption of innovative digital approaches to promotional education and advisory activities, and launching the agency’s work in the oncology arena. Cynthia has demonstrated pioneering leadership at both the commercial and organizational level. As a member of the Betaseron and Kogenate brand teams, she introduced the first iPhone applications in the industry to assist multiple sclerosis and hemophilia patients track and manage their condition. With the same passion and sense of teamwork, Cindy co-chaired Bayer’s inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Council. Through her leadership, partnering and drive to make a difference, she has delivered an impressive calendar of awareness activities. A graduate of Brown University, Carolyn began her career in the world of medical publishing. But it’s been through her work as a writer at CDM that she’s really made her mark. As SVP, group creative director, copy, Carolyn has created campaigns for market-leading brands from Pfizer and EMD Serono. She’s an exceptional manager and mentor, inspiring new writers and colleagues alike. You’re a star to us, Carolyn, and you should know it. Kana came to Stryker in 2007 and was appointed CFO for Japan in 2009. Her strength is in quick, careful evaluation of all issues and opportunities, and challenging the status quo in order to advance Stryker’s interest, while maintaining the image, strategy and vision. She is dedicated to developing her team for future leadership at Stryker and motivates through her optimism. Kana is a forward looking CFO who uses numbers to support strategy rather than only analyzing and explaining the past. Susan is a leader who energizes her team to achieve challenging performance goals while delivering best-in-class custom manufacturing services. She ensures the DSM Pharma Chemicals team in North America partners with top pharma customers to craft solutions to their manufacturing needs. Susan has built a strong team and leads several account management initiatives across DSM. Susan’s dedication and leadership reflect great credit upon her and DSM Pharmaceuticals. A dynamic and energetic leader who always challenges the status quo, Cindy leads the teams responsible for Cegedim Relationship Management’s 98% customer satisfaction rate. In her 12 years with Cegedim, she has held several positions with growing responsibility in program management and pharmaceutical support services. And as a member of the executive committee for the Americas region, Cindy contributes her wisdom, innovative ideas and straight-forward approach to the process of making decisions regarding company direction. Cathy is a very talented and highly regarded leader in the CME arena. Cathy exudes a dynamic and contagious “can-do” attitude, and engages internally and externally as a leader focused on educational imperatives to improve patient care. Cathy has been successful in helping organizations adapt to the changing environment and its challenges. She has earned the respect of her peers, and has built strong relationships throughout the medical education world. Where would Cramer be without Jill? Jill brings energy, enthusiasm and expertise to all she touches. Her teammates love her, as do her clients. Jill leads by example—thoughtful, professional, thorough in all her endeavors. Jill supports and encourages all those around her in a way that just feels good and her smile and giggle are worth a million. We are so thrilled for her to step up as Cramer’s 2011 Rising Star. Kelly joined the company in June 2010 to lead the newly-created Oncology Business Unit (OBU), bringing with her over seven years of oncology therapeutic category expertise. In just six months, the unit met its nine-month revenue target and is winning rave reviews from clients. The OBU has significantly contributed to our doubling overall company revenue this fiscal year. Kelly’s passion for oncology and exuberant interface with clients has facilitated this star performance. Linda is a role model known for her natural ability to connect with individuals and foster development at all levels. Creativity and passion are key attributes that contribute to her ability to build high-performing teams. With 20+ years in the industry and marketing in particular, she is known as a brand champion. Linda delivers significant impact to the business and focus on putting patients’ needs first are just a few of the reasons she is our Rising Star this year. Jennifer’s dynamic, charismatic leadership and her strong commitment to innovation and excellence contribute to her success as a highly valued colleague at Daiichi Sankyo. Her most recent achievement, the launch of a new structure to the sales force, is viewed as a model of what excellence looks like in our managed markets department. An acknowledged partner and bridge-builder between cross-functional teams, Jennifer’s entire career with DSI has been marked by achievement and respect within the organization. Julie has been with ghg for more than a decade. Her hard work and dedication has made Julie an invaluable part of the company. Today, she is a brand chemist on one of the most important healthcare businesses at WPP. Julie or “Jules” as friends call her is a shining example of grace, poise, warmth, and intelligence. She is a friend, a mentor, a colleague and a star in every sense of the word. Allison is recognized by clients and colleagues alike for her smarts, leadership and passion for her work. Over the past decade, Allison’s tailored approaches to messaging, positioning and analysis have become the gold standard for a wide range of Chandler Chicco clients. She brings an unmatched ability to be both creative and practical at the same time, making her an invaluable member of the agency’s Washington, DC office. We are proud to nominate her as our Rising Star. Aileen helps drive Cubist’s discovery pipeline, through leadership of the innovation and creativity advisory team, a role that requires scientific agility, superb communication, and tactful but forceful influence of her peers and senior management. She is known in the broader scientific community for work on mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in the “superbug”, MRSA. Aileen is recognized by colleagues inside and outside of Cubist as a strong leader, pivotal collaborator, team player, and outstanding role model. Tammy has shown incredible commitment since joining Segmedica as head of client services. Her ability to connect with clients and her enthusiastic dedication has proved to be invaluable to the growth of our business. Tammy is a true professional and is well respected by all who work with her. We are excited to help her grow and confident she will give it her all as she does with every facet of her career. Jessica has been referred to by not one, but several of her clients as a “rock star.” We use stronger language. Her intelligence, tenacity and productivity are an example for us all—but what we treasure most is her contagiously friendly persona. People want to work with her and be with her; she makes our company a better place. When people Google ‘Rising Star,’ we fully expect a picture of Jessica to appear. Jess exemplifies what we mean by “creative isn’t a department; it’s a mindset.” She’s been pushing digital boundaries since before she arrived at MetaMax two years ago. Not only is she inspirational in integrating traditional and digital channels, she’s inspired out coining the terminology (tra-digital) that describes it. Jess is our Rising Star—driving digital at MetaMax and playing a key role on the Havas Worldwide Health digital circle—helping the whole network reach the Future First. Aarti leads by example—staffing and developing a diverse team, fostering a transparent culture, and sharing personal triumphs to inspire others. She is well respected for her tireless mentoring, spearheading initiatives such as the Lilly Statistics Asian diversity focus group, Lilly Women in Leadership programs and joining the HBA EAC to the Indiana board. Through leadership of the global statistics and advanced analytics group, Aarti has advanced Lilly’s capabilities and leadership pipeline in drug development. Andi is a visionary whose endless energy and charisma, coupled with her healthcare knowledge and prowess, inspires others to achieve at the highest level. Throughout her 20-plus years in the industry, she has excelled as a sales rep, brand manager, director, and Six Sigma leader. Since being appointed president, Andi has grown VMS by more than 30 percent by innovating new solutions for VMS’s life science partners while maintaining a focus on improved patient outcomes. Since joining ProHealth, the promotional medical education division of Draftfcb Healthcare, Shannyn has moved up within the organization with increasing responsibility, emerging as a valuable leader within the organization. Shannyn has earned a reputation for her strategic and innovative thinking, relentless pursuit to exceed expectations, and commitment to team development. Always willing to take on new challenges with poise and grace, Shannyn exemplifies the definition of a Rising Star. Since joining Vertex in 2008, Pamela’s strong work ethic has been crucial while leading key initiatives to support the potential launch of Vertex’s new medicine known as telaprevir. Pamela brings a wealth of industry experience to Vertex, including leading marketing efforts at Pfizer Inc for successful products such as Viagra and Lyrica, and has used this to produce innovative strategies to build awareness of hepatitis C. Pamela is a valued member of the Vertex team. Jennifer brought a wealth of healthcare industry experience to Saatchi & Saatchi Health in 2000 after spending seven years in sales and product management at Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals. Having worked in both account and strategic services, she has a unique ability to empathize with clients’ needs and bring strategic solutions. Jennifer was recently promoted based on her influence in multiple new business wins and her leadership in mentoring and building a team. Liz is passionate about mentoring and leading others while driving results with grace, enthusiasm, and professionalism. As vice president of CareerCentral, a company focused on organization and leadership development, Liz brings a strong customer focus and emphasis on continuous quality improvement to our team. Liz works to do things that matter—she established a group mentoring program for HBA’s Metro Chapter—and she does them very well. We are proud that Liz is our Rising Star. Ashley’s professionalism and passion for her work are immediately obvious to anyone she meets. Building relationships of trust and mutual value is a strength. Working with Insigniam clients gives her the privilege of learning about their commitments and passions to contribute to their future success and critical results. Ashley volunteers broadly with the HBA and other business associations such as Philadelphia’s Society of Human Resource Association where she served as president. Lori plays an active part in shaping the future of Endo by motivating, encouraging and rewarding individuals for their commitment and ongoing effort to achieve Endo’s vision. Lori builds and supports teams of diverse backgrounds, experiences and thinking styles in order to improve service to Endo’s customers and to deliver business results. She is a role model for organizational leadership, continuously working to ensure the best outcome for Endo. Jessica has led cross-functional teams to implement technology and process improvements resulting in efficiency and effectiveness gains across Celgene’s clinical studies from a time, cost and quality perspective.With input from key stakeholders and industry colleagues and, with due regard for where Celgene needs to be as a company in five years, Jessica reorganized her group to ensure delivery against clinical programs, inspection readiness and technology deployment goals. Jessica’s impact demonstrates her Rising Star status. Jenny is an extraordinary leader and global activist for issues of importance to women. Her own personal leadership journey has taken her from Colombia, South America, to the United States. When Jenny arrived in the US as a young adult, she didn’t speak English. She has since become one of CAHG’s finest creative leaders. Jenny has also helped change the world through volunteer efforts focused on issues affecting women globally, including poverty and education. Iva truly exemplifies leadership and inspiration. Through her unrelenting passion, expertise and broad scientific knowledge in RNAi, she has pioneered and led important discoveries in the field of RNAi at Alnylam. She applies an innovative and strategic approach to biotechnology research, and her commitment and enthusiasm for the company’s mission is unparralleded. Iva is an active member of the HBA Boston chapter’s mentoring program, WIS and LSS committees and is highly respected and admired by her colleagues. Jill exemplifies MEDEX Global Solutions core value of customer service. Jill leads the HR function, supporting our employees who work globally. These employees are working to rescue our clients who find themselves in a security crisis or in a medical emergency in a foreign country so it is vital that our HR systems optimally support our employees. Jill plans strategically and implements impeccably and enables us to be a market leader. Shelly personifies leadership. She’s always a resource for her clients, and has become a “member” of their extended team. She is consistently able to keep and grow business organically, and has been the subject of praise from all of her clients. At MicroMass she is also the mentor/coach and can always be seen in the office, teaching and leading her team. She’s a shining light in our agency, and a Rising Star in this industry. Allison brings to her role as associate director of corporate affairs, high levels of strategic and clinical acumen. She is a results driven individual who exemplifies Actelion’s core values of open communication, teamwork, and innovation. In addition to being the face of Actelion to patient and professional medical associations, Allison has led and been involved with a number of high-level strategic initiatives across the organization. Since the founding of JUICE eight years ago, Joan has infused the agency with her extraordinary talent, leadership skills and effusive personality, setting the standards for both creative excellence and a warm interpersonal culture. Joan is a true advertising professional. She is as adept at envisioning breakthrough concepts as she is managing the most complex marketing challenges. As a pivotal pillar of the JUICE community, Joan’s star keeps on shining—and keeps on rising. As a healthcare industry management consultant, Elyse applies her strong work ethic and easy going demeanor to lead both strategic and operational initiatives. An excellent communicator and thoughtful leader, Elyse is results oriented. Teammates and clients alike describe Elyse as creative, savvy and tenacious. With Vynamic, Elyse has worked across all industry sectors—life sciences, health plans, public health, providers, services and technology. Elyse possesses a unique perspective in this changing healthcare environment.

2019-04-22T06:33:09Z

https://hbaobline.hbanet.org/2011-rising-stars

School of Biology, Medical and Biological Sciences Building, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TF, U.K. Synaptic dysfunction and dysregulation of Ca2+ are linked to neurodegenerative processes and behavioural disorders. Our understanding of the causes and factors involved in behavioural disorders and neurodegeneration, especially Alzheimer's disease (AD), a tau-related disease, is on the one hand limited and on the other hand controversial. Here, we review recent data about the links between the Ca2+-binding EF-hand-containing cytoskeletal protein Swiprosin-1/EFhd2 and neurodegeneration. Specifically, we summarize the functional biochemical data obtained in vitro with the use of recombinant EFhd2 protein, and integrated them with in vivo data in order to interpret the emerging role of EFhd2 in synaptic plasticity and in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly involving the tauopathies. We also discuss its functions in actin remodelling through cofilin and small GTPases, thereby linking EFhd2, synapses and the actin cytoskeleton. Expression data and functional experiments in mice and in humans have led to the hypothesis that down-regulation of EFhd2, especially in the cortex, is involved in dementia. Many genes and proteins have been identified in one tissue type only to be found that they have equally important signalling roles in others. Indeed, activated B-cells involved in T-cell-dependent immune reactions within germinal centres express many genes hitherto thought to be neuron-specific and reveal long extensions reminiscent of neurites . Hence, although of different lineage, immune and nerve cells appear to share common signalling pathways. Although Swiprosin-1/EFhd2 was first identified in the immune system , it has become increasingly apparent that EFhd2 has a significant role in the mammalian nervous system, and that its function can be linked to several neurological disorders. Initial studies showed that EFhd2 is most strongly expressed in the brain . Later, EFhd2 could be identified from immunoprecipitation studies of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), from tauopathy-transgenic mouse brains . Western blot analysis indicated that EFhd2 is expressed in all parts of the brain (brain stem, cerebellum, amygdala, striatum, hippocampus, cortex and prefrontal cortex) and at similar levels . It was also reported that the tau–EFhd2 interaction was dependent on the stage of neurodegeneration of the tauopathy transgenic mouse model (JNPL3), being enhanced as the animals were showing more tauopathy; preliminary data also indicated that this could be the case in single cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) , although follow-on work with a larger number of AD brains confirmed that EFhd2 and tau could be found in aggregates . Our own work has extended our knowledge of where EFhd2 is expressed in the mammalian brain and how it changes expression in dementias [6,7]. Specifically, Brachs et al. generated an EFhd2 knockout (KO)/lacZ reporter gene knockin mouse (EFhd2KO) by blastocyst injection of commercially available embryonic stem cells in which the efhd2 gene had been replaced with an in-frame lacZ reporter cassette through homologous recombination. EFhd2KO mice reveal a dose-dependent increase in lacZ compared with heterozygous mice carrying only one mutated allele (EFhd2HT), concomitant with a dose-dependent decrease in EFhd2 expression. This indicated that efhd2 expression is haplo-insufficient, at least in this system, and that, for full efhd2 expression, both alleles need to be active . This mouse strain next allowed for the detailed characterization of EFhd2 expression in the mouse brain by detecting the presence of β-galactosidase activity, which was confirmed by the use of specific anti-EFhd2 antibodies and immunostaining of sections of the brain. EFhd2 expression was observed in the pyramidal layers of the cortex, the dentate gyrus, and the CA1–CA2 regions of the hippocampus . These findings confirmed previous in situ hybridizations described in the Allen Brain Atlas which had indicated strong efhd2 mRNA expression in neuronally rich areas of the brain. White matter regions such as the corpus callosum do not show EFhd2 expression, again confirming the Allen Brain Atlas in situ hybridization and microarray studies. In addition, our studies indicated that the EFhd2 protein is more abundant in the adult than in the embryonic brain, where it is expressed early in the developing cortex, hippocampus and thalamus . As indicated above the increased association of EFhd2 with tau was first postulated to be a link with this Ca2+-binding protein and AD, albeit the mouse model that has been used carries a mutated human tau protein (tau P301L) which is found in the rare neurodegenerative disease FTDP-17 . Initially, F.G.-M.'s group's interest in EFhd2 came from proteomic studies to identify proteins that changed expression in mitochondrial dysfunction models of AD and specifically to identify synaptic proteins that changed expression (reviewed in ). Other studies have also indicated potential links of EFhd2 to diseases associated with synaptic dysfunction; for example, changes in EFhd2 protein levels have been noted in the prefrontal cortex of patients with schizophrenia , suicide victims and a mouse model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease . Interestingly, in a rat model for AD, low-frequency electromagnetic fields partially improved cognitive and pathological symptoms correlating with up-regulation of EFhd2 in the hippocampus . On the other hand, the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen led to down-regulation of EFhd2 in the hippocampus of mice . However, to date, the most systematic and largest study (n=48 brains) that has linked EFhd2 expression directly to human dementia, was described by Borger et al. , which revealed a significant down-regulation of EFhd2 at both the mRNA and the protein level in the cortex of AD brain and other dementias including various different types of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) including FTDP-17 and FTLD-tau with Pick bodies (Pick disease), which are all classified as tauopathies. This down-regulation of EFhd2 did not appear to correlate with the extent of pathological tau phosphorylation. Other tantalizing potential links between EFhd2 and neurodegeneration have also come from studies which have shown that it can bind to the parkinsonism–associated protein leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) , and it has been shown to be downstream and phosphorylated by another protein strongly associated with parkinsonism, PINK1 . The significance of this is as yet unknown, but it is interesting to note that both LRRK2 and PINK1 are linked to mitochondrial dysfunction and cytoskeletal reorganization , which, as indicated above, was how EFhd2 was also identified from proteomic screens in AD models. With respect to regulation of EFhd2 in AD, there have been reported differences, for example, whereas Borger et al. revealed a specific down-regulation of EFhd2 in the cortex, but not the hippocampus, of human dementia brains from different pathological traits, Ferrer-Acosta et al. showed that EFhd2 was up-regulated at the protein level in frontotemporal cortices of human AD patients. The discrepancy between these two studies might be due to different extraction protocols. But Borger et al. revealed, in addition to protein data, a transcriptional down-regulation of EFhd2, thereby supporting their protein biochemical data. However, it cannot be excluded that there are some forms of AD where EFhd2 is up-regulated. Larger study cohorts and even more comprehensive studies than have been performed might be feasible in the future. Whereas the concomitant down-regulation of EFhd2 mRNA and protein specifically in the cortex of dementia patients suggests a tissue-specific transcriptional mechanism of efhd2 gene regulation, additional post-translational mechanisms of EFhd2 regulation cannot be excluded. As mentioned above, in mice, the efhd2 locus is haplo-insufficient. Thus, one mechanism of regulation of efhd2 RNA expression could be heterozygously inherited or somatically acquired alterations of gene-regulatory elements in the efhd2 promoter/enhancer system. There might also be other mechanisms. For instance, neurodegeneration is associated with neuroinflammation [19,20] and EFhd2 has been shown to be down-regulated under pro-inflammatory conditions in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from rheumatoid arthritis patients . PBMCs have recently been used to characterize neurodegenerative disorders [22,23] and Brachs et al. established a flow cytometric protocol to analyse EFhd2 expression in PBMCs. Tentatively, the regulation of efhd2 mRNA expression in neurodegeneration could be linked to inflammatory mediators targeting the yet to be identified promoter/enhancer elements of the efhd2 locus. Indeed, efhd2 has been shown to be regulated by the protein kinase Cβ (PKCβ)/nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway, with NF-κB being a classical pro-inflammatory stimulus, in mast cells . To add another level of complexity, miRNAs that regulate mRNA stability have been linked to amyloid production, tau phosphorylation, and inflammation in AD . Nothing is known so far about miRNAs that could potentially regulate efhd2 expression during dementia. It is also not clear yet whether the reduction in efhd2 expression during neurodegeneration is reversible, causative, compensatory or functionally irrelevant. Inducible Efhd2 deletion or overexpression in a mouse model for neurodegeneration could address this question. At the protein level, EFhd2 consists of an N-terminal region of low complexity with an alanine stretch, a functional Src homology 3 (SH3-) binding motif , two EF hands and a C-terminal coiled-coil (CC) domain (Figure 1). The unstructured N-terminal part has been shown to contribute to the strong thermal stability of recombinant EFhd2 . The proline-rich domain entailing amino acids 70–79 is in fact a functional binding partner for the SH3 domain of the Src-like protein tyrosine kinase Fgr . Interestingly, this binding depends on phosphorylation of EFhd2 and there are two serine residues in this region, Ser74 and Ser76, that have been described to be phosphorylated . Ser74 has been shown to be phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) (for a comprehensive overview of EFhd2’s phosphorylation refer to http://www.phosphosite.org). The SH3 domains of the Src kinase Lyn but not that of Yes, and the SH3 domain of phospholipase Cγ (PLCγ) binds EFhd2, but their binding sites in EFhd2 are not yet known . EFhd2 has also been shown to bind Ca2+ . Single amino acid mutations at critical polar amino acids predicted to be important in EF hands for Ca2+ binding due to their conserved positions (E116A, E152A, D105A and D141A) have demonstrated that both EF hands are functional [28,30]. Of note, by determining the affinity of EFhd2’s EF hands by equilibrium centrifugation it has become clear that EFhd2 binds Ca2+ co-operatively, but with an affinity of only 68 μM . Thus, Hagen et al. have proposed that EFhd2 is more like a Ca2+-sensor protein as it could bind Ca2+ only at higher concentrations, but then release it quickly. It is also possible that EFhd2 buffers strong Ca2+ transients temporarily. Hence, EFhd2 could modulate the spatiotemporal information of the second messenger Ca2+ (Figure 1). This notion is important as dysregulation of Ca2+ is involved in synaptic dysfunction in neurodegenerative and behavioural disorders [31,32]. In that sense, phosphorylation of EFhd2 at Ser74 (potentially by Cdk5) and a functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) which is associated with AD (F89L) have both been shown to reduce EFhd2’s ability to bind Ca2+ and could exert effects on EFhd2’s quaternary structure: The C-terminal CC domain mediates self-interaction of EFhd2 [5,33], in a Ca2+-dependent manner . Ca2+ dependency for dimerization has, however, only been shown in one study . This discrepancy might be due to different methods: whereas Ferrer-Acosta et al. used an ELISA-like solid-phase interaction assay, Kwon et al. tested the dimerization capacity in solution and by co-immunoprecipitation from extracts of transfected cells. In conclusion, EFhd2 might interact weakly in the absence of Ca2+, which could be detected in solid-phase binding assays, and more strongly in the presence of Ca2+. However, as the affinity of EFhd2 for Ca2+ is low, the dimeric forms of EFhd2 are expected to form at a low rate or only transiently. A very similar CC domain is also present in the EFhd2 orthologue EFhd1 , but so far there is no reported evidence for hetero dimerization of EFhd2 and EFhd1 by co-immunoprecipitation analysis of endogenously expressed proteins . The CC domain has also been reported to mediate the interaction of EFhd2 with a mutant form of the MAPT (tauP301L) in tau-transgenic brain extracts . Here, it is not clear whether dimerization of EFhd2 through the CC domain exposes a tau-binding domain of EFhd2 or whether EFhd2 binds mutant tau directly through its CC domain. Dimerization of EFhd2 through its CC domain is mediated by a lysine-rich stretch . Mutant tau isoforms, such as tauP301L, are usually highly phosphorylated . One possibility could be that the positively charged lysine-rich stretch in the CC domain of EFhd2 binds negatively charged tau residues. If Ca2+ induces EFhd2 dimers via the CC domain, it could be possible that the EFhd2–tau interaction site is blocked. Thus, Ca2+ induced dimerization could regulate the observed tau–EFhd2 interaction negatively. In the future, it will be interesting to know whether monomeric or dimeric EFhd2 binds to wild-type tau or tauP301L, especially with respect to the proposed amyloid structure of recombinant EFhd2 . EFhd2 binds also directly to filamentous actin (F-actin), in a Ca2+-independent manner, and has three F-actin-binding regions (amino acids 69–84, 96–163 and 163–199) (marked in red in Figure 1). Depending on the local Ca2+ concentration, EFhd2 shuttles between monomeric and dimeric states. Because of the low affinity of EFhd2 for Ca2+, this is expected to be a dynamic process. Enhancement of Rac and Cdc42 activity through EFhd2 leads to local actin polymerization. F-actin bound by EFhd2 through its F-actin-binding domains (marked in red) will be bundled at higher Ca2+ concentrations. EFhd2-mediated F-actin bundling prevents access of cofilin to F-actin which stabilizes F-actin locally. F-actin polymerization and bundling through EFhd2 could stabilize pre-synaptic structures. The signals leading to EFhd2 mediates Rac and Cdc42 activation in neurons remain to be identified. At the top is a schematic depiction of the proteins and molecules represented in Figures 1–3. Proteins and Ca2+ ions are not drawn to scale. The F-actin-binding domains of EFhd2 are highlighted in red. EF, EF hand; G-Actin, globular actin. EFhd2 has been shown to regulate the accessibility of the actin-severing protein cofilin to F-actin and it induces F-actin bundling [33,35]. Brachs et al. showed that in B-cells, genetic knockout of EFhd2 enhanced the dephosphorylation of cofilin at Ser3, i.e. its activation, after B-cell receptor (BCR) stimulation of resting B-cells. Hence, deletion of EFhd2 is expected to have a profound effect on local actin stability by regulating the activity of cofilin at several levels: first, by competing with it for F-actin binding , and, secondly, by regulating its dephosphorylation on Ser3 and therefore its activity, at least in B-cells . The dephosphorylation of cofilin is regulated by increases in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration; for instance after BCR or epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation, leading to activation of the PLC/inositol tris phosphate (IP3) pathway. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation induced phosphorylation of EFhd2 on Ser138 in transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells . Another group has shown that EGF can reversibly dephosphorylate EFhd2 on Tyr83 in HeLa cells with the same kinetics as proteins involved in actin dynamics, namely gelsolin and actin-related protein 2/3 complex (Arp2/3) . Increased intracellular Ca2+ elicited by the PLC/IP3 pathway activates two protein phosphatases, calcineurin and slingshot, which dephosphorylate cofilin . Enhanced dephosphorylation of cofilin in BCR-activated EFhd2-deficient B-cells and putatively other cell types after stimulation with other agonists might be explained by a locally increased Ca2+ concentration because EFhd2’s buffering capacity is missing, leading to increased phosphatase activity. Interestingly, EGF activates the calcineurin signalling pathway followed by a transient increase in cofilin at the leading edge allowing for neurite outgrowth [39–41]. Modulation of EGF-elicited cofilin activity by EFhd2 might therefore play a role in neurite outgrowth of primary cortical neurons . Deduced from the published data, one would assume that as soon as the local Ca2+ concentration is high enough (in the micromolar range ), F-actin-bound EFhd2 could dimerize, bundle F-actin and prevent cofilin from actin severing (Figure 1). This is expected to be a dynamic process due to the low affinity of EFhd2 for Ca2+ but could allow for the stabilization of actin-dependent signalling or membrane complexes, thereby affecting longer-lasting responses mediated by, for instance, growth factors or synaptic Ca2+ oscillations. Whereas wild-type EFhd2 or a S138A mutation inhibit cofilin activity in vitro and in transfected B6F10 melanoma cells, the phospho mimetic mutant S138E does not. Hence, EGF leads to local de-stabilization of F-actin through a phosphorylation of Ser138 in EFhd2 . The EGF-induced phosphorylation of EFhd2 on Tyr83 and Tyr104, with Tyr104 being in the first EF hand domain, appear to be irrelevant for this process . However, both S138A and S138E mutations disturbed the localization of cofilin at the leading edge of EGF-elicited lamellipodia, and lamellipodia dynamics. Hence, a dynamic equilibrium of EFhd2 phosphorylation probably regulates cofilin activity and localization, which is required to provide a pool of globular actin (G-actin) endowing dynamic assembly of F-actin. F-actin assembly and branching are important for formation of filopdia and lamellipodia and are upstream of cofilin, generally controlled by a family of small Ras-like GTPases comprising Rho, Ras, Rab, Arf, Sar and Ran proteins . In particular the Rho and Ras members play critical roles during all stages of axonogenesis . EFhd2 is expressed in dendrites, axons and synapses, and knockdown of Efhd2 increases pre-synaptic densities [6,7]. It has to be noted that, at first glance and macroscopically, brains of EFhd2KO mice appear to be normal. However, deletion of EFhd2 might have very specifically localized effects on one of these GTPases–Cdc42, Rac and Rho–within the neuron or even within specific subtypes in vivo, which might explain the effects on axonal transport (; see below) or presynaptic plasticity . In the following section, we therefore discuss the published involvement of EFhd2 in the regulation of small GTPase activity and put it into the context of axonogenesis. Axonogenesis is important during brain development and regeneration after traumatic or disease induced injury, such as in neurodegenerative disorders (for reviews, see [45,46]). Of note, axonogenesis is a differentiation process. It is likely that there is a co-ordinate regulation between migration of neuronal stem cells during development and regeneration, and their differentiation . Axonogenesis does require a close interplay between the actin and microtubule (MT) systems. Both migrating and differentiated neurons are polarized, with the microtubule-organizing centre (MTOC; also called the centrosome) directed into the direction of movement. Directed movement is dictated by the growth cone that, in itself, becomes instructed by axon-guidance signals and is a dynamic region rich in F-actin . The actin cytoskeleton plays a major role in pathfinding. The MT cytoskeleton, on the other hand, provides structure to the axon shaft and MT–actin interactions are fundamental for axon extension. Specifically, the plus end of an MT is attached to actin structures in the growth cone, which also influence MT growth mechanically. In particular, MT extension occurs preferentially along filopodia . Interestingly, the filopodia are composed of bundled F-actin and are sensors of guidance cues . It remains to be determined whether and where EFhd2 exhibits F-actin-bundling activity in neurons. One possibility could be within filopodia, particularly in the light of EFhd2’s regulation of Cdc42 activity (see below). Whereas filopodial bundles attract the plus ends of MTs and also transport MT, the growth cone contains, in addition, transverse actin bundles (also called actin arcs) that restrain MTs from attaching . It has been proposed that the distal MT position is controlled by the rate of plus end assembly and retrograde actin flow . Besides mechanical mechanisms there is also a plethora of proteins that interact specifically with both the MT and the actin cytoskeleton, regulating their dynamic interaction, such as cofilin and tau and now also EFhd2 (Figure 1), which are all involved in controlling axon growth [49,50]. MTs extending with their plus ends towards the growth cone are linked there to the dynamic actin structures through complexes of linker proteins, such as the PAFAH1B1–CLIP170–Cdc42–Rac complex . Proteins such as PAFAH1B1 promote both MT and actin dynamics, thereby connecting MT to newly formed protrusions in the growth cone of the axon . Attracting or repelling extracellular signals, such as those elicited through the Reelin pathway, Semaphorins or Nogo, transmit signals via specific receptors, such as low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8 (LRP8), to ultimately control activation of small GTPases, such as Cdc42/Rac/Rho . Small GTPases cycle between an active GTP-bound state and an inactive GDP-bound state. Guanine-nucleotide-exchange factors (GEFs) activate GTPases by catalysing the exchange of GDP for GTP, whereas GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) inactivate these small GTPases by increasing their GTPase activity. GTP-loaded GTPases bind many downstream effector proteins of various signalling pathways, among them effectors regulating actin and MT assembly, such as PAK (p21-activated kinase) or Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein verprolin homologous (WAVE) proteins . The Rho and Ras members are involved in initiation, elongation, guidance and branching of axons . Their main function is to regulate the interaction of the growing axon with other cells and extracellular matrix. They also control the delivery of cargo to the axon through the exocytic machinery, and they are involved in the internalization of membrane and proteins at the leading edge of the growth cone through endocytosis . Asymmetric transport of proteins to the axon is important for maintenance of neuronal polarity. Cdc42 is important for neuronal polarization and Rac regulates pathways that regulate MT growth in the developing axon . Conditional deletion of Cdc42 reveals normal initial neurite sprouting but axon formation was strongly impaired . As in many systems, Rho appears to be antagonistic in axon specification towards Cdc42 and Rac by activating ROCK (Rho-activated coiled-coil kinase) . In contrast with axon initiation, axon elongation can, however, also be positively regulated through the stromal-cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α)/Rho/mDia pathway . Interestingly, SDF-1α elicited spreading of Jurkat cells overexpressing a EFhd2–GFP fusion protein is enhanced, indicating that EFhd2 can amplify SDF-1α signals through a yet to be identified pathway . The regulation of the Cdc42, Rac and Rho pathways appears to be involved in nerve regeneration as well. For instance, TC10, a close relative of Cdc42, was initially identified in neuronal cells as a gene that was dramatically re-expressed after axotomy of motor neurons in the hypoglossal nuclei . Both Rho and PAK (which is downstream of Rac) can inhibit cofilin through Lim kinase 1 . Thus, Rac may limit axon growth through this pathway, but may also activate it through another effector, STEF . In any case, it is clear that cofilin phosphorylation and dephosphorylation are important in axonal outgrowth. Moreover, Rho and ROCK often, but not always, play antagonistic role in axon outgrowth and guidance towards Rac and Cdc42, which provide attractive cues and forward protrusion . Plating Chinese-hamster ovary K1 (CHO-K1) cells on fibronectin revealed that overexpression of an EFhd2–GFP protein enhances basal and fibronectin-induced Rac activity . Likewise, B6F10 melanoma cells stably overexpressing an EFhd2–GFP fusion protein revealed basally increased Rac and Cdc42 activity but reduced Rho activity. In contrast, shRNA-mediated silencing of EFhd2 in B6F10 cells increased Rho activity . Thus, EFhd2 appears to be antagonistic towards Rho, and to activate Cdc42 and Rac. In accordance, increased membrane ruffling induced through overexpression of EFhd2–GFP could be reduced by simultaneous expression of dominant-negative Rac and, conversely, reduction in membrane ruffling by shRNA against EFhd2 was reversed by dominant-negative Rac . Interestingly, silencing of EFhd2 prevented Transwell invasion of B6F10 melanoma cells induced in vitro through constitutively active Rac and enhanced invasion prevented through constitutively active Rho . These results indicate that EFhd2 can function upstream of Cdc42, Rac and Rho, but can also modulate the effector functions of these small GTPases. This mechanism may relate to modulation of cofilin activity by EFhd2 but other mechanisms cannot be excluded. In total, EGF-induced phosphorylation of EFhd2 resulted in loosening of F-actin bundles. Thereby, cofilin gained more access to F-actin at the leading edge, and cofilin activity led to the generation of short actin filaments with free barbed ends . This may alter actin dynamics. In the light of these data, it is intriguing that actin- and cofilin-mediated actin remodelling appear to be important for synaptic plasticity [57,58]. In summary, we conclude from biochemical data that EFhd2 has the potential to transmit Ca2+ transients into the regulation of actin stability (Figure 1). This function of EFhd2 could have profound pleiotropic effects in many systems. It is not clear which receptors and GEFs are upstream of EFhd2-regulated GTPase activation and effector function within the brain, but SDF-1α or EGF might play a role. As EFhd2 appears to regulate F-actin bundling too, it might well exert pleiotropic effects. For instance, Semaphorin 3A leads to the activation of Rho and ROCK, and attenuates actin polymerization, while promoting intra-axonal F-actin bundling and myosin II-mediated force generation . More specifically, as EFhd2 is down-regulated in Nogo-A-knockout neurons, which reveal an increased regeneration potential , it could mediate the inhibitory effects of Nogo. The Nogo receptor mediates the inhibitory effects of Nogo-A, MAG and OMgp on neurite outgrowth by activating Rho and decreasing Rac activity. Loss of EFhd2 could shift this equilibrium. Down-regulation of EFhd2 in the cortices of dementia patients could therefore be a rescue pathway, by blocking the function of inhibitory receptors. Recombinant EFhd2 inhibits kinesin-mediated MT gliding in vitro. Knockout of EFhd2 increases the velocity of kinesin-mediated transport of a synaptic protein - synaptophysin - in primary neurons. Knockdown of EFhd2 in primary neurons increases the formation of presynaptic densities. Thus, the local concentration of EFhd2 may regulate controlled delivery of cargo. Either overexpression or loss of EFhd2 may lead to displaced presynaptic cargo. EFhd2 is expressed in cortical neurons and its expression appears to be biphasic when neurons are allowed to culture in vitro . At the subcellular level, Efhd2 has a discrete punctate distribution which was shown to co-stain along neurites with microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) and tau, potentially hinting at it being involved in vesicle transport, and it was partially located at synaptic regions co-staining with synapsin 1a/b and closely associated with postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95). The specific and significant change in the EFhd2 protein levels in dementia leads to the question of what EFhd2 does and whether this down-regulation of expression is important for the biochemistry and physiology of the neuron. Recent studies have now indicated that EFhd2 may have roles in both synapses and intracellular transport. The synaptic presence of EFhd2 was confirmed by biochemical analysis of isolated synaptosomes [6,7]. As described above, physiologically in various types of dementia there is a decrease in the amount of both protein and mRNA levels of EFhd2 , although, intriguingly, this only appears to occur in the cortex regions and not the hippocampus. It is also of note that there is also no difference in EFhd2 levels whether the dementia has underlying tau pathology . The decrease in the protein levels of synaptogenic EFhd2 would suggest a potential phenotypic change in neuronal behaviour. Initially and possibly surprisingly, the removal of EFhd2 appeared to have no effect on the activity of synapses as there were no reported differences in electrophysiologically stimulated release of synapto-phluorin from transfected primary neurons derived from EFhd2KO mice as compared with wild-type mice . However, there was a significant difference in the number of synapses that could be formed, i.e. a decrease in EFhd2 expression led to the production of more synapses (Figure 2) . Given the ability of the frontal cortex to respond to the onset of dementia by neuronal reorganization , the regulation of EFhd2, be it at the RNA or protein level, could allow a challenged cortical neuronal circuit system to cope with damage. It is tempting to speculate that these hypothetical remodelling mechanisms function through EFhd2’s functions in the Cdc42/Rac/Rho/cofilin pathways (as outlined above), its function in kinesin-mediated MT gliding (outline below) or in a dynamic exchange between the actin and MT system (Figure 3). (a) In the absence of EFhd2, a local increase in Ca2+ might be less translated into F-actin stabilization. Concomitantly, kinesin-mediated transport increases and gets delivered into a relative flexible pre-synaptic compartment. (b) When the local Ca2+ concentration increases in the presence of EFhd2, F-actin becomes bundled by EFhd2 and is thereby stabilized. Whether this affects transport of cargo along MTs in not known, but a pool of EFhd2 might be stabilized on F-actin and be less accessible at MTs. (c) In the presence of EFhd2 and with low intracellular Ca2+, kinesin-mediated transport on MTs occurs normally, F-actin is accessible to cofilin, not bundled by EFhd2, and therefore more flexible. Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) but not senile plaques parallel the duration and severity of AD . Hence, a critical issue appears to be the amount and phosphorylation status of the tau protein: even moderate overexpression of wild-type tau can induce neurodegeneration, possibly by interfering with kinesin-mediated transport of mitochondria, vesicles and endoplasmatic reticulum [64,65]. It does so by limiting distance travelled by cargo and also a reduction in multiple kinesin velocity . Hyperphosphorylated tau that relocalizes to the somatodendritic compartment disrupts normal axonal transport massively by trapping the kinesin adapter-molecule JIP1 (Jun N-terminal kinase-interacting protein 1; now called MAPK8IP1) in the soma [67,68]. JIP1 would normally interact with Doublecortin (DCX), thereby also controlling actin dynamics in the growth cone . Thus, tau malfunction affects also the actin cytoskeleton. A physiological function of tau, however, appears to be the stabilization of MTs to control axonal transport, which is negatively regulated by phosphorylation, but reversible and controlled phosphorylation of tau are as well be important for synaptic plasticity [34,70]. Interestingly, alterations in intracellular endo-lysosomal vesicle transport as well as autophagy appear even to precede amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) and tau pathology . In the light of these findings, it is therefore intriguing that we have previously shown that kinesin (KIF5A)-induced MT gliding was decelerated by the addition of a GST–EFhd2 fusion protein to this system, indicating a dose-dependent functional interaction between EFhd2 and KIF5A . Therefore, we proposed that a potential mechanism of the interference with kinesin activity towards MTs could be inhibition of MT binding to kinesin by EFhd2 (Figure 2). Of note, neurite outgrowth and axonal regeneration of Drosophila neurons have been proposed to be mediated by kinesin-mediated MT gliding [72,73]. Thus, down-regulation of EFhd2 could foster synaptic delivery through kinesin-mediated transport, an idea that is supported by the finding of Borger et al. of increased presynapse formation in EFhd2-knockdown neurons. It is therefore reasonable to assume that EFhd2 is linked to intra-neuronal transport and dementia, which would support hypotheses of alterations in the endo-lysosomal vesicle transport system as being involved in neurodegeneration [74–76]. Given the reported interaction of EFhd2 and tauP301L , it is striking that both proteins inhibit kinesin-mediated transport independently [7,77]. It is even more striking that both EFhd2 and tau exhibit F-actin-bundling activity , that actin dynamics are altered in tauopathies and that EFhd2 was found in synapses [6,7]. A locally increased concentration of EFhd2 in synapses could thus serve to stop axonal transport and to place cargo correctly–in synapses (Figure 3). On the other hand, a local Ca2+ transient, for instance induced through an action potential, could foster synaptic stabilization by aiding Ca2+-controlled EFhd2 dimerization and F-actin bundling–putatively in filopodia or arcs composed of bundled F-actin. If the EFhd2 concentration was limiting, kinesin-mediated transport could then resume, thereby replenishing used-up cargo. Moreover, there might be pools of EFhd2 shuttling between the MT and actin system, depending perhaps on the local Ca2+ concentration (Figure 3). It is thus tempting to speculate that loss of EFhd2 could modulate long-term potentiation by modulating delivery of kinesin-transported cargo and by orchestrating local actin dynamics in a dynamic equilibrium. Intracellular transport along MTs and axon formation under the control of actin-membrane dynamics is required for delivery of vesicles and mitochondria to synapses. Conversely, this system is also required for intracellular waste disposal and recycling. The hallmark of many dementias is the occurrence of intra and extra-cellular aggregates of misfolded proteins. In particular, deposits of tau have been intensively characterized for many years . Two main degradation pathways for tau exist: autophagy and the proteasome . Both degradation pathways appear to be possible targets for the treatment of AD [81,82]. Autophagy is a lysosomal survival pathway and regulates degradation and recycling of damaged organelles and cytoplasmic proteins, which appears to be specifically important in neurodegenerative diseases [83,84]. In chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), heat-shock cognate 70 (Hsc70) binds proteins with exposed KFERQ motifs and delivers them to lysosomes through LAMP-2A (lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2A) . The tau complexes Vega et al. had purified from JNPL3 mice contained not only EFhd2 but also Hsc70, which controls CMA . Hence, EFhd2 could be involved in CMA and removal of pathological tau isoforms. On the other hand, EFhd2 co-localizes with hyperphosphorylated tau in AD brain, with Aβ-bearing neurons and recombinant EFhd2 can be rendered an amyloid protein itself as shown by electron microscopy . In addition, thioflavin S binding in the presence and absence of heparin has revealed extensive β-barrel sheets in EFhd2 . Although the authors interpreted their finding as evidence for amyloid EFhd2 being putatively dangerous, EFhd2 as a component of insoluble tau or Aβ aggregates could as well be a harmless or even beneficial ‘off pathway’ side product, perhaps from CMA, as tau tangle-bearing neurons can also be long-lived . The observed down-regulation of EFhd2 in dementia might have opposing functions and its mechanism is unknown. Thus, the function of EFhd2 in neurodegeneration has to be further elucidated, probably with inducible knockout or transgenic EFhd2 mouse models in a neurodegenerative background. It will also be important to analyse more dementia patients across different intercontinental cohorts for EFhd2 expression. One facilitation in this process might be the analysis of PBMCs for EFhd2 expression. As EFhd2 has been shown to modulate F-actin bundling, cofilin activity and Cdc42, Rac and Rho activity, a special interest lies on the investigation of these pathways in primary neurons, specifically in synaptic plasticity. In addition, nothing is known about the growth factors, intercellular signals, receptors and GEFs that are upstream of EFhd2’s ability to regulate small GTPases. Among others, Nogo-A, EGF or SDF-1α might, however, be interesting candidates as they are involved in small GTPase signalling, neurite development and plasticity. Another system to focus on is kinesin-mediated transport along MTs, which is partly also organized by small GTPases. Taken together, these investigations will help us to understand the significance of the regulation of EFhd2 in the cortex of dementia patients. This work was supported by the German Science Foundation [grant number TRR130 (to D.M.)]; the Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Center Erlangen [grant numbers E8 and E22 (to D.M.)]; and the Alzheimer's Society UK [grant number 188 (to F.G.-M.)]. We thank Dr Beate Winner for a critical reading of this paper. (2008) Axon growth and guidance genes identify T-dependent germinal centre B cells. Immunol. Cell Biol. 86:3–14, doi:10.1038/sj.icb.7100123, pmid:17938642. (2004) Identification of swiprosin 1 in human lymphocytes. Proteomics 4:2216–2220, doi:10.1002/pmic.200300779, pmid:15274114. (2007) The novel adaptor protein Swiprosin-1 enhances BCR signals and contributes to BCR-induced apoptosis. Cell Death Differ. 14:1936–1947, doi:10.1038/sj.cdd.4402206, pmid:17673920. (2008) A novel calcium-binding protein is associated with tau proteins in tauopathy. J. Neurochem. 106:96–106, doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2008.05339.x, pmid:18346207. 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2019-04-20T05:30:04Z

http://www.biochemj.org/content/473/16/2429

Items where Author is "Rimbach, Gerald" Fickler, A., Staats, S., Hasler, M., Rimbach, G. and Schulz, C. (2018) Dietary Buglossoides arvensis Oil as a Potential Candidate to Substitute Fish Oil in Rainbow Trout Diets. Lipids, 53 (8). pp. 809-823. DOI 10.1002/lipd.12092. Kühn, G., Pallauf, K., Schulz, C. and Rimbach, G. (2018) Flavonoids as putative modulators of Δ4-, Δ5-, and Δ6-desaturases: Studies in cultured hepatocytes, myocytes, and adipocytes. BioFactors, 44 (5). pp. 485-495. DOI 10.1002/biof.1443. Kühn, G., Pallauf, K., Schulz, C., Birringer, M., Diaz-Rica, B., de Pascual-Teresa, S. and Rimbach, G. (2018) Resveratrol Modulates Desaturase Expression and Fatty Acid Composition of Cultured Hepatocytes. Frontiers in Nutrition, 5 . DOI 10.3389/fnut.2018.00106. Torno, C., Staats, S., Michl, S. C., de Pascual-Teresa, S., Izquierdo, M., Rimbach, G. and Schulz, C. (2018) Fatty Acid Composition and Fatty Acid Associated Gene-Expression in Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) are Affected by Low-Fish Oil Diets, Dietary Resveratrol, and Holding Temperature. Marine Drugs, 16 (10). p. 379. DOI 10.3390/md16100379. Torno, C., Staats, S., Rimbach, G. and Schulz, C. (2018) Effects of resveratrol and genistein on nutrient digestibility and intestinal histopathology of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Aquaculture, 491 . pp. 114-120. DOI 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2018.03.020. Torno, C., Staats, S., de Pascual-Teresa, S., Rimbach, G. and Schulz, C. (2018) Effects of resveratrol and genistein on growth, nutrient utilization and fatty acid composition of rainbow trout. animal, 8 . pp. 1-8. DOI 10.1017/S1751731118002458. Huebbe, P., Nikolai, S., Schloesser, A., Herebian, D., Campbell, G., Glüer, C. C., Zeyner, A., Demetrowitsch, T., Schwarz, K., Metges, C. C., Roeder, T., Schultheiss, G., Ipharraguerre, I. R. and Rimbach, G. (2017) An extract from the Atlantic brown algae Saccorhiza polyschides counteracts diet-induced obesity in mice via a gut related multi-factorial mechanisms. Oncotarget . DOI 10.18632/oncotarget.18113. Waniek, S., Giuseppe, R., Plachta-Danielzik, S., Ratjen, I., Jacobs, G., Koch, M., Borggrefe, J., Both, M., Müller, H. P., Kassubek, J., Nöthlings, U., Esatbeyoglu, T., Schlesinger, S., Rimbach, G. and Lieb, W. (2017) Association of Vitamin E Levels with Metabolic Syndrome, and MRI-Derived Body Fat Volumes and Liver Fat Content. Nutrients, 9 (10). p. 1143. DOI 10.3390/nu9101143. Yazdekhasti, N., Brandsch, C., Hirche, F., Kühn, J., Schloesser, A., Esatbeygolu, T., Huebbe, P., Wolffram, S., Rimbach, G. and Stangl, G. I. (2017) Impact of chocolate liquor on vascular lesions in apoE-knockout mice. Clinical Science, 131 (20). pp. 2549-2560. DOI 10.1042/CS20170279. Schloesser, A., Esatbeyoglu, T., Schultheiß, G., Vollert, H., Lüersen, K., Fischer, A. and Rimbach, G. (2017) Antidiabetic Properties of an Apple/Kale Extract In Vitro, In Situ, and in Mice Fed a Western-Type Diet. Journal of Medicinal Food, 20 (9). pp. 846-854. DOI 10.1089/jmf.2017.0019. Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2017) Evolution of human apolipoprotein E (APOE) isoforms: Gene structure, protein function and interaction with dietary factors. Ageing Research Reviews, 37 . pp. 146-161. DOI 10.1016/j.arr.2017.06.002. Torno, C., Staats, S., Pascual-Teresa, S. d., Rimbach, G. and Schulz, C. (2017) Fatty Acid Profile Is Modulated by Dietary Resveratrol in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Marine Drugs, 15 (8). p. 252. DOI 10.3390/md15080252. Aeschimann, W., Staats, S., Kammer, S., Olieric, N., Jeckelmann, J. M., Fotiadis, D., Netscher, T., Rimbach, G., Cascella, M. and Stocker, A. (2017) Self-assembled α-Tocopherol Transfer Protein Nanoparticles Promote Vitamin E Delivery Across an Endothelial Barrier. Scientific Reports, 7 (1). DOI 10.1038/s41598-017-05148-9. Pallauf, K., Duckstein, N. and Rimbach, G. (2017) A literature review of flavonoids and lifespan in model organisms. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 76 (02). pp. 145-162. DOI 10.1017/S0029665116000720. Rimbach, G., Fischer, A., Schloesser, A., Jerz, G., Ikuta, N., Ishida, Y., Matsuzawa, R., Matsugo, S., Huebbe, P. and Terao, K. (2017) Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Brazilian Green Propolis Encapsulated in a γ-Cyclodextrin Complex in Mice Fed a Western-Type Diet. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 18 (6). p. 1141. DOI 10.3390/ijms18061141. Esatbeyoglu, T., Rodríguez-Werner, M., Schlösser, A., Winterhalter, P. and Rimbach, G. (2017) Fractionation, enzyme inhibitory and cellular antioxidant activity of bioactives from purple sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas ). Food Chemistry, 221 . pp. 447-456. DOI 10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.10.077. Ikuta, N., Chikamoto, K., Asano, Y., Yasui, Y., Yokokawa, H., Terao, K., Rimbach, G. and Matsugo, S. (2017) Time Course Effect of R-Alpha-Lipoic Acid on Cellular Metabolomics in Cultured Hepatoma Cells. Journal of Medicinal Food, 20 (3). pp. 211-222. DOI 10.1089/jmf.2016.3837. Smidt, H., Liehr, M., Mereu, A., Pastor, J. J., Quintela, J. C., Staats, S., Rimbach, G. and Ipharraguerre, I. R. (2017) Olive oil bioactives protect pigs against experimentally-induced chronic inflammation independently of alterations in gut microbiota. PLOS ONE, 12 (3). e0174239. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0174239. Esatbeyoglu, T., Obermair, B., Dorn, T., Siems, K., Rimbach, G. and Birringer, M. (2017) Sesquiterpene Lactone Composition and Cellular Nrf2 Induction of Taraxacum officinale Leaves and Roots and Taraxinic Acid β-d-Glucopyranosyl Ester. Journal of Medicinal Food, 20 (1). pp. 71-78. DOI 10.1089/jmf.2016.0105. Flachsbart, F., Dose, J., Gentschew, L., Geismann, C., Caliebe, A., Knecht, C., Nygaard, M., Badarinarayan, N., ElSharawy, A., May, S., Luzius, A., Torres, G. G., Jentzsch, M., Forster, M., Häesler, R., Pallauf, K., Lieb, W., Derbois, C., Galan, P., Drichel, D., Arlt, A., Till, A., Krause-Kyora, B., Rimbach, G., Blanché, H., Deleuze, J. F., Christiansen, L., Christensen, K., Nothnagel, M., Rosenstiel, P., Schreiber, S., Franke, A., Sebens, S. and Nebel, A. (2017) Identification and characterization of two functional variants in the human longevity gene FOXO3. Nature Communications, 8 (1). DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-02183-y. Loerz, C., Staab-Weijnitz, C., Huebbe, P., Giller, K., Metges, C., Rimbach, G. and Maser, E. (2017) Regulation of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 following caloric restriction and re-feeding is species dependent. Chemico-Biological Interactions, 276 . pp. 95-104. DOI 10.1016/j.cbi.2017.02.018. Minović, I., Eisenga, M. F., Riphagen, I. J., van den Berg, E., Kootstra-Ros, J., Frenay, A. R. S., van Goor, H., Rimbach, G., Esatbeyoglu, T., Levy, A. P., AJM Gaillard, C., Geleijnse, J. M., Eggersdorfer, M. L., Navis, G. J., Kema, I. P. and Bakker, S. J. L. (2017) Circulating Haptoglobin and Metabolic Syndrome in Renal Transplant Recipients. Scientific Reports, 7 (1). DOI 10.1038/s41598-017-14302-2. Pallauf, K., Duckstein, N., Hasler, M., Klotz, L. O. and Rimbach, G. (2017) Flavonoids as Putative Inducers of the Transcription Factors Nrf2, FoxO, and PPARγ. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2017 . pp. 1-11. DOI 10.1155/2017/4397340. Esatbeyoglu, T. and Rimbach, G. (2016) Canthaxanthin: From molecule to function. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 61 (6). p. 1600469. DOI 10.1002/mnfr.201600469. Baenas, N., Piegholdt, S., Schloesser, A., Moreno, D. A., Garcia-Viguera, C., Rimbach, G. and Wagner, A. E. (2016) Metabolic Activity of Radish Sprouts Derived Isothiocyanates in Drosophila melanogaster. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 17 (2). DOI 10.3390/ijms17020251. Dose, J., Huebbe, P., Nebel, A. and Rimbach, G. (2016) APOE genotype and stress response - a mini review. Lipids in Health and Disease, 15 . DOI 10.1186/s12944-016-0288-2. Dose, J., Matsugo, S., Yokokawa, H., Koshida, Y., Okazaki, S., Seidel, U., Eggersdorfer, M., Rimbach, G. and Esatbeyoglu, T. (2016) Free Radical Scavenging and Cellular Antioxidant Properties of Astaxanthin. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 17 (1). DOI 10.3390/ijms17010103. Dose, J., Nebel, A., Piegholdt, S., Rimbach, G. and Huebbe, P. (2016) Influence of the APOE genotype on hepatic stress response: Studies in APOE targeted replacement mice and human liver cells. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 96 . pp. 264-272. DOI 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2016.04.031. Esatbeyoglu, T., Ehmer, A., Chaize, D. and Rimbach, G. (2016) Quantitative Determination of Spermidine in 50 German Cheese Samples on a Core-Shell Column by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Photodiode Array Detector Using a Fully Validated Method. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 64 (10). pp. 2105-2111. DOI 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b00078. Esatbeyoglu, T., Ewald, P., Yasui, Y., Yokokawa, H., Wagner, A. E., Matsugo, S., Winterhalter, P. and Rimbach, G. (2016) Chemical Characterization, Free Radical Scavenging, and Cellular Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of a Stilbenoid-Rich Root Extract of Vitis vinifera. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity . DOI 10.1155/2016/8591286. Esatbeyoglu, T., Rodriguez-Werner, M., Schlosser, A., Liehr, M., Ipharraguerre, I., Winterhalter, P. and Rimbach, G. (2016) Fractionation of Plant Bioactives from Black Carrots (Daucus carota subspecies sativus varietas atrorubens Alef.) by Adsorptive Membrane Chromatography and Analysis of Their Potential Anti-Diabetic Activity. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 64 (29). pp. 5901-5908. DOI 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b02292. Fischer, A., Onur, S., Niklowitz, P., Menke, T., Laudes, M., Rimbach, G. and Doring, F. (2016) Coenzyme Q(10) Status as a Determinant of Muscular Strength in Two Independent Cohorts. Plos One, 11 (12). DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0167124. Fuellen, G., Schofield, P., Flatt, T., Schulz, R. J., Boege, F., Kraft, K., Rimbach, G., Ibrahim, S., Tietz, A., Schmidt, C., Kohling, R. and Simm, A. (2016) Living Long and Well: Prospects for a Personalized Approach to the Medicine of Ageing. Gerontology, 62 (4). pp. 409-416. DOI 10.1159/000442746. Huebbe, P., Lange, J., Lietz, G. and Rimbach, G. (2016) Dietary beta-carotene and lutein metabolism is modulated by the APOE genotype. Biofactors, 42 (4). pp. 388-396. DOI 10.1002/biof.1284. Mereu, A., Pastor, J. J., Chin, D., Rimbach, G. and Ipharraguerre, I. R. (2016) Piglet growth before weaning has long-term effects on intestinal barrier function. Journal of Animal Science, 94 . p. 145. DOI 10.2527/msasas2016-310. Nebendahl, C., Gors, S., Albrecht, E., Kruger, R., Martens, K., Giller, K., Hammon, H. M., Rimbach, G. and Metges, C. C. (2016) Early postnatal feed restriction reduces liver connective tissue levels and affects H3K9 acetylation state of regulated genes associated with protein metabolism in low birth weight pigs. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 29 . pp. 41-55. DOI 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2015.10.017. Pallauf, K., Rimbach, G., Rupp, P. M., Chin, D. and Wolf, I. M. A. (2016) Resveratrol and Lifespan in Model Organisms. Current Medicinal Chemistry, 23 (41). pp. 4639-4680. Petersen, B., Egert, S., Bosy-Westphal, A., Muller, M. J., Wolffram, S., Hubbermann, E. M., Rimbach, G. and Schwarz, K. (2016) Bioavailability of quercetin in humans and the influence of food matrix comparing quercetin capsules and different apple sources. Food Research International, 88 . pp. 159-165. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2016.02.013. Piegholdt, S., Rimbach, G. and Wagner, A. E. (2016) Effects of the isoflavone prunetin on gut health and stress response in male Drosophila melanogaster. Redox Biology, 8 . pp. 119-126. DOI 10.1016/j.redox.2016.01.001. Piegholdt, S., Rimbach, G. and Wagner, A. E. (2016) The phytoestrogen prunetin affects body composition and improves fitness and lifespan in male Drosophila melanogaster. Faseb Journal, 30 (2). pp. 948-958. DOI 10.1096/fj.15-282061. Schneider, S. A., Scharffetter, C., Wagner, A. E., Boesch, C., Bruchhaus, I., Rimbach, G. and Roeder, T. (2016) Social stress increases the susceptibility to infection in the ant Harpegnathos saltator. Scientific Reports, 6 . DOI 10.1038/srep25800. Stoldt, A. K., Mielenz, M., Nurnberg, G., Sauerwein, H., Esatbeyoglu, T., Wagner, A. E., Rimbach, G., Starke, A., Wolffram, S. and Metges, C. C. (2016) Effects of a six-week intraduodenal supplementation with quercetin on liver lipid metabolism and oxidative stress in peripartal dairy cows. Journal of Animal Science, 94 (5). pp. 1913-1923. DOI 10.2527/jas.2016-0338. Wang, J., Thingholm, L. B., Skieceviciene, J., Rausch, P., Kummen, M., Hov, J. R., Degenhardt, F., Heinsen, F. A., Ruhlemann, M. C., Szymczak, S., Holm, K., Esko, T., Sun, J., Pricop-Jeckstadt, M., Al-Dury, S., Bohov, P., Bethune, J., Sommer, F., Ellinghaus, D., Berge, R. K., Hubenthal, M., Koch, M., Schwarz, K., Rimbach, G., Hubbe, P., Pan, W. H., Sheibani-Tezerji, R., Hasler, R., Rosenstiel, P., D'Amato, M., Cloppenborg-Schmidt, K., Kunzel, S., Laudes, M., Marschall, H. U., Lieb, W., Nothlings, U., Karlsen, T. H., Baines, J. F. and Franke, A. (2016) Genome-wide association analysis identifies variation in vitamin D receptor and other host factors influencing the gut microbiota. Nature Genetics, 48 (11). pp. 1396-1406. DOI 10.1038/ng.3695. Yazdekhasti, N., Brandsch, C., Schmidt, N., Schloesser, A., Huebbe, P., Rimbach, G. and Stangl, G. I. (2016) Fish protein increases circulating levels of trimethylamine-N-oxide and accelerates aortic lesion formation in apoE null mice. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 60 (2). pp. 358-368. Esatbeyoglu, T., Ulbrich, K., Rehberg, C., Rohn, S. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Thermal stability, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activity of curcumin and its degradation product 4-vinyl guaiacol. Food & Function, 6 (3). pp. 887-893. Esatbeyoglu, T., Wagner, A. E., Schini-Kerth, V. B. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Betanin-A food colorant with biological activity. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 59 (1). pp. 36-47. Geisen, U., Zenthoefer, M., Peipp, M., Kerber, J., Plenge, J., Manago, A., Fuhrmann, M., Geyer, R., Hennig, S., Adam, D., Piker, L., Rimbach, G. and Kalthoff, H. (2015) Molecular Mechanisms by Which a Fucus vesiculosus Extract Mediates Cell Cycle Inhibition and Cell Death in Pancreatic Cancer Cells. Marine Drugs, 13 (7). pp. 4470-4491. DOI 10.3390/md13074470. Huebbe, P., Dose, J., Schloesser, A., Campbell, G., Glueer, C. C., Gupta, Y., Ibrahim, S., Minihane, A. M., Baines, J. F., Nebel, A. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype regulates body weight and fatty acid utilization-Studies in gene-targeted replacement mice. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 59 (2). pp. 334-343. Mereu, A., Tedo, G., Moeser, A. J., Rimbach, G. and Ipharraguerre, I. R. (2015) Cromolyn-mediated improvement of intestinal barrier function is associated with enhanced piglet performance after weaning. Bmc Veterinary Research, 11 . Moazzami, A. A., Frank, S., Gombert, A., Sus, N., Bayram, B., Rimbach, G. and Frank, J. (2015) Non-targeted H-1-NMR-metabolomics suggest the induction of master regulators of energy metabolism in the liver of vitamin E-deficient rats. Food & Function, 6 (4). pp. 1090-1097. Nikolai, S., Pallauf, K., Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Energy restriction and potential energy restriction mimetics. Nutrition Research Reviews, 28 (2). pp. 100-120. Ruiz-Lopez, N., Stubhaug, I., Ipharraguerre, I., Rimbach, G. and Menoyo, D. (2015) Positional Distribution of Fatty Acids in Triacylglycerols and Phospholipids from Fillets of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar) Fed Vegetable and Fish Oil Blends. Marine Drugs, 13 (7). pp. 4255-4269. Schloesser, A., Campbell, G., Glueer, C. C., Rimbach, G. and Huebbe, P. (2015) Restriction on an Energy-Dense Diet Improves Markers of Metabolic Health and Cellular Aging in Mice Through Decreasing Hepatic mTOR Activity. Rejuvenation Research, 18 (1). pp. 30-39. Schloesser, A., Esatbeyoglu, T., Piegholdt, S., Dose, J., Ikuta, N., Okamoto, H., Ishida, Y., Terao, K., Matsugo, S. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Dietary Tocotrienol/gamma-Cyclodextrin Complex Increases Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and ATP Concentrations in the Brains of Aged Mice. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity . Speck, N., Brandsch, C., Schmidt, N., Yazdekhasti, N., Hirche, F., Lucius, R., Rimbach, G., Stangl, G. I. and Reiss, K. (2015) The Antiatherogenic Effect of Fish Oil in Male Mice Is Associated with a Diminished Release of Endothelial ADAM17 and ADAM10 Substrates. Journal of Nutrition, 145 (6). pp. 1218-1226. Vauzour, D., Tejera, N., O'Neill, C., Booz, V., Jude, B., Wolf, I. M. A., Rigby, N., Manuel Silvan, J., Curtis, P. J., Cassidy, A., de Pascual-Teresa, S., Rimbach, G. and Minihane, A. M. (2015) Anthocyanins do not influence long-chain n-3 fatty acid status: studies in cells, rodents and humans. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 26 (3). pp. 211-218. Wagner, A. E., Piegholdt, S., Ferraro, M., Pallauf, K. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Food derived microRNAs. Food & Function, 6 (3). pp. 714-718. Wagner, A. E., Piegholdt, S., Rabe, D., Baenas, N., Schloesser, A., Eggersdorfer, M., Stocker, A. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Epigallocatechin gallate affects glucose metabolism and increases fitness and lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster. Oncotarget, 6 (31). pp. 30568-30578. Wagner, A. E., Sturm, C., Piegholdt, S., Wolf, I. M. A., Esatbeyoglu, T., De Nicola, G. R., Iori, R. and Rimbach, G. (2015) Myrosinase-treated glucoerucin is a potent inducer of the Nrf2 target gene heme oxygenase 1-studies in cultured HT-29 cells and mice. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 26 (6). pp. 661-666. Bayram, B., Rimbach, G., Frank, J. and Esatbeyoglu, T. (2014) Rapid Method for Glutathione Quantitation Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Coulometric Electrochemical Detection. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 62 (2). pp. 402-408. Chin, D., Hagl, S., Hoehn, A., Huebbe, P., Pallauf, K., Grune, T., Frank, J., Eckert, G. P. and Rimbach, G. (2014) Adenosine triphosphate concentrations are higher in the brain of APOE3-compared to APOE4-targeted replacement mice and can be modulated by curcumin. Genes and Nutrition, 9 (3). Doering, F. and Rimbach, G. (2014) Nutri-informatics: a new kid on the block?. Genes and Nutrition, 9 (3). Esatbeyoglu, T., Wagner, A. E., Motafakkerazad, R., Nakajima, Y., Matsugo, S. and Rimbach, G. (2014) Free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity of betanin: Electron spin resonance spectroscopy studies and studies in cultured cells. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 73 . pp. 119-126. Faizan, M., Esatbeyoglu, T., Bayram, B. and Rimbach, G. (2014) A Fast and Validated Method for the Determination of Malondialdehyde in Fish Liver Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Photodiode Array Detector. Journal of Food Science, 79 (4). C484-C488. Kalyan, S., Huebbe, P., Esatbeyoglu, T., Niklowitz, P., Cote, H. C. F., Rimbach, G. and Kabelitz, D. (2014) Nitrogen-Bisphosphonate Therapy Is Linked to Compromised Coenzyme Q10 and Vitamin E Status in Postmenopausal Women. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 99 (4). pp. 1307-1313. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2013-3648. Onur, S., Niklowitz, P., Fischer, A., Metges, C. C., Grune, T., Menke, T., Rimbach, G. and Doering, F. (2014) A comparative study into alterations of coenzyme Q redox status in ageing pigs, mice, and worms. BioFactors, 40 (3). pp. 346-354. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biof.1160. Piegholdt, S., Pallauf, K., Esatbeyoglu, T., Speck, N., Reiss, K., Ruddigkeit, L., Stocker, A., Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2014) Biochanin A and prunetin improve epithelial barrier function in intestinal CaCo-2 cells via downregulation of ERK, NF-kappa B, and tyrosine phosphorylation. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 70 . pp. 255-264. Schaffer, S., Lam, V. Y. M., Ernst, I. M. A., Huebbe, P., Rimbach, G. and Halliwell, B. (2014) Variability in APOE genotype status in human-derived cell lines: a cause for concern in cell culture studies?. Genes and Nutrition, 9 (1). Bayram, B., Nikolai, S., Huebbe, P., Ozcelik, B., Grimm, S., Grune, T., Frank, J. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Biomarkers of oxidative stress, antioxidant defence and inflammation are altered in the senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8. Age, 35 (4). pp. 1205-1217. Bayram, B., Ozcelik, B., Schultheiss, G., Frank, J. and Rimbach, G. (2013) A validated method for the determination of selected phenolics in olive oil using high-performance liquid chromatography with coulometric electrochemical detection and a fused-core column. Food Chemistry, 138 (2-3). pp. 1663-1669. Chin, D., Huebbe, P., Pallauf, K. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Neuroprotective Properties of Curcumin in Alzheimer's Disease - Merits and Limitations. Current Medicinal Chemistry, 20 (32). pp. 3955-3985. Eckert, G. P., Schiborr, C., Hagl, S., Abdel-Kader, R., Müller, W. E., Rimbach, G. and Frank, J. (2013) Curcumin prevents mitochondrial dysfunction in the brain of the senescence-accelerated mouse-prone 8. Neurochemistry International, 62 (5). pp. 595-602. Egert, S., Tereszczuk, J., Wein, S., Muller, M. J., Frank, J., Rimbach, G. and Wolffram, S. (2013) Simultaneous ingestion of dietary proteins reduces the bioavailability of galloylated catechins from green tea in humans. European Journal of Nutrition, 52 (1). pp. 281-288. Ernst, I. M. A., Palani, K., Esatbeyoglu, T., Schwarz, K. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Synthesis and Nrf2-inducing activity of the isothiocyanates iberverin, iberin and cheirolin. Pharmacological Research, 70 (1). pp. 155-162. Ernst, I. M. A., Pallauf, K., Bendall, J. K., Paulsen, L., Nikolai, S., Huebbe, P., Roeder, T. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Vitamin E supplementation and lifespan in model organisms. Ageing Research Reviews, 12 (1). pp. 365-375. Ernst, I. M., Kleszczynski, K., Wagner, A. E., Kruse, N., Zillikens, D., Rimbach, G. and Fischer, W. (2013) Sulforaphane and phenylethyl isothiocyanate protect human skin from UV-induced inflammation and apoptosis. Experimental Dermatology, 22 (3). E19-E19. Giller, K., Huebbe, P., Doering, F., Pallauf, K. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Major urinary protein 5, a scent communication protein, is regulated by dietary restriction and subsequent re-feeding in mice. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 280 (1757). Ikuta, N., Sugiyama, H., Shimosegawa, H., Nakane, R., Ishida, Y., Uekaji, Y., Nakata, D., Pallauf, K., Rimbach, G., Terao, K. and Matsugo, S. (2013) Analysis of the Enhanced Stability of R(+)-Alpha Lipoic Acid by the Complex Formation with Cyclodextrins. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14 (2). pp. 3639-3655. Kleszczynski, K., Ernst, I. M. A., Wagner, A. E., Kruse, N., Zillikens, D., Rimbach, G. and Fischer, T. W. (2013) Sulforaphane and phenylethyl isothiocyanate protect human skin against UVR-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis: Role of Nrf2-dependent gene expression and antioxidant enzymes. Pharmacological Research, 78 . pp. 28-40. Pallauf, K. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Autophagy, polyphenols and healthy ageing. Ageing Research Reviews, 12 (1). pp. 237-252. Pallauf, K., Bendall, J. K., Scheiermann, C., Watschinger, K., Hoffmann, J., Roeder, T. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Vitamin C and lifespan in model organisms. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 58 . pp. 255-263. Pallauf, K., Giller, K., Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Nutrition and Healthy Ageing: Calorie Restriction or Polyphenol-Rich "MediterrAsian" Diet?. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity . Schiborr, C., Schwamm, D., Kocher, A., Rimbach, G., Eckert, G. P. and Frank, J. (2013) The senescence-accelerated mouse-prone 8 is not a suitable model for the investigation of cardiac inflammation and oxidative stress and their modulation by dietary phytochemicals. Pharmacological Research, 74 . pp. 113-120. Stachurska, A., Ciesla, M., Kozakowska, M., Wolffram, S., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Rimbach, G., Jozkowicz, A., Dulak, J. and Loboda, A. (2013) Cross-talk between microRNAs, nuclear factor E2-related factor 2, and heme oxygenase-1 in ochratoxin A-induced toxic effects in renal proximal tubular epithelial cells. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 57 (3). pp. 504-515. Wagner, A. E., Terschluesen, A. M. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Health Promoting Effects of Brassica-Derived Phytochemicals: From Chemopreventive and Anti-Inflammatory Activities to Epigenetic Regulation. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity . Wagner, A. E., Will, O., Sturm, C., Lipinski, S., Rosenstiel, P. and Rimbach, G. (2013) DSS-induced acute colitis in C57BL/6 mice is mitigated by sulforaphane pre-treatment. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 24 (12). pp. 2085-2091. Wein, S., Schrader, E., Rimbach, G. and Wolffram, S. (2013) Oral Green Tea Catechins Transiently Lower Plasma Glucose Concentrations in Female db/db Mice. Journal of Medicinal Food, 16 (4). pp. 312-317. von Schonfels, W., von Kampen, O., Patsenker, E., Stickel, F., Schniewind, B., Hinz, S., Ahrens, M., Balschun, K., Egberts, J. H., Richter, K., Landrock, A., Sipos, B., Will, O., Huebbe, P., Schreiber, S., Nothnagel, M., Rocken, C., Rimbach, G., Becker, T., Hampe, J. and Schafmayer, C. (2013) Metabolic Signature of Electrosurgical Liver Dissection. PLoS ONE, 8 (9). Bayram, B., Ozcelik, B., Grimm, S., Roeder, T., Schrader, C., Ernst, I. M. A., Wagner, A. E., Grune, T., Frank, J. and Rimbach, G. (2012) A Diet Rich in Olive Oil Phenolics Reduces Oxidative Stress in the Heart of SAMP8 Mice by Induction of Nrf2-Dependent Gene Expression. Rejuvenation Research, 15 (1). pp. 71-81. Philipp, E. E. R., Wessels, W., Gruber, H., Strahl, J., Wagner, A. E., Ernst, I. M. A., Rimbach, G., Kraemer, L., Schreiber, S., Abele, D. and Rosenstiel, P. (2012) Gene Expression and Physiological Changes of Different Populations of the Long-Lived Bivalve Arctica islandica under Low Oxygen Conditions. PLoS ONE, 7 (9). Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Loboda, A., Wagner, A. E., Stachurska, A., Jozkowicz, A., Dulak, J., Doring, F., Wolffram, S. and Rimbach, G. (2011) Effect of quercetin and its metabolites isorhamnetin and quercetin-3-glucuronide on inflammatory gene expression: role of miR-155. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 22 (3). pp. 293-299. DOI 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2010.02.008. Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Rimbach, G., Jungblut, A. and Frank, J. (2011) Comparison of tetrahydrofuran, fetal calf serum, and Tween 40 for the delivery of astaxanthin and canthaxanthin to HepG2 cells. Cytotechnology, 63 (1). pp. 89-97. DOI 10.1007/s10616-010-9324-7. Chapelat, J., Hengartner, U., Chougnet, A., Liu, K. G., Huebbe, P., Rimbach, G. and Woggon, W. D. (2011) Asymmetric Synthesis and Biological Activity of nor-alpha-Tocopherol, a New Vitamin E Analogue. Chembiochem, 12 (1). pp. 118-124. DOI 10.1002/cbic.201000511. Egert, S., Rimbach, G. and Muller, M. J. (2011) No evidence for a thermic effect of the dietary flavonol quercetin: a pilot study in healthy normal-weight women. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 111 (5). pp. 869-873. DOI 10.1007/s00421-010-1674-5. Graeser, A. C., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Lippmann, J., Wagner, A. E., Huebbe, P., Storm, N., Hoppner, W., Wiswedel, I., Gardemann, A., Minihane, A. M., Doring, F. and Rimbach, G. (2011) Nrf2-dependent gene expression is affected by the proatherogenic apoE4 genotype-studies in targeted gene replacement mice. Journal of Molecular Medicine-Jmm, 89 (10). pp. 1027-1035. DOI 10.1007/s00109-011-0771-1. Huebbe, P., Nebel, A., Siegert, S., Moehring, J., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Most, E., Pallauf, J., Egert, S., Muller, M. J., Schreiber, S., Nothlings, U. and Rimbach, G. (2011) APOE epsilon 4 is associated with higher vitamin D levels in targeted replacement mice and humans. Faseb Journal, 25 (9). pp. 3262-3270. DOI 10.1096/fj.11-180935. Kurbitz, C., Heise, D., Redmer, T., Goumas, F., Arlt, A., Lemke, J., Rimbach, G., Kalthoff, H. and Trauzold, A. (2011) Epicatechin gallate and catechin gallate are superior to epigallocatechin gallate in growth suppression and anti-inflammatory activities in pancreatic tumor cells. Cancer Science, 102 (4). pp. 728-734. DOI 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2011.01870.x. Luersen, K., Schmelzer, C., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Kohl, C., Rimbach, G. and Doring, F. (2011) Paraoxonase 1 polymorphism Q192R affects the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha in healthy males. BMC Res Notes, 4 . p. 141. DOI 1756-0500-4-141 pii 10.1186/1756-0500-4-141. Rimbach, G., Egert, S. and de Pascual-Teresa, S. (2011) Chocolate: (un)healthy source of polyphenols?. Genes and Nutrition, 6 (1). pp. 1-3. DOI 10.1007/s12263-010-0185-7. Schmelzer, C., Kohl, C., Rimbach, G. and Doring, F. (2011) The Reduced Form of Coenzyme Q(10) Decreases the Expression of Lipopolysaccharide-Sensitive Genes in Human THP-1 Cells. Journal of Medicinal Food, 14 (4). pp. 391-397. DOI 10.1089/jmf.2010.0080. Schmelzer, C., Kohl, C., Rimbach, G. and Doring, F. (2011) The reduced form of coenzyme Q10 decreases the expression of lipopolysaccharide-sensitive genes in human THP-1 cells. J Med Food, 14 (4). pp. 391-7. DOI 10.1089/jmf.2010.0080. Schneider, S. A., Schrader, C., Wagner, A. E., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Liebig, J., Rimbach, G. and Roeder, T. (2011) Stress Resistance and Longevity Are Not Directly Linked to Levels of Enzymatic Antioxidants in the Ponerine Ant Harpegnathos saltator. PLoS ONE, 6 (1). DOI e14601 10.1371/journal.pone.0014601. Schrader, C., Schiborr, C., Frank, J. and Rimbach, G. (2011) Curcumin induces paraoxonase 1 in cultured hepatocytes in vitro but not in mouse liver in vivo. British Journal of Nutrition, 105 (2). pp. 167-170. DOI 10.1017/s0007114510004356. Wagner, A. E., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Breckwoldt, D., Schrader, C., Schmelzer, C., Doring, F., Hashida, K., Hori, O., Matsugo, S. and Rimbach, G. (2011) Ascorbic acid partly antagonizes resveratrol mediated heme oxygenase-1 but not paraoxonase-1 induction in cultured hepatocytes - role of the redox-regulated transcription factor Nrf2. BMC Complement Altern Med, 11 . p. 1. DOI 1472-6882-11-1 pii 10.1186/1472-6882-11-1. Augustin, K., Frank, J., Augustin, S., Langguth, P., Ohrvik, V., Witthoft, C. M., Rimbach, G. and Wolffram, S. (2009) Green Tea Extracts Lower Serum Folates in Rats at Very High Dietary Concentrations Only and Do Not Affect Plasma Folates in a Human Pilot Study. Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 60 (3). pp. 103-108. Augustin, S., Rimbach, G., Augustin, K., Schliebs, R., Wolffram, S. and Cermak, R. (2009) Effect of a short- and long-term treatment with Ginkgo biloba extract on Amyloid Precursor Protein Levels in a transgenic mouse model relevant to Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 481 (2). pp. 177-182. Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Pospissil, R. T., Graeser, A. C., Canali, R., Boomgaarden, I., Doering, F., Wolffram, S., Egert, S., Mueller, M. J. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Effect of Quercetin on Paraoxonase 2 Levels in RAW264.7 Macrophages and in Human Monocytes-Role of Quercetin Metabolism. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 10 (9). pp. 4168-4177. Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Wagner, A. E., Graeser, A. C., Hundhausen, C., Wolffram, S. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Ochratoxin A impairs Nrf2-dependent gene expression in porcine kidney tubulus cells. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 93 (5). pp. 547-554. Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Wolffram, S., Minihane, A. M. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Effect of apoE genotype and dietary quercetin on blood lipids and TNF-alpha levels in apoE3 and apoE4 targeted gene replacement mice. British Journal of Nutrition, 101 (10). pp. 1440-1443. Christensen, K. B., Minet, A., Svenstrup, H., Grevsen, K., Zhang, H. B., Schrader, E., Rimbach, G., Wein, S., Wolffram, S., Kristiansen, K. and Christensen, L. P. (2009) Identification of Plant Extracts with Potential Antidiabetic Properties: Effect on Human Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor (PPAR), Adipocyte Differentiation and Insulin-stimulated Glucose Uptake. Phytotherapy Research, 23 (9). pp. 1316-1325. Egert, S., Bosy-Westphal, A., Seiberl, J., Kurbitz, C., Settler, U., Plachta-Danielzik, S., Wagner, A. E., Frank, J., Schrezenmeir, J., Rimbach, G., Wolffram, S. and Muller, M. J. (2009) Quercetin reduces systolic blood pressure and plasma oxidised low-density lipoprotein concentrations in overweight subjects with a high-cardiovascular disease risk phenotype: a double-blinded, placebo-controlled cross-over study. British Journal of Nutrition, 102 (7). pp. 1065-1074. Frank, J., George, T. W., Lodge, J. K., Rodriguez-Mateos, A. M., Spencer, J. P. E., Minihane, A. M. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Daily Consumption of an Aqueous Green Tea Extract Supplement Does Not Impair Liver Function or Alter Cardiovascular Disease Risk Biomarkers in Healthy Men. Journal of Nutrition, 139 (1). pp. 58-62. Gaedicke, S., Zhang, X. N., Huebbe, P., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Lou, Y. J., Wiswedel, I., Gardemann, A., Frank, J. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Dietary vitamin E, brain redox status and expression of Alzheimer's disease-relevant genes in rats. British Journal of Nutrition, 102 (3). pp. 398-406. Garcia-Alonso, M., Minihane, A. M., Rimbach, G., Rivas-Gonzalo, J. C. and de Pascual-Teresa, S. (2009) Red wine anthocyanins are rapidly absorbed in humans and affect monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 levels and antioxidant capacity of plasma. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 20 (7). pp. 521-529. Huebbe, P., Jofre-Monseny, L. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Alpha-tocopherol Transport in the Lung Is Affected by the apoE Genotype-Studies in Transgenic apoE3 and apoE4 Mice. Iubmb Life, 61 (4). pp. 453-456. Mortensen, A., Kulling, S. E., Schwartz, H., Rowland, I., Ruefer, C. E., Rimbach, G., Cassidy, A., Magee, P., Millar, J., Hall, W. L., Birkved, F. K., Sorensen, I. K. and Sontag, G. (2009) Analytical and compositional aspects of isoflavones in food and their biological effects. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 53 . S266-S309. Rimbach, G. and Minihane, A. M. (2009) Nutrition Society Silver Medal Lecture Nutrigenetics and personalised nutrition: how far have we progressed and are we likely to get there?. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 68 (2). pp. 162-172. Rimbach, G., Melchin, M., Moehring, J. and Wagner, A. E. (2009) Polyphenols from Cocoa and Vascular Health-A Critical Review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 10 (10). pp. 4290-4309. Schmelzer, C., Kitano, M., Rimbach, G., Niklowitz, P., Menke, T., Hosoe, K. and Doring, F. (2009) Effects of Ubiquinol-10 on MicroRNA-146a Expression In Vitro and In Vivo. Mediators of Inflammation, Article ID 41543 . DOI 10.1155/2009/415437. Schmelzer, C., Lorenz, G., Rimbach, G. and Doring, F. (2009) In Vitro Effects of the Reduced Form of Coenzyme Q(10) on Secretion Levels of TNF-alpha and Chemokines in Response to LPS in the Human Monocytic Cell Line THP-1. Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition, 44 (1). pp. 62-66. DOI 10.3164/jcbn.08-182. Stachurska, A., Loboda, A., Kozakowska, M., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Rimbach, G., Yla-Herttuala, S., Levonen, A. L., Jozkowicz, A. and Dulak, J. (2009) Attenuation of Nrf2 expression and antioxidant response by ochratoxin A - the impact on the profibrotic effect. Febs Journal, 276 (Suppl. 1458ZS). p. 224. Wagner, A. E. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Ascorbigen: chemistry, occurrence, and biologic properties. Clinics in Dermatology, 27 (2). pp. 217-224. Wiegand, H., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Regos, I., Treutter, D., Wolffram, S. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Effects of Quercetin and Catechin on Hepatic Glutathione-S Transferase (GST), NAD(P)H Quinone Oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), and Antioxidant Enzyme Activity Levels in Rats. Nutrition and Cancer, 61 (5). pp. 717-722. Zhang, X. N., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Lou, Y. J., Wolffram, S., Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2009) Ochratoxin A induces apoptosis in neuronal cells. Genes and Nutrition, 4 (1). pp. 41-48. DOI 10.1007/s12263-008-0109-y. Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2008) Apolipoprotein E genotype, vitamin E, and Alzheimer's disease prevention. Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality = Angewandte Botanik, 82 (1). pp. 69-75. Rimbach, G. (2008) Impact of ApoE Genotype on Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Disease Risk. Journal of Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics, 1 (4). p. 186. Rimbach, G., Pallauf, J., Moehring, J., Kraemer, K. and Minihane, A. M. (2008) Effect of Dietary Phytate and Microbial Phytase on Mineral and Trace Element Bioavailability - a Literature Review. Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research, 6 (3). pp. 131-144. Schmelzer, C., Lindner, I., Rimbach, G., Niklowitz, P., Menke, T. and Doring, F. (2008) Functions of coenzyme Q(10) in inflammation and gene expression. Biofactors, 32 (1-4). pp. 179-183. Wagner, A. E., Huebbe, P., Konishi, T., Rahman, M. M., Nakahara, M., Matsugo, S. and Rimbach, G. (2008) Free Radical Scavenging and Antioxidant Activity of Ascorbigen Versus Ascorbic Acid: Studies in Vitro and in Cultured Human Keratinocytes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56 (24). pp. 11694-11699. DOI 10.1021/jf802403d. Augustin, K., Blank, R., Rimbach, G., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C., Frank, J. and Wolffram, S. (2007) Dietary green tea polyphenols do not affect vitamin E-status, antioxidant capacity and meat quality of growing pigs. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition . Bader, N., Bosy-Westphal , A., Koch, A., Rimbach, G., Weimann , A., Poulsen , H. E. and Müller, M. J. (2007) Effect of hyperbaric oxygen and vitamin C and E supplementation on biomarkers of oxidative stress in healthy men. British Journal of Nutrition, 98 . pp. 826-833. Huebbe, P., Jofre-Monseny, L., Rimbach, G., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C. and Minihane, A. M. (2007) Effect of ApoE genotype and vitamin E on biomarkers of oxidative stress in cultured neuronal cells and the brain of targeted replacement mice. Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 58 . pp. 683-698. Huebbe, P., Schaffer , S., Jofre-Monseny , L., Boesch-Saadatmandi , C., Minihane , A. M., Müller , W. E., Eckert , G. P. and Rimbach, G. (2007) Apolipoprotein E genotype and alpha-tocopherol modulate amyloid precursor protein metabolism and cell cycle regulation. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, 51 (12). pp. 1510-1517. Jofre-Monseny, L., De Pascual-Teresa, S., Rimbach, G., Plonka, E., Huebbe, P., Boesch-Saadatmandi, C. and Minihane, A. M. (2007) Differential effects of apolipoprotein E3 and E4 on markers of oxidative status in macrophages. British Journal of Nutrition, 97 . pp. 864-871. Jofre-Monseny, L., Loboda, A., Rimbach, G., Wagner, A. E., Huebbe, P., Joskowicz, A., Minihane, A. M. and Dulak, J. (2007) Effects of apo E genotype on macrophage inflammation and hemeoxygenase-1 expression. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications , 357 . pp. 319-324. Schmelzer, C., Lorenz, G., Lindner, I., Rimbach, G., Niklowitz, P., Menke, T. and Döring, F. (2007) Effects of Coenzyme Q10on TNF-α secretion in human and murine monocytic cell lines. BioFactors, 31 (1). pp. 35-41. DOI 10.1002/biof.5520310104. Huebbe, P., Schloesser, A. and Rimbach, G. (2015) A nutritional perspective on cellular rejuvenation. Oncotarget, 6 (16). pp. 13846-13847. Nikolai, S., Huebbe, P., Metges, C. C., Schloesser, A., Dose, J., Ikuta, N., Terao, K., Matsugo, S. and Rimbach, G. (2014) R-alpha lipoic acid gamma-cyclodextrin complex increases energy expenditure: A 4-month feeding study in mice. Nutrition, 30 (2). pp. 228-233. Giller, K., Huebbe, P., Hennig, S., Dose, J., Pallauf, K., Doering, F. and Rimbach, G. (2013) Beneficial effects of a 6-month dietary restriction are time-dependently abolished within 2 weeks or 6 months of refeeding-genome-wide transcriptome analysis in mouse liver. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 61 . pp. 170-178. Huebbe, P. and Rimbach, G. (2009) ApoE genotype affects biomarkers of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress as well as tissue vitamin E uptake. [Talk] In: Annual Meeting of the Society for Free Radical Research-Europe (SFRR-E). , 26.-29.08.2009, Rome, Italy ; pp. 54-55 . Free Radical Research, 43 (Sup1). This list was generated on Fri Apr 26 07:04:20 2019 CEST.

2019-04-26T05:04:37Z

http://oceanrep.geomar.de/view/creators/b7d80d56-71aa-4ada-adef-e49b45b58111.html

2001-02-26 Assigned to INTEL CORPORATION reassignment INTEL CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: LAM, CHUNG, DODD, JAMES M., BONELLA, RANDY M., HALBERT, JOHN B. 2005-11-02 Assigned to INTEL CORPORATION reassignment INTEL CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: HOLMAN, THOMAS J. Methods and apparatus for a memory system using a new memory module architecture are disclosed. In one embodiment, the memory module has two ranks of memory devices, each rank connected to a corresponding one of two 64-bit-wide data registers. The data registers connect to two 64-bit-wide ports of a 120:64 multiplexer/demultiplexer, and a 64-bit-wide data buffer connects to the opposite port of the multiplexer/demultiplexer. A controller synchronizes the operation of the data registers, the multiplexer/demultiplexer, and the data buffer. In an operating environment, the data buffer connects to a memory bus. When a data access is performed, both ranks exchange data signaling with their corresponding data registers during a single data access. At the buffer, the memory bus data transfer occurs in two consecutive clock cycles, one cycle for each rank. This allows the memory bus transfer rate to double for the same memory bus width and memory device speed. This present invention relates generally to digital memory devices and systems, and more particularly to memory module architectures and methods for operating such devices and systems. Microprocessors, digital signal processors, video devices, and many other types of digital data processing devices rely on an attached high-speed memory system to hold data and/or processor instructions needed by the processing device. As these processing devices become faster and more powerful, the increased demands placed on them generally translates to a need for larger and faster attached memory systems. FIG. 1 depicts a typical memory system configuration. One or more memory devices 26AA, 26AB, 26BA, 26BB, 26CA, and 26CB interface with a memory controller 20 through memory bus 22. A host (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), not shown) also connects to memory controller 20 through a front-side bus FSB. The memory devices hold data in arrays of addressable memory cells. Memory controller 20 controls the exchange of data between the host and the memory storage devices. Memory bus 22 carries memory signals on a collection of signal lines. Memory signals fall generally into one of several categories including clock and control signals, address signals, command signals, and data signals. Data signals carry the actual data that will be stored in, or retrieved from, a memory device. Address signals specify the location within a memory device where data is to be read from or written to, and may also select which of several memory devices is to be accessed. Command signals instruct a memory device as to what type of operation is to be performed, e.g., read, write, refresh, and possibly as to which of several access modes (such as a burst mode) should be used for a data transfer. Clock and control signals synchronize the other signals passing between controller 20 and the memory devices. Although memory bus 22 may use a separate signal line for each memory signal (e.g., 32 address lines to transfer a 32-bit-wide address in one clock cycle and 32 data lines to transfer a 32-bit-wide data word in one clock cycle), various schemes also exist to re-use one or more signal lines for different memory signals during different clock cycles of a memory transaction. In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, memory bus 22 is a multi-drop memory bus. In other words, bus 22 is arranged with a backbone of signal lines. A signal line stub, or “drop”, connects each of the memory devices (e.g., 26A) to the backbone. Typically, memory bus 22 will comprise a collection of leads routed on a printed circuit board 21 known as the “main board” or “motherboard”. Memory controller 20 mounts to motherboard 21 and connects to one end of the leads comprising memory bus 22. Each drop of memory bus 22 connects to an electrical terminator, or socket. A typical main board contains multiple memory sockets, e.g., the three sockets 28A, 28B, and 28C shown in FIG. 1. Memory is added to the memory system by inserting memory modules (e.g., 24A, 24B, 24C) into one or more of the sockets. One popular type of memory module is a Dual In-line Memory Module, or DIMM. The DIMM is a rectangular low-profile circuit board that has electrical contact points arranged on both sides along one long edge. The contact points form electrical connections to the main board's memory bus when the DIMM is inserted into a DIMM memory socket. A DIMM generally has multiple individual memory devices mounted to it. The devices all work in parallel to perform memory functions. For instance, a DIMM may have eight memory devices, each of which receives the same memory address from the controller. If the size of a data word is 32 bits, each of the memory devices is responsible for four bits of the data word that is placed on the memory bus. Some DIMM designs (like the design shown in FIG. 1) have more than one bank of memory devices. For example, FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a registered DIMM 24 containing eighteen memory devices arranged in two banks, one bank containing devices D00-D08 and the other containing devices D10-D18. In a registered DIMM, the system clock CK0 is received by phase-locked-loop (PLL) 27, which creates a set of module clock signals. Address and command signals ADD/CMD are latched into a register 25 at the edge of one clock cycle, and then redriven onto the module addressing/command bus as register signals RADD/RCMD on the following clock cycle. Note that two bank select signals, B0_SEL# and B1_SEL#, each pass through register 25 and connect to a chip select pin on a corresponding one of the banks of memory devices. The data lines DQ of the memory device banks each connect to the memory bus of the host system. A total of nB DQ lines carry data signals, where B is the number of devices in one bank (e.g., eight or nine), and n is the data width of each device (e.g., four, eight, or sixteen bits). In addition, B DQS lines carry data strobes (one per device). The DQS data strobes travel with the data signals, and can be used for source-synchronous clocking of the data signals at the receiver. FIG. 3 shows a timing diagram for two consecutive random reads to memory bank D00-D08. At TI, the memory controller transmits an ACTIVE command along with a ROW address, and takes B0_SEL# low to select bank 0 on module 24. Register 25 latches these signals, and places them on the module bus at T2. After a known RAS (row address strobe) latency, the controller transmits a READ command along with a COL “a” address. These signals also pass through register 25 with a one-clock cycle delay. After a known CAS (column address strobe) latency, the memory bank places data (DO a) from ROW and COL “a” onto bus lines DQ, and DQS is driven as well. Note that a read to a COL “b” can immediately follow the first read, as the columns are on the same ROW. FIGS. 12 and 13 show, respectively, a side view for a general DIMM module layout using a variation of the interface circuit of FIG. 9, and a side edge view of multiple DIMM modules of this type connected to a point-to-point ring memory bus. The dual-bank registered DIMM design of FIG. 2 has at least one desirable characteristic when compared to a single-bank design—for a given memory capacity on each device and a fixed memory bus width, the dual-bank design allows the capacity of the DIMM to double. A dual-bank DIMM can generally be manufactured for less than twice the cost of a single-bank DIMM and is therefore cheaper than two single-bank DIMMs. Dual-bank DIMMs can also be desirable where the number of DIMM sockets on a motherboard is limited. The present disclosure includes a group of buffered memory module architectures. Generally, the disclosed embodiments use a memory module interface circuit that, in essence, widens the data bus on the memory module as compared to the width of the system memory data bus, allowing a faster system memory data bus to operate at full speed with slower memory devices. Preferably, this characteristic of the module is transparent to the memory system and to the memory devices: to the memory system, it appears that the module comprises memory devices that operate at the full speed of the memory system data bus; to the memory devices, it appears that each is connected to a controller operating at a slower speed compatible with the devices. This allows for an embodiment that is compatible with an existing memory controller/bus and with existing memory devices. The memory module configurations and access methods disclosed herein can improve on the dual-bank registered DIMM in several respects. For instance, one embodiment describes a DIMM that can, with the same type of devices, number of devices, and data signal pins as the dual-bank registered DIMM, provide twice the data rate of the registered DIMM. This configuration can also allow the memory devices to operate at voltage levels independent of the voltage levels of the memory system that the module is attached to. The exemplary embodiments also allow the memory devices to be isolated from the full capacitive loading effects of the system memory data bus. Further, the memory devices of the embodiments avoid arrangements of competing memory banks that load each other, as is the case with a dual-bank DIMM. Finally, with the disclosed embodiments there is less need for complex logic, within the memory devices themselves, in order to increase the bandwidth of the memory system. It is recognized herein that the multi-drop memory bus architecture also has several characteristics that limit its expansion to greater numbers of memory devices and/or faster bus speeds. First, the stubbed bus architecture can create undesirable reflections on the signal lines at high frequency. Overall bus length can also cause timing problems that limit operational frequency, as at high frequency a significant skew will be observed between when a memory signal arrives at a closer device vs. when that signal arrives at a device further down the bus. The length of the bus and the number of device inputs also determine the capacitance that a memory device (or the controller) sees when it drives the bus—at higher frequencies, this capacitance may make it infeasible to drive signals reliably on the bus. The memory systems and modules described herein generally improve upon the multi-drop memory bus architecture by isolating the memory devices on each module from the bus, while providing retiming at the interface circuit of each module. Some of the disclosed embodiments go even further, by adding a dual port buffer to the module data port of the interface circuit. The dual-port buffer allows a primary memory controller and the modules to be connected in a point-to-point architecture. In this architecture, each memory module communicates directly with only its two nearest neighbors. Memory signals are forwarded from module to module until they reach the controller or the module that they are addressed to. FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram for one embodiment of a memory module 100. Memory module 100 contains three functional blocks; a module controller 110; a data interface circuit 120; and a memory device array 140/142. The module controller 110 synchronizes the operation of module 100 with the attached memory system. Like the address/command registers and PLL of a registered DIMM, controller 110 can provide clock adjustment to an input CLK signal and registered versions of address and command signals, RADD/RCMD. In addition, module controller 110 provides timing and synchronization signals to data interface circuit 120. The function of the various timing and synchronization signals shown in FIG. 4 will be explained shortly. Data interface circuit 120 provides for m-bit-wide data transfers between the module and the system memory data bus, and for R×m -bit-wide data transfers between the interface circuit and the memory device array. In FIG. 4, R=2, i.e., the memory device array comprises two memory device ranks 140 and 142, each capable of performing m-bit-wide data transfers. As used herein, a rank of memory comprises enough memory devices to form a data path that is m bits wide. Generally, multiple ranks will receive the same address and commands, and will perform memory operations with the interface circuit concurrently. In FIG. 4, a bi-directional buffer 122 is coupled to a bi-directional module data port that can be connected to a system memory data bus. An m-bit-wide path through buffer 122 receives and drives data signals DQ on the system memory data bus. Optionally, a set of data mask bits DM can be accepted at the data port and redriven towards the memory array. The data mask bits allow the memory controller to selectively write a subset of an m-bit-wide set of data signals. For instance, with a 64-bit word size, an eight-bit mask DM can be used to specify that any combination of the eight bytes making up the word should not, be written to memory. Finally, a data strobe signal DQS can be driven by buffer 122 onto the memory data bus. Two bi-directional data registers 126 and 128 connect, respectively, to memory device array ranks 140 and 142. Each data register can receive an m-bit-wide word from its corresponding memory device rank, or drive an m-bit-wide word to that rank, over a dedicated point-to-point module data bus. When the optional data-masking signal feature is implemented, each data register can also drive a registered data-mask signal (e.g., RDM0 for register 126) to its corresponding rank when the register data is written to memory. Multiplexer/demultiplexer (MUX/DeMUX) 124 has a multiplexing ratio R. In FIG. 4, either data signals DQ0 (from register 126) or data signals DQ1 (from register 128) can be multiplexed to buffer 122 when the module is reading from memory device array 140/142. If Likewise, when the module is writing to the memory device array, data signals MDQ from buffer 122 can be channeled to either DQ0 or DQ1. Module controller 110 synchronizes the operation of the data port buffer 122, MUX/DeMUX 124, and data registers 126 and 128 via a number of control signals. For instance, direction signal DIR specifies whether data flow is towards the memory array (TO) or away from the memory array (AWAY). Module controller 110 determines the current value for DIR by snooping CMD signals as they pass through controller 110. For instance, DIR can default to TO, and switch to AWAY when the command signals latched into RCMD indicate an impending READ operation. When DIR is set to TO, buffer 122 is configured as a receiver (viewed looking in to circuit 120), MUX/DeMUX 124 is configured as a DEMUX, and registers 126 and 128 are configured as drivers (viewed looking in to circuit 120). When DIR is set to AWAY, buffer 122 is configured as a driver, MUX/DeMUX 124 is configured as a MUX, and registers 126 and 128 are configured as receivers. The register select signal REG_SEL, in the AWAY mode, determines whether DQ0 or DQ1 will be supplied to buffer 122. Data is serialized from the data registers onto the memory data bus by reading 2 m bits into the data registers during one memory device read cycle, and then driving these bits, m at a time, through MUX 124. For instance, REG_SEL can first select, e.g., DQ0 during a first bus clock cycle, and then DQ1 during the following bus clock cycle. In the AWAY mode, register data strobe RDQS is functional. When RDQS transitions, buffer 122 latches data from MUX 124 and drives that data onto the memory data bus. In the TO mode, REG_SEL determines which of registers 126 and 128 will receive DQ at each memory bus clock cycle (note that an alternative is to supply DQ to the inputs of both registers, and ignore REG_SEL). In the TO mode, register data strobes RDQS0 and RDQS1 are also functional. When RDQS0 transitions, register 126 latches data from DQ0 (and DM0). When RDQS1 transitions, register 128 latches data from DQ1 (and DM1). In one memory bus clock cycle, m bits are directed to register 126 by strobing RDQS0. In the following bus clock cycle, m bits are directed to register 128 by strobing RDQS1. Both register contents are then written to memory device array 140/142 during a single device write cycle. Controller 110 strobes the memory device array, using the memory data strobe MDQS, to signal the array to write data from buses RDQ0 and RDQ1. FIG. 5 illustrates a timing diagram for two consecutive read operations (to the same ROW of the memory devices) on module 100 of FIG. 4. Externally, a primary memory controller initiates READ operations just like it would for a registered DIMM (see the description accompanying FIG. 3). When controller 110 latches an active command into RCMD, it enters an ACTIVE state itself. In the ACTIVE state, controller 110 scans the command bus for READ or WRITE commands, as these commands signal that controller 110 will need to synchronize a data transfer. At T4, a READ command (to COL a) is clocked in, causing the controller to enter a READ state. At T5, a second READ command (to COL b) is clocked in; controller 110 counts the number of pending READ operations (including each operation's burst length if the devices support burst mode access) in order to track how long to stay in the READ state. Controller 110 asserts DIR (where asserted equals AWAY) sometime after passing the first READ command to device array 140/142. This assertion time can vary, but preferably occurs prior to when device array 140/142 is expected to begin driving buses RDQ0 and RDQ1. Device array 140/142 signifies that it is about to drive data onto buses RDQ0 and RDQ1 by taking data strobe MDQS low at T6n. Note that typically, MDQS will comprise multiple strobes, each device in device array 140/142 supplying at least one strobe synchronized to its data signals. Module controller 110 senses the transition on MDQS—this causes module controller 110 to take register data strobe RDQS low in turn, thereby signaling to the primary memory controller that data transfer is about to occur. At T7n, device array 140/142 takes MDQS high, signifying that data outputs “DO_a1” and “DO_a2” are being driven respectively onto buses RDQ0 and RDQ1 at that time. Delay element 134 delays MDQS long enough for the buses to settle, and then passes the MDQS strobe to registers 126 and 128. Upon receiving MDQS, registers 126 and 128 latch DO_a1 and DO_a2 (note that with multiple strobes coming from multiple devices, each strobe may be used to latch the data signals coming from its device). Note that DQ0 and DQ1 contain valid data shortly after the data first appears on RDQ0 and RDQ1. Controller 110 also receives strobe MDQS. The positive transition of MDQS triggers two controller signals: a delayed (to correspond approximately with the appearance of valid data on DQ0 and DQ1) positive transition on strobe RDQS; and a corresponding negative transition on REG_SEL to steer DO_a1 to buffer 122. The multiplexer output trace MDQ shows that concurrent with the transition of REG_SEL, DO_a1 begins to stabilize at the input to buffer 122, and is stable before T8. RDQS, along with the contents of DQ0, are latched into register 122 based on the transition of RDQS. A delay element 132 is used to ensure that RDQS has settled at the input of buffer 122 before it is latched. Shortly before T8, MDQ and RDQS are latched into buffer 122, and appear at the memory bus port as DQ and DQS shortly after T8. Approximately a half-clock cycle after transitioning RDQS and REG_SEL, controller 110 transitions these signals again to place DO_a2 on the memory bus. While DO_a2 is being latched into buffer 122 (at T8n), the memory devices begin data output of the results of the second READ operation. The results of the second read operation propagate through the interface circuit in similar fashion to the results of the first read operation. The net result is that the memory data bus transfers 4m bits of data in two memory bus clock cycles (four m-bit transfers), with only two data accesses performed at each memory device on the module. FIG. 6 shows an analogous timing diagram for two consecutive write operations. Like in the case above, module controller 110 enters an ACTIVE state upon latching the ACTIVE command from the primary memory controller. Upon sensing the first WRITE command, module controller 110 transitions to a WRITE state. This includes taking RDQS0 (and RDQS1, if desired) low in preparation for the first write operation. DQS is center-aligned with the write data placed on DQ by the primary memory controller. Accordingly, DQS is used to clock DQ (and DM) into buffer 122 when DQS transitions at T5. Between T5 and T5n, DI_a1 is valid on MDQ, as well as on DQ0 and DQ1 (DeMUX 124 merely passes MDQ to the inputs of both data registers in this example). Module controller 110 also receives DQS. After a delay to allow the inputs to register 126 to settle, module controller 110 transitions RDQS0 to latch DI_a1 into register 126. At T5n, the primary memory controller transitions DQS again, causing buffer 122 to latch DI_a2. After a delay to allow the inputs to register 128 to settle, module controller 10 transitions RDQS1 to latch DI_a2 into register 128. Note that in some embodiments, register 126 may have separate input and output stages—this allows register 126 to hold its output long enough to ensure that the memory device array receives it, while at the same time allowing register 126 to latch the next input from DQ. When such an arrangement is used, RDQS1 can be used as a transfer signal to cause register 126 to transfer the contents of its input stage to its output stage. In FIG. 6, this method of operation is illustrated by the two separate traces RDQ0_IN (input stage) and RDQ0_OUT (output stage). FIG. 7 shows the general component arrangement for a memory module 100 in a DIMM form factor. Two ranks of memory devices are arranged along the top of the DIMM card: memory devices 140A-140H are arranged on the facing side of the module, with memory devices 142A-142H arranged directly behind these (see the side view of module 100A in FIG. 8). Interface circuit 120 of FIG. 4 is split into two identical interface circuits (left circuit 125 and right circuit 130) in FIG. 7, each handling half of the data lines. This arrangement allows for more uniform lead lengths between an interface circuit and each of the memory devices, and reduces the pin count on each interface circuit package. In FIG. 7, the data signal lines for one memory rank are arranged on the front side of the card (solid lines leading to the memory devices), and the data signal lines for the other memory rank are arranged on the back side of the card (dashed lines leading to the memory devices). Module controller 110 is centered below the memory modules, equalizing signal distance to interface circuits 125 and 130. This arrangement also provides a more uniform path length for address and command signals RADD/RCMD. The signals labeled “SYNC” include the signals DQS, RDQS, DIR, REG_SEL, RDQS0, and RDQS1 shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 8 shows three of the modules depicted in FIG. 7 arranged in a memory system with a primary memory controller 20 and a multi-drop memory bus 22. Note that with multiple modules, each module will recognize ACTIVE commands addressed to that module and respond accordingly; otherwise, the modules remain in a standby mode and need not pass commands through to their memory device arrays. FIG. 9 illustrates an alternate interface circuit configuration 170 useful with a point-to-point memory data bus. Most of interface circuit directly corresponds to interface circuit 120 (MUX/DeMUX 176 and everything to the right of it). But the data port buffer in FIG. 9 is a dual-port data buffer, with a forwarding buffer 174 and a transfer buffer 172. Communication between the primary memory controller and the interface take place at the transfer port, which comprises data signal lines TDQ, data masking signal lines TDM, and data signal strobe lines TDQS. A forwarding port comprises data signal lines FDQ, data masking signal lines FDM, and data signal strobe lines FDQS. The forwarding port allows for communication between the memory module and another memory module on an additional memory bus segment. In operation, transfers between the memory module and the primary memory controller function similarly to those described for FIG. 4. But when a set of data signals is received at the forwarding port, those signals are clocked in and then clocked out on the transfer port during the next bus clock cycle. And when a set of data signals is received at the transfer port while the memory module is not ACTIVE, those signals are clocked in and then clocked out on the forwarding port during the next bus clock cycle. FIG. 10 shows the general component arrangement for a memory module 150 arranged in a DIMM form factor and employing the interface circuit layout of interface circuit 170. The general arrangement of module 150 is similar to that of module 100 of FIG. 7, with interface circuit 170 split into two halves 175 and 180. The number of memory data bus connections along the card edge, however, has been doubled to facilitate support for a transfer port and a forwarding port. Note also that two address and command ports to module controller 160 are also shown—one port accepts transfer address and commands (TADD/TCMD) from an attached memory controller, and the other port transmits forwarded address and commands (FADD/FCMD) to other downstream modules. FIG. 11 shows three of the modules depicted in FIG. 10 arranged in a memory system with a primary memory controller 200 and a point-to-point memory bus 202. This memory bus is described as a “virtual multi-drop” bus because of its linear arrangement of modules—but the memory bus is actually made up of point-to-point data bus segments 202A, 202B, and 202C. Data bus segment 202A connects memory controller 200 to the transfer port of module 150A. Data bus segment 202B connects the forwarding port of module 150A to the transfer port of module 150B. And data bus segment 202C connects the forwarding port of module 150B to the transfer port of module 150C. In operation, module 150A, for instance, remains in a TRANSFER mode when it is not ACTIVE. In the transfer mode, module 150A merely picks up signals from either of its two ports and drives those signals to the other port. FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a variation on the point-to-point configuration of FIGS. 10 and 11. In FIG. 13, memory bus 252 is a ring memory bus. Like memory bus 202, memory bus 252 contains A, B, and C segments. But in addition, memory bus 252 contains a fourth segment 252D that connects the last module, 210C, back to the memory controller 250. When transfers occur on bus 252, half of the signals are sent in a clockwise direction and the other half are sent in a counter-clockwise direction. Like in the case above, modules that are not ACTIVE remain in a TRANSFER mode in which they propagate signals along the bus. But the ACTIVE module will receive data at both of its ports, and then must combine the data to form a full data word. An advantage of the ring bus architecture is that is allows point-to-point bus connections without doubling the number of card pins. Referring to FIG. 12, each transfer/forwarding data port (e.g., port T/FDQ0) is only m/4 bits wide, whereas the ports in FIG. 10 were each m/2 bits wide. The ring bus architecture is one way in which an effective bit width can be different than the number of physical lines on any given memory bus segment. An issue with the configuration of FIG. 12 is that data from two ports will need to be merged at some point. From FIG. 13, it can be seen that depending on which module is active, half of the data will take longer to reach the module than the other half. This can be compensated for in several ways. First, memory controller 250 can stagger transmission on segments 252A and 252D such that the two halves arrive at the destination module at approximately the same time. Second, the interface circuit can include a multistage buffer that delays the data input on one module port in order to align it with the data input on the other module port. And third, data from each of the two ports can be written separately to memory when it arrives by splitting each rank of memory in half and delaying the address and command signals to each half by an amount that compensates for the arrival delay of the data. Many other variations on the illustrated embodiments are possible. For instance, although the illustrated examples use source-synchronous strobe signals to clock data, common-clock signaling can also be used in some embodiments and/or on some data paths of an embodiment. The illustrated examples also show two ranks of memory, but other numbers of ranks are also possible, e.g., a 4:1 multiplexer and four ranks of memory. The terms “buffer” and “register” have been used herein somewhat interchangeably—a register has a latching capability, whereas a buffer may have, but need not necessarily have, such a capability. Although bi-directional registers/buffers and a combination multiplexer/demultiplexer are illustrated, those skilled in the art recognize that an embodiment of the invention can also be constructed using two data paths with unidirectional components. An embodiment can also have the capability to respond to a read that requests less than N=R×m bits by transferring less than N bits on the memory bus. For instance, consider a case where m=16 and R=4. If an allowable read operation requests only one 16-bit word, the module can respond by performing one 64-bit read internally to the four data registers. Then, only the one register of the four that contains the requested 16-bit word is multiplexed onto the memory data bus. This can be extended to read any number of m-bit words from one to R. Likewise, an embodiment can also have the capability to respond to a write that requests to write less than N=R×m bits. Using the example above, if an allowable write operation requests to write only one 16-bit word, the masking bits on the other words can be set by the controller. The when a write to the ranks is performed, only the one word requested by the external memory controller will actually be written, and the other three words stored in the data registers will be ignored. The types, sizes, or numbers of memory devices selected for use with the present invention are not critical. Some possible device types include dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) devices including double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM devices, quad-data-rate (QDR) SDRAM devices, Rambus™ DRAM devices (with an-appropriate controller), static RAM and flash memory devices. It may be possible to combine memory modules in a memory system according to the invention where two modules incorporate different types of memory devices. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the concepts taught herein can be tailored to a particular application in many other advantageous ways. For instance, although the illustrated embodiments use one or two interface circuits and a separate module controller, all of these devices could be integrated in a single device, or in some other number of packages with some other division of the tasks to be performed by the module. The ranks need not be arranged on opposite sides of a card. Such minor modifications are encompassed within the invention, and are intended to fall within the scope of the claims. Although the specification may refer to “an”, “one”, “another”, or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations, this does not necessarily mean that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. the memory data bus comprising a point-to-point bus having one data bus segment connecting the primary memory controller and the first of the at least one memory modules, and one additional segment for each additional memory module, the additional segment connecting the additional memory module to the module immediately preceding it, and a ring data bus segment connecting the last of the memory modules in the memory system. 2. The memory system of claim 1, wherein the memory data bus and the module data bus each have a clock rate, the memory data bus clocking at a rate R times the clock rate of the module data bus. a controller capable of synchronizing the operation of the interface circuit and the memory device ranks such that a data transfer comprising R serial data transfers on the memory data bus can be completed internal to the memory module with one R×m-bit-wide data transfer with the memory device ranks. 4. The memory module of claim 3, wherein the controller supplies rank selection signals to the multiplexer and register latching signals to each of the data registers. 5. The memory module of claim 3, wherein data signaling between a data register and its rank of memory devices further comprises a bit mask received from the memory data bus along with a corresponding m bits, the multiplexer transferring the bit mask to the data register along with the corresponding m bits. 6. The memory module of claim 3, wherein the controller is capable of synchronizing the operation of the data registers, the module data port, and the multiplexer/demultiplexer in order to serialize data from a subset of the data registers onto the memory data bus. 7. The memory module of claim 3, wherein data transfers between one of the data registers and the corresponding rank of memory devices occurs at a clock rate related to the clock rate of the memory data bus by a factor 1/R. 8. The memory module of claim 3, where the module is a dual-inline memory module comprising a printed circuit board capable of connection to the memory data bus via insertion of the circuit board into a card edge connector connected to the memory data bus. 9. The memory module of claim 8, wherein R equals two, one of the two ranks of memory devices arranged on each side of the circuit board and connected to the corresponding data register via a set of module data signaling lines routed on the circuit board. 10. The memory module of claim 8, wherein the interface circuit comprises two interface circuits each serving half of the module data port and half of each rank of memory devices. 11. The memory module of claim 3, wherein the module data port comprises a dual-port buffer, each port of the dual-port buffer capable of connection to another memory module in a point-to-point configuration of memory data bus segments. 12. The memory module of claim 3, wherein data exchanges over the memory data bus comprise a data strobe signal, the module further comprising a data strobe circuit to generate data strobe signaling when transmitting data over the memory data bus. 13. The memory module of claim 12, wherein the controller begins an internal sequence of interface circuit write operations in response to an externally-supplied data strobe signal. 14. The memory module of claim 3, wherein data exchanges between the interface circuit and the ranks of memory devices comprise a data strobe signal, the module further comprising a data strobe circuit to generate data strobe signaling when transmitting data from the interface circuit to the ranks of memory devices, the interface circuit comprising a register circuit to latch data from the ranks of memory devices based on data strobe signaling received from those devices. wherein the module data port comprises a dual-port buffer, each port of the dual-port buffer capable of connection to another memory module in a point-to-point configuration of memory data bus segments, wherein each port is capable of connection to an m-bit-wide memory data bus segment, wherein one port comprises a transfer port and the other port comprises a forwarding port, the module capable of using the transfer port to transfer data signals between the interface circuit and a higher-level controller connected to the memory data bus, the module capable of using the forwarding port to connect to a second memory module in order to transfer data signals between the transfer port on the first memory module and the transfer port on the second memory module. wherein the module data port comprises a dual-port buffer, each port of the dual-port buffer capable of connection to another memory module in a point-to-point configuration of memory data bus segments, wherein each module data port is capable of connection to an m/2-bit-wide memory data bus segment, wherein the dual module data ports comprise first and second transfer/forwarding ports, the module capable of retransmitting data signals received at one of the transfer/forwarding ports, but not destined for that memory module, on the other transfer/forwarding port, the module also capable of transferring m/2 data signals between each of the transfer/forwarding ports and the interface circuit. wherein the method further comprises initiating a valid data access transaction when N is an integer multiple of m, but less than R×m. 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising clocking transfers between the memory controller and the memory module at R times the rate that transfers are clocked between the interface circuit and the memory devices. 19. The method of claim 17, wherein when the data access transaction is a write transaction, transferring the N data bits between the interface circuit and N/m of the ranks of memory devices, while signaling the remainder of the ranks to ignore the write transaction. 20. The method of claim 17, wherein when the data access transaction is a read transaction, transferring R×m data bits, including the N data bits requested for the read transaction, from the R ranks of memory devices to the interface circuit, and transferring the N data bits requested for the read transaction from the memory module to the memory controller.

2019-04-22T07:33:32Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6742098B1/en

Suss felt a sudden urge to rise. It was so powerful she thought it must be nothing far from one of her dreams. She must have dreamt about her son in these few days more than all the dreams she ever had her entire life combined. Beside her on the bed was Theo. He must have fallen asleep trying to wonder what in the world he could do to bring his wife back to life, to the usual enthusiast that she was. For to him, it seemed he had lost more than a son- he had lost his wife also. This meant his whole world was entirely crumbled, because she was his last wall of defense. Suss watched in the dark, how he slept, and felt great pity for putting him through the emotional quagmire. He lay sprawled as though slain in his sleep; his suit hanging on to the mattress by the sinewy thread of the sleeve. Theo was strong-hearted, but how long would he hold himself, and then the entire family together without getting support from her. She was sorry. Quietly, she rose from the bed, and bore to the burden that had woken her from sleep. She wrapped herself with a thick negligee, and walked towards the door. She knew her way even in the dark. She was familiar with it. Down the stairs she went, after overcoming the impulse of checking in on her daughters. Somehow, her home had grown to be something close to a haunted house. The melody she used to know that brimmed over the estate now seemed to have been locked up in some dungeon. The tile under her feet was cold, and the wind that blew by the window made the linen curtains billow up like ghosts escaping from the sight of a mortals. She walked on, slowly but steadily till she pushed open the double-doors that led to the huge patio, which would for the rest of her life be a reminder of how the years have turned out, however beautiful or dreadful. She stood still under the starless sky, like she was on a stage, having the wind as her only audience. Her hair flapped lightly behind her, and she could feel the tears begin to roll down her face again. This was the spot she always received her Sam. When he came back from boarding school; then when came back home with the numerous trophies he won from competitions. She remembered just a few months ago when she stood right here on this spot, watching her son walk a lady up the stairs. The lady he had proposed to. It had been so beautiful. Her heart had swelled with immeasurable joy. Tears had flowed. Then, they were tears of joy. Now, the story wasn’t the same. The joy she had had been snatched away before she could enjoy it. This was the same spot the terrible news of Sam’s accident had been received. She had been standing right here with Theo. They were supposed to be at the gala hosted by William Colt. She had thought Theo had never looked that handsome. And she had said so to him. No, she never hid how she felt. Not from her husband. Just as he was saying how beautiful she looked and was taking her hands in his, did the news come on the phone about the accident. In one second, their whole lives had changed. She let the gust of wind that blew remind her of the happy days instead. She stepped down to the first landing. And then the next. She walked around the empty fountain, ignoring the sculpted image of Narcissus staring down at, well, an empty pond. She kept walking even as the night slept on. On and on and out of the estate, she walked. The breeze was soothing; it worked wonders on her body. Maybe she should have tried this earlier, rather than stay up in her room. The wind blew away pain, and dried the tears, she mused. She was sure anyone would find her if there was a need, but the security men watching knew better than to disturb her privacy. She was sure they would be at arm’s length, she prayed they remained so. Her mind began to soar high over the mountains beyond the river. The clouds were thick and heavy but not with rain. She was sure. She followed her nudging and ambled down towards the lake. The wooden gangplank swayed gently under her bare feet, and the whining sound of the ungreased hinges cut in louder than the whistling wind. There she sat on the edge of the plank, allowing her feet wade ankle deep in the water. This was where she brought Sam to when he was younger and easily angered. She had thought him one of life’s lessons using the water beneath them. That was the day she knew her son would one day be great, because he was corrigible. Just then she remembered the calls that had come to her pamphlet within the past few days, and made a mental note to check through when she got back to the house. The emotional stress she and everyone else in the family were going through wasn’t something that would pass easily. Just as the chances of Sam making it back the second time increased, did he stop struggling to survive. He let go. He had given them much hope; and then he had taken it, leaving them worse than they ever were. She had come to the hospital that evening on her usual visit, but had met her husband there. Waiting. Apparently they had called Theo to come down to the hospital before anyone notified her. This was a final nail in her coffin. She didn’t wipe the tears off her face. What was the point? She looked up at the moon striving to make relevance despite the encroaching dark clouds. With her mind she attempted to clear away the clouds, like she used to when she was little. She made a stiff laugh from her throat, just as the memory of her friend, Hannah came to mind. They did this together. They did everything together. But time had separated them. Or was it marriage. She should go visit. It mightn’t be a bad idea, she thought. Was it possible Hannah never heard of her son’s demise? Just after the death of her husband she had relocated to an Amish society somewhere up north. They had kept in touch only for a few years after, and when life got busier for her in the city, it took the yuletide seasons for them to exchange gifts and cards. She rose from the dock, turned around in her wet feet, and walked back all the way to the house. Not that she would remember anything she thought of when she fully awoke from her sleep. Eli wasn’t in the mood for games. The excitement he felt only lasted the euphoric minutes of experiencing something new. The state of gaming had advanced deep into the tech world. Or was it the other way round? The rift over his head permitted him to experience the virtual gaming happening in cyber space. A soccer game that had over a million people in attendance was in full swing. Abati and Isaaci had decided to time their own console experience to end as soon as the main game had begun. Now, the three of them were part of the crowd that cheered from different parts of the world. In the virtual space provided, they were seated on the stands and watched the players right there on the pitch. It took Eli some time, added to the explanation from Isaaci, to realize that the players also were remotely connected, and in the real sense, there was no tangible field or structure. Eli heard the commentator speak so rapidly and enthusiastically about the players and the clubs. This was a Champions League game going on. A virtual one, he reminded himself. He watched with his breath hitched. The virtual world ran at par if not greater than the physical and material world. Immense energy and vibes, and apparently more stakes and more money. Eli thought of the gambling industry, and how much they would have made from this virtual venture. This was the life now. Virtual gaming was a game of mental strength and balance than of physic. It was truly appealing. The players were the frame of their physical builds, only that this was an entirely mind game. He relaxed and allowed the whole scenery settle in. The commentators were a couple of affable folks accentuating the tension and pace of the game. It was electrifying. One of them made mention of Dan the Sniper, and how his absence to his team, the Ode Warriors, was really felt. Eli looked up at the distance to see the fans of one of the teams playing wave a huge banner. RIP, Sam. We Love Dan’s Brother. And they were immediately back to the game at hand. The crowd cheered on as though nothing was said that mattered that much. He turned at his side. Abati and Isaaci didn’t act like they heard the ‘announcement’ on the rifts. The game played on below, but for him, he was done. He felt goosebumps swell on his skin, and he fumbled till he finally got the drill of taking off the helmet. Abati and Isaaci were lost to the virtual world of entertainment, totally oblivious of what went on in their lab. Actually, nothing was wrong in the lab. Everything seemed usual like he last saw it, except for the amber light that blinked incessantly on a desk device. Eli tried to check what it could mean, but decided not to be drawn any deeper in the present world of technical advancement. It was brain-draining. He took a few steps across the lab to stretch his muscles, and make sense of what he had heard from the commentators. It was in plain English, and hence didn’t pose any difficulty understanding. His brother, Dan was a football player. A virtual football player. But he was conspicuously missed in his team’s line-up. Was he still mourning him? Or was he asked to go on compulsory compassionate leave? Apparently, everyone knew he was dead. That Sam was dead. But he was back to life. Well, not as Sam, though. He moved away, farther into the other side of the lab, observing high tech laboratory equipment. He observed the equipment where his body had been put. Dr Islo had said they were extracting vitals from his organs, and couldn’t explain how it was possible that he made it back to life. Whatever terms they had used, it was apparent the procedures done here were on dead bodies. Maybe ‘nearly’ dead bodies. Was it possible that organs could still be useful even after the collapse of the brain muscles and the lungs? Eli put the thoughts aside and walked even deeper into the lab. He was beginning to understand the arrangement of the lab. Every scientist had private work sections and ample space to themselves, not necessarily having to share with others. So work and research here could be in teams as well as private. The sudden feel of unease wasn’t something he could explain. It was the kind of windy feel he had experienced when he spoke with the woman in his dreams. Except now he was sure he was no longer dreaming. He hoped. The haziness made him want to sit, but as he found a metal stool, his sudden dry throat demanded that he got a drink. Preferably water, he thought. At the distance he could see the casted images of Abati and Isaaci on the white sterile tile. He needed their attention. The dryness in his throat was quickly becoming a heartburn down his chest. He coughed out for attention, but it was apparent the two robots were lost in their virtual gaming world. He thought of getting to the huge storage refrigerator, and made a mental count of steps he would have to take to get there. Abati had pulled out a drink for him only an hour ago; if he was lucky, he could still gain access to it. He shuffled quickly towards the section, keeping his weight on the stainless steel tables that carried some equipment. He stood before the giant fridge, not sure what command to give it. He hit the button that reflected a pale red color. Nothing happened. He looked through the misty glass and was able to mark a water bottle in the midst of all the reagents that needed near-zero temperature degrees for their safe storage. Eli stamped his palm on the handprint device. He did it the second time, and the third, rubbing his burning chest with his free hand. Nothing bulged. He punched on the red button with his thumb, and then decided to rest his back. It seemed the pain was reducing. He was sure. He screamed for help, but was sure it was only a futile effort. Was this refrigerator also a vending machine? He couldn’t recall Abati slotting in any coin anywhere. He looked around the huge machine. He sighed and gave up. Just before he decided to get the attention of either or both of the robots, he heard a humming sound from the fridge. The door slid open right before him. It was like a miracle. Thick frost escaped at once, clouding his vision for a moment. As soon as the coast became a little clear, he leaped forward into the coolness of the giant refrigerator, aiming straight for the bottle of water. With a bit of extra care, he succeeded in getting it out. A few seconds later, the door slid shut, just as it was before. Not until Eli had screwed opened the cover and gulped down more than half the content did he stop to read the label on the bottle. It was ionized water. Pausing his mind for a brief second to allow his brain think, Eli scanned his memory up to his days as an undergraduate. Ionized water? He kept drilling his head for an answer. Any answer that would allay his fears on the danger to consuming such liquid. This is simple chemistry na. He almost shouted at himself. Ionized water na just ionized water na… Abi? Water wey get ion. Hydrogen ion and hydroxide ion. Shebi? Ehn na. Wait o. Wait make I sure. Now, he wasn’t sure if the heartburn he felt had subsided or was just taking a new turn. He shook his head vigorously. Yes. Yes. I’m right. He nodded this time. He decided to drink from the bottle the second time. It didn’t matter whether he had already consumed almost half of the liquid, he had to be sure now. Ignorance was bliss. Now that he knew, he had to be sure. He shut his eyes, muttering something indecipherable from his lips before the bottle touched down again. The liquid slowly flowed past his pouty lips into his mouth. He dropped the bottle and gave the litmus test with his tongue, and then allowed only a sip down his throat. The ionized water had every physical property of potable water. Eli fine-tuned his taste senses and checked for any other hidden feel. An after-taste, anything. He wasn’t so sure anymore. With resolute determination, he gulped what was left of the cold liquid. He waited. It worked. The pain in his chest had considerably lessened. He stood forlornly before the closed fridge, wishing it was still opened. Eli was sure there was another clear liquid bottle in there. If only the fridge gave him another chance. He punched rapidly on the button a few times, but nothing happened. He wasn’t even sure what command the ultra-smart fridge had responded to the first time. Eli felt he could manage till his two game-freaked friends were done with their game. He began to stroll back towards the end of the lab where he left his robot buggies. That was the word they used for him. Dead Man, also. He shook his head. His peripheral vision must have first recognized a green light blink by his far left. Maybe once, maybe twice, but Eli almost ignored it. He was still trying to get the last jot of water out of the bottle into his gaping mouth. The blurry green light registered as he stared through the bottle hole. He dropped the bottle from his face, and there it was the green EXIT sign beaming at the top of an opaque door. Without much effort, he realized he moved towards the sign. Had it been there all along, or had the light recently come on? If the latter was the case, and it answered the curious question that plagued on his mind right now, then he had better spring towards it before the light went off. He gently placed the bottle on a stainless steel slab, and dashed towards the exit sign. Without any prior practice, he tiptoed like a professional ballet dancer till he was standing before the door. He realized he had to push this opaque door ajar. The green sign above the door illuminated the metal frame of the threshold. Perhaps the effort exacted was light. He pushed with both hands now, and suddenly, the door swung out, almost taking him off balance. His hands still held the door from shutting behind him. His feet on a carpeted corridor, his eyes, glancing back into the lab. Was he not supposed to let Abati and Isaaci know of this exit? Was this exit supposed to be opened at this time? He knew that was the most ridiculous question. What did it matter? This was supposed to be his exit. His ‘exit strategy’. He wasn’t sure he was meant to go through this door, and walk on this corridor, but here was a chance for him to escape. The word ‘escape’ didn’t sound right, though. He looked up and down the corridor. It was surprisingly covered with expensive Persian carpet, something more befitting to a five star hotel. Not a lab. The light holder than hung on the wall seemed to be increasing in intensity. Eli looked at himself. He was wearing the clothes Dr Islo had handed to him when she came in the morning. No, that was yesterday. Or was it two days ago? He sighed. He finally let the opaque door to the lab shut behind him, and it was apparent, he was on his own onward. He didn’t move a foot. He tried the opaque door, it was still open. Now the choice was his to make, but where to, was the biggest challenge. He was like an inmate newly released from prison after twenty years. Only that his was sixty-five years. The world had changed, and he was unsure where he should go. Where he should turn to. He stood in the middle of the long lit corridor, deciding which way to take. Down either directions were bends that would lead to more unknown options. He looked back at the opaque door. There was no ‘enter’ sign on this side. He thought of his friends again. Abati and Isaaci. Sometimes in life, you don’t get the chance to say goodbye. He knew he would miss his two buggies. He knew. But here was an open door, and he had to take the chance, even though he had to do with no help. He turned to his left, and began marching purposefully. He would need for all of his senses to be inept, and more, he would need luck. He didn’t know what was around the bend, waiting to meet him. One thing he was sure of. There was no going back to that shadowy lab. At the end of corridor, he felt an urgent need to move faster than he was, but then, he had another set of paths before him. The signs on the wall were coded. RWP/AS Left Wing and RWP/AS Right Wing. Two unlabeled doors stood directly opposite him, adding to his options and posing a bigger challenge. Four options: two paths, on the left and on the right, and then two doors almost at arm’s reach. He turned on the knob of the door to his right. It bulged. He pushed. It swung. He peeped in. It was a seating area, like a private chalet in an airport. He pulled back, went to the other door, and placed his hand on the knob to open. He changed his mind, stepped back, and decided to go for the other door he had already opened. There was no apparent rationale behind his decision. He just felt an impulse to withdraw. He entered into the lobby-like room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He took two steps forwards, and decided to lock the door behind him. He pressed what he expected to be the tiny lock button in the centre of the knob. He tried it. It was locked. Scanning the room for doors, he began exploring his next option. His purpose was to get out of the facility, but he had no idea how big it was; if he was close to the main exit, or if he was in a maze. He pulled open the door, and stood before it. He didn’t need to scan up or down the corridor, he had been briefed. He knew exactly where he was headed, but he thought he just heard a sound. A click from a door, or something. Another door. One was to his immediate left and exactly five more along this long corridor. So said the map. He didn’t look, neither did he turn. All he had to do was listen. He paused to be sure. McDen listened like a professional would. As soon as he felt satisfied, he walked across the corridor right opposite him. The map was perfect. Everything was as it was. Timing was paramount in the accomplishing of this goal. And if he had to be out of this place with his prize, he had precisely ten minutes to pick it up. A ten-minute margin had been opened for him to get through. No cameras would be watching, no data would be stored for these few minutes. His digichap, a young lad named Zeal, had successfully slowed down the UI of the building’s system, thereby creating larger error margins and loopholes that would be automatically erased when there is a refresh. That loophole was his key for all the doors he needed to go through. He didn’t need to bother about going out. The key would be here any minute from now. She was already in the building, and anytime soon she would be stepping out of the elevator. They had tracked her from the moment she had logged in her information on the facility space site. As soon as Thomas had called him, he and Slone had split up. Slone had headed straight for the next possible destination Ethel Islo could have gone, while he had come here. He was glad he would be the one to bring home the prize. He stood before the opaque door and did the cross sign before he pulled it open. Inside the APIT lab was barely habitable. The air was thick with chemicals. It had the heaviness and denseness of a ghost town. Well, wasn’t it some sort of morgue anyway? Souls of dead men refusing to depart to the land beyond hung from the ceiling, McDen could tell. He wondered why Ethel Islo had decided to come back to her workplace when it would have been a sure guess by even the dumbest of people. Was there something she was here to pick up? Was there a sanctuary, and safe house for her here? He would have preferred to complete the work at Ethel’s place but Thomas was still there at 10 pm. That wasn’t part of the plan. An hour later, he had called that the damn white lady had escaped. And from the hissing in Thomas’ voice, it was apparent he had messed things up. This was the reason he was called up here tonight; reason for change of plans. McDen was a success at pulling things off in little time margin. That was one of his unique selling points. He also possessed a see-no-evil do-no-evil kind of face, a feature that once was his weakness now brought him a livelihood. Tonight, he had fancied the name Dode Banije. But he knew the character would be playing a very short role: Dr. Dode Banije. It was just for the effect. As soon as Ethel enters into the lab, he would take her down, and that would be it. He loved such easy jobs. More like a deliveryman, with the paycheck of a professional killer. He wiggled his mouth, humming at the song that played in his head. He walked down, into the inner section of the lab, heading for the source of masked noise. He needed to eliminate any form of surprise other than from himself. The tears that flooded her eyes didn’t drown her thoughts for one second. As emotionally weak as she was, her mental capacity became significantly heighten. The resolve in her was strong to attempt the most daring or even unimaginable feat. One thing was evident: There was more than meets the eye about Thomas. And from that phone conversation she overheard, he wasn’t alone on this. The questions that now plagued her mind was to what course this near death drama was? This would probably answer why Thomas had attempted to kill her. Something was more important to him than having a fiancée, or rather having her in his life for that matter. In the real sense, she was better dead now that alive. She recalled his hushed response on the phone. It echoed for too long in her head. He had mentioned that the whoever was on the other line should wait till tomorrow before he came over. But then, he had discovered she’d overheard him, and concluded that she didn’t deserve to be privy to such info and still be allowed to live. She couldn’t have her cake, and eat it. She’d replayed the whole day’s activities in her head, retrieving mental pictures of things that didn’t seem in place. Like Thomas’ cold stare when he felt she wasn’t looking, and most times his absentmindedness. She had made excuses for him then, but now, the dots were connecting. I said I saw it by myself… Evidence? You know who to ask for evidence, not me. I know what I saw. They are gone past that. …I have done my best, but it can’t be tonight. I need to cover my tracks. You can come in early in the morning, or something. The chiming sound of the elevator door pulled Ethel out of her thoughts. She prayed that she made it out of here on time before anyone tried to stop her. He cussed as she remembered the state she had left Sam. She had promised him she would have to speak with her boss to know the right approve for his reintroduction to his family. She had allayed his fears, but now it seemed she was his doom. She cussed through clenched teeth for falling into the charade that had happened today. She had fallen for a script Thomas had succeeded in playing out well. As soon as the door clicked open with the aid of her poke, she knew that something wasn’t right inside the lab. Her instinct heightened as she walked across the cold tile towards her section of the lab. Where were the legis? What were they up to this time? Her thoughts were on Sam. She increased her pace into a sprint, heading towards her Light Room, her lips visibly muttering words of prayer. The doors slid open as she made contact with. With one glance across the room, her fears became real. It was empty, except for the sofa and the table. Sam was nowhere to be found. Her heartbeat increased as she neared panic mood. It was crazy how she hadn’t felt this way when she had the near death experience with Thomas. Now she was panicking. Sam was not where she had left him. This meant a bridge of security, not just into her personal space, but into the systems in the lab. Where the heck were the legis? She sprinted out of the room and was already screaming out loud. Only that her scream was promptly stopped midair by the sight before her. There was a lot to register at once. Her eyes first focused on the single metal nozzle pointed at her. Then it panned out and focused on the man behind the gun. Second time in one night. This time, there was no shield between them. Thomas sure had this covered. He sure wanted to leave no stone unturned. She stared at the man that pointed the gun. Ethel swallowed a lump in her throat. She didn’t reply. Instead, she tried to calm my trembling hands. “My name is McDen, but you can call me Dr Dode. Dr Dode Banije.” A sardonic smile creased past the strangers face. “I’ve always fancied being a scientist when I was growing up. Truth is, well, I am a scientist of some sort.” He paused for a sec, perhaps enjoying his intro. Ethel tried to observe him. He was a talker. She knew that already. Ethel lost her only point there. Before the armed stranger began talking again, he tossed a gadget to the floor. One look at it and Ethel knew exactly what if was. Smoke rose from the enforced plastic the legi intel was clad in. “Sorry, but there goes your robot.” The stranger who called himself McDen really loved to see the result of his torment on the faces of those he inflicted his pain on. Ethel was narrowing the stranger down to his personality traits. “Since it’s no longer news to you that Thomas sent me, I mean, yes, Thomas is who you know, so let’s keep it at that.” He wiggled his mouth. Ethel just stared at him, thinking, getting right out of her shock state, and applying some sense. One of her legis had been roasted by this stranger. “Ok, time up,” McDen said. That was the second time he had failed from cutting straight to the matter. It was apparent he loved the sound of his own threat than executing the threat itself. Ethel was yet to say anything sensible apart from the panic and trepidation in her voice. Her thoughts were on the whereabout of Sam. It seemed that this psycho was yet to know of the existence of Sam, and the other robot as well. Where were the two of them? Had they escaped, or something? An unexpected bullet tore into her chest, just over the complex wiring of her heart circuit. It threw her to the floor, splattering thick crimson fluid against the wall. Ethel was shaken more from the suddenness of the gunshot than from the pain it caused. She laid motionless on the floor for a while, her fear becoming very legit. Even if this man walked away now, she sure was going to die from the loss of blood. She tried to reduce her panic by thinking of nothing at all. “Sorry, I know that was unexpected. Once again, I’m sorry.” McDen wiped his mouth. He bent down to retrieve the poke than was hung over the head of the bleeding scientist. He pulled it off, and stood on his feet again. That was his ticket of out here. Ethel Islo was trying hard to hear what the stranger was saying, but the thumping of her veins filled her ears. She tried reading his lips but her sight got more blur, even as she lay helplessly in a pool of her blood. She attempted to place a good hand over the gush in her chest. The pain reaped her senses apart. She could see still him through the blurriness as he moved closer to her in one final stretch of his gun. He leveled it on her. He spoke. He said something. A name perhaps. He smiled broadly for her to see. A parting smile for her to take home. Then he pulled the trigger. The man definitely loved talking. That was his weakness. Perhaps his strength as well. But not on this day. Just as he willed his index finger to pull on the trigger, his body jacked vehemently. He fired at the scientist all the same, but he wasn’t allowed anymore shots. The gun dropped from his grip, while he kept shaking, like he was being electrocuted. The shaking didn’t stop until his body began to smoke, and his hair got lit. He dropped on the tiled floor. Dried and dead. Just above his desiccated body was one of the lab legis. Isaaci. He stood under the shade of the waiting area. The rain was most likely going to fall, because the sky was thick with threatening clouds. He was sure he was going to make it. If he had come this far, he would make it out of here. He looked at the green digital clock over the empty counter. It counted down to zero. 2:45 to go. He figured out that was the time the next train would be coming. Time was the slowest thing tonight. The facility which he had miraculously escaped from was about three hundred yards behind him now. That was about three football pitches from the train station. He prayed that no one came in search of him. He’d been looking over his shoulders a lot. For now, the train station was empty safe for an old woman who stood some distance away. She must have wondered about him. He saw the first sight of the train, blinking a deep blue light at the distance. He watched the digital countdown. He turned his head again, as if to look at the facility building. He looked at the woman now. She held her bag tight to her chest. Ready to get into the train. Eli felt he was ready too. 30 seconds, and the train engine had slowed considerable, almost to a stop. By the time its exit door opened, it was exactly 0:00. The doors hissed open, and he stepped in. A few people slouched on their seats, spending the minutes to get a little night rest before they got to their final destination. Work must have been tedious today. Eli chose a spot and sank his body on the seat. He took a last look outside the window at the empty train station. His reflection of his face on the window reminded him who he was. Inside he was Eli and lost; outside he was Sam and homeless. The train became to gather speed as it left the station. Eli was confused now. He had no money. He had nothing. He looked around, he saw the spot he was supposed to swipe his ticket across, just as the other passengers had done. He looked confused. He had nothing to swipe. He stared ahead of him, and at that moment he locked eyes with the old woman. She was a few seats from him, and was staring right at him as though she expected him to pull out a gun. Her frail shoulders shook lightly. Eli decided to smile at that instance. She jerked back as though she wasn’t expecting the gesture. Eli’s smile broadened. She smiled back. Yes, the old woman smiled back at him. This is web-like,i hope Dr Oslo wouldn’t die and Eli what the hell have you gotten yourself into? Ahn ahn, why did that idiot shoot Ethel now? So where are u goin to, Eli? Awaitind the next episode..thanx Ojay, how is d lil one? Hi guys. Thanks for the reads and the comments. I luh you guys. Bur I promised not to spoonfeed. Shout out to all them lurkers too. Keep it in the shadows. This story is just full of wonders, hmmm. The twist of this story is LEGENDARY! Pray i will appreciate any less of a genius fiction or (is it sci-fi ?) after this. Way to go Mr Ojay. Greater grace! One lurker coming out of the woodwork. Please post the next chapter like…right now. Na beg I dey beg! Ok cool. Congratulations on the new addition.

2019-04-20T15:23:57Z

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You are here: Home / Blog / Masonry or Christ? The Masonic Fraternity had its origins in the Middle Ages, about the year 800 A.D. It began with the builders of the Middle Ages and was called “Operative Masonry”. The workers formed gilds or associations of their own, which had laws, rules, regulations, and officers. Certain religious and philosophical symbols and principles, which had formerly belonged to the ancient secret sun-worshippers, were adopted by some of the gilds. Eventually, the industrial feature of true Masonry was lost, and since then, it has become speculative Freemasonry with emphasis placed exclusively upon the religious aspect. The claims of Masonry being ancient — going back to Solomon’s Temple or even to an earlier period, have no basis in historical fact. The claims that Jesus, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist, were Masons, deserve no attention and are nothing short of being blasphemous. Masonry has become highly spiritualistic and as such, has always been competitive to the Church. Teaching religiously, with the aim of becoming The Sole Religion of the Human Race, Masonry is in direct opposition to Christ and His Church. Adopted by the upper classes, Masonry became a key to personal promotion and to the satisfaction of vanity. More important are the appeals to the love of mystery in its myths, symbols, ceremonies, and oaths; its secrecy and the obscurity of its phraseology. Speculative Masonry arose with the beginnings of rationalism and free thought, when deism and ‘natural’ as opposed to revealed religion were winning adherents. Because of these various religious implications within Freemasonry and the fact that many Christians are Masons, we feel it necessary to make a study of the issue. May the power and Glory of God be made known through our humble efforts. Can a True Christian Become a Mason? The Orthodox Catholic Church is convinced and has always taught that Masonry is an unchristian, indeed an Antichristian organization, and as such, cannot he tolerated within the Orthodox Catholic Church. It has become increasingly evident, that there are Orthodox Christians who have joined, are joining, or are about to join, the organization of Freemasonry. Most of these Christians have not studied the organization of Freemasonry, and in their innocence, are not aware that Freemasonry is incompatible with the Orthodox Catholic Faith. A true Christian will not join Masonry, or having joined it, but afterwards learning of its true nature, will leave it. We must warn all good Christians that Masonry in reality is a religion. It is a false religion which is both pagan and antichristian. This can very easily be verified if one but studies some of the statements and writings of authoritative Masons. Masonry claims to reveal to its initiates a spiritual and esoteric light. Masonry believes in immortality, but not immortality in Christ. The True God in Masonry is rejected for the lowest-common denominator god — so as not to be offensive to Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu, etc. Masonry accepts men of any religion as long as the person believes in a deity. However, even the devil believes in God and trembles before Him. The Christian Faith is an exclusive Faith. Christianity was revealed by God to man and is not a system worked out by man himself. God came into the world in Christ Jesus in order to lift man up to Him. For a true Christian, Christ means everything! A true Christian will never deny Christ! A Christian is saved through the Blood of Christ, There is no salvation except in the name of Christ. Any worship which excludes Christ is unchristian. These are some of the differences of the Masonic religion and the Christian Faith. Some claim that Masonry is not a religion but the ethical and charitable handmaid to the Church. Masonry itself accepts no such subordinate position. Masonry teaches salvation by works and not through the Blood of Christ. This is false salvation and will only lead to perdition. Salvation is within the Church and not in Masonry. The Church does not worship the god that is worshipped in the Masonic temples. A Christian who worships in a Masonic temple defies the authority of the Church and does it in secret. How can a true believer in the Holy Trinity claim to have found a true worship of God in Masonry? The god of Masonry excludes Christ, our Divine Redeemer. A Christian has “put on Christ” in Holy Baptism. How can he become a Mason where he must deny and take off Christ, his Redeemer? In the first degree, God is referred to as a “Great Architect”. This is derogatory to the True Gods creative omnipotence. An architect only puts together from materials already at hand. God creates from nothing! This Masonic conception is frankly deistic, that is-based upon reason only, disbelieving in revelation and the supernatural Truths of Christianity. “Grand Geometrician” is even worse, because it implies some of the outmoded symbolical mathematics of the Kabbala, the mystic theosophy of the Hebrews. But it is in the Royal Arch degree that very grave difficulties arise. The word Jah-bul-on is made up of the Hebrew Jahweh coupled with the Assyrian Baal and the Egyptian On or Osiris. This is the name that Masons claim to be the “sacred and mysterious name of the true and living God. Most High”. It is a most terrible mixture which certainly does not spell God. Masonry is a prechristian religion, a mystery religion quite different, separate and alien to the Christian Faith. The Christian religion exalts faith above all and is dependent on Supernatural Grace. Masonry has only natural truths and does not depend upon faith. It brings knowledge to its initiates through reason alone. Although Masonry does in a sense represent religion at a pre-Christian level, it also claims to impart a light, spiritual and moral, which shines nowhere else. It claims to have secrets which add to a man’s sense of spiritual value and improve his character. It claims the exclusive possession of certain truths, one of which is the sacred and mysterious name of God. It claims to have found the worship of God! In other words, Masonry claims to be a “super-religion” and its great mission is to embrace within itself all religions. To do this, the unique message of Christ the Redeemer and his Church must be neutralized in order to be compatible with Masonic teachings. Freemasonry is not compatible with Christianity inasmuch as it is a secret organization, acting and teaching in secret and deifying rationalism. It is not lawful to belong to Christ and at the same time, to search for redemption and moral perfection outside of Him. Masonry has been condemned by the Orthodox Catholic Church. Indeed, no Christian church which has seriously investigated the religious teachings of Freemasonry has failed to condemn it. It is shameful and illogical for a Christian to admit that he is in a state of darkness and is seeking light through Masonry. To bind oneself by oath to secrets which will not be revealed until afterwards, is also foolish and dangerous, and it is contrary to moral law, The Orthodox Christian who is a Mason must consider the sin that he commits when he denies Christ. He must come to realize that Masonry is in opposition to the Christian Faith even though superficially it may seem to be a Christian organization. Some join the ranks of Masonry because of its religiousness. Others join for the advantages it offers in business and certain professions, or for the fellowship it offers. Still others join for the secrecy with which Masonry clouds its true self. None of these reasons can justify a Christian becoming a Mason. In fact, they are reasons for not joining! Masonry is a syncretic religion which tries to unite within itself the conflicting beliefs of many religions. It is a natural religion which has no authority except natural theology in which man is a law to himself. This, in addition to the indifferentism within Freemasonry, are the deadly enemies of the Church today, just as they were in the Early Church. Every clergyman should study Masonry in order that he might understand the effects it has upon the souls of those contaminated with this disastrous cancer, It must be fought arid destroyed within the Church. Masonry is a spiritual disease and is a rival of the Church as a moral guide. It declares that it is not a religion and yet it claims to be religious. If church members are receiving moral instruction and precepts from an outside source, the Church has both the right and duty to investigate. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1,8). In our past chapter, we discussed the idea of Freemasonry as a religion. In order to clarify the position of Masonry to religion in general, let us examine a few statements by Masons of authority. Grand Inspector Cunningham says: “Masonry is a pure religion”. Clymer says: “Masonry is the universal religion only because and only so long, as it embraces all religions. For this reason, and this alone, it is universal and eternal”. (Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry, p. 59)- “Masonry is not only a universal science, but a World Wide Religion, and owes allegiance to no one creed, and can adopt no sectarian dogma, as such without ceasing thereby to be Masonic . .. . Many degrees have been Christianized only to perish: as every degree eventually will if circumscribed by narrow creeds, and dwarfed. to the apprehension, so as to exclude good men of any other communion”. (p. 58)-“Without any reference to forms and modes of faith, it furnishes a series of indirect evidences which silently operate to establish the great and general principles of religion, and points to that triumphant system which was the object of all preceding dispensations, arid must ultimately Be The Sole Religion of the Human Race”. (p. 118). These are the fundamental teachings of Masonry on religion. Every distinction between true and false religion is wiped out. The claim of Christianity, that it is the only true Faith possessing the Saving Truth ii denied. But Jesus says He is the only Way and Truth and Life!. Freemasonry says that all religions have that Truth, and all have the same origin. Its position is plainly opposed to that of Christianity. There is little wonder that an Orthodox Christian is told by a Mason that one will learn of true Orthodoxy through Masonry. To say this is to show one’s total ignorance of Orthodoxy or to be deliberately false. The True Faith is to be found in its fullness only in the Orthodox Catholic Faith. Only the Orthodox Catholic Church is ordained to teach the Truth in all purity and fullness. The Holy Scripture declares that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth”. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is the only institution free from error for in it the Holy Ghost abides and witnesses to the Truth. Outside the Church there is darkness. It is only in the Church that we can find the fellowship necessary for true happiness. It is only through the Passion, Suffering, Death and the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can be saved. It is only through Christ and in His Church that we can find the Truth. Does Holy Scripture teach the Masonic idea of placing all religions on an equal basis? Without Christ we have no God! We have no salvation! For a Christian there can be no agreement or compromise between Christ and Masonry. The Christian makes a total sacrifice of the True Faith when he becomes a Mason. When he puts on his little Masonic apron, he abandons Christ implicitly and explicitly. The italicized words indicate clearly that one swears to keep secret not only that which has been revealed, but -even that which is yet to be revealed. No person in his right mind would agree to this in any other phase of life, yet this is the normal procedure in all Masonic ritual. Jesus, however, said: “I have spoken openly to the world – I have said nothing secretly.” (John 18:20) He expects all who follow Him in Truth to do likewise. Here a Mason asks the help of God to violate God’s own commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” This is not Christian ethics! Indeed there are many pagan religions whose ethical standards are far superior. Some will say that this is but a meaningless ritual or symbolism; but in the oath we read that this promise is made solemnly and without any “mental reservation or secret evasion of mind whatever.” In short, a Mason signs away his judgement and free will by taking this oath. He promises to take it literally and seriously. And for what reason? Now let us consider what some of the Presidents of the United States had to say about tins blasphemous and unethical oath. We would remind those who say that the oaths and obligations of a Mason are not taken seriously or literally, of one incident in the history of American Masonry which reveals its ever-present danger. After Captain William Morgan abandoned Masonry and exposed the first three degrees he was abducted and murdered by Masons who took their oaths literally and seriously to the sorrow and regret of those who did not. When this occurred in 1826, 1500 lodges surrendered their charters and 45,000 out of 50,000 Masons in the northern jurisdiction seceded from the order. The circumstances which were then present in Masonry have not changed in substance, and are present today with all their potential danger. Many Masons will deny, that they ever took the oath which we have quoted in part, but the reason for their denial is self evident-the oath itself forbids. The authenticity of the oath which we have quoted has never been disproven. There are undoub1edly many Masons who were and are unaware of the full impact and implications of this oath and their Masonic, obligations. But when they are exposed to the Light and Truth of Christ, their evil becomes clearly visible to all but the spiritual1y blind or callously indifferent. Masonic oath is, in fact, an extra-judicial oath! The lodges have no authority from God or the State to administer oaths. Since this oath cannot be binding upon a Christian, it should be rejected and repented of, if it has been taken. No Christian can take an oath which obligates him to break the Law of God. Either the oath means exactly what it says or it does not! Either the initiate is consenting to murder or he is blaspheming God and using His Name in vain! It is evident from even this brief analysis of the Masonic oath of the first degree-and this is even more true of the other degrees – that Masonry cannot be a handmaid of the Church as some claim. The ethical ideals of Freemasonry are directly opposed to those of Christianity. It is also clear that no one can be a true Mason and at the same time a true Christian. We would remind those who say that Masonry is a charitable and good organization, that good actions are truly good only if they spring from good intent and a good heart. As Christians, we are required to be charitable to all people and to be impartial in all things. Masonic oaths require partial benevolence. Strictly speaking, Masonic charity is not Christian charity. Why Join a Secret Society? Is there a good reason in the world for joining a secret society? Why must there be secretive organizations? Do secret societies benefit or hinder the Christian Church? These are questions which should interest every God-loving person. In John 3:19-21 we read, “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they were wrought in God. We believe sincerely that there is no reason under the name of God that would justify the membership of a true Christian in any secret society. Secretism is an enemy of liberty and was the most unpopular thing in America between the years 1826-1840. There is no need for secret organizations in a country blessed with liberty and justice for all. A secret society will always be tempted toward evil and to become lawless and disrespectful towards the rights of other people. A secret organization can be useful and commendable while it is engaged in necessary work of a temporary nature. An example of this is the Early Church which was persecuted under despotic and tyrannical governments and for its salvation and continuance a certain secrecy was required. However, in a free and democratic land, a secret organization is not only unnecessary, but harmful. Notwithstanding, we live in an age of secret organizations. Secretism is the chain that binds these organizations into a unity. Masonry is the root of secretism. Secret Societies are certainly not the work of Our Living Truth, the Light and the Life. On the other hand, secret societies acknowledge the god of falsehood, darkness and death. Jesus spoke out against organized secrecy and also commanded His disciples to speak openly. Any organization that claims to have secrets that could benefit mankind and does not reveal them to the world is certainly immoral and cannot be classified as a good institution. If it has no secrets, it should not pretend! All the secrets of Masonry have been revealed and they have not benefited mankind. The only secret in Masonry is that there is no secret! Masonry is nothing but a counterfeit of the Church. It antagonizes Christian life and growth. Men are fooled by the camouflage of Christianity permitted to a certain extent in this un-Christian society. These Christians are doing Satan’s work and don’t know it! Once they are caught in the snares of the wicked one they become weak Christians and will bear no fruit. If all Christians within the lodge would “come out and be separate”, the lodges would cease to exist! Isn’t this a pitiful situation? The Orthodox Catholic Church has made clear Her attitude towards Masonry on many occasions, and every time She has declared that it is incompatible with the Christian Faith. In recent times, the late and prominent Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev and Galicia, warned all Orthodox Catholics in no uncertain, terms of the dangers of Masonry to the Christian Faith. He said in his stand against Masonry, “. . . It is forbidden to all Orthodox Christians to become Freemasons. All Clergy are duty bound to question those who come to Confession whether they are members of Masonic Orders, and in case it will appear that they are Masons and believe and share Masonic teachings, they should be informed that membership in the Masonic organization is incompatible with Orthodox Christianity, and that such should immediately resign from Masonry, other wise they will be deemed unworthy to receive the Holy Communion and their further impenitency will bring them excommunication from the Orthodox Church. Secondly; Whoever has perchance become involved in the initiations of the Masonic mysteries, must immediately leave this organization. In the future he must refrain from all association with the Masonic lodges and their workings. In this way he may have full assurance that he will renew his bond with the Lord and Saviour, which was broken either through ignorance or an incorrect understanding of the things involved. (c) To explain the undeniable fact, that Divine judgment has touched those who have broken their bond with Christ, especially in the case of the priesthood—for they have already been punished from On High with their dismissal by higher authority from performing their priestly functions in our churches. They have lost integrity of life and in the midst of disease they have inherited death. (d) To repeat the call of the entire Eastern Greek Catholic Church to those who have thoughtlessly joined the Masonic Fraternity not realizing that they passed into another religion similar to the ancient Gnostic sectrs of Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Greece; To assure them that the Church awaits with great love their repentance in their unwillful abandonment of Christ. She calls all the Faithful to pray, that our Lord Jesus Christ -“The Way, The Truth, and The Life”—-will enlighten them, returning them to the Truth of the Gospel and will re-establish them in faithfulness to the Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith and Church. (e) To give warning to all the Faithful and especially to the growing youth to take to heart the instructions of our Episcopate concerning Masonry, in order that the Blessings of God may constantly abide with their parents, their relations and all their church organizations, which are now benefiting from the mercies from above for their faithfulness to the Orthodox Faith of their forefathers. Humble Theophilus, Metropolitan of All America and Canada. Leonty, Archbishop of Chicago and Minneapolis. John, Bishop of Sitka and All Alaska. john, Bishop of Detroit and Cleveland. Dionisy, Bishop of Pittsburgh and West Virginia. The Bishops of the Church of Greece in their session , concerned themselves with the study and examinion of the secret international organization, Freemasonry. They heard with attention the introductory exposition of the Commission of four Bishops appointed by the Holy Synod at its last session; also the opinion of the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, and the particular opinion of Prof. Panag Bratsiotis which was appended thereto. They also took into consideration publications on this question in Greece and abroad. After a discussion they arrived at the following conclusions, accepted unanimously by all the Bishops. “Freemasonry is not simply a philanthropic union or a philosophical school, but constitutes a mystagogical system which reminds us of the ancient heathen mystery-religions and cults – from which it descends and is their continuation and regeneration. This is not only admitted by prominent teachers in the lodges, but they declare it with pride, affirming literally:-‘Freemasonry is the only survival of the ancient mysteries and can be called the guardian of them’ Freemasonry is a direct offspring of the Egyptian mysteries; ‘the humble workshop of the Masonic Lodge is nothing else than the eaves and the darkness of the cedars of India and the unknown depths of the Pyramids and the crypts of the magnificent temples of Isis’; ‘the Greek mysteries of Freemasonry, having passed along the luminous roads of knowledge under the mysteriarchs Prometheus, Dionysus and Orpheus, formulated the eternal laws of the Universe! “Such a link between Freemasonry and the ancient idoaltrous mysteries is also manifested by all that is enacted and performed at the initiations. As in the rites of the ancient idolatrous mysteries the drama of the labours and death of the mystery god was repeated, and in the imitative repetition of this drama the initiate dies together with the patron of the mystery religion, who was always a mythical person symbolising the Sun of nature which dies in winter and is regenerated in spring, so it is also, in the initiation of the third degree of the patron of Freemasonry Hiram and a kind of repetition of his death, in which the initiate suffers with him, struck by the same instruments and on the same parts of the body as Hiram. According to the confession of a prominent teacher of Freemasonry Hiram is ‘as Osiris, as Mithra and as Bacchus, one of the personifications of the Sun’. “Thus Freemasonry is, as granted, a mystery religion, quite different, separate, and alien to the Christian faith. This is shown without any doubt by the fact that it possesses its own temples with altars, which are characterised by prominent teachers as ‘workshops which cannot have less history and holiness than the Church’ and as temples of virtue and wisdom where the Supreme Being is worshipped and the truth is taught. It possesses its own religious ceremonies, such as the ceremony of adoption or the masonic baptism, the ceremony of conjugal acknowledgement or the masonic marriage, the masonic memorial service, the consecration Of the masonic temple, and so on. It possesses its own initiations, its own ceremonial ritual, it sown hierarchical order and a definite discipline. As may be concluded from the masonic agapes and from the feasting of the winter and summer solstices with religious meals and general rejoicings, it is a physiolatric religion. “It is true that it may seem at first that Freemasonry can be reconciled with every other religion, because it is not interested directly in the religion to which its initiates belong. This is, however, explained by its syncretistjc character and proves that in this point also it is an offspring and a continuation of ancient idolatrous mysteries which accepted for initiation worshippers of all gods. But as the mystery religions, in spite of the apparent spirit of tolerance and acceptance of foreign gods, lead to a syncretism which undermined and gradually shook confidence in other religions, thus Freemasonry today, which seeks to embrace in itself gradually all mankind and which promises to give moral perfection and knowledge of truth, is, lifting itself to the position of a kind of super-religion, looking on all religions (without excepting Christianity) as inferior to itself. Thus it develops in its initiates the idea that only in masonic lodges is performed the shaping and the smoothing of the unsmoothed and unhewn stone. And the fact alone that Freemasonry creates a brotherhood excluding all other brotherhoods outside it (which are considered by Freemasonry as ‘uninstructcd’ even when they are Christian) proves clearly its pretentions to be a super-religion. This means that by masonic initiation a Christian becomes a brother of the Muslim, the Buddhist, or any kind of rationalist, while the Christian not initiated in Freemasonry becomes to him an outsider. “On the other hand, Freemasonry in prominently exalting knowledge and in helping free research as ‘putting no limit in the search of truth’ (according to its rituals and constitution), and more than this by adopting the so-called natural ethic, shows itself in this sense to be in sharp contradiction with the Christian religion. For the Christian religion exalts faith above all, confining human reason to the limits traced by Divine Revelation and leading to holiness through the supernatural action of grace. In other words, while Christianity, as a religion of Revelation, possessing its rational and superrational dogmas and truths, asks for faith first, and grounds its moral structure on the super-natural Divine Grace, Freemasonry has only natural truth and brings to the knowledge of its initiates free thinking and investigation through reason only. It bases its moral structure only on the natural forces of man, and has only natural aims. “Freemasonry cannot be at all compatible with Christianity as far as it is a secret organization, acting and teaching in mystery and secret and deifying rationalism. Freemasonry accepts as its members not only Christians, but also Jews and Muslims. Consequently clergymen cannot be permitted to take part in this association. I consider as worthy of degradation every clergyman who does so. It is necessary to urge upon all who entered it without due thought and without examining what Freemasonry is, to sever all connections with it, for Christianity alone is the religion which teaches absolute truth and fulfils the religious and moral needs of men. Unanimously and with one voice all the Bishops of the Church of Greece have approved what was said, and we declare that all the faithful children of the Church must stand apart from Freemasonry. With unshaken faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ ‘in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His Grace, whereby He abounds to us in all wisdom and prudence’ (Ephes. 1, 7-9) possessing the truth revealed by Him and preached by the Apostles, ‘not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the manifestation of the Spirit of power’ (1 Cor. 2, 4); partaking in the Divine Sacraments through which we are sanctified and saved by eternal life, we must not fall from the grace of Christ by becoming partakers of other mysteries. It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and to search for redemption and moral perfection outside Him. For these reasons true Christian­ity is incompatible with Freemasonry. “Therefore, all who have become involved in the initiations of masonic mysteries must from this moment sever all relations with masonic lodges and activities, being sure that they are thereby of a certainty renewing their links with our one Lord and Saviour which were weakened by ignorance and by a wrong sense of values. The Assembly of the Bishops of the Church of Greece expects this particularly and with love from the initiates of the lodges, being convinced that most of them have received masonic initiation not realizing that by it they were passing into another religion, but on the contrary from ignorance, thinking that they had done nothing contrary to the faith of their fathers. Recommending them to the sympathy, and in no wise to the hostility or hatred of the faithful children of the Church, the As­sembly of the Bishops calls them to pray with her from the heart in Christian love, that the one Lord Jesus Christ ‘the way, the truth and the life’ may illumine and return to the truth those who in ignorance have gone astray”. (We are indebted to Father Krivoshein, an Orthodox priest at Oxford and also Walton Hannah, the author of “Darkness Visible” for this statement of the Greek Or­thodox Church). (1) That this, the Ninth All-American Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America, gathered under the guidance and protection of the Holy Saint in the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Pro­tection of the Most Holy Mother of God in the city of New York on this the 10th day of November in the Year of our Lord 1955, accepts, approves, and fully supports the. Resolutions on Freemasonry of the Great Sobor of Bishops of October 1949. (2) That these resolutions shall be effected with the greatcst possible vigor and zeal in the Church by all its true members whether they be Bishops, Clergy, or Laity; each according to the rights, duties, and responsi­bilities of his office at all levels and in all phases of the life of the Church. (3) That all Orthodox Catholic Christians are re­minded that loyalty to Christ and unity with the Life of His Body, the Church, obligates each and every one of them to avoid all esoteric, syncretic, or secretive cults which like Freemasonry claim that they are custodians of certain esoteric, spiritual, dogmatic, and ethical “truths” which they alone possess and impart to their initiates. When an Orthodox Catholic Christian becomes a member of such an organization knowingly or un­knowingly, through ignorance or indifference, he in fact acknowledges that the Truth and the Light of Christ the Son of God is not sufficient for salvation. Thus he denies the Savior who said, “All things have been de-livered to me by My Father,” (Luke x, 22) for “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one can come to the Father, but by. me.” (John xiv, 6.) The Church has always affirmed that the Fullness of the Truth is . only within the Body of Christ The Church alone teaches and imparts spiritual, dogmatic, and ethical Truths to her members under the guidance of the Holy – Spirit. She neither concedes, nor shares, nor gives this Her God-given right and duty to any organization, in­stitution, or individual outside the Lifegiving Body of Christ. (4) That any Orthodox Catholic Christian who be­cause of ignorance of the facts or for any other reason, may have joined any esoteric, syncretic, or secretive or­ganization must repent of his sin before the Church. He must immediately break all ties that bind him to that organization if he is to be reconciled to the Fullness of the Truth that is within the Lifegiving Body of Christ. (5) That any Orthodox Catholic Christian whether he be a Bishop, Priest, Deacon, or Layman loses all the rights, honors, and privileges of his membership and of his office in the Church when he joins any esoteric, syncretic, or secretive organization. If he keeps his membership secret, the simple fact of such membership whether it is known to the Church or not, is sufficient to cut him off from the Lifegiving Vine of Christ. If he partakes of the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ while keeping secret in his heart the fact of this membership, he “eats and drinks without discerning the Body and eats and drinks judgement upon himself’ (1 Cor. xi, 29 .) not unto salvation but unto condemnation. (6) That it is the duty and obligation of every mem­ber of the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church to expose and combat the evil darkness and the secret “truths” of all esoteric, syncretic, and secretive cults with the Light and Truth of Christ. Our Lord said, “I have spoken openly to the world . . . I have said nothing secretly.” (John xviii, 20.) The Church of Christ de­mands and expects from each and every member full and unqualified love, loyalty, and devotion to Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the World. Therefore, no man can swear secret love, loyalty, and devotion to the false god of Masonry, and at the same time confess and serve the “Father, and the Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One in Essence and Undi­vided.” (From the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom). “Freemasonry, in any of its forms, can not be tolerated within the Body of Christ, His Church. In times past, Freemasonry. has been rejected and condemned by the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church as an esoteric, syncretic and secretive organization or cult. “After hearing this decision of the Great Sobor of Bishops, the All-American Sober resolved: To consider this action of the Bishops’ Sobor obligatory for the Metropolia and to accept It into practice with unfailing fulfillment”. The above statements have been reprinted from the Russian text as it appeared in the official organ of the Church, “The Russian American Orthodox Messenger,” in December, 1955.

2019-04-25T10:18:13Z

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A session terminal apparatus constitutes a network session system together with another session terminal apparatus. In the session terminal apparatus, a back performance instruction part instructs reproduction of back performance information. A back performance control part transmits the back performance information, when the reproduction thereof is instructed by the back performance instruction part, to another session terminal apparatus, and controls a performance reproduction part to start reproducing the back performance information when a monitor delay time corresponding to a communication delay time between the session terminal apparatus and another session terminal apparatus has elapsed after the reproduction of the back performance information was instructed. Notice of Reason for Rejection mailed Mar. 11, 2014, for JP Application No. 2010-113791, with English translation, four pages. 1. A session terminal apparatus constituting a network session system together with a second session terminal apparatus for communicably connecting through a communication network, the session terminal apparatus comprising: performance reproduction circuitry for reproducing performance information; a communication interface for communicating with said second session terminal apparatus; a back performance instruction part for instructing reproduction of back performance information; a back performance control part for transmitting the back performance information, when the reproduction thereof is instructed by the back performance instruction part, to said second session terminal apparatus through the communication interface, and for controlling the performance reproduction circuitry to start reproducing the back performance information when a monitor delay time corresponding to a communication delay time between the session terminal apparatus and said second session terminal apparatus has elapsed after the reproduction of the back performance information was instructed; a user performance input part for inputting user performance information based on performance which is performed by a user along with the reproduction of the back performance information; and a user performance control part for transmitting the user performance information inputted through the user performance input part to said second session terminal apparatus through the communication interface, and for controlling the performance reproduction circuitry to reproduce the user performance information. 2. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, comprising the back performance control part for determining the monitor delay time corresponding to the communication delay time that includes a pure communication delay time caused by communicating the back performance information between the session terminal apparatus and said second session terminal apparatus, a transmitting operation delay time caused by transmitting operation of the back performance information in the session terminal apparatus, and a receiving operation delay time caused by receiving operation of the back performance information in said second session terminal apparatus. 3. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the transmitting operation delay time includes a buffer operation delay time caused by operation of a transmitting buffer used for transmitting of the back performance information, and the receiving operation delay time includes another buffer operation delay time caused by operation of a receiving buffer used for receiving of the back performance information. 4. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 2, comprising the back performance control part for measuring the pure communication delay time by transmitting a measurement packet to said second session terminal apparatus through the communication network and by receiving a response packet returned from said second session terminal apparatus. 5. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, constituting the network session system together with a plurality of other session terminal apparatuses communicably connected through the communication network with different communication delay times, comprising the back performance control part for determining the monitor delay time corresponding to a mean value of the different communication delay times observed between the session terminal apparatus and respective ones of the other session terminal apparatuses. 6. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, constituting the network session system together with a plurality of other session terminal apparatuses communicably connected through the communication network with different communication delay times, comprising the back performance control part for determining the monitor delay time corresponding to a maximum value of the different communication delay times observed between the session terminal apparatus and respective ones of the other session terminal apparatuses. 7. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 6, comprising the back performance control part for determining the monitor delay time to a predetermined threshold value in case that the maximum value of the different communication delay times exceeds the predetermined threshold value. 8. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, constituting the network session system together with a plurality of other session terminal apparatuses communicably connected through the communication network with different communication delay times, comprising the back performance control part for determining different monitor delay times for respective ones of the other session terminal apparatuses in correspondence to the different communication delay times observed between the session terminal apparatus and the respective ones of the other session terminal apparatuses. 9. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further including a headphone for receiving sounds of the back performance information reproduced by the performance reproduction part, whereby the user can perform live performance in synchronization with the reproduction of the back performance information. 10. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, comprising the user performance control unit for controlling the performance reproduction circuitry to reproduce the user performance information with a performance delay time after the user performance information was inputted to the user performance input part. 11. A network session system including a first session terminal apparatus and a second session terminal apparatus for communicably connecting to each other through a communication network, the first session terminal apparatus comprising: first terminal performance reproduction circuitry for reproducing performance information; a first terminal communication interface for communicating with the second session terminal apparatus; a back performance instruction part for instructing reproduction of back performance information; a first terminal back performance control part for transmitting the back performance information, when the reproduction thereof is instructed by the back performance instruction part, to the second session terminal apparatus through the first terminal communication interface, and for controlling the first terminal performance reproduction circuitry to start reproducing the back performance information when a monitor delay time corresponding to a communication delay time between the first session terminal apparatus and the second session terminal apparatus has elapsed after the reproduction of the back performance was instructed; a first terminal user performance input part for inputting first terminal user performance information based on performance which is performed by a first session terminal user along with the reproduction of the back performance information; and a first terminal user performance control part for transmitting the first terminal user performance information inputted through the first terminal user performance input part to the second session terminal apparatus through the first terminal communication interface, and for controlling the first terminal performance reproduction part to reproduce the first terminal user performance information, and the second session terminal apparatus comprising: a second terminal communication interface for communicating with the first session terminal apparatus; and second terminal performance reproduction circuitry for reproducing performance information as well as the first terminal user performance information and the first terminal back performance information received from the first session terminal apparatus through the second terminal communication interface. 12. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, comprising the user performance control part for controlling the performance reproduction circuitry to reproduce user performance information received from said second session terminal apparatus through the communication interface. 13. The session terminal apparatus according to claim 1, comprising the user performance control part for controlling the performance reproduction circuitry to reproduce the user performance information without delay from the performance performed by the user. The present invention relates to a network session system that performs session such as joint performance of a plurality of electronic music terminals connected through a communication network such as the Internet. A technology for enabling musical session such as joint performance (ensemble) of musical instruments or chorus such as duet through the Internet is known in the art. For example, in an ensemble system described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4259329, performance information representing a performance operation of a terminal (A) of a user is transmitted to another terminal (B) and is provided to a musical sound generation unit in the terminal (A) of the user after being delayed by a predetermined time, thereby allowing a musical sound generated according to the performance operation of the terminal (A) to be simultaneously emitted at the two terminals (A, B). When session such as musical instrument ensemble or duet is conventionally performed through the Internet in an environment in which there is a certain amount of communication delay (for example, 30 ms) between two user terminals A and B as shown in FIG. 1(1), the user terminal A performs sound emission of performance such as musical instrument performance or singing of the user A with a delay of 30 ms to achieve synchronization with sound emission of performance such as musical instrument performance or singing of the user terminal B, and the user terminal B also performs sound emission of performance such as musical instrument performance or singing of the user B with a delay of 30 ms to achieve synchronization with sound emission of performance such as musical instrument performance or singing of the user terminal A. That is, in the conventional network session technology, one terminal performs session by transmitting performance data representing performance such as musical instrument performance or singing played on the terminal to another terminal and by receiving performance data representing performance such as musical instrument performance or singing played on said another terminal, and then simultaneously performing sound emission of the performance data of the terminal and sound emission of the performance data of said another terminal (and said another terminal also performs session in the same manner). Here, the terminal delays the sound emission timing of performance of the terminal by a time corresponding to a communication delay so as to synchronize the performance sound of the terminal with the performance sound received from said another terminal. However, since the terminal user hears musical instrument performance or singing of the terminal user with a delay, the terminal user feels strangeness (or discomfort) and thus performers or singers cannot pleasantly play performance or singing. For example, as shown in FIG. 1(2), an uneven delay occurs in some application case where users desire to sing a duet or to play a musical instrument ensemble along to back performance such as karaoke that is played on a terminal. For example, in the case where a user A of a user terminal A plays back performance and both the users A and B sing a duet on the user terminals A and B, the user B hears the back performance with a delay of 30 ms and hears the singing (or vocal) of the user A simultaneously with the back performance. However, the user A hears the singing of the user B with a round-trip delay of 60 ms from the back performance while hearing the back performance with a delay of 0 ms (i.e., without delay) as shown in FIG. 1(2)(a). This can be represented in a chronological manner as shown in FIG. 1(2)(b). Session and duet could be performed without serious problems even in an environment where a considerable delay exists over the Internet in case that only one-way delay is caused at both parties as shown in FIG. 1(1). However, if there is a round-trip delay as shown in FIG. 1(2), the users hear transmitted performance unnaturally such that they feel strangeness, making it difficult to play joint performance. In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the invention to provide a network session system that can lessen strangeness of performance due to communication delay when musical session is performed through a communication network. Simply stated, in the network session system according to the invention, a delay of Tm=30 ms, which corresponds to a one-way network delay of Tc=30 ms, is forcibly applied to back performance sounding on the terminal (i.e., the user terminal A) on which back performance is being played as shown in FIG. 2(1) to solve the problems illustrated in FIG. 1. Specifically, the user terminal A measures a communication delay time Tc between the user terminal A and the user terminal B that is another session member in the communication network such as the Internet, and starts reproducing back performance information after a delay time (monitor delay time) Tm of 30 ms, which is equal to the measured delay time Tc of 30 ms, has elapsed from issuance of an instruction to reproduce the back performance information while immediately starting transmitting the back performance information to the user terminal B without a delay, permitting a communication delay Tc of 30 ms between the terminals A and B as shown in FIG. 2(2). This allows the back performance to be heard at the user terminal B with the delay time Tc of 30 ms and also allows the back performance to be heard at the user terminal A with the delay time Tc of 30 ms. Accordingly, for example, when the users A and B start singing upon start of back performance at the user terminals A and B, respectively, the singing of the user A is heard at the user terminal B with the delay Tc of 30 ms from the back performance and the singing of the user B is also heard at the user terminal A with the delay Tc of 30 ms from the back performance. By forcibly applying the monitor delay Tm of 30 ms, which is equal to the network delay Tc of 30 ms, to back performance at the user terminal A on which the back performance is being played in the above manner, it is possible to allow back performance to be simultaneously heard at both the terminals of the users A and B and also to equalize delays at both the user terminals A and B to “30 ms”, unlike the conventional technology in which delay is predominant in the user terminal A in the conventional technology. The network session system according to the invention is especially effective in a network delay environment (for example, an environment with a one-way delay in a range of about 25 ms to 50 ms) in which performance fails with a round-trip delay although session such as duet may be achieved with a one-way delay. The invention is expected to provide a useful network session system since a one-way delay in the range of about 25 ms to 50 ms occurs when session is performed over the Internet using a general fixed line such as an ADSL or optical line currently available in this country. As a terminal for solving the above problems, the invention provides a session terminal apparatus (TMa) that constitutes a network session system together with another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) communicably connected through a communication network (CN), the session terminal apparatus (TMa) including a performance reproduction part (9) that reproduces performance information, a communication part (10) that communicates with said another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd), a back performance instruction part (A1) that instructs reproduction of back performance information (Bp), a back performance control part (A1-A3) that transmits the back performance information (Bp), whose reproduction is instructed by the back performance instruction part (A1), to said another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the communication part (10) and that controls the performance reproduction part (9) to start reproducing the back performance information (Bp) when a monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to a communication delay time (Tc) between the session terminal apparatus (TMa) and said another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) has elapsed after the reproduction was instructed, a user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; A4) that inputs user performance information (Upa) based on performance which is performed by a user along with the reproduction of the back performance information, and a user performance control part (A4-A6) that transmits the user performance information (Upa) input through the user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; A4) to said another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the communication part (10) and that controls the performance reproduction part (9) to reproduce the user performance information (Upa) and another user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) received from said another session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the communication part (10). Symbols in parentheses indicate reference numerals or locations in the embodiments. The same is true for the following description. Preferably, the back performance control part (A1-A3) determines the monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to the communication delay time (Tc) that includes a pure communication delay time (Tn) caused by communicating the back performance information (Bp) between the session terminal apparatus (TMa) and said another session terminal apparatus (TMb), a transmitting operation delay time (Tds) caused by transmitting operation of the back performance information in the session terminal apparatus (TMa), and a receiving operation delay time (Tdr) caused by receiving operation of the back performance information (Bp) in said another session terminal apparatus (TMb). Preferably, transmitting operation delay time (Tds) includes a buffer operation delay time caused by operation of a transmitting buffer (BUs) used for transmitting of the back performance information, and the receiving operation delay time (Tdr) includes another buffer operation delay time caused by operation of a receiving buffer (BUr) used for receiving of the back performance information. Preferably, the back performance control part (A1-A3) measures the pure communication delay time (Tn) by transmitting a measurement packet to said another session terminal apparatus (TMb) through the communication network and by receiving a response packet returned from said another session terminal apparatus (TMb). Preferably, the session terminal apparatus constitutes the network session system together with a plurality of other session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd) communicably connected through the communication network with different communication delay times, wherein the back performance control part (A1-A3) determines the monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to a mean value of the different communication delay times observed between the session terminal apparatus (TMa) and respective one of the other session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd). Preferably, the back performance control part (A1-A3) determines the monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to a maximum value of the different communication delay times (Tc) observed between the session terminal apparatus (TMa) and respective one of the other session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd). Preferably, the back performance control part (A1-A3) determines the monitor delay time (Tm) to a predetermined threshold value in case that the maximum value of the different communication delay times (Tc) exceeds the predetermined threshold value (Td). Preferably, the back performance control part (A1-A3) determines different monitor delay times for respective ones of the other session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd) in correspondence to the different communication delay times observed between the session terminal apparatus (TMa) and the respective one of the other session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd). Preferably, the session terminal apparatus further includes a headphone that is attached to a head of the user and that receives sounds of the back performance information (Bp) reproduced by the performance reproduction pert (9), whereby the user can perform live performance in synchronization with the reproduction of the back performance information (Bp). Preferably, the user performance control unit (A4-A6) controls the performance reproduction part (9) to reproduce the user performance information (Upa) with a performance delay time after the user performance information (Upa) was inputted to the user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; A4). As a system for solving the above problems, the invention provides a network session system including a first session terminal apparatus (TMa) and a second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) communicably connected through a communication network (CN), the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) including a first terminal performance reproduction part (9) that reproduces performance information, a first terminal communication part (10) that communicates with the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd), a back performance instruction part (A1) that instructs reproduction of back performance information (Bp), a first terminal back performance control part (A1-A3) that transmits the back performance information (Bp), whose reproduction is instructed by the back performance instruction part (A1), to the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the first terminal communication part (10) and that controls the first terminal performance reproduction part (9) to start reproducing the back performance information (Bp) when a monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to a communication delay time between the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) and the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) has elapsed after the reproduction of the back performance information was instructed, a first terminal user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; A4) that inputs first terminal user performance information (Upa) based on performance which is performed by a first session terminal apparatus (TMa) user along with the reproduction of the back performance information, and a first terminal user performance control part (A4-A6) that transmits the first terminal user performance information (Upa) input through the first terminal user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; A4) to the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the first terminal communication part (10) and that controls the first terminal performance reproduction part (9) to reproduce the first terminal user performance information (Upa) and second terminal user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) received from the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) through the first terminal communication part (10), and the second session terminal apparatus (TMb, . . . , TMd) including a second terminal performance reproduction part (9) that reproduces performance information, a second terminal communication part (10) that communicates with the first session terminal apparatus (TMa), a back performance part (B1, . . . , D1) that controls the second terminal performance reproduction part (9) to reproduce back performance information (Bp) received from the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) through the second terminal communication part (10), a second terminal user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; B2, . . . , D2) that inputs second terminal user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) based on performance which is performed by a second session terminal apparatus user along with the reproduction of the back performance information, and a second terminal user performance control part (B2-B3, . . . , D2-D3) that transmits the second terminal user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) input through the second terminal user performance input part (6, 7, 13 and 14; B2, . . . , D2) to the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) through the second terminal communication part (10) and that controls the second terminal performance reproduction part (9) to reproduce the second terminal user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) and the first terminal user performance information (Upa) received from the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) through the second terminal communication part (10). In the network session system according to the invention, back performance information (Bp) prepared in a session terminal apparatus (TMa) which is referred to as a first session terminal apparatus among a plurality of session terminal apparatuses (TM: TMa, TMb, . . . , TMd), which constitute the system and are connected through a communication network (CN), is used to perform back performance in the system and is transmitted from the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) to other session terminal apparatuses (TMb, . . . , TMd) which are referred to as second session terminal apparatuses. On the second session terminal apparatuses (TMb, . . . , TMd), terminal users of the second session terminal apparatuses can play user performance such as musical instrument performance or singing (B2-B3, . . . , D2-D3) while listening to back performance sounds (B1, . . . , D1) generated based on the back performance information (Bp). On the first session terminal apparatus (TMa), a terminal user of the first session terminal apparatus can also play user performance such as musical instrument performance or singing (A4) while listening to a back performance sound (A3) generated based on the back performance information (Bp). Here, reproduction of the back performance information (Bp), i.e., generation of the back performance sound, is delayed (A2-A3) by a monitor delay time (Tm) corresponding to about one half of a round-trip communication delay between the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) and the second session terminal apparatuses (TMb, . . . , TMd), i.e., corresponding to a one-way communication delay time (Tc). In addition, when user performance is played, user performance information (Upa) of the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) is transmitted to the second session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd) and user performance information (Upb, . . . , Upd) of the second session terminal apparatuses (TMb-TMd) is transmitted back to the first session terminal apparatus (TMa), hence performance of the first session terminal user is heard (B3, . . . , D3) at the second session terminal apparatuses (TMb, . . . , TMd) after being delayed by a one-way communication delay time (Tc) from back performance (B1, . . . , D1) and performance of the second session terminal users is also heard (A5-A6) at the first session terminal apparatus (TMa) after being delayed by the communication delay time (Tc) from sounding of back performance (A3). Thus, according to the invention, it is possible to equalize delays of reproduction of back performance information at the first and second session terminal apparatuses and to lessen strangeness of performance due to communication delay which is predominant in the first session terminal apparatus in the conventional technology. FIGS. 5(1) and 5(2) illustrate various embodiments of a network session system according to the invention. FIGS. 3(1) and 3(2) illustrate a system configuration of a network session system according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 3(1), the network session system includes a session management server SV and a plurality of session terminals TM (TMa to TMd). Here, the symbol “TM” represents a session terminal apparatus. The session management server SV supports connection between the session terminals TM which are session members. For example, the session management server SV performs connection procedures between the session terminals TM prior to initiation of a network session. After connections between the session terminals TM, for example, between the session terminals TMa to TMd are established, performance information such as MIDI data or audio data is transmitted and received between the session terminals TMa to TMd without passing through the session management server SV. A description of more detailed operations of the session management server SV is omitted herein since operations of the session management server SV are well known. Each of the plurality of session terminals TMa to TMd, which are members of the network session, is an electronic musical apparatus that can perform musical instrument performance and/or karaoke. The session terminals TMa to TMd also include session terminals having a back performance function for musical instrument performance and karaoke. One session terminal, which is arbitrarily selected when the members are configured among the session terminals having a back performance function, is referred to as a “first session terminal” and the back performance function of the first session terminal can be used for back performance of the network session at that time. In this case, back performance information of the first session terminal is reproduced by the first session terminal and is also transmitted to and reproduced by other session terminals that are referred to as “second session terminals”. In the following description, it is assumed that the session terminal TMa operates as the first session terminal and the other session terminals TMb to TMd operate as the second session terminals. In addition, the session terminals TMa to TMd are referred to as “session terminals A to D”, respectively. FIG. 3(2) is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardware configuration of each session terminal apparatus included in the network session system. Each session terminal TM included in the network session system according to an embodiment of the invention is a type of computer having an electronic musical information processing function, and an electronic musical apparatus such as a personal computer in which an electronic musical instrument or musical information processing application has been installed may be used as the session terminal TM. As shown in FIG. 3(2), the session terminal TM includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1, a Random Access Memory (RAM) 2, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 3, a storage device 4, a setting manipulation detection circuit 5, a performance manipulation detection circuit 6, an Analog to Digital (A/D) conversion circuit 7, a display circuit 8, a tone generation/effect circuit 9, and a communication interface (I/F) 10. These components are connected through a bus 11. The CPU 1 constitutes a data processor together with the RAM 2 and the ROM 3 and performs a variety of information processes including a network session process according to a control program including a network session program. The RAM 2 is used as a storage management region for accessibly storing data required for these processes or a work area for temporarily storing various data. Various control programs including a network session program, preset data, and the like are previously stored in the ROM 3 in order to perform such processes. The storage device 4 includes a storage medium such as a Hard Disk (HD), a Flexible Disk (FD), a Compact Disk (CD), a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), and a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory and a driver of the storage medium. A control program, MIDI performance data including back performance data, and the like may be stored in the storage device 4. The storage medium may be detachable and may also be embedded in the session terminal TM. The setting manipulation detection circuit 5 constitutes a setting manipulation unit (panel manipulation unit) together with a setting manipulator (panel manipulator) 12 such as a switch or a mouse. The setting manipulation detection circuit 5 detects manipulation of the setting manipulator 12 and inputs setting manipulation information corresponding to the detected setting manipulation to the data processor (1-3), and the data processor performs various setting based on the setting manipulation information. The performance manipulation detection circuit 6 constitutes a musical instrument performance input unit together with a performance manipulator 13 such as a keyboard, and detects manipulation performed on the performance manipulator 13 by the terminal user and inputs performance manipulation information corresponding to the detected performance manipulation to the data processor. The data processor creates performance data in a MIDI format (referred to as “MIDI performance data”) based on the performance manipulation information and transmits the created performance data to the tone generation/effect circuit 9. The MIDI format is an event description format that represents the content of musical instrument performance as a series of events. The A/D conversion circuit 7 constitutes a vocal input unit together with a microphone 14, and converts a vocal sound signal input from the microphone 14 into a digital signal and inputs the digital signal to the data processor. The data processing unit transmits performance data in an audio format which represents a vocal sound as a waveform (referred to as “audio performance sound data”) to the tone generation/effect circuit 9. The display circuit 8 includes a display device 15 such as an LCD for displaying various screens required to perform various setting and to input performance such as musical instrument performance or singing (or vocal), an indicator/lamp (not shown), and the like, and controls display and lighting of these components according to an instruction from the data processing unit and performs display support operations associated with setting, performance input, and the like. The tone generation/effect circuit 9 includes a tone generation unit for generating audio data from the MIDI-format data and an effect unit for performing a variety of audio data processing including DSP. The tone generation/effect circuit 9 functions as a performance player. For example, the tone generation unit generates audio performance sound data based on MIDI performance data obtained from performance manipulation information from the performance manipulation detection circuit 6 or based on MIDI performance data obtained from the ROM 3, the storage device 4, or the communication interface 10, and the effect unit generates audio output data by performing specific effect imparting or mixing on audio performance sound data input from the microphone 14, audio performance sound data generated by the tone generation unit, or audio performance sound data obtained from the communication interface 10 or the like. A sound system 16 includes a D/A converter, an amplifier, a speaker (including a headphone), and the like and generates a musical sound (a musical instrument performance sound or a vocal sound) based on the audio output data from the tone generation/effect circuit 9. The communication interface 10 includes one or a plurality of interfaces such as a music-dedicated wired interface such as a MIDI-dedicated wired interface, a general-purpose local area wired interface such as an IEEE1394 interface, a general-purpose network interface such as Ethernet (registered trademark), a general-purpose local area wireless interface such as a wireless LAN or a Bluetooth (registered trademark) interface. The communication interface 10 may exchange MIDI performance data or audio performance sound data with another session terminal via a Communication Network (CN) such as the Internet and may receive a control program, data, or the like from an external device such as a server computer or the like and store the received program, data, or the like in the storage device 4. The vocal input unit 7 and 14 is unnecessary when an electronic musical instrument is used as the session terminal TM and karaoke is not performed, and the musical instrument performance input unit 6 and 13 is unnecessary when a PC having a musical information processing application is used as the session terminal TM and only karaoke is performed. In addition, the hardware configuration of the session management server SV is almost the same as that of FIG. 3(2), except that the musical instrument performance input unit 6 and 13, the performance player 9 and 16, and the like are unnecessary. FIGS. 4(1) and 4(2) illustrate operation of a network session system according to an embodiment of the invention. A description will first be given of an overview of exchange of information in the network session system. In this system, back performance information data, which is reproduced in a session terminal A functioning as a first session terminal (A1-A3), is also transmitted as back performance information Bp to other session terminals B to D, which are session members, in a MIDI performance data format without being converted or after being converted into an audio performance sound data format. When the back performance information Bp has been transmitted from the session terminal A to the session terminals B to D, the back performance information Bp is reproduced in the session terminals B to D (B1-D1) while respective terminal users play musical instrument performance and/or singing along to the reproduction of the back performance information (audio) Bp (B2 to D2). User performance data generated by each of the session terminals B to D, which represents content of the musical instrument performance and/or singing, is MIDI performance data or audio performance sound data in the case of musical instrument performance and is audio performance sound data in the case of singing. The user performance data generated by the session terminals B to D is transmitted to the session terminal A as user performance information Upb to Upd of the session terminals B to D. While the terminal user of the session terminal A plays musical instrument performance and/or singing along to back performance played on the session terminal A (A4), the session terminal A mixes the musical instrument performance and/or singing with musical instrument performance and/or singing of the other session terminals B to D (A5 and A6). Specifically, in the effect unit of the tone generation/effect circuit 9, the performance information Bp and Upa representing the content of the back performance and the content of the musical instrument performance and/or singing played by the user is mixed with the user performance information Upb to Upd received from the other session terminals B to D and the mixed performance information is then reproduced. Session music containing singings (or vocals) and/or musical instrument performances that are played on the session terminals A to D along to the back performance is completed in this manner. Ensemble data representing the completed session music may be reproduced only at the session terminal A and may be recorded and may also be transmitted to another device (not shown) through the communication network CN. In an exemplary ensemble transmission method, the recorded file is uploaded to a file share server or is transmitted to a live broadcast viewing terminal in real time using an online live broadcast application (A6). In addition, ensemble data may not only be recorded and transmitted as sound data but may also be recorded or transmitted in combination with a moving image as video data. The network session system is implemented in an environment where a certain amount of communication delay exists between each of the session terminals A to D. Here, as shown in FIG. 4(1), a communication delay time Tc between each session terminal is the sum of a pure communication delay time (net communication delay time) Tn on the network CN between transmitting-side and receiving-side session terminals Tms and Tmr and transmitting-side and receiving-side operation delay times Tds and Tdr of performance data transmission and reception drivers DRs and DRr of the two terminals TMs and Tmr. Here, the performance data transmission and reception drivers DRs and DRr are audio drivers in the case of audio performance sound data and MIDI drivers in the case of MIDI performance data. Specifically, the proportion of an operation delay time of a transmission buffer BUs in a performance data transmission driver DRs that receives a transmission instruction from a transmitting-side session processor SPs is high in the transmission operation delay time Tds, and the proportion of an operation delay time of a reception buffer BUr in a performance data reception driver DRr that performs operation until a receiving-side session processor SPr starts reproduction after the performance data is received is high in the reception operation delay time Tdr. In this system, the session terminal A, which functions as the first session terminal and contains back performance data, may measure the pure communication delay time Tn between the session terminal A and the other session terminals B to D by performing communication with the other session terminals B to D that function as the second session terminals and that use the back performance data from the session terminal A. Specifically, the session terminal A transmits a delay measurement packet including a packet transmission time ta1 at to each of the session terminals B to D and each of the session terminals B to D transmits a response packet including a time tk1, at which the delay measurement packet is received, and a time tk2, at which the response packet is transmitted, back to the session terminal A. Here, the subscript “k” is a corresponding one of “b”, “c”, and “d” which represent the terminals B, C, and D, respectively. The session terminal A calculates a round-trip delay time dk between the session terminal A and each of the session terminals B to D based on a time ta2 at which the response packet is received and the times ta1, tk1, and tk2 using Equation <1>. Here, the times ta1 and ta2 are managed in the session terminal A and the times tk1 and tk2 are managed in the session terminals B to D. Therefore, absolute times measured by the terminals A to D need not match each other. That is, it is unnecessary to consider the absolute times of the session terminals A to D since the (relative) time difference between packet transmission and packet reception at the session terminal A and the (relative) time difference between packet reception and packet transmission at each of the session terminals B to D are calculated as can be understood from Equation <1>. ½ of the round-trip delay time dk obtained in this manner may be regarded as a pure one-way communication delay time Tn. Strictly speaking, the communication delay times of the forward and return packet paths are not necessarily equal. However, in this embodiment, ½ of the round-trip delay time is employed as the pure one-way communication delay time Tn since the difference between the communication delay times of the forward and return packet paths is negligible in implementation. The transmission operation delay time Tds and the reception operation delay time Tdr are added to the obtained pure communication delay time Tn to obtain a one-way communication delay time Tc and the one-way communication delay time Tc is then set as a monitor delay time Tm. (1) An average of the communication delay times. (2) The maximum of the communication delay times. (3) Although the maximum is basically employed, a threshold Tt, which is a delay time in a range at which session performance is practically possible, is employed when the maximum exceeds the threshold Tt. (4) A different delay time is set for each of the session terminals B to D (a detailed example of which is described later). When the session starts, an instruction to reproduce back performance sound is issued and desired back performance data to be reproduced is read from the storage device 4 upon issuance of the instruction in the session terminal A as shown in a functional block diagram of FIG. 4(2) (A1), and back performance information Bp corresponding to the desired back performance data is transmitted to the session terminals B to D and reproduction of the back performance sound in the session terminal A is delayed by a set monitor delay time Tm (A2 and A3). That is, when the monitor delay time Tm has elapsed (A2) after the back performance reproduction is instructed (A1), the session terminal A allows the tone generation/effect circuit 9 to start emitting the back performance sound based on reproduction of the back performance data (A3). Each of the session terminals B to D receives back performance information Upa corresponding to the back performance data reproduced by the session terminal A with a delay of the communication delay time Tc from the reproduction instruction and reproduces the received back performance information Upa and emits a corresponding back performance sound (B1 to D1). Then, when users of the session terminals B to D play musical instrument performance and/or singing while listening to the back performance (B2 to D2), the session terminals B to D emit corresponding user performance sounds (B3 to D3) while transmitting user performance information Upb to Upd representing content of the musical instrument performance and/or singing to the session terminal A. The user of the session terminal A can also play musical instrument performance and/or singing while listening to the back performance sound reproduced by the session terminal A (A4). While the user of the session terminal A plays musical instrument performance and/or singing, the session terminal A also transmits the user performance information Upa representing content of the musical instrument performance and/or singing to the session terminals B to D. The back performance sound of the terminal A is emitted with a delay of the monitor delay time Tm after the instruction to reproduce back performance is issued. However, since this delay Tm is almost the same as the delay Tc in the case where the session terminal A functions as a second session terminal, the user of the session terminal A does not perceive influence of the difference between the delay Tm and the delay Tc. In addition, the user performance sound data corresponding to the content of the musical instrument performance and/or singing played by the user of the session terminal A is mixed with the back performance sound data (Bp), the user performance sound data corresponding to the user performance information Upb to Upd received from the other session terminals B to D (A5), and the like (A5) and a session performance sound generated by combining these pieces of performance sound data is emitted, record, and/or transmitted (A6). In this manner, each of the session terminals B to D emits sound of the musical instrument performance and/or singing played on the session terminal A (B3 to D3) with a delay of the monitor delay time Tm after the back performance sound is emitted (B1 to D1) and the users of the session terminals B to D additionally play musical instrument performance and/or singing while listening to the emitted musical instrument performance and/or singing sound. The sound of the musical instrument performance and/or singing of the user of the session terminal A is emitted in the session terminals B to D with a delay of the monitor delay time Tm approximately equal to the communication delay time Tc after back performance. However, if the monitor delay time Tm is less than an allowable time (for example, 30 ms), the users of the session terminals B to D can play musical instrument performance and/or singing without feeling much strangeness. In addition, the session terminal A also emits sounds of the musical instrument performance and/or singing played on the session terminals B to D by the users of the session terminals B to D (A6) with a delay of the communication delay time Tc after the back performance sound is emitted (A3). However, if the communication delay time Tc is less than an allowable time (for example, 30 ms), the user of the session terminal A can play musical instrument performance and/or singing without feeling much strangeness as in the session terminals B to D. If no monitor delay is added to the session terminal A, other user performance sounds generated by musical instrument performance and/or singing by the users of the session terminals B to D are emitted at the session terminal A with a serious delay corresponding to a round-trip communication delay 2Tc (for example, about 60 ms) although a user performance sound generated by musical instrument performance and/or singing by the user of the session terminal A and the user performance sounds generated by musical instrument performance and/or singing by the users of the session terminals B to D are emitted at almost the same time at the session terminals B to D as described above with reference to FIG. 1(2). Since the monitor delay Tm is added to this system, the delay of sound of performance played on the session terminal A by the user of the session terminal A is reduced by half and the delay of the user performance sound of the session terminal A and the delays of the user performance sounds of the session terminals B to D are equalized (i.e., the delays are approximately equal between a case when the session terminals A to D function as first session terminals and another case when the session terminals A to D function as second session terminals), thereby reducing strangeness. A detailed setting example in the case where different delay times are set in the session terminals B to D (i.e., in the above case (4)) is described below. The maximum of the measured communication delay times of the session terminals or the above-described predetermined threshold Tt (see the above case (3)) is set as the monitor delay time Tm of the session terminal A. The back performance information Bp is transmitted to each of the session terminals B to D after waiting for “monitor delay time−communication delay time Tc”. Here, in the case where the predetermined threshold Tt has been set, the communication delay time Tc is replaced with the predetermined threshold Tt if the communication delay time Tc exceeds the threshold Tt. For example, when the communication delay times Tc between the session terminal A and the session terminals B, C, and D are 20 ms, 40 ms, and 60 ms, the monitor delay time Tm of the session terminal A is set to the maximum “60 ms” (“50 ms” when the threshold Th is set to “50 ms”) and the back performance information Bp is transmitted to the session terminal B after being delayed by 40 ms (=60 ms-20 ms) (30 ms (=50 ms−20 ms) when the threshold Th is set to 50 ms), is transmitted to the session terminal C after being delayed by 20 ms (=60 ms−40 ms) (10 ms (=50 ms−40 ms) when the threshold Th is set to 50 ms), and is transmitted to the session terminal D after being delayed by 0 ms (=60 ms−60 ms) (0 ms (=50 ms−50 ms) when the threshold Th is set to 50 ms) (i.e., without being delayed). This allows each session terminal to play back performance at almost the same time. Although basic exemplary operations of the network session system have been described with reference to the above embodiment of the invention, various other embodiments may be employed. FIGS. 5(1) and 5(2) are functional block diagrams illustrating various embodiments of a network session system according to the invention. For example, in the case where back performance is played on the session terminal A and musical instrument performance is performed on each of the above session terminals A to D, back performance data prepared in the terminal A may be in a MIDI format and may be transmitted as back performance information Bp in the same MIDI format to the other terminals B to D, and user performance information Upa and user performance information Upb to Upd in a MIDI format generated by the terminal A and the terminals B to D may be transmitted to the other terminal B and terminals D to A as shown in FIG. 5(1). In addition, performance sound data (A2a and A5c) and (B3c) converted into an audio format by the tone generation unit in the tone generation/effect circuit 9 in the terminal A and the terminals B to D may be transmitted as back performance information Bp or as user performance information Upa and user performance information Upb to Upd to the other terminals B to D and terminal A as shown in FIG. 5(2). In the case where performance information Bp and Up is transmitted in a MIDI format as shown in FIG. 5(1), each receiving-side session terminal performs sound emission (A3, B1) and (A6, B3) of the performance information Bp and Up received in the MIDI format (A3, B1) and (A6, B3) after converting the performance information Bp and Up into an audio format (A3a, B1a) and (A5b, B3b) at the tone generation unit (9). In addition, in the case where monitor delay Tm is added to the session terminal A, the back performance data may be delayed in the same MIDI format without being converted (A1→A2) as shown in FIG. 5(1) and may also be delayed after being converted into an audio format at the tone generation unit in the tone generation/effect circuit 9 (A2a→A2) as shown in FIG. 5(2). In addition, in the case where singing is played in each of the session terminals A to D, it is preferable that a headphone be used to emit back performance sound so as to prevent the emitted back performance sound from being collected by the microphone 14. For example, if an emitted back performance sound is collected by the microphone in the session terminal B and the collected back performance sound is transmitted to the session terminal A, there is a problem in that a back performance sound reproduced in the session terminal A is mixed with the user performance information Upb received from the session terminal B with a delay of the communication delay time Tc. It is also possible to allow a user to select the manner by which the monitor delay Tm is inserted. For example, the monitor delay time Tm may be automatically set according to the measured communication delay time Tc. The user may also be allowed to set the monitor delay time Tm with reference to the measured communication delay time Tc. In the case where the monitor delay time Tm is automatically set, ½ of the round-trip delay time (2×Tc) of the communication path may be set as the monitor delay time Tm and the one-way delay time may also be directly set as the monitor delay time Tm as described above. In the case where the communication delay time Tc exceeds a delay time causing strangeness, the display device 15 or the like may be used to notify the user of the fact that it is difficult to establish a session. In addition, in the case where the session terminals A to D are electronic musical instruments, a certain amount of performance delay Tp, whose upper limit is the monitor delay time Tm or the communication delay time Tc, may be inserted between performance manipulation (A4, B2) of the performance manipulator 13 by the user and initiation of generation (A5b, B3c) of user performance sound data by the tone generation unit in the tone generation/effect circuit 9 or between user performance sound data generation (A5c, B3b) and user performance sound emission (A6, B3) as indicated by dashed blocks A5a and B3a and dashed blocks A5b and B3d to which a symbol “ ” is attached in FIGS. 5(1) and 5(2). This can reduce the time difference between generation of a user performance sound (monitor sound) corresponding to musical instrument performance of the user of the session terminal and generation of a user performance sound corresponding to musical instrument performance of another terminal user that has been received from said another session terminal. However, since some users may feel strangeness due to a delay between performance manipulation and sound generation, it is preferable that the value of the performance delay Tp not be large as described above.

2019-04-26T05:45:35Z

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8838835.html

The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS is a 12 Megapixel super-zoom camera with a massive 35x optical range. Announced in September 2011, it replaces the best-selling PowerShot SX30 IS. The new model keeps essentially the same body, lens, screen, controls and battery as its predecessor, but switches its 14 Megapixel CCD for a 12 Megapixel CMOS sensor. This reduction in resolution and adoption of CMOS technology is part of Canon’s High Sensitivity, HS, system which claims to reduce noise levels; the SX40 HS is also one of the first PowerShots to employ the company’s latest DIGIC 5 processor. The combination of CMOS and DIGIC 5 also allow the SX40 HS to offer 1080p video at 24fps and faster continuous shooting at up to 10.3fps (for eight frames). Both are very welcome upgrades over its predecessor which only offered 720p video and 1.3fps continuous shooting. The SX40 HS also adds new slow motion movie effects with 120fps VGA and 240fps QVGA options. A selection of Creative Filters can also be applied live, including a miniature effect which also works on movies. The 35x zoom may deliver the same 24-840mm equivalent range as its predecessor, but Canon’s added Intelligent IS technology which automatically switches between different stabilisation modes to best suit the subject and conditions, whether it’s normal handheld, panning, macro or tripod-based. By sharing essentially the same body as its predecessor, the SX40 HS also inherits stereo microphones, a flash hotshoe for mounting external SpeedLite flashguns and a fully articulated 2.7in / 230k screen; and like that model still doesn’t offer RAW recording. As such, the SX40 HS may be little more than the SX30 IS equipped with a new sensor, but since that brings 1080p video, much faster continuous shooting and the promise of lower noise images to what was already a best-seller, Canon could have another winner on its hands. As before though, the SX40 HS is up against a number of key rivals, most notably Panasonic’s Lumix FZ150 and Sony’s HX100V. In the following review I’ll compare all three of these models in terms of features, handling and quality. Since the new SX40 HS shares so much in common with its predecessor, I’ll be concentrating mostly on the new features in this review, especially the quality of the new 1080p movie mode and of course that new 12 Megapixel sensor. But first it’s worth taking an updated look at the lenses of the SX40 HS and its rivals. The headline specification of any super-zoom camera is of course its focal range, and while this is unchanged on the SX40 HS from the earlier SX30 IS, it’s important to see how it compares to its current rivals. So like its predecessor, the SX40 HS is equipped with a whopping 35x zoom range, equivalent to 24-840mm. You can see an example of the coverage below, and it’s clear there’s few if any occasions when you’d want for more. Indeed Canon even includes a facility for those who’ve become ‘lost’ in their composition when fully zoomed-in. Pressing the ‘Zoom Framing Assist’ button in the upper right corner of the rear surface temporarily zooms-out for a quick composition check, before automatically returning to the original longer focal length. Believe it or not though, 35x is not the broadest zoom range available today, as both Nikon and Olympus have pipped the SX40 HS to the post with 36x ranges on their COOLPIX P500 and SP-810UZ, equivalent to 22.5-810mm and 24-864mm respectively. In practice though, the ranges of these three models are very close, and it’s more about playing a numbers-game than actually having any significant difference. Arguably of more interest is how the zoom of the SX40 HS compares to the narrower ranges of the Panasonic Lumix FZ150 and Sony Cyber-shot HX100V. These models sport 24x and 30x ranges respectively, equivalent to 25-600mm and 27-810mm. The FZ150 in particular sounds a lot less flexible when the numbers are written down, but again, it’s important to compare them in practice to see exactly what we’re dealing with. I tested the SX40 HS alongside the FZ150 and HX100V, which amongst other things allowed me to directly compare their actual coverage. In the image below left, the outer edge of the red frame represents the HX100V’s maximum wide-angle coverage super-imposed on the SX40 HS’s maximum wide angle. In the image below right, the outer edge of the red frame represents the maximum telephoto coverage of the SX40 HS superimposed over the maximum telephoto of the Panasonic FZ150. In both cases, the frames were generated by layering and scaling actual images taken with each camera, so the comparisons below are based on real results, not calculations. Let’s look at the wide-angle difference between the 24mm of the SX40 HS and the 27mm of the HX100V, represented by the image above left, and once again you’re looking at the outer edge of the red frame for the HX100V coverage. The SX40 HS is clearly capturing a slightly wider field of view, which is useful at times when you can’t step back any further, but more than making up for it is the HX100V’s sweep panorama which can automatically stitch a series of images together in seconds to deliver a much bigger field of view. Looking at the comparison above right, the difference between the telephoto reach of the SX40 HS and FZ150 is clearly much greater, but again it may not be as significant in practice as 840mm vs 600mm sounds when written down. Indeed the FZ150 could of course match the field of view of the SX40 HS simply by cropping the area marked by the red frame. Doing so would lose roughly half the total pixels in the FZ150’s image, meaning you couldn’t make prints as big, but hopefully you’ll agree it’s useful to see the actual coverage compared in this way as the differences may not be a great as you first expected. It’s also important to discuss any negative impact of having a big zoom range in practice. Canon’s quite aware how easy it is to get ‘lost’ in the composition when fully zoomed-into 840mm, and as mentioned at the top of this section, considerately provides a button which briefly zooms out for a broader look around before zooming back in again. Canon’s also enhanced the image stabilisation to recognise different situations, such as panning or close-ups, and adjust itself accordingly – and that too seems to work well. What did however become apparent when testing the SX40 HS alongside the FZ150 and HX100V though was its less confident autofocus system. Used in isolation, the SX40 HS feels absolutely fine, but compare it directly against the HX100V and FZ150 and you’ll notice it autofocuses a little slower and tracks moving subjects a little less confidently. Again it’s not exactly bad in this regard, just not as good as the other pair, and it’s revealing that the FZ150 focuses most confidently of the three, implying its shorter zoom range could actually be seen as a benefit in some areas of performance. You can see an example of the focus tracking while filming lower on this page. I should also note the camera’s closest focusing distance of 5cm quickly jumps to 30cm with the smallest increase in focal length. Just before moving-on from the lens, a quick note about caps and hoods. The SX40 HS, like the FZ150, employs a lens cap which clips onto the end of the extending portion of the lens barrel, allowing the cameras to power-up unimpeded whether the cap is fitted or not. In contrast the Sony HX100V lens cap clips onto the fixed outer barrel of the lens and therefore gets in the way, although it’s so loose the lens extension easily prods it off. In terms of lens hoods, there is one available for the SX40 HS, but the LH-DC60 accessory is a $25 USD optional extra. Sony doesn’t offer a lens hood for the HX100V, but third party options are available. Meanwhile, Panasonic is the only one of the three to come with a lens hood, and it can conveniently be folded back on the lens barrel for transportation. Externally the Canon SX40 HS looks essentially the same as its predecessor and shares the same dimensions of 123x92x108mm, weighing 600g with battery. This makes it the largest of its rivals, although to be fair it also has the biggest zoom. It’s worth noting the SX40 HS is approaching the size and weight of a budget DSLR, although again sporting a much longer zoom range. Interestingly despite having the largest and heaviest body, the SX40 HS actually has the shallowest grip. The Panasonic FZ150’s grip is slightly deeper, and the Sony HX100V is the deepest of the three. The Canon also feels the most plasticky of the three rivals, lacking the rubber finish which Panasonic and Sony deploy on their grips. As such it’s not surprising to find the Sony is the most comfortable of the three to hold, and the Canon, in my view, the worst – although it is still possible to hold the SX40 HS securely. As always it’s a personal thing, so I’d recommend picking them up in person if you think this is going to be an issue. Like its predecessor, there’s a chunky mode dial on the top of the camera, generously-sized shutter release and video record buttons (the latter alongside the viewfinder and conveniently falling below your right thumb), and a rear wheel which can be spun to set options and tilted in four directions to navigate menus or provide direct access to the exposure compensation, ISO, self-timer and focusing modes. Unlike Panasonic’s FZ150 it’s possible to power the camera straight into playback with a simple press and hold of the play button. My only complaint concerning the controls is the lack of stepped feedback on the rear wheel, which makes it hard to count-out things like aperture or shutter adjustments. As before the HDMI and combined USB / AV ports are located behind a rubber flap on the right, while the battery and SD card slot are housed in a compartment below the camera; there’s still no microphone input, allowing the FZ150 to take the upper hand in this regard. The NB-10L Lithium Ion battery pack is rated at 920mAh compared to the 1050mAh of the NB-7L which powered the earlier SX30 IS, but fitted into their respective cameras the total number of shots you can take is roughly the same: approximately 380 with the screen or 400 with the viewfinder, or about 80 minutes of video. There’s also an AC adapter option. By sharing much the same body, the SX40 HS also inherits its predecessor’s flash hotshoe. This allows the SX40 HS to accommodate (and control) and compatible Canon Speedlite, up to and including the top-of-the-range 580EX II. Since the SX40 HS is roughly the same size as a budget DSLR, it’s also quite manageable to hold and use when fitted with an external flash. Note the FZ150 also offers a full-sized flash hotshoe, although the Sony HX100V does not. All three do have popup flashes though. The Canon SX40 HS shares exactly the same screen as its predecessor, and it’s really beginning to look dated compared to the competition. It’s relatively small by modern standards at 2.7in and nothing to get excited about in the resolution department either with just 230k dots. On the upside the screen, like the SX30 IS before it, is fully-articulated, allowing it to flip and twist in any direction, including towards the subject or back on itself for protection. It’s worth comparing it to the screens on the competition which are all larger and more detailed. The Panasonic FZ150 and Sony HX100V both have 3in screens with 460k and 920k dots respectively. The FZ150’s screen is also fully articulated and can match the same angles and positions as the Canon. The Sony screen is only hinged vertically, allowing it to point directly upwards or almost all the way down. To be fair, while the Sony’s articulation is the least flexible of the three, its vertical tilting does cover most situations – it’s only when you’re taking portrait aspect images at unusual angles or shooting self-portraits or pieces to camera where the others really have an advantage. It is important to also consider their screen shapes. The Canon and Sony screens are both 4:3 aspect ratios, which mean photos taken at their native resolutions fill the screen, while 16:9 video is letter-boxed with thick black bars above and below. When comparing these screens side by side, the Sony image looks much larger than its 0.3in diagonal advantage would imply. In contrast the FZ150 employs a wider 3:2 aspect ratio screen, which means still photos taken at its native 4:3 shape are shown with thin black bars running down either vertical side. Indeed when shooting images this shape, the active area on the screen measures almost exactly the same 2.7in diagonal as the SX40 HS. But the FZ150’s screen is noticeably more detailed than the Canon and if you switch to 16:9 video, the image appears much larger on the Panasonic. Comparing the FZ150 and HX100V screens for video is however much closer. The wider shape of the FZ150 screen gives it a minor advantage when displaying 16:9 content over the HX100V, but it’s pretty close. It’s tough to decide between the Panasonic and Sony screens, but it’s easy to see both are larger and more detailed than the Canon, especially when it comes to video. Canon really needs to fit a larger and more detailed screen to the next model. Coincidentally, the Panasonic and Sony viewfinders also deliver a larger apparent image than the Canon. Compare them side-by-side and you’ll notice the FZ150 and HX100V electronic viewfinders share roughly the same image size, which is noticeably bigger than that on the SX40 HS. Indeed I’d say the Canon image is about three-quarters the size. Note the resolution of the three EVFs looks similar, so the Panasonic and Sony EVFs with their larger apparent image size actually look a bit coarser when it comes to fine details, but there’s no denying the dramatic difference in size. Ultimately the size and quality of the screen and viewfinder images are not going to have any impact on the actual image quality, but bigger and more detailed views when composing and focusing are always nice to have. It’s revealing to find the Canon super-zoom falling behind its rivals in this regard. Like its predecessor, the SX40 HS is packed with shooting modes from fully automatic with scene detection to full manual with control over the exposure and focus too if desired. Once again though I’ll only go over the highlights or what’s changed here. The AUTO mode employs scene detection to have a good stab at figuring-out what you’re pointing at, and can now choose from 32 different scenes compared to 28 on the SX30 IS. Scene detection is also employed in the Movie mode, although the selection it can choose from remains at 21. PASM modes (with access to shutter speeds from 15 secs to 1/3200 and ten aperture values when zoomed-out) and two Custom positions are still available. Turning the mode dial to Creative Filters lets you choose from Fish-eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Super Vivid, Poster Effect and Canon’s old but popular Colour Accent and Colour Swap options. You can see examples of the first four below. You can also apply some of the Creative Filters when filming video: Miniature, Monochrome, Super Vivid, Colour Accent and Colour Swap are all available for video, although Miniature has one operational aspect that’s worth noting. Since Miniature isn’t an option when the mode dial is turned to Movie, it can only be applied to video when you have it selected for stills and then press the big red record button. That’s fine, but if you’re shooting stills in the native 4:3 aspect ratio of the sensor for the best quality, any subsequent video with the Miniature effect will be recorded at 4:3 in VGA, 640×480 standard definition. The Miniature mode is available for widescreen video at 720p HD resolution, but you’ll first need to switch the photo aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. You can also adjust the frame of sharp focus and the speed of playback between 5, 10 and 20x. 10x seemed to be a good balance and you can see a clip below using it which took about two minutes to film. Note Panasonic’s FZ150 also offers a Miniature mode for video, but records it at 1080p, compared to 720p on the Canon. Turn the mode dial to SCN and you’ll be able to choose from 11 presets and two panorama assist options; the Sony HX100V remains preferred for panoramas though thanks to its Sweep Panorama automatically stitching the images together for you in-camera. Canon frequently hides some of the most interesting modes under the SCN menu and indeed nestled amongst the 11 presets on the SX40 HS are Movie Digest, High-speed Burst HQ and Handheld Night Scene. Movie Digest is a new feature which records a short VGA (640×480) video clip lasting two to four seconds immediately prior to each of your photos and joins them into a movie which provides a fun overview of your day. The SX40 HS appears to buffer video as soon as you start composing and simply keeps the couple of seconds prior to the actual final shot. You can also switch the camera off or take a few shots in different modes, and as soon as you switch back to Movie Digest, it’ll start appending clips to the existing sequence until it reaches one hour or 4GB in size. It’s a fun to see a video emerge of your day’s photo-taking, especially of people as they perfect their poses, although the downside is the continuous buffering of video will see your batteries deplete more quickly, so beware if you’re out without a spare. The second new feature is High-speed Burst HQ, which allows the SX40 HS to fire-off eight full-resolution frames at 10.3fps. I’ll go into more detail in the Continuous shooting section towards the bottom of this page. The third new feature is Handheld Night Scene, which Canon first introduced on the IXUS 1000 HS / SD4500 IS. Arguably inspired by Sony’s Handheld Twilight mode, this fires-off a burst of shots before combining them into one to reduce noise levels and the effect of camera shake. It’s been a valuable ally to have on earlier models, so I’ve devoted a whole page to it in my Canon SX40 HS Handheld Night Scene results. Finally, the SX40 HS also offers automatic dynamic range adjustments using its i-Contrast feature (disabled by default). i-Contrast automatically boosts shadow areas or faces darkened by strongly backlit scenes. To put it to the test I took two photos of a Church interior with and without i-Contrast set to its Auto option. This composition features dark shadow areas and strong window lighting which represents a challenge for any camera’s exposure system. The example above shows i-Contrast selecting the same exposure when enabled, and while there’s no detail retrieved in the saturated windows, the darkest areas such as the roof, flooring and benches have received a small boost. The histograms below each image give a better idea of what’s going on, with a more gentle slope to the shadow values, albeit still with clipping in the highlights. It’s a pretty subtle difference for this particular scene. Finally, the SX40 HS’s Date Stamp option allows the time, date or both to be permanently written in the corner of the image. Such digital mutilation may horrify many photographers, especially considering the date and time are always present in the EXIF data of the file itself, but I’ve heard from sufficient numbers of people who want the feature to know it’s something of value. In one of the headline improvements over its predecessor, the SX40 HS can now shoot video at up to 1080p, although 720p and 640×480 VGA modes are also available. You can start filming at any time by pressing the big red record button and are free to optically zoom the lens while filming. You can also take a still photo while filming at the full resolution (albeit cropped to 16:9 if filming in HD) although doing so will interrupt the recording by about a second. When set to 1080p, video is captured at 24fps, although interestingly the camera switches to 30fps for 720p and VGA. The SX40 HS also support’s Apple’s iFrame format, recording video at 720p / 30fps. Best quality 1080p footage consumes around 4Mbytes per second, and you can keep recording until the file reaches 4GB in size or 29:59 in length. Unless your footage is extremely simple, you’re likely to hit the 4GB limit first, after around 15 minutes in 1080p or 20 minutes in 720p. Canon recommends using SD cards rated at Class 6 or higher. If you need to record longer clips, one of the few models to allow it is Panasonic’s FZ150, which can keep recording until you run out of space or power, although European versions are still limited to 29:59 per clip for tax regulations. Audio is captured by a pair of tiny stereo microphones positioned just above the lens barrel, under the viewfinder head. Impressively there’s the option to adjust recording levels, along with applying a wind filter, but the Panasonic FZ150 remains the only super-zoom camera in its peer group to offer an external microphone input. Exposure control is automatic, although you can preset the camera to a scene mode for a specific effect if desired. As mentioned earlier, you can also apply a number of special effects including the increasingly ubiquitous Miniature mode, although this particular mode is only available at a maximum of 720p. Like some CMOS-equipped super-zoom cameras, the SX40 HS can also capture high speed video for slow motion playback. While models like the Panasonic FZ150 only offer one option shooting 220fps at QVGA (320×240) resolution though, the SX40 HS gratifyingly offers the choice of two options: 240 fps at QVGA (320×240) or 120fps at VGA (640×480). Ultimately it’d be more desirable to have a slow motion option in HD, but as it stands, the SX40 HS offers the highest quality option of its peers with a VGA slow motion mode. At either quality setting, you can record for up to 30 seconds, with the 240 and 120fps clips playing back at 8x or 4x slower than normal. Audio isn’t recorded in this mode and you can’t adjust the zoom once you start filming either. You can see an example at VGA resolution at the bottom of the sample clips below. Now let’s take a look at some sample videos and as always, registered members of Vimeo can download the originals for evaluation on their own computers. The first clip above was filmed handheld and demonstrates a 180 degree pan, followed by a short walk and a full zoom in and back out again. As always I started the clip by filming bright sunny reflections on the rippling water, and this is something which would have resulted in vertical streaks on the earlier SX30 IS, due to its CCD sensor. Now thanks to a CMOS sensor, the SX40 HS avoids these issues, although to be fair, this brings it in line with the Panasonic FZ150 and Sony HX100V. The stabilisation does a good job reducing the wobbles even when fully zoomed-into 840mm, and the continuous AF mostly keeps the subject in focus. You may however notice some rolling shutter artefacts when there’s a sudden change in direction, particularly after panning across to the steamship near the end. Sadly you’ll see a few more of these as this section progresses. For my second clip above, I mounted the SX40 HS on a tripod with a fluid head and smoothly panned it from left to right to illustrate a calmer environment. Thankfully the rolling shutter artefacts have been banished in this clip. My third clip was filmed from the same location and demonstrates the enormous range of the zoom while filming. During the zooming process though the image appears to wobble and shift a little. This is something you commonly see on many super-zoom cameras, but the SX40 HS – or at least my test sample – seemed to suffer a little more than normal. During these wobbles, and also when fully zoomed-in, the rolling shutter artefacts also become visible again. In terms of focusing, the SX40 HS does a reasonable job at keeping the subject sharp, only drifting occasionally. In my fourth clip, above, I’ve really put the stabilisation and zoom to the test by handholding the camera and tracking moving action while adjusting the focal length back and forth several times. I started the clip fully zoomed-in, and the SX40 HS struggles to find anything of sufficient contrast to focus-on. This is partly due to the longer-than-average focal length and partly to do with the motion, but it’s revealing that models with shorter zoom ranges, such as the Panasonic FZ150, performed much more confidently in this situation. It seems like the longer zoom range of the SX40 HS can prove to be a disadvantage at times. To test the video capabilities in low light I moved indoors for my fifth clip. The SX40 HS does a good job here, with a result that’s not too noisy and which manages to avoid focus searching. I should also note that while the SX40 HS falls behind the FZ150 in some video regards, it managed to properly expose for this clip without having to switch shooting modes. In my sixth clip, above, I put the continuous AF capabilities to the test in a cafe environment, constantly moving the camera and pointing it at subjects at different distances. The continuous AF on the SX40 HS worked pretty well here, although again not quite as confidently as the FZ150. I should also add if you zoom-in only a fraction from the widest setting, the closest focusing distance jumps from 5cm to 30cm, which meant I had to film this clip with the lens full zoomed-out – at which point there’s not much of a challenge for the AF system. PS – I go through quite a few drinks and cakes in this cafe, for my – ahem – tests, so if you find my reviews useful and ever feel like treating me, feel free to buy me a coffee – cheers! In my seventh clip, above, I really put the continuous AF capabilities to the test with a subject steadily approaching the camera. I zoomed the SX40 HS to its maximum focal length and kept the Skyline logo on the cable car in the middle of the frame. As you can see the SX40 HS struggled to keep the logo in focus for most of the clip – it’s not that it was searching back and forth, but simply that it couldn’t lock-onto the subject. I should also add the subject was within the focusing limits at this focal length even when the cable car drew alongside. This is similar to what I experienced with the earlier clip of the steamship and it got me thinking: if the SX40 HS struggles with AF at 840mm, and models like the FZ150 seem fine at their maximum of 600mm, maybe it’s a question of focal length being the problem. So I re-filmed this clip with the zoom reduced. You can see this second version below and while it’s arguably better than my first, it’s still not crisply focused on the subject. You can also see the dreaded rolling shutter artefacts reappearing when the camera gets wobbled by people exiting from the cable car in front. In my final 1080p clip below, the SX40 HS goes some way to redeeming itself. It’s a handheld shot, starting with the lens fully zoomed-into 840mm and tracking an approaching jetboat. As the boat comes closer I zoom all the way out and all the way back in again, and throughout the camera does a good job at keeping the subject in focus. Before wrapping-up I have two more clips for you, both filmed using the Super Slow Motion modes. As described above, the SX40 HS offers two high-speed filming options: 240 fps at QVGA (320×240) or 120fps at VGA (640×480). You can see an example of the VGA mode below, where the footage played-back at 30fps, is effectively slowing the action by four times. You can see a similar clip opposite filmed with the QVGA option, where the footage has been slowed by eight times. Like other slow-motion modes on rival models, it’s a shame there’s no HD options at high frame rates, but in its favour, the SX40 HS does at least offer a VGA option over Panasonic (albeit at half the frame rate of all of their QVGA options). It’s also worth noting the Sony HX100V doesn’t offer any slow motion video mode. Overall the SX40 HS’s video performs pretty well and viewed in isolation most people would be quite satisfied with it. There’s also the chance to adjust audio levels and enjoy fun modes like the Movie Digest which captures a couple of seconds of standard definition video before every still photo, to tell the story of your photography. But compare the SX40 HS directly with rivals and it can sometimes disappoint. The continuous focus tracking does a fair job, but it’s not as confident and accurate as the Panasonic FZ150, even when they’re zoomed to the same focal length. Meanwhile all cameras with CMOS sensors can suffer from the rolling shutter effect, but the SX40 HS seems to suffer more than its rivals, especially when handheld at long focal lengths. Then there’s the specifications and added features. All three CMOS super-zooms offer 1080p video, but the SX40 HS does so at the lowest frame rate of 24fps compared to 50 and 60 on the Sony and Panasonic depending on region; film makers may like the native 24p of the Canon, but filming at 50 or 60p gives you the chance to reduce the speed by two or 2.5 times for HD footage in a 25 or 24fps project respectively. The FZ150 goes even further beyond by also offering longer clips (for non-European models), manual control over exposures, a 1080p miniature mode (the SX40 HS drops to 720p here), and an external microphone socket for better audio (albeit without the levels adjustment of the Canon). The Canon SX40 HS video mode is good, but the Panasonic FZ150 simply outclasses it. The SX40 HS offers two main continuous shooting options: the first, accessed from the FUNC.SET menu from any of the primary shooting modes can fire-off shots at 2.4fps without AF until you run out of memory. The second mode, known as High Speed Burst HQ and accessed via the SCN preset menu, is much more promising, shooting up to eight frames in a burst at 10.3fps; note focus and exposure are locked from the first frame, but since you’re capturing less than a second of action it’s not too great an issue. To put the numbers to the test I fitted the SX40 HS with a 16GB SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 card rated at 45MB/s and photographed the fast action of the Shotover Jetboats. When set to Continuous without AF, the SX40 HS happily took 50 shots in 24 seconds and was happy to continue at this speed while memory remained. The speed however corresponded to a fraction above 2fps, rather than the 2.4fps quoted. You can see ten frames from this mode below. Switching to the SCN mode and selecting High Speed Burst HQ allowed the SX40 HS to fire-off its burst of eight frames in about 0.9 seconds, corresponding to a speed of around 9fps. The camera took about four seconds to flush its buffer before it was ready to shoot another burst of eight frames. You can see all eight frames from a burst below. This is fairly quick performance from the Canon SX40 HS and a big improvement over its predecessor, but as always it’s important to compare it against its competition which also offer fast but short bursts. The Sony HX100V can capture 10 frames at 10fps, while the Panasonic FZ150 can capture 12 frames at 12fps. While the FZ150 has a slight edge here, they’re all effectively only capable of capturing one second’s worth of action, and in many situations, this simply isn’t enough. For example in the sequence above, the jetboat has only had a chance to perform quarter of a rotation in one second. All three models offer slower modes which can shoot for longer periods, but again there are important differences to note. The Sony HX100V has a 2fps mode albeit limited to the same ten frames as its faster option, although this does at least get you five seconds of action. As you already know from the first example, the Canon SX40 HS also has a slower option, shooting at 2.4fps (closer to 2fps in my tests), but continuing to shoot for as long as you have available memory. This is more practical than the Sony 2fps mode, but both represent a big drop from their top speeds. The Panasonic FZ150 also offers a 2fps, but importantly squeezes a 5.5fps option in there too, both of which can shoot for up to 100 frames with the added benefit of AF; the 5.5fps option ended up being a real sweet-spot in my testing. The FZ150 additionally offers ultra-high speed options: 40fps for up to 50 frames at 5 Megapixel resolution, or 60fps for up to 60 frames at 2.5 Megapixels. This breadth of choice makes the FZ150 the preferred option when it comes to continuous shooting, although I don’t in any way want to discourage Canon which previously only offered pointlessly slow options. At least the SX40 HS now offers two usable continuous shooting options which are a big step-up from the paltry 1.3fps of the SX30 IS. The 1080p video, slow motion and fast continuous shooting modes on the SX40 HS are made possible by its high-speed CMOS sensor. This is a key difference between it and the earlier SX30 IS which employed a CCD sensor. Another is the presence of Canon’s latest DIGIC 5 image processor. Revealingly, like Panasonic, Canon has taken a step backward from the Megapixel race, opting for 12 Megapixels on its latest super-zoom, compared to 14 on the earlier SX30 IS. Interestingly Sony is however still playing the numbers game, packing 16 Megapixels into its HX100V. The SX40 HS allows you to record images at four different resolutions, in four different aspect ratios and in the choice of two JPEG compression levels. Best quality Large Fine 1:1 JPEGs typically measure 2.5 to 3MB each. Like its predecessor, there’s no option to record RAW files – in the current crop of super-zooms, that’s left to the Panasonic FZ150 and Fujifilm HS20 EXR. Canon claims the 12 Megapixel resolution of the back-illuminated CMOS sensor in the SX40 HS coupled with the DIGIC 5 processor delivers lower noise levels than its predecessor. There’s only one way to find out so over the following results pages you’ll see how the noise measures-up compared to the competition, along with their actual resolving power. I’ll also take a close look at the Handheld Night Scene mode which captures a burst of images before combining them into one to reduce noise. So to find out how the Canon SX40 HS compares, check out my real-life resolution, high ISO noise and Handheld Night Scene results pages, browse the sample images gallery, or skip to the chase and head straight for my verdict.

2019-04-22T02:23:01Z

https://www.cameralabs.com/canon_powershot_sx40_hs/

Each vial of powder for concentrate for solution for infusion contains 5 mg gemtuzumab ozogamicin. After reconstitution (see section 6.6), the concentrated solution contains 1 mg/mL gemtuzumab ozogamicin. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) composed of the CD33-directed monoclonal antibody (hP67.6; recombinant humanised immunoglobulin [Ig] G4, kappa antibody produced by mammalian cell culture in NS0 cells) that is covalently linked to the cytotoxic agent N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin. MYLOTARG is indicated for combination therapy with daunorubicin (DNR) and cytarabine (AraC) for the treatment of patients age 15 years and above with previously untreated, de novo CD33-positive acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), except acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) (see sections 4.4 and 5.1). MYLOTARG should be administered under the supervision of a physician experienced in the use of anticancer medicinal products and in an environment where full resuscitation facilities are immediately available. MYLOTARG should be used only in patients eligible to receive intensive induction chemotherapy. Premedication with a corticosteroid, antihistamine, and acetaminophen (or paracetamol) is recommended 1 hour prior to dosing to help ameliorate infusion-related symptoms (see section 4.4). Appropriate measures to help prevent the development of tumour lysis-related hyperuricaemia, such as hydration, administration of antihyperuricemic or other agents for treatment of hyperuricaemia should be taken (see section 4.4). The recommended dose of MYLOTARG is 3 mg/m2/dose (up to a maximum of one 5 mg vial) infused over a 2-hour period on Days 1, 4, and 7 in combination with DNR 60 mg/m2/day infused over 30 minutes on Day 1 to Day 3, and AraC 200 mg/m2/day by continuous infusion on Day 1 to Day 7. MYLOTARG should not be administered during second induction therapy. For patients experiencing a complete remission (CR) following induction, defined as fewer than 5% blasts in a normocellular marrow and an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of more than 1.0 × 109 cells/L with a platelet count of 100 × 109/L or more in the peripheral blood in the absence of transfusion, up to 2 consolidation courses of intravenous DNR (60 mg/m2 for 1 day [first course] or 2 days [second course]) in combination with intravenous AraC (1,000 mg/m2 per 12 hours, infused over 2 hours on Day 1 to Day 4) with intravenous MYLOTARG (3 mg/m2/dose infused over 2 hours up to a maximum dose of one 5 mg vial on Day 1) are recommended. MYLOTARG should not be administered during second induction. a. See Table 3 and Table 4 for dose modification information. b. For patients experiencing a complete remission (CR) following induction. In patients with hyperleukocytic (leukocyte count ≥ 30,000/mm3) AML, cytoreduction is recommended either with leukapheresis, oral hydroxyurea or AraC with or without hydroxyurea to reduce the peripheral white blood cell (WBC) count 48 hours prior to administration of MYLOTARG. See Table 1 for dose recommendations for consolidation course. a. See Table 3 and Table 4 for additional dose modification information. Dose modification of MYLOTARG is recommended based on individual safety and tolerability (see section 4.4). Management of some adverse reactions may require dose interruptions or permanent discontinuation of MYLOTARG (see sections 4.4 and 4.8). Tables 3 and 4 show the dose modification guidelines for haematological and non-haematological toxicities, respectively. • Postpone start of consolidation course. • If platelet count recovers to ≥ 100,000/mm3 within 14 days following the planned start date of the consolidation course: initiate consolidation therapy (see as described in Table 1). • If platelet count recovers to < 100,000/mm3 and ≥ 50,000/mm3 and within 14 days following the planned start date of the consolidation course: MYLOTARG should not be re-introduced and consolidation therapy should consist of DNR and AraC only. • If platelet count recovery remains < 50,000/mm3 for greater than 14 days, takes longer than 14 days, or if platelet count does not recover to ≥ 50,000/mm3 consolidation therapy should be re-evaluated and a BMA should be performed to re-assess the patients' status. • If neutrophil count does not recover to greater than 500/mm3 within 14 days following the planned start date of the consolidation cycle (14 days after haematologic recovery following previous cycle), discontinue MYLOTARG (do not administer MYLOTARG in the consolidation cycles). Abbreviations: AML=acute myeloid leukaemia; AraC=cytarabine; BMA=bone marrow aspirate, DNR=daunorubicin. Discontinue MYLOTARG (see section 4.4). Postpone MYLOTARG until recovery of total bilirubin to ≤ 2 × ULN and AST and ALT to ≤ 2.5 × ULN prior to each dose. Consider omitting scheduled dose if delayed more than 2 days between sequential infusions. Interrupt the infusion and institute appropriate medical management based on the severity of symptoms. Patients should be monitored until signs and symptoms completely resolve and infusion may resume. Consider permanent discontinuation of treatment for severe or life-threatening infusion reactions (see section 4.4). Abbreviations: ALT=alanine aminotransferase; AST=aspartate aminotransferase; SOS=sinusoidal obstruction syndrome; ULN=upper limit of normal; VOD=venoocclusive disease. No adjustment of the starting dose is required in patients with hepatic impairment defined by total bilirubin ≤ 2 × upper limit of normal (ULN) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ≤ 2.5 × ULN. Postpone MYLOTARG until recovery of total bilirubin to ≤ 2 × ULN and AST and ALT to ≤ 2.5 × ULN prior to each dose (see Table 4, sections 4.4 and 5.2). No dose adjustment is required in patients with mild to moderate renal impairment. MYLOTARG has not been studied in patients with severe renal impairment. MYLOTARG does not undergo renal clearance, the pharmacokinetics in patients with severe renal impairment is unknown (see section 5.2). No dose adjustment is required in elderly patients (≥ 65 years) (see section 5.2). The safety and efficacy of MYLOTARG in patients less than 15 years of age has not been established. Currently available data are described in sections 4.8, 5.1, and 5.2 but no recommendation on a posology can be made. MYLOTARG is for intravenous use and must be reconstituted and diluted before administration (see section 6.6). The reconstituted and diluted solution should be administered intravenously by infusion over a 2-hour period under close clinical monitoring, including pulse, blood pressure, and temperature. MYLOTARG should not be administered as an intravenous push or bolus (see section 6.6). Hepatotoxicity, including life-threatening, and sometimes fatal hepatic failure and VOD/SOS have been reported in patients treated with MYLOTARG (see section 4.8). Based on an analysis of potential risk factors, adult patients who received MYLOTARG as monotherapy, either before or after an haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), and patients with moderate or severe hepatic impairment are at increased risk for developing VOD (see section 4.8). Due to the risk of VOD/SOS, signs and symptoms of VOD/SOS should be closely monitored; these may include elevations in ALT, AST, total bilirubin, and alkaline phosphatase, which should be monitored prior to each dose of MYLOTARG, hepatomegaly (which may be painful), rapid weight gain, and ascites. Monitoring only total bilirubin may not identify all patients at risk of VOD/SOS. For patients who develop abnormal liver tests, more frequent monitoring of liver tests and clinical signs and symptoms of hepatotoxicity is recommended. For patients who proceed to HSCT, close monitoring of liver tests is recommended during the post-HSCT period, as appropriate. No definitive relationship was found between VOD and time of HSCT relative to higher MYLOTARG monotherapy doses, however, the ALFA-0701 study recommended an interval of 2 months between the last dose of MYLOTARG and HSCT. Management of signs or symptoms of hepatic toxicity may require a dose interruption, or discontinuation of MYLOTARG (see section 4.2). In patients who experience VOD/SOS, MYLOTARG should be discontinued and patients treated according to standard medical practice. In clinical studies infusion related reactions, including anaphylaxis were reported (see section 4.8). There have been reports of fatal infusion reactions in the post-marketing setting. Signs and symptoms of infusion related reactions may include fever and chills, and less frequently hypotension, tachycardia, and respiratory symptoms, that may occur during the first 24 hours after administration. Infusion of MYLOTARG should be performed under close clinical monitoring, including pulse, blood pressure, and temperature. Premedication with a corticosteroid, antihistamine and acetaminophen (or paracetamol) is recommended 1 hour prior to MYLOTARG dosing (see section 4.2). Infusion should be interrupted immediately for patients who develop evidence of severe reactions, especially dyspnoea, bronchospasm, or clinically significant hypotension. Patients should be monitored until signs and symptoms completely resolve. Discontinuation of treatment should be strongly considered for patients who develop signs or symptoms of anaphylaxis, including severe respiratory symptoms or clinically significant hypotension (see section 4.2). In clinical studies, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, anaemia, leukopenia, febrile neutropenia, lymphopenia, and pancytopenia, some of which were life-threatening or fatal, were reported (see section 4.8). Complications associated with neutropenia and thrombocytopenia may include infections and bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions respectively. Infections and bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions were reported, some of which were life-threatening or fatal. Complete blood counts should be monitored prior to each dose of MYLOTARG. During treatment, patients should be monitored for signs and symptoms of infection, bleeding/haemorrhage, or other effects of myelosuppression. Routine clinical and laboratory surveillance testing during and after treatment is indicated. Management of patients with severe infection, bleeding/haemorrhage, or other effects of myelosuppression, including severe neutropenia or persistent thrombocytopenia, may require a dose delay or permanent discontinuation of MYLOTARG (see section 4.2). In clinical studies, TLS was reported (see section 4.8). Fatal reports of TLS complicated by acute renal failure have been reported in the post-marketing setting. In patients with hyperleukocytic AML, leukoreduction should be considered with hydroxyurea or leukapheresis to reduce the peripheral WBC count to below 30,000/mm3 prior to administration of MYLOTARG to reduce the risk of inducing TLS (see section 4.2). Patients should be monitored for signs and symptoms of TLS and treated according to standard medical practice. Appropriate measures to help prevent the development of tumour lysis-related hyperuricaemia, such as hydration, administration of antihyperuricemics (e.g., allopurinol) or other agents for treatment of hyperuricaemia (e.g., rasburicase) must be taken. The efficacy of MYLOTARG has been shown in AML patients with favourable- and intermediate-risk cytogenetics, with uncertainty regarding the size of the effect in patients with adverse cytogenetics (see section 5.1). For patients being treated with MYLOTARG in combination with daunorubicin and cytarabine for newly diagnosed de novo AML, when cytogenetics testing results become available it should be considered whether the potential benefit of continuing treatment with MYLOTARG outweighs the risks for the individual patient (see section 5.1). Women of childbearing potential, or partners of females of childbearing potential should be advised to use 2 methods of effective contraception during treatment with MYLOTARG for at least 7 months (females) or 4 months (males) after the last dose (see section 4.6). No clinical drug interaction studies have been conducted with MYLOTARG. See section 5.2 for available data from in vitro studies. Women of childbearing potential should be advised to avoid becoming pregnant while receiving MYLOTARG. Women of childbearing potential, or partners of females of childbearing potential should be advised to use 2 methods of effective contraception during treatment with MYLOTARG for at least 7 months (females) or 4 months (males) after the last dose. There are no or limited amount of data from the use of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in pregnant women. Studies in animals have shown reproductive toxicity (see section 5.3). MYLOTARG must not be used during pregnancy unless the potential benefit to the mother outweighs the potential risks to the foetus. Pregnant women, or patients becoming pregnant whilst receiving gemtuzumab ozogamicin, or treated male patients as partners of pregnant women, must be apprised of the potential hazard to the foetus. There is no information regarding the presence of gemtuzumab ozogamicin or its metabolites in human milk, the effects on the breast-fed child, or the effects on milk production. Because of the potential for adverse reactions in breast-fed children, women should not breast-feed during treatment with MYLOTARG and for at least 1 month after the final dose (see section 5.3). There is no information on fertility in patients. Based on non-clinical findings, male and female fertility may be compromised by treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin (see section 5.3). Both men and women should seek advice on fertility preservation before treatment. MYLOTARG has moderate influence on the ability to drive and use machines. Patients should be advised they may experience fatigue, dizziness and headache during treatment with MYLOTARG (see section 4.8). Therefore, caution should be exercised when driving or operating machines. The overall safety profile of MYLOTARG is based on data from patients with acute myeloid leukaemia from the combination therapy study ALFA-0701, monotherapy studies, and from post-marketing experience. In the combination therapy study, safety data consisting of selected treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) considered most important for understanding the safety profile of MYLOTARG consisted of all grades haemorrhages, all grades VOD, and severe infections. All of these TEAEs were determined to be adverse drug reactions. Because of this limited data collection, laboratory data from the combination therapy study are included in Table 5. Information about adverse drug reactions from monotherapy studies and post-marketing experience is presented Table 6 in order to provide full characterisation of adverse reactions. In the combination therapy study ALFA-0701, clinically relevant serious adverse reactions were hepatotoxicity, including VOD/SOS (3.8%), haemorrhage (9.9%), severe infection (41.2%), and tumour lysis syndrome (1.5%). In monotherapy studies, clinically relevant serious adverse reactions also included infusion related reactions (2.5%), thrombocytopenia (21.7%), and neutropenia (34.3%). The most common adverse reactions (> 30%) in the combination therapy study were haemorrhage and infection. In monotherapy studies the most common adverse reactions (> 30%) included pyrexia, nausea, infection, chills, haemorrhage, vomiting, thrombocytopenia, fatigue, headache, stomatitis, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and neutropenia. The most frequent (≥ 1%) adverse reactions that led to permanent discontinuation in the combination therapy study were thrombocytopenia, VOD, haemorrhage and infection. The most frequent (≥ 1%) adverse reactions that led to permanent discontinuation in monotherapy studies were infection, haemorrhage, multi-organ failure, and VOD. Abbreviations: N=number of patients; PT=preferred term. **Only selected safety data were collected in this study of newly diagnosed AML. ***Frequency is based on laboratory values (Grade per NCI CTCAE v4.03). a. Infection includes Sepsis and Bacteraemia (53.4%), Fungal infection (15.3%), Lower respiratory tract infection (5.3%), Bacterial infection (9.2%), Gastrointestinal infection (8.4%), Skin infection (2.3%), and Other infections (28.4%). b. Haemorrhage includes Central nervous system haemorrhage (3.1%), Upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage (33.6%), Lower gastrointestinal haemorrhage (17.6%), Subcutaneous haemorrhage (60.3%), Other haemorrhage (64.9%), and Epistaxis (62.6%). c. Venoocclusive liver disease includes the following reported PTs: Venoocclusive disease and Venoocclusive liver disease*. **Including fatal adverse reactions in the post-marketing setting. ***MYLOTARG in the treatment of relapsed AML (9 mg/m2). a. Infection includes Sepsis and Bacteraemia (25.6%), Fungal infection (10.5%), Lower respiratory tract infection (13.0%), Upper respiratory tract infection (4.3%), Bacterial infection (3.6%), Viral infection (24.2%), Gastrointestinal infection (3.3%), Skin infection (7.9%), and Other infections (19.5%). Post-marketing (frequency category unknown) fungal lung infections including Pulmonary mycosis and Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia*; and bacterial infections including Stenotrophomonas infection were also reported. b. Thrombocytopenia includes the following reported PTs: Platelet count decreased and Thrombocytopenia*. c. Neutropenia includes the following reported PTs: Neutropenia, Granulocytopenia and Neutrophil count decreased. d. Anaemia includes the following reported PTs: Anaemia and Haemoglobin decreased. e. Leukopenia includes the following reported PTs: Leukopenia and White blood cell count decreased. f. Pancytopenia includes the following reported PTs: Pancytopenia and Bone marrow failure. g. Lymphopenia includes the following reported PTs: Lymphopenia and Lymphocyte count decreased. h. Infusion related reaction includes the following reported PTs: Infusion related reaction, Urticaria, Hypersensitivity, Bronchospasm, Drug hypersensitivity, and Injection site urticaria#. i. Hyperglycaemia includes the following reported PTs: Hyperglycaemia and Blood glucose increased#. j. Tachycardia includes the following reported PTs: Tachycardia, Sinus tachycardia, Heart rate increased#, and Supraventricular tachycardia#. k. Haemorrhages include Central nervous system haemorrhage (5.1%), Upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage (21.3%), Lower gastrointestinal haemorrhage (15.2%), Subcutaneous haemorrhage (28.5%), Other haemorrhage (32.9%), and Epistaxis (28.5%). l. Hypotension includes the following reported PTs: Hypotension and Blood pressure decreased. m. Hypertension includes the following reported PTs: Hypertension and Blood pressure increased. n. Dyspnoea includes the following reported PTs: Dyspnoea and Dyspnoea exertional. o. Abdominal pain includes the following reported PTs: Abdominal pain, Abdominal pain lower, Abdominal pain upper, Abdominal discomfort, and Abdominal tenderness. p. Stomatitis includes the following reported PTs: Mucosal inflammation, Oropharyngeal pain, Stomatitis, Mouth ulceration, Oral pain, Oral mucosal blistering, Aphthous stomatitis, Tongue ulceration, Glossodynia, Oral mucosal erythema, Glossitis#, and Oropharyngeal blistering#. q. Transaminases increased includes the following reported PTs: Transaminases increased, Hepatocellular injury, Alanine aminotransferase increased, Aspartate aminotransferase increased, and Hepatic enzyme increased. r. Hyperbilirubinaemia includes the following reported PTs: Blood bilirubin increased and Hyperbilirubinaemia. s. Venoocclusive liver disease includes the following reported PTs: Venoocclusive disease and Venoocclusive liver disease*#. t. Hepatic function abnormal includes the following reported PTs: Liver function test abnormal and Hepatic function abnormal. u. Rash includes the following reported PTs: Rash, Dermatitis#, Dermatitis allergic#, Dermatitis bullous, Dermatitis contact, Dermatitis exfoliative#, Drug eruption, Pruritus allergic# and Rash erythematous#, Rash macular#, Rash maculo papular, Rash papular, Rash pruritic, Rash vesicular#. v. Erythema includes the following reported PTs: Catheter site erythema, Erythema and Infusion site erythema#. w. Pyrexia includes the following reported PTs: Pyrexia, Body temperature increased, and Hyperthermia. x. Oedema includes the following reported PTs: Oedema, Face oedema, Oedema peripheral, Swelling face, Generalised oedema, and Periorbital oedema. y. Fatigue includes the following reported PTs: Fatigue, Asthenia, Lethargy, and Malaise. In the combination therapy study, VOD and hepatic laboratory abnormalities were collected. Additional characterisation of hepatotoxicity adverse reactions is provided from the monotherapy studies. In the combination therapy study (N=131), VOD was reported in 6 (4.6%) patients during or following treatment, 2 (1.5%) of these reactions were fatal (see Table 5). Five (3.8%) of these VOD reactions occurred within 28 days of any dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin. One VOD event occurred more than 28 days of last dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin; with 1 of these events occurring a few days after having started an HSCT conditioning regimen. The median time from the last gemtuzumab ozogamicin dose to onset of VOD was 9 days (range: 2-298 days). VOD was also reported in 2 patients who received MYLOTARG as a follow-up therapy following relapse of AML after chemotherapy treatment in the control arm of the combination therapy study. Both of these patients experienced VOD more than 28 days after the last dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin. One of these patients experienced VOD 25 days after the subsequent HSCT. Based on an analysis of potential risk factors, adult patients who received MYLOTARG as monotherapy, patients who had received an HSCT prior to gemtuzumab ozogamicin exposure were 2.6 times more likely (95% CI: 1.448, 4.769) to develop VOD compared to patients without HSCT prior to treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin; patients who had received an HSCT following treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin were 2.9 times more likely (95% CI: 1.502, 5.636) to develop VOD compared to patients without HSCT following treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin; and patients who had moderate/severe hepatic impairment at baseline were 8.7 times more likely (95% CI: 1.879, 39.862) to develop VOD compared to patients without moderate/severe hepatic impairment at baseline. Patients should be monitored for hepatotoxicity as recommended in section 4.4. Management of signs or symptoms of hepatic toxicity may require a dose interruption, or discontinuation of MYLOTARG (see section 4.2). In the combination therapy study in patients with previously untreated de novo AML treated with fractionated doses of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in combination with chemotherapy, Grade 3/4 decreases in leukocytes, neutrophils, and platelets were observed in 131 (100%), 124 (96.1%), and 131 (100%) patients, respectively. During the induction phase, 109 (83.2%) and 99 (75.6%) patients had platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3, respectively. The median times to platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3 were 34 and 35 days, respectively. During the consolidation 1 phase, 92 (94.8%) and 71 (73.2%) patients had a platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3, respectively. The median times to platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3 were 32 and 35 days, respectively. During the consolidation 2 phase, 80 (97.6%) and 70 (85.4%) patients had a platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3, respectively. The median times to platelet recovery to counts of 50,000/mm3 and 100,000/mm3 were 36.5 and 43 days, respectively. Thrombocytopenia with platelet counts < 50,000/mm3 persisting 45 days after the start of therapy for responding patients (CR and incomplete platelet recovery [CRp]) occurred in 22 (20.4%) of patients. The number of patients with persistent thrombocytopenia remained similar across treatment courses (8 [7.4%] patients at the induction phase and 8 [8.5%] patients at the consolidation 1 phase and 10 [13.2%] patients at the consolidation 2 phase). During the induction phase, 121 (92.4%) and 118 (90.1%) patients had a documented neutrophil recovery to ANC of 500/mm3 and 1,000/mm3, respectively. The median time to neutrophil recovery to ANC of 500/mm3 and 1,000/mm3 was 25 days. In the consolidation 1 phase of therapy, 94 (96.9%) patients had neutrophil recovery to counts of 500/mm3, and 91 (94%) patients recovered to counts of 1,000/mm3. The median times to neutrophil recovery to ANC of 500/mm3 and 1,000/mm3 were 21 and 25 days, respectively. In the consolidation 2 phase of therapy, 80 (97.6%) patients had neutrophil recovery to counts of 500/mm3, and 79 (96.3%) patients recovered to counts of 1,000/mm3. The median times to neutrophil recovery to ANC of 500/mm3 and 1,000/mm3 were 22 and 27 days, respectively. In the combination therapy study, in patients with de novo AML treated with fractionated doses of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in combination with chemotherapy (N=131), 102 (77.9%) patients experienced all causality severe (Grade ≥ 3) infections. Treatment-related death due to septic shock was reported in 2 (1.5%) patients. Fatal severe infection was reported in 2 (1.53%) patients in the MYLOTARG arm and 4 (2.92%) patients in the control arm. In the combination therapy study (N=131), all grades and Grade 3/4 bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions were reported in 118 (90.1%) and 27 (20.6%) patients, respectively. The most frequent Grade 3 bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions were epistaxis (1.5%), haemoptysis (3.1%), and haematuria (2.3%). Grade 4 bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions were reported in 4 (3.1%) patients (gastrointestinal haemorrhage, haemorrhage, and pulmonary alveolar haemorrhage [2 patients]). Fatal bleeding/haemorrhagic reactions were reported in 3 (2.3%) patients (cerebral haematoma, intracranial haematoma, and subdural haematoma). Management of patients with severe infection, bleeding/haemorrhage, or other effects of myelosuppression, including severe neutropenia or persistent thrombocytopenia, may require a dose delay or permanent discontinuation of MYLOTARG (see sections 4.2 and 4.4). In clinical studies of MYLOTARG in patients with relapsed or refractory AML, the immunogenicity of MYLOTARG was evaluated using 2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Patients in the Phase 2 trials did not develop antidrug antibodies (ADAs) and only 2 patients in a Phase 1 trial developed antibodies against the calicheamicin-linker complex, 1 of whom had reduced hP67.6 plasma concentrations. Overall, the incidence rate of ADA development after MYLOTARG treatment was < 1% across the 4 clinical studies with ADA data. Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn between the presence of antibodies and potential impact on efficacy and safety due to the limited number of patients with positive ADAs. The detection of ADAs is highly dependent on the sensitivity and specificity of the assay. The incidence of antibody positivity in an assay may be influenced by several factors, including assay methodology, circulating gemtuzumab ozogamicin concentrations, sample handling, timing of sample collection, concomitant treatments and underlying disease. For these reasons, comparison of incidence of antibodies to gemtuzumab ozogamicin with the incidence of antibodies to other products may be misleading. The safety and efficacy of MYLOTARG in children and adolescents below the age of 15 years has not been established (see section 4.2). In the completed randomised paediatric Phase 3 Study AAML0531 (see section 5.1) of gemtuzumab ozogamicin combined with intensive first-line therapy in newly diagnosed children, and young adults with de novo AML aged 0 to 29 years, the safety profile was similar with that observed in the other studies of gemtuzumab ozogamicin combined with intensive chemotherapy in adult patients with de novo AML. However, the optimal dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin for paediatric patients was not established, since in Study AAML0531 during the second intensification period, a larger proportion of patients in the gemtuzumab ozogamicin arm experienced prolonged neutrophil recovery time (> 59 days) as compared with the comparator arm (12.0% versus 6.3%), and more patients died during remission (4.2% versus 2.4%). No cases of overdose with MYLOTARG were reported in clinical experience. Single doses higher than 9 mg/m2 in adults were not tested. Treatment of MYLOTARG overdose should consist of general supportive measures. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin is a CD33-targeted ADC. Gemtuzumab is a humanised immunoglobulin class G subtype 4 (IgG4) antibody which specifically recognises human CD33. The antibody portion binds specifically to the CD33 antigen, a sialic acid-dependent adhesion protein found on the surface of myeloid leukaemic blasts and immature normal cells of myelomonocytic lineage, but not on normal haematopoietic stem cells. The small molecule, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin, is a cytotoxic semisynthetic natural product. N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin is covalently attached to the antibody via an AcBut (4-(4-acetylphenoxy) butanoic acid) linker. Non-clinical data suggest that the anticancer activity of gemtuzumab ozogamicin is due to the binding of the ADC to CD33-expressing tumour cells, followed by internalisation of the ADC-CD33 complex, and the intracellular release of N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide via hydrolytic cleavage of the linker. Activation of N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide induces double-stranded DNA breaks, subsequently inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death. Saturation of a high percentage of CD33 antigenic sites is presumed to be required for maximum delivery of calicheamicin to leukaemic blast cells. Several single agent studies measured target (CD33) saturation post-MYLOTARG dose in patients with relapsed and refractory AML. Across all studies, near maximal peripheral CD33 saturation was observed post-MYLOTARG dose at all dose levels of 2 mg/m2 and above, suggesting that a low dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin is sufficient to bind all available CD33 sites. The efficacy and safety of MYLOTARG were evaluated in a multicentre, randomised, open-label Phase 3 study comparing the addition of MYLOTARG to a standard chemotherapy induction regimen of daunorubicin and cytarabine (DA) versus DA alone. Eligible patients were between 50 and 70 years of age with previously untreated de novo AML (Study ALFA-0701). Patients with acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL, AML3) and patients with AML arising from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or secondary AML were excluded from the study. The primary endpoint was event-free survival (EFS). The secondary endpoints included CR and CRp rates, relapse-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), and safety of the combination DA with or without MYLOTARG. In total, 271 patients were randomised in this study with 135 to induction treatment of 3+7 DA plus fractionated 3 mg/m2 × 3 doses of MYLOTARG and 136 to 3+7 DA alone (see section 4.2). A second course of induction therapy with DA but without MYLOTARG, regardless of the randomisation arm, was allowed. Patients in either arm who did not receive the second course of induction therapy and did not achieve a CR after induction could receive a salvage course comprised of idarubicin, AraC, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Patients with CR or CRp received consolidation therapy with 2 courses of treatment including DNR and AraC with or without MYLOTARG according to their initial randomisation. Patients who experienced remission were also eligible for allogeneic transplantation. An interval of at least 2 months between the last dose of MYLOTARG and transplantation was recommended. Overall, the median age of patients was 62 years (range 50 to 70 years) and most patients (87.8%) had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) of 0 to 1 at baseline. Baseline characteristics were balanced between treatment arms with the exception of gender as a higher percentage of males were enrolled in the MYLOTARG arm (54.8%) than in the DA alone arm (44.1%). Overall, 59.0% and 65.3% of patients had documented favourable/intermediate risk disease by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and European LeukaemiaNet (ELN) 2010 risk classifications, respectively. CD33 expression on AML blasts by flow cytometry harmonised from local laboratory results was determined in 194/271 (71.6%) patients overall. Few patients (13.7%) had low CD33 expression (less than 30% of blasts). The trial met its primary objective of demonstrating that MYLOTARG added in fractionated doses (3 mg/m2 × 3) to standard induction chemotherapy for patients with previously untreated de novo AML resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in EFS. Median EFS was 17.3 months (95% CI: 13.4, 30.0) in the MYLOTARG arm versus 9.5 months (95% CI: 8.1, 12.0) in the DA alone arm; hazard ratio (HR) 0.562 (95% CI: 0.415, 0.762); 2-sided p=0.0002 by log-rank test. Efficacy data from ALFA-0701 study are summarised in Table 7, and the Kaplan-Meier plot for EFS is shown in Figure 1. Based on the primary definition of EFS: event dates (induction failure, relapse, or death) determined by investigator assessment. The mITT population included all patients who were randomised, unless withdrawal of consent prior to start of treatment and were analysed according to initial randomisation arm. Abbreviations: CR=complete remission; CRp=complete remission with incomplete platelet recovery; CI=confidence interval; EFS=event-free survival; mITT=modified intent-to-treat; n=number; N=number; NE= not estimable; OS=overall survival; RFS=relapse-free survival. a. Median estimated by Kaplan-Meier method; CI based on the Brookmeyer-Crowley method with log-log transformation. b. Estimated from Kaplan-Meier curve. Probability (%) calculated by the product-limit method; CI calculated from the log-log transformation of survival probability using a normal approximation and the Greenwood formula. c. Based on the Cox proportional hazards model Versus daunorubicin + cytarabine. d. 2-sided p-value from the log-rank test. e. Response defined as CR+CRp. f. Overall response difference; CI based on Santner and Snell method. g. Based on Fisher's exact test. Abbreviations: C=cytarabine; D=daunorubicin; GO=gemtuzumab ozogamicin; mITT=modified intent-to-treat. In subgroup analyses in ALFA-0701, the addition of MYLOTARG to standard combination chemotherapy did not improve EFS in the subgroup of patients having adverse-risk cytogenetics (HR 1.11; 95% CI: 0.63, 1.95). EFS and OS analysed by cytogenetic risk classification and cytogenetic/molecular risk classification are presented in Table 8 and Table 9 below. The ALFA-0701 trial was not designed to prospectively evaluate the benefit of MYLOTARG in subgroups; analysis are presented for descriptive purposes only. Abbreviations: AML =acute myeloid leukaemia; CI=confidence interval; EFS=event-free survival; ELN=European LeukaemiaNet; mITT=modified intent-to-treat; n=number; N=number; NE=not estimable. a. Median estimated by Kaplan-Meier method; CI based on the Brookmeyer and Crowley Method with log-log transformation. b. Based on the Cox Proportional Hazards Model Versus daunorubicin+cytarabine. c. 2-sided p-value from the log-rank test. Hazard ratio [95% CI]Error! Reference source not found. b. Based on the Cox Proportional Hazards Model Versus daunorubicin + cytarabine. In a randomised study (COG AAML0531) that evaluated standard chemotherapy alone or combined with MYLOTARG in 1,022 newly diagnosed children (94.3% of patients < 18 years of age), and young adults (5.7% of patients); median age was 9.7 years (range: 0.003-29.8 years), patients with de novo AML were randomly assigned to either standard 5-course chemotherapy alone or to the same chemotherapy with 2 doses of MYLOTARG (3 mg/m2/dose) administered once in induction Course 1 and once in intensification Course 2. The study demonstrated that addition of MYLOTARG to intensive chemotherapy improved EFS (3 years: 53.1% versus 46.9%; HR 0.83; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.99; p=0.04) in de novo AML owing to a reduced relapse risk, with a trend towards longer OS in the MYLOTARG arm which was not statistically significant (3 years: 69.4% versus 65.4%; HR 0.91; 95% CI: 0.74, 1.13; p=0.39). However, it was also found that increased toxicity (post-remission toxic mortality) was observed in patients with low-risk AML which was attributed to the prolonged neutropenia that occurred after receiving gemtuzumab ozogamicin during intensification Course 2 (see sections 4.2 and 4.8). Thus, the optimal dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin for paediatric patients was not established (see section 4.2). Gemtuzumab ozogamicin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) composed of CD33-directed monoclonal antibody (hP67.6) that is covalently linked to the cytotoxic agent N-acetyl-gamma calicheamicin. The pharmacokinetics (PK) of gemtuzumab ozogamicin is described by measuring PK characteristics of the antibody (hP67.6) as well as total and unconjugated calicheamicin derivatives. Given that the hP67.6 portion renders target selectivity on the intact molecule, and that gemtuzumab ozogamicin dosages are reported in terms of milligrams of protein (hP67.6), the hP67.6 concentration results are reported as the primary PK measures. After gemtuzumab ozogamicin binds to the target it is internalised and N-acetyl calicheamicin is released by hydrolytic cleavage. Determination of PK parameters for unconjugated calicheamicin was limited due to the low systemic concentration levels. No clinical PK data have been collected using the fractionated regimen; however, the PK have been simulated using the population PK model. Although the total dose of the fractionated dosing regimen is half of that of the original dosing regimen (9 versus 18 mg/m2), the predicted total AUC of hP67.6 over the course of treatment is 25%, and Cmax is 24%, of the values for original 9 mg/m2 dosing regimen, since the PK is nonlinear. When gemtuzumab ozogamicin is administered at 3 mg/m2 on Days 1, 4, and 7, the Cmax of hP67.6, which would occur at the end of infusion, is predicted to be 0.38 mg/L following the first dose and increased to 0.63 mg/L after the third dose. In vitro, the binding N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide to human plasma proteins is approximately 97%. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide is a substrate of P-glycoprotein (P-gp). In patients, the total volume of distribution of hP67.6 antibody (sum of V1 [10 L] and V2 [15 L]) was found to be approximately 25 L. The primary metabolic pathway of gemtuzumab ozogamicin is anticipated to be hydrolytic release of N acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide. In vitro studies demonstrated that N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide is extensively metabolised, primarily via nonenzymatic reduction of the disulphide moiety. The activity (cytotoxicity) of the resultant metabolites is expected to be significantly attenuated. In patients, unconjugated calicheamicin plasma levels were typically low, with a predicted mean Cmax of 1.5 ng/mL following the third dose. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide is primarily metabolised via nonenzymatic reduction. Therefore, coadministration of gemtuzumab ozogamicin with inhibitors or inducers of cytochrome P450 (CYP) or uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) drug metabolising enzymes are unlikely to alter exposure to N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide. Based on population pharmacokinetic (PK) analyses, the combination of gemtuzumab ozogamicin with hydroxyurea, DNR, and AraC is not predicted to cause clinically meaningful changes in the PK of hP67.6 or unconjugated calicheamicin. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide and gemtuzumab ozogamicin had a low potential to inhibit the activities of CYP1A2, CYP2A6 (tested only using gemtuzumab ozogamicin), CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4/5 at clinically relevant concentrations. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide and gemtuzumab ozogamicin had a low potential to induce the activities of CYP1A2, CYP2B6, and CYP3A4 at clinically relevant concentrations. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide had a low potential to inhibit the activities of UGT1A1, UGT1A4, UGT1A6, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7 at clinically relevant concentrations. In vitro, N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin dimethyl hydrazide had a low potential to inhibit the activities of P-gp, breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), bile salt export pump (BSEP), multidrug resistance associated protein (MRP) 2, multidrug and toxin extrusion protein (MATE)1 and MATE2K, organic anion transporter (OAT)1 and OAT3, organic cation transporter (OCT)1 and OCT2, and organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP)1B1 and OATP1B3 at clinically relevant concentrations. Based on population pharmacokinetic (PK) analyses, the combination of gemtuzumab ozogamicin with DNR and AraC is not predicted to cause clinically meaningful changes in the PK of these agents. Based on Population PK analyses, the predicted clearance (CL) value of hP67.6 from plasma was 3 L/h immediately after the first dose and then 0.3 L/h. The terminal plasma half-life (t½) for hP67.6 was predicted to be approximately 160 hours for a typical patient at the recommended dose level (3 mg/m2) of MYLOTARG. Based on a population PK analysis, age, race, and gender did not significantly affect gemtuzumab ozogamicin disposition. No formal PK studies of gemtuzumab ozogamicin have been conducted in patients with hepatic impairment. Based on a population PK analysis, the clearance of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (hP67.6 antibody and unconjugated calicheamicin) is not expected to be affected by mild hepatic impairment status, as defined by National Cancer Institute Organ Dysfunction Working Group (NCI ODWG). The analysis included 406 patients in the following NCI ODWG impairment status categories: mild (B1, n=58 and B2, n=19), moderate (C, n=6), and normal hepatic function (n=322) (see section 4.2). No formal PK studies of gemtuzumab ozogamicin have been conducted in patients with renal impairment. Based on a population PK analysis in 406 patients, the clearance of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in patients with mild renal impairment (creatinine clearance [CLcr] 60-89 mL/min; n=149) or moderate renal impairment (CLcr 30-59 mL/min; n=47), was similar to patients with normal renal function (CLcr ≥ 90 mL/min; n=209). The PK of gemtuzumab ozogamicin has not been studied in patients with severe renal impairment. The results of the population modelling showed that the PK behaviour of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (hP67.6 antibody and unconjugated calicheamicin) is similar between adult and paediatric AML patients following the 9 mg/m2 dosing regimen. The main toxicities occurred in the liver, bone marrow and lymphoid organs, haematology parameters (decreased RBC mass and WBC counts, mainly lymphocytes), kidney, eye and male and female reproductive organs. Effects on liver, kidney and male reproductive organs in rats, and on lymphoid tissues in monkeys (approximately 18 times for rats, and 36 times for monkeys, the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2 based on AUC168) were not reversible. Effects on female reproductive organs and the eye in monkeys were adverse in the 12-week study (approximately 193 and 322 times, respectively, the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2 based on AUC168). The relevance of the irreversible animal findings to humans is uncertain. Nervous system effects have not been observed in animals after administration of MYLOTARG. Nervous system alterations were identified in rats with other antibody-calicheamicin conjugates. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin was found to be clastogenic. This is consistent with the known induction of DNA breaks by calicheamicin and other enediyne antitumour antibiotics. N-acetyl gamma calicheamicin DMH (the released cytotoxin) was found to be mutagenic and clastogenic. Formal carcinogenicity studies have not been conducted with gemtuzumab ozogamicin. In toxicity studies, rats developed preneoplastic lesions (minimal to slight oval cell hyperplasia) in the liver approximately 54 times, the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2 based on AUC168). There were no preneoplastic or neoplastic lesions observed in monkeys up to approximately 115 times the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2 based on AUC168). The relevance of these animal findings to humans is uncertain. In a female rat fertility study slightly lower numbers of corpora lutea and increased embryolethality were observed in the presence of maternal toxicity (approximately 9.7 times, the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2 based on AUC168). Effects on the reproductive tract of female monkeys were observed in the 12-week study (atrophy of the ovary, oviduct, uterus, and cervix; approximately 193 times the human clinical exposure after the third dose of 3 mg/m2). In a male fertility study, effects on male reproduction included lower spermatogonia and spermatocytes, decreases in testicular spermatids and epididymal sperm, vacuolation of the nucleus in spermatids, and/or appearance of giant cells. Additional findings included effects on the testes, epididymides and mammary gland as well as fertility. When male rats were mated again after a 9-week non-dosing period, effects on sperm and fertility were worse but there was partial recovery of the lower spermatogonia and spermatocytes in the testes. Effects on male rat reproductive organs were partially reversible or not reversible (see section 4.6). Male reproductive effects (testes, epididymides, seminal vesicles) in monkeys were observed at approximately 66 times the human clinical exposure after the third dose of 3 mg/m2). In an embryo-foetal toxicity study lower foetal body weight, higher incidence of foetal wavy ribs, and lower incidence of foetal skeletal ossification were observed. Increased embryolethality and foetal morphological anomalies included digital malformations, absence of the aortic arch, anomalies in the long bones in the forelimbs, misshapen scapula, absence of a vertebral centrum, and fused sternebrae. Increased embryolethality was also observed in the presence of maternal toxicity. The lowest dose with embryo-foetal effects correlated with 9.7 times the human clinical exposure after the third human dose of 3 mg/m2, based on AUC168 (see section 4.6). Following reconstitution and dilution, the solution should be protected from light and should be used immediately. If the product cannot be used immediately, the diluted solution may be stored up to 18 hours in a refrigerator (2°C–8°C) from the time of initial vial puncture with not more than 6 hours at room temperature (below 25°C). This includes the time required for reconstitution, dilution, and administration. Store the vial in the original carton to protect from light. Amber Type 1 glass vial, with butyl rubber stopper and crimp seal with flip-off cap containing 5 mg gemtuzumab ozogamicin. Use appropriate aseptic technique for the reconstitution and dilution procedures. MYLOTARG is light sensitive and should be protected from ultraviolet light during reconstitution, dilution, and administration. • Calculate the dose (mg) of MYLOTARG required. • Prior to reconstitution, allow the vial to reach room temperature (below 25°C) for approximately 5 minutes. Reconstitute each 5 mg vial with 5 mL of water for injections to obtain a single-use solution of 1 mg/mL of gemtuzumab ozogamicin. • Inspect the reconstituted solution for particulates and discolouration. The reconstituted solution may contain small white to off-white, opaque to translucent, and amorphous to fibre-like particles. • MYLOTARG contains no bacteriostatic preservatives. • If the reconstituted solution cannot be used immediately, it may be stored in the original vial for up to 6 hours in a refrigerator (2°C-8°C) with not more than 3 hours at room temperature (below 25°C). Protect from light and do not freeze. • Calculate the required volume of the reconstituted solution needed to obtain the appropriate dose according to patient body surface area. Withdraw this amount from the vial using a syringe. Mylotarg vials contain 5 mg of drug product with no overfill. When reconstituted to a 1 mg/mL concentration as directed, the extractable content of the vial is 4.5 mg (4.5 mL). Protect from light. Discard any unused reconstituted solution left in the vial. o Doses less than 3.9 mg must be prepared for administration by syringe. Add the reconstituted MYLOTARG solution to a syringe with sodium chloride 9 mg/mL (0.9%) solution for injection to a final concentration between 0.075 mg/mL to 0.234 mg/mL. Protect from light. o Doses greater than or equal to 3.9 mg are to be diluted in a syringe or an IV bag in an appropriate volume of sodium chloride 9 mg/mL (0.9%) solution for injection to ensure a final concentration between 0.075 mg/mL to 0.234 mg/mL. Protect from light. • Following dilution with sodium chloride 9 mg/mL (0.9%) solution for injection, MYLOTARG solution should be infused immediately. If not used immediately, store at room temperature (below 25°C) for up to 6 hours, which includes the 2-hour infusion time and 1 hour, if needed, to allow the refrigerated diluted solution to equilibrate to room temperature (below 25°C). The diluted solution can be refrigerated at 2°C-8°C for up to 12 hours. Protect from light and do not freeze. • It is recommended that the infusion container be made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with DEHP, or polyolefin (polypropylene and/or polyethylene). • Filtration of the diluted solution is required. An in-line, low protein-binding 0.2 micron polyethersulphone (PES) filter must be used for infusion of MYLOTARG. • Doses administered by syringe must utilize small bore infusion lines (microbore) with an in-line, low protein-binding 0.2 micron polyethersulphone (PES) filter. • During the infusion, the intravenous bag or syringes needs to be protected from light using a light (including ultraviolet light) blocking cover. The infusion line does not need to be protected from light. • Infuse the diluted solution for 2 hours. Infusion lines made of PVC (DEHP- or non DEHP-containing), or polyethylene are recommended. See also section 6.3 for dilution, storage, and infusion information. Toxic waste disposal procedures prescribed for anticancer medicinal products must be used. Detailed information on this medicinal product is available on the website of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) http://www.emea.europa.eu/.

2019-04-18T10:26:23Z

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/9151

Bucket-for-URLs updated to v1.7. See Post #17. (v1.7) Added a right-click option to the 'GO TO WEB PAGE' button, to use an alternate web browser other than the default. The program window height has been reduced to accommodate sharing the screen with my 'KindEbook Wishlist' program, plus window height can now be manually resized within limits, with mouse. AZWDrop updated to v2.2 - Just an update for the Dropbox part of the program, so still requires AZWPlug itself. See Post #3. Added a 'RUN the AZWPlug program' right-click menu option. The Query for skipping files can now be set to bypass while the program is running. AZWDrop updated to v2.3 as part of AZWPlug v4.0 (also updated). See Post #3. A major improvement has occurred to AZWPlug (see bold text below). Source ebook file can now be checked using Calibre's ebook-meta.exe program file, if calibre is installed and set in AZWPlug. This means automation is full, for detecting Title and Author etc, and requires minimal user editing. The dropbox has new features to compliment this, and now has the ability to jump to a specific number on the unlisted list. Added an 'About' right-click menu option to the Dropbox. Also a 'Skip' option for ebooks you might always skip, never intending to ADD to the database or send to calibre from AZWPlug. A 'Reset' option to restore those skipped ebooks was also added. Added a 'Count of ebook files' right-click menu option, that also reports total size of 'Kindle Content' folder. Skipped ebook files are not part of the total count of unlisted ebooks. Added a 'RUN the AZWPlug program' right-click menu option. The Query for skipping files can now be set to bypass while the program is running. Added a CTRL with the NO option, to skip to a specified number for unlisted ebooks. Coupled with that, if AZWPlug has an entry for an existing calibre executable, then the 'ebook-meta.exe' found in the same folder, can be used to get Title and Author, and display that to help with deciding when to add an ebook. Enable the dropbox right-click 'Use calibre to GET the TITLE' option, to use that feature. NOTES - Not sure why I overlooked the better parse method (newly added Method 0) ages ago, as I have certainly been using various calibre CLI programs for a good while, both in this program and in some of the complimentary ones. Anyway, it has been remedied now. You can blame a feature of the Dropbox, to make me see the light. Method 0 is not enabled by default, so go into settings via the Database Viewer window, and de-select any other method that is the default (click its radio button). Or you can temporarily try it out from the Results Window. AZWDrop updated to v2.4 - Just an update for the Dropbox part of the program, so still requires AZWPlug itself. See Post #3. BUGFIX for 'ebook-meta.exe' option not switching off (oops). Added some new right-click options to the drop zone ... EXIT and RUN the CALIBRE program and SAVE a List of the UNLISTED to file. That last option is particularly helpful (for me anyway). I have just created another ebook related program, though not specifically related to the KindEbook Suite, so not included here. It is complimentary to it though. AZWDrop updated to v2.5 - Just an update for the Dropbox part of the program, so still requires AZWPlug itself. See Post #3. Added a screenshot of Dropbox menu. Added a right-click option to 'OPEN the SAVED List file location'. The 'About' and 'EXIT' right-click options swapped position. Added a right-click option to 'RUN the UpdateFromOPF program'. AZWDrop updated to v2.6 - Just an update for the Dropbox part of the program, so still requires AZWPlug itself. See Post #3. Added a 'Start At' number Inputbox query element, for saving unlisted ebooks to a list file. It is now possible to see what ebook was last added, using the 'LAST ebook ADDED to Database' right-click option. The 'PASTE from clipboard' option has been relocated, to the first right-click option. NOTES - Of course many of these great new features, are kind of only really handy, when you let yourself fall far behind, like I have, with my cataloging. And where you at least want to stay up-to-date with paid for ebooks, the freebies not so much ... and I have way too many of the freebies ... though I have been getting far less of them in the last few weeks, due to Amazon changing what is shown on a book's web page (usually no sub page row of links at all now, author's aside ... or just a handful in a column at bottom left). LOL - Perhaps they realized my plight ........ or more likely, got sick of all my browsing and grabbing freebies only ... it may have worried them ... or mucked up their stats. I have had to update two of the KindEbook Suite programs, due to a conversion issue I discovered recently (last few days). Basically, an AZW3 or MOBI ebook file, when converted to EPUB, doesn't always end up with a cover displaying in the Calibre Ebook Viewer, and I imagine this also is the case for ebook devices etc. This occurs sometimes, even when an image file exists in the source and can be found in the 'Images' folder inside the resulting EPUB file. I used the wonderful Epub editing/creating program Sigil, to confirm this. NOTE - For those who don't know, an EPUB file is very much like a ZIP file, and contains HTML files and folders, some of which contain CSS and Images etc. Anyway, clearly something is wrong with the way the cover image has been set or specified in these instances. If the source was an AZW3 file, then the MOBI file which it is also converted to does correctly show the Cover image. That must mean, that it is somehow something related with the conversion to EPUB ... maybe the cover is wrongly specified in the source AZW3 file, but somehow not an issue when converted to MOBI. Or maybe the image file itself has some factor at play (not supported in an EPUB file). This is with ebooks already added to calibre, and which have a 'cover.jpg' file in the ebook folder, which was extracted from the source (AZW3 or MOBI) file, when the ebook was added to the calibre database. Clearly calibre can detect and extract the embedded image to file. You can see in the notes for each program below, how I have dealt with this issue. I admit though, that though my fixes work, I am not entirely happy with having to do them the way I have. Basically, with the first program, Batch Ebook Convert, I am removing the cover image from every conversion to EPUB, and then embedding the 'cover.jpg' file. This is because I have not found a calibre command to report on any embedded image file. If I could do that, then I would only embed where necessary. With Add Book & All Formats To Calibre, I have added an option to the FIND window GUI, to deal with EPUB ebooks that have already been converted and need fixing. Using drag & drop, you are basically adding or replacing the cover image with the 'cover.jpg' file found in the ebook's folder. Batch Ebook Convert updated, to v1.3, see Post #41. New screenshot. Added an 'Open' button for the 'Calibre Library'. Some buttons resized, and the 'Log' button shrunk and relocated, to accommodate the new 'Open' button. Added a method to overcome the issue in some EPUB files, where the cover exists but does not show. NOTE - This uses some calibre options during conversion to EPUB, to remove the first found cover image, and replace it with the extracted image 'cover.jpg' (if it exists), that calibre created during the ADD ebook process. Add Book & All Formats To Calibre updated to v2.9, see Post #4. Two new screenshots. Improved (fixed) the waiting for calibre to start process, with regard to using the FIND popup window. NOTE - Somehow reasoning was back the front (perhaps due to a copy & paste being interrupted, before code was adjusted ... two flawed sections fixed). FIND window widened to accommodate the new FIX COVER button, which also means the FIND button was widened and reduced in height (NOTE - You may need to reposition the FIND window and save that). If an ebook Title has unwanted text, the Author name now shows as red text in the FIND window input field. FIX COVER button with dropbox, has now been added for embedding the 'cover.jpg' file, into an accompanying drag & dropped EPUB ebook file. The Author number to jump to with NEXT or BACK buttons, can now be specified in the new input field, at right of Author name on the FIND window. Upon further reflection, I have had a rethink in regard to the Cover Image issue mentioned etc in the previous post. With regards to Batch Ebook Convert, which now by default, replaces or adds any existing 'cover.jpg' into the conversion to EPUB process ... embeds it. I now think it would be best, if I leave what occurs, up to the user, and just provide three options. The first option, is to not do anything, just go with whatever calibre does automatically. With the result of that, if the user then wants to add or fix a missing cover image in the EPUB file, they can use something like the wonderful Sigil to do so .... or they can use the FIX COVER option in my Add Book & All Formats To Calibre program. The second option, is to do the other thing that is available to us, and just have the 'cover.jpg' file embedded anyway, regardless of whether a working cover image already exists. That will mean, that most (at least in my experience) EPUB conversions will contain two cover images. Overkill and a bit 'B' grade to say the least, but perhaps the easiest solution of all. The EPUB will be slightly bigger of course, dependent on the file size of the 'cover.jpg' file. In this day and age of large storage, that last is probably a non-issue. The third option of course, is the one I currently have implemented, and is discussed in some detail in the previous post above. So stay tuned for an update to Batch Ebook Convert, which I shall work on shortly and provide soon, which will provide those 3 options. P.S. No doubt I need to discuss this issue with calibre again, with Kovid Goyal. Last time I mentioned it, was in passing, while discussing something else, and I did not have any good examples at hand, and he was not aware of the issue. That was maybe 9 months to a year ago. Add Book & All Formats To Calibre does log the fixed epubs, so I now have a record to refer to. The only other issue, of course, is access to the ebook in question, so I need to check that whatever sample I give is still a DRM-Free freebie at Amazon. At the moment, the problem EPUBs I am discovering, were obtained from Amazon a few months ago ... me having a huge backlog to still work through. Many of those DRM-Free freebies are no longer so. Batch Ebook Convert updated, to v1.4, see Post #41. Three new screenshots. See previous two posts for a complete explanation of recent additions and changes. Added a Splash image that appears when a list entry is clicked, if a 'cover.jpg' file is found in the same folder as the OPF file. Moving the mouse or clicking its left button closes the splash image. Program Information and Open Calibre Library folder buttons have been shrunk to accommodate the new 'Program Options' button. The method added in v1.3 has now become optional, and one of three choices, available on the new 'Program Options' window. Some very minor bugfixes also applied. NOTE - Showing the splash Cover Image, can be turned off on the 'Program Options' window. AZWDrop updated to v2.7 - Just an update for the Dropbox part of the program, so still requires AZWPlug itself. See Post #3. Added an ability (with CTRL held down) to Jump to a specific number after current ebook is processed, so for YES now as well as NO. Holding SHIFT down when closing the AZWPlug program, stops the AZWDrop program parsing the next unlisted ebook entry. BUGFIX for meta info saved to Settings.ini for last ebook added to database (carriage returns are stripped or replaced). AZWPlug updated, to v4.3, see Post #3. A few great updates rolled into one upload, and makes a large growing list easier to manage. This includes AZWDrop v2.7. Four more right-click options for the Listview have been added (Classic, Comic, Non-Fiction, Show Status For All). Navigation arrow button for UP and DOWN with the List items, has one more right-click option (Enable for CLASSIC). Bugfixes for 'Check Status' and arrow button focus (with colored surround). 'About' dialog has been updated. The black LOAD label if clicked, will load the currently selected list. 'Paid' and 'Freebie' can now be cleared by reselecting, and when set, show different colored lines (orange for Freebie, green for Paid), that are temporary only (cleared by sort/loading). Two more right-click options for the Listview have been added (Check, About). Navigation arrow button for UP and DOWN with the List items, has two more right-click options, for enabling that button to be used to set 'Paid' or 'Freebie' (then move to next item). LOAD button has been changed to LOAD the selected List option combo (Full, Paid, Free), with 'Paid' and 'Freebie' right-click menu options added for the Listview, to assign a selected ebook as either 'Paid' or 'Free'. 'Paid' is the default if nothing assigned. UpdateFromOPF updated, to v2.9 , see Post #5. A few updates rolled into one upload. Added a CTRL option to the FIX button, so that any alpha text separated by a space in the Author name is converted to uppercase if less than 3 characters. You can now use CTRL (copy) or SHIFT (move) with the '2 - Comment' button, to do a partial or full restore to the 'Title' input field (based on colon, dash, bracket or none). Added CIA, FBI, MI5, USA to Titlecase abbreviations. Trailing punctuation in an ebook title is now removed, during copy to Comment or Titlecase. Add Book & All Formats To Calibre updated to v3.5, see Post #4. (v3.5) Added support for importing KFX and AZW files. (v3.4) More tricky text elements (non standard characters) catered for and now supported by two new input fields on the SETUP window (accessed via Program Information dialog), so that the user can add their own replacements at need, when troubleshooting FIND issues. (v3.3) More improvements to the 'Find' process, with both "(EXISTED)" and "(FAILED)" removed from title if electing to continue anyway. Exact match for find is now required. (v3.2) Improvements to 'Fix Cover' dropbox, including an option to create a sub-folder for the backup file, named 'Original'. (v3.1) Improvements to the 'Find' process, tricky text elements. (v3.0) FIND window now has a 'Manual' positioning option. FIND window is now minimized when 'Fix Cover' dropbox is activated. NOTE - Because I had never gotten around to uploading updates newer than v2.9, I have also uploaded v3.4, especially as changes to support KFX files may not be desired by some. KindEbook Wishlist updated to v6.6, see Post #2. (v6.6) Added some User file size reductions, by creating 'Summaries' and 'Prices' folders, and populating them with text files, that are named by ebook ISBN, and contain those elements extracted & removed from each User file (i.e. B00K000001.txt). The current User will be prompted to allow these new changes to occur (which is highly recommended). (v6.5) Added a right-click menu SAVE option, for saving the URL for current or ALL users ebooks to an INI file. NOTE - The default save file 'URLs.ini' can be relocated for use with my new 'Booklist To HTML' program, to turn the MOBI-ASIN text HTML entry into a link. AZWPlug updated, to v4.9, see Post #3. This includes AZWDrop v2.9. (v4.9) Just a simple update to a new way of doing some elements. The files 'Dropbox.exe' and 'Registry.a3x' (formerly Registry.au3), are now embedded in 'AZWPlug.exe', and extracted if missing or updated. (v4.8) Dropbox updated to v2.9 (see History.txt). #RequireAdmin implemented in secondary script for Registry modifications. Better optional support for KFX. Made some changes to UP button right-click menu entries, including adding 3 new ones. (v4.7) A complex update, with some support added for KFX files (i.e. KFX-ZIP). 'NO' is now the default button choice for running the Dropbox. Dropbox updated to v2.8, so please look at that section below for important details. BUGFIX for GUISetState. (v4.6) More right-click options for the Listview have been added, that deal with the new 'Latest' list feature. Every time a new ebook is added to the database, it is also added to the 'Latest' list, to allow recalling what was just added. When add/removing a Status to an ebook, that entry is now de-selected to allow the line color to show more easily. If entries exist on the 'Add To Calibre' list, then the total number is now displayed as part of the program window's title text. (v4.5) Another right-click option for the Listview has been added, which is for Saving the current Listed entries to a text file, delimited by ' :: ' (Publisher and Date excepted). (v4.4) One more right-click option for the Listview has been added (Special), which is also a new LOAD option. Program folder button added to Setup window. Slickness has been added to the 'Show Status Of All' process. NOTE - Because I have not uploaded updates in a while, I am also providing v4.6, which is the last version before major changes for KFX support etc. And even though KFX support is optional, users may prefer to have a version that is simpler. AZWDrop is a dropbox for my AZWPlug program, and runs as an independent executable, though it is run from it and interacts with it. (v2.9) Improved the KFX support in various ways, making it optional with suitable warnings. (v2.8) Added support for KFX files, which requires 7-Zip to be installed, and two Calibre plugins (KFX Input.zip, DeDRM_plugin.zip). A KFX-ZIP file is created (compiled from content) for selected ebook, to allow metadata to be read and is also used for any desired import to Calibre as a resulting KFX file. (v2.7) Added an ability (with CTRL held down) to Jump to a specific number after current ebook is processed, so for YES now as well as NO. Holding SHIFT down when closing the AZWPlug program, stops the AZWDrop program parsing the next unlisted ebook entry. BUGFIX for meta info saved to Settings.ini for last ebook added to database (carriage returns are stripped or replaced). (v2.6) Added a 'Start At' number Inputbox query element, for saving unlisted ebooks to a list file. It is now possible to see what ebook was last added, using the 'LAST ebook ADDED to Database' right-click option. The 'PASTE from clipboard' option has been relocated, to the first right-click option. (v2.5) Added a right-click option to 'OPEN the SAVED List file location'. 'About' and 'EXIT' right-click options swapped position. Added a right-click option to 'RUN the UpdateFromOPF program'. (v2.4) BUGFIX for 'ebook-meta.exe' option not switching off (oops). Added some new right-click options to the drop zone ... EXIT, RUN the CALIBRE program, SAVE a List of the UNLISTED to file. That last option is particularly helpful (for me anyway). (v2.3) Added a CTRL with the NO option, to skip to a specified number for unlisted ebooks. Coupled with that, if AZWPlug has an entry for an existing calibre executable, then the 'ebook-meta.exe' found in the same folder, can be used to get Title and Author, and display that to help with deciding when to add an ebook. Enable the dropbox right-click 'Use calibre to GET the TITLE' option, to use that feature. Added support for AZWPlug v4.0, and the new Method 0. (v2.2) Added a 'RUN the AZWPlug program' right-click menu option. The Query for skipping files can now be set to bypass while the program is running. (v2.1) Added a 'Count of ebook files' right-click menu option, that also reports total size of 'Kindle Content' folder. Changed the way ebook files are skipped, so they are no longer part of the total count of unlisted ebooks. (v2.0) Added an 'About' right-click menu option with above description. Also a 'Skip' option for ebooks you might always skip, never intending to ADD to the database or send to calibre from AZWPlug. Reset option to restore those skipped ebooks also added. UpdateFromOPF updated, to v3.3 , see Post #5. A few updates rolled into one upload. (v3.3) Added a Job Number change option, with SAVE button moved a little to accommodate. Ebook Cover relocated and enlarged and Comments field reduced to accommodate. (v3.2) Added a check & report for space(s) when there are initials in an Author Name. This is NOT on by default, but can be set so in the 'Settings.ini' file. You would enable this if you care about how the spaces occur. Typically I only like a space between initials and the author name, not between initials themselves. (v3.1) Added ' - ' as the final separator check for splitting the book title text to get Series, plus if no separator is found the full book title text is used for the Series name. Alternate dash is now also used as a separator if found, for Comments and Series. Added a separator query for Comments. (v3.0) Added a Job book number to the Editor title, to help keep track of the number processed (while the program is running). Batch Ebook Convert updated, to v1.7, see Post #41. (v1.7) Added support for KFX as the source file, ensuring that it is always used if it exists, with AZW being the second choice if it exists. NOTE - Calibre may require a KFX plugin etc to do the conversion. (v1.6) Added a basic (forced) 'Shutdown' option. (v1.5) Converting to Epub and Mobi, is now optionally either one or both. NOTE - These conversions only occur if the required file type is missing. NOTES - Because I have not uploaded an update for a few versions, I have also uploaded v1.6, which is the last one before support for KFX files was added, and some users may prefer that. (v2.0) BUGFIXES. Finally solved the long ongoing selection issue related to adding a new entry. Title had stopped being returned too, due to some change at Amazon or a Windows Update (still not sure what or if only for me). I've implemented a fix, helped by my good buddy TheDcoder, plus made sure that some of the URL is displayed if no title does exist. (v1.9) Added an 'Avoid' option, similar to 'Done', but the entry line colored red instead of green. This is essentially a reminder that the ebook entry has been checked and isn't desirable. Use SHIFT with an entry selection when clicking the 'CHECKING IS DONE' button, to set/unset the 'Avoid' state. (v1.8) Added support for the ORLs.ini export (saved) file from KindEbook Wishlist, which works in two ways - (1) as you select an entry on the list (marks it green and Done if exists in KindEbook Wishlist), and (2) when adding an entry via the Bucket (not added if existing in KW). I have uploaded updates today for the following programs in the Suite. All except UpdateFromOPF and Bucket-for-URLs because they don't require it, have been given support for KFX files. That means they kind of support each other in that regard. Please read the details for each update in the preceding 5 posts. Batch Create & Run, a supportive program, has also been updated to v1.3. See here. P.S. Due to the nature of KFX files, you will also currently need to visit the MobileRead Forum and acquire the required KFX related plugins through them. Please pay particular attention to the Installation section of the first post there. P.S.S. KFX files can still currently be avoided, if you wish. Information on how to do so, can be found via that topic or go straight to the following one. An adaption of an adaption. A good while back, I created a program, KindEbook Wishlist, that I use most days and is still available here at the forum. It works well, keeping tabs on price changes for Kindle ebooks at Amazon ... at least for my modest wants. About a year or so later, I struck upon the idea of adapting that program for CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays etc from the JB Hifi store, where there was a limit of about 50 items on the in-store wishlist. JB Wishlist is kind of a niche program, really only suitable for those from AUS, at the AutoIt Forum, who would want such a thing ... so not many I imagine, so it has never been available here. However, if you meet that criteria etc, and are willing to register at the AutoIt4Life Clubrooms, then it is available in the Project Chat section there ... though not the more recent updates (you need to ask me about them). That too, works quite well for my modest needs, and even includes an additional Preview & Summary window, which KindEbook Wishlist doesn't have ... though both programs do have access to a Details window per item, that is like the Preview window ... just doesn't constantly display alongside the Main program window (see later for an example with IonGoG Wishlist). So, now we come to IonGoG Wishlist, which is an adaption of the JB Wishlist program, and used for keeping tabs on GOG Games ... prices, history of changes, bought list, etc. IonGoG Wishlist is an incomplete adaption, so still in beta ... though all the really important elements work well enough. I have been working on it in dribs and drabs, and I now think it has come to a reasonable enough stage to share it ... just be advised, that some of the features accessed via the right-click menu etc, may not work or give strange results. Any of the options that I have given an Accelerator key facility to, should be working fine ... and most of the others are too ... and I am not even sure at this point, of what remains to be adapted ... not much I imagine. The name by the way, in case you were wondering, is a phonetic mangling on the words - keep an Eye On your GOG Wishlist. Here is a screenshot, with the Preview window on left. The Preview window can be placed at right instead or even turned off. I have another program that GOG users may be interested in, that can assist with getting game images that IonGoG Wishlist gets and doesn't get ... larger versions taken from modified thumbnail links in their GOG Library. In reality, compared to most stores I have come across, the GOG store is great, well setup and laid out. and for most things, including their Wishlist, is more than adequate. So I rarely do a full list Price Query ... so much quicker and easier to just check the two pages of my in-store wishlist. When I first started work on IonGoG Wishlist, the in-store wishlist wasn't as good as it is now. All that said, I still find it handy to use IonGoG Wishlist, for a variety of things - Offline browsing, Cover images to use with my bought & downloaded game folders, price changes history (and patterns of GOG behavior for sales etc), a bought list (with price I paid and date etc), Game Notes & Warnings, etc. And while not as quick as just checking the pages of your in-store wishlist, you can just set the full, favorites or non-favorites Query going, while you go away and do something else, and then later come back and look at the highlighted changes that may have occurred. Formerly known as KindEbook Price Query. Reading some sections of the previous topic could be helpful. There is also a Disclaimer reference etc. See Post #51 for information about the Bonus program (AZWPlug). See Post #96 for Instructions & Screenshots for Bonus program (Add Book & All Formats To Calibre). Added a 'Both' option to the Search category dropdown, though it only works for selection display, plus copy to clipboard with the new clipboard button. Star button relocated to left of selection display (input) field, with the new clipboard button taking its prior location at right. NOTE - This now provides a quick easy way to copy Author &/or Title text for the selected entry, to the clipboard. Added a 'Simple' option to the Search category dropdown, which justs finds the specified text in the chosen column (Title or Author), and selects that row. Search starts at the selected entry and will wrap around at need. The Clipboard button, can now be set in the program settings (or used with CTRL), to minimize the program window when clicked. Moved the right-click 'Save the Ebook list to file' option to a sub-menu entry, and added a 'Save to List for Excel' option there to, which is mostly just for my specific personal use, but others might find it useful (includes SHIFT+X accelerator key usage). NOTES - This new feature assists me, when I want to add new entries to my Booklist.xls file (in batch mode). It just helps to quickly create the basic entries, which I then flesh out later at my leisure, and helps avoid a lot of repetitive clicking. Used in conjunction with my related Excel macros. A bugfix for duplicate title issue - I had not realized that a failure due to a duplicate was based solely on a title match. All duplicates are now added unless an ID match occurs. VIEW button can now view a saved specified format. Improved the Copy/Move input box dimensions, to more easily accommodate long titles. Mode for troubleshooting (me only) has been improved, to avoid me losing my sanity again (I'd forgotten it even existed). Replaced the (last version update) new CTRL option at program start, with a 5 second dialog prompt instead. Database list can now be set not to display when starting that window, plus a LOAD button added to load that list when desired. CTRL used with the open Kindle Content folder button, will now close the program. If CTRL used when selecting the MODE on the Results window, it will just save the setting without making changes to existing results. Option added for slicker loading of list, plus alternate list lines are now pale pink. Two find options added for the Author and Title, with FIND jumping to each entry found and SHOW just displaying all found. NOTE - With LOAD deselected, the list will only show the added ebook title (if any). KindEbook Wishlist - Most controls get disabled now during a Query, plus the same occurs during an 'Exchange Rate Query'. Plus if 'Please Wait' splash is disabled for Query, then a splash is no longer shown during an 'Exchange Rate Query', with that text shown instead in both the 'Please Wait' and 'Timer' labels, which are temporarily unhidden for that purpose. The Timer label can also be reshown if hidden by the new feature, by clicking the FIND label. Mouse cursor now changes during Query and Ebook list loading etc, to indicate when busy working. Extended the 'Please Wait' label to loading & sorting the Ebooks list, which also applies to any other process that re-populates or changes number of list entries (ebook removal, changing user, relocating bought, etc). Those are all dependent on the "Use a flashing 'Please Wait' ..." setting being set. NOTE - This feature was added to this and the previous version, so that having a 'Please Wait' splash displayed on top of all windows, for a lengthy period perhaps, could be avoided, if desired. The KindEbook Wishlist, is basically a compliment to your regular store wishlist, but has a history element and allows you to check current and previous prices etc in a better, quicker and more organized fashion. Essentially it assists and hopefully improves with decision making, when it comes to determining whether to make a purchase yet or not. You could compare it to manually and painfully creating something like an Excel spreadsheet for the same purpose, without the time, complexity and pain involved. You can sort by Title, Author, Current Price, Lowest Price, Add Order, Favorites, etc. You can view details - Book Description, Price Changes, etc. You can open the ebook URL in your web browser, where you can elect to make the purchase. The program supports multiple users, shared titles, shared comments and private comments, etc. After purchase, an ebook can be relocated to a bought list (per user). Price can be queried on an individual title basis or ALL titles (starting at first or selected or only favorites or not favorites). Dates are recorded for most processes, with various reporting options. I call it a wishlist on steroids. This version has been discontinued. See the new version here. MANUAL MODE+ ONLY. No longer fully working automatically for price and adding new ebooks. NOTICE - As many of you are probably aware, internal links from the old forum are no longer working in many instances, which is apparently due to how those links were created in the first place. With that in mind, all the broken links here will not be fixed by me just yet, until some time has passed and a Forum rollback is no longer likely. Downloads should be working however, except when Jon may be updating or fixing something. Here's a simple little nifty program ... well it is for me ... and maybe you, if you like to keep tabs on a certain online store's prices for those ebooks you are interested in, but are not in your price range yet. BE AWARE - This is coded using AutoIt version 3.3.0.0, an oldy but goody, so it may need modification to run or compile with later or current AutoIt. Reportedly not at this point, as all seems fine. BE ADVISED - This is not affiliated or supported or likely appreciated or even recommended by them &/or Partners. As always, use my stuff at your own risk, and I seriously suggest you check out my disclaimer on my Toolbox page (see my signature below). Basically, I haven't tested this much yet, as it is hot off the press, and no prices have changed yet for me to give the ultimate definitive test, but it should work ok ... until they change an important element that the program relies on. I've kept it pretty basic and simple, and others are welcome to add improvements, just so long as they respect me, and share here. This program is only allowed to be shared (made available for download) from the AutoIt Examples forum, until I give permission otherwise. It is a simple database, that you populate using web page links from a certain store for their ebooks. I just got mine off my Wishlist pages. It keeps a record of up to four prices for each ebook. Title, Author (or Editor), URL, Price (Start, Current, Lowest, Highest), Date (Start, Last Check), are all stored in the program's INI database. Also, what I am presuming is the ISBN, which is used to make each entry unique. If a price has changed since Start, it will be indicated by an asterisk in the number (first) column. Seller, Publishers and even Authors on occasion, like to play games with ebook prices. Hopefully this little tool, will even the odds in our favor, maybe even put us in front. (15-06-2015) The program no longer works for price and that element may remain broken. It does however still assist with any current ebooks on the list, and I may add the ability to add more ebooks, and manually paste the current price, etc. Not all is lost. (15-06-2015) I have coded a partial fix, which allows you to manually enter (copy & paste) prices. (16-06-2015) Ebooks can now be added manually. IMPORTANT - Please update from v1.1 to v1.2 or later, due to a Query bug. WARNING - Before running v1.6 (and later) for first time, you may want to read all notes. IMPORTANT - Before downloading this latest update, or if using it already, please make yourself familiar with some later information here. It may even be better to just wait for the next update, and not use this one. (v3.4) For those who have not kept up with updates since v2.0. (v3.5) For those who have kept up with updates. (v3.6) For those who have kept up with updates & First time users. (v3.7) For those who have kept up with updates & First time users. (v3.8) For those who have kept up with updates, but not First time users yet. Sources included in the zip file. (v3.9) For those who have kept up with updates, and First time users. Sources included in the zip file. (v4.0) For those who have kept up with updates, and First time users. Sources included in the zip file. IMPORTANT - See this post for extra INI entries to improve web page read for Summary (prior post explains). RECOMMENDED - Users could maybe benefit from reading various comments in Intercept Right-Click Listview Context Menu topic. (17-06-2015) (v4.0) MANUAL MODE, but with some more automation. A Query ALL can now start at the currently selected entry, via a prompt. An option to auto close current browser tab (using Ctrl + W), has been added for when getting price in manual mode. Input Box window widened slightly in ADD Ebook manual process. A delay option has been added, to allow a pause for specified seconds between queries during a Query ALL. This delay may be helpful in preventing erroneous detection as a malicious scraper. Ebook cover can now be a .jpg file, in the Image Data folder, where filename matches ISBN ID. Bugfix for whitespace in Price in manual mode (sorry about that). (16-06-2015) (v3.9) MANUAL MODE only for prices and adding ebooks. Program can now have ebooks added to it manually, when in 'manual' mode. The Timer and Wait labels are now dealt with correctly, by being hidden when not required or wanted. An Input Box is continually presented for user to manually add an Ebook's details (Title, etc). No other fix has been added yet, to deal with broken status in regard to automatic price checking. That last, also includes not automatically getting details when adding ebooks. I may do that next. (15-06-2015) (v3.8) PARTIAL FIX - Manual Price adding only. Program is broken as far as getting prices automatically from Amazon, but a 'manual' mode has been added, and set by default, but can be reset to 'automatic' in program settings. The manual mode allows you to do your usual Query (one or ALL), and presents you with an Input box to manually paste the price you have copied from the ebook webpage that has been executed. You can stop at anytime, by clicking the Cancel button. The usual Report will be displayed and any changes stored. NOTE - You cannot currently ADD any new ebooks to the list with this version, but I will address that issue soon. (13-06-2015) (v3.7) NO LONGER WORKING FOR PRICE AND ADDING NEW EBOOKS. A major update that resolves a bug, and perhaps made v4.0 (as originally planned) redundant. Bugfix for Timer Label causing a miscount of control numbers when swapping users in certain scenario. Prompt when making a Query from relocated bought ebooks user. Private Comments are now queried when copying or moving an ebook to another user, if they exist for that ebook. All Shared Comments are now stored and read from the shared file 'Comments.ini', though they still also exist in each user file for now, if no longer referenced or updated there. Any conflicts during this updating change, between users, meant comments were combined but separated by a pipe '|' character. Still advise you read v1.6 notes. NOTE - See extra comments at Post #13. This program is based on settings in that store, that are relevant to me as a customer from AUS. It also relies on a leading dollar sign at the start of each price (and other currency entry listed in INI file), which is removed during comparisons. I did not remember to include the pound sign, so if you need to, modify the source code. That last will definitely be necessary for others from other countries. I'll add any currencies advised of, in the next update. It is simple enough to change, and I may just make an INI entry, that can be modified by whoever, to suit. ADDENDUM - Relocated to Chat topic. NOTE - This program was initially considered and talked about in this Chat topic.

2019-04-25T15:47:45Z

https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/192209-kindebook-suite-bugfix-for-one/page/4/

Greetings in the Name of the Lord. My dear friends, I bring you blessings as usual. Blessed is this hour. There is so much fear, shame and separateness in the human heart! We recognize it again and again. The fear and shame are often hidden away, so that the personality is not even aware of them any more and just suffers vaguely in a continuous, gnawing pain. How sad it is to observe this, particularly because it is unnecessary. It is but a phantom, my friends. The fear and shame you are so busily hiding have no reality, and yet spoil the life you could enjoy and could use for building up your spiritual strength. I am continuing this series about the images in the human soul, for there is no person who does not have them. Such inner impressions are formed in young years, and from those impressions wrong conclusions were drawn. These very images are responsible for your suffering, for the phantoms you carry about decade after decade, and often incarnation after incarnation. You all strive for the light of God, for liberation from your chains. But how many, many, people seek this liberation by outer means such as intellectual knowledge, or by outer events, whereby it cannot possibly be achieved. The only way you can reach the freedom that you strive for is to delve into yourself. In that way you will go through a tunnel of darkness and emerge on the other side to encounter the light of true independence. Only after you have recognized your own responsibility for the darkness while passing through the tunnel—which is not an easy experience—will you have truly gained real independence. So do not seek this liberation outwardly. It is of no avail. If you have not yet found and dissolved your images you are ensnarled by them. You are constantly reenacting the drama of your own errors and wrong conclusions. You are caught in them unawares, and you repeat and repeat and repeat throughout your life, and, as I said, often through many lifetimes, what your own wrong conclusions are leading you to and actually drawing toward you. I cannot emphasize strongly enough for all my friends who have not yet really started on this search that it is worth while. This self-search is the only thing in life that matters and that will bring relief. I would like to advise all those who have not yet had such an experience to talk to those friends of mine who have already had some success in their endeavors, and whom I congratulate. For nothing can prove better what this search is all about than the experience of those who are already on the way. You may be hesitant about starting because you do not know how to go about it. You may even lack the courage to ask for advice and help. Therefore it may be wise to start by discussing this with the very friends you know so well and who have already been quite successful in this endeavor. Those who search for their images cannot help but go through confusions and upheavals for a while and encounter reluctance and resistance. But these are the very causes you have planted within yourself, and you cannot eliminate such points of suffering unless you go through them and understand their real meaning. You need to recognize the hidden significance of your erroneous defense mechanisms, no matter how much you may have consciously rationalized them. All the doubt and mistrust you have for others is in reality nothing but the distrust that you have for yourself. Remember that! Find out why you distrust yourself. You will find at the root that you do not live up to your own standards and you cannot accept this fact. So the first step must be simply to accept yourself as you happen to be at this time. I know I have said this often, but you will find it necessary to apply this truth again and again on new levels of your being. If you search successfully, you will encounter within yourself the trend of wanting to be more than you are, and that is why you feel insecure. And that is also why you doubt others. Unconsciously you reason: “Since I am not true to myself by wanting to appear better and greater, I am not trustworthy. Others probably are the same.” One always judges others according to oneself, even if this self-knowledge is not conscious. If you can truly find this inner reasoning, if you let it come out into the open, so that you can experience the entire reasoning process consciously, it will give you a great clarification. It is not enough to think that this is probably what is going on within yourself because it makes sense. It is absolutely necessary that you discover and experience this reasoning and how it works personally in your case; what it applies to; in what way you react in exactly that way. Needless to say that at first you will be reluctant to discover this within yourself. It seems much easier and more pleasant to resist and rather distrust others, and to justify your distrust with rationally well-founded arguments. But once you have overcome the resistance for the sake of truth, in the spirit of the real truth-seeker by asking: “What is actually going on in me?” then you will feel the relief and freedom that only facing one’s own truth can bring no matter how unpleasant it may at first appear, no matter how unflattering in itself it is. The self-respect you must be lacking as long as your self-contempt is hidden will automatically vanish, at least to some degree, even before you have changed your inner attitude, by the mere fact that you had the courage to face the truth within yourself. There are many factors that are important to understand, and tonight I will discuss a few more concerning images and the search for them. Often you do not understand what made you retain an impression upon which you formed a wrong conclusion. Your mind has grown up, has changed by what you have learned from your surroundings and from life. Yet, while your image is alive, you have not changed. At one time in your childhood you had a shock. When you think of a shock, you think of a sudden experience with a very strong and unexpected impact, like an accident. But a shock may also happen, particularly to a child, in a more gradual discovery that things are contrary to one’s dearest and most cherished expectations. For example, a child lives with the idea that its parents are perfect and omnipotent. When the realization dawns upon the child that this is not so, it comes as a shock, although the realization may often come by a series of events until the new discovery makes its lasting impression. When a child finds out that what it used to believe about its parents, or the world as such, is not true, it loses its security. It is frightened. The child does not like what it finds and therefore will push this unpleasant knowledge into the unconscious and, because it feels guilty, will also build defenses against what it considers a threat. Whether it happened suddenly or in a slow realization, this threat is the shock referred to. You all know that shock causes numbness. Your body, as well as your nerves and your mind, become numb, even to the extent that you lose consciousness temporarily or have other symptoms. Thus the child will experience a shock because parents, the world, or life, are not the way the child thought them to be. Although the impression that created the shock may or may not be objectively correct, still, the deduction the child is capable of making must be wrong. Because children tend to generalize, they disregard all other alternatives and project their conclusions onto all other situations. A child’s parents are its world, its universe, therefore what the child concludes after the shock must be applied to everyone else, to life in general. This is the wrong conclusion that creates the image. The image was created when the orderly world and concepts of the child were destroyed. The wrong conclusions derive, first, from the generalization. The reality is that not all people have the same shortcomings as the parents; not all conditions of life are similar to those the child discovered in its own surroundings. Second, the defense mechanism the child chooses with a limited understanding of the world is wrong as such; it is even more so when applied to people and situations other than those in the early surroundings. This, my friends, is the way images are created. But you will not remember offhand your emotions, your reactions, your inner intentions, and your conclusions. You cannot remember them because you felt the need to hide this whole procedure for its lack of rational logic, and also because you were ashamed that your parents were not what you thought they should be. In your child’s mind you assumed that your case was singular. Everyone else had perfect parents, perfect home conditions, and only you alone experienced this shocking uniqueness that had to be hidden from everyone, even from yourself, as well as, of course, from your parents or others close to you. The shame arose from the mistaken idea that your case was unique, and the whole thought and emotional process had to be hidden away because of the shame. When these processes remain hidden, part of your personality cannot grow up with the rest of your being. It could not change and adjust and learn. For only what is out in the light can grow. If a plant is left in the earth with its roots cut off, it cannot grow. It is the same with every emotional current or tendency. Therefore you should not be surprised when you discover that your image-conclusions conform not at all to your otherwise grown-up intelligence. The same process exists with animals. A dog, for example, may hear the same kind of noise every time before he receives food. After some time he will respond instantly, knowing that food is now coming. When he hears the noise, he will come to the place automatically. The dog has thus formed an image, in this case not from a shock but from repeated impressions, and drew a conclusion. Or, to use a different example: One dog is burned by a fire and gets hurt. Whenever he sees fire afterward, he will be frightened, particularly if he has been burned not only once, but several times. The image has formed that fire hurts, the conclusion made that all fire hurts. Another dog may experience fire only as something pleasant. When the fire is lit, he is with his master at the fireside. His master caresses him, has time to play with him. So this dog will not have a fire image. So you see that the same procedure works even with animals. Otherwise you could not train them. With a child it is similar. An infant or a very young child knows only the most primitive emotions. It knows what feels good or bad. It knows love and pleasure when its will is done. It knows hatred, resentment, and pain when its will is not done. It is as simple as that. Only much later in life does one learn to evaluate more objectively and not according to one’s own pain or pleasure. While your image lives, you continue the childish procedure because in that respect your mind remains childish, regardless of how much the rest of your personality has improved and learned. Your developed personality is capable of judging maturely on the intellectual level, and, in some instances where no image-currents obstruct your perception, even emotionally. But where this slow or sudden shock-impression has affected the soul, one does not assimilate the experience consciously, and therefore one’s mind remains childish. It remains in the state in which it was when the image-conclusions were formed and pushed into the unconscious. In many of my lectures, a long time before we started to discuss the images, I mentioned the term “emotional maturity.” Now you will understand better how it happens that a part of an otherwise mature being remains immature. Actually, this part continues to make the same deductions, emotionally and unconsciously, as the child had made, so long as the image is not lifted into consciousness. Thus is it possible that you discover conclusions and faulty reasoning within yourself that do not at all correspond to the rest of your person. You may find it shocking, at least for a while, to recognize the primitive way in which your inner emotional reasoning functions. Considered in the light of this explanation, you will know that part of you simply could not grow up because certain parts were left submerged in your unconscious; and you will not be surprised to find, still living within you, the child that has not assimilated what you otherwise learned. That is why images cannot be found unless one relives emotionally one’s childhood and penetrates the irrational layers of consciousness. Merely remembering is not enough. Without some procedure to make this possible, it is out of the question to find your images. That is why I have suggested certain techniques. You will find that your image-conclusions are logical in their own limited way. You may even be surprised about the reasoning faculty, faulty as it may be, that exists in your unconscious. It is the reasoning of the child living in you. This is the way you reasoned when you were perhaps ten years old or less. The tragic thing about the images is that they assume power. They will make you see and notice only certain things, connected with your image-conclusion, and in such a way that the image will be constantly supported and strengthened in later life. Your image-conclusions conflict with the grown-up desires and aims of your life, and thereby cause not only a painful discrepancy, but untold conflicts and problems with your conscious goals, as well as with the reality of life. This must be understandable to all, even if you do not believe that emotions and thoughts are forms, creating emotional magnetic fields that draw events, people, and experiences toward you. The more unconscious the emotions and the greater the complexity of thoughts, the more powerful they must be, because while unconscious they are out of your control and cannot be adjusted to reality. Thus they are inflexible and rigid. Therefore, your images and their conclusions must repeatedly bring you into situations you did not consciously ask for. But your image-conclusions necessitate them. It is very important, my friends, to understand all this. The rigidity, the unyielding nature of the images generates the following sequence of events: You want life to move according to your desires. When things do not happen as you wish, you kick and scream inside, like the baby you still are in that part of your being. This immaturity takes over wherever your image is affected. Mature beings know they can control life only by going with it, by not demanding that life follow their wishes, but following life by adjusting to it. Where you have your image, you do not adjust. You demand, and you throw a temper-tantrum inside when your demands are not met. These demands are made on very faulty premises. Therefore, you may get what you ask for, but you also get what is part of your unconscious demand. Being unconscious, you did not know of it. You want a certain thing, a way of life—whatever it may be—for its advantages, but you ignore—as the child ignored—that every advantage has a disadvantage. So when, with your insistent inner crying and demanding, you get the supposed advantage, you also get its disadvantage. You do not like the disadvantage you unconsciously asked for, and think that life has treated you unjustly. It is extremely important that you consider all this when you search for and discover your images. It will help you considerably, my friends. All this will be just words only as long as you do not go through the experience of image-finding. Once you get started, you will be able to use a lot of what I taught you constructively. It will give you a deeper, profounder understanding and will help you a step further. As I have said before, everyone who is getting close to nearing an image-recognition feels a profound shame. You do not feel shame because all of a sudden you discover something very wicked or hideous. No! You may be much more ashamed of something that is merely silly. When you formed this image, the reasoning that makes you ashamed now was in your childhood in accord with your capacity to reason and think. Only relatively is it silly. And you, intelligent human being that you are, find it difficult to reconcile yourself to the fact that such a “silly” reaction actually lives in you. You are now at the point when you recognize that this has been your faulty deduction, your wrong conclusion for years and years. Now you are quite embarrassed that this was part of your mind, below your consciousness, but still part of your mind, your reaction. It will make it easier for you to accept this if you consider that in this respect you remained a child because you left the entire reasoning process in the darkness of your unconscious. It will help also to realize that there is no one among all those you know who does not have his or her own images, and similar incongruities. If you conversed with a four to ten-year old child, you would not be surprised at such reasoning. Realize that and you will overcome your embarrassment. Consider that you are not the only one. However, most people do not realize this and keep their images covered. Therefore you certainly have a great advantage through self-awareness, knowing your own “stupidities,” while others do not know theirs. Yes, my friends, this sounds strong, but in the infant part of your soul, as compared with your conscious mind, you will discover childish stupidities. When you first search for your images, you will probably be more concerned with your inner conflicts and with the wrongness of the conclusions as such. You will review your reactions. You will reexperience the wrong emotions and compare them, in theory, with the right principles. And that is as it should be. But after you have thoroughly understood all this, much more work has to be done. You have to find out not only in what respect you have reenacted your images, going from one pattern to another, but you also should begin to evaluate everything that happened in your life; things that are apparently not at all your doing. They just happened from the “outside.” When you think of some of your life-experiences, asking “What could I possibly have had to do with that? I did not lift a finger to make it happen, it just came to me,” your everyday logic will agree. Yet, after you have found your images, you will see that every event, regardless of how out of your control it seemed, was called forth by yourself. At the first moment of discovery this may be shocking, but not necessarily. The first glimmer of recognition is often already a relief. Even if at the first moment the discovery seems preposterous and incredible, relief must always follow, for then you can clearly see the connection between your image and a happening that appeared to be random or coincidental. The moment you understand how you have directed your life, how you have caused events of which you seemed the victim, you will gain the certainty that you are not a drifting little boat tossed by the winds on a great stormy ocean. You will realize that there is no injustice, and that will make you strong and safe. You will become mature by the mere acknowledgement of the principle and the truth of self-responsibility as demonstrated in yourself. You will understand how your hitherto unconscious desires, trends, and attitudes have governed your life. But now that so much has become conscious, you will be able to control, govern, and direct your life in consciousness, and thus be the captain of your ship. In this way you will approach life with joy and strength, my dear ones. You will have a strong feeling of certainty. It will appear to you as if you had firm ground under your feet for the first time in your life. My dear friends, perhaps you have a few questions in connection with this subject, before we turn to other questions. QUESTION: How do images and complexes combine? ANSWER: A complex is a symptom, or an outcome of an image. A complex in its manifest form is a camouflage of its real content. For instance, someone may have an inferiority complex about his intelligence. This is manifest. This he thinks he knows. In reality he covers up a very different emotion of self-contempt; perhaps what I mentioned at the beginning of this lecture, that he knows he is not true to himself, that he wants to be more than he is. A complex, of course, is connected to an image. It is a part of it. It is a message that there is an image. You can easily recognize a complex, in others as in yourself. The image in your soul appears to us like a hardened form. The healthy soul where there is no image shows itself to us as a glowing form, and, like the universe, is continuously in motion. Everything is flexible and flowing. All divine forces that flow through the whole universe and also penetrate the human soul constantly flow in multicolored splendor, in harmony with the qualities, characteristics, and personal trends of the entity. But where an image exists, the forces of the human soul are hardened, constricted and twisted, and they remain rigid. Therefore all these healthy and beautiful strengths and forces of the universe that the soul needs for revival cannot penetrate, cannot enliven it. They have to flow around it and that creates a disharmony. You know that every quality is a healthy strength that mates with a corresponding strength in the universe, whereas every fault is a twisted strength. A complex too is a twisted strength, but twisted in a way other than a merely simple fault which is on the surface. It comes out of the image. Can you visualize what I am trying to explain? Perhaps one of my dear friends here who is an artist will be inspired to draw such an image form and around it, outside the image, paint the many-colored cosmic forces in beautiful, harmonious motion, and also show how they stagnate and congest where the hardened image exists. Out of the image come sharp and twisted forces, and these would be the complexes. QUESTION: You say images are a general fact, everybody has them. Why do we have to have them? Why does one have to have images? ANSWER: Everybody does have them, but you do not have to have them. You create them. ANSWER: No, not for development, but out of ignorance. From self-will and pride. Everything that the Fall has brought about. You chose it so. QUESTION: Did I understand that right: Any event about which we really can’t do anything was caused by our images? ANSWER: You understood correctly. Except when it is a question of the karma of a previous life. But the principle is exactly the same, inasmuch as you reap what you have sown. But you have sown it in a previous life and you reap it now. That may be the explanation of a one-time event that may not have anything to do with an image, in the exact sense. But, my friends, even in cases like that you will still find the root in your image. Because if a karma has not been paid off it must mean that the root is still within the self. If you had paid off the karma, you would not have the root anymore. You may find in yourself the same faults and trends that in a former life caused you to commit a graver action, one that you would no longer be capable of committing because of your development. Nevertheless, the same root must still be there, for otherwise you would not have that karma. You will be able to find it in the depth of your soul, and certainly enfolded in your image. QUESTION: This means that karma and images make a vicious circle? ANSWER: Of course. If you will reread the lecture I gave some time ago on birth, now that you have learned about the images you will understand how it works. You may remember that I explained that when the entity is prepared for life, certain problems are left closer to the surface in the fluidal body. And according to these problems, parents, country, and life-circumstances are chosen, so that you can become aware of the image and challenge it if you so choose. So, karma and images must work hand in hand. If you have certain experiences in your childhood, it is because you have certain parents, and a certain environment. This was most suitable for you, according to your entire incarnation-history, so as to bring out your problems for the purpose of your development and purification. You cannot purify, you cannot eliminate a problem or a fault if you do not first become aware of it. To become aware of it, something unpleasant must happen, otherwise you would never pay any attention to your inner disharmonies. Karma, as you all know, is nothing else but cause and effect. The same law works also within one lifespan. If in this present life you find your images and wrong conclusions, you will understand, see and experience in your own person the truth of the law of cause and effect clearly demonstrated. Thus you will know how karma works. It is the same principle, only more extended in time, over a span of several incarnations. QUESTION: If, for instance, somebody dies in a concentration camp, which is a karmic effect, how does that combine with the images? What kind of image would there be? ANSWER: Oh, my dear friend, there are millions of possibilities of images. I cannot possibly enumerate them all. You will gain more understanding about these things by continuing the work you are doing, not only on yourself, but also by working with others. If you can translate the “milder cases” into stronger cases of law-violations, then you can imagine quite easily that a heavier karma is built on the same principle as in the cause and effect of image-conclusions. Both draw events built on wrong conclusions which are always violations of divine law and truth. It is only a question of degree. It does not make any difference if deviation from law and truth occurs out of ignorance and error or is committed willfully. The principle remains the same. But when a person deviates from divine law consciously, because his spiritual development is still so low, an image will not result. An image is the result of unconscious reasoning, deduction, and conclusion. A conscious, willful law-violation will draw outward effects, that which you call karmic results. An inner violation in the emotions, remaining hidden in the unconscious, will create an image and will have a different effect. Here the law-violation happened in a lesser degree, and in the unconscious. So the two alternatives we are discussing operate on the same principle, but they are not identical. If a criminal kills someone, this is not an unconscious act and you cannot speak about an image when he reaps the fruits of his action. But he may in the next incarnation wish to kill without doing so, suppressing his desires, keeping them, perhaps, as an imagined defense against the hurts of life, against the fact that his wishes are not fulfilled. This may then create an image. But you cannot say that every crime that is committed and every punishment for it is due to an image. The image comes from unconscious wrong reasonings and factors. It contains desires and conclusions that more primitive people act out in consciousness. QUESTION: What happens in a case like the death of the many children in Chicago who burned in a fire. When those little spirits come into the spirit world, is a death like this not a tremendous shock? ANSWER: Well, my dear, you know that children die and I have often discussed this. If it did create a shock in certain cases, then it was good for the entity. It had to go through it. And if it was not good for the entity to experience a shock, it would not have gone through it. You can be sure about that. QUESTION: How can a child spirit reason? ANSWER: Why not? Before it was incarnated, it was not a child spirit. It was a grown-up spirit and it voluntarily undertook a short life. Perhaps the spirit preferred to choose a violent, unpleasant death and get it over with quickly, so as to be reborn after a shorter span and then start on a higher level. You know that entities have their own free will and choice to a large degree. Others may prefer to do it more slowly. Whether an occurrence in a state of shock, for a child or a grown spirit, makes sense or not, the experience will be evaluated and assimilated afterward and whatever the entity experiences will be fruitful and not for nothing. Let us again take an example: A person is responsible for many cruel deaths, like in a concentration camp. Since this example was chosen before, we will use it again. This spirit is in the spirit world and sees he has debts to pay, he has much to learn. He may be given the choice to remain in the spirit world for two to three hundred years, by your earth time measurement. In this period, existence cannot be very pleasant for him. The sphere he has created for himself with his thought forms, the forms of his emotions, as well as with his deeds is a dark and dismal one. Afterward, an incarnation is waiting for him where certain possibilities exist, but they are again limited, due to what he has called forth. None of these possibilities can be too pleasant or easy. And then such an entity may ask: “Is there no other way to get this over with more quickly?” And then he may be told, “Yes, there may be ways. You can be reincarnated very soon, perhaps in ten, fifteen, twenty years, and while you help fulfill the fate of some parents who have to go through the hardship of losing a child, you yourself can pay off a great deal by enduring a violent and unpleasant death. Would you prefer that to the other alternatives you have and then start on a cleaner slate for your further development? And many a spirit desires this. This is only one possibility, there are many others. But you ought to know by now that there is no injustice and no coincidence. QUESTION: Disregarding the question of justice, doesn’t it appear as a strange coincidence that there should be wholesale slaughter of many individuals, like for instance in a concentration camp, and that such a large group is burned in a fire? Isn’t there some sort of wrong thinking or action there? ANSWER: There is no coincidence. You see, when you go back in history, you will see that there were always times when great cruelty existed and mass slaughter happened. After certain intervals it happened again, the next time caused perhaps by another group, another nation. You can be quite sure that in the following period the former torturers then became the victims. Because that is what they have drawn to themselves. I do not say that this applies to every individual case. There may be cases when the retribution, or effect of the cause set in motion, may be carried out in a different way in an individual fate. Then again, some victims may have undertaken a special task, voluntarily enduring more through one incident like this than they normally would have had to go through in the desire to develop faster, to overstep many levels in one sweep. But as a rule you can be sure that one mass-killing causes another, changing the roles from torturers to victims until all have learned their lesson. In some instances the paying off of such a debt does not happen in the succeeding incarnation, but several lives lie between cause and effect. You must not forget, you all went through periods of cruelty, some ten incarnations ago, some even less. If great disasters and accidents happen in which many people are killed, you can be sure that this is a measure taken by the spirit world where everything is executed in full justice and according to the often freely-chosen fate of the various entities involved. QUESTION: Do I understand that images can be either karmic or non-karmic? ANSWER: They must have a karmic origin, because if they would not have a karmic origin, they would not form an image in the first place. It would be something so much on the surface that you could very easily discover it. In the process of the image search, you will probably discover little reactions where the process of the mind operates on the same principle, only there you cannot talk about an image, because it is not something that is so important, or significant, or deep-rooted, or weighty. If it is of deep significance and causes conflicts, it must have karmic origins, but to think about it, what it may have been in a former life, will be to no avail, it will not lead you anywhere. But with the help of your own memory you can go back to its origin in this life, if you work in the right way. And that will be sufficient. If, in certain instances, the knowledge of previous lives is good and helpful for your development, then it will be given to you, one way or another, but only then. QUESTION: Is it possible at all, and if so, at what age, to lighten, to ease the formation of images in a child? ANSWER: Of course it is possible. If the parents would be on such a path, they would have to know what their own problems are, and thus what the child may absorb from them which would be image-material. In that way, they could to a large degree avoid the formation of an image by helping to draw it to the surface while the conclusions are being formed and are still accessible. The problem could then be treated right away in consciousness and when the child grows up, the conclusion will alter with the growing process. Furthermore, parents who are on such a path develop a sensitivity with which they can observe the reactions of the child. That would be the ideal case, but as yet it happens very rarely. QUESTION: Is there a test by which one can know what is one’s image? ANSWER: There is no test necessary, because when you have found your image, you will know to the core of your being that it is that way. The equation will come out right, in whatever way you look at it. It must come out even. But it may happen that an image-consciousness is approaching and yet the personality is so reluctant and so full of resistance that he or she cannot see it. Then all you have to do is to go on and on working from all sides, from all aspects, and all of a sudden the knowledge will be there. And then you will not need any confirmation, because you will just know this is it! All of a sudden your whole life will make sense. You will understand your life and your failures. You will understand yourself and therefore also other people around you. The riddle will be solved. The puzzle will be complete, with every piece falling in its place. So there is no test and no trick and no magic. So no confirmation is really necessary. For if you know your main image, everything will fall into place. And even before you can dissolve it, the mere knowledge of it will make you free. That feeling of freedom I mentioned may occasionally occur already before the main image has clearly come to the surface, by little but significant recognitions that are an integral part of the main image. When you have the little images, you may at times already experience this feeling of freedom, but how much more so when the picture has been completed! QUESTION: One of our group now here for the first time would like to know how to develop her psychic powers. ANSWER: I would like to ask this friend first, what is the purpose of it? QUESTIONER: To help children, the aged, and those in need. ANSWER: The motive is a good one. There is only one really good way for such a development, and that is the following: First give up thinking about it at all and concentrate on your own spiritual, mental, and emotional development and on your own path of purification. The more the unconscious has been explored and become conscious, the clearer the channel. I am speaking generally now and not just to you, for it applies to anyone desirous of helping in such a way. The development of psychic powers should always be secondary. It should be left to the will of God in what manner these powers will manifest. And the stronger they manifest, the greater the necessity for a stringent path of self-development! I cannot stress this enough. So if you can leave psychic powers aside for a while, in the wisdom that this is dangerous material unless self-awareness is present to a marked degree, and if you do so for the sake of God, then He may give it back to you a hundredfold when the time is ripe. If you learn to put aside your self-will and can say, and mean it: “Father, Thy will be done, let me be Thy instrument in any way Thou choosest, not the way I choose. I know that in order to be an instrument for Thy world, I have to go on this path and I am not shirking its hardships,” then you have the proper and healthy attitude that must be pleasing to God. That is the only way, everything else may even prove dangerous. Goodwill alone is not enough protection. Ignorance of many factors can bring a great deal of trouble and untruth. The unexplored unconscious plays a great role, particularly in this type of work. Self-awareness must be developed if psychic powers are not to prove dangerous. I am sorry that we could not get to the planned questions tonight. Please save them for next time. One more word, before I retire, to my dear and beloved friends on this path. I would like to ask you to help your brothers and sisters in Switzerland in the image-finding. Think about a way in which this could be done. I have already made a few suggestions, perhaps you can think of further ways. My dear ones, Christmas is approaching, and the Light of Christ is spreading all over and is also touching this earth sphere. Imbibe of this light, of this wonderful strength, so that you will find forever new stamina for this path of self-finding that is a joy to all of us. Receive the blessings of the Lord again. Be in peace. Be in God!

2019-04-24T06:15:32Z

https://pathwork.org/lectures/images-the-damage-they-do/

Introduction: The US Health Care and Social Services sector (North American Industrial Classification System 'sector 62') has become an extremely important component of the nation's economy, employing approximately 18 million workers and generating almost $753 billion in annual payrolls. At the county level, the health care and social services sector is typically the largest or second largest employer. Hospital employment is often the largest component of the sector's total employment. Hospital employment is particularly important to non-metropolitan or rural communities. A high quality healthcare sector serves to promote economic development and attract new businesses and to provide stability in economic downturns. The purpose of this study was to examine the intensity of hospital employment in rural counties relative to the nation as a whole using location quotients and to draw conclusions regarding how potential changes in Medicare and Medicaid might affect rural populations. Methods: Estimates for county-level hospital employment are not commonly available. Estimates of county-level hospital employment were therefore generated for all counties in the USA the Census Bureau's County Business Pattern Data for 2010. These estimates were used to generate location quotients for each county which were combined with demographic data to generate a profile of factors that are related to the magnitude of location quotients. The results were then used to draw inferences regarding the possible impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 (ACA) and the possible imposition of aspects of the Budget Control Act 2011 (BCA). Results: Although a very high percentage of rural counties contain medically underserved areas, an examination of location quotients indicates that the percentage of the county workforce employed by hospitals in the most rural counties tends to be higher than for the nation as a whole, a counterintuitive finding. Further, when location quotients are regressed upon data related to poverty, county demographics, and the percentage of the population insured, a relationship between the proportion of the population over 65 years, the percentage of the population living in poverty, the percentage of the population without insurance and county density was found. Conclusion: The results of the analysis suggest that hospital employment in rural communities is higher than would be expected in the absence of programs that provide external funding to support hospital hiring. The most important public programs providing this support are Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security is another source of federal funding important for rural populations. Sequestration and other cuts in funding could impact rural communities significantly. This can be even worse in states that fail to expand Medicaid and in states that fail to increase Medicaid reimbursements for services important in rural communities. Key words: Affordable Health Care Act, economics, health policy, Medicaid, Medicare, rural hospitals, USA. Large Central Metro County - Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas (PMSA) or sub-areas that meet the qualification to be a Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) but have a population of 1 million or more that contain the entire population of the largest principal city of the MSA or are completely contained within the largest principal city of the MSA or contain at least 250 000 residents of any principal city in the MSA. Large Metro Fringe County - MSA or PMSA population of 1 million or more that do not qualify as Large Central Metro Counties. Medium Metro County - MSA population of 250 000 to 999 999. Small Metro County - MSA population of 50 000 to 249 000. 5. With a city of 10 000 or more residents. 6. Without a city of 10 000 or more residents. Of 3147 counties and county-like entities in the USA, 1090 or 34% were classified metropolitan counties (code 1 to 4). The remaining 2057 were classified as non-metropolitan (code 5 or 6) or 'rural'. It is often asserted that rural populations have less access to health care than urban residents. A review of the US Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) areas which have been designated as Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) seems to support this assumption. HRSA designates regions as MUAs on the basis of several factors, including the ratio of primary medical care physicians per 1000 population, infant mortality rate, percentage of the population with incomes below the poverty level, and percentage of the population aged 65 years or over. MUAs may be entire counties in non-metropolitan areas, groups of contiguous counties or minor civil divisions, or census tracts in metropolitan areas1. Of the 2738 counties with designated MUAs by HRSA, 1797 or 65.6% of the total are in non-metropolitan counties (Table 1). Eighty-four percent, or 583 of the 694 the non-metropolitan counties with a city of 10 000 or more (code 5), contained areas designated medically underserved and 89%, or 1214 of the 1363 non-metropolitan counties without a city of 10 000 or more (code 6), contained designated areas. For many of these communities, the local hospital is the most important provider of health care. Hospital employment often the largest component of a rural county's healthcare sector total employment2. As such, the hospitals are particularly important to rural communities not only in terms of its contribution to overall health, but also to the county's economic development. Indeed, local hospitals have been described as '...a lynchpin for the development of local and regional healthcare services'3. High quality health care serves to promote economic development and attract new businesses4. Hospitals not only have a role in attracting new businesses to rural communities5, but they also tend to provide economic stability in economic downturns6. Additionally, by attracting revenues from outside of the community in the form of health insurance reimbursements, hospitals act as 'basic industries', thereby generating a multiplied economic impact. Given the number of counties that contain MUAs, one would hypothesize that, in general, as a county become less metropolitan the percentage of county labor force employed by county hospitals would fall relative to the national average. The location quotient is the ratio between a local economy's sector employment and that of some geographic reference unit. As shown below, the geographic reference unit is frequently the country as a whole. If the sector's share of employment within a local economy is greater than the share in the reference economy, the industry is assumed to be creating employment levels above that needed to serve the local economy. For example, if a county's hospital employment is 7.5% of total county employment, and at the national level (the reference economy) the sector employs 5% of the total workforce, then the county's location quotient is 1.5. Location quotients greater than 1 are deemed to signify that a sector is basic to the local economy and that the local economy is 'exporting' the proportion of the sector's output over that sufficient to support its needs; while those with location quotients of less than 1 are assumed to 'import' the goods or service. This 'export' production brings dollars to the community that flow through the local economy generating direct, indirect and induced economic impacts. The greater the net inflow of money from outside of the local economy, the greater will be the total local economic impact that the sector has upon the community. In order to develop a metric to examine hospital employment levels in rural counties relative to urban counties, location quotients are calculated for all counties that reported some level of hospital employment in the 2010 Bureau of Census County Business Pattern (CBP) data. The CBP data are generated by the Bureau of Census annually. Data are reported for establishments, physical locations of economic activity and are classified using the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). The system classifies using a 2 to 6 digit classification scheme with each numerical level signifying greater specificity with respect to the primary activity of each establishment. The CBP includes data for private, non-farm employment and some government sectors. Data for establishments involved in agricultural production, data for self-employed individuals, employees of private households, railroad employees and most government activities are not included. However, data for government employment for NAICS sector 622, hospitals, are included. The CBP reports employment statistics for full- and part-time employees' employment during the week of March 12 for each year. Data are collected at the national, state and county levels. The level of specificity contained in each geographic level of the data varies considerably. Data at the national and state levels contain several fields for NAICS data down to the 6 digit level. Aggregated information on the number of establishments, Mid-March Payrolls, Mid-March employment and annual payrolls are provided are reported by employment size category (1-4 employees, 5-9, 10-19 etc) at the state and national level. Flags indicating ranges for data suppression and imputed noise are also reported for each level. County-level data contain far less granularity than the national and state level data. Unlike national and state level data, only the numbers of establishments by NAICS code by employment size class, mid-March employment, mid-March payroll and estimated annual payroll are reported in order to prevent the disclosure of proprietary data for the operations of an individual employer. While there are typically sufficient numbers of firms within a NAICS category at the national and state level to prevent the disclosure of proprietary information for individual firms, this is usually not the case for county-level data. Payroll and employment data are not reported for each employment size category which results in an enormous amount of the county-level data being suppressed. As the NAICS level of sector specificity increases, more and more data items are suppressed to prevent firm specific data disclosure which results in a tremendous amount of the county-level data being suppressed. In the 2010 CPB county-level dataset, 2493 of the country's 3147 counties indicated some level of employment in the hospital services sector. However, only 348 of these counties reported numerical data for hospital quarterly employment and payrolls. The remaining counties suppressed the numbers of employees and payrolls in order to ensure confidentiality. This makes it impossible to conduct meaningful inter-county comparisons at the national level. Fortunately, a number methods have been developed to estimate the suppressed data7. Among the methods suggested to estimate the suppressed data is a two-stage strategy technique detailed by Isserman and Westervelt8. The technique utilizes data flags to narrow the range for suppressed data to produce consistent estimates at the industrial and geographic level. This is similar to the technique that is used by Headwaters Economics Inc which also uses data flags to generate estimates for the suppressed employment data9. The Headwaters procedure uses the midpoints of suppressed employment size classes as a starting point for data estimation. As a first step in the estimation process, CBP data at the national, state and county level were extracted from the Census Bureau's database for the year 2010. The state and national data are used to generate estimates for average employment levels for each size class for the hospital sector, NAICS sector 622. These estimates are then modified using information from the data suppression flags to generate 'best' estimates for each employment size class suppressed county-level Mid-March employment data. As a check on accuracy, the estimated county employment levels for each state were summed and compared with reported state totals. The difference between the estimated state totals and the reported state totals was computed for each state. This difference was then divided by the reported state total to yield a measure of accuracy of the estimates. On average, the estimated data were within 1.8% of the reported state totals. The estimated county Mid-March employment levels were then adjusted to force the sum of the estimated employment to equal the unreported total, which was computed by summing data that were reported at the county level and subtracting this from the total reported data. This yielded adjusted totals of estimated and reported county-level data that equaled the total state employment levels. A similar procedure was employed to produce county-level estimates of Mid-March payroll for NAICS 622 which served as a secondary check of the accuracy of the employment estimates. The first step in this process was to first estimate the level of Mid-March payroll data that was unreported or suppressed. This was done by summing the reported payroll data each size class at the state level, and subtracting it from the aggregated state total Mid-March payroll reported. The difference yielded the level of suppressed Mid-March payroll. A similar procedure was used to generate the number of Mid-March employees that were not reported. Next, average Mid-March payroll was computed for size classes with reported data by dividing reported payroll by reported Mid-March employment. Where data were suppressed for a particular size class, the unreported payroll totals were divided by the unreported employment to yield an average payroll figure that was then used for each unreported cell. These averages were then applied to each county level's adjusted employment by size class to yield estimates of county 622 Mid-March payroll. As with the employment estimates, the county-level data were summed for each state and then compared with the reported state level Mid-March Payroll. The aggregated unadjusted county sums were within 0.72% of the reported aggregated state data. Location quotients for each county were computed by taking the ratio of estimated county NAICS sector 622 employment percentage to the ratio of NAICS 622 employment percentage for the USA. As previously noted, it was anticipated that county location quotients would be inversely related to the degree to which a county could be classified as rural. The mean location quotients for each county classification are shown (Table 2). The most rural counties had the highest mean location quotients. The mean location quotient for large metro counties was above 1, as expected. This would imply that hospitals in these counties were 'exporting' specialized care not available in outlying areas. Location quotients for large fringe metro counties and medium metro counties were relatively close to 1, indicating levels of hospital employment sufficient to serve the local population. However, as counties became more rural, the location quotients tended to rise with the most rural counties (those without a city of 10 000 or more residents) having the highest location quotients. This indicates that hospital employment in the most rural counties relative to total county employment was higher than the national ratio. Given that the data presented in Table 1 indicates that 84% of the NCHS code 5 and 89% of the code 6 counties, the most rural classifications, are designated as being medically underserved, the higher location quotients and their implication of a higher proportion of regional hospital employment than for urban counties seems to be a counterintuitive outcome. In order to explore the factors that might explain the unexpectedly high location quotients in rural counties relative to urban counties, the estimated employment and payroll data were combined with Census Bureau data detailing county percentages of uninsured residents10, data for county densities11, county median income levels and county urban-rural classifications from the Center for Disease Control12 to provide a county-level database with employment, payroll, income, density and health insurance data. Over 65 years: Percent of county residents 65 or older. A model using log transformations of the variables was used in order to address severe heteroscedasticity in the untransformed data. The model yielded the results below (Table 3). The results of the regression indicate that as the percentage of a county's population over age 65 and the county's poverty percentage rise, the county location quotient also rises. Increases in the total number workers employed, the percentage of the population that is uninsured and the county population density tend to lower the location quotient. Increases in the location quotient associated with increases in the county's percentage of the population over 65 are understandable. As proportion of the population receiving Medicare benefits increases, the flow of Medicare funding enables the county to support greater employment in the hospital services sector. Like Medicare, Medicaid brings external funding to the county's hospital. The effect of increases in the county's poverty level may imply that a relatively higher percentage of the population qualify for Medicaid coverage. Increases in the county's uninsured population serve to reduce hospital revenues while increasing the costs associated with treating patients who cannot pay their bills. The negative effect of increases in population density may be due to the fact that increasing populations are associated with a more diverse economy, reducing the importance of the hospital service sector. Increases in the county's total number of workers employed serves to reduce the numerator of the location quotient formula, which would tend to lower the county's location quotient. In summary, location quotients tend to be higher in poor, rural counties with a high proportion of elderly residents. A traditional interpretation of these relatively high location quotients would be that the counties were exporting hospital services, possibly providing services for even more rural surrounding counties which have no reported hospital employment (approximately 670 counties). More importantly, these results demonstrate that many rural counties are supporting a higher level of hospital employment than one would have anticipated. One inference that may be drawn from this is that funding from outside the community is supporting hospital employment levels greater than the county could be capable of supporting solely with local dollars. Two important sources of external revenue are the Medicare and Medicaid programs, both of which are related to the proportion of the population over 65 and the percentage of the population below the poverty level. The Medicare program provides insurance coverage for eligible recipients who are aged 65 or older, who are under 65 but with a covered disability, and individuals with end-stage renal disease of any age. Beneficiaries may opt for several different coverage options. Medicare provides a number of programs to enrollees. These include Part A, which covers part of inpatient care in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and hospice and home health care for qualified patients, and Part B, a coverage option for which beneficiaries pay an additional premium that provides coverage for a portion of physicians' services and outpatient care, services provided by physical and occupational therapists, and some additional home health care if they are designated are medically necessary. Part C is an alternative to Parts A and B that allows beneficiaries to receive care from other healthcare insurance plans and Medicare Advantage, a contract provider of services. Part D provides subsidized access to pharmaceuticals13. For fiscal year 2012, Medicare payments to health providers are expected to total $555.9 billion14. Medicaid, a joint federal and state, means-tested program, was enacted in the same legislation that created Medicare. Medicaid provides essential medical and medically related services to qualifying low-income families with children, older individuals, and the disabled. It also provides supplemental coverage for some low-income Medicare beneficiaries for services not covered by Medicare, Medicare premiums, deductibles, and cost sharing. Medicaid is jointly financed by the states and the federal government. Federal spending levels are determined by the number of people participating in the program and services provided. Medicaid is funded with general revenues. Historically, the federal government's contribution under the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), has ranged between 50% and statutory maximum of 83% of the payments for services provided under each state Medicaid program15. The federal contribution rate is based on the state's per capita income. Medicaid coverage has been limited to low-income children, pregnant women, parents of dependent children, the elderly and the disabled. Establishing eligibility standards, benefits packages, payment rates and program administration are the responsibilities of states participating in the program. Federal spending on Medicaid was projected to be $273 billion in 2011 with state and local expenditures for Medicaid adding an additional $159 billion16. Support for the idea that Medicare dollars are disproportionately important to rural communities is found in the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's June 2012 'A Data Book: Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program'17. While approximately 16% of the population resides in rural counties, the Data Book indicates that 24% of the Medicare population resides in rural areas. Likewise, data indicates that while 13% of the urban residents receive Medicaid assistance, 16% of the rural population does18. Further, rural physicians receive 56% of their revenue from Medicare and Medicaid19. Taken together, the finding that a high proportion of rural counties have medically underserved areas while having location quotients that are on average higher than those for urban counties suggests that the flow of Medicare and Medicaid dollars to rural communities enables them to support a higher proportion of the county workforce in the hospital sector than would be expected. While many of these counties have MUAs, the implication is that in the absence of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, their situation vis-à-vis the availability of health care would be worse than it is. Likewise, in the absence of these programs, the economies of many rural counties would suffer in that one of the most important county economic sectors, health care and hospitals in particular, would not be able to provide the levels of employment that it does. Given these results, recent legislation relating to health care not only has implications for rural health, but for rural economies as well. The recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) is an ambitious legislative initiative that greatly expands Medicare and Medicaid coverage to a large segment of the population. Among the provisions of the Act which have received the most attention are those that relate to expansions in the population eligible for Medicare and Medicaid coverage, and the requirement that individuals either purchase 'minimum essential coverage' or pay a penalty. Employers will be required to enroll new full-time employees in the coverage or pay fixed per-employee fees based on the number of individuals employed. Beginning in 2014, individuals who earn less than 133% of the poverty level will be eligible to enroll in Medicaid. It is anticipated that under the ACA, an additional 32 million individuals will be provided insurance coverage by 2014. Funding for the program consists in large part of $716 billion will be taken from the current Medicare budget. Approximately 65% of these dollars will come from decreases in hospital and service provider reimbursement rates and payments to Medicare Advantage, a program where Medicare recipients can opt for private insurance carriers to provide their Medicare benefits. While Medicare reimbursement rates to hospitals will be reduced, some hospital administrators have embraced the new legislation. This is because they anticipate that large numbers of uninsured patients that hospitals have been required to treat in the past will be covered under the Act and that this may actually increase overall payments to hospitals. However, there is some concern that rural hospitals will be adversely affected by the Act. Accordingly, the Act contains specific provisions designed to protect rural hospitals. These protections include the extension of geographic fee adjustments which serve to increase fees to service providers in rural areas, and short-term adjustments and cost reimbursements for lab services provided by small rural hospitals. Reductions in reimbursement rates for rural facilities could have potentially severe effects that might not be offset by increases in payments from newly insured patients. While the ACA will bring more individuals under the Medicare and Medicaid insurance umbrellas, it is possible that the reduction in reimbursements to providers may result in their refusal to accept the new Medicare patients. Although the ACA has the potential for increasing coverage in rural areas and thereby providing a boost to rural economies, the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) would have the opposite effect. The BCA imposes severe reductions in discretionary and nondiscretionary programs funded by the federal government beginning in 2013 and extending until 2021. In order to meet a budget reduction target of $1.2 trillion, a budget sequester provision will reduce spending across the board in most discretionary and non-discretionary programs. However, the Medicare program is somewhat protected in terms of the Act's impact on its budget. Under BCA, only up to 2% of Medicare's budget can be sequestered annually. Even so, it is estimated that this will translate to a budget reduction of $10.7 billion in 2013, rising to $16.4 billion in 2021. An economic impact study prepared by Tripp Umbach Healthcare Consulting in July of 2012 estimated that the direct, indirect and induced effects of these budget reductions will result in the loss of 496 000 jobs within the first 5 years of the sequestration period20. Originally scheduled to take effect on 2 January 2013, the sequester of Medicare funding was delayed until 1 March of that year. Preliminary estimates indicate that Medicare providers will be subjected to $11 billion in reimbursements in 2013. Counties with a high proportion of citizens over the age of 65 could see total hospital reimbursements fall. Low density, rural counties with a high proportion of uninsured residents and low median household incomes will therefore see increasing pressure on their hospital services sector. Given the relative importance of this sector to these counties, it is suggested that there will be adverse effects in terms of overall economic impacts. Should the reimbursement reductions be long lasting, this would tend to make the prospect of employment in these poor, rural counties unattractive for healthcare providers. The analysis of county-level data suggested that poor, rural counties with a high proportion of residents over the age of 65 tend to have a higher proportion of their working population employed in the hospital services sector than do richer, urban counties. This finding raises the question of how these counties can support this relatively higher intensity of hospital employment in the absence of programs that provide external funding to support hospital hiring. The most important public programs providing this support are Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security is another source of federal funding important for rural populations. Sequestration and other cuts in funding could impact rural communities significantly. This can be even worse in states that fail to expand Medicaid and in states that fail to increase Medicaid reimbursements for services important in rural communities. This illustrates a lack of consistency in the nation's approach to healthcare policy, and the conflicts that are inherent in the conflicting goals of expanding the availability of health care and deficit reduction. 1. US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. Medically Underserved Areas & Populations (MUA/Ps): Guidelines for MUA and MUP Designation. (Online) 1995. Available: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/shortage/muaps/index.html (Accessed 10 November 2010). 2. US Bureau of Census. County Business Patterns: 2010. (Online) 2012. Available: http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/cbpnaic/cbpdetl.pl (Accessed 24 October 2012). 3. Wakefield M. Rural Hospitals and Rural Economic Development: Testimony Before the Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, July 11, 2000. (Online) 2000. Available: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-106shrg68476/html/CHRG-106shrg68476.htm (Accessed 15 December 2012). 4. Doeksen GA, Hohnson T, Willoughby C. Measuring the Economic Importance of the Health Sector on a Local Economy: A brief Literature Review and Procedures to measure Local Impacts. The Southern Rural Development Center. (Online) 1997. Available: srdc.msstate.edu/publications/archive/202.pdf (Accessed 10 July 2013). 5. Lyne J. Quality-of-Life Factors Dominate many Facility Location Decisions. Site Selection Handbook, Vol 33. Atlanta, GA: Conway Research, August 1988; 868-870. 6. Goodman WC. Employment in hospitals: unconventional patterns over time. Monthly Labor Review 2006; 129(6): 3-14. 7. Glaeser EL, Kallal HD, Scheinkman JA, Sheifer A. Growth in Cities. Journal of Political Economy 1992; 100(6): 1126-1152. 8. Isserman AM, Westervelt J. 1.5 Million Missing Numbers: Overcoming Employment Suppression in County Business Patterns Data. International Regional Science Review 2006; 29(3): 311-335. 9. Headwaters Economics. County Business Patterns Data Computation and Disclosure Estimation Process, June 8, 2010. (Online) 2010. Available: http://headwaterseconomics.org/wphw/wp-content/uploads/CBP_Documentation.pdf (Accessed 12 October 2012). 10. US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau. Small Area Health Insurance Estimates. (Online) no date. Available: http://www.census.gov/did/www/sahie/data/interactive/ (Accessed 3 November 2012). 11. US Department of Commerce, Census Bureau. U.S. Gazetteer. Census U.S. Gazetteer Files. (Online) 2010. Available: http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/gazetteer.html. (Accessed 7 November 2012). 12. US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NCHS Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties: January 2012. (Online) 2012. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/urban_rural.htm. (Accessed 5 October 2012). 13. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare Trustees Report. (Online) 2012. Available: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/index.html?redirect=/reportstrustfunds/ (Accessed 10 July 2013). 14. Congressional Budget Office. Medicare Baseline. (Online) 2012. Available: http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43060_Medicare.pdf . 15. Baumrucker EP. Medicaid: The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage. (Online) no date. Available: www.aging.senate.gov/crs/medicaid6.pdf . 17. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. A Data Book: Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program. (Online) 2012. Available: http://www.medpac.gov/documents/Jun12DataBookEntireReport.pdf (Accessed 21 November 2012). 18. North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center. State Profiles of Medicaid & CHIP in Rural and Urban Areas. (Online) 2009. Available: http://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/medicaidprofiles/ (Accessed 22 October 2012). 19. Reschovsky JD, Staiti AB. Physician Incomes in Rural and Urban America: Issue Brief No. 92. (Online) 2005. Available: http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/725/ (Accessed 9 December 2012). 20. Tripp Umbach Healthcare Consulting. The Negative Employment Impact of Medicare Cuts in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Available: www.aha.org/content/12/12sep-bcaeconimpact.pdf (Accessed 21 November 2012). This PDF has been produced for your convenience. Always refer to the live site https://www.rrh.org.au/journal/article/2497 for the Version of Record.

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https://www.rrh.org.au/journal/article/2497

b) To pay [Seller] EUR 43,898.48 eight weeks after this judgment will have become legally effective. With respect to other requests, the judgment by default is repealed and the action is dismissed. [Buyer] is ordered to bear the costs of the proceedings. This judgment may be enforced only after effecting a security deposit of 120% of the amount to be enforced. The parties are in dispute about claims for payment of [Seller] from a loan and sales contracts. [Seller] is a limited liability company under Italian law. [Assignor 1] has granted Mr. ... a loan of Lit. 85,000,000 = EUR 43,459.81. The loan sum was handed over on 16 December 1998 in Montecatini Terme, Italy. The District Court (Landgericht) Bamberg (Case docket: 2 O 340/00), however, is of the opinion that this loan was not granted by [Assignor 1], but by [Assignor 2]. Therefore, [Assignor 2] hereby assigns any possible claims for redemption against ... to [Assignor 1], who hereby accepts the assignment. - 6 chrome chairs, seat and back part in black leather. With regard to the loan contract, [Seller] asserts that [Buyer] and ..., the former CEO of [Seller], had met at [Seller]'s office in Italy at the end of December 1998. [Buyer] had asked for a loan of Lit. 85,000,000 for he had tax debts. ..., the representative of [Seller], had given his consent and provided these funds on the same day. The loan was then cancelled during 1999 both orally and in writing on several occasions. However, the loan had never been redeemed. [Buyer] had also ordered the above furniture at the [Seller]'s store in mid-October. The purchase price had remained unpaid. - [Buyer] is ordered to pay [Seller] Lit. 109,107,520 plus 4% interest on Lit. 85,000,000 since 12 December 2000 and 4% interest on Lit. 24,107,520 since 22 October 1999. - This judgment was served on [Buyer]'s procedural representative on 16 August 2001. Thereupon, by letter dated 20 August 2001 which was submitted to the Court on the same day, [Buyer] objected to the judgment. In order to allow for the legal assessment under Italian law, the Court has obtained a written expert opinion. This expert opinion issued by ... on 10 May 2004 has been introduced to the oral hearing of 28 July 2004, especially those elaborations of the expert according to which under Italian law the judicial determination of a target date for redemption of a loan was necessary. [Seller] asks the Court to uphold the judgment by default that was rendered on 11 July 2001 and asks the Court to consider 11 February 2000 as the target date for redemption of the loan. In the alternative, [Seller] requests the Court to consider the time of [Buyer]'s insolvency as the target date. Additionally, in the alternative, a future target date should be appointed. [Buyer] requests to have the judgment by default repealed and [Seller]'s action dismissed. [Buyer] contests having concluded a loan contract with either [Seller] or ... as well as that a corresponding sum of money had been handed over. [Buyer] further argues that [Seller] was insolvent, meaning that the requirements of � 240 ZPO [*] were fulfilled. [Buyer] also challenges that [Seller] was entitled to the purported claim and objects to the jurisdiction of the District Court (Landgericht) Bamberg. Finally, [Buyer] relies on a time-bar. The Court has taken evidence at the hearing of Witness ... on 11 July 2001. Witnesses ..., ..., ..., ..., and ... have been heard on the basis of the resolution on the taking of evidence of 6 February 2002 at the request of the District Court (Landgericht) Bamberg on 25 October 2002. The Court has taken further evidence of Witness ... at the hearing of 30 July 2003 and of Witness ... at another hearing on 28 July 2004. For details, reference is made to the session protocols, the legal opinion submitted on 19 May 2004 as well as to the letters exchanged. By resolution of 9 March 2005, the Court has ordered a decision to be made by written procedure according to � 128 ZPO with the acknowledgement of both parties. A time limit for the submission of written pleadings was set as 23 March 2005. [Buyer]'s objection to the judgment by default is admissible. It was filed in proper form and within the applicable time limits. [Seller]'s action is admissible. In particular, the District Court (Landgericht) Bamberg has jurisdiction and [Seller] has the capacity to sue. The jurisdiction of the District Court (Landgericht) Bamberg follows from Art. 2 Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters of 1968 ("Brussels Convention") in conjunction with �� 12, 13 ZPO and from Art. 18 Brussels Convention. The Brussels Convention is applicable in matters of time. It was replaced on 1 March 2002 by Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters ("Brussels I Regulation"). Art. 66(1) Brussels I Regulation provides that the Regulation is applicable only to such actions which have been filed after the Regulation has entered into legal effect on 1 March 2002 (Art. 76 Brussels I Regulation). The present action was commenced on 4 July 2000 and therefore before the Brussels I Regulation entered into legal effect. The Brussels Convention was applicable to govern the jurisdiction in civil matters before its replacement by the Brussels I Regulation. a) Under Art. 2 Brussels Convention and �� 12, 13 ZPO, there is a natural forum at the domicile of the defendant. When the present proceedings commenced, this was Bamberg. As is evident from the reception documents of 4 July 2000 (sheet no. 7), [Buyer] was then admitted as attorney at that place. Any subsequent change of domicile is irrelevant (Thomas/Putzo, ZPO, 20th ed., Art. 2 Brussels Convention para. 2). b) Furthermore, a court takes jurisdiction under Art. 18 Brussels Convention whenever [Buyer] accepts the initiated proceedings and if no exclusive forum is established according to Art. 16 Brussels Convention. Such an exclusive forum is not given in this case. Moreover, [Buyer] has accepted the proceedings as such without objections during the hearing of 24 January 2001. [Seller] is also capable of bringing its claim before the Court. [Buyer] argues that [Seller] was insolvent. In that respect, [Seller] challenged this assertion by submitting an exhibit of the commercial register of the commercial register office Pistoia of 16 November 2004 (sheets nos. 442 et seq.). According to this exhibit, [Seller] was currently in liquidation and Witness ... was appointed as liquidator. Consequently, [Seller] is still capable of bringing the claim. � 240 ZPO is not applicable as well since the present case does not constitute a foreign insolvency proceeding which has similar effects to a German insolvency proceeding (cf. BGHZ [*] 95, 256 (270); BGH [*] ZIP [*] 1998, 659). There was no interruption of the proceedings. [Seller]'s action is also justified to a preponderant part. [Seller] is entitled to claim the sum of EUR 43,898.48 (Lit. 85,000,000) under Italian law from the loan contract. This sum refers either to a claim from an initially owned right under Art. 1813 Codice civile (Italian Civil Code) following a loan contract concluded with [Buyer] or, alternatively, it refers to an assigned claim following a loan contract concluded between Witness ... and [Buyer]. The alleged loan contract is governed by Italian law according to Art. 28(1)(1), (2)(1) EGBGB [*]. a) The parties have not made any express or implied choice of law in terms of Art. 27 EGBGB. There has not been any submission by either party in that respect. Furthermore, there are no hints that would indicate a choice of law by the parties. b) According to Art. 28(1)(1) EGBGB, the loan contract is therefore to be assessed under the law of the State to which it is most closely connected. In accordance with the general presumption found in Art. 28(2)(1), that the decisive State is the State in which the party effecting the characteristic performance has its place of business or central administration. The characteristic performance is the performance which characterizes the type of contract and which serves to differentiate it from other types of contract (Bamberger/Roth/Spickhoff, BGB [*], Art. 28 EGBGB para. 9). A loan contract is characterized by the granting of the loan sum meaning that the characteristic performance is effected by the grantor of the loan (OLG [*] Düsseldorf NJW-RR [*] 1998, 1145 (1146); Staudinger/Magnus, Art. 28 EGBGB para. 235). Therefore, it is presumed that Italian law applies since [Seller] had its place of business in Italy at the time of conclusion of contract. Even if it was assumed that a private loan between Witness ... and [Buyer] was concluded, Italian law would remain applicable. Witness ... was the CEO of [Seller] at that time and therefore also had its residence in Italy. c) The presumption laid down in Art. 28(2)(1) EGBGB is also not refuted by the circumstances of the present case. Under Art. 28(5) EGBGB, all characteristics of the contract in question must be given consideration which might serve as a linking criteria under Art. 28(1) EGBGB. Such particulars of the case which point towards a closer connection to another State, especially Germany, are not given at hand. In that respect, it must be considered that the contract was concluded in Italy and Italian lira was agreed as currency of the contract. In conclusion, the presumption of Art. 28(2)(1) EGBGB is upheld. The Court is convinced that ... has handed over a loan sum to [Buyer] of Lit. 85,000,000 which originated from the business account of Company ... This follows from the statements made by Witnesses ..., ..., ..., and ... as well as from the submitted copy of a bank statement of Bank ..., Italy. a) Both Witnesses ... and ... have confirmed [Seller]'s submissions when they were heard by the Court. aa) Witness ... has testified at the hearing of 30 July 2003 that he had handed over a sum of Lit. 85,000,000 to [Buyer] in the offices of [Seller] on 16 December 1998. [Buyer] contacted him at the beginning of December 1998 because he had had problems with the fiscal authorities. He said that he had to fear a public sale of his house. He had asked for a sum of Deutsche Mark [DM] 100,000 and the 16th of December 1998 was agreed as the target date for the handing over of the money. He had noted these facts in his agenda. He had drawn the money one or two days before 16 December 1998 from his bank. It had been put into an envelope. The accountant of Company ..., Witness ..., had also been present during the handing over. There had been a wide basis of trust towards [Buyer] so that nothing was documented in writing. These statements were confirmed by Witness ... at the hearing of 28 July 2004, in which the alleged surrender of the money was once again discussed in detail. bb) Witness ... stated at the hearing of 11 July 2001 that he had been present during the handing over of Lit. 85,000,000 to [Buyer] in the offices of company Italger. He had not known the reasons for payment. Still, he had been aware that good relations existed between "the grantor of the loan" and "the recipient". On his request as to why ... had not asked for a receipt, the latter answered that he would not consider it necessary as the recipient of the loan was an attorney who acted on his behalf. b) [Seller]'s factual submissions were further confirmed by Witnesses ..., ..., and ... who were heard by the District Court Pistoia, Italy. aa) Witness ... stated before the District Court Pistoia that he had also been present during the handing over of some packets of bank notes in Italian currency which were contained in a paper bag. Afterwards, the people involved had gone to the restaurant ... in ... . bb) Witness ... also confirmed that [Buyer] received the sum of Lit. 85,000,000 as a loan. He had explained that he needed the money in order to settle personal problems. He, ..., had been present during the handing over of the money which was inside a brown paper bag. Afterwards, there had been a joint dinner in the restaurant ... . aa) First, the copy of the bank statement of Italian Bank ... (sheet no. 293) indicates the truth of the statements. It proves that on 14 December 1998 a sum of Lit. 100,000,000 had been drawn from the business account of [Seller], which is not contested by [Buyer]. This transaction was made only two days prior to the meeting on 16 December 1998 as explained by Witness ... and explains the origin of this quite decent sum of money. bb) The Court has furthermore no reason to cast doubt on the credibility of any single witness. Still, Witness ... acts currently as liquidator for [Seller] meaning that a personal interest in the outcome of the dispute can be assumed. Likewise, Witness ... had been engaged as CEO for [Seller]. However, the impression received by the Court did not in any way establish that any of the witnesses was biased. Both testimonies were objective and coherent. They gave a confident impression and the Court had not at any stage indications that their submissions were fictitious or untrue. Insofar as Witness ... was further required at the hearing of 28 July 2004 on the issue of who was grantor of the loan, these questions had their reason in the ambiguous wording of the letter of termination of the loan. Still, the Court has no doubts concerning the actual handing over of Lit. 85,000,000 as described by both witnesses. cc) One should also consider the testimony of Witnesses ... and ..., who had been heard by the District Court Pistoia. Even given the fact that this testimony is only of limited weight in these proceedings, they need to be considered in order to make the necessary overall assessment. First, neither Witnesses ... nor ... shows any bias or preference for either of the parties in dispute. Instead, their statements are objective and adhere to the facts. Furthermore, the statements were affirmed under oath meaning that any wrong testimony of both witnesses would have severe consequences under penal law. In conclusion, four witnesses have independently confirmed that the money had been handed over. Moreover, the witnesses have coherently described various details of the respective meeting, e.g., the fact that the money had been counted before it was handed over and that the persons involved had dinner afterwards. dd) Even though the statements made by Witnesses ... and ... show differences, these refer only to minor side-aspects, e.g., who had been the person counting the money and where exactly the persons were located during the meeting. In the light of the rather long time which has already elapsed, such minor differences may be expected and once again indicate that the witnesses had not made internal arrangements among each other. Such arrangement, however, would have been necessary had a handing over of the money not actually taken place. c) It is not necessary to hear the Witness ... as well as Witnesses ... and ... as [Buyer] requested. aa) In the letter dated 24 September 2004, Witness ... was named in order to prove that the sum of Lit. 85,000,000 had not been handed over to [Buyer] on 16 December 1998 and that he -- being former CEO and shareholder of [Seller] -- had been permanently present at [Seller]'s offices and that he had been aware of all activities of [Seller]. With its letter of 26 October 2004 [Seller] argued by submission of Italian documents that Witness ... had ceased to work as CEO by 18 September 1998 and that he had sold its shares. [Buyer] has not subsequently objected to this, and particularly not within the time limit set by the Court for the submission of written pleadings. Thus, the factual argument made by [Seller] must be considered as conceded by [Buyer] after [Seller] had explicitly contested [Buyer]'s lump allegations, which is an issue uncontested by [Buyer]. Concerning [Buyer]'s offer to bring evidence by way of its witness that no sum of money had been handed over, this offer does not contain a sufficiently specific object of evidence. The object of [Buyer]'s offer is a so-called negative fact. There is no recognizable action or incident which the witness would be able to testify. Instead, the purported negative fact finally constitutes a conclusion from a variety of facts which might indicate that a certain event had not occurred (BGH [*] NJW [*] 1998, 1723 (1726)). It is at any rate necessary for the demonstrator to substantiate his arguments in a way that a specific recognition will be testified to by the witness. [Buyer] had not fulfilled these procedural requirement, although [Seller] has brought detailed proof that the appointed witness had neither been CEO nor shareholder of [Seller] on 16 December 1998. When [Buyer] now alleges that its Witness ... could testify that the sum in question had not been handed over and that the witness had been permanently present at [Seller]'s office, this constitutes a mere unfounded allegation. The Court is not obliged to pursue such argument. In addition, none of the witnesses heard by the Court stated that witness ... had been present on the day in question. bb) For the same reasons, a hearing of the police officers named was not necessary. In that respect, it is already unclear what these witnesses should have perceived in connection with the issue of a handing over of money at [Seller]'s offices. [Buyer] does not assert that they were even present on the day of the handing over. The issue of whether the loan formed a private loan concluded with Witness ... or a commercial loan concluded with [Seller] need not be resolved. In its written statement of 11 October 2004 (exhibit K15), the witness assigned any possible claims arising out of the loan contract to [Seller]. a) The validity of the assignment is to be asserted under Italian law. It follows from Art. 33(2) EGBGB [*], that the prerequisites of a valid assignment are provided by the law applicable to the assigned claim. Therefore, the loan contract is governed by the law applicable to the obligations arising out of the contractual relationship that forms the basis of the claim (BGH [*] NJW [*] 1990, 242 (244); Palandt/Heldrich, BGB, 64th ed., Art. 33 EGBGB para. 2). As set out above (B.I.1) the claim arising out of the loan contract is governed by Italian law. Consequently, Italian law also applies to the assignment in question. An assignment under Italian law requires according to Art. 1260(1) Codice civile a contractual agreement between the former and the new creditor which in general may be concluded without any form requirement and without any mandatory cooperation by the debtor (OLG [*] Düsseldorf IHR [*] 2004, 203 (208 et seq.)). Nevertheless, under Art. 1264(1) Codice civile the claim is assigned with effect against the debtor only if the assignor or the assignee has formally informed the debtor of the assignment or if the debtor has affirmed the assignment (OLG Düsseldorf, ibidem (209)). b) These prerequisites are met here. According to the declaration of assignment whose authenticity is not in dispute, Witness ... and [Seller] have agreed on the assignment of a claim to which Witness ... had been entitled against [Buyer] over Lit. 85,000,000 from a loan contract. The assignment was also properly communicated in terms of Art. 1264(1) Codice civile by [Seller]'s relying on the communication under submission of the assignment agreement (OLG Düsseldorf, ibidem (209)). c) It is true that the Court assumed in the first place that the assignment was to be considered under German law as can be seen from the information to the parties dated 17 December 2004 (sheet no. 452). However, the Court has also pointed out that it assumed the validity of the assignment. Any updated indication was therefore not necessary after the legal assessment has not changed in its result with the consequence that there was no different situation turned out for the parties concerning the further taking of evidence. d) It is not necessary to have additional evidence taken on the question of who was the actual grantor of the loan. On the grounds set out above, the Court is convinced that the alleged sum of Lit. 85,000,000 had been actually handed over by Witness ... Therefore, the grantor of the loan could only be [Seller] or Witness ... In either scenario, [Seller] would have a claim arising out of the loan contract. The requirements of an effective loan contract under Italian law are fulfilled. b) The loan contract is a contract obliging only one party in accordance with Art. 1813 Codice civile. The borrower is obliged to redeem the sum after having received it plus any possibly interest agreed upon by the end of the stipulated duration (expert opinion, p. 10). The loan contract may be concluded for a consideration or not, Art. 1815(1)(1) Codice civile (expert opinion p. 13). A certain form is not required (expert opinion p. 13). Pursuant to Italian law, each party has to prove favorable facts. Therefore [Seller] has to prove the existence of the loan contract (expert opinion p. 26). Following the taking of evidence, the Court is convinced that the sum of Lit. 85,000,000 had been handed over to [Buyer] as a loan. The witness statements first indicate that the sum had been handed over. Furthermore, they also indicate that the handing over of the money was made on the basis of a loan agreement. The respective testimony which the Court also considers as credible, is sufficient to meet the requirements in order to prove that a loan contract had been concluded under Italian law (expert opinion p. 29). It is true that Italian law provides in Art. 2721(1) Codice civile for the prohibition of proof by witnesses for contracts whose value exceeds Lit. 5,000 (expert opinion pp. 27 et seq.). However, Art. 32(3)(2) EGBGB [*] provides that all pieces of evidence admissible under German procedural law may be used to prove the existence of a certain legal transaction (expert opinion p. 28 with reference to Palandt/Heldrich, Art. 32 EGBGB para. 9). c) Under Italian law the determination of a target date for redemption forms another characteristic of a loan contract. A corresponding agreement was not reached in the present case. In fact, the contract remains valid even if failing such agreement. However, Art. 1817(1) Codice civile then provides for the Court to appoint a target date for redemption (expert opinion p. 15). aa) A determination of a target date for redemption is not necessary if the debtor has entered insolvency proceedings or if such a time has already elapsed since the conclusion of contract which would exceed any tolerance limits (expert opinion pp. 17 et seq.). These alternatives are not applicable to the case at hand. There is no specific submission made by [Seller] in order to assert [Buyer]'s insolvency. Based on the circumstances of the case, it can also not be considered that a period of time had elapsed which would have exceeded any tolerance limit. In that respect, consideration must be given to the fact that no target date for redemption had been designated which indicates that a short term for redemption was not intended. Indeed, the loan sum is quite high. This, however, must also be seen under the circumstance that the granting of the loan was effected on very short notice and without written documents involved. In the light of all relevant circumstances, the expired time period of six years may not be regarded as unacceptable. bb) The requirement for the designation of a target date is furthermore not dispensable due to the written termination declared by [Seller]. If no target date for redemption was specified, it is for the grantor of the loan to effectuate a judicial redemption through Art. 1817 Codice civile (expert opinion p. 16). If the grantor omits to do so, any possible acts by the grantor that are aimed at placing the borrower in arrears will not establish the maturity of the loan (expert opinion p. 16). cc) It is true that an action for the determination of maturity of a certain claim is not familiar to German law. This however does not imply that such determination could not be undertaken. A respective prohibition would be considerable only if the requested activity had fallen completely out of the functional scope of the courts (expert opinion p. 23 with reference to BGHZ [*] 47, 324 (333 et seq.)). As can be seen in � 315(3)(2) BGB [*], this is not the case here. This provision states that an action may be directed at the performance which would have been owed under a provision considering reasonableness and equity. Moreover, the assertion of a claim aimed at the rescinding of a contract prior to the German modernization of the law of obligations shows certain parallels. The filing of an action for performance with the request for redemption of the loan at a date to be specified by the court is therefore admissible. dd) The determination of a target date for maturity constitutes a decision in the discretion of the Court made through interpretation of the contract terms (expert opinion p. 21). At any rate, the target date must be set in the future in order to grant the debtor some time for reflection (expert opinion p. 22). In the present case, it must be considered that a significant amount of money is involved which will take some time for [Buyer] to acquire. It is also to be seen that [Seller] had not insisted on a quick redemption of the loan. The Court therefore considers a period for redemption of the loan of eight weeks after this judgment will have become legally effective as appropriate. [Seller]'s claim is also not time-barred. Italian law provides a limitation period of ten years (expert opinion p. 30), which had begun to run on 16 December 1998 at the earliest, namely at the time when the loan was handed over (expert opinion p. 33). Consequently, the claim is not subject to a time-bar. Since the claim for redemption of the loan has not yet become mature, any interest claims may not be awarded. In that respect, [Seller]'s action was to be dismissed and the judgment by default was to be repealed. The same applies to the request for determining a target date for redemption prior to the date proposed by the Court. It does not matter that [Seller]'s request was based on Italian lira as currency. Given an official exchange course of 1 EUR = Lit. 1,936.27, the sums of money mentioned in the judgment's operative provisions can be properly identified without the need for an amendment of the request for relief. [Seller] is also entitled to receive a payment of EUR 12,450.50 on the basis of Art. 53 CISG. The CISG applies to this dispute. a) The subject-matter scope of application is given according to Art. 1(1) CISG for contracts of sale of goods, which is the case at hand. b) The territorial and personal scope of application is given under Art. 1(1)(a) CISG. [Seller], who relies on the conclusion of a contract with [Buyer], has its place of business in Italy at the time of conclusion of contract. [Buyer] has its place of business in Germany. The CISG entered into force for Italy on 1 January 1988 (Schlechtriem/Schwenzer, CISG, 4th ed., appendix I, p. 917), for the Federal Republic of Germany on 1 January 1991 (BGBl [*] II, p. 1477). c) The application of the CISG is also not excluded by way of Art. 2(a) CISG, which provides that the Convention does not apply to sales of goods bought for personal, family or household use. The pieces of furniture in question were, undisputedly, intended to be used in the law firm offices of [Buyer] and were therefore not bought for personal use. d) The question of whether [Seller] is entitled to claims under the CISG against [Buyer] falls within the subject-matter scope set out by Art. 4 CISG. The parties have concluded a valid contract on the sale of furniture at a price of Lit. 24,107,520 (EUR 12,450.50). The conclusion of contract is governed by Art. 14 et seq. CISG. These provisions state that a contract is concluded by the two corresponding declarations of intent, being the offer (Art. 14 CISG) and the acceptance (Art. 18 CISG). Pursuant to Art. 11 CISG, these declarations do not require a certain form. Since it is undisputed that the pieces of furniture in question had been delivered by [Seller] to [Buyer] under the invoice submitted as exhibit K7, it is of relevance to determine who had bought the furniture on whose name and on whose account. [Seller] bears the burden to prove the existence of an order placed by buyer which would constitute an offer in terms of Art. 14 CISG (Bamberger/Roth/Saenger, Art. 14 CISG para. 8; MünchKomm/Gruber, BGB, 4th ed., Art. 14 CISG para. 38). a) Witness ... testified that Witness ... had ordered two desks. One of them was delivered to [Buyer] and another one was delivered to Mallorca. b) Witness ... stated that he had been employed since the end of August 1998 for about one year at Company ..., being an import and export company. He confirmed having delivered furniture by truck "Ducati 2500 TD" to the address of [Buyer]'s law firm. c) Witness ... stated that he had been CEO of Company ... during 1998. It had delivered all necessary furniture for the establishment of the [Seller]'s seat of business. In other respects he did not have any business relationship with any of the disputing parties. He stated that he had gotten to know [Buyer] at [Seller]'s offices and that he had explained the technical characteristics of the furniture which he had delivered to the [Seller]. As he had not been able to deliver the same furniture to [Buyer], he had referred [Seller] to the company of Witness ... which distributed similar furniture. After ... had placed his order for the pieces of furniture, he had travelled with Witnesses ... and ... with a delivery van of [Seller] to the offices of [Buyer] in order to effect delivery. d) Witness ... identified before the District Court Pistoia that [Buyer] had personally ordered furniture from him after his inspection and selection at the furniture works ... . Then, he had been informed by the van drivers of Company ... and by the proprietors of that company about the fact that transport and delivery of the furniture had been effected at [Buyer]'s law firm offices in Frankfurt. e) When assessing these statements, the Court has to consider that the witnesses were heard by an entrusted foreign court which means that the Court had not opportunity to obtain a personal impression of the witnesses themselves. For example, Witness ... testified that the furniture was bought by [Buyer]. It is not clearly identifiable from the hearing protocols of the District Court Pistoia to which extent his statements are based on his own perceptions or whether they might be a mere assumption. Therefore, the Court cannot clearly consider these statements for either of the existing possible interpretations. aa) Witness ... has clearly identified during his hearing before the District Court Pistoia that [Buyer] himself had placed the order. Other than is the case for Witness ..., the wording of his testimony leaves no room for interpretation. bb) The Court furthermore sees no indication to cast doubt on the credibility of Witness ... First, his testimony is supported by that of Witness ..., who declared that [Buyer] had expressed its interest in the pieces of furniture. Additionally, none of the remaining witnesses had mentioned Company ... in any way. Hence the circumstances of the purchase transaction in itself support that [Buyer] had placed the order personally. cc) It was not possible to hear Witness ... who had been nominated by [Buyer] in order to prove that the furniture was in fact ordered by Company ... Even after [Buyer] had been pointed to the requested payment in advance of fees for the hearing of the witness, it remained unpaid. [Buyer] also failed to submit a disclaimer by the witness in respect of the fees. f) Therefore, it must be assumed that [Buyer] had placed the order for the furniture and that it was delivered by [Seller]. As a result, there are two corresponding declarations of intent according to Arts. 14, 18 CISG. In particular, the acceptance of an offer may also be given impliedly under Art. 18 CISG. This has been the case by having effected delivery of the furniture. [Buyer] is obliged to pay the purchase price under Art. 53 CISG. The amount of the purchase price claim follows from [Seller]'s invoice (submitted as exhibit K7), which has not been contested during the present proceedings. The claim for the purchase price has also become mature, Art. 58(1)(1) CISG, since the goods have already been delivered and any different agreement by the parties has neither been asserted nor has such agreement been evident to the Court. [Seller]'s claim for the purchase price is not subject to a time-bar. a) The question of limitation is to be considered according to Art. 32(1) No. 4 EGBGB [*] in conjunction with Art. 28(2)(1) EGBGB and therefore under Italian law. The CISG itself does not govern the issue of limitation of claims and Art. 32(1) No. 4 EGBGB points to that law which is applicable under Art. 27 et seq. EGBGB to a contract. In case of a sales contract, it is generally that law applicable which applies at the domicile or place of business of the seller because he is the party effecting the characteristic performance (Schlechtriem/Schwenzer, Kommentar zum CISG, 4th ed., Art. 4 para. 35). Consequently, Italian law applies to the question of limitation. b) Art. 1946 Codice civile provides for a general limitation period under Italian law of ten years. Italian law does not stipulate a shorter limitation period for contractual claims (KG Berlin [*] RIW [*] 1986, 905; LG [*] Baden-Baden RIW 1986, 905; Kindler, Einführung in das italienische Recht, 1993, � 10 para. 2). After the sales contract had been concluded in 1998, [Seller]'s claim for the purchase price is not yet time-barred. The claim for interest follows from Art. 78 CISG in conjunction with � 288(1)(1) BGB [*] (old version), Art. 229 � 1(1)(1) EGBGB. a) The obligation to pay interest is generally governed by Art. 78 CISG. However, there is no provision on the interest rate itself (Staudinger/Magnus, CISG, 1999, Art. 78 para. 1; Schlechtriem/Schwenzer/Bacher, Art. 78 para. 2). Therefore, the seller is entitled to interest if the buyer fails to settle the mature purchase price. As has been elaborated, maturity of the purchase price claim is governed by Art. 58 et seq. CISG. Since any particular agreement has not been reached by the parties, the delivery of the goods must be taken into account according to Art. 58(1) CISG. According to the uncontested submissions of [Seller] delivery was effected on 16 November 1998. This date is crucial for [Seller]'s interest claim which does not depend on any additional requirements apart from maturity and non-performance, especially the issuing of a reminder is not necessary (Bamberger/Roth, Art. 78 CISG para. 3; Schlechtriem/Schwenzer/Bacher, Art. 78 para. 17). As requested by [Seller], an interest claim existed since 22 October 1999. b) It is in dispute which provisions are applicable to determine the interest rate, as the CISG itself does not govern this issue. While recourse is often made to the domestic law applicable in accordance with conflict of laws rules at the forum (in that respect OLG [*] Hamm NJW-RR [*] 1996, 1271; unresolved by OLG Düsseldorf IHR [*] 2004, 215), others prefer recourse to general principles in favor of a unified solution (cf. for the relevant opinions Schlechtriem/Schwenzer/Bacher, Art. 78 paras. 27 et seq.). The Court hereby adheres to the solution engaging a uniform standard which establishes a link to the notion of adjustment of profit and which determines the interest rate according to the usual interest rates applied at the habitual residence of the debtor (Bamberger/Roth/Saenger, Art. 78 para. 5; Neumayer, RIW [*] 1994, 99 (106)). Consequently, the interest rate follows from � 288 BGB [*]. The statutory interest rate is laid down in accordance with � 288(1)(1) BGB (old version), which applies pursuant to Art. 229 � 1(1)(3) EGBGB [*] to claims having become mature before 1 May 2000. This interest rate amounted to 4% on 16 November 1998 and thereby corresponds with the interest rate proposed by [Seller] in its request. The claim for interest is therefore affirmed in full. The decision on costs and expenses follows from � 92(2) No. 1 ZPO [*] because the action was dismissed only with respect to the target date for redemption of the loan and with respect to the corresponding interest claim. The decision on the provisional enforceability is based on � 709(1)-(3) ZPO. * All translations should be verified by cross-checking against the original text. For purposes of this translation, Plaintiff of Italy is referred to as [Seller] and Defendant of Germany is referred to as [Buyer]. Amounts in the uniform European currency (Euro) are indicated as [EUR]. Amounts in the former currency of Germany (Deutsche Mark) are indicated as [DM]. Amounts in the former currency of Italy (Italian lira) are indicated as [Lit]. Translator's note on other abbreviations: BGB = Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch [German Civil Code]; BGBl = Bundesgesetzblatt [German Federal Law Gazette]; BGH = Bundesgerichtshof [German Federal Supreme Court]; BGHZ = Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofes in Zivilsachen [Officially reported decisions of the German Federal Supreme Court in Civil Matters]; EGBGB = Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuche [German Code on the conflict of laws]; IHR = Internationales Handelsrecht [German journal on international commercial law]; KG = Kammergericht [Appellate Court of Berlin, Germany]; LG = Landgericht [German District Court]; NJW = Neue Juristische Wochenschrift [a German law journal]; OLG = Oberlandesgericht [German Appellate Court]; NJW-RR = Neue Juristische Wochenschrift Rechtsprechungsreport [German law journal]; RIW = Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft [Journal on international commercial law]; ZIP = Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht [German journal on commercial law]; ZPO = Zivilprozessordnung [German Code on Civil Procedure].

2019-04-23T00:32:51Z

http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/050413g1.html

"And Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked Him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when He was accused of the chief priests and eiders, He answered nothing." Seest thou what He is first asked? which thing most of all they were continually bringing forward in every way? For since they saw Pilate making no account of the matters of the law, they direct their accusation to the state charges. So likewise did they in the case of the apostles, ever bringing forward these things, and saying that they were going about proclaiming king one Jesus, speaking as of a mere man, and investing them with a suspicion of usurpation. Whence it is manifest, that both the rending the garment and the amazement were a pretense. But all things they got up, and plied, in order to bring Him to death. This at any rate Pilate then asked. What then said Christ? "Thou sayest." He confessed that He was a king, but a heavenly king, which elsewhere also He spake more dearly, replying to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world;" that neither they nor this man should have an excuse for accusing Him of such things. And He gives a reason that cannot be gainsaid, saying, "If I were of this world, my servants would fight, that I should not be delivered." For this purpose I say, in order to refute this suspicion, He both paid tribute, and commanded others to pay it, and when they would make Him a king, He fled. Wherefore then did he not bring forward these things, it may be said, at that time, when accused of usurpation? Because having the proofs from His acts, of His power, His meekness, His gentleness, beyond number, they were willfully blind, and dealt unfairly, and the tribunal was corrupt. For these reasons then He replies to nothing, but holds His peace, yet answering briefly (so as not to get the reputation of arrogance from continual silence) when the high priest adjured Him, when the governor asked, but in reply to their accusations He no longer saith anything; for He was not now likely to persuade them. Even as the prophet declaring this self-same thing from of old, said, "In His humiliation His judgment was taken away." At these things the governor marvelled, and indeed it was worthy of admiration to see Him showing such great forbearance, and holding His peace, Him that had countless things to say. For neither did they accuse Him from knowing of any evil thing in Him, but from jealousy and envy only. At least when they had set false witness, wherefore, having nothing to say, did they still urge their point? and when they saw Judas was dead, and that Pilate had washed his hands of it, why were they not pricked with remorse. For indeed He did many things even at the very time, that they might recover themselves, but by none were they amended. What then saith Pilate? "Hearest thou not how many things these witness against thee?" He wished that He should defend Himself and be acquitted, wherefore also he said these things; but since He answered nothing, he devises another thing again. Of what nature was this? It was a custom for them to release one of the condemned, and by this means he attempted to deliver Him. For if you are not willing to release Him as innocent, yet as guilty pardon Him for the feast's sake. Seest thou order reversed? For the petition in behalf of the condemned it was customary to be with the people, and the granting it with the rulers; but now the contrary hath come to pass, and the ruler petitions the people; and not even so do they become gentle, but grow more savage and bloodthirsty, driven to frenzy by the passion of envy. For neither had they whereof they should accuse Him, and this though He was silent, but they were refuted even then by reason of the abundance of His righteous deeds, and being silent He overcame them that say ten thousand things, and are maddened. "And when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, have thou nothing to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him." See what a thing takes place again, sufficient to recall them all. For together with the proof from the things done, the dream too was no small thing. And wherefore doth he not see it himself? Either because she was more worthy, or because he, if he had seen it, would not have been equally believed; or would not so much as have told it. Therefore it was ordered that the wife should see it, so that it might be manifest to all. And she doth not merely see it, but also suffers many things, that from his feeling towards his wife, the man may be made more reluctant to the murder. And the time too contributed not a little, for on the very night she saw it. But it was not safe, it may be said, for him to let Him go, because they said He made Himself a king. He ought then to have sought for proofs, and a conviction, and for all the things that are infallible signs of an usurpation, as, for instance, whether He levied forces, whether He collected money, whether he forged arms, whether He attempted any other such thing. But he is led away at random, therefore neither doth Christ acquit him of the blame, in saying, "He that betrayeth me unto thee hath greater sin." So that it was from weakness that he yielded and scourged Him, and delivered Him up. He then was unmanly and weak; but the chief priests wicked and criminal. For since he had found out a device, namely, the law of the feast requiring him to release a condemned person, what do they contrive in opposition to that? "They persuaded the multitude," it is said, "that they should ask Barabbas." 2. See how much care he taketh for them to relieve them from blame, and how much diligence they employed, so as not to leave to themselves so much as a shadow of an excuse. For which was right? to let go the acknowledged criminal, or Him about whose guilt there was a question? For, if in the case of acknowledged offenders it was fit there should be a liberation, much more in those of whom there was a doubt. For surely this man did not seem to them worse than acknowledged murderers. For on this account, it is not merely said they had a robber; but one noted, that is, who was infamous in wickedness, who had perpetrated countless murders. But nevertheless even him did they prefer to the Saviour of the world, and neither did they reverence the season because it was holy, nor the laws of humanity, nor any other thing of the kind, but envy had once for all blinded them. And besides their own wickedness, they corrupt the people also, that for deceiving them too they might suffer the most extreme punishment. Since therefore they ask for the other, He saith, "What shall I do then with the Christ," in this way desiring to put them to the blush, by giving them the power to choose, that at least out of shame they might ask for Him, and the whole should be of their bountifulness. For though to say, He had not done wrong, made them more contentious, yet to require that He should be saved out of humanity, carries with it persuasion and entreaty that cannot be gainsaid. But even then they said, "Crucify Him. But he said, why, what evil hath He done? but they cried out exceedingly, let Him be crucified. But he, when he saw that he profited nothing, washed his hands, saying, I am innocent." Why then didst thou deliver Him up? Why didst thou not rescue Him, as the centurion did Paul. For that man too was aware that he would please the Jews; and a sedition had taken place on his account, and a tumult, nevertheless he stood firm against all. But not so this man, but he was extremely unmanly and weak, and all were corrupt together. For neither did this man stand firm against the multitude, nor the multitude against the Jews, and in in every way their excuse was taken away. For they "cried out exceedingly," that is, cried out the more, "Let Him be crucified." For they desired not only to put Him to death, but also that it should be on a charge of wickedness, and though the judge was contradicting them, they continued to cry out the same thing. Seest thou how many things Christ did in order to recover them? For like as He often times checked Judas, so likewise did He restrain these men too, both throughout all His Gospel, and at the very time of His condemnation. For surely when they saw the ruler and the judge washing his hands of it, and saying, "I am innocent of this blood," they should have been moved to compunction both by what was said, and by what was done, as well when they saw Judas had hanged himself, as when they saw Pilate himself entreating them to take another in the place of Him. For when the accuser and traitor condemns himself, and he who gives sentence puts off from himself the guilt, and such a vision appears the very night, and even as condemned he begs Him off, what kind of plea will they have? For if they were not willing that He should be innocent, yet they should not have preferred to him even a robber, one that was acknowledged to be such, and very notorious. What then did they? When they saw the judge washing his hands, and saying, "I am innocent," they cried out "His blood be on us, and on our children." Then at length when they had given sentence against themselves, he yielded that all should be done. See here too their great madness. For passion and wicked desire are like this. They suffer not men to see anything of what is right. For be it that ye curse yourselves; why do you draw down the curse upon your children also? Nevertheless, the lover of man, though they acted with so much madness, both against themselves, and against their children, so far from confirming their sentence upon their children, confirmed it not even on them, but from the one and from the other received those that repented, and counts them worthy of good things beyond number. For indeed even Paul was of them, and the thousands that believed in Jerusalem; for, "thou seest it is said, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe." And if some continued in their sin, to themselves let them impute their punishment. "Then released he Barabbas unto them, but Jesus, when he had scourged Him, he delivered to be crucified." And wherefore did he scourge Him. Either as one condemned, or willing to invest the judgment with due form, or to please them. And yet he ought to have resisted them. For indeed even before this he had said, "Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law." And there were many things that might have held back him and those men, the signs and the miracles, and the great patience thirdly, he persuaded him to slay and to deny his murder; and did not leave him before he had put on him the crowning act of evil. Wherefore it is necessary for us to resist the beginning. For at any rate, even if the first sins stopped at themselves, not even so were it right to despise the first sins; but now they go on also to what is greater, when the mind is careless. Wherefore we ought to do all things to remove the beginnings of them. For look not now at the nature of the sin, that it is little, but that it becomes a root of great sin when neglected. For if one may say something marvellous, great sins need not so much earnestness, as such as are little, and of small account. For the former the very nature of the sin causes us to abhor, but the little sins by this very thing cast us into remissness; and allow us not to rouse ourselves heartily for their removal. Wherefore also they quickly become great, while we sleep. This one may see happening in bodies also. So likewise in the instance of Judas, that great wickedness had its birth. For if it had not seemed to him a little thing to steal the money of the poor, he would not have been led on to this treachery. Unless it had seemed to the Jews a little thing to be taken captive by vainglory, they would not have run on the rock of becoming Christ's murderers. And indeed all evils we may see arise from this. For no one quickly and at once rusheth out into vices. For the soul hath, yea it hath a shame implanted in us, and a reverence for right things; and it would not at once become so shameless as in one act to east away everything, but slowly, and by little and little doth it perish, when it is careless. Thus also did idolatry enter in, men being honored beyond measure, both the living and the departed; thus also were idols worshipped; thus too did whoredom prevail, and the other evils. And see. One man laughed unseasonably; another blamed him; a third took away the fear. by saying, nothing comes of this. "For what is laughing? What can come of it?" Of this is bred foolish jesting; from that filthy talking; then filthy doings. Again, another being blamed for slandering his neighbors, and reviling, and calumniating, despised it, saying, evil-speaking is nothing. By this he begets hatred unspeakable, revilings without end; by the revilings blows, and by the blows oftentimes murder. 4. From these little things then that wicked spirit thus brings in the great sins; and from the great despair; having invented this other while not less mischievous than the former. For to sin destroys not so much as to despair. For he that hath offended, if he be vigilant, speedily by repentance amends what hath been done; but he that hath learnt to despond, and doth not repent, by reason thereof fails of this amendment by not applying the remedies from repentance. And he hath a third grievous snare; as when he invests the sin with a show of devotion. And where hath the devil so far prevailed as to deceive to this degree? Hear, and beware of his devices. Christ by Paul commanded "that a woman depart not from her husband, and not to defraud one another, except by consent;" but some from a love of continence forsooth, having withdrawn from their own husbands, as though they were doing something devout, have driven them to adultery. Consider now what an evil it is that they, undergoing so much toil, should be blamed as having committed the greatest injustice, and should suffer extreme punishment, and drive their husbands into the pit of destruction. Others again, abstaining from meats by a rule of fasting, have by degrees gone so far as to abhor them; which even of itself brings a very great punishment. But this comes to pass, when any hold fast their own prejudices contrary to what is approved by the Scriptures. Those also among the Corinthians thought it was a part of perfection to eat of all things without distinction, even of things forbidden, but nevertheless this was not of perfection, but of the utmost lawlessness. Wherefore also Paul earnestly reproves them, and pronounces them to be worthy of extreme punishment. Others again think it a sign of piety to wear long hair. And yet this is amongst the things forbidden, and carries with it much disgrace. Again, others follow after excessive sorrow for their sins as a profitable thing; yet it also comes of the devil's wiles, and Judas showed it; at least in consequence thereof he even hanged himself. Therefore Paul again was in fear about him that had committed fornication, lest any such thing should befall him, and persuaded the Corinthians speedily to deliver him, "lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." Then, indicating that such a result cometh of the snares of that wicked one, he saith, "Lest Satan should get an advantage over us, for we are not ignorant of his devices," meaning that he assails us with much craft. Since if he fought against us plainly and openly, the victory would be ready and easy; or rather even now, if we be vigilant, victory will be ready. For indeed against each one: of those ways God hath armed us. But about not despairing, it is said, "Doth he fall, and not arise? Doth he turn away, and not return?" and, "I do not will the death of the sinner, so much as that he should turn and live:" and, "To-day if ye will hear His voice: " and many other such things, both sayings and examples are set in the Scripture. And in order not to be ruined under the guise of godly fear, hear Paul saying, "Lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow." Knowing therefore these things, let us set for a barrier in all the ways that pervert the unwary the wisdom which is drawn from the Scriptures. Neither say, why, what is it, if I gaze curiously at a beautiful woman? For if thou shouldest commit the adultery in the heart, soon thou wilt venture on that in flesh. Say not, why, what is it if I should pass by this poor man? For if thou pass this man by, thou wilt also the next; if him, then the third. Neither again say, why, what is it, if I should desire my neighbor's goods. For this, this caused Ahab's ruin; although he would have paid a price, yet he took it from one unwilling. For a man ought not to buy by force, but on persuasion. But if he, who would have paid the fair price, was so punished, because he took from one unwilling, he who doeth not so much as this, and taketh by violence from the unwilling, and that when living under grace, of what punishment will he not be worthy? In order therefore that we be not punished, keeping ourselves quite pure from all violence and rapine, and guarding against the sources of sins together with the sins themselves, let us with much diligence give heed to virtue; for thus shall we also enjoy the good things eternal by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory world without end. Amen. "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers; and they stripped Him, and put on Him a purple robe; and when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews." As though on some signal the devil then was entering in triumph into all. For, be it that Jews pining with envy and jealousy were mad against Him, as to the soldiers, whence was it, and from what sort of cause? Is it not clear that it was the devil who was then entering in fury into the hearts of all? For indeed they made a pleasure of their insults against Him, being a savage and ruthless set. I mean that, when they ought to have been awestruck, when they ought to have wept, which even the people did, this they did not, but, on the contrary, were despiteful, and insolent; perhaps themselves also seeking to please the Jews, or it may be doing all in conformity to their own evil nature. For the things that were done go beyond all language. For as though they were afraid lest they should seem to fall short at all in the crime, having killed the prophets with their own hands, but this man with the sentence of a judge, so they do in every deed; and make it the work of their own hands, and condemn and sentence both among themselves and before Pilate, saying, "His blood be on us and on our children," and insult Him, and do despite unto Him themselves, binding Him, leading Him away, and render themselves authors of the spiteful acts done by the soldiers, and nail Him to the cross. and revile Him, and spit at Him, and deride Him. For Pilate contributed nothing in this matter, but they themselves did every thing, becoming accusers, and judges, and executioners, and all. And they gave Him gall to drink, and this to insult Him, but He would not. But another saith, that having tasted it, He said, "It is finished." And what meaneth, "It is finished?" The prophecy was fulfilled concerning Him. "For they gave me," it is said, "gall for my meat, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." But neither doth that evangelist indicate that He drank, for merely to taste differs not from not drinking, but hath one and the same signification. 5. And yet who would not have been moved by the multitude that was following Him, and lamenting Him? Nay, not these wild beasts. Wherefore also He to the multitude vouchsafes an answer, but to these men not so. For after having done what they would, they endeavor also to injure His honor, fearing His resurrection. Therefore they say these things publicly, and crucified thieves with Him, and wishing to prove Him a deceiver, they say, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days come down from the cross." For since on telling Pilate to remove the accusation (this was the writing, "The king of the Jews"), they prevailed not, but he persevered in saying," What I have written, I have written," they then endeavor by their derision of Him to show that He is not a king. Wherefore they said those things, and also these. If "He is the king of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross. He saved others, Himself He cannot save," aiming hereby to bring discredit even on His former miracles. And again, "If He be Son of God, and He will have Him, let Him save Him." Hearing then these things, let us arm ourselves against all rage, against all anger. Shouldest thou perceive thy heart swelling, seal thy breast setting upon it the cross. Call to mind some one of the things that then took place, and thou wilt cast out as dust all rage by the recollection of the things that were done. Consider the words, the actions; consider that He is Lord, and thou servant. He is suffering for thee, thou for thyself; He in behalf of them who had been benefited by Him and had crucified Him, thou in behalf of thyself; He in behalf of them who had used Him despitefully, thou oftentimes at the hands of them who have been injured. He in the sight of the whole city, or rather of the whole people of the Jews, both strangers, and those of the country, before whom He spake those merciful words, but thou in the presence of few; and what. was more insulting to Him, that even His disciples forsook Him. For those, who before paid Him attention, had deserted Him, but His enemies and foes, having got Him in the midst of themselves on the cross, insulted, reviled, mocked, derided, scoffed at Him, Jews and soldiers from below, from above thieves on either side: for indeed the thieves insulted, and upbraided Him both of them. How then saith Luke that one "rebuked?" Both things were done, for at first both upbraided Him, but afterwards one did so no more. For that thou mightest not think the thing had been done by any agreement, or that the thief was not a thief, by his insolence he showeth thee, that up on the cross he was a thief and an enemy, and at once was changed. 4. Together with these things even from thine own servants take a lesson concerning these matters; and when thou seest thyself insulting, but thy servant holding his peace, consider that it is possible to practise self-control, and condemn thyself for being violent; and in the very time of offering insults learn not to insult; and thus not even when insulted, wilt thou be vexed. Consider that he who is insolent is beside himself and mad, and thou wilt not feel indignant, when insulted, since the possessed strike us, and we, so far from being provoked, do rather pity them. This do thou also; pity him that is insolent to thee, for he is held in subjection by a dreadful monster, rage, by a grievous demon, anger. Set him free as he is wrought upon by a grievous demon, and going quickly to ruin. For so great is this disease as not to need even time for the destruction of him that is seized with it. Wherefore also one said, "The sway of his fury shall be his fall; " by this most of all showing its tyranny, that in a short time it works great ills, and needs not to continue long with us, so that if in addition to its strength it were apt to last, it would indeed be hard to strive against. "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said, Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani? that is to say, my God my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias. And straight way one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink." This is the sign which before He had promised to give them when they asked it, saying, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; " meaning His cross, and His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And again, declaring in another way the virtue of the cross, He said, "When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He." And what He saith is to this purport: "When ye have crucified me, and think ye have overcome me, then, above all, shall ye know my might." For after the crucifixion, the city was destroyed, and the Jewish state came to an end, they fell away from their polity and their freedom, the gospel flourished, the word' was spread abroad to the ends of the world; both sea and land, both the inhabited earth and the desert perpetually proclaim its' power. These things then He meaneth, and those which took place at the very time of the crucifixion. For indeed it was much more marvellous that these things should be done, when He was nailed to the cross, than when He was walking on earth. And not in this respect only was the wonder, but because from heaven also was that done which. they had sought, and it was over all the world, which had never before happened, but in Egypt only, when the passover was to be fulfilled. For indeed those events were a type of these. And observe when it took place. At midday, that all that dwell on the earth may know it, when it was day all over the world; which was enough to convert them, not by the greatness of the miracle only, but also by its taking place in due season. For after all their insulting, and their lawless derision, this is done, when they had let go their anger, when they had ceased mocking, when they were satiated with their jeerings, and had spoken all that they were minded; then He shows the darkness, in order that at least so (having vented their anger) they may profit by the miracle. For this was more marvellous than to come down from the cross, that being on the cross He should work these things. For whether they thought He Himself had done it, they ought to have believed and to have feared; or whether not He, but the Father, yet thereby ought they to have been moved to compunction, for that darkness was a token of His anger at their crime. For that it was not an eclipse, but both wrath and indignation, is not hence alone manifest, but also by the time, for it continued three hours, but an eclipse takes place in one moment of time, and they know it, who have seen this; and indeed it hath taken place even in our generation. And how, you may say, did not all marvel, and account Him to be God? Because the race of man was then held in a state of great carelessness and vice. And this miracle was but one, and when it had taken place, immediately passed away; and no one was concerned to inquire into the cause of it, and great was the prejudice and the habit of ungodliness. And they knew not what was the cause of that which took place, and they thought perhaps this happened so, in the way of an eclipse or some natural effect. And why dost thou marvel about them that are without, that knew nothing, neither inquired by reason of great indifference, when even those that were in Judaea itself, after so many miracles, yet continued using Him despitefully, although He plainly showed them that He Himself wrought this thing. And for this reason, even after this He speaks, that they might learn that He was still alive, and that He Himself did this, and that they might become by this also more gentle, and He saith, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that unto His last breath they might see that He honors His Father, and is no adversary of God. Wherefore also He uttered a certain cry from the prophet, even to His last hour bearing witness to the Old Testament, and not simply a cry from the prophet, but also in Hebrew, so as to be plain and intelligible to them, and by all things He shows how He is of one mind with Him that begat Him. But mark herein also their wantonness, and intemperance, and folly. They thought (it is said) that it was Elias whom He called, and straightway they gave Him vinegar to drink. But another came unto Him, and "pierced His side with a spear." What could be more lawless, what more brutal, than these men; who carried their madness to so great a length, offering insult at last even to a dead body? But mark thou, I pray thee, how He made use of their wickednesses for our salvation. For after the blow the fountains of our salvation gushed forth from thence. "And Jesus, when He had cried with a loud voice, yielded up the Ghost." This is what He said, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again," and, "I lay it down of myself." So for this cause He cried with the voice, that it might be shown that the act is done by power. Mark at any rate saith, that "Pilate marvelled if He were already dead:" and that the centurion for this cause above all believed, because He died with power. This cry rent the veil, and opened the tombs, and made the house desolate. And He did this, not as offering insult to the temple (for how should He, who saith, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise," but declaring them to be unworthy even of His abiding there; like as also when He delivered it over to the Babylonians. But not for this only were these things done, but what took place was a prophecy of the coming desolation, and of the change into the greater and higher state; and a sign of His might. And together with these things He showed Himself also by what followed after these things, by the raising of the dead. For in the instance of Elisha; one on touching a dead body rose again, but now by a voice He raised them, His body continuing up there, on the cross. And besides, those things were a type of this. For that this might be believed, therefore is that all done. And they are not merely raised, but also rocks are rent, and the earth shaken, that they might learn, that He was able to strike themselves blind, and to rend them in pieces. For He that cleft rocks asunder, and darkened the world, much more could have done these things to them, had it been His will. But He would not, but having discharged His wrath upon the elements, them it was His will to save by clemency. But they abated not their madness. Such is envy, such is jealousy, it is not easily stayed. At that time then they were impudent in setting themselves against the actual appearances; and afterwards even against the things themselves, when a seal being put upon Him, and soldiers watching Him, He rose again, and they heard these things from the very guards; they even gave money, in order both to corrupt others, and to steal away the history of the resurrection. Marvel not therefore if at this time also they were perverse, being thus altogether prepared to set themselves impudently against all things; but observe this other point, how great signs He had wrought, some from Heaven, some on earth, some in the very temple, at once marking His indignation, and at the same time showing that what were unapproachable are now to be entered, and that Heaven shall be opened; and the work removed to the true Holy of Holies. And they indeed said, "If He be the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross," but He shows that He is King of all the world. And whereas those men said, "Thou that destroyest this temple, and buildest it in three days," He shows that it shall be made forever desolate. Again they said, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save." but He while abiding on the cross proved this most abundantly on the bodies of His servants. For if for Lazarus to rise on the fourth day was a great thing, how much more for all those who had long ago fallen asleep, at once to appear alive, which was a sign of the future resurrection. For, "many bodies of the saints which slept, arose," it is said, "and went into the holy city, and appeared to many." For in order that what was done might not be accounted to be an imagination, they appear, even to many, in the city. And the Centurion too then glorified God, saying, "Truly this was a righteous man. And the multitudes that came together to that sight, returned beating their breasts." So great was the power of the crucified, that after so many mockings, and scoffs, and jeers, both the centurion was moved to compunction, and the people. And some say that there is also a martyrdom of this centurion, who after these things grew to manhood in the faith.

2019-04-23T22:09:08Z

http://lectionarycentral.com/maundy/ChrysostomGospel.html

Fowler’s 1968 Dictionary on synonymia, tautology, circumlocution, pleonasm, meaningless words, and pairs of commonly confused words—all delicately sautéed and prepared for modern connoisseurs. Synonyms are like spices: used in moderation, they enhance the taste; used without moderation, they obscure every flavour. Linguistic gustation differentiates between them under the titles synonymia and tautology. Though, of course, pleasurable variety for one reader is overabundance for another. Let’s have a saucy example. How’s that on the digestion? Lorrain specialises in psychological studies of moral decadence—and there is a separate post on his prose—but for now it suffices to note that to some people the quote may appear overdone. And that’s despite me having spared you the accompanying references to Pasiphae and the bull, Messalina’s promiscuity, and Cleopatra in general. Some of the different ways things can go wrong for a writer, courtesy of Fowler’s “Dictionary of Modern English Usage” (1968 edition). False scent: When the author claims this is lavender, and some readers claim it’s only a picture of lavender. For Christmas I received from my grandfather-in-law a special present: his lovingly kept second edition of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (revised by Sir Ernest Gowers). Even though I’d heard of Fowler’s, seen it referenced, and perused extracts from its modern entries, I’d never actually held it my hands—until now! Despite this copy’s notable sixty years of age, its pages are in impeccable condition. Fowler’s advice, his examples, and inherent relevance show some wear, but nothing that the author’s sense of humour doesn’t amply recompense. I speak of this 1968 edition. The few more flavourful entries that I was able to search for in a 1996 edition were either non-existent or effectively bowdlerised. What’s left nowadays is the bland and spartan, but most pragmatic, dictionary-speak. I understand why—political correctness and modernisation march rightly on—though I think the earlier editions can still be enjoyed, if not as go-to guides, then as historical documents. Quirky and witty ones at that. Although, I warn you: quirk and wit have this charismatic presence that often wins out over straight-laced teachings. We hear in time, but we see in space—how this affects different storytelling mediums. Remember, remember, The Last Jedi that came out in December? There’s the conventional text, rows of inky print on ivory. Then there’s the audio book on one side and the graphic novel on the other. Audio books replace the visual aspect of reading with an aural one, whereas graphic novels introduce additional visual elements at the expense of words. Occasionally, the internet debates whether consuming either of these counts as reading, so let me first state my opinion—it depends how you define reading, and in any dialogue I’m willing to be as liberal with the terminology as is needed so long as it’s consistent—and now let me move on. It’s more interesting to consider how different means of storytelling combine our senses into a coherent experience. After all, we hear in time, but we see in space; to my mind this affects the chosen medium and the experience more so than most other aspects. In storytelling, written words convey both sounds and pictures. You hear that gunshot, you see the victim sprawling. Of course, words can make you cringe or break out in goosebumps; they can make you laugh or teach you a lesson. Like any story. But it’s also true that sounds—spoken words, music, noise—convey pictures (and words) and more. Indeed, pictures—moving, stationary, on the page and off, fine art, doodles—convey sounds (and words) and more. So audio, illustrated, and written mediums, whilst not interchangeable, lend credibility and imaginative capacity to each other like a set of connected siphoning chambers in the reader’s mind. Beginning the New Year with a perusal of the Merriam-Webster’s “A” section. The start of a new year is like the start of spring: you’re full of hope and projects and dreams of summer, albeit due to calendric conventions rather than mating calls and increased sunlight. The newness implies a clean beginning, all metaphorical buds and blossoms, unencumbered by preceding dead leaves. Like the first page of an unread book, or the first sentence of that first page. But that’s still thinking in generalities. I wanted to open up this year’s literary adventure with something truly fundamental, yet protean. And what is a more fresh and clean embodiment of potentiality than the first letter of the alphabet? So I celebrated the 1st of January by flipping through the word-entries under the letter A in a copy of the 1976 Webster’s dictionary. I would not recommend it as light gym reading: it weights as much as a three-month-old baby (six kilos), it’s markably more oblong and unwieldy than a baby, and is a tad more knowledgable at two-thousand-plus pages. Instead, I would recommend laying the dictionary on a desk, opening it wide, then remaining standing up and looking down at it, from a position of power. Otherwise it may threaten to make you feel diminished. It’s also an excellent flat paperweight for pressing warped watercolour artworks, crumpled diplomas, or curling old photos—but that’s beside the point! Here’s a glimpse into the fun I had with the letter A. We all know the first word of the A section. Can you guess the last, or at least, how close can you get to guessing the last word? Thank you for following along with my series of Fragments. Full-length posts resume next week. Fictional worlds are often found ballooning at the edges of other work. Repeating words in a description indicates a poor vocabulary or a poor imagination. Of the latter: the real world does not repeat itself because it is infinitely rich, this too should be the apparent case of any fabricated world. Fictional worlds are often found ballooning at the edges of other work. While editing one piece of writing or reading something entirely different, capture those tantalising ideas that pop up—as iridescent and evanescent as foam-bubbles—they could form the microcosm of your next story. This is part of a series of short holiday posts that are based on excerpts and thoughts from my literary diary. Here is what a “usual” post on Quiver Quotes looks like: Startled, the Armchair. On how we can decide which areas of life to focus on. As an independent unit of life, man faces two limits: that of body and that of mind. Any instance of human activity ceases either because of a hard biological limit (I broke my arm therefore I cannot paint), or because the discomfort becomes too great (no one is buying the paintings therefore I shall not paint). The latter is a soft limit that can be stretched through training (perseverance can be learned: maybe I should continue painting anyway?). However, if the soft limit stretches so far it meets the hard limit, you get the bodily smack-down of madness or illness: you will go no further. The difference between the soft and the hard limit is measured in effort. A long time ago my high-school sociology teacher delivered a blow to my pride that set me in my place for life. I had asked him for a reference. He wasn’t too worried about keeping what he wrote a secret, indeed, he encouraged me to look at the form, right there, in front of him. Only one point surprised me: he’d scored me 4 out of 5 on “General Effort”. Tell me my facts are wrong, tell me my form is poor, but how dare you tell me I didn’t try to the utmost of my ability? I brought this up in diplomatic tones, and I witnessed the first and so far only instance of someone’s eyes glinting. You only get so many of those self-searching moments where circumstance, mood, and honesty join in a bitter-sweet union. This was one of them. Quiver Quotes resolves to continue diverting its readers and even, occasionally, inciting moments of divergent-thinking. May you spend today, and every other day of the year, full of good cheer. This is part of a series of short holiday posts that are based on excerpts and thoughts from my diary. Here is what a “usual” post on Quiver Quotes looks like: Charged With Eternity: Quirks and Perks. Are there languages living in each other’s phonetic complements? Given this precedent, I format my thoughts below as questions from an as of yet unwritten exam-novel. I don’t know the answers, you might. Each language has a number of phonemes (distinct sounds). Define a phonetic complement of a language to be all the sounds not used by that language. Are there languages living in the phonetic complements of each other? If not, is it possible to construct a meaningful language in the phonetic complement of any given existing language? If so, given a sufficiently well-defined framework of phonemes achievable by the human vocal apparatus, can we construct a set of pairwise disjoint languages that completely exhaust all possible phonemes? Rider: Each language has a number of morphemes (smallest meaningful units of language). If the morpheme complement at a given time t (we have to freeze time as languages evolve) is defined to be the collection of unused morphemes of that language, how would you go about constructing a new language using the same phonemes but contained in the morpheme complement? You may take the statue down from the pedestal only when you feel you understand its flaws. When reading a well-known author, first put them on a pedestal justified by their reputation, by laudatory secondary literature, by personal awe and impersonal envy. You may take the statue down from the pedestal only when you feel you understand its flaws, and when improving on those flaws haunts your dreams (even if you have little evidence that you are able to do better). This is part of a series of short holiday posts that are mostly excerpts and thoughts from my literary diary. Here is what a “usual” post on Quiver Quotes looks like: The Softness of Pillows: Quirks and Perks. The subjective length (and quality) of the reader’s journey measures the weightiness of a work. Today’s is the first in a series of posts under the heading Holiday Fragments. With a few exceptions, I will offer a number of short-short excerpts from my literary diary. Some may be thought-seeds, some dumb-duds: you decide. I usually guard my unfinished fragments as if they were golden apples likely to cause the next Trojan war. But time erodes their personal value, and as the end of the year approaches, I’m clearing house to make way for a shiny new crop. The length of a text does not determine whether it is a novel, a novella, a short story, or a vignette. It is the subjective length (and quality) of the reader’s journey that measures the weightiness of a work and therefore determines its classification. Where to look for inspiration when inventing words for your fantasy writing. To write, you need words. To write well, you need a vocabulary—preferably, a large one. And this isn’t so you can show off and write about sitting in a puddle of your own mucilage while bound in a brodequin and tortured in a tenebrous tower. Readers have it easy: they’re given context for each word and it’s usually sufficient to intuit a meaning. Writers have to pluck a precise word and understand most of its denotations and connotations and create a fitting context (all of which happens simultaneously); therefore, writers need access to a wide roaming ground, plentiful in detail and depth, and an effective search method. The roaming ground metaphor offers little when it comes to nonfiction writing (expand your vocabulary in the relevant direction; if you write about fish, go explore the lake), or when it comes to fiction writing set in the real world (expand your vocabulary in the relevant direction; if you write murder mysteries set in a Bedouin camp, go explore the desert). But when it comes to writing anything set in a world of your making, where you are God, where you give names—what happens to your roaming ground? The words you invent are the writer’s quirk words (as opposed to the reader’s quirk words)—they enrich the boundaries of language in general, not just the boundaries of a reader’s vocabulary. On reading Spinoza’s “Ethics” and how to stay focused while working through difficult non-fiction. Different books offer different pleasures and not all of them end in heart-thumping affect. Some books are initially overwhelming—like, for me, Knut Hamsun’s Hunger—and require a modified, laterigrade approach where I half-squint, half-sidle down the page, and whenever it gets too much, I write a comment to release a part of the emotional pressure. Some books are initially underwhelming—like, for me, Spinoza’s Ethics—and require a modified, porpoising approach where I jump in and out of the page, searching for connections and meaning. In both cases a creative persistence is needed, and ultimately rewarded (if anything, rewarded more than when reading a middling potboiler that ticks all the boxes). When books are deemed “tough”, it’s because they require a new coping mechanism from the reader: a different approach from chapter to chapter, a modification of reading goals mid-chapter, and (gasp!) actual thinking while reading. Escapism—of the kind where you plop yourself on the massage table in an all inclusive resort, become dough, and forget the hands that knead you—it is not. When a book gets tough the bar serves glasses full of pebbles, the air smells of an end-of-year exam hall, and the band plays an industrial hard-metal version of Stravinski’s The Rite of Spring. Most people riot, then get up and leave. However, a tough book is also a challenge, and one which can still bring the pleasure of “flow”—a psychological state where man is so well-matched to mission that the world’s problems fall away. Nonce-words and an anthology’s worth of short story ideas based on meld-compound words from Yeats, Cummings, and Hulme. When I call my husband’s phrase a nonce-use, he thinks I said nonsense. Try saying it quickly to someone who doesn’t expect it and you too are likely to get a blank look. Even the third time in three days. Every word starts life as a neologism (a newly-coined expression). When a neologism is first uttered it is uttered for the nonce, meaning for a particular purpose or occasion. If it never gets uttered again that word becomes a nonce-word and its singular application a nonce-use. Internet users—human and not—indulge in volumes of neologising, thereby making it less and less likely that any reasonable two-word combination is truly unique. But that doesn’t mean we’re liable to run out of options any time soon. And even if you’re not being entirely original, context nuances meaning. In the other posts this week I’ve talked about binding two words together, either as a meld (without a gap) or as a compound (with a hyphen), to create a complex colour expression or a compressed, fresh description. The examples I quoted were meant to be interesting, but fairly reasonable and replicable in kind, if not in beauty and purpose. Now I quote the exotic. By “exotic” I mean sufficiently interesting that taken as a title, I could write a whole short story based on it. Following each word, I offer the key phrases or sentences describing the ten-second flash-fiction that unspools in my mind. Any commentary or association is not directly related to the original context but might be distantly affected by it, as I have read the three sources in their entirety. lovebent fingers: Lovers, mothers, age, fronds of plants, tree branches, lifetime cycle and reuniting with Nature. mothmirth: A swarm of drunken drones, dancing, before being sent into battle. One returns from battle, but mothmirth requires at least two. spiderchild: Silk-weaver born into poor family, spins fortune, climbs nearby cliffs, scene with poor moonlit mooncalf. Moral: a quick climb often leads to a long drop. singing-tired and weeping-drunk people: Wedding of a child-bride to an alien as an alliance between worlds. We’ll find out in two hundred years whether it worked. On how to craft meaningful compound and meld words. Examples taken from W. B. Yeats, E. E. Cummings, Keri Hulme. I reserve a special internal exclamation of joy for words that I have never seen before, but I immediately understand and appreciate. These mostly fall under the heading of compound words or meld words tailored to a particular context. In my previous post, I discussed “new” colour descriptions coined by W. B. Yeats, E. E. Cummings, and Keri Hulme, such as cloud-pale, blackred, seashaded, some of which are more, some of which are less far fetched. In the case of the senses (not only vision), it is fairly straightforward to write a recipe for creating sensible adjectives that a reader can enjoy without effort. It is even relatively easy to hone the craft: pick a colour and an animal nuancing that colour (e.g. elephant-grey), pick two colours (e.g. yellow-orange) and so on until you’re happy with your creation. However, when it comes to more advanced meld-compounds—to coin a word which means either meld or compound word, or a combination, like Cummings’s watersmooth-silver—there are both more options to play with and fewer options that will work. Take eyes. You can describe them with colours (greengrey), but suppose you want to go beyond that. Then you can also consider physical features (goggly, globular), emotions (gleeful, glamorous, goading), things and people (ghosts, gammoners, gemstones) etc. The options are endless. The price you pay is that the further afield you stretch, the harder it will be to find a reasonable pairing that will be worth the reader’s effort. Metaphors are nice, but they are taxing—this is why meld-compounds become more common and more complex the further you move along the spectrum from genre fiction to literary fiction to poetic prose to verse-novels to poetry. As always, reading, reading, reading (of poetry), and tuning one’s inner ear, is probably the quickest way to accumulate ideas and experience that will allow you to hatch your own meld-compounds. compress your own sentences into meld-compounds resembling, but distinct from, your original example. Four steps. I denote the transfer from one step to the next with an arrow. The first word in italics is taken from the author I’ve indicated; the last is my new meld-compound. Yeats: sea-covered stone -> a stone covered by sea -> a shell buried by sand -> sand-buried shell. Cummings: balloonman -> a clown who has/sells balloons -> a clown who wears pantaloons -> pantaloonclown. Hulme: moonshadow -> a shadow cast by the moon -> shade cast by the stars -> starshade. On crafting complex colours (meld and compound words). Examples taken from W. B. Yeats, E. E. Cummings, Keri Hulme. Approximately 90 posts and 90 books ago, in mid-April this year, I wrote about Keri Hulme’s The Bone People—the beautiful, unusual love story that won the Booker Prize for 1985. I titled the article Seabluegreen Eyes to mark my appreciation of her meld words, and, as it turns out, to mark a change in how I viewed English words. Since then, I have become a hunter of creative and effective meld words (consisting of two or more words that have been merged, like seabluegreen) and compound words (consisting of two or more words joined by hyphens to create new nouns, adjectives, verbs, like Yeats’s red-rose-bordered hem). I seek out those neologisms that bring something genuinely new—beyond syntactic surprise—into a sentence or stanza. Firstly, there is a modern tendency to avoid hyphenated hybrids: in 2007, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary removed hyphens from 16,000 words, either by splitting the words (ice-cream became ice cream) or by melding them (bumble bee became bumblebee). But those were old words. The University of Oxford Style Guide from 2014, for example, offers the following advice in general: To make a new compound noun – if it is a recognisable concept, make it one word; if it isn’t, use two words (e.g. it’s webpages not web-pages). I suppose the Guide would prefer to see Hulme’s seabluegreen just like that, rather than as sea-blue-green, but perhaps today it’d tell Yeats to write redrose-bordered hem? Secondly, at around 200,000 words, some obsolete, some regional, some derivatives, English is fairly rich and nuanced by most standards. One may think, then, that the coining of an inventive compound or meld word—outside of novel applications in science, technology, and trends—is either a sign of a greedy mind unaware of a well-established equivalent, or of a greedy mind aware that none of the well-established equivalents will do. The former type of greed is almost guaranteed by the scarcity of the latter. How we think about intent, also quotes from John Banville, Anthony Powell, Oscar Wilde. Intent is the birthday present you will buy, the New Year’s resolution you will make, the vacation you will take in the summer of 2018. Intent is the brilliant child of the future, yet whenever something goes wrong—and it does so frequently—we point at the negation of our intent as the devil and the dark excuse of the far past: I hadn’t intended to hurt you, I hadn’t intended to be a bad person. No one intends to be a “bad person”. There’s grand intent—that requires thought, preparation, effort, time, and that is usually well-justified within our internal system of values. There’s habitual intent—that requires only repeating circumstances and that once well-justified is rarely reexamined. Habit is the mainstay of life, whilst grand intentions are rare (those well-thought out and actionable, even rarer). Which leaves muddling: these are the chance encounters, the unplanned stops, the out-of-stock labels on your favourite items; this is when you forgot a change of clothes or your wedding ring. Whenever Murphy’s law strikes, we muddle. Depending on what comes of it, we ruminate on what was intended—few people will admit to have been guided purely by circumstances, chance, or biology (unless they’re determinism diehards), but will instead claim step-by-step determination. On inspiration in the dark. Quote: Darkness promotes speech. Light is silent. Blackouts before smartphones left people to entertain themselves without relying on sight. Night before electricity, too. Sure, we’ve had fire in some form for a million years, but as a communal means of subduing the elements, encouraged by need, not by fancy. In darkness, we talked to battle fear, to commune with the dead, to exchange information, and to tell stories. We talked to others, to ward off loneliness; failing that, we talked aloud to ourselves. It’s only recently that we’ve found ways to communicate in silence, from darkened rooms, and at a distance, but even then we are reduced to two options: written word or spoken word. Only speech requires not a ray of light. Vision is the sole sense we can extinguish at will, outside of sleep. But when the eyelids do come down, our consciousness doesn’t vanish, we continue to think, to be with ourselves, within ourselves. If anything, the temporary blindness cements us within the bastion of ourselves, drives us deeper, allows us to contemplate because our primary input source is unavailable to disturb or distract us. On choosing our literary ancestors. Quote: According to Seneca, we can pick from any library whatever books we wish to call ours; each reader, he tells us, can invent his own past. He observed that the common assumption—that our parents are not of our choosing—is in fact untrue; we have the power to select our own ancestry. Let us leave aside textbooks, technical manuals, picture books, and the grey area of “bad writing” (everyone defines it differently); what remains is a thickly-padded centre consisting of books, fiction and non-fiction, that adults read because they want to. Because there is something enticing about delving into another person’s explicitly printed (if opaque, mysterious, multifaceted) thoughts. Such books are friends that console and regale, give hope and dispel loneliness, but, vitally, they also illuminate and edify. When it comes to fiction, Lisa Cron’s book Wired for Story synthesises various authoritative sources that describe how story affects neurobiology; in essence, we crave fiction because it is a safe environment that equips us with mental tools we can use in real life. Our brains expertly convert a made-up narrative into a convincing environment, cast us as the relevant protagonists, and take us through our paces word by word. Or, if you prefer Einsteinian terminology, reading is an immersive thought experiment. While we’re within the pages, the thinking is done for us; when we close the covers, we can either forget what we went through, or we can ruminate on the implications, extending the story, transposing it onto our own lives. Non-fiction also transmits tales, which may be served up well-seasoned, savoury, steamy, but usually fail at inducing the sugar-rush of fiction. History is gripping because it happened—its lessons taste of iron; philosophy is mesmerising because it requires us to step through distorting mirrors to see ourselves more clearly—a paradox; books that cross-section subjects, like Manguel’s on Libraries or Ackermann’s on Senses, are magic because they reveal the intricate strings holding swathes of our reality together—they ask why. On how a personal library can affect its owner’s writing. Every reader is also a writer, if writer is taken to mean author to mean originator of one’s own actions. Books, like people and circumstances, influence our actions; the more we tease out those influences and knead them into useful, applicable tools, the more we are aware of our partnership with the written word. —Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night. A den may invoke a tight, dark, mystical space, dense with gases, metamorphosing thoughts, and halusogenic phantasmagoria, but it could also be spacious, light, littered with post-it notes and gewgaws and candy wrappers, or spotless with perfectly aligned rows of books like lines on a page ready for inscription. Whatever its physical manifestation, the library is both an extension of a writer’s identity and a container for it. To unite these two seemingly clashing metaphors—extension and container—I prefer the idea of a silo from the top of which it is possible to see lands, seas, skies, as well as, communicated with other silos. Few writers have a complete, perfect library. Better-personalised probably encompasses most desires for improvement (change in arrangement and content), but even if a snap of the fingers brought about an envisaged ideal, there remains the issue of finiteness: the library is of limited size. This limit is one cause of reader’s angst. But we do have a choice of what to put in our library and that choice, every time it’s made, influences us. On “reader’s angst”: there’s never enough time for books. Quote: I have no feeling of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. The Library at Night is an “uneven” experience: a passing familiarity with the frequent citations is necessary, yet, if you possess such familiarity the connecting exposition sounds oddly bland and loose in places. It’s almost as if this were an expert draft ready to be tightened. Or as if the writing were deliberately left colloquial to “balance out” the dense forest of references. What Manguel excels at, however, are the dashes of insight, like in the Quote—some of them developed, some less so—that he inserts between the obvious and the obscure in his chapters. Perhaps calling the Quote an insight is a misleading overstatement, for what he says sounds neither novel nor enlightening, but it does touch on a relevant, persistent gripe of many people: there’s never enough time to keep up with the to-read list. Whether feigned or genuine, hyped or deep-seated, I call it reader’s angst. There are at least two types of reader’s angst: one plagues people who would like to read this or that, in an abstract, diet-and-fitness-goals sense (these are the casual readers); the other plagues people who would like to read an impossibly large number of books, in a concrete, obsessive, catalogue-and-notes sense (the compulsive readers). Around us may be windowless walls of brick and rebar, but give us a story and immediately an arc of the horizon appears. What if we had many stories? Magnificent arrangements of books inspire awe in most bibliophiles. Awe—the feeling of solemn and reverential wonder, tinged with latent fear, inspired by what is terribly sublime and majestic in nature (OED)—really is the right word. Public libraries, bookshops, private collections, even a carefully positioned mess of tattered paperbacks on a stack of plastic shelves in a café: they are magical vistas of possibility. Of course, the grander the bookscape, the more likely it will overawe any visitor with sheer Olympian attitude, for where does one begin? Occasionally, even if we were to just dip into a book, then into a another, and so on, it would take years before we wormed our pathetic way through all the covers. (For example, it would take approximately 35 years in the case of the library of Trinity College Dublin, if we were to spend a minute a book, eight hours a day, every day of the year.) The thought makes me go hot and cold and shaky—the potential knowledge, the tales, the imagination, the human ingenuity waiting within the pages, the Diderot-Deridda-Dostoevsky, and only a finite amount of time before my hands will no longer be able to reach beyond the inside walls of an ash-filled urn, let alone hold a book. The desperation! On my method for annotating books. My annotations on a page from John Banville’s Birchwood. To read, I need a book and a pencil. I’d like to emphasis that the pencil is as much a conduit of information between book and mind, as are eyes and brain, and as much of a physical necessity, as is my ability to hold a book open or flip a page. If I sink into a sofa with a book, but without a pencil, I will exhibit all the symptoms of anxiety and discomfort—fidgeting, gazing about, scratching, gazing about, back-and-forth page-flipping because I can’t remember what I just read, and some more gazing about—until I finally get up and acquire that writing implement I’d been gazing about for. It has to be a pencil (preferably a mechanical pencil so I don’t need to sharpen it), but no erasers are needed. Underlining is much maligned; it’s generally useless, it’s for those who can’t think at the time of reading but leave it for later, it produces an appearance of engagement while actually reducing it. That is why I mark up the text and take notes. On words that John Milton introduced into English. Avond (Evening): The Red Tree, by Piet Mondrian (1908-1910)—I preferred this painting to one of his lozenges. leaven, reticulum, neroli oil, raglan, syzygy, lozenge. Don’t try too hard, it’s not obvious, other than I liked them, they’re nouns, and they sit in a file together with a few dozen others. That’s it. No deeper insight. Doesn’t that leave you feeling unsatisfied? Certainly that’s how I feel, when I’m given a selection off someone’s list, but there isn’t a clear designation of why these words even when they’re supposedly a purposeful sample. It’s like being given a few answers from a survey, but not being told whether those answers are the best, the worst, the most frequent, the most obscure. In which case you might respond: fine just give me all the data from the survey, I’ll read it myself. Satan in Paradise by Gustave Dore, illustrating Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton adored inventing words. When he couldn’t find the right term he just made one up: impassive, obtrusive, jubilant, loquacious, unconvincing, Satanic, persona, fragrance, beleaguered, sensuous, undesirable, disregard, damp, criticise, irresponsible, lovelorn, exhilarating, sectarian, unaccountable, incidental, and cooking. All Milton’s. When it came to inventive wording, Milton actually invented the word wording. Fun! But what to make of the list? Is it ordered alphabetically? No. Are its elements the same parts of speech? No. Are the words related to an obvious subject? No. So what then? The vice of aschematison (plain, non-metaphorical language) in titles. Forget figures of speech. Avoid them all. Speak cleanly, and commit no rhetorical crimes. What remains is aschematiston. But that, too, is a vice. Aschematiston comes from the Greek, meaning without form or figure, and technically it designates not only plain-speaking but also the inappropriate use of figurative speech. In Trying to Be Cute, I discuss how one way to think about vices (the coin model), considers licit rhetoric to lie between the extremes: the ordinary and any of the various ornamented styles. Most of us know overwrought when we see it, but aschematiston is harder to spot. In particular, sometimes it’s not clear whether a literal interpretation is called for, or whether there’s a hidden metaphorical dimension after all. I termed this phenomenon the metaphorical itch. I often encounter it in surrealist literature, but it’s also present in contextually ambiguous situations. The last batch of my Nature Magazine headlines falls into this category. See what you think. My first reaction was: Huh. If you’ve stuck around on Quiver Quotes for the last three weeks, then you’ve seen approximately 80 headlines drawn from 40 issues of Nature. That’ll do for a while. I think it’s time to read on—past the title. On mistakes in writing and speech, modern and ancient. Where virtues live, live vices. Figures of speech are no less afflicted by this schism, although classifying them accordingly is as much a matter of taste, nuance, and circumstance, as any binary division of a continuous scale. I call the first, the coin model; the second, the razor model. Take the familiar notion of alliteration (starting consecutive or nearby words with the same consonant), which I develop in Ad Nauseam. According to the coin model, alliteration can be both a good thing (it yokes ideas to words in mnemonics, it gives poems their glitter, it turns headlines into hooks, it makes names memorable, it lends a twist to prose), but it can also be a bad thing (it makes poems sound shallow, headlines puerile, names forced, prose juvenile). According to the razor model, a gracious application of alliteration lies between the dullness of plain “tone-deaf” writing and the grossness of overuse (paroemion). On how diverse content sparks diverse thoughts. A number of years ago I read a book called How to Read a Book (1940), by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. It’s not some postmodernist meta-referential literature; it’s non-fiction that teaches the art of absorbing letters. The book pointed out some useful techniques, of which one at least has become almost a reflex. I call it book pigeonholing. Rule 1. You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know this as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read. Knowing what type of text you’re approaching determines your point of view. For example, reading a short fictional story versus a piece of investigative journalism changes your willingness to suspend disbelief and apply critical thinking. Pigeonholing a piece of writing is usually done first by source: where did you find it, who wrote it, is it a trustworthy source, is it fiction, etc. Then by title and subtitle: as I’ve discussed these past two weeks in terms of non-fiction, the most successful titles are designed to resonate with the content (as well as “hook” the reader). Next come any prefaces or pictures or graphs or other information. Ultimately, it’s all to do with expectation. The closer a reader’s initial expectation is to the actual experience, the higher the likelihood they’ll be satisfied. This is why blurbs or advertisements ought to be representative; and why we have the divisions into fiction and non-fiction, into literary and genre, into YA and adult; and why websites tell you the expected reading time of an article or the particular skill set or information you will glean. So things have changed since 1940. On personification in titles of “Nature Magazine”. To improve the taste of an insipid factual statement, baste in metaphor, bake with active verbs, and serve soused in piquant words. But be wary of overdoing it. For example: There was a mirage on the horizon. Could be changed to: Sun-drunk air shimmered in the offing. Regardless of whether the edit is an improvement, it is a more complex piece of writing which triggers a more complex response. In particular, the reader recognises the sentence as not being literal because air cannot be drunk. Author A Quiver of QuotesPosted on October 23, 2017 October 23, 2017 Categories Magazine, Non-Fiction, Paronomasia, QuoteTags book, books, quotes, reading, rhetorical figure, writing5 Comments on Come again? Three references to myth in scientific terminology. LAOCOÖN, n. A famous piece of antique sculpture representing a priest of that name and his two sons in the folds of two enormous serpents. The skill and diligence with which the old man and lads support the serpents and keep them up to their work have been justly regarded as one of the noblest artistic illustrations of the mastery of human intelligence over brute inertia. This week we’ve seen literature, film, and music referenced, but how often do myths crop up in Nature Magazine? For example, there’s a reference in An Achilles heel for kidney cancer, but Achilles heel is a recognised OED term and is no longer properly thought of as the Trojan hero who was dunked into the Styx while held by a heel. and the volcanic Loki Patera on the moon Io. The science: Argonaute proteins were observed in a plant that reminded researchers of an octopus called Argonauta argo, which itself had gotten the name from a (never-observed) method of propulsion along the surface of the sea that resembled a boat with sails. The myth: Jason and the Argonauts were the Greek heroes of legend who went to steal the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts were named after the ship they sailed on, Argo (which makes Argonauta argo a pleonasm). Analysing film and music reference in “Nature Magazine” headlines. 3. The cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc. in an artificial medium containing nutrients. Like in Titles: Literary Allusions, today’s post discusses the bridge between culture (meaning number 1) and culture (meaning number 3). Today, I focus on the titles from Nature magazine that are related to film and music. But first: here’s what happened when a pun-detector was applied to a 2004 copy of The Economist (source). SIR – Your newspaper this week contains headlines derived from the following film titles: “As Good As It Gets”, “Face-Off”, “From Russia With Love”, “The Man Who Planted Trees”, “Up Close and Personal” and “The Way of the Warrior”. Also employed are “The Iceman Cometh”, “Measure for Measure”, “The Tyger” and “War and Peace” – to say nothing of the old stalwart, “Howard’s Way”. Is this a competition, or do your sub-editors need to get out more? Actually, even further back, in 1986, a certain Richard J. Alexander published a paper entitled Article Headlines in “The Economist”. An analysis of puns, allusions and metaphors. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my efforts to analyse headlines were not that dissimilar from (if less rigorous than) those applied as recently as thirty years ago. Title: Science, lies and video-taped experiments. Analysing literary allusions in titles from “Nature”. Puns proliferate in titles. Allusions, alliteration, attention-grabbing sensationalism. Anything goes, so long as it attracts the reader to click on a link or peruse an article. Sometimes it’s cute, sometimes—and especially out of context and surrounded by ten other similar examples—it’s downright silly. It sounds like a cunning ploy by the author or editor to market a text. The next few posts will focus on the fun behind the titles of Nature Magazine. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally compiled a list of my favourites from the past nine months of their weekly editions. If you are not a scientist, do not be alarmed—a PhD in neurobiology or astrophysics is not required. In fact, today’s post highlights the opposite: if you are a scientist reading Nature, you have to be conversant in literature or else you might miss the resonance hook when scanning the contents page. The listed titles come from the print editions, so sometimes do not correspond exactly to the linked articles. Reference: Edwin Abbot’s 1884 satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It develops the idea of a two-dimensional society, Flatland, where women are lines and men are polygons. Regularity and multi-sidedness is praised (triangles are the lowest caste, near-circles the priests). The narrator is a square who dreams of both Lineland (a one-dimensional world) and Spaceland (a three-dimensional world). An intriguing read if you haven’t seen the idea before. The Nature article is about condensed-matter physics and being able to study the phenomenon of ferromagnetism in a truly two-dimensional setting, that is, in “flatland”. Verdict: Informative title; guessable without literary background, but helped with it. If you knew your work would never be read by anyone else—would you still write? Why write? Answering with soul-scraping honesty may be too difficult, so instead here’s an alternative question from the end of Lukeman’s First Five Pages. It requires a simple yes or no. Quote: Ask yourself what you would do if you knew you would never be published. Would you still write? If you are truly writing for the art of it, the answer will be yes. And then, every word is a victory. In the extreme: if you knew your work would never be read by anyone else—would you still write? That strikes at the heart of writing as a communication medium between people, but it still leaves one reader that you have to sleep with every night: you. Perhaps writing in that case is an extension of the conscience (and consciousness). Language is an inherently societal legacy that allows every literate person to feel a part of humanity, even if he or she leaves behind no traces for others. That said, I believe that every life has something to contribute to our common heritage. So next time you think your writing isn’t worth keeping, think again. History, too, is a qualified judge of relevance.

2019-04-21T22:57:18Z

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This is hardly news, but the Opposition continued to be uninspiring last week. If a country is going to change its constitution, it really ought to be worth the bother. But the most encouraging thing about the draft published by the UNP on Wednesday is its support for provincial level devolution within a unitary state, which is exactly what is already in place thanks to the 13th Amendment to the existing constitution. It is also one of the few commitments to which voters would trust it to stick in the unlikely event of Ranil Wickremasinghe being elected. The Government should grasp this opportunity to confirm its own position and forge a consensus of what should be the vast majority of the country, rather than using it as an excuse to change direction and side with a few extremists in the form of the JHU and the NFF. There is a lot of space in the centre of the political spectrum in Sri Lanka, and Mahinda Rajapaksa should see the importance for the long term future of the SLFP of occupying it. Sadly, by comparison with its attempts to challenge the Government on the economy, this rather underwhelming move by the UNP is absolutely brilliant. The strike against the electricity tariff hike was pathetic. It was either too little too late or too much too soon. Even though this was an issue that had caused a major stir in the country, particularly with the urban middle class who should be the least attached to the Government, participation was extremely limited. And of course this is not so surprising since the action was really very badly timed, coming well after the President had stepped in to give the impression that he was rolling back some of the increase. It made the Opposition look ineffective – or I guess I should say even more ineffective – when it should have been gaining strength from its successful protest the previous week. Having made a mess of that, it is now back to the business of trying to make less important problems look both vital and urgent. Thus Harsha de Silva has been deployed to ‘expose’ the possibility of an impending debt crisis. To do this, he has been employing the recently published report of the IMF on its annual consultations with the Government. He says that the IMF has ‘revealed’ figures that the Government wanted to hide, in the form of the consolidated budget deficit. This stands at 8.6% of GDP, compared to a budget deficit of 6.4%. The claim is that the Government is trying to hoodwink the public into believing that the economy is in better shape than is the reality. This being something people tend to be quite willing to accept, no doubt he thinks that he’s onto a winner. The trouble is that the more often you predict disaster and it doesn’t happen, the less you look as though you know what you’re talking about. The fact is that there are several different versions of the budget deficit, and they are used for different purposes. Harsha de Silva would know this, being an economist. And Ranil Wickremasinghe would know it, because the UNP too talked of the budget deficit and not the consolidated budget deficit in the brief period when he was Prime Minister. In any case, even if we all agreed that the consolidated budget deficit is ‘best’, the data to calculate it from the budget deficit is in the public domain. This doesn’t mean that the Government isn’t trying to deceive people. It means that the Opposition has no idea whether the Government is trying to deceive people. It means that the Opposition has no idea whether the country is overburdened by debt. And that’s a pity, since a debt crisis wouldn’t be much fun. Interestingly, the IMF seems to think that the Government is moving in the right direction, and that the prospect of such an unfortunate eventuality is diminishing. The major problem, according to the IMF, and as I have said on numerous occasions, is the very low level of tax revenue in Sri Lanka. The Government having decided that the IMF is correct to insist on cuts in the budget deficit, shortfalls in tax revenue mean that expenditure has to be curtailed, which even the IMF now accepts is detrimental to economic growth. The UNP has been making some noise about taxation in recent weeks, which is long overdue. But if it is to make a serious contribution, it must say how it would raise more tax. Taxation obviously isn’t the only issue, since a significant amount of the debt that administrations in Sri Lanka have incurred over the years is due in foreign currency, which means that even more foreign currency has to be earned by the country to make the repayments of the capital plus interest. As demonstrated as recently as the beginning of last year, when reserves of foreign currency fell to the equivalent of 3.2 months of imports – three months being the usual point at which panic sets in – this is not so easy. Towards the end of the war, they reached 1.2 months of imports and the Government had to agree to an emergency loan from the IMF, with all its associated conditions. The IMF being particularly obsessed with the ‘losses’ of the CEB and the CPC, this is clearly a situation that the Government would like to avoid if at all possible. I wrote a few weeks ago about Sri Lanka’s increasing dependence on workers’ remittances, which now bring in $6.0 billion, compared to $4.0 billion from exports of textiles and garments, $1.4 billion from exports of tea and $1.0 billion in tourism receipts. In the context of a downturn in the country’s key export markets in the US and EU, it is easy to understand why the Government is happy to see remittances take on such an important role in the economy. Not only do they flow primarily from other parts of the globe, but so long as those countries remain willing to accept migrants, they also tend to be more stable than export earnings, since they are generally sent by individuals to their families. However, as I said, this is clearly not a happy situation, since most people don’t want to have to travel thousands of miles to earn a decent living. I asked what the Government’s plan was for generating proper jobs at home. Connected to that should be the question of what it is doing to boost exports. Both the share of exports in GDP and Sri Lanka’s share of world exports are falling. If that were only the result of lower demand in the US and EU, it would be reasonable to do what the Government appears to be doing and borrow abroad to cover the shortfall. The debt could be repaid when exports recovered. However, one of the infinitely more important facts highlighted by the IMF report is that these figures have been falling since 2000. In other words, it is not a temporary glitch. A very useful recent article by Verite Research on the electricity tariff issue has shown exactly what can happen when the Government acts on what it hopes the future will bring and it is wrong. They say that the extraordinary ‘losses’ of the CEB in 2012, which surely contributed to the recent hike, were to a large extent the result of a gamble. They show how over the last decade the CEB has been relying much more heavily on hydro power, which is cheapest, assuming that low rainfall in one year will be compensated in the next, and how this strategy was employed to an even greater – by implication reckless – extent in 2010 and 2011, because the authorities thought that they had the Norochcholai coal power station as a back-up. What actually happened was that Norochcholai broke down, as it does regularly, and because reservoirs were already so close to empty, the CEB had to resort to expensive oil generation by the private sector. This is also why the country was subject to major blackouts, which would have cost the economy a lot more than the CEB had to spend. In a sense, this is not much different to the oil hedging fiasco that got the CPC into trouble in 2008. The Government thought that it would be a good idea to enter into contracts that would save it money if oil prices continued to go up, but failed to consider the impact of a collapse in the market. As these examples demonstrate, the Government isn’t very good at managing risk. In fact, as various commentators said after oil prices plummeted from nearly $150 per barrel to well under $50, that doesn’t seem to be its objective. Rather, it would appear to be speculating, which is all very well when it is right, but otherwise potentially disastrous. No wonder people worry about a debt crisis. The Opposition plays on their fears in the hope of generating a reaction. With every new loan the Government takes, it gives the impression that the world is about to end. No doubt that is simpler than trying to understand whether that particular deal makes sense, working out what it would do instead and explaining the whole thing to the electorate. But that is what the UNP would have to do if it were running the country. It’s about time it started to look like it could. This article was published in The Island on 5th June 2013. The internet version may be accessed here. When launching an initiative in Sri Lanka, it is well known that one should be careful to call it the opposite of what it really is. Worried about infighting? Then be sure to include the word ‘united’ in the title. Concerned that the dubious public image of the leaders may dissuade people from joining up? Then it is inspirational concepts like ‘freedom’ that one needs to reference. Sarath Fonseka’s latest attempt to resurrect his political career was a flop. Several hundred people came to listen to him speak. But he could not get the support of any established political parties, which is after all what is needed when it comes to winning elections. The organisers didn’t bother to invite the TNA, the JVP was united in ignoring the event, and even the UNP reformists weren’t keen on attending – Sajith Premadasa was convinced from the off that it wasn’t worth the struggle with Ranil Wickremasinghe, while Karu Jayasuriya left it to the last minute to decide to drop out. Even the remnants of the DNA, which Sarath Fonseka himself established, didn’t all show up. As such, Sarath Fonseka proved once and for all that his role as the ‘common candidate’ in the 2010 presidential election campaign was a one-off. It was an extraordinary contest at an extraordinary moment in the country’s history. Just a few months after the end of the generation-long war, the Army Commander took on his Commander-in-Chief. He will not get another chance. Few people believed Sarath Fonseka’s pledge to abolish the Executive Presidency when he made it the first time around. Indeed, even he didn’t seem totally convinced, so busy as he was making promises. I certainly didn’t trust him to give up power. For why did he enter politics? Because he was upset at Mahinda Rajapaksa’s refusal to allow him to further increase his empire as Army Commander. His plan for the post-war expansion of the Army was rejected by the Government. Critical as I am of Mahinda Rajapaksa, I believe that this decision indicates that he is not as bad as Sarath Fonseka might have been. Also, justified or otherwise, Sarath Fonseka was commonly regarded as a guy concerned more with ends than means. Even if this was necessary in the circumstances, which is debatable, surely we can all agree that it is not a desirable trait in a peacetime leader? In peacetime, there can be no discussion about the acceptability of exceptions to the rule of law, although, as we have seen in the last three years, they may still occur in abundance. (Mahinda Rajapaksa is working hard to develop a similar reputation for himself.) But although we do not know for sure who is responsible for many of the worst crimes committed during the war, such as the various attacks on journalists (now totally forgotten, unlike the attempted assassination of Sarath Fonseka, one of the perpetrators of which was sentenced to 35 years rigorous imprisonment this week), I don’t think that there is any chance that Sarath Fonseka is less guilty than Mahinda Rajapaksa. I also believe that symbolism is important. Sri Lanka’s president should not be a military man. It is for the same reason that the proposal being advanced by various people in the last month or so for the Ven Sobitha Thero, Chief Incumbent of the Kotte Naga Vihara, to put himself forward as a ‘common candidate’ is also undesirable. The real question for those who advocate a ‘common candidate’ is whether or not they can trust the UNP. I think that last week’s rally gave us a good indication of the future, and it is a future without the National Movement for Social Justice. The UNP may be divided, but its various factions are clearly agreed on one point – it will be putting up its own candidate for the next presidential election. Ranil Wickremasinghe will of course try to make sure that it is him. After all, he will only have been party leader for a mere 20 years by then! But he won’t have an easy time. Sajith Premadasa is perhaps starting to think that he might make it, while Karu Jayasuriya undoubtedly hasn’t given up hope either. Sarath Fonseka’s role as the ‘common candidate’ in the 2010 presidential election campaign was only possible because the UNP was sure that it could not win, the vote taking place so soon after the war victory. Rather than ignoring this reality, people interested in anything more important than Sarath Fonseka’s political career had better shift their focus away from distractions like the National Movement for Social Justice and back to where it is needed. This article was published in The Island on 25th October 2012. The internet version may be accessed here. Mahinda Rajapaksa must really love elections. Since he came to power, at least some part of the country has gone to the polls almost every year, sometimes more than once. We had local and provincial council elections in both 2008 and 2009, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2010, more local elections in 2011 and now more provincial council elections in 2012. No prizes for guessing that in 2013 somebody somewhere in Sri Lanka will be voting. I hope that it will be the turn of the Northern Province. Concerns have been raised about the prospect of a TNA-led administration in the North, on the basis that the party may use the platform to push for more devolution or even a separate state, by itself or with the support of the West. Indeed it might. The TNA hasn’t done enough to distance itself from the use of violence to achieve political ends, or to distance itself from the goal of Eelam. Both would have been helpful for its constituency and for the country, since distrust of the TNA’s intentions encourages or is used as an excuse by the Government to delay the much-discussed ‘political solution’, or to avoid it altogether. Perhaps the TNA is under pressure from the diaspora, or maybe it is yet to be convinced that the war is over. Whatever, keeping it out of power by undemocratic means isn’t going to convince either the party or its supporters to change their ways. The voters of the Eastern Province demonstrated as much on September 8th. There have been many fascinating attempts in the media to present the results of the provincial council elections in the East as a resounding endorsement of the Government and its policies. However, this is no more than wishful thinking. For a start, the UPFA won by a margin of less than 1%, receiving 31.58% of the popular vote compared to 30.59% for the TNA. Given the usual massive abuse of state resources by the incumbent administration, it is ridiculous to suggest that people are anything like enthusiastic about Pillayan et al staying on at Trincomalee. Also and most importantly, while the UPFA’s vote share fell by well over 10% of the total, the TNA’s went up by nearly 10% – it secured only 21.89% of the popular vote in the 2010 parliamentary elections. The TNA now enjoys the support of the vast majority of Tamils in the East. And it got eleven Tamils elected to the provincial council, compared to only one from the UPFA (the former chief minister, whose achievement has been questioned). Being out of office clearly isn’t a problem for the TNA in terms of popularity. Of course it isn’t. While the Government insists that life is now very good in the former conflict areas, a lot of people living there don’t agree. They aren’t so hopeful about Mahinda Rajapaksa’s development agenda. This we know from many sources, including the fact that according to official figures, 2,992 Sri Lankans crossed the sea to Australia in the first eight months of this year, compared to 736 in the last twelve months of the war. The vast majority of them were Tamils. And this data includes only those who reached their destination, not those who are now being caught by the Navy on an almost daily basis. Everybody is debating whether or not they should be classified as refugees, as if it would be quite normal for so many people to want to undertake such a perilous journey for economic reasons – it is not. The TNA must know that its prospects are only going to improve the longer it is prevented from challenging the Government, so it isn’t going to feel at all pressured to fall into line. The other point to note from the East is that the SLMC too increased its vote share. At the 2010 parliamentary elections, the SLMC and UNP together achieved 26.57% of the popular vote, increasing to 32.80% in 2012. The ever-hopeful supporters of Ranil Wickremasinghe may like to think that the UNP is the party whose fortunes improved, but that is plain silly. It achieved 11.82% of the popular vote in the provincial council elections, compared to 20.98% for the SLMC. And for their information, 11.82% is pretty close to zero! The UNP is in a deep hole, electorally speaking, but it is hard to feel sorry for people who believe that clinging to the same leader for nigh on two decades is perfectly normal. If only their foolishness didn’t have such an impact on the rest of the country. It is equally clear that the SLMC would not have seven provincial councillors if it had run under Mahinda Rajapaksa. The party leadership’s rumoured decision to form an administration with the UPFA, going against the wishes of its members from the Eastern Province and likely also the views of its voters for the sake of concessions in Colombo, is not very democratic. Totally undemocratic are the moves reported by DBS Jeyaraj to persuade five of the eleven provincial councillors from the TNA to switch their allegiance to the UPFA, which if they had been successful would have given the Government its all-important majority without the need for the support of the SLMC. DBS Jeyaraj says that the TNA representatives were approached by military intelligence operatives with a range of ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’, including the offer to one provincial councillor who is also a building contractor of a major state infrastructure project and the threat to another that his young son would be taken into custody for alleged involvement with the LTTE. As DBS Jeyaraj points out, attempts to engineer crossovers are nothing new, although the employment of military intelligence operatives certainly adds a novel and even more reprehensible dimension to the phenomenon. Also, we don’t normally get to hear the details of the ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’. For this we should be grateful to the TNA. It has shown us what politics in Sri Lanka has become, and how difficult it will be to clean up – Mahinda Rajapaksa is clearly very good at engineering. I hope that we will find more reasons to thank the party once elections are called in the North. Although the TNA did not stand up to Prabhakaran, for which it deserves the harshest of criticism, it is willing to stand up to the Government. And it would be in a position to do so in the Northern Province. A TNA-led administration could do what most Sri Lankans now agree is necessary and show the Government that it cannot get away with everything everywhere. The danger for the TNA and indeed for Sri Lanka as a whole is that as things stand its positions and actions can easily be dismissed as sectarian and extremist, which could end up deepening the divisions in society and further entrenching the Government. For that reason, and of course also as a matter of principle, the West should firmly resolve to say and do absolutely nothing. It is only a matter of time before Mahinda Rajapaksa starts to fear elections. This article was published in the Midweek Review on 19th September 2012. The internet version can be accessed here. The rise of Basil Rajapaksa has been rapid to say the least. Having spent years out of the country pursuing other interests, his return to support his brother’s presidential campaign was unexpected. Even more surprising was the popular backing he managed to acquire within a very short period in an unfamiliar district – he recorded the highest number of preferences in Gampaha in the 2010 parliamentary election, about as many as the next three candidates combined. He is projected as a man who gets things done. The idea is that he will do for the economy what Gotabhaya did in terms of security, with Mahinda Rajapaksa being the figurehead who holds it all together. The family brand is now so strong that people either love them or hate them. It is perhaps understandable that Mahinda Rajapaksa is so obsessed with his family. Politicians adore power and want to hang onto it for as long as possible, and in this region in particular one means of extending their period of influence is to promote their relatives, lining them up for eventual succession. Some months ago, Namal Rajapaksa gave a most amusing speech in Delhi at a forum on ‘political dynasties’ in which he claimed that the only real advantage of being the President’s son was that it had been slightly easier to get a nomination to contest elections. He argued that it was then up to the public to decide. This must be one of the most ridiculous statements of 2012. Yes, they have to collect votes, but even if they do so honestly on the basis of their image and not through the abuse of state resources that we all know is rampant in Sri Lanka, their image is only partly reflective of their capabilities. It is far more dependent on the opportunities they are given. And both Namal and Basil have had a lot of help. Why does Sri Lanka even have a Ministry of Economic Development? Because after the 2010 parliamentary election, Basil wanted a portfolio that would enable him to get involved in everything that might help to increase the family vote bank while making him responsible for nothing that could jeopardise it. The Economic Development Ministry undertakes programmes that involve distributing freebies, money and jobs, especially focusing on young people in rural areas. Divi Neguma is an excellent example. Launched in 2011, its first phase involved the creation of one million home gardens. A lot of people were recruited to go around handing out seeds and equipment, or the money to buy them, and the whole exercise was given a lot of publicity. Never mind the impact of an increase in household production on farmers, since their marketing problems are the responsibility of the Minister of Agriculture. Or is it the Minister of Agrarian Services and Wildlife? Livestock and Rural Community Development? Rural Affairs? Could Divi Neguma be run by the Minister of Food Security? Does anybody actually remember who is responsible for these subjects? Mahinda Rajapaksa believes in the centralisation of all useful power in the hands of his family, and the distribution of all useless responsibilities among as many other people as possible, so as to reduce the likelihood of any challenges to his authority from both inside and outside his governing coalition. He is constantly on the lookout for Parliamentarians he can induce to join the Government. Crossovers weaken the Opposition, but they also dilute the influence of each Cabinet Minister – instead of being one of about 20, they are now one of 60. The resulting confusion obviously creates tremendous wastage and inefficiencies, which people ‘tut tut’ about from time to time. But wastage and inefficiencies are only really actively opposed in Sri Lanka when they are sins committed by provincial councils. People are ever ready to find reasons to get rid of provincial councils, and their consumption of resources without producing much in the way of improvements to well-being is the issue cited most often as justification. However, this problem too is created by the Government. Provincial councils don’t get a lot done because the Government doesn’t want them to do a lot. The Government implements whatever projects it likes, wherever it likes, never mind whether their subjects fall within its purview or within that of the provincial councils. Cabinet Ministers may be given a chance to get involved to stop them feeling too bad about their increasingly powerless situation, but the really important stuff is bound to be given to a member of the Rajapaksa family. Why else would Basil have been put in charge of reawakening the East and bringing spring to the North – as far away from his constituency as one can get while remaining within Sri Lanka’s borders? It is obviously nonsense to suggest that there are no capable people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, or that the Chief Ministers couldn’t have done the job with appropriate support from Parliamentarians representing those areas. There is not even the explanation generally put forward as regards Gotabhaya, that Mahinda Rajapaksa really needed somebody he could trust due to the sensitivity and urgency of the situation during the war. There was no justification for giving the responsibility to Basil. I have made the same argument about the recent expansion of the Ministry of Defence to include street cleaning and landscape gardening as surely the world’s only Ministry of Defence and Urban Development (‘The Army’s No-War Games’, The Island, June 20th). Gotabhaya is apparently now spearheading the Rajapaksa family’s popularity drive among the middle class in Colombo. Mahinda Rajapaksa doesn’t want devolution on anything other than a highly selective basis to people who won’t be in a position to use the power they are given meaningfully. Divi Neguma is his ideal model. The key actors in the programme are community-based organisations, which operate in just one Grama Niladhari division or indeed in only part of one Grama Niladhari division. This is supposed to be empowering. Indeed it might be if there was a mechanism to enable these community-based organisations to have a say on policy – if the process were actually democratic, in other words. However, this is clearly not what is intended. They are given every opportunity to discuss amongst themselves, in a whole range of different forums at the local and even national level, no doubt involving plenty of wastage and inefficiencies that people won’t mind in the slightest, but all important decisions are taken by somebody else – Basil and officials under the control of Basil. Provincial councils, which could reasonably expect to be in charge of work to promote home gardens, and more importantly to decide whether promoting home gardens is really the best option to make people in their areas better off, aren’t given the chance. They are not the ones with the money. Why discuss this now? Because the Government is in the process of further extending and formalising this way of operating by means of a bill that transforms what was once merely a programme into a permanent structure of the Government – the Department of Divi Neguma Development, to be established within the Economic Development Ministry – which will also take over the work of regionally-focused development bodies such as the Udarata Development Authority and the Southern Development Authority, plus the work of the Samurdhi Authority. The move is being challenged in the Supreme Court this week by a range of different groups, including the JVP. A particular concern is that money deposited in Samurdhi Banks could be used by the Ministry of Economic Development without oversight, while the bill says that officials will be required to maintain absolute secrecy about their work, which is rather unusual. However, it is the implications for the coordination of the development process that are most disturbing. Is Sri Lanka really best served by a system in which everything is decided by one, two or at best three people in Colombo? Even if passage of the bill is blocked as a result of this legal action, it is clear that the real work will still remain to be done – the growth of Basil’s empire will be only slightly affected. Mahinda Rajapaksa will pay no attention, certainly. He will continue to promote his relatives, in the expectation that being the President’s father will bring plenty of benefits in his dotage, and the space for others to contribute will continue to be closed down. People may not feel very inclined to care about the fate of politicians, such is the frustration that has built up. The fact that internal democracy is as much of a problem in the SLFP as it is in the UNP doesn’t seem very important. However, it is through political parties that change has to come. The impact of their internal problems is being amply demonstrated by Ranil Wickremasinghe, who is preventing the Opposition from mounting a serious challenge to the Government by refusing to give up the UNP leadership. What Mahinda Rajapaksa is doing to the SLFP should be equally obvious. Reforms are needed, and soon. Basil Rajapaksa’s admirers shouldn’t get agitated by this suggestion – if he is as competent as they believe, he can manage without so much assistance from his brother. This article was published in the Midweek Review on 29th August 2012. The internet version can be accessed here. Everybody knows about the crisis in the UNP. Of the many elections there have been in Sri Lanka in the last two decades, it has lost all but one. This includes four presidential elections and four out of five parliamentary elections. And it will have the opportunity to lose a few more in September, as the Eastern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces go to the polls. In the last general election, it could secure only 29% of the popular vote, worse than either of the two major parties have fared in a very long time. The main reason for its failure was identified last year in a survey by the Centre for Policy Alternatives. It found that less than 20% of Sinhalese support the UNP. And although the party does rather better than the SLFP with minorities, it has to compete with ITAK, which is backed by more than 50% of Tamils, the CWC with about 30% of Up Country Tamils and the SLMC and NUA, which together have the backing of some 35% of Muslims. Meanwhile, the SLFP is the preferred party of nearly 75% of Sinhalese – Sinhalese being nearly 75% of the population, this alone gives it a good shot at 55% of the popular vote. To have any hope of ending its losing streak, the UNP needs to rebuild its base among Sinhalese. Some analysts argue that the SLFP’s popularity is due to the war victory, so we shouldn’t be surprised by the number or scale of its electoral successes, which have given Mahinda Rajapaksa amongst other things a two thirds majority in Parliament – a feat that was supposedly impossible with proportional representation. That a more balanced distribution of power would be good for the country is widely accepted. They suggest that things will get back to ‘normal’ in a while, even if no action is taken. In other words, there is no cause for concern. However, such confidence in the automatic revival of the Opposition is misplaced. Voters are more discerning than they think. Having ended a war is no guarantee of support, as Winston Churchill found out within months of Hitler’s death – the British public acknowledged his brilliant wartime leadership and were grateful, but many of them preferred to have somebody else in charge of the recovery. Sri Lankans would have done the same if the UNP had presented them with an attractive alternative. The fact that in the most recent local election – more than two and a half years after the end of the war – the UNP lost strongholds like Kandy that it had held for over five decades demonstrates that there is every reason to worry. The problem, which I find it hard to believe anybody can fail to see, is Ranil Wickremasinghe. Ranil really is Mahinda Rajapaksa’s best friend. He is irreversibly associated with two policies that much of the Sri Lankan public – certainly the vast majority of Sinhalese – regard as anathema. Also, Ranil doesn’t seem to have changed his mind about them. These are his enthusiasm for appeasement and his commitment to neo-liberal economics. And Ranil isn’t just keen on these policies. He is a radical adherent. His Regaining Sri Lanka programme envisaged a sharp reduction in the role of the state in pretty much every sector, no matter how cherished. And he wasn’t just willing to do whatever it took to do a deal with the LTTE, he went so far as to ridicule the Government’s military campaign almost until it reached the banks of Nanthikadal. He has not admitted that he was wrong. Indeed, he often sounds as though he would do it all again if he had the chance. In addition to being a liability with voters, Ranil is not even able to hang onto the few members his party does manage to get elected. Dozens of his MPs have crossed over to the Government, especially in the last seven years. Of course this is the result of the smart manoeuvring of Mahinda Rajapaksa, but the Opposition too has to be smart. There’s nothing wrong with the Government making use of MPs’ interest in ministerial positions to boost its numbers – this is politics. (Of course it would be good to set a constitutional limit to the number of ministers an administration can appoint.) But Ranil should be able to take advantage too. He should be capitalising on the growing dissatisfaction within the SLFP at the dominance of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family and their plans for his succession. I can’t think of many other democratic countries in which the same person has been in charge of a major party for as long as Ranil Wickremasinghe. In the UK, Tony Blair took over as party leader just a couple of months before Ranil became leader of the UNP. Even though he won three successive terms for the British Labour Party, in 1997, 2001 and 2005, he was still compelled to hand over power to a successor after ten years as Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the British Conservative Party changed its leader four times until it found David Cameron, who finally defeated Labour in 2010. Imagine their fate if they had stuck with John Major! It is standard practice to bring in new faces – and hopefully also new ideas and new energy – from time to time, even when things are going well. Ranil has been party leader for 18 years, almost all of which have been spent out of office, yet still nobody has been able to replace him. In the circumstances, it is quite ridiculous for the UNP to accuse Mahinda Rajapaksa of clinging onto power, when he has only been in charge for seven years. The worst dictatorship in Sri Lanka is to be found in the UNP. This is exactly the argument made by those who have crossed over. The struggle to eject Ranil has been going on for most of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time in office. And it has occasionally looked pretty serious – recall the awful death of Rienzie Algama, who set himself on fire outside Sirikotha in July 2010. Ranil’s eventual agreement to initiate an annual secret ballot to select the party’s key office-bearers seemed to offer some hope of change. However, the constituency was only the Working Committee, and Ranil easily won the first round in December 2011 – he beat Karu Jayasuriya by 72 votes to 24. (Polling all party members would obviously give a much better idea of the mood in the country than asking a group of people who are either directly appointed by Ranil or indirectly depend on him.) That there were many in the party who were desperately unhappy with the result was made clear by the violence that engulfed Sirikotha soon after it was declared. Now this violence is being used as a pretext to undo even this very small reform, with the Working Committee announcing last week that the party leader will henceforth be chosen for terms of not one but six years. They say this is essential for party unity. Frankly, why does the party need to be united in defeat? In any case, party unity is overrated. Plenty of leaders, from Margaret Thatcher to Mahinda Rajapaksa, and even leaders of the UNP in its more dynamic era, have won elections despite vicious infighting – it can even bring out the best in them. Six year terms will enable Ranil to stay on until 2018. That is until after the next general election. This must be music to the ears of Mahinda Rajapaksa. His strategy is clear – he intends to make the UNP face one election after another in the next few years, to keep its members obsessed with party unity. They will think twice about agitating against their leader if they are constantly in campaign mode. And they won’t have the spirit to resist Ranil when they are continually reminded of what bad shape the party is in, courtesy their regular election defeats. Because Mahinda Rajapaksa would love nothing better than to compete with Ranil for the presidency again – his unprecedented third term. He wants to ensure that the UNP never recovers from its crisis. The UNP can’t play somebody else’s game. It must forget about the Eastern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces, which are not very important in comparison with what is at stake in Colombo, and instead refocus its efforts on choosing the most suitable leader and working out a new and more appealing programme for the next general election. This article was published in the Midweek Review on 25th July 2012. The internet version can be accessed here.

2019-04-22T08:02:40Z

https://kathnoble.wordpress.com/tag/unp/

A method of containing a floral grouping or potted plant in a sleeve is disclosed. The sleeve has first and second panels, and at least a portion of at least one of the first and second panels is constructed of at least two layers of material. At least a portion of the at least two layers of material may be connected. The present application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 12/500,157, filed Jul. 9, 2009 now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/880,044, filed Jul. 19, 2007, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/110,250, filed Apr. 20, 2005, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/780,084, filed Feb. 17, 2004, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/325,103, filed Dec. 19, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,458, issued Feb. 17, 2004; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/051,116, filed Jan. 17, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,667, issued Mar. 9, 2004; which is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/895,302, filed Jun. 29, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,456, issued Feb. 5, 2002; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/626,375, filed Jul. 26, 2000, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/366,630, filed Aug. 3, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,657, issued Feb. 27, 2001; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/025,090, filed Feb. 17, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,979, issued Aug. 3, 1999; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/775,516, filed Jan. 2, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,658, issued Apr. 21, 1998; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/460,180, filed Jun. 2, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,703, issued Apr. 8, 1997; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/237,078, filed May 3, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,979, issued on May 6, 1997; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 08/220,852, filed Mar. 31, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,851, issued Nov. 12, 1996. The entire contents of each of the above-referenced patents and patent applications are hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. This invention generally relates to sleeves, and, more particularly, to sleeves used to wrap flower pots containing floral groupings and/or mediums containing floral groupings, and methods of using same. FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a sleeve having a detaching element constructed in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the sleeve of FIG. 1 having a potted plant disposed therein. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the potted plant disposed in the sleeve of FIG. 2 after an upper portion of the sleeve has been removed to provide a pot cover having a skirt. FIG. 5 is an elevational view of a version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 with a gusseted bottom. FIG. 6 is a partial cutaway, elevational view of an alternate version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 wherein a bonding material is disposed upon an upper end of the sleeve. FIG. 8 is an elevational view of an alternate version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 having a bonding material disposed on a portion of an inner surface of the sleeve. FIG. 9 is an elevational view of an alternate version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 having a bonding material disposed on a portion of an outer surface of the sleeve. FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the crimped sleeve of FIG. 10. FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the sleeve of FIG. 9 wherein a crimped portion is formed above an upper end of a pot. FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the crimped sleeve of FIG. 12 wherein a crimped portion is formed above a pot. FIG. 16 is an elevational view of another version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 having an additional detaching element for enhancing the extension of a skirt portion of the sleeve after detachment of an upper portion of the sleeve. FIG. 18 is an elevational view of another version of the sleeve of FIG. 1 having notched perforated areas for enhancing extension of a skirt portion of the sleeve after detachment of an upper portion of the sleeve. FIG. 19 is an elevational view of the sleeve of FIG. 18 after the upper sleeve portion has been removed. FIG. 20 is an elevational view of an alternate version of a sleeve of the present invention wherein an upper portion of the sleeve is constructed of a different material than a lower portion of the sleeve. FIG. 21 is a perspective view of a version of a sleeve of the present invention wherein the sleeve comprises expansion elements for enhancing extension of a skirt portion once an upper portion is removed. FIG. 23 is a perspective view of a sleeve similar to the sleeve of FIG. 21 except the expansion elements do not extend completely to an upper end of the sleeve. FIG. 24 is a cross-sectional view of the sleeve of FIG. 23 taken along line 24-24 thereof. FIG. 25 is a perspective view of another version of a sleeve of the present invention wherein the sleeve comprises z-shaped expansion elements for enhancing extension of a skirt portion. FIG. 26 is a perspective view of the sleeve of FIG. 25 after an upper portion has been removed to reveal the skirt portion. FIG. 27 is a perspective view of a sleeve similar to the sleeve of FIG. 25 except the z-shaped expansion elements do not extend completely to an upper end of the sleeve. FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional view of the sleeve of FIG. 27 taken along line 28-28 thereof. FIG. 29 is a perspective view of a version of a sleeve of the present invention wherein the sleeve comprises fluted or groove-shaped expansion elements for enhancing extension of a skirt portion. FIG. 30 is a perspective view of the sleeve of FIG. 29 after an upper portion has been removed to reveal the skirt portion. FIG. 31 is a perspective view of a sleeve similar to the sleeve of FIG. 29 except the fluted or groove-shaped expansion elements do not extend completely to an upper end of the sleeve. FIG. 32 is a cross-sectional view of the sleeve of FIG. 31 taken along line 32-32 thereof. FIG. 37 is a cross-sectional view of the pot of FIG. 35 disposed in the pot cover of FIG. 36 showing the connection of the pot to an inner surface of the pot cover. FIG. 38 is a cross-sectional view of a sleeve having an open lower end and having a bonding material on a portion of an inner surface near a lower end. FIG. 39 is a cross-sectional view of the pot and cover of FIG. 37 disposed within the sleeve of FIG. 38 wherein a portion of an outer surface of the pot cover is connected to the sleeve. FIG. 40 is a cross-sectional view of a pot cover having a bonding material on both a portion of an inner surface and on a portion of an outer surface of the pot cover. FIG. 42 is a cross-sectional view of a sleeve having an open lower end similar to the sleeve of FIG. 38 except having no bonding material on an inner surface. FIG. 43 is a cross-sectional view of the pot cover and pot of FIG. 41 disposed in the sleeve of FIG. 42 wherein an outer surface of the pot cover is connected to the inner surface of the sleeve via bonding material on the outer surface of the pot cover. FIG. 44 is a cross-sectional view of a pot cover and pot such as that shown in FIG. 41 disposed in the sleeve of FIG. 38 wherein the bonding material of the pot cover engages the bonding material on the sleeve. FIG. 45 is a cross-sectional view of a pot having a bonding material on a portion of an outer surface thereof. FIG. 46 is a cross-sectional view of a preformed pot cover having no bonding material thereon. FIG. 47 is a cross-sectional view of the pot of FIG. 45 disposed within the preformed pot cover of FIG. 46 wherein the cover and pot are connected via the bonding material on the pot. FIG. 48 is a cross-sectional view of the pot and preformed pot cover of FIG. 47 disposed within the sleeve of FIG. 38 wherein the preformed pot cover is connected to the sleeve via bonding material on the inner surface of the sleeve. FIG. 49 is a cross-sectional view of a preformed pot cover having bonding material on a portion of an outer surface thereof. FIG. 50 is a cross-sectional view of the pot of FIG. 45 disposed within the pot cover of FIG. 49 wherein the pot is connected to an inner surface of the pot cover via bonding material on the pot. FIG. 52 is a cross-sectional view of the pot of FIG. 45 disposed within the pot cover of FIG. 40 wherein the pot is connected to an inner surface of the pot cover via the bonding material disposed on a portion of the outer surface of the pot. FIG. 56 is a perspective view of a plant package constructed in accordance with the present invention showing a sleeve connected to a potted plant via a bonding material on a lower end of the sleeve. FIG. 57 is a perspective view of a sleeve connected to a potted plant via a bonding material on an upper end of a pot. FIG. 58 is a perspective view of a plant package having a sleeve connected to a pot wherein a bonding material is on a lower end of the sleeve and on an upper end of the pot. FIG. 59 is a perspective view of a plant package having a sleeve connected to a pot wherein a bonding material is disposed on an inner surface and an outer surface of a lower end of the sleeve. FIG. 60 is a partial cutaway, perspective view of a sleeve having an up-turned lower end and having a bonding material disposed upon a portion of the up-turned lower end and wherein the bonding material is covered by a cover or release strip. FIG. 64 is a perspective view of the sleeve and pot of FIG. 63 wherein the lower end of the sleeve is fully connected to the pot and a portion of the sleeve is detached at an upper end of the sleeve. FIG. 66 is a perspective view of a preformed pot cover like the cover of FIG. 65 but also having a bonding material disposed on a portion of an inner surface thereof. FIG. 69 is a perspective view of another sleeve constructed in accordance with the present invention having a bonding material on an inner surface of the sleeve near an upper end of the sleeve and having expansion elements disposed within the sleeve. FIG. 71 is a perspective view of the sleeve and potted plant of FIG. 70 wherein a lower end of the sleeve has been pulled upwardly toward an upper end of the pot. FIG. 73 is a perspective view of the sleeve and potted plant of FIG. 72 after an upper portion of the sleeve has been detached leaving the lower end of the sleeve attached to an outer surface of the potted plant. FIG. 74 is a cross-sectional view of another version of a sleeve constructed in accordance with the present invention wherein a separate skirt portion is connected to an inner surface of the sleeve via a bonding material. FIG. 76 is a perspective view of a potted plant disposed upon a sheet of material having a bonding material on a portion of a lower surface of the sheet of material. FIG. 77 is a perspective view of the sheet of material of FIG. 76 wrapped about the potted plant of FIG. 76 to form a pot cover having bonding material on an outer surface thereof. FIG. 78 is a perspective view of another sleeve constructed in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 79 is a perspective view of the potted plant of FIG. 77 disposed within the sleeve of FIG. 78 wherein the sleeve of FIG. 78 is connected to an outer portion of the pot cover of FIG. 77 by the bonding material on the outer surface of the cover. FIG. 80 is a partial cutaway, perspective view of a sleeve constructed in accordance with the present invention, the sleeve having a bonding material disposed upon portions of an inner surface thereof. FIG. 82 is an elevational view of a sheet of material having a bonding material near two edges of the sheet of material. FIG. 83 is a perspective view of the sheet of material of FIG. 82 wrapped about a covered potted plant in accordance with the method of the present invention. FIG. 84 is an elevational view of a sheet of material having a bonding material disposed near three edges of the sheet of material. FIG. 85 is a perspective view of the sheet of material of FIG. 84 wrapped about a covered potted plant to form a sleeve with an upper end of the sleeve partially sealed. FIG. 86 is a perspective view of the sleeve formed from the sheet of material of FIG. 84 having the upper end thereof completely sealed. The present invention contemplates a plant packaging system comprising a combination of a protective sleeve portion and a decorative cover portion having a base and skirt for packaging a potted plant. The protective sleeve portion can be detached from the decorative cover portion of the package system once the protective function of the sleeve portion has been completed, thereby exposing the decorative cover portion and allowing the skirt to extend angularly from the base. The protective sleeve portion and decorative cover portion may be of unitary construction or may be separate components which are attached together by various bonding materials. More specifically, the present invention contemplates a plant cover for covering a pot having an outer peripheral surface. The plant cover comprises (1) a base portion having a lower end, an upper end, an outer peripheral surface, and an area of excess material for allowing extension of a portion of the base portion and having an opening extending from the upper end to the lower end, and (2) an upper portion extending from the upper end of the base portion and detachable therefrom, and wherein when the upper portion is detached from the upper end of the base portion, the area of excess material expands causing portions of the base portion to extend angularly from the base. In general, the base portion is sized to substantially cover the outer peripheral surface of the pot. The upper portion may be detachable via a detaching element such as perforations, tear strips and zippers. The plant cover may have an extended portion extending from the upper portion for serving as a handle or support device. More particularly, the present invention may be a plant cover comprising (1) a base portion having a lower end, an upper end, and an outer peripheral surface and having an opening extending from the upper end to the lower end, (2) an upper portion extending from the upper end of the base portion and detachable therefrom, (3) and an expansion element integral to the base portion and optionally integral to the upper portion, for allowing expansion of a portion of the base portion into a skirt portion extending angularly from the base portion when the upper portion is detached from the upper end of the base portion. The expansion element may be a plurality of vertical pleats, a plurality of vertical folds each having a Z-shaped cross section, a plurality of vertical accordion-type folds, or other similar types of expandable forms. The present invention further contemplates a plant cover comprising, (1) a base portion having a lower end, an upper end, an outer peripheral surface, and having an opening extending from the upper end to the lower end, (2) a skirt portion attached to the base portion and extending a distance beyond the upper end of the base portion, and (3) an upper portion connected to the outer peripheral surface of the base portion and extending from the upper end of the base portion and detachable therefrom and substantially surrounding the skirt portion, and wherein when the upper portion is detached from the upper end of the base portion, the skirt portion is exposed allowing the skirt portion to extend angularly from the base portion. Further, the base portion may comprise a bonding material for bondingly connecting to the upper portion. Also, the base portion may comprise a bonding material for bondingly connecting to a pot disposed therein. Further, the upper portion may comprise a bonding material for bondingly connecting to the base portion. The plant cover may further comprise part of a plant package which includes a pot disposed within the inner retaining space of the base portion, the pot having a floral grouping disposed therein, and wherein the pot is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the base portion and the floral grouping is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the upper portion. The sleeve 10 has an upper end 12, a lower end 14, an outer peripheral surface 16 and in its flattened state has a first side 18 and a second side 20. The sleeve 10 has an opening 21 (FIG. 2) at the upper end 12 and may be open at the lower end 14, or provided with excess material at least sufficient to form a closed bottom of the sleeve 10 at the lower end 14. The sleeve 10 also has an inner peripheral surface 22 which, when the sleeve 10 is opened, defines and encompasses an inner retaining space 24 as shown in FIG. 2. When the lower end 14 of the sleeve 10 has a closed bottom, a portion of the lower end 14 may be inwardly folded to form one or more gussets for permitting a circular bottom of an object such as a potted plant 30 (FIGS. 2 and 4) to be disposed into the inner retaining space 24 of the lower end 14 of the sleeve 10. The sleeve 10 is generally frusto-conically shaped, but the sleeve 10 may be, by way of example but not by way of limitation, cylindrical, frusto-conical, a combination of both frusto-nical and cylindrical, or any other shape, as long as the sleeve 10 functions as described herein as noted above. Further, the sleeve 10 may comprise any shape, whether geometric, non-geometric, asymmetrical and/or fanciful as long as it functions in accordance with the present invention. The sleeve 10 may also be equipped with drains or ventilation holes (not shown), or can be made from permeable or impermeable materials. The material from which the sleeve 10 is constructed has a thickness in a range from about 0.1 mil to about 30 mil. Often, the thickness of the sleeve 10 is in a range from about 0.5 mil to about 10 mil. Preferably, the sleeve 10 has a thickness in a range from about 1.0 mil to about 5 mil. More preferably, the sleeve 10 is constructed from a material which is flexible, semi-rigid, rigid, or any combination thereof. The sleeve 10 may be constructed of a single layer of material or a plurality of layers of the same or different types of materials. Any thickness of the material may be utilized as long as the material functions in accordance with the present invention as described herein. The layers of material comprising the sleeve 10 may be connected together or laminated or may be separate layers. Such materials used to construct the sleeve 10 are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,637 entitled “Method For Wrapping A Floral Grouping” issued to Weder et al., on May 12, 1992, which is hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. Any thickness of material may be utilized in accordance with the present invention as long as the sleeve 10 may be formed as described herein, and as long as the formed sleeve 10 may contain at least a portion of a pot 32 or the potted plant 30 or a floral grouping, as described herein. Additionally, an insulating material such as bubble film, preferable as one of two or more layers, can be utilized in order to provide additional protection for the item, such as the floral grouping, contained therein. The sleeve 10 is constructed from any suitable material that is capable of being formed into a sleeve and wrapped about the potted plant 30 or the pot 32. Preferably, the material comprises paper (untreated or treated in any manner), metal foil, polymeric film, non-polymeric film, fabric (woven or nonwoven or synthetic or natural), cardboard, fiber, cloth, burlap, or laminations or combinations thereof. The term “polymeric film” means a material made of a synthetic polymer such as a polypropylene or a naturally occurring polymer such as cellophane. A polymeric film is relatively strong and not as subject to tearing (substantially non-tearable), as might be the case with paper or foil. The material employed in the construction of the sleeve 10 may vary in color and may consist of designs or decorative patterns which are printed, etched, and/or embossed thereon using inks or other printing materials. An example of an ink which may be applied to the surface of the material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,706 entitled “Water Based Ink On Foil And/Or Synthetic Organic Polymer” issued to Kingman on Sep. 15, 1992, and which is hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. In addition, the material may have various colorings, coatings, flocking and/or metallic finishes, or other decorative surface ornamentation applied separately or simultaneously or may be characterized totally or partially by pearlescent, translucent, transparent, iridescent, neon, or the like qualities. Each of the above-named characteristics may occur alone or in combination, and may be applied to the upper and/or lower surface of the material comprising the sleeve 10. Moreover, portions of the material used in constructing the sleeve 10 may vary in the combination of such characteristics. The material utilized for the sleeve 10 itself may be opaque, translucent, transparent, or partially clear or tinted transparent. It will generally be desired to use the sleeve 10 as a covering for the potted plant 30 (FIG. 2). As shown in FIG. 3, the potted plant 30 comprises the pot 32 having an upper rim 34, a lower end 36, an outer peripheral surface 38, and an inner peripheral surface which encompasses an inner retaining space 40 for retaining a floral grouping or plant 42. The lower end 36 of the pot 32 is closed but may have holes for permitting water drainage. The term “pot” as used herein refers to any type of container used for holding the floral grouping or plant 42. Examples of pots, used in accordance with the present invention include, but not by way of limitation, clay pots, wooden pots, plastic pots, pots made from natural and/or synthetic fibers, or any combination thereof. The pot 32 is adapted to receive the floral grouping 42 in the inner retaining space 40. The floral grouping 42 may be disposed within the pot 32 along with a suitable growing medium described in further detail below, or other retaining medium, such as a floral foam. It will also be understood that the floral grouping 42, and any appropriate growing medium or other retaining medium, may be disposed in the sleeve 10 without the pot 32. The term “growing medium” when used herein means any liquid, solid or gaseous material used for plant growth or for the cultivation of propagules, including organic and inorganic materials such as soil, humus, perlite, vermiculite, sand, water, and including the nutrients, fertilizers or hormones, or combinations thereof required by the plants or propagules for growth. The term “botanical item” when used herein means a natural or artificial herbaceous or woody plant, taken singly or in combination. The term “botanical item” also means any portion or portions of natural or artificial herbaceous or woody plants including stems, leaves, flowers, blossoms, buds, blooms, cones, or roots, taken singly, or in combination, or in groupings of such portions such as bouquet or floral grouping. In accordance with the present invention, a bonding material may be disposed on a portion of the sleeve 10 to assist in holding the sleeve 10 to the pot 32 having the floral grouping 42 therein when such a pot 32 is disposed within the sleeve 10 or to assist in closing the upper end 12 of the sleeve 10 or adhering the sleeve 10 to the pot 32 after the pot 32 has been disposed therein, as will be discussed in further detail below. It will be understood that the bonding material may be disposed as a strip or block on a surface of the sleeve 10. The bonding material may also be disposed upon either the outer peripheral surface 16, or the inner peripheral surface 22 of the sleeve 10, as well as upon the pot 32. Further, the bonding material may be disposed as spots of bonding material, or in any other geometric, non-geometric, asymmetric, or fanciful form, and in any pattern including covering either the entire inner peripheral surface and/or outer peripheral surface of the sleeve 10 and/or the pot or pot cover. The bonding material may be covered by a cover or release strip which can be removed prior to the use of the sleeve, pot, or pot cover. The bonding material can be applied by means known to those of ordinary skill in their art. One method for disposing a bonding material, in this case an adhesive, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,637 entitled “Method For Wrapping A Floral Grouping” issued to Weder et al., on May 12, 1992, which has been incorporated by reference above. The term “bonding material” when used herein means an adhesive, frequently a pressure sensitive adhesive, or a cohesive. When the bonding material is a cohesive, a similar cohesive material must be placed on the adjacent surface for bondingly contacting and bondingly engaging with the cohesive material. The term “bonding material” also includes materials which are heat sealable and, in this instance, the adjacent portions of the material must be brought into contact and then heat must be applied to affect the seal. The term “bonding material” also includes materials which are sonic sealable and vibratory sealable. The term “bonding material” when used herein also means a heat sealing lacquer or hot melt material which may be applied to the material and, in this instance, heat, sound waves, or vibrations, also must be applied to effect the sealing. The term “bonding material” when used herein also means any type of material or thing which can be used to effect the bonding or connecting of the two adjacent portions of the material, or sheet of material to effect the connection, or bonding described herein. The term “bonding material” may also include ties, labels, bands, ribbons, strings, tapes (including single or double-sided adhesive tapes), staples, or combinations thereof. Some of the bonding materials would secure the ends of the material while other bonding material may bind the circumference of a wrapper, or a sleeve, or, alternatively and/or in addition, the bonding materials would secure overlapping folds in the material and/or sleeve. Another way to secure the wrapping and/or sleeve is to heat seal the ends of the material to another portion of the material. One way to do this is to contact the ends with an iron of sufficient heat to heat seal the material. As shown in FIG. 1, the sleeve 10 is demarcated into an upper portion 44 having an outer surface area 45 and a lower portion 46 having an outer surface area 47. The lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10 is generally sized to contain and tapered to fit the potted plant 30 or pot 32. The upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 is sized to substantially surround and encompass the floral grouping 42 of the potted plant 30 disposed within the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10. The sleeve 10 is demarcated into the upper portion 44 and the lower portion 46 by a detaching element 48 for enabling the detachment of the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 from the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10. In the present version, the detaching element 48 is a plurality of generally laterally-oriented or alternatingy diagonally-oriented perforations which extend circumferentially across the outer peripheral surface 16 of the sleeve 10 from the first side 18 to the second side 20. The term “detaching element,” as used generally herein, means any element, or combination of elements, or features, such as, but not by way of limitation, perforations, tear strips, zippers, and any other devices or elements of this nature known in the art, or any combination thereof, which enable the tearing away or detachment of one object from another. Therefore, while perforations are shown and described in detail herein, it will be understood that tear strips, zippers, or any other “detaching elements” known in the art, or any combination thereof, could be substituted therefore and/or used therewith. In a preferred embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10 further comprises a base portion 50, and a skirt portion 52. The base portion 50 comprises that part of the lower portion 46 which, when the pot 32 is placed into the lower portion 46, has an inner peripheral surface which is substantially adjacent to and surrounds the outer peripheral surface 38 of the pot 32. The skirt portion 52 comprises that part of the lower portion 46 which comprises a plurality of portions 53 which extend beyond the upper rim 34 of the pot 32 and adjacent at least a portion of the floral grouping 42 contained within the pot 32 and which is left to freely extend at an angle, inwardly or outwardly, from the base portion 50 when the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 is detached from the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10 by actuation of the detaching element 48. In the intact sleeve 10, the skirt portion 52 comprises an upper peripheral edge congruent with the detaching element 48 which is connected to a lower peripheral edge, also congruent with the detaching element 48, of the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the upper peripheral edge of the skirt portion 52 is congruent with a series of alternatingly diagonally-oriented lines of perforations which together form a zig-zag and comprise the detaching element 48. The upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 may also have an additional detaching element 54 indicated as a plurality of vertical perforations for facilitating removal of the upper portion 44 and which are disposed more or less vertically therein extending between the detaching element 48 and the upper end 12 of the sleeve 10. The upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 is separable from the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10 by tearing the upper portion 44 along both the detaching element 54 and the detaching element 48, thereby separating the upper portion 44 from the lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10. The lower portion 46 of the sleeve 10 remains disposed as the base portion 50 about the pot 32 and as the skirt portion 52 about the floral grouping 42 forming a decorative cover 56 as shown in FIG. 4 which substantially surrounds and encompasses the flower pot 32. As noted above, the sleeve 10 may have an open or closed lower end 14. When the lower end 14 is closed the lower end 14 may have one or more gussets 60 formed therein such as that seen in sleeve 10 a in FIG. 5 for allowing expansion of the lower end 14 when an object with a broad lower end such as the pot 32 is disposed therein. In another version of the present invention, as shown in sleeve 10 b in FIG. 6, a strip of bonding material 62 may be disposed on the inner peripheral surface 22 of the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 b generally in the vicinity of the upper end 12 of the sleeve 10 b for allowing the upper end 12 to be sealed for enclosing the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 b about a floral grouping disposed therein. In another version of the present invention shown in FIG. 7, a sleeve 10 c comprises a flap 64 positioned at the upper end 12 which can be folded over and sealed with a flap bonding strip 66 to an adjacent portion of the outer peripheral surface 16 of the sleeve 10 c near the upper end 12 thereof. Other versions of the sleeve (not shown) may comprise ventilation holes or drainage holes 58 for allowing movement of gases or moisture to and away from the inner space of the sleeve. In another version of the present invention, shown in FIG. 8, a sleeve 10 d is exactly like the sleeve 10, but further comprises an inner strip of bonding material 68 disposed upon a portion of the inner peripheral surface 22 of the base portion 50 of the sleeve 10 d. The strip of bonding material 68 functions to enable the inner peripheral surface 22, or a portion thereof, to be bondingly connected to the outer peripheral surface 38 of the pot 32 disposed therein causing the sleeve 10 d to be bondingly connected to the pot 32. In yet another version of the present invention, shown in FIGS. 9-13, a bonding material 70 is disposed on a portion of the outer peripheral surface 16 of the base portion 50 of a sleeve 10 e. After the pot 32 is disposed in the inner retaining space 24 of the base portion 50, the sleeve 10 e is manually or automatically crimped about the outer peripheral surface 38 of the pot 32 in the vicinity of the bonding material 70 thereby forming overlapping folds 72 in the base portion 50 which are bondingly connected together by the bonding material 70 to add structural integrity to the base portion 50 and to cooperate to hold the base portion 50 in the shape of a pot cover or for causing the base portion 50 of the sleeve 10 e to engage the outer peripheral surface 38 of the pot 32 and be held firmly thereabout. The bonding material 70 may be disposed on the sleeve 10 e at a position below the upper rim 34 of the pot 32 (FIGS. 9-11) or may be disposed at a position on the base portion 50 of the sleeve 10 e above the upper rim 34 of the pot 32 (such as shown in FIGS. 12-13) such that the overlapping folds 72 crimpingly formed are located in a position generally above the upper rim 34 of the pot 32. Other versions of the present invention shown in FIGS. 16-19, may comprise additional perforated areas for enhancing angularity of the extension of the skirt portion away from the base portion after the upper portion of the sleeve has been detached. For example, sleeve 10 h in FIG. 16 comprises perforations 86 which extend vertically downward from the downward-pointing apexes 88 in the detaching element 48, comprising lateral perforations, which demarcates the upper peripheral edge of the skirt portion 52 of the sleeve 10 h. After the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 h is detached, the perforations 86 are open, allowing adjacent portions of the skirt portion 52 to be deflected at an increased angle to the base portion 50 as shown in FIG. 17. Similarly, sleeve 10 i in FIG. 18 comprises notch perforations 90 which allow the removal of a notch of material 92 in the vicinity of the downward-pointing apexes 88 in the detaching element 48, comprising lateral perforations, which demarcates the upper peripheral edge of the skirt portion 52 of the sleeve 10 i. After the upper portion 44 of the sleeve 10 i is detached, the notches 92 are removed, allowing the adjacent portions of the skirt portion 52 to be deflected at an increased angle to the base portion 50 as shown in FIG. 19. Attention is now drawn to the sleeve shown in FIG. 21 which is designated by the general reference numeral 100. The sleeve 100 comprises a unitary construction and has a base portion 102 having a sidewall 103, skirt portion 104, a sleeve portion 106 and at least one expansion element 108 and further has an outer peripheral surface 110, an open upper end 112 and a lower end 114 which may or may not be open or closed. The sleeve 100 has an inner retaining space 116 which extends from the open upper end 112 to the lower end 114 and which is encompassed by an inner peripheral surface 118 of the sleeve 100. The base portion 102 is sized to substantially cover the outer peripheral surface 38 of the pot 32, and the sleeve portion 106 is sized to substantially surround the floral grouping 42 within the pot 32 which is disposed within the inner retaining space 116 of the sleeve 100. As shown in FIG. 21, each expansion element 108 of the sleeve 100 comprises one or more areas of excess material shaped in the form of a pleat which extends from the base portion 102 to the upper end 112 of the sleeve 100. As used herein, the term “excess material” means an amount of material which has a greater surface area than would actually be necessary to form that portion of the plant covering were that portion of the plant covering actually flattened. The expansion element 108 can expand causing portions of the skirt portion 104 to extend angularly from the base portion 102 forming the skirt 124 and the decorative cover 126 about a portion of the floral grouping 42 of the potted plant 30 as shown in FIG. 22. It should be noted that although the illustrated floral grouping 42 of FIG. 2 and others are different from the floral group illustrated in, for example, FIG. 22, no practical difference is intended. The expansion element 108 may further comprise a plurality of detachable notches such as shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 and as explained above. Shown in FIG. 23 is a sleeve designated by the reference numeral 100 a which is exactly the same as sleeve 100 except that sleeve 100 a has a plurality of expansion elements 108 a which do not extend from the base portion 102 a all the way to the upper end 112 a of the sleeve portion 106 a of the sleeve 100 a but only to a position below the upper end 112 a of the sleeve 100 a. Shown in FIG. 24 is a cross-section through the sleeve 100 a which reveals the pleated nature of the expansion elements 108 a therein. When the sleeve portion 106 a is removed, the expansion elements 108 a can expand as for sleeve 100 as described above causing portions of the skirt portion 104 a to extend angularly from the base portion 102 a forming a skirt (not shown—a skirt exactly the same as the skirt 124 of the decorative cover 126 shown in FIG. 22). Attention is now drawn to FIG. 25 and to the sleeve shown therein which is designated by the general reference numeral 100 b. Sleeve 100 b is exactly the same as sleeve 100 except that the sleeve 100 b has a plurality of Z-shaped expansion elements 108 b. As for expansion element 108 of sleeve 100, the expansion elements 108 b of sleeve 100 b can expand causing portions of a skirt portion 104 b to extend angularly from a base portion 102 b forming a skirt 124 b in a decorative cover 126 b about a portion of the floral grouping 42 of the potted plant 30 as shown in FIG. 26. Similarly, shown in FIG. 27 is a sleeve designated by the reference numeral 100 c and which is exactly the same as sleeve 100 b except that sleeve 100 c has a plurality of expansion elements 108 c which do not extend from the base portion 102 c all the way to an upper end 112 c of an upper portion 106 c of the sleeve 100 c but only to a position below the upper end 112 c of the sleeve 100 c. Shown in FIG. 28 is a cross-section through the sleeve 100 c of FIG. 27 which reveals the Z-shaped nature of the expansion elements 108 c therein. When the upper portion 106 c is removed, the expansion elements 108 c can expand as for sleeve 100 b causing portions of a skirt portion 104 c to extend angularly from the base portion 102 c forming a skirt exactly the same as the skirt 124 b of the decorative cover 126 b shown in FIG. 26. Attention is now drawn to FIG. 29 and to the sleeve shown therein which is designated by the general reference numeral 100 d. Sleeve 100 d is exactly the same as sleeve 100 except that the sleeve 100 d has a plurality of fluted or groove-shaped expansion elements 108 d. As for expansion element 108 of sleeve 100, the expansion elements 108 d of sleeve 100 d can expand causing portions of a skirt portion 104 d to extend angularly from a base portion 102 d forming a skirt 124 d of a decorative cover 126 d about a portion of the floral grouping 42 of the potted plant 30 as shown in FIG. 30. Similarly, shown in FIG. 31, is a sleeve designated by the reference numeral 100 e and which is exactly the same as sleeve 100 d except that sleeve 100 e has a plurality of expansion elements 108 e which do not extend from a base portion 102 e all the way to an upper end 112 e of an upper sleeve portion 106 e of the sleeve 100 e but only to a position below the upper end 112 e of the sleeve 100 e. Shown in FIG. 32 is a cross-section through the sleeve 100 e of FIG. 31 which reveals the fluted nature of the expansion elements 108 e therein. When the upper portion 106 e is removed, the expansion elements 108 e can expand as for sleeve 100 d causing portions of the skirt portion 104 e to extend angularly from the base portion 102 e forming a skirt exactly the same as skirt 124 d of the decorative cover 126 d shown in FIG. 30. Each of the sleeves 100-100 e may further comprise a support extension 130 which extends away from a portion of the upper end of the sleeve such as for the sleeve 100 f as shown in FIG. 33. The support extension 130 has one or more apertures 132 disposed therein for allowing the sleeve 100 f to be supported on a support assembly 134 which may comprise, for example, a pair of wickets 136 for shipment, storage, and assembly of the sleeve 100 f, placement of a pot within the sleeve 100 f, or other functions known in the art. The support extension 130 may have a plurality of perforations 138 or other detaching elements for allowing the support extension 130 to be removed from the sleeve 100 f after the sleeve 100 f has been provided for use as described elsewhere herein. In another version of the invention, and applicable to any of the sleeves described above, or elsewhere herein, shown in FIG. 34 is a sleeve 100 g which has a handle 140 for carrying the potted plant package by the sleeve 100 g. The sleeve 100 g further comprises a detaching element 142 comprising perforations for removing a handle 140 at a later time. In the next step of the method, a sleeve portion is provided for applying to the covered pot for providing protection to the plant already, or soon to be, disposed within the retaining space of the pot. The sleeve portion is preferably an open-ended, frusto-conically shaped, or semi frusto-conically shaped, tube similar to sleeves well-known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. The sleeve may be free of any bonding material disposed thereon, or a bonding material may be disposed on a portion of the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve, preferably near the lower end of the sleeve. The sleeve is opened and the covered pot, as described, is deposited into the inner retaining space of the sleeve. As noted above, the decorative cover which covers the pot may have a bonding material disposed upon a portion of the outer peripheral surface thereof. Attention is now drawn to the embodiments of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 35-39. Represented by the general reference numeral 150 in FIG. 35 is a pot. The pot 150 has an upper end 152, a lower end 154, an outer peripheral surface 156, an upper opening 158, and an inner retaining space 160. Shown in FIGS. 36 and 37 is a plant cover referred to by the general reference numeral 162. The plant cover 162 has an outer peripheral surface 164, an upper end 166, a lower end 168, a base portion 170 sized generally to accommodate pot 150, a skirt portion 172 which extends from the base portion 170, an upper opening 174, an inner or pot retaining space 176, an inner peripheral surface 178, and a bonding material 180 which is disposed upon at least a portion of the inner peripheral surface 178. Shown in FIG. 37 is the pot 150 which has been inserted into the pot retaining space 176 of the plant cover 162. Sleeve 182 further comprises lateral perforations 200 and vertical perforations 202 for allowing detachment of an upper portion of the sleeve 182. Perforations 202 may also represent other forms of detaching elements for detaching the upper portion of the sleeve 182. FIG. 39 shows a sleeve/cover package 204 comprising the plant cover 162 and pot 150 as shown in FIG. 37 and the sleeve 182 as shown in FIG. 38 after the pot 150 and plant cover 162 have been inserted into the inner retaining space 196 of the sleeve 182. As shown in FIG. 39, the bonding material 198 bondingly connects a portion of the outer peripheral surface 164 of the plant cover 162 to the inner peripheral surface 194 of the sleeve 182 at a position generally near an upper end of the base portion 170 of the plant cover 162. Once the plant cover 162 with the pot 150 therein has been disposed into the inner retaining space 196 of the sleeve 182, the skirt portion 172 of the plant cover 162 is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the sleeve 182. As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, a portion of the sleeve portion 182 can be removed from the sleeve/cover package 204 when it is desired to decoratively display a plant contained within the pot 150. Shown in FIG. 40 is a preformed plant cover represented by the general reference numeral 162 a. The plant cover 162 a is exactly the same as the plant cover 162 shown in FIG. 36 except that the plant cover 162 a has an outer bonding material 181 a disposed on an outer peripheral surface 164 a in addition to a bonding material 180 a which is disposed upon an inner peripheral surface 178 a of the plant cover 162 a. Shown in FIG. 41 is a pot 150 which has been disposed within a pot retaining space 176 a of the plant cover 162 a wherein the bonding material 180 a of the plant cover 162 a has bondingly connected to a portion of the outer peripheral surface 156 of the pot 150. The bonding material 181 a is shown on the outer peripheral surface 164 a of the plant cover 162 a. Shown in FIG. 42 is a sleeve 182 a having an outer peripheral surface 192 a, a lower end 188 a, and an inner peripheral surface 194 a. The sleeve 182 a is exactly the same as the sleeve 182 shown in FIG. 38 except that sleeve 182 a does not have a bonding material disposed on the inner peripheral surface 194 a near the lower end 188 a of the sleeve 182 a. FIG. 43 shows a sleeve/cover package 204 a combination exactly as shown in FIG. 41 which has been disposed into an inner retaining space 196 a of the sleeve 182 a wherein the bonding material 181 a on the outer peripheral surface 164 a of the plant cover 162 a has bondingly connected to a portion of the inner peripheral surface 194 a of the sleeve 182 a to form the sleeve/cover package 204 a. As before, the skirt portion 172 a of the plant cover 162 a is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the sleeve 182 a. Shown in FIG. 44 is a sleeve/cover package 204 b which is comprised of the pot 150 as described above, a plant cover 162 a as described above in FIG. 40 and a sleeve 182 as described above in FIG. 38. Sleeve/cover package 204 b thus comprises the plant cover 162 a having the bonding material 181 a on the outer peripheral surface 164 a thereof, which is bondingly connected to the bonding material 198 which is on a portion of the inner peripheral surface 194 of the sleeve 182. In a preferred embodiment, the bonding materials 181 a and 198 of sleeve/cover package 204 b are cohesive materials but may be any bonding material described previously herein. Shown in FIG. 45 is a pot designated by the reference numeral 150 a which is exactly the same as pot 150 described previously herein except that the pot 150 a, which has an upper end 152 a, a lower end 154 a, and an outer peripheral surface 156 a, also has a bonding material 161 a disposed on at least a portion of the outer peripheral surface 156 a. Shown in FIG. 46 is a preformed plant cover designated by the general reference numeral 162 b which has an outer peripheral surface 164 b, a base portion 170 b, a skirt portion 172 b and an inner peripheral surface 178 b. The plant cover 162 b is exactly the same as the plant cover 162 except that the plant cover 162 b does not have a bonding material such as the bonding material 180 disposed upon a portion of the inner peripheral surface 178 b. Shown in FIG. 47 is the plant cover 162 b with the pot 150 a disposed therein, wherein the bonding material 161 a of the pot 150 a is bondingly connected to a portion of the inner peripheral surface 178 b of the plant cover 162 b. Shown in FIG. 48 is a sleeve/cover package 204 c which is comprised of the plant cover 162 b having the pot 150 a therein as shown in FIG. 47 and the sleeve 182 as shown in FIG. 38 which has the inner peripheral surface 194 and the bonding material 198 disposed upon a portion of the inner peripheral surface 194. The bonding material 198 of the sleeve 182 is bondingly connected to a portion of the outer peripheral surface 164 b of the base portion 170 b of the plant cover 162 b. The skirt portion 172 b of the plant cover 162 b is thus substantially surrounded and encompassed by the sleeve 182. Shown in FIGS. 49 and 50 is a plant cover 162 c having an outer peripheral surface 164 c, a base portion 170 c, a skirt portion 172 c, and an inner peripheral surface 178 c. The plant cover 162 c is exactly the same as the plant cover 162 b of FIG. 46 except that the plant cover 162 c further comprises a bonding material 181 c disposed upon the portion of the outer peripheral surface 164 c of the cover 162 c. Shown in FIG. 50 is the plant cover 162 c containing the pot 150 a (FIG. 45). The pot 150 a is bondingly connected to the inner peripheral surface 178 c of the plant cover 162 c via the bonding material 161 a as described previously. Shown in FIG. 51 is sleeve/cover package 204 d. The sleeve/cover package 204 d comprises the pot 150 a contained within the plant cover 162 c as described in FIG. 50 which is disposed in the inner retaining space 196 a of sleeve 182 a shown in FIG. 42. A portion of the inner peripheral surface 194 a of the sleeve 182 a is bondingly connected to a portion of the outer peripheral surface 164 c of the plant cover 162 c via the bonding material 181 c. The skirt portion 172 c of the plant cover 162 c is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the sleeve 182 a. Shown in FIG. 52 is the pot 150 a disposed within the pot retaining space 176 a of a plant cover 162 a shown in FIG. 40. The plant cover 162 a comprises the bonding material 180 a disposed on the inner peripheral surface 178 a thereof and the bonding material 181 a disposed on the outer peripheral surface 164 a thereof. The bonding material 161 a of the pot 150 a is connected to the bonding material 180 a of the plant cover 162 a. The pot 150 a and cover 162 a may be disposed within a sleeve such as sleeve 182 or sleeve 182 a. Shown in FIG. 53 is a sleeve/cover package 204 e comprising the pot 150 a and plant cover 162 c disposed within the inner retaining space 196 of the sleeve 182 described in FIG. 38 previously. As indicated in FIG. 53, the bonding material 181 c of the plant cover 162 c is bondingly connected to the bonding material 198 of the sleeve 182 thereby connecting the outer peripheral surface 164 c of the plant cover 162 c to a portion of the inner peripheral surface 194 of the sleeve 182. As discussed previously, in the case of using a plant cover having a bonding material on the outer peripheral surface thereof along with a sleeve having a bonding material on the inner peripheral surface thereof, preferably the bonding material is a cohesive. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other combinations of pots, covers and sleeves other than those specifically delineated herein are practicable and are well within the spirit of the embodiments described herein. Shown in FIGS. 54 and 55 is one example of a method and apparatus which can be used to cause a sleeve to be attached to the outer peripheral surface of a decorative cover surrounding a potted plant. A pedestal is represented by the reference numeral 210. The pedestal 210 is comprised of a post 212, a base 214 and a pot support surface 216. A potted plant 218 is placed upon the pot support surface 216, the potted plant 218 having a bonding material 220 disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the cover of the potted plant 218. A plurality of sleeves 222 is disposed upon the pedestal 210 near the base 214. A single sleeve 224 is caused to be brought up around the outside of the potted plant 218. The individual sleeve 224 has an inner peripheral surface 226, an upper end 228, and a bonding material 230 disposed upon a portion of the inner peripheral surface 226 preferably near the lower end of the sleeve 224. Shown in FIG. 55 is a sleeve 224 which has been brought up about the exterior of the potted plant 218 wherein the bonding material 230 on the sleeve 224 is caused to be bondingly connected to the bonding material 220 on the exterior surface of the potted plant 218. The sleeve 224 and the potted plant 218 together comprise a sleeve and cover package 232. An alternative embodiment of a sleeve 242 a of a sleeve/plant package 238 a is shown in FIG. 57. In this embodiment of the sleeve/plant package 238 a, the sleeve 242 a has no bonding material thereon. Instead, a bonding material 256 a is disposed on a portion of an outer peripheral surface 241 a of a pot 240 a for bondingly connecting the sleeve 242 a to the pot 240 a. An additional embodiment is represented in FIG. 58 by a sleeve/plant package designated by the reference numeral 238 b. The sleeve/plant package 238 b comprises a sleeve 242 b having a bonding material 254 b disposed on a portion of an inner peripheral surface 246 b of the sleeve 242 b. In addition, the pot 240 a has a bonding material 256 a disposed on a portion of an outer peripheral surface 241 a of the pot 240 a. Together the bonding materials 254 b and 256 a, which preferably are cohesives, cause the sleeve 242 b to be bondingly connected to the pot 240 a. Shown in FIG. 59 is yet another version of the present invention comprising a sleeve/plant package designated by the reference numeral 238 c. The sleeve/plant package 238 c comprises a sleeve 242 c and a pot 240. The sleeve 242 c has both an inner bonding material 254 c which is disposed upon a portion of an inner peripheral surface 246 c of the sleeve 242 c and an outer bonding material 258 c which is disposed upon a portion of an outer peripheral surface 244 c of the sleeve 242 c. As noted above, any of the sleeve/plant packages 238, 238 a, 238 b, and 238 c may comprise a potted plant having a decorative pot cover in lieu of the pot 240 or 240 a to which the aforementioned sleeves are attached. An alternate version of a sleeve as used in the present invention is shown in FIGS. 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64, and is designated by the general reference numeral 260. The sleeve 260 comprises an upper end 262, a lower end 264, an outer peripheral surface 266, an inner peripheral surface 268, a plurality of perforations or other detaching element 270, an inverted portion 272 (FIGS. 60-63) disposed at the lower end 264 and a cover strip 274 (FIGS. 61 and 62) which conceals a bonding material 276 (FIGS. 61-63) disposed upon an external portion 277 of the inverted portion 272. In use, as shown in FIG. 61, the sleeve 260 is disposed about the pot 240 wherein a portion of the lower end 264 of the sleeve 260 is placed adjacent a portion of an outer peripheral surface 241 of the pot 240. The cover strip 274 can then be removed revealing the bonding material 276 disposed upon a portion of an externally facing portion 277 of the inverted portion 272, as shown in FIGS. 61 and 62. The inverted portion 272 is then turned down as shown in FIG. 63 wherein the bonding material 276 is caused to face a portion of the outer peripheral surface 241 of the pot 240. Finally, shown in FIG. 64, is a sleeve/plant package 278 which is produced when the sleeve 260 is bondingly connected at the lower end 264 thereof to the pot 240. Shown in FIGS. 65 and 66 are two pot covers 280 and 280 a, respectively. The pot cover 280 shown in FIG. 65 is a pot cover such as those well known in the art and described previously herein and having a retaining space 282. The pot cover 280 a has a retaining space 282 a and a bonding material 284 disposed upon a portion of an inner peripheral surface 285 of the pot cover 280 a. Any of the sleeve plant packages shown previously in FIGS. 56-64 may be disposed in either of the pot covers 280 or 280 a. For example, sleeve/plant packages 238, 238 a, 238 b, and 278 may be disposed in the pot retaining space 282 a of the pot cover 280 a. The bonding material 284 disposed on the inner peripheral surface 285 of the pot cover 280 a can be caused to bondingly connect to a portion of the sleeve/plant package 238, 238 a, 238 b or 278, sleeve/plant package 278 being shown, resulting in the sleeve/plant package 286 shown in FIG. 67. Alternatively, the sleeve/plant package 238 c which has the bonding material 258 c disposed on the outer peripheral surface 244 thereof can be disposed in pot cover 280. The pot cover 280, having no adhesive or bonding material disposed thereon, is bondingly connected to the sleeve/plant package 238 c via the bonding material 258 c. Another version of the present invention and its use thereof is shown in FIGS. 68-73. FIG. 68 illustrates a covered potted plant designated by the general reference numeral 288. The covered potted plant 288 is comprised of a pot cover 290 which has a skirt portion 292, a base portion 294, an outer peripheral surface 296, and a retaining space 297. A potted plant 298 is disposed within the retaining space 297 of the pot cover 290. Shown in FIG. 69 is a sleeve designated by the general reference numeral 300 having a generally cylindrical shape and having an upper end 302, a lower end 304, an outer peripheral surface 306, an inner peripheral surface 308, a bonding material 310 disposed in the vicinity of the upper end 302, a vertical perforation 312 extending from near the upper end 302 to the lower end 304, a lateral perforation 314 extending circumferentially around the sleeve 300, and one or more expansion elements 316. In use the sleeve 300 is drawn up about the base portion 294 of the covered potted plant 288 of FIG. 68 wherein the bonding material 310 of the sleeve 300 is caused to be bondingly connected to a portion of the outer peripheral surface 296 of the pot cover 290 as shown in FIG. 70. The sleeve 300 can be then brought up about the covered potted plant 288 by grasping the lower end 304 of the sleeve 300 and drawing the lower end 304 in the direction 318 over the upper end of the covered potted plant 288 as shown in FIG. 71. Once fully drawn up about the covered potted plant 288, the sleeve 300 encompasses the skirt portion 292 of the pot cover 290 of the covered potted plant 288. The resulting sleeve/plant package is designated in FIG. 72 by the general reference numeral 320. Shown in FIG. 73 is the sleeve/plant package 320 after the upper portion of the sleeve 300 has been removed causing the skirt portion 292 of the pot cover 290 of the covered potted plant 288 to be exposed and the remaining portion 322 of the sleeve 300 left bondingly connected to a portion of the base portion 294 of the pot cover 290 of the covered potted plant 288. In an alternative embodiment of a sleeve/cover combination, a sleeve having a skirt portion attached therein is shown in FIGS. 74 and 75 and designated by the general reference numeral 326. The sleeve/cover combination 326 comprises a sleeve 328. The sleeve 328 comprises a base portion 330 having a lower end 332, a sleeve portion 334 having an upper end 336, an outer peripheral surface 338, and an inner peripheral surface 340. A skirt component 342 comprising a lower end 344, an upper end 346, an outer peripheral surface 348, an inner peripheral surface 350 and a bonding material 352 is shown disposed within the sleeve 328. The skirt component 342 is bondingly connected at a portion of its outer peripheral surface 348 to a portion of the inner peripheral surface 340 of the sleeve 328 via the bonding material 352. The upper end 346 of the skirt component 342 is substantially surrounded and encompassed by the sleeve portion 334 of the sleeve 328. Shown in FIG. 75 is an alternate view of the skirt component 342 bondingly connected by the bonding material 352 to a portion of the inner peripheral surface 340 of the sleeve 328. Also shown in FIG. 75 are perforations 354 in the sleeve 328 for allowing detachment of the sleeve portion 334 away from the skirt component 342 and the base portion 330 thereby allowing the skirt component 342 to be exposed. In yet another version of the present invention rather than providing a preformed pot cover, a sheet of material may be provided for forming a cover about a pot. In an embodiment as shown in FIG. 76 a sheet of material 360 is provided. The sheet of material 360 has an inner surface 362, an outer surface 364, a first edge 366, a second edge 368, a third edge 370, a fourth edge 372, and a bonding material 374 which is disposed upon a portion of the outer surface 364. A potted plant 298 can be disposed upon the inner surface 362 of the sheet of material 360, which can then be wrapped and formed into a decorative cover 376 about the potted plant 298 as shown in FIG. 77 in a manner well known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. The decorative cover 376 thus formed comprises a base portion 378, and a skirt portion 380. The bonding material 374 is therefore disposed upon an outer surface 381 of the decorative cover 376. Shown in FIGS. 78 and 79, and designated by the general reference numeral 382, is a sleeve having an outer peripheral surface 384, an inner peripheral surface 386, and an inner retaining space 387 surrounded by the inner peripheral surface 386. The potted plant 298 shown in FIG. 77 having the decorative cover 376 is then disposed in the inner retaining space 387 of the sleeve 382 wherein the bonding material 374 of the decorative cover 376 engages a portion of the inner peripheral surface 386 of the sleeve 382 thereby bondingly connecting a portion of the outer peripheral surface 381 of the decorative cover 376 to the inner peripheral surface 386 of the sleeve 382 in forming a sleeve/plant package 388 as shown in FIG. 79. In an alternate version of the invention shown in FIGS. 80 and 81, a sleeve 382 a having an outer peripheral surface 384 a, an inner peripheral surface 386 a, and an inner retaining space 387 a is provided. Disposed upon a portion of the inner peripheral surface 386 a of the sleeve 382 a is a bonding material 390. A potted plant 298 such as that shown in FIG. 77 having a decorative cover 376 which has a bonding material 374 thereon is disposed within the inner retaining space 387 a of the sleeve 382 a to form a sleeve/cover package 388 a wherein the bonding material 390 of the sleeve 382 a bondingly connects to the bonding material 374 of the decorative cover 376. Preferably, when both the sleeve 382 a and the decorative cover 376 have a bonding material thereon the bonding material is a cohesive wherein the bonding material 390 cohesively connects to the bonding material 374. In an alternative version of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 82 and 83, the sleeve may not be a tube but instead may be formed of a flat sheet of material having a generally trapezoidal, square or rectangular shape. It will be appreciated that any size or shape of sheet of material may be utilized as long as this sheet of material functions in the manner described herein in accordance with the present invention. Shown in FIG. 82 is a sheet of material designated by the general reference numeral 394. The sheet of material 394 has an inner surface 396, an outer surface 398, a first edge 400, a second edge 402, a third edge 404 and a fourth edge 406. The sheet 394 further has vertical perforations 408 and lateral perforations 410 which represent detaching elements. The sheet 394 further has a first bonding strip 412 flanking the second edge 402 and a second bonding strip 414 which is disposed horizontally and flanks the third edge 404. The covered potted plant 288 having the pot cover 290 is provided as shown previously in FIG. 73 herein. The sheet of material 394 can then be wrapped about the covered potted plant 288 forming a generally frusto-conical shaped sleeve 416 as shown in FIG. 83. The first bonding strip 412 which here is shown to be vertically oriented is caused to engage and bondingly connect to the fourth edge 406 of the sheet of material 394 as indicated in FIG. 83 thereby forming an overlapping sealed area between the first bonding strip 412 and the portion of the surface of the sheet of material 394 near the fourth edge 406. The second bonding strip 414 which here is shown to be horizontally oriented is caused to engage and bondingly connect circumferentially about a portion of the outer peripheral surface 296 of the pot cover 290 formed about the covered potted plant 288 thereby forming a generally frusto-conical shaped sleeve 416 and forming a sleeve/cover package 418 comprising the covered potted plant 288 and then the sleeve 416. A portion of the sleeve 416 can then be removed by detaching the portion along the perforations 408 and 410. Another version of the invention, as shown in FIGS. 84-86. In FIG. 84, a sheet of material designated by the general reference numeral 394 a is provided. The sheet of material 394 a has an inner surface 396 a, an outer surface 398 a, a first edge 400 a, a second edge 402 a, a third edge 404 a and a fourth edge 406 a. The sheet of material 394 a further has a plurality of vertical perforations 408 a and a plurality of lateral perforations 410 a. Further, the sheet of material 394 a has a first bonding strip 412 a which is generally disposed along the second edge 402 a, a second bonding strip 414 a which is generally disposed along the third edge 404 a and a sealing strip 420 a which is generally disposed along the first edge 400 a. As indicated in the embodiment previously shown in FIGS. 82 and 83 the sheet of material 394 a can be wrapped about the covered potted plant 288 to form a sleeve/cover package 424. As shown in FIGS. 85 and 86 the sealing strip 420 a can be sealed along its length to seal the upper end 421 of the sleeve 422 formed therefrom for reducing gas exchange or moisture loss from the covered potted plant 288. It should also be noted that for all versions of preformed covers and sheets of material described above and elsewhere herein, an additional bonding material may be disposed either on the outer surface of the cover, the inner surface of the cover, or both the outer and inner surfaces of the cover for allowing portions of the cover to be crimpingly connected to the pot in exactly the same manner as described elsewhere herein. Further, in each of these versions described herein the sleeve which is bondingly connected to the cover comprises a detaching element as described earlier for allowing the sleeve or portion thereof to be detached from the cover thereby exposing the skirt portion of the base of the cover or another portion of the base and allowing the portion thereby exposed to extend angularly from the base of the cover. Further, in any of the versions of the present invention described herein, it may be desirable to have a cover strip covering the bonding material disposed on any portion of the object for preventing the bonding material from bonding to a surface until the desired time. Further in each of the cases described herein wherein a sleeve is applied to a pot or a covered pot, the sleeve may be applied thereto either by depositing the pot or covered pot downwardly into the open retaining space of the sleeve, or the sleeve may be brought upwardly about the pot or covered pot from below the pot or covered pot as shown for example using the pedestal of FIGS. 54 and 55. disposing the pot having the decorative cover disposed thereabout into the pot receiving space of the tubular sleeve such that the open lower end of the tubular sleeve is disposed substantially above the lower end of the pot, whereby the decorative cover is secured in a stable position about at least a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot by the band formed from the lower portion of the tubular sleeve when the upper portion thereof is detached from the lower portion, and wherein the band covers only a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the step of providing a decorative cover, the decorative cover is further defined as a sleeve. 3. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the step of providing a decorative cover, the decorative cover is further defined as a preformed flower pot cover. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein in the step of providing a decorative cover, the decorative cover is constructed of a material selected from the group consisting of paper, metal, foil, polymeric material, cloth, burlap and laminations and combinations. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of detaching the detachable upper portion of the tubular sleeve from the lower portion thereof, whereby the band defined by the lower portion of the tubular sleeve extends about a portion of the decorative cover and secures the decorative cover about the outer peripheral surface of the pot. 6. The method of claim 1 wherein in the step of providing a decorative cover, the decorative cover further comprises at least one decorative pattern or design disposed on at least a portion thereof. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one decorative pattern or design comprises at least one of printing, etching, embossing, coloring, coating, flocking and metallic finishes. disposing the pot having the decorative cover in the pot receiving space of the tubular sleeve such that the open lower end of the tubular sleeve is disposed substantially above the lower end of the pot, whereby the decorative cover is secured in a stable position about at least a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot by the band formed from the lower portion of the tubular sleeve when the upper portion thereof is detached from the lower portion, and wherein the band covers only a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot. 9. The method of claim 8 wherein, in the step of providing a sheet of material capable of being wrapped about at least a portion of an outer peripheral surface of the pot, the sheet of material is a substantially flat square-shaped sheet of material having four corners and wherein the four corners of the sheet of material are flared so as to extend a distance outwardly and upwardly from the pot when the sheet of material is wrapped about at least a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot to provide the pot with the decorative cover. 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the sheet of material is constructed of a material selected from the group consisting of paper, metal, foil, polymeric material, cloth, burlap and laminations and combinations. 11. The method of claim 8 wherein, in the step of providing a sheet of material capable of being wrapped about at least a portion of an outer peripheral surface of the pot, the sheet of material is a substantially flat, flexible sheet of material. 12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of detaching the detachable upper portion of the tubular sleeve from the lower portion thereof whereby the band defined by the lower portion of the tubular sleeve extends about a portion of the decorative cover and secures the decorative cover about the outer peripheral surface of the pot. 13. The method of claim 8 wherein, in the step of providing a decorative cover, the decorative cover further comprises at least one decorative pattern or design disposed on at least a portion thereof. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one decorative pattern or design comprises at least one of printing, etching, embossing, coloring, coating, flocking and metallic finishes. disposing the pot in the pot receiving space of the cover disposed in the tubular sleeve such that the open lower end of the tubular sleeve is disposed substantially above the lower end of the pot, whereby the cover is secured in a stable position about at least a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the pot by the band formed from the lower portion of the tubular sleeve when the upper portion thereof is detached from the lower portion, and wherein the band covers only a portion of the pot. 16. The method of claim 15 wherein, in the step of providing a tubular sleeve with a cover disposed therein, the cover is further defined as at least one sheet of material. disposing the wrapped potted plant in the interior space of the tubular sleeve such that the lower end of the tubular sleeve is disposed substantially above the lower end of the pot, and wherein the tubular sleeve covers only a portion of the pot. US722889A (en) * 1902-04-23 1903-03-17 Benjamin Phillips Sole-leveling machine. US819334A (en) * 1905-11-16 1906-05-01 Brown Lipe Gear Co Transmission-gear. NL8602213A (en) 1986-09-02 1988-04-05 Hoogen Lambertus Antonius Mari Container for flowers and plants.

2019-04-23T23:32:28Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7984588B2/en

Internalization of β-adrenergic receptors (βARs) occurs by the sequential binding of β-arrestin, the clathrin adaptor AP-2, and clathrin. D-3 phosphoinositides, generated by the action of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) may regulate the endocytic process; however, the precise molecular mechanism is unknown. Here we demonstrate that βARKinase1 directly interacts with the PIK domain of PI3K to form a cytosolic complex. Overexpression of the PIK domain displaces endogenous PI3K from βARK1 and prevents βARK1-mediated translocation of PI3K to activated β2ARs. Furthermore, disruption of the βARK1/PI3K interaction inhibits agonist-stimulated AP-2 adaptor protein recruitment to the β2AR and receptor endocytosis without affecting the internalization of other clathrin dependent processes such as internalization of the transferrin receptor. In contrast, AP-2 recruitment is enhanced in the presence of D-3 phospholipids, and receptor internalization is blocked in presence of the specific phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate lipid phosphatase PTEN. These findings provide a molecular mechanism for the agonist-dependent recruitment of PI3K to βARs, and support a role for the localized generation of D-3 phosphoinositides in regulating the recruitment of the receptor/cargo to clathrin-coated pits. β-Adrenergic receptors (βARs)* are a member of the large family of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) (Johnson, 1998; Rockman et al., 2002). In the heart, ligand activation of βARs results in the dissociation of the cognate heterotrimeric GTP binding protein (G-protein) into Gα and Gβγ subunits, leading to stimulation of the effector adenylyl cyclase and subsequent physiologic response (Koch et al., 2000). Exposure to agonist also promotes the rapid desensitization of βARs, that not only leads to the attenuation of signaling, but also targets the activated receptor to clathrin-coated pits for internalization (Ferguson et al., 1996; Goodman et al., 1996). An early step in this process involves the rapid phosphorylation of agonist-occupied receptors by a G protein–coupled receptor kinase (GRK, commonly known as the β-adrenergic receptor kinase or βARK) (Lefkowitz, 1998). The phosphorylation of activated βARs by βARK1 requires translocation of the primarily cytosolic βARK to the plasma membrane, a process facilitated by the liberated Gβγ subunits and membrane phospholipids (Pitcher et al., 1998). The second step involves binding of the protein β-arrestin to the phosphorylated receptor resulting in termination of the signal (Lefkowitz, 1998). The binding of β-arrestin serves to target phosphorylated βARs for internalization, through the recruitment of the AP-2 adaptor protein and clathrin to the receptor complex (Laporte et al., 2000). There is increasing evidence that phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) phospholipids are important molecules in endocytosis of membrane proteins (Czech, 2000). Because a key enzyme for the generation of phospholipids is phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), it suggests a possible role for PI3K in the internalization of GPCRs. Thus, although the endocytic process is a multistep event involving the coordinate interaction between proteins and as well as the control of lipid modification, the precise molecular mechanisms for this interaction are not well understood. PI3Ks are a conserved family of lipid kinases that catalyze the addition of phosphate on the third position of the inositol ring (Rameh and Cantley, 1999). Stimulation of a variety of receptor tyrosine kinases and GPCRs results in the activation of PI3K and leads to an increase in the level of D-3 PtdIns, which in turn are potent signaling molecules that modulate a number of diverse cellular effects including: cell proliferation, cell survival, cytoskeletal rearrangements, and receptor endocytosis (Martin, 1998; Sato et al., 2001). In this context, GPCR stimulation leads to the activation of the IB subclass of PI3Ks mediated by the Gβγ subunits of G-proteins (Stoyanov et al., 1995). Studies have suggested a role of phosphoinositides in the process of receptor internalization. For example, deletion of the phosphoinositide binding site from β-arrestin impairs GPCR endocytosis (Gaidarov et al., 1999a), and the binding of PtdIns (3,4,5) P3 and PtdIns (4,5) P2 to AP-2 promotes targeting of the receptor-arrestin complex to clathrin-coated pits (Gaidarov and Keen, 1999). Recently we have shown a possible involvement of PI3K in the regulation of βAR internalization (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). Considering the potential important role of D-3 phosphoinositides in βAR internalization, we sought to determine: (a) whether there was a direct physical interaction between βARK1 and PI3K, and if so, identify the structural domain responsible for this interaction; (b) whether the interaction of PI3K with βARK1 regulates the translocation PI3K to the agonist-occupied βAR; and (c) whether the lipid products of PI3K modulate the internalization of βARs. We postulated that the PIK domain of PI3K (Vanhaesebroeck et al., 2001), which is characterized by five pairs of antiparallel helices, might be an important domain to support protein–protein interactions (Walker et al., 1999). To investigate whether there is a direct physical interaction between βARK1 and PI3K, we created PI3K mutants that contained only the PIK domain (FLAG tagged) or had a deletion of the PIK domain PI3KΔPIK (HA tagged) (Fig. 1 a). βARK1 directly interacts with the PIK domain of PI3K. (a) Schematic representation of full-length PI3Kp110γ and mutants. ABR adaptor binding region, RBD-ras binding domain, C2 similar to PLCδ, which is involved in Ca2+-dependent or -independent phospholipid binding, PIK domain thought to be involved in protein–protein interactions, HA, hemagglutinin tag, FLAG, flag peptide tag. (b) HEK 293 cells cotransfected with plasmids containing βARK1 and FLAG-PIK or PI3KΔPIK cDNAs. FLAG-PIK and PI3KΔPIK were immunoprecipitated from cells, fractionated by SDS-PAGE, and analyzed by immunoblotting with βARK1 monoclonal antibody. βARK1 protein coimmunoprecipitates with FLAG-PIK and not with PI3KΔPIK. (c) GST–PIK fusion protein containing amino acid residues 535–732 of PI3Kγ was produced, which includes the entire PIK domain and flanking upstream 10 amino acids and downstream 7 amino acids. Beads with bound GST alone or GST fusion proteins were incubated with purified βARK1. Beads were washed and bound material was run on SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted with βARK1 monoclonal antibody. Purified βARK1 was found to bind to the GST–PIK fusion protein, whereas no binding was seen with GST alone. (d) PIK domain does not interact with Gβγ subunits of G-protein. Beads with bound GST–PIK fusion protein or βARK1 protein were incubated with purified Gβγ subunits of G-protein. Beads were washed, spun down, and bound material separated by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis followed by immunodetection of Gβ. No interaction between Gβγ and the PIK fusion protein was found, whereas robust interaction between Gβγ and βARK1 purified protein was observed. Purified Gβγ was loaded as a positive control. HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids containing the FLAG-PIK and PI3KΔPIK-HA cDNAs. PIK and PI3KΔPIK proteins were immunoprecipitated from cell extracts using monoclonal FLAG and HA antibodies, respectively. After the addition of purified βARK1 protein to the immune complexes, the presence of βARK1 was assessed by immunoblotting for βARK1. βARK1 was found to associate with the PIK domain protein and not to full-length PI3K lacking this domain (PI3KΔPIK) (Fig. 1 b). Levels of expression of PIK and PI3KΔPIK proteins were similar (Fig. 1 b, bottom). These data suggest that PI3K and βARK1 form a macromolecular complex within the cell. To investigate whether there was a direct physical interaction between the PIK domain of PI3K and βARK1, GST–PIK fusion protein was immobilized on sepharose beads and incubated with purified βARK1. Purified βARK1 bound specifically to GST–PIK immobilized beads and not to GST alone (Fig. 1 c). No difference in the level of GST and GST–PIK was found (Fig. 1 c, bottom). Because PI3Kγ interacts with the βγ subunits of G-proteins, we tested whether the PIK domain might directly interact with Gβγ, and thus would compete with βARK1 for these subunits. Purified βARK1 and GST–PIK fusion protein immobilized on Sepharose beads were incubated with purified Gβγ. The beads were washed and recovered proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE followed by immunoblotting with a Gβ polyclonal antibody. Whereas a strong association of Gβγ with βARK1 was found, no appreciable association of Gβγ with the PIK domain was detected (Fig. 1 d). Densitometric quantification showed an 11.5 ± 1.1-fold greater binding ability of βARK1 to Gβγ purified proteins compared with the PIK domain. To test whether overexpression of the PIK domain could displace βARK1 associated PI3K activity in living cells, experiments were performed in HEK 293 cells cotransfected with plasmids containing the βARK1 cDNA (2 μg) and increasing concentrations of the PIK domain cDNA (ranging from 0 to 6 μg). Cell lysates were immunoprecipitated using the βARK1 monoclonal antibody 48 h after transfection and βARK1 associated PI3K activity was assayed. A robust βARK1 associated PI3K activity was found in the absence of PIK domain protein, but this association could be effectively competed away by increasing the concentration of PIK cDNA (Fig. 2 a). The maximal reduction of βARK1 associated PI3K activity occurred when cells were cotransfected with 4 μg of PIK cDNA (Fig. 2 b). Furthermore, we could coimmunoprecipitate FLAG-tagged PIK protein with βARK1 monoclonal antibodies in the cotransfected HEK 293 cells (data not depicted). Overexpression of the 197 amino acid PIK domain of PI3K competes for endogenous PI3K binding to βARK1. (a) HEK 293 cells were cotransfected with βARK1 and increasing concentrations of PIK domain encoding cDNAs. βARK1 was immunoprecipitated using βARK1 monoclonal antibody and the associated PI3K activity was measured. The lipids were extracted and run on thin layer chromatography plates. Shown is representative autoradiograph of formation of PIP ( PtdIns-monophosphate). Ori, Origin. Mock cells were transfected with vector alone. Increasing the quantity of PIK cDNA used for expression leads to displacement of PI3K activity from βARK1 suggesting PIK protein competes out PI3K from βARK1. Bottom panel shows immunoblotting for βARK1 and PIK in cell lysates. (b) Summary results of n = 5 experiments. *P < 0.0005. The data was normalized to βARK1 associated PI3K activity in cells transfected with βARK1 only. (c) HEK 293 cells were transfected with βARK1 or βARK1 and PIK or βARK1 and PI3KΔPIK encoding cDNAs. βARK1 was immunoprecipitated using βARK1 monoclonal antibody and the associated endogenous PI3K activity was assayed. Extracted lipids were run on TLC plates and a representative autoradiograph showing the formation of PIP is shown here. Mock cells are transfected with vector alone. PIK overexpression lead to displacement of endogenous PI3K activity, whereas PI3KΔPIK overexpression did not alter βARK1 associated PI3K activity. Bottom panels show immunoblotting for βARK1, PI3KΔPIK and PIK in cell lysates. (d) Summary results of n = 4 experiments. *P < 0.001. The data was normalized to βARK1 associated PI3K activity in cells transfected with βARK1 only. (e) HEK 293 cells were transfected with βARK1 or βARK1 and PIK encoding cDNAs. βARK1 was immunoprecipitated using βARK1 monoclonal antibody and the associated endogenous PI3K activity was assayed using PIP2 (PtdIns-4,5-bisphosphate) as a substrate. Extracted lipids were run on TLC plates and the autoradiograph showing the formation of PIP3 (PtdIns-3,4,5-triphosphate) is presented. βARK1 transfected cells were treated with wortmannin (Wort) (50 nM) for 15 min before lysis of cells. Mock cells were transfected with vector alone. Bottom panel shows immunoblotting for βARK1 and PIK from cell lysates. Overexpression of PIK domain or wortmannin treatment led to significant inhibition in the formation of PIP3. We next tested whether absence of the PIK domain in an otherwise intact PI3K molecule would affect the association of βARK1 with endogenous PI3K in cells. HEK 293 cells were cotransfected with plasmids containing cDNAs for βARK1 (2 μg), βARK1 plus PIK (4 μg), and βARK1 plus PI3KΔPIK (4 μg). Cell lysates were immunoprecipitated with a βARK1 monoclonal antibody and assayed for the associated PI3K activity. Expression of PI3KΔPIK had no effect on the endogenous βARK1/PI3K interaction, whereas overexpression of PIK disrupted this interaction. Treatment with the selective PI3K inhibitor wortmannin (50 nM), abolished this βARK associated PI3K activity (Fig. 2, c and d). Because the PIK domain is shared by all members of the PI3K family, we wanted to confirm that the βARK1-associated endogenous PI3K activity was contributed by Class I PI3K. To test this, HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids containing cDNAs for βARK1 (2 μg) or βARK1 plus PIK (4 μg). Cell lysates were immunoprecipitated with a βARK1 monoclonal antibody and assayed for the associated PI3K activity. However, in this experiment PtdIns-4,5-P2 was used as the substrate instead of PtdIns, as in vitro, PtdIns-4,5-P2 can be phosphorylated only by Class I PI3K (Fruman et al., 1998) and not by either the Class II or Class III PI3K enzymes. As shown in Fig. 2 e, robust generation of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3, the product of Class I PI3K catalytic activity, was seen associated with βARK1 and the coexpression of PIK completely displaced the βARK1 associated PI3K activity (Fig. 2 e). Additionally, treatment of cells with wortmannin (50 nM) prior to cell lysis also inhibited the PI3K activity that was coimmunoprecipitated along with βARK1 (Fig. 2 e). Taken together, these data demonstrate that overexpression of the PIK domain can disrupt the interaction between βARK1 and PI3K, and that the lipid kinase activity belongs to the Class I PI3K family. Our results suggest that overexpression of the PIK domain should block the βARK1-mediated translocation of PI3K to the membrane. In order to test this hypothesis, HEK 293 cells were cotransfected with the βARK1 (2 μg), βARK1, and PIK domain (4 μg) containing plasmids, and endogenous βARs were stimulated with 10 μM isoproterenol for 2 min. Cytosolic and membrane fractions were prepared and analyzed for βARK1 associated PI3K activity. After isoproterenol stimulation, robust βARK1-associated PI3K activity that was wortmannin (50 nM) sensitive could be seen in the membrane fraction (Fig. 3 a). In contrast, overexpression of the PIK domain effectively abolished the agonist-induced translocation of PI3K to the membrane by disrupting the βARK1/PI3K interaction. No change in βARK1 associated PI3K activity was found in cytosolic fractions after isoproterenol stimulation (data not depicted). Overexpression of PIK domain blocks βARK1 mediated translocation of PI3K to the membrane and to the β2AR. (a) HEK 293 cells were transfected with βARK1 or βARK1 and PIK encoding cDNAs. βARK1 was immunoprecipitated using βARK1 monoclonal antibody from the membrane fraction of unstimulated and stimulated (10 μM isoproterenol for 2 min) cells. βARK1 associated PI3K activity was assayed from these membranes and extracted lipids were separated by thin layer chromatography. The significant increase in βARK1 associated PI3K activity found in the membrane fraction after agonist was completely abolished in presence of PIK domain peptide and with wortmannin (50 nM) treatment of βARK1 transfected cells (Wort). (b) Membrane fraction of cells transfected with βARK1 or βARK1 and PIK encoding cDNAs were immunoprecipitated with a βARK1 monoclonal antibody and immunoblotted for βARK1. Overexpression of PIK did not inhibit βARK1 translocation to the membrane after isoproterenol stimulation. (c) HEK 293 cells were transfected with β2AR or β2AR and PIK encoding cDNAs. The transfected cells were split into separate dishes and individually treated with 10 μM isoproterenol for indicated times. Before isoproterenol treatment, a set of β2AR-transfected cells were treated with wortmannin (Wort) (50 nM). At indicated time points FLAG-β2AR was immunoprecipitated and the associated PI3K activity was measured. Shown is a representative autoradiograph of the thin layer chromatography plate showing the formation of PIP. Lower panel, level of expression of β2AR and PIK domain protein in cell lysates as assessed by immunoblotting. To investigate whether βARK1 recruitment to the membrane would be inhibited in presence of PIK domain protein, membrane fractions were prepared from the HEK293 cells cotransfected with the βARK1 (2 μg), βARK1, and PIK domain (4 μg) containing plasmids. As shown in Fig. 3 b, overexpression of PIK had no effect on the membrane recruitment of βARK1 after isoproterenol (10 μM) stimulation. These data show that the overexpression of PIK domain protein interrupts the βARK1/PI3K interaction and does not affect agonist-dependent βARK1 translocation to the membrane. To test whether disruption of the βARK1/PI3K interaction would prevent the recruitment of PI3K to activated βARs, HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids containing cDNAs encoding FLAG epitope–tagged β2AR (FLAG-β2AR, 2 μg) or FLAG-β2AR (2 μg) and PIK domain (4 μg), and assayed for β2AR associated PI3K activity after stimulation with 10 μM isoproterenol. HEK 293 cells are known to contain adequate levels of βARK1 to support agonist-induced translocation and receptor phosphorylation (Menard et al., 1997). FLAG-tagged β2ARs were immunoprecipitated from cell extracts and associated endogenous PI3K activity measured. Significant FLAG-β2AR–associated PI3K activity was observed as early as 2 min after agonist stimulation, with a decline by 5 min in the cells transfected with β2AR alone (Fig. 3 c). In contrast, no FLAG-β2AR–associated PI3K activity was found when either the PIK domain was overexpressed or the transfected cells were treated with wortmannin before isoproterenol stimulation (Fig. 3 c). These data indicate that overexpresssion of PIK domain displaces PI3K from βARK1 complex, thereby preventing its recruitment to the agonist-occupied receptor complex. Previous studies have suggested a role for PI3K in β2AR internalization (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). We postulated that disruption of the endogenous βARK1/PI3K interaction by the PIK protein would attenuate β2AR endocytosis. To test this, agonist-dependent sequestration was studied by [125I]-cyanopindolol binding in HEK 293 cells cotransfected with plasmids containing either the FLAG-β2AR cDNA, or FLAG-β2AR and FLAG-PIK cDNAs. A significant (>60%) attenuation in the rate of β2AR sequestration occurred when the PIK domain protein was overexpressed (Fig. 4 a). Interestingly, overexpression of PIK domain protein was effective in attenuating the early processes of β2AR sequestration as the initial phase (0–5 min) was significantly impaired. Attenuation of β2AR sequestration upon coexpression of PIK. (a) Agonist-promoted (1 μM isoproterenol) β2AR sequestration by [125I]-CYP binding was performed in HEK 293 cells transfected with β2AR and either the empty vector (▪) or PIK (□) encoding cDNAs over a time course of 0–30 min. Receptor expression (fmol/mg of whole-cell protein) was: β2AR + vector, 330 ± 80; β2AR + PIK, 303 ± 51. n = 5, P < 0.0001 versus β2AR. Inset shows expression of PIK protein. (b) Endocytosis of β2AR-YFP in live cells was monitored for 10 min after isoproterenol (10 μM) stimulation in the absence or presence of PIK domain protein coexpression using confocal microscopy. Panels on the left represent cells transfected with the β2AR-YFP alone (panels 1–3 show the same cell monitored at 0, 5, and 10 min after stimulation. Panel 7 is an example of another cell after 10 min of isoproterenol). Panels on the right represent cell transfected with β2AR-YFP and PIK (panels 4–6 show the same cell monitored as above). Panel 8 is an example of another cell after 10 min of isoproterenol). In the absence of PIK, isoproterenol causes the internalization β2ARs as shown by the formation of distinct cytoplasmic aggregates (arrowheads) and complete loss of membrane fluorescence. In contrast, in the presence of PIK domain protein, there is no redistribution of β2AR-YFP after agonist stimulation, indicating that the process of receptor endocytosis is completely inhibited. (c) Dual staining was performed in cells transfected with plasmids containing HA-β2AR and GFP-PIK cDNAs. After 10 min of 10 μM isoproterenol, cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, stained for HA-β2AR receptor with Texas red, and PIK was visualized by GFP fluorescence. Panel 1 shows two cells, one with only membrane distribution of HA-β2AR, and another cell with complete redistribution of β2ARs into aggregates (arrowheads). Panel 2, shows that the cell with GFP fluorescence (i.e., PIK domain expression) failed to undergo β2AR internalization, whereas the cell not expressing GFP-PIK showed HA-β2AR aggregates. Panel 3 is an overlay of panels 1 and 2. We further evaluated β2AR endocytosis using confocal microscopy in transfected cells using β2AR tagged with the YFP (β2AR-YFP) in the presence and absence of PIK. β2AR internalization was followed in the same cell after agonist stimulation. Before agonist, the distribution of β2AR-YFP was found distinctly at the plasma membrane (Fig. 4 b, panel 1). After agonist treatment, there was redistribution of the β2AR-YFP into membrane puncta consistent with entry into clathrin coated pits (Fig. 4 b, panel 2) (Laporte et al., 1999). With time, this was followed by the formation of cytoplasmic aggregates (Fig. 4 b, panel 3), and then with the complete loss of membrane fluorescence (Fig. 4 b, panels 3 and 7, arrowheads). In marked contrast, coexpression with the PIK domain completely prevented redistribution of β2AR-YFP fluorescence into membrane puncta and blocked the formation of intracellular aggregates after isoproterenol stimulation (Fig. 4 b, panels 6 and 8). To definitively show that only those cells that contained the PIK domain protein failed to undergo agonist-stimulated βAR internalization, dual labeling experiments were performed after cotransfection with plasmids encoding HA tagged β2AR (HA-β2AR) and PIK–GFP. After isoproterenol stimulation, cells were fixed and HA-β2AR was visualized by Texas red staining and PIK was visualized by GFP fluorescence. Cells that showed restricted distribution of Texas red staining (HA-β2AR expression) to the membrane (Fig. 4 c, panel 1), also had GFP fluorescence indicating PIK protein expression (Fig. 4 c, panel 2). In contrast, cells that lacked GFP fluorescence (i.e., PIK protein expression), showed marked agonist-induced β2AR internalization (Fig. 4 c, panel 1 and 2, arrowheads) as clearly seen in the overlay (Fig. 4 c, panel 3, arrowheads). To test whether PI3K activity was necessary for the recruitment of β-arrestin to the receptor complex, and whether overexpression of the PIK protein alters agonist-induced receptor phosphorylation, we used a HEK 293 cell line with stable expression of both β2AR-HA and β-arrestin2–GFP proteins. Double stably expressing cells were transfected with the plasmid containing FLAG-PIK cDNA and then split in separate dishes. Confocal microscopy was used to visualize fluorescence in cells with 10 μM isoproterenol and subsequently fixed. All cells show β-arrestin2–GFP fluorescence, whereas a smaller percentage shows Texas red staining of the FLAG epitope (Fig. 5 a, panels 1 and 2). In the absence of isoproterenol (Fig. 5 a, panels 1 and 2) cells have a cytosolic distribution of PIK as well as β-arrestin2-GFP. With isoproterenol, there was marked redistribution of GFP fluorescence to the membrane, indicating recruitment of β-arrestin to the membrane (Fig. 5 a, panel 3). Importantly, cells that contained PIK proteins did not affect the membrane recruitment of β-arrestin (Fig. 5 a, panels 3 and 4, arrowheads), suggesting that D-3 phosphoinositide molecules are not necessary for arrestin recruitment to activated receptors. Overexpression of PIK neither inhibits β-arrestin2 recruitment to the receptor complex, transferrin uptake, or downstream PI3K signaling. (a) Confocal microscopy was used to visualize fluorescence in HEK 293 double stably expressing (HA-β2AR-HA and β-arrestin 2-GFP) cells transfected with the FLAG-PIK plasmid. After stimulation with 10 μM isoproterenol for 10 min, cells were fixed and stained with Texas red. All cells show β-arrestin2–GFP (βarr2-GFP) fluorescence whereas a smaller percentage show Texas red staining of the FLAG epitope. Panels 1 and 2 show that in the absence of isoproterenol, both PIK and β-arrestin2–GFP were distributed in the cytoplasm. Panels 3 and 4, after the addition of isoproterenol, the presence of PIK domain protein had no effect on the marked redistribution of β-arrestin–GFP fluorescence to the membrane (arrowheads). (b) HEK 293 cells were transfected with GFP–PIK (4 μg) and plated on to glass-bottom petri dishes. Serum-starved cells were incubated with Transferrin (Tf) conjugated to Texas red for 30 min at 37°C. The cells were thoroughly washed with PBS and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Fixed cells were visualized using laser scanning confocal microscope. Panel 1 shows PIK domain expression in cells as visualized by GFP fluorescence, whereas panel 2 shows the same set of cells that took up Transferrin (Tf) as visualized by Texas red. Cells that overexpressed the PIK domain also had robust Transferrin (Tf) uptake. (c) HEK 293 cells or cells stably expressing PIK were transfected with β2AR encoding cDNA and treated with various agonists. Clarified lysates (50 μg) were immunoblotted for phospho-PKB. MOCK, treated with ascorbic acid; IGF, treated with insulin growth factor (10 nM); Car, treated with carbachol (1 mM); ISO, treated with isoproterenol dissolved in ascorbic acid (10 μM); Cont, positive control for phospho-PKB. (d) Summary results of densitometric analysis of phospho-PKB after stimulation by various agonists (n = 3–5). The data is represented as fold over basal (MOCK). To determine whether the overexpression of the PIK domain in cells nonspecifically affect other clathrin-mediated processes, we assessed the ability of transferrin to undergo endocytosis. Transferrin receptors are known to constitutively localize and internalize via clathrin-coated vesicles (van Dam and Stoorvogel, 2002). HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids encoding PIK–GFP. Transfected cells were incubated with Transferrin–Texas red conjugate at 37°C for 30 min and then fixed. As shown in Fig. 5 b, transferrin uptake was unaffected by the presence of PIK–GFP (Fig. 5 b, panels 1 and 2), indicating that overexpression of PIK domain does not inhibit other clathrin mediated processes. To investigate whether overexpression of PIK domain protein in cells would alter downstream PI3K signaling, PKB activation was measured in HEK 293 cells stably expressing the PIK domain protein. Cells stably expressing PIK and wild-type HEK 293 cells were transfected with the plasmid containing cDNA for the FLAG-β2AR, and stimulated with various GPCR or growth factor agonists. Agonist stimulation in the absence of PIK resulted in a significant increase of pPKB over mock treatment (Fig. 5, c and d). Importantly, there was robust PKB activation in the cell line overexpressing the PIK domain protein (Fig. 5, c and d). These data show that overexpression of the PIK domain in cells does not interfere with cellular signaling downstream of PI3K. Since overexpression of PIK leads to attenuation of β2AR endocytosis, we wanted to determine whether the βARK1-mediated localization of PI3K within the activated receptor complex is responsible for the generation of D-3 phosphorylated phosphoinositides that promote recruitment of AP-2 to the agonist-occupied receptor. To test this hypothesis, HEK 293 cells were transfected with FLAG-β2AR or FLAG-β2AR, and PIK plasmids and then stimulated with isoproterenol. The FLAG-epitope was immunoprecipitated from cell extracts and blotted for the associated AP-2 adaptin and clathrin proteins. There was a significant increase in the association of AP-2 adaptin to the agonist-stimulated receptor within 2–5 min, which returned to basal levels by 10 min (Fig. 6 a). In contrast, overexpression of the PIK peptide completely abolished the recruitment of adaptin to the agonist-stimulated β2AR complex (Fig. 6 a). Although the levels of clathrin that coimmunoprecipitated with the receptor showed only modest changes after agonist, this effect appeared to be attenuated in the presence of the PIK peptide (Fig. 6 a). Similar levels of adaptin, clathrin, β2AR, and PIK were observed in the appropriately transfected cells (Fig. 6 a, bottom). Generation of D-3 PtdIns are necessary for the efficient recruitment of adaptin to the β2AR complex. (a) HEK 293 cells were transfected with FLAG-β2AR, or FLAG-β2AR and PIK encoding cDNAs. Transfected cells were treated with isoproterenol (10 μM) for 0, 2, 5, and 10 min β2AR was immunoprecipitated using the FLAG epitope from the cells lysates and immunoblotted with antibodies for AP-2 adaptin protein and clathrin. Presence of PIK domain protein inhibits AP-2 adaptin association with the β2AR complex. Bottom panels show expression of β2AR and PIK protein in transfected cells and equal quantities of adaptin and clathrin loading. IgG, represents heavy chain of the antibody. C, positive control for clathrin and AP2 adaptin proteins. (b) FLAG-β2AR expressing stable cells were treated with LY294002 (a selective PI3K inhibitor) for 15 min before isoproterenol stimulation. The cells were stimulated for 0, 2, 5, and 10 min and β2AR was immunoprecipitated using a FLAG epitope. Lysates were immunoblotted for AP-2 adaptin protein. Presence of LY294002 inhibited adaptin recruitment to the receptor complex. –LY, untreated cells, +LY cells treated with LY294002. (c) Summary results of densitometric analysis of adaptin recruitment to β2AR in presence and absence of LY294002 (n = 7). The data is represented as fold over basal. (d) FLAG-β2AR expressing stable cells were treated with the permeablizing reagent saponin and the phospholipids as shown, followed by isoproterenol for 5 min. FLAG epitope was immunoprecipitated from the cell lysates and blotted with adaptin antibodies. The upper panel shows cells treated with phosphatidyinositol-4,5-P2, while lower panel were treated with PtdIns-3,4,5-P3. IgG, heavy chain of antibody. (e) Summary results of densitometric analysis of adaptin recruitment to β2AR complex in presence of phosphatidyinositol-4,5-P2 (PIP2) or PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 (PIP3) (n = 7). Data is represented as fold over basal. To directly demonstrate that the generation of D-3 PtdIns phospholipids are important for the recruitment of AP-2 adaptor proteins to the agonist-occupied receptor complex, the same HEK 293 cells stably expressing FLAG-β2AR were permeabilized with saponin (Jones et al., 1999) and then incubated with increasing concentrations of the phosphorylated lipids, PtdIns-4,5-P2 and PtdIns-3,4,5-P3. After stimulation with isoproterenol, FLAG-β2AR was immunoprecipitated and the immune complexes immunoblotted for the presence of adaptin. The efficiency of recruitment of adaptin to the receptor was significantly enhanced in the presence of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 compared with a similar concentration of PtdIns-4,5-P2 (Figs. 6, d and e). At high concentrations of PtdIns-4,5-P2, the preferential effect of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 was lost consistent with previous studies showing that the AP-2 adaptor protein has a higher affinity for PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 compared to other phosphoinositides (Gaidarov et al., 1996). To directly test whether the local production of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 is required for receptor internalization, we utilized the lipid phosphatase PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) (Vanhaesebroeck et al., 2001). PTEN is known to use PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 as its primary substrate converting it to PtdIns-4,5-P2, thus depleting PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 from the membrane (Vanhaesebroeck et al., 2001). HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids containing cDNAs with either β2AR-YFP or β2AR-YFP plus PTEN, and β2AR endocytosis was evaluated using laser scanning confocal microscopy. β2AR internalization was followed in the same cell after agonist stimulation. Before agonist, the distribution of β2AR-YFP was found distinctly at the plasma membrane (Fig. 7 a, panel 1). After agonist stimulation, there was a progressive redistribution of the β2AR-YFP into membrane puncta, followed by the formation of cytoplasmic aggregates and complete loss of membrane fluorescence by 10 min (Fig. 4 b, panels 2 and 3). In contrast, coexpression of β2ARs with the PTEN completely prevented the agonist induced redistribution of β2AR-YFP fluorescence into membrane puncta and intracellular aggregates (Fig. 7, panels 4–6). Depletion of D-3 phosphatidylinositols leads to attenuation in β2AR receptor internalization. (a) Endocytosis of β2AR-YFP in live cells was monitored for 10 min after isoproterenol (10 μM) stimulation in the absence or presence of PTEN protein coexpression using confocal microscopy. Panels on the left represent cells transfected with the β2AR-YFP alone (panels 1–3 show the same cell monitored at 0, 5, and 10 min after stimulation). Panels on the right represent cell transfected with β2AR-YFP and PTEN (panels 4–6 show the same cell monitored as above). In the absence of PTEN, isoproterenol causes the internalization β2ARs as shown by the formation of distinct cytoplasmic aggregates (arrowheads) and complete loss of membrane fluorescence. In contrast, in the presence of PTEN protein, there is no redistribution of β2AR-YFP after agonist stimulation, indicating that the process of receptor endocytosis is completely inhibited. (b) Dual staining was performed in cells transfected with plasmids β2AR-YFP and PTEN cDNAs. After 10 min of 10 μM isoproterenol, cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, stained for PTEN using Texas red and β2AR was visualized by GFP fluorescence. Panel 1 (a and b) shows the same cell with intact membrane β2AR visualized by GFP fluorescence (panel 1 a) and PTEN Texas red fluorescence (panel 1 b). Panel 2 (a and b) shows the cell with complete redistribution of β2ARs into aggregrates (arrowheads) visualized by GFP fluorescence and very little PTEN expression as visualized by Texas red fluorescence (panel 2 b). Cells from panels 1 and 2 are from the same petri dish but from different fields of view. To show that only those cells that contained the PTEN failed to undergo agonist-stimulated βAR internalization, dual labeling experiments were performed in cells co-transfected with plasmids containing β2AR-YFP and PTEN. After isoproterenol stimulation cells were fixed and β2AR was visualized by GFP fluorescence and PTEN expression was visualized by Texas red staining. Cells that had the restricted membrane distribution of GFP fluorescence (β2AR) also had the Texas red staining (Fig. 7 b, panel 1, a and b). In contrast, cells that showed β2AR internalization lacked Texas red staining (PTEN expression) (Fig. 7 b, panel 2, a and b, arrowheads). In the present investigation, we provide evidence for a direct protein–protein interaction between PI3K and βARK1, and show that the region of the PI3K molecule that provides the necessary structure for this interaction is the PIK domain. Moreover, we show that the interaction between PI3K and βARK1 is not dependent on Gβγ and that overexpression of PIK domain competitively displaces PI3K from the βARK1/PI3K complex leading to a loss in βARK1 associated PI3K activity. Although overexpression of PIK domain protein disrupts the βARK1/PI3K interaction, it does not inhibit the Gβγ mediated translocation of βARK1 to agonist-occupied receptors or alter other Gβγ-dependent cellular processes. Finally, these experiments demonstrate that overexpression of the PIK domain markedly attenuates β2AR endocytosis in the early phase after agonist stimulation, and suggest that impairing the local production of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 lipid molecules within the agonist-occupied receptor complex affects the recruitment of critical molecules necessary for efficient receptor endocytosis. Furthermore, we show that overexpression of PTEN, which uses PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 as a substrate, leads to complete inhibition of β2AR internalization, providing strong evidence that the local production D-3 phosphoinositides by PI3K within the agonist-occupied receptor complex is required for endocytosis. Agonist-occupied βARs are phosphorylated by βARK1 after translocation of βARK1 to the membrane (Lefkowitz, 1998). Subsequently, the phosphorylated receptor can bind with high affinity to β-arrestin (Ferguson et al., 1996), which then recruits AP-2 adaptor molecules and clathrin; two required components in the formation of the endocytic vesicle (Goodman et al., 1996; Laporte et al., 1999, 2000). Previous studies have shown that the association of adaptor proteins with clathrin are critical to the formation of the clathrin lattice complex (Schmid, 1997; Brodsky et al., 2001). Because the recruitment of AP-2 adaptor proteins are at least in part regulated by D-3–phosphorylated phosphoinositides (Gaidarov and Keen, 1999), the generation of these lipids not only play an important role in targeting of the agonist-stimulated receptor to the clathrin coated pit, but are likely important in the initiation/nucleation of the clathrin lattices at sites of endocytosis. This is consistent with data from in vitro studies showing that AP-2 in the assembled coat structure (which is very similar to clathrin-coated pit), binds PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 with greater affinity compared with other phosphoinositides including PtdIns-4,5-P2 (Gaidarov et al., 1996). Whether the recruitment of AP-2 to agonist-stimulated receptor initiates the nucleation of a new clathrin-coated pit or targets the receptor to a preexisting pit, remains controversial. For example, AP180, a neuronal specific clathrin adaptor protein needs to bind clathrin and phosphoinositides simultaneously to initiate nucleation (Ford et al., 2001), and the assembled receptor/β-arrestin/AP-2 complex may subserve this role and initiate nucleation of the clathrin-coated pit (Laporte et al., 2000). In contrast, studies in living cells have suggested that the targeting of activated GPCRs is to preexisting clathrin-coated pits (Scott et al., 2002). Furthermore, studies using a clathrin–green fluorescent fusion protein suggest that clathrin-coated pits form repeatedly at defined sites and the mobility of these pits is limited by the actin cytoskeleton (Gaidarov et al., 1999b). Studies using receptor tail like synthetic peptides (crosslinked to UV photoreactive molecules) showed enhanced binding to the μ2 subunit of the AP-2 complex in presence of D-3 phosphoinositides, suggesting that phospholipids may provide a mechanism for increasing the specificity in sorting and clathrin coat assembly (Rapoport et al., 1997). In this study we show that expression of PIK does not block β-arrestin recruitment to the receptor, nor does it impair the ability of βARK to phosphorylate activated receptors, as β-arrestin is only recruited to GRK phosphorylated receptors (Ferguson et al., 1996). Previous studies have shown that deletion of the phosphoinositide binding domain on β-arrestin impairs the formation of clathrin coated pits, but that this process is not altered by wortmannin treatment (Gaidarov et al., 1999a). This suggests that β-arrestin can bind PtdIns-4,5-P2, which is present on the plasma membrane in much greater concentration than PtdIns-3,4,5-P3. Consistent with these findings is our observation showing that even in the absence of receptor-associated PI3K activity, membrane PtdIns-4,5-P2 is sufficient to recruit β-arrestin in an agonist-dependent manner. Importantly, overexpression of the PIK domain does not block transferrin uptake, whose receptor constitutively localized within clathrin coated vesicles (van Dam and Stoorvogel, 2002). This suggests that recruitment of PI3K by βARK1 to the agonist occupied receptor is a βARK1 specific process. Furthermore, overexpression of the PIK domain did not affect activation of PKB suggesting a specific role in displacement of PI3K from βARK1. Thus, agonist dependent phosphorylation of PKB in PIK expressing cells may enable signaling either by direct receptor stimulation or through transactivation of receptor tyrosine kinases, as shown for other GPCRs (Kowalski-Chauvel et al., 1996; Saward and Zahradka, 1997). To test the hypothesis that the local generation of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 is a necessary step for β2AR endocytosis, we performed experiments in cells that had overexpression of PTEN, a PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 lipid phosphatase. Because PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 generated by PI3K within the receptor complex would be immediately hydrolyzed by PTEN we could determine the importance for PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 in supporting the internalization process. The presence of PTEN resulted in significant inhibition of β2AR endocytosis showing the requirement for PI3K activity within the receptor complex for effective agonist-induced endocytosis. We postulate that inhibition of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 production within the receptor complex prevents the effective interaction of various components needed for receptor endocytosis particularly, adaptin leading to an impairment in receptor endocytosis. The crystal structure of PI3Kγ shows the PIK domain to be centrally positioned with a solvent exposed surface suitable for protein-protein interactions (Walker et al., 1999). Therefore, it is possible that other molecules containing a PIK domain, such as enzymes belonging to the family of PI3K (all the classes of PI3K), can potentially interact with βARK1 depending up the tissue and the abundance of the various isoforms. This is consistent with our previous data where we have shown in HEK 293 cells that βARK1 could also interact with the PI3Kα isoform when overexpressed (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). Interestingly, it has recently been shown that another PI3K, the class II PI3K C2α, interacts with clathrin and regulates clathrin-mediated membrane trafficking particularly in the process of vesicle uncoating (Gaidarov et al., 2001). This suggests possible redundancy for the production of phosphoinositides within the receptor complex, a finding not surprising considering that receptor sequestration is a multistep process, highly regulated by many molecules at different stages (Brodsky et al., 2001). Taken together, these data show that overexpression of the PIK domain displaces endogenous PI3K from βARK1 leading to impairment of PI3K translocation to the receptor after agonist stimulation. The loss in receptor associated PI3K activity impairs the ability of the agonist-occupied receptor/PI3K complex to generate D-3 phospholipid molecules. We propose that the products of PI3K play a critical role in determining the dynamics of receptor endocytosis. Agonist-induced recruitment of class I PI3Ks by βARK1 to the receptor complex functions to increase the production of D-3 phospholipid molecules, that in turn regulates the recruitment of AP-2 and cargo (i.e., receptor/β-arrestin complex) to clathrin-coated pits on the membrane. The generation of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 by PI3K within the activated receptor complex promotes more efficient recruitment of AP-2 and receptor sequestration. The rise in the local concentration of PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 within the receptor complex, which enhances the recruitment of AP-2 to the complex, likely plays a significant role in the initiation/nucleation of new clathrin-coated pits. The efficiency of clathrin coated pit formation will depend on the association of the various critical components that, in part, are regulated by their affinity to bind newly generated D-3 phospholipids. HEK 293 cells were maintained and transfected as previously described (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). Cells were harvested 24 h after transfection, replated in triplicate, allowed to grow overnight, and serum starved either overnight or 2–4 h before agonist stimulation. FLAG-PIK domain expressing permanent HEK 293 cell line was prepared by selecting cells against Geneticin (Life Technolgies) as described earlier (Laporte et al., 2000). All cells with stable FLAG-PIK expression showed both diffuse cytoplasmic distribution of PIK and inhibition of β2AR-YFP internalization as visualized by confocal microscopy (unpublished data). HA-β2AR and β-arrestin double stable cell lines were prepared by selecting the cells against two different antibiotics (Menard et al., 1997). Cell lines with stable expression of FLAG-β2AR, a gift from Dr. Robert Lefkowitz (Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC) and HA-β2AR were used for the confocal experiments. PIK and PI3KΔPIK mutants of PI3K were prepared by PCR amplification using the full-length p110γ cDNA as template (Fig. 1 a). The PIK domain was amplified using Pfu platinum turbo Taq high fidelity enzyme (STRATAGENE) with the 5′ primer (5′-TCTCGAGGATCCGCCGCCATGGACTACA AGGACGACGATGATAAGCACCCGATAGCCCTGCCT-3′) containing XhoI and BamHI sites for subcloning, followed by Kozak consensus sequence and a FLAG epitope tag and the 3′ primer (5′-GTCGACCTAGTCGTGCAGCATGGC-3′) containing consensus stop codon with a SalI site for subcloning. The PCR product was subcloned in zero-blunt TOPO vector (Invitrogen) and sequence verified for authenticity. After digestion with the restriction enzymes BamHI and SalI, the PIK domain fragment was subcloned into the following expression plasmids: the pRK5 mammalian expression vector, the pGEX-4T1 bacterial expression vector to generate GST fusion proteins, and the EGFP vector pEGFP-C1. PI3KΔPIK was constructed using two PCR reactions that selectively amplified upstream and downstream from the PIK domain (Fig. 1 a). PI3K upstream from PIK was amplified using the forward primer (5′-TGCGGATCCGCCACCATGGAGCTGGAGAACTATAAACAG-3′) containing a BamHI site and Kozak consensus sequence, and the reverse primer (5′-TTCTGCTCGACCGCGGTCCCCTTCCGG-3′) containing a SacI site. The region of PI3K downstream of the PIK domain was amplified using the forward primer (5′-CTGAGGGGCCGCGGCACAGCCATG-3′) containing a SacI site and the reverse primer (5′-ACCCGGGATCCTTAAGCGTAGTCTGGTACGT-3′) containing a BamHI site and a consensus stop codon. The upstream and downstream regions of PI3K were separately subcloned in the zero-blunt TOPO vector and sequence was verified by dideoxy sequencing. After digestion with the restriction enzymes BamHI/SacI, a three-fragment ligation was carried with the mammalian expression vector pRK5, to generate the plasmid containing the PI3KΔPIK cDNA (Fig. 1 a). The catalytic activity of PI3KΔPIK was indistinguishable from wild-type PI3K (unpublished data). The plasmids containing cDNAs encoding βARK1, FLAG-β2AR, HA-β2AR, and p110γ have been described previously (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). The PTEN plasmid was gift from Dr. Christopher Kontos (Duke University Medical Center). Plasmid DNAs were transformed in Escherichia coli BL21 cells. Overnight cultures were grown in LB medium supplemented with ampicillin (100 μg/ml), diluted to an A600 of 0.2 in the same medium, and grown for another 1 h at 37°C. Cultured cells were then induced with 0.1 mM isopropyl-1-thio-β-D-galactopyranoside for 2 h. Cells were then pelleted, washed once with PBS, and resuspended in PBS containing 1 mM PMSF, 2 mg/ml lysozyme, and incubated for 15 min on ice. Cells were lysed by adding Triton X-100 1%. Solublized cells were incubated with DNase (300 units) for 15 min on ice and centrifuged at 13,000 rpm for 10 min. Glutathione-Sepharose beads were added to the supernatant and gently agitated at 4°C for 2 h. Beads were washed three times with ice-cold PBS containing 1% Triton X-100 followed by three washes with cold PBS without detergent. Protein concentration was determined using a DC protein assay kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories), and the integrity of the fusion protein was analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Coomassie staining. GST fusion proteins (1–1.5 μg) on beads were incubated in 0.5 ml of binding buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 5 mM EDTA, 0.2% Triton X-100) for 2 h at 25°C together with purified βARK1 protein (5 μg). The beads were spun and washed three times with binding buffer followed by three washes with binding buffer without detergent. The beads were resuspended in SDS gel loading buffer and resolved by gel electrophoresis, immunoblotting and detection was carried out as described later. Immobilized purified βARK1 protein was prepared by incubating βARK1 monoclonal antibodies with protein G agarose beads for 1 h at 4°C, followed by the addition of purified βARK1 protein. Subsequently, 10 μg of purified Gβγ was added to either βARK1 immobilized beads (5 μg), or the GST–PIK fusion protein beads (5 μg), and gently rocked for 45 min at room temperature. Beads were spun down, washed in binding buffer ×2, and resolved by gel electrophoresis. The presence of Gβγ was detected by immunoblotting with an antibody directed against the Gβ subunit. Purified Gβγ and βARK1 were gifts from Dr. Robert Lefkowitz. Membrane fractions were prepared as previously described (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). Briefly, cells were scraped in 1 ml of buffer containing 25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 5 mM EDTA, 5 mM EGTA, 1 mM PMSF, 2 μg/ml each leupeptin and aprotinin, and disrupted by using Dounce homogenizer. Intact cells and nuclei were removed by centrifugation at 1,000 g for 5 min. The supernatant was subjected to centrifugation at 38,000 g for 25 min. The pellet was resuspended in lysis buffer (1% Nonidet P-40, 10% glycerol, 137 mM NaCl, 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 1 mM sodium orthvanadate, and 2 μg/ml each leupeptin and aprotinin) and used as membrane fraction. PI3K assays were carried out as previously described (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). Briefly, cells were lysed in lysis buffer in presence of protease inhibitors and membrane and cytosolic fraction was prepared as described above. 500 μg of membrane or cytosolic fraction was used for immunoprecipitation with either the C5/1 monoclonal antibody directed against βARK1 (Choi et al., 1997) or the anti-FLAG M2 monoclonal antibody (Sigma-Aldrich) in presence of 35 μl of protein G-agarose (Life technologies). The samples were centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 1 min and sedimented beads were washed once with lysis buffer, thrice with PBS containing 1% NP40 and 100 μM sodium-orthovanadate, three times with 100 mM Tris.Cl, pH 7.4, containing 5 mM LiCl and 100 μM sodium-orthovanadate, twice with TNE (10 mM Tris.Cl, pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, and 100 μM sodium-orthovandate). The last traces of buffer were completely removed using the insulin syringe and the pelleted beads were resuspended in 50 μl fresh TNE. To the resuspended pellet 10 μl of 100 mM MgCl2 and 10 μl of 2 mg/ml PtdIns (20 μg) sonicated in TE (10 mM Tris.Cl, pH 7.4, and 1 mM EDTA) were added. The reactions were started by adding 10 μl of 440 μM ATP, 10 μCi 32p γ ATP, and were incubated at 23°C for 10 min with continuous agitation. The reactions were stopped with 20 μl 6N HCl. Extraction of the lipids were done by adding 160 μl of chloroform:methanol (1:1) and the samples were vortexed and centrifuged at room temperature to separate the phases. 30 μl of the lower organic phase was spotted on to the 200-μ silica-coated flexi-TLC plates (Selecto-flexible; Fischer Scientific) precoated with 1% potassium oxalate. The spots were allowed to dry and resolved chromatographically with 2N glacial acetic acid:1-propanol (1:1.87). The plates were dried after resolution, exposed, and the autoradiographic signals were quantitated using Bio-Rad PhosphoImager. Lipid Preparation: PtdIns (Sigma-Aldrich or Avanti) or PtdIns-4,5-P2 (Echelon) was dissolved in chloroform at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. 50 μl of this stock was dried down in a stream of air in a 1.5-ml Eppendorf tube. 250 μl of TE was added to the Eppendorf to bring the concentration to 2 mg/ml. The lipids were suspended by sonicating them in an ice bath for 5–10 min. Sonicated lipids were then added to each reaction. PtdIns(4)P (Sigma-Aldrich) or PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 (Echelon) was used as a standard. The lipid standards were run as a separate lane on the TLC plate to identify the migration of PIP or PIP3 (Renkonen and Luukkonen, 1976). TLC plates were stained with iodine to identify the formation lipids products (Renkonen and Luukkonen, 1976). Immunoblotting and detection of βARK1, FLAG-PIK, PI3KΔPIK-HA, FLAG-β2AR, HA-β2AR, β-adaptin, and clathrin were blotted as described previously (Laporte et al., 1999, 2000). Immunoprecipitating antibodies were added to 500 μg of cell lysate and the immune complexes were washed and resuspended in gel-loading buffer. Blots were incubated with antibodies recognizing β-adaptin, clathrin heavy chain (BD Transduction Laboratories), HA (Roche Molecular Biochemicals), and FLAG (Sigma-Aldrich) at a 1:2,000 dilution and the βARK1 monoclonal antibody at a 1:10,000 dilution. 50 μg of cell lysates were resolved by a 10% SDS-PAGE gel and transferred to PVDF membrane, phospho-PKB primary antibody was used at 1:1,000 dilution. Detection was carried out using enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Densitometric analysis was carried out using Bio-Rad Flouro-S Multiimage software. β2AR sequestration was performed as previously described (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). HEK 293 cells were transfected with plasmids containing β2AR (250 ng) or β2AR (250 ng) and PIK domain (4 μg) cDNAs. Total binding was determined in the presence of 175 pM [125I]-cyanopindolol (CYP) alone, 175 pM [125I]-CYP plus 100 nM CGP12177 was used to determine internalized receptors and nonspecific binding was determined using 175 pM [125I]-CYP plus 1 μM propranolol (Menard et al., 1997). Sequestration was calculated as the ratio of (specific receptor binding of [125I]-CYP in the presence of CGP12177 and/or specific receptor binding of [125I]-CYP in the absence of CGP12177). Confocal microscopy was carried out as previously described (Naga Prasad et al., 2001). HEK 293 cells were transfected with the plasmids containing cDNAs encoding either the β2AR-YFP (2 μg) or β2AR-YFP (2 μg) and PIK domain (4 μg) or β2AR-YFP (2 μg) and PTEN (2 μg). Cells were plated onto glass-bottom dishes for observation in the confocal microscope. Live cells were treated with isoproterenol (10 μM) and images were collected sequentially over a time course of 0–10 min. For dual staining of β2AR-HA or FLAG-PIK, cells were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 30 min after 10 min of 10 μM isoproterenol stimulation. Cells were permeabilized with 0.1% Triton X-100 in PBS for 20 min, incubated in 1% BSA in PBS for 1 h. Cells were washed with PBS and incubated with anti-HA or anti-FLAG monoclonal antibody (1:250) with 1% BSA in PBS for 1 h. Cells were washed and incubated with goat anti–mouse IgG conjugated with Texas red (1:500; Molecular Probes) for 1 h. Samples were visualized using single sequential line excitation filters at 488 and 568 nm and emission filter sets at 505–550 nm for GFP detection and 585 for Texas red detection. Modification of a previously described method was used to vary the concentration of D-3 phospholipids in living cells (Jones et al., 1999). Briefly, one of the synthetic phospholipids DiC16 PtdIns-3-P, DiC16 PtdIns-4,5-P2, or DiCPtdIns-3,4,5-P3 (AVANTI), was mixed with phosphatidylcholine and phosphoinositol (Sigma-Aldrich) at a 1:100:100 ratio and dried under N2. Phospholipids were then re-suspended in 10 mM Hepes, pH 7.4, containing 1 mM EDTA and sonicated. Cells were treated with Saponin (0.04 mg/ml) in serum-free medium along with the vesicles containing the phospholipids at given concentration of PtdIns-3-P or PtdIns-4,5-P2 or PtdIns-3,4,5-P3 for 10 min at 25°C. Cells were then treated with isoproterenol (10 μM) for 5 min at 37°C, then lysed for immunoprecipitation experiments with a buffer containing 0.8% Triton X-100, 20 mM tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 300 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 20% glycerol, 0.1 PMSF, 10 μg/ml leupeptin and aprotinin. Transferrin uptake was carried out as described previously (van Dam and Stoorvogel, 2002). Briefly, HEK 293 cells were transfected with GFP-PIK (4 μg). 24 h after transfection, the cells were split into six glass-bottom petri dishes (Mat Tek Corporation). The following day the cells were serum starved for 1 h before transferrin treatment. Transferrin–Texas red conjugate was added to the cells at a final concentration of 33 μg/ml and incubated at 37°C for 30 min. After 30 min the cells were washed with PBS and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Confocal microscopy was carried out on these cells as described earlier above. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. Statistical comparisons were performed using an unpaired Student's t test and analysis of variance where appropriate. Results for the β2AR sequestration by CYP binding was analyzed using Graph-pad prism. This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants HL56687 and HL61558 (H.A. Rockman), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (H.A. Rockman), and an AHA Postdoctoral fellowship form the American Heart Association, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate (S.V. Naga Prasad). H.A. Rockman is a recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. M.G. Caron is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. ↵* Abbreviations used in this paper: βAR, β-adrenergic receptor; CYP, cyanopindolol; GPCR, G protein–coupled receptor; PI3K, phosphoinositide 3-kinase; PtdIns, phosphatidylinositol(s). Stéphane A. Laporte's present address is Department of Medicine, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1A1. Brodsky, F.M., C.Y. Chen, C. Knuehl, M.C. Towler, and D.E. Wakeham. 2001. Biological basket weaving: formation and function of clathrin-coated vesicles. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 17:517–568. Choi, D.J., W.J. Koch, J.J. Hunter, and H.A. Rockman. 1997. 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2019-04-19T04:23:06Z

http://jcb.rupress.org/content/158/3/563

A full-service turn-key in-application commerce solution with fraud detection is disclosed that provides web service interfaces to a commerce system. The in-application solution features fraud detection with user behavior tracking and fraud controls that limit the features that are offered to a user. Fraud detection involves input from the application, the commerce system, or third party systems. User fraud scores are updated frequently as events are processed. Controls are applied to the user account based on the user fraud score and risk classifications for ranges of fraud scores. An in-application solution also features a wallet with a personal threshold for microtransaction spending, limiting the amount that the user is allowed to spend before a wallet is cleared. The wallet is integrated with the fraud detection such that the personal threshold is determined from the user's latest fraud score. This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/417,063 filed 24 Nov. 2010, entitled “In-Application Commerce System and Method,” which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/304,171, filed 23 Nov. 2011, and entitled “Modularized In-Application Commerce System and Method” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/417,083 filed 24 Nov. 2010, entitled “Modularized In-Application E-Commerce System and Method”, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. The present disclosure relates to commerce systems for use in the internet gaming, social networking and virtual world industries. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a modular in-application e-commerce system and method providing commerce services to online game publishers. The social gaming industry is making its contribution to the world economy. According to Parks Associates, the social gaming industry will increase its revenue by five times between 2010 and 2015, when it is expected to top $5 billion. Recently, the value of the sale of virtual goods in the online games market has been surpassed by that of social networking sites. This market expects to see an increase in value from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $6 billion before 2014. Each of these applications, which offer at least some free features, offers new opportunities for integrating e-commerce, monetization, and sales and marketing of content and products. According to media consultant, Dan Taylor, choosing monetization strategies depends on the social game value chain, which can be summarized into 5 phases: idea, balance, goods/currency, payments and commissions. First, the game idea is the foundation of everything else that follows. Publishers with a game idea must evaluate the revenue potential of the game. Once the game has been fleshed out, the next phase of the value chain is game balancing, where game publishers define crucial monetization factors in order to fully develop the virtual economy of the game. Virtual economies function like real world economies, and therefore issues such as supply and demand, inflation, speculation, etc., must be factored in to create a pricing structure that will remain balanced and fair within the game, provide publishers with a decent return for their efforts, and remain attractive to the end user, i.e. cost vs. value. In addition to these variables, developers must also factor in limited offers and promotions that will incentivize users to either play or purchase more, while at the same time, maintaining the delicate balance of their virtual economy. Virtual economies arise out of interactions among players in the virtual world, usually as they exchange virtual goods and earn valuable objects that provide the participant with both utility and social value. Selling virtual goods within social games has become the dominant business model on social networks because social games can support virtual goods that combine game play benefit with social value. A virtual economy may also include reward programs. A reward program is a form of a loyalty program. Loyalty programs allow a publisher to identify their customers and reward them as a retention mechanism. An effective reward program also enables the publisher to identify potential best customers and market to them accordingly. The basic principle is that by rewarding the best customers they in turn will continue to reward you with their business as they feel recognized and appreciated. The key objective of loyalty or reward programs is to strengthen the two-way loyalty bond between the publisher and its best customers. Every time a reward program device, most commonly a “reward card” is used, it not only identifies the customer but also links relevant transactions to their record. This data can then be analyzed and used to reward customers with the objective of retaining or growing their profit contribution. Virtual currency is typically the medium of exchange used for virtual goods. Each game typically has its own nomenclature for its virtual currency (e.g. coinz, tokenz, gcash, etc.) but they all provide a means of exchange allowing users to purchase items. Virtual currency may be purchased with real world currency or earned by obtaining various goals in the application. This exchange takes place in a virtual marketplace (primary market, or game-to-player market) or a virtual auction house (secondary market or player-to-player market). Once the virtual economy is set, publishers need to build a bridge to “real world” money by providing a payments system. Payments services can be provided by a service provider or directly from the end user themselves. When application publishers choose to receive payment directly, there are a number of “real world” financial elements to be considered, including credit card fraud, charge backs, taxation, and much more. Publishers must manage how they'll aggregate these payments. If they have chosen a service provider to handle this for them, they may choose either a branded or white label payment service. Commissions refer to the amount of revenue earned by the provider for their services. Commissions are highly dependent upon the title's success and associated volume, not only of active users, but also profits derived from sales of virtual goods. Once the application publisher determines how the application will be monetized, a specific partner may be chosen to provide the monetization environment. In the social network/free-to-play gaming field, there are generally three unique forms of monetization: offer companies, payment service providers, and technology firms. Each has its own area of specialization, and game developers can mix and match from each provider. Some offer only a niche option, while others can provide a complete turn-key solution. Offer companies may provide a “bare bones” solution, in so much as they only offer one form of monetization—that which arrives via a third party. Examples of offer companies would include Offerpal, SuperRewards, Boomerang Networks, Gratispay or Sponsorpay. This form of monetization focuses only on offering special offers, say an online survey to be filled out in exchange for some form of virtual currency. Offers are an important revenue factor as it helps monetize the portion of users that are not willing to spend real money on their virtual goods and currency purchases. One side effect of employing offers as a form of monetization is that game publishers will be sending players out to a third party, thereby losing the game branded experience. Offer companies clearly brand themselves, and it's here where the actual interaction between player and the monetization business model takes place. This can be at odds with optimizing the user experience, since the buying experience in an in-application e-commerce ecosystem should be as seamless and as simple as possible. While the player should be aware of his/her purchasing capabilities at all times, he/she should only momentarily leave the game to make a purchase without ever feeling as though he/she has actually left the game. In other words, the solution should be wholly integrated into the various parts of the gaming experience. Therefore, offer companies' contribution to in-application monetization only supports a small piece of the value chain. Payment service providers offer game and social network publishers different pieces of the value chain, but due to their nature do not completely fulfill it. Examples of payment service providers include Chase PaymentTech, NetGiro, and Global Collect. These firms offer application publishers a direct integration of payment methods, i.e. there's no sending players out to a separate location to make the transaction, and then re-routing them back into the game. By using a payment service provider, application publishers can keep players in-house and thereby potentially increase application stickiness as well as ‘time on-site’ or ‘time in-game’. While other companies build their brand by maintaining their own identity throughout the transaction, payment service providers can offer publishers a white label solution, making the technology appear as their own, or remain self-branded. These payment service providers typically are specialized financial transaction experts. Similarly offer companies are strong in the ad-broker business, and offer application publishers only a part of the value chain but do not complete it. Some software application publishers choose to work with technology providers, such as Playspan, Live Gamer and fatfoogoo. While each of these providers have their own unique set of solutions, essentially, they allow application publishers to do what they do best—develop applications. Technology companies provide publishers with a service that addresses each piece of the value chain. Many of these companies have relationships with selected payment service providers, thereby ensuring financial excellence, as well as offering solutions for game balancing, virtual goods/items store management, virtual currency wallets, detailed analytics and reporting features, and user management. Technology providers free up application publishers to focus on application development, marketing, and balancing their application as it grows with the provided tools. Like any online merchant, game and other application publishers are especially concerned about limiting their exposure to fraud while offering their players and users the richest, most exciting game experience possible. Online fraud, particularly in the gaming area, comes in many forms, including software piracy, theft of passwords and inventory owned by/assigned to user accounts and payment/commerce related fraud. A need exists for a system that offers an extensive and comprehensive monetization feature set with optimal fraud detection and management features. Examples of desirable features include detecting, preventing and mitigating fraud, managing the game economy, offering flexible payment methods (e.g. payment using both virtual and real currency from one account) and reverse wallet transactions that offer the greatest protections for the game/application publisher. The present invention provides a solution to these needs and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a comprehensive, turn-key, in-application ecommerce system and method is disclosed. Such an in-application ecommerce solution provides functionality for operations ideally suited for the social gaming and network environment, for example, it provides software modules and application programming interfaces (API) configured as web services for monetizing in-application activities such as user account management, fraud detection, wallets, and transaction and payment processing. This functionality can be described from the perspective of operational areas of billing and customer management, store and primary markets, and player-to player (i.e., secondary markets). A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides this functionality in a highly modularized manner such that software application publishers may subscribe to the entire set of features and functionality, or may choose any number and combination of modules that best suits the software application. Billing and customer management features of the solution span a wide variety of functionality required to support a fully integrated in-application monetization solution. Software application modules that support this functionality include account (e.g. user and subscription) management, customer care, clearing and settlement, fraud prevention, reporting and analytics, messaging, invoicing, tax and global payments. This in-application monetization solution allows users (shoppers) to store their billing related details (e.g., billing address, preferred payment method and details, transaction history) This account profile may also include information like achievements in the game or levels attained. This account enables 1 click/instant checkout or purchase experiences through multiple channels (e.g., online, mobile, tv, etc.). One skilled in the art will recognize upon examining this specification and drawings that additional modules may be included, or that functionality contained in one module may be implemented in another module and still remain within the teachings of the invention. For the store and primary markets, the features of the preferred embodiment solution span many functional requirements. For example, an application content manager may control the behavior of items through various economic situations such as inflation, artificial scarcity and speculation by creating events that control the item attributes. In addition, a wallet feature allows the user of the software application to pay for items with either virtual currency or real currency (e.g., a credit card) stored in the same account. Player-to-player trading is accommodated by providing roles and a framework for selling and auctioning items from a user's account-based storefront. Fraud detection and management offers the game or application publisher risk management features that protect them from chargebacks and other losses. Fraud management is based on rules configured by the customer (i.e., the software publisher), user behavior tracking and fraud controls that allow the customer to limit the features, such as payment methods, user roles, offers and content, that are offered to a user based on a user's fraud score, thereby greatly minimizing the opportunity for fraudulent behavior for users with high fraud scores. Fraud detection modules may receive input from the customer/publisher regarding which events to utilize in generating a fraud score. These utilized events may come from the application, the commerce system, or third-party systems. User fraud scores are updated frequently as events are processed by the e-commerce solution. Controls are applied to the user based on the user fraud score and customer-defined risk classifications. An embodiment of the in-application e-commerce solution invention also features a wallet with a personal threshold for microtransaction spending, limiting the amount that the user is allowed to spend before the system clears the wallet. The wallet is tightly integrated with the fraud detection system and the personal threshold is determined from the user's latest fraud score, allowing microtransactions while limiting the risk of loss to the game or application publisher. Additional advantages and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part, will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. FIG. 1 illustrates an in-application commerce system in context. FIG. 2 illustrates the system service architecture of a modularized in-application commerce system. FIG. 3 illustrates the software architecture for a modularized in-application commerce solution. FIGS. 4a-4d illustrate some use cases supported by the in-application commerce solution. FIG. 5 is a screen shot of a User Management module, Account Overview page from the web client application. FIG. 6 is a screen shot of a User Account Overview details page, showing the various tabbed sections containing the user's account information. FIG. 7 is a screen shot of a subscription management page which allows a content manager to create a subscription. FIG. 8 is a screen shot of the portion of a Create a Subscription page allowing the content manager to add a portfolio image to the file. FIG. 9 is a screen shot of the portion of a Create a Subscription page allowing the content manager to define the purchase procedure for a subscription. FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the process of determining a risk score contribution based on IP address and credit card information. FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating the process of determining a risk score contribution based on IP address on login and the country settings on a user account. FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating the process of determining a risk score contribution based on customer dispute behavior. FIG. 13 illustrates the fraud defender module and message feed system. FIG. 14 is a screen shot of the Risk Class Management page allowing a content manager to set ranges for risk classes. FIG. 15 is a screen shot of an Economy Management page allowing a content manager to create a set of attributes to define an “event id” that determines the item behavior relative to economy management controls. FIG. 16 is a screen shot of a Currency Type Management screen allowing a content manager to define attributes of a currency type. FIG. 17 illustrates the APIs involved in making a purchase in-game, when the wallet does not have sufficient funds. FIG. 18 is a sequence diagram of the process of funding an account. FIG. 19 is a sequence diagram of the process of purchasing content. FIG. 20 is an exemplary process for creating a child account prior to creating a parent account. FIGS. 21 and 22 illustrate the process flow of reverse wallet functionality. FIG. 23 is a screen shot of a process of creating parent-child relationships within the web client. FIG. 24 is a screen mock up for creating a child profile. FIG. 25 is a screen mockup for assigning permissions to a child account. FIG. 26 is a screen mockup of a confirmation screen following successful creation of a child account with permissions. An exemplary system is illustrated in context in FIG. 1. Application users 102, principally those who participate in online games, social networks and virtual worlds 108, access their favorite sites over the internet 104 via an electronic device with internet capabilities. Such an electronic device could be a computing device, such as a personal computer 120, iPad, cell phone 122, personal digital assistant 124 (PDA) or any other device with internet capability. Online games, social networks and virtual worlds 108 have become a huge source of revenue, with participants of even “free” online games spending millions of dollars each year on both virtual and real products. Participants in these applications frequently want to enhance their enjoyment of the experience by purchasing virtual objects that help them achieve a particular standing in the environment, or allow them to achieve some advantage over other participants. For example, a game player may wish to purchase an object, such as a virtual tool or weapon that allows the player to defeat other players in game activities. The application publisher may host its own commerce system allowing participants to purchase virtual or physical objects, or it may wish to access one or more modules of third-party systems. A fully developed ecommerce system 112 may include any number of modules to facilitate such transactions, for instance, modules executing code to perform the functions and features of billing and customer management 114, store and primary market management 116, and player-to-player, or secondary market 118, management. This exemplary system includes various computers, computing devices or electronic devices, including, for example, end user machines (e.g. personal computer, etc.) 120, 122, 124, a communication network 104 and one or more servers 106, 110 hosting web sites and applications. The computer, computing or electronic device typically includes a memory, a secondary storage device, a processor (central processing unit, or CPU), an input device, a display device, and an output device. The memory may include random access memory (RAM) or similar types of memory. Software applications, stored in the memory or secondary storage for execution by a processor are operatively configured to perform the operations of a preferred embodiment of the system. The software applications may correspond with a single module or any number of modules. Modules are program code or instructions for controlling a computer processor to perform a particular method to implement the features or operations of the system. The modules may also be implemented using program products or a combination of software and specialized hardware components. In addition, the modules may be executed on multiple processors for processing a large number of transactions, if necessary or desired. The secondary storage device may include a hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD-ROM drive, or other types of non-volatile data storage, and may correspond with the various equipment and modules shown in the figures. The processor may execute the software applications or programs either stored in memory or secondary storage or received from the Internet or other network. The input device may include any device for entering information into computer, such as a keyboard, joy-stick, cursor-control device, or touch-screen. The display device may include any type of device for presenting visual information such as, for example, a computer monitor or flat-screen display. The output device may include any type of device for presenting a hard copy of information, such as a printer, and other types of output devices include speakers or any device for providing information in audio form. Although the computer or computing device has been described with various components, one skilled in the art will appreciate that such a computer or computing device can contain additional or different components and configurations. In addition, although aspects of an implementation consistent with the system disclosed are described as being stored in memory, one skilled in the art will appreciate that these aspects can also be stored on or read from other types of computer program products or computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, including hard disks, floppy disks, or CD-ROM; a non-transitory carrier wave from the Internet or other network; or other forms of RAM or ROM. One skilled in the art would recognize that computational resources may be distributed, and computing devices may be client or server computers. Client computers and devices (e.g. 120, 122, or 124) are those used by end users to access information from a server over a network, such as the Internet 104. Servers are understood to be those computing devices 106, 110 that provide services to other machines, and may be (but are not required to be) dedicated to hosting applications or content to be accessed by any number of client computers. Web servers, application servers and data storage servers may be hosted on the same or different machines 106, 110. Client computers access features of the system described herein using Web Services. Web services are self-contained, modular business applications that have open, Internet-oriented, standards-based interfaces. According to W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium, a web service is a software system “designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically web service definition language or WSDL). Other systems interact with the web service in a manner prescribed by its description using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages, typically conveyed using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) with an Extensible Markup Language (XML) serialization in conjunction with other web-related standards.” Web services are similar to components that can be integrated into more complex distributed applications. While the system disclosed herein is described in the context of internet gaming, social networking and virtual world applications (collectively referred to as social games), it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that it may be used with other applications as well. Further, while specific modules are described, other modules may be added or deleted without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. All examples are offered by way of example and not limitation. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the terms “shopper,” “user,” “end user” and “player” are synonymous and are used interchangeably throughout this document, while the terms “customer,” “game publisher,” “publisher,” “administrator” or “administrative user” are also used synonymously and interchangeably. The three tier structure can also be viewed from a functional perspective, as in FIG. 3. A user interface (UI) layer 302 is exposed to clients and client systems. A store and administrative user interface 302 provides user access to the system for the various administrative tasks associated with the functional modules provided. For example, an administrative user may log into the UI to set up an item or offer, run reports, perform dispute resolution and conduct analysis on offers and users. These examples are offered by way of example and not limitation. One skilled in the art would recognize that many types of functionality could be provided for an application publisher, system administrator or others to perform through a user interface without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. A functional, transaction management layer provides the code required to perform the transactions and store, maintain, access and retrieve data. Also by way of example, these various modules may include user account management 304, subscription management 306, offer and store management 308, item management 312, reputation management 310, an auctioning framework for player-to-player secondary markets 314, reporting & analytics 328, dispute management 330, customer relationship management 332, customer care 334, fraud detection 336, and Clearing, Refunding, Settlement and Invoicing modules 322. A least cost router 324 in part determines the payment forms offered to a particular customer based on a number of factors. The least cost router 324 is discussed in more detail below. A batch framework 208 supports batch processing of transaction data to provide information to supporting modules, including fraud detection analysis 336, reporting and analytics 328 and customer relationship management 332. A messaging framework 318 supports notification and communications such as email notifications to users acknowledging a purchase. Payment partners 326 are accessed and respond via the open interface middleware discussed above. The system is designed to support three overarching areas of functionality, namely: billing and subscription management 114; electronic storefront or a primary market 116; and player-to-player trading or a secondary market 118. Application programming interfaces (APIs) provide seamless integration between the system and client applications to enable this functionality. Configuration and set up of this functionality may be accomplished either through APIs or a web client. Each of the areas of functionality, and a preferred embodiment set of modules as well as frameworks are discussed in detail below. As is illustrated in FIG. 4a , modules that may support the billing and subscription management functionality include account management (user and subscription management) 402, customer care 332, clearing and settlement 322, fraud detection 336, reporting and analytics 328, messaging 318, invoicing 322, least cost routing 324, tax 416 and global payments 326. An account management module 402 allows game publishers to manage customer lifecycles, including all aspects of billing-relevant characteristics. The system provides a web-based registration process that can be seamlessly integrated with an existing web framework or can be operated on a stand-alone basis. Single sign on adapters allow the registration logic to be embedded in an existing user or community site. This module may use a role-based philosophy, with the defined roles granting a user specific access rights within the application. These functions enable an administrator to review and amend user details as well as activate/deactivate users; view/modify customer profiles; view/modify risk profiles; manage/modify active subscriptions; view customer's action history; contact the customer and more. An Account web-service described in the Web Services section below, provides access to all of the user management functions remotely. These functions can also be exposed to a user with a comprehensive graphical web-user interface. A screen shot of the Account Overview page of the graphical web user interface is displayed in FIG. 5. The account overview page provides status information on each role created under the account. Roles may be displayed based on user-determined criteria such as role 502, online status 504 and activity status 506. Account detail pages for a particular role 508 may be opened by clicking a “Details” button 510. Referring to FIG. 6, an User Account Overview page 602 displays a number of tabs providing profile information for the role selected. A game profile tab 604 allows an application administrator to deactivate 606 and reactivate 608 users, and view identities, payment forms, login and subscription history 610. A commerce profile 612 allows the administrator to edit and add an address to a selected user, and view their rating details and risk class (discussed below). This profile contains details on settings, payment forms, login history, role, rating details and buyer, and more. A messaging tab 614 comprises an inbox, trash, compose and sent mail folders that allow the user to send and receive messages. A payout tab 616 provides details on player-to-player trading transactions. A disputes tab (not shown) lists the user's disputes for allowing an administrator to manually evaluate disputes and risk characteristics. A transactions tab 618 provides a comprehensive list of transactions involving the user. For example, user bids, user reverse bids own reverse offers and user offers and auction transactions that are listed on this tab. The User Account Overview page also has a tab for the user's wallet 620, including funding information by real or virtual currency. A list of child accounts 622 (discussed below) related to the user provide transaction history and total spent in time and money. Further, a risk profile tab 624 allows the administrator to view the risk class and fraud points assigned to the user. A customer service agent may also use this tab to make adjustments to the user's risk score. A subscription management module 306 exposes a branded registration and self-service portal within an existing website, allowing the game operator or publisher to present a variety of different offer possibilities, including: free teaser subscription, compound subscriptions, subscription as a pre-requisite for a premium subscription or a premium content offering; a follow-on offer; promotions; email or in-game notifications; multi-lingual offers; and regional pricing and promotions. In a preferred embodiment, the subscription management module is directly integrated with the payment component, allowing for safe and secure recurring payments across the different payment channels 326. Subscriptions are treated the same as specific offers, products and/or promotions. These subscriptions may be have renewals that are automatically or manually processed. A customer care or customer support module 332 provides full insight into all relevant platform activity performed by users. Following strict data protection and privacy guidelines the support agent may have access to browsing behavior and all relevant transaction information. Agents may also modify user data, add personal information only visible to the care organization, or active/reactivate users. Agents with additional permissions can also reverse payment transactions, refund the customer or initiate other “goodwill” actions after closing the case. These “goodwill” actions may be crediting the wallet or pro-longating the renewal cycle of a recurring subscription. A ticket system is provided for tracking. The payment gateway module 322 manages all interfaces to payment providers, price calculation services and in-application delivery functions. It is used in all three use cases whenever a payment is made. The module is directly connected to the transaction management framework 212 through internal APIs and interfaces, and provides a list of all pay-out transactions. Transactions may be manually approved to be paid out to customers and also may be canceled. Transactions may also be handled automatically when a success response is received from a payment partner. By using account based fraud scoring, a risky transaction may be disabled before the user's transaction is passes on the payment partner. A preferred embodiment of an in application commerce system and method uses a least cost router 324 that allows the game publisher or administrator to set rules based on business logic and requirements, in order to determine what kind of payment options are available to a particular user and/or for a particular item or offer. The payment option configuration is also tied to the fraud module, which allows a user to set rules on payment options based on various fraud indicators, mitigation schemes and risk/fraud scores. All rules may be configured to be specific per game. The general payment gateway configuration may be overridden on a per offer basis. In other words, a default “all payment forms” may be supported per offer, but if the administrator would like to overrule the gateway configuration, that may be changed and individual payment forms will be selectable. In this way, the administrator may also restrict payment form characteristics for the offer (e.g. surcharge or discount). Table 1 lists some of the information may be used to configure the payment forms available for a game. are listed on the payment selection page. Payment The system name of the payment form. the payment form is applicable for the market. payment form should be offered or not. price, or a flat amount. Having configured the payment gateway for a particular game, any transaction requested by the game player will offer only those payment options that meet the payment, offer and fraud configuration selected by the user. The least cost router may also be configured to determine a preferred payment provider. Based on factors such as currency, payment method, amount, country, exchange rates and others, the least cost router can locate the most cost effective payment provider for any transaction and direct the payment transaction to that provider through the global payment framework. A global payment framework 220 manages all outgoing interfaces (see Table 19, below) to payment providers (including clearing, refunding, charge-backing, settlement and invoicing 222), currency calculation services and in-game delivery functions. It is directly connected to the transaction management framework through internal APIs and interfaces to the reporting database 226. The payment module 326 manages all outgoing interfaces to payment providers and currency calculation services to handle payments, recurring payments and refunds. It is directly connected to the transaction management framework through internal APIs and interfaces to all relevant back office and reporting tools. All real-money-relevant payments are handled through the platform. Depending on the type of transaction only a selected choice of payment options is offered to the end-user. The payment module 326 receives the final price from the offer management tool and handles the actual payment process by interacting with external payment systems. An in-application commerce payment module is extremely flexible in design and can integrate with a large number of different payment providers in parallel 326. A configurable set of rules determines automatically the right provider that should be used for completing the actual transaction. Attributes determining the use of the right payment provider include the transaction value, the region, the risk profile for the particular transaction and customer preferences and can be easily extended if required. An example would be to exclude credit card payments for low transactions values due to the high fee structure or to only allow prepaid payment options if the customer behavior shows a high risk rating. A payment module 326 also exposes interfaces to reporting 328 and customer care 334 applications in order to give insight into the status of the transaction and allow the triggering of refunds and reverse the purchase if necessary. The payment gateway is highly flexible, capable of supporting many payment methods all over the world, including credit cards, payment enablers (e.g. PayPal, moneybookers, etc.), prepaid cards and mobile payment channels. The transaction module 322 calculates secondary market revenue shares and triggers correct payout procedures. Receiving dynamic input data from the auctioning module, the tax database and a currency calculation service, the settlement process is executed at predefined times and calculates revenue shares according to pre-defined rules. The rules are defined through a restricted configuration tool that provides the functionality for defining revenue share ratios, price-ranges, minimum prices, payment terms, and settlement periods, etc. as rule-sets for calculating the shares. Fraud management, detection and control are critical components of any online commerce system. A fraud management, detection and control module 336 (aka fraud defender module) includes internal and external fraud controls that ensure that each transaction is properly authorized by role/risk-class and evaluated against fraud checks to prevent chargebacks and protect customers. It allows the customer to detect and manage fraud across channels and accounts, and to define fraud detection, scoring and controls to suit any kind of rule desired. The customer may configure the system in a way that allows the fraud defender module to control various aspects of the user's commerce experience, including the offers, payment methods and reverse wallet thresholds that are presented to the user. As will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art, the parameters for a fraud detection and management system and method are configurable within the general framework of the fraud defender module. In general, a preferred embodiment of a fraud defender module allows configuration of rules for setting, incrementing and decrementing fraud scores (also referred to as risk score or risk scoring); for tracking user events; for setting and adjusting risk classifications; and for configuring rules and consequences for the results of fraud score/classification evaluation. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that incrementing and decrementing of fraud scores can be accomplished by assigning positive and negative fraud points to user accounts based on fraud controls and then summing those fraud points together to arrive at a total fraud score. A fraud rating, or points, can be attached to virtually any kind of event (e.g. behavior, function or action) that the user is capable of performing internal or external to the platform. As will be described in more detail below, fraud ratings may be configured for commerce platform-related events, game play events, or 3rd party events. The user (account holder) is typically assigned a risk class and a customer is able to modify the assigned risk class for every account. Manual assignment may override automatic assignments until the manual assignment is lifted. As the user moves through the application the user's risk score is updated frequently, incremented and decremented as the user is involved in any of the configured events, which may or may not adjust the originally assigned risk class. Fraud controls are applied based on the risk classification identified by the user's fraud score in the user account. Fraud results and case management may be fed back into the legacy systems from which the fraud originated. This allows the customer to further refine fraud detection on its site. The fraud defender module tracks user events and assigns and updates the fraud score per user with any kind of activity or event the user is performing in the application or game, on the commerce platform, or external to both (such as a payment provider detecting fraud on the user's credit card). Examples for increasing a user's fraud score include increases based on information gathered during the credit card registration process, fraud information from a payment partner, chargeback ratios and transaction disputes (discussed further in the paragraphs below and Table 4). Examples of events that may decrement the fraud score making the user less of a risk include game events such as adding new friends, or commerce events such as successful transactions, closing of dispute tickets, wallet turnover, and/or other trust increasing events coming from the application/game itself. Rules may be configured as a direct consequence to certain events or as the result of the risk classification into which the user's fraud score falls. For direct consequences, purchase transactions may be denied. For example, anyone who is banned or suspended from game play may have purchase transactions denied. Similarly, anyone who in the past was banned or suspended from game play may be assigned fraud points which would result in a higher fraud score after the user account has been reactivated after the ban or suspension has been lifted. Users connecting from a country that is blacklisted or identified as risky, based on the knowledge that fraud is prevalent in transactions from those countries, may be denied purchase transactions. In addition, the system may perform a velocity check, tracking the number of transactions per time frame (i.e. tracking “transaction throttling”) and the amount per transaction and provide an error to the transaction server if certain rules are violated. The rules and results are configurable. Other results may include blocking the account for a particular period of time with an increase in the user's fraud score, denying transactions for blacklisted payment forms, or classifying as a blacklisted error type and increasing the fraud score if payment partners respond with an error on a user's transaction. Fraud/risk classifications are also configurable. The default risk classes in the system are: no risk, small abnormality, abnormality, risky, fraud most likely. The customer may set the risk classifications as ranges of fraud points and then attach results to them, such as payment forms and user roles. This may be accomplished in the fraud module using fraud management GUIs and APIs (fraud module), or other modules with specific fraud-related rules, such as the Offer and Store Management 308 and Least Cost Router 324 modules. In a preferred embodiment, the fraud defender module receives event messages from the application, commerce system and 3rd party platforms (such as payment providers) and feeds them into a messaging middleware 318, such as RabbitMQ. Using a messaging middleware allows events to be processed asynchronously at frequent intervals. Users' fraud scores are updated as the messages are processed. As mentioned above, fraud controls are applied based on the user's fraud score and risk classification level. For example, a user entering the game for the first time may have no history and so begins with a relatively high fraud score and risk classification and is therefore only offered payment methods with the lowest risk (e.g. prepaid debit cards). The user then spends 11 hours in game play, during which time his behavior is tracked as he accumulates tracked play actions over time in the game, adds friends, successfully completes purchase transactions, and/or performs other types of customer-identified and configured events that indicate his propensity for fraud. The tracked events are then used and compared to fraud control rules to update (increment or decrement) the user's fraud score. If his behaviors have lowered his fraud score (i.e., the fraud control rules have decremented fraud points from the user's fraud score), he may be offered additional payment methods and access to additional content areas that are available at the lower risk classification level. The fraud defender module may work with a least-cost/risk router 324 module that allows the customer to set rules that determine payment types, offers or content to be presented to the user based on various criteria, such as risk class. User behavior may be tracked by the in-application commerce system or by the game application itself, and imported into the in-application commerce system through event messages that are in turn used to further update a fraud score based on fraud controls. Payment methods and transaction limits offered to a user or access to content areas may change as a result of the user's fraud or risk score. A number of fraud controls may be applied to each transaction, including, for example, usage pattern detection, customer risk classification and payment method restriction by risk class. Each user account is classified by risk class based on automated tests of user specific data as well as through user behavior. For example, during the account registration process 702, as shown in FIG. 7, the platform checks the user's Internet Protocol (IP) address 704, and uses it to perform several checks 706. The first process checks to see if there are other accounts already available within the system using the same credit card 708. If multiple users are using the same credit card, those users will be set to have the same fraud class (all using the highest fraud class of the impacted user accounts 714). Second, it is used for matching of geo-location to account address 710 and payment method address country 712 information. In this exemplary scheme, ten fraud points are added 718 to those accounts where the IP address does not match the country on the account or payment method, while matches result in no additional fraud points 716. Additionally, as illustrated in FIG. 8, for each login 802 via SOAP the IP address is retrieved 804 and is compared to the billing/payment address (if available). The correspondence is on a per-country basis between the declared address and the reported IP address. Values may be checked per login. If a person with a Canadian billing address logs in 5 times from an IP address in Canada and 15 times from the United States of America it would be a 75% ratio. Fraud points 806 are added to the profile when login events occur where the country settings 808 on the user account address do not match the country identified by the IP address identification. No additional fraud points are added if a match 810 occurs. Additionally, the IP address may be used for 3rd party event sourcing. The fraud system is capable of supporting externally triggered fraud events like error messages from payment partners or client related events or fraud/risk scores. In a preferred embodiment, default risk classes may be set up. In a five level schema those default classes may be: no risk, small abnormality, abnormality, risky, fraud most likely. On the Risk Classes tab of the Risk Class Management Page 902 shown in FIG. 9, risk classes 904 are defined according to application needs by setting ranges of risk points 906 for each of the default risk classes. Alternatively, the administrator may set risk classes according to game requirements. For each risk class, the administrator may associate selected payment forms 908 and user roles 910, as shown in FIG. 10 as well as the additional user-specific classification conditions, which are offered by way of example and not limitation, described in Table 3. FIG. 11 is a screen shot of the Configuration Tab 1104 on a Risk Class Management Page 1102. Administrators may create a test case for determining risk, such as the “purchases” test case 1105 displayed. This process is further illustrated in FIG. 12 and described below. Exemplary variables for calculating user activity-driven fraud classification are provided in Table 4, below. The process illustrated in FIG. 12 1202 provides a risk score based on the ratio between chargebacks, refunds and total disputes. The dispute ratio refers to the total number of disputes opened by the user compared to the total number of items purchased. If a user purchases 10 items and opens 3 disputes it gives a dispute ratio of 30%. A disputes/total purchases ratio test compares the number of open disputes to the total purchases 1204 and assigns a risk score. A chargeback/disputes ratio compares the number of open disputes to the total number of disputes 1206. Fraud risk points 1210 may then be added to the user's risk profile or overall fraud score according to the application's preferred business logic 1208. For example, when either disputes ratio 1204, 1206 is less than 80% then the business logic 1208 adds 15 points 1210 to the user's fraud score. Similarly, a disputes ratio between 80% and 95% the business logic 1212 adds 10 points 1214, and with a dispute ratio greater than 95% the business logic 1216 adds 5 points 1218. disputes, it gives a dispute ratio of 30%. (non-resolved) disputes to the total number of purchases. The system further provides a near real time fraud check and batch 208 processing of events. A dedicated fraud batch 208 job analyzes credit card registration and payment events, runs the automated tests for the users who have triggered an event and updates the risk score and risk class of the user accordingly. The batch 208 job may be run at any frequency; typically one minute to keep the user risk scores as current as possible. As discussed above, fraud scores allow the game publisher to limit the payment methods, transaction limits, offers and content available to a customer. These restrictions involve comparing the risk score of the shopper (user) with an acceptable value. The point of comparison and acceptable risk scores or ranges may be configured by an application administrator. When the shopper begins to purchase an item, the transaction server receives the shopper's risk score and an available list of payment forms. The system may use a least cost router, which determines the optimized payment form due to price point and country. In this case, only those optimized payment forms available to the shopper's risk score are presented to the user. Transaction limits are also imposed by the shopper's fraud or risk score. Fraud defender tracks the amount per transaction and provides an error to the transaction server if certain rules are violated. Fraud defender returns only time value for how long the account is blocked for further purchases. As a precondition, velocity rules may be defined on limiting the maximum amount per transaction. When the shopper begins the purchase process, the transaction server hands over the details (e.g. price, type, etc.) and the shopper information to the fraud defender message queue. The transaction server checks the fraud score and continues with the checkout if the score is below (or exceeds) a threshold level. If not, the transaction server prompts an error notification and updates transaction history. Similarly, based on the fraud score, the transaction server will disable certain products, bundles and/or subscription plans. This requires that the effective offers have risk scores or ranges attached that define allowance for purchase. When the shopper (user) performs the purchase process, the transaction server receives the risk score for the shopper and compares it to the allowed risk score for the offer s/he is attempting to purchase. If the shopper's risk score is in the “allowed” range, the transaction server continues to checkout. The point of comparison is configurable. If the shopper's risk score is outside of the “allowed” range, the transaction server prompts an error message, the purchase transaction is aborted and transaction history is updated. FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary fraud defender module and messaging system setup. The transaction server 1302 handles all transactions for game purchasing. Event messages are sent to a message queue 1304, where they are retrieved by the fraud server 1306. The fraud defender server includes a fraud database 1308. The fraud defender server is service oriented with interface definitions, with CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations for each service. Table provides some exemplary web service calls for a fraud detector module. The events that are sent back to the transaction server from the fraud module may include the fraud score (for example, the account id, the fraud score and the date); the transaction limit (e.g. the account id and the time the transaction was denied); and the purchase limit (e.g. account id, max price for the transaction and the time the purchase was limited). Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are many events that could be defined based on the fraud defender so far described, and would include others without departing from the scope and spirit of the described system. A reporting and analytics module may be designed for a game publisher depending on its requirements. Data is duplicated from the master database to the slave database to avoid any performance loss through report queries. Both standard and ad hoc reporting is available. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that reporting may also be accomplished with a set of predefined reports. As an admin, a user, is allowed to define any type for the existing reports (data aggregation, frequency, etc.) The lowest increment in a report ideally is 1 hour. As such this reporting process may be performed asynchronously and may run on the same database as the application with minimal potential performance impact. Messaging is provided for notification and communication. A tax engine is also provided to accommodate all tax requirements. Store and primary market modules include offer and store management 308, inventory/item management 312, economy management 422, discovery & presentation 424. An offer and store management module 308 provides the end-user presentation functionality and handles everything concerning the management and presentation of the store elements and inventory. All management and UI functions may be available via APIs and via a web-based presentation layer. From a functional perspective, all features described can be presented across different browsers, presentation layers or as content-feed for in-application discovery clients. A preferred embodiment of an offer and store management module allows client (such as a game publisher) developers and even players (for the player-to-player use case) to set up their own stores to present and merchandise the articles they want to sell. Using the web-client, users can customize their stores with a title, an intro-text, activate certain community features or modify the store's look and feel using a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor. This allows real-time editing of the shop-window and gives users a great set of tools to manage and merchandise their products. Depending on the product category and the application configuration, the system can dynamically present the right attribute fields to be completed by the content manager. Alternatively, or in addition to the web-client, a content catalogue API may be used to manage the inventory and all of its attributes remotely. Example attributes are: article title, article category (item/service/currency, etc), article description, game server, tags and keywords, reselling options. Independent of the article, the content manager can also define pricing and auctioning models or combination and the delivery options, such as: auctioning model (auction/buy now/reverse auction), number of articles, auctioning period, delivery period, accepted payment methods (relevant for real money trading). This is established through the definition of event identifiers or “event IDs”. Event IDs are pre-defined sets of offer attributes that can be assigned to a specific product or a set of products. They allow efficient management of many different products and offers simultaneously. More about event IDs is provided in reference to economy management, below. A key function of a content manager may be to oversee the control of the in-application economy 422. Leveraging the reporting and analytics tools 328, the content manager can identify potentially problematic economic behavior problems. Typical economic problems associated with an in-application economy are inflation, artificial scarcity and speculation. Preventing and controlling inflation are crucial when dealing with virtual currencies. Inflation is caused by a fast-growing supply of the available currency, therefore, it is important to watch and control the total amount of virtual currency available to users. Artificial scarcity occurs once the secondary marketplace reaches a critical mass and some people attempt to exploit the economy by artificially shorting the supply of certain scarce goods to maximize their personal revenue. Scarcity may be controlled by controlling the amount of available articles of a particular kind, controlling re-selling capabilities, the lifetime of items and by tracking user patterns and purchase behavior. Speculation is not necessarily a bad thing, but if it gets out of hand, the practice may be stemmed by binding certain items to a particular user, either permanently or for a specific period. To control undesirable economic events, economy-related information and parameters are separated into a set of attributes called an event. An event may be assigned to every product item template and defines how the item will be handled in the primary and secondary market with regard to scarcity, pre-conditions, cool down periods, and other economic events. In this way, the economy is controlled by defining the availability of items within the markets and whether the items are allowed to be resold, etc. The behavior of a huge number of items may be changed simply by changing the set of attributes (events). Events may be created using a user interface 1402 provided in the economy management module, through a set of APIs, or by bulk upload. As illustrated in FIG. 14, the fields described in Table 5 define an event. increment to bid a minimum of $2. Settings Make the settings for the attribute set active. Quantity Quantity of an item a user can buy. Blank for unlimited. Ancillary modules and administrative tools are provided in a preferred embodiment of a modularized in-application commerce system and method. These tools allow the game publisher to optimize the user experience and include, by way of example and not limitation, dispute management 330, and customer relationship management 332. A player-to-player trading use case allows application participants to set themselves up as merchants, create a store and offers, and buy and sell items in a secondary marketplace. Components of a secondary market use case are illustrated in FIG. 4c . Exemplary modules for this use case include an auction module 314, real money trading/virtual money trading module 430, community management module 432 and reputation management module 310. In addition, the secondary marketplace leverages various other components of the overall system, including account/user management modules 402; inventory modules 312, offer and store management modules 308; economy management modules 422, and others. Auctioning and transaction management 314 are backend component modules with standardized interfaces to the presentation layer and to a number of internal and external remote systems, including data warehouse systems and payment gateway. The platform supports all auction mechanisms and is optimized to support the specific requirements of dealing with intangible goods and virtual services. Table 6 describes the different types of auctioning models. The community management 432 and reputation management 310 modules support an efficient marketplace by allowing participants to rate other participants in their role as either a buyer or seller, depending on the user's role in the transaction. The ratings system is specifically tailored to correspond with the needs and requirements of dealing with intangible goods and services. Users wishing to rate another user's role in a transaction may rate it on several levels, according to game requirements. For example, a seller rating may include the following rating levels: ‘Met expectations,’ ‘on time delivery,’ ‘price/quality ratio’ and ‘shop here again.’Information about the transaction may be provided in a list and comments section. Generally, users are rated under their game or application identity. In order to sharpen the actual message expressed through the rating, every user is assigned an overall rating value, endorsements by users as well as a more granular rating scale. In addition, the platform adds automatic ratings in case dispute cases are opened or any other type of repeated misuse is being recorded. Additional community management 432 features include profile pages, where users can present themselves, their preferences, characters and interests; messaging and instant messaging (IM), for communication between players (supported by external email notifications) or through instant messaging services (e.g. Skype, Yahoo, MSN, etc) that are integrated into the platform; a blogging system so users can launch their own blogs; and a calendar that acts as a filter instrument to display ending auctions and community elements where merchants can mark the dates for events. Transaction management and processing 212 is an underlying framework interfacing with a significant number of components and systems, including the auction module, the rating logic, the payment and the fulfillment components. It logs every step as a basis for reporting and customer care purposes. Payment 326, settlement and fulfillment manage outgoing interfaces to payment providers, currency calculation services and in-application delivery functions. It is directly connected to the transaction management framework through internal APIs and interfaces to all relevant back-end and reporting tools. These APIs are described in Table 25, below. The secondary market modules also interact directly with the clearing and settlement module 322 to calculate revenue shares and trigger correct payout procedures. Receiving dynamic input data from the auctioning component, the tax database 416 and a currency calculation service, the settlement process is run at predefined times and calculates revenue shares according to pre-defined rules. The rules are defined using a restricted configuration tool, allowing defining revenue share ratios, price ranges, payment terms, and settlement periods, etc, as a rule-set for calculating shares. After successful calculation of the revenue shares the payout can either be verified and approved by authorized personnel or directly transmitted to the parties eligible to receive the funds. The process is completed by updating the status of the process in the transaction history and by automatically and dynamically generating a proper invoice 324 in pdf form. Secondary markets are enabled for trading in virtual currency as well as real money 430. Trading with both real and virtual currency through the wallet is described below. The wallet is the safest payment option, as the wallet has already been funded when the purchase is made. When trading with real money, buyers may choose from among the payment providers subscribed to by the platform's payment gateway, or a third party gateway with which the platform is integrated. There are some disadvantages to trading with real money. The fraud risks are higher compared to wallet transactions where the real money purchase has already been fulfilled. The purchase flow is asymmetric and may take longer or the buyer may not complete the purchase flow. In addition, there is a risk of money laundering if a cash-out option is offered. Offer management and content delivery is realized by a set of APIs as is depicted in FIGS. 15 and 16. The player or person's account must identify him as a “merchant” 1504 in order to sell items. A player wanting to sell one or more of his virtual assets can do this by creating an offer from his account inventory or by creating his own store. The platform checks 1508 via API if the declared item for sale is still in the player's possession. In a preferred embodiment, the item is locked as long as the offer is valid, for seamless and rapid delivery after the trading has been completed. After receiving a successful reply from the in-application commerce platform (IAC) 1506, the auction is set to “active” 1512. A potential consumer is now able to purchase this content item. After the transaction has ended, the platform 1506 verifies again 1510 if (a) the Merchant and consumer have valid accounts, and (b) the object for sale is still in the possession of the merchant. Thereafter, the platform prompts the payment order to the buyer. This step is processed automatically if a wallet is being used. The platform executes the payment process based on the selected payment form. After getting a positive acknowledgement form the payment partner, the IAC starts the entitlement process through an API. To secure a real money transfer, the platform can offer an escrow service to mitigate the risk of fraud, outstanding delivery or a mismatch of described and delivered quality of items. The platform does this by integrating with a third party escrow provider which safely holds a consumer's payment in a trust account until the entire transaction is completed. Since the consumer pays the escrow and not the merchant, the escrow service can withhold payment until the in-game component has been delivered. Once this has been verified, the escrow provider releases the payment to the merchant. The same result may be achieved using the in-application commerce system wallet, however, holding and withdrawing real money from a wallet might require a banking license. After a user buys an item, the auction is finished and post-purchase notification services are initiated to inform the buyer and the merchant that the transaction is complete. At this time, the buyer may select “escrow” to begin the escrow process described above, which may involve a small fee to be paid to the escrow provider. If the buyer does not wish to use the escrow services, the payment process continues to completion. The system then sends a notification to the merchant, who reads the message in his inbox or external mail and clicks the embedded link to get information about the successful auction and the delivery process is completed. FIG. 16 illustrates the payment and settlement process. Clearing and settlement in a secondary market is accomplished with the in-application commerce system acting as the intermediary between the buyer and the seller. The system handles all payments and disputes. The settlement process is executed after the dispute period has passed and both parties have confirmed the successful delivery of the article or the provision of the service. Referring to FIG. 16, the merchant (a private person or player) is registered on the in-application commerce platform and creates an offer 1606. A potential buyer 1602 searches, finds and buys (places a bid) on the offer 1608. The IAC platform fulfills the transaction and begins the post purchase processes. The buyer 1610 selects the dedicated payment form (which can be restricted based on offer filtering and risk class) and provides payment form details to the payment partner 1604. The buyer confirms payment 1612 and executes payment (synchronously or asynchronously) and notifies the IAC platform that the transaction has completed successfully. The IAC platform performs the clearing process 1614, calculating the total merchant and client payout per month. After manual approval the system informs the merchant/client of the payout for the billing cycle and creates a pdf formatted invoice including transaction details 1616. The system informs the payment partner to pay out the dedicated revenue share to the merchant. Based on the payment partner, the merchant may have to accept payment before the transaction is complete. The payment partner then informs IAC about the successful payment. The system closes the transaction in the platform. Settlement occurs after the buyer has paid for an article. During the 28 days immediately following the transaction (the grace period), the consumer may open a dispute to initiate a transaction rollback. All disputes and chargebacks must be closed by the end of that grace period. The system pays out all revenues through the payment transfer providers (e.g. PayPal or Moneybookers) to authorized users. The system generates a detailed report to be downloaded or accessed through an API. Players and merchants need to register their payout method before any revenues are paid out. Only one payment transfer provider may be attached per account. The attachment requires a preceding authentication process where the merchant must needs to authenticate his account. All transactions in the secondary market are stored and accessed based on their post settlement status. Statuses include merchant not cashout certified; no merchant contact data available; payout pending through provider; provider failed and rollback status. Either the platform or the application publisher may serve as the Merchant of Record (owner of all payment contracts) in all transactions completed by end users. The dedicated party will be responsible for the clearing and settlement of all transactions as well as the payment of customer's share of the revenue to the customer as specified in the integration agreement. The clearing period may vary among payment forms and clients. A wallet 434 and currency management 436 module provides payment services across all use cases in the in-application commerce system. In a gaming environment, both real money and virtual money may be used to purchase real or virtual items. In a preferred embodiment, the in-application commerce system provides both a user interface and APIs that allow an application administrator to create and define currency types. FIG. 17 is a screen shot of the user interface used for currency type management 1702. Currency may be created by choosing a currency title 1704 and creating a description and setting attributes 1706 such as lifetime, presentation order and if it should be activated or be an in-game currency. The content manager may also define whether it should be payable in real money and if it should be tradable in a player-to-player environment. Currency may be assigned to a category/item class by choosing the Assign Currency tab. Business logic for currency behavior may be created and assigned to the currency. Within the application commerce system, currency types are configurable to meet application requirements. For instance, certain in-application purchases may only be made through “platinum” coins sourcing from a real-money exchange whereas other articles may be bought with “gold” coins that have been awarded for achievements within the application, or “green” coins funded through online time. Application administrators may also define different types of points as currency, for example, loyalty points earned for repeat purchasing or duration of play, promotional points redeemed through a marketing campaign or premium points used to create tiered service models. These different currency types can be flexibly defined by a currency administrator and configured to have clear exchange rates between real money and the different types of virtual currency. Virtual currency can be created and defined by providing information such as that described in Table 7. The administrator may also manage exchange rates between real money values and a virtual currency or between different virtual currencies. For example, an exchange rate for a single virtual currency entity can be defined in relation to one unit of a real money currency (e.g. 0.5 US Dollars). Exchange rate between virtual currencies may be achieved through a catalog administration/offer management tool by defining currency packages that can be traded against other types of virtual currency units. An offer management tool allows administrators to set a relational dependency between item classes and virtual currency types. This allows the administrator to steer the offering and to define if certain item classes (e.g. items, coins, service, etc.) can be bought by real-money currency and/or a specific virtual currency or a combination of both. The offer management system also supports bundling for recurring wallet funding and combined pricing where offers are priced in multiple virtual currencies. Wallet management involves managing the user's balances, including funding flows with multiple payment providers, real-money cash-out and synchronization with existing wallet systems. The under-18 user segment is an important market segment that is challenging to monetize because of their lack of access to convenient payment methods like credit cards. A preferred embodiment allows parents to create and authorize multiple child accounts to use their balance, set spending limits and view purchase activity. In addition, offer management allows the publisher to make use of in-store cards or electronic vouchers that can be purchased with cash or by a parent to fund a child's wallet account. The wallet exposes a set of interfaces allowing external components to trigger adding or deducting funds from the wallet. These “external components” could be the in-application ecommerce system's transaction management backend but also any other application-server or external payment or transaction processing solution. To optimize the user-experience, every request to the wallet is verified for sufficient funds before a transaction process is initiated. The wallet is additionally designed to allow converting virtual currencies into real money and trigger a payout to the customer via approved channels. Real money cashout is an optional wallet component and built in a way to minimize all related financial risks. This includes a sophisticated exchange rate management and a set of tools to identify and prevent cases of money laundering, fraud, arbitrage management and inflation. As for the other wallet components, the cashout function is configurable with a set of rules, allowing, for example, to cash out only certain types of virtual currencies, introduce a minimum threshold for a payout, etc. Wallets containing virtual currency may be funded by credit card or loyalty programs, or may be acquired in-game. Since the value of virtual currency may change over time and for liability purposes, value is tracked using the first-in-first-out (FIFO) (first in, first out) accounting method. Access to virtual currency is handled in a manner similar to a credit card or bank account. When the user submits an authorization request to pay by virtual currency, a hold is put on the appropriate number of virtual points. This process segregates the authorized funds until the item has been paid for or the order has been canceled and the funds released. It also prevents the user from inadvertently “double spending” the virtual currency. A virtual currency exchange service allows a real world currency value to be associated with every unit of virtual currency. This allows the commerce platform to display the transaction currency/virtual currency to the user, but base its calculation for costing, tax, shipping and margins on the real world currency. The real world value can be passed to the appropriate commerce engines to complete the necessary calculation. Attaching the real world currency also allows the fraud engines to perform as they do based on the applicable real world currency and it also allows for additional rules to be formulated that center around the virtual currency. Completing chargebacks, returns and refunds are based on the real world currency versus the virtual currency but present some challenges when crediting virtual currency to the users payment account. In all situations the application chooses which value is displayed or if both are. For instance, where virtual currency is being used to complete the transaction it may be desirable to display the virtual currency value of the transaction and not the real world value as the shopper may not distinguish between the two, but in a fraud detection scenario viewing both currencies may be beneficial to a person analyzing the account in a fraud detection process. To deal with the issues of changing value of virtual currency the wallet will put a date time stamp with the transaction. First in-first out (FIFO) accounting policies are then applied, which require the system to scroll through the virtual currency tables to pull the “oldest” currency for redemption. Furthermore, it also require the system to “put back” in a chargeback, return and refund scenario, the aged currency so it is compliant with the FIFO scenario as the currency being returned may have a different value than the currency currently in the wallet. As was discussed earlier, virtual currency is often purchased with real world value or currency. Because of this, policies are required for accurately accounting for inventory and transactions related to virtual currency. For example, in the United States of America, state laws require companies with remaining account balances to escheat to the state after a number of years of inactivity. Wallets may be funded with real or virtual currency; however, only virtual currency wallets may store virtual currency. Currency types may be mixed within the account, but not within a wallet. The system also supports funding via gift card or retail cash card. Wallets containing virtual currency may be funded by credit card or other payment method, or may be funded with currency acquired by loyalty programs or game play. Since the value of virtual currency may change over time and for liability purposes, value is tracked using the FIFO (first in, first out) accounting method. In addition to virtual currency, the system supports the storage and handling of real-money stored value in multiple currencies. To comply with legal and financial requirements, the storage of real-money values has essential impact on multiple functions and use cases, including currency and exchange rate management, tracking and reporting, chargebacks, refunds, customer care and anti-fraud management. To accommodate these requirements, exchange rates for real-money currencies are fetched directly and real-time from payment partners' central currency database. Storing value entities according to FIFO principles, as discussed above, ensures tracking of the actual real-money value in relation to the actual transactions, enabling correct revenue recognition and financial reporting. Chargebacks are calculated according to the actual currency value at the time of the transaction. In a preferred embodiment, a customer may request a refund or rollback of a virtual transaction by viewing transaction history and choosing to request a refund or report a problem with a particular transaction. To limit the potential of internal fraud, the customer care tool 332 allows administrators to restrict access to real-money refunds to selected or few Customer Service Representative. Based on the respective access rights, a particular selected Customer Service Representative can view account-related information, view transaction-related information, view and manage purchases (e.g. accept refunds, goodwill funding, etc.), view and manage fraud and chargeback cases, and edit wallet accounts (change default billing and shipping address). The Fraud module 336 manages fraud at both the transaction and account level, enabling mitigation of fraud risks when storing real-money value. Internal APIs perform balance updates after a purchase is made or a chargeback is performed. In addition, if game commerce account-level fraud systems track chargebacks, the fraud systems are updated after a chargeback is credited to a user account. In a preferred embodiment, the account system interacts with three systems: the social game application, ecommerce and in-application storefronts, and billing and customer management systems. The application may be integrated with the wallet account system through a standard set of Wallet Web Services, implemented through SOAP web services. The communication from and to the web services is achieved over the HTTPS (secure HTTP) protocol, and data is passed in XML format. The trading platform (ecommerce and in-application storefronts) provides a comprehensive and robust platform to design and manage both primary stores and secondary market merchant stores and accounts. Both primary and secondary market modules may be integrated with the wallet account system for buying and selling purposes. The wallet is also easily integrated into third party store components or existing commerce infrastructure modules. For handling real money transactions as either stored value or as virtual currency exchange, the wallet is integrated with a billing and payment system (i.e., the order management system). This can be a platform-related system or a third party integration. The wallet management system enables application publishers to execute multiple business rules to fund or debit participant's wallet account (at both the user account and the identity/character levels) through several virtual currencies as part of game-play. Funding functionality is supported by the wallet web services. To fund the wallet, at least the following parameters must be provided: account id (for user/player/identity), currency id (for currency type), order id (generated for every transaction), amount, keeping class (defines if the amount should be credited or debited) and security key (authenticates the publisher). Based on the SOAP/XML response, a success notification response or an error message will be returned (e.g. invalid currency id, not allowed, account disabled, account ID wrong, etc.). The secondary marketplace component allows players to buy and sell in-application items, virtual currency, and services. A merchant who is selling a digital product can receive his purchase price as virtual currency. Based on the existing currency types, the middleware will debit the buyer's account fund in the merchant's wallet account. Currency may be purchased for real money based on the exchange rate between virtual currency and real-money the system will manage the transaction. To maximize revenues and optimize the user experience, the wallet may be configured with a default billing and shipping address to enable accelerated checkout process with a single click purchase. Coupons may also be used to load the wallet. If a transaction detects that there is not sufficient currency in the wallet account, the system enables consumers to easily add funds. The wallet can also be debited from within the game. This can be achieved by invoking the same web services as the account funding process with different parameters. To debit the wallet, at least the following parameters should be provided: account id, currency id, amount and keeping class (debit or credit). The platform supports an authorization call to pre-check if sufficient funds are available and to reserve a certain amount before fulfilling the purchase. This is especially relevant if the purchase process is asynchronous (accommodates related processes like credibility checks, address validation, etc.). A second API call allows settling the authorized amount to continue the purchase process or to free up the reserved amount. If a user tries to buy or pay for an article or service through the secondary marketplace the system simply tries to debit the wallet, because it already knows which currency type needs to be charged. If the wallet account does not have enough of the required currency, the application developer can enable purchase of additional currency (based on the settled exchange rate), which can be initiated manually (by the player) or automatically (by the application). Regardless of the services offered in the application, the most efficient way of handling a high volume of low-value transactions is to introduce a virtual currency and related exchange. A wallet/virtual currency can be used to handle micro-transactions within the game, allowing players to accumulate a considerable amount of virtual currency, which can then be exchanged into a real-world currency. To discourage money laundering, inflation and arbitrage a management, it is necessary to keep exchange rates between virtual currencies and real money stable or at least in tight control. To eliminate any of those risks, the game's payment mechanism can be designed as a “walled garden” allowing the purchase of virtual currency but not allowing cash-out back to real money currency. However, for some games and applications, it is important to provide users with the ability to convert virtual currency into real money (e.g. for user generated content). Since the system can identify the exact origin of every virtual currency piece, it is possible to allow the conversion of the certain currency-types only (e.g. the currency entities that the user accumulates through in-application trading). The exact settings can be defined through an administration tool An administrator can limit currency types allowed to cash-out and set the exact exchange rate between the virtual currency and the real money currency to counterbalance potential inflationary trends. 4 for 500 points. The Game storefront is embedded entirely within their desktop game client. FIG. 18 illustrates the high level architecture and modules/services used in performing the depicted functions. Players 1802 interact with the game client 1804 on a computing device such as a PC or phone. Players 1802 access the in-game commerce account interface 1806 using their single-sign on credentials. The player locates the offer 1832 for Game Points and selects it for purchase 1834. The item service 1836 provides the game producer with the ability to set offers for points in any desired package amount. Game accounts are funded by purchasing Game Points with real money using an API 1810 that interfaces the game backend 1808 with the in-game commerce purchase service 1812. Credit card transactions are processed through the payment module to the payment provider 1818. These transactions require APIs that authorize 1814 (funds are available and held until purchase) and commit 1816 the payment. Upon commit, Wallet Service APIs apply the purchased points to the user's Game Points wallet and update the points balance 1820. Notification is sent to the in-game commerce messaging service 1830 to send an email 1828 to the player to confirm the transaction. Referring now to FIG. 19, Pete the Player 1802 wishes to purchase additional Game Points for future use. From within the Game desktop client 1804 he goes to the in-game storefront and selects the $5 point package. The client makes a request to the secure back-end 1808 which initiates a payment 1902 using Pete's stored VISA card information. The payments engine 1902 submits the transaction to the payment provider 1818 for authorization. After receiving a successful response, the Game back-end then credits Pete's wallet 1826 using the Wallet API 1820 which triggers a confirmation email 1828. The Game back-end 1808 completes the transaction by calling the confirm Payment API 1904. Pete now has access to the 500 Game Points he purchased and has been charged $5 on his VISA. With Game Points in his wallet, Pete may now purchase content in-game. FIG. 20 illustrates a purchase from within the game play. From the Game in-game storefront, players 1802 can purchase content ranging from enhanced gameplay features to weapons and armor using Game Points. Pete would like to purchase a horse for his Game character to get around the world faster. He navigates to the in-game storefront on the Game client 1804. The Game back-end 1806 retrieves the list of available offers from the ItemService 1836 which applies the configured filtering rules for Pete's character's level and account status. Pete selects the horse offering for 700 Game Points 1904. The Game back-end 1808 activates the wallet web service 1826 to check Pete's account balance 1824 and determines that he doesn't have sufficient Game Points, so he is offered the option to purchase 500 Game Points for $5. After his account has been funded, the back-end submits the purchase to the ItemService using buyOffer 1834 which debits 1822 700 Game Points from his wallet 1826. Upon receiving the success response, the Game back-end delivers the item to his account 2002. Pete now has the horse in his inventory and has the remaining 200 Game Points in his wallet. A reverse wallet accommodates microtransactions for real money. With a reverse wallet, every shopper account gets a personal threshold assigned which defines how much money s/he is allowed to spend in advance before the system clears the wallet. The threshold is based on the shopper's behavior and may be adjusted frequently. Clearing of the wallet may be initiated by time or by exceeding the threshold. With an accurate personal profile and threshold, micro-transactions with price-points below 1 USD/EUR are possible and convenient. The in-application system and method reverse wallet provides a system and method capable of assigning a personal threshold per user and wallet. The fraud defender system influences the threshold of the account holder directly by increasing or decreasing the threshold depending on various configurable factors. Both real and virtual currencies are supported. In addition, the threshold may be managed with an administrator console and per API on an account level and in general. The system supports multiple payment methods (i.e. credit/debit cards, PayPal, Click&Buy, etc) with an option for a credit wallet. It should be configurable to support reverse and top wallet per client. This means that this functionality can be disabled for particular users(shoppers) or according to the fraud score associated with the user account. If its disabled, the user is only able to load the wallet first before he/she can spend the virtual funds. Describing the reverse wallet in terms of an exemplary use case of debiting the wallet, the primary actors are the commerce platform, the shopper/end user, a threshold engine and a customer service representative (CSR). The commerce platform takes orders and contains business rules regarding when an order is released for fulfillment. The shoppers place orders on the site. They pay using payment methods, such as credit cards, Paypal, etc., request refunds and make cancellations. The threshold engine calculates the threshold based on the shopper's fraud or risk score and the values allowed for particular risk categories as determined by the administrator. A CSR may become involved with the process, performing actions on the shopper's behalf. A wallet should be enabled for both real and virtual currency and the user registered, with payment details available and stored. The thresholds should be assigned for each risk class, and not exceeded for the shopper's account. An example is provided in FIGS. 21 and 22. Referring to these figures, the shopper indicates that s/he wishes to make a purchase with real currency 2102. The system checks the threshold for the shopper's risk class 2104. If the purchase price does not exceed the threshold, the system debits the wallet 2106 and completes the purchase 2108. The system then performs post-purchase events, such as displaying a thank you page, sending an on Delivery notification (see Table 18), updating shopper inventory, updating transaction history creating an event for the fraud server and adjusting the personal threshold as required 2202. If the threshold is not sufficient to cover the purchase price, the system notifies the shopper that the personal threshold has been exceeded 2110. Options are offered the shopper to proceed with the sale 2112, and the user selects the desired one. Options to be presented to the user are configurable. Exemplary options include cancelling the transaction 2114, settling the wallet (the system calculates the difference and offers the shopper the option of settling) 2116, and loading the wallet (the shopper is offered the opportunity to load more than the personal threshold to the wallet 2118). If the shopper chooses either to settle or to load the wallet, the system checks to see if payment details are available 2120. If not, the user selects the payment method and provides payment details 2122. Otherwise, the shopper completes the purchase 2202 and the system performs post purchase events 2204. Exceeding the threshold and the subsequent options may trigger an increase in the fraud score of the shopper. If a user is not registered, s/he may provide account details to create an account. The system may check the IP address to see if it is already attached to an existing account, and if it is, whether the account is active or inactive. After the account details are submitted, the system creates an account and sends the user an email with an activation link. The user is redirected to an account activation page. The shopping continues with the registration process by providing additional account information such as billing address and payment details. If the payment details are in use and assigned to another account, the system will increase the user's fraud score resulting in a low threshold. Microtransaction debits of wallets with positive balances are available when the threshold assigned to the shopper based on the shopper's risk score is exceeded. After a user selects an item to purchase and clicks a “buy” button to complete the purchase, the system checks to see if the shopper has exceeded his threshold, and, if he has, the shopper is notified about the threshold limit violation. The system may automatically fulfill the purchase, clear and debit wallet transactions in chronological order, and then performs post-transaction processing 2202. If payment details are missing, the purchase may be cancelled, or the shopper will be afforded a chance to add the payment details 2212. If payment details are not correct, for example, if the shopper's credit card has expired, the shopper is afforded a chance to correct the details or select another method, and proceed with the process. A virtual money wallet may be debited for microtransactions using reverse wallets as well, using a process similar to that used to debit a real money wallet. One click purchases for virtual microtransactions may be processed instantly. However, if a user selects an item which will exceed the threshold, the user is notified that the purchase will violate the threshold limit. As with real money, the shopper may be offered an alternative, in this case the ability to select a more expensive virtual currency package as proposed. If the shopper doesn't intervene, the system automatically fulfills the purchase. This means that when the shopper doesn't do anything, the purchase of virtual currency is fulfilled. It will be appreciated that the shopper must confirm to clear the wallet. The shopper is also able to cancel the transaction and select another offer which does not hit or exceed this personal threshold. The system clears and debits the wallet in chronological order and updates the fraud score and sets OnDeliveryNotification call. If payment details are missing, the user may cancel the purchase or supply the missing details. If the purchase is cancelled, the system will change the status of the transaction and update the user's fraud score. If the user provides the payment details, the system stores the details for future purchases and automatically fulfills the purchase. The system then clears and debits the wallet in chronological order, updates the fraud score and sets the OnDelivery Notification call. If the payment details are not correct, for example, if the credit card has expired, the system receives a credit card expiration error response and makes a second attempt using an expiration date in the future (e.g. stored value plus 3 years). If the transaction is successful, the system automatically fulfills the purchase, clears and debits the wallet in chronological order, updates the fraud score and sets the on Delivery notification. If the payment details are not correct, but are provided by the shopper or a different payment method is selected, the system presents the terms and conditions for user acceptance, stores the details for future use and completes the process as above. As such the virtual wallets are always cleared with each transaction. In the case that the shopper wants to purchase an offer that crosses the threshold and the system prompts him to clear the wallet, the system will clear threshold and completes the purchase of the offer in a single step (from shopper point of view). A real money reverse wallet may be cleared automatically by time or by detecting an exceeded threshold. A time period may be defined in which all wallets need to be cleared. When that time expires, the system automatically fulfills purchases to clear the wallet for any account/wallet with a negative balance. A purchase confirmation is sent by email to the shopper. The system clears the wallet and updates the fraud score. An on Delivery notification call is then sent. If payment details are missing or are not correct, the transactions proceed similar to the transactions above for debiting the real money wallet when insufficient funding is available. Some features may be alternatively performed by a customer service agent (CSA). As was mentioned above, fraud scores are updated frequently as per the rules configured by the game publisher. As the scores are updated, the threshold is updated to the threshold configured for the fraud classification identified by the user's fraud score. However, the threshold for registered users may also be updated by a CSA. The CSA may log into an administration tool, and increase or decrease the threshold. The system captures information regarding the change, such as the name of the CSA, a timestamp for the change, the previous and new thresholds, and a reason for making the change. As soon as the CSA saves the changes, the new threshold becomes available for the user. The CSA may also manually initiate a wallet clearance. Players and purchasers under the age of 18 are an important market segment that is challenging to monetize because of their lack of access to convenient payment methods like a credit card. To facilitate responsible application participation by children, accounts may be set up with parent-child relationships. This is particularly important for accounts on gaming sites, which allow parents to constrain their child's time and money spending. The parent-child controls allow the parent to control financial and operational details of the child's interaction with the game. In one representative environment for an in game commerce system, parent-child relationships apply to both user accounts and wallet functionality. Parent-child account relationships empower parents to control the online time budget of their children and control their child's real money spending within an online game. The owner of the parent account is empowered to define an exact rule set applicable to one or more related child accounts. This control can be achieved through various features, including determining which currency the child is allowed to use. In this parent-child relationship, various limits can be set for the child account, including: the maximum amount per month s/he can spend, maximum amount per transaction, whether the parent wallet is automatically refunded if a balance is insufficient, and the time budget allowable for the child to consume within a particular time frame. Additionally, the parent has total insight into the transactions, login history and the online time of the child account and can prohibit access or spending allowance at any time. FIG. 23 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow for creating the parent-child account relationships. To create the relationship, a child account must exist 2302. A parent may log in and create his/her own account 2304 and then search for the child's account by nickname, or other identifier 2306. The parent (or other appropriate adult, generally someone over the age of 18) sends an invitation with a message to the child, who will get an invitation in his inbox 2310. The child may either accept 2314 or decline 2316 the invitation. If the child accepts the invitation, the parent may then define rules for the child's accounts using their settings screens. The message sent by the parent 2308 may be a personal message or an external message. A personal message may contain a message directly from the parent to the child and a standard explanation about the parent-child relationship. A button on the message allows the child to confirm or reject the invitation. Clicking the button opens the personal message editor, and the child may create a response message to return to his/her parent. An external message contains the personal message of the parent and a standard explanation about the parent-child relationship. It also contains a link to confirm and a link to reject the invitation. Clicking the link directs the user to his or her message editor where he may compose a return comment. Various fields, such as the receiver and subject fields, may be prepopulated when the child clicks the button or link. FIGS. 24 to 26 illustrate an account settings page used to set up a parent-child relationship and configure the child's account as desired by the parent. In a preferred embodiment system, a “Settings” tab contains all the features required to configure child accounts with parental controls. For example, the first section 2402 allows the parent to enter the identifying information for the child. The next section 2502 allows the parent to set rule-based permissions, including amounts per transaction and per month 2504, and the cumulative length of time the child is allowed to spend playing the game each day or over the weekend 2506. An age restriction setting 2508 allows the parent to set or disable payment forms by country. The final section 2510 allows the user setting up the account to send a personalized message 2508 with the notification. FIG. 26 illustrates a notification of a successfully configured child account. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are alternative process flows for setting up parent-child relationships and alternative features may be added for which parents would control the in-application behavior of their children. For example, a parent account may be created before the child account. In this scenario, the parent account is already activated. The parent creates a child account and defines permissions for that account. The parent may send an optional notification message to the child account. The parent may create additional child accounts, if required, and assign permissions for those accounts. This parent-child relationship defines the use of the wallet of the parent account. No fund mergers or user control are fulfilled. Depending on the applied business logic, if a child account already has a wallet fund, it may be used before the parent wallet is debited. In addition to defining the time the child is allowed to spend in the online game per day and/or per month, the parent account owner may also assign a set of permission/rating roles on a child account level. These roles limit the type of content the child account owner is allowed to access. Finally, the parent-account owner is allowed at any given time to change the defined budget (time and/or money) or cancel the relationship altogether. Any of these changes will cause the dedicated history to be stored and made accessible in the activity section of the parent's account. If the relationship is canceled, the child account owner will receive notice through a personal and an external message. The child account owner may use the parent's wallet account after consuming the balance of his own wallet, depending on application settings. All transactions are stored in the child's transaction history. Transactions charged to the parent account wallet are identified as such on the activity history. An admin user interface has a view to a wallet balance including all child account transactions. The same detail as the parent account owner is presented in his web client account. In addition, a tab “Child Account History” lists the complete login and online time history structured in the same detail as the parent account owner in his/her web client account. The admin may change child account permissions and login rules on behalf of the parent account owner. Additionally, the parent-child relationship may be canceled via this view as well. Because of its highly modularized nature and comprehensive set of web services, an in-application commerce system and method allows the application publisher a great deal of flexibility in choosing the services that best suit its implementation. For example, if a publisher only required use of the wallet functionalities, the wallet, user management, reporting, customer care and wallet configuration modules and services would be enabled. A publisher wishing to implement an online store with a world class payment gateway would have the following modules enabled: user management/account system, payment gateway and taxation, primary market store, reporting/analytics and clearing, settlement, and invoicing. Web services provide a standard framework for distributed systems to communicate with each other. A preferred embodiment of an in-application ecommerce system and method exposes a large number of interfaces to the application. These interfaces can be grouped according to the general type of service they support. For example, services that facilitate account management include account service, inventory service, wallet service, messaging service and mail service. Services supporting storefront management include item service and search service, and services supporting purchasing include trading service, purchase service, post purchase service, fraud service and settlement service. Web services for processing payments may include adapters for each payment provider according to system requirements. Each will be discussed further below. All access to web-services preferably requires encryption in the form of secure socket layer (SSL), IP whitelisting or a dedicated virtual private network (VPN). Test systems may use a self-signed certificate that the application adds to their certificate store in order to access the environment. System to system authentication for all the application platform web-services follows a generic pattern. Each web service request includes a “key” element with the parameters such as those listed in Table 8. Only the “key” attribute is required, but it's strongly recommended that the optional parameters be provided to enhance traceability of transactions for fraud detection and system debug purposes. key.accountId No String The system account ID of the caller. Configured when the system is setup. An account service offers a variety of services, including, but not limited to, create user accounts, activate/deactivate users, view or modify customer profiles, view or modify risk profiles, upgrade user accounts to merchant accounts (for player-to-player trading). A remote account services module may require the use of a key to be used when calling the services via account services APIs. All requests are handled via web services (WSDL and SOAP). The account service is used to manage user profiles within the application platform. An account profile exists in the platform for all users including: system accounts (storefront servers, client back-end servers), back-office users (customer care users and system administrators), and consumers. Consumer accounts may have one or more identities in their account profile that can be used to represent sub-accounts within your applications. For example, an identity might exist for each avatar owned by a player. An Account Service manages user profiles, including system accounts, such as storefront servers and client back-end server accounts, back-office user accounts including customer care user and system administrator accounts, and consumer accounts. Consumer accounts may have one or more identities in their account profile that can be used to represent sub-accounts within your applications. For example, an identity might exist for each avatar owned by a player. A number of methods are used in a preferred embodiment of an Account Service and are listed in Table 9. getAccountDetails Fetches the account details of a user. define his default address for express checkout. details for particular user account. confirmMember Call to authenticate and activate user account. details of a particular or group of accounts. An Admin service manages client configurations. Admin Services methods are described in Table 10, below. setProperty Manage all client configs. An Admin web service manages access to web services. Admin Web Services methods are described in Table 11, below. Several methods are provided for performing customer service operations and are described in Table 12, below. findOfferDetail Retrieve all available details of a specific offer (eg. Several methods are provided for performing fraud service operations and are described in Table 13, below. The inventory service is used to add or delete items from the inventory of items offered for sale and are detailed in Table 14 below. The item service is used to create and manage item offers and some representative methods are listed in Table 15 below. The Mail Service delivers external email and methods associated therewith are listed below in Table 16. Messaging services create and retrieve messages for an account or identity and some of the methods are listed below in Table 17. The Notification Callback Web Service is an interface provided by the application system in order to receive notification of purchases made in the in-application commerce platform. Methods for this web service are listed in Table 18 below. In order to use this functionality, the application provider is required to implement and host a server offering a Notification API. The following situation provides an example of the Notification service. Jane wants to purchase a sword for her Quest character. She visits the Quest website and selects the sword she wants. She has sufficient wallet balance, so the Quest system immediately calls the purchaseOffer method on the in-application commerce platform. Upon successful completion of the purchase, the in-application commerce platform generates a web service call to the Quest servers to notify them of the transaction using a manually configured security key. The payment provider service provides web service interfaces between the in-application commerce system and payment providers and some representative methods are listed below in Table 19. The PostPurchase services methods listed in Table 20 provide functionality to complete a purchase transaction, such as confirming that a virtual item purchased by one player from another has reached the purchasing player's account and delivering merchant and buyer ratings. These services are primarily used for the secondary market, completing transactions between players. The web service reporting service retrieves bulk data for reporting according to application requirements and some representative methods are listed in Table 21 below. Search services allow searches on payments, transactions, offers, inventory, order details and player stores from the application to the in-application ecommerce system and method. Some representative methods for the search service are listed below in Table 22. The platform waits 28 days before collecting the revenues from all payment enablers, in order to clear all disputes before the revenue split is cleared and settled. Players need to register their payout method (e.g. PayPal) before any revenues are shared. Table 23 below lists several settlement related methods. The subscription service methods works with game subscriptions by storing and retrieving subscription status for every participant with a subscription. Some representative methods for this service are listed in Table 24 below. The Trading Service methods listed in Table 25 support the player-to-player market transactions. The Wallet Service with the methods listed in Table 26 is used to directly manage a user's wallet balances. The wallet balance is updated whenever a purchase is made using the storefront web services. This service is used for when you wish to directly manage a customer's balances. For example, to provide bonus points for referring a friend. SSL is required by the interface unless some other network level encryption or private connection is in place. master account is hold by client. Internal APIs communicate data among modules. Following in Table 27 is a list of internal APIs used in a preferred embodiment of an in application commerce system and method. It is to be understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of various embodiments of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of various embodiments of the invention, this disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of structure and arrangement of parts within the principles of the present invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. For example, the particular elements may vary depending on the particular provider systems used, such that different communication protocols may be organized or designed differently while maintaining substantially the same functionality and without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. applying application fraud controls in near real time to limit the features available to users within the risk classification, for subsequent user transactions, in response to the updated fraud score and the risk classification, the controls applied to at least one of the following application features available to the user: (i) offers, (ii) allowed payment types and (iii) reverse wallet thresholds, the application fraud controls changable in near real time as the user interacts with the internet-accessible on-line application. 2. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the internet-accessible on-line application comprises a game application and wherein event messages received at the communications module comprise at least game play and game commerce events. 3. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises adding a new friend within the on-line application such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a new friend was added within the on-line application. 4. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises accumulated actions over time within the internet-accessible on-line application such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that the particular user has accumulated actions over time within the internet-accessible on-line application. 5. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises a past suspension from the internet-accessible on-line application such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a reactivated user was previously suspended from the internet-accessible on-line application. 6. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises a suspension from the internet-accessible on-line application such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user was suspended from the internet-accessible on-line application. 7. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises a disputes to total purchases ratio such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user has dispute to total purchases ratio that indicates a higher risk than other users of the internet-accessible on-line application. 8. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet-accessible on-line application comprises a chargebacks to disputes ratio such that one of the fraud events comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user has a chargebacks to dispute ratio that indicates a higher risk than other users of the internet-accessible on-line application. 9. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the fraud defender module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to assign negative fraud points to the user account when a commerce event indicates a successful transaction occurring in the wallet. 10. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the fraud defender module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to: (i) receive a third party payment partners error response associated with a transaction on the user account and (ii) assign fraud points to the user account based on the received error response. 11. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the fraud defender module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to assign a particular risk class to the user account based on the fraud score and to limit the user account based on the assigned risk class to a limited number of particular payment forms. 12. The in-application fraud prevention, management and control system of claim 1 wherein the fraud defender module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to assign a particular risk class to the user account based on the fraud score and to limit the user account based on the assigned risk class to a particular user role. 13. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 1 wherein the user account further comprises a wallet with a personal threshold for spending that the user is allowed to spend in advance before the system clears the wallet and wherein the fraud defender module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to update the personal threshold based on changes to the fraud score for the user account. 14. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 13 further comprising a wallet module containing program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to: (i) receive a transaction request with an amount for a micropayment on a shopper order in the in-application e-commerce system, and (ii) debit the wallet based on a determining that the received transaction request amount is below the personal threshold. 15. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 13 further comprising a wallet module containing program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to: (i) receive a transaction request with an amount for a micropayment on a shopper order in the in-application e-commerce system, and (ii) notify the user that the personal threshold would be exceeded based on a determining that the received transaction request amount is above the personal threshold. 16. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 15 wherein the wallet module contains program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to load the wallet with an amount that exceeds the personal threshold based upon the user responding to a notification that the personal threshold would be exceeded. 17. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 13 further comprising a wallet module containing program code stored in memory which when executed by the processor in the server causes the server to clear the wallet once spending in the wallet has exceeded the personal threshold. 18. The in-application e-commerce system of claim 1 further comprising updating the risk classification applicable to the user in near real time as the user interacts with the internet-accessible on-line application in response to events communicated by the communications. applying fraud controls in near real time to limit the features of the internet application available to users within a risk classification, for the user's subsequent interaction with the internet application based on the user's updated fraud score and risk classification, where the controls are applied to at least one of the following features available to the user: (i) offers, (ii) allowed payment types and (iii) reverse wallet thresholds, the fraud controls changable in near real time as the user interacts with the internet application. 20. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises adding a new friend within the on-line application and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a new friend was added within the internet application. 21. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises accumulated actions over time within the internet application and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that the particular user has accumulated actions over time within the internet application. 22. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises a past suspension from the internet application and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a reactivated user was previously suspended from the internet application. 23. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises a suspension from the internet application and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user was suspended from the internet application. 24. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises a disputes to total purchases ratio and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user has dispute to total purchases ratio that indicates a higher risk than other users of the internet application. 25. The method of claim 19 wherein the particular user behavior occurring in the internet application comprises a chargebacks to disputes ratio and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning positive fraud points to the user account when a received event message indicates that a user has a chargebacks to dispute ratio that indicates a higher risk than other users of the internet application. 26. The method of claim 19 the user account further comprises a wallet and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account when a commerce event indicates a successful transaction occurs in the wallet. 27. The method of claim 19 the user account further comprising a step of receiving a third party payment partners error response associated with a transaction on the user account and wherein the assigning step comprises assigning negative fraud points to the user account based on the received error response. 28. The method of claim 19 the user account further comprising a step of assigning a particular risk class to the user account based on the fraud score. 29. The method of claim 28 the user account further comprising a step of limiting the user account based on the assigned risk class to a limited number of particular payment forms. 30. The method of claim 28 the user account further comprising a step of limiting the user account based on the assigned risk class to a particular user role. 31. The method of claim 28 the user account further comprising a step of limiting the user account based on the assigned risk class to one of: wallet transaction limits, particular storefront offers, and particular content available in the internet application. 32. The method of claim 19 wherein the user account further comprises a wallet with a personal threshold for spending that the user is allowed to spend in advance before the system clears the wallet and further comprising a step of updating the personal threshold based on changes to the fraud score for the user account. debiting the wallet based on a determining that the received transaction request amount is below the personal threshold. notifying the user that the personal threshold would be exceeded based on a determining that the received transaction request amount is above the personal threshold. 35. The method of claim 34 further comprising a step of loading the wallet with an amount that exceeds the personal threshold based upon the user responding to a notification that the personal threshold would be exceeded. 36. The method of claim 32 further comprising a step of clearing the wallet once spending in the wallet has exceeded the personal threshold. Aria Gaming Solutions, Web pages retrieved from URL:http://www.ariasystems.com. Retrieved on Nov. 22, 2011. Livegamer Web Pages Retrieved from URL:http://www.livegamer.com. Retrieved on Nov. 22, 2011. Lurie, Mark, Online Gaming Frauds, https://web.archive.org/web/20111108153006/http://rsi4u.org/onlinegamingfrauds/, Oct. 1, 2010. PlaySpan, Inc. Web Pages. Retrieved from URL:https://developer.playspan.com. Retrieved on Nov. 22, 2011. Vindicia Web Pages. Retrieved from URL:http://www.vindicia.com. Retrieved on Nov. 22, 2011.

2019-04-19T15:54:23Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9785988B2/en

Adam Schaeuble (PHD = Previous Heavy Dude) Reveals How to Transform Your Mind and Body for Success! What does it take for a man to turn his life around, both mentally and physically? Adam Schaeuble explains how men can transform their health and mental mindset and make these changes last. Adam’s personal transformation is a testament to anyone who can visualize what they desire, and place themselves into the feeling of accomplishing their goal, can achieve. Once you understand the power of having a coach, someone to keep you accountable, you can achieve your greatest desires, if you truly want it! ​Are you ready to get started on your transformation? Schedule a free "Breakthrough" Strategy Session and get a personalized plan in place for you. ​Hello, and welcome to the strong men podcast, empowering men to thrive. I'm Anthony Treas from strongmencoaching.com where I share how men can start thriving in their life with purpose, confidence, and determination to live their best years, yet. I'm ready to get into this next interview with Adam Shaeuble. He is a man on a mission. And I'm excited. Because one of the things I talk about is man needs mission, a purpose in his life. And Adam is definitely living his mission. His purpose, Adam, welcome to the strong men podcast. Anthony, my friend, I am psyched to be here. And I know what a big deal it is, as a fellow podcaster, I know what a big deal it is for somebody to share their platform and their audience and invite somebody else into that. So it's an honor to be here and I'm fired up man, I am on a mission. I'm ready to share what that's all about. I'm excited because we met in person and it was great to meet you in person and get a chance to talk to you. We were at the new media summit in San Diego, California. And it was great because I heard your story. You heard mine. It's exciting now to be talking to you here. And where are you located at. I am home based in Bloomington, Indiana, in the heartland which is not so heart healthy, so it's a good place for me to be, I guess, doing my thing. Perfect. Perfect. It's amazing. You know, we met in person San Diego. And we're here having this conversation. Sharing this information, getting this information out to more men. So, Adam, tell me about yourself. What got you to where you're at right now. Well, Anthony, about 10 years ago, I'll bring it back in the way back 10 years ago, I found myself in a place where I weighed 327 pounds. I was a large individual dealing with some depression. I was in debt. I had a relationship where I actually had some hope around, I'm like, all this could be, the one, this is the girl that I want to marry. And then she had just told me that she was going to move an hour away. And that was just kind of a soul crushing. So, all these just, downward spiral moments were happening simultaneously. And, I remember the exact moment when I hit rock bottom. I was in a grocery store, like I said, as well over 300 pounds, just thousands and thousands dollars of credit card debt. Not sure if I could pay for my groceries, if I had room on my credit card to pay for the unhealthy food I'm ready to put in my body. And I remember going home from that. For whatever reason, the first thing I see when I walk in the door is there's a DVD sitting on top of my DVD player, back in the age of DVD. And any like millennials, like what's that? So, the movie inside the TV, this DVD was sitting there collecting dust and my friends had been dropping not so subtle hints, hints that I was kind of a crap magnet, which is a it's a scientific term for somebody who you don't want to be around. Because I was that guy. I was that guy that like, you know, I used to be fun to be around. But now, I wasn't because I kind of that crap magnetism was rubbing off on other people. And I was a downer to be around. And I, that depression was spreading. And it was like a virus. So, they're giving me personal growth and personal development material. That DVD was called, The Secret - The Law of Attraction. And so, I had had been collecting dust, because obviously, I was too cool for any of that stuff. And I remember for whatever reason, like I said, I walk in, and I see it sitting there. And I was like, Okay, I don't know what this is. But I feel like I'm supposed to watch it. I watched it. That was my first exposure to any sort of personal growth, personal development, motivation material. And it lit me up. And I watched it over and over again. And I sat down that night. And I mapped out exactly the way that I wanted to turn my life around, and what I wanted my life to reshape as and what I wanted to look like. And I gave myself a five year deadline, I went through a process writing out exactly what I wanted to achieve. I set rules. Like if, there had to be a deadline and had to be positive, I had to be written as if it already happened. I had to read it out loud twice a day, as if it had already happened with feelings. So, it wasn't like so many people set goals. Anthony, and you know, that's where they're like, Oh, I'm going to try to lose 30 pounds. Like just just saying that out loud. But that's, that's a week statement. Like, I'm going to try to lose 30 pounds, you know, it happens, it happens. But with me, it was I'm going to weigh under 300 pounds. I feel amazing. Because I can shop anywhere. I'm in a successful relationship. And it gives me energy. And like, I would write it like that. And I would read it like that. It was empowering. Long story short, I did this every day. And I read my, I call it my lifestyle rehabilitation statement. Because that's what I was doing. I read it every morning to set my mindset, to set my mind, and basically turn the lights switch on where I could see opportunities in front of me. And that's how I got rid of my crap magnetism. I could see what I was trying to achieve, and what time opportunities were there in front of me each day. And at the end of the day, I would read it again, out loud with feeling. And I had to ask myself the question, did I move the needle in the right direction in any of these areas? If the answer was no, I had to do something before I went to sleep. before I'd lay my head on the pillow. I had to move the needle every day, even if it's just a tiny little blip, even if it's just okay, I just did 50 pushups. And I could say that I worked out that was pushing me towards one my goals are. I drink some water, where I send an email, I read a book or watch a DVD, whatever, I had to do something every day. And so the magic of this was, I showed up in this way, with this mindset every day for five years, and I achieved every single goal. I lost over 100 pounds. That girl that was moving away, her mortgage fell through, just this weird circumstances started to happen. Her mortgage falls through, she has nowhere to live. She moves in with me now, in one month, in one month and six days, we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary. I eradicated my debt, no debt. And as I started to lose weight, people sort of asked me what I was doing. I started helping other people. This became a business. This became a boot camp in that five year time span my hometown, I helped them lose 35,000 pounds in five years. So I created a company, created a business; I created a team. And five years later, I walked through my brand new facility. I was actually seven days late on opening up my own facility. I was kind of pissed about that one. And there's like a zoning thing, which is always it, you know, you know, the local government always gets you. So I walk in, and so five years and seven days before this, I was 327 pounds in debt, depressed, not sure where my life was going five years and seven days later, I got this whole lifestyle rehabilitation process. I walk in at 6am to a brand new 8000 square foot facility that I had envisioned in my mind for five years. I walk in the door there are 100 people there, which I had envisioned in my mind for five years. I walk in there are 100 people there ready to learn from me, that was just like the ignition point of how my life totally changed, totally rehabilitated and now it's just been building consistent momentum from them. So that's that's kind of the long story, shortish that's where we're at today. Where we're really building momentum and helping as many people as possible. Well, that's incredible Adam and it's incredible to hear your story and just kind of those those little things that happened that got you to the point. I think it's some ways you knew that you were not, you called it a crap magnet, you know, your life wasn't the way you wanted it to be. And it was just this little subtle things that were happening that were going on that eventually led to that point, if we could go back, because I know a lot of men who are listening they see you, they see me these they're like, Man, you know, they have it down there. They're doing amazing things. How could I ever get to that point? So let's go back to that point where, you got that DVD and you're obviously not to where you're at right now. What are some steps? Or what were the steps that you took you briefly mentioned them. But as far as like taking somebody who is right now that crap magnet not living, they're overweight, or they're unhealthy? What was it like for you? And what are some of the minor steps is we've talked about before you just don't go from zero to 100, there's these baby steps that you need to take, or it's just not going to last long. So what would you say? Well, that's a great topic to discuss, especially among men, Anthony, because you're a coach, I'm a coach, and you're working specifically with men. And I see a difference between the way us as men get in our own heads versus the way females, that we all do it. But it's a little bit different and with guys, it seems like obviously, we have to let go of male ego. We have to realize we need help. Yeah, that was, that was the first thing like, I need help, I need accountability. I cannot figure this out on my own. I have to tag people in. I started getting workout buddies and I started, we started setting goals together. And I became accountable. And that was huge. I became accountable to showing up for those goals. And that was, you know, me letting go of ego, saying I can't do this by myself. Now, the other thing is that we have to let go of what I refer to as the, "I'm not there, yet", syndrome. Where we measure in the wrong direction, whether you're male, female, whatever. One of my coaches is a guy named Dan Sullivan. And he started a company called Strategic Coach. And this is what he does, he shows entrepreneurs ways to be more successful. So, the way he describes it is, we're all in this journey. We have that goal way out in front of us, and where we struggle as we are facing that goal. And every time we tried to measure, we measure between where we're at now, versus that goal. Yes, the thing is. That's the horizon line that keeps moving forward. We never actually hit there, you know, quote, unquote, there, yes. Because we just set that new goal that we set a goal of losing 30 pounds, we hit it, and we go, Okay, I want to lose 40 pounds, duh, that's the next stair step. So, we never actually get there. So, we're continuously frustrated because we're not there. And so just like you said, people will hear my story or your story of this huge transformation. And then we will start to compare ourselves to that and say, Well, I'm not there, it's going to be really hard to get there. But what we have to do is let go of the, "I'm not there yet", start our own journey. And then when we measure, we stop, and we turn around and say, Look how far I've come. That's what I'm proud of. That's how we measure. We measure from where we started, not to where we want to get to, we're inspired by where we want to get to that drags us forward. But when we measure, we stop and say, Look how far I've come. And I'm proud of that. Whether it's it's podcasting with my weight loss or with my business, I always measure from where I started, and I celebrate that. That's something that I feel like everybody needs to a little bit more of. That's a great point. One thing that I learned. And this was something that really hit me not too long ago, actually, where we kind of do look at these people who are doing amazing things. They have great coaching practices, they have great companies, organizations, and we're like, how am I ever going to get to that point, right? Like, right, they also had to start from somewhere, they were just sitting on the couch, just like all of us, they were putting on their pants just like us. And it was like, one day, like, I'm gonna start making these changes in my life. And it's really going off for your own measure, you know, your own set of values, and your own set of internal reasons why you want what it is that you desire in your life. And for you, it was you just felt crappy, you weren't feeling your best and you lost a relationship. And then it kind of was just tumbling. And I know, there's a lot of men who are facing those consistent downfalls. They haven't got a win underneath their belt, what would you say for men right now, they're just like, they're struggling to get that first win, they're struggling to get that first step going. Well, I think one of the big things for me was shifting my focus, because it's so hard to do. But once we do it, it's kind of like, I felt like I was standing in a hallway. And there were doors that were opening for me, but I couldn't see him because the light was just off, the switch was off because I was being so negative. And all I was surrounded myself was the pressure of my debt, the pressure of my relationship, not working out, the pressure, how I felt, and you know, the lack of energy and the stress. All that and then when I decided, just like, okay, it was almost like an experiment, just allow yourself the opportunity to experiment and say, you know, for next 28 days, I'm not going to focus on stress. I'm going to, maybe you write out a lifestyle rehabilitation statement, like I do, and you read that and you focus on positivity, because that positivity, flipped the switch, and all of a sudden, the hallway is lit, and I could see the open doors. And because they were there, and you know this to Anthony, those opportunities are there, I just couldn't see them because I was I was focused in the wrong area, my headlights were facing the wrong direction. So, just, I would say an initial step. Shifting momentum is maybe the hardest damn thing we have to do. But we're worth it. I mean, we're worth it. And we have to realize that shifting momentum, the first part of that is stopping negative momentum. Because all of a sudden, people feel like, well, I'm going 1000 miles an hour in the wrong direction, I should be in one day, going 1000 miles an hour in the right direction. No, that's not how it works. We have to stop the with the boulder is rolling down the hill it is right now. We have to stop the boulder from rolling before we start pushing it back up. So, we have to absorb impact and start to slow down the boulder. Stop it. And then we can start pushing in the right direction. So just take a little bit of pressure off of ourselves, do a 28 day positivity focus experiment, and that's going to stop the boulder. And then we start to slowly build momentum. And we start to set goals. You start to get a little bit of traction, ooh, I just met somebody new, haven't got a relationship going, or I got a connection. I read a book, I'm fired up, I set a goal. I've got a roadmap. And then I'm sure you see it with your clients and things like they start to build momentum. And that is just like rocket fuel. And then you're going and then all of a sudden you push that boulder usually with a coach, a friend, a group of people, and we get to the top of the hill and we kick it over. And that sucker just rolls. That's where I feel like I'm at right now. And you know, not to say that I don't hit some mini mountains that I have to uncover. As an entrepreneur that's always there. Like my fitness facility right now is like, under attack by different fitness franchises and things coming into town and trying to steal my clients, like, stuff like that happens. Life isn't perfect. Yes. And I'm not famous or fancy at all. I'm like, the least famous, my podcast got ranked. Some body on Facebook was like, You're famous! I'm like, if that's true. I am absolutely the least famous, famous person. Because, I don't know, I don't know about this. But that's the first. The initial mindset is yeah, don't expect things to do this huge 360 degree shift in a day, you have to absorb momentum, stop the negative momentum and then start slowly shifting that slow shift turns into a pretty fast building a momentum as long as we show up consistently. And that's where like you and I can come in and help people and help them get the momentum going. Adam, I really appreciate your honesty. And you've said it a couple of times. And I'm not sure if people have caught on to this. But it is difficult, it ain't easy. You kind of have these situations, it's obviously a million different situations that people could be in. But when you're in the crap, it is difficult to imagine a better life. It's difficult to make that first step. But as you mentioned before, and I like the word that you use, and I've used it to before where it's experiment, experiment in the next two weeks, or next week. Just focus on a positive statement, or focus on something positive that lightens you up for whatever reason, or just something that and just focus on that for the next week, two weeks, a month, see what happens. You're worth it. You are worthy to live an exciting, healthy life. When you just accept that. And it can be difficult because of people's different situations, different things that are going on in people's life, it can be difficult, and you bring up a great analogy where your life pattern right now it has that momentum, the boulder is going downhill, it has that momentum. And so it will continue to go downhill unless you do something about it. And when you recognize that, stop, I got to do something different. Because I'm adding more momentum to what's going on in my life. So, for those who are struggling with weight, what would you say for them was kind of a message for those men who are listening is like, yes, I have some weight, I need to lose and it is difficult. One of the things that I try to do for people that are on a weight loss journey on a transformation journey with their health is there are a lot of people out there willing to try and they're willing to work hard. And what I try to do is shorten the learning curve by giving you a visual, like a roadmap of here's where you're at, here's what's wrong, here's how we build a bridge over that. And here's how we can get to that next level. So I created a process to describe where most people are stuck that call the black hole of fitness. Doom and Anthony, you've hung out with me a couple times. You know, I like to name things everything. So, the blackhole fitness Doom is a circle. So I want you guys to imagine a circle there for parts. The circle, the top arrow arrow kind of circling around to the right is we start something new, we're fired up. I just signed up for p90x, I just signed up for Weight Watchers. I'm doing a boot camp, I hired a personal trainer, I'm doing paleo. I'm doing QA. It doesn't matter, we started something new. Next arrow going down the right side of the circle is we get some initial results. Momentum happens because it's new, it's a new stimulus. We're excited about it, right. And then at the bottom of the circle, kind of circling around to an arrow around going around to the left side is what I call the "life happens moment". And this is where we make or break the transformation. If we are ready for this, we are successful, we have a successful transformation. If we are not ready, then we go to the fourth and final section of the left side of the circle called, the crash and burn. And so, life happens, whether that's stress, stress eating, job changes, financial issues, relationships, injuries, sickness, things that are simple, like my kids just got out of school and a transition in the schedule. Something that's simple, all of a sudden, oh, I can. Now I can't go to my boot camp class. Because my schedule is different. Whoops, I didn't start back on my schedule went back to normal. And now, it's been six months since I worked out and I've gained on my way back. So that little tiny life happens moment, or a big one like relationship change, a job change, injury, but it leaves that crash and burn. Here's the thing Anthony, people go around and around and around, never making any real progress. And this black hole fitness doom. That's exactly what it is. It eats people up. And every time they go around, less willpower, less hope, they're eating up, their finances, their energy, the time that they invest in this and it gets harder, it gets harder on our bodies. But it also gets harder mentally. Like I've been through this before I started a thing I lost the way I spent the money and then I just kind of lost it. The first step for somebody that's one to change is to realize where they're at in this process and say, oh, okay, here's exactly where I'm located. And here's the pattern that I tend to follow. The next visual I want to give you is that that goal, that road, that talked about earlier, where the goal is at the other end of the road, we're at one end the goals that the other and I want you to visualize a giant hole in the middle of the road. And what most people do is they say, okay, I've set a goal, I'm gonna march right down towards that goal. And that whole represents that life happens moment, right? And we walk and we fall in. Powerful. And it is these different transitions that we never really prepare for, right? We go on vacation, the holiday season, New Years, that's going to be a big one for you. New Year's, in our children's schedules, all these different things. And you bring up a great point, because that's life. Right now. Men who are listening who are parents end of August, September is going to come at some point in this kids going to go back to school or Christmas is going to come around or spring breaks into come around, these things are going to happen, no doubt about it. So it's preparing in advance for those transitions. 100%. I always tell people with their danger zones, the skill you need to acquire is how do you identify, analyze, and prepare ahead for those. And if you can do that you're going to win the game. You don't have to get it every time. But we can't just put on the blindfold and go Well, I hope the holiday season next year goes better than did this year because I put on 40 pounds? No, that's not gonna work. It's just like you and I are businessmen. No entrepreneur out there. Whatever. Go like, well, man, we were down $50,000 that month. Hope that does doesn't happen again. We're going to analyze that and make sure it doesn't happen again. Yeah, we have to run our bodies like our business, you know that health. We don't want to go out of business of our own health. So that gives me Yeah, yeah, that's, that's the worst possible scenario. So that's where I think about at least. Going back to the whole experiment thing, right? Where for a man is listening, okay, I'm going to do this for this time period, right? Let's say New Years, or whatever, or kids going back to school, and that whole transition period, I'm gonna do this, they experiment, they do something and then either at work, boom, write that down have that as your go to your game plan, right? you're developing your game book, like football, right? They have their game plan the other game book if it didn't work out, try something different. Is that kind of what you're encouraging? Yeah, I love a 28 day experimentation period. Especially with with health and fitness. And sometimes we don't give the plan enough time to work. Like I tried this for three days. I haven't lost 50 pounds yet. This isn't working. And guys, especially susceptible. That guys, yeah, and I'm speaking as a man. So yes, and attest to that. I like the 28 day experimentation period, I created a tool, I'll send you the link for I give out for free. It's my best. It's like my best stuff. I'm a terrible salesperson. So I just give my best stuff away. I called the transformation battle plan and workbook. It's a growing document. I'm on version 3.0. Now. It's getting bigger and bigger. It's about 15 pages long right now. But it's just a 28 day. It's exactly what it is. It teaches people how to map out their goals, their danger zones, their fitness game plan, their nutrition game plan, and really getting dialed into the processes that I teach people so that we are aware and we can learn and that's what it's all about. It's not about being perfect. That's where guys especially we really mess it up going like, Oh, it's not perfect. It's not the perfect time to lose weight. So I'm not even going to start. It's not the perfect, it's the holiday season. Why would I start eating healthy now. I'm going to wait until January. When if we can't be at our best, we can still do our best. That's something that we as men or women, you know, whoever we get into our heads of that perfection trap. And you know, I had a major injury a couple years ago, right? I was doing awesome. Of course, race, I tore my peck and total, you know, reattachment couldn't work out for six months. And now I'm like, I'm the healthy workout guy. And I'm, I got to teach classes and do all this. I had to figure it out. And a lot of people would be like, okay, you know, what, what do you do, like, well, I can work my abs like my legs. I can work my other arm. I can eat clean. I'm learning about injury and how to come back from that. I can inspire other people like podcasts about it. And you know, you got to make the best of a bad scenario sometimes. And see, we can dig up out of that just about momentum. You know this as well as I, I mean, it's just you're going to add momentum, no matter what direction it's going. Like, if it's going negative, you can add a lot of negative momentum. If it's going positive, you can add positive momentum. But, that's ultimately up to us. We have to take personal responsibility over that. And just like I said, Be consistent and show up and take action in that direction that we want ahead. Incredible. Adam, would you be willing to share a recent health transformation for a man that you'd been working with? Or something unique really happened with someone recently? Yeah, one of my newer clients from my hometown has a guy named Chuck and Chuck, he is over 60 years old. And he's somebody that's been, you know, on diabetes medication. And like I said, I'm not the best salesperson. And my, my advertising strategies in town are not the best. So like people, people will go and try everything else out. And then somebody will tell them about my gym. Like, you need to go and find Adam. And so he walks in, and he's like, dude, I wish I had this is exactly what I need is like, I wish I'd found you five years ago, I wasted a lot of money and time. I'm like, yeah, I'm awesome at marketing. So we plug them in. And whether somebody is in my hometown gym, or an online client, we're launching online boot camps and programs. The formula is the same, it's another thing that I named called the "amazing results formula". Consistency with nutrition. Consistently with your fitness is strategic thinking, which means understanding our danger zones and how to fix those. And then we show up those first three things consistently over time. So we apply that and Chuck just dug in a very positive, very motivated, has a big why and a why now, which is a concept that I learned from you, and now he is showing up in a big way as first eight weeks. He dropped 30 pounds in his first eight weeks or two months. But the really cool thing is, he's no longer on diabetes medicine. So yes, and then he shows up, you can see the confidence in his eyes. That's my compensation. Anthony. And that's like, you see that fire light up and like, oh, man, that guy gets it. And now he's already down like 45 plus pounds. And is the talk I have to have with guys especially, we aren't always so fashion forward. And I'm like, Chuck, you gotta get new clothes. Dude, you look good. Clothes are hanging off of you. You look like a flying squirrel. And you're just gonna hide or something. So I'm, you got to get away from the triple x shirts. Now. You know, you're, you're into an XL, you know. But all kidding aside, the guy is rocking it. And the thing I'm probably most proud of is just that there's a lot of health and fitness people out there where you go to their website and it's all about them. And it's like, look like me. And you know, you can one day be as, have ABS like me, you can be abtastic, like Adam. Like, if I really want to market it, "Abtastic like Adam". Maybe that'll be my new program. Yeah, I don't know. But I'm really, really proud that when you go to my website, you see a Rolodex of other people. That's the differentiating factor, in my opinion, as a fitness professional, that's able to make impact. They're gonna be people that are in great shape and good looking. They're great at marketing. There's the person that's leading by example, which I believe I do, I am in shape, I've lost 120 pounds, but I can teach other people how to do that and change their lives. That's the differentiating factor between somebody who's great at marketing some, that's great at coaching. And that's, I'm focused on the impact, like, you know, I've said, this million pound mission goal, that's what I podcast on, that's the name of my podcast, I'm kind of very accountable to that. And we're tracking it and I know I will never reach that million pound mark, unless I help thousands and thousands of people and inspire them and teach them so, you know, it's, it's on me to help as many people as possible and that's, that's something I'm just super proud of. And I feel like it's a message that's kind of needed out there right now. Absolutely. Now, Adam, did you say, Chuck, he got off some medications? Yeah, he's off his diabetes meds. He's no longer considered a diabetic, which is how huge that. Now I love that it's another person that's not taking medication you know, and it's oftentimes a lot of people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic or have family members who are diabetic who think that's just what's going to happen to me and it's a life sentence and, and so I love that because it's not true people can get off medications, people can decrease their blood sugar levels and eliminate medication so awesome. I love it. Thank you for for one less person putting more money into pharmaceuticals pockets you know. I love it. Yeah, I've got I've got one other one other quick funny story popped into my mind I have to tell it because I feel like it'll resonate with like 99% of your of our audience here. We're guys we think a certain way. So, I had another guy that was on meds, a blood sugar, blood pressure med guy this was this guy's mindset. I have people track their water and I have them report every single day. They have to send a report to their accountability coach or we chase them down. It is not an option alright. So he sends his first day report and our coaches like, excuse me john light beer doesn't count towards your water goal. And like I know a lot of guys are like, what? It's basically water, ah, no. So that was his initial mindset of like, okay, light beer is water that's healthy. So we took him from that point to again a few months down the road. He's down like 60 pounds. But then he still like fighting the whole health thing. He's in a class he's getting lightheaded, he's like Adam I love all this stuff. But he's like I feel like this healthy eating, man, it's causing all this lightheadedness and like, he's like, serious. I'm like, think like broccoli and chicken is causing you to be lightheadness. I said, dude, it's time for you to get off the blood pressure meds. I guarantee you've lost weight. Your hydration is better. You're not drinking light beer is water anymore. And you are healthier. I said go to Dr. Let's see what they say. And that was the deal. It wasn't like the healthy food. He was hoping, gahh. I really need to start eating pizza every day game is as good as my head. But the doctors like okay, we don't have to take these blood pressure medicine anymore. It was actually lowering his blood pressure so low. He'd get up from doing the whole Yeah. And up and he's lightheaded because it's in his elevation. So that's just another example of men being men and kind of fighting the health thing a little bit, but letting go of the ego and realizing I can't help myself and I can turn my health around. So that's another good example. Yeah, that's powerful. And I'm really glad you said, hey, go see your doctor. And that it wasn't you telling me Stop your medication? Yeah, yes. everyone listening? Don't stop your medications. Go to your doctor. Yes. Powerful. Adam. Outstanding stuff. I love it, man. You're doing an amazing work. And I hope that yes, more men will find you and lose the weight. We do need more healthier Americans. You're doing a great job, especially as you mentioned, in your area, and around States and around the world. So any last message for the men listening who are maybe just sitting on the fence? Or maybe they just need just to hear another positive word of what would you say to them? Adam, how can people find you? Yeah, if you guys just go to my website, millionpoundmission.com. That's the hub. I really would love to have you guys check out my podcast million pound mission. I put out three episodes a week, and I light it up. It's high energy. And one other just real quick request for for listeners of the show. I'm super proud of Anthony. I feel like his voice needs to get out there. His message is needed. So I really want you guys to help promote his show, share out his stuff. But also go into iTunes and leave a rating and review. And if you liked this episode, specifically, wanted to mention the PhD, which that's me the "previously heavy dude" and let me know what you thought of our episode. But that helps with getting Anthony's message out there. If you're gonna do one thing, one action step that would be something if you got anything out of this feel like you want to pay it back a little bit then leave Anthony nice five star review on it tunes and that would be awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you for your message. Thank you for what you are doing across the world and for helping to improve the health and wellness of people who are then going to go out and do amazing things in their life and make this world a better place. So thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for being here strong men podcast, and for all those listening. I'm Anthony Treas from strongmencoaching.com and until next time, stay strong!

2019-04-20T16:10:39Z

http://strongmenpodcast.com/building-a-strong-mind-and-body-with-adam-schaeuble/

Nov 18, 2006 - than Rs 145,000 crore rupees in the Indian stock market and they have ... of this value, but here log is not used to avoid the negative sign. Does the REIT Stock Market Resemble the General Stock Market? Jun 17, 2011 - To give a specific example, it is clear that Charles Dickens and ..... half to a quarter as large (e.g., O'Brien 20 bp on day t + 1, Pettit -6 bp on. arise in business as well as scientific decision-support appli- cations ... 102 clusters (e.g. “Computers (Hardware)”, “Oil and Gas”, ... First of all, the best clustering. Bernanke and Gertler (2000) estimate a forward looking policy rule aug- ...... era known as the Volcker-Greenspan period) and assessing the importance. efficiencies of the DAX, MDAX, SDAX and ASE indices. By ..... Asia-Pacific Capital Markets School of Economics and Finance, Curtin. University of Technology ... Voit, J. (2001), 'The Statistical Mechanics of Financial Markets', Springer,. Berlin. of the markets, the market as a whole or the price of an individual stock may act ... the bubble usually does occur rapidly as a stock's market price reverts back to,. It is well knownthat stock returnsby themselves achieve respectable R2 's in forecasting investment changes in aggregate data.' If stock returnsareinfectedby sentiment,andif stockreturnspredictinvestment, then perhapssentimentinfluencesinvestment. There is also evidence, however, thatinvestmenthas not alwaysrespondedto sharpmovements in stock prices. Forexample,realinvestmentdidnot seem to rise sharply during the stock market boom in the late 1920s. Nor was there an investmentcollapseafterthe crashof 1987.2It remainsan open question, then, whetherinefficientmarketshave real consequences. In this paper, we try to address empiricallythe broaderquestion of how the stock marketaffects investment. We identifyfour theories that explain the correlationbetween stock returns and subsequent investment. The firstsays thatthe stock marketis a passive predictorof future activity that managersdo not rely on to makeinvestmentdecisions. The second theory says that, in makinginvestmentdecisions, managersrely on the stock marketas a source of information,which may or may not be correctaboutfuturefundamentals.The thirdtheory, whichis perhaps the most common view of the stock market's influence, says that the stock marketaffects investmentthroughits influenceon the cost of funds and external financing. Finally, the fourth theory says that the stock marketexerts pressureon investmentquite aside fromits informational andfinancingrole, because managershave to caterto investors'opinions in orderto protect theirlivelihood. For example, a low stock price may increase the probability of a takeover or a forced removal of top management.If the marketis pessimistic about the firm's profitability, top managementmaybe deterredfrominvestingheavily by the prospect of furthererosion in the stock price. The first theory leaves no room for investor sentimentto influence investment, but the other three theories allow sentiment to influence investmentthroughfalse signals, financingcosts, or marketpressureon managers.Ourempiricalanalysis looks for evidence on whether sentiment affects investment throughthese three channels by investigating whether the component of stock prices that is orthogonal to future economic fundamentalsinfluencesinvestment. 1. See Bosworth (1975), Fama (1981), Fischer and Merton (1984), Barro (1990), Sensenbrenner(1990),andBlanchard,Rhee, andSummers(1990). 2. Barro(1990);Blanchard,Rhee, andSummers(1990). Our tests measure how well the stock market explains investment when we control for the fundamentalvariables both that determine investment and that the stock market might be forecasting. These fundamentalvariablesserve as a proxyfor the profitabilityof investment projectsas well as for the availabilityof internalfunds for investment.3 Essentially,we ask, "Suppose a managerknows the futurefundamental conditions that affect his investment choice. Would the managerstill pay attentionto the stock market?"If the answeris yes, then there is an independentrole for the stock market, and possibly for investor sentiment, in influencinginvestment.The incrementalabilityof stock returns to explaininvestment,whenfuturefundamentalsare held constant,puts an upperbound on the role of investor sentimentthat is orthogonalto fundamentalsin explaininginvestment. For example, suppose that stock prices forecast investment only to the extent thatthey forecastfundamentalfactorsinfluencinginvestment. In this case, that part of stock prices-including possible investor sentiment-that does not help predictfundamentalsalso does not help predict investment. Thus, investor sentiment may affect stock prices independentof future fundamentals,but that influence does not feed throughto investment. If, conversely, the stock markethelps predict investment beyond its ability to predict future fundamentals, then investor sentiment may independentlyinfluence business investment, through the channels of false signals, financing costs, and market pressureon managers. Ouranalysisproceeds in several steps. In the firstsection, we review the evidence and theory behindthe idea that investor sentimentaffects stock prices. In the second section, we describe several views on why the stock marketmightpredictinvestment,and how investor sentiment mightitself influenceinvestmentthroughthe stock market.In the third section, we describe the tests that we use to discover how the stock market influences investment. The fourth and fifth sections present evidenceusingfirm-leveldatafromthe COMPUSTATdatabase bearing on the alternativeviews. The next two sections turn to the aggregate datathatmost studiesof investmentexamine. The finalsection presents ourconclusions. Investor Sentiment and the Stock Market Since RobertShiller'sdemonstrationof the excess volatilityof stock market prices, research on the efficiency of financial markets has exploded.4In subsequentwork, Shillersuggestedthatfads andfashions, as well as fundamentals, influence asset prices.5 Eugene Fama and KennethFrenchas well as JamesPoterbaandLawrenceSummershave managedto detect mean reversion in U.S. stock returns.6While this evidence is consistent with the presence of mean-revertinginvestor sentimenttowardstocks, it is also consistent with time-varyingrequired returns. Perhaps more compelling evidence on the role of investor sentimentcomes from the studies of the crash of October 1987. Shiller surveyed investors after the crash and found few who thought that fundamentalshadchanged.7Nejat Seyhunfoundthatcorporateinsiders aggressivelyboughtstocks of theirown companiesduringthe crash, and made a lot of money doing SO.8 The insiders quite correctly saw no change in fundamentalsand attributedthe crash to a sentiment shift. The thrustof the evidence is that stock prices respondnot only to news, but also to sentimentchanges. Follow-up studies to the work on mean reversion attempt both to prove the influenceof investor sentimenton stock prices and to isolate measuresof sentiment.Onegroupof studiesconcernsclosed-endmutual funds-funds that issue a fixed numberof shares, and then invest the proceeds in other traded securities. If investors want to liquidatetheir holdings in a closed-end fund, they must sell their shares to other investors, and cannotjust redeem them as in the case of an open-end fund. Closed-end funds are extremely useful in financial economics because it is possible to observe both their net asset value, which is the marketvalue of their stock holdings, and their price, and compare the two. A well-knowncharacteristicof closed-endfunds is that their stock priceis often differentfromtheirnet asset value, suggestingthatmarkets are inefficient. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Shiller(1981). Shiller(1984). FamaandFrench(1988);PoterbaandSummers(1988). Shiller(1987). Seyhun(1990). In fact, BradfordDe Long, AndreiShleifer,LawrenceSummers,and Robert Waldmann,following the work of MartinZweig, have argued that the averagediscount on closed-end funds can serve as a proxy for individualinvestorsentiment.9Whenindividualinvestorsarebearishon stocks, they sell closed-end funds as well as other stocks. In doing so, they drive up the discounts on closed-end funds (that is, their price relative to those of the stocks in their portfolio) because institutional investors typically do not trade these funds and so do not offset the bearishnessof individualinvestors. Conversely, when individualsare bullish on stocks, they buy closed-end funds so that discounts narrow or even become premiums.CharlesLee, Andrei Shleifer, and Richard Thalerpresentevidence suggestingthatdiscountsmightindeed serve as a proxyfor individualinvestorsentiment.10We will not reviewthe theory andevidence here, butwilluse closed-endfunddiscountsas one measure of investorsentiment,andwill studytherelationshipsbetweendiscounts, investment,and externalfinancing. The empirical evidence on the potential importance of investor sentimenthas been complementedby a range of theoreticalarguments thatexplainwhy the influenceof sentimenton stock prices would not be eliminatedthrough"arbitrage."Arbitragein this context does not refer to riskless arbitrage,as understoodin financialeconomics, but ratherto risky, contrarianstrategies whereby smart investors bet against the mispricing.StephenFiglewskiand RobertShillerhave both pointedout that when stock returnsare risky, arbitrageof this sort is also risky and thereforenot completelyeffective."IFor example, if an arbitrageurbuys underpricedstocks, he runs the risk that fundamentalnews will be bad andthathe will take a bathon whathadinitiallybeen an attractivetrade. Because arbitrageis risky, arbitrageurswill limitthe size of theirtrades, and investor sentiment will have an effect on prices in equilibrium. Othershave takenthis argumentfurther.12 They pointout thatif investor sentimentis itself stochastic, it adds furtherrisk to arbitragebecause sentiment can turn against an arbitrageurwith a short horizon. An arbitrageurbuying underpricedstocks runs the risk that they become even more underpricedin the near future, when they mighthave to be 9. De Longandothers(1990);Zweig(1973). 10. Lee, Shleifer,andThaler(1990). 11. Figlewski(1979);Shiller(1984). 12. De Longandothers(1990). sold. This noise-traderrisk makes arbitrageeven riskier, allowing the effects of sentimenton prices to be even more pronounced.The upshot of these models is that the theoreticalargumentthat arbitrageprevents investor sentimentfrominfluencingprices is simplywrong. Most models of investor sentimentdeal with sentiment that affects the whole stock marketor at least a big chunk of it. When sentiment affects a large number of securities, leaning against the wind means bearing systematic risk, and is therefore costly to risk-aversearbitrageurs. If, in contrast, sentiment affects only a few securities, betting againstit meansbearingonly theriskthatcanbe diversified,andtherefore arbitrageurswill bet more aggressively. Thus, investor sentiment can have a pronouncedeffect on prices only when it affects a large number of securities. This conclusion holds in a perfect capital market, with no trading restrictions or costs of becoming informed about the mispricing of securities. More realisticallythough, arbitrageis a costly activity and arbitrageresourceswill be devoted to particularsecuritiesonly if returns justify bearingthe costs. As a result,investorsentimenttowardindividual securitieswill not be arbitragedaway andwill affecttheirprices, because arbitrageurs'fundsandpatienceare limited.If a stock is mispriced,only a few arbitrageurswouldknow aboutit. 13Those who do know may have alternativeuses for funds, or may not wait until the mispricingdisappears.14 Waitingis especially costly when arbitragerequires selling a securityshort, and regulationsdo not give the short seller full use of the proceeds. Moreover,takinga largeposition in a securitymeans bearing a large amount of idiosyncraticrisk, which is costly to an arbitrageur who is not fully diversified. Finally, as stressed by Fischer Black, arbitrageursoften cannotbe certainhow mispriceda securityis, further limitingtheir willingnessto tradein it.15 All these costs suggest that the resources leaningagainstthe mispricingof any given security are quite limited, and, therefore, even idiosyncratic investor sentiment may influenceshareprices. To conclude, recent research has produced a variety of empirical evidence suggestingthat investor sentimentinfluences asset prices. A parallel research effort has demonstrated that the usual models in 13. Merton(1987). 14. Shleiferand Vishny(1990). 15. Black(1986). financial economics, in which investors are risk averse, imply that investor sentimentshould affect prices. The argumentthat marketwide investor sentiment affects prices is particularlystrong, but one also expects firm-specificsentimentto affect individualstocks. These theories and evidence raise the obvious question:does the effect of investor sentimenton stock pricesfeed throughto businessinvestmentspending? To address this question, we first review how stock prices affect investmentin general. The active informanthypothesis assigns a greaterrole to the stock market.It says thatstock pricespredictinvestmentbecausethey convey to managersinformationuseful in makinginvestment decisions. This informationcan accurately,or inaccurately,predictfundamentals.Even when the stock marketis the best availablepredictor,it can err due to the inherent unpredictabilityof the fundamentals, or because stock prices are contaminatedby sentiment that managerscannot separate from informationabout fundamentals.Even if the stock marketsends an inaccuratesignal, the informationmay still be used and so the stock returnwill influenceinvestment. The market can convey a variety of informationthat bears on the intrinsicuncertaintyfacinga firm-such as futureaggregateor individual demand.Alternatively,the marketcan reveal investors' assessment of the competence of a firm's managersand their ability to make good 16. Seyhun (1986, 1988). Accordingto the two previous hypotheses, the stock market'smain role is to convey information:in the firstcase to the econometrician,and in the second case to the manager.The next two views assign the stock marketa more active role. Many people believe that the stock market plays a key role in helpingfirmsraise capital.This applies to new firms, in the case of initialpublicofferings(IPOs),andto more seasoned firms. The valuationthatthe marketassigns to a company'sequitydetermines the cost of capitalto thatcompany,a pointmadeby StanleyFischerand RobertMertonamongothers.17 The higherthe valuation,the cheaperis the equity. When the stock market is efficient, firms cannot find a particularlyadvantageoustime to undertakeequity finance. However, when the stock marketis subjectto investorsentiment,firmscan choose equity finance when the marketovervalues them, makingthe cost of capitalirrationallylow. As pointedout by OlivierBlanchard,ChangyongRhee, andLawrence Summers,in a sentiment-infectedstock market,rationalmanagersmight not invest the proceeds from a new share issue.'8 Fischer and Merton presumethat firmsfor which funds are irrationallycheap will invest in marginalprojects.At a rationalcost of funds, these projectswould have a negativenet presentvalue.19Blanchard,Rhee, and Summerspointout that firmsinstead may issue the overvaluedequity and then invest the proceeds in financial securities, which are zero net-present-valueinvestments, ratherthan in negative net-present-valueprojects. In other words, firmsissue equity when equity is overpriced, but issue debt or financeinternallywhen equity is not overpriced;investmentis the same in either case. The Blanchard-Rhee-Summers view implies that even if 17. FischerandMerton(1984). 18. Blanchard,Rhee, andSummers(1990). 19. FischerandMerton(1984). Even withoutconveyingany informationto the managers,or affecting the cost of securityissues, the stock marketcan influenceinvestmentby exerting pressure on managers. For example, if investors dislike oil companies and drive down the prices of their shares, then, for fear of beingfiredortakenover, managersof oil companiesmighttryto disinvest and diversify, even if furtherinvestment in oil is profitable.If market participantsvote theirsentimentby sellingand buyingstocks, and if the hiringandfiringof managersis tied to the performanceof the stock, then these votes will affect investmenteven if they are uninformed. Oneparticularversionof this hypothesisis the shorthorizonstheory.20 When arbitragefunds are limited, smartinvestors are reluctantto buy andholdunderpriced,long-terminvestmentprojectsbecausemispricing takes a long time to be corrected.2'Managerswho are averse to low stock prices, for fear of being firedor taken over, will avoid these longterminvestmentseven if these projectshave a positive net presentvalue. Thus, investor sentimentcan affect investment. The crucialimplicationhere is that the stock markethas an influence on investmentbeyond its influencethroughfinancingcosts and beyond its abilityto predictfuturefundamentals.After controllingfor financing costs andfundamentals,the stock marketstill affects investment.In this respect, the marketpressurehypothesisresemblesthe faulty informant version of the active predictorhypothesis. The main difference is that false signals are most likely to be listened to when they come from the aggregate market, but are unlikely to influence an individual firm's managerswhen they are idiosyncratic. In contrast, while the market pressurehypothesismayapplyon the aggregatelevel, it is most plausible at the individualfirmlevel. Therefore,the findingof a residualrole for the stock marketwould have differentinterpretationsin aggregateand cross-sectionalregressions. 20. Stein (1988); Shleifer and Vishny (1990). 21. Shleifer and Vishny (1990). Empirical Design The empiricalapproachtakenin this paperis somewhatatheoretical. We use a fairlyunstructuredapproach,placingfew restrictionson how stock returns enter the investment equations in order to allow the maximum scope for the stock market to affect investment. For our analysis, we regressinvestmentgrowthon stock returnsandthe growth in fundamentalvariablesin orderto see how importantthe stock market is after controllingfor fundamentals.The idea of these regressionsis to ask, "If managersknew futurefundamentals,would orthogonalmovements in shareprice still help predicttheirinvestmentdecisions?" We do not attemptto estimateconsistentlythe structuralparameters of the investment and financingequations, as we are not preparedto makethe necessary identifyingassumptions.Realizingthatinvestment, financing,and fundamentalsare all simultaneouslydetermined,we still wish to interpretour quasi-reduced-formresults as evidence on a more narrowquestion-the incrementalexplanatorypower of the stock market in predictinginvestment. Even with this more modest objective in mind, our interpretationof the evidence still rests on several key assumptionsdiscussed below. To identifythe role of investor sentiment,we focus on the merits of the faulty informant,financing,and marketpressureviews of the stock market,withthe caveat thatthe faultyinformantview makesmore sense in aggregate data than in cross-sectional data.22The financing view predictsthatthe mainlinkfromthe stock marketto investmentis through financing;therefore, we examine financingdata to evaluate this view. Our tests of the faulty informantand market pressure views are less direct. Essentially, these views maintainthat the stock marketplays an independentrole in predicting investment beyond the informationit providesabout futurefundamentalsand beyond its effect on financing. It is importantto stress that we can never reject the null hypothesisthat investorsentimentdoes not affect investmentthroughthe stock market. 22. Because the accurate active informantview involves perfectly correct signals about future fundamentals,there is no room for the irrationalinfluence of investor sentiment.This hypothesis,therefore,is irrelevantto this discussion.We also ignorefor the time being the passive informantview because in it the stock market,and thereby investorsentiment,do not influenceinvestment. where Al, is the investmentgrowthrate in year t, AF, is the growthrate of fundamentals-cash flow and sales-in year t, R,_ 1is the stock return in year t - 1, and AN, is the form of financingin year t, which includes debt,and equity issues.23Like most researchers,we run all our regressions in changes rather than levels because residuals in the levels regressionsare serially correlated.For example, in the firm-leveldata the "fixed effect" is the dominant influence in the investment-level equations,andone gets little informationaboutwhatdrivesyear-to-year changes in investment from these equations. Moreover, the crosssectionalrelationbetweenthefixedeffect andthefundamentalsproduces some perverse results, with nothingbut industryhavingmuch explanatory power. The financinghypothesis says that addingfinancingvariablesshould helpexplainthe variationin investment.The coefficientson the financing variablesin equation3 shouldbe significantandlarge,andthe incremental R2, as we move from equation 1 to equation 3, should be large. Moreover,if financingreallyis the mainchannelthroughwhichthe stock marketaffects investment, then moving from equation 3 to equation4 shouldproducean insignificantcoefficienton the laggedmarketreturn, and shouldcertainlynot raise the R2much. Finally, if the financingview is important, then, as we move from equation 2 to equation 4, the coefficient on the lagged return should fall, since the sensitivity of investmentto returnshouldbe reducedonce the financingvariablesare includedin the regression. The faulty informantand marketpressurehypotheses say that stock returnsshould help explain investment beyond their ability to predict 23. A slightlyricherlag structureis allowedfor in the aggregatedata. the firm'sfundamentalconditionsandbeyondtheirimpacton financing. If so, the coefficienton R,_ shouldbe significantin equation2, and the R2 in equation2 should be much largerthan in equation 1. Also, when we controlfor financingas well as for fundamentals,the returnvariable in equation4 should be significantand the incrementalR2 in equation4 relativeto equation3 shouldbe large. If the stock returnhas significant explanatorypower for investment beyond its effect on fundamentals andfinancing,marketsentimentvery possibly influencesinvestment. Of course, we may not have specifiedthe full set of fundamentals.In that case, the stock marketmattersonly to the extent that we have an omittedvariable,and the role of investor sentimentmay evaporatewith its inclusion. That is, the stock marketmay prove an "accuratepassive informant"even if we find that equation 4 explains investment much betterthanequation3. Ourexercise is still useful, however, because the incrementalR2, as we movefromequation3 to equation4, is an estimated upperboundon how muchof the variationin investmentcanbe explained by sentiment.A small incrementalR2 implies that investor sentimentis probablynot very important.If the R2 is large, the presumptionthat sentimentis importantgains strength. This approach raises several conceptual issues. First, our market value variableis a stock returnratherthana changein q, the ratioof the firm'smarketvalue to replacementcost.24Since both the capital stock and the marketvalue of debt move much more slowly than the market value of equity, the practicaldifferencebetween using stock returnsand changes in q is fairly small. Robert Barro conducts an empiricalrace between these approaches,and finds that the data favor stock returns over changes in q.25 He attributesthis findingto the fact that the capital stock is measuredwith error.Because we are interestedin allowingthe maximumscope for the stock market to predict investment, we use returnsratherthanchangesin q in our analysis. Second, by focusing only on the incrementalexplanatorypower of stockreturns,we mayunderestimatethe scope for sentimentto influence investment. Because sales, cash flow, and investment are all simultaneouslydetermined,some of the investmentvariationexplainedby sales may actually be driven by stock returns. For example, suppose that a 24. Since Brainardand Tobin(1968)firstused q, manyothers have followed in their steps-Blanchard, Rhee, and Summers(1990),Hayashi(1982),and Summers(1981). 25. Barro(1990). good stock return raises investment, which in turn improves sales throughlargercapacity or lower variable costs. Controllingfor sales, we mightfindonly a smalleffect of the stock returnon investment,even whenthe trueeffect is large.We arguebelow thatthe datado not support this view, andassumethat, at least over ourone- to three-yearestimation period, stock returnsare not an importantdrivingforce behindthe sales process. A relatedconcernis that investor sentimentis sometimesconsidered an overreactionto fundamentalnews. In fact, some recent evidence on stock returnssuggests that fads and fundamentalsare positively correlated.26If so, we may be underestimatingthe explanatory power of investor sentiment, because our tests focus only on its incremental explanatorypowerover andabove fundamentals.The powerof ourtests will be particularlylow if the stock marketoverreacts to fundamentals in a uniformfashion across all firmsat all times. If this is not the case, however, our tests should detect some of the effects of overreaction. Our only goal is to calibrate the role of investor sentiment that is orthogonalto fundamentals. A finalconceptualissue is how to measurethe importanceof sentiment in explaining investment. Focusing on the incremental R2 and the parameterestimate on stock returns,we pretty much ignore t-statistics in the firm-levelregressions.We do so because most variablesare highly significantwith severalthousandobservations.The t-statisticswill play a largerrole in our discussion of the aggregatetime series evidence. We do not rely on R2 to choose between two specifications on a statisticalbasis. Ratherwe use incrementalR2'sto gaugethe fractionof all investment variationthat is conceivably due to investor sentiment. Because investment is extraordinarilyvolatile, especially at the firm level, even fairly large regression estimates of the marginaleffect of stock returnsmay not explain much of the variationin investment. A largecoefficienton stock prices indicatesthatthe stock marketcan help predict significantchanges in investment. Yet, if the incrementalR2 is low, an irrationalstock marketis an unlikelycause of widespreadunderor overinvestmentin many sectors of the economy, since stock market behaviorhelpspredictonly a smallfractionof the variationin investment. 26. BarskyandDe Long (1989);Campbelland Kyle (1988). Evidence from Firm-Level Data Most of the recent empiricalwork on the ability of stock returnsto forecastinvestmenthas focused on aggregatedata. Yet we would argue that cross-sectional data are equally important.The distortion of the allocation of capital across firms that could arise from deviant share prices may be a greatersource of harmthanthe false signalsthat distort aggregate investment. Investment variation over the business cycle caused by false signals from the stock market largely amounts to intertemporalsubstitutionof investment.Misallocationof capitalacross sectors, however, can lead to more permanentdamage, as socialist economiesillustrate.Also, it seems likelythatthe stock marketallocates investmentacross sectors and firmsthroughrelative shareprices more than it allocates investment over time throughthe variationin returns over time. We thereforebegin by examiningthe relationshipbetween relativestock returnsand investment. Our main empiricalresults are based on the analysis of annualdata from the COMPUSTATdata base between 1960and 1987.The sample was constructedby Bronwyn Hall.27Because the coverage of firmsby COMPUSTAThas expandedgreatly over time, we have only 93 firms in 1960,risingto 1,032firmsin 1987.The sources andconstructionof all the dataare describedin the appendix. The investment variable we use is the growth rate of real capital expendituresexcludingacquisitions.The two measuresof fundamentals are the growth rates of sales and cash flow, which we believe are the most importantfundamentaldeterminantsof investment. We use sales growthas a measureof fundamentalsbecause it reflectsfuturedemand for the firm'sproductsand serves as a measureof investmentprofitability. Cash flow measures fundamentalsboth because it reflects current (andpresumablyfuture)profitabilityandbecauseitfacilitatesinvestment if a firmis constrainedin the capitalmarket.28Ourcash flow variableis after-taxcorporateprofits(net of interestpayments)plus depreciation, and therefore closely approximatesthe inflow of funds available for investment. We have also experimentedwith other proxies, such as 27. Cummins,Hall, Laderman,and Mundy(1988). 28. Fazzari,Hubbard,andPetersen(1988). Because we arelookingat a cross-sectionof firms,we computecapital asset pricingmodel (CAPM)alphas(abnormalreturns)for all firms.We do that by regressingeach firm's returns net of Treasury bill (T-bill) returnson the returnof the value-weightedmarketindex net of the Tbill return, using monthly data for the whole sample period. The regression coefficient on market return is the firm's beta, which is assumed to be constant duringthe whole period. We then define alpha as the residualin the regressionfor each firm. In a given year, alpha is the firm'sexcess stock returnin that year, where returnsare cumulated exponentially. If the CAPM is an inappropriatemodel for generating expected returns,our alphasmay compensatefor risks thatare not allowedfor by the CAPM. In that case, a high alpha may be due to a high expected 29. Theoretically,it is not clearwhetherchangesin investmentshouldbe predictedby the level of issuingactivity or by the changes in issuingactivity. Using changeshas the problemthat changes are negative after a large issue. The explanatorypower of the specificationin changesis also inferiorto thatin levels. Source: COMPUSTAT data base and Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) data base, at the Graduate School, University of Chicago. a. The sample for the annual analysis has 27,771 observations. b. Investment is defined as "capital expenditures" from annual statement of changes in financial position, from COMPUSTAT, including COMPUSTAT Research File, 1959-87. c. Alpha is the lagged abnormal stock returns. CAPM betas were estimated for each firm using all available monthly returns from CRSP, 1959-87. These betas were then used to calculate an alpha for each year. d. Cash flow equals net income plus depreciation. e. New share issue is the sale of common equity divided by the total market value of common equity at the beginning of the year, from COMPUSTAT, 1971-87. Where the above data were unavailable, including the years 1959-70, sale of common equity was estimated from the change in the number of shares outstanding reported in CRSP, filtering out changes due to liquidation, rights offering, stock splits, or stock dividends. f. New debt issues is the change in book debt divided by the lagged value of book debt. g. The sample for the three-year analysis has 7,950 observations. The basic regressions for nonoverlappingthree-year periods are presented in table 2. In these regressions, we use contemporaneous fundamentals,financingvariables, and stock returns (representedby alpha)lagged one year. That is, we measure investment growth from year t to year t + 3 and the stock returnfrom year t - 1 to year t + 2. All equationsare estimatedusing a dummyvariablefor each three-year time period. We have also estimated these regressions using industryperiod dummies. The results are not qualitatively different, but the 30. Inregressionsrunusingannualdata,we foundextremelylowR2's even inequations includingboth the stock returnsand fundamentalvariables.For this reason, we proceed to the three-yearregressions. .. 0.155 (4.3) 0.123 (3.5) 0.133 (3.7) . . . Source: Authors' own calculations using COMPUSTAT and CRSP data bases with 7,950 observations from 196387. See table 1 for an explanation of variables. The numbers in parentheses are t-statistics. investmentover three years; a 10percentgrowthin cash flow leads to a 1.8percentgrowthin investment. Equation 2.3 represents one test of the hypothesis that the stock marketinfluencesinvestmentbeyond its abilityto predictfuturefundamentals, since the equation includes contemporaneousfundamentals togetherwith the lagged stock return.Not surprisingly,the coefficient on alphadropsby about40 percentfrom its level in equation2.1. When futurefundamentalsare held constant,the responsivenessof investment to lagged stock returnsis significantlysmaller. The incrementalR2 of equation 2.3 is only 3.8 percent relative to that of equation 2.2. The lagged abnormalreturn explains only 3.8 percent of the variation in investmentbeyond what can be explainedby fundamentals.This incrementalR2is an estimatedupperboundon how muchinvestor sentiment toward individual stocks can affect investment.3' Presumably, if we could measure and include other fundamentaldeterminantsof investmentin the regression,the incrementalR2wouldbe even smaller.Simply by includingthe availablecrude measuresof fundamentals,we can cut down the incrementalexplanatorypower of relative stock returns by morethan70 percent,whichseems to indicatethattheirabilityto predict investmentis largelybasedon theircorrelationwithfuturefundamentals. The comparisonof equations2.2 and2.3 illustratesthe generalfinding of this paper.The coefficienton the abnormalreturn,controllingfor the fundamentals,is both statistically and economically significant.A 30 percent abnormalstock returnover three years, which is large but not unusual,is associated with a 10percentextragrowthin investmentover three years. So high stock returnsindeed predict high investment. At the same time, because investment is so volatile, the incremental explanatorypower of the stock marketis typically small;in this case it is only 3.8 percent. Thus, variationin relative marketvaluationacross firmsandsectors cannotaccountfor muchof the variationin investment. Althoughequation2.3 shows thatlaggedstock returnsdo not explain muchof the variationin investment,it does not distinguishbetween the 31. This interpretationdependson ourtreatingthe fundamentalsfromequation2.2 as the primaryexplanatoryvariables.Absentthese priors,it wouldbejust as appropriateto interpretthe incrementalR2whenfundamentalsare addedto equation2.1 as the independent contributionof the fundamentals.This would leave the upper bound on possible independenteffects fromstock pricesandinvestorsentimentuncertain. determinantsof investment have been left out of the regression. We have triedaddingfurthermeasures of fundamentals,such as more lags on cash flow and sales growth, but these do not seem to help explain investmentor reducethe explanatorypower of returns. Thereare also reasons why the stock marketmay be more important thanwe estimate. First, we may have used the wronglag structure-the stock market may anticipate investment at either a longer or shorter horizonthanwe specifiedin table 2. We have experimentedwith several alternativelag structures. When the stock returnis contemporaneous with the fundamentals, using alpha from t to t + 3 rather than t - 1 to t + 2, the R2 for equation2.1 is 0.12, and for equation2.3 is 0.23. We have also allowed for returnsto be measuredover a longerperiod and with longer lags, but the incrementalR2 for the stock returnis always lower than in table 2. Anotherpossibility is to break up the three-year returninto its componentparts so that the returnfrom t - 1 to t + 2 is replaced by the returns from t - 1 to t, from t to t + 1, and from t + 1 to t + 2. This changeactuallydoes raise the explanatorypower of stock returns,but only slightly;the R2 in the analogof equation2.3 rises by a small amount. None of our alternative specifications of the effect of relative stock returnson investment has noticeably more explanatory powerthanthe one we reportin table 2. Second, we may have underestimatedthe effect of the stock market by focusing only on relative stock returns and by using time-period dummiesinsteadof the returnon the aggregatestock marketover time. We discuss the effects of the aggregatestock marketat a later point in the paper. Here we reportwhat happenswhen we substitutethe return on the value-weightedstock marketfor time dummies.32The marginal explanatorypower of the aggregatestock returnin these equations is quitelow. The R2 in equation2.3, without time dummies,rises by only 0.2 percentwhen the aggregatestock marketis addedto the regression. This findingmakes sense if variationin investmentgrowth in response to idiosyncraticfactors accounts for most of the variationof investment in the pooled time-series/cross-sectiondata. As we discussed above, we are also concerned that stock returns drivethe sales-cash flow process and that the effect of stock returnsis thereforelargerthan the effect impliedby its incrementalexplanatory 32. Weuse the value-weightedindexdevelopedby the CenterforResearchin Security Prices(CRSP)at the Universityof Chicago. 0.218 (2.6) 0.158 (1.9) 0.175 (2.1) . . . 0.459 (6.4) 0.449 (6.4) .. . Source: Authors' own calculations using COMPUSTAT and CRSP data bases with 2,042 observations every third year from 1963-87. See table I for a description of the variables. The numbers in parentheses are t-statistics. a. A firm is classified as "small" if it falls in the bottom quintile of all COMPUSTAT firms in terms of the market value of equity the first year it entered the survey. sample, indicating the greater relative sensitivity of investment to externalfinancingfor "small" firms.Financingvariablesadd 2 percent to the R2, adding relative stock returns adds another 2 percent. For "small" firms,as for the whole sample, the faulty informant,financing, and marketpressure views of the stock markethelp explain the data, but not a lot. As in the whole sample, most of the explanatorypower of financingcomes from debt issues. A final test concerns the marketpressure view of the stock market and investment. It has been arguedthat recently the stock markethas become a harsherjudge of managerialperformance,with the takeover wave of the 1980s being a manifestationof its new role. The short horizonsof corporatemanagersreflectthese stock marketpressures. If these views are correct, the sensitivity of investment to stock returns should have increasedin the 1980s,and the coefficienton alphain later years should be higher. We have tested this propositionand found no evidence to support this idea. There is no trend in the coefficient on alphaor in its marginalexplanatorypower over our sampleperiod. Source: Authors'own calculationsusing COMPUSTATand CRSP data bases. See table I for descriptionof variables.The numbersin parentheses(bottompanel)are t-statistics.Given percentilesof alphaare chosen for illustration;othervariablesare evaluatedat theirmediansin equations4.1 and 4.2. Source: Authors'own calculationsusing COMPUSTATand CRSPdata bases. Regressionsincludetime-period effects. The numbersin parenthesesare t-statistics. a. The ratiois betweenthe dollarproceedsfromdebt and equityissues madebetweentime t and t - 3 and the sum of investmentsmade between time t - 5 and t - 2. Alphais from t - 5 to t - 2 and sales and cash flow growthare fromt - 3 to t. bound for the explanatory power of stock returns in the investment equations. At the same time, financing can plausibly account for a significant part of the explanatory power of stock returns in the investment equations. The residual component could be due to market pressure or faulty informant effects or to the ability of stock returns to explain fundamentals that are not captured by our simple sales and cash flow measures. Taken together, the investment and the financing evidence do not leave much room for the influence of investor sentiment. External financing is not sufficiently sensitive to stock returns, and investment is not well explained by external financing. It is hard to explain much of the variation in investment through investor sentiment. marketwide returns. That is, if equity finance responds to extreme overpricingof equities, we shouldsee a largeeffect from the alphas. On the other hand, theories of fads, such as those of Shillerand De Long and others, suggest that investor sentiment is likely to be more pronounced in the aggregate data.33The issue is largely empirical. We thereforetest the influenceof the stockmarketon investmentinaggregate data. The appendixdescribesthe datawe use on investment,fundamentals, andfinancing.The fundamentalsthatmost clearlyparallelthe ones used inthe firm-leveldataarecash flow(after-taxcorporateprofitsplus capital consumption)and personal consumption expenditure. Personal consumptionexpenditureon durables,nondurables,and services seems to be the appropriatemeasureof final sales in the economy, which is our proxy for the growthof demand. Ourinvestmentvariableis fixed nonresidentialinvestment, which excludes inventory investment. We use annualdata on most variablesfrom 1935-88, excludingthe war period 1942-46as suggested by Robert Gordon.34We exclude the early 1930s because corporate profits were negative in some of these years. Our equityfinancevariableis aggregatedover all equity issues by all firmsin the datadevelopedby the CenterforResearchin SecurityPrices(CRSP). The debt financevariableis from the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately, this variablestartsin 1952;therefore,we rerunsome of the regressions startingin 1952to utilize debt financingdata. An interestrate variable, the lagged change in yield on AAA corporatebonds, was also tried in the list of fundamentals,but came in with the wrongsign and borderline significance.The variablewas dropped. As before, all regressions are estimatedin changesratherthanlevels. Unlike the firm-level data, we have found that two lags of stock returnsas well as contemporaneousandlaggedchangesin fundamentals help explain investmentgrowthin the aggregatedata. Accordingly,we have adjustedthe aggregatespecificationsto have one- and two-year lagged stock returns,as well as contemporaneousand laggedgrowthof consumptionand cash flow. In addition,we allow for contemporaneous andone-yearlaggedeffects fromthe financingvariables.Typically,only the one-yearlag is significantfor the equity issues variable,while for the 33. Shiller(1984);De Long andothers(1990). 34. Gordon(1986). Watson demonstratethat, as a leading indicatorof output, the stock marketis dominatedby a combinationof other fundamentalvariables, includinginterestrates.35This findingmeans that managersdo not need the stock marketto make investment decisions when they have other fundamentaldata;if most explanatorypowercomes fromfundamentals, and managers do not need the stock market to predict them, then managersdo not need the stock marketto make investmentdecisions. This argumentfavors the passive informantview of the stock market. An importantexception is the sunspotversionof the active informant view. If the stock marketinformsinvestors and managersabout which equilibriumis at work, the marketdeterminesboth futureconsumption and investment. In this case, the stock marketstill plays an active role, even thoughit does not help predictinvestmentgrowthaftercontrolling for consumptiongrowth. Our data do not enable us to distinguishthe sunspotactive informantmodelfrom the passive informantmodel. The resultsin table 6 suggestthatthe role of the stock market,beyond its ability to predict fundamentals,is limited. Nonetheless, we try to evaluate how well financingexplains investment. As noted above, our equityfinancingvariabledoes not explainmuch. As for debt finance,we must look at the post-1952 sample. Table 7 reports the results for the post-1952period. For this period, the R2 for stock returnsalone is 31.0 percent, thatfor fundamentalsalone is 67.4 percent.The incrementalR2 for the market,after controllingfor fundamentals,is a much higher7.3 percent,which may meanmoreroomfor investorsentimentto influence investment. Equation7.4 shows that when the equity issues variableis included in an equationwith the fundamentals,it adds 2.6 percentto the R2 and is positiveand nearlysignificant.When 10percentmorefirmsissue equity in excess of 5 percent, investmentgrows on average 1.5 percentfaster. The debt issue variablealone adds 3.8 percentto the R2 and is negative and statisticallysignificant.Debt financingis high when investment is slowingdown. Debt seems to be used to smooth investmentso that in a recession, when cash flow falls sharply, investment does not fall as sharply.The signon debt financeis differentfromthatin firm-leveldata, which can be explained if debt is used to smooth cyclical variationin investmentbut not idiosyncraticvariationin investment.Together,the stock issue and debt financingvariableshave an incrementalR2 of 9.5 35. Stock and Watson (1990). ,c; - tJ - - m - D m . Source: Authors' own calculations using U.S. Department of Commerce data and the CRSP data base. The sample includes 28 observations. The numbers in parentheses are t-statistics. a. Stock index is the exponentially detrended level of the real CRSP value-weighted stock market index. b. The level of discount on closed-end funds is the year-end average discount on a portfolio of closed-end funds, from Lee, Shleifer, and Thaler (1990) for 1965-85, using a portfolio of 18 funds. For 1930-64 and 1986-89, five funds are used: Adams Express, General American, Lehman, Niagara Shares, and Tricontinental. c. Corporate profits and consumption are described in table 6. Here, as in table 8, we use two-year growth in profits and consumption as the independent variable. strengthof our conclusions is limited by the short time series we have on IPOs. bit. Second, in episodes such as the late 1920sand post-October 1987 corporatemanagershave largely ignored this sunspot. Overall, a fair readingof the evidence is that the stock marketis a sometimes faulty predictorof the future, which does not receive muchattentionand does not influenceaggregateinvestment. An importantexception to this findingis the evidence fromthe initial publicofferingsdata,whereboththe stock marketindexandthe discount on closed-endfundshelppredictthepace of new offerings.Thisevidence, thoughlimitedby the lack of data, suggests that in the marketfor new issues, the stock marketand investor sentimentmatter.It could still be that market conditions affect only the timing of IPOs, and not their volume over time. On the other hand, it could be that in low markets good ideas die because they cannot be financed.The effect of investor sentiment on the new issues market is an importantarea for further research. Description of Data THE APPENDIX we describe the sources of our data and the methods used to calculateour variables. Firm-Level Data Investment:"Capitalexpenditures"arefromannualstatementof changes in financialposition, from COMPUSTATdata base, 1959-87, including COMPUSTATResearch File; acquisitions are not included;observations with growthrates above 1,000percentare excluded as outliersfor this and all the other variables. Sales: FromCOMPUSTAT,1959-87. Cashflow: Net income plus depreciation,from COMPUSTAT, 195987. Net debt issues: ABook debt, divided by book debt, I, from COMPUSTAT, 1959-87. New share issues: Sale of common equity divided by the beginning-ofyear total marketvalue of common equity, from COMPUSTAT,197187; where above was missing, includingbetween 1959and 1970,sale of common equity is estimated from change in the number of shares outstandingreportedin CRSP, filteringout changes due to liquidation, rightsoffering,stock splits, or stock dividends. Alpha: CAPM betas were estimated for each firm using all available monthlyreturns.These betas were then used to calculate an alphafor each year. Data are from CRSP, 1959-87. Aggregate Data Investment:FromU.S. Departmentof Commerce,"GrossPrivateFixed Investment, Non-residential";the series is the sum of investment in nonresidentialstructuresand equipmentfor 1935-41and 1947-88. Consumption:Aggregatepersonalconsumption(includingnondurables, durables,and services) from the U.S. Departmentof Commerce, 193441 and 1947-88. Cashflow: After-taxtotal corporateprofits (withoutdepreciationsubtracted)from U.S. Departmentof Commerce, 1934-41and 1947-88. New debt issues: The ratio of net funds raisedfrom corporatebonds to total outstandingliabilities,obtainedfrom sector statementsof savings and investmentfor nonfinancialcorporatebusiness; from Federal Reserve, 1952-89. New share issues: Individualfirm share issues were calculated using CRSP data as described above. Aggregate variable is the fraction of firmsincreasingthe numberof sharesby more than 5 percentin a given year. Stock return: Value-weightedindex return from CRSP, 1933-41 and 1947-88. Closed-endfund discount:Year-endaveragediscount on a portfolioof closed-end funds; from Lee, Shleifer, and Thalerfor 1965-85, using a portfolioof 18funds;for 1930-64a portfolioof five fundsis used (Adams Express, GeneralAmerican,Lehman,NiagaraShares,andTricontinental);the same five funds also used for 1986-89. GNP deflator.One exception is aggregateinvestment,which is deflated by the U.S. Departmentof Commerce'simplicitpricedeflatorup to 1982 and by the "chain investment index," suggested by Gordonfor 198388. Also, aggregatepersonal consumptionis deflatedby implicitprice deflatorfor personalconsumptionexpenditures. Comments and Discussion Matthew Shapiro: The stock market and investment are positively correlated. This well-known empirical finding provides the point of departurefor the authors'theoreticaldiscussion. In it, they provide an interesting and useful classification scheme for explanations of this correlation.For the most part,they put aside the questionof whetheror notthe stockmarketis efficientinthe sense thatit appropriatelydiscounts futurecash flows. Insteadthey ask a moreinterestingquestion.Namely, do the fundamentals, specifically the accumulation of fixed capital, respond to movements in the stock market?Of course, the extent to whichinvestmentrespondsto the stock marketdependson the efficiency of the stock market.The authors'theoreticalsection clearly addresses this simultaneity. Most economists thinkof the relationshipbetween the stock market and investmentin terms of q, the ratio of marketvalue to replacement cost. JohnMaynardKeynes viewed stock marketfluctuationsas largely irrationaland hence not useful signals about the profitabilityof investment projects. In WilliamBrainardand James Tobin's formalizationof Keynes's chapter12,managersreactto potentiallyirrationalmovements in the marketby financingexpansioneitherthroughnew issues, when q exceeds one, or throughmergersand acquisitions, when q is less than one.' Andrew Abel's and Fumio Hayashi's derivationsof q-theoretic models of investmentimplicitlyassume rationalstock marketvaluation to the extent that the shadow value of the fixity of capitalis associated with financialvariables.2Under certain assumptions, their q-theoretic models are observationallyequivalentto Brainardand Tobin's. But in 1. Brainard and Tobin (1968). 2. Abel (1979); Hayashi (1982). these derivations, q diverges from one only because adjustmentcosts keep the actual capital stock from equalingits desired level. The stock marketappropriatelyreflectsthis out-of-steady-stateoutcome.3 RandallMorck, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny do not use q to discuss the relationship between the stock market and investment. Nonetheless, their lucid theoretical discussion clarifies how the stock market's decision to rationally discount future cash flow affects the correlation.The authorsconsiderfourhypotheses. One of theirhypothesis, which is closely relatedto the Keynes-Brainard-Tobin q-model, is that the market is irrational,but managersuse its swings to finance investment.In anotherhypothesis, the managersof firmsactuallylearn about the profitabilityof their investmentsfrom the stock market.In a third, the managershave superior informationabout their profits, so they do not learnfrom the market,but the econometriciangets a signal about profitabilityfrom the stock market.These latter two hypotheses maintainthat the stock marketis rational;both hypotheses are related to adjustment-costbased implementationsof the q-theoreticmodels, but the signaling hypothesis is closest to Abel's and Hayashi's models. Finally, the authorsconsidera fourthhypothesis-that the investmentstock market correlationarises because managerstry to increase reportedprofitsby curtailinginvestmentwhen their stock price falls. Most of the authors'evidence bearson the firstandthirdhypotheses. They have no sharp tests of the fourth hypothesis. They dismiss the second hypothesis-that managerslearn about the profitabilityof their investmentsfromthe stock market-because they believe thatmanagers have superiorinformationabout the profitabilityof their investments and describe evidence based on managers'stock tradingthat supports this belief. The authors'argumentsaboutmanagers'superiorknowledge of their firms' cash flows are convincing. Yet, even if managershave superiorknowledgeof the profitabilityof theirprojects,the marketmay still provideinformationuseful to them in makinginvestmentdecisions. Morck, Shleifer, and Vishny discuss stock returns as if they were governedonly by innovationsin currentandexpected futurecash flows. But stock returns also move with changes in the rates by which cash 3. Tobin and White (1981) note that Summers's (1981) estimates of a q-theoretic equation imply incrediblyhigh adjustmentcosts. Althoughthey make this point as a reductioad absurdumof models that link the stock marketand investmentonly through adjustmentcosts, many have taken this findingas impetusfor formulatingmore complicated, but still adjustment-costdriven,q-models. in terms of the q-theory, one should note that examiningthe growthof investmentis a perilousway to study the demandfor capital.Lawrence Summers, in his "Requiem for the Investment Equation," points out that having the level of investment as the left-hand-sidevariabledoes not make sense unless the right-handside controls for the deviation of the currentcapital stock from the desired level (as does the q-theory).4 Firmsdemanda stock of capital;investmentis merelythe regulationof that stock. Most investmentequationssin by slippinga derivative.The authors slip two derivatives by examining the growth in investment. Consequently,the authors'choice of specificationmakesit very difficult to interpretthe magnitudeof their estimated coefficient and makes it hardto believe thatthese coefficientsdo not varyacross firmsdepending on how actualcapitalstock departsfrom its desiredlevel. The authorsclaim that there is too muchfirm-levelheterogeneityfor them to model the relationshipin levels. Their inabilityto get sensible results in a levels specificationarises because they have omitted key factors, such as the stock of capital, from their analysis. Unless the omittedfactors are deterministictrends, differencingdoes not solve the specificationproblem. The authorsrun the reverse regression with the financingvariables on the left-handside to see how they are correlatedwith stock returns. One can see fromthe firstset of regressions(withinvestmentgrowthon the left-handside) that stock returnsand the financingvariablescannot be highly correlated. Includingthe financingfactors does not greatly affect the estimated sign of the stock return variable. Therefore, the authors could make their point without recourse to the second set of regressions. The authorspresent results at both the firmand the aggregatelevel. Their main equationhas investment growth as the dependentvariable and includes lagged stock returns,other variables(cash flow and sales) to capturethe fundamentaldeterminantsof stock returns,andstillothers (dummies for large new issues of equity and debt) to capture new financing.In the firm-levelregression, the stock returnis purgedof its correlation with the aggregate return. In these estimates, the stock marketis highly significantand has a large coefficient comparedto the aggregateestimates. When the fundamentalsvariablesare included in 4. Summers (1985). the regression,they are also very significantandhave importantexplanatory power. Their inclusion makes the coefficient on the stock return fall somewhat, but it is still large comparedto the aggregateestimates. Hence, the fundamentalfactors are importantin explaininginvestment, but leave a significantrole for the stock return.The financingfactorsare also significantin the regression.Theirinclusionleads only to a further small reductionin the coefficient of the stock returnsvariable, so the stock returnsand financingfactors are essentially independent. While the absence of the theoreticalmodel makes these results hard to interpret,it is possible to drawsome conclusions. The findingthatthe stock return is a significantexplanatoryfactor for investment, but is hardlya sufficientstatistic, is consistentwith the largebody of empirical work on q-theoreticinvestmentmodels. The significanceof the sales andcashflowvariablesis hardto interpret. Steven Fazzari, Glenn Hubbard,and Bruce Peterson include them in similarequations,but those authorsincludethem to show that liquidity affects investment. On the other hand, the present authors interpret these variablesas the fundamentaldeterminantsof stock values. Absent more information,both the Fazzari, Hubbard, and Peterson and the Morck, Shleifer, and Vishny explanationsof the correlationof investment and cash flow are consistent with the data.5 The significanceof the coefficients of the new equity and new debt dummy variables does not imply that financing causes investment. Suppose that the world is Modigliani-Milleron the margin,that is, that firmschoose a capital structurethat equates the marginalcost of funds across different types of financial claims. New investment must be financedby some means. On the margin,a firmshoulddesire to use all means;thus, it is not surprisingto see investmentcorrelatedwith both forms of financing.Therefore, the financing-investmentcorrelationis not evidence againstthe economic independenceof real decisions from financing decisions. The authorsabstractfrom aggregatemovementsin the stock market in their firm-levelregressionsby only includingthe idiosyncraticcomponent of stock returns and also by including year dummies in the regressions.Whileneglect of these aggregatecomponentsdoes not bias theirestimates, it does reducethe power of theirprocedure.Thereis no 5. Fazzari,Hubbard,andPeterson(1988). theoreticaljustificationfor abstractingfromthe aggregatecomponentof stock returns. By omitting this component, the authors reduce the potentialrole of theirreturnsvariable.Moreover,it wouldbe interesting to see how the aggregatecomponententers the regressions.They could either report the annualdummiesor, better, exclude them in favor of includingthe systematiccomponentof stock returns(the beta times the aggregatereturn).As notedearlier,managersshouldrespondto changes in the requiredrate of return,about which the aggregatemarketreturn carries an important signal.6 Consequently, by abstractingfrom the aggregate,the authorspotentiallyunderstatethe role of the stock market for investment.Doing so also makesit difficultto comparethe aggregate andfirm-levelresults. In the aggregateregressions, the stock markethas roughlythe same coefficientas the firm-levelregressionswhen the univariaterelationship is considered,butfalls dramaticallywhenthe fundamentalsareincluded. The text of the paper reads as if the stock marketexplains more in the aggregateregressionsthanthe firm-levelregressions.The authorscome to thisconclusionbecausethey relyinappropriatelyon theR2.Comparing R2's across samples is misleadingbecause the error variances are so differentat the firmand aggregatelevels. Indeed, as judged by the size and significance of the coefficient of the stock returns variable, the relationshipbetween investmentand the stock marketis muchlargerin the firm-levelregressions. James M. Poterba: Stock marketanomalies-the Januaryeffect, the weekendeffect, the alphabeteffect-are a favoritetopic of conversation at Brookings Panel meetings. If asked to justify these anomalies as legitimatesubjectsof macroeconomicinterest, most economists would argue that the stock marketprovides vital signals for investment and consumptiondecisions. An understandingof its movementsis therefore importantto an understandingof macroeconomicfluctuations. Inthisprovocativepaper,RandallMorck,AndreiShleifer,andRobert Vishny attemptto end these discussions. They argue that the conventionalview of the stock marketas an importantdeterminantof corporate 6. They shouldalso respondto firm-specificchangesin requiredratesof returncaused for exampleby changesin the risk-structureof theirreturns.These could be capturedby changes in the betas. Since the authorsassume them to be constant, these changes are includedin the estimatedalphas. investmentis misplaced.Drawingon a richbase of firm-levelinvestment dataandstockreturndata,the authorsarguethatto a firstapproximation, swings in the stock market are irrelevant forfirm investment decisions. The findings are significant not only because they illuminate what determinesinvestment,but also because they carrystrongimplications for the welfare cost of "noise trading" and other forces that cause transitorydivergences between asset prices and fundamentalvalues. This papersuggeststhat even if prices gyrateinappropriately,they may have little effect on real activity. The findingsin this papermay come as a surpriseto some subscribers to the q-theoryof investment, which links stock price and investment. Even withoutthis paper,however, a skeptic would have foundgrounds for concernregardingthe stock market'spredictivepower. JamesStock and Mark Watson's recent work on leading indicators finds that in predictingreal outputthe stock marketis dominatedby a collection of other variables. A twenty-year BPEA traditionof runninghorseraces between competinginvestmentequationshas shown that q-modelsare outpaced by equations including cash flow, output, and other flow measuresof corporateactivity.' The centralcontributionsof the currentpaperarethe use of firm-level datain studyingthe forecast power of the stock marketandthe focus on the incrementalexplanatorypower of the stock market. Althoughthe basic conclusions seem relativelyrobust,boththe choice of dataandthe statisticalanalysis in this paperinvite scrutiny. First, the timing convention in the regression equation excludes currentstock returns,but includes currentcash flow or sales. Since the fundamentalsare all dated later than the stock market variable, they have an informationaladvantage.This concern appliesboth to the firmlevel and aggregateestimates. However, results providedto me by the authorssuggest that this issue is not of criticalimportance:inclusionof the currentstock returnratherthan the lagged stock returnin the firmlevel equations actually reduces explanatorypower; in the aggregate equation, the current stock return enters with a negative coefficient. Thus, the timing convention is unlikely to be central to the empirical conclusion. 1. Sensenbrenner(1990) suggests that q- and neoclassicial acceleratormodels can performsimilarlyif a sufficientlyrichlag structureis considered. A second issue of specificationconcerns the use of time effects in the analysis of individualfirminvestment. Their use removes the effect of aggregate stock market movements, even though these may be an importantsource of the market'sexplanatorypower for each firm.One can easily imaginethat managersinvest more (given their firm's cash flow) when the stock marketoverall is high, signalingfuturegood times. Even if the broadmarketmovementswere uninformativefor investment of a givenfirm,the resultswouldbe farstrongerthanthe currentfindings. A thirddifficultyis that the paper does not performthe appropriate test of how stock returnsaffectinvestment.The idealtest wouldexamine the stock market's explanatory power at t - 1 after controlling for expectationsof futurefundamentalsthatwere formedby informationat t - 1. This would argue for development of a firm-levelor aggregate model to predictdividends. Then, the change in the optimalforecast of the present discountedvalue of dividendsshouldbe comparedwith the stock returnin forecastingfutureinvestment. A final concern is that the findings are sensitive to changes in specificationand sample period. Two other studies-those by Robert Barro and Olivier Blanchard,ChangyongRhee, and Lawrence Summers-that the authors cite estimate similar models with aggregate investmentdata.2Barroreports strongerevidence on the link between stock returns and investment than this paper finds. The difference between his results and those of the currentpaperis apparentlydue to his inclusion of lagged investment, and his somewhat longer sample period. Blanchard, Rhee, and Summers's paper uses a more formal methodologyto constructthe expected present value of dividendsand to contrastthe predictivepower of this series with the predictivepower of actual stock prices. Using this approach,they were not able to draw strongconclusionsaboutthe realeffects of sentiment-inducedswings in shareprices. Thus, I remainnervous that the currentfindings,particularlyin aggregatedata, are not definitive. Turningfrom data to statistical methods, I believe this paper also altersthe focus of priordebate. By concentratingon the stock market's incrementalexplanatorypower for investment spending, the authors shiftfrom the traditionalanalysis of q-investmentspending.It is important to distinguish,as the authorsdo, the claim that the stock marketis 2. Barro(1990);Blanchard,Rhee, andSummers(1990). are small,thereareotherchannelswhichmay be important.An example illustratesthis. If noise tradersraise the generallevel of requiredreturns in the equity market,these traderswill reduce the level of investmentin all periods, without regard to particular stock market movements. Exploringthese channelsis a naturaldirectionfor futurework. because of the crash may reflectthe fact that they had not revised it up in responseto the stock price boom in the firsthalf of 1987. Some panelistswere concernedthat the authorshad not paidenough attentionto the possible intertemporalrelationshipsamongthe variables andthereforemayhave underestimatedthe potentialinfluenceof market noise and given too much weight to fundamentals.Sims suggestedthat a positive signal could lead to an increase in sales contemporaneous with, or even leading, investment. To examine this issue, he suggested runningvector autoregressionsandlookingat the proportionof variance at varioushorizonsexplainedby stock marketinnovations. 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BOND: Dr. Franklin, welcome to these Explorations in Black Leadership. Thank you for being with us. BOND: We've asked others what recollections and memories they have about the Brown decision, 1954, but you were born in 1954 so I guess you don't have any immediate recollection. Do you recall at all any discussion in your family as you grow older about this decision, what it might mean, what it could mean? FRANKLIN: I recall both my parents were part of that great migration of so many African Americans who departed the South, in my case, from Mississippi, to Chicago and Detroit. My family remained in Chicago. And after -- you know, there were quite a number of significant decisions in the civil rights movement that followed the Brown decision. So by the time I was able to understand a bit of the adult conversation around the table in the early '60's, Brown was a reference point a few years back, I understood that. But that it was very decisive, turning point for making America a better nation. This -- the rhetoric that I heard was suggesting that there is a momentum now, of change in this nation that will be good for -- for African Americans and Brown was sort of referenced as sort of one of those turning points. The Montgomery bus boycott as another, although many of the Northern -- at least in Chicago -- African Americans who talked about Dr. King and the Montgomery bus boycott also had some ambivalence about that style of change -- civil disobedience, that is. But to have the Supreme Court of the United States weigh in on the side of African Americans was a tremendous sort of bolt of encouragement. BOND: Would you describe your family's outlook, your neighborhood's outlook, generally speaking, in this period, in the early 1960s, as optimistic? Things are getting better, things are going to improve? FRANKLIN: Yes, I'd say it certainly was. Often sort of pegged to local developments in the city of Chicago, and so here again in the mid '60s and late '60s, there was a lot of unrest and a lot of sort of pushing against the old boundaries. And in Chicago's own way, you know, black and white politicians sort of sat down in smoke-filled rooms and made deals and tried to mediate some measure of change. It's interesting that my pastor was one of the sort of black power brokers that dealt with the Daley machine. And so we often had, through his interpretations on Sunday morning, a sense that things were getting better, that there was an upbeat mood, that anything was possible. It registered in the Motown music we listened to, certainly in the church music, the triumphal hymns, the sense that we are marching to Zion, we are on a journey, God is with us. Angels keep watch over us by night. So there was, I'd say, despite occasional moments of great tragedy and sadness, tremendous hope and readiness to face the future. BOND: Your mention of your pastor and of your parents gives an opportunity to segue into another section of questioning. Everybody has people in life who influence them. Who are some of the people -- talk about your parents first. What did they do for you -- not just food, clothing, shelter -- what did they do for you? FRANKLIN: I'd begin with my father who worked for over thirty-eight years at the Campbell Soup Company in Chicago, on the West Side of Chicago, some distance from our home in the neighborhood on the very far South Side of Chicago. Everyone knows about the kind of segregation, hyper-segregation in Chicago. And there was a kind of daily courage and audacity on his part, I thought, as he walked through largely white neighborhoods to get to the bus in Chicago that would transport him to work. Very early in the morning, you know, four a.m., Dad was up. And there was a kind of work ethic that he modeled. He worked hard and he'd come home and, you know, read the Wall Street Journal. He was a working-class guy, but he was paying attention to the stock market and so he really broadened our sense of participation in the larger society. You know, Dad went to college, junior college in Chicago at night, and I still remember -- I cringe today when I think about the streets of Chicago. There were three of us young boys at that point, three sons. He'd sort of leave us in the car while he went in for his hour-long class in business organization, and come back. Of course, everybody did that then. It was safe. So anyhow, his pursuit of education at night, working hard during the day. And I mean, I think I contrast that with so many urban poor families today that never see anyone sort of get up and go to work in the morning. And we had that example. He didn't talk much about race relations in Chicago or in America. He'd often reflect on his own experience in the family of being sharecroppers in the South, and sort of being disenfranchised and cheated, and why they made the move to Chicago. He was also, although he attended church, not very active in church, and often didn't attend because he was either exhausted from work or went in on Sundays for some special project. My mother, on the other hand, really was the sort of mediator in terms of racism in Chicago and America and would talk about it, would warn -- you know, there were four boys before the two girls came in my family. And it's interesting now, I reflect on the way in which she and my grandmother sort of socialized us to be survivors on the mean streets of Chicago, both in terms of neighborhoods we shouldn't enter and interracial settings in which there's a certain etiquette and behavior we should display. Not to call attention to ourselves. To be polite and well-mannered in dealing with police officers and so on. This is all very practical wisdom about how to sort of negotiate touchy situations. And then, of course, during this period, the experience of Emmett Till was very much in the air. We attended the church on the South Side of Chicago that -- it actually wasn't the very same congregation, they were sort of brother-sister congregations almost, just a few blocks away. And our pastor and the pastor of Emmett Till's church were colleagues and best friends. And so that tragedy sort of struck home and prompted us as young men to listen very carefully when Mom and Grandma talked about you know, kind of how you present yourself in public and what to do and what not to do, etc. But they were sort of pillars of the local church in a church that didn't ordain women. These were women without title, but with significant portfolio, and they ran all sorts of youth programs and they organized recreational activities. They encouraged mentoring and after-school tutorials and so on. So they kept us very busy and tried, in some ways I think, to insulate us from the racism in Chicago and in the larger nation. BOND: -- almost under the same roof. Who in that larger family had an impact on you? FRANKLIN: We lived -- we owned two houses. My grandmother and her sister, when they moved from Mississippi, bought two houses next door to each other and then there was a small plot of land where my grandmother kept a garden. So you know, it's almost hard to imagine there in the urban jungle of Chicago there were these two houses and a garden there. And there must have been, gosh, between the uncles and my grandmother's children, seven or eight adults, my mother being the youngest in that family system. And then, of course, my mother and father. We lived in my grandmother's household for a long period as they saved money in order to kind of move up and out. So it really felt like a compound in which there were a lot of people looking out for us and meals were huge evening affairs, usually all together but often, because people were working and coming and going, you know, a few people sitting. And with neighbors joining us because we had a front porch and we'd often eat out there. But your question, who influenced, it really was my maternal grandmother, Martha McCann. And the thing that was remarkable about her was her ability to, she was sort of -- as Du Bois might talk about it -- had bicultural competence. She really knew the language and the ways of the kind of secular streets of Chicago as well as the world of the church. And the very kind of staid and proper existence of the church world. She was an office holder in the local congregation, head of the mothers' board popular in many black churches. And so she was a kind of charismatic leader. People gravitated to her. Some of her own sons, who lived in our house were, you know, these were tough guys and they had friends. They liked to drink on weekends and so, often, in our household on that front porch, you'd have these women from the church meeting with Mother McCann in their starched white suits, uniforms and nurses' caps, along with the local winos of -- you know, from the neighborhood, all on that porch together enjoying fried chicken, collard greens and sweet potato pie. And it struck me, "Gosh, our home is more inclusive than the church is," because the church wouldn't have been a comfortable place for these young men to show up, certainly not inebriated. And it just struck me that she was this bridge figure, bringing people together who ordinarily wouldn't sit at a common table. BOND: And is she, by this example, teaching you a kind of tolerance that you might otherwise not have had? FRANKLIN: Absolutely. I thought there's a tremendous potential in this kind of -- this style of communicating and making oneself available. It's a style of leadership that has a high threshold of tolerance for difference and different practices and inclinations. My favorite story, I'll say very briefly, was one day -- you know, this was during the time of gang fights in Chicago -- two warring gangs, the Gangster Disciples and the Blackstone Rangers, were about to go to blows on the corner near our house. And my grandmother being perched on the porch sort of looking out on the neighborhood saw this, heard the argument escalating, five or six of these guys from each side. And she ran off that porch right into the middle of these guys who were nose-to-nose almost, and diffused that conflict and spoke -- talked those boys down. And one of the interesting things she did, was she knew some of these boys by name. She had given food from her garden to their mothers, and it just struck me that Grandma had moral authority because she had watched these guys when they were cute, smart little boys going to kindergarten. She had disciplined them, she had fed them. She probably employed them over the years. So she now had the moral authority to speak truth to that kind of power. And they backed away, they walked away -- certain to fight another day -- but that day, Grandma, it was her moment to say, "No, not here, not now." She urged them, she made appeals like, "What would your -- think of how your mother would feel if she were to receive a call that you were fatally wounded in this kind of fight." So I saw her kind of appeal to something good in these young men. And it just strikes me today, with world conflicts, that America as a superpower -- we may be superior at the level of military power but if we don't have moral authority, we can't convene parties and really talk them down from their inclination to fight. So Grandma had a message for these international leaders, I think. BOND: It's a shame she's not around today. BOND: Outside of your immediate family, what figures influence you? You mentioned your pastor a moment ago. FRANKLIN: Bishop Louis Henry Ford, also from Clarksdale, Mississippi, and migrated to Chicago. He established his own congregation, the St. Paul Church of God in Christ. And he was really quite an extraordinary person for a tradition like most Baptists and black Pentecostal churches in that time. It was a kind of anti-intellectualism and a sort of detachment from the world and kind of insular attitude toward church life. It was to be a refuge from the larger world. He said, "No, we have to be more than that. We have to be moral agents. We have to be change agents." And so he was very involved in politics. He was -- he encouraged young people in the congregation to go to college, and he provided -- he raised money to provide scholarship money and support for young folks pursuing education. He was very involved in the Daley Machine and in local politics. I think he felt he could get more from the system working with it, knowing the first names and knowing how to negotiate. And he had a style of confrontation that was more, I'd say, sort of in the context of a working relationship. And so I recall he didn't particularly care for the sort of confrontation of the civil disobedience philosophy that Dr. King brought to Chicago in the -- later in the '60s. I recall his discussing his difference with that approach. But he certainly made me feel that it was important to understand the language of the larger polis, the larger city and the language of business, the language of politics, the language of -- employed in higher education. And not simply to know one's own idiom in the African-American community and more specifically, in the black church. He pushed us to be open, to cross barriers, and one of my favorite memories here is that he played golf, and this, too, was regarded, this is kind of sinful behavior. Black pastors didn't play golf and -- but he was out on the golf course and he brought us along, these young guys in the church. Occasionally the girls of the church, but -- and while on the course, caddying for him, he'd introduce us to the local city council person or to -- we met Joe Lewis, the boxer; Sam Cooke, people like that. And he again, I think, was trying to expose us to a larger world and saying, "You can participate. You have the confidence to do that." So it was an interesting way in which he was sort of building our own self-esteem, promoting us, getting us out there. BOND: And he had a breakfast club. FRANKLIN: Ah, yes, yes. The Breakfast Club. Fascinating. Morning -- Sunday morning before kind of Sunday School and the actual worship service. Sunday mornings at eight a.m. we'd gather. And this thing grew over time to two, three hundred kids. It was phenomenal. And he'd serve us a small breakfast. This was my first introduction to something called tea cakes, that he said he wanted us not simply to eat the doughnuts and danish that they could buy, but these hand-made Mississippi tea cakes from the mothers in the church who were baking these things, and lovingly providing them for the kids. So we'd have, you know, a little breakfast. But then, he went right into his agenda for the Breakfast Club. There were oratorical contests. There were scripture memorization contests -- who could remember the most scripture. There were scripture, sort of expository speaking contests, and utter a scripture and then explain its meaning. And all this was going on. There were debates throughout the year. There were black history quizzes and reports. And it was really quite remarkable to see the kind of talent and genius that was there that would, again, otherwise it would have been unknown certainly to the church and probably to the public school teachers that these kids attended and sat under, had not someone had the genius to create a forum in which young people could express themselves and listen and learn. He also brought city leaders and business leaders to the Breakfast Club and they were just always in awe that at eight in the morning, here, just in the shadow of the nation's largest housing project -- the Robert Taylor Projects in Chicago -- here were a couple hundred kids engaged in the excitement of learning and debate and oratory. BOND: Do you think you were aware that you were engaged in learning or was this just a good experience for you? Do you think you knew that this was influencing you? FRANKLIN: Later I did because this went on for many years and I moved from simply being a nine-, ten-year-old kid who is just having fun and just a good experience -- you'd see the girls there, and it was fun to be there -- to, as a teenager, beginning to have more responsibilities and providing leadership for the young men that were present in the Breakfast Club. And so I began to realize, this really was quite remarkable and that I was being shaped in some important ways and having an opportunity to actually quiz the mayor of the city. I mean, Richard Daley came to the Breakfast Club as did the other black elected officials and prominent preachers from around the nation. So, I knew nothing about Morehouse College at that point, where I'd attend later, but in a sense, we were being exposed to some of the change agents and the thought leaders of the day in this setting. And, of course, Bishop Ford, he was always -- he's a consummate kind of public relations artist --and so he had photographers present and so this was good for the politicians to be -- you know, two hundred black kids sitting there -- and it's good for him. He rapidly ascended within our denomination and later became the presiding bishop of one of the fastest growing black churches in America. And certainly good for the kids because we just -- we just were exposed to wonderful things. BOND: Now are you thinking in this period, in high school, that I want to be like Bishop [Louis Henry] Ford, I want to be a minister? Is that on your horizon? FRANKLIN: Toward the end of my high school years, I think that that began to loom as a possibility. I was, I think, early on like so many kids, you know -- sort of sports and music occupy one's attention. And only later do I realize that this is an important form of community service. I still wasn't attracted to the idea of ministry, however. I just, something about that that kind of repelled me and I thought it was a bit presumptuous to sort of stand and tell other people how they should live their lives. So I wasn't attracted to that dimension but some form of public leadership community service was clearly attractive. And Bishop Ford represented a style, an option for me. BOND: You said leadership. What did leadership then, if you can recall high school, what did it mean? How did you exhibit, if at all, leadership where you were president of a club or -- ? FRANKLIN: Well, you know, bear in mind in this period there were, as the Bible says, there were giants in the land. I mean, there's Martin Luther King, Jr., there's Malcolm X. The Nation of Islam is there in Chicago and so Malcolm X is coming and going and Elijah Muhammed, people like that. So there were a lot sort of larger than life figures on the scene in my life there in Chicago at the time. And so as a high school student I recall beginning to listen to the speeches of some of these leaders. And certainly by the time I was a junior in high school, this was a daily lunch time activity where a group of students at Morgan Park High School would sit and we'd have our lunch and someone would pop a tape into a cassette player and we'd listen to, you know, Eldridge Cleaver or Malcolm X or someone give a speech. And I recall wanting to imitate that, wanting to be a provocative speaker, wanting to mobilize people to inspire through both rhetoric and through service, and I recall that wedding those was very important in my own understanding of leadership. So there was a student council at Morgan Park and I did run for Student Council and part of it, I think -- I won the election part because I made a pretty -- what the students regarded was a compelling speech, but I also tried to sort of back up the speech with pointing out instances in which we had actually done some things to help improve the school. I mean, pick up garbage during the break and urge people not to litter our campus. Little things like that. Because I was annoyed with leaders who only made good speeches but never sort of stuck around to do any dirty work. And Bishop Ford always taught us, because he wasn't himself a particularly eloquent speaker, I think he always felt a bit of inferiority next to some of the more eloquent, the silver-tongue orators of the black pulpit -- King included, and Joseph Jackson in Chicago. Ford wasn't that kind of speaker. He was just kind of a home-grown, practical exhorter. He'd exhort people. But he said, "Look at their deeds. What have they built?" And it was almost this Booker T. Washington style. You have to have skills of the hand as well as the head. And he always, one thing that just comes back to me now, he says, whenever he walks into a new sanctuary or into a sanctuary -- he was a guest speaker often -- he said "The first thing you do is go and visit the restroom. Not to use it but to simply survey it." And he said it told him a lot about the leader, the pastor of that church, by looking at how he allowed the restroom for men and women to be presented. And he said if there was paper on the floor and it was unkempt, he knew that this leader was just more about words than about service. So I don't know, that just registered with me, to be suspicious of people who were eloquent but who had never built and never served people. BOND: Do you think then of yourself as a leader [when] you're in high school? Are you saying, I'm a leader? You're not Martin Luther King, but are you saying that? FRANKLIN: Yes, yes. At that point particularly. I mean, I recall in '69 as a junior in high school, as a point at which I began to think of myself as someone who might actually be out in front and trying to model and trying to inspire people to move in a certain direction by going there first. And I actually got in some trouble during that time. This was a period when the Black Panthers were quite active in Chicago and a young leader, Fred Hampton, on the West Side of Chicago was murdered. And as we understood it, the police intervened in an inappropriate way and there was a gun, you know, shootout. So there was a lot of anger, I recall the next day at school, and it was this sort of diffused -- and people were sort of wondering, "What should we do? How do we respond to this?" And I recall there were a couple of students who began to suggest that we take destructive action, break windows in the school and make a statement. I intervened and I didn't think about it at the time, but perhaps my grandmother had -- was haunting me in that moment, and I said, "Isn't there a better way to make a statement? What if we simply walk out of school and demand that there be an assembly to talk about what has happened here and how it has affected us." And people bought my idea and so I began to think, "Gee, I could actually have an influence in which I may have prevented some more violent, destructive activity," because people really were ready to move, ready to do something and just weren't sure what to do. And these two guys, they happened to be brothers, and fancied themselves as sort of young Black Panthers in our school. Well, I wasn't that, but I often hung out with these guys. And so it was the courage -- I commend myself here, I shouldn't do that -- but the inclination to intervene and to speak up at a moment when a decision was being made and to suggest what I thought was a better alternative. So yes, now we did walk out and I was identified along with these two brothers and we were expelled, and so it was for me a time of learning a little about the cost of leadership, the risks of leadership, of speaking out, of standing up, of being willing to be sort of identified and easily picked out. And these -- you know, my colleagues were not doing very well in school and so they were actually expelled and transferred to other institutions. Well, I -- you know, my grades were decent and so the principal struggled with what do we do with this young man, and eventually they put me on probation. And I became even more adamant about listening to the speeches, about learning how leadership was unfolding and when I began then to learn a little about SNCC, and even about the leadership role you played and others during the civil rights movement, really imprinted me and was, I think, paving the way for my next journey as I entered Morehouse College. BOND: What was your high school like? What was Morgan Park like? What was the racial composition there? BOND: So when you get elected to a student leadership position, you're getting the votes primarily of white students. FRANKLIN: That's correct, yes. And again, I think it was an effort, because my elementary school was, I guess, 90 percent white and we walked some distance from our neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago to get to that Esmond Elementary School. So, we were kind of -- we had white friends and we knew they were approachable, and they could be friends and they were okay. And it was quite striking to me because most of the kids in our neighborhood attended another school, the Shoop Elementary School which was, I'd say, all black. So most of our friends in high school were from the all-black elementary school. BOND: How were you able to get out of your attendance zone, I'm guessing, to go to these other schools? FRANKLIN: You know, I've often wondered, and I think that it was a matter of Shoop having reached capacity and the need to sort of move some other students out to another school zone. I think it was just overcrowded, and we lived far enough away that Shoop took students that were closer. And then the question of what to do with those outliers, we then were transferred to another institution. BOND: And I'm guessing in high school, at least, that the teachers were overwhelmingly white. FRANKLIN: Correct, yeah. It was a big deal to have an African American teacher. I can remember there may have been five or six in the entire institution. And so -- you know, it was -- and this is another part of the story in terms of claiming my own leadership voice. There were a couple of the white teachers in Morgan Park High School who sort of saw potential, and named it for me, and said, "You really ought to read these books," and tried to expose me to other leaders who were claiming leadership in important ways. So you know, despite the tension that was always present in some way, because of things going on in the larger society would sort of spill into the city and we had certainly had -- I mean, there were white guys in the gang at the school who, you know, would threaten us, and terrorize through words mostly. There were rare that there were actually fisticuff conflicts, although that did happen from time to time. But we knew there were guys you just didn't go near and you didn't talk to. You know, they'd use the "N" word in our presence. And we didn't pick the fight and it didn't happen. BOND: Now, when you're listening to these speeches, and leading this walkout, and reading these books and growing, in effect -- are you conscious, do you think, that, "I'm going to be somebody someday. I'm going to be different than my peers"? That is, "I'm going to exercise leadership in some way." You're not sure about a profession or career, but, "Somehow or another I'm going to be exercising leadership." Are you conscious of this, do you think? FRANKLIN: In some small degree, I was. I mean, I'm still an adolescent and growing and not which sure what I'm going to be doing. I played the guitar and so I still fancied myself, you know, a light-weight musician. But it was really again, back at church, at St. Paul Church, one of the things that Bishop Ford did in the Breakfast Club was, he discovered that we would leave Breakfast Club, we'd all sing a song in unison, "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and then we'd go to Sunday School. You know, these are co-educational age-divided classes. One day there was a complaint from one of the female Sunday School teachers about boys disrupting the class. Two or three boys. And it got to be so disruptive over several weeks, she went and reported this to Bishop Ford. She was just, she was in tears. I'm not sure what these guys had done. Well, this was significant enough for him to leave -- at this point he's in his office -- he leaves the office, comes down and finds me -- I'm seated in a class of young adult men myself, so I'm a student -- and picks me out and says, "Follow me." And this morning, I'll never forget, he went to each of these classes scattered throughout the church and the dining hall and asked these teachers, largely female teachers, "Are there any boys in here who are giving you a problem?" And we'd look there, and, you know, the little girls in the class were chuckling, as everybody sort of identified the boy. And one by one, in some cases, two out of that class. And it was kind of, we went along there, following behind me, me following behind Bishop Ford -- so this is sort of Pied Piper as we went one-by-one to class by class and the line grows longer. Finally there were about thirteen guys and then Bishop Ford takes us to another part of the church under the choir stand, isolated area, and says, "All right, Brother Franklin, you're now in charge of these young men and you will have your own class, and I don't want to hear any more about problems and disruptions from you guys." So there I was, no curriculum, no experience, and sort of with what they all regarded as the most problematic and at-risk kids in the church. So we started slowly and I'm not quite sure where it occurred to me to allow these guys to tell their stories. So part of it was an introduction ritual. And it went on for so long we couldn't get to all the guys that first hour, hour and fifteen minutes, whatever we had, so the next Sunday we came back and we continued. "All right, you tell us your story. What school do you go to? Neighborhood you live in?" And one of the things that struck me as we were doing this, these guys had never had that opportunity to even for just sort of five-minute platforms to say, "This is who I am, this is where I'm from," etc. And so later in life I discover the importance of narrative and storytelling for people to feel part of an organization. So we continued and then we expanded that, because each week we'd come back and, you know, we'd read the Biblical passage that the rest of the Sunday School were discussing, and I'd say a few words about it. But then we'd quickly go to their stories, "How has the week been for you?" These young guys, these guys are twelve, thirteen years old, are sharing stories about being roughed up by police, about being recruited to gangs, about seeing their mothers brutalized by boyfriends. I thought, "Gee whiz, this is way over my head." But I realized it was important to allow these guys to talk through some of this stuff. And what I began to see was these guys who were kind of the "bad boys" in the church and in the neighborhood would listen to each other and were anxious to sort of get in and to have their time. And they were really very candid about some of the things that they were struggling with. They had questions. The kinds of questions boys would have -- "How do babies really get made?" and so it gave me an opportunity, I had to go back and study up on my own biology book, and I'd come back and give them a presentation and we'd talk about, you know, being responsible sexually. It was really quite an extraordinary occasion, and I think it was in that context, as sort of a teacher, young male leader, group leader, that I really began to feel,"This is something I'm supposed to do. I'm pretty good at this." BOND: Why did the Bishop pick you? BOND: But he thought you could do it? BOND: He saw something in you. Or you had shown him something that made him know you could do it. BOND: Well, then you go off to Atlanta to Morehouse College and what's that like -- this shift from this integrated high school in a segregated city, Chicago, but still a Northern city, to Atlanta, Georgia? What's that like for you? BOND: Talk about each one. FRANKLIN: Yeah. It was wonderful to be in the presence of all these young men who I thought are also kind of leaders and preparing to serve the community and preparing to join the freedom struggle. And you know, just to sit in an auditorium where there're six hundred other articulate, smart young men was incredibly empowering. I just felt this sense of promise and potential. And to have faculty who really were quite extraordinary in both the sacrifices they made by remaining at Morehouse, teaching us when they, at that point, began to have other options in white universities. But they were there for us and modeling for us. On the other hand, Morehouse, I found, was less committed to the cutting edge of the freedom struggle than I had expected it to be. I found that many of the teachers were also seeking to sort of socialize and assimilate us. It was a very -- kind of what one might call bourgeois ethic that was being instilled and, I don't know, in some ways often felt kind of irrelevant to all this activity going on around us. I mean, every month we would lose guys from our class who were being drafted, and they were off to Vietnam. And so you had the war and you had the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination and we just felt we ought to be doing more. We ought to be out there helping to organize communities, etc. And -- I don't know, in some ways the college felt like it wasn't pushing, it wasn't pushing us. We were having to lead the school. BOND: Now are you still having internal debates about what you want to do, what your career path is going to [be], how that's going to work out? FRANKLIN: In some measure, although at that point I was fairly clear that I wanted to dabble in politics, and to move toward at least being eligible for elective office. And here again, there were young, attractive leaders who were role models for me. There was Julian Bond and there were many others who I thought, "Gee, I like what they're doing," and they were kind of working within the system, but trying to bring transformation. And I thought, "I think that's more my style," because there was always the Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton option. BOND: Yes, that's got to be a little heady. FRANKLIN: Certainly was. Very intimidating. It was very different from a student council, that kind of setting. I mean, these were prominent business people and the president of the college sitting there. And I, you know, learned a lot about restraint and how best to give -- each meeting I was asked to give a report. There were two students, upper-class and an underclass, so I was the underclass person and I would sort of give my sense of the major issues and the concerns that students had. And so again, it was just another refining forum for me. BOND: Well, when did you say, "I'm going to go into the clergy," or "I'm going to achieve a higher education beyond Morehouse, I'm going to make religious affairs my life"? When did this happen? I imagine it wasn't a bolt of lightning. FRANKLIN: No, it was a gradual -- I like to talk about this in terms of a tug, a quiet and gentle persistent tug away from my real passion and love, political science, political philosophy and legal studies. And so, you know -- I'm a sophomore, I'm elected to the Board of Trustees and -- you know, again, this sense of disappointment with the kind of insular culture of Morehouse, made me feel there's a larger world out there --maybe this is Bishop Ford haunting me still -- that I wasn't connecting with. And I recall visiting Emory University's campus for a debate term and -- I was also on the debate team -- and so this oratory piece continued to evolve. And just being impressed with this, you know, this grand university. I thought, "Gee, this is something I'd like to experience as well." I mean, I loved the Morehouse experience but it's a family, it's a network, a village. And yet, it's not the kind of university in the way that these other places are. So, I applied for a junior year abroad scholarship and received that, and went to England. So there I was transplanted from Morehouse and Atlanta and Chicago to Northern England in which the entire county of Durham was populated by 30,000 people. And so it was almost rural with a small town and this grand old, eight hundred-year-old university there. And that too was extraordinary. It felt more like Morgan Park in some ways because there I was very much a, you know, in terms of racial minority, even tinier numbers there in this British university setting. But an opportunity during vacations, to -- both to interpret and tell, you know, British citizens and students what was going on -- about what was going on back in America. They had enormous curiosity. Watched television. They'd see the anti-war movement and civil rights and black power movement. "Tell us about this." "What does this mean?" And, "Can you interpret Jim Hendrix's lyrics for us?" So it was sort of a strange and rewarding experience of being a kind of interpreter, almost an ambassador I guess is the best way to put it. BOND: But what did this have to do, to you, not what you did for them? How did this affect you being in this foreign land, people speak your same language, or nearly the same language, but this is a very different place. What did this do to you? FRANKLIN: It certainly deepened my awareness of my own kind of inner world. I mean, I felt very isolated for much of that time and didn't have a -- you know, I had to create a community. I began to reflect more on my own mission and purpose and direction in life. I don't think I would have done that at Morehouse. I was so part of the activism and the movement and activities, and here now, almost it was a kind of monastic experience, this opportunity to slow down, to retreat from what the great theologian, Howard Thurman, referred to as "the traffic" -- "the busy traffic of life." And in that context, I mean, I'm now able to think about this in terms of I was able to communicate with God in a way, really able to hear a new voice that I hadn't really connected with or paid much attention to before. And it was there in England during that year that I began to experience this strong tug away from politics and law toward religion and theology. And I was still, perhaps by virtue of being outside the United States, keenly aware of cultural differences and curious about them, and curious about religious difference. And so my -- I talk about it as a "call to ministry." We're fond of doing that in black church culture. But it sort of happened in the context of encountering other cultures and religious traditions as well. During the Christmas break from the English school year, I traveled to Spain and Morocco, and -- you know, Catholic Spain and Muslim North Africa. And boy, I came back, I was just haunted and fueled with curiosity about how a belief system shapes an entire society and culture. And certainly when I walk in the streets of Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco, I mean, business owners would stop what they were doing and face Mecca, I later learned, and pray, just kind of in the middle of day and I thought this is very strange and very disconcerting. And I thought, "I need to understand what is it that motivates people to behave in this way, to organize their business lives around this sort of faith commitment?" So you know, back to school in England and then the next, at the end of the school year, there was a little money left in the scholarship and I'll always be grateful to the English Speaking Union for this scholarship and Morehouse's Merrill Scholars. I received both those. I went to the Soviet Union and there encountered young people who were in the Communist Party and who -- just very hostile toward religion and religious faith. And -- but as I listened to kind of what their faith was invested in, it was a sense of this collective humanistic possibility, if we put our best foot forward together. If we share, if we don't insist upon individual, so that was very -- my equilibrium was disturbed by the Soviet Union. Atheistic Communism. So I returned to Morehouse my senior year. Now I'm a real mess now because, I'm thinking about religious studies, I don't want to be a preacher. That's not intellectually respectable. FRANKLIN: I've got to still have to do something that I can feel I'm using my head. And there were a couple role models, the very, kind of -- the professors of religion at Morehouse who were very helpful at that point. My political science department chair didn't understand what I was up to. They sort of began to abandon me and thought that I was having some sort of, I don't know, mental crisis because I was, you know, the A student in political science and now I was not interested. Or I'd come to classes with a more -- with a somewhat belligerent agenda in pressing politics and law to answer larger questions about the meaning and purpose of human existence, the nature and destiny of human persons. And you know, they didn't have much patience with that kind of questioning. And so at that point I realized I couldn't go to law school and in the middle of my senior year, at a time when you're sending applications out early in the fall of the senior year, there I was, unaware of religious studies, seminary. It was completely foreign to me. And I happened to find a catalog in a wastebasket in Morehouse College's reading room that had the familiar colors, maroon and white, of Harvard and of Morehouse. And I just sort of fished it out and this was a catalog from Harvard Divinity School. Never heard of the place. I was intent on going to Harvard Law School. And I flipped through it, took it home and there was a card, response card, I filled out, sent in, received an application, applied, was accepted. And this was incredible because, you know, I just, I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. But this felt like a kind of faith -- leap of faith, as the theologian Kierkegaard talks about that. So there I was off to Harvard Divinity School but with a keen interest -- it's funny, I actually applied to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard for the Ph.D. program as well as the Divinity School for ministry studies. I was accepted in both programs and in both applications I talked about my travels to North Africa, to Soviet Union, and this interest in comparative belief systems in interfaith and religious and non-religious perspectives on life. They were very interested in that and so they wanted me to come and pursue those studies. But they were surprised that I said no to this very lucrative offer for the Ph.D. program and then the Divinity School, that I wanted to pursue this ministry side, so at some level, I think I was already leaning toward a vocation that would involve service and communicating with the masses and not simply a kind of scholarly, literary, classroom-based existence. BOND: We've taken you up through college years and you've described this really rich mix of experiences, of travel overseas, education overseas, the black college experience at Morehouse. Prior to that, the integrated high school, some leadership positions. Great family influences, the influence of Bishop Ford. All of this taken together I'm guessing has made you who you are. Is it at all possible to replicate this for larger numbers of people? I mean, you can't pick people's families for them. You can't pick their high school for them. But is it possible in some way to replicate your experiences or the kinds of experiences you've had for larger -- a larger group of people? FRANKLIN: I think it is possible to replicate dimensions of it and I think I would thematize this in terms of crossing boundaries. I think that, you know, local religious communities and organizations, secular community serving organizations, youth groups of various kinds, as well as educational, public schools and private schools ought to be more intentional about finding ways to bring students together from across geographic, ethnic, racial, cultural boundaries. So that they can dialogue and perhaps work together. I mean, Habitat for Humanity provides some opportunities of that sort as well. But in addition to our sort of domestic encounter with others that can be -- I mean, forums can certainly be organized to facilitate that -- I think some international experience, particularly in the post 9/11 era where the rest of the world sort of regards Americans as very parochial and detached and sort of, "We don't care about the rest of the world. We don't know much about the rest of the globe and we can kind of carry on with a certain level of global naiveté because everybody wants to be an American anyway, and we've got it all." And I think we'd better work hard now to try to disabuse the rest of the world of that notion. And I would hope that certainly for kind of especially that ripe period of the high school years, I especially think that the rising senior, that is, those who have reached the junior year and are about to -- that summer, a lot of organizations try to create opportunities for students to travel. I just think it's very important for us to get outside and look back at ourselves. BOND: But how do you overcome the tendency, the desire of many people, both within black America and within America period, to want to be with themselves, with people like them? I'm thinking about AMEs want to be with the AMEs, the Baptists want to be with the Baptists, and all. How do you get people to broaden their own horizons when they have this real tendency not to do so? FRANKLIN: I think it's exceedingly difficult, and it's important to hold up for them the exemplars, the role models of people who have done that, who've walked kind of this often lonely ground into new places. And who have survived and who are the better for it. I think, you know, people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others who benefited from international travel, from learning in unusual contexts and kind of leaving home, as it were. That we just really try to promote that is important. And I think to find resources in the religious tradition itself as well as in our cultural and literary traditions that talk about, you know, really being a world citizen. Being at home in a larger world. We are not alone. And you know, I think even, you know, I read Jesus' way, of thinking about his own self-understanding of moving beyond his own immediate community to encounter gentiles as a part of the mission, a part of his way of living a more fulfilled life, is this encounter with the other. And I think that that is a kind of paradigm that many of us in today's -- certainly in the church world but in the larger culture -- simply abandon. There's this almost a" dread of diversity" as I've heard one scholar name this. And I think if we can create safe harbors, if we can promote the successful examples, it makes a tremendous positive difference when you risk crossing the boundary. It's certainly I've experienced that in my life, and I try to encourage and promote that with other people. BOND: Still, it's very, very difficult to do because people are afraid of the different, of the new, of the other. Strikes me as a tremendous challenge to help them overcome that. BOND: Let me ask you a philosophical question. What do you see as the difference between vision, philosophy, and style. And how does any interaction between these three work for you? Vision, philosophy, style. How are they different? How do they work together, if at all? BOND: And do you think we -- you particularly, but we generally -- we're always unconsciously integrating these as we go along with our lives or we're putting it together almost on a moment-by-moment basis? We're integrating style, vision, philosophy, bringing it all, bringing it all together? BOND: What vision has guided your life? FRANKLIN: Well, I'd say that the vision for an inclusive, just community is the kind of city, neighborhood, world I'd like to live in and with my limited time on the planet, I'd like to devote that time to creating that world that is safe for all people, no matter what their color or religious commitments, or whether they have any religious commitments or not. It's a sense of creating safe public space for -- even for non-conformists. And so that's a part of the vision of -- the big vision, the social vision. In terms of personal vision and a vision I'd hope for every other individual is the possibility of living a truly self-actualized existence in which all of my potential are fully explored and exploited and so that I don't reach the end of my life looking back with a sense of regret about what I should have tried. And I think that, for me, gives me a kind of energy and restlessness and a kind of audacity to risk making a fool of myself as I, you know, go back and try to learn piano because I didn't as an eight-year-old, or as I undertake -- I'm currently involved in a kind of world travel and trying to visit countries and look in on cultures that have always been intriguing to me that I haven't yet encountered. That's a part of what I'd like to sort of wrap up as a part of my brief life. I want to see the whole world and hear their music and taste their foods. So that's kind of the vision. BOND: Has the vision changed over time? Is it different in any way now than it would have been five, ten, more years ago? FRANKLIN: Let's say it has evolved to become a bit more expansive and inclusive. The more I discover new peoples and places, new ways of thinking about the divine or what the theologian, Paul Tillich, refers to as "the ultimate concern," it only deepens my curiosity to study more, you know, the ways of exploring truth in those traditions as well, as an intellectual. And I guess to some extent as my own kind of spirit internal, personal spiritual journey unfolds, I am enriched by other ways of praying, of meditating, of seeing the world and at the same time, the commitment to community, to service, to sort of doing things that don't necessarily advance my own personal agenda or well-being but enable other people to experience something of the self-actualization I'm talking about. That's important, and for me that's sort of the justice agenda. And I think that has been -- that's been fairly constant. BOND: You decided, obviously, that you were going to pursue a kind of life in which you persuaded others to your views, your philosophy, through the written word, through argumentation and so on. Why'd you choose that path? I mean, I understand the decision to go to Harvard, but why that path instead of the one you'd previously thought about, law? I mean, lawyers have an enormous effect on people. You win a successful lawsuit, a major suit -- people behave in different ways. You write a book -- people may or may not read it. They may not pay attention to the argument. Why this life of the mind, I guess, rather than the other kind of life? FRANKLIN: Yeah, and you mentioned writing a book and no one reading it. My writings are the kinds of writings that once you put them down you can't pick them up again, so I'm keenly aware of how anti-literate so much of the American public is. Reader's Digest said that two years ago, over 60 percent of American households didn't purchase a single book over the course of an entire year. So that certainly has prompted me to be more savvy about how I sort of get the message out, if you will, and the importance of paying more attention to media. I admire and learn a lot from people, people like you, who understand that radio and television and mass communication is a very important mode of sort of presenting questions as well as presenting arguments. BOND: But all this means you think that ideas count? BOND: How did you come to believe that? FRANKLIN: In high school, during the crisis of the walkout in 1969 and this period in which I was actually not attending school for several days -- not permitted and at home -- my mother was there. I -- and then recalling again one of the teachers at the school who sort of gave me a reading list. I began to read. They actually permitted me to take books from the library at school because they liked me and so I had -- I'll never forget the two things that I took home were Plato's Republic and Robert's Rules of Order for some reason. This is not, you know, bedtime reading. But I guess, again, there was this sense of "How do you govern? How you run meetings and convene people and maintain a sense of order as you try to sort of get practical business done -- " fascinated me with Roberts' Rules. I thought, "Someone's actually thought about the rules." And so again, even through that little book, my passion for the law was, was deepened. And with Plato's Republic, everybody talked about it -- it's the most important philosophical text that had ever been written-- and yet, he, Socrates, is a story teller. He's something of a preacher. And I was intrigued by that, he's an educator, but he educates by asking hard questions. He didn't give lectures. He will give substantive responses as he reflects on a student's response. And I was really intrigued with that Socratic Method. And it was there, I think, that my sense that ideas do matter, ideas have power and began to sort of see that validated over time. So that when I would, later, back to listening to the speeches of Malcolm and King and the Panthers, sometimes they'd occasionally reference Plato or something. I thought, "Gee whiz, that's extraordinary." And I thought, "Plato's been gone a long time and yet the power of his ideas -- " I don't know much about his personal life, that wasn't so important. So it wasn't biography as much as the ideas and the questions. What is the nature of the good life? And what is the nature of the good society? Those are the two philosophical questions that Plato and some would argue all of the history of philosophy are grappling with those two sets of questions. I thought, "Gee, at some level, if you kind of peel away all the layers and get under the surface, that's the agenda all of us somehow are working on," was trying to figure out, what does it mean for me to live a good life, and what does it mean to create, have a good community, a good society? BOND: It just strikes me that's extraordinary to begin to think in high school, although others do, that ideas count that much. BOND: Think about your own path to leadership. We generally think about it in a couple of different ways, three ways. Great people cause great events; movements make leaders; or the confluence of unpredictable events creates leaders appropriate for the times. Where do you fit? FRANKLIN: I'm very attracted to this third model. I mean, I don't think of myself certainly as a great leader or a great person. But -- and it's hard to predict when the next movement will roll through and sort of sweep up. But I do have a sense that there are leaders and people with creativity and talent and a will to serve and to do good always out there, always on the scene. And there are occasions where questions and issues emerge that mobilize our concern, that have the potential for evolving into a movement. Just to give an example, I think that I have a sense that there's a movement trying to be born now in the wake of the tragedies of September 11 that hadn't quite yet taken off, but could, and I hope, will. And it has to do with, both within America and beyond, this sense of the fragility of the human existence, the sense that nothing is promised, there are no guarantees it will be here tomorrow or next week. And if we sort of plug into that awareness, it might fuel a will to serve, to connect with strangers, to learn more. Americans learning about Islam and Ramadan today who had no idea, no clue about this religious tradition a year ago. But we all know more now. That kind of new learning, new discussion that I sense the rebirth of civil society in America, of individuals leaving suburban enclaves and trying to find, figure out what they can do to improve the life of the city. It's revisiting the language of Thomas Jefferson and others about the common good, the public good, and how we somehow fit with that. Again, that's Plato's notion of the good community. And so it's just a long, rambling way of trying to suggest that I hope to be in place if the trumpet sounds and there is this unleashing of energy and volunteerism to improve neighborhoods, to really deal with the problems of homelessness and of ignorance and public health crises. I mean, these same challenges that have faced human society over time, I just have confidence if we were to mobilize our best resources and if humans, all of us on the planet, were compelled to act in certain ways, we could make a huge, huge difference and move us closer to the good society. BOND: You talked recently about how the church generally, black church particularly, is kind of a legitimizing myth. At the same time, this institution -- 70,000 in the country right now, individual congregations -- but a long, long tradition among denominations providing leadership -- why has this institution particularly been so important to African America? Why this institution? FRANKLIN: Why, I think it's rooted in the experience of slavery and the fact that the early black churches that emerged in this country in the eighteenth century were the only institutions where African Americans could gather with a sense of -- a measure of self-determination. You know, "We define the rules here. It's our rules of order that govern this organization." And a sense of relative safety, a sense of connectedness to other individuals who are not family. And so the church as a kind of surrogate family, extended family, emerge within the black church venue. And so for me it's unremarkable that the church became the most important and central socializing institution in our community. They couldn't do everything and so there was a need for the NAACP and the Urban League and other civil rights groups to advance issues of freedom and justice in the larger society. And yet, the church is very much a part of those movements as well. But it also understood it had another agenda and that was the agenda of people-making, of fostering family, of healing wounds, both physical and psychic wounds that people encountered as they grappled every day in a racist society. And that was hard work. That's important work. And every week the people gather with the expectation, at least in a black church, that some measure of re-knitting the unraveling fabric of family, neighborhood, of civil society will happen. Not that we will be affirmed as detached individuals, aspiring and moving up the economic ladder, according to the logic of capitalism, but that we are reminded that we are community. That's the best of the black church as a servant and a facilitator of civil society. And when I use that term I simply mean connecting strangers, and promoting a sense of citizenship that prompts people to act in ways that advance a common good, whether it serves their own economic or personal interests at all. BOND: By definition this conversation that we're having is about black leadership, not about leadership generally. To what degree does race consciousness affect both your work and who you are? Who you were, and who you are today? What does race consciousness have to do with you? FRANKLIN: Yes. Certainly ever present, given the nature of this country and milieu in which we live. I think here of W.[E.]B. Du Bois' classic trope, From the Souls of Black Folk, "one ever feels his twoness." You know, an American and African. And it is the sense of holding these many elements together is my own now more mature sense of a personal self-consciousness that I'm a member of a particular ethnic group. I have loyalties there. That's from whence I come. I have debts to pay to those who have given and suffered and sacrificed. But I am also, again to use Dr. King's language, "a world citizen, a part of the world house." And I have loyalties there as well. And my -- I think the art is never subsuming necessarily one to the other, but somehow living with a sense that I can serve and advance and enhance both as I move forward. BOND: What do you say to people who say, "By emphasizing this race, you're only dividing us? You're drawing lines between us. You're separating us. Why do you keep bringing up this race question, why don't you put it behind you? Get over it." FRANKLIN: I just think that it simply would be counter-factual and counterintuitive to ignore the ever-present reality. Again, Du Bois, "the presence of the color line" now in the twenty-first century. We can't pretend that that's not a problem, not a challenge. And smart, mature, confident people take on the hard questions and issues. They don't ignore race or gender or sexual orientation. They take them on. They address them. They find ways to reconcile. They find ways to respect difference, to tolerate difference. Again, in the course of trying to facilitate everyone experiencing the fullest of their own human potentials, because theologically speaking, I regard the presence of potential in every human soul as a profound and sacred thing, as a gift from God. And my obligation then -- not option, obligation -- is to work to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to explore and to develop them. And hence, part of what I saw you all doing as you took on Bull Conner and the segregationists, mean-spirited police in Birmingham and other places, was, you know, both certainly to advance the cause of freedom and eliminate racism but at a more profound level philosophically, theologically, was to enable that gentleman who was really stifling his own capacity for experiencing all of the goodness of life, to set him free to do that. Now that's a very ambitious and very difficult enterprise but back to the question of vision, that's the vision that I think propels me as I go forward. And so race is, reckoning with race is an obligation. We have to deal with that. BOND: Does race affect you in your presentation? You're speaking to an all-black crowd here, an integrated crowd, an all-white crowd here. How does race figure into these three? FRANKLIN: Well, one of the things I've learned especially from feminist scholars and critical theorists is you know, you never escape your skin. You know, mind, idea, spirit, soul are all sort of empackaged and I have to reckon with my own social location and social identity. I am a black male heterosexual Christian and on and on, and other people have other packages, and the radical love ethic of Jesus for me means loving and affirming all the other packages, all the other people. And so I sort of carry that sense of consciousness into whichever audience I might happen to address. I am able to call upon a very familiar symbol set when I'm in an African-American audience as I persuade -- I like your way, that verb -- as I persuade and exhort and challenge people to, to actualize themselves. But part of that agenda, even in black church audiences, is challenging people not to be too parochial -- not to hide, not to take refuge in a way that ignores and negates other peoples and other cultures. So in that setting, I'm sort of affirming the strengths of black churches, families, individuals, affirming the souls of black folk, but also saying, "There's a larger world out there, folks, don't forget. Go out there and experience it. Go and visit and see the museums of Rome and Paris. Go and taste the fruits of Tahiti," and the challenging them not to think "I'm an American, I'm a black American, this is my home, this is where I belong, and that's the end of the game." No, absolutely not. That's not what Dr. King -- that's not the legacy he leaves us. As he says, and I'll use a fancy term, "our challenge is to de-parochialize ourselves" and part of what I try to do in my seminary is to deparochialize these young black seminarians, so that on one hand, they are skilled leaders of black congregations; that's important. "I want you to know how to preach and administer and counsel. But at the same time, I want you to be a -- to cross boundaries. And the kids in your congregation may never do that unless they see you do it first. So pastor, you have to take the risk. You have to go to the meetings in the other neighborhoods. You have to be present in city hall and the state legislature to represent the interests of your children." And as they watch you move from your safe, comfortable space where you could spend all your life doing good, important work, but as they see this as an important agenda of yours to move out into the public square, I think they will think, "We have permission to do that, too. We have the confidence to operate in that larger context on the world stage as well." BOND: Is it possible that -- I know it's possible you can place too great an emphasis on race but here's a quote from William Allen. He says, "Thinking in terms of race or gender is a danger. Until we learn once again to use the language of American freedom in an appropriate way that embraces all of us, we're going to continue to harm this country." I asked you a moment ago about division, and [you] gave the perfect answer, but is there a danger in being too black, too often, too much? FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think that that is the danger, is that it, in fact, strangles the possibility for the full fruition of one's own identity. I think when people reify or make sacred their particularity, for me, getting back to my theological toolbox, that's sin. That's an offense to God. That is wrong. And, you know, this is not popular to say to friends who are black nationalists, who want a separate community and separate nation, and yet I can attend a black nationalist meeting -- I go to the Nation of Islam meetings on occasion, listen in on what's going on -- and affirm the good that's at work in that project. This sort of effort to redeem people who are lost and confused and unaware of the African identity, yes, there's something -- there's an important moment there. There's an important season for affirming one's particularity. I'm black and I'm proud, and yes -- because there are others who would argue there's never a moment or season for that kind of self-celebration-- I vigorously disagree. I think part of the beauty of America is the possibility for all the cultures and peoples to sort of have their moment, to have their season, to express distinctiveness, and I hope thereby to enrich the larger body politic. So yes, it is a danger and for me, it's more than simply regrettable from a social or psychological perspective. Theologically it's a bad place to be. BOND: Does race place a burden on you that it doesn't place on, say, the president of the Candler School of Theology? Does he or she not face a burden that you do or a responsibility that you do? How does race guide you in that sense? BOND: Or obligate you, how does it obligate you? FRANKLIN: Yeah, well, there I think this sense of connectedness with those who continue to struggle. Those who are deprived in significant ways of opportunity in participating in the larger American experiment where I feel that I've been blessed to have certain opportunities and see the possibilities, the vision, the larger vision that lies beyond. Part of my obligation is to ensure that I can maximize the number of -- especially children, who might not otherwise have that experience, to ensure that they do. And so there's a kind of obligation to include, to sort of pull up and elevate and expose in a way that I don't sense that my colleagues, white colleagues in majority institutions, necessarily go about with a day-by-day sense that that's their agenda. I mean, in a way I often feel a bit of envy because they're able to focus on their agenda, fundraising and building an institution, and whereas I sort of get called on by the local YMCA to go talk to a group of at-risk teenagers. Well, that's really not in my job description. But I've got to do that. And I mean, while I'm doing that I'm not at the Rotary Club or I'm at having a power lunch with someone downtown. And there are a host of other kind of responsibilities of that sort, that because I do understand the importance of race and connectedness and kinship and village, nurture -- there's things I have to do because I am now, whether I like it or not, I am a leader, a kind of a person who carries a certain mantle in that community. BOND: Do you think there's a crisis in black leadership today? I can remember hearing almost every so often there is such a crisis. Is there a crisis in black leadership? BOND: Let me tell you how Cornel West says it. He says, "The crisis is a symptom of black distance from vibrant tradition of resistance, from a vital community bonded by ethical ideals and from a credible sense of political struggle. That black leadership," he says, "is alienated from that, separated from this past." FRANKLIN: Yeah. Yeah. I'd argue that that is slightly overstated, so yes, there is a crisis, and it is most evident among leaders -- some who are particularly visible -- and who, I think, have been distracted from the agenda of lifting as we climb, and who have become, I think, too assimilated into the systems of power to speak truth to power which is the function of the prophet. The prophet is she or he who speaks truth to power. The expectation of the black masses is always that our black leaders will speak truth to power, will carry this prophetic mantle. And I do perceive certainly among the masses a sense of disappointment, a sense of betrayed expectation that religious, elected officials, business leaders in the African-American community, should carry that mantle in a persistent way and do not -- often seem to be silenced, or distracted, or sort of preoccupied with the stuff in their lives and the material gains, etc. So yes, there is a crisis, but it's remediable. I think that those leaders, and this is why I think that we're in a time, turn of the century, where the historian, Vincent Harding, says this is a time when black leaders should be caucusing in summits, the heads of organizations should gather to strategize and think together about complementarity of purpose and mission and activity. I see that happening and -- you know, Tavis Smiley convenes summit meetings and thoughtful people. I think that's a good and exciting enterprise, and for me, I think, is mitigating the strength and force of the crisis that Mr. West diagnoses. BOND: In the future -- and of course none of us knows what that's going to be -- what kind of leadership is going to be demanded that perhaps we don't have now? Are there going to be new demands on leadership figures and leadership figures, you're talking about an enormous range of people. What are the new demands going to be? FRANKLIN: Well, I can't ignore the fact that one-third -- roughly one-third, according to researchers at Howard University -- of the African-American community continues to live in a sort of sinking, multi-generational poverty, poorly educated. Just significant personal crisis, substance addictions. On and on, kind of violence in neighborhoods. Somehow, before we can really celebrate these African Americans sort of joining the American dream, we've still got to reckon with that challenge to us, because they're our family. They're our village. And I think, you know, Dr. West is keenly sensitive to those two-thirds of African Americans who are doing well, who are making it, and who forget about the one-third. But most leaders haven't forgotten. Most of us are connected in various ways. Most of us are serving on a day-by-day, week-by-week fashion to somehow create opportunities for less advantaged citizens. And so I think the new leadership perhaps is going to have to be even more visible in modeling the sense of connectedness to the have nots. To demonstrable programs that enable people to move from dependence, from welfare, substance addictions, etc., from dependence to self-sufficiency. And leadership that is wise about that process, about the transitioning from dependence to self-sufficiency is going to be important. So it's not just leaders who sketch the big vision which we've had a lot of, or leaders who just serve particular constituencies. But leaders who are somehow helping to kind of really transform existence for a large number of people, who are just desperately looking for hope. BOND: What can we do to make sure we have all kinds of leaders, the big picture people, the specific constituency people, the people with the vision for moving from dependence? How can we guarantee, if we can, that we have a ready supply of efficient, hard-working, dependable leadership figures emerging in our community? FRANKLIN: Well, I think there's certainly a role for educational institutions to play in trying to encourage students to claim their leadership, claim their mission in life in terms of providing direction and inspiration and hope and practical examples for self-actualizing their lives. And so I think we need more people to understand that as they do so, they are -- that's a form of leadership. Not all leaders are the big picture behind the microphone and in the public eye. But there are grassroots leaders, there are bureaucratic leaders who work in organizations to provide guidance and direction, who speak truth to power, who reinterpret the mission of the corporation or the company to ensure that it's serving the common good. I think that's the kind of leadership I hope we will nurture in a variety of ways, in the arts and journalism, in business, in medicine and in the sciences and certainly in politics and religion. People who understand the dynamics of the human spirit and its quest for meaning and purpose. And people who understand the fragility of community and how we need to knit and work on community building. So it's wisdom about the human soul and about the human community building and then the larger agenda of crossing boundaries and negotiating difference and otherness. And I think if we have leaders that have wisdom about those three agendas -- the soul, the community and difference -- we're going to be well-served. BOND: On that note, thank you, Dr. Franklin, for being with us. This has been great. FRANKLIN: Thanks very much. Thanks for the opportunity.

2019-04-19T14:38:46Z

http://blackleadership.virginia.edu/transcript/franklin-robert

The Millennium Bug or Y2K was a psyop to ensure the world was wired for Rothschild's global electronic monetary system; a draconian Big Brother control mechanism more terrifyingly effective than British redcoats. The worldwide monetary crisis and planned collapse of the fiat monetary system—with inflation, deindustrialization, unemployment, depression, poverty, homelessness, war, famine, disease and death; and within the inassimilable multicultural demography of our apostate once homogenous Christian nations, division, hatred, anarchy and death—fruit of Khrushchev's "peace offensive" launched in 1956 to put the "bourgeoisie to sleep," so that the final take-over of the entire world by the Judaeo-Communism succeeds through the element of surprise. 1956 was the jubilee year of the Laodicean Church Age, the year in which the United States rejected her last opportunity for national repentance. "And while the Bridegroom tarried through the Church Ages, they all slumbered and slept"; since His return, the foolish virgins have come out of Rome and her (once) Protestant daughter churches, and are now in the circle of this Message, asleep behind the pulpit or in the pews. The planned monetary collapse and worldwide depression is intended to decimate the middle class, whose intellectual and material independence (like private ownership of hand guns), is viewed as a threat by the international criminals who desire world hegemony. Monetary collapse is intended to force "a global level playing field" wherein all but a tiny elite are returned to serf-like submission by the masters of the universe. After earthquakes sink Los Angeles and much of California, which is the world's seventh-largest economy, the US dollar will fail. With the US militarily exhausted, already defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia will invade mainland USA. Rome will intervene in union with other religions and restore peace; as Russian occupation forces withdraw the world will implore Rome's then Devil-incarnate pope to take presidency over one world government. In league with the Jewish banksters she will refinance the dollar with gold backing and return the nation to prosperity as ancient Laodicea was restored following its devastating earthquake. In view of the likely degradation in the economic, financial and security situation wherever you live, and as a precaution, families might act now to set aside a stock of non-perishable foodstuff (without the knowledge of children, neighbours, or anyone outside the home). Residents of the United States may recall that at the time of Y2K it became a criminal offence for homes to maintain more than two week's supply of food, so don't show, and don't tell. Because of the earthquake he had prophesied, Brother Branham warned Christians decades ago that they should move from California. I suggest that Brethren living on the eastern seaboard of Pacific and perhaps also the Indian Ocean should move to higher ground before this time of the year. Pay up any lingering debts, pray up, and keep the Token on display. I encourage you to review Brother Branham's sermon, "Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed," which is the essence of the last Book of the Bible—unveiling God in Jesus Christ. This will complement our teachings The Creation of God and His One Eternal Purpose. The transformation is being accomplished by grace through faith in God's revealed Word. The US money center banks . . . are all deemed to be too big to fail. But . . . Goldman Sachs is using about $US40 Billion of equity as the foundation for $US1.1 TRILLION of assets. That comes to a "gearing" of 27.5, which is the same as saying that were $US40 Billion of its loans to go sour, and then Goldman Sachs would have lost ALL its capital. Over at Merrill Lynch, which is now the most leveraged, $US1 TRILLION of assets is placed on a foundation of around $US30 Billion of equity. That's a "gearing" of 33.3, which is the same as saying that should about 3 percent of its loans go sour Merrill Lynch would be stripped bare of its capital. There are no safety margins here at all. The US money center banks are cardboard houses. If they had to take their "balance sheets" to the marketplace to seek credit, they would be summarily refused . . . US manufacturing base takes up a mere 9.9 percent of total employment. If the gargantuan and grotesque US military-industrial complex is subtracted, as it ought to be as sheer economic waste, what would remain are those still employed in the US civil and private economy. In reality, genuinely productive employment in the US economy is much lower than 9.9 percent . . . Any comparative analysis places the US in the third world category in real physical economic terms. What identifies a modern nation today is the gearing between industrial capacity and the percentage of the workforce employed there . . . REAL capital cannot be consumed with impunity. Once it is gone, it no longer exists. As an economic power, the US is done. In the three months to January, world trade in goods rose at annualised rate of 0.2 per cent over the previous three months. The equivalent growth rate in the three months to October 2007 was 6.9 per cent. Note the difference between these two quarterly numbers, from 6.9 percent to only 0.2 percent in the following quarter; three months more of this and global trade will be in free fall. This is an excerpted quote from US House of Representatives member Ron Paul: Total US government obligations are $US 53 TRILLION, while total net worth of US households is just over $US40 TRILLION. The country is broke. This statement by Mr Paul is fully authoritative. He has been on various House of Representatives finance and banking committees for decades, so he knows. What this means in basic accounting terms is that the assorted levels of US government have so loaded the US civil economy with debts that even the forceful expropriation of the full net worth of all Americans will not be enough to bring the US back to a state of solvency. Further, this overhang of debts only deals with official US government debt. The private debts of Americans are not included at all in Mr Paul's calculation. All these private debts have to be added on top. The general US media is an amazing system. Over the last three months or so, it has managed to reduce its coverage of the ongoing fighting in Iraq between the US occupation forces and the Iraqi resistance to only three percent of its national coverage. That includes print, television and radio news, according to reliable US media watching organisations. Iraq coverage has been replaced with Obama and Hillary. With more than 730 military bases spread across the world, as recorded by the renowned historian Chalmers Johnson, the US is a de-facto global empire. These US bases are still expanding regardless of the failing wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. During President Bush's presidency, NATO itself has added seven new members—Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, bringing the number of US NATO allies to 26. While the US economy is caving in behind him, President Bush has rolled out not only his two wars but also vastly extended his alliance and global bases system. America's ongoing reliance on imports of foreign capital is continuing. Though the current account deficit shrank in the fourth quarter, it was still 5.3 percent of US GDP last year. This continuing military buildup is a strategic move counteracted by the backwards pull of the US financial and economic recession. It is a geo-political and geo-strategic absurdity. It is the strategy of assured future collapse. . . this is the turning point around the vast pivot which was the US economy. This pivot is now crumbling. The most important centre point of the post WW II world has been undone. After this false lull, there are tumultuous events ahead financially, economically and geo-strategically. The US banking system has poisoned the well from which the US Treasury borrows by selling international lenders American subprime waste paper. These lenders are facing losses which are climbing ever higher. The Bank of China, hardest hit among the country's big banks by subprime exposure, has reported that it held $US5 Billion in US asset-backed securities at the end of 2007 and booked $US1.58 Billion in losses and markdowns on the holdings. China's Industrial & Commercial Bank reported holdings of $US23 Billion in US subprime paper at the end of 2007 and booked $US400 million in losses. Suffice it to say that Chinese banks are not keen to keep loading up on US debt paper. In Shanghai, China's benchmark CSI 300 Index recently plunged 5.1 percent to its lowest point in eight months. The index has slumped 30 percent this year on Chinese concern that a housing crisis would push the US economy, China's biggest export market, into recession. This is the way that the US economic recession is spreading like waves right across the world's stock markets, causing losses which are already in the $US TRILLIONS for investors globally. That, of course, will have its own effects inside all these economies. Falling stock markets are always economically contractionary. With the Asian nations most exposed to the internal US consumer markets, the US contraction will occur in Asia to a near matching degree. For several of these nations, this will be enough to knock them into real economic recession. Of course, with these Asian nations having rolled into their own recessions, they will buy less as their imports diminish. This too will be a form of economic backwash from the US recession wave. No nation will be immune; the entire world economy faces an economic downswing. As the economic wave sweeps across the globe, it is certain that those with the reserves in hand will be using parts of these reserves to sustain their own economies during the downswing. This simple fact makes it certain that Asian economies will periodically engage in selling waves of US Dollars. They will try to time these sales during periods of temporary US Dollar strength. But that, in turn, means that any upturn in the US Dollar will be capped by this Asian selling. The US Dollar simply cannot win. On Monday, March 24, Iran's Foreign Minister announced that his country has officially applied to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security grouping of nations dominated by China and Russia which has morphed into a form of anti-NATO alliance. Iran would never have made this official announcement had in not known in advance that it had the approval of both Russia and China. Geo-Strategically, this simply means that if and when Iran joins the SCO, then it has acquired two enormous and powerful allies in full military terms. The first is Russia, with a nuclear armament sufficient to be equal to that of the US. The second is a greatly modernised China with its own vast armed forces. In this alliance, it will be China and Russia calling the shots diplomatically and/or militarily. Iran will be the very junior partner. But the important point here is that with Iran as a member of the SCO, any US future attack upon Iran has become void. . . In practical terms, the futile US military enterprise is all over, unless the Bush Administration is prepared for a global war. President Bush travelled to Moscow last week as a "supplicant," having insufficient military and strategic means in hand to retrieve the drastic situation inside Iraq. The US military occupation of Iraq is right on the verge of full military failure. The US Force on the ground there has utterly exhausted itself and it cannot for much longer be maintained logistically. President Putin knows this. So do the Chinese who stand right behind him. Arriving in Russia, President Bush will discover the real cost of a policy which has left the US in an impossible worldwide position. Mr Bush faces a parallel situation to what President Gorbachev faced in 1991—withdraw or collapse . . . For example, the US Army has worn out about 40 percent of its equipment through use or battlefield destruction. It would take at least $US240 Billion to simply restore the US Army in terms of equipment to the state it was in before the March 2003 attack on Iraq . . . What was not clearly known until these past two weeks was that the US ground force was now actually losing its battle in Iraq and had in fact begun the processes of withdrawing. The US Army is now in a full retreat. Inundated with losses (and the write-down has only just begun), the Bush Administration will see a truly massive contraction in tax revenues from the US financial sector which will arrive right on the US Treasury's bottom line. Facing this, the US Treasury still has to send a climbing tidal wave of money over to the Pentagon to pay for the Bush wars. Woe to all the Western companies which have established export goods factories in China. They will soon be reporting not only falling earnings back to their headquarters but even losses as both the US economy and the general world economy slow towards the global recession. And the Chinese recession will come on top of that. This is the point at which the Chinese political powers that be will start making use of the huge foreign exchange reserves that China now holds. These total $US1.64 TRILLION in the economic "war chest" and China will use them to sustain its own internal economy once the Chinese economy really begins its dive into a deep recession. Toyota has already stopped making cars in two factories in the US. The general Japanese economy is following in train . . . while much of the so-called "developing world" is on the verge of collapsing into food riots, an amazing NINE PERCENT of the total population of the US are now relying on "food stamps" to eat. This in the "richest" nation on earth. The global credit expansion which is now imploding despite desperate efforts of central bankers and treasurers everywhere is, of course, devastating the world's so-called "real economies." What better proof of this could there be than the simple fact that the World Bank met last weekend to deal with the spectre of political unrest in 33 nations brought about by the high cost and growing scarcity of FOOD? Or the fact that almost one in ten Americans is dependent on food stamps? The "soup kitchens" of the 1930s are reappearing everywhere, and there is not enough "soup" to go round. . . . Full story: © 2008 - The PrivateerIssues 600 and 601. Comment: I do not expect the US dollar will collapse before earthquakes sink Los Angeles, wreaking global devastation, at the end of the Gentile dispensation. In face of this global catastrophe the persecution of the wise and foolish virgins who warn friends and loved ones of the tribulation and of the mark of the beast is assured. Authorities worldwide will introduce martial law, citizens will rally and churches unite for disaster relief. A successful Russian Invasion of the US mainland will follow perhaps six weeks after the earthquake. Los Angeles, April 14, 2008 – New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than Northern California, 97 percent versus 93 percent. "It basically guarantees it's going to happen," said Ned Field, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey in Pasadena and lead author of the report . . . More than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's major tectonic plates . . . The analysis is the first comprehensive effort by the USGS, Southern California Earthquake Center and California Geological Survey to calculate earthquake probabilities for the entire state using newly available data. Previous quake probabilities focused on specific regions and used various methodologies that made it difficult to compare . . . For the Los Angeles Basin, the probability is . . . 67 percent. There is no past comparison for the Los Angeles area. Comment: Brother Branham prophesied, "Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who's exalted yourself into heaven and sent all the dirty filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, with your fine churches and steeples, and so forth the way you do; remember, one day you'll be laying in the bottom of this sea. Your great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He'll hold this sandbar hanging over that, when that ocean out yonder a mile deep will slide in there plumb back to the Salton Sea. It'll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles. Repent the rest of you and turn to God. The hour of His wrath is upon the earth. Flee while there's time to flee and come into Christ" (Choosing of a Bride, p. 35:5). "A prophecy that I made about 1935 . . . said: "The time would come that the sea would weep its way into the desert." Look what'll take place. If that thousands of square miles falls down into the lava of the earth and slides in, there'll be millions die at one time. And that'll cause such a tidal wave . . . Remember, plumb up into the Salton Sea is a hundred or two hundred feet lower than the sea level. That water will probably come almost to Tucson with that tidal wave coming across there. And the sea shall weep its way into the desert" (Trying to do God a Service, p. 6:25). 'Eurasia is home to most of the world's politically assertive and dynamic states. All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia. The world's most populous aspirants to regional hegemony, China and India, are in Eurasia, as are all the potential political or economic challengers to American primacy. After the United States, the next six largest economies and military spenders are there, as are all but one of the world's overt nuclear powers, and all but one of the covert ones. Eurasia accounts for 75 percent of the world's population; 60 percent of its GNP, and 75 percent of its energy resources. Collectively, Eurasia's potential power overshadows even America's. 'Eurasia is the world's axial super-continent. A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world's three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa. With Eurasia now serving as the decisive geopolitical chessboard, it no longer suffices to fashion one policy for Europe and another for Asia. What happens with the distribution of power on the Eurasian landmass will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy' . . . It's about global hegemony, not democracy. It should be no surprise when powers such as China are not convinced that giving Washington such overwhelming power is in China's national interest, any more than Russia thinks that it would be a step towards peace to let NATO gobble up Ukraine and Georgia and put US missiles on Russia's doorstep "to defend against threat of Iranian nuclear attack on the United States." The US-led destabilization in Tibet is part of a strategic shift of great significance. It comes at a time when the US economy and the US dollar, still the world's reserve currency, are in the worst crisis since the 1930's . . . The dire warnings from the International Monetary Fund this week that the West now faces the largest financial shock since the Great Depression, while the Asian economies are still powering ahead, simply underlines our vulnerability in this new world order. The desperately weakened American dollar appears to be on the verge of losing its global dominance, in the same way as sterling lost it a lifetime ago. . . Last month, an Indian company, Tata, bought up what was once the cream of British manufacturing—Jaguar and Land Rover . . . The Malaysian company Proton owns Lotus. Indian company Tata owns Corus, once British Steel, as well as Tetley Tea . . . In Lubumbashi, the capital of the Congo's copper-rich region Katanga, the Economist reported "a sudden Chinese invasion." Troubled Angola recently shunned Western financial aid because of the amount of Chinese money pouring into it, in return for commodities. "The princes of business and industry and the earls of the ecology fabricated global warming as a devise to redistribute the wealth of the world . . ." It is not likely the IPCC, the eco-idiots behind the global warming scare tactics, and the watermelon bureaucrats who are using climate change to implement totalitarian controls over the people of the world, are going to do anything soon to rectify the situation. With carbon dioxide classified as a hazardous pollutant, the watermelons will soon see the doomsday prophecies of Paul Ehrlich come true, as greatly reduced levels of carbon dioxide bring about massive food shortages as crop yields are radically reduced because carbon dioxide—the food crops eat—has been dramatically curtailed by federal regulation, and the air quality over the largest industrial centers will have become so bad respiratory illness will become world's deadliest and most prevalent killer. In the end, the lunatic rantings of the eco-idiots will become fact. God's one eternal purpose is now being achieved by faith in His revealed Word—transforming His secret unseen thoughts to sensible reality that you can see with your eyes and handle by your hands, taste, smell and hear in fellowship. God is love, and His thoughts are the glorious Attributes of what He is, so in order to love and be loved and worshipped, He placed men on free moral agency that they may choose to reciprocate His love and reflect His likeness, becoming His glory and eternal Life, or desist and cease even from memory. First, by revealing the fullness of His nature and character bodily in Jesus Christ, the Perfect Man, born of a woman that He might identify Himself with us and qualify as kinsman Redeemer for Adam's fallen race to restore an election from "few days, and full of trouble" to an eternity of peace (Job 14:1; Revelation 21:1 – 22:7). Second, to reproduce the stature of the Perfect Man in His Body of believers whose sin-born flesh is a continuation of the first Adam, that He might have preeminence in His Bride whose soul is the continuation of the last Adam, who is the beginning of the new creation of God. This last Eve will obey her Husband in everything (Ephesians 5:21-33), that He might express Himself in His Family of God-men in the manifestation of the Sons of God. Third, to restore the Kingdom to its rightful position of fellowship in His Presence whence it fell when the first Adam crossed over the time line and the Life line to redeem his fallen Eve (Romans 5:12-21). That is, to be worshipped throughout eternity in the form of New Jerusalem, His glorified Family, Jesus Christ and His Bride in the midst of the paradise of God. Hebrews 11:3, "Faith is the confident assurance of the actual existence of things hoped for, the conviction of unseen realities . . . By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:1, 5-6). Paul again defines faith in I Corinthians 2:9-16, "According to Isaiah 64:4, No eye has seen, nor ear heard, neither has the human heart conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For among men who knows a person's thoughts, except his own inner spirit? Similarly, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. And we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that comes from God, in order that we may know the things which God has freely given us. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Ghost — interpreting Spiritual truths to spiritual persons. But the natural man does not receive the things of the divine Spirit: for to him they are folly, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The Spiritual man, on the other hand, judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ". God being perfect wishes to display His Attributes, which are His thoughts, not my thoughts or your thoughts, in order to gather glory (adoration and worship) to Himself alone. Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Since a Word is a thought when it is expressed, we must offer to God the sacrifice of His thoughts, giving thanks in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5; 4:8, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus [and] whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things". God is accomplishing His one eternal purpose by grace through faith unmixed with man's interpretations. This means that every son and daughter of Adam who encounters the Word for their day has the opportunity by the exercise of their free moral agency to be one of the Attributes in the glory of God before the world was—before the Logos was expressed by the great eternal Spirit who was not yet God since none of His creative thoughts were manifested to worship Him as God but existed only as foreknowledge (John 17:5). Psalm 147:10-11, "The Lord takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, and hope in His mercy." God is God. He seeks to gain glory to Himself, and will not share His glory with another. We must offer back the sacrifice of His thoughts by faith, not the works of our own mind and hands which are vain imperfections. Once God dwelt alone with His thoughts; now He is transforming His thoughts from Spirit into the glorified material form of Himself in the many-membered Body of Jesus Christ, Husband and Wife, who are one in the Logos as Jesus prayed in John 17:22-26 (I Corinthians 12:4-27; Ephesians 5:20-33). His eternal thoughts are the Attributes of what He is: Spiritual genes of His loins so to speak, and eternal Life unless and until hybrid unto death (John 6:63; Revelation 22:18-19). His gene is Spirit and it is eternal Life (John 6:63). Jesus said, "The seed is the Word of God" (Luke 8:11; Isaiah 55:11). His Word is Spirit in a form we can receive by faith. However, God chose to first manifest the natural gene that would fall, and secondly to manifest that which is Spiritual, the Lord from heaven, to redeem earthy man; that seed cannot fall (Matthew 24:24; John 2:19; 6:39). Even before "the beginning" the Sons of God existed in His thinking. Job 38:4-7, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have insight. Do you know who determined its dimensions, and who did the surveying? Upon what were its foundations sunk, or who laid the Capstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy at the revelation of the Seven Thunders"? In God's foreknowledge Christ was slain for the sins of the world, and before there was a star or an atom the Sons of God were written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Ephesians 1:4; Revelation 13:8). Those names can never be removed because that Book is "forever settled in heaven," and was "sealed to the time of the end." On March 8, 1963 Christ claimed the Book and opened its Seven Seals then "finished the mystery of God" by revealing the through "his angel" William Branham between March 17-24 (Daniel 12:4, 9; Revelation 1:1; 3:14; 4; 5; 10:1-7). Christ is the mystery of God revealed, and as His Bride was eternally in the Logos or Word, the mystery is who they are, and how He redeemed them in each Age of the Gentile dispensation. Since the revelation of the Seven Seals, the members of Christ's end-time Bride know their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. When a Church Age saint received the revelation of his 'Thunder' which was the Voice of God calling his name from the Lamb's Book of Life by the Message to his Age. All seven Church Ages are over; in this holy convocation we have received the revelation of all Seven Thunders. That revelation interpreted as a "written epistle" in your life is the manifestation of the Name of God, the Token of the Life of Christ on display in you, which is the evidence of your new birth. The Lord raises His children as we raise our children, with reward for good behaviour and chastisement for missing the mark of the high calling. Since the Fall He has seldom appeared openly, but veiled Himself in shadows and types. Even when He was on the platform with Brother Branham the congregation could not see Him, yet His Presence was manifestly known, and those who reached out in faith touched Him and were touched by Him. When the children of Israel sinned He placed them under the Law which defined sin and found all men guilty (Romans 5:13, 18, 20). This justified chastisement with a view to correction enabling God to manifest His Attributes of love, mercy and redemption to His elect in the propitiatory death and victorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; justified by grace we offer ourselves a living sacrifice by faith. This likewise enabled God to manifest His Attributes of justice and wrath upon recalcitrant sinners. Hebrews 10:1, "For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. . ." So if "the Law is spiritual," containing the shadow "of future good things," let us strip off the veil of the letter spread over it and consider its naked and true meaning. The Hebrews were commanded to furnish the Tabernacle as a type of Christ's Bride that they might be able by means of sensible things to announce beforehand the image of divine things. For the pattern which was shown to Moses in the mount, to which he was to have regard in fashioning the Tabernacle, was a kind of diagram showing the way back to the Presence where God dwells, which we now perceive more clearly than through types, yet more darkly than if we saw the reality. For we cannot yet in our present condition bear the sight of pure immortality, just as we cannot bear to look upon the rays of the sun. Israel beheld the patterns of things in the heavens, of which Christ's Bride is the as yet unfinished image of the heavenly order, the true tabernacle "whose builder and maker is God," and will be manifest in the resurrection. Galatians 3:24-25, "Wherefore the Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster". Being made in the Image of God (living souls) man needed to receive that which was according to His Likeness; which was the Word being sent down into the world to perfect the character of His elect, to save penitent sinners and condemn unbelievers. He first took human form, disfigured as it was by many sins, in order that we, for whose sake He bore it, might be able again to conform to the divine Likeness. For we are truly fashioned in the likeness of God only when we re-present His features in a human life, like skilful painters, impressing them upon ourselves as upon canvas, learning the path which He showed us. And for this reason He, being God, was pleased to put on human flesh, so that we, beholding as on a blueprint the divine Pattern for our life, should also be able to imitate Him who painted it. For He was not one who, thinking one thing, did another; nor, while He considered one thing to be right, taught another. But whatever things were truly useful and right, He both taught and did. Under grace the saints are being disciplined for incorruption, for the Bible is the story of God changing His form from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to the flesh of His glorified family. In the technical sense, a pattern is something in conformity with which a thing must be made; in an ethical sense, it is a dissuasive example of ruinous events which serve as admonitions or warnings to others; or an example to be imitated, such as the lives of the worthy heroes of faith in Hebrews 11; in a doctrinal sense, it is a type, for instance, a person or thing prefiguring a future person or thing like the glorified Son of David, the Son of man revealed in Brother Branham's ministry, New Jerusalem and the Bride of Christ. So God took from Himself the substance of the creatures formed, and the pattern of things made, and the type of all the adornments in the world. Being infinite, God knew all things from the beginning. And these, His eternal thoughts are the Attributes of what He is, expressed as Words; and the Words manifested His thoughts in material form. At the translation you will find out that heaven is not somewhere else; it's right here in another dimension faster than this. Matter is Spirit slowed down; thus when Christ opened the Seventh Seal, "the Lord came with ten thousand times ten thousands of His saints . . . [and] heaven was empty for the space of half an hour" (Jude 14; I Thessalonians 4:14; Revelation 8:1; 10:1). They are present now in another dimension; the veil of flesh prevents us from seeing them. If you are born-again, you are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, the Logos once manifest in flesh. Indeed, if you are elect of God you have been seated in heavenly places—which is the mind of God—from eternity, because before the foundation of the world, before the Logos was expressed, you were foreknown in Christ on Calvary; thus you are an eternal Attribute of the eternal Spirit we call God, and can no more be lost than God can be lost. It was on the strength of this revelation that Adam laid down his life to redeem Eve. God knew you before time and material creation came into being, and placed your name on the Lamb's Book of Life. First you were His creative thought in which form you existed eternally. Then, when you were born-again, you, your soul, was expressed as His Word; now as you mature in the faith you manifest the Word which is God (II Corinthians 3:2). This is illustrated by Psalms 139:15-16, "My substance was not hid from You, when I was made in secret, and intricately fashioned in utter seclusion. Your eyes saw Me before I was formed, and My members were all written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and fashioned in continuance, when as yet there was none of them". Brother Branham commented: this gives us the knowledge that the thought was there in His mind, and that thought was eternal and had to be expressed. So when Adam was formed of the dust of the earth and his spiritual being created by God, then Adam became God's thought expressed, and those eternal thoughts were now manifested. Down through the centuries we could go. We find a Moses, a Jeremiah, a John the Baptist, and each one of these were God's eternal thought expressed in its season. Then we come to Jesus the LOGOS. He was the perfect and complete THOUGHT expressed and He became known as the Word. That is what He IS and forever WILL BE. Now it says that "He has chosen us IN HIM (Jesus) before the foundation of the world." That means that we were right there WITH Him in the mind and thoughts of God before the foundation of the world. That gives an ETERNAL quality to the elect. You can't get away from that (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 150:1-3). In the beginning God dwelt alone with His thoughts, and He was lonely. He will never be lonely again, for His thoughts are being made manifest. And you are hearing this sermon or reading this Newsletter because God is fellowshipping with you as the Attributes of His thinking made manifest and putting on His likeness as you conform to the faith. So you, by taking thought, cannot add one cubit to your stature. You cannot come to the Lord by your works. It is God, who shows mercy, and "All the Father has given Me will come to Me: no man can come except My Father draws him." Romans 8:29, "God's elect are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." That is, to be His sons after the pattern, model, or image of His Sonship is reproduced in our character and nature. Enoch, whose name means "dedicated," was "the seventh from [the first] Adam;" the number conveying the idea of divine completion and rest, while he was himself a type of perfected humanity. "Enoch walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years and was not for God took him." Enoch who was called out of the seventh generation from the first Adam was a type of Christ's end-time Bride called out of the seventh Church Age or generation from the last Adam. Like Enoch, she will be translated without death. And the elect of all Ages will fulfill that complete day of a thousand years walking with the Lord as Enoch lived a complete year of three hundred and sixty-five days. However, all are not Enoch's, and as a mixed multitude followed Moses in the first exodus, a mixed multitude has come out of Babylon in the third exodus. God is separating His people by declaring the difference between revelation and man-made interpretation, to thin-down the crowd by unveiling Himself in those who are His Attributes, thus exposing those who only think they are. The revelation of the mysteries of the seven thunders is awakening the Bride while it passes over the heads of those who are not elect. The Holy Spirit used Brother Branham to speak in colloquial English as He caused Jesus to speak in common or 'koine' Greek in order to separate the intellectuals from those with discernment of Spirit and revelation. For instance, Brother Branham frequently said, "the Jews this," or "the Jews that" because this is what our English Bible says, just as it says "come" without distinguishing between a 'parousia' and an 'erchomai' coming. However, there was no such word as "Jew" in any Bible until the latter half of the eighteenth century, and the meaning of this new word "Jew" is the antithesis of the two words it has replaced, so when Brother Branham said "Jew," he invariably meant "Israelite." Teaching calls us to be particular in the use of language since we are endeavouring by the grace of God to "rightly divide" the Message of the Prophet so that the saints will have a clear understanding of what he meant rather that the "letter" of what He said. Brother Branham did not mention the term 'parousia' Coming; he employed the English "Coming of the Son of man." However, those with the Spirit and maturity will discern Christ's second or 'parousia' Coming in the Office of Son of man from His second physical return or 'erchomai' Coming in the Office of Son of David. (See Newsletter 518). Thus revelation by the Spirit of God will separate elect from non-elect. Jesus spoke in parables in order to thin-down His crowd. Matthew 13:10-17, "The disciples came and said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables? He answered, To you it is granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For to him who has [faith] more will be given, and he shall have superabundantly: but whosoever has not will be deprived of whatever he has. This is why I speak to them in parables: because they look and see nothing; they listen and neither hear nor understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will listen and listen but not understand at all; you will look and look, and never see at all. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they hear poorly, and their eyes they have closed so that they may not see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and return to Me to heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For I assure you, That many prophets and righteous men have longed to see what you see and did not, and to hear what you are hearing and did not" (II Timothy 3:7; I Peter 1:10-12). Jesus told the seventy apostles, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you cannot have eternal Life in you" (John 6:53). He didn't explain it, because it was a revelation. And reasoning among themselves, they said, "This is a hard saying, who can comprehend what He means"? And without a revelation they deserted Messiah. In another place He commanded His disciples to baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Yet there is no record of any baptisms in three Titles according to the "letter without the Spirit" until two centuries after the death of the apostolic saints. Scriptural water baptism has only even been in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and unless you were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ you have not been baptized in the NAME (singular) of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Here again, we see the Lord thinning-down the crowd by revelation. The evidence of the Holy Ghost is your ability to receive the Word by a clear understanding, not some system. Once Jesus had overcome and made His decision in the Garden of Gethsemane the anointing left Him. He went to the Cross as a man, but also as God for He was the Logos of Jehovah expressed in flesh. Like the first Adam, He expressed Himself as male, the Husband, but His Wife was IN Him then, and if the Groom is the Word the Bride is the Word. So it is true that I was born of a virgin 2,000 years ago. God made me pay for my sin in Christ on Calvary, so when He looked down upon His Son, He saw both male and female. It was all redeemed in that one body, because God did not separate the Bride from the Groom until Jesus cried with a loud Voice, "It is finished! Into Your hands I commend My spirit." And as His spirit expired, His soul departed with the Holy Spirit from which God is forming His Bride. He returned to theophany and preached to the souls in prison, vindicating the Old Testament prophets and saints across the chasm in paradise. His body was interred in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, and resurrected on the third day in glorified form for our justification (Romans 8:33-34). As a Christian you are not only forgiven, you are justified. Romans 5:1 says, "Being justified by your revelation you are in harmony with Christ the Word." Justified does not mean forgiven, it means you are righteous, as though you never sinned in the first place. When you were born-again the old union of your soul in fornication with the nature of the world, which is the nature of Satan, the god of this evil age, was annihilated (Romans 7:1-6). It died, you were released from the rule of that old de facto husband and the Bridegroom bore your shame on Calvary. He took your place in death because you were predestinated to be His Bride before the foundation of the world. That Word was judged once and paid the supreme penalty, and you were predestinated in Him so you can never be judged again, "for it is destined that men die only once" (Hebrews 9:27). John 5:24, "He who hears My Word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has eternal Life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed out of death into Life". You were not physically in Christ, nor was your soul in Him as there is no pre-existence of souls, but you are eternal with Him because before the foundation of the world, God saw you IN Christ crucified. By foreknowledge you were accounted in Christ by the baptism with the Holy Ghost, predestinated in Christ, and came from the same source—His eternal thoughts—which are the Attributes of Himself (II Corinthians 5:13-21). Then you were born of the spoken Word for your day, and became the manifestation of His expressed thought as you acted out the revelation in your life. The same Word that spoke of the Groom also speaks of His Bride, so she will manifest everything that was promised of Him, even to raising herself from the dead, because this is written in His Word (John 2:19; 6:39). If we are God's children, we are His eternal Attributes and eternal Life. And because God is the only Eternal Life there is, we were in Him from the beginning; and when the fullness of the Logos was manifest as Jesus Christ, we were part of Him then. When you can see yourself in Christ on Calvary, nothing can shake your faith, because that is the tie post of the soul. Outside of that, regardless of your sincerity, self-sacrifice and good works, you are lost (Romans 8:28-39). If you can see this revelation you will know you have been in the Logos from eternity. You are not forced to believe and you will not wonder, because faith dissolves all doubt and banishes confusion. Men make a grave mistake and forego faith when they take the Bible and Brother Branham for what they "say," rather than for what they "mean" (Matthew 18:16: II Corinthians 3:6). This practice has led many to imagine God is somehow three persons, and to baptize in three Titles when they have no Scriptural support for this heresy that was mandated by the First Nicaea Council of AD325 and enforced on pain of death. In these last days men are teaching a mélange of quotes from Brother Branham's sermons by which they claim to expound what they imagine to be hidden mysteries. They are in fact delivering the "letter" of THUS SAITH THE LORD coupled with the spirit of strong delusion, causing sincere, often fanatical persons with itching ears to accept their second-hand religion and be damned by it because they received not the love of the Truth (Acts 17:11; II Thessalonians 2:10-12). The Prophet's Message was sent as the Key to unlock eternal Life from the Bible. God's ministers are preaching end-time revelation from His Bible, not conjuring up "hidden mysteries" by reciting tea leaves of the "letter". I was speaking with a minister who wants to translate more Messages into his mother tongue. This is not the way. Besides which the world is falling apart, and it is far too late to organize the logistics. The Scriptural way is to receive a clear revelation of the present Truth and deliver it to the people from the Bible in their own tongue. They can "prove all things" from Genesis to Revelation personally in their own Bibles and "hold fast that which is good. The elect will then spread the Light by the acknowledged authority of the written Word of God. Millions of dollars and forty-three years have been spent translating and printing the "letter" of the Message: multitudes quote it verbatim, yet very few English-speaking believers have the revelation of what the Spirit is saying to the churches. By way of illustration, this diagram signifies the Eternal Spirit before creation alone with His thoughts. He is not the circle; He is the dots in the circle which represent His eternal thoughts. These are His Attributes and express His nature so that men may know, adore and glorify Him by growing into His Likeness. The fullness of His eternal thoughts was manifest as the Logos in theophany as the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, and as Melchisedec; then crucified in the virgin-born Jesus Messiah who was the fullness of God's nature and character expressed bodily in one Man. His elect, each written epistles of the Spirit in measure, are therefore accounted crucified in Christ on Calvary. Brother Branham spoke of these Attributes as the seed, germ, or gene of God. He also spoke of a nature and a soul. Some mistakenly equate these five terms, and taking the "letter without the Spirit" hypothesize that God's elect are born from mother's womb with the seed, gene or germ of God dormant in their heart. Quoting Ezekiel 18:4 they proclaim, "The soul that sins will surely die" and presume that when an elect is born-again the soul that sinned is annihilated and the dormant seed quickened into a sinless, spanking new replacement soul. But Jesus was sent to restore souls to fellowship through new birth, not to replace them. Had they taken the spoken Word of the Message to the written Word of the Bible as instructed they would never have conceived such fantasy. The "seed" is the incorruptible Word of God for OUR day received by faith through the foolishness of preaching to quicken our soul to Life in Christ (Luke 8:11; I Peter 1:22-25). When we were born from mother's womb, we were unable to speak let alone hear and understand the revealed Word of God. The Bible explains how our near Kinsman is redeeming that which was lost, NOT replacing it with something else. Your soul is you; your body is the temple in which YOU dwell, and your mortal spirit is the energy that powers your body and mind. Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26, "To him that overcomes I will give to fellowship with the Tree of Life (Jesus Christ), in the midst of the paradise of God. . . The soul that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death." Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." The first death is the death of the body; the second death is that of the soul in the lake of Fire after the White Throne Judgment. As both are yet future the Two Soul theory is implausible (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Revelation 20:14-15). As the famous medieval poet and philosopher Rabbi Judah Halevy explains in Kuzari, "Jewish people constitute a separate entity, a species unique in Creation, differing from nations in the same manner as man differs from the beast or the beast from the plant . . . although Jews are physically similar to all other men, yet they are endowed with a "second soul" that renders them a separate species" (Zimmer, Uriel, Torah-Judaism and the State of Israel, Congregation Kehillath Yaakov, Inc., NY, 5732 (1972), p. 12). "It is axiomatic in Cabalistic writings that the higher souls of Jewish people are derived from the divine pleroma (totality of divine powers)—the realm of Sefirot (emanations)—whereas the souls of all other nations are derived from the "shells." Rabbi Hayim Vital does not exempt converts from this rule (Aitz Hayim 7, 10, 7; Aitz Hadaat, Bemidbar). The "Tanya" of Rav Sheneur Zalman was written for the general public. Its view of Gentile souls is in Chapter 6. The Zohar follows the same line, save that in the Midrash Haneelam; we note a certain effort to account for this difference. Before Adam sinned, he possessed the higher soul; after his sin, only his animal soul remained. Thereafter, the divine soul comes only to those who are preoccupied with Torah, entering the body of the Jewish male at age thirteen" (Rabbi Jacob Agus, Meta-Myth: The Diaspora and Israel Zohar Hodosh, Bereshit 18b-19a, Midrash Hane'elam. Etan Levine [ed.], Diaspora: Exile and the Jewish Condition, New York, Jason Aronson. 1983. p. 139). There is the doctrine of Two Souls. Christians should not be deceived into believing that when Jews speak of the Torah they mean the five Books of Moses. They do not. They refer to its antithesis, the Babylonian Talmud. Isaiah 53:10-11 exposes the heresy of Two Souls: "It pleased the Lord to bruise Messiah; He has put Him to grief. When His soul is made an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant (Jesus Messiah) justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities." Having borne our iniquities and carried away our sins as foreshadowed by the two goats in the ritual of Israel's day of Atonement, He has "by one offering sanctified and perfected forever" His new and living Temple made without hands, eternal in the heavens (II Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:8-14; I Corinthians 3:16; 6:16). Having atoned with His innocent life Messiah cannot now lay any accusation against God's chosen souls whom He has justified (Romans 8:28-39; Hebrews 10:14)? It is Christ whose "soul was made an offering for sin." Were it possible for us to offer our soul for sin with the surety of a replacement we would be performing a program of self-works like Israel, making void God's grace by faith (Romans 9:30-33; Galatians 2:16; 3:2, 5, 10). Galatians 3:26-29, "For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Thus a second soul cannot derive from one's birth by a woman in the righteous lineage, or Cain would have had a spare. And not even by coition with a Jewess as implied by section 4B of Israel's unscriptural Law of Return (5710-1950), or Esau, Dathan, Korah, the Israelites who disbelieved at Kadesh, Judas Iscariot and those who were complicit in murdering Messiah all would have been elect of God. Quite apart from this, the social structure of Israelites and Christians of the Old and New Testaments is patriarchal. No one was ever born with Abraham's seed of faith, which comes by hearing and understanding the Word of God for your hour (Romans 10:17). God's children are not born of human intimacy but through faith in His revealed Word. "Abraham's seed" is the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which is the new birth. In summary, the seed, germ or gene of God is His thought, which when expressed becomes a Word, the revelation of which imparts His Spirit and eternal Life. It becomes the Husband and one with our soul through the unity of the faith, and as "grace and peace are multiplied in us through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, we become partakers of the Divine nature" and manifest His Attributes, growing into the stature of the Perfect Man (II Peter 1:3-4). A "nature" is the sum of spiritual and physical qualities and propensities which make up the essential features and elements of character. It is the intrinsic disposition, inherent tendency or character of a person, object or being. The nature of a Christian is to have the Token on display. The nature of a dog is to bark at strangers, eat almost anything and bury bones. The nature of your car might be a reluctance to start. The nature of a mule is stubbornness. A theologian would classify the Two Souls heresy as a form of Manichaeism, a dualistic cult that postulates two natures have existed from the beginning: light and darkness. The realm of light lived in peace, while the realm of darkness was in constant conflict with itself. A nature is not a soul as Two Soul's believers assert but as Brother Branham and the Bible teach the soul is the nature of the spirit that controls it. Until your soul is born-again or quickened by agreement into union with the revealed Word for your day, your life cannot become a written epistle of that part of the Word, but is ruled by your mortal spirit and flesh whose desires are worldly. And as Satan is the Prince of this world his nature ultimately rules that unregenerate soul. Your soul reflects the nature of the spirit that is on it — the nature of the world, or the nature of the Holy Spirit. Whereas the spirit and flesh each have five senses, you, your soul has but one, faith or unbelief in the revealed Word of God as you determine by the exercise of your free moral agency. Your unregenerate soul was ruled by the nature of your mortal spirit, which is the nature of this world, and Satan is the god of this evil age. Your regenerated soul is ruled by the Word of God that has transformed the mortal spirit which now reflects the nature of Christ and brings your flesh subject to the Word. It is the nature on your soul that has changed; you are still the same old soul. The relationship established from Genesis to Revelation between male and female, husband and wife, is clearly seen where the soul, which is feminine in designation submits to and mirrors the nature of the spirit or husband to which it has yielded dominion. The feminine or wife is to be submissive and obey her husband in everything for she is his glory, or his shame, reflecting his nature and character. All souls come from God, even the souls of the Serpent's seed. Only the souls of Adam's race are written in the Book of Life, which is the genealogy of Adam, and have a kinsman Redeemer. Jesus Messiah is the last Adam; He was not the last Cain. Because of the fall, you, your soul was born into a house of corruptible flesh—a living spirit (Genesis 2:7) born dead in the sin of Eve and the trespasses of Adam, and ignorant and unlearned like your mortal spirit and baby flesh. What you learn will develop your nature. Initially this will be the experiences of the five senses of your body—sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, and the five senses of your mortal spirit—conscience, imagination, memory, reasoning and affection as they communicate a second hand account of their contact with the world. Depending upon your family nurture, cultural, educational and socioeconomic circumstances, these experiences can range from wholesome and good, even godly, to evil, and the communications from true to false. What you accept or reject will impose a sound or unsound nature on your soul, with a bearing on your future decisions as you exercise your free moral agency, forming your character and determining your destiny as a son of Adam. Too many of the wrong decisions will ultimately lead you, as it led Esau, Judas Iscariot and Caiaphas, to that place of no more repentance, and your name will be blotted from the Book of Life as spiritual Serpent's seed, whereas the correct decisions will sanctify and maintain your name on the Book of Life, and when you appeal at the White Throne Judgment you will be granted into eternal Life. None of this second-hand religion imparted by the worldly experiences of the ten senses, no matter how wholesome and godly, can quicken you your soul to eternal Life, for they are all "works" like Israel's Law. Faith alone, and faith in the present Truth, can quicken you to eternal Life (John 6:63; I John 1:7). The Spiritual Light of understanding revealed to you personally from the Father Above will kill that old worldly nature of enslavement to the desires of the mortal spirit and corruptible flesh, the "old man" that was in fornication with your soul. That old de facto husband is DEAD; now you are united with your new Husband, the Lord from heaven (Romans 7:1-6; I Corinthians 5:13-21; Colossians 3:1-11). You will not come under judgment but have passed from death unto Life as you are elect of God and your name was always in the Lamb's Book of Life. Homework: Please review Nature and Soul and Thy Seed shall inherit the Nations.

2019-04-19T07:10:42Z

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nl523.htm

The intense pain and anxiety triggered by burns and their associated wound care procedures are well established in the literature. Non-pharmacological intervention is a critical component of total pain management protocols and is used as an adjunct to pharmacological analgesia. An example is virtual reality, which has been used effectively to dampen pain intensity and unpleasantness. Possible links or causal relationships between pain/anxiety/stress and burn wound healing have previously not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate these relationships, specifically by determining if a newly developed multi-modal procedural preparation and distraction device (Ditto™) used during acute burn wound care procedures will reduce the pain and anxiety of a child and increase the rate of re-epithelialization. Children (4 to 12 years) with acute burn injuries presenting for their first dressing change will be randomly assigned to either the (1) Control group (standard distraction) or (2) Ditto™ intervention group (receiving Ditto™, procedural preparation and Ditto™ distraction). It is intended that a minimum of 29 participants will be recruited for each treatment group. Repeated measures of pain intensity, anxiety, stress and healing will be taken at every dressing change until complete wound re-epithelialization. Further data collection will aid in determining patient satisfaction and cost effectiveness of the Ditto™ intervention, as well as its effect on speed of wound re-epithelialization. Results of this study will provide data on whether the disease process can be altered by reducing stress, pain and anxiety in the context of acute burn wounds. Pain is multidimensional and highly complex, and involves the integration of sensation and perception. Emotions, individual attributes, cognitive, environmental and cultural factors, together with the child’s focus of attention and level of control, all play a significant role in diminishing or magnifying the perception of pain [1, 2]. Despite considerable advances in burn wound management, procedural pain is both the most intense pain, and the most common type of burn pain to be undertreated . Lack of well-established evidence-based protocols of burn pain management; inaccurate fears of addiction; infrequent pain assessment; and poor correlations between the nurse’s and the patient’s perception of pain, attribute to the occurrence of under medication in children . It is not surprising that the entire wound healing period can provoke a high level of stress and anxiety, particularly for children. Anxiety, which commonly co-exists with pain, impedes our coping mechanisms and ability to tolerate pain. Anxiety is a future-orientated emotion of apprehension, nervousness, tension, fear and worry, accompanying physical sensations and influencing subjective perception . Highly anxious burn patients are, therefore, more susceptible to lower pain tolerance [6, 7]. Several studies refer to the reciprocal relationship between pain and anxiety [8, 9]. In addition to anxiety, burn injuries, which are a type of trauma, may induce acute stress symptoms, and psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . Pain and anxiety places the body under both physical and physiological stress. Stress has been reported to interrupt and delay the cascade of healing in several studies, including skin barrier recovery after tape stripping [12, 13]; punch wound biopsies [14–16]; suction induced blisters [17, 18] and pre-surgical stress . The biological mechanisms behind this may be explained through the stress induced elevation of glucocorticoids and adrenaline and noradrenaline levels. Elevation of these stress hormones produces an immunosuppressive effect, reducing the infiltration and activation of neutrophils and macrophages , and also suppressing the production of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α . Proinflammatory cytokines are crucial to the recruitment of phagocytic cells to clear away contaminating debris; in activating and recruiting cells involved in wound healing, including lymphocytes and other macrophages; and regulating fibroblast chemotaxis, proliferation, collagen synthesis and endothelial cells involved in the repair process . Attenuation of the expression of these proinflammatory cytokines is likely to impair healing through delaying the inflammatory stage of wound healing . Additionally, immune function plays a pivotal role, particularly in the early processes of wound healing. Elevated glucocorticoids, adrenaline and noradrenaline alter cellular function and differentiation of T cells, causing a shift from Th1 cellular to Th2 humoral immune function . Stress-induced suppression of Th1 cellular immunity may inhibit the secretion of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in macrophages . Angiogenesis, endothelial and epithelial cell proliferation and migration are central to wound healing and are highly influenced by nitric oxide . Additionally, an increase in iNOS production has been shown to be just as detrimental as iNOS deficiency . Stress-induced increases of adrenaline in mice were shown to heighten iNOS to cytotoxic levels, impairing wound healing . A stress–induced shift to Th2 humoral immunity activates mast cells, which release histamine and result in inflammation. The Th2 profile up-regulates B lymphocytes, leading to the production of antibodies , rather than contributing to wound healing processes. Stress may still continue to disrupt healing after wound closure. Fibroblasts, together with their by-products collagen and matrix metalloprotinases (MMPs), comprise the main contributors to wound maturation . Stressed mice displayed reduced levels of matrix MMP-2 and MMP-9, which are involved in cell migration and collagen turnover. Consequently, reduced levels may delay granulation tissue re-modeling, resulting in a less organized collagen structure (rather than being aligned parallel with the lines of contraction) and immature collagen scaffolds . Dampening pain intensity, unpleasantness, anxiety and time spent thinking about pain through the use of virtual reality (VR), has created much interest since the first published case report in 1999 with adolescents during burn wound care procedures . An accumulation of studies in the area of burns are reporting a discernible reduction in pain ratings when VR is used alongside pharmacological intervention [30–39]. VR encompasses multisensory stimuli from sight, sound and touch, greatly drawing the subject's attention into the virtual world, creating a sense of “presence” . VR acts to psychologically dissociate the patient from pain by activating higher cognitive and emotional regions in the brain. The full extent and awareness of pain is reduced, as seen in functional magnetic resonance imaging which showed a dampened transmission to primary regions involved in emotional processing of pain (caudal anterior cingulated cortex) and the sensory component of pain (primary somatosensory cortex) . Distraction has also been shown to gate pain perception through activation of the periaqueductal gray, which was not activated during pain stimulus alone . The multi-modal distraction Ditto™ (Diversionary Therapy Technologies, Queensland, Australia) is a medical device that has a preparatory and distraction phase . The preparatory phase involves the child engaging in the story “Bobby gets a Burn©”. This interactive story has been specifically tailored for 3- to 12-year-olds to explain the clinical procedures and sensory phases of a burn dressing change in a child-focused manner. The story aims to reduce anxiety, fear and distress through exposing and desensitizing the child to the procedure; acknowledging feelings associated with the sensory aspects of the procedure; and instilling a sense of control through equipping the child with the knowledge of what will transpire. Following the preparatory story, conducted in the waiting room, the child engages in a choice of interactive stories or games throughout wound care procedures, forming the distraction phase of the Ditto™. A large degree of the success of the Ditto™ device is due to its novel design , and the unique and child-friendly educational content concerning the procedure . Off-the-shelf virtual reality systems have not previously been able to significantly decrease burn pain scores in adolescents . However, the novel and customized content and technology of the Ditto™ has proven effective in reducing pain levels compared to off-the-shelf video games . Results from Miller’s trials [33, 34] confirmed the effectiveness of the Ditto™ in significantly reducing pain ratings and treatment length. Retrospective review of medical notes identified the Ditto™ treatment group wounds re-epithelialized an average of two days faster than the standard distraction group . This exciting and clinically significant finding highlights the potential of this Ditto™ device with pain reduction and also possibly improving wound healing. In the Miller trial, burn wound depth was not matched between control and treatment arms and the measurement of wound re-epithelialization was only obtained retrospectively from the chart notes. The possible link between stress and burn wound healing have stimulated the development of this current trial to measure stress, wound healing and pain in a scientific and controlled manner. The aim of this study is to determine whether use of the Ditto™ device is associated with the rate of burn wound healing (re-epithelialization). This study is a prospective, superiority, randomized controlled trial, consisting of two parallel groups. Participants will be randomized to receive either (1) standard preparation and standard distraction (control group), or (2) the Ditto™ device, including preparation and distraction phases (treatment group), to test the superiority of this new non-pharmacological intervention on acute burn wounds. The data collection design is displayed in Figure 1. Study design flow chart. The sequential order and timing of data collection within the context of burn wound care procedures. This trial protocol was ethically approved by both the Queensland Children’s Health Services (Royal Children’s Hospital) Human Research Ethics Committee and The University of Queensland Ethics Committee, and was registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12611000913976). Participants are being recruited from the Stuart Pegg Paediatric Burns Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Children presenting to this center from August 2011 will be screened on admission for eligibility to this trial. Participants who are aged between 4 and 13 years with an acute burn injury of any depth and a burn total body surface area of <15%, presenting on their first dressing change, will be considered for inclusion in this study. Children will be excluded from the study if they are non-English speaking; have a cognitive, visual or auditory impairment, or a diagnosis under the Autism Spectrum Disorders; have a diagnosed illness in addition to a burn injury; have been reported to the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) system (as these children may have additional emotional and psychological issues affecting stress, anxiety and coping mechanisms); receive sedative medication (Midazolam, Entonox™ (BOC Healthcare, Worsley, Manchester, UK)); and if their burns require grafting. Several of these exclusions will not become known until after patient recruitment and randomization due to the nature of the clinic and the inability to predict patient and wound management needs prior to dressing removal. All eligible children will be invited to participate. Participation in the study will not alter the standard medical treatment received. Various outcome measures and saliva samples will be collected at several time points during the burn wound care procedures (Table 1), with the intervention (Ditto™) used prior to treatment as preparation and during treatment as a distraction at every change of dressing. The outcome measures taken at each time point over the course of the study. X = measure taken, # = Ditto™ intervention group only. COD, change of dressing; CTSQ, Children Trauma Screening Questionnaire; DA, dressing application; DR, dressing removal; FLACC, Faces, Legs, Arms, Cry, Consolability; FPS-R, Faces Pain Scale-Revised; VAS-A, Visual Analog Scale–Anxiety; LDI, laser Doppler image. A baseline saliva sample 1 will be obtained in the waiting room prior to nursing administration of pharmacological pain relief in accordance with standard practice protocols within the Burn Centre (primarily oxycodone, an opioid derived pain medication, dosage determined by body weight, 0.1 to 0.2 mg/kg). Saliva samples will be collected with Salivettes™ (Sarstedt Australia Pty, Ltd. Mawson Lakes, SA, Australia), by placing the synthetic roll in the child’s mouth for a period of two minutes. Baseline measures will be taken in the waiting room for: heart rate (HR); oxygen saturation; pain ratings from the nurse and the child; a self-report anxiety measure from children eight years and over; height and weight. Demographic information and pertinent clinical characteristics will be obtained from the caregiver and patient chart: mode and site of injury; total body surface area (TBSA) of burn; depth of burn; burn first aid treatment received; skin color; medication administered; hours per week spent engaging in computer games and home video games. TBSA is calculated using the Lund and Browder chart . Food and fluid consumption two hours prior to saliva samples will also be recorded as possible confounding variables of salivary analysis in addition to the time of sample collection and time of waking. Treatment Group: Ditto™ device including preparation and distraction phases. While waiting for medication to take effect, children will be given the Ditto™ device in the waiting area to engage in the procedural preparation story of “Bobby gets a Burn©.” Upon entering the treatment room, participants will engage in their choice of games or interactive stories on the Ditto™ device. Engagement will occur prior to the nurses commencing dressing removal procedures and continue throughout the wound care procedure. Figure 2 depicts a patient engaging in the Ditto™ device during the distraction phase of the treatment. Patient engaging in the Ditto™ distraction phase during dressing removal. A burn patient engaging in Ditto™ distraction as nurses carry out the wound care procedures. The control group will have access to standard distraction, such as television, videos, books, toys and parental soothing. Nursing staff may give information before or during the process as per standard practice; however, no Ditto™ device procedural preparation or distraction will be available to the control group. Pain, anxiety and physiological measures will be repeated prior to commencing dressing removal. All participants will have their HR recorded at two-minute intervals via an oximeter on their finger or toe. The choice of games/stories by participants in the treatment group will be recorded by the primary researcher. Immediately following dressing removal and debridement/wound cleaning, saliva sample 2 will be taken and, at a further 10 minutes later, saliva sample 3 will be obtained with date and time of collection documented. A retrospective measure of pain/distress and anxiety during the burn dressing removal and debridement will be taken from the child and nurse. Time taken (in minutes) for dressing removal and debridement and the number of nurses involved will also be recorded. All participants will then have their burns scanned using a laser Doppler imager (which measures burn depth by displaying blood perfusion of tissue) on their first dressing change only. A Visitrak™ (Smith & Nephew Pty Limited, London, UK) trace of the wound area and photos will be taken at every dressing change. The type of new dressing applied will be documented and HR, oxygen saturations and the number of nurses and nursing time again recorded for the application of the new dressing. The choice of Ditto™ distraction games and stories that the treatment group engaged in will be recorded. Immediately following the new dressing application, nursing retrospective pain/distress ratings and child retrospective pain and anxiety ratings will be taken. Measures will continue to be taken during every dressing change (usually every three or seven days), using the same protocol as above until complete re-epithelialization. Parents will be asked to rate their level of satisfaction with pain management at the end of every dressing change with the use of a visual analog scale from “not satisfied” to “very satisfied.” Children in the Ditto™ treatment group will be asked to rate their level of enjoyment in using the Ditto™ on a 10 cm line visual analog scale. Any relevant comments made by the participant or parent/carer will be recorded. Within the first week the Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) will be completed with children six years and over through interview by the researcher. The participants will then be reviewed by a consultant as required. At the three-month follow-up, the CTSQ will be re-conducted via mail/phone, and a Salivette™ will be mailed to participants to obtain sample 4, a true baseline saliva sample (at a similar time of day to that of the pre-medication saliva sample 1) and returned via post. This study will assess the impact of the Ditto™ device on wound healing of acute burn injuries. Healing will be measured by the number of days until complete re-epithelialization, with data collection commencing on the first dressing change. Secondary outcomes will be measuring the impact of the Ditto™ device on pain, anxiety and stress. The amount of wound re-epithelialization and the number of days from the date of the burn injury until when the complete wound re-epithelialization occurs will be measured by (a) the consultant’s clinical judgment; (b) blinded review of photographs; and (c) the Visitrak™ (Smith & Nephew) grids. Photos will be taken at every dressing change with inclusion of a ruler and a grey scale (QPcard 101 v2, Kayell, VIC, Australia). Photograph lighting levels will be standardized using Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 9 (San Jose, CA, USA)) to enable accurate comparison of wound colors across photographs. Blinded review of photos by a panel of burn wound specialists to assess re-epithelialization and general wound appearance will occur upon cessation of data collection. The Visitrak™ grids will be used to trace around the wet (un-re-epithelialized) and dry (re-epithelialized) areas of the wound. A laser Doppler scan will be performed on the first dressing change only, following debridement, to accurately measure wound depth, allowing for comparison of wounds across participants. Burns covering more than one body part will be scanned separately. In addition, more than one scan will be performed when burns are circumferential or extend around curved surfaces in order to capture accurate frontal, medial and/or lateral views as appropriate. The MoorLDI2-BI2 laser Doppler imager (LDI), Moor Instruments Limited, Devon, UK, contains a visible red laser diode target beam of wavelength 660 nm, and a near infra-red laser diode for measurements by the laser Doppler with a wavelength of 780 nm. All scans will be performed in burn treatment rooms maintained at a range of 22 to 24°C. A dark green sterile surgical drape will be placed as a background underneath the area to be scanned. The LDI scanner head will be positioned approximately 35° off perpendicular at a scanning distance range of between 40 and 70 cm from the wound and set on the fast scan resolution setting. The onboard software package (moorBDA v2.4, Moor Instruments, Axminster, Devon, UK) will be used to calculate different wound depths (perfusion units) as a percentage of total wound area. Pain will be assessed before, during and after wound care procedures by obtaining the participant’s self-report of pain intensity using the Faces Pain Scale – Revised (FPS-R); the nurse’s behavioral/observational rating using the Face, Legs, Arms, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) scale; and physiological indicators, including heart rate and oxygen saturations. The Faces Pain Scale – Revised (FPS-R) was chosen for this study over other pain scales (for example, the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale) due to its high clinical utility and psychometrically sound properties . Behavioral measures are an important tool to use as an adjunct to self-report scales, particularly in children who may be sedated by drugs; have a cognitive or communication impairment; or are too young to comprehend a self-report scale. In addition, a child’s self-report may be exaggerated, diminished or altered due to cognitive, emotional or environmental and situational factors . The Face, Legs, Arms, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) scale was chosen as it shows excellent responsiveness (detecting significant change in pain scores), reliability, content and construct validity . Emotional responses encompass negative affect and emotional facets secondary to pain, including anxiety, distress and fear. The fear thermometer is an anxiety measure that may be used with younger children; however, it was rejected as a measure as children under eight years are reported to have difficulty cognitively distinguishing between the sensory experience of pain (pain intensity) and the affective response (distress, anxiety, fear) to pain . An anxiety measure will only be taken from children eight years and above, using the Visual Analog Scale-Anxiety (VAS-A). The VAS-A has been validated as an accurate self-report of anxiety for burn injuries , as well as other patient populations [50–53], and is more sensitive to change over time for pediatric studies [54, 55]. Salivary cortisol (reflecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity) and salivary α-amylase (reflecting sympathetic nervous system activity) will be used as biological markers of stress levels during burn wound care procedures. Salivettes® without citric acid (Sarstedt Australia Pty. Ltd.) will be used to collect saliva at three time points: baseline in the waiting room prior to administration of pain medication; at 0 minutes following dressing removal and debridement to capture the peak salivary α-amylase levels; and at 10 minutes to capture the peak cortisol HPA axis activity. These time points were identified in a pilot study of 10 patients. At these time points the absorbent synthetic roll will be placed in the child’s mouth for a period of two minutes. Date and time of collection will be recorded and samples will be refrigerated at 2°C and processed within seven days. Samples will be spun in a centrifuge at 3,000 rpm at room temperature (22°C) for 10 minutes and the saliva frozen at -80°C until analysis by Queensland Pathology. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry will be used to analyze salivary cortisol and Amylase EPS-G7 Reagent (Thermo Scientific, Middletown, VA, USA) used to measure salivary α-amylase, performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Detection of PTSD in children remains challenging as the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD has been defined and tested on adults and shows lack of sensitivity in diagnosing posttraumatic stress symptoms in young children . Screening tools were the only feasible measure for this study due to clinical utility and the time constraints of the setting. The Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) is a self-report tool for children and adolescents 6 to 16 years, based on the 10-item Trauma Screening Questionnaire for adults . The CTSQ screens for hyper-arousal symptoms and for re-experiencing symptoms following the traumatic event . The CTSQ is more accurate than the Children’s Impact of Events Scale – version 8 in predicting PTSD at one month and six months after injury and diagnosing full and sub-syndromal PTSD . Engagement, interaction and appropriate use of the Ditto™ will be measured by participant satisfaction. If a participant refuses to use the Ditto™ they will be excluded from the study. If, however, a child accepts the use of the Ditto™ and appears disinterested and does not completely engage with the Ditto™, this will be reflected in the child’s rating of how much they liked using the Ditto™. Other measurements of engagement were considered such as video recording, motion monitors measuring limb activation, and frequency measures of time spent looking away from the device. These latter measures were unsuitable for the Burn Centre outpatient environment and contradicted the specific design of the Ditto™ , which enables the child to interact with their caregiver, receive reassurance or check on the wound care procedures at any stage. Indigenous children and children from other ethnicities with darker complexions will be offered the Ditto™ procedural preparation stories with characters that have darker skin tones. Furthermore, the exposure and frequency of use of other types of video game technologies will be recorded for each participant and correlated with Ditto™ satisfaction. The caregiver is asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the pain management their child received (from not satisfied to very satisfied) on a visual analogue scale. The caregiver is also given the opportunity to comment on the positive and negative aspects of treatment and this feedback will remain confidential and will not be shown to the clinical treating team. Satisfaction with the Ditto™ during wound care procedures is evaluated by the child rating how much they liked using the Ditto™ on a 10 cm line sliding scale from enjoyment to disinterest, depicted by child-friendly images of a smiley face thumbs up and an unimpressed thumbs down face anchoring each end of the scale. The standard deviation used in sample size calculations was based on a previous study by Miller , who found the standard deviation for time to re-epithelialization was four days. Calculations were based on detecting a clinically important difference in time to re-epithelialization between the control and Ditto groups of three days. With a power of 80% and significance level of 0.05, a sample size of 29 participants per group is required. We expect 10% of eligible participants to dropout before wound re-epithelialization. We anticipate approximately 33% of participants recruited would later be found not to meet the eligibility criteria for the study due to factors including: the need for grafting; use of Entonox™; pre-existing anxiety conditions becoming known; and child protection concerns being raised. Therefore, it is anticipated that approximately 98 participants will need to be recruited in total, in order to achieve final participant numbers of 29 in each group. Participants are randomized using a portable computerized random number generator. Randomization is performed by nursing or administration staff members in the Burn Centre who are not associated with the study. The primary researcher is then informed as to which group the participant has been consigned. Recruitment will take place between 9 August 2011 and 31 August 2012. It is expected the required sample size will be achieved within this time period. Enrolment of participants is carried out by the primary researcher. Children are screened on presentation to the Burn Center for eligibility to this prospective randomized controlled trial. Once it has been established that the child meets all eligibility criteria, the primary researcher approaches the parent/caregiver/s to explain the study and provide them with a copy of the study information sheet. Parent/caregiver/s are encouraged to ask questions. Parents are guided through the informed consent form step-by-step to ensure they understand all aspects of the research project and what participation will involve. The non-pharmacological intervention received cannot be masked. Assessment of the primary outcome, re-epithelialization, is undertaken by burn wound specialists who are masked to treatment received by the participant. Dizziness and nausea are potential adverse effects from engagement in virtual reality. No such effects were reported in previous studies that used the Ditto™ device [33, 34, 61]. If such effects are experienced by participants, they are free to cease participation if desired. All adverse events will be recorded in both treatment groups. All analysis will be conducted using Stata/SE 11 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA). Analysis will be performed based on the “intention-to-treat” principle, where participants will be analyzed according to the treatment they were allocated. Any dropouts will be excluded from analysis. Participant’s baseline demographic, clinical and social characteristics will be summarized using descriptive statistics. Between-group differences at baseline will be investigated using Fisher’s Exact test (categorical data) or Student’s t-test (continuous data). The association between treatment received and healing outcomes will be investigated using regression models. Continuous outcomes will be investigated using linear regression and binary outcomes with logistic regression. If assumptions for linear regression are not met, outcomes will be analyzed using non-parametric tests. Regression models will include treatment group as the only main effect, unless groups are significantly unbalanced at baseline, in which case the regression models will include two main effects (treatment group and time) as well as a treatment-by-time interaction term. The efficacy of the Ditto™ may differ according to age and the number of days to re-epithelialization will be affected by the depth of the burn. Analysis will also be conducted with data stratified for depth of burn (superficial/superficial partial thickness/deep partial thickness/full thickness) and age of participant (for example, under 7 years 11 months/8 years and greater, with age strata based on age group validity of the VAS-A). Where appropriate, repeated-measures analysis will be undertaken using Generalized Estimating Equations. Treatment and time will be included as main effects, and a treatment-by-time interaction will be performed. For continuous outcomes we will assume a Gaussian Family and for binary outcomes the Binomial Family, each with their natural link. An exchangeable correlation structure will be assumed. For all analyses a P-value of 0.05 will be considered significant. There will be no adjustment for multiple comparisons. Data are stored securely by the principal investigator in locked filing cabinets within the secure area of the Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Queensland. Data are entered into an Excel spread sheet. Incomplete data from medical records are checked for and identified when entering data into Excel. All other incomplete data are coded accordingly as missing, unknown or not applicable. The data set will be cleaned and checked before being locked for analysis. On completion of the trial, data will be kept for a period of 15 years in accordance with the ethical requirements of the Queensland Children’s Health Services (RCH) Human Research Ethics Committee. This trial utilizes a number of measures to investigate the links between the novel Ditto™ procedural preparation and distraction intervention and the patient’s experience of pain, stress and anxiety, to ultimately determine the impact this has on re-epithelialization of acute burn wounds. This is the first RCT in the area of acute burn injuries which examines the relationships among pain, stress, anxiety and re-epithelialization. The rate of re-epithelialization has discernible implications for the formation of hypertrophic scarring and the long term physical and psychological issues resulting from scarring. The significance of this study is that if the Ditto™ intervention is associated with a reduction in time taken for acute burn wounds to re-epithelialize, patients may heal within the optimal 10 to 14 days, reducing the likelihood of hypertrophic scarring . This trial will also be the first to measure the utility of salivary cortisol and salivary α-amylase as indicators of stress during acute burn wound care procedures. Data collected in the course of this study will seek to answer many questions regarding the pain and stress experienced by burned children, including: do children’s stress and pain levels predict re-epithelialization rate?; are pain and stress levels positively correlated?; and is there an association with age or gender? There are some limitations with this study, mostly related to dealing with children in pain. There may be challenges with obtaining laser Doppler image (LDI) scans to determine burn wound depth. During scans children are required to remain very still for up to several minutes, ideally with their wounds free of dressings; however, exposing wounds to air flow can cause increased pain for the patient. The Visitrak™ measure involves tracing wounds, which may also be challenging for children not wanting their burns to be touched. The individualized perception of pain poses an additional limitation to measuring Ditto™ effectiveness. Exposure to noxious stimuli as an infant has the potential to permanently change the neuronal architecture of the developing brain, thus resulting in greater pain sensitivity as adolescents . This study will include children with varying experiences and memories of pain, which will shape their experience of and rating of pain levels regardless of Ditto™ engagement. To attempt to diminish this effect, children known to have existing psychological issues, or known to SCAN or child safety are excluded from this study. The diurnal variation of cortisol may create challenges in the analysis of salivary cortisol. The cortisol awakening peak occurs an hour after waking, and burn clinics occur early in the morning, so when study samples are taken it will be more difficult to identify any peaks in stress levels. Ideally, a within-subjects design is best when comparing highly variable biological markers; however, as procedural preparation is a strong component of this proposed study, a within-subjects design is not feasible. The pain associated with burn injuries and the need for additional treatment to standard pharmacological management is widely known and well established in the literature. Limited staff resources and busy burn clinics are common place, highlighting the need for interventions such as the Ditto™ device, which require very little set-up time. The effectiveness of the Ditto™ device in reducing pain and time taken for burn wound care procedures is well established [33, 34]. The potential of this device to also improve wound healing is of great significance in the burns field, possibly leading to decreased risk of scarring and scar management requirements and perhaps the difference between grafting and not grafting more severe burns. Establishing a link between reduced pain, stress and anxiety and improving healing time in acute burn wounds would be of major significance for patients and health care providers, and has application for all health care procedures which require pain/stress management, not just acute burns. This trial is currently continuing to recruit participants and collect data. The cessation of participant recruitment is planned for 31 August 2012 and data collection is likely to continue to January 2013 (with data collection continuing until three months post re-epithelialization of participant’s burns). The authors would like to thank all the children and families who participate in this study and acknowledge all the staff at the Stuart Pegg Paediatric Burns Centre at Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia for their support and assistance throughout data collection. This clinical trial was partially financially supported by a grant given to the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, by Diversionary Therapy Technologies (DTT). Despite this financial support, DTT had no part in the study design and data collection of this project, nor will they have any involvement in the analysis or publication of results. One of the supervisors of the trial, Roy Kimble, holds options with DTT; however, he will not stand to lose or gain financially or personally from the results during the clinical trial period and time of submission. The principal researcher has no financial interest in the Ditto™ device or the DTT company and remains an employee of the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane. NJB, LC, RMK and SR all made substantial contributions to the design of this trial. RSW has made substantial contributions to the statistical design and wrote the data analysis in this manuscript. NJB wrote the draft manuscript with substantial input from LC. All authors provided critical review of the article and approved the final manuscript.

2019-04-18T20:19:17Z

https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1745-6215-13-238

The Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce met this day at 10:30 a.m. to examine and report on the potential benefits and challenges of open banking for Canadian financial services consumers, with specific focus on the federal government’s regulatory role; and, in camera, to examine and report on issues pertaining to the management of systemic risk in the financial system, domestically and internationally (consideration of a draft report); and, in camera, for the consideration of a draft agenda (future business). The Chair: Good morning, colleagues, and welcome to members of the general public who are following today’s proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce here in the room or via the Web. My name is Doug Black. I’m a senator from Alberta, and I have the privilege of chairing this committee. I will ask my colleagues, please, to introduce themselves. Senator Verner: Josée Verner from Quebec. Senator Stewart Olsen: Carolyn Stewart Olsen, New Brunswick. Senator Wetston: Howard Wetston, Ontario. Senator Campbell: Larry Campbell, British Columbia. The Chair: Thank you. And, of course, we’re always very ably supported by our analysts from the Library of Parliament and by our clerk. Today marks our second meeting on our study of the potential benefits and challenges of open banking for Canadian financial services consumers, with a special focus on the federal government’s regulatory role. I’m pleased to welcome our witnesses for the first portion of our meeting. From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, we have Gregory Smolynec, Deputy Commissioner, Policy and Promotion Sector; and Arun Bauri, Strategic Policy and Research Analyst, Policy, Research and Parliamentary Affairs Directorate. From Payments Canada, we have Justin Ferrabee, Chief Operating Officer. From the Competition Bureau Canada, we have Leila Wright, Associate Deputy Commissioner, Policy, Planning and Advocacy Directorate; with Greg Lang, Major Case Director and Strategic Policy Advisor, Competition Advocacy Unit. Thank you all for being with us today. We look forward to your opening remarks. I understand the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is going to start, followed by Payments Canada and then the Competition Bureau Canada. After that, we’ll move to questions. Gregory Smolynec, Deputy Commissioner, Policy and Promotion Sector, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Thank you for the invitation. I’m joined today by Arun Bauri, the office’s lead analyst on open banking. Advocates note that there are many benefits to open banking for consumers and businesses. These include access to new products and services, and increased competition and entry to the market for small businesses such as we see in the financial technology sector. As Commissioner Therrien stated before this committee last May in the context of Bill C-74, while advancements in new technologies and innovation are indeed desirable and can provide many benefits to Canadians, these objectives must be pursued concurrently with robust protections for human rights, including privacy. In his submission to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on its national digital and data consultations, Commissioner Therrien highlighted how recent events had shed light on the manner in which personal information can be manipulated and used in unintended ways. These events should serve as a cautionary tale on the need to have strong regulatory frameworks in place prior to operationalizing “disruptive” ways of leveraging data. The OPC recommends that open banking in Canada be built upon a foundation that includes respect for privacy and other fundamental rights at its core. There are examples of frameworks for open banking, such as in Europe, where the Second Payment Services Directive, or PSD2, and the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, govern the manner in which open banking operates. Consent is a fundamental component of the GDPR, and we recommend that meaningful, express consent form part of any Canadian framework governing open banking. Our private-sector privacy law allows for different forms of consent; namely, express or implied. Where personal information is considered sensitive, express consent is required. Financial information has been held by the Supreme Court of Canada to generally be extremely sensitive. Therefore, we would expect that financial institutions and fintechs, generally, obtain express consent from their customers. The OPC released guidelines for consent, which took effect this past January. Those guidelines include key elements that should be emphasized by organizations in order for individuals to meaningfully understand what they are consenting to. Those include the nature of the personal information being collected; the parties to whom personal information is being disclosed; the purposes for which personal information is collected, used or disclosed; and the risk of harm and other consequences for the individual. To ensure consistent ground rules for open banking, we recommend the development of rigorous standards, including technical and privacy standards. We have seen this in Australia, where a data standards body has been established with necessary experience and expertise. Our office would be pleased to provide privacy expertise to support the development of Canadian standards, which would be consistent with the role of our Australian counterpart. We have seen a variety of approaches to open banking in other jurisdictions. For example, in most jurisdictions, new players require prior authorization to participate in the ecosystem of open banking. Approved firms must be registered and carry professional insurance. We support such a model and recommend that should open banking be implemented in Canada, companies be accredited or licensed before being authorized to participate. To ensure privacy risks associated with the collection, use and disclosure of sensitive financial information in the open banking context are appropriately managed, we recommend that financial institutions and fintechs be required to document an analysis of privacy risks associated with their activities and the manner in which these risks will be mitigated. There needs to be an auditable record of such a risk assessment so that a regulator, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, would be able to access that record. The requirement to conduct a privacy impact assessment already exists for federal government institutions, and under the GDPR, for situations, particularly those involving new technologies, that are likely to result in high risks to rights and freedoms. We believe that modernized privacy laws are a necessary pre-condition to a concept like open banking. For the digital economy to flourish, Canadians must trust in businesses and government to innovate with their personal data. To build this trust, there needs to be an appropriate legal framework in place. In this context, the office needs stronger enforcement powers under amended privacy law, including the power to make orders, impose fines for non-compliance with the law and independently verify compliance, without grounds, to ensure organizations are truly accountable for protecting personal information. Changes in financial policy and legislation require concurrent updating of Canada’s privacy legislation to ensure that consumers and their data are not just viewed as a commodity or as raw material from which data can be extracted. While there is merit in privacy laws continuing to be principles-based and technologically neutral, they should also incorporate enforceable rights for individuals. Privacy is a necessary precondition for the protection of fundamental rights and values in Canada, including those pertaining to liberty, equality, dignity, human rights and our democratic rights, and our laws should reflect this. We need to reform our privacy legislation to make it fit for purpose to ensure that the privacy of Canadians is protected as technologies and the economy changes. The Chair: Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Ferrabee, please go ahead. Justin Ferrabee, Chief Operating Officer, Payments Canada: Good morning. My name is Justin Ferrabee, and I am chief operating officer of Payments Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. Payments Canada is an inter-financial institution exchange. We are guided by our legislative mandate and the public policy objectives of safety, soundness and the efficiency of the Canadian clearing and settlement systems. We ensure payments between financial institutions are safely and securely settled each day. Through our modernization initiative, we are leading an industry-wide effort to modernize these systems and to support faster, more flexible and more secure payments. This includes the introduction of a real time, data-rich payments network— or rail— designed to promote the innovation in payments processing. This real-time rail will provide immediate 24/7/365 payments that are final and irrevocable. It will be supported by a robust international payments information standard — known as ISO 20022 — that allows for larger amounts of more useful information to travel with payments. We see two elements emerging in open banking. The first is the collection and aggregation of a customer’s financial information across multiple sources, including full payment transaction data, in an integrated and flexible manner to suit their needs. We refer to this as open banking data. The second is the facilitation of payments directly from a bank account as an alternative to credit and debit card payments. We call this payment initiation. For open banking data, the deployment of data-sharing requirements combined with the transparency and real-time exchange of information will create exciting opportunities. Moving towards standardized interfaces, or APIs, and giving customers greater control over their data will serve to reduce frictions in the development and adoption of new services. In much the same way, payment initiation has the potential to create further opportunities for innovative financial services. Combining the ability to reliably access financial data with the ability to initiate payments or transfer funds between institutions will increase the range and competitiveness of new financial services. We have full confidence that open banking can be implemented successfully in Canada. The demand is there and the benefits are clear. Canada has an opportunity to lead open banking in North America and beyond. Our financial institution members have invested heavily in modernizing the payments infrastructure and Canada has proven that we can make financial advancements safely. For example, our transition to safe, secure and convenient online and mobile banking services. Our financial institutions are among the strongest, most secure and most capable in the world. They are trusted, highly competitive, well resourced and staffed with the industry’s best and brightest people. The conditions are right, the investments have been made, and the opportunity is here for the government to play a leadership role as a catalyst to move the industry forward. Right now, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Canadians are seeking out technologies and financial applications that mimic the services open banking would provide. In so doing, they are compromising their credentials, putting their finances at risk, creating exposure to privacy and other breaches, and potentially nullifying the account-holder agreements that protect them. They are willing to do this to meet their needs for a more personalized, digital banking experience that allows them to better control their financial lives. Open banking will protect them. It will allow Canadians to access the services and convenience they need to manage their finances, while keeping them safe. Open banking will allow our financial institutions to develop competitive negotiations that position them for global opportunities. If we delay, we put Canadians at further risk and create the prospect of foreign companies gaining competitive advantage. To be safe and competitive, we need to bring open banking to Canada. As in other jurisdictions, we need the leadership of the Canadian government to ensure progress and success. Governments around the world have been actively involved in open banking initiatives to ensure that a strong and balanced legislative and regulatory framework underpins the system. We believe that to successfully realize open banking, two key roles are required. The first is to manage the setting and continued evolution of the open banking standards and specifications, including the use of robust digital identification for access and control. The second is a role to manage and ensure compliance through the full implementation of open banking. This is a delivery organization that supports financial institutions as they make the transition to an open banking environment. The government can set an ambitious timeline for open banking implementation given the investments and the progress in modernization programs across the industry, as well as the legislative initiatives under way that are likely to broaden access and competition in payments services. Finally, it’s important the government takes a leadership role in public engagement and communication to help Canadians understand the merits of open banking, as well as their rights and responsibilities. In summary, while moving to open banking is a large undertaking, it’s important the government progresses swiftly. Canadians’ need for financial control is driving behaviours that create unnecessary risk. Open banking will make these services available in a safe and convenient way. At the same time, our industry must ensure we keep up with global competitors who are forging ahead with open banking. If we act, Canada can continue to be a leader in innovative financial technologies. Canada’s payments modernization program is progressing. Open banking will flourish with this new infrastructure. Now is the time to align and to lead an industry into the future of financial and payment services in Canada. The Chair: Thank you very much, Mr. Ferrabee. It was very interesting. Leila Wright, Associate Deputy Commissioner, Policy, Planning and Advocacy Directorate, Competition Bureau Canada: Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you very much for having me here today. I am the Associate Deputy Commissioner of Competition Promotion at the Competition Bureau and I’m joined by my colleague Greg Lang, who is the Major Case Director and Strategic Policy Adviser in our Competition Advocacy Unit. The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency that ensures Canadian businesses and consumers prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace. Through the administration and enforcement of Canada’s Competition Act, the bureau is responsible for investigating and addressing price-fixing, deceptive marketing practices, abuses of market power, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. As Canada’s competition expert, the bureau has a mandate to act as an advocate for competition throughout the Canadian economy. To fulfill this mandate, we often work with regulators and policymakers to promote pro-competitive regulations and a continued focus on the benefits of competition. In this context, the bureau recently completed an extensive study on how to foster technology-led innovation and emerging services in Canada’s financial sector. This study, released in December 2017, includes 30 recommendations designed to support fintech adoption. Of particular interest to today’s proceedings, the study recommends that Canada consider the benefits of open banking. To further support this recommendation, the bureau made follow-on submissions regarding the merits of open banking to the Department of Finance, who appeared here yesterday. We make these recommendations because open banking has the potential to increase competition, promote innovation, and deliver better results for consumers in Canada’s financial services sector. Historically, financial markets in Canada have been characterized by consumer inertia. A 2013 Ernst & Young study found that only 14 per cent of Canadians switched banks over the last five years and that 71 per cent had been with the same bank for the past 10 years. These are important statistics because they indicate that consumers may be finding it difficult to shop around and take advantage of the range of products available in our modern financial sector. For the forces of competition to deliver their full benefits, consumers need to have access to clear and complete information about alternative products and providers. Our research shows that open banking can help deliver these benefits. With innovative new tools enabled by open banking, Canadians could have, at their fingertips, the power to more easily comprehend and compare a variety of complex financial products available in today’s marketplace. This form of innovation empowers consumers to make the financial decisions that are best for them and their families. Open banking can also be good for financial service providers. When it is easier to attract new customers, it is generally simpler for businesses to successfully introduce new products. New, innovative products have the power to disrupt and revolutionize industry in ways that deliver better outcomes for Canadians. More competition generally results in increased service levels, greater consumer choice and, importantly, more attractive prices. International experience has shown that open banking stimulates the development of innovative products that help consumers improve their financial well-being. For example, the bureau’s counterpart in the U.K. estimates that open banking reforms will generate direct economic benefits for the U.K. economy of up to $440 million per year. To fully achieve the benefits of open banking, the bureau recognizes that there are important policy considerations that need to be taken into account, such as those related to privacy and cybersecurity. Centrally, our research acknowledges that an open banking regime can only succeed if it earns the trust and consent of consumers. It is important that regulators strike the right balance between achieving legitimate policy goals and preserving sufficient scope for competition. The merits of open banking are extensive and, as with any large-scale change, there is the possibility of bumps along the road. As we navigate those key regulatory issues, we should focus on the opportunity that exists for Canadians to benefit from open banking and the greater levels of competition and innovation that it would bring. The bureau would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to provide its views on the competitive benefits of open banking. We look forward to your questions. Thank you. The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms. Wright. That was very helpful. Let’s move to questions, starting with the deputy chair, Senator Stewart Olsen. Senator Stewart Olsen: Thank you for being here. It’s a very interesting, very complicated study, and new to me, for sure. I have two questions, and my first goes to Mr. Smolynec. How on earth can we ensure that informed consent is actually informed consent? I worked in the medical field, and I know that when you ask a patient to sign a consent form, they generally just sign it. With this, I think we’re getting into very murky waters, where people really have to know what they’re signing. How would you suggest we go about ensuring consent is actually informed? Mr. Smolynec: I’d like to bring to the attention of the committee that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner issued guidelines on consent. They came into effect this January. This guideline is available on our website, and it provides great detail on meaningful consent, express consent. So there are practical ways in which meaningful consent can be, so to speak, operationalized and sought out. The key here is that we’re in the realm of express consent because of the sensitivity of the financial information that’s at stake in open banking. The guidelines, it should be pointed out as well, were developed after an extensive, lengthy consultation process. They had a lot of input from industry, stakeholders and advocacy groups as well. Those are some key points I would like to make. Senator Stewart Olsen: Thank you. You’re suggesting that in crafting the legislation, we should be using these guidelines? Mr. Smolynec: Yes. The guidelines will certainly be a good resource for the development of legislation. We would also point out that our privacy laws themselves should be modernized, and within the context of privacy law reform, express consent or consent measures could be enhanced in that legislation as well. Senator Stewart Olsen: Thank you. For Mr. Ferrabee, I know you have a brief thing here about Payments Canada and what you do, but can you explain that a little better to me? Mr. Ferrabee: Yes. Payments Canada is what we call a large-value exchange, so you may have sent a wire transfer before for closing a house or something like that. We run the high-value system, which is the wire system in Canada, and it’s for all the exchanges between financial institutions and it’s the large-value exchange. Then we run the batch system, which is the clearing and settling of point-of-sale, automatic debits, EDI or other electronic payments, cheques as well. So all the payments in the economy each day go into the banks, then the banks do a “to, from, to, from, to, from,” and we settle up in Central Bank dollars at the end of the day. Senator Stewart Olsen: Thank you. And have you worked with the Privacy Commissioner on exactly what you’re doing as you’re suggesting open banking would be a very good thing? I don’t think people actually know their transactions run through another place. I’m just wondering if you have done that. Mr. Ferrabee: Not on this matter, but we have worked together in the past. I think it should be educating Canadians about privacy, i.e., there are certain things that you want to keep private, your financial affairs. In this day and age, it’s more easily gotten to than in the old days with a gun and walking into a bank. Your health records, your bank records, your home, these are things that people should not give away. That’s my point. They should keep it in as minimal a place as possible. In other words, don’t maximize all that stuff, because once it’s gone, it’s gone. I want you to comment on that, because what privacy is there if, by consent, you give it all away? And people think it’s secure. I don’t believe it’s secure. A little explosion down at the coal mine in Saskatchewan and everything goes down, right? Everything, the whole province goes down. Mr. Smolynec: I’d start by saying that it’s clear to us, and it’s based on survey data as well conducted by ourselves but also other pollsters that Canadians are very much concerned with their privacy rights. Senator Tkachuk: They should be. Mr. Smolynec: You can see this in the headlines on all sorts of recent events. There’s a growing awareness of the importance of privacy. It affects our democratic rights, it affects our lives as consumers and, of course, as individuals. There’s a growing awareness. I think there’s also a growing awareness that privacy is a human right under Article 12 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It may also be seen as inalienable, or it is, I should say. The question then becomes: How does one, so to speak, without consent surrender their personal information? It’s very important to protect it. That having been said, to be clear, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Commissioner Therrien himself, we support innovation. We support innovation in the digital realm as well. But we stress and we caution that there must be robust privacy protective measures as a foundation for such innovation — not as a balancing of innovation, not as a barrier to innovation, as we sometimes hear, but it’s foundational. Privacy protective measures should be built into the design of any new initiatives, in any sphere of the economy, but especially in open banking, given the sensitivity of the information involved. There are guidelines and measures that would enhance the privacy protective measures that would underpin this new banking world. To be more specific, we have to get into the development of robust standards, both security standards and privacy standards. We would recommend that this be done before the rolling out or going too far down the road, and we would offer that we have expertise that could contribute to the development of those standards. Senator Tkachuk: The data we are always talking about. The only reason people want this data is to market it. They want to increase their competitive edge to sell products. Otherwise, why would they need it? The Government of Canada tried to get banking records so they could use that data to plan programs, but they are using private data. They get it through a survey or something like that, where there were consents and then destruction, not actually moving the data from one place to another and keeping it there. How are you going to handle all of that? I think the time has come. Everybody’s records are public. I don’t think there is any privacy anymore. It is that bad. I do. And if the government is involved in it, that means everybody is involved in it. Mr. Smolynec: There are many details around open banking that are unknown to us at this point which makes it a little bit difficult to assess all of the risks from a privacy perspective. That having been said, we do see some potential risks associated with it which could be mitigated through standards, accreditation, licensing, and improved privacy laws. Among the issues that you flagged is control over the manner in which the information is used. One of the key questions I have is what is the business model that attends to these new open-banking enterprises? How will they make their money? Will it be on the basis of fees, or will there be any effort to aggregate data and personal information, to sell it, or perhaps even to hive off what is known as behavioural surplus data which may then be traded as a futures commodity? Senator Tkachuk: Okay, thank you. Senator Wetston: This issue of privacy is important so I will hold it for the second round. I have a couple of questions now, though. Ms. Wright, I pursued this with yesterday’s panel. You may have caught some of that. We live in a market economy. Let’s not suggest that opening up innovation to create new products, new services and opportunities is seen as a negative thing. I don’t see it as a negative thing at all. I am sure the bureau doesn’t either, or any of you. We have a highly concentrated banking sector today. We recognize the opportunities that exist in financial markets today. We have some sense of fintechs and engagement and APIs and how that may create more competition, data, services and more products. I am also concerned about concentration because we are looking at this in a vertically integrated context. We need to look at it somewhat differently, potentially. Let me talk about vertical integration for a moment. As large institutions start acquiring fintechs in a vertical environment, there will be potential here for increased corporate concentration, less competition, and, of course, the opportunity then of having to deal with these issues from the point of view of the Competition Act. What is your view on vertical integration enhancing corporate concentration rather than creating an opportunity for more competition, price and service competition? Ms. Wright: Thank you for that question, senator. When we do advocacy work and engage in large-scale advocacy projects, we take the market as it is. We don’t look at whether there may or may not be competition and considerations in the market. What we are looking at is how we can increase competition in that marketplace. Regarding vertical integration, there are two ways that the Competition Bureau can look at this under the Competition Act. The first is under the merger review. The Competition Bureau has the mandate to review any merger in Canada and determine if that merger will substantially prevent or lessen competition in a market. Second provision is our abuse of dominance provision. It looks at situations where companies with significant market dominance are engaging in behaviour that may be lessening competition in the marketplace, such as potentially excluding rivals by buying them up. So there are two ways that we can look at this under the Competition Act. Senator Wetston: My second question: I read an article in The Globe and Mail. I can provide it if you like, but I don’t think it is necessary. Who is afraid of open banking? We heard some views of where that fear might be. It states that the method would allow new service providers to access customer data to offer more competitive financial products but there are questions that might be addressed first. We kind of focused on this a bit yesterday. There is a question about scope, standards, commercial issues associated with how it could be rolled out, but the big question is regulation. Why do I say that? Because when we look at the U.K., they have a national securities regulator. In Australia, they have a national securities regulator. We’ve been trying since 1934 to have a national securities regulator. OSFI may be the start, if it were related to banking, but they are not a market conduct regulator. They are a prudential regulator, and you need market conduct associated with that. We look at the fragmented system we have and ask ourselves how we will organize this to protect the public. We want to do that. Consumer protection is important not just around privacy. What are your thoughts around viability? The first step might be you need to get the regulatory framework in order, while developing scopes and standards, and we have not had a lot of success in doing that. The Capital Markets Regulatory Authority made some progress. Some provinces signed on. The federal government is a strong supporter of it, but we are not there yet. Any comments from any of you? Mr. Smolynec: It is difficult for regulators to share information currently. So, to your point of coordinating regulators, we would need to have some legislative review to enable the regulators to share information among themselves. It sounds mundane, but it is consequential. Senator Wetston: Thank you. Any other comments? Ms. Wright: One of the issues we heard frequently while conducting our market study was this idea of businesses having to look at a lot of different rules in different provinces and trying to figure out how to abide by all of those rules, even though they were, oftentimes, quite dissimilar to one another. One of the recommendations we made was that harmonization is critical to the success of the financial market because, through harmonization, it opens the market up to more competition throughout Canada. Senator Dagenais: I thank our guests. My first question is for Mr. Smolynec. Mr. Smolynec, in the model you suggest, to what extent will new players, such as financial technology businesses, be Canadian? To what extent will consumers and their personal information be protected? What will be their remedies against those who fail to follow the rules in place? Dissatisfied consumers must be able to sue those companies. Mr. Smolynec: That is an excellent question, Senator Dagenais. We have few details on the open banking system model at this point. So it is difficult to analyze it. There are certainly questions on the transfer of personal data through a third party. That is another aspect. Corporate responsibility is another. Our privacy legislation applies around the world. It applies to Canadians, but we need more details on the proposed model. Senator Dagenais: Mr. Ferrabee, I have two questions for you. You presented a typical profile of potential users. Who will be the bank clients who will have to very quickly make financial transactions, especially when costs will certainly be attached to those transactions? When we go to a bank, we never know how much it will cost us. Who will the potential users be? Mr. Ferrabee: Payments Canada doesn’t control the fees or the pricing of a service delivered by a financial institution. It’s largely governed by market forces and opportunity for competition, in our view. The opening up of payments as a function — we’re modernizing the payment system now — are intended to make it more accessible, faster and cheaper, ideally. Although we can’t control the price, we believe that if we do the infrastructure in a way that makes it more accessible, that creates more opportunity and will make more competition. But we don’t have the ability to set those prices. We believe that corporates, as they advance in their understanding of payments and take more assertive action in managing their banking relationships, will drive change to that. Senator Dagenais: Much has been said about Australia, China and the United Kingdom, but what has become of the United States’ banking system? We know that the situation is different there, but I assume that market has evolved. Mr. Ferrabee: Yes. Thank you. I would say it’s not progressing as quickly and that there’s an opportunity for Canada in North America. It is a more fragmented market, including the payment infrastructure and all the way down. It’s bigger, more fragmented, and as we are hearing now, the coordination is a challenge. Their coordination challenges are quite a bit larger than ours, which in our view creates an opportunity for Canada. Senator Dagenais: There are ramifications for some Canadian banks in the United States, such as the Royal Bank in relation to NBC. If the Royal Bank, for whatever reason, decided to implement that system in Canada, it would surely transfer it to its partner in the United States, right? Mr. Ferrabee: I think that’s right. I think we can play a leadership role there. With operations in both countries, you can take what you learn and do and start to migrate your services in a direction towards more competition and to be more competitive. Senator Klyne: Thank you for appearing this morning. I have questions for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Competition Bureau. We know that the four pillars of Canada’s financial system — the banks, insurance companies, securities and trusts — are kept separate to prevent risks associated with, say, the emergence of the “too big to fail” institution or unfair competition. This is a two-part question. Will those institutions within those four pillars, for this to be successful, be required to comply and approach their customers to authorize the exchange under some due diligence, which you mentioned? Or can an insurance pillar opt out of the whole program? Mr. Smolynec: At the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, we are not aware of any planning about the various pillars and how the various pillars would play in open banking. I don’t have any insight into that particular issue. I would just say that privacy laws are applicable to all of the pillars. Senator Klyne: I am just wondering if banks can access insurance data under this, or can the insurance companies say they are not going to participate. Mr. Smolynec: I have no insight into how that is envisioned in the model proposed. Senator Klyne: I don’t understand why financial institutions want to give up their client data and encourage that unless they figure out how to monetize this. My question on that, if the tier 1 financial institutions decide that they will go after this in a full-force offensive, if you will — pardon the expression, but a crush-kill-destroy approach to doing business — how would the second tier and third tier institutions fare out of all of that? Is this an opportunity for tier 1 financial institutions to take on a bigger piece of the pie? Ms. Wright: Thank you for that question. It is a very good one. I’ll begin by saying that there are often issues with regard to business incentives. As well, when you have a large-scale project such as this one, where there are a lot of different policy considerations, including privacy and cybersecurity, it is often in the best interests of everyone for the government to be taking the lead and creating that framework within which open banking will happen. From a competition perspective, one of the most important principles is that there be a level playing field so that all competitors in a market are able to play by the same rules and are able to compete for the business of customers in the same way. So as details are ironed out regarding open banking, it is very important to ensure that there is a level playing field on which all financial institutions are able to play. Senator Klyne: I don’t know how you govern the tier 1’s from going too hard on this, but okay. Senator Griffin: Thank you. I have one question, and I think it is Mr. Lang that I want to direct it to. What if Canada did not adopt open banking? What if we decided we are not going there? What would be the challenges for our country if we did not do that? Greg Lang, Major Case Director and Strategic Policy Advisor, Competition Advocacy Unit, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: I think that’s actually a question for Ms. Wright. Ms. Wright: I’m happy to answer that question. As you know, our counterparts around the world are beginning to adopt open banking. What we see is that if Canada doesn’t adopt open banking, there may be issues with regard to our ability to compete on an international stage. Senator Verner: I will address you, Ms. Wright, regarding the study published in 2017. In your study, you cite an Ernst & Young report, which shows that the financial technology usage rate was 18 per cent in Canada and that the firm anticipated a rate of 45 per cent in the near future, but without giving a specific timeline. What do you think about that statement and when in the near future should the increase to 45 per cent occur? Ms. Wright: Thank you for your question. I will begin by saying that when we began our market study, that was the main question that we had, the question that was posed by that study. The study showed that one in five of us used a fintech product two times in the last six months, whereas our international counterparts are about double that amount. So the main question we had in our study was why; why is that the case? Are there regulatory and non-regulatory reasons why fintech companies are not having the same adoption rates in Canada as in other jurisdictions? With regard to your question on time, I would not have a comment on the amount of time it should take in order for us to get up to a certain number. I don’t know what that correct number is, but the interesting question we looked at was: Why aren’t we doing as well as our counterparts in this area? Senator Verner: Since your market study was published, have you had an opportunity to look into the economic benefits that could arise from an open banking market? You mentioned earlier the economic benefits in the United Kingdom, which you estimated to be $440 million per year. Have you had an opportunity to extrapolate and consider the economic benefits for Canada? Ms. Wright: We have not had an opportunity to do that for Canada. When we look at open banking, it’s interesting that Canada is currently on the leading edge rather than the bleeding edge. I mean that we have international counterparts around the world that are starting to adopt open banking. We are able to look at their experiences, and see the advantages and opportunities with open banking, as well as to some of the risks that need to be addressed. We have that number from the U.K. regarding the benefits of up to $440 million. There are other measures the U.K. has put out showing there is adoption of open banking in their country. Things are looking promising in other jurisdictions. It is still early days, and time will tell. Senator Verner: My last question is related to the discussion you had with my colleague, Senator Wetston. In your study, you encourage Canadian political decision makers to designate a single entity to be in charge of financial technology policies in the form of a single point of contact for businesses, consumers and investors. Given what has happened in the securities file, how do you expect Quebec and Alberta to react to this kind of a proposal? I’m not saying that I’m against it. However, considering the experience with the two provinces that did not want to participate, what do you anticipate their reaction to your proposal will be? Ms. Wright: I will begin by saying that our market study recommended that there be a policy lead on open banking. We made that recommendation because there are so many different policy considerations that need to be taken into account, and we need a lead who is looking at all of those different perspectives as regulations are being developed. By doing that, we will get a framework that works for everybody. Senator Marshall: My first question is for Mr. Smolynec. Mr. Ferrabee and Ms. Wright seem to be supporters of open data, but you said right at the end of your opening remarks that we need to reform our privacy legislation. Could you give us some insight on what is happening in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to prepare for this? It is most likely coming. Could you talk to us about whether you have draft legislation prepared? Are you adequately resourced? Could you give us some insight on whether you will be in a position to do your job, should open data arrive in Canada? Mr. Smolynec: As you are no doubt aware, Commissioner Therrien has in the past before this and other committees called for an updating and modernization of our privacy laws. The economy is moving ahead at a rapid pace. There are all sorts of technological innovations. Over the past couple of decades, privacy has become increasingly important for all kinds of reasons, not least, I would point out, because it affects our democratic rights. I would posit that you cannot have a viable public democratic life without a private life. It is important, and the stakes are high, not just from a consumer’s point of view but from a citizenship point of view. So yes, we are working diligently to study and assess how privacy laws can be improved. There are a range of things we are proposing, which includes the creation of rights-based legislation. Our laws now are principles-based and technologically neutral. There is a lot of merit to having technologically neutral laws and principles reflected in those laws. But we suggest that a rights basis, as we see, for instance, in the GDPR. We are not suggesting we should adopt the GDPR, but we could create a Canadian model suited for Canadian purposes and a Canadian context, including our international trading relationships. A rights basis that confers distinct rights upon Canadians would be helpful. The other very critical thing is that the order-making powers for the commissioner and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is indicated, as well as the ability to impose fines. All of these issues that pertain to how we regulate are critical, as well. With that would come an augmentation of the resourcing capacity of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Senator Marshall: How confident are you that the office would be ready to respond? In the past, you must get some feeling as to whether the government would be receptive to providing more resources. Do you feel encouraged that, when the time comes, you will be in a position to properly respond on behalf of Canadians, or do you have some trepidation with regard to what you will be able to do? Mr. Smolynec: I have no doubt that we could contribute with value to any legislative reform initiatives. We have expertise, we have deep knowledge and we’ve been studying the issues for years. That said, we are busy; we are busy across the board. There are a lot of complaints and pressures. As I speak of the democratic rights and the stakes involved — these are big issues — but there are increased localized demands. When people complain — they want answers — and the complaints are real, we have to attend to those as well. We have to operate on different levels. I’m not without my concerns, but we have a lot to offer. Senator Marshall: You are all familiar with Statistics Canada’s pursuit of financial data that was in the media several months ago. I know this is the early stages with the open data; we are just talking conceptually. Ms. Wright, I know you said you expect government would take the lead. Do you think that the information Statistics Canada is looking for will now be more readily accessible if we move to open data? My first reaction was that this was to get the same data through the back door that they could not get through the front door. I would like each of you to respond to that. Ms. Wright: There are still a lot of details that need to be worked out with regard to open banking, and there are issues with regard to trust in the market that need to be worked out before open banking is implemented in Canada. In order for open banking to be taken up by consumers, consumers need to trust in the idea of open banking and what that means. That’s an issue that needs to be figured out before we’re able to implement open banking in Canada. Mr. Ferrabee: I’m not sure that open banking would change the dynamic. I don’t think by creating open banking all of a sudden that would open up new ways. It’s a question of who is gating the information. In some ways, I applaud the interests of getting more accurate financial forecasting and in some ways the system works to say not if you’re going to get private information. I think open banking is saying: Who is gating? If it’s my financial institution who currently is doing a good job protecting my data, in open banking I’m protecting my data. So now it’s a question of who is controlling it. In our view, a separate attempt from Statistics Canada to do the same thing would not be successful under an open banking regime. Senator Marshall: Do you feel the same as Ms. Wright that governments should take the lead? Senator Marshall: Any further comments from the Privacy Commissioner’s office? Mr. Smolynec: As you’re aware, we have an ongoing investigation on Statistics Canada, so I’m not at liberty to discuss that investigation. Senator Marshall: We’ll be fully familiar with it by the time we get open banking. Mr. Smolynec: In general, I’d make the following observation: With open banking we don’t have specificity as to what data is necessarily involved. We would ask what accounts are being implicated in open banking: information transfers, insurance and mortgages. What exactly are we talking about? What we’re seeing now are technologies that are allowing for the vast accumulation of incredible amounts of data. This new phenomenon — it’s not just in the financial sector but in social media platforms, et cetera — of the amazing accumulation of vast amounts of data is transforming the way we think about privacy, because it’s not just one individual’s privacy that needs to be protected. It’s on a global level, involving sometimes billions of people. Senator Frum: Mr. Ferrabee, you just mentioned the “gating mechanism.” We currently have a system where it’s the financial institutions that are gating the data and open banking depends on the individual to be the gatekeeper for their data; is that it? Mr. Ferrabee: I would say it’s not as binary as that. I still control my data, but it’s also controlled by or protected by. I trust my bank to protect my data. I would still rely on them to protect the data they have. But if I’m having access and I’m choosing to give somebody else access I am gating. Senator Frum: It boils down to this idea of how much financial literacy the general public has when they sign on to these things and their ability to consent. We also know there’s a gigantic generational gap. The people around this table are much more concerned about their privacy, but the millennial generation is accustomed to waiving their privacy but perhaps not with a full understanding of the implications. This seems to be based on a culture where an upcoming generation is accustomed to waiving their privacy rights. Mr. Ferrabee: Perhaps, and there’s definitely some of that. I think what we’re asking in open banking is to tell us what the rules are because in some cases they’re not there and people are making decisions that are more risky for them than if there were a set of rules. That expectation of a customer’s awareness, knowledge, consent and all of that would be part of gaining access, whereas right now people are doing things assuming it will be fine and it could very well not be. Senator Frum: For people of my generation and this generation at this table it sounds predatory, taking advantage of the openness of an upcoming generation that is really innocent about the exposure they would be taking on. Mr. Smolynec, do you want to comment on that? Mr. Smolynec: I wouldn’t mind. One of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s priorities over the last few years has been assessing how privacy issues affect vulnerable populations, so we have strategies developed by our communications directorate to address vulnerable populations, one of which is youth. It may be a good idea, when with considering open banking, to put a lens on how open banking affects different segments of the population; in this case, youth. Senator Tkachuk: I believe it was you, Mr. Ferrabee, who talked about how this would increase competition, how consumers would benefit. I’m still trying to get my head around all this. Let’s see if we can kindergarten it a bit. I deal with two banks. There are probably many people who deal with an investment bank, where they may be saving stock, and then a regular bank account. How would I profit from open banking? Mr. Ferrabee: I’ll qualify this to say I have an interest primarily in the payments area, but I have an opinion on what you’re asking, so I’ll share that. The idea, I believe, is that the consumer or a service provider can access those various points and provide a service to you that brings it all into a single place so you can see holistically where your assets are and what they’re doing. Once you see the full picture in an integrated manner, the payment initiation allows you to then rebalance to make a transaction. The goal is to provide a more holistic view versus having to get your statement from one and then from another, pull them together and look for the most current date. I made a trade and I can’t remember exactly how that settled and what the amount was and having to call on your bank while using different vehicles to get there. It’s all your information as it is now. There’s not new information. It’s the medium that’s being accessed. Senator Tkachuk: It’s just slapping another entity on what already exists and saying that what I’ll do for you is to coordinate all this stuff so you’ll get one piece of paper or one website where you can see everything at once. Mr. Ferrabee: That would be an example. Senator Tkachuk: I can’t say how that benefits anybody. I don’t really understand that. If I go to my bank, I get all the information I need about my bank, and if I go to my other bank, I get all the information. What would be the difference between that and getting it too? Or is it the fact that this institution now can mine the data in my banks to sell to other people? That’s what this is all about, is it not? I remember Facebook was supposed to allow people to privately engage with each other; family sending snapshots and all that stuff. But in reality, the money is in the mining of the information and the fact that very private information is going out and being sold into the marketplace. That’s why I’m concerned that all of these things start off so innocently but really the information is where the money is. No one is going to tell me that the website is where the money is. It’s the information that’s where the money is and that is a dangerous thing. Senator Tkachuk: I hope you’re watching. That’s all I can say. Mr. Ferrabee: With every opportunity there are challenges and I believe that can be managed, but I agree with you. Ms. Wright: If I could add a response to that question, which is a good question. I’m similar to you, senator. I have a number of different bank accounts that hold a number of different things. I have savings accounts, I have RESPs, I have RRSPs, and they’re all with different financial institutions. The opportunity that comes with open banking is that there could be a service provider whom I could give that information to so that the service provider would be able to see my full picture and they could then make suggestions as to how I could grow my money. Currently, each of my banks only sees a sliver of my entire financial picture and they’re not able to provide me with the advice that would benefit from that full picture. Open banking provides that opportunity for a service provider to have that full picture and be able to provide that advice to me. Senator Stewart Olsen: I just want to say that’s what financial advisers do already. I just want to put that out there. Ms. Wright: It’s very true. That is what financial advisers do already. This is about giving consumers the choice to either have a financial adviser or to go with this online option. Senator Wetston: Just a quick question. This is the value of this. Having these very skilled people presenting today demonstrates that we touch on very important areas of investor education and financial literacy, and it’s not just about financial products. A lot of work, however, has been done on these things in Canada around financial literacy and investor education. I just want to remind the committee and the panellists here, Mr. Chair, if I may, that Canada has had a varied record in embedded mutual-fund fees and high trailer fees. We’ve paid a great deal for these products over a long period of time and investors paid that. Institutions collected that money. I’m not being critical, but it’s a reality. Services might be able to enhance the competitive environment to reduce those kinds of fees and the environment in which that occurs. Work has been done, but it leads me to this very simple question, which is this: We’ve talked, I think, privacy, and what you believe you may need to do in the event that open banking became a reality in Canada. It depends on the scope and standards and what comes with regard to open banking. Payments Canada, I know you’re under review now. What do you need to ensure you’re ready to participate in an open banking environment? And for the Competition Bureau, are you comfortable with where the competition is at today? Do you need amendments or reform? What do you need to deal with technology in this particular sector? Mr. Ferrabee: Payments Canada embarked on a modernization initiative a number of years ago and we’re midstream on that. We’re active with the Department of Finance and have been well supported. We voiced all the way along and are not at a gap position where we need to take strategic action to close that. We’re very well supported. Ms. Wright: With regard to the Competition Act, we have a number of different provisions and tools under the Competition Act. It is remarkably flexible and allows the opportunity for us to look at a number of different business conducts in the marketplace. We will continue to apply the Competition Act to business conducts that may be anti-competitive, and we won’t hesitate to take action. Senator Klyne: I wanted to applaud the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for the rigour you see being put into how clients would authorize their data. It’s kind of a full knowledge what they’re getting into and it’s fully explained to them. I guess it’s up to the financial institution to make sure they train these people on the front line to be able to do this. At the same time, there will have to be some external audit on the process to make sure they’re compliant. The question was asked if you will be ready and resourced to do this. I can’t help but think about the Canadian version of Sarbanes-Oxley creeping into this whole process at some level, and maybe it’s the agency side. Just a quick question to Ms. Wright: You mentioned that the government should take the lead on this. I assume that is in the context of being responsible for developing the framework of this, but also vetting third parties and fintechs on this, which sounds like the creation of another empire building here for the federal government. I don’t mean that in any sense other than somebody is going to have to pay for that if it’s an agency of the government that takes the lead. Is it the taxpayer or the consumer paying a fee somewhere financially or will the shareholders of banks step up to pay for this right to have open banking that is regulated? Ms. Wright: I’m likely not the best person to comment on who would pay for open banking. What I can say is the reason why I think it is important for there to be a policy lead on this is because there are so many different policy considerations and they all need to be taken into consideration in order for the open banking framework to be robust. The Chair: On that question of a lead, did I understand yesterday, when the gentleman from the Department of Finance was here that he indicated he was the lead? Would that have just been for the Department of Finance’s project, or is it across government? Ms. Wright: Yes, I believe the former. Senator Dagenais: Based on what we have heard recently, Canada will have trouble protecting its electoral system from potential Russian intrusions. I think sufficient protection must be provided for privacy before information as sensitive as financial data is processed. I see that there is a rush to take certain risks. I think we should ask the Americans to tell us about what they experienced recently with the Russian intrusion into the electoral system. The situation worries me. If they can dig around in the electoral system, others could dig in our personal finances. Perhaps lessons should be learned from what happened in the United States. I am thinking of everything to do with Internet systems, but I don’t want to go any further. Mr. Smolynec: We know that Russia targeted Canadian residents’ personal data. The office has investigated the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA. It turned out that Russian intelligence services targeted athletes’ personal data in WADA’s system. In addition, we are already noting that some countries are trying to interfere in the election. That interest appears as soon as databases contain sensitive information. It is very important to protect that data, from a security perspective, with measures proportional to the threat. Senator Dagenais: Thank you very much. The Chair: Witnesses, thanks very much. This has been extremely helpful to us. Thank you for being here and thank you for being so frank. It’s been meaningful to us. We’re going to suspend and we’ll have an in camera session, senators. We will do that now and then I’d ask folks if they would leave the room at their convenience.

2019-04-22T05:35:08Z

https://sencanada.ca/en/Content/SEN/Committee/421/banc/54555-e

Franz Faul, Vebjørn Ekroll, Gunnar Wendt; Color appearance: The limited role of chromatic surround variance in the “gamut expansion effect”. Journal of Vision 2008;8(3):30. doi: 10.1167/8.3.30. R. O. Brown and D. I. MacLeod (1997) observed that chromatic patches appear much more saturated against an equiluminant, uniform gray surround than against a chromatically variegated surround with the same space-average color. Using asymmetric color matching, we investigated what stimulus conditions are critical for the occurrence of this “gamut expansion effect.” We found (a) that the effect diminishes rapidly with increasing color contrast between target and surround, (b) that the amount and the spatial distribution of color variance in the surround plays but a very limited role, (c) that the effect is mainly local, and (d) that basically the same effect can be obtained by comparing two uniform surrounds. These findings, particularly the latter, argue strongly against an explanation solely in terms of contrast adaptation. We suggest that the main features of our findings can be explained in terms of color scission. Brown and MacLeod (1997) observed that chromatic patches may appear much more saturated against an equiluminant, uniform gray surround than against a chromatically variegated surround with the same space-average color (see panels C and D in Figure 1). In their experiments, a standard patch was presented in a uniform gray surround, and the task of the subjects was to match its color by adjusting the color of a comparison patch in a chromatically variegated surround. Standard patches of four different hues (roughly red, green, blue, and yellow) were used that were approximately equiluminant to the surround and had a rather low purity (i.e. a low chromatic contrast to the mean color of the surround). The main finding was that the subjects chose much larger purities for the comparison patch, thus compensating for the desaturating effect of the variegated surround. That is, the ratio between match and standard purity was much larger than 1. The four discs are identical in all panels. The discs in the uniform surround C appear much more saturated than those in the chromatically variegated surround D. This is the gamut expansion effect as described by Brown and MacLeod (1997). The surrounds A, B, E, and F, which are similar to the stimuli used in Experiments 1C, 2A, and 2B, do not contain chromatic variance but nevertheless have a desaturating effect relative to surround C. This surround effect is qualitatively different from the kind of effects previously reported and discussed in connection with color induction. While color induction effects are traditionally described as a translation of the white point in color space (Helmholtz, 1911; Shevell, 1978; Walraven, 1976; Webster, 2003; Whittle, 2003), Brown and MacLeod's (1997) effect seems to be more appropriately described as a compression or expansion around the neutral point (depending on whether the uniform or the variegated surround is taken as a reference). Brown and MacLeod used the term “gamut compression” or “gamut expansion,” implicitly suggesting that the entire gamut of perceived colors is compressed or expanded. Besides their basic observation, Brown and MacLeod (1997) report several further findings that may be relevant to constrain possible interpretations of the gamut expansion effect: (1) Separating centre and surround in the comparison surround with a thin gray line reduced but did not eliminate the effect. Their conclusion was that the effect cannot be completely local. (2) A similar expansion effect could be observed with respect to luminance: A gray standard patch that was darker (lighter) than the gray uniform standard surround was matched by an even darker (lighter) patch in the variegated surround. (3) If the comparison surround was achromatic and only the luminance varied, then the luminance effect was large and the chromatic effect small; that is, the purity of the match was very similar to the purity of the standard patch. (4) If the comparison surround was nearly equiluminant with mere chromatic variation, then the luminance effect was small and the chromatic effect large. (5) The effect was almost immediate, which led to the conclusion that the gamut expansion effect “is effectively a form of simultaneous color contrast” (Brown & MacLeod, 1997, p. 848). There have been essentially two different views about what the cause and functional role of the gamut expansion effect is. One line of reasoning postulates that the gamut expansion effect is the result of one of two different kinds of adaptational processes that together govern color perception. Webster (2003), who studied similar “expansion effects” after temporal adaptation, uses the terms “light adaptation” and “contrast adaptation” for these two hypothetical processes: “Light adaptation adjusts sensitivity to the mean luminance and chromaticity averaged over some time and region of the image and produces mean shifts in colour perception. Contrast adaptation adjusts sensitivity according to how the ensemble of luminances and chromaticities are distributed around the mean, and instead alters colour appearance by changing the perceived contrast along different directions in colour space” (p. 68). MacLeod proposed a similar explanation for the gamut expansion effect that is more specific with respect to the underlying mechanism: “If cone-opponent neurons are able to increase their sensitivity in response to decreases in the range of inputs, and thereby give their maximum response to the largest visible deviation from “white,” this mechanism would explain gamut expansion” (Hurlbert, 1996, p. 1382). Brenner and Cornelissen (2002) also adopted this explanation in terms of two related adaptational processes. They investigated the influence of chromatic variability in the surround on color induction and found that chromatic induction was reduced by chromatic variability. In their explanation of this result, they explicitly refer to the gamut expansion effect and conclude that the “shift in the neutral point takes place after the change in saturation” (Brenner & Cornelissen, 2002, p. 231). In a later experiment, they varied the spatial distribution of the chromatic variability in the surround and found that it hardly made any difference where the chromatic variability was located within the scene. They therefore conclude that “chromatic induction arises from local spatial interactions between cone-opponent signals that have been scaled by a global measure of the chromatic variability within the scene” (Brenner, Ruiz, Herráiz, Cornelissen, & Smeets, 2003, p. 1420). A different line of reasoning interprets the gamut expansion effect as the result of color scission (Ekroll, Faul, & Niederée, 2004). Color scission refers to the fact that colors are sometimes separated in two or more components that are attributed to different causes (Anderson, 1997; Ekroll, Faul, Niederée, & Richter, 2002). The best known example of color scission is the phenomenon of perceptual transparency, where the local color in the region of the transparent overlay is split into a background and a transparent layer component (D'Zmura, Colantoni, Knoblauch, & Laget, 1997; Faul & Ekroll, 2002; Metelli, 1970). These two components are represented separately and have independent attributes. This is demonstrated by the fact that it is possible to match properties of the transparent layer in front of different backgrounds (Singh & Anderson, 2002). The application of color scission to the gamut expansion effect is mainly motivated by (1) the observation that uniform patches in a uniform surround often appear transparent at low color contrasts (see, for instance, panel A in Figure 6) and (2) the observation that it often seems impossible to find a perfect match in the asymmetric matching task used to measure the gamut expansion effect. The following assumptions are made to explain the gamut expansion effect and these two additional observations: A low contrast uniform patch in a uniform surround fulfils the chromatic (low contrast) and figural (background in plain view and seen through the overlay region have the same texture) conditions for color scission. The test patch is therefore split into a background component of roughly the color of the surround (gray) and a separately represented layer component, which is determined by the contrast of the test patch color to the surround color. The uniform patch in the variegated comparison surround, in contrast, violates both scission conditions and is therefore not split up. This implies that an observer performing the asymmetric matching task would have to compare a standard patch that is split into a gray background color and a “thin” but highly saturated chromatic contrast component with an unsplit and therefore grayish color in the comparison surround. Clearly, in a strict sense this would be an impossible task and this would explain the matching problems. The gamut expansion effect is to be expected if the subjects in this case seek to compensate for the highly saturated contrast component of the standard patch by increasing the saturation of the comparison patch. The two approaches outlined above emphasize different aspects of the stimulus situation and make qualitatively different predictions. From the adaptational perspective, the focus is mainly on chromatic variance and therefore on the properties of the comparison stimulus. The underlying idea that the sensitivity of cone-opponent neurons adapts to the range of chromaticities in the scene leads to three expectations. First, it is to be expected that the strength of the gamut expansion effect is a monotonic increasing function of the amount of chromatic variance in the comparison surround. Second, the effect of the variance should not be completely local because otherwise the reference to properties of the “scene” would be meaningless. Third, the assumption that the properties of a basic detection mechanism are changed suggests that the effect is of a general nature, that is, that all colors are affected in a similar way. The scission approach, on the other hand, focuses on the properties of the uniform standard stimulus. From this view, the gamut expansion effect depends on the precondition that color scission occurs in exactly one of the two stimuli that are compared in the asymmetric matching task. The focus on the uniform standard stimulus results from the fact that color scission is a rather delicate phenomenon that depends on very specific stimulus conditions. It is therefore expected that the effect deteriorates quickly with slight deviations from the uniformity of the surround and the low color contrast between central patch and surround that was realized in the standard stimulus in Brown and MacLeod's (1997) experiment. The properties of the comparison surround are less important because conditions that prevent color scission are abundant. The effect should therefore be rather robust against changes of the properties of the comparison stimulus—they should not matter as long as color scission remains suppressed. This implies in particular that chromatic variance has no special status and may be replaced by other suitable stimulus properties that prevent color scission. In order to evaluate the plausibility of these alternative explanations, we conducted a series of experiments in which we observed the consequences of changing properties of both the standard and the comparison surround on the strength of the gamut expansion effect. Most of the experiments reported below can be regarded as variants of the basic experiment of Brown and MacLeod (1997) that was briefly described in the Introduction section. Our aim was to investigate more extensively which properties of the stimulus influence the strength of the “gamut expansion effect.” In one set of experiments (Experiments 1A–1C), we manipulated properties of the standard stimulus and in a second set of experiments (Experiments 2A–2D) the surround of the comparison patch. The stimuli were presented on a CRT monitor (Sony GDM F500R, screen size 30 × 40 cm, 1280 × 1024 pixels, 85-Hz refresh rate) that was controlled by a graphics card (ATI Radeon 9600) with a color depth of 8 bits. We used a colorimeter (LMS 1290) to calibrate the monitor following a standard procedure (Brainard, 1989). The methods described in Golz and MacLeod (2003) were used to transform back and forth between CIE 1931 XYZ coordinates and LMS cone excitation values with respect to the 2° cone fundamentals estimated by Stockman, MacLeod, and Johnson (1993). During the experiments, the monitor was the only light source in the room. The viewing distance was approximately 80 cm. Brown and MacLeod (1997) varied the hue of the standard patch in four steps but used only one contrast level for each hue. In their experiment, the colorimetric purity (Wyszecki & Stiles, 1982, p. 174) of the patches was rather low (note that in this context, where the background of the surround is neutral, purity corresponds to the chromatic contrast of the standard patches to the surround). Informal observations suggested that a low purity is essential for the gamut expansion effect and that it is much weaker at higher purities. In Experiment 1A, we therefore investigated systematically how the gamut expansion effect depends on the purity of the standard patch. C = ( 1.6384 0.7209 0 0.7209 0.3441 0 0 0 3.24 ) . Top: The variegated and uniform surrounds used in Experiment 1A. Bottom: Color distribution in the variegated surround projected onto the MacLeod–Boynton chromaticity diagram. Variance and mean of a color distribution depend on the underlying color space. Our choice to use the LMS color space rested on the assumption that additive color mixtures of both spatial and temporal origin are most naturally defined in terms of cone excitations. To calculate variegated surrounds with specified mean and covariance matrix in LMS cone excitation space, an algorithm similar to that described in Mausfeld and Andres (2002) was used. Figure 2 shows a projection of the “cloud of points” in LMS space onto the MacLeod–Boynton chromaticity diagram (MacLeod & Boynton, 1979). Each point in this diagram corresponds to a chromaticity realized in the surround. The stimuli were presented side by side on a black screen, with a centre-to-centre distance of 10.7°. The horizontal position of the standard and the comparison stimulus was balanced over the trials. The size of each surround was 8.8° × 8.8°, and the diameter of the central patches was 2°. To enhance the effective color resolution beyond the 8 bits per channel provided by the hardware, we used Floyd–Steinberg error diffusion dithering (Floyd & Steinberg, 1976) with respect to the CIE 1931 XYZ space. In each trial, the standard patch had one of four different hues, which can roughly be described as red, green, blue, and yellow. More precisely, it was one of the four hues that can be realized along the two cardinal axes (Krauskopf, Williams, & Heeley, 1982) through the chosen white point (the cardinal axes are parallel to the r and b axis in the MacLeod–Bonyton diagram). For each hue, the purity was varied in seven steps. To make the differences between purity steps approximately perceptually equidistant, we varied the purity in equidistant steps along the hue directions in CIELUV space (Wyszecki & Stiles, 1982, p. 165) and transformed the chosen positions back to the MacLeod–Boynton space (see Figure 3). Chromaticities of the standard patch in Experiment 1A. The shaded regions show the monitor gamut. Left side: Purities of a given hue were equidistant in the CIELUV space. Right side: The same chromaticities plotted in the MacLeod–Boynton diagram. Informal observations suggested that low purity values are especially interesting. Thus, in the experiment, we tried to include the lowest possible purities at which a gamut expansion effect can reliably be measured. In a pilot experiment, we estimated the lowest purity at which an equiluminant target patch embedded in the uniform standard surround could reliably be detected and its hue clearly identified. This was done for all four hues used in the main experiment. We used a method of constant stimuli, that is, we presented—in random order—patches of fixed purity taken from a small purity interval [0, x 0] in the standard surround. For each hue, x 0 was a low purity that nevertheless was clearly discernable from the surround. Each purity interval was further divided into ten equidistant purity levels along the hue directions in CIELUV space. In the pilot experiment, only the uniform standard surround was shown in the centre of the screen. The target patch was always equiluminant to the surround. In each trial, the subjects' task was to indicate whether they could see a central patch and if so which of four possible hues it had. For reference, the four possible hues were presented as small colored patches against a black background at the bottom of the screen. No feedback was given to the subjects. Four experienced observers with normal color vision (the authors and one naive subject) judged each purity level 20 times. Thus, this pilot experiment comprised a total of 800 trials (4 hues × 10 purity levels × 20 repetitions). Each panel in Figure 4 shows the results for one of the four hues. The data underlying these plots were aggregated over all four subjects; individual results were very similar. In each panel, the relative frequency of “target seen” responses is plotted against target purity level. A total number of 2210 “target seen” responses were given in the 3200 trials performed by the four subjects, and only 2 of them were erroneous reports of detecting a non-existing target at purity 0 (“false alarm”) and in only 8 cases—that were seemingly randomly distributed over the purity levels—the wrong hue was identified. The fact that virtually no hue identification errors were made at purities near detection threshold is remarkable because it suggests that as soon as the target patch is visible at all, its hue can also be identified. This fits well with the subjects' reports after the experiment that even barely discernible patches appeared in a sense highly saturated and with the concept of “saturation scale pretruncation” introduced in Ekroll et al. (2004). Important for the present purposes is the fact that there is no need to use correct hue identification as a separate criterion. Results of the pilot experiment (pooled across observers) and estimated psychometric functions for detecting the central patch with increasing purity. In each plot, Δuv is a vector in the given hue direction in CIELUV space whose length corresponds to one purity level. The curves are Weibull distribution functions fitted to the data. Vertical lines show the position of the 95th percentile estimated from the fit. Thus, only the detection thresholds were used to determine the lowest purities for the main experiment: First, the purity levels t corresponding to the 95th percentile were estimated from Weibull distribution functions fitted to the data. The uv-chromaticity of the color at the lower boundary of the purity interval was then calculated as 2 tΔ uv, that is, we duplicated the purity that was estimated to allow a correct detection of an equiluminant patch in the standard surround with a probability of 0.95. This increase above estimated detection threshold was necessary because at lower purities the subjects had a hard time discerning the standard patch from its surround when they needed to look back and forth between standard and comparison patch in the matching task. The upper boundary of each purity interval was the point along the corresponding hue direction lying at 80% of the distance from the neutral point to the boundary of the monitor gamut (see Figure 3). The same four subjects that conducted the pilot experiment participated in the main experiment. Each subject made 10 settings for each of the 28 different conditions (4 hues × 7 purity levels). The arrow buttons on the computer keyboard were used to adjust either the purity or the luminance (L + M) of the comparison patch. By pressing the space key the subjects could toggle between these two input modes. In both cases, the left/right keys were used for adjustment along the chosen dimension; the top/down keys allowed additional adjustments on a very fine scale. Purity settings were along the cardinal axes on which the hue of the standard patch lied. The subjects were instructed to make the color of the comparison patch as similar as possible to that of the standard patch, paying special attention to the correspondence in saturation. Figure 5 shows the results for pooled data of all four subjects. In the top panels, the mean chromaticities of the matches are plotted against the chromaticities of the standard patch. In the middle panels, the effects are given in terms of purity ratios between match and standard. This ratio is essentially identical to the “relative richness” measure used by Brown and MacLeod (1997). The purity ratio is defined in terms of the chromaticity coordinates xm, xs, and xw of the match, the standard, and the gray surround, respectively, by the expression ∥xm − xw∥ / ∥xs − xw∥. To estimate intermediate purity ratios, exponential decay functions A + B exp(−D∣xs − xw∣C) were fitted to the purity ratios for each hue direction. The bottom panels show the ratios of match to standard luminance. Results of Experiment 1A, based on the pooled data of all four subjects. Top panels: Mean chromaticities of the matches plotted against the chromaticities of the standard patch. Middle panels: Effect size given as ratio between match and standard purity. A purity ratio of 1 means that there is no effect. Bottom panels: Ratio of match to standard luminance. The vertical lines and the horizontal one in the top panels indicate the coordinate of the gray surround color. The error bars show ±2 SEM and each data point represents the mean of 40 settings. The results are in close agreement with the main findings of Brown and MacLeod (1997): At low standard patch purities, the purity of the match was always clearly larger than that of the standard patch. Under comparable conditions, Brown and MacLeod found purity ratios of about three to four. Their values correspond closely to those found at the lowest purity levels in the present experiment. As Brown and MacLeod, we also found that the luminances in the matches are slightly increased. The main new finding of the present experiment is that the “gamut expansion effect” decreases rapidly with increasing purity of the standard patch. The lowering of the effect is obvious with respect to purity ratios but can also be seen in the raw matching data (top panels of Figure 5). In light of this finding, the term “gamut expansion” seems somewhat inappropriate because the results indicate that the maximal saturation that can be perceived in each surround does not change. Instead there seems to be a distortion of the color space in the vicinity of the surround color. An aspect of our findings that does not show up in the data but is nevertheless of great theoretical interest is that the subjects were often unable to find a complete match. These difficulties—that were especially severe at low purities—stemmed mainly from the fact that standard and comparison patch appeared qualitatively different. Whereas low contrast patches in the uniform surround often appeared transparent, the patches in the variegated surround lacked this phenomenal quality and looked more like opaque patches. Figure 6 demonstrates the main findings of the experiment. With decreasing purity (from left to right) the patches in panel A look increasingly transparent. At very low contrasts, the impression is that of a thin but nevertheless highly saturated transparent layer. The perceptual similarity of corresponding patches in different rows in panel A is remarkable, given their great difference in luminance, which is obvious in panel D. A comparison of panels A and B reveals that the desaturating effect of a chromatically variegated surround relative to a uniform one is especially pronounced at low contrasts. Comparing panels B and C suggests that pure luminance variation in the surround has a similar effect as full color variation (see also Experiment 2B). In panel D, the patches in the top and bottom row are no longer equiluminant to the surround, and the transparency impression is lost. The patches appear now much more desaturated especially on the right end of the rows (see also Experiment 1B and Experiment 2A). The phenomenal difference between the rows in panels A and D suggests an interpretation in terms of scission: In panel A, the “grayness” in each patch is attributed to the surround and there remains a highly saturated chromatic contrast color. In the top and bottom row of panel D, in contrast, a part of the “grayness” of the patches can no longer be attributed to the surround and is instead interpreted as an integral part of the patch color itself. In the top row, for instance, the part of the patch's color not accounted for is a decrement relative to the surround leading to the addition of a “blackness” component. The main result of Experiment 1A was that the “gamut expansion effect” decreases rapidly with increasing purity, that is, with increasing chromatic contrast. A natural question is then whether the effect is also lowered when the luminance contrast of the standard patch to its surround is increased. To investigate this question, two of the subjects (VE, WM) who participated in Experiment 1A repeated the experiment under almost identical conditions. The only difference was that the luminance of the standard patch was now no longer equiluminant to the surround but slightly decremental. The luminance was 8.21 cd/m 2, that is, 10% lower than that of its surround. The results depicted in Figure 7 show that both the chromatic and the luminance effect are considerably reduced for standard patches with slightly decremental luminance. The effects are reduced to approximately one half of the size observed in the condition with equiluminant centre and surround. This result indicates that the gamut expansion effect depends on low contrasts in both the chromatic and the luminance dimensions. Results of Experiment 1B, based on the pooled data of two subjects. Each panel shows the data of Experiment 1B (red) and the corresponding results of the same subjects from Experiment 1A (blue) to allow easy comparisons. The top panels show the ratios of match to standard purity, the bottom panels the ratios of match to standard luminance. The vertical lines denote the coordinate of the gray surround color. In each plot, the error bars show ±2 SEM and each data point represents the mean of 20 settings. The results of Experiments 1A and 1B indicate that a strong “gamut expansion” effect can only be observed if both the chromatic and the luminance contrast between standard and surround are low. It is, however, unclear whether this effect depends mainly on the local contrast at the border of the test patch or if it is of a more global nature. A demonstration by Hurlbert (1996, Figure 2B, p. 1384) suggests a predominantly local influence. In this demonstration, it is shown that the gamut expansion effect can be considerably reduced if the test patch in both the standard and the comparison stimulus is outlined in black. In Experiment 1C, we investigated this question with a focus on the properties of the standard stimulus. To this end, we replicated Experiment 1A with a slightly different standard stimulus, in which a thin black line of 0.13° width was drawn at the border between centre and surround. That is, in contrast to the demonstration in Hurlbert (1996) a black outline was only added to the patch in the uniform standard stimulus, whereas the comparison stimulus was not changed. This manipulation leaves the global color relations in the standard stimulus unaltered but presumably disrupts local interactions between the central patch and the large gray uniform surround. Two of the subjects (FF and VE) from Experiment 1A participated in the experiment. The results depicted in Figure 8 show that the gamut expansion effect disappears almost completely, when a thin black line is drawn around the standard patch. The large reduction of the effect compared with Experiment 1A is especially obvious in the plot of purity ratios in the middle panel of Figure 8. An interesting conclusion that can be drawn from this result is that a purely achromatic surround (the black line plus the adjacent gray surround in the uniform standard stimulus) can have almost the same effect on the perceived saturation of an embedded patch as a chromatically variegated surround. Furthermore, our results indicate that the reduction of the effect observed in the demonstration by Hurlbert (1996) can almost completely be attributed to a change in the appearance of the standard patch. Or, put the other way around, it indicates that the gamut expansion effect is mainly due to rather specific relations at the border between centre and surround in the uniform standard stimulus. Results of Experiment 1C, based on the pooled data of two subjects. Each panel shows the results of Experiment 1C (red) and the corresponding results of the same two subjects from Experiment 1A (blue) to allow easy comparisons. The top panels show the mean chromaticity of the match plotted against the chromaticity of the standard patch, the middle panels show purity ratios, and the bottom panels luminance ratios. All other properties of the plots are identical to those in Figure 5. A possible explanation for the reduction of the effect observed in Experiment 1C is that the effect is mainly of a local nature and that the black ring interrupts local interactions between centre and surround. However, adding the black line does not only separate centre and surround but it also provides a new black context to the central patch. One may therefore argue that it is not the blocking of effects from the larger surround but the direct influence of the narrow “black surround” on the central patch that is of main importance. Since these two influences are confounded, it is indeed not clear to what extent they contribute to the reduction of the gamut expansion effect. However, an observation that speaks against a large direct influence of the black ring is the marginal effect on the luminance. We will come back to these issues in the General discussion section. The basic effect of the surround used in Experiment 1C is demonstrated in Figure 1: The patches in panel A appear less saturated than those in panel C. Note that the chromatic effect in the demonstration is partially masked by a brightness effect, which was eliminated in the experiments through the subjects' brightness settings. Experiment 1C showed that a completely achromatic surround can have almost the same effect on the perceived saturation of an embedded patch as a chromatically variegated one. This leads to the expectation that a gamut expansion effect may also be observed even when the variegated surround is replaced by a uniform one, provided that there is a luminance difference between patch and surround. To test this hypothesis, we replicated Experiment 1A under slightly different conditions: We replaced the variegated surround of the comparison patch used in Experiment 1A with a uniform achromatic surround. The uniform comparison stimulus was either much brighter (“white surround,” 45.6 cd/m 2) or much darker (“black surround,” < 0.1 cd/m 2) than the gray standard surround (9.12 cd/m 2). Here, only the “blue” and “yellow” hue directions were tested and the subjects made 6 settings for each of the 14 conditions (7 purity levels × 2 hues). All other conditions were identical to those realized in Experiment 1A, and the same four subjects performed the experiment. The results shown in Figure 9 confirm the hypothesis that a “gamut expansion effect” can also be observed in asymmetric matching tasks with two achromatic uniform surrounds. With both the “white” and the “black” comparison surround the observed pattern of the gamut expansion effect is similar to that observed with a variegated surround. Somewhat surprisingly, we found in most cases that the effect with uniform achromatic surrounds was even stronger than that observed with a variegated surround (the only exception is the “blue” hue direction in the “white surround” condition). Results of Experiment 2A, based on the pooled data of all four subjects. Each panel shows the results of Experiment 2A (red) and as a reference the corresponding results of the same subjects from Experiment 1A (blue). The plots in the left column show the results for the ‘white surround’, the plots in the right column those of the ‘black surround’. The top panels show the mean chromaticities of the matches plotted against the chromaticities of the standard patches. The middle panels show ratios of match to standard purity, and the bottom panels show ratios of match to standard luminance. The green dashed horizontal lines in the relative luminance plots show the luminance of the comparison surround relative to that of the standard surround. All other properties of the plots are identical to those in Figure 5. These results confirm the conclusion drawn from our Experiment 1B that the perceived saturation of a chromatic patch in an achromatic surround decreases with increasing luminance contrast between centre and surround. It is obvious that these results are hard to reconcile with approaches that try to explain the gamut expansion effect with a renormalization of chromatic contrast that depends either on chromatic variance or the maximum chromatic excursion from white in the surround: There simply is no chromatic variance and all cone opponent channels should be at their (neutral) equilibrium point. The general pattern of the luminance settings is as expected: To compensate for the “brightness induction” (Whittle, 1994a, 1994b) from the “black surround,” the subjects lowered the luminance of the comparison patch relative to the standard patch. Analogously, they increased the luminance of the comparison patch in the “white surround” to compensate for the “blackness induction” from the bright surround. The basic effect of the surrounds used in Experiment 2A is demonstrated in Figure 1: The patches in panels E and F appear less saturated than those in panel C. Note that the chromatic effect in the demonstration is partially masked by a brightness effect, which was eliminated in the experiments through the subjects' brightness settings. Brown and MacLeod (1997) investigated two variants of the comparison surround with full color variation: In the “chromatic condition,” the colors in the surround were isoluminant and varied only in chromaticity, whereas the surround in the “luminance condition” was achromatic and varied only in luminance. They found that the increase in perceived saturation observed with chromatic test patches in the “chromatic” condition was almost identical to that observed with “full color variation.” In the “luminance” condition, however, the effect on the saturation of chromatic test patches was greatly reduced. These findings are consistent with the assumption that the sensitivity of cone-opponent neurons adapts to the range of chromatic variation in the surround and that this causes the gamut expansion effect: The amount of chromatic variation is unaffected in the “chromatic” condition and the gamut expansion effect persists, whereas chromatic variation is absent in the “luminance” condition and so is the gamut expansion effect (with respect to saturation). However, the latter finding seems to be at odds with the results of Experiment 2A, in which we found that the gamut expansion effect persists even if a completely uniform achromatic comparison surround is used, which contains no chromatic variance at all. To investigate this apparent inconsistency, we decided to replicate the “luminance” condition in essentially the same setting that we used in the previous experiments. The only difference to Experiment 1A was that an achromatic comparison stimulus with pure luminance variation was used. In this special case, the color ellipsoid in LMS space, which describes the variance of the surround colors, degenerates to a line segment through the (achromatic) mean color m. This line segment is oriented in the direction of the vector from zero to m. Using the methods in Golz and MacLeod (2003), the coordinates xyYm = (0.309, 0.315, 9.12) of m translate to LMS coordinates LMSm = (6.91511, 3.08489, 11.6165), with ∥LMSm∥ = 13.87. The standard deviations 5 and 2.5 were used to realize a high and a low variance condition. In this experiment, we only used hues on the red/green direction. Each subject made 6 settings per purity step. Three of the subjects from Experiment 1A (FF, VE, WM) participated in the experiment. The results shown in Figure 10 indicate that the gamut expansion effect in both the high and low variance condition is virtually identical to the effect observed in Experiment 1A, in which a comparison surround with full color variation was used. This observation again suggests that chromatic variation in the surround is not necessary for the occurrence of the gamut expansion effect. This conclusion is in line with our findings in Experiments 1C and 2A but it is inconsistent with the results of the second experiment of Brown and MacLeod (1997). Results of Experiment 2B, based on the pooled data of all three subjects. Each panel shows the data of Experiment 2B (red) and as a reference the corresponding results of the same subjects from Experiment 1A (blue). The plots in the left column show the results for the ‘high variance’ condition, the plots in the right column those of the ‘low variance’ condition. The top panels show the mean chromaticities of the matches plotted against the chromaticities of the standard patches. The middle panels show ratios of match to standard purity, and the bottom panels show ratios of match to standard luminance. All other properties of the plots are identical to those in Figure 5. Brown and MacLeod (1997) regard the “dissociation” between luminance and chromatic effects in their second experiment as an important finding. For instance, they conclude that this finding “weights heavily against models of color appearance based on contrasts within cone channels” (p. 847) and that “the gamut expansion effect apparently occurs at or beyond the level of an opponent transformation” (p. 847). Given the great theoretical relevance of the finding, we explored possible reasons for the inconsistent results. To check whether the deviations between their and our results were possibly due to additional figural cues or differences in the absolute luminance level, we reproduced the stimuli of Brown and MacLeod's second experiment as exactly as possible. Unfortunately, the authors did not specify the amount of luminance variation used. We therefore tested a range of variances. Our informal results showed unequivocally that also with the type of stimuli used by Brown and MacLeod, pure luminance variation in the surround can lead to a noticeable desaturation of chromatic test patches. Our informal results indicate that a large fraction of the maximally possible desaturation effect is already reached at low absolute values of luminance variation. The latter observation also may explain why we found approximately the same effects under the low and high variance conditions realized in our Experiment 2B. Given these additional observations, one possible reason for the different results of Brown and MacLeod (1997) is that they used a very low luminance variation. Another possible factor that may in part be responsible for the different results is that our stimuli contained only one matching target, whereas their stimuli contained six matching targets of different color. Somewhat surprisingly, informal observations suggest that this can indeed make a difference. It is however clear that their general conclusion that pure luminance variation does not influence perceived saturation of chromatic patches is not warranted. This is evident from the pattern of results we obtained in our experiments and the additional informal observations just mentioned (compare also panels B and C in Figure 1). It therefore seems necessary to re-evaluate the theoretical conclusions based on their original finding. Current theoretical explanations of the gamut expansion effect focus on the chromatic variance in the surround as the relevant variable. As already mentioned in the introduction, a popular variant of these approaches is based on the idea that the sensitivity to chromatic contrast depends on the amount of chromatic variance in the scene. The experiments reported so far have shed serious doubt on the validity of this hypothesis. They suggest that the gamut expansion effect can be greatly reduced without changing the variance in the surrounds ( Experiments 1A– 1C) and that the same or an analogous effect can be produced by other means than chromatic variance in the comparison surround ( Experiment 2A). It is still not clear, however, what was the critical aspect of the variegated surround leading to the gamut expansion effect in Brown and MacLeod's (1997) original experiment. In two additional experiments, we therefore investigated to what extent the gamut expansion effect is affected by variations in the amount and distribution of chromatic variance in the comparison surround. The general procedure in Experiment 2C was similar to that used in Experiments 1A– 2B but differed in several details. The subjects viewed two centre-surround configurations with a horizontal centre-to-centre distance of 9.5°. The central patches had a radius of 0.516°, and the square surrounds had a width of 7.64°. The standard surround was uniform with the chromaticity of CIE Illuminant C (MacLeod–Boynton coordinates r = 0.692, b = 1.149) and a luminance L + M = 10 (corresponding to a value of Y = 9.12 cd/m 2 in the CIE 1931 system). The comparison surround was one of the six shown in Figure 11. All these surrounds had the same spatial mean as the uniform standard surround but differed in the amount and distribution of chromatic variance. In the surrounds I and D, the amount of chromatic variance varied radially from the centre to the periphery. The top left panel in Figure 11 shows how the relative amount of variance increases towards the periphery in stimulus I, and the right top panel shows the decrease of the relative variance in stimulus D. For both stimuli I and D, two additional surrounds (IL, IG and DL, DG, respectively) were generated which had a variance that was either locally (i.e. at the border with the central patch) or globally (i.e. on average) identical to that of I and D. Comparison surrounds used in Experiment 2B. Left column: Surround with increasing variance distribution I and two comparison surrounds which are locally (IL) or globally (IG) identical. Right column: A surround with decreasing variance distribution D and the locally (DL) and globally (DG) identical surrounds. The plots in the top panels show the distribution of surround variance in the surrounds I and D in 11 concentric rings of equal width. that is, c i = s i Cov, s i ∈ [0,1]. The covariance matrix Cov describes an ellipsoidal distribution in LMS color space close to that maximally realizable within the monitor gamut for the given mean. The scaling factors s i used in surrounds I and D are shown graphically in the top panels of Figure 11. For the surround IL, the scaling factors s i were all zero, and for the surround DL they were all one. The surrounds IG and DG had constant scaling factors 0.4602 and 0.1707. These factors were chosen such that the total variance in the surround IG and DG was identical to that of I and D, respectively. We used essentially the same procedure as in the previous experiments to measure the strength of the effect for each of the six surrounds: The standard patch presented in the uniform standard surround had one of the 8 patch chromaticities shown in Table 1. The subjects adjusted the purity and the luminance of a second patch embedded in one of the six comparison surrounds. The adjustments were made along one of eight hue directions defined by the lines from the white point through the standard patch chromaticities given in Table 1. Note that in the case of surround IL, test and comparison surrounds are identical. Each measurement was repeated 8 times resulting in 384 trials for each subject (6 surrounds × 8 patch chromaticities × 8 repetitions), presented in random order. The assignment of the uniform and variegated stimulus to the left or right hand side of the monitor was balanced. Between each trial a blank screen was shown for 3 s. MacLeod–Boynton coordinates of the standard patches used in Experiment 2C. Five subjects participated in the experiment, including one of the authors (GW). Two of the subjects were naive with respect to the purpose of the experiment and had no experience as psychophysical observers. All subjects had normal color vision according to the Ishihara Tests for Colour-Blindness. The mean results for all five subjects are plotted in Figure 12. The top panels show the purity ratios and the luminance ratios for the reference surround I and the middle panels show the same information for the reference surround D. The bottom panels compare the deviation from the predictions of two different “extreme” hypotheses: One possibility would be that the effect depends only on the parts of the surround immediately adjacent to the target patch (local hypothesis). Another possibility is that the effect is determined by the mean variance of the entire surround (global hypothesis). Results of Experiment 2C. The top row shows the purity ratios (left) and luminance ratios (right) between match and standard for the three surrounds I, IL, and IG in the ‘increasing’ condition. The middle row shows the same data for the three surrounds D, DL, and DG in the ‘decreasing’ condition. Error bars show ±1 SD. The bottom panels show the deviations from the predictions of the global and local hypothesis, in terms of purity ratios (left) and luminance ratios (right). Hue directions correspond to the target chromaticities given in Table 1. In the case of the reference surround I, both the purity and the luminance ratios indicate that it is mainly the variance along the border to the central patch that matters and not the global variance: The effects obtained with I and IL are almost identical, whereas those obtained with IG are clearly different. The results obtained with reference surround D point in the same direction but are less clear-cut. The main reason for this is that the expansion effects found for the three surrounds used in the decreasing condition are very similar. The plots in the bottom row of Figure 12, where the data are pooled over all hue directions, summarize our findings: In the left plot, the absolute differences in purity ratio between the reference surrounds I and D and surrounds with globally identical variance (IG, DG) or locally identical variance (IL, DL) are shown. In the right plot the same information is shown with respect to the luminance ratios. The data of this experiment also yield information about how the strength of the expansion effect depends on the amount of variance in the surround. In Figure 13, the purity ratios obtained with the surrounds IL, IG, DL, and DG, which all have a spatially uniform variance distribution, are compared. The values on the abscissa are the surround variances relative to the maximum variance, which was realized in surround DL. Interestingly, the surround DG, having only 17% of the maximum color variance, already leads to an effect which amounts to 68% of the effect observed in surround DL (100% effect). Mean purity ratios plotted against the total amount of variance in the surround. The four data points correspond to the mean values obtained for the four surrounds IL, DG, IG, and DL (see Figure 12). In order to understand the different effect of locally uniform and locally variegated surrounds observed in the experiment it may be instructive to consider each surround condition in turn: The purity ratios close to 1 found with surround IL are trivial since IL was identical to the uniform standard surround. Interestingly though, the same results were obtained with surround I, which is only locally identical to the standard surround. The high variance in distant parts of the surround apparently had no significant influence. The surround IG, in contrast, which was locally (as well as globally) variegated, had a distinctly different effect than the uniform standard surround. Thus, although surrounds I and IG have the same total variance, they have clearly different effects. The three surrounds in the “decreasing” condition, which are all variegated in the vicinity of the central patch, led to very similar effects. Neither the spatial distribution of the chromatic variance nor the amount of variance in the vicinity of the target patch seems to be of great importance, provided that the total variance is not close to zero (cf. Figure 13). Taken together, the results of this experiment suggest that local chromatic variance is much more important than the global variance. Furthermore, the strength of the effect is a highly nonlinear function of the amount of surround variance: It rises steeply at the transition from a uniform to variegated surround and levels out swiftly after that. The results of Experiment 2C have shown that the gamut expansion effect mainly depends on the chromatic variance in the vicinity of the central patch. Brown and MacLeod's (1997) finding that a thin gray line around the target patch reduced but did not eliminate the effect indicates “that the effects of color variance in the surround cannot be entirely local” (Brown & MacLeod, 1997, p. 846). In Experiment 2D, we therefore investigated how large the retinal extent of the “local” area of influence is. We used two types of surround. The first set of surrounds was obtained by stepwise transforming a variegated surround into a uniform one by replacing its inner part with uniform annuli of increasing width (see Figure 14, top row). The second set of surrounds was obtained by an analogous transformation, in this case from a uniform surround to a variegated one (see Figure 14, bottom row). The variegated and the uniform parts of the surround had the same spatial mean and variance as the surrounds DL and IL in Experiment 2B, respectively. For both types of surround, the same 10 annulus widths were used: 0, 0.019, 0.095, 0.287, 0.477, 0.668, 1.012, 1.394, 2.349, and 3.304 degrees of visual angle (where a width of 0 means no annulus). The central patch had a radius of 0.516 degree. Illustration of the comparison surrounds used in Experiment 2D. Top row: Four of the 10 surrounds with uniform inner annulus (leftmost annulus width is zero). Bottom row: Surrounds with variegated inner annuli. The general experimental setting and the procedure were the same as in Experiment 2C: The task of the subjects was to match the color of a standard patch in a uniform surround by adjusting the purity and the luminance of a patch embedded in one of the above mentioned comparison surrounds. Standard and comparison surround had the same mean color (Illuminant C at 9.12 cd/m 2). We used 4 different chromaticities for the standard patch, corresponding to hue directions 1, 3, 5, and 7 of Experiment 2C. For each combination of the 20 different comparison surrounds and the 4 standard chromaticities, 8 repetitions were made, resulting in a total of 640 trials for each subject. The stimuli were presented in random order. Three subjects (including author GW) who had also participated in Experiment 2C performed the experiment. Figure 15 shows typical results from this experiment (subject GW). In each panel, ratios between match and standard purity are plotted against the width of the inner annulus. The left column shows the results for variegated inner annuli, which means that at an annulus width of zero the entire surround was uniform. Since in this case the comparison surround is identical to the standard surround, a purity ratio of one must result. With increasing width of the variegated annulus the purity ratios increase rapidly and soon flatten out at a constant value. The right column shows the results for uniform inner annuli, which means that at an annulus width of zero the entire surround was variegated. In this case, large purity ratios are obtained that rapidly decrease to the limiting value 1, which is of course expected for a completely uniform surround identical to the standard surround. In both cases the data change exponentially: For variegated and uniform inner annuli the functions f( x) = S[1 − exp(− αx 1/2)] + 1 and g( x) = T exp(− βx 1/2) + 1, respectively, describe the data quite well (see curves in Figure 15). Intuitively, the parameters S and T are the heights of the gray regions in the left and right column of Figure 15 and thus describe the maximum observed deviation of the purity ratios from unity. The parameters α and β determine the steepness of the curves: Large values for these parameters mean that the curves reach their asymptotic values rapidly. Results of Experiment 2D for subject GW. In each panel, purity ratios are plotted against inner annulus width. In the left column, the data for variegated inner annuli are shown, in the right column those for uniform inner annuli. The error bars show ±2 SEM. The gray regions show the gamut expansion effect (according to the fitting procedure described in the text). Such fits were made for each of the four hue conditions and each of the three subjects separately. In all cases, the quality of the fits was quite good and comparable to the ones shown in Figure 15. Thus, to save space, we only report the parameters of the fit for the other subjects in Table 2. Since we are mainly interested in the retinal range of the surround influence, we also computed the annulus widths δ v and δ u (in degrees of visual angle) at which the initial (at annulus width 0) distance from the asymptotic values shrinks to 25%. These values are simply related to the parameters α and β, respectively: δ v = (−1/ α ln 0.25) 2 and δ u = (−1/ β ln 0.25) 2. Although the “height” parameters T and S vary considerably with subject and hue condition, the curves are clearly steeper for variegated inner annuli throughout, i.e., α is always larger than β. Accordingly, the estimated annulus widths δ v and δ u are clearly different, as can be seen in Figure 16. Parameters of the fits for each subject and hue condition. Parameters δ v and δ u correspond to the estimated annulus width (in degrees visual angle) at which the initial distance from the asymptotic values shrinks to 25%. Mean estimated values of δ v and δ u for variegated and uniform inner annuli, respectively. Error bars show ±1 SEM. For each hue condition and subject, the height parameters T and S give an individual estimate of the difference between the purity ratio PR obtained with a fully variegated surround (PR = T + 1 or PR = S + 1, respectively) and the value (PR = 1) obtained with a completely uniform surround. Provided that all individual curves describe the same dependence on the width of the inner annulus in spite of the different individual estimates of T or S, dividing each data curve by these values should lead to curves of essentially the same shape. Figure 17 shows the means of the such normalized data, pooled over all subjects and hue conditions, for variegated inner annuli (increasing blue curve) and uniform inner annuli (decreasing red curve). The narrow error bars indicate that the dependence on annulus width is indeed similar across subjects and hue conditions. In this plot, it is obvious that the curve describing the transition from a uniform to a variegated surround is clearly steeper than the converse transition from a variegated to a uniform surround. Relative strength of the gamut expansion effect plotted against inner annulus width for variegated (blue) and uniform (red) inner annuli. The vertical lines show where, based on the fit, 75% of the asymptotic effect change is reached. The error bars show ±2 SEM. With respect to the ratios of match and standard luminance, the results were less clear-cut. Generally, the luminance ratios were quite small (always less than 1.3 for all subjects, and even less than 1.1 for subject GW) and rather noisy. The general pattern of results was similar, but the relatively low signal-to-noise ratio of the data does not allow precise comparisons between different experimental conditions. The results of the present experiment show that the region of the surround that influences the color of the central patch is rather limited. A narrow annulus with a width of less than 1.5° gives rise to an effect of more than 75% of the maximal effect obtained with a large extended surround. Our results are in good agreement with Brown and MacLeod's (1997) finding that a thin gray border (8 min visual angle) around the central patch led only to a moderate reduction of the gamut expansion effect. From their Figure 2, we may estimate that the effect in the condition with gray border was reduced to about 60% of the value found without border. From our data, almost the same reduction (62%) was estimated for a uniform annulus of the same width as the border used by Brown and MacLeod. This finding confirms the conclusion of Brown and MacLeod (1997) that the effect of chromatic variance in the surround cannot be entirely local. The data of our experiments show that the opposite alternative—an entirely global effect—can also be ruled out. Instead, the influence of the surround diminishes very rapidly with increasing retinal distance from the central patch. An interesting aspect of the present data is the finding that the two transition curves in Figure 17 are not equally steep, as one would perhaps intuitively expect: In the case of a uniform surround, adding a narrow variegated annulus of a few pixels width changes the color impression dramatically, whereas a uniform annulus that is added to a variegated surround has to be much wider in order to elicit the same amount of perceptual change. The strength of the gamut expansion effect depends strongly on the relation between the central patch and the surround in the uniform standard stimulus: The effect is maximal when the central patch and the surround are equiluminant and have a very small chromatic contrast. It diminishes rapidly if either the chromatic contrast ( Experiment 1A) or the luminance contrast ( Experiment 1B) are increased. The gamut expansion effect disappears almost completely when centre and surround in the standard stimulus are separated by a thin black line ( Experiment 1C). The gamut expansion effect persists when the chromatically variegated comparison surround is replaced by a uniform achromatic one with high luminance contrast ( Experiment 2A) or by an variegated achromatic surround with mere luminance variation ( Experiment 2B). The amount and the distribution of the variance in the comparison surround has only a very small influence on the strength of the gamut expansion effect as long as the variation is not completely absent ( Experiment 2C). The influence of the comparison surround is predominantly local: A thin variegated annulus around the central patch in the comparison surround has almost the same effect as an extended variegated surround. Analogously, a thin uniform annulus has almost the same effect as an extended uniform surround ( Experiment 2D). It was noted that producing a perfect asymmetric match was sometimes impossible. In particular, targets of low purity presented in a uniform gray surround were difficult to match by any patch presented in a variegated surround. The above pattern of results speaks against the contrast adaptation hypothesis, at least against the version of it outlined in the introduction. The central assumption of this hypothesis is that the sensitivity of cone-opponent neurons adapts to the chromatic variance or chromatic range in the scene and that the gamut expansion effect observed by Brown and MacLeod (1997) is due to the different chromatic variance or chromatic range in the standard and comparison surround. The most direct contradiction to this hypothesis is our result that the gamut expansion effect persists in asymmetric matching tasks in which neither of the stimuli contains chromatic variation in the surround (Experiments 2A and 2B). The further findings that the influence of the comparison surround is mainly local (Experiment 2C) and that the strength of the effect and the amount of variance in the comparison surround are only weakly correlated (Experiment 2D) provide additional evidences against this explanation. The predominantly local character of the surround influence found in Experiment 2D and the results of Experiments 1A and 1B, which indicate that the gamut expansion effect occurs only under very specific contrast conditions, also stand in stark contrast to the picture of contrast scaling outlined in Brenner et al. (2003): These authors interpret their findings in terms of a rather general contrast scaling mechanism that precedes a possible shift of the neutral point and that depends on a global measure of chromatic variability in the scene. Given these qualitative differences, it seems highly improbable that the mechanism underlying the gamut expansion effect is identical to the scaling mechanism postulated by Brenner et al. (2003). An observation that the contrast adaptation hypothesis fails to account for is that perfect asymmetric matches are sometimes impossible to make. Any approach that models the influence of the surround as a transformation of three dimensional color codes predicts that such matches should always be possible (except for gamut problems, which can safely be excluded as a possible explanation in the present case). From the adaptational perspective, the observed difference in the effects of uniform and variegated surrounds is inherently symmetric. It is therefore not possible to attribute a special status to any of the surrounds. The scission hypothesis, on the other hand, attaches special significance to the uniform surround because this is the surround in which color scission—and hence the perceptual color effect—takes place. In line with this expectation, the results of Experiments 1A, 1B, and 1C indicate that the critical condition for the gamut expansion effect lies in the uniform standard stimulus. They suggest that the perceived saturation of a uniform patch is enhanced if it is enclosed by a uniform gray surround with very low color contrast along the common edge. The most direct evidence that this indeed describes the relevant condition is the result of Experiment 1C, which shows that the gamut expansion effect can be switched off and on by adding and removing, respectively, a thin black outline at the border of the central patch in the uniform standard stimulus. Thus, on a descriptive level, our results support the speculation of Brown and MacLeod (1997) that the gamut expansion effect may be closely related or even identical to the “crispening effect” (Ovenston, 1998; Takasaki, 1966, 1967; Whittle, 1992) “in which low-contrast edge signals contribute disproportionately to perceived contrast” (Brown & MacLeod, 1997, p. 848). The scission hypothesis may thus be regarded as a functional explanation of both the “crispening” and the “gamut expansion” effect. Viewed from the perspective of the scission hypothesis, the variegated surround represents the standard situation in which no scission occurs. As a consequence, it predicts that properties of the variegated surround can be manipulated freely without producing any change in the gamut expansion effect as long as scission is prevented. This is exactly what our results suggest. In order to test the idea of contrast adaptation it is necessary to make it specific enough to be able to derive predictions of experimental results. The specific contrast adaptation model we have dealt with seems to be a natural interpretation of the general idea underlying the explanation suggested in the literature. It is, however, by no means the only possible incarnation of the general idea of contrast adaptation. We shall briefly consider how the contrast adaptation hypothesis may be modified in order to account for our findings. Our finding that pure luminance variation in the surround has basically the same influence on perceived saturation as full color variation ( Experiment 2B) argues against an explanation in terms of contrast adaptation within cone-opponent pathways. Based on this result, a possible modification of the model would be to assume that adaptation to the variance in the surround works across color and brightness channels, so that pure luminance variation may influence perceived saturation. However, the results of our Experiment 2B suggest that the effect on perceived saturation may occur even in the absence of any surround variance whatsoever. It would seem that the only way to apply the “idea of contrast adaptation” to this situation is to assume that the visual system adapts to the contrast between the target and the uniform (black or white) surround. While this indeed remains a viable theoretical option, this version of the contrast adaptation hypothesis has lost much of its original appeal. Comparing the results of Experiment 1C, where a black ring was drawn around the standard patch, and those of Experiment 2C, where a uniform black comparison surround was used, raises an interesting question. On the one hand, it can be concluded that both the thin black ring and the extended black surround are equally successful in preventing the saturation enhancement observed with the original gray surround. On the other hand, they have markedly different effects on the brightness of the target patches (see Figures 8 and 9). A possible explanation for this asymmetry may be that there are two origins of the total effect: One of the effects is classical brightness induction, which is known to depend on the area and distance of the inducing field. In line with models of the spatial extent of the surround influence (De Bonet & Zaidi, 1997), the brightness induction effect of the narrow ring is much weaker than that of the extend surround. The other effect, which affects the perceived saturation to the same extent in both situations, may be explained by referring to the scission hypothesis: Introducing a black ring or replacing the isoluminant gray background entirely with a black one are equally good ways of preventing scission. This explanation is in line with the suggestion of Kingdom (2003) that induction phenomena are best understood within a multi-level framework. In Experiment 2D, it was found that even a very thin variegated annulus can have almost the same effect as an extended variegated surround. An annulus of 0.3 deg width already produced 75% of the asymptotic effect. A uniform annulus on the other hand must be considerably thicker (about 4 times as large) in order to produce 75% of the effect of an extended uniform surround. This asymmetry is to be expected from the scission hypothesis. The assumption is that scission is only evoked by uniform surrounds with low contrast to the central patch, where a large component common to the central patch and the surround can be isolated. Obviously, the extraction of a common component is no longer possible as soon as a variegated annulus is placed adjacent to the central patch, however narrow it may be. In the converse case, where a thin uniform annulus is added to a variegated surround, it is more likely that the visual system interprets this thin annulus as a “border” than as a uniform background on which the central patch is overlaid. Thus, one may expect that a minimal width of the uniform surround is necessary before the ring is treated as a background and a scission takes place. The contrast adaptation hypothesis as formulated in the introduction cannot explain the full range of effects observed in our experiments. The scission hypothesis on the other hand seems to account well for the majority of our findings. There is, however, also an observation that is not easily accounted for by the scission hypothesis as described in the Introduction section. A central assumption of this hypothesis is that scission does not occur in variegated surrounds because in this case a figural precondition for transparency is violated. Thus, this form of the scission hypothesis cannot explain differences in the effectiveness of different variegated surrounds. Although comparatively small, such differences were observed in Experiment 2C (see Figure 13). A possible explanation of this observation is that there is indeed a small influence of contrast adaptation that contributes to the total effect. Alternatively, one may assume two different kinds of scission, namely a “local” and a “global” form. In local scission, only the region corresponding to the target patch looks transparent. This would, for instance be the case, when the central target is a transparent overlay through which the background is seen. In global scission, there is a common transparent overlay covering both target and surround. This would for instance be the case if the entire configuration is seen through fog. There is no reason to expect that the latter, global transparency, should depend on the figural relations between target and surround. Hence, a variegated surround may only prevent local but not global scission. In fact, contrast adaptation may well turn out to be part of the mechanisms responsible for global scission. The distinction between “local” and “global” scission also suggests itself, if one looks at different examples. In panel A of Figure 6, for instance, only the low contrast patches appear as transparent layers, suggesting a local form of scission. Surrounds I and D in Figure 11, on the other hand, may be regarded as examples of “global” scission: Here, the variegated surrounds appear to be covered by “fog” of varying density. See Zavagno (2005) for a presumably related phenomenon. The results of the present experiment as well as those of Ekroll et al. (2004) suggest that uniform surrounds have a special status. According to the scission hypothesis this is because a uniform surround is figurally compatible with the interpretation of a colored transparent layer in the region of the target patch. If this interpretation is correct, then the uniformity of the surround in itself is not the critical variable but instead the compatibility of the texture in centre and surround. Thus, theoretically it should be possible to invert the gamut expansion effect, in the sense that a variegated patch should look more saturated when embedded in a figurally compatible variegated surround than when embedded in a corresponding uniform surround. Preliminary data of a corresponding experiment seem to confirm this expectation. Our results show that the strong gamut expansion effect observed by Brown and MacLeod (1997) occurs only under rather specific stimulus conditions. The pronounced difference in perceived saturation of the central patches occurs only if the centre-surround contrast in the uniform surround is very low. The limited role played by the properties of the variegated surround suggests that chromatic variance has no special status but is just one condition that prevents color scission. We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on a previous version of this text. This research was supported by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to Franz Faul (FA425/1-3). Address: Olshausenstr. 62, 24118 Kiel, Germany. Floyd, R. Steinberg, L. (1976). An adaptive algorithm for spatial greyscale. Proceedings of the SID, 17, 75–77. (1911). Handbuch der physiologischen Optik. Hamburg und Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Vos. Kingdom, F. A. Harris, L. Jenkin, M. (2003). Levels of brightness perception. Levels of perception. (pp. 23–46). Berlin: Springer. Ovenston, C. A. (1998). The scaling and discrimination of contrast colours. Webster, M. Mausfeld, R. Heyer, D. (2003). Light adaptation, contrast adaptation, and human colour vision. Colour perception: Mind and the physical world. (pp. 67–110). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whittle, P. Gilchrist, A. L. (1994a). Contrast brightness and ordinary seeing. Lightness, brightness and transparency. (pp. 111–158). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Whittle, P. Gilchrist, A. L. (1994b). The psychophysics of contrast brightness. Lightness, brightness and transparency. (pp. 35–110). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Whittle, P. Mausfeld, R. Heyer, D. (2003). Contrast colours. Colour perception: Mind and the physical world. (pp. 115–138). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2019-04-25T15:42:12Z

https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2122503

Saturday 17th September, the final 1st and 2nd XI games of the season were against Astley & Tyldesley with the 1st team away and the 2nd team at home. Unfortunately both games were rained off without a ball being bowled, bringing to a close the 2011 season. The matches were sponsored by Town & Country Group. Saturday 10th September, Standish 1st XI hosted Daisy Hill 1st XI at the Green Lane ground. Daisy Hill won the toss and put Standish into bat, wickets fell as early as the 2nd ball of the innings and continued to fall with regularity as Standish were finally dismissed for just 84 in the 46th over, only Sam Heeley with 25 troubling the scorers, A Ali recorded bowling figures of 12 overs 4 for 15. In reply Daisy Hill passed the target in the 12th over without loss. The match was sponsored by Elite Hair Beauty and the next and last match of the season is on Saturday 17th September. Standish 2nd XI travelled across Wigan to take on Daisy Hill 2nd XI. Standish won the toss and batted first but it was a similar tale to the first XI with wickets falling early and with regularity. Only Gary Hadfield and Rob Hart troubled the scorers with 17 and 13 respectively, as Standish were bowled out for just 71 in the 36th over, A Irish recording bowling figures of 12 overs 5 for 23. It reply Daisy Hill made hard work of the run chase losing 7 wickets on the way but eventually passing the target in just the 19th over. Wickets were shared evenly between Jack Ashurst, Elliot Chapman, and Steve Critchley and Mike White taking 1. The match was sponsored by Elite Hair Beauty and the next and last match of the season is on Saturday 17th September. Saturday 3rd September, Standish 1st XI welcomed local Wigan side Springview 1st XI at the Green Lane ground. Standish won the toss and started batting but 10 overs into their 48 the rain came and washed the fixture out, leaving both teams with a share of the points. Standish 2nd XI travelled to Springview with a team mix of youth and experience. Standish won the toss and batted first posting a target of 100 all out in the 31st over, Jack Heaton hit his first 50* in senior cricket, and Springview’s C Atherton took 6 wickets for 24 runs. In reply Springview eased to victory in the 25th over for the loss of just 4 wickets. Sunday 4th September, Standish 1st XI travelled to Edgworth CC on the Bolton Blackburn border. Edgworth won the toss and batted first scoring 232 in their 48 overs, Liam Watkinson (pro) and son of the ex Lancashire Cricket Captain hit 110. Sam Heeley took 7 wickets in 23 overs. In reply Standish started well reaching 53 without loss in the 13th over and right on course to make the game interesting. However, a typical Standish batting collapse was to ensue seeing 9 wickets fall for just 9 runs. Edgworth 2nd XI were the visitors to the Green Lane ground and after winning the toss put Standish into bat. Standish were bowled out for 113 in the 43rd over, R Cobley top scored with 31, whilst J Axford took 5 wickets for 18 runs. In reply Edgworth passed the target in the 35th over for the loss of just 3 wickets, opener D Thornton scoring 51*. Saturday 27th August, Standish 1st XI made the short journey to Blackrod. After overnight heavy rain there were doubts about the match taking place. Blackrod were keen to play the match as they were league leaders and worked hard to make the pitch playable. The match started at 15.00 and each side was reduced to just 30 overs. Blackrod won the toss and put Standish into bat. Standish offered little resistance to the Blackrod bowling attack and were dismissed for just 84 in the 27th over. W Ahmad recorded figures of 10 overs 3 for 26. In reply Blackrod raced to victory in just the 12th over for the loss of just 2 wickets, J Southworth hit 52 of the 85 runs needed. The match was sponsored by Christine Raynor Academy of Dance, the next match is on Saturday 3rd September against Springview CC. The Standish 2nd XI game was rained off. Saturday 20th August, Standish CC played Walshaw CC at the Green Lane ground. Standish CC won the toss and batted first. Standish scored slowly and had only 46 on the board for the loss of two wickets at the half way stage of their innings. Dark clouds began to gather and finally the rain fell with Standish on 112 for 4 in the 40th over, Sam Heeley on 36*. An early tea was taken as the rain continued to fall and the Standish innings came to a close without another run being added. The Walshaw target was originally adjusted to 93 from 30 overs. Rain again interrupted play in the Walshaw innings and what ensued could only be described as farcical. The original target of 93 from 30 overs was reduced to 67 from 26 overs after a 15 minute rain delay. Walshaw passed the target for the loss of 3 wickets in the 12th over. It was then decided that the target had been worked out wrongly and the target was 93 again. All this became irrelevant as the rain didn’t give way and the umpires finally called an end to proceedings at 19.15 with both teams taking a share of the spoils. The match was sponsored by Lucy Willow UK and the next match is Standish CC v Blackrod CC on Saturday 27th August. Standish CC 2nd XI made the arduous journey to Walshaw with a weakened side. Standish batted first and were dismissed for just 86 in the 32nd over with Mike Hadfield 23 and Gary Hadfield 26. Rain again interrupted play before Walshaw were set a target of 67 to win, which they passed for the loss of just 2 wickets in the 17th over. The match was sponsored by Lucy Willow UK and the next match is Standish CC v Blackrod CC on Saturday 27th August. Match Sponsored By Standish Print Co. Saturday 13th August Standish CC 1st XI travelled across Wigan to take on Atherton CC. Atherton won the toss and put Standish into bat on what looked like a good wicket considering the overnight rain. Standish got off to an awful start losing both openers within 7 overs and with only 9 runs on the board. Sam Heeley came to the middle with Irfan Boola and started to steady the ship before Sam was given out lbw with the score on 45, Irfan went on to score a superb 63 and was the only batsman to trouble the Atherton bowling attack and the scorers. Standish were eventually dismissed for 124 in the 46th over. Atherton, in reply raced to 60 before losing their first wicket, a mini collapse then ensued giving Standish hope. Sadly it was too little to late as Atherton went on to 127 for 5 in the 35th over, Chris Gunn recording very respectable figures of 7 overs 3 for 28 and Irfan Boola 10 overs 2 for 22. The match was sponsored by Standish Print Co. the next match is Standish v Walshaw Saturday 20th August. Atherton CC 2nd XI were the visitors to Standish CC’s Green Lane ground. Atherton won the toss and put Standish into bat which, looked like the right decision as the dismissed opener Daniel Walsh for 0 in the first over. Only Rob Cobley 31 and Steve Critchley 48* offered any resistance to the Atherton bowling attack with S Dixon recording figures of 7 overs 3 for 11 as Standish were dismissed for just 109 in the 32nd over. In reply Atherton cruised to victory in 30th over for the loss of just 4 wickets. The match was sponsored by Standish Print Co. the next match is Standish v Walshaw Saturday 20th August. Saturday 6th August, Standish CC 1st XI took on Golborne CC 1st XI at the Green Lane ground in what promised to be a cracking between two sides struggling to find any form or rhythm to the season. Standish won the toss and put Golborne in to bat on what threatened to be a rain affected match. Standish made a good start ripping through the top order and reducing the visitors to 50 for 5 in the 13th over. Golborne went on to make 140 all out in the 33rd over with A Thomason top scoring with 30*,T Hassan recorded figures of 16 overs 4 for 64 and R Cobley 5.3 overs 3 for 15. In reply Standish got off to a poor start losing R Smith for 0 in the 2nd over and S Heeley for just 2 in the 4th over. J Cooper steadied the show and scored a superb 65 assisted by H Namajee 26 at the other end. By the time Cooper was out Standish needed 14 runs with 5 wickets in hand and some 11 overs to get them. A typical Standish batting collapse then ensued seeing the last wickets fall for just 12 runs and Golborne take all 13 points away. The match was sponsored by Town & Village Group, the next match is Standish CC v Atherton CC. Standish CC 2nd XI travelled to Golborne and won the toss electing to bat first. Only R Hart 19 and N Smith 18 troubled the scorers as Standish scored 110 all out in the 42nd over, L Clarke with figures of 7.2 overs 5 for 10. In reply Standish had the home team 16 for 6 in the 9th over and, should have made it 20 for 7 shortly after but missed the opportunity which as it turned out cost them the game. A Farrimond went on to score and unbeaten 76* to see Golborne pass the target and home in the 25th over. C Gunn recorded figures of 7 overs 4 for 12. The match was sponsored by Town and Village Group, the next match is Standish CC v Atherton CC. Sunday 31st July, Standish CC 1st XI made the journey to Elton CC in Bury. Standish won the toss and batted first, scoring just 107 all out in the 48th over, only J Cooper 27, U Khushnood 23 and S Heeley 21 really troubling the scorers, sadly 6 batsmen were dismissed without scoring!! In reply Elton passed the target in the 20th over for the loss of just 2 wickets. The match was sponsored by Prospect Garage, Standish, the next game is Saturday 6th August against Golborne. In contrast a strong Standish 2nd XI won the toss at the Green Lane ground and, batted first posting a respectable 220 for 6 from their 48 overs, with P Walder 99 and J Fielding 41 putting the Elton bowling attack to the sword. Elton started well reaching 63 before losing their opener and 101 before the 2nd wicket went down. After that it was all one way as wickets fell without really troubling the scorers. Elton were dismissed for just 127, giving Standish a 93 run victory and all 13 points. P Walder and S Critchley both taking 5 wickets in the process. The match was sponsored by Prospect Garage, Standish and the next match is against Golborne. Saturday 30th July, Standish CC 1st XI travelled to Flixton CC in Manchester on a beautiful summers days. Flixton won the toss and batted first posting 263 for 3 from their 48 overs. It was certainly a batting wicket as opener N Moores batted through scoring an unbeaten 114*, pro B Parchment posted a very useful 88 before falling victim to an lbw decision on a ball bowled by S Heeley who took all 3 wickets for Standish in the match. In reply Standish were bowled out for just 94 in the 31st over, with R Smith and T Hassan both top scoring with 18. The next match is on Sunday 31st July against Elton. The match was sponsored by Prospect Garage, Standish. Standish CC 2nd XI welcomed Flixton CC 2nd XI to a sun soaked Green Lane ground. Standish won the toss and batted first posting a healthy 179 all out in 43 overs with R Cobley scoring 73. Flixton were reduced to 36 for 3 in the 6th over before steadying the ship and going on to pass the target in the 37th over for the loss of 5 wickets. The match was sponsored by Prospect Garage, Standish, and the next match see’s Elton CC 2nd XI visit the Green Lane ground. Sunday 24th July, finally saw the Cross Cup Semi-Final between Standish CC 1st XI and Blackrod CC 1st XI take place at the Green Lane ground following last week’s wash out. Blackrod won the toss and put Standish in to bat on a warm summer’s day watched by a good crowd. Standish scored 163 for 9 from their 48 overs with R Smith 78 and S Heeley 47 scoring most of the runs. In reply Blackrod cruised home to win by 7 wickets and with 11 overs to spare, with the pro Z Elahi scoring and unbeaten 51* supported by C Sanderson 47. Standish CC wishes Blackrod CC well for the final against Flixton CC on 7th August at Atherton CC. The match was sponsored by Adlington Dry Stone Walling, the next game is against Flixton CC on Saturday 30th July. Saturday 23rd July, saw Standish CC 1st XI take on Adlington CC 1st XI at the Green Lane ground. Standish won the toss and put Adlington into bat, Adlington were slow to score and were eventually bowled out for 116 with the pro M Majeed scoring almost half the team total. In reply Standish were undone by the pro again M Majeed as he went on to take 7 wickets leaving Standish 22 runs short of the target. The match was sponsored by Adlington Dry Stone Walling. The next home match see’s Standish 1st XI take on top of the league Blackrod in the Cross Cup Semi-Final. Standish CC 2nd XI made the short journey to Adlington and after winning the toss put Adlington in to bat. Adlington made 198 for 9 from their 48 overs with openers P Shovelton 62 and L Kane 47 scoring most of the runs, A Lyon recorded figures of 12 overs 4 for 33 and A Fox 10 overs 3 for 24. In reply Only C Gunn with 44 made any impression as wickets tumbled with regularity from the 9th over before Standish were dismissed for 106 in the 36th over. The match was sponsored by Adlington Dry Stone Walling the next game is against Flixton CC Saturday 30th July. Standish CC 2nd XI match with Darcy Lever due to take place at Green Lane was called off due to a water logged pitch. Saturday 9th July, Saw the second half of the season start with the visit of top of the league Little Hulton 1st XI to Green Lane. Little Hulton won the toss and put Standish CC into bat, Standish batted well and were 65 for 1 at the midway point of the innings. Standish went on to 138 for 9 off their 48 overs with H Namajee top scoring with 41, the Little Hulton pro M Ali taking most of the wickets with figures of 7 for 72. In reply Little Hulton were 58 for 3 at drinks and the match lay in the balance, before once again M Ali the Little Hulton pro scored and unbeaten 65 as Little Hulton won the match by 6 wickets. In the away fixture Standish CC 2nd XI travelled to Little Hulton. Little Hulton won the toss and again put Standish into bat. Standish were bowled out in the 24th over for 107 with 3 batsmen scoring most of the runs, J Heaton 28 and S Critchley 30 and E Chapman 19. In reply Little Hulton passed the target in the 20th over for the loss of just 4 wickets all taken by A Lyon. This weekend’s matches were sponsored by In Good Taste Takeaway. Next weekend sees Standish CC take on Darcy Lever in the League and Blackrod 1st XI in the Cross Cup semi-final on Sunday 17th at Standish. Tuesday 5th July, Standish Owls took on Springview Vampires in a winner takes all T20 contest. The winners would progress to the semi-finals on Sunday 10th July at Highfields CC and hopefully on to the final later that same day. Springview Vampires batted first scoring 145 from their 20 overs, a target Standish have chased down before. Early wickets made the task harder until rain finally intervened to bring a premature halt to proceedings with Standish Owls needing around 80 runs from 5 overs. The rain meant Springview Vampires make it through to the final on Sunday and everyone at Standish CC wishes them well. The T20 tournament has been a great success at Standish CC with good crowds and a good atmosphere creating the perfect summer tournament. We are all looking forward to next year’s competition. Thank you for your support over the past month. Sunday 3rd July, Standish 1st XI welcomed bottom of the league Astley & Tyldesley to their Green Lane ground, on another beautiful summers day. A good crowd watched as Standish batted first and scored 175 for 9 from their 48 overs, with H Namajee 33 top scoring and being supported well by the top order. In reply Astley & Tyldesley lost early wickets and only 88 from J MacDougal made the innings look respectable with Astley & Tyldesley being bowled out for 151 in the 41st over, S Heeley 6 for 45 and T Hassan 3 for 54 did the damage with the ball. Standish 2nd XI made the journey to Astley & Tyldesley. A & T won the toss and put Standish in to bat, only 3 Standish batsmen scoring double figures as Standish were dismissed for 83 in only the 26th over. A & T only took 19 overs to pass the target and lost just 2 wickets on the way. All in all a weekend of mixed fortune for Standish CC but wins at home in front of good crowds is always pleasing. Matches were sponsored by Zeera Indian Takeaway, Standish next match is Standish v Little Hulton Saturday 9th July. Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July saw the midway point of the Bolton & District Association Cricket League season, and saw Standish CC do battle with Daisy Hill and Astley & Tyldesely over the 2 days. On Saturday 2nd July Standish CC 1st XI travelled to Daisy Hill, after winning the toss Standish batted first and got off to a really good start on a beautiful summers day made just for cricket. At the midway point of their innings Standish were 85 for 2 and on course for big total. Standish finished on 174 for 9 with the openers U Khushnood 44 and R Smith 38 topping the scoring. After a fine tea Daisy Hill set about the task of chasing the target of 175 to win, which looked like a good score set by Standish. Daisy Hill lost their opener in the 4th over for just 6 runs which brought A Davies to the crease who hit an unbeaten 86* partnered by M Chilton 71 as Daisy Hill eased to victory in the 36th over losing only 2 wickets on the way. In contrast, Standish 2nd XI entertained Daisy Hill 2nd XI at the Green Lane ground. Standish won the toss and put Daisy Hill in to bat. Daisy Hill never got started as Standish ripped through the batting order with ease, only A Arkwright making double figures, before Daisy Hill were all out for 58 in the 31st over, R Cobley and C Gunn were the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 22 and 3 for 11 respectively. Standish cruised to victory in the 13th over with J Heaton 21 and D Walsh 17* doing most of the damage, although 13 extras was a close 3rd. Matches were sponsored by Zeera Indian Takeaway, Standish, next match is Standish v Little Hulton Saturday 9th July. Tuesday 28th June, Standish Owls T20 team took on Winstanley Park Panthers at the Green Lane ground in front of good home crowd. Winstanley Park Panthers batted first and posted a healthy total of 144 for 8 from their 20 overs at a run rate of 7.2 per over. In reply Standish Owls cruised to victory in the 17th over led by 76 from Sam Heeley. Next match is on Friday 1st July at Westleigh Lions. Saturday 25th June, Standish CC 1st XI welcomed Edgworth CC to Green Lane, Standish. Edgworth won the toss and put Standish in to bat on a damp wicket from the morning’s rain, and probably with half a mind on possible later in the day judging by the clouds. Standish made a good start and scored 120 for 7 from their reduced innings of 39 overs, H Namajee 52. In reply Edgworth cruised to 124 for 2 and victory with a commanding innings from ex Lancashire and England player Mike Watkinson scoring an unbeaten 47. Standish CC 2nd XI travelled all the way to Edgworth on the border of Bolton and Blackburn only for the game to be called off due to a water logged pitch. The weekend’s matches were sponsored by Ocean Security Systems. Next weekend sees 2 games with Daisy Hill and Astley & Tyldesley visiting the Green Lane ground. Tuesday 21st June, Standish Owls 20/20 team welcomed Golborne Giants to the Green Lane ground. With coloured kit, music and entertainment it was just like an IPL match. A good crowd watched as Standish posted a target of 113 from their 20 overs. Golborne lost wickets early and regularly before steadying the innings and closing in on the target, however Standish finished the job and won the match in front of a good crowd. Next 20/20 match is Tuesday 28th June. Sunday 19th June, Standish CC 1st XI played Springview again but this time in the 2nd round of the cross cup at Green Lane. Springview won the toss and put Standish in to bat. H Namajee with 31 and A Hill with 34 both contributed to a final total 143 all out in the 45th over. A positive Standish side took to the field after lunch claiming wickets immediately and reducing Springview to 8 for 3 before B Ernst steadied the innings with 68. Standish continued to press with some excellent fielding and bowling and finally bowled Springview out 13 runs short of the target, sending Standish CC into the semi-finals against Blackrod. Standish 2nd XI travelled to Astley & Tyldesley for their 2nd round cup tie and after winning the toss batted first. Standish struggled to get going with S Critchley top scoring with 16 as the innings came to a premature close in the 26th over for just 88. A & T took no time to pass the target for the loss of no wickets, J Tyson *58 and D Kershaw 28*. The matches were sponsored by Dermots Barber Shop of Standish, next game Standish CC v Edgworth CC Saturday 25th June 13.30 start. Saturday 18th June, Standish CC 1st XI made the short journey across Wigan to play local rivals Springview CC. Standish won the toss and put Springview into bat, wondering if weather might play a hand in the day. Springview scored 179 runs all out in the 41st over, with T Hassan and I Boola both taking 3 wickets. In reply Standish were undone by a wicket that produced some very uneven bounce, before finally being bowled out for 122 in the 37th over, A Hill was unbeaten on 28 and looked in fine form. Standish CC 2nd XI welcomed Springview CC to Green Lane in the reverse fixture. Standish won the toss and put Springview in to bat. Springview went on to score 260 for 7 in their 48 overs with S Hodgkinson scoring more than half the teams total with an unbeaten 137. After lunch Standish got off to a good start racing to 102 for 2 in the 14th over. It looked like a good game was going to be had on another fine Standish batting wicket. Unfortunately it was not to be as the Standish middle and lower order collapsed to 179 all out in the 34th over. The matches were sponsored by Dermots Barber Shop of Standish. Saturday 11th June, saw Standish CC 1st XI entertain Blackrod CC at the Green Lane ground. Blackrod won the toss and batted first, Sam Heeley led the team by example taking an excellent 1 handed diving catch also becoming the youngest ever 1st XI captain at just 20 to captain Standish CC. Blackrod scored 152 all out in the 48th over, with all the 4 of the Standish bowlers taking wickets and giving Standish a real chance to record a victory. In reply, Standish ran Blackrod close with R Smith scoring 67 of the team’s total of 139 in a hard fought game. Standish CC 2nd XI made the short journey to Blackrod in the reverse fixture which saw Standish win the toss and put Blackrod in to bat. Blackrod amassed a target of 238 for 6 off their 48 overs giving Standish a huge mountain to climb, J Ashurst was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 43 off 10 overs. In reply Standish lost wickets early and regularly making the task very difficult from as early as the 3rd over. Standish were all out for just 65 runs in the 24th over with only A Hill and J Heaton troubling the scorers with 16 runs each. The matches were sponsored by Suzanne Dennis Opticians of Standish, next game is Saturday 18th June against Spring View. Saturday 4th June, Standish 1st XI travelled to Walshaw in Bury to take on the unbeaten league leaders with full strength side on a beautiful summer’s day. Walshaw won the toss and batted first. Standish restricted Walshaw to 62 for 2 at the drinks break, however, dropped catches allowed Walshaw to post a target of 204 from the 48 overs. Standish never really got going and failed yet again to build any partnerships losing wickets on a regular basis after the fall of the first wicket in the 12th over. Standish were all out for 123 in the 37th over with R Smith 32 and S Heeley 31*. In the reverse fixture Standish 2nd XI welcomed bottom of the table Walshaw to Green Lane. Standish won the toss and batted first posting a target of 161 in 40 overs with N Smith 40, S Sutherland 24, J Heaton 22 and A Hill 20 being the main contributors to the total. In reply Walshaw lost early wickets and were reduced to 27 for 6 before 7th wicket partnership propelled them to 113 in the 28th over. Walshaw were finally bowled out in the 33rd over for 138, with R Cobley taking 5 for 28 and E Chapman 4 for 43. The match sponsor was Waggs Boutique and the next home game is Saturday 11th June, Standish v Blackrod starting at 13.30. Saturday 28th May, Standish 1st XI hosted Atherton 1st XI at the Green Lane ground. Atherton won the toss and put Standish into bat. Standish never got going with the top 4 batsmen all scoring double figures and totalling 47 of the final total of 68 for the team. Atherton never looked comfortable against the pace of T Hassan who claimed 3 for 31, supported by some excellent fielding. Atherton passed the target in the 20th over for the loss of 4 wickets giving them all 13 league points. The match was sponsored by The Beauty Room, Standish. Next game Saturday 4th June against Walshaw. In the reverse fixture Standish 2nd XI travelled to Atherton to play their 2nd XI. Atherton won the toss and put Standish in to bat. Standish struggled against a good opening bowling partnership with only M Hadfield 33 and H Whittington 18* reaching double fixtures, as Standish were all out for 93 in the 39th over. In reply Atherton cruised to victory passing the target in the 20th over for the loss of just 2 wickets. Saturday 21st May, Standish 1st XI travelled to Golborne last Saturday with a full strength side. Golborne won the toss and put Standish into bat. Standish made a good start and were 82 for 2 at the halfway stage of their innings, with plenty of batting still to come. Standish went on to make 171 for 7 from their 48 overs. In reply Golborne looked solid from the start and were 81 for 2 at the halfway stage of their inning’s setting up what looked like an interesting finish. Standish battled hard in very windy conditions however, Golbourne passed the target in the 45th over for the loss of 5 wickets. Standish 2nd XI took on Golborne 2nd XI in the return fixture at Green Lane. Golborne won the toss and elected to bat first. At the halfway stage of their innings Golborne were 78 for 3 and on course for a reasonable score, with wickets in hand. Standish used their bowlers well and bowled Golborne out for 98 in the 36th over, with S Sutherland 10 overs 4 for 24 and S Critchley 9 overs 4 for 13 doing most of the damage. In reply Standish reached passed the target in the 26th over for the loss of just 2 wickets, J Heaton with an unbeaten 37*. The matches were sponsored by FX Leisure, next match Standish v Atherton 28th May starting at 13.30. Saturday 14th May, Standish 1st XI entertained Elton 1st XI at the Green Lane ground in Standish. Elton won the toss and put Standish into bat on a day that would surely be rain affected. Standish had their best start so far this season scoring well and racing to 68 in the 11th over before R Cobley 45 was caught behind. R Smith 31 was bowled in the 17th over before rain ended the Standish innings on 122 for 5 with 16 overs to go. Elton had a reduced target of 96 from 24 overs when play finally resumed and eased to victory with 6 overs to go for the loss of 3 wickets. Standish had battled hard trying to keep Elton contained and took a couple of early wickets with good catches made it look interesting, but sadly the rain had already done the damage earlier. Standish 2nd XI travelled to Elton for the 2nd team fixture and won the toss electing to bat. Standish made a good start reaching 33 by the 10th over before losing their first wicket. From there on in the batting collapsed with Standish all out for just 83 in the 30th over. Once again rain affected the match and Elton were left needing just 73 from 24 overs to win. Elton cruised to victory in the 11th over without loss. This week’s matches were sponsored by Mark Fraser Builders. Next week Standish play Golborne starting at 13.30. Saturday 7th May, saw Standish 1st XI host Flixton 1st XI at the Green Lane ground. In a weather affected match which was shortened to 34 overs Standish won the toss and fielded first. Standish CC’s new signings S Sutherland and T Hassan opened the bowling taking wickets in the 2nd, 6th and 8th over reducing the visitors to 4 for 42 with the Flixton Sub Pro run out cheaply for just 4 runs. S Sutherland finishing with figures of 8 overs 3 for 37 and T Hassan 12 overs 3 for 72. Flixton went on to amass a score of 198 all out in the 34th over. In reply Standish never got going with only 3 players making double figures with the bat. Standish finally collapsed to 78 for 10 in the 30th over with G Edwards retiring from the game injured. In the reverse fixture Standish 2nd XI travelled to Flixton in Manchester with a mix of youth and experience in the side. Standish won the toss and put Flixton in to bat fearing weather would interrupt the already shortened game (34 overs). Flixton scored 254 for 5 in their 34 overs with J Alcock taking 3 for 56. Standish offered little resistance to the Flixton bowling attack with J Heaton 36 being the only batsman to trouble the scorers, as the team were all out for 57 in the 22nd over. The match was sponsored by Jackson Opticians and the next game is on Saturday 14th May against Elton. Saturday 30th April, saw Standish 1st XI make the short journey to Adlington. After winning the toss Standish put Adlington in to bat. With some excellent bowling and fielding Standish restricted Adlington to 55 to 2 at the drinks break, Adlington went on to make 148 all out in the 46th over, with S Heeley with figures of 10 overs 2 maidens 4 for 38. In reply Standish started well and looked on top with S Maiden 36, R Cobley 21, before R Smith got 36, a couple of quick wickets then upset the rhythm before S Heeley 29 came to the crease. In a very tight game the points were shared as Standish were also all out 148 on the last ball of the game. In the reverse fixture a well supported Standish 2nd XI entertained Adlington at the Green Lane ground. Standish won the toss and put Adlington into bat. Adlington scored 169 all out in the 45th over, C Gunn with figures of 12 overs 2 maidens 3 for 38 and J Alcock 8 overs 3 for 26. Standish battled well to get themselves in contention with N Smith 72, C Chapman 23 but sadly the target was just 15 runs too many giving Adlington the victory, as Standish were bowled out for 155 in the 43rd over. The match was sponsored by Elaine Stewart Hair & Beauty. Next game Saturday 7th May Standish v Flixton. Saturday 23rd April, saw Standish CC welcome Darcy Lever to the Green Lane ground for the first home game of the 1st XI season. Darcy Lever won the toss and put Standish in to bat on a grey overcast afternoon. Standish started well scoring freely in the first few overs, with R Cobley racing to 20 before being bowled. R Smith came to the crease with the score at 21 for 1. Smith was the only other batsman to trouble the scorers with a score of 41 before being caught on the boundary as Standish were all out for just 90 in 27.5 overs. Darcy Lever took just 17 overs to pass the target without loss, M Fawcett *50 and S Crook *42. Standish 2nd XI played the reverse fixture travelling to Darcy Lever with a mix of youth and experience. Darcy Lever won the toss and batted first collapsing to 29 for 7 in just 12 overs and finishing on 121 all out in the 36th over. Youngsters C Gunn recording figures of 11.3 overs 3 maidens 5 for 19 and E Chapman 10 overs 1 maiden 3 for 41, and J Alcock 4 overs 2 for 13. In reply Standish were 13 for 4 in the 10th over but went on to win the match by 3 wickets passing the target in the 36th over. M Hadfield top scored with 33, T Atkinson 21, C Chapman 20 and S Critchley *12. Thanks to the match sponsor Stores Direct Ltd the next game is Standish CC v Adlington CC on 30th April, 13.30 start. Saturday 16th April, saw the start of the cricket season for most clubs up and down the country and Standish CC were no exception. An injury hit 1st XI travelled to Little Hulton in the Bolton & District Cricket Association League for the first game of the season. After losing the toss and being put into bat wickets fell as early as the second and third ball on a good looking wicket. Jonathan Cooper was the only Standish batsman to trouble the scorers with an unbeaten 84* in an innings totalling 124. In reply Little Hulton passed the target in the 21st over for the loss of 5 wickets, with Andrew Fox recording figures of 6 over's 1 maiden 4 for 16. Little Hulton won by 5 wickets. Standish CC 2nd XI played the reverse fixture at the home ground of Green Lane. Again Little Hulton won the toss and put Standish CC in to bat. Standish managed 68 all out using just 27.2 of the 48 over's, with only 3 batsmen recording double figures. In reply Little Hulton passed the target in the 15th over for the loss of just one wicket. Little Hulton won by 9 wickets. The match ball was sponsored by the Wigan Courier and the next game sees Darcy Lever visit Standish, with a 13.30 start time.

2019-04-24T16:29:37Z

http://www.standishcc.co.uk/match-reports

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION: The two texts that follow—they are actually two parts of a single essay—are of crucial importance for an understanding of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Communist Yoke. They were written by a true confessor of Orthodoxy, who died in prison in the Soviet Union in 1971 for having written these and similar texts. They are presented here as a direct response to the plea of the author himself (p. 484 of Russia’s Catacomb Saints): "This betrayal... must be made known to all believers in Russia and abroad, because such an activity of the Patriarchate... represents a great danger for all believers." The texts are primary documents exposing with direct and irrefutable proof the conscious betrayal of Russian Orthodoxy by its own hierarchs. Russian Orthodoxy today—betrayed by its hierarchs in the USSR, and represented only by the free bishops abroad and by a remnant of the faithful at home and abroad—lives in expectation of a restoration of true and canonical church order. This will doubtless come only at the longed-for Council of all Russian Orthodoxy after the fall of the Communist regime, when those who have kept the faith will be justified. For this restoration of true order the writings of Boris Talantov will be invaluable testimony. For they come from one who consciously experienced the Soviet Yoke from its beginning and they thus testify from within not only to the facts of Russian church life during those years, but more importantly, to the attitude toward them of the Orthodox faithful. Previously this had been known to some extent through those who had escaped from the USSR, but from within the country there was nothing to be heard but the repetitious propaganda of the Moscow Patriarchate, which attempted to drown out the truth and did indeed succeed in duping whole generations of gullible church figures in the West. But now as the culmination of a decade of protests, the true attitudes of the faithful who remain in Russia have become known. Boris Talantov, as these texts reveal, did not leave the communion of the Moscow Patriarchate; even though he was sympathetic to the members of the True Orthodox (Catacomb) Church whom he knew, he nonetheless repeats the standard Soviet terminology in calling this Church a "sect." Here surely, one may be allowed to disagree. Without passing judgment on those who remain in the Patriarchate, we abroad can nonetheless not help but see that the solution of the present crisis of the Moscow Patriarchate—which is actually the culmination, as Talantov points out, of the betrayal of 1927— cannot come from within the Patriarchate alone, but must come from the whole confessing Orthodox Church of Russia: the believers in the Catacombs who remain faithful to the testaments of Metropolitan Joseph and the many bishops in 1927 who declared the "Sergianist" Church schismatic, the true believers who remain in the Patriarchate; and the Church Outside of Russia. About the latter it is hardly likely that Talantov could have had any unbiased information. It must be remembered, then, that these documents offer, not a complete picture of the state of Russian Orthodoxy today, but rather an authentic voice of the Orthodox faithful within the USSR, and specifically of the Moscow Patriarchate's own flock. These texts, however, are doubtless some of the primary documents from which the "complete picture" of 20th-century Russian Orthodoxy will one day be known. The two texts are here presented in full, without omissions or additions of any kind, as translated from the Russian manuscripts obtained in 1968 from an absolutely reliable source in Paris by the Rev. Michael Bordeaux of the Center for the Study of Religion and Communism. The two titles and all parentheses and emphases (italics) in the text are those of the original, all notes and comments of the translators have been confined to the footnotes. The texts are published here with the kind permission of Rev. Bordeaux. IN ENGLAND there has appeared a book by Nikita Strove, Christians in Contemporary Russia, in which he, like others also in the West, in general approves the activity of Patriarch Sergius, even comparing him with Sergius of Radonezh and Patriarch Ermogen. In the West Patriarch Sergius is virtually considered to be the savior of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Such an incorrect evaluation of the activity of Patriarch Sergius is based on the fact that Western researchers are not familiar with the underground facts and manifestations of the life of the Russian Orthodox Church. The roots of the profound ecclesiastical crisis which has now been revealed were laid precisely by Patriarch Sergius. In his Appeal to the faithful of August 19, 1927, Metropolitan Sergius set forth new bases for the activity of the Church Administration, which at that very time were called by E. Yaroslavsky an "adaptation" to the atheistic reality of the USSR. "Adaptation" consisted first and foremost of a false separation of all the spiritual needs of man into the purely religious and the socio-political. The Church was to satisfy the purely religious needs of citizens of the USSR without touching on the socio-political, which were to be resolved and satisfied by the official ideology of the CPSU. The socio-political activity of every believer, according to this Appeal, should be directed to the building of a socialist society under the direction of the CPSU. In its further development this Adaptation resulted in the theory of Soviet theologians, according to which the Communistic organization of society is the only happy and just one, one supposedly indicated by the Gospel itself. At the same time no criticism was allowed of the official ideology, laws, or actions of the authorities Any accusation against the actions of the civil authorities or any doubt of the correctness of the official ideology was considered a deviation from purer religious activity and counter-revolution. The Church Administration headed by Metropolitan Sergius not only did not defend the believers and clergy who went to concentration camps for accusing the arbitrariness and violence of the civil authorities, but even spoke out itself, with slave-like servility, for the condemnation of such people as counter-revolutionaries. In essence Adaptation to atheism represented a maniacal union of Christian dogmas and rites with the socio-political views of the official ideology of the CPSU. In actual fact all religious activity was reduced to external rites. The church preaching of those clergymen who held strictly to Adaptation was totally remote from life and therefore had no influence whatever on the hearers. As a result of this the intellectual, social, and family life of believers, and the raising of the younger generation remained outside the Church's influence. This concealed great dangers for the Church and Christian faith. One cannot worship Christ and at the same time in social and family life tell lies, do what is unjust, use violence, and dream of an earthly paradise. Subsequently, Adaptation to atheism culminated in the heretical teaching of H. Johnson concerning a new religion, which in his opinion was to replace the Christian religion and be a synthesis of Christianity and Marxism-Leninism (see H. Johnson, Christianity and Communism, Moscow, 1957). Now the absurdity of H. Johnson's teaching is evident. The Appeal of Metropolitan Sergius of August 19, 1927, made a painful impression on all believers, as a cringing before the atheist authorities. Some made peace with it as an unavoidable evil, while others came out decisively with a condemnation of it. A part of the bishops and faithful separated from Metropolitan Sergius. The bishops who had condemned the Appeal of Metropolitan Sergius were soon arrested and banished to concentration camps, where they died. The ordinary believers who separated formed a special sect, called the True Orthodox Church, which from the very beginning of its formation right up to the present time has been proscribed. Contemporary influential atheists regard Adaptation as a modernization of religion which is politically useful for the CPSU and harmless for the materialistic ideology. "This (Adaptation—our addition. B.T.) is one of the paths to the dying out of religion" (Journal, Science and Religion, no. 12, 1966, p. 78). Many both among us and in the West regarded and regard the Appeal of Metropolitan Sergius as a statement made by the Church Administration under duress, with the aim of preserving church parishes and clergymen during the time of the despotism of J. Stalin. But this is incorrect. The Communist Party saw in this Appeal the Church's weakness, the readiness of the new Church Administration to fulfill unconditionally any instructions whatsoever of the civil authority, a readiness to give over to the arbitrariness of the authorities, under the guise of counter-revolutionaries, those clergymen who dared to accuse arbitrariness and violence. Here is how E. Yaroslavsky evaluated this in 1927: "With religion, even though Bishop Sergius may have adorned it in whatever worldly garb you may want, with the influence of religion on the masses of workers, we shall wage war, as we wage war with every religion, with every church" (E. Yaroslavsky, On Religion, Moscow, 1957, p. 155). Objectively this Appeal and the subsequent activity of Metropolitan Sergius were a betrayal of the Church. From the end of 1929 until June, 1941, there occurred the mass closing and barbarous destruction of churches, arrests and sentencing by Troikas and secret trials of virtually every single clergyman, most of whom were simply physically exterminated in concentration camps. In 1930 Pope Pius XI came out before world public opinion with a protest against the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union. How did Metropolitan Sergius react to all this? In the Theophany Cathedral in Moscow, with a cross in his hands, he came out with a declaration that there was no persecution at all against believers and their organizations in the Soviet Union, and there never had been any. Individual clergymen and believers, according to his assurance, were tried not for faith, but for counter-revolutionary manifestations against the Soviet regime. Such a declaration was not only monstrous lie, but also a base betrayal of the Church and believers. By this declaration Metropolitan Sergius covered up the monstrous crimes of J. Stalin and became an obedient tool in his hands. It should be noted that although the majority of bishops in 1927 acknowledged Metropolitan Sergius as their head, nonetheless in their activity they did not hold to the "Appeal" and in their sermons they courageously accused the arbitrariness, lawlessness, and cruelty of the civil authorities, called on the people to stand firmly for the faith and help the persecuted. Therefore, for their sermons they were quickly placed in concentration camps and perished there. Of course, many clergymen and believers were placed in concentration camps for no reason at all, as potentially dangerous elements. In these circumstances a courageous statement by Metropolitan Sergius in defense of justice and faith could have had a great significance for the fate of the Russian Orthodox Church, just as the courageous battle for faith and justice of Cardinal Wyszynski had a great significance for the Polish Church at the end of the '40's. And what did Metropolitan Sergius save by his Adaptation and monstrous lie? At the beginning of the Second World War in every region, out of many hundreds of churches there remained five or ten, the majority of priests and almost all the bishops (with the exception of a few who collaborated with the authorities like Metropolitan Sergius) had been martyred in concentration camps. Thus Metropolitan Sergius by his Adaptation and lying saved no one and nothing, except his own person. In the eyes of believers he lost all authority, but in exchange he acquired the good will of the "father of the peoples," J. Stalin. The majority of the churches that remained did not acknowledge Metropolitan Sergius. The role of Metropolitan Sergius in the restoration of churches during the Second World War is greatly exaggerated in the West and, in particular, in the book of N. Strove. This evidently speaks of an ignorance of many underground manifestations and facts in the life of the Church in the USSR. The Appeal of Metropolitan Sergius to the believing citizens of the USSR on June 22, 1941, was received by true believers as a new cringing before the despotic regime and a new betrayal of the Church's interests. All believers in Russia regarded and regard the Second World War as the wrath of God for the immense lawlessness, impiety, and persecution of Christians which occurred in Russia from the beginning of the October Revolution. Therefore, not to remind the people and the government of this in an hour of dreadful trials, not to call the people to repentance, not to demand immediately the restoration of churches and the rehabilitation of all innocently condemned citizens of the USSR, was a great sin, a great impiety. Metropolitan Sergius again revealed himself to be an obedient tool of the atheist regime, which at that moment wished to use for its own ends the religious feelings of its citizens with the fewest possible concessions from atheism. The restoration of churches within limited and narrow bounds was the State policy of J. Stalin, and not the result of the activity of Metropolitan Sergius. At that time among the people and in the army there was open talk of fundamental changes in domestic regulations in the land. The people hoped that immediately after the end of the war there would be declared freedom of occupation and in particular the liquidation of the collective farms, freedom of party, and freedom of conscience. The opening of churches was the bone which J. Stalin threw to a people worn out by war and hunger. The very opening of churches occurred under the control of State Security. And these organs sought out often priests from among those who remained at liberty or had sat out their term of imprisonment. In the Western Ukraine there were cases when priests refused to celebrate in churches under Metropolitan Sergius, and later Patriarch Alexis, and these same organs put these priests in concentration camps. In many regions the Patriarchate ant the bishops took no part at all in the opening of churches. There were cases when new bishops under one pretext or another even resisted the opening of churches and the assignment to parishes of priests who had been in prison. The restoration of church life was incomplete, external, and temporary. From 1949 on the CPSU began imperceptibly to turn toward putting new pressure on the Church. Thus, the opening of churches within narrow bounds was not the work of the hands of Metropolitan Sergius or Patriarch Alexis, but rather this opening was done by the atheist regime itself under pressure from the simple people in order to pacify them. Patriarch Sergius, and later Patriarch Alexis, gathered and placed new bishops who, as distinct from the former bishops, who as a rule perished in the concentration camps (there were, of course, exceptions), were obedient to the Patriarchate and assimilated well the leaven of Herod, i.e., Adaptation to the mighty of this world. Here is how, for example, Bishop Vladimir of Kirov expressed Adaptation in his sermon of May 28, 1967. "We must adapt ourselves to new conditions and circumstances of life like a little stream which, on meeting a rock in its path, goes around it. We live together with atheists and must take them into consideration and not do anything that displeases them." It is interesting that B. V. Talantov was told almost the very same thing at the KGB on February 14, 1967: "You,"—said the KGB agent, addressing Talantov—"demand that all closed churches be opened; but you live together with atheists and must take their wishes into consideration, and they do not wish that churches be opened." In the St. Seraphim church in Kirov on January 20, 1966—the day of commemoration of St. John the Baptist—one priest said in his sermon: "John the Baptist taught everyone very simply: obey the authorities in everything." From this it is evident that the new bishop, having assimilated Adaptation to atheism, has become an obedient tool in the hands of the atheist regime, and this is a most ruinous result for the Church of the long activity of Metropolitan, and then Patriarch, Sergius. In this book Patriarch Sergius and Metropolitans Alexis and Nicholas categorically affirm that there has never been in the USSR any persecution of Christians, that information in the Western press about these persecutions are malicious inventions of the enemies of the Soviet regime, that bishops and priests during the years 1930-41 were sentenced by Soviet courts exclusively for their counter-revolutionary activity, and that the Church Administration itself at that time was in agreement with their being sentenced. The monstrous lie of this affirmation is apparent from the fact that very many priests who were executed or perished in concentration camps under J. Stalin were rehabilitated under N. S. Krushchev. The most courageous fighters for truth and Christian faith are declared in this book to be schismatics, "politicians," and practically heretics. This book should be anathematized; it will be an eternal shameful memorial of Patriarch Sergius. And now with full justification we can call Adaptation to the atheistic regime by the name of Patriarch Sergius—Sergianism. Did Adaptation (Sergianism) save the Russian Orthodox Church? From what has been set forth it is clear that not only did it not save the Russian Orthodox Church during the despotism of J. Stalin, but on the contrary it furthered the loss of genuine freedom of conscience and the conversion of the Church Administration into an obedient tool of the atheistic regime. Cardinal Wyszynski's categorical rejection of Adaptation to the atheistic regime and his subsequent and firm battle for Evangelical truth and genuine freedom of conscience has resulted in the fact that today in Poland the Church in actuality is independent from the State and enjoys considerable freedom. Thus, one cannot defend the Church by a lie. Adaptation is little faith, lack of faith in the power and Providence of God. Adaptation is incompatible with true Christianity, because at its foundation there is a lie, servility before the mighty of this world, and a false separation of spiritual needs into the purely religious and the socio-political. According to the teaching of Christ, faith must direct the intellectual, family, and social life of every Christian. Ye are the salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world (Matt. 5:13, 14), said Christ, addressing His followers. In accordance with this Cardinal Wyszynski says: "In Poland the Church must penetrate everything: books, schools, upbringing, the people's culture... painting, sculpture and architecture, theater, radio and television... social and economic life" (quoted from the journal Science and Religion, no. 1, 1967, p. 63). THE "ADAPTATION" which was planted by Metropolitan Sergius has resulted in the fact that, beginning in 1960, the Moscow Patriarchate and the majority of bishops objectively have secretly participated in all actions of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, a participation directed toward the closing of churches, the limitation of the propagation of the faith, and the undermining of the latter among the people. The majority of bishops in the period 1960-64 withdrew from the battle against the illegal closure of churches and the illegal removal of priests from registration. The numerous complaints of believers to the Moscow Patriarchate against the illegal closure of churches and the removal of priests from registration remained without any answer.. More than this, the Moscow Patriarchate itself issued a circular concerning the fusion of parishes which did not have sufficient income. As a result of abuse, many churches which did have sufficient income were closed by this circular. Now the atheists who hold power, together with Metropolitan Nikodim, affirm, relying on this circular, that supposedly all the churches closed in the years 1960-64 lacked sufficient income. This lie is repeated in an article in the Kirov Pravda of May 31, 1967: "With an Open Visor." Certain bishops, for example Bishop John, have closed churches themselves and removed worthy priests. All this has become known now from the letters of the Moscow priests N. Eshliman and G. Yakunin, the "Open Letter of Kirov believers," and many other materials. An irrefutable proof that the Moscow Patriarchate has secretly participated in the closing of churches is the fact that neither the bishops (with some exceptions, for example Archbishop Ermogen, who, however, was removed from his See by the Patriarchate), nor the Moscow Patriarchate has ever come out anywhere with a protest against the illegal closure of churches and the removal of priests from registration, and what is more they have even come out with declarations that there was no mass illegal closure of churches in the USSR in the years 1960-64. Churches, according to their assertion, were closed because they did not have sufficient income. With the aim of limiting the propagation of faith and undermining it among the people, the bishops have unconditionally submitted to all the oral directives of the authorities, which have been directed toward the limitation and undermining of faith, and they have demanded the same thing of priests. Thus, for example, Bishop John of Kirov firmly declared to his priests that any one of them who will not unconditionally fulfill the directives of the authorities will be forbidden to serve as a priest. At the same time, the priests and bishops, in fulfilling the oral directives of the authorities, presented these directives to the people as if they came from the Church Administration and not from the civil regime, and they even uncanonically demonstrated their lawfulness and necessity. The Patriarchate itself issued a number of circulars directed to the limitation and undermining of faith, such was for example, Circular no. 1917, which demanded of priests as an official obligation to cooperate in the registration of passports while celebrating private services on request. All this is discussed in detail in the letters of the Moscow priests, in the "Open Letter of Kirov Believers," and other letters and complaints of believers. Certain bishops, for example Bishop John of Kirov, by their amoral conduct, outrageous acts, and despotic willfulness have striven to undermine faith among the people; and the Moscow Patriarchate, knowing of the intolerable conduct of such bishops from the numerous complaints of believers, not only has not brought such bishops to ecclesiastical trial, but has even promoted them. Such bishops have removed worthy priests from parishes and placed unworthy persons in their place. All this has led to the moral corruption of the clergy and a total undermining of faith in the Church. In conformity with Adaptation to atheism, sermons in church as a rule have become scholastic discourses, remote from life, on religious themes. Because of their remoteness from time and space, they cannot act in any way on the hearers. In such sermons there is lacking even any mention of such basic vices, errors, and faults in contemporary life as lying, flattery, the breaking up of families, moral corruption, the atheistic upbringing of children, servile fear before the mighty of this world, and injustice. The Moscow Patriarchate has made the rejection of Christian apologetics, of the ideological battle with atheism, the chief principle of its activity, both within the country and outside. Such religious-moral instruction on the part of the contemporary Russian Orthodox Church cannot interest the younger generation or act positively upon it. Thus, the religious-moral instruction of the Russian Orthodox Church is such that it cannot lead to the propagation of faith among the younger generation. By this alone the continued existence of the Church is undermined. In every diocese there is felt an acute insufficiency of priests even for the small number of churches that are open. For the propagation of faith and its strengthening it is essential to strive to increase in each diocese the number of worthy priests who are devoted to the Church and qualified to spread the faith. But the bishops have absolutely withdrawn from the selection, instruction, and training of the clergy ranks, by which they definitively undermine faith and the Church. The number of theological schools and the number of those studying in them is so small that it cannot even make up the natural decrease of clergymen. Education and instruction in the theological schools are set up in such a way that out of them there come bureaucrats in cassocks who are ready to adapt themselves to external circumstances by any means whatever for the sake of acquiring a secure, easy, and undisturbed life in an atheistic State. In them the chief thing is killed: idealism, courage, and aspiration for justice. The spirit of the Seminaries (and Academies) is Adaptation. In the theological schools there is being conducted an intensified recruitment of students as secret agents of the KGB, especially in the foreign divisions of the Academies. This at the present time the Moscow Patriarchate and the majority of bishops are secretly participating in the organized actions of the atheist regime (CPSU) which are directed toward the closing of churches, the limitation of the propagation of faith and its undermining in our country. The activity of the Moscow Patriarchate abroad is directed, in the first place, to covering up, by means of shameless lying and slander, the mass illegal closure of churches, the oppressions of believers and their organizations and the secret administrative measures directed toward the undermining of faith within the USSR. In the second place, the activity of the Patriarchate is directed to defecting as much as possible, by means of deceit and lying, the development of the Christian movement in the whole world on to a fallen path and thereby undermining it. Such, for example, was the proposal of the Moscow Patriarchate at the Rhodes Conference of Orthodox Churches to renounce Christian apologetics and the ideological battle against contemporary atheism. The activity of the Moscow Patriarchate abroad is a conscious betrayal of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Christian faith. She steps forth on the world arena as a secret agent of worldwide anti-Christianity. Metropolitan Nikodim is betraying the Church and Christians not out of fear but for conscience's sake; thus a complete unmasking of his and the Moscow Patriarchate's traitorous activity will mean the end of his shady career. An irrefutable proof of the undermining, traitorous activity abroad of the Moscow Patriarchate is an event which arose in connection with the "Open Letter of Kirov Believers to Patriarch Alexis." In August, 1966, this letter was sent by believers to Patriarch Alexis. In it the believers expressed their support for the letter of the Moscow priests N. Eshliman and G. Yakunin and described the misfortunes which the parishes of the Kirov region had suffered as a result of the lawless deeds of the authorities of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and Bishop John of Kirov. This letter, which accuses the arbitrariness and lawlessness of the local civil authorities and the Church Administration, does not touch at all upon the Soviet social and governmental order and has no relation whatever to the organs of State Security. The letter was signed by 12 believers of the Kirov region with exact addresses given. Eight of those who signed the letter were from the city of Kirov (formerly Vyatka). Among their number was the author of the letter B. V. Talantov, whose signature and address stood first. He is well known to the Patriarchate and to Metropolitan Nikodim. Three of those who signed were from the city of Nolinsk, and one of these was the student of the Odessa Seminary Nikodim Nikolaevich Kamenskikh. The twelfth believer who signed the letter was Agrippina Dimitrievna Zyryanova, an elderly woman from the city of Belaya Kholunitsa. She had been constantly working for the opening of the All Saints church in the city of Belaya Kholunitsa, which had been illegally dosed in 1962. This letter became known abroad, and on December 8, 1966, BBC Radio revealed in brief its content. Although in essence the letter was not a complete unmasking of the unworthy activity of the Moscow Patriarchate nonetheless it threw a shadow abroad on all the assurances of Metropolitan Nikodim and others concerning the well-being of the Russian Orthodox Church. Evidently this very much disturbed the Patriarchate and the KGB. They began to act simultaneously and according to an agreed-upon plan. On February 14, 1967, B. V. Talantov was summoned to the Kirov Administration of the KGB. Here, after he had been threatened at first with prison, it was proposed that he renounce the "Open Letter" in the form of a written declaration that could be published in one of the newspapers. Evidently he was to have declared in writing that he had never composed or signed the "Open Letter" that had become known abroad. He categorically refused to do this and confirmed in written form that he was the author precisely of the letter that had become known abroad, and likewise of the letter to the newspaper Izvestia (received by the newspaper on July 19, 1966), and that he was ready to bear responsibility for the content of these letters. At that time he did not understand at all why there was demanded of him the renunciation of his own signature in a written declaration which, what is more, was to be published in one of the central newspapers. Later events solved this enigma. On February 25, 1967, Radio BBC revealed the replies to questions put to Metropolitan Nikodim in connection with the "Open Letter from Kirov." He declared this letter anonymous and therefore not deserving of trust. To confirm the sincerity of his words he expressed his readiness to make an oath on the Cross and the Gospel. The name and address of B. V. Talantov without any doubt were well known to him from the previous letters of B. V Talantov. Then why did he make such a risky declaration? One would think that he was trusting in the impossibility for the Kirov believers to refute abroad the deceit of his declaration. But subsequent events compel one to think that he was trusting that the KGB by threats would force the believers who had signed the "Open Letter" to renounce their signatures. At the very time when, in London, in the pompous grandeur of his social position Metropolitan Nikodim was striving by a false oath to prove the anonymity and dubiousness of the "Letter from Kirov," in Kirov itself at the KGB Administration it was proposed to B. V. Talantov, with threats of prison, hat he renounce his signature under this letter. Evidently the coincidence of these events was not accidental. B. V. Talantov, indignant at the shameless lie of Metropolitan Nikodim, on March 19, 1967, sent to Patriarch Alexis a new letter, in which he confirmed the authenticity of the "Open Letter of Kirov.Believers" and sternly accused the impious action of Metropolitan Nikodim. At the same time he sent a copy of his letter to the Patriarch to Odessa to his young friend N. N. Kamenskikh, who at this time was a student in the second class of the Odessa Theological Seminary. Through N. N.Kamenskikh this letter, and likewise the impious statement of Metropolitan Nikodim in London, became known to almost all the students at the Odessa Theological Seminary and to many residents of the city of Odessa. From this moment on new events began to occur. The letter of B. V. Talantov to Patriarch Alexis of March 19, 1967, became known to the Kirov administration of the KGB at the end of March or in the first days of April, apparently through Bishop Vladimir of Kirov. Immediately after this the seven Kirov believers who had signed the letter were called to the Kirov city council one at a time for interrogation. Here the secretary of the city council, A. Y. Ostanina, together with a KGB agent (the latter was not present in all cases), threatened each one with prison if he would sign any other document composed by "the dangerous political criminal" Talantov. Notwithstanding all the intimidations, none of those interrogated renounced his signature under the "Open Letter." Bishop Vladimir of Kirov traveled to Odessa and on April 12 he visited for some reason Archbishop Sergius. On April 15 B. V. Talantov informed his friend N. N. Kamenskikh, by a letter sent to the Seminary, of the interrogations in Kirov of the believers who had signed the "Open Letter." But this letter N. N. Kamenskikh did not receive. On April 26 the Inspector of the Seminary Alexander Nikolaevich Kravchenko summoned N.N.Kamenskikh, read him B.V.Talantov's letter of April 15, and demanded of him that he renounce in written form his support of the "Open Letter" of B. V. Talantov. N. N. Kamenskikh had either to renounce the genuineness of his own signature (meaning that his name and address had been put without his knowledge), or declare that B. V. Talantov had somehow deceived him. A. N. Kravchenko warned N. N. Kamenskikh that if he did not make such a declaration he would be excluded from the Seminary. In order to win N. N. Kamenskikh to his side, A. N. Kravchenko made use of the following sly tactic. He said: "Write this declaration, and I won't show it to anyone. When you finish the Seminary I will give it back to you." But N. N. Kamenskikh saw through the Inspector's trick and categorically refused to sign the declaration that was demanded of him. At the same time he asked the Inspector to give him the letter of B. V. Talantov, inasmuch as it was addressed to him. The Inspector refused to give him the letter and ordered him to think about his fate. From this moment there began a battle between N. N. Kamenskikh and the leadership of the Seminary, which was fulfilling the will of Metropolitan Nikodim and the KGB. For a whole month the entire Seminary followed this battle with intense interest. One might call it the war of Nikodim the small with Nikodim the great. The first is small both in age (he is 24 years old) and in his position in society. The second is of mature years and high position in the Church and in Soviet society. Nikodim Kamenskikh is the son of a believing Christian who was banished to the Kirov region. Want and hunger in childhood and adolescence, constant endurance from the age of 17 of threats, insults, and oppressions for his open confession of Christian faith—have left their imprint on N. N. Kamenskikh. He suffers from a stomach ulcer. From the age of 17 he served as an altar-boy in the church in the village of Bais in the Urzhumsk district of the Kirov region. At this young age he courageously defended the church in the village of Bais against illegal closure. Twice on this account he traveled to Moscow to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church (see the letter of B. V. Talantov to the newspaper Izvestia of July 19, 1966) and by this drew on himself the anger of the local authorities. When he was summoned for military service to the Urzhumsk district military committee, at his medical examination he categorically refused to take off his neck cross, and for this he was sent for medical examination to the psychiatric hospital in the city of Kotelnich. After many trials and abuses he was excused from military service on account of illness (stomach ulcer), but he was not left in peace. At the beginning of 1963 the local authorities sent the "fanatic" Nikodim out of the city of Bais and he became a homeless laborer-stovemaker, earning his living by sporadic jobs. By performing work too difficult for the state of his health he earned 30 to 40 rubles a month. The militia of Urzhumsk district fined him at this time, as a "parasite," 30 rubles, thus depriving him of his living for a whole month. Finally with great difficulty he found work and registered in the city of Nolinsk. But want, a wandering life, and overwork put him in a hospital cot for a long time. After all these adventures he succeeded in 1965 in entering the Odessa Theological Seminary. For the whole course of his conscious life he has seen around him and has himself personally endured insults and oppressions for his open confession of the Christian faith. In his own life's experience he became convinced that true believing Christians are the pariahs of Soviet society. He signed the "Open Letter of Kirov believers" not with ink but with his own blood. Therefore it is understandable that he could not renounce his support of this letter, and he began courageously to battle for justice with Nikodim the great, who, having by cunning Adaptation attained high rank, human glory and wealth, entered on the path of injustice. In this battle Nikodim the small placed all his hope in the invisible God, while Nikodim the great placed his hope in visibly-mighty human power and strength. On May 7 B. V. Talantov, surmising by the silence of N.N. Kamenskikh that his letter of April 15 had not arrived, sent him at the Seminary a new letter in which he repeated the content of the letter of April 15. At the same time he sent a letter to the Seminary to the seminarian of the third class, Ivan Ilyich Naumov, a friend of N. N. Kamenskikh, in which he asked I. I. Naumov to communicate to N. N. Kamenskikh the content of his letters of April 15 and May 7, if he had not received them, and likewise to give his greetings to seminarian Leonid Michadovich Beresnev. These letters were received by the Seminary not later than May 12 or 13 and were intercepted by Inspector A. N. Kravchenko, who did not even tell the addressees about them. From these letters he learned that I. I. Naumov and L. M. Beresnev were sympathetic to Nikodim Kamenskikh. Evidently the Inspector A. N. Kravchenko checked all letters coming to the seminarians, at the assignment of the KGB. In order to clarify the "freedom and secrecy of correspondence," one must point out that N. N. Kamenskikh, thinking that his letters sent to Talantov were not reaching the latter, sent him during May two letters addressed to D. I. Okulov, janitor of the St. Seraphim church in Kirov, who was well acquainted with B. V. Talantov. D. I. Okulov did not receive either letter. This means that someone working at the St. Seraphim church, at the assignment of the KGB, was checking all letters that came to this church and holding them back at his discretion. Thus, secret agents of the KGB control all correspondence coming from the Seminary, the churches and "suspicious" believers. On May 17 the Inspector, A. N. Kravchenko, summoned I. I. Naumov and L. M. Beresnev and demanded of them that they persuade Nikodim Kamenskikh to write a declaration renouncing his support of the "Open Letter." He told them that if they did not act on Nikodim in the direction he wished they would be excluded from the Seminary as his accomplices. On May 19, Nikodim Kamenskikh gave to the Inspector of the Seminary A. N. Kravchenko an official declaration, wherein he once again confirmed the authenticity of his signature and his agreement with the content of the "Open Letter of Kirov Believers." On May 21 the Inspector told Nikodim that he must appear the next morning, May 22, at the KGB at the address 43 Babel, Bureau of Passports Garbus 3. Nikodim Kamenskikh, after writing down this address, calmly said that he would not go to the KGB Administration until he received an official notification. This caused the Inspector to lose his self-control, and he began to reproach Nikodim for going against the Patriarch, because he supported the Moscow priests. He concluded his discourse with the angry words: "If you do not leave the Seminary voluntarily, you will be turned out, and you will be sorry when you go home." On May 22 Nikodim was summoned to the diocesan administration and here by telephone an official of the Council for Religious Affairs asked him why he had not appeared at the KGB Administration. He replied that he would not go there until he received an official notification. On May 24 the Rector of the Seminary took from N. N. Kamenskikh his military card and passport and told him that he was to be expelled from Odessa. He replied that all blame for this rested on the Rector and the Inspector. On May 29 the Rector and the Inspector of the Seminary proposed to Nikodim Kamenskikh that he leave the Seminary "at his own wish." He refused to do this. In the evening the Faculty Council excluded him from the student-body of the Seminary for failing to conform to the spirit of the Seminary. He was given a roll in which it was stated that he is transferred in the first category to the third class, and a certificate of exclusion. On June 19 he sent a declaration from the city of Kirov to the Patriarch in which he again confirmed his agreement with the "Open Letter" and asked that he be allowed to undertake studies in the third class. On June 20 the militia of the city of Nolinsk refused to register him at the place of his former residence, and he again became homeless pauper. But the battle was not yet finished. On May 20 four of the persons who had signed the "Open Letter" sent a declaration to the Patriarch, in which they protested against the deceitful declaration abroad of Metropolitan Nikodim. In April A. D. Zyryanova from the city of Belaya Kholunitsa (the twelfth of the signers of the "Open Letter") was put in an insane asylum, from which her sister took her out. On May 31 in Kirov Pravda there was printed the article of S. Lyubovikov, "With an Open Visor," filled with slander and threats against the author of the "Open Letter," B. V.Talantov. All persons who signed the "Open Letter of Kirov Believers" were subjected to threats and repressive measures, but they did not renounce their signatures or their agreement with the Letter. Now the "Open Letter of Kirov Believers to Patriarch Alexis," broadcast on the BBC on December 8, 1966; the declaration of Metropolitan Nikodim abroad concerning the anonymity and unauthenticity of this Letter, broadcast on the BBC on February 25, 1967; the pressure subsequently brought to bear by the organs of State Security (KGB) and the leadership of the Odessa Theological Seminary on the persons who signed this letter, with the aim of compelling them to renounce their signatures; finally, their firm support of this Letter, notwithstanding threats and repressive measures—all this constitutes irrefutable proof of the traitorous activity abroad of the Moscow Patriarchate and their secret cooperation with the atheists who hold power. 1. Tape recording of the BBC Radio broadcast of February 25, 1967. 2. The letter of B. V. Talantov to the Patriarch of March 19, 1967. 3. The declaration of N. N. Kamenskikh addressed to the Inspector of the Odessa Theological Seminary of May 19, 1967. 4. The letter of a group of Kirov believers to Patriarch Alexis of May 20, 1967. 5. The declaration of N. N. Kamenskikh addressed to Patriarch Alexis on June l9, 1967. 6. A copy of the certificate excluding N. N. Kamenskikh from the student-body of the Odessa Theological Seminary, of May 29, 1967, notarized. 7. The article of O. Lyubovikov, "With an Open Visor," in Kirov Pravda for May 31, 1967. The Adaptation to atheism implanted by Metropolitan Sergius has concluded with the betrayal of the Orthodox Russian Church on the part of Metropolitan Nikodim and other official representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate abroad. This betrayal, irrefutably proved by the documents cited, must be made known to all believers in Russia and abroad, because such an activity of the Patriarchate, relying on cooperation with the KGB, represents a great danger for all believers. In truth the atheistic leaders of the Russian people and the princes of the Church have gathered together against the Lord and His Christ. The accusation by the whole people of the betrayal of the princes of the Church will inevitably lead to a crisis of the Church administration, but not to any kind of church schism, as certain ill-wishers of the Church affirm, as well as people who unconsciously follow them. Believers must cleanse the Church of false brethren and false pastors (the betrayer-bishops and priests) in accordance with the commandment of the Holy Apostle Paul: "Put away the wicked man from among yourselves." Only after such a cleansing is a true regeneration of the Church possible. Many true believers of Russia have fervently prayed to God that He would show believers facts that would indisputably prove the secret betrayal by the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, if it exists. Now these facts, by God's mercy, are revealed to all who can really hear and see. About a hundred years ago the Optina Elders predicted that a time would come when in Russia there would be impious bishops. Now this time has arrived. But because of the corruption and betrayal of the bishops the believers should not disperse to their homes and organize separate sects, but rather preserving unity, they should begin the accusation by the whole people of the corrupt false pastors and cleanse the Church of them. Slanders and threats had a painful effect on the wife of B. V. Talantov, Nina Agafangelovna Talantova. As a result of her painful sufferings, and having suffered already for a long time from a hypertonic condition, on September 7 she had a stroke, and she died on December 16, 1967. Agrippina Dimitrievna Zyryanova, the twelfth of the signers of the "Open Letter," died in a hospital on December 27, 1967. The threats hastened the approach of death. All those who signed the "Open Letter" suffered in one degree or another, but they did not renounce their signatures. By the Ukase of Patriarch Alexis of June 6, 1967, the Inspector of the Odessa Theological Seminary, A. N. Kravchenko, was awarded the Order of Prince Vladimir, second degree (see the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, no. 8, 1967). By decree of the Patriarch and the Holy Synod of April 4, 1967, the Rector of the Odessa Theological Seminary, Archimandrite Theodosius, was raised to the rank of bishop. By decree of the Holy Synod of October 7, 1967 (see JMP, no. 8, 1967), Bishop Vladimir of Kirov was assigned as Bishop of Berlin and Exarch in Central Europe, and by the Ukase of Patriarch Alexis of October 20, 1967, he was raised to the rank of Archbishop (see JMP, no. 11, 1967). EDITORS' CONCLUSION: On June 12, 1969, Boris Talantov was arrested, and on September 3 he was sentenced to two years in prison for "anti-Soviet activities." He died in prison on January 4, 1971. And thus it would seem, as the world judges, that evil triumphs. Boris Talantov and his courageous fellow-confessors are persecuted, suffer, and die; while for Metropolitan Nikodim not only has the "hour of judgment" not come, but his status seems still to rise. The Moscow Patriarchate gains new prestige and a new ally by its sponsorship of the "autocephaly" of the American Metropolia [OCA]. And Orthodox Christians in America do not even suspect that they have become passive accomplices of a diabolic program of betrayal and anti-Christianity in the name of Orthodoxy. But evil triumphs only in the eyes of men of little faith. "One cannot defend the Church by a lie." The True Orthodox Christians of these last days are defeated on every hand: mocked by the world and by the betrayers of Orthodoxy, despised, persecuted. And yet for one thing they are unconquerable: they stand in the truth. And thus, as our God is Truth, their ultimate victory is certain. Only, may the "hour of judgment," come soon for the betrayers of Orthodoxy! 1. Sergianism: Sergievshchina. This word is not precisely translatable into English, but is approximately "the Sergianist affair," with a pejorative connotation. 2. London, 1967; original edition in French: Les Chretiens en U.R.S.S., Paris, 1963. Nikita Struve is a Russian intellectual of the "Paris" school and present editor of the Vestnik of the Russian Student Christian Movement. 3. Outstanding Russian saints of the 14th and 16th centuries. 4. The Appeal (Declaration) of Metropolitan Sergius was actually issued on July 16/29, 1927, but it was first published in the official Soviet newspaper Izvestia on August 19. 5. Head of the League of Militant Atheists, in charge of the anti-religious propaganda and activities conducted by the Soviet regime. 6. Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 7. Hewlett Johnson, the notorious "Red Dean of Canterbury," a "Christian" apologist for Communism, wrote his book in English under the title Christians and Communism (London, 1956). That Soviet authorities should immediately have this book translated and printed in Moscow reveals that they are not entirely opposed to "religion"—not to a Communist form of religion! 8. A leading official Soviet anti-religious periodical. 9. Troika: a committee of three secret police officials who sentenced their victims without hearing or appeal. 10. State Security-Secret Police; known earlier under the initials NKVD, Cheka, and (originally) GPU. 11. Of Krutitsk, notorious apologist of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Soviet regime abroad after the Second World War. He later fell from favor and died under mysterious circumstances in 1961. 12. I.e., the Roman Catholic Church, which is dominant in Poland. 13. Of Kirov; see below. 14. Treby: baptisms, funerals, etc. 15. This important rule is a part of the general system of terror that still prevails in the USSR for behevers. These records are transmitted by local authorihes to places of employment, etc., and the believer who dares ask for a baptism, funeral, or some other open service finds himself soon out of a job end in general ostracized from society. 16. A few months after this was written, this very rule was applied against Talantov's dying wife, as Talantov himself describes in his "Complaint to the Attorney General of the Soviet Union" of April 26, 1968 (English text in Religion in Communist Dominated Areas, Aug. 15/31, 1968): "On the day of her death, I wished to have the rite of unction performed for her, as she desired. But the Dean of the sole remaining open Orthodox church in the city of Kirov, that of St. Seraphim, told me that the local authorities forbade the rite of unction to be performed in homes. This deplorable case demonstrates that believing Christians in the city of Kirov are deprived nowadays even of those rights that they were given by J. V. Stalin." 17. This occurred in 1961. The question of atheism and the means of battling against it were on the agenda of this Conference but at the objection of Metropolitan (then Archbishop) Nikodim the question was dropped. 18. Here Talantov seems to be expressing the fervent hope of many in the ideological "underground" in the USSR, rather than any immediately impending event. This is corroborated by the report of a Russian Orthodox student from America concerning a meeting of members of the widespread "Democratic Movement" which he had the rare privilege of attending in Leningrad early in 1970 Some of those present expressed their opinion on the subject of the "autocephaly" which was just then being granted the American Metropolia by the Moscow Patriarchate. Their attitude was summed up by one member who, mentioning that outspoken protest against the Patriarchate was finally becoming evident in the USSR, castigated the "naive Americans" thus: "What are you Americans doing?! Here for 50-odd years we've been trying to minimize the popular authority of any and all such governmental agencies as the Moscow Patriarchate, and you, in conditions of freedom, undo all our work by accepting their authority!" 19. There is no freedom of movement in the USSR. Each citizen must have a passport in order to live anywhere, and he must register with local authorities on entering or leaving any town—and this registration may bc refused at the whim of the local authorities. From Ivan Andreyev's Russia's Catacomb Saints (Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Press, 1982), 463-86.

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In stylistic terms, Soviet comedies of the 1960s firmly belong to the international tradition that appeared in the wake of Truffaut’s Tirez sur le pianiste (1960) and other French New Wave films, which consciously appropriated features of early silent cinema. New Wave films have never exclusively dealt with comic topics, but in large part it was their playfulness and the introduction of their new stylistic devices in popular comedies that made them successful. A light touch, foregrounded reflexivity, episodic structure and cartoonish characters became the hallmark of mainstream popular European cinema in the 60s. These innovations were very quickly and successfully taken up in Eastern Europe. Their appearance coincided with a gradual loosening of control over the arts that had already begun with the Thaw before the emergence of the New Wave. Under these conditions, filmmakers in Eastern Europe found such stylistic innovations useful in trying to combine the irreverent nature of satire with lightheartedness, which appealed to wider audiences. Thus, perhaps even more than in the West, popular comedy opened a possibility for filmmakers to engage in debate about important social matters. Leonid Gaidai earned the title of the most prominent Soviet film comedy director in the decades that followed the release of his sixth feature, Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures [sic] (Operatsiya Y i drugie priklyuchenia Shurika) (1965). In 1955 he graduated from VGIK, in the master class of Grigoriy Alexandrov, Eisenstein’s collaborator and a well-known Soviet director of film comedies. Probably because of his formative years at VGIK and the influence exerted by Alexandrov, American silent comedians – Chaplin and above all Keaton – directly inspired Gaidai. This is apparent in many of his movies. Another of his early films, Kidnapping Caucasian Style, or Shurik’s New Adventures (Kavkaskaya plenitsa ili novye priklyuchenia Shurika) (1966) plays like a mélange of situations and objects appropriated directly from Keaton’s silents: the kidnapping and the car from Sherlock, Jr (Buster Keaton, 1923) the escape from the hospital and ambulance ride from Cops (Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, 1922), the river sequence that seems to have come directly from Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone, 1923) and Shurik’s capture of a bear replicating an event from Hard Luck (Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, 1921) (Keaton’s favourite short). Gaidai loved slapstick, and as his collaborators bear witness, the action could never move fast enough for his taste. His comic technique also often depended on associative reasoning. For example, the beginning of Kidnapping Caucasian Style features a couple of Keatonesque gags in which Shurik’s attempts to motivate his donkey are compared with the driver’s attempts to start the truck, while the light footsteps of the heroine are intercut with the front legs of a trotting donkey. One of the most important formal patterns enabling the creation of associational conceptional networks in silent comedy is the sight gag. Noel Carroll defines it as a “form of visual humour in which amusement is generated by the play of alternative interpretations projected by the image or image series.” (1) Given that research in experimental psychology has supported the hypothesis that human beings understand the world by constructing working models of it in their minds, we might say that the alternative interpretations invoked by a sight gag can be more precisely described as mental models constructed by the viewer. Some of the mental models used by the mind are highly artificial, while others are acquired without special instruction. When applied to human understanding of narratives, this implies that “readers understand narratives by creating a situation-model, which represents the narrative world described by the text rather than the text itself.” (2) In other words, situation models in the reader’s mind are distanced from and relate to reality, in a similar way to how they operate regarding textuality, which serves as the basis of a particular diegetic situation model. Thus, the alternative interpretations proposed by a sight gag are nothing other than alternative working models, which mimic and explain the relations and behaviour of objects present in the diegetic space. While the instances of visual humour that will be described in this article, and their relation to the narrative of Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures, do not clearly belong to the category of the sight gag as defined by Carroll, one of our aims here is to argue that they function on basically the same principles as does the sight gag proper. However, we are less interested in proposing an alternative typology of visual humour than in explaining how the potential for associative reasoning pertinent to film comedies, and specifically to the sight gag, can work towards the creation of complex, reflexive working models of the world outside the diegesis. Comic events that we will provisionally call sight gags function in Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures much as they do in Keaton’s or Tati’s films: they are the pivotal points of individual comic situations. Initially and individually, sight gags bring about and rely upon the formation of ancillary, temporary situation models, and Gaidai was not above making a joke whenever he could. On the other hand, since the silent days, filmmakers have occasionally developed the principles of the sight gag more systematically, sustaining alternative situation models over a longer period. By looking at several of Gaidai’s films that in various ways establish satirical situation models, we can see how those develop from the basic diegetic situation models from which they depart. These models appear as explanations of strings of incidents that support the formation and existence of parallel working models. The alternative, mutually exclusive working models suggested by individual events (sight gags) play a crucial role in the formation of the much more abstract explanatory models that can be seen as actually proposed in this movie, and which in return articulate and emphasise the division between the diegetic level, and satiric level of specific individual events. These reinterpretations all spring from the reinterpretation of individual objects, during the process of spinning-out of alternate ways of conceptualising the formally closely-related signifiers. Only one such reinterpretation is sometimes sufficient to quickly initiate reinterpretation of a whole network of related objects-events. Thus, although the “sight gags” in Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures may appear simple when looked at individually, and when compared to the sight gags of the classical era, understanding that the director’s intervention implies a dense conceptual background helps the viewer appreciate the complexity of the interplay between diegetic objects, their arrangements, and their incorporation into alternative working models. These models are built gradually as the film’s plot develops. Gaidai never lets them lapse from the viewer’s focus; he carefully arranges diegetic events so that alternative mental models have appropriate elements available, and as a result can change and develop during the viewing of the movie. The use of slapstick lends the whole exercise more perspicuity: the simplicity of the diegetic plot line weakens the competitive diegetic situation model in comparison with the alternative, “allegorical” meaning to the point that the latter becomes more plausible and relevant. But it is more important to notice that because of the closely connected signifying processes, the diegetic situation model becomes a sine qua non of the satirical meaning, not only initially, and occasionally, but persistently, and with strong rhetorical force. This is why it will be necessary to describe in more detail the events, which take place in two out of three episodes of Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures. However, it is Gaidai’s films from the ’70s that most clearly display reflexive structures in which the doubling that we have indicated as pertinent to sight gags is applied throughout the plot so persistently that it assumes the features of mannerism. Whilst taking a brief look at Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (Ivan Vasilievich menyaet professiyu) (1973) will help explain the way in which the viewer creates a reflexive reading position, our ultimate objective is to describe the reflexive potential of Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures, which was made in the very specific historical conditions of failed economic reforms in the Soviet Union. In Gaidai’s Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession we find a clear example of a sustained effort to create a logical space for the interplay of mutually exclusive situation models by application of corresponding principles at the level of the whole plot. The movie was inspired by Bulgakov’s play Ivan Vasilievich, adapted by Gaidai to a contemporary setting: Shurik works on the time-machine that can take him back to the past, and manages (in his dream) to bring Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible to one of the Soviet Union’s apartment buildings, while sending a thief and a would-be-apparatchik together back to medieval Russia. The main actor Yuri Yakovlev plays two roles, Tsar Ivan Vasilievich (Ivan the Terrible), and Soviet citizen Ivan Vasilievich, a not-so-intelligent “upravdom,” a semi-official bureaucrat who in Soviet times took care of the communal life in high-rise apartment buildings (3). Exchanging the contexts of these two figures allows Gaidai to compare two very different settings, the paranoid, imperial court of Ivan the Terrible, and the seemingly safe but boring everyday life of the Soviet Union in the early ’70s. While Ivan Vasilievich brings contemporary Soviet attitudes to 16th century Russia, Ivan the Terrible causes havoc in the smoothly-run but repressive Soviet regime. Even the opening credits of the film reveal the doubling to ensue: written in a contemporary Russian alphabet, in the middle of the screen the characters switch into an old Russian Cyrillic font. George Myloslavskiy, the thief who gets involved in the whole plot while trying to rob Shurik’s neighbour, a dentist, is sent back to the old times together with “upravdom” Ivan Vasilievich. He is a con artist who can change his identity with ease, reinforcing the film’s tendency to offer a doubling situation model to the viewer. At the beginning of the movie he changes his voice while making a telephone call to a sweet, seducing female voice in order to find out when the dentist would not be at his home. Later, he changes jackets and glasses, assuming any role that can help him survive (4). Nevertheless, even he struggles to master the violent, paranoid world of the Russian court. While the whole film combines Bulgakov with inevitable slapstick, as Gaidai again finds the time and place for police chases reminiscent of the Keystone cops, the construction of competing situation models remains the main structural principle of the film (5). By mixing present with past, and by using a number of obviously identical bodies in two entirely different set-ups, the director persistently forces viewers to consider the extent to which the meaning of a particular physical and psychological entity depends on the link with other contemporary objects. Simultaneously, he provides an opportunity for viewers to reconsider their propensity to automatically approach objects with a certain prejudice, arising from knowledge based on already arranged elements of the story. In addition to the reflexive structure, which arises out of this conflict, the film obviously refers to Eisenstein’s classic Ivan the Terrible, further complicating an already complex associational structure. Even the credits mentioned above may be seen as referring to the credits of Part I and Part II of Eisenstein’s movie, respectively (6). It is with these insights in mind that we turn to Gaidai’s earlier film Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures, a seemingly innocuous slapstick omnibus comprising three episodes, which describe the life of the Soviet student Shurik in the mid-’60s. It will provide us with an example of a complex, potentially reflexive relationship between a diegetic situation model and the world-view (or we could say, working model of reality) held by the viewer. The film was produced by Mosfilm, and was a blockbuster in the Soviet Union upon its release in 1965, with 70 million viewers. It is one of the key films in Gaidai’s oeuvre, and very important in recent critical reevaluation of him as one of the most popular post-war Soviet (Russian) directors (7). The film has certainly survived its time; Yeltsin’s authorities used it as a “filler” on television during the counting of votes in the presidential election of 1996. According to Sergeii Dobrotvorskii, “Gaidai’s films proved to be the most effective collective antidepressant without any side effects.” (8) However, here we are primarily interested in the impact the film might have had on viewers when it appeared in cinemas for the first time. After Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s speech in 1956, a period of instability ensued, with gradual relaxation of the very strict control, first over the cultural, and later over the political life of the Soviet bloc countries. As mentioned, Eastern European cinemas were able to address socially relevant questions during this period, in which the need for wide-ranging political and economic reforms was high on the social agenda. The Thaw, as these changes were named, proceeded at an uneven pace, with periods of liberalisation followed by a renewed tightening of Party control over social life. The former periods were generally inspired by the recognised need to catch up with the West in economic efficiency as well as make up for the political deficiencies of “people’s democracies”. The latter followed in the wake of larger political crises when it appeared that the reforms might have gone too far in diluting the power of the party to control events (for example the uprising in Hungary in 1956 and Prague Spring of 1968). This period of sporadic attempts at reform, which brought the reformulation of tenets of Socialist Realism in art and a significant increase in the production of consumer goods, as well as the opening of space for limited private initiative in the economy, lasted around 15 years, from 1953 to 1968. It covered the initial power vacuum immediately after Stalin’s death, the reign of Khrushchev, and the first few years of Brezhnev’s leadership. In this period the party ascribed an increasingly important role to artists and intellectuals who were ostensibly at the forefront of the search for new solutions for social problems. As already mentioned, the second half of this period coincided with the appearance of the New Wave, which appealed to many filmmakers across Europe. This is the broad historical framework in which Gaidai made his omnibus film. Let us see in detail how Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures refers to events in the economic and political sphere, how it constructs an alternative situation model, and finally, how it offers a sharp-witted point of view on complex social events (9). The first episode of Operation Y, “Naparnik” (“Partner” or “Co-Worker”) tells the story of a petty criminal sent for a day of corrective labour to the building company where Shurik works as an intern. A prior encounter and argument with Shurik on the bus no. 13 was the initial cause for the unruly, burly drunk, a counterpart of the slapstick comedy villain, being sent to jail. Before he and Shurik meet again, we see him among other wacky, slothful inmates, one of whom has his shirt wide open, revealing a drawing of Sputnik 1 tattooed on his chest with the caption “I want to go to the moon.” The reunion of the bespectacled Shurik and the ruffian escalates into a conflict, which provides a rationale for the wild chase throughout the building site in which building equipment and various materials are used as weapons in their personal war. If at the beginning the cause of their hostility was uncivil behavior, at the end the war erupts because of the lout’s laziness. Shurik’s partner refuses to work and lies down wherever he sees a suitable spot. Although Shurik is in charge, he cannot fire his co-worker or change his behaviour, and the work suffers accordingly. Obviously, the behavior of Shurik’s “naparnik” stands for those significant numbers who behaved according to the well known motto of the socialist labor force, “you cannot pay me as little as little I can work.” At first sight, the film seems to advocate more, rather than less strict societal control, as part of a solution to the problem, but that is not as important as the fact that it successfully locates weak spots in the national economy. Thus, “Co-Worker” deals only on the superficial, diegetic level with delinquent behavior, while asking the crucial question, what is the future of a system unable to motivate its working force? The brute even spells it out to Shurik: “You work for rubles, and for me this is enforced labor”. In an earlier scene we see him pass by the “doska pocheta” – the best workers achievement billboard – which obviously does not impress him very much. Therefore, the question of economic motivation, the crucial problem of the centrally planned Soviet economy, provides a key for building a comprehensive alternative “situation” model and interpretation of the first episode. In addition to the initial diegetic situation model, a Soviet viewer of the time can easily build an extended, and alternative working model, which is in fact too abstract to be called a situation model. They are both simultaneously applied to the “same” objects, which acquire different importance and meaning according to the mental model in which they are included. Filmmakers who in any way wish to refer to reality outside the diegetic world face the question how individual incidents can be related to the wider conceptual field, which is necessarily organised with the help of working models. This abstract conceptual field suggested in “Naparnik” clearly conveys a message about the economic and political situation in the Soviet Union of the time. Considering that Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures were released in July of 1965, the viewer could assume that its first episode advocates economic changes along the lines of those proposed by the Kharkov economist, Professor Evsei Liberman. Three years earlier, in September of 1962, he called for a broad debate about profit-earning capacity and profits in the Soviet economy, and in the next few months the Communist Party unwillingly began to debate inevitable reforms. Khrushchev, whose ideas about economic reform always relied more on party activism and command methods than on market mechanisms, proposed strengthening the role of the Party to counterbalance the economic independence of enterprises. However, the whole effort was shelved in November of 1962. In the summer of 1964, several months before his fall, Khrushchev, facing increased economic problems, again brought Liberman’s ideas into public view. This time some initial experimental reforms were implemented, and late 1964 and 1965 were the most favourable post-war years for the limited economic reform in the Soviet Union before Gorbachev came to power. A Leninist party is the enemy of subjectivism and drift in communist construction. Harebrained scheming; premature conclusions; hasty decisions and actions divorced from reality; bragging and bluster; a penchant for management by fiat; an unwillingness to take into account the conclusions of science and practical experience; these are alien to the party (10). Faced with these questions, we realise that the third character in “Co-Worker” provides a much less ambivalent key to the interpretation of the episode. For the main engineer at the construction site is a highly overdetermined incarnation of this description of Khrushchev (neither here nor in the Pravda article mentioned by name) (11). For example, he is wholly oblivious to the total lack of discipline at the place he runs, and he strolls among the unfinished walls of the housing estate incessantly spouting official ideology. To begin with, he compares contemporary production statistics with those of the year 1913, the last peaceful year before the war, which brought the Revolution (12). Later, he brags about scientific successes, “our spaceships which cruise the cosmos”, about surpassing America, and about grandiose schemes for housing projects. In the meantime, the drunk licks his ice-cream, wipes his hands on the main engineer’s clothes and spends his time “at work” eating and sleeping. Also, the building site setting of “Co-Worker” has strong links to Khrushchev. He was well known to the domestic audience as the man behind the mass construction of housing in the early 50s, when he initiated the building of a huge number of ugly prefabricated buildings with small flats in order to solve the housing problem in Moscow. The public even nicknamed them “khrushcheby” (from “trushcheby” – slums). As if this were not enough, references to Khrushchev’s animosity to religion, as well as to his extensive trips abroad are included. Once we realise that the main engineer wears the same Ukrainian shirt that Khrushchev very often wore in public (also sported by one of the briefly glimpsed jailed hoods at the beginning of the episode), it becomes clear that “Co-Worker” was above all a not-so-gentle farewell to Khrushchev in the most popular Soviet film of 1965. It seems obvious that in “Co-Worker” the construction of an alternative, or extended satiric working model by the viewer proceeds via a series of connected sight gags as defined by Carroll. One situation model controls the meaning of the diegetic characters and events, such as the conflict on the public bus, the relationship between Shurik and the hooligan etc. The alternative, satiric model, which is based on the former, builds a much more abstract network that relates to Khrushchev, to the various social groups, and complex developments in the Soviet society. Every time that the viewer perceives elements which lead him/her to apply the alternative working model to an object-event, a cognitive event comparable to the sight gag takes place. Like in a sight gag, a small detail can shift the viewer’s interpretation in the desired direction. The major difference may be found in the degree of surprise: an isolated sight gag that elicits an alternative mental model often causes more astonishment than a corresponding figure which is interpreted according to an already established explanatory pattern. But this need not be the case, as we can see in Operation ‘Y’ and Other Shurik’s Adventures, in which the fast pace of slapstick keeps the viewer continually occupied in constructing a diegetic model from events that develop with breakneck speed. Under these conditions, the uneven pace of the development of a further, abstract working model, which refers to the political questions of the Soviet Union, causes the viewer to repeatedly react with significant surprise, especially as the cues that activate the abstract model already possess a comic potential stemming from their function within the diegetic context. The reference to Khrushchev is not made only through the character of the main engineer (one of the louts has already staked his claim to the Moon); but he is a final trigger helping to establish a firm and consistent abstract working model, which is then reapplied to the preceding incidents of the episode. Shurik’s second adventure in “Strange Impression” (“Navazhdenie”) portrays the love life of the young generation and is again inspired by early Keaton, especially The Scarecrow (Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, 1920). This serves as an interlude before the film returns to the Soviet economy in the third and last movement, “Operation Y” itself. “Operation Y” opens at the “kolkhoz market” at which everything but agricultural products is being sold. At one of the stalls, a man sells wall paintings and the dialogue with the customer clearly mocks Khrushchev’s famous dislike of abstract paintings and his prudery. The rest of the episode is devoted to the ploy arranged by the head of the local warehouse and three local thugs. To deceive the arriving inspectorate, they organise a break in, although there is nothing valuable left to steal. In the words of the leader of the gang, Byvalyi (“Old Hand” – or literally, the one who has been around for a long time), whose manners and looks are reminiscent of Khrushchev’s: “In our place everything is already stolen.” And so the fictitious burglary takes place at the already burglarised department store, ridiculing the structurally ingrained susceptibility of the Soviet state operated merchandising to thievery. If Khrushchev’s work on housing problems was familiar to Soviet audiences, his interest and investment in agriculture was known to be second to none. His involvement in constant changes in agricultural production included a great expansion into the “virgin lands” of Kazakhstan and Siberia during the late ’50s, construction of large agro-towns, and cooperation with and promotion of the controversial scientist Lysenko. He was also known for his war against the small private plots on which kolkhoz members actually produced a surplus that they later could sell at the market. Their abolition made food even scarcer, and the introductory scene of “Operation Y” is a clear reference to the sad state of affairs in Soviet agriculture. Constant scheming had already made Khrushchev’s collaborators tired and weary even before the dismal harvest of 1963. In addition, in early 1964, just a few months before his downfall, he engaged in a renewed drive against the peasants’ private plots and livestock holdings. Thus, it is easy to read “Operation Y” as the final judgment on Khrushchev’s contribution to Soviet agriculture. He left the village inefficient and plundered, with peasants engaged in everything but the production of food. The immediate announcements that followed Khrushchev’s dismissal on October 16, 1964 referred only to his age and health as reasons, without any details. The newspaper denunciation quoted above, which was published the day after, never mentioned his name. Despite this, and although he was explicitly brought up in the press on only a single occasion before he died in 1971, the claim that “his successors wished to forget that he existed, and clearly…hoped that the public would forget him as well” is belied by Gaidai’s films (13). It appears that as he was pensioned off, show trials and ritual party congress attacks were replaced by a much more sophisticated weapon: derision in the very popular, seemingly innocuous Soviet comedy genre films that went into production very soon after his downfall, where the main structural tool used was the sight gag and the “knowledge effect” it produces (14). Primarily because of his immensely popular 1968 comedy Diamond Arm (Brilyantovaya ruka), Gaidai was recently even called the main dissident in the Soviet cinema during its period of stagnation. Along the same lines, one might propose that Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures was an episode in his personal crusade against Soviet foibles. However, this seems highly unlikely. Firstly, two screenwriters worked on the script along with Gaidai. Furthermore, knowing the number of hurdles the script had to jump through in order to go into production in the Soviet system, the complex manner in which Khrushchev features in the comedy must have been approved, and even initiated, from a higher place (15). So, if Operation Y was primarily a vehicle to discredit Khrushchev, what are we to say about its references to the inadequate Soviet economic system? Although the economic shortcomings are clearly connected with the departed leader, they are presented as systemic, rather than solely being an outcome of his style of leadership. He did not do much to solve them, but what is the Soviet viewer in the summer of 1965 to perceive as the way out of an obviously existing problem? If the answer seems to be only hinted at, the middle of 1965 was a rare time when the question could have been openly asked. Even if Khrushchev had not been an ardent proponent of the introduction of market instruments, he had opened the space for others to begin asking the question. Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures arranges a number of diegetic objects and events that relate to the extra-diegetic reality on many levels. By recognising these relations, the contemporary viewer was able to form a multifarious, abstract and reflexive working model based on a cinematic form apparently as simple as slapstick. It is obviously not a matter of a momentary hint at the social circumstances, but rather a sustained effort, with a complex outcome. Gaidai uses the figure of Shurik, a bespectacled, good-natured student (whose emotional identificatory power comes from outside this filmic text), in order to guide viewers through a more intricate mental model related to their experience of reality outside the theatre. Thus, the viewer faces a complex relationship between abstract concepts, signifiers, and material traits of the text. At the same time, the basic diegetic situational model is a source of strong and vivid emotions that freely circulate and inform the satiric layer of meaning. The rhetorical power of Gaidai’s narrative lays exactly in the “eureka” effect of the sight gags, and other associational forms of reasoning, while Shurik replaces the already obsolete worker or peasant from the Soviet films of previous decades, revealing the rising aspirations of the Soviet population and the change in their worldview (16). The basic problem facing filmmakers who wish to make a satire is the relationship between the diegetic world of film narration and the satirical layer of meaning. They both use the same signifying field, and they both rely on the power of recognition in human thinking. The competition of two (or two groups of) working models, one situational, diegetic, and the other satirical, more abstract, in which the individual objects do not stand for themselves, but for the classes of objects, and even more abstract constellations that involve perceptually absent social institutions and relations, means that none of them can be self-enclosed from the moment the viewer begins to form the outlines of the satirical working model. The stronger the narration insists on the relevance and continued existence of the abstract satirical model, the stronger is the possibility that the recognition of object-events will be made too stringently dependent on the inflexible, prescriptive abstract model, which claims higher explanatory competence. But slapstick in Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures is utterly untamable, and it constantly keeps the process of recognition alert. On the other hand, instead of openly and early revealing the outlines of his satirical model, Gaidai gradually builds it up in close connection with the events of physical comedy, which takes place on the diegetic level. Some elements of the satirical model are more easily visible than the others: the critique of technocracy, and of socially irresponsible behavior, for example. But only after the viewer brings forward more hidden elements of its structure, can the full dimensions of the abstract model be apprehended. This is where we see the close similarity between the functioning of the sight gag in visual comedy and the moments filled with surprise here, in which the viewer suddenly realises that the function of objects in slapstick simultaneously hides and illuminates the function of the “same” objects in the abstract satirical working model. Interested forces in the Soviet political structure were obviously aware of the tremendous popularity of comedy with domestic audiences, even before the detailed survey conducted in the region of Sverdlovsk in early 1966 (17). The atmosphere of the Thaw, which began soon after Stalin’s death in conditions of a power vacuum, persisted, interspersed with periods of tightened control, throughout Khrushchev’s reign. His style of leadership seems to have been crucial for this. Never happy with what had already been achieved, dynamic, erratic, crude and rude, yet increasingly removed from Stalin’s repressive policies, he created an atmosphere with much more space for the political initiative of others. After his secret speech at the 20th Congress of CPSU and subsequent drives against the “cult of personality”, the dogma of the Party’s infallibility could never again have the same power, nor could the position of Socialist Realism in the arts remain the same. Political discourse in the arts thus became much more complex and varied. In the comedies of Gaidai we face works that obviously did not aspire to be dissident in relation to the centers of power. However, the need to influence public opinion in regard to pertinent political questions is evident. In order to explain the reading strategies available to viewers, the answer should be sought in the affinity between the filmmakers and the political agenda of various centres of power. In interpreting these films, it is most profitable to search for the line which divided the ceremonial tribute to the sacred cows of the system from genuine discursive and political innovations in given historical circumstances. However, what makes this process more complicated is that judging by the films discussed, it was obviously perceived that this line should not be consciously identified, since this would diminish the effectiveness of the agenda with wide audiences. Andrew Horton has attempted to distinguish between carnival and lashing satire in Soviet cinema and in general (18). He draws on Mikhail Bakhtin to formulate the notion of carnivalesque laughter as a “folk laughter by the people, for the people, and is, in the spirit of the carnival, a sanctioned, liberating attack on all authority.” On the other hand, “lashing” satire is described as subjecting the ills in society to a devastating critique. Consequently, carnivalesque laughter would be primarily used by the people in their struggle for autonomy from oppressive social institutions. For Bakhtin, the carnivalesque is appropriated by the novel from folk culture, but many caveats are necessary in trying to apply this concept to cinema. While the novel can still be seen as work of a writer, industrial cinema as an activity which demands significant capital for its operation must have very strong links with social institutions throughout the production process. In these conditions, it is hard to see how the state, or the social groups, which control the capital could be excluded from the very substantial involvement in deciding what kind of humour will be used. Alternatively, we could presume that certain social groups would have an interest in using a form of humour, which invokes a spontaneous, joyful satiric laughter of the people. In this case, we would have in front of us an amalgam, a satiric form not wholly immune to the manipulation by the centers of power, while it retains some of the liberating features of the carnivalesque satire. They can be found perhaps not primarily in its meaning, but rather in the general relaxation of relations based on fear, which it brings about, while in addition enabling the viewer to approach the world from mutually exclusive positions. This is a tempting proposition, which would mean that the viewer could selectively discard ideological baggage and appropriate the discourse toward liberating purposes. We would have a form of resistance reading, a notion which has been sometimes hailed as a neat solution to the problems of ideological positioning. The Gaidai films discussed here fit the category of the carnivalesque if any do, yet we have seen to what extent the discourse of ridicule can be appropriated by the centers of power and steered in a desired direction. In other words, no definite point of view can be ascribed to a stylistic form without acknowledging particularities of a discursive situation. Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures constructs an alternative “situation” model for Soviet viewers, which strongly engages their working models of reality in the interpretation of the narrative. Gaidai’s comedy employs the sight gag in order to involve the figure of Khrushchev, and thus destabilise the primary diegetic network. The doubling of the figure of the engineer lends a particular potency to the semantic elements present in the basic diegetic situation model, and enables the viewer to take a more reflexive position in regard to the work, but more importantly, towards the worldview from which the specific object has been retrieved. In the long run, the rigidity of Socialist Realism as an artistic mode seems to have been incompatible with the widespread popularity of comedy of this kind. Noel Carroll, “Notes on the Sight Gag”, Andrew Horton (ed.) Comedy/Cinema/Theory, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991. Daniel Morrow, “Situation Models and Point of View”, Willie van Peer and Seymour Chatman (eds), New Perspectives on Narrative Perspective, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001. Gaidai had already thoroughly satirised “upravdom” in his classic Diamond Arm (Brilyantovaya ruka) (1968). In his play, which he wrote in 1935, Bulgakov envisaged that the roles of “upravdom” Bunsha-Koretskiy and Ivan the Terrible be played by two different actors. This was, of course, dictated by the representational potential of theatre. By using the same actor for two main roles, Gaidai significantly enhanced the expressive strength of Bulgakov’s original idea. As we have seen, this was a highly characteristic feature of the silent film comedy. For the contemporary American release, the company that released the DVD, Ruscico, used the title Ivan the Terrible: Back to the Future. The translation seems very appropriate, for it is a Back to the Future sequel made in the States during the 80s that exemplifies the main principles of assembling a series of internally incoherent situation models from elements, which, if sorted by its position in “story time” originally “belong” to different situation models. At the end of Diamond Arm Gaidai masterfully parodies Eisenstein’s style in a scene in which the main hero fights two gangsters at the car mechanic’s workshop. This is a very good example of how a brief shift in stylistic features may, if noticed, bring about a profound change in the viewer’s attitude towards the diegetic characters and events. Iskusstvo kino, no. 9, 1996. Sergeii Dobrotvorskii, “And his Task is…” (“I zadacha pri nem…”), Iskusstvo kino, no. 9, September 1996. “In a free society everything can be published and it is forgotten because it is seen at a glance. Under absolutism everything is hidden, but may be divined; that is what makes it interesting.” Michael Tatu, Power in the Kremlin, Viking Press, New York, 1969, p. 5. Although the differences between free society and absolutism may not be as sharp as implied here, this statement by the Marquis de Custine from 1839 suggests a possible rationale for trying to offer an interpretation of a popular comedy made some 40 years ago. Khrushchev and his agricultural policies were also roundly criticised at the March 1965 Central Committee Plenum, although again he was not personally named. In Communist countries in general a favourite way to publicly prove the successes of Communism was to officially compare the 1913 (or 1939) statistics with those of the current year. A quantitative claim was sufficient proof to support the argument (which was always the same, that “we” are much better off materially now than under the old regime). William J. Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1995, p. 277. In Diamond Arm Gaidai continues to ridicule Khrushchev and his rule. However implausible it may sound, it seems that the fishing scene was inspired by the stories of Khrushchev’s guests being guaranteed good fishing luck with the help of adequately placed divers. Soviet cinema has from its early years referred to important political figures. In Stalin’s time his cult was pervasive in the movies made in the Soviet Union. See Hans Günther, “Wise Father Stalin and His Family in Soviet Cinema,” Socialist Realism Without Shores, Thomas Lahusen and Evgeny Dobrenko (eds), Duke University Press, Durham, 1997. This was also a prominent feature of Montage films, especially those made by Eisenstein, which frequently brought in Lenin to support the validity of their arguments. Even in Battleship Potemkin (1925), which takes place in 1905, a leader of the rebellion Vakulinchuk, who, we are told, “was first to fire a shot,” and among the first to die, after being mortally wounded hovers above the water, which has already become a grave to the officers thrown overboard, just as Lenin, the leader of the revolution, hovered between life and death after his assassination in 1921, until he finally died in 1924. (Equally tellingly, Vakulinchuk in the film looks more like Stalin than like Lenin, although the contest for first place in the Soviet leadership was only just heating up at the time.) The sailors attempt in vain to save him and by the time he is brought up from the sea, he is already dead. Nevertheless, he remains the beacon in the continuing revolutionary struggle, whom thousands of soldiers and grieving citizens pay last respects while he lay in waiting (just as they did to Lenin in 1924). Josephine Woll, Real Images: Soviet Cinema and the Thaw, I.B. Tauris, London, 2000, p. 188. Andrew Horton, “Introduction: Carnival versus Lashing Laughter in Soviet Cinema”, Horton (ed), Inside Soviet Film Satire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993.

2019-04-19T20:50:57Z

http://sensesofcinema.com/2004/comedy-and-perception/operation_y/

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Components like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, and also Iodine are part of the trembles. These elements execute several essential features in the everyday routine. They sustain bone health and wellness, body immune system, muscle health and wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys as well as heart and also are needed in lots of processes. Numerous various other compounds like Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, Folate, and Niacin are also existing in these shakes. These ideal shape drinks make it sure that the body gets all the called for points and keep the additional nutrients away from the body. Perfect form drinks are very delicious as well as are a reward to take in. A great deal of tastes are introduced by different brands. Various deals as well as ideal shape shake discount codes are likewise supplied by these brand names. All the flavors of shakes are deserving of attempting and a customer won’t be sorry for the decision. 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With the passage of time, each person obtained recognized with the relevance of body treatment. Office work made many individuals believe about their growing stubborn bellies as each individual began growing additional weight and also obtaining obese. With the development of computer systems, the resting tasks additionally boosted and also lots of individuals left form. With the worry of obtaining over-weight, a large populace began looking for some approaches to stay healthy and also audio. IdealShape store near me Why not traditional dieting?? With the idea IdealShape store near me suggestion better shape and as well as, the conventional diet was claimed declared a solution by many lots of. Depriving as well as diet programs make the human body deficient of several nutrients and also essentials which are required on day-to-day basis. Ultimately, the idea of diet programs and also depriving was gotten rid of from the checklist of techniques to accomplish a better shape. Ideal shape form drinks introduced as alternatives options conventional standard diet programs as well as methods approaches weight loss. It’s a meal replacement shake, which aids its customers to drink off the extra weight and body fats. These ideal shape shake discount codes aid the purchaser to purchase these drinks at a cutoff price as well as appreciate them. A great deal of people eat these excellent form trembles on day-to-day basis as opposed to normal meals as these drinks are better in managing the shapes and size, giving the body all the essential nutrients and also not any type of extra fats or cholesterol. Components like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, and Iodine belong to the shakes. These aspects do numerous crucial features in the daily regimen. They sustain bone wellness, body immune system, muscle mass health, thyroid glands, kidneys as well as heart as well as are needed in many processes. . All these nutrients are crucial for the daily working of the body. Standard diet programs makes the body deficient of these nutrients. Nonetheless, these ideal form trembles make it sure that the body gets all the required things and keep the additional nutrients away from the body. Suitable shape shakes are really tasty as well as are a treat to eat. Various deals and ideal shape shake discount rate codes are additionally offered by these brands. All the tastes of trembles are worthy of trying and a customer won’t regret the decision. The majority of the tastes include around 100 calories each offering. This quantity of energy makes it sure that your body components obtain the called for energy to function and also operate. Practically 30 grams of shake includes 11 gram of healthy proteins which is about one third. 3 grams fat and 5 grams sugar are also existing in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is concerning 25 milligrams, salt has to do with 210 milligrams and also potassium has to do with 180 milligrams in an inside story or 30 grams of shake. In other words, these shakes are very nutritious as well as balanced for a diet. These drinks are widely used nowadays and also are truly outstanding for losing the weight, getting in shape, decreasing the body dimension and also establishing the basic nutritious diet regimen. About a few decades back, the physique had not been an essential problem for any individual besides sportspersons. Normal individuals really did not pay any type of particular interest in making their bodies much better and fit. With the flow of time, every various other individual got recognized with the value of body care. Office work made many individuals consider their growing stubborn bellies as every other individual began expanding extra weight and also obtaining obese. With the creation of computer systems, the resting tasks additionally enhanced and also many individuals left form. With the fear of obtaining over-weight, a large population started looking for some methods to stay in shape and sound. With the idea of far better form as well as looks, the conventional diet regimen was asserted as a service by many individuals. A huge populace started dieting, leaving morning meals, downsizing their dishes as well as jogging for the sake of an audio body. Originally, it was assumed a great concept to leave dishes as well as jog an extra mile as numerous individuals claimed to look as well as feel better. No one knew how many unfavorable impacts the traditional dieting was creating the human bodies. Today, all the problems and negative effects of weight loss and also starving have been discovered by the professionals. Starving and also diet programs make the body deficient of numerous nutrients as well as basics which are needed on everyday basis. Leaving meals doesn’t only make the people starving however it additionally makes them weak, less resistant to conditions and also inside feeble. At some point, the suggestion of weight loss and depriving was removed from the checklist of methods to achieve a far better form. What is an IdealShape store near me ???? Ideal shape trembles were presented as alternatives for traditional dieting and also other techniques of weight reduction. A great deal of people take in these excellent form shakes on day-to-day basis rather than routine meals as these trembles are better in controlling the shapes and size, offering the body all the crucial nutrients and none additional fats or cholesterol. Aspects like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, and Iodine become part of the trembles. These aspects execute several vital functions in the daily regimen. They support bone wellness, immune system, muscle health and wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys as well as heart and also are needed in many procedures. Lots of other compounds like Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, Folate, and Niacin are likewise existing in these drinks. These excellent shape shakes make it certain that the body gets all the required points and keep the added nutrients away from the body. Perfect shape trembles are very scrumptious and are a treat to take in. A great deal of tastes are presented by different brands. Various deals and also ideal shape shake discount rate codes are likewise given by these brands. All the tastes of drinks deserve trying as well as a consumer won’t be sorry for the choice. Different tastes like Mocha, Cream Orange, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookie N’Cream, Egg Nog, and also Dark Chocolate etc. are offered at numerous stores. All these tastes are there to taste for everyone and will undoubtedly supply an excellent experience. Many of the flavors consist of around 100 calories each serving. This quantity of power makes it sure that your body parts obtain the called for power to function and also function. Almost 30 grams of shake contains 11 gram of proteins which has to do with one third. 3 grams fat as well as 5 grams sugar are also existing in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is about 25 milligrams, sodium is concerning 210 milligrams as well as potassium is regarding 180 milligrams in an inside story or 30 grams of shake. In short, these shakes are pretty healthy and also well balanced for a diet. These drinks are widely used nowadays and also are actually impressive for losing the weight, obtaining in form, minimizing the body dimension and establishing the fundamental nutritious diet regimen. Concerning a number of years back, the body shape wasn’t a crucial worry for any person besides sportspersons. Normal people really did not pay any kind of certain interest in making their bodies better and also in shape. With the flow of time, each person obtained recognized with the relevance of body care. Office jobs made many individuals think concerning their growing tummies as each individual began growing additional weight as well as obtaining overweight. With the development of computer systems, the resting tasks further boosted as well as lots of individuals left shape. With the concern of getting over-weight, a huge population started searching for some techniques to remain healthy and sound. IdealShape store near me Why not conventional dieting?? With the idea of much better form and looks, the conventional diet regimen was declared as a service by many individuals. A big population started weight loss, leaving morning meals, downsizing their meals and running for the purpose of a sound body. Initially, it was believed a great idea to leave dishes as well as run an additional mile as many individuals claimed to look far better. No one knew just how numerous adverse impacts the standard weight loss was triggering the human bodies. Today, all the problems and adverse effects of diet programs and starving have been located by the professionals. Starving and also weight loss make the body deficient of numerous nutrients as well as essentials which are needed on everyday basis. Leaving meals does not just make the people hungry but it additionally makes them weak, less resistant to illness and internally weak. Ultimately, the idea of diet programs and also starving was removed from the checklist of techniques to achieve a much better form. Ideal suitable form drinks introduced as alternatives for conventional traditional weight loss and also various other of weight loss. It’s a dish replacement shake, which aids its consumers to drink off the additional weight as well as body fats. These ideal shape shake price cut codes help the buyer to get these shakes at a cutoff rate as well as appreciate them. A lot of people consume these excellent shape drinks on daily basis instead of regular dishes as these trembles are better in managing the shapes and size, providing the body all the vital nutrients and none extra fats or cholesterol. Elements like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, as well as Iodine become part of the drinks. These aspects carry out numerous crucial functions in the daily regimen. They support bone health, body immune system, muscle mass wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys and also heart as well as are required in many procedures. . All these nutrients are crucial for the everyday working of the body. Standard diet programs makes the body deficient of these nutrients. Nonetheless, these optimal shape shakes make it certain that the body obtains all the required points and keep the extra nutrients away from the body. Perfect form trembles are very delicious as well as are a treat to eat. A great deal of tastes are presented by various brand names. Various deals and also ideal shape shake discount rate codes are additionally provided by these brand names. All the flavors of drinks are worthy of trying and a customer will not regret the decision. Various tastes like Mocha, Cream Orange, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookie N’Cream, Egg Nog, and also Dark Chocolate and so on are readily available at many shops. All these tastes exist to taste for everyone as well as will certainly supply an excellent experience. A lot of the flavors consist of around 100 calories per serving. This quantity of power makes it sure that your body parts obtain the called for energy to function and also work. Virtually 30 grams of shake includes 11 gram of proteins which is regarding one 3rd. 3 grams fat and 5 grams sugar are likewise existing in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is regarding 25 milligrams, sodium is regarding 210 milligrams and also potassium is regarding 180 milligrams in an inside story or 30 grams of shake. Simply put, these shakes are very nutritious and well balanced for a diet regimen. These drinks are extensively used nowadays and are truly impressive for losing the weight, getting in shape, reducing the body dimension as well as creating the basic healthy diet regimen. About a number of years ago, the physique wasn’t a crucial problem for anybody besides sportsmen. Normal people really did not pay any certain attention in making their bodies far better as well as in form. With the flow of time, every various other person obtained recognized with the significance of body treatment. Workplace work made many individuals think of their growing stubborn bellies as every other individual began expanding added weight as well as getting obese. With the innovation of computer systems, the sitting work even more raised as well as lots of people got out of form. With the worry of getting over-weight, a big population began browsing for some approaches to remain fit and also sound. With the idea IdealShape store near me of better shape and and also, the conventional standard diet regimen claimed asserted a solution service many severalIndividuals Starving and diet programs make the human body deficient of many nutrients as well as fundamentals which are needed on day-to-day basis. At some point, the suggestion of diet programs and also starving was gotten rid of from the listing of approaches to attain a much better form. Ideal form drinks were introduced as alternatives for standard dieting and also various other methods of weight reduction. A lot of people eat these ideal shape trembles on everyday basis as opposed to routine meals as these trembles are much better in managing the size and also shape, offering the body all the crucial nutrients and also not any kind of extra fats or cholesterol. Elements like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, as well as Iodine are component of the drinks. These elements do a number of vital functions in the day-to-day routine. They sustain bone health and wellness, body immune system, muscular tissue health, thyroid glands, kidneys as well as heart and are needed in many procedures. . All these nutrients are vital for the everyday working of the body. Traditional weight loss makes the body deficient of these nutrients. These excellent form drinks make it certain that the body obtains all the needed things as well as maintain the additional nutrients away from the body. Suitable form drinks are very tasty and are a reward to eat. Various offers as well as ideal shape shake price cut codes are likewise provided by these brand names. All the tastes of drinks are worthwhile of attempting and also a customer will not regret the choice. Nearly 30 grams of shake includes 11 gram of proteins which is regarding one third. 3 grams fat and 5 grams sugar are likewise existing in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is regarding 25 milligrams, salt is about 210 milligrams and potassium is about 180 milligrams in a scoop or 30 grams of shake. These shakes are commonly utilized nowadays as well as are actually remarkable for shedding the weight, getting in shape, lessening the body size and also creating the fundamental nourishing diet. About a few decades ago, the body shape had not been an essential worry for any person aside from athletes. Typical people really did not pay any certain attention in making their bodies better as well as in shape. With the flow of time, each person obtained acknowledged with the relevance of body treatment. Office tasks made lots of people think of their expanding tummies as every various other individual started expanding additional weight as well as obtaining obese. With the creation of computer systems, the sitting tasks even more increased as well as lots of people got out of form. With the anxiety of getting over-weight, a huge populace began looking for some approaches to stay fit and audio. IdealShape store near me Why not conventional weight loss?? With the idea IdealShape store near me concept better much better and as well as, the conventional diet was claimed declared a solution option many several. Depriving and diet programs make the human body deficient of numerous nutrients and fundamentals which are called for on daily basis. Eventually, the idea of diet programs and also depriving was gotten rid of from the checklist of approaches to attain a much better shape. Ideal shape shakes trembles introduced as alternatives options conventional standard diet programs and also various other techniques weight loss. It’s a meal substitute shake, which assists its customers to shake off the additional weight and also body fats. These ideal shape shake price cut codes aid the buyer to purchase these shakes at a cutoff price and also appreciate them. A great deal of individuals eat these suitable form shakes on day-to-day basis as opposed to routine dishes as these drinks are much better in managing the shapes and size, supplying the body all the necessary nutrients and also none additional fats or cholesterol. Components like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, as well as Iodine become part of the trembles. These elements do numerous vital functions in the daily routine. They sustain bone wellness, body immune system, muscular tissue wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys as well as heart as well as are needed in lots of procedures. . All these nutrients are crucial for the day-to-day working of the body. Conventional weight loss makes the body deficient of these nutrients. These perfect shape shakes make it certain that the body obtains all the required things and also maintain the extra nutrients away from the body. Perfect form trembles are very tasty and are a reward to consume. Various offers and ideal shape shake discount rate codes are additionally provided by these brand names. All the flavors of shakes are worthy of attempting as well as a customer will not be sorry for the decision. Practically 30 grams of shake consists of 11 gram of proteins which is about one third. 3 grams fat and 5 grams sugar are also present in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is about 25 milligrams, salt is about 210 milligrams as well as potassium is concerning 180 milligrams in a scoop or 30 grams of shake. These trembles are commonly made use of nowadays and also are actually impressive for losing the weight, obtaining in shape, lessening the body dimension and also creating the standard nutritious diet. About a couple of decades back, the body form wasn’t a crucial issue for anyone in addition to sportspersons. Regular people didn’t pay any type of specific interest in making their bodies better and fit. With the flow of time, every various other individual obtained acknowledged with the significance of body care. Office work made lots of people consider their expanding stomaches as each individual began expanding added weight as well as obtaining overweight. With the invention of computers, the sitting jobs even more enhanced and lots of people got out of form. With the worry of getting over-weight, a large populace started looking for some techniques to stay fit as well as sound. With the concept of much better shape and looks, the traditional diet regimen was asserted as a remedy by many individuals. A huge populace started weight loss, leaving morning meals, downsizing their dishes and jogging for an audio body. It was thought an excellent suggestion to leave dishes and also run an extra mile as several people claimed to look and feel much better. No one understood just how several negative results the conventional diet programs was causing the human bodies. Today, all the setbacks as well as negative effects of weight loss and starving have actually been found by the specialists. Starving and also dieting make the body deficient of many nutrients and also essentials which are needed on everyday basis. Leaving dishes doesn’t only make the people starving but it additionally makes them weak, much less resistant to conditions and inside feeble. Ultimately, the idea of diet programs and also starving was gotten rid of from the list of techniques to attain a far better shape. Ideal shape form drinks introduced as alternatives for conventional dieting diet programs other methods techniques weight loss. It’s a meal replacement shake, which assists its customers to drink off the added weight and body fats. These ideal shape shake price cut codes help the buyer to purchase these shakes at a cutoff price as well as appreciate them. A great deal of people take in these ideal form drinks on daily basis rather than routine dishes as these trembles are much better in managing the shapes and size, providing the body all the crucial nutrients as well as not any type of additional fats or cholesterol. Aspects like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, and Iodine are part of the shakes. These aspects perform a number of essential features in the daily regimen. They support bone health, immune system, muscular tissue health and wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys and heart and also are needed in several processes. Many other compounds like Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, Folate, and Niacin are additionally existing in these drinks. These optimal form shakes make it sure that the body gets all the needed points as well as keep the added nutrients away from the body. Ideal shape shakes are very tasty as well as are a reward to take in. Different offers and also ideal shape shake discount rate codes are additionally given by these brands. All the tastes of shakes are worthwhile of attempting and also a consumer will not be sorry for the choice. A lot of the tastes consist of around 100 calories each offering. This quantity of power makes it certain that your body components obtain the called for power to function and also function. Virtually 30 grams of shake has 11 gram of healthy proteins which has to do with one 3rd. 3 grams fat and 5 grams sugar are additionally present in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is regarding 25 milligrams, sodium is about 210 milligrams as well as potassium is regarding 180 milligrams in an inside story or 30 grams of shake. In other words, these drinks are pretty nourishing as well as balanced for a diet regimen. These shakes are extensively utilized nowadays as well as are actually excellent for losing the weight, obtaining in shape, reducing the body size and also developing the standard healthy diet. Concerning a couple of decades earlier, the body form wasn’t a crucial problem for any person apart from sportsmen. Regular people really did not pay any type of certain focus in making their bodies much better and also in shape. With the invention of computer systems, the sitting tasks additionally enhanced and several individuals got out of shape. With the idea IdealShape store near me of better far better and and also, the conventional traditional was claimed as a solution service many numerousIndividuals Starving and weight loss make the human body deficient of numerous nutrients and also basics which are called for on everyday basis. At some point, the concept of weight loss and depriving was removed from the listing of approaches to accomplish a much better shape. Ideal shape drinks were presented as alternatives for conventional diet programs and other methods of weight-loss. A great deal of individuals eat these ideal shape trembles on everyday basis rather of regular dishes as these trembles are much better in controlling the shapes and size, offering the body all the vital nutrients and none extra fats or cholesterol. Aspects like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, as well as Iodine become part of the shakes. These components carry out several important features in the daily regimen. They sustain bone health and wellness, body immune system, muscle mass health, thyroid glands, kidneys and heart and also are required in lots of processes. . All these nutrients are important for the daily working of the body. Standard weight loss makes the body deficient of these nutrients. Nevertheless, these perfect form drinks make it sure that the body gets all the called for points and maintain the extra nutrients away from the body. Suitable shape trembles are extremely scrumptious as well as are a reward to take in. Different deals and ideal shape shake price cut codes are likewise supplied by these brands. All the flavors of trembles are deserving of attempting and also a consumer will not regret the decision. A lot of the flavors contain around 100 calories per serving. This quantity of energy makes it sure that your body parts obtain the called for power to function and also work. Virtually 30 grams of shake has 11 gram of healthy proteins which is concerning one 3rd. 3 grams fat and also 5 grams sugar are also present in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is regarding 25 milligrams, sodium has to do with 210 milligrams and also potassium has to do with 180 milligrams in a scoop or 30 grams of shake. Simply put, these trembles are rather nourishing as well as balanced for a diet regimen. These shakes are commonly used nowadays and also are really excellent for shedding the weight, obtaining in shape, reducing the body dimension as well as establishing the standard nutritious diet plan. Regarding a pair of decades back, the body shape wasn’t an important issue for anybody aside from sportsmen. Typical people didn’t pay any certain attention in making their bodies better as well as fit. With the passage of time, every various other person obtained recognized with the importance of body treatment. Office work made several individuals believe regarding their growing stubborn bellies as every various other person began expanding additional weight and obtaining overweight. With the development of computer systems, the sitting tasks further increased and also lots of people left shape. With the worry of obtaining over-weight, a huge population began looking for some approaches to remain fit as well as sound. With the concept of far better form as well as looks, the traditional diet regimen was asserted as a solution by lots of people. A huge populace began dieting, leaving morning meals, downsizing their dishes and jogging for the purpose of an audio body. It was assumed an excellent idea to leave meals and jog an extra mile as several individuals claimed to look and feel better. Nevertheless, no person recognized the number of unfavorable effects the traditional weight loss was creating the human bodies. Today, all the problems and also side impacts of diet programs and starving have actually been discovered by the professionals. Depriving and also dieting make the body deficient of many nutrients and essentials which are required on everyday basis. Leaving meals does not just make the individuals starving however it additionally makes them weak, less durable to illness and also inside weak. Ultimately, the idea of weight loss and also depriving was removed from the listing of approaches to achieve a far better form. Ideal shape shakes drinks introduced as alternatives options conventional standard and as well as methods techniques weight loss. It’s a meal substitute shake, which helps its consumers to drink off the added weight as well as body fats. These ideal shape shake discount codes aid the buyer to purchase these shakes at a cutoff cost as well as appreciate them. A great deal of people consume these excellent form drinks on everyday basis as opposed to normal dishes as these shakes are better in regulating the shapes and size, providing the body all the essential nutrients as well as none additional fats or cholesterol. Aspects like Phosphorus, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Zinc, and also Iodine belong to the shakes. These elements execute numerous important features in the daily routine. They sustain bone health and wellness, immune system, muscle mass health and wellness, thyroid glands, kidneys and heart as well as are needed in numerous processes. . All these nutrients are necessary for the everyday working of the body. Conventional dieting makes the body deficient of these nutrients. Nonetheless, these ideal shape drinks make it sure that the body gets all the required points and also keep the added nutrients away from the body. Ideal shape trembles are very scrumptious and also are a reward to take in. Various offers as well as ideal shape shake discount rate codes are also offered by these brands. All the tastes of trembles are worthwhile of trying and also a consumer will not be sorry for the choice. Practically 30 grams of shake consists of 11 gram of proteins which is regarding one third. 3 grams fat as well as 5 grams sugar are also present in 30 grams of shake. Cholesterol is concerning 25 milligrams, salt is regarding 210 milligrams as well as potassium is about 180 milligrams in a scoop or 30 grams of shake. These shakes are widely utilized nowadays and also are actually excellent for shedding the weight, getting in form, decreasing the body size and establishing the basic nourishing diet.

2019-04-22T21:12:52Z

https://chloechocolat.com/idealshape-store-near-me/

Systems and methods of providing digital game content to a portable game system may include a digital content source and an authentication system in communication with the portable game system. The portable game system may receive a digital game content from the digital content source. The digital game content may be stored in a storage component in the portable game system. The digital game content may be activated by a user of the portable game system, for example. After activating, the digital game content may be changed from a demonstration version when an electronic credential may be present in the portable game system. This application is related to the subject matter disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket MSFT-5883/319814.01, filed on even date herewith and entitled “DIGITAL GAME DISTRIBUTION AND ROYALTY CALCULATION”, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Digital content and portable devices for such digital content have become increasingly popular in recent years. For example, online music sales of digital music content have increased exponentially. Additionally, the sales of portable music devices, for example, MP3 players for such digital music have also grown at tremendous rates. One reason for the success of both digital content and portable devices may include the elimination of physical media such as CDs or DVDs. Now, a user of such a device may have the ability to store thousands of digital music files or video files, for example, on the portable device eliminating the need to carry around thousands of CDs, or DVDs, for example. Portable video game systems have also become popular in recent years, but not at the same rate as portable music devices. One reason for the limited success of portable video game systems may include the need to purchase, use, and carry physical media embodying a game for the portable game system. Two hurdles have contributed to the need to carry physical media for portable gaming systems. First, until recently, sufficient technology has been lacking to store and provide digital content to portable game systems. Second, until recently, there was a fairly high perceived risk of providing digital content to such portable game systems. But, with the success of electronic distribution of digital content such as digital music content, this perceived risk may diminish and game content publishers and game content creators and rights holders may become more comfortable if reliable securities and protections may be afforded in distributing digital content. According to some embodiments, a portable game system may receive digital game content from a digital content source such as other video game systems, online game service providers, retail stores, a computer that includes digital game content, and a retail kiosk, for example. The digital game content received may be in a demonstration mode such that the portable game system may only access the digital game content for a limited time or number of uses, for example. The portable game system may also include an electronic credential that authorizes additional modes of the digital game content. The electronic credential may be generated by an authorization system according to some embodiments. For example, after receiving the digital game content, the portable game system may generate a package of data information that includes a license key therein. In one embodiment, the license key may be separately purchased and entered into the portable game system after the digital game content may be received by the portable game system. Additionally, the license key may be packaged with the digital game content received by the portable game system. The package of data information may be received by the authentication system. The authentication system may compare the data information with criteria. If the information matches the criteria, an electronic credential may be generated by the authentication system and transmitted to the portable game system. According to some embodiments, the authentication system may store valid and used license codes to guard against an unauthorized generation of an electronic credential. The authentication system may also store an authentication history in case the digital game content may be damaged, for example. Thus, if the digital game content may be damaged, for example, a digital certificate may be renewed. FIG. 9 shows an exemplary computing environment in which aspects of the example embodiments may be implemented. FIG. 1 depicts an example embodiment of a video game system 100 in communication with a digital content source 110 and an authentication system 140. Video game system 100 may be a portable game system. Video game system 100 may include a housing unit with a display screen and number of inputs such as buttons. Video game system 100 may also include a number of hardware components that may reside in the housing unit including a processor, a graphics card, a storage component, a memory component, a memory card reader, an antenna, a communication port, a disc drive, a game cartridge slot, or the like. Video game system 100 may also include software components such as an operating system that may control the hardware components. Video game system 100 may include other suitable components such that a user may play a digital game content 120 such as video games on video game system game 100, for example. Video game system 100 may be in communication with digital content source 110 via a wired or wireless link. For example, video game system 100 may include a built in wireless antenna such as WiFi wireless LAN port, Bluetooth protocol antenna, or the like to provide a wireless connection to digital content source 110. Additionally, video game system 100 may include a communication port such as an Ethernet port, USB port, Firewire port, or the like that may provide a wired connection to digital content source 110. Digital content source 110 may provide digital game content 120 such as video games to video game system 100. According to one embodiment, digital content source 110 may include another portable game system. Each portable game system may have a library of digital game content 120 stored in, for example, a storage component. A user of the portable game system of digital content source 110 may wirelessly share digital game content 120 with a user of video game system 100. For example, a user of a portable game system of digital content source 110 may select digital content 120 from the library to share with a user of video game system 100. A binary file of digital game content 120 may be transferred to and received by video game system 100 via a wireless connection such as WiFi, Infrared, or Bluetooth, for example, or a wired connection such as a USB cord, an Ethernet cord, or the like. The received binary file of digital game content 120 may be stored in a storage component, for example, of video game system 100 such that the user of video game system 100 may access digital game content 120. Digital game content 120 may include a demonstration version of a particular game. For example, digital game content 120 may be transmitted to video game system 100 without an electronic credential such as a digital certificate or license key. When the user of video game system 100 launches or activates digital content source 120, video game system 100 may check for the electronic credential such that the licensing rights of digital game content 120 may be authenticated. If no electronic credential may be stored in video game system 100, the user may access the demonstration version of digital game content 120, which will be described in more detail below. According to an example embodiment, digital content source 110 may include an online game provider. For example, digital content source 110 may include an online game store that provides a library of digital game content 120. Digital game content 120 may be purchased by a user of video game system 100 from digital game content source 110. For example, a user of the digital content source 110 may select and purchase digital content 120 from the library. Video game system 100 and digital content source 110 may include a wireless connection such as WiFi, Infrared, or Bluetooth, for example, or a wired connection such as a USB cord, an Ethernet cord, or the like connected to a modem in communication with a network 130. After purchasing, a binary file of the selected digital game content 120 may be transferred to video game system 100 from digital content source 110 via network 130. According to one embodiment, digital game content 120 may be transferred directly to video game system 100. Alternatively, digital game content 120 may be downloaded from digital content source 110 to a computer or to a second video game system. Video game system 100 may be connected to the computer or the second video game system such that the downloaded digital game content 120 may be transferred to video game system 100 from the computer or the second video game system. For example, digital game content 120 may be synchronized to video game system 100 via the computer or the second video game system. The received binary file of digital game content 120 may be stored in a storage component, for example, of video game system 100 such that the user of video game system 100 may access digital game content 120. Digital game content source 110 may also include a retail store. For example, a user of video game system 100 may purchase a physical media such as a disc or cartridge, for example, that may include digital game content 120 at a retail store. According to one embodiment, a computer or a second video game system may be used to digitally extract digital game content 120 purchased at the retail store. The physical media may be inserted into the computer or the second video game system such that the computer or second video game system digitally extracts a binary file of digital game content 120 from the physical media. Video game system 100 may be connected to the computer or the second video game system such that the digitally extracted digital game content 120 may be transferred to video game system 100 from the computer and/or the second video game system. For example, digital game content 120 may be synchronized to video game system 100 via the computer or the second video game system. Additionally, the user may insert the physical media into video game system 100. Video game system 100 may digitally extract digital game content 120 from the physical media into a binary file of digital game content 120. The binary file of digital game content 120 may be stored in a storage component, for example, of video game system 100 such that the user of video game system 100 may access digital game content 120. According to an example embodiment, digital game content source 110 may include a retail kiosk, for example. The retail kiosk may be set up in a retail store, an airport, a restaurant, or the like. The retail kiosk may include a housing unit with an input device such as a touch screen, a keyboard, or push buttons, for example. The input device may be in operative communication with a computer residing in the housing unit. The computer may have access to a library of digital game content 120. The computer may store digital game content 120 locally in a storage component. The computer may also retrieve digital game content 120 via a network such as network 130. The retail kiosk may include a wired communication component such as USB cable, a Firewire cable, an Ethernet Cable, or the like. The retail kiosk may include a wireless communication component such as WiFi wireless LAN port, an Infrared port, Bluetooth protocol antenna, or the like. Video game system 100 may be connected to the retail kiosk via the wired communication component or the wireless communication component such that digital game content 120 may be transferred to video game system 100 from the retail kiosk. The binary file of digital game content 120 may be stored in a storage component, for example, of video game system 100 such that the user of video game system 100 may access digital game content 120. Digital game content 120 may include a binary file of a video game that may be compatible and accessed by a user of video game system 100. Digital game content 120 may be accessed according to a licensing right such as a full version, demonstration version, limited assets version, and limited time version, for example. The full version of digital game content 120 may include unlimited access to digital game content 120. For example, a user may launch the full version of digital game content 120 stored in video game system 100. The full version may provide the user with unlimited playing rights. The demonstration version may include limited access to digital game content. For example, the demonstration version may allow a user to open the binary file of digital game content 120 a certain number of times. The limited asset version may include access to certain characters or certain levels in digital game content 120. Additionally, the limited time version may provide a user unlimited access for a set period of time such as a week, for example. The licensing rights afforded to digital game content 120 may depend upon a license key that may be entered by a user of video game system 100 or received by video game system 100 and an electronic credential that may be generated based on the license key, which will be described in more detail below. Video game system 100 may be in communication with authentication system 140 via network 130. Authentication system 140 may be used to generate license keys, authenticate license keys entered by user of video game system 100, and provide electronic credentials to video game system 100 granting licensing rights to access digital game content 120. For example, authentication system 140 may generate unique license keys. The license keys may include a unique identifier such as a unique number. The unique identifier may be used to activate digital game content 120 according to the version of digital game content 120 purchased. For example, the unique identifier may start with a specific number to indicate whether a full version of digital game content 120 may have been purchased. Alternatively, the unique identifier may include a specific number sequence to indicate whether certain levels and/or character limitations in a limited assets version have been purchased. The license keys may be distributed via a license card to retailers or the license keys may be purchased from online retail stores, for example. After distribution, a user may purchase a license key from the retailer or online game provider, for example. The user may launch digital game content 120 stored in video game system 100. Digital game content 120 may default in demonstration version, for example. Upon launching digital game content 120, the user may enter the purchased license key. Video game system 100 may generate a package of data information that includes the license key. The package of data information may also include a retail key, a title key corresponding to the designation, title, or the like of digital game content 120, and a system key corresponding to a unique identifier for video game system 100. The package of data information may be encrypted by video game system 100 such that the license key, retail key, title key, system key, and other data information may be obscured if intercepted during transmission to authentication system 140. The package of data information may be transmitted to authentication system 140 from video game system 100 via network 130. For example, video game system 100 may provide a connection to authentication system 140 via network 130. After receiving the package of data information, authentication system 140 may unencrypt the package of data information if appropriate. Authentication system 140 may then authenticate the license key by comparing the license key with license keys generated by authentication system 140. Authentication system 140 may then generate an electronic credential such as a digital certificate, for example, that grants licensing rights and access to digital game content 120 corresponding to the purchased license key. The electronic credential may then be transmitted to video game system 100. Video game system 100 may store the electronic credential. The electronic credential may then be used by video game system 100 to unlock digital game content 120 from a demonstration version such that the electronic credential may grant unlimited or limited access to digital game content 120 based on full version, limited asset version, limited time version, or the like. Authentication system 140 may include hardware components such as a processor, storage components, databases, or the like and/or software components to control the hardware components such that authentication system 140 may generate license keys, authenticate license keys entered by user of video game system 100, and provide electronic credentials to video game system 100 based on the license keys, which will be described in more detail below. Thus, according to one embodiment, digital content source 110 and authentication system 140 may provide digital game content 120 decoupled from licensing rights to access digital game content 120. According to an example embodiment, video game system 100 may also be in communication with a digital game content management system 150. Digital game content management system 150 may provide digital game content via a number of digital game content transaction options. Additionally, digital game content management system 150 may receive a package of data information including the retail key, title key, and license key from video game system 100 to calculate a royalty amount. The retail key may include a retailer such that the royalty amount may be distributed to the retailer. Digital game content management system 150 may include hardware components such as a processor, storage components, databases, or the like and software components to control the hardware components such that digital game content management system may provide digital game content transaction options and may compute royalties to distribute to the retailer, which will be described in more detail below. FIG. 2 depicts an example embodiment of a flow diagram that illustrates providing digital game content to a portable gaming device. As shown in FIG. 2, at 210, a portable game system may receive a digital game content from a digital content source. According to one embodiment, the portable game system may receive a binary file of the digital game content. The portable game system may include a housing unit with a display screen and number of inputs such as buttons. The portable game system may also include a number of hardware components that may reside in the housing unit including a processor, a graphics card, a storage component, a memory component, a memory card reader, an antenna, a communication port, a disc drive, a game cartridge slot and the like and software components such as an operating system that may control the hardware components. The digital content source may include a second portable game system. The digital content source may also include a retail store that may provide physical media of the digital game content that may be digitally extracted and synchronized to the portable game system. The digital game content source may also include an online game provider such as an online store, a retail kiosk, or the like. The digital game content may include a full version, a demonstration version, a limited asset version, a limited time version, or the like and may be stored in a storage component in the portable game system, for example. At 220, a user of the portable game system may launch or activate the digital game content stored in the portable game system. After the digital game content may be launched, at 230, the portable game system may check for an electronic credential such as a digital certificate stored in the storage component. The electronic credential may be used to access digital game content according to licensing rights purchased via the license key. If an electronic credential may be present in the storage component, at 240, the digital game content may be unlocked or changed from a demonstration version. For example, the digital game content may be unlocked or changed from the demonstration version to the full version, the limited asset version, the limited time version, or the like. Then, at 250, the digital game content may be opened and accessed according to licensing rights in the electronic credential. For example, the digital game content may have unlimited access according to the full version or limited access according to the limited assets version, the limited time version, or the like. At 260, the licensing rights to access the digital game content may be verified while the digital game content may be opened. For example, the portable game system may check for the electronic credential to ensure licensing rights have not changed while the digital game content may be opened or played. If an electronic credential may not be present in the storage component, at 270, the digital game content may be opened in a demonstration version. The demonstration version may include limited access to digital game content. For example, the demonstration version may allow a user to open the binary file of the digital game content a certain number of times. FIG. 3 depicts an example embodiment of a flow diagram that illustrates providing an electronic credential to the portable game system. As shown in FIG. 3, at 310, the portable game system may receive a license key to activate the digital game content. The license key may be received by the portable game system when a user inputs the license key. Additionally, the license key may be received by the portable game system via an electronic transfer from a retail kiosk, a video game system, a computer, a network connection, an online game provider, or the like. Additionally, the license key may be received with the digital game content. The license key may include a unique number or identifier that may be used to generate an electronic credential that may provide licensing rights to access the digital game content. For example, the unique number may provide unlimited or limited access to the digital game content. At 320, a package of data information may be generated by the portable game system. The package of data information may include a license key, a retail key, a title key, and a system key, for example. Additionally, the package of data information may be encrypted when entered into the portable game system such that the license key, retail key, title key, and system key may be obscured if intercepted during transmission to an authentication system. At 330, the package of data information may be transmitted via a network to the authentication system. The authentication system may include hardware components such as a processor, storage components, databases, or the like and software components to control the hardware components. The authentication system may receive the package of data information and unencrypt it if appropriate. The authentication system may then authenticate the license key by comparing the license key with license keys generated by the authentication system. Then, the authentication system may generate an electronic credential based on the package of data information. At 340, the portable game system may receive the electronic credential generated by the authentication system. The electronic credential may be used to grant licensing rights to access the digital game content stored in the portable game system. For example, the electronic credential may unlock the digital game content from a demonstration version. Additionally, the portable game system may check for the electronic credential while the digital game content may be opened. FIG. 4 depicts an example embodiment of authentication system 140 that may be adapted to generate and manage licensing rights of digital game content. Authentication system 140 may include a package storage module 420. Package storage module 420 may include a memory storage component such as a hard drive, Random Access Memory (RAM), a database, or the like. Package storage module 420 may received a package of data information 410 from a video game system such as video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1. Package of data information 410 may include a license key, a retail key, a title key, a system key, or the like. According to one embodiment, package of data information 410 may be encrypted, thus, authentication system 140 may unencrypt package of data information if appropriate. Authentication system 140 may also include an electronic credential module 440. Electronic credential module 440 may include a database, a hard drive, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like, for example. Electronic credential module 440 may store one or more criteria. The criteria may include rules that may be used to determine whether an element in package of data information 410 such as the license key may be authentic, for example. Electronic credential module 440 may include a database of valid license keys that may be used to verify a license key in package of data information 410, for example. According to one embodiment, authentication system 140 may include a processor 430 in operative communication with package storage module 420 and electronic credential criteria module 440. Processor 430 may include a typical computer processor such that processor 430 may interpret instructions and process data. Processor 430 may compare package of data information 410 stored in package storage module 420 with criteria stored in electronic credential module 440. If an element in package of data information 410 stored in package storage module 420 matches criteria stored in electronic credential module 440, processor 430 may generate an electronic credential 460. For example, processor 430 may compare the license key in package of data information 410 with a database of valid license keys in electronic credential module 440 such that processor 430 may generate electronic credential 460 if the license key in package of data information 410 matches a valid license key in the database. Electronic credential 460 may include a digital certificate, for example, such that electronic credential 460 may provide licensing rights to access digital game content 120, shown in FIG. 1. Processor 430 may also transmit electronic credential 460 to video game system 100 via network 130, as shown in FIG. 1. Authentication system 140 may further include an authentication log module 450 in operative communication with processor 430. Authentication log module 450 may include a memory storage component such as a hard drive, Random Access Memory (RAM), a database, or the like, for example. Authentication log module 450 may store a unique history log based on package of data information 410 and generated electronic credential 460. Authentication log module 450 may be used to renew electronic credential 460 if digital game content 120, shown in FIG. 1, may be damaged. For example, package of data information 410 may include a license key, retail key, title key, and system key from a previous package of data information. Processor 430 may compare package of data information 410 with the criteria in electronic credential module 440 and the unique history log stored in authentication log module 450. Processor 430 may re-generate electronic credential 460 if the criteria, the unique history log, and at least one element in package of data information 410 match. FIG. 5 depicts an example embodiment of a flow diagram that illustrates producing a software license key to establish licensing rights for digital game content. As shown in FIG. 5, at 510, a digital rights management system or authentication system, for example, may establish a digital game content title identifier. The digital game content title identifier may include a unique identifier such as a unique number, for example, of a designation, title, or the like corresponding to a digital game content that may be purchased. At 520, the authentication system may establish a digital content source identifier. The digital content source identifier may include a unique identifier such as a unique number, for example. The digital content source identifier may be used to identify where the produced software license key may be distributed. For example, the digital content source identifier may include a unique number corresponding to the retailer where the software license key may be sold. At 530, the authentication system may establish a license identifier. The license identifier may include a unique identifier such as a unique number, for example. The license identifier may be used to identify the licensing right that may be granted when the produced software key may be purchased. At 540, the authentication system may generate a software license key based on the digital game content title identifier, the digital source identifier, and the license identifier. The software license keys may include a unique identifier such as a unique number. The unique identifier may be a combination of the unique identifiers of the title identifier, the digital source identifier, and the license identifier. The software license key may be distributed to retail stores, online stores, or the like such that a user can purchase the software license key and enter it into a portable game system to activate digital game content stored in the portable game system. FIG. 6 depicts an example embodiment of a flow diagram that illustrates video game system distributing and tracking royalties of digital game content. As illustrated in FIG. 6, at 610, a video game system may establish a retailer. The video game system may include a housing unit with a display screen and number of inputs such as buttons. The video game system may also include a number of hardware components that may reside in the housing unit including a processor, a graphics card, a storage component, a memory component, a memory card reader, an antenna, a communication port, a disc drive, a game cartridge slot and the like and software components such as an operating system that may control the hardware components. According to one embodiment, a user of the video game system may select a retailer. Alternatively, the retailer may be tied to the video game system. For example, the retailer may include the retailer or retail store where the video game system may have been purchased. The retailer may be stored in the video game system. At 620, the video game system may generate a retail key for the retailer. The retail key may include a unique identifier such as a unique number that may correspond to the retailer. For example, each retailer may have its own unique number assigned thereto. At 630, the video game system may receive a license key to activate a binary file of the digital game content. The license keys may include a unique identifier such as a unique number. The unique identifier may be used to the activate digital game content according to a purchased version of digital game content such as full version, limited asset version, limited time version, or the like of the digital game content purchased. At 640, the video game system may correlate the retail key and the license key. Additionally, the video game system may correlate a title key with the retail key and the license. The title key may include a unique identifier such as a unique number corresponding to a designation, title, or the like of the digital game content. The correlated license key, retail key, and title key may be encrypted when entered into the video game system such that the license key, retail key, and title key may be obscured. In one embodiment, the correlated license key, retail key, and title key may be transmitted to a digital content management system that may calculate, process, and distribute royalties. At 650, the video game system may generate a royalty rate based on the license key and a royalty price based on the title key. For example, the video game system may include a storage component that includes royalty rates indexed by license keys and royalty prices indexed by the title keys. Thus, the processor may access the storage component in the video game system to generate a royalty rate and a royalty base price. Then, at 660, the video game system may compute a royalty amount. For example, the processor in the video game system may compute the royalty amount. According to one embodiment, the royalty amount may be computed by multiplying the royalty rate and the royalty price. After computing the royalty amount, at 670, the royalty amount and the retail key may be correlated. The correlated royalty amount and retail key may be encrypted when entered into the video game system such that the royalty amount and the retail key may be obscured if intercepted during transmission to an a royalty computation system. The correlated royalty amount and retail key may be transmitted to the royalty computation system that may distribute the royalty amount to a retailer corresponding to the unique identifier in the retail key. FIG. 7 depicts an example embodiment of digital content management system 150 that may be adapted to distribute and track royalties. As illustrated in FIG. 7, digital game content management system 150 may include a transaction module 710, a game content catalog module 720, and a selection module 730. Transaction module 710 may include a hard drive, a database, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like such that transaction module 710 may be adapted to provide a digital game content transaction option 740. Digital game content transaction option 740 may include a per instance rental, a per instance purchase, a monthly rental, a retail affiliated purchase, and a gift purchase. The per instance rental may include renting a digital game content for a period of time such as week at which point the electronic credential expires or renting a digital game content until the digital game content may be checked back into the digital game content management system. The per instance purchase may include paying a one time fee to purchase a digital game content. The monthly rental may include paying a monthly fee to rent a number of digital game contents. The retailed affiliated purchase may include an online price information page that may allow a digital game content to be purchased from the lowest priced retailer. The gift purchase may include purchasing a digital game content that may be a gift for another person. Thus, according to an example embodiment, digital game content transaction option 740 may include any number of distribution techniques such that a user of video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1, may receive digitally distributed game content. Transaction module 710 may also include a royalty rate that may correspond to digital game content transaction option 740. The royalty rate may vary depending upon digital game content option 740. For example, a royalty rate may be a small percentage such as 1%, for example, for a per instance rental, but may be a larger percentage such as 5%, for example, for a per instance purchase. Thus, according to one embodiment, the royalty rate may be a function of digital game content transaction option 740. Game content catalog module 720 may include a hard drive, database, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like, such that game content catalog module 720 may be adapted to provide digital game content. Game content catalog module 720 may include a library of digital game content such as video games. Game content catalog module 720 may provide the digital game content according to digital game content transaction option 740 selected by a user of video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1. Selection module 730 may include a hard drive, database, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like, such that selection module 730 may be adapted to receive and store a selected digital game content transaction option 750 corresponding to one of digital game content options 740 and a selected digital game content 760 stored in game content catalog module 720, for example. Selection module 730 may also receive and store a retailer. The retailer may be selected by a user of video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively, the retailer may be tied to the retailer where video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1, may have been purchased. The retailer may include a unique identifier such as a unique number such that the retailer may receive royalties based on the digital game content that may be purchased or rented, for example. According to one embodiment, digital game content management system 150 may also include a processor 770 and royalty base storage module 780. Royalty base storage module 780 may include a hard drive, database, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like, such that royalty base storage module 780 may store a royalty base price corresponding to the digital game content in game content catalog module 720. For example, royalty base storage module 780 may store the royalty base price for each of the digital game contents stored in game content catalog module 720. Processor 770 may include a typical computer processor such that processor 430 may interpret instructions and process data. Processor 770 may be in operative communication with transaction module 710, game content catalog module 720, and selection module 730. Processor 770 may generate a royalty rate based on selected digital game content transaction option 750 and a royalty base price based on selected digital game content 760, for example. For example, processor 770 may generate a royalty rate from transaction module 710 and the royalty base price from royalty base storage module 780. Processor 770 may compute a royalty amount by multiplying the royalty rate by the royalty base price. Digital game content management system 150 may further include a royalty account module 790 in operative communication with processor 770. Royalty account module 790 may include a hard drive, database, Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like, such that royalty account module 790 may store the royalty amount computed by the processor 770. According to one embodiment, royalty account module 790 may include a database indexed by the preferred retailer such that the royalty amount may be stored in royalty account module 790 based on the unique identifier of the preferred retailer. Royalty account module 790 may also include a cumulative royalty amount stored therein. According to one embodiment, processor 770 may add the computed royalty amount to the cumulative royalty amount and store that new cumulative royalty amount in royalty account module 790. Additionally, the cumulative royalty amount stored in royalty account module 790 may be distributed to the preferred retailer at the end of an accounting period, for example. FIG. 8 depicts an example embodiment of a flow diagram that illustrates the digital game content management system distributing and tracking royalties of a digital game content. As shown in FIG. 8, at 810, a digital game content management system may receive a package of data information that may include a title key, a retail key, and a license key. The digital game content management system may include hardware components such as a processor, storage components, databases, or the like and software components to control the hardware components such that digital game content management system may provide digital game content transaction options and may compute royalties to distribute to a preferred retailer. The package of data information may be received from video game system 100, shown in FIG. 1, for example. At 820, after receiving the package of data information, the digital game content management system may generate a royalty rate based on the received license key and a royalty base price based on the received title key. For example, the license key may include a unique identifier such as a unique number based on a licensing right and a digital game content transaction option. The licensing right may include a full version, a demonstration version, a limited assets version, and a limited time version, for example. The digital game content transaction option may include a per instance rental, a per instance purchase, a monthly rental, a retail affiliated purchase, and a gift purchase. The royalty rate may be generated based on the licensing right and the digital game content transaction option represented by the unique identifier in the license key. For example, a royalty rate may be small such as 1%, for example, for a per instance rental and a limited assets version and larger such as 5%, for example for a per instance purchase and a full version. Thus, according to one embodiment, the royalty rate may be a function of the digital game content option and the licensing right. Additionally, the royalty base price may be generated based on the received title key. For example, the title key may include a unique identifier such as a unique number based on a designation, title, or the like of the digital game content received by the video game system by purchase, rental, or the like. According to one embodiment, the royalty base price may depend upon the designation, title, or the like of the digital game content. For example, each of the digital game contents may have a different purchase price that may be determined by popularity, time of release, or the like. Thus, according to one embodiment, they royalty base price may depend upon the title of the digital game content. At 830, the digital game content management system may compute a royalty amount. The royalty amount may be computed by multiplying the royalty rate and the royalty base price generated at 820. Then, at 840, the royalty amount may be stored to a retailer account corresponding to the received retail key in the digital game content management system. The retail key may include a unique identifier such as a unique number based on a preferred retailer. According to one embodiment, a user of the video game system may select a preferred retailer that may be stored in the video game system. Alternatively, the preferred retailer may be tied to the video game system. For example, the preferred retailer may include the retailer or retail store where the video game system may have been purchased. According to an example embodiment, at 850, the royalty amount may be added to a cumulative royalty amount stored in the retailer account. The cumulative royalty may include a cumulative total amount of royalties entitled to the preferred retailer. The cumulative royalty amount may be distributed to the preferred retailer at 860. For example, after a predetermined reporting period such as at the end of an accounting or reporting period, or the like, the cumulative royalty amount may be distributed to the preferred retailer. FIG. 9 shows an exemplary computing environment in which aspects of the example embodiments may be implemented. Computing system environment 900 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the described example embodiments. Neither should computing environment 900 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in exemplary computing environment 900. The example embodiments are operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the example embodiments include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, embedded systems, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like. The example embodiments may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The example embodiments also may be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network or other data transmission medium. In a distributed computing environment, program modules and other data may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices. With reference to FIG. 9, an exemplary system for implementing the example embodiments includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 910. Components of computer 910 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 920, a system memory 930, and a system bus 921 that couples various system components including the system memory to processing unit 920. Processing unit 920 may represent multiple logical processing units such as those supported on a multi-threaded processor. System bus 921 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus (also known as Mezzanine bus). System bus 921 may also be implemented as a point-to-point connection, switching fabric, or the like, among the communicating devices. Computer 910 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 910 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CDROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer 910. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media. System memory 930 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 931 and random access memory (RAM) 932. A basic input/output system 933 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 910, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 931. RAM 932 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 920. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 9 illustrates operating system 934, application programs 935, other program modules 936, and program data 937. Computer 910 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only, FIG. 6 illustrates a hard disk drive 940 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 951 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 952, and an optical disk drive 955 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 956, such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. Hard disk drive 941 is typically connected to system bus 921 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 940, and magnetic disk drive 951 and optical disk drive 955 are typically connected to system bus 921 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 950. The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 9, provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for computer 910. In FIG. 9, for example, hard disk drive 941 is illustrated as storing operating system 944, application programs 945, other program modules 946, and program data 947. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 934, application programs 935, other program modules 936, and program data 937. Operating system 944, application programs 945, other program modules 946, and program data 947 are given different numbers here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands and information into computer 910 through input devices such as a keyboard 962 and pointing device 961, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to processing unit 920 through a user input interface 960 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 991 or other type of display device is also connected to system bus 921 via an interface, such as a video interface 990. In addition to the monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 997 and printer 996, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 995. Computer 910 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 980. Remote computer 980 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to computer 910, although only a memory storage device 981 has been illustrated in FIG. 9. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 9 include a local area network (LAN) 971 and a wide area network (WAN) 973, but may also include other networks. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet. When used in a LAN networking environment, computer 910 is connected to LAN 971 through a network interface or adapter 970. When used in a WAN networking environment, computer 910 typically includes a modem 972 or other means for establishing communications over WAN 973, such as the Internet. Modem 972, which may be internal or external, may be connected to system bus 921 via user input interface 960, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to computer 910, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 9 illustrates remote application programs 985 as residing on memory device 981. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used. Computing environment 900 typically includes at least some form of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computing environment 900. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computing environment 900. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims. changing said digital game content from a demonstration version based on said electronic credential. verifying a licensing right in said electronic credential during use of said digital game content. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said storage medium is in a first portable game system. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said digital content source comprises a retail store, and wherein physical media of said digital game content is purchased at said retail store. 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising a computer that digitally extracts said digital game content from said physical media into said digital game content, wherein said first portable game system receives said digital game content from said computer. 6. The method of claim 3, wherein said digital content source comprises a retail kiosk, and wherein said first portable game system receives said digital game content from said retail kiosk. 7. The method of claim 3, wherein said digital content source is a second portable game system, and wherein said first portable game system receives said digital game content from said second portable game system. 8. The method of claim 3, wherein said digital content source comprises an online game provider, and wherein said first portable game system receives said digital game content from said online game provider. an authentication log module in operative communication with said processor, wherein said authentication log module stores a unique history log based on said received package of data information and said generated electronic credential. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein said package of data information includes a license key. 11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a database of valid license keys, wherein said processor generates said electronic credential when said license key matches a valid license key in said database. 12. The system of claim 9, wherein said electronic credential grants a licensing right to access said digital game content. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein said licensing right includes at least one of the following: full version, demonstration version, limited assets version, and limited time version. 14. The system of claim 9, wherein said package of data information includes a previously received package of data information. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein said processor compares said previously received package of data information with said criteria and said unique history log and renews said electronic credential when said criteria, said unique history log, and said encrypted package of data information match. generating a unique license key based on said digital game content title identifier, said digital source identifier, and said license identifier. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said digital game content identifier includes a unique number assigned to said designation of said digital game content. 18. The method of claim 16, wherein said digital content source identifier includes a unique number assigned to said digital game content provider. 19. The method of claim 16, wherein said licensing rights includes at lest one of the following: full version, demonstration version, limited assets version, and limited time version. generating an electronic credential when said element in said package of data information matches said criteria, wherein said electronic credential grants a licensing right to access said digital game content on said portable game system.

2019-04-25T20:44:39Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080242406A1/en

The Giving Common - BPE Inc. BPE's mission is to drive exceptional outcomes for all Boston students by developing great teachers and great schools. For thirty years, BPE has devised solutions to the toughest challenges faced by Boston Public Schools (BPS) by interweaving expertise in teacher and school development. We have prepared over 600 teachers for BPS through the nationally recognized Boston Teacher Residency (BTR). After decades of improving schools with teacher coaching and school improvement frameworks, we founded two Teaching Academies: autonomous schools within BPS that use alternative staffing and data-driven practices to advance student and teacher learning. Teaching Academies are in-district schools that provide a world class education for all students while preparing outstanding new teachers for the Boston Public Schools. We launched our elementary Teaching Academy, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School, in 2012, and assumed operations of Dearborn STEM Academy (grades 6-12) in 2015. BPE was established in 1984 by corporate and philanthropic leaders, including the Boston Foundation, to reform Boston’s schools. For the first decade, BPE offered scholarships to students and mini-grants to teachers. In 1995, after an evaluation suggested more systemic change was needed, BPE brought on Executive Director Ellen Guiney. Ms. Guiney and Boston Public Schools (BPS) Superintendent Dr. Thomas Payzant collaborated to drive district level reforms. We established the BPS Essentials of Whole-School Improvement and the Collaborative Coaching and Learning model, and brought significant funding to BPS from the Annenberg Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to drive evidence based school improvement. In 2003, Dr. Payzant was asked about his biggest challenge, and he said that the teacher pipeline did not match the district's needs for teachers of color and teachers of math, science, ESL, and special education. Additionally, new teachers had to be retrained to deliver on BPS's instructional agenda, and half of new teachers left within three years, costing an estimated $3M annually. BPS was losing teachers just as they were becoming effective, and student academic growth suffered. BPS recruited Jesse Solomon, who had founded a small practice-based teacher preparation program at City on a Hill Charter School, to establish the Boston Teacher Residency. The superintendent decided to house the new program at BPE, where it could innovate, grow, and adapt to the district's changing needs. We have since prepared over 600 teachers for BPS through the nationally recognized and replicated Boston Teacher Residency program. We have also pioneered cutting edge data tools and whole school improvement strategies. Today, we work to redesign schooling through our neighborhood-based Teaching Academies, which are autonomous in-district, PreK-12 schools. They provide a world-class education for students and prepare outstanding teachers for BPS. In 2012 we launched our first Teaching Academy, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School, and we assumed operations of the Dearborn STEM Academy in 2015. When we launched the Dudley Street School in 2012, 29% of students entered reading on grade level. At the end of the 2015-16 school year, 68% of Dudley students were reading on grade level and 81% met or exceeded growth targets for reading, according to UChicago's STEP literacy assessment system. Year-end reading proficiency rates have increased from 52% in Year 1 to 61% in Year 2, to 66% in Year 3, to 68% in Year 4. In June 2016, over one-third of the school's students were reading above grade expectation. 70% of students scored proficient or advanced on internal end-of-unit writing assessments. In math, 66% percent of Dudley students in grades 1-4 met proficiency goals on BPS end-of-unit assessments. Before BPE assumed operations of the Dearborn STEM Academy in July 2015, it was a “Turnaround” school at risk for state takeover. In our first year operating the school, its score on a measure of whole school improvement (Annual Progress & Performance Index) jumped from 55 to 88. Since founding the Boston Teacher Residency in 2003, we have prepared over 600 teachers who serve 18,000 BPS students. 92% of graduates are initially placed in BPS and 71% placed in BPS remain there through year 6. BTR graduates post higher retention rates than the district average (80% retained 3+ years; 6 year retention rate 20 percentage points higher). BTR graduates are twice as likely as other Massachusetts teachers to be rated Exemplary on the state’s System for Educator Evaluation. Our long term goals are to prepare all students for college and career success and create a strong pipeline of diverse student-centered teachers. 1. Refine, and codify the Teaching Academy model and disseminate our learnings. 2. All students in Teaching Academies achieve academic proficiency and growth and cultivate the skills, knowledge, and experience for college and career success. 3. All BTR graduates teach effectively. With a world class teacher education program, an innovative model of schooling, and a plan for expansion, BPE is a local and national leader for urban school reform. Over the next five years, BPE will increase student achievement by further developing our PreK-12 pathway of innovative, neighborhood-based Teaching Academies, preparing outstanding BPS teachers to deliver ambitious instruction, and sharing our learnings to catalyze reform across the city and beyond. We are proud to be part of a community that strives with great ingenuity and determination to ensure the promise of a high quality, public education for every child. Boston has made significant progress. But to achieve the dramatic improvements we seek, all of us – parents, schools, community organizations, and donors – must think and work together. Your support is critical to ensuring every child in Boston has an excellent education. BPE serves students and families in the Dudley neighborhood of Roxbury through Teaching Academies. It also serves teachers across Boston's public schools through the Boston Teacher Residency. Among the first teacher preparation programs to use a medical residency model, the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) bridges the gap between theory and practice by placing teacher candidates called "residents" in K-12 classrooms for a year of intensive study and practice. Residents work with mentor teachers and their teams at Teaching Academies and complete a Master's degree program; through this residents acquire the theory, practical skills, and habits of continuous learning that help them to provide rigorous, engaging, and relevant instruction. BTR teachers engage students in the deep learning and critical thinking that workers rely on in today's complex world. Our design is grounded in what new teachers need to know and be able to do to impact student achievement in Boston. All residents commit to teach in Boston for three years, and we support graduates over that period as they hone their practice. Many BTR graduates work in schools with other alumni, where they support each other to achieve better outcomes for students. (a) 100% of residents who graduate will demonstrate the competencies to teach effectively by passing all performance assessments and meeting all expectations. (b) 75% of BTR graduates teaching in their first year and 90% of graduates in their second year will be rated Proficient or Exemplary on the summative rating under the state’s educator evaluation system. (c) 80% of BTR graduates will continue teaching in BPS for three years. (d) Half of all BTR graduates in BPS are teachers of color. Our vision is that one day, all the children of Boston will attend schools where students are respected, inspired, and challenged as learners. One way we are achieving this mission is by ensuring a pipeline of high-quality teachers who are prepared to address the needs of Boston students and remain in teaching long enough to be highly effective. 8% of BPS teachers were prepared by BTR. Over time, we will build a critical mass of talented and diverse teachers capable of working together to advance school and district reform. With our Teaching Academy model, we are redesigning the teacher training model around the needs of real students in real time. Our model runs counter to the dominant system of teacher training, which separates the college from the K-12 school. By embedding the BTR program within our Teaching Academies we have increased coherence between BTR and the schools and created a more positive and impactful pre-service experience. We are dogged about measuring progress, making adjustments, holding ourselves accountable, and sharing what we learn. Our Office of Data and Improvement, led by Dr. Edward Liu, collects data from BTR applications, student assessments, surveys, focus groups, classroom observations, BPS data sets, resident performance assessments, and course evaluations. We also commission external studies, including one comparing student outcomes for BTR graduates compared with their peers. Through both internal and external research, BPE studies the impact of BTR graduates on: (1) student achievement and engagement; (2) teacher retention and diversity; and (3) teaching practices. BTR has prepared over 600 teachers and met all of its initial goals: more math and science teachers, 92% placement in BPS teaching jobs, increased teacher retention rates (80% retained 3+ years; 6-year retention rate 20 percentage points higher than BPS), and high principal satisfaction rates (100% on latest survey). One in twelve BPS teachers is a BTR graduate. It is one of the most diverse teacher preparation programs in the state, with half of all BTR graduates identifying as people of color. BTR graduates are more likely than other Massachusetts teachers with the same level of experience to be rated Exemplary according to the state’s System for Educator Evaluation. BTR is nationally recognized and has served as a model for replication in over 20 sites across the nation. In 2013, we leveraged the national service model to create the Dudley Promise Corps (DPC), a neighborhood-based AmeriCorps program that prepares Dudley students for academic, civic, and personal success and develops members as civic leaders and teachers committed to social justice. Corps members serve full-time in our Teaching Academies leading extracurricular activities, giving classroom support, and providing additional academic support to individual students outside of the classroom. DPC is a public/private partnership that represents a collaboration between BPE, Governor Baker, Mayor Walsh, and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. DPC members, recruited largely from the surrounding community, serve at one of our Teaching Academies every weekday for the entire expanded school day, making them part of the school community rather than drop-in support. The fact that DPC is school embedded allows members to have a firm understanding of students’ academic and non-academic needs, as members come to know students in and outside of the classroom. DPC is driven by goals in focus areas that include: academic support, student-mentor relationships, community engagement, and professional development. Every student who participates in DPC’s academic support receives 2-3 hours of personalized tutoring every week during the extended school day. Members collaborate with teachers and use evidence-based curricula to boost students' performance and engagement in math and literacy. Members spend two to three class periods daily helping teachers to personalize learning for all students. After school, students choose from a variety of DPC-led, on-campus, weekly enrichment clubs that are centered on students' interests and hobbies. BPE measures the short-term success of this program by diligently tracking attendance and student achievement at both Teaching Academies. DPC members strive to build authentic relationships with students, use knowledge of context and community to boost student engagement and school culture, help students navigate challenges, and fill students' academic skill gaps. These objectives support BPE’s overall efforts of developing: (1) student-centered, personalized education for youth in Dudley and (2) a pipeline of diverse civic leaders and educators in Boston. In the longer term, the educational and social services offered by DPC will result in a number of beneficial outcomes for students including strong high school completion and college enrollment rates, the development of positive social support networks, a greater sense of agency, stronger connections to and engagement in school, and a decrease in risky behaviors. Research demonstrates that these factors contribute to the long-term success of youth. Through providing academic supports and extracurricular opportunities, DPC members come to know students as individuals, and engage with them as trusted mentors who can help them on the journey to short- and long- term academic, career, and personal success. DPC helps advance BPE's overall mission of providing Dudley students with a high-quality, comprehensive education that develops them as well-rounded individuals prepared for full participation in the workforce and community. It also advances our larger goal of forming a pipeline of diverse civic leaders committed to social justice. BPE uses a variety of data to evaluate our progress. The objectives listed above are measured by surveys, attendance records, and student achievement data. We analyzed data from the Dudley Street School which sheds light on the impact of DPC's use of the Reading Partners curriculum on student learning in literacy. A preliminary analysis of reading growth among students served by DPC and the Reading Partners curriculum suggests that the students served by this program experienced more growth in reading than other students at the school. 46% of students served by the program made more than expected growth on the STEP assessment, compared with 34% of students overall at the school. The program seems to have had the greatest impact in grades 2-3 so far. Teaching Academies are autonomous in-district schools providing a world class education for all students while preparing outstanding new teachers for BPS through BTR. Teaching Academies are modeled after the best teaching hospitals, which provide exemplary care for patients and a premier training ground for new doctors. Our model reorganizes educators in service of student learning. By doing so, we are replacing the outdated, century-old school model, and we are redesigning the system of teaching to ensure that every student is prepared to succeed in the 21st century. A coherent instructional system aligns curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, scheduling, and more to ensure a seamless educational experience for students and residents. BTR residents learn essential professional skills while significantly contributing to student learning. Serve 600 students in Teaching Academies. - 60% of students are academically proficient in English and math. - The school maintains an attendance rate of 95%. - The school maintains an attendance rate of 92%. 3. Create and codify the Teaching Academy model. BPE's Teaching Academies are committed to preparing the children of the Dudley neighborhood of Roxbury to successfully enter successfully the 21st century global workforce. Our PreK-12 educational pathway bridges rigorous and engaging academics with career readiness, and leverages Boston’s unique position in higher education and industry to provide students with access to authentic real world experiences, while cultivating critical thinking and communication skills. In parallel, Teaching Academies strive to produce high quality, collaborative, and committed teachers to drive excellent student outcomes throughout Boston’s public schools. Working in partnership with community organizations and other local schools, BPE Teaching Academies contribute to a stronger, more vibrant Dudley community and a stronger city as a whole. At our Teaching Academies we measure student achievement, attendance, mobility, and behavior, as well as school culture and staff performance. We measure achievement by both standardized and formative student assessments which are standards based and aligned to the Common Core. We also utilize student, parent, and teacher surveys and a variety of tracking tools. Each school has a Google site which hosts all relevant school data; staff can utilize the embedded data tools to understand students’ individual learning needs as well as patterns across groups of students. BPE is data driven and reflective. We complement quantitative analysis with a qualitative approach to gain insight on patterns beneath the numbers. We analyze the data to help us learn, make evidence-based adjustments, create evaluation plans to measure progress towards goals, and hold ourselves accountable for results. Early data has been promising. At the end of the 2015-16 school year, 68% of Dudley students were reading on grade level and 81% met or exceeded growth targets for reading, according to UChicago's STEP literacy assessment system. Year-end reading proficiency rates have increased from 52% in Year 1 to 61% in Year 2, to 66% in Year 3, to 68% in Year 4. In June 2016, over one-third of the school's students were reading above grade level expectation. In writing, 70% of students scored proficient or advanced on internal end-of-unit assessments. In math, 66% percent of Dudley students in grades 1-4 met proficiency goals on BPS end-of-unit assessments. In our first year operating the school, the Dearborn's score on a measure of whole school improvement (Annual Progress & Performance Index) jumped from 55 to 88. After a recent visit to the school, the Senior Associate Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts declared: "The walls are the same, but everything else looks different." Jesse Solomon founded the Boston Teacher Residency program in 2003, Previously, he taught middle and high school math for 10 years — at the King Open School in Cambridge, Brighton High School, and City on a Hill Public Charter School. He was a founding faculty member, lead teacher, and a member of the board of directors at City on a Hill, where he began and directed the Teachers' Institute, a school-based teacher preparation program. Mr. Solomon has been an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is a National Board-certified teacher. He holds a BS in Mathematics from MIT and an MEd from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The Barr Foundation named Mr. Solomon a Barr Foundation Fellow in 2009 for his leadership, and he is also a Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellow. He serves on the Board of Directors for Cambridge College, and is a member of Deans for Impact. Ms. Mariel Gonzales Chief Finance and Administrative Officer Mariel Gonzales brings a broad range of nonprofit experience having served as among other things the Executive Director of the Bird Street Community Center in Dorchester, the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Boston After School & Beyond, and - most recently - as the Chief Financial Officer of YouthBuild USA. Mariel has extensive expertise and experience working with public and private funding sources, working in Boston and nationally, and managing complex and rapidly changing organizations. As Director of Organizational Learning, Dr. Liu leads BPE's efforts to understand why certain teachers produce exceptional student learning gains and to embed these insights into our programs. Before joining BPE, Dr. Liu was Assistant Professor of Educational Administration at Rutgers University. He began his career as a high school history teacher and was a founding co-director of Summerbridge Portland, an academic program that puts low-income middle-school students on the path to college and exposes outstanding high school and college students to a career in teaching. Dr. Liu holds an EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he was an original member of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers and co-authored Finders and Keepers: Helping New Teachers Survive and Thrive in Our Schools (AACTE Outstanding Book of 2005). Dr. Liu also holds an MBA and AM in Education from Stanford University, and a BA in History from Yale. Ms. Melanie Winklosky Chief Advancement Officer As Chief Advancement Officer, Melanie Winklosky is responsible for public and private fundraising for BPE. Before joining BPE, she was the Vice President of Development and Operations at Mass Insight Education. Before that, she spent 13 years at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, including serving as the Chief of Staff to Commissioner David Driscoll. She holds a BA in psychology from Saint Vincent College and an MA in Human Development from Boston College. Ms. Winklosky currently serves on the boards of the Swampscott Education Foundation and the Clarke Elementary School PTA. On the FY17 audit, please note that we were expecting $750,000 from our endowment to be processed in June, the last month of our fiscal year. Instead, it came in in July 2017, resulting in a seemingly large deficit in FY17. In parallel, we expect a surplus in FY18 of the same amount, assuming this year's installment arrives in June 2018. Financial summary data in the charts and graphs above is per the organization's IRS Form 990s. Contributions from foundations and corporations are listed under individuals when the breakout was not available. Please note, per the attached IRS Letter of Determination, BPE became BPE Inc. in 2016 and received a new nonprofit status and EIN# from the IRS (81-3213571). The Form 990s and audits posted above for FY08-FY17 are tied to the organization's previous nonprofit status (22-2667403). BPE is redesigning the urban school model to address two important and connected causes of inequity in Boston’s schools: significant variation in teaching quality, and an outdated, century-old school model, which was not built to guarantee quality teaching for every child. For every student to succeed, great teachers must work together in well-organized schools, under strong leadership, with a cohesive set of instructional practices, and in a culture of continuous improvement. Our approach calls for (1) a PreK-12 pathway of student centered schools called Teaching Academies in the Dudley neighborhood of Roxbury; (2) the preparation and support of outstanding teachers through the Boston Teacher Residency; and (3) codification and dissemination of the lessons we learn to catalyze reform across Boston and beyond. Teaching Academies provide access to ambitious teaching, drive student achievement, and serve as a rich training ground for new teachers. Early evidence indicates that this new school model, which we are developing at BPE, is advancing these goals. In our Teaching Academies, a coherent instructional system aligns curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, scheduling, and more to ensure a seamless, engaging, and rigorous educational experience for students and aspiring teachers called “residents.” Modeled after the best teaching hospitals, Teaching Academies redesign how educators are organized in service of student learning. Teaching Academies are structured around teams of individuals with different expertise and experience levels who work together to ensure outstanding outcomes for all students. In our model, teacher preparation and school improvement are mutually beneficial and reinforcing. They run counter to the dominant system of teacher training, which separates the college from the K-12 school, separates theory and practice, and results in a pre-service system that can detract from student learning efforts at placement schools. Like medical residents in hospitals, BTR residents learn essential professional skills while holding specialized roles designed to significantly contribute to student learning. Residents from BTR are integrated into the life of the school from day one so that they make significant contributions to students. This critical mass has been helpful in bringing staff together around a common language, set of values, and framework for instruction. (3) catalyze improvement of all schools in Boston. The schools are organized around an instructional system designed to enable ambitious instruction in every classroom—instruction that consistently engages all students in rigorous content. The intentional coherence between Directors of Instruction, lead teachers, teachers, residents, data analysts, volunteers, parents, and students, along with the systems and tools to support their work, make rapid progress both possible and sustainable. Teaching Academies have an alternative staffing model that, together with regular progress monitoring of every student, allows for students to be matched with the right instruction at the right time. We personalize instruction for all students. Students at both schools benefit from the high number and strategic use of adults, as students are taught and mentored by teachers, residents, special education instructors, and volunteers, who work together in a coordinated fashion. With coaching and regular feedback from the Directors of Instruction, teams of educators based on grade level collaboratively analyze data and plan instruction, differentiating both instruction and staffing to ensure students get what they need each day. Within this environment, residents learn not just from one mentor teacher but from a system of teaching organized around student learning. All BTR residents are trained within our Teaching Academies for their practicum and practice-aligned coursework, allowing us to completely align the work of the residency to the work of the schools in which it functions. Embedding the residency program within our Teaching Academies creates coherence between BTR and the schools by focusing a high quality residency experience on the learning of real students in real time. BTR courses support the learning needs of students and residents simultaneously as residents take on authentic assignments aligned to the school's needs, merging theory and practice. The increased coherence between BTR and the school contributes to a more positive and impactful residency experience. BTR’s Early Career Teacher Network helps graduates to continue improving their teaching through their careers as educators in BPS. Key programmatic elements in Teaching Academies include: rigorous coursework and out of school learning experiences in STEM; extended learning time; flexible staffing and student grouping that ensure that students are matched with the right instruction at the right time; progress monitoring of every student, done in a shared context of expectations for students and adults, including regular feedback to teachers and staff; strong socio-emotional supports; Pre-Kindergarten classes to ensure students begin Kindergarten on grade level; partnerships to support an embedded workplace readiness strategy, including internships, career pathway programs, dual enrollment in college courses, and mentorships; active Family Council and strong parent engagement; and low student-to-adult ratio, utilizing trained volunteers from BPE’s Dudley Promise Corps. BPE's greatest assets are its personnel and partnerships. BPE's Executive Director Jesse Solomon, and Principals Dawn Lewis (Dudley Street School) and Lisa Gilbert-Smith (Dearborn) lead our Teaching Academies. All three are experienced teachers, teacher educators, and leaders, and all have experience launching autonomous schools in urban districts. They are supported at BPE by experts in instruction, operations, research and data, fundraising, and finance. Together, BPE staff have worked for thirty years exclusively in and for the BPS. BPE's employees have developed unparalleled expertise in quality instruction, urban teacher education, school data use, and whole school improvement. Importantly, BPE's employees put context first, starting from the strengths and needs present in each school community and in each neighborhood. We have learned a tremendous amount about how to achieve success in public education, and continue to feed learnings back into our work through evaluation and continuous improvement efforts. Staff biographies are available at bpe.org. We have worked diligently to earn the trust of neighborhood residents, students' families, and students themselves, along with teachers and administrators across the school system. Families demonstrate their trust through a lower than average student mobility rate at the Dudley Street School, high engagement rates, a 95% attendance rate for students, high family conference attendance rates, and unanimous agreement (100%) on a survey that "This school is a good place to learn." BPE has an excellent track record in fundraising which, together with an endowment, ensures financial sustainability. In late 2014, BPE was awarded two highly competitive federal grants which, along with support from private donors, will enable us to carry out our strategy. A five year Teacher Quality Partnership grant will help BPE to continue strengthening BTR as a pipeline of diverse, high quality, and forward thinking teachers for BPS. A three year Investing in Innovation grant has helped us to redesign Boston schools into a neighborhood-based, PreK-12 pathway of Teaching Academies. Our long term goals are for all students at our Teaching Academies to reach proficiency in English, math, and science, for all students to make at least one year of growth every year, and for all students to develop the habits of mind necessary to be successful in college and career in the 21st century. We aim to develop critical thinkers, community leaders, and creative problem solvers. Simultaneously, the schools will raise the bar for teaching quality in the district, both by preparing a cohort of new teachers every year and by demonstrating models of coherent instructional systems which other schools can replicate. 1. Serve 600 students in Teaching Academies. 2. At the Dudley Street School: 60% of students achieve proficiency or more in English and math; the school maintains an attendance rate of 95%. 4. Recruit and prepare a diverse cohort of residents; ensure each resident is ready to teach effectively upon graduation. Support a strong network of BTR graduates teaching in BPS to ensure teacher retention and effectiveness. 5. Refine and codify the Teaching Academy model and disseminate our learnings. At the Dudley Street School, we have significantly improved academic performance and the school's culture. However, we have not yet reached our goal of 100% proficiency. At the end of the 2015-16 school year, 68% of Dudley students were reading on grade level and 81% met or exceeded growth targets for reading, according to UChicago's STEP literacy assessment system. Since our first year (2012), year-end reading proficiency rates have increased from 52% in Year 1 to 61% in Year 2, to 66% in Year 3, to 68% in Year 4. In June 2016, over one-third of the school's students - distributed fairly evenly across grade levels - were reading at least one level above their grade expectation. In writing, 70% of students scored proficient or advanced on internal end-of-unit assessments. In math, 66% percent of Dudley students in grades 1-4 met proficiency goals on the final BPS end-of-unit assessments. We will not be satisfied with our results until every student is performing at or above grade level at both of our Teaching Academies. We knew we had a tremendous challenge on our hands five years ago when our first class of first graders walked into our classrooms having been underserved elsewhere. Nearly every first grader arrived performing below grade level in reading and math. We set an ambitious target, chose an ambitious set of assessments, and have worked intently on achieving our goals, learning a tremendous amount in the process. Before BPE assumed operations, the Dearborn STEM Academy had been a state designated “Turnaround” school for six years and was at risk for state takeover due to its inability to improve performance sufficiently. In 2015, before BPE was named operator, just 22% of Dearborn students in grades 6-8 scored Proficient/Advanced on the English language arts PARCC test, compared with 60% statewide. More alarming for a STEM school, just 13% were proficient in math on PARCC and not a single student achieved proficiency on the state science test (compared with 52% statewide in math and 42% statewide in science). In our first year operating the school, the Dearborn's score on a measure of whole school improvement (Annual Progress & Performance Index) jumped from 55 to 88, indicating we are on track to exit turnaround status. After visiting the Dearborn to evaluate BPE’s efforts, the Senior Associate Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts declared: "The walls are the same, but everything else looks different." However, we have a long way to go to build the world-class STEM school and Teaching Academy we envision. We know that we will have to continue investing great energy, attention, and resources in the academic and social culture of the school. Our goal is not just to turn the school around but to build a great STEM school that will last for generations of children and families. We know we have much work to do on fully developing our school model. In the coming years, we will continue to build, operate, improve, and document our Teaching Academy model. We will uphold a coherent instructional system and refine it through continuous evaluation, documentation, and improvement. We will continue to shift the design of BTR to meet the needs of students in our schools. We are embedding lessons learned so far in our plans moving forward and will continue to build with the goal of codifying a replicable model that delivers improved student achievement and school-based teacher preparation.

2019-04-18T15:03:43Z

https://givingcommon.org/profile/1101539/boston-plan-for-excellence-bpe/

A bread maker can produce bread that’s a lot tastier in comparison with the normal store-bought loaf. Additionally, you receive the delightful smell of baked bread which could easily enhance the mood. The bread maker is a flexible appliance having the capability to mix, knead and bake the bread. The very best and most obvious advantage of owning this sort of kitchen appliance is the capacity to produce fresh-baked bread in your home. This offers a superior flavor and quality that’s favored over the store-bought alternatives, which often has a quite manufactured taste. By preparing the ingredients to the bread, you get far better control over what’s contained in the food you consume. This is especially valuable for those subject to allergies. Beyond removing the ingredients which can cause an allergic reaction, there’s also the option to add flavorful ingredients like sunflower seeds, seeds and dried fruit. There’s minimal mess Once the components are prepared and poured in, it’ll conveniently combine the dough prior to baking. Plus, the majority of these makers incorporate the easy to clean removal pan, so clean up following is a relatively quick and effortless job. The majority of the high-end manufacturers are made to have a versatile role and may take far more than just bread. They are developed to be very user friendly even for those who have hardly any experience in baking. Once the components are prepared and poured to the manufacturer, it’s only a case of setting the timer and leaving it to inhale the perfect loaves. Additionally, most manufacturers include a set of recipes which make it really simple to ascertain the best ingredients to use. Possible to save money The bread maker can easily prepare the healthful breads such as the whole-wheat bread and fermented bread. While the initial investment could be costly, over the long term, your bread maker can be extremely affordable provided it can be used on a regular basis. We all know it is crucial to maintain the cleanliness of an office. A clean office creates a fantastic impression on your customers, whether they’re your vendors, clients, etc.. A neat and well-maintained office provides a sterile environment for the employees. However, in spite of the size of the workplace, maintaining cleanliness can be a daunting task. Luckily, there are professional companies offering general cleaning services for the upkeep of the office. Why is cleanliness important for an office? When an office is clean and neat, employees are not as likely to fall ill. This reduces the number of sick leaves by employees in the organization leading to better productivity. In order to make certain that the cleaning is performed on a regular basis, it is an excellent idea to hire a professional company. These solutions can be hired on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. The professional cleaners maintain neatness of your reception area, restrooms, kitchen area, etc.. The overall cleaning services ensure that each of the dustbins are emptied and all surfaces dust-free. Even the carpets in the office need to be vacuumed regularly to maintain them. A general cleaning services company ensures regular cleaning of your premises. On the other hand, if you have your own staff cleaning the premises, the cleanup may not be routine if your staff needs leave. General cleaning businesses have a professional approach. They’re experienced in their job and know all the areas to be coated. Professional cleaning companies use the most recent equipment to maintain your premises. These businesses use cleaning compounds that are safe and effective for humans. These companies use certified Squirrel Poop-friendly cleaning agents. They supply office cleaning services in timings convenient to you. They could wash your premises after office hours so that your functioning is unaffected. For instance, if there is spillage in an industrial shop floor, it might cause workers falling there. If you’re seeking Leon Valley Wildlife Removal, it may interest you to know what type of wildlife you may encounter when you’ve bought and moved into your new house. There are plenty of very beautiful and intriguing wildlife in the vicinity of the Island. There are a huge number of animals and birds and lots of diverse species; there are tours of the Bahamas which allow tourists to see that this collection of different sorts of creatures. There’s a portion of the island that has flat land and is salty with little hilly areas. This is ideal for the wild creatures; there are several tropical plants in this region also. The Hutias are just another creature which may be found on the island, they’re rodent like creatures and have the appearance of little beavers with no tail and large teeth, and they can be anything from 20 to 60cm in size. There are 20 distinct species of the animal although half of them may now be extinct. They obviously make nests in trees or rocks and are often herbivores; Cubans search these animals for food and cook with honey and nuts. When taking a trip to observe the wildlife at the Bahamas tourists can expect to find all types of different species such as frogs, cash bats, raccoons, snails and snakes, even though there are no poisonous snakes on the islands they’re there to keep the rodent population down, are seen as quite useful creatures. There are various diverse Zoos on the islands that can be visited too. Underwater of course there’s a rich selection of Aquatic life as you’d expect there are lots of tropical fish and also lobsters. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, it’s a special attraction as it’s guarded from the Bahamas National trust so that fishing is prohibited here and this has been shown to be beneficial as more and more of those species are reaching maturity in this area. The best way to experience the park is to employ a Kayak and let a guide to take you out on the clear waters, this way you can see and experience all the incredible creatures of the sea and land. Diving is also allowed in the region and is famous for enthusiastic divers who would like to explore the marine life close up there are loads of places which anglers are allowed to swim although since the park is protected there are a few places that are limited to protect the wildlife. With more and more of the natural habitat disappearing, wildcats, in addition to many other kinds of wildlife, are coming in closer contact with man. Find out More about the wildcats of North America. He’s also the only species of wild cat that’s not currently on the endangered list. The bobcat and the Canadian Lynx are occasionally though of as the exact same animal. They’re both of the same household but different species. The bobcat is about double the size of the average house cat. They get their name from the brief, black-tipped tail that seems to be”bobbed” or cut off. The”tufts” of the ears are now used like hearing aids and they have excellent vision. At once the bobcat’s land was broad spread of the US, but their number have diminished through the years. Bobcats are nocturnal creatures and are seldom seen by humans. The bobcats diet consists of mice, rabbits, squirrels, reptiles and fowl, including the farmer’s cows. They are many times considered as a nuisance and are taken by farmers. Many hunters will also kill a bobcat since they consume the quail, pheasant and chukka that lots of hunters take for sport. Lynx – The lynx is truly the bobcats”cold weather” cousin. The European and Asian lynx are bigger that the North American species, the Canada lynx. The Canada lynx are usually found, of course, in Canada and the colder parts of the usa. The Canada lynx is about the exact same size as the bobcat, and it has tufted ears also. Their toes are used as”snow shoes” and are bigger and have more hair for extra insulation from the cold and snow. There’s a correlation between the amount of snowshoe hares and the people of lynx. As the amount of snowshoe hares decrease, so do the amount of lynx. The larger Eurasian lynx will search for deer in addition to smaller animals. Ocelot – The ocelot is sometimes referred to as the”Painted Leopard”. At one time they could be seen throughout the southwestern areas of the usa. However because of their attractively spotted fur, their numbers have been greatly reduced and has put them on the endangered list. Sometimes you may see the ocelot in Arizona or portions of Texas. They are most frequently found in Mexico and northern parts of South America. They are primarily nocturnal and solitary creatures. The ocelot has brief tawny or reddish brown fur with black spots and rosette shaped markings. Their face has two black stripes down each side along with their tail has black bands. They may be seen in the trees, stalking birds and monkeys. Unlike most other cats, they do not obey the water and can swim very well. Mountain Lion – The mountain lion goes by many names. They are located mainly in the southern and eastern areas of the US, such as the swamps of Florida. They weight approximately 120-140 lbs. Mountain lions prefer to prey on deer but may also attack and consume coyotes and other mammals such as raccoons and porcupines. Their range was removed in the Midwest and Eastern US, though there are small populations returning the states like Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. Mountain lions are known to attack people. But, statistics show that on average there are 4 strikes and one death annually in all the US and Canada. Mountain lions are more likely to attack someone who’s alone or a little child. Few people will really come in contact with one of these wildcats in their natural habitat, but at least now you know a bit more about these great creatures. The Rocky Mountains offer some of the best wildlife viewing opportunities in Canada, if not North America. For lots of people spotting wildlife may be the highlight of the trip. When it is a grazing elk, a whistling marmot or a black bear playing it’s cubs, you’re certain to encounter many wild creatures. Also called’Whistlers’ due to the shrill, whistle-like sound they make. They’re photo-friendly animals who live high in the alpine. Place them: High mountain paths; often on peak of the Jasper Tramway on Whistlers mountain. Appropriately named because their horns are enormous, they are usually used as a sign of the Rocky Mountains. You may have to look up to see them because they prefer the inland regions, particularly cliffs or steep slopes. Grizzly bears (or brown bears as they’re sometimes known) are possibly the most infamous of all creatures in the Rockies. They are recognisable by the large hump in their shoulders, although you likely won’t need to get close enough to detect it. To make matters confusing they also are often brown in color. Maintain your eyed open and return! Recognisable with their enormous antlers and bulbous nose, moose are often quite timid animals. During mating season (October – November) they could become more competitive, and you might hear them making a very loud, peculiar bellow as they attempt to attract a mate. Elk are quite a frequent sight in the Rockies and they frequently seem fairly tame as they graze nonchalantly from the roadside. It is worth giving them a wide berth however, especially during the breeding season (fall) since they’ve been known to strike. This game has over 13 million monthly players and is regarded as a favorite MOBA. This game requires players to show some tactful thinking and they must perform actions such as killing their creeps to be able to prevent their opponents from gold harvesting or delivering things to themselves on the battlefield by using a’courier’ rather than returning to base. World finals of this game garner multi-million dollar prizes. You can download this game for free and get started playing right away. This is perhaps among the most popular games on the planet at this time and contains roughly 100 million exceptional players on a monthly basis. This doesn’t even include the eSports elements that is also growing in popularity. In fact, this game has become especially interchangeable with the MOBA genre. There are approximately 130 playable champions with different game modes and maps that help with keeping the game fresh and exciting year-on-year. This is one of the latest games in this category and is the job of Epic Games, the company that launched Gears of War and Unreal Engine. It is one of the most graphically impressive games at the moment and everything from the attack animations to the surroundings is very detailed. A third-person perspective is used in this game, but the mechanisms remain the same as all others; it is all about destroying towers, pushing lanes and destroying the enemy base when using cards for boosting your skills and moving up levels. If you are interested in pitting the likes of Zeus and Thor against one another, then the ideal MOBA for you is Smite. The game features a broad array of deities which go against one another in a three-lane arena. A third-person perspective is used in this game also, just like Paragon, which may make it difficult to stay aware of your surroundings. However, the different viewing angles enable you to execute moves that couldn’t have been made differently. For instance, Thor can launch into the sky and come flying down and crush his enemies with his hammer. This was the first MOBA-style game and has expanded greatly since its introduction as Blizzard continues to introduce new heroes to its lineup, other than using characters from its other games. However, it does not have any items and players simply upgrade their skills as they move up levels. There are also various maps that add some spice to the match. The goji berry is not new by any means. In actuality, mention of this small fruit packed with nutrition was found as far back as the 7th century. Those most familiar with the goji berry are individuals who reside in Asia and the berry has been used for decades in Chinese medicine. The advantages the fruit is thought to possess include enhanced vision and liver function, in addition to having the ability to increase the immune system. Some talk of the goji berry as having aphrodisiac powers and others cite cancer-fighting properties. Well, the reality is that for all we want to consider the goji berry for a miracle cure to our woes and disorders, for the most part it’s essentially like any fruit. However, medical studies have shown that goji increases the body’s creation of a unique enzyme which reduces the probability of weight loss loss by inhibiting lipid peroxidation. Studies also show that goji’s flavenoids shield against narrowing of the arteries and its polysaccharaide molecules and antioxidants help to fix free radical damage, especially in alzheimers sufferers. Nutritionally, goji berries are a excellent option, packing tons of carbohydrates and protein that make it a fantastic snack food. As a juice, more of the vitamins remain intact and the goji berry is surely a wholesome choice for a drink. Dried, the fruit can be added to foods or sprinkled on dishes for a splash of coloured. Goji berries may also be appreciated raw. Not sour; not overly sweet. The goji berry definitely expands the selection of healthy snacks and beverages our body needs for nourishment and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Replacing soda pop with goji berry juice is a intelligent option, and chips may take a backseat with dried goji berries available. The way to know if a woman loves you? It’s actually quite straightforward. You just have Animal Removal to know what the signs are. Women who are in love act in a certain way. Once you know the proper things to look for, you’ll be amazed that you never noticed them before. In actuality, you may look back and slap yourself on the forehead when you realize how many women were in love with you before. Keep reading for the definitive guide on the best way to know if a woman loves you. When a woman loves you, her friends know all about you. In actuality, she probably goes on and on about you more than they even want to hear about. Still, they’re going to be glad for her that she is in love. They’re also likely to know all kinds of details about you, both things that are happening between you and the woman who’s in love with you, in addition to other private details that no second-degree familiarity would ever understand. Examples include your favorite foods, stories about things that happened to you at work and basically anything else that a girl who’s in love with you would notice and think is important, even if no one else did. 1 way to find a girl to chase after you? Get her to fall in love. When a woman falls in love with a guy, few things are going to keep her from getting what she wants. Women are very purpose-driven and resilient in this regard. If she is making it known that you’re the man that she wants, both in word and in deed, it’s a pretty clear method of how to know if a woman loves you. Women are generally not so forward in chasing after guys that they aren’t in love with. The Saturday night date isn’t enough anymore. She wants more and more of your time. Maybe she wants to come by after work to make you dinner. Maybe she wants to meet for coffee during your lunch break. The specifics don’t really matter. The point is this: When the girl is always looking for more and more of your time, this may be a sign that she’s in love with you or on her way there. After all, if she were only casually interested, she would not feel the need to go for more and more of your time. Likely daily, in some form, you hear that nothing but the best will do. Frequently, you then hear a description of Orlando Animal Removal what is the best. This notion that there is better, better than you have, or better than you even imagined, often comes out of a product marketer who seeks to sell you something. You may not buy the merchandise, but did the marketer sell you doubt (about yourself)? Statistical averages of measurement on many subjects, including individuals, tend to show a normal distribution of the subject as a single bell curve, where the median is a line drawn down from the highest point in the curve to the base. For a population of people, we would expect to find most people to be at this point and within the bell of the curve. The best people would be where the curve tapers into the right and the worst where it tapers to the left. From this place of discussion, we could go anywhere, but I want to point out to you that the average is a fantastic place for people to be. That’s where most people are, with their family, their friends, and their coworkers. Happiness may not accrue to people who embark on being the best at anything. We respect those who become the very best of something, but we also see quite often that people who reach the best, become profoundly unhappy because they don’t know where to channel the drive that got them to their personal pinnacle of accomplishment. The art of the typical life is how one lives it every day. It’ll be better if you have principles, an inherent morality upon which you anchor yourself and others that matter to you. Are you an average person who can’t find time to play with your loved ones and friends because you have another job, attend night school, commute two hours to work every day, or live vicariously through a video game? Maybe you should check your face to see if a smile is there. Can A Lounge Suite Work In A Bedroom? In the movies, this was considered a fashion statement that just the popular people would do. In reality, it is a possibility but you need consider a few factors when it comes to having a lounge suite in a bedroom. Lounge furniture would be present in many sections of the house if the family lived in a mansion. These mansions were so big that walking all the way to the family room was a little journey in the event that you wanted to enjoy a relaxing moment. Television also was not a characteristic that these homes had so a personal living space was used as place to have discussions. Bedrooms have been made smaller to a standard size. In such bedrooms, a double bed, side tables, dressers and wardrobes or built-in cupboards are usually all you can fit in a normal size bedroom. Should you have additional space, it could be used for a small sofa or an arm chair. Essentially, bedrooms are no longer as big and if you require a bigger room, you may have to build it. Then you could specify the size of the space based on all of the furniture you want to place in it. If you would like to have a sofa package in your bedroom, then here are few factors you will need to consider. You will always have your very own personal living space to yourself – many times we just need to sit in our rooms and read a book in peace. It provides comfort to your own lifestyle – a sofa in your room is terrific for comfort. You could sit on the couch if you would like to watch television. It is also a comfortable place to get dressed and put on your shoes. It adds style – the lounge suite adds glamour and style to your bedroom. It is suitable for families – some parents struggle with their kids always coming into their bedroom in the middle of the night. The couch will give them a soft surface to sleep on instead of between them on the bed. This set up requires a whole lot of space – a sofa suite isn’t a small piece of furniture so it will take up considerable space in the bedroom. It may develop into a resting post for clothes and other items that are not in use – we tend to break our clothes and other possessions on surfaces so that we remember to put them away the next day. The only problem is that many folks forget to put these things away. A lounge suite is a luxurious popular furniture item that is great to have either at the lounge, TV room or in your bedroom. Posted on June 13, 2018 Leave a comment on Can A Lounge Suite Work In A Bedroom? Are You Missing This Essential Step in Your Beauty Routine? If you’re like me you’re a regular in the cosmetics aisle. Perusing the shelves, sampling the latest in lipstick formulas, eyeliners, and foundations in search of a flawless finish. Some people fell in love with makeup whilst creating a mess at our mother’s dressing table and ladies, some people never grew out of it. But being the makeup junkies we are the process of taking off it is just as important if not more than the practice of putting it on. An impeccable beat starts with a perfect base that can only be the result of skin that has been properly prepped by removing dirt, oils, and residue daily. That is why a terrific makeup remover is crucial! As someone who enjoys a complete face of glam, I learned the hard way that all makeup removers aren’t created equal. I used makeup remover wipes every evening before cleanup and would ignore the smear of foundation that would be on my towel after drying off, not believing that if there was cosmetics there then there was makeup left over on my head also, seeping into my pores and leaving room for germs to grow. Luckily there are tons of methods for makeup removal besides remover wipes including cleansing balms, oils, gels, dissolving sprays makeup removal sticks. So after a stint of migraines, I decided to update my approach and went with a recommendation from a trusty Ulta employee. Sister to the cult-classic Lancôme’s Bi-Facil Double-Action Eye Makeup Remover, the Lancôme Bi-Facil Face Bi-Phased Micellar Water Face Makeup Remover & Cleanser has totally changed my makeup and skincare game. I know, it’s a mouthful, but this baby is seriously strong! The oil dissolves any makeup on the skin, then the micellar water cleanses and removes excess residue before you even rinse with your cleanser, which means no more lingering makeup in your towels. Don’t get me wrong, I still keep makeup remover wipes by my mind or in my purse for those nights I’m too tired to do my whole routine. My favorites are the Sephora Collection Green Tea Cleansing & Exfoliating Wipes for skin, which can be soothing, meant to be mattifying and good for acne-prone skin. In the long run, it doesn’t matter which method you choose, find the best products that fit in with your lifestyle, just ensure that you have one that eliminates all lingering residue, trust me, it is game changing! Posted on June 13, 2018 Leave a comment on Are You Missing This Essential Step in Your Beauty Routine? Regardless of the summer heat, a lot of runners still want to keep their healthy routine. Although the heat can seriously affect running performance, there are several ways you can counteract the consequences. Here are seven hacks for running during summertime. Run at the coolest time. One of the hacks that you can do to prevent the summer heat is run during the coolest point of the day. Good thing, free software and a few apps can show the temperature highs and lows for the day or even for the week so that you can schedule your run so. Normally, sunrise and sunset would be the coolest times. But because weather changes can be abrupt, it’s best you check an app. Try to find a dishonest alternative route. Every runner has that favourite route. But when it comes to extreme weather conditions, you might require an alternate route to keep you safer from the elements. During summer, select less open routes. Settle for more shades, like areas with more trees and buildings. These days, there are apps which can calculate the distance of the route using GPS. Use the app to find the distance. That way, you still receive the exact space you run in your normal route. Wear sweat wicking clothes. Even by regular standards, sweatpants and baggy clothes are a no-no. You don’t want them flapping around, then heavy and sweat-soaked in several minutes. Fortunately, sweat-wicking clothing are now available in stores. Brands like Adidas, Nike and Under Armour have running apparel which takes sweat from your body and lets it evaporate inform of your laundry. This way, you’re cooled off, feel more comfortable and lessen your risk of being exposed to bacteria build up. The majority of these clothes are lightweight and fashionable, adding more appeal to the technological advantages they already provide. If you’re clothes are on point, you shoes should be too. Wear running shoes that are lightweight and made from breathable materials. These type of shoes allow your feet to’breathe’. Good flow prevents hot, sweaty feet and germs. Heavy and stiff shoes typically wear you down. Light and flexible ones let you accelerate and move better. Consume additional water. You shed around six to 12 oz of fluid for every 20 minutes of running. Pre-hydrate until you run. Drink an extra glass of water. Look for potential’hydration’ channels as well. Drinking fountains in the road, or even a convenience store you can buy some water or sports drinks. Wear sunscreen. The sun’s rays are good for you. Don’t forget to apply some sunscreen. Even a thin layer with a high SPF will help protect your skin from specific cancers and diseases. Run by feel. For sure you have a target pace, time and distance that you want to attain. But before you try to accomplish that, get the feel of your run. The heat and humidity will affect your performance despite of your best efforts. So don’t force it. Acclimatize by running at a slower rate. Fix on the fly. If it feels you’ll be exerted twice the effort just to attain your goal, tone it down a little. Don’t force anything. Work on your goal slowly but surely. Percolation is just one of a few ways to brew coffee. Other methods include French press and auto drip. While most of them result to a caffeinated drink that many people love, the flavor they create have been contended with for many years. Looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each method would have been a nice read while consuming your cup of coffee, but we will just keep it brief and concentrate on coffee percolators in this post. Percolator coffee pots are generally constructed with or without its own heat source. The ones with an integrated heat source are electrically powered. You just plug them in and you’re all set. To the contrary, the ones without a heat source are typically place on a stove or a campfire. They are ideal for outdoor use and possibly, the only kind coffee machine which you could use off the grid. Now, let us look at the most popular coffee percolator brands and discover why end users love them. The Farberware brand has existed since 1899 and is a recognized name in the cookware market. The Yosemite is Farberware’s effort at bringing back to basics the enthusiastic beverage drinkers of today. The company claims that brewing coffee this way extracts a fuller and richer flavor. Durable interior and overall construction. Presto has been in business since 1905. The company specializes in making pressure cookers, but it has expanded to other cookware throughout the years. The Presto 02822 is a 500-watt electric percolator that claims to make great tasting coffee fast. Why is it that users love it? A coffee percolator doesn’t have all the bells and whistles which an automatic drip coffee maker has. The majority of these machines are easy and require a certain amount of focus to operate. But in the long run, it is all about the flavor. Many aficionados swear by the flavor that a percolator creates. After all, what good is java if it tastes like sand? Most individuals identify themselves as animal lovers. In fact, according to the Insurance Information Institute, 60.2percent of American households have a puppy and over 47% have a cat. Not to mention reptiles, birds, and other large mammals! Although animals play a large part in our lives, different causes may cause an animal to attack. In 2017, the city of San Antonio, Texas has seen an influx of roaming dogs which has become problematic for the United States Postal Service (USPS). In a news segment on KENS5, it was reported that San Antonio ranks #11 in the nation for dog attacks on postal workers. Prevention is key: Animals will normally give warning signs before attacking. Growling, hissing, arched back, and reduced ears are just a couple of the signs that animals give us when they feel threatened. For puppies: Don’t approach an unknown dog, don’t make eye contact, and back away slowly. For cats: Walk away when they start showing aggression (i.e. increased hair, arched back, thrashing tail, etc.). Give the animal an opportunity to calm down before trying to interact with it. Wild animals: Keep calm, make yourself look larger than you are, and back away slowly. Never run from a wild animal; this may trigger their instinct to chase. Get to security: Put as much distance between the victim and the animal as possible. Use your own body, clothing, or items such as a purse or backpack to keep the creature from attacking vulnerable areas like the neck and face. Assess the situation: based on the animal and the chances of it being vaccinated, you may or may not need medical aid. If the wounds aren’t too deep, the animal was vaccinated in the previous 364 days, and you are up-to-date on your tetanus shots, you may safely cleanse the area with soap and water, use an antibiotic ointment on the injury, and bandage it up. Seek medical attention if the injury becomes red, painful, or swollen. Know when to seek help: Seek medical attention immediately if the victim has deep wounds with excessive bleeding, becomes feverish, or is attacked by an animal that has not been vaccinated in the previous year. Many animals carry dangerous diseases which could lead to infection and, in some cases, even death. When someone is attacked by any animal, timing is crucial. Save yourself precious time by familiarizing yourself with the areas of local hospitals like the Physicians Premier San Antonio ER where help are available 24 hours a day. Make certain to check out our Physicians Premier Blog for different strategies and information on health and wellness. Are you distracted? Discover it difficult to focus on the challenge at hand because of the fact your mind wanders, you worry too much or have a lot of stuff to do that you may not calm down and give attention to that one thing? Getting adequate relaxation is critical to improve your focus and concentration. Try and spend the last hour of every day unwinding or engaged in comfort centers. This also allows you prepare for sleep which is enormous in enhancing focus. To focus higher through the day, include a few physiological sports in your day by day routine. A median of 20-30 minutes of sports like swimming, walking, yoga and biking a day can work wonders. Human brain needs lots of proper fat to work nicely. Inclusion of more fats in your diet, such as: nuts, coconut oil and egg improves your concentration. Keeping all informations needed for an activity prepared can help out with decreasing viable distractions and confusions, and making certain you don’t be concerned about forgetting something. When you realize that you have the entirety at one place, your thoughts are free to be at the present moment. Create your environment carefully and purposefully. Do not try to study with the tv on. Switch off your e-mail after checking it in order that upcoming emails don’t distract you. Be stern with all the distractions and you’ll see the benefits promptly. Once you have the ability to try out this often, you will most likely be able to recognize your patterns of distraction. Together with break, additionally it’s necessary to provide the body and brain some rejuvenation. Identify a few activities that give you a quick increase of electricity and include them in the routine. Taking a fantastic few hours on your own can recharge you, fuel creative creativity and help you get new perspective. When people are faced with daunting tasks which will take a lengthy time frame, it makes it very tough to concentrate. Some type of timer are indicated to plan the next break. Look at a reasonable time to sit down and then place a timer for the timeframe. That is quite powerful and simple. Observe your inner thoughts, your emotions, your feelings, your moods, your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Watching your inner world will eliminate your interruptions and it’ll improve your focus. You will have more self-control in you, it is going to raise your confidence. Another activity which will help in gaining clearness and upping your ability to focus is to assume or visualize someone working with your position in a great manner. Think about what they might do in another way, and in the event it’s possible to absorb those characteristics. Some people don’t like where they work… at all. They might even despise who they report . And since their work environment is indeed”poisonous”, they choose to withhold their very best quality of work. “THIS PLACE doesn’t deserve the best I have to offer. I will come to work, only do what’s expected of me, collect my paycheck, and go home.” Do you know anyone like that? The problem with this line of thinking is that if you choose to give the bare minimum, then finally you will be comfortable giving the bare minimum. Yes, you would have unknowingly formed not only a habit, but a bad habit. At some point, you may not even know what excellent work resembles… and start to think that you’re not capable of being excellent. To be excellent is what you are called to be, and to be exceptional is exactly what you’re called to. During a recent hotel stay, I decided that I wanted to have some hot tea late one night. As it was a limited service hotel, ordering room service wasn’t an option. The employee explained,”Our restaurant has already closed, so tea will be available in the morning for breakfast”. Click. Now, I obviously knew that warm water and hot water had to be accessible somewhere on the property, but I decided to wait and talk to the manager in the morning. When I spoke with the manager the next morning, he had been upset about what happened and even showed me the employee mini-break area that was just a few feet behind the front desk. The break area had a fridge, and the refrigerator was piled with… wait for it… tea! All kinds of tea. A) He legitimately didn’t know there was tea accessible (yeah right). B) He’s just comfortable working within the strict parameters of his job. C) He does not like his job where he works and has chosen not to do one more ounce than he absolutely has to. You can’t permit anyone (or any work environment) to rob you of your zeal to be exceptional. As difficult as it may be, you have to push through any disdain you might have and honor your function, honor who you are serving and honor yourself. Sooner or later, each person has to make a decision about how exceptional he/she wishes to be, regardless of the work environment. Finally, it can be very fatiguing to continuously strive for excellence in a work environment that you can’t stand to maintain. If that’s the case, see if you can address your discontentment with the proper people, or find someplace else to do the job. Search for a business which has values which mirror your own.Ultimately, it’s important to work for a company that you believe in. Some people have a habit of adjusting their support based on how important they think a particular customer is. One of the reasons that’s so dangerous is because you never know that you’re serving or what their situation may be. We have no right to deal with anyone as though they are”a client”. Every customer has a story and it is our duty to honor that customer regardless of what the story could be. Never again be lulled into the fallacy that it is OK to give the bare minimum. Savagely battle that fallacy with everything you’ve got. Be exceptional regardless of the work environment. Stephen Covey wisely wrote, “Be an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity”. While that certainly can occur, try to find a team, manager and business that enable you to work among many islands of excellence in an ocean happy to have you there. In the end, service has a purpose, and a noble purpose at that. We serve because functioning is a fantastic thing, and great things are worthy to be exalted. There is significance to your role. There is purpose to your role. If you really know what that means, then you have the capacity to impact lives, one client at a time. The game of boxing is being adored by all and sundry. The game is highly appreciated across the globe among its trillions of lovers. There’s lot of action, thrill and excitement associated with this sport. This is surely the deadliest game in which the lives of the fighters are at the stake. In order to provide complete safety to the boxers, the complete assortment of boxing equipment is available in the market. These are specially manufactured accessories that are widely used during the practice and game. These are essential to wear during the game as well as while performing practice. The bare hand fighting provides more harm and damage to your system. The boxing gloves manufacturers are providing comprehensive range of their products. These are specifically created collections. These aren’t designed in the kind of the weapon to provide injury to the opponent. These are made as a protecting shield to protect the hands of the fighters throughout the game. Furthermore, these also help in supplying impactful blows on the opponent without providing any damage to the hands. There are basically two kinds of boxing gloves available in the market. One category is referred to as lace up gloves while the other is known as velcro gloves. The lace up gloves contains the laces and need assistance to tie the laces. These provide a complete covering for the hands and also provide stability to the players during the game. They shield the hands of the players throughout the game from any external harm. Another category that’s highly demanded among the skilled boxers is velcro type. These are thought to be more secure as compared to the laced ones. These are manufactured using synthetic rubber or leather. In inner layer includes the cushioned material which helps in protecting the hands of the players. They do so in order to provide excellent quality to the goods. Moreover, they also rely heavily on the advanced machinery for stitching. This ensures durability and assists in boosting the life span of the product. These are specifically created collections. The manufacturers create these collections on the demands of the traders. They supply custom label related to the name on the scope. There are various manufacturers that are offering their collection. The boxers along with the traders and sellers should buy the range from the manufacturers. The cause of this is that by the manufacturers you can easily get the range at competitive prices. The marketplace is flooded with a variety of lighting options, but the ones that have recently gained great popularity are the LEDs that are Light Emitting Diodes. LEDs are easy inventions in the lighting industry but with great potential. With an increasing need to safeguard our natural resources, it has become our prime responsibility to begin contributing to the global shift. LEDs have been known as more energy efficient alternatives to the traditional lighting systems and are a lot more controllable and visually appealing than compact fluorescent bulbs. LED lights are also cool to the touch and do not contribute to growing in temperature in your home. Another spike in the performance and overall appeal has been made by the introduction of smart lighting options that allow lights to be app controlled. This opens a whole assortment of opportunities that you control in addition to decorate your space with lights. Visual Cure: The wise LED lights when put at the right place, with a right Color temperature range, make your space a visual treat. The magnificent colours, the assortment of lights and various shades create a excellent effect together. You can even choose colour schemes to suit your mood or theme of the event. Your selection of LED lighting for home can be lots of fun only if you choose to invest in the lighting solutions of tomorrow. Lifespan: Smart LED lights have a tendency to have a longer lifespan compared to other traditional sources. They last almost as much as 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Expensive yet cost-effective: Since the technology is still in its initial phases, the relative utilization of smart LED bulbs is a costly affair. But running for a longer lifespan and saving more energy makes up for your initial investment. They come in various forms and sizes such as tubes, pots, panels, strings etc.. The most popular one is the way they are used in the form of flexible strips which are used to illuminate the edges, corners or circled around any object. Easy installation and outreach to dark distant corners: The smart LED lights being thin and flexible can reach various such places where normal traditional bulbs can not reach, like drawers, cabinets. This very property makes them incredibly useful, as they assist and shed some light under your bed or in the back of your fridge, where it might have been hard to place any light otherwise. It basically refers to the coolness or warmth of light. New York City Raccoon Removal lights can easily emulate daylight, or be a cool white, or a hot white or various other temperature settings. This Color temperature range helps in setting the warmth and general feel of this space. They come in every color from ultra-violet and deep blues to warm reds and luscious greens. Adding them not only changes the colour of your space but also the temperature. Control Gear: you can easily set up for a control gear system that is remote technology to easily operate these wise LED lights of your entire space with the support of a remote, making it smart in every sense. By utilizing the above-mentioned properties, the wise LED bulbs work good for people who would like to change the overall appearance of their interiors. These lights if placed properly, illuminate and add extra features to your space by tapping to it and offering you full control. Care has to be taken while choosing the lights too, depending on the space you’ll use it like your living room, kitchen, bedroom or any other room. Every space has its own set of prerequisites and additional features. For Ex: a living room being such a location you obtain maximum visitors, should have an ambient light environment. But you could always surprise your visitors by creating beautiful designs and intriguing ceiling lights. By this, you’re meeting your requirement of lighting along with great designs and beautiful features. If you fancy yourself a nature lover, there’s a habitat for elephant seals along the California coast that you will not want to miss. During the December to March mating season, you will find docent led nature walks at Año Nuevo State Park where you can learn all about the habits and habitats of one of nature’s most enormous creatures, the elephant seal. The main attraction is always the fantastic northern elephant seals that can weigh 2 1/2 tons each, but other visible species include sea lions, New York City Raccoon Removal, otters, and harbor seals. It’s fun to see the huge bulls fight for dominance on the beach and strut their stuff to attract the bevy of ladies in-waiting. At the end of the party, lots of the females – pregnant in the year before – give birth in the sand. Then it is off to the ocean until next year’s call to revelry. Hunted to near extinction in the nineteenth century, the elephant seal population dwindled to about 100 animals. Protected by the American and Mexican authorities in the early twentieth century, the population has rebounded to some 150,000. The first elephant seal sightings in Año Nuevo began in the 1950s. The first pups were born on the mainland in the 70s, and from the mid-90s, the amount of local births was in the thousands. In March, and after the main group has departed for parts unknown, the pups and several hundred elephant seals continue to rest and recuperate along the beach and molt – not as lively as breeding, but still worth seeing. Be forewarned, on hot sunny days, there is nothing quite like the aroma of a molting elephant seal. Just off the mainland sits Año Nuevo Island. The barren and wind-swept island is home to the remains of a 19th century lighthouse. The historical keeper’s house shown above was constructed in 1872, and now provides shelter to a variety of Cormorants and Sea Lions. You will walk around 3-miles during a tour at Año Nuevo. Wear comfortable clothes, especially shoes, as your guided walk will take you over varied terrain including sand dunes, and you know what it is like to trudge in sand. Also, wear proper headgear since the tours go, rain or shine – and umbrellas aren’t permitted. NOTE: There is an accessible boardwalk via van for those needing mobility assistance. Ask for details when buying tickets for. For more information about visiting with the fascinating elephant seals, check out the park’s website. There’s also a worthwhile Marine Education Center located inside the park boundaries with interesting animal, plant, and geological exhibits, together with information about the colorful history of the area. Treat yourself and your family to a trip with the magnificent elephant seals. Missing somebody is a strange post. It is about mourning another that is not present any more in your life. What should you do to get over them? To not consider them any more. It is not easy to mourn another yet here’s a way to do so. Mourning another is to get over the values that they helped us to deal with. If these were all the demands you’re mourning I do not envy you yet this was a powerful powerful person that you are mourning if they fulfilled these needs of yours. That’s what they did by satisfying Fort Lauderdale Wildlife Removal. They were a wonderful person to know. No wonder you miss them, you mourn for them. What you need to do is to compose these qualities they satisfied for you. Whether it was love, heat or joy. Then name the feeling that has been assisted to gather around that quality like fun, closeness or enjoyment. Now you’re remembering the goodness that they gave to you. Do not be scarce with your time. What you are doing is bringing these needs which were suited for you, they would be making your happier because your needs are bringing these feelings back to you. You may be over joyed as you feel the richness of these values being fulfilled again. Remember the experiences in your day and feel happy again observing this person. Your needs are being satisfied again from the memory of the friend or relative of yours. It’s all in your mind. Everything you experienced here is a remarkable innovation by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. He taught Nonviolent communication to millions over the years. He brought peace to a lot of nations and their people by learning these communication skills. He has brought much peace of my life too. Posted on June 13, 2018 March 7, 2019 Leave a comment on Do You Miss Them? Our bedroom is a sanctuary that holds in its center our joys, tears, worries, and several secrets. Away from the prying eyes, a husband and wife share their lifestyles and quality time in this room, and that’s the reason why the colours used in a bedroom must be given a thoughtful consideration. Every colour holds a different meaning, and if you are soon getting married or recently got married, then you have to go through this list to determine which colours would you pick to your new bedroom. As important as the colour is, the paint company you select would also define the last effects. Therefore, as soon as you pick a colour, but it only from Lantana Bat Removal. Brilliant pinks, reds and oranges: They may sound from the league, but using them with neutral colored furniture and upholstery will help soften the edges and they won’t overwhelm you. Sky white and blue: Cool blue with white is a classic combination, not to forget visually soothing, that will keep you refreshed and lively. For a scrubbed clean look, choose other things in the bedroom which complement these colors. Cheery yellow with grey: Yellow in every tone has the capacity to rise and shine. The gray here will give the yellowish colour a perfect background to remain subtle, which makes it ideal for a bedroom. This colour combination is contemporary and friendly at the same time. Spring green and sky blue: Setting the benchmark of elegance since the dawn of time, you may keep either one as the wall color, and accessorize the room working with the other colour. Aqua and citron: These two colours are just what you need to breathe life into a neutral area. Embrace few patterns to add some more character to them. Two-toned neutrals: Pairing two neutral colours gives you ample of options to play with accessories in vivid colours. Grey with taupe, tan with ivory, or cream with charcoal, you have many choices to pick from. Over the last 5 years or so, comic book based movies have burst into the collective consciousness of theatre goers everywhere. From Batman and Superman, to anti-hero protagonists like The Punisher and Deadpool, these movies are revolutionizing the concept of a personality”Universe” in which all the movies, heroes and villains, and settings occur within one giant world. It can be daunting to try and figure out everything but fortunately you can learn a lot through these 3 basic concepts. Here’s the beginners guide to superhero films. Iron man starts the creation of the Marvel Universe in which you’re introduced to Tony Stark, the genius billionaire scientist who is revolutionizing the military with the creation of his new weaponry. In this first film, you see the rise of Stark Industries as well as the production of Iron Man. As the plot twists and turns between fighting terrorism on a global scale, betrayal within his own ranks, and conflict with the government and other superhero associations, you start to construct the cities and world in which we find lots of the comic book stories. After Iron Man 1 and 2, The Hulk, and Thor, you are introduced to the concept of the Avengers with the introduction to Captain America in his first film. He is rejected over and over again until he’s accepted into a super soldier program that turns him into Captain America. Leading the fight against the HYDRA corp, Captain America takes on evil and becomes the first Avenger from the sequence. In 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy goes on to become a massive blockbuster hit. Incorporating many of fresh characters from the Marvel Universe, this movie also expands the potential for worlds in addition to incorporates a new flavor of humor and brevity to it. It links and ties the entire world of Thor into other films and maintains many storylines from other films. With its humor, incredible weaponry, Lake Park Raccoon Removal, jokes, and amazing soundtrack- Guardians of the Galaxy took the Universe into a whole different direction and depth. Not all Marvel story lines come in theater movies. Some became very popular series’ on internet film streaming sites. Daredevil became an instant hit with its hard hitting plot lines, back stories, and fantastic acting. Occurring in new cities and enlarging the protagonists’ worlds and preferences, these distinct sets of series did a great job setting up for later movies. Spider-Man Homecoming, although not the latest movie, seems to be the most recent in terms of building the Marvel universe. Peter Parker is striving to utilize his new found spidey senses once and for all. However, with great power comes great responsibility and Peter begins to realize that being Spider-Man is more than simply using your powers, it takes maturity, self-control, subject, and decision making skills that no mere adolescent – no matter super powers and abilities – can make by themselves. If you love comic-book based movies, use this manual for you watching in the proper order to maximize your understanding.

2019-04-20T00:48:26Z

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About 13,000 Alaskans signed up for health insurance on healthcare.gov during the open enrollment period that closed March 31st. The two insurers offering plans on the exchange in Alaska shared their enrollment figures today with APRN. Moda Health says it has about 7700 healthcare.gov enrollees in Alaska and the company is still processing some additional sign ups. April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process. OK, let's unpeel this onion slowly, shall we? Through April 19, 70,243 people had signed up for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act rollout, according to state figures, with federal dollars paying for about two-thirds of those people and state and federal dollars roughly splitting the cost for the other third, because they were already eligible before Obamacare entered the picture. There may be a few thousand more enrollments to come from Nevada, Colorado and so forth, but today, April 30, is about as definitive a date as we're gonna get for the wrap-up of the first Open Enrollment period under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, otherwise known as the ACA or Obamacare. With that in mind, the time has come for me to officially declare my intentions for this website going forward. For the first time, low-income adults without children are eligible for government health coverage. In Illinois, officials expect that'll mean 350,000 new people in Medicaid. And that's not all. Julie Hamos, director of the Department of Health Care and Family Services, says the news reports and advertising and community outreach around the Obamacare deadline led to a separate spike. "We have 80,000 more than the usual enrollment of people who already were eligible, they just didn't sign up. But because of that activity in the communities, now they're signing up." The first article is mainly a breakdown of off-exchange QHP enrollments across various Blue Cross companies; normally this would be something of a jackpot for me, but since the BCBSA had already stated that they had over 1.7 million off-exchange enrollments not including March or April, these numbers don't really help out much. What I really need at this point are state-by-state off-exchange QHP numbers (ideally through at least the end of March), and I don't see those coming anytime soon. According to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, between 80% and 85% of people who signed up for a Blues plan through a public exchange are paying their premiums. The percentage is based on a survey of member Blues plans as of Feb. 1. But individual Blues plans say that number is higher. Nevada has bumped their "started by 3/31" enrollment extension out until May 30. Colorado is allowing people up until May 31st to complete their enrollments, but only if they applied for Medicaid but had their eligibility denied. Massachusetts still has something like 270,000 people stuck in "Limbo Status" who may (?) have until June 30th to have their situations sorted out...not exactly sure what's going on with that, however. Read more about Michigan: ACA Medicaid expansion up to 159K in first 4 weeks! Guest Post: What Is All This "Deadline Creep" Really Telling Us? Recently, I've been puzzling over a question: what is all this "deadline creep" really telling us? Not just about the considerable burden it's placed on Charles Gaba in continuing this website, which is obviously no joke—but also about what's happening as the ACA rolls out. We've been watching deadline creep for at least a month now. And I think it's kind of a big deal. Read more about Guest Post: What Is All This "Deadline Creep" Really Telling Us? Read more about Idaho hits 76K QHPs, breaks own target by 90%! Less than 140K request ACA Mandate Exemption. Nationally. Remember all the fuss and bother that the GOP made about how no one would sign up for healthcare under the ACA for various reasons, ranging from the technical problems with the HC.gov website to the law making it "too easy" to get out of doing so (while simultaneously screaming about the mandate itself being "unconstitutional" even though the Supreme Court ruled that it isn't)? Well, the former has obviously not been an issue from the enrollment side for months (at least on the Federal side). As for the latter, guess what? The government left the door wide open for millions of Americans to be excused from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people must carry health insurance or pay a fine, but so far relatively few have asked for such a pardon. About 77,000 families and individuals have requested exemptions from the health-care law’s so-called individual mandate, according to internal government documents obtained by The Washington Post. As of April 20, officials had approved tens of thousands of exemption requests and rejected none. Read more about Less than 140K request ACA Mandate Exemption. Nationally. Nearly 35,000 New Mexicans had enrolled in health plans through the state and federal insurance exchanges as of April 15, a 32 percent increase from the end of March, the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange said Friday. As of March 31, 24,412 residents had enrolled through the exchanges, and as of April 15, that number had climbed to 34,966, as 8,554 residents took advantage of the extended enrollment period, NMHIX said. Combined enrollment in public and private plans now stands at 200,174, MNsure officials said. That includes 50,096 in private plans; 41,403 in MinnesotaCare, a public program for low to moderate incomes that requires a modest premium contribution; and 108,673 in Medical Assistance, Minnesota’s version of Medicaid. Pull the sheet over Cover Oregon; it's done. Oregon should pull the plug on the beleaguered Cover Oregon health insurance exchange and switch to the federal exchange, a technological advisory committee recommended Thursday. The move is considered almost certain to be adopted by the Cover Oregon board, which meets Friday. Changing to the federal exchange would cost about $5 million, while a partial fix to the Oregon exchange would cost more than $78 million based on an estimate from Deloitte, a Cover Oregon consultant. --First, residents of Oregon do still have 3 more days (today, tomorrow and Wednesday) to push their 2014 policy enrollments through the remnants of Cover Oregon, and I'm assuming that the current hobbled-together system will still be in place during the transition period for Qualifying Life Events, Medicaid enrollment and so forth. Read more about Pull the sheet over Cover Oregon; it's done. I haven't updated the graph with this yet, but both the front page "quick stats" block and the spreadsheet now include my rough guesstimate for the final mop-up period from 4/16 - 4/30...I'm guessing an extra 93,000 or so people are being tacked on via stray paper applications, special cases and oddball "super-extension periods" in Nevada, Oregon, DC and Hawaii, etc. this should bring the grand total through the end of April up to around 8.14 million, of which I expect AT LEAST 7.5 million to have paid their premiums by late May. Where the heck is the March HHS Report??? Of the pile of submissions and requests which piled up last week, at least a half-dozen were basically the same question: Where the hell is the official March HHS report? Obviously that report from Inside Health Policy claiming that they'd release the report back on the 17th, complete with early April data, was flat-out wrong. The irony is, of course, that a) no one has been anticipating this report more than myself (it was supposed to mark the end of this project, after all...although obviously the situation has changed...more on that later); b) I was previously concerned that they'd release the report too early (cutting off the last 2 days of March and only including 3/02 - 3/29); and c) it's actually just as well that they didn't release it last week, since I was in no position to do anything with the data anyway (still on the mend, but I'm at least able to type up a few updates this morning, as you can tell). Read more about Where the heck is the March HHS Report??? Michigan: ACA Medicaid expansion up to 140K in first 3 weeks! Read more about Michigan: ACA Medicaid expansion up to 140K in first 3 weeks! The state has previously reported that 147,000 people signed up for private health coverage, but said Wednesday that the total grew to 164,062 as officials finalized applications after the March 31 deadline. Open enrollment began last October. Updated enrollment numbers from Oct. 1 to March 31 are included below. Update as of 4/19: 45,291 Consumers have selected Qualified Health Plans, 32,365 have paid. This AR update is noteworthy for being the first enrollment update I've received which actually includes a reference to...myself! Through yesterday, almost 45,000 Arkansans have selected plans on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, the new marketplace created by Obamacare, according to information released today by the Arkansas Insurance Department (see county by county map above). Open enrollment is now closed, though people who submitted a paper application by April 7 have until the end of the month to enroll and pick a plan. We may also see this number creep up in the next few weeks as the carriers continue to receive data from the feds. Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said all 11 current health plans have indicated they plan to return next year. He also said three new plans have submitted letters of intent indicating they may compete on the exchange in 2015. How many updates can there be AFTER the extension period? Lots of people (especially myself) have been wondering just how many updates to enrollment data or other QHP/Medicaid/Exchange ACA-related news items there would be after the open enrollment "extension period" ended back on April 15th. After all, the dust should be settling with only the occasional bit of news now, right? Of course, some of these are duplicates and some may not really warrant their own full entry, but you get the picture. Seems like there's gonna be plenty of ACA news to keep this site operational for awhile yet. Read more about How many updates can there be AFTER the extension period? Read more about Kentucky: 82.8K QHPs, 330.6K Medicaid, 75% previously uninsured, ACA now covering 10% of all KY residents! Read more about Arkansas: "Private" Medicaid Expansion jumps to 155K...70% of total eligible! I'm back in action, baby! Well...sort of. UPDATE: Never mind. Yes, that's right...ACA Signups is back in action! Well...sort of. I'm able to post a couple of updates here and there, but don't expect anything major until next week. The swelling in my right eye has dropped significantly, allowing me to read and type for perhaps 20 minutes at a time, and I'm back on (semi) solid food...thick soups and the like. I also wanted to thank everyone for the well-wishes and words of support. And no, the irony of the situation is not lost on me: I'm taking my brand-new ACA-approved healthcare policy through a thorough workout this month, by subjecting myself to 3 different doctor's appointments (well, technically 4 if you include the dentist, but that's not covered by the policy, of course): Once to my GP, and two more to the Ophthalmologist (once last week to make sure the virus didn't infect my eyeball itself, and a follow-up next week to make sure it didn't seep into the eyeball later in the process). Read more about I'm back in action, baby! Well...sort of. UPDATE: Never mind. Not that this is particularly surprising after my prior post, but yes, I've been diagnosed with a nasty case of Shingles. That would be bad enough, but making it worse is that it's on my face (usually it's on the torso), meaning that my right eyelid is swollen over, making it very difficult to see, read or type more than a few sentences at a time. As a result, I probably won't be able to post any more updates at all for a few days, which will likely mean a bunch of them posted all at once this weekend (or whenever the swelling goes down). Please do keep sending updates in, however; I'll just flag them for later reference. Thanks, all. Talk to you when I can. ...no reason at all. Really. Shingles is most common in older adults and people who have weak immune systems because of stress, injury, certain medicines, or other reasons. Most people who get shingles will get better and will not get it again. Read more about You knew this was coming...now I'm sick. Read more about YES, you'll need to reset your HC.gov password. NO, this is no reason to freak out. • 52,156: Vermonters who used the Vermont Health Connect website, call center or navigators to shop for 2013 health insurance and now have coverage. • 24,888: Vermonters who purchased commercial coverage through Vermont Health Connect. • 27,268: Vermonters who shopped on Vermont Health Connect but qualified and are now enrolled in Medicaid. Eligibility expanded under the federal Affordable Care Act. • 33,549: Vermonters previously covered by the Vermont Health Access Program and Catamount Health who the state enrolled automatically in Medicaid based on income information on record. The S.C. Department of Insurance reported Friday that 114,789 individuals selected a plan on the federal exchange through April 15 - up from an 97,000 estimate earlier this month. A First: I'm gonna try to project the state-by-state 4/15 QHP totals! Today was filled with fantastic news across the board. The only bummer is that the actual HHS report for March (and the first half of April?), with the state-by-state breakdown, was not released today. So, you know what? I'm so geeked about the 4/15 total actually breaking the big 8M mark after all that I'm going to attempt to estimate the state-by-state totals for every state which hasn't published their official 4/15 total yet myself. This may sound insane, but it's not as difficult as you may think (well, it's not difficult to do; that doesn't mean that I'll be accurate). First of all, I can obviously eliminate any state which has already released their data through 4/15. That gets rid of California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Minnesota, Nevada, New York and Oregon. I can also eliminated Washington State, since they never participated in the expansion period (they may have a few hundred stragglers via "special case-by-case basis" but that should be about it. Read more about A First: I'm gonna try to project the state-by-state 4/15 QHP totals! Overall, Terrell said, the state has received 95,000 Medicaid applications via the federal ACA sign-up, representing 132,000 people, since October 2013. And that number is likely to grow. The number of people added to Medicaid/CHIP in NC thru 3/01 via the HC.gov site was 55,691, so this could potentially be a more than 2.3x increase, but they're noted as applications, so presumably some of them will be denied. Still impressive. A total of 208,301 Connecticut residents enrolled in health care coverage through the Access Health CT online marketplace as of Sunday, the quasi-public agency announced Thursday. The numbers reflect those who signed up before the March 31 deadline for open enrollment, plus 5,000 people who attempted to enroll by that date but encountered some difficulty, but were able to enroll over the last two weeks. “Over the past two weeks, our team has made follow up calls to each of those individuals to assist them through the enrollment process, and we have now completed all open enrollment applications,” Kevin Counihan, head of the agency created as the state’s response to the federal Affordable Care Act, said in a news release. Of the 208,301 enrollees, 78,713 enrolled with a private insurance carrier and 129,588 enrolled in Medicaid. Of the 78,713 residents who enrolled with a private insurance carrier, 78 percent received a tax subsidy and 22 percent did not. Oh, by the way: The "over 124K" press release issued on the 14th was a big part of the reason why I downshifted my total projection from the 7.9-8.0M range down to around 7.78M a few days back. I assumed that the only reason they would issue a number press release the day before the deadline would be if the enrollments were tapering off so much that there would only be a handful left to count on the final day. Obviously I was wrong; CO managed to add another 3K QHPs on the last day. Update as of 4/15: 44,468 consumers confirmed Qualified Health Plan selections through Nevada Health Link, 30,176 have paid. Hey FOX News: Here's a free graph for you to use! Read more about Hey FOX News: Here's a free graph for you to use! So, now that I have the data through at least 3/31 (and in most cases, through mid-April) for all 15 state-run exchanges, I can start to play with the statistics a bit. At the end of February (technically March 1st), the 15 state-run exchanges totalled 1,621,239 QHPs. As of 4/15, these add up to at least 2,564,005, or 58.1% higher. There's anywhere from 2-14 days missing from some of these, however (perhaps 30,000 total, for a total of around 2.59 million), so let's call it about a 60% increase since then. However, we also know that the total exchnage QHP enrollment figure is a minimum of 7.5 million, and almost certainly closer to 7.9 - 8.1 million. Let's assume the low end: 7.9M total. Read more about More California Details: 1.4M QHPs, 1.9M Medicaid, 85% paid & more! Just a reminder: Assuming that Inside Health Policy has it right, the official HHS report should be released sometime today and should include about 99% of the exchange QHP enrollment data through 4/15. In the past, they've usually released the monthly reports around the 11th or 12th of the following month. In this case they've obviously been delayed because of a) the insanity at the end of March and b) thankfully, they apparently want to squeeze in the first half of April as well (as you know, I was deeply concerned that they might lop off the last 2 days of the month and roll them over to an April report next month, which would cause no end of confusion among sloppy media outlets which can't take a glance at the calendar and do basic math). They generally release these reports around 4pm. I know this because there've been at least 2 cases where the conference call with Kathleen Sebelius started up right as I was waiting for my kid to get home from school, so we'll see if that holds true today as well. I would love to believe RAND's estimated 8.2 million increase in ESI between September and March but my experience in commissioning similar polls suggests to me that it is not real but due to an unanticipated side effect of the poll methodology. We know that there is a pretty large "churn" in insurance status. Some people will gain jobs with insurance, while others lose them. Some people retire, get sick, or die. But one would expect the number gaining and losing employer coverage would be about equal. RAND's 8.2 million increase is the difference between 14.5 million estimated to have gained employer sponsored insurance and 6.3 million estimated to have lost it (with an estimated 102.4 million having employer coverage in both polls). Yesterday I posted a poll asking whether people found the term "woodworker" (used to describe new Medicaid enrollees who were already eligible to be enrolled even without the expansion provisions of the ACA) to be offensive. The thinking is that "woodworker" makes it sound like you're an insect creeping around under the floorboards and so forth; not the prettiest image. Texas: Baker Institute Survey suggests 760K exchange QHPs as of 3/15...NOT including kids! I'm debating whether to actually plug this number into the spreadsheet or not. On the one hand, I'm reluctant to do so without hard official numbers being given (this is just a survey, only runs through mid-March and doesn't include kids anyway). On the other hand, doing so wouldn't change my total projection of around 7.78 million exchange QHPs; it just reduces the "unsorted" number at the bottom. Plus, I'm almost certain that the March HHS report is going to be released sometime tomorrow (Thursday) anyway, so if I'm wrong, it'll be easy enough to correct it at that point. Read more about Texas: Baker Institute Survey suggests 760K exchange QHPs as of 3/15...NOT including kids! HOUSTON (AP) — More than 177,000 Houston residents have signed up for health insurance through the federal marketplace, far exceeding expectations for the city. According to an email obtained by The Associated Press, as of April 5 177,825 Houston residents enrolled for insurance under President Barack Obama's signature law. The email was written by Marjorie McColl Petty, the regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Dallas. The expectation had been that 138,000 Houston residents would sign up. Petty told Houston officials the numbers reflect a successful 13-county regional effort. The exchange had 699 people enroll for coverage in the two weeks after open enrollment was originally supposed to close, with 22 percent of those signups coming on Tuesday, the final possible day. That brings the total number of private health coverage enrollments to 10,630, Medicaid signups to 19,217, and small business enrollments to 13,118. Read more about Gallup Poll buries the lede: Uninsured down to 12.9% in first half of April! Even without expanding eligibility for Indiana Medicaid, the program had enrolled 40,577 more Hoosiers as of March than it had in the same month last year. More than 15,000 of that year-over-year increase occurred in March alone this year, as a flood of people here and nationally sought coverage before Obamacare would hit them with a tax for going uninsured. If you take a look at the Medicaid Spreadsheet, you'll see that I currently have the "woodworker" tally for Indiana at 40,951...only 374 more than the number reported above. That 40,951 is 15% of the combined total number of new Medicaid enrollments for Indiana from both the HC.gov website as well as through traditional state Medicaid agency offices (273,005). OK, the various ACA exchanges are just messing with my head now. First, Nevada announced that they've extended their enrollment out to May 30 for those who started by March 31st. Then Oregon announced that they've extended full open enrollment out to April 30. Then I found out that anyone who submitted a paper application by April 7th in any of the 36 states run by HC.gov still have until April 30 to finish. Colorado, I've discovered, is allowing people who applied for Medicaid but were denied up until May 31st to finish their enrollment process. And, of course, Massachusetts has over 200K "Limbo Status" people who may (theoretically) get squared away as late as June 30. Late last night I learned that Hawaii has bumped their extension deadline out to April 30. Oh for the love of...(sigh) Look, I'm all for letting as many people as possible enroll in healthcare coverage, but even I admit that I'm getting awfully tired of having to change the final, FINAL deadline dates. The Hawaii Health Connector has extended the initial grace period— which would have ended on Tuesday — given to individuals in need of extra time completing the enrollment application process for health insurance by a couple of weeks to April 30. Let's just hope they resolve their Heartbleed issue. This doesn't change the actual total number of Rhode Island's Medicaid expansion numbers, but it does specify the ratio between "strict expansion" and the "woodworker" enrollees...66% to 34%. Interestingly, this is virtually identical to the Washington State ratio (again, 67% to 33%). This isn't enough to apply to the other expansion states yet, but if it does prove to be the case, that should be helpful in figuring out how accurate my current estimates are. I currently have "strict expansion" at roughly 3.7 million, while "woodworkers" are at 2.05 million. A strict 67/33 ratio would have the "woodworker" number at around 1.82 million...except that the non-expansion states also have some woodworkers as well, which should account for the additional 230K or so. Figures obtained from the Chafee administration by WPRI.com show that out of the 64,590 Rhode Islanders who signed up for Medicaid from October through March using the state’s new HealthSource RI marketplace, 34% were eligible before the new law expanded the rules for who could sign up. A few days ago, Michigan's newly-expanded Medicaid tally sat at around 32,000, plus another 54,000 people transferred into the program from an existing state-run one, for a total of about 86,000 people. • Updated every Tuesday at 3 p.m. I've been shouting from the rooftops about OFF-exchange QHPs for months now (I first added a column for them on January 3rd and had my first significant data update on January 31st), and until recently few in the news media seemed to catch on to the significance of these. Until a few weeks ago, I had only officially documented about 560,000 off-exchange QHPs, but guestimated that there were easily 4 million or more out there (I had mused off-handedly back in mid-February that the total could potentially be 7.7 million, but decided to backtrack to "4M or more" out of caution). An estimated 107,000 New Mexicans have enrolled in Medicaid since the state expanded the qualifications in October to include low-income adults, state Human Services Department spokesman Matt Kennicott said Monday. ...A total of 26,412 New Mexicans had enrolled in health plans through the state insurance exchange by the March 31 enrollment deadline, the state office of the Superintendent of Insurance said in a news release issued recently. ...An additional 10,000 applications had been submitted by the deadline but remained unprocessed, the statement said. That's right. Thanks to high winds and a mid-April snowfall, I have no electricity today. Expect updates to be few and far between. Predatory Pricing Denied: HHS may require some companies to RAISE premiums (with good reason)? I've been debating whether to post about this since frankly, I'm not entirely sure that I have all the details straight about how this works. If anyone more familiar with this process wants to correct or clarify my description in the comments, please feel free to do so. OK, so there's all sorts of hand wringing over how much premium rates will increase for 2015 based on the 2014 risk pool. The CBO issued a report yesterday which projects that in spite of all the fretting, the overall average increase will only be a few percent, which is good news if true (although this will no doubt vary from state to state). However, I recently learned a couple of very interesting things about how the ACA works when it comes to pricing oversight and the "risk corridor" program. Read more about Predatory Pricing Denied: HHS may require some companies to RAISE premiums (with good reason)? Yesterday I issued a reminder/warning that the March HHS report might stop at 3/29, leaving the last 2 (and by far the busiest) days of the official enrollment period, the 30th-31st to be moved over to the April report. If HHS did this, the March report would appear to only include about 6.5M exchange QHPs, since another 600K would be moved to April, along with the additional 700K (give or take) enrollments from 4/01 - 4/15 (and even beyond). Fortunately, if this bulletin from Inside Health Policy is true, wiser heads at HHS have prevailed...and then some! Read more about BONUS: ACA causing INSURERS to proactively HELP people w/diabetes! The most expensive provisions of Obamacare will cost taxpayers about $100 billion less than expected, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday. CBO also said it doesn't expect big premium increases next year for insurance plans sold through the health care law's exchanges. In its latest analysis, CBO said the law's coverage provisions—a narrow part of the law that includes only certain policies—will cost the government $36 billion this year, which is $5 billion less than CBO's previous estimate. Over the next decade, the provisions will cost about $1.4 trillion—roughly $104 billion less than CBO last estimated. Monday's report also sheds some light on one of the big challenges still to come for Obamacare: next year's premiums. Some critics have warned that premiums could skyrocket next year, based in part on the demographics of the people who signed up for coverage this year. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, at this point, Colorado would issue a formal press release with a "final" number when there's still a day and a half to go. However, I realized that it probably simply means that practically everyone who qualified for the 4/15 extension has already done so by now; presumably they're already over 124K and there's only a few hundred partial applications left anyway, so their final tally will come in somewhere between 124K - 125K, thus allowing them to confidently release the news. On the down side, if this "winding down" effect is true in most other states, it also suggests that instead of one final mini-spike, the 4/15 deadline will actually result in a severe drop-off, making the final total more like 7.7M instead of 7.8M, but that's fine as well. In any event, CO is up another 3,000 exchange QHPs since last week to over 124K total. About 500 small employers participated in the Small Business Marketplace, or SHOP, which saw 220 enroll, covering 1,860 employees and family members. I did know that Florida was allowing paper applications received by April 7 to have their enrollments completed by April 30, but I thought that was it. The new federal deadline -- a special enrollment period – already allowed registrations delayed by exchange-related problems to be finished as late as April 30 for those who submitted a paper application by April 7. That extension applied to individuals living in states where insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act is conducted through the federal exchange. A few days ago I gave a final 4/15 exchange QHP estimate range from between 7.7 - 7.9M, with an outside shot of 8M. Today I'm narrowing my projection within that range; unless there's a really big absolute-last-minute spike today and tomorrow (which is conceivable), it's looking like the final tally will end up somewhere between 7.8 - 7.9M. 7.75 - 7.85M I suspect the 8M mark will remain tantilizingly out of reach. On the other hand, if I've seriously lowballed here and it does end up around, say, 7.95M, it's just barely possible that a handful of stragglers from Nevada and Oregon (along with paper applications in Florida?) could just barely drag the 4/30 total over the 8M line (Nevada has actually extended their "started by 3/31" policy all the way out until May 30, while Oregon has extended their full enrollment period out to 4/30). @charles_gaba off-topic? NJ had coverage 4 adult until age of 30-31? Do they go down to 26 under ACA and if so, did you account for that? The March HHS Enrollment Report may leave off March 30th and 31st, and therefore leave 600,000 exchange QHP enrollments to be tacked onto the April report instead. Earlier today a friend of mine (Eclectablog...who, by the way, is also the head of the best blogging team in America, and who could use your help with his quarterly fundraiser at the moment) noted that there was an anti-ACA banner ad from the Koch Bros running at the bottom of this site earlier today. His Tweet was intended as snark, of course, but at least a couple of people didn't appear to get the joke, and actually think this means I'm either hypocritical or some sort of 11th Dimensional Chess-playing Double Agent Mole working for the Koch Bros. Not sure how that would work, exactly, but whatever. OK, I actually do have one update today (it's 8:30 at night and my kid is getting ready for bed). When I first learned that Washington State's off-exchange total was a whopping 2.2x that of their exchange-based enrollments back on February 20th, I casually noted that if that held true nationally, it would make the off-exchange QHP tally easily 7.7M or higher ...and this was back when the exchange QHPs were only around 3.5M. However, I also tried to be cautious in my "official" estimate, keeping it to around 4M or so since I didn't know how many there really were beyond the 300K (later 560K) or so I had documented at the time. After all, other states would likely have a much lower ratio of Off- to On-exchange QHPs; In Wisconsin, for instance, Off-Exchange QHPs were only about 23% as high as exchange-based. Because sometimes you just want to take your kid to the zoo for the day. A few days ago, the much-discussed Rand Corporation healthcare coverage survey was released. There's a lot to absorb and discuss in it, but the one number which I found the most puzzling was their estimate of around 3.9 million private QHP enrollments via the ACA exchanges. As I noted at the time, this puzzled me because around "mid-March" (the point at which the vast bulk of survey responses had come in), the actual number of exchange QHPs was roughly 1 million higher, around 4.9M. The survey itself lists a +/- 1.1 million margin of error for that figure, but it still didn't make much sense to me, since the official HHS report through 3/01 (2 weeks earlier) was already 4.24 million. At first, I figured that perhaps they were lopping off about 20% to account for the unpaid enrollments. This would make the 3.9M figure correct, but there was no mention of payments in the survey. Maryland's press releases are getting shorter and more abrupt. With the enrollment period wrapping up and their exchange site still an utter mess (and about to be completely scrapped and replaced), this isn't terribly surprising. Still, this is up another 2,184 QHPs and 16,420 Medicaid enrollees in the past week, which isn't too bad, all things considered. Through April 9, 2014, 65,186 Marylanders have chosen to enroll in qualified health plans through Maryland Health Connection. As of April 8, 248,495 have gained Medicaid coverage in 2014 and remain active in Medicaid. Enrollments in qualified health plans since March 31 include 2,229 enrollments completed with assistance from a dedicated team responding to Marylanders who contacted our 1-800 hotline and other channels to request additional help. I think this is the first Nevada update I've posted which didn't come from the Nevada Health Link's Twitter feed. Technically only 28,208 have actually paid their first premium so far, but another 4,332 have scheduled their payment which is certainly a huge step ahead of having "enrolled but not even arranged for a payment" (and my model has 7% of this total being lopped out for potential non-payment anyway). So, 32,540 it is until further notice. And the number of people who enrolled in and paid for a qualified health plan through the exchange hit 28,208 on April 5, up from 25,899 people on March 31. Another 4,332 consumers have scheduled payments. Last week, that [the ACA being here to stay] sounded like wishful thinking. Two new studies released this week prove it. While the White House can claim credit for a net increase of 9.3 million insured and a lowered uninsured rate from 20.5 percent to 15.8 percent, the data provides a significantly different picture than that painted by President Obama and the ACA’s advocates. More than 106,000 Ohioans have signed up for Medicaid under an expansion of the taxpayer funded health program, while thousands of others are waiting to hear whether they are deemed eligible. ...Ohio's monthly report on Medicaid caseloads shows that 106,238 residents had enrolled under the extension as of March 31. That's about 29 percent of the roughly 366,000 newly eligible people estimated to sign up by the end of June 2015. More than 345,000 people have sought Medicaid coverage through the state's benefit site since Oct. 1. About 65 percent of the applications have been resolved, while roughly 120,000 are still pending. Many of those cases await eligibility determinations by the state's largest counties. Yesterday, contributor Stevef101 noted that Blue Cross of Idaho was bragging about enrolling 45K people via HC.gov...more than the total exchange QHPs for the state through the end of February. Today he further notes that the company has enrolled 70,000 people in new QHPs total during the enrollment period...meaning that 25K of them were done off-exchange. Six-thousand people responded to the program, and at last count, 70,000 Idahoans signed up for insurance during the first open enrollment period. "All of this publicity, people really starting to talk about what insurance can do for them, really made a big difference in getting people covered," said Zelda Geyer-Sylvia, President and CEO of Blue Cross of Idaho. Note that this doesn't change the high-end potential total of 7.8 million from the Rand Corp. study, it just fills in the documented number within that a bit further. The Graph, updated w/New Medicaid Category: "Bulk Transfers / Special Enrollments" Read more about The Graph, updated w/New Medicaid Category: "Bulk Transfers / Special Enrollments" About 3,500 Connecticut residents have enrolled in health insurance through the state’s health care exchange, Access Health CT, since the official open enrollment deadline passed on March 31. That’s in addition to the nearly 200,000 who enrolled by the health care deadline. Access Health CT CEO Kevin Counihan said there were roughly 10,000 people in the state who wanted to enroll but couldn’t complete the process by deadline for some reason. Those people were told to leave their contact information, and that the state would follow up with them to make sure their enrollment was completed. ...Customers to the state marketplace could either buy insurance through one of three private carriers on the exchange, or get covered through Medicaid. The majority of those covered through the exchange — more than 120,000 — were covered under Medicaid. About 45,000 people applied for health-insurance plans from Blue Cross of Idaho through the state's insurance exchange, Your Health Idaho, over the past six months. The insurer announced its enrollment numbers Thursday. Your Health Idaho is expected to release total enrollment for exchange plans soon. Open enrollment ended March 31. Four companies — Blue Cross, SelectHealth, PacificSource and the Regence BlueShield of Idaho sister company BridgeSpan — sold plans on the exchange. Additional note: 45K just happens to be my own "fair share of 7M" target for Idaho, so a single insurance company has hit the target. The other three are basically gravy. New Jersey FamilyCare has added over 100,000 people to its rolls, contributing to savings that Gov. Chris Christie has already anticipated in his proposed budget. In just the first three months of this year, 102,268 state residents were added to the rolls of FamilyCare, which includes recipients of two federally supported programs – Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Through April 6, 41,402 Arkansans have purchased plans on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, the new marketplace created by Obamacare, according to information released yesterday by the Arkansas Insurance Department (see county by county map above). As in the rest of the country, Arkansas saw a surge in enrollment recently, with more than 7,800 people signing up in the last two weeks. But while national enrollment in the marketplaces across the country hit initial projections, Arkansas will fall well short. DOVER – Delaware ended its first enrollment period for the nation's new Obamacare health plans with 11,335 people enrolled – about 3,000 more than federal goals for the state. Another 3,411 people gained coverage through the state's expanded Medicaid coverage, which extended eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Yeah, I know, I keep bouncing around on this; first I thought 8M was feasible, then I backtracked. However, let's do some simple math. Obviously it wasn't exactly 7.1M on the nose at midnight on 3/31. Let's assume an overage of, say, 20K at a minimum. It's also safe to assume that it was slightly over 7.5M as of midnight last night; let's say 20K there as well. I'd say a final weekend mini-surge is also likely for those who wait until the absolute last possible moment, which should cancel out what I'm assuming is a natural dropoff throughout the week. So...figure something like 30K/day today and tomorrow, then back up to 60K/day for the last 4 days. That's 300K added to the existing 7.52K, or 7.82M. Me, last night: Hey, Guess What? I think we just hit 7.5M QHPs. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says 7.5 million Americans have now signed up for health coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law. That's a 400,000 increase from the 7.1 million that Obama announced last week at the end of the law's open enrollment period. The figure exceeded expectations, a surprise election-year success for the law after a disastrous roll-out. Sebelius disclosed the new figure during a hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. Hey, Guess What? I think we just hit 7.5M QHPs. Note that I've modified The Graph a bit more tonight, separating out the ESIs (Employer-Supplied Insurance) into a 4th category (this includes the tiny number of SHOP enrollments, but mostly the controverisal 8.2M ESI estimate noted by the RAND study). Read more about Hey, Guess What? I think we just hit 7.5M QHPs. Read more about Connecticut: Up to 18K more QHPs even without official extension? Connect for Health Colorado reports that nearly 280,000 state residents gained coverage during the six-month enrollment period, including 120,971 who signed up for private insurance plans as of Monday and 158,521 who enrolled in the expanded Medicaid program as of April 1. In an interview last fall, Patty Fontneau, CEO of the non-profit organization running the exchange, had estimated that 125,000 to 140,000 Coloradans would sign up for insurance through the exchange during its first year. ST.PAUL, Minn. – Today, MNsure announced 181,357 Minnesotans have enrolled in quality, affordable coverage through MNsure, the state’s health insurance marketplace. The growing numbers come from continued processing of “in line” applications, as well as Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare enrollments. ...To date, MNsure has enrolled 47,697 Minnesotans in a Qualified Health Plan, 37,050 in MinnesotaCare and 96,610 in Medical Assistance. Yesterday, however, the release of the RAND Corp. Survey made me realize that I was handling the 3rd category (OFF-Exchange Individual QHPs) the wrong way. You see, in the rare cases where I had access to the off-exchange enrollments for a particular company, I mushed their individual and group policies together. The numbers weren't huge--only about 34,000 people--but the potential numbers, as the RAND survey indicated, could potentially be massive. 700K to 1.3M Additional Medicaid Enrollees through March, If Current Trends Continue. However, March and April figures could bring more dramatic increases if outreach and enrollment efforts targeting the end of exchange open enrollment translate into new Medicaid enrollees. Specifically, if Medicaid sign-ups follow a similar pattern as exchanges, new Medicaid enrollees could reach 4.3 million by the end of March. In addition, recent figures released by CMS do not account for individuals assessed eligible for Medicaid through HealthCare.gov who have yet to be determined eligible by states. Programming Notes: Craig Fahle Show, America Tonight & Left Jab now online! For anyone interested, I'm scheduled to appear on the Craig Fahle Show tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at around 10:00am. The show is broadcast from WDET, 101.9 FM in Detroit. No idea what the rebroadcast schedule is but I assume it'll be available as a podcast archive at some point. Meanwhile, my appearance on Left Jab Radio on Sunday night, complete with my son bursting into the room in the middle of the broadcast, is now available via their website. My segment kicks in around 14:45 in and lasts about 20 minutes, I think. Read more about Programming Notes: Craig Fahle Show, America Tonight & Left Jab now online! Urban, Gallup, and RAND all say the number of uninsured is declining since the ACA went into effect. Now we can debate why and by how much. Everything else is secondary. Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation wins the day. By our estimate, 3.9 million people are now covered through the state and federal marketplaces. This number is lower than current estimates of marketplace enrollment through the end of March from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), perhaps because some of the HROS data were collected in early March. All HROS data collection reported here ended on March 28, and therefore missed the last three days of the open enrollment period, during which time there was a surge in enrollment. As noted earlier, the only way 3.9M makes sense to me is if they assumed an 80% Paid rate, which would have been about right at that time. Read more about The RAND Survey is out! Conclusion: NET insurance gain of 9.3M! The New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange (NMHIX) reported a total of 26,412 New Mexicans had enrolled in qualified health plans as of March 31, 2014, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. This figure represents a 76 percent growth rate from the 15,012 enrollments confirmed at the end of February 2014. Cruse said he became a full-fledged enrollee on a Moda plan in February. He’s now one of 59,000 people in Oregon who enrolled in private insurance after successfully navigating through the often cumbersome Cover Oregon process. Another 140,000 enrolled through the site on the Oregon Health Plan. UPDATE: OK, scratch that. Looks like this article was quoting the 58,833 "total" QHP figure from the most recent official press release instead of the "net" figure which was exactly 3K less: 55,833. Leaving this up since it's already posted but sorry about the mixup. The Department of Community Health says that as of 12 a.m. Monday, roughly 27,000 individuals had been enrolled in Healthy Michigan, which is intended to provide health insurance for hundreds of thousands more low-income adults. Nearly 100,000 South Carolinians enrolled in a health insurance policy on HealthCare.govbetween Oct. 1 and March 31, the director of the state's insurance department said Monday. But only some of those 97,387 individuals - about 57 percent - have paid their first month's premium, Director Ray Farmer said. The number of people actually enrolled may go up or down through May 1 - the deadline by which that first payment must be made. Data released Monday by the S.C. Department of Insurance shows a sharp increase in Obamacare enrollment in South Carolina during the second half of March. Approximately 30,000 people in this state signed up for a plan during the last two weeks of open enrollment. It's nice to be able to plug in SC's data, but the "How many have PAID???" thing is more amusing. 31% of the enrollees don't have their policy start until May 1st, so it's only 69% who you would even expect to have paid yet. Presumably the bulk of the 11% in between will pay over the next few weeks, and the 31% May-starts will start paying in increasing numbers as well. I'm not a private eye and I don't do corporate spying. I was recently contacted by someone representing one insurance company who wanted me to attempt to find out specialized enrollment data about one of their competitors. I don't blame them for giving this a shot; the insurance industry is, no doubt, a highly competitive business. However, get this straight: If you want inside info on one of your competitors, go elsewhere. If your competitor happens to provide enrollment data for me, the odds are that it will be published publicly, which means that you'll will be able to view it by simply visiting the website just like anyone else. As a courtesy, I am not going to identify either the person/company who made the request (nor the company they were trying to get information about). However, I cannot guarantee that I won't do so if this happens again. Read more about I'm not a private eye and I don't do corporate spying. 1. I don’t “hate” being compared to Nate Silver; It’s incredibly flattering. I just think it’s a bit of an insult to HIM. That isn't false modesty...I really don't know anything about "probability distribution" or "loglinear regression" (in fact, I had to look those terms up just now). 2. I didn’t expect HHS to release the full, 30-page report every week, I just figured they'd release the top-line numbers (X in QHPs, Y in Medicaid or whatever) on a weekly basis (and hope they decide to do so the next time around). 3. I didn’t know that Aaron Strauss was a data consultant or that he was in charge of the Analyst Institute; I figured he was a regular schmoe like myself. OK, so I may have gotten people's hopes up a bit too much with the 8M by 4/15 thing. Still, 7.6M or higher would still be awesome, and the two reports which were sent my way this AM should more than make up for my lowered projection. After hovering around 19% for years, hospital readmission rates began dropping beginning in 2012 and continued to do so into 2013. (The above chart reflects data through August of last year.) The national rate appears to still be falling considerably this year based on the latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. Readmissions cost U.S. taxpayers a pretty penny. The federal government estimated that hospital readmissions for just Medicare patients has historically added up to $26 billion annually -- $17 billion of which could be avoided. I don't have Sirius XM myself, but if anyone does, I'm scheduled to be a guest on "Left Jab" this evening, sometime between 7pm - 9pm. It's apparently on Channel 127. Anyway, for anyone interested, the podcast of the show should be available around 9:30pm Eastern or so. This breaks down to around 60K per day x 15 days, which is what I'll be tacking onto the Spreadsheet & Graph until the actual total comes out. Moving the Goal Posts: Now it's "How many of the UNINSURED have paid???" "OK, most people have paid, and a high percentage of the total may be newly insured after all...but how many of those who are newly insured have paid???" That's right, this is where they're trying to move the goal posts. Read more about Moving the Goal Posts: Now it's "How many of the UNINSURED have paid???" Hmmmmm...not sure what to make of this update out of KUNM in New Mexico. NM only had 18,691 exchange QHPs as of 3/15, so 51.4K would be absolutely insane (a 2.75x increase). It looks like they've mixed the SHOP enrollees into the mix, which means it's not quite that crazy--take those out and the QHPs are down to 37,400, or a "mere" doubling of the existing total. So...I guess that makes sense. HOWEVER, this causes bigger questions, because the only data I've had for New Mexico's SHOP exchange was a mere 524 as of March 18th. How the hell did they manage to enroll 28 times as many people in the next 13 days??? Updated @MNsure enrollment numbers: 47,046 QHPs, 35,603 in MinnesotaCare and 92,402 in MA. Total of 175,051. I don't usually write this all out, but given the interest in the site these days, I figured I would give a play-by-play of the process of breaking down the CMS reports by state, using the February CMS report just released an hour or so ago. Of that number, 42,320, or 65.5 percent, represent adults in Medicaid’s new eligibility group, adults 19-64 without dependent children who were not previously eligible for Medicaid but became eligible on January 1, 2014. The new eligibility group is authorized under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and is financed with 100 percent federal dollars for its first three years, 2014-2017. The other roughly one-third represents those enrolling who were eligible for Medicaid under previously existing rules. Unfortunately they don't specify how many of the remaining 22.5K are renewals vs. "woodworkers". I'm going to go with about half (11K, or around 17% of the 65K total) unless I receive further clarification one way or the other. This reduces the current "woodworker" estimate of 16.6K by about 5,600. OK, this one is actually semi-legitimate, depending on your perspective. According to Glenn Kessler of the WaPo, when the CBO crunches the numbers next year to see how many 2014 ACA Exchange QHPs actually did qualify as being counted towards their 7M (then 6M) projection, they're actually going to have to slice up every single person enrolled into 12ths. That is to say, if your policy started coverage in January and was paid for straight through until the end of the year, you'll be counted as one "CBO person", but if it didn't start coverage until, say, April 1st, you'd only be counted for 9 months, making you 3/4 of a "person" in CBO terms. Now topping more than 3 million, the number of Californians who have enrolled in a private health care plan or in Medi-Cal through the state's health insurance exchange will likely rise by about 500,000 people who started but did not finish their applications by Monday's midnight deadline, exchange officials said Thursday. At a news conference, Peter Lee, executive director of the Covered California exchange, told reporters that of the half-million individuals who had started their applications in the last week of March, at least 20,000 had finished their applications by Tuesday. Now, I'm assuming that "finished their applications" in this case actually means "enrolled", because 500K / 15 days = 33,333 per day if they plan on squeezing that many in under the new 4/15 wire. By popular request and much pondering (see comments at bottom of link), I am no longer subtracting the 3.7M Cancelled Policies from the grand total. However, these are still clearly and prominently noted in the yellow box. As promised, I have lowered the "Sub-26er" bottom-end estimate again, from a low of 2.2M to 1.6M. I'm done mucking around with this until further notice. With the official announcement of a whopping 1.7M OFF-exchange QHP enrollments from the BCBS Association, I have increased the documented off-exchange total to 2.17M on the graph, causing a noticable spike at the end (obviously these weren't all enrolled in today, but I can't really back-date these so they're all added at once). Note that I've also deleted all of the state-specific BCBS off-exchange QHPs since the 1.7M total noted above supercedes all of them. Since the 9M total off-exchange figure credited to the Rand Survey was a very rough estimate (see update at bottom of link), I've added an "up to" caveat (and the 6.83M balance isn't on the graph itself anyway). I've replaced the 7M arrow with 6M and 7M lines to reduce the clutter. Finally, the most controversial change is probably the removal of the "documented unpaid" exchange QHPs (as well as the "estimated additional" QHPs; instead, I've simplified things greatly by separating the total Exchange QHP number into 2 areas: 93% estimated PAID (or will pay soon) and 7% UNPAID (or may not pay). I'll be happy to revise this 93 / 7 ratio one way or the other as more data comes in, but for now, based on all the partial "Paid/Unpaid" data I've seen to date, that seems to be fairly accurate. About 5 different people have sent me a link to this new study by the Urban Institute, which concludes that the total number of uninsured adults in the U.S. has been reduced by around 5. million people since last fall. The Urban Institute's Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) has been tracking insurance coverage since the first quarter of 2013. Today, we report the first estimate of how the uninsurance rate has changed through early March 2014. These results track changes through most of the first Affordable Care Act's (ACA) open-enrollment period, which ended on March 31, 2014. As deaconblues reminds me, the 29K is in addition to the 720 subsidized enrollees that they've managed to get through their messed-up system. Massachusetts will not meet its goal of moving more than 200,000 people into insurance plans that comply with the federal law by the end of June. It has managed to enroll about 29,000 residents in unsubsidized coverage, 138,000 in temporary coverage, and another 114,000 in extended coverage since the October launch of its new website, with a significant number applying on paper, said a Connector spokesman Thursday. First, don’t believe polemicists who argue that 70% or more of buying policies at HealthCare.gov had insurance already, as Republicans claim, in an interpretation of a McKinsey & Co. study that Politifact ruled “false.” Even at eHealth, which has almost no subsidy-eligible customers so far, 51% of clients this year were previously uninsured, up from 34% in late 2013, Lauer said. With 83% of the people using HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges eligible for subsidies, it’s highly unlikely that they’re going to skew more heavily toward the being previously-insured than eHealth’s crowd. Background: With three months of open enrollment completed, Cover Oregon is expanding the enrollment report beyond what is required by the federal Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight to include net private insurance enrollments and also dental enrollments. @charles_gaba @Cripipper no link. I had been asking for the data and I got it the old fashioned way--a phone call. O’Malley points out that despite the problems, Maryland exceeded its overall enrollment goal of 260,000. As of Tuesday night, that number had hit 295,077. It includes people who have enrolled in private plans (which has dramatically lagged expectations) and Medicaid (which has exceeded expectations). ...Sharfstein said in late February that a more accurate projection is 75,000 to 100,000 private enrollees. As of Tuesday evening, there were 63,002, with hundreds or thousands more expected to finish their applications in coming weeks. Paid/Unpaid: Going with 93% "Paid or Will Pay Within a Reasonable TIme" About 3/4 of the 28K @HealthSourceRI enrollees had paid a premium as of 3/31. People who signed up after 3/23 have until 4/23 to pay. @asymmetricinfo And the paid rate through 3/8 was 83%, including people whose bills were due later. Interim CEO of @MNsure, Scott Leitz, to tell U.S. House subcommittee that 95% of its 47,000 enrollees have paid, and the rate will rise. Read more about Paid/Unpaid: Going with 93% "Paid or Will Pay Within a Reasonable TIme" In the meantime, I can provide the enrollment figures: 48,150 are fully enrolled in a plan through Vermont Health Connect; 25,930 of those enrolled in Medicaid or Dr. Dynasaur, our CHIP program. Doesn't impact the overall national total, but it does change the dynamic for Vermont to something...rational (prior to this it looked like they had hit a whopping 585% of their year 1 target! This means 22,220 QHPs and 25,930 Medicaid. The Hawaii Health Connector has enrolled 7,861 individuals as of the March 31 deadline, with another 24,176 who completed applications for coverage through the state-run online health insurance exchange. ...It is important to note there are only about 50,000 uninsured people in Hawaii who are not deemed Medicaid eligible, which makes Hawaii’s market small compared to other states. ...Kayla Rosenfeld, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, told PBN on Wednesday that since Oct. 1 — when the department launched its new online eligibility system KOLEA— net Medicaid enrollment in Hawaii has increased by 46,605, which is close to the expected increase of 48,000. Van Pelt highlights the more than 300,000 "enrolled in health care coverage since October thanks to Cover Oregon ... and the Oregon Health Authority." 55,000 people enrolled in private plans using the backup manual processing system set up to cope with the exchange's technology issues. more than 120,000 people enrolled into Oregon Health Plan after the exchange forwarded their information to the state for processing, a workaround for the exchange's broken Medicaid interface. 125,000 people enrolled directly into the Oregon Health Plan using a streamlined system set up to bypass Cover Oregon. Kentucky: REGULAR exchange enrollments extended until 4/11! Gov. Steve Beshear announced Tuesday that the state will extend its deadline. People will be able to file for health insurance from April 4 to April 11. The official deadline had been midnight March 31. Gwenda Bond, spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said 21,000 people signed up over the weekend, including 12,000 people who signed up Monday. The deadline affected only those signing up for private health insurance, because those eligible for Medicaid can apply at any time. Because of the high demand, Bond said, state officials decided to add additional days for enrollment or a "special enrollment period." The days between the March 31 deadline and the special enrollment period will allow for some tweaks to the technical system to allow for the extension, she said. Huh. Good for them, but if that's the case, why not just bump this out to 4/15 and be done with it? Weird. Read more about Kentucky: REGULAR exchange enrollments extended until 4/11! So far, 198 companies have bought SHOP policies for 1,770 covered lives — both their employees and their employees’ dependents, Sugden said. That's less than a large state like California, but ahead of other states that have not even been able to launch their small-business exchange, he said. ...The SHOP is attracting about 40 new companies per month right now, a number that will continue to rise because companies can continue to buy policies throughout the year, he said. Update as of 4/1: 41,823 Nevadans confirm Qualified Health Plan Selections through http://t.co/k2YKIcssBl. 25,899 paid to date. Regular followers may recall that a couple of weeks ago, in response to a Glenn Kessler "Fact Checker" article, I ended up converting the "Sub26er" tally from a solid 3.1 million figure (the number touted by Pres. Obama and the HHS Dept. for months) to a "range" setup, similar to the other enrollment figures. Kessler's argument was essentially that the quarterly reports comparing the number of 19-25-year-olds on their parent's plans between 2010 and 2013 fluctuated greatly from one quarter to another, and that therefore instead of taking one particular quarter and measuring it against another (which is where the 3.1M figure came from), it would be more rational to take the averages for the full years and compare those against each other. Based on this, he came up with a range of 2.2M - 2.8M, instead of 3.1M solid. Over the past month or so, several researchers, reporters and other data nerds have inquired about whether I'd be willing to open up the QHP and Medicaid spreadsheet permissions to let people export them to Excel. It was always my intent to do this once the 3/31 deadline was past. However, a few things complicate this. OK, now that we're over the hump of the 3/31 "official" open enrollment deadline, it's time to take a look at the "But how many have PAID???" fuss again. I've been trying to decide whether my "90% either Paid or Unpaid for Legitimate Reasons" rule of thumb seems valid, or whether I should bump it up...or down. An article up in today's National Journal states that according to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, their Paid Enrollee figure is around 80 - 85%...for policies from October, November, December and the first half of January. On the one hand, this is significant for two reasons: First, because the BCBSA is huge; I don't know their collective marketshare, but it's big (they include Anthem/WellPoint, the various Blue Cross companies such as Highmark, Regence and so forth). I dunno...maybe 30% or more of the market in total? A few weeks back (upon my request) I was sent updated enrollment data (both on- and off-exchange) from CoOportunity Health, which operates in Iowa and Nebraska. Earlier today (upon my semi-request...that is, I had asked about it a couple of weeks ago but kind of forgot about it), I was sent a press release for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which included their ACA Open Enrollment data breakdown (well, most of it...I had to have them clarify the rest). A few minutes ago, without any doing on my part, eHealth Insurance (which I've written about a couple of times for off-exchange data, and which is actually a broker, not an insurance company themselves) tweeted out a link to one of my stories about them. Read more about Michigan: BCBSM: 53K Off-Exchange QHPs, 89K "grandfathered" policies? OK, I don't mean to sound full of myself, and it's a fine article, but it's a bit amusing to see the reporter refer to "politicians and policy makers" as being the only ones who have "largely overlooked" off-exchange enrollments. Millions of newly insured people are hiding in plain sight. They are the people who have bought new health insurance since the start of this year but have chosen for one reason or another to bypass the state and federal exchanges that opened last year under the Affordable Care Act. While the exact number is unknown, some health care experts estimate that it may be in the millions. Politicians and policy makers have focused on the number of people who signed up through the exchanges — at nearly seven million and counting a day after the March 31 deadline — but they have largely overlooked the group that did not use the exchanges, even though it could have a major impact on the program’s financial success in the years ahead. This leads to the main point of this entry. Florida: Extension period pushed out until April 30?? Well this one came out of nowhere...it doesn't seem to be an April Fool's joke. It makes little sense, however...why would FL's be extend to 4/30 when the other 35 Federal-Exchange-run states are all cut off at 4/15? And what's with the April 7th "paper" application bit? Weirdness. The open enrollment period for health insurance coverage for Floridians under the Affordable Care Act is extended through April 30 for people whose paper applications are received by April 7. Read more about Florida: Extension period pushed out until April 30?? Michigan: Oh yeah...Medicaid expansion started here today. And now we enter the Bonus Round! Enrollment began Tuesday for Healthy Michigan, which extends Medicaid eligibility to adults making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 for an individual and $33,000 for a family of four. By 4 p.m. Tuesday, 11,848 applications had been received, and 4,152 had been automatically approved, according to the Department of Community Health. The state expects 320,000 residents to sign up in the first 12 months. The number could grow as high as 470,000 over time. Read more about Michigan: Oh yeah...Medicaid expansion started here today. OK, in addition to the appx. 7.041 million enrollments on the Federal exchange (HC.gov), I've brought CO, CT, DC, HI, KY, MD, MN, NY, RI and WA completely up to date, with all QHP data through midnight on 3/31 (some of the Medicaid/CHIP data is still missing, but that's a lesser concern at the moment). I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be this close to full data while still missing it. However, this obviously doesn't apply since the final weekend and especially yesterday were insane. Consumer interest in Covered California has been strong, with 1,209,791 Californians signing up as of 2 a.m. March 31. From March 24 through 2 a.m. March 31, 155,988 individuals signed up for coverage. During the same week, 389,840 accounts were started — including 123,787 on Saturday and Sunday, as consumers hurried to meet the deadline. "Outstanding Numbers" has two meanings: The first, of course, is that in spite of everything--the terrible website launch of HC.gov and some of the state sites; the still-terrible status of some of the state sites even now; the actively-hostile opposition and obstructive actions in certain states, the negative spin on every development by some in the news media--in spite of all of this, over 7 million people nationwide enrolled in private, ACA-compliant healthcare plans between 12:01am on 10/1/13 and 11:59pm on 3/31/14...slightly surpassing the original CBO projection for that period. There's the usual discussions about "But how many have PAID???", "But how many were ALREADY INSURED???", "How many were YOUNG???" and "What METAL LEVEL did they get???" etc etc etc. All of these are reasonable questions for actuaries, accountants and so forth to ask, and the answers will indeed help shape our understanding of what the overall economic and health impact of the law will be. For the moment, however, none of that matters. This is an outstanding number any way you slice it. Of course, you can quibble about how many of the 9 million off-exchange QHPs were previously uninsured, or how many of the cancelled plans were swapped out with QHPs from the exchanges vs the off-exchange amount. You can quibble about whether the "sub26ers" should be 3.1 million or only 2.5 million. You can argue bout whether "woodworkers" should "count" or not (as if a massive outreach campaign which encourages previously-eligible people to enroll in a program they qualify for isn't an accomplishment to be proud of). You can argue about whether unpaid QHPs should be counted (yet) or not. The bottom line is this: No matter how you slice it, this is a ton of people receiving decent healthcare coverage who either a) didn't have anything before or b) can no longer be dropped, denied or bankrupted by coverage that was scattershot, piecemeal or shoddy. Given the Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso's accusation that the Obama administration is "cooking the books" New York: QHPs 6K higher than I thought! Since the state website launched on Oct. 1, 826,812 people had signed up for coverage as of 9 a.m. Monday, with 436,304 qualifying for Medicaid and 390,508 obtaining private insurance, she said. Read more about New York: QHPs 6K higher than I thought!

2019-04-24T06:21:32Z

http://obamacaresignups.net/archive/201404

The title chosen for these lectures, a phrase found in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, will indicate the general thesis which I hope to establish, namely, “The Greatness of the Kingdom.” For a long time I have had a growing conviction that much of the disagreement over the subject of the kingdom of God has arisen out of narrow views as to its character. This situation obtains, of course, in more than one department of Biblical theology. Men have gone wrong, not so much in what they affirmed, but rather in what they denied or neglected. This tendency has been given impetus by that natural bent of the human mind, best represented by the philosophers, which impels men to search for one principle or idea that will explain everything else. While this motive, held under legitimate restraints, has often led to fruitful results; it nevertheless is always attended with certain hazards. In the first place, there is the danger of omitting matters of importance which may stand outside our neat little formulas. In the second place, thinking now of the field of Christian theology, this passion for oversimplification may cause men to miss the richness and infinite variety of Christian truth in the interest of a barren unity. It was William James who once suggested that, considered from a certain abstract viewpoint, even a masterpiece of violin music might be described as “the scraping of horses’ tails over cats’ bowels!” Such a definition of course has the merit of simplicity; it gets rid of all the mystery of personality and genius, but the residue is not very interesting. Now I feel strongly that the Biblical doctrine of the kingdom of God has suffered considerably from this tendency toward oversimplification. Men have forgotten the greatness of the kingdom, its richness and complexity, in the interest of their own partial and inadequate explanations. What I am saying is underscored by the very small place given to the subject of the kingdom in some well-known and honored works by conservative theologians. For example, in the books on Systematic Theology by A. H. Strong, Wm. G. T. Shedd and A. A. Hodge one looks in vain for even any mention of the term kingdom in their indexes. It is to the everlasting credit and honor of my dear friend, the late President of Dallas Theological Seminary [Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer] that in his own excellent Systematic Theology he was able to make such a large and important contribution to this particularly needy field of theological science. It should be axiomatic that any conception of the kingdom of God which rests in large part upon a certain interpretation of a single text or passage of the Bible is to be regarded with deep suspicion. In this category are the systems built around such passages as “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), or “I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:19), or the parable of the leaven (Matt 13:33), or the ethical precepts of the sermon on the mount (Matt 5—7), or even Revelation 20. The doctrine of the kingdom should be determined by an inductive examination of all the Biblical material on the subject, and it should not have to stand or fall by the inclusion or exclusion of isolated passages where interpretations may be in serious dispute. To me there is no question as to the general meaning of Revelation 20, but I maintain that the essential outline of the Biblical doctrine of the kingdom can be established without it. And this doctrine, once established, should be our surest guide in our approach to the passage under controversy. Let me begin the discussion with a tentative definition. A kingdom involves at least three things: first, a king who rules; second, subjects who are ruled; and third, the actual exercise of the function of rulership. I do not think that much attention need be paid to the effort to show that the term kingdom refers to a bare divine sovereignty. The great ideas of the Bible are concrete rather than abstract, and such terms as the kingdom of God are intended to convey meanings which are pertinent to actual situations in the world of reality with which men are somewhat familiar. On the basis of the above analysis, the kingdom of God may be defined broadly as the rule of God over his creation. Now it should be clear that this phrase the kingdom of God has no precise meaning or authority apart from the content assigned to it in the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, passing over for the moment the various theories (and they are many), let us attempt to establish its content on the basis of an inductive study on the Biblical material out of which the original idea arose. In examining the very extensive array of references, especially in the Old Testament, we are immediately impressed by a series of differences which at first seem almost contradictory. In the first place, it appears that the kingdom is something which has always existed; yet it also seems to have a definite historical beginning among men. Second, the kingdom appears as something universal outside of which there lies no created thing; yet again the kingdom is revealed as a local affair beginning on earth. Third, the Kingdom appears in Scripture as the rule of God directly; yet it is often pictured as the rule of God through a mediator who serves as a channel between God and man. Fourth, the divine kingdom is set forth as an unconditioned rule arising out of the sovereign nature of Deity itself; yet on the other hand it often appears as a kingdom based on a covenant made by God with man. Some of these distinctions, if not all, have been noticed by various Biblical scholars, and attempts have been made to explain them; either by asserting the existence of one kingdom with two aspects or phases, or by the assumption of two separate kingdoms. For example, Hengstenberg distinguishes between a “kingdom of power” and a “kingdom of grace.” And Peters speaks of the one as “God’s universal, general sovereignty exercised by virtue of his being the creator,” while the other is the “Theocracy” or “Theocratic Kingdom.” Recently we have seen the rise of a school of opinion, somewhat anti-intellectual in character, which, rejoicing apparently in the existence of religious paradox and tension for their own sake, is content to leave all such antinomies permanently unresolved. For myself, while recognizing the reality of these Biblical distinctions, I am also convinced that the Scriptures offer a reasonable explanation. In one sense it would not be wholly wrong to speak of two kingdoms revealed in Scripture. But we must at the same time guard carefully against the notion that these two kingdoms are absolutely distinct one from the other. There is value and instruction in thinking of them as two aspects or phases of the one rule of our sovereign God. In seeking for terms which might best designate these two things, I have found nothing better than the adjectives universal and mediatorial. They are not commensurate terms, of course, but describe different qualities, the first referring to extent, the latter to method. Nevertheless, in each case the designated quality seems to be the most important one from a descriptive standpoint. As we proceed with the discussion, therefore, the terms used will be the universal kingdom and the mediatorial kingdom. This universal kingdom is something which has always existed. Thus we read that Jehovah is “King forever and ever” (Ps 10:16). Again, describing the progress of a storm sweeping in from the sea across the land, breaking down the cedars of Lebanon, the Psalmist declares that God is in this violence of nature sitting as “King forever” (Ps 29:10). As a precious comfort in the midst of desolations brought by judgment, the Old Testament saint could say, “God is my King of old” (Ps 74:12). And the prophet Jeremiah bears a like testimony to the everlasting character of the divine rule, affirming that “The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king” (Jer 10:10). And in the midst of his lamentations the same prophet finds a kingdom of God grounded in the eternal nature of God himself, saying, “Thou, O Lord, remainest forever; thy throne from generation to generation” (Lam 5:19). This kingdom is universal in the most complete sense of that term. Nothing lies outside its reach and scope. It includes all things in space and time, in earth, in heaven and in hell. Jehovah is the “King of the nations” (Jer 10:7). Witnessing to the present reality of that universal kingdom in his own day, the Psalmist writes, “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all” (Ps 103:19). Nebuchadnezzar, golden head of an ancient world empire, is cut down from his throne by divine judgment in order that “the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men” (Dan 4:17, 25, 32). David the king, although reigning over a small nation in a small land, sees and speaks of a greater kingdom, “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted above all. Thou reignest over all” (1 Chron 29:11–12). The rule of this kingdom operates generally through second causes; that is, what theologians have sometimes called the rule of ordinary providence. Thus the Assyrian monarch is a “rod” in the hand of Jehovah to accomplish his divine purpose in judgment against Jerusalem, though the king knows it not and has no intention to serve God (Isa 10:5–15). Likewise, the King of Babylon is God’s “servant” for the accomplishment of his will (Jer 25:9). In the sequence of the rise and fall of world empires, it is Jehovah who raises up and prepares the “Kings of the Medes” for the destruction of Babylon (Jer 51:11, 28–37). Long before his birth, the great Cyrus is named prophetically and then “anointed” to fulfill the purpose of Jehovah in rebuilding, his holy temple (Isa 44:28–45:4). At exactly the crucial moment a fit of insomnia disturbs the rest of the Persian Xerxes, causes him to call for the chronicles of his kingdom (something like our own Congressional Record), and the outcome of this seemingly insignificant incident is the rescue of Israel from national extermination, together with all the irreparable losses such a disaster would have entailed (Esth 6:1–8:17 ). Upon special occasions and under certain circumstances the rule of God in this universal kingdom may operate directly through divine miracles. Without attempting just now to draw the precise line between what is called the natural and the supernatural, I mean that God.may break into the so-called closed system of nature (which of course He upholds and controls) with great exhibitions of his unveiled power. The Bible writers are never conscious of any necessary conflict between the divine rule through the system of nature and that through the miraculous. In both they recognize the hand of the same sovereign God who is transcendent as well as immanent. Thus we read that “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharoah, and upon all his servants” (Ps 135:6–9). Here we have both nature and miracle. But in general, especially with reference to the earth, the method of divine control in this universal kingdom is through second causes—”Fire and hail; snow and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word” (Ps 148:8). The kingdom of God in this universal sense exists regardless of the attitude of those under its rule. Some personal beings, the elect angels and the true people of God, have bowed in submission. Others, as in the case of the Egyptian king, are actively opposed to the revealed will of God. Still others, as the Assyrian of Biblical history, know nothing about the divine rule of such a kingdom. Nevertheless, we are told in Scripture, the Lord worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Even if there were in all the universe not one solitary personal being not in rebellion against God, (whether angel or demon or man); even if there were no heaven of the redeemed but only a hell of the lost—it would still be true of this universal kingdom that “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” This kingdom is an ever-present reality from which there can be no escape. In the light of these facts, it becomes clear that this universal kingdom could not have been precisely that kingdom of God for which our Lord taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” For in the universal and providential sense, the kingdom of God has already come and the will of God is being done on earth. This rule of God, in fact, has always existed and has never been abrogated or interrupted. The key to the real meaning of the so-called Lord’s Prayer must be found in the clause, “as it is in heaven.” Although the kingdom of God ruleth over all, there is a profound difference between the exercise of its rule “in heaven” and “in earth.” This difference arises out of the fact that rebellion and sin exist upon the earth, sin which is to be dealt with in a way not known in any other spot in the universe, not even among the angels that fell. And it is precisely at this point that the great purpose of the mediatorial kingdom appears: On the basis of blood redemption it will put down at last all rebellion with all its evil results, thus finally bringing the kingdom and will of God on earth as it is in heaven. When this purpose has been accomplished, the mediatorial phase of the kingdom will finally disappear as a separate entity, being merged with the universal kingdom of God. With this rather brief survey, of the universal kingdom, I shall now turn to a consideration of the mediatorial phase to which the Biblical writings give the vast, preponderance of attention. You should understand that during the remainder of our study, to save repetition, the term kingdom will invariably refer to its mediatorial phase,unless otherwise stated. The mediatorial kingdom may be defined tentatively as the rule of God through a divinely chosen representative who not only speaks and acts for God but also represents the people before God; a rule which has especial reference to the human race (although it finally embraces the universe); and its mediatorial ruler is always a member of the human race. I shall trace the development of this kingdom as it appears imperfectly realized in Old Testament history; present its future form as forecast in Old Testament prophecy; its character as announced by our Lord in the period of the Gospel records; its place in the history of the apostolic period covered by the book of Acts; the peculiar form in which it exists during the present Christian church era; its visible and established form in the millennial age; and finally its mergence in and complete identification with the eternal and universal kingdom of God. Attempts have been made to erect an absolute separation between the historical kingdom and the future kingdom of prophecy; but that there is a vital connection between the two should be clear from many passages with which we shall deal in later lectures. Certainly, the future kingdom is to be a revival and continuation of the “throne of David.” In a very real sense there is but one mediatorial kingdom of God. But where historically did this idea of mediatorial rule originate? Let us review briefly its background. In Eden the newly created man cast off the rule of his Creator, arrogating to himself the perilous right to decide for himself what was good for him and his posterity. This attitude seems to characterize the early pages of human history, brief as the record is, so that Cain the fratricidal killer is not brought to the bar of human government to answer for his terrible deed. And Genesis 6:5 records the only possible end to such an era—universal, wilful and unrestrained wickedness. Following the divine judgment of the flood we have something new: the institution of human government by divine decree. Here again the record is brief, but its basic principle lays the foundation for all human law and government—”Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man, shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man” (Gen 9:6). This is not a law of personal vengeance, as some have claimed. The punishment of the murderer is to be inflicted “by man” in the collective sense. The moral justification for capital punishment is found in the very argument sometimes used to oppose it, namely, the preciousness of human life in God’s sight. Human government exists for only one reason—the protection, conservation and fostering of human life. But the establishment of human government by divine decree with its salutary principle for the conservation of life did not succeed. Things did not grow better but worse in certain respects, resulting finally in the judgment at Babel. The mediatorial idea appears incipiently among the patriarchs. Following the confusion of tongues and the scattering of mankind throughout the earth, God turns away from “man” in the collective sense and calls out one man through whom he will accomplish his will on earth (Gen 12:1–4). In Abraham and Isaac and Jacob the mediatorial idea begins to take form historically in miniature. God speaks to these men and they in turn mediate the divine will, although often very imperfectly. The Genesis record indicates that within the scope of their own families the patriarchs were genuine mediators through whom God ruled in the chosen line of humanity. These men were almost absolute monarchs in their own households which included not only their own progeny but also servants, retainers, and fighting men( Gen 14:14). In their hands rested the power of life and death, as may be seen in the offering of Isaac (Gen 22). The mediatorial kingdom began in historical form with Moses and continued under the early great leaders who followed. This period is marked by the mediation of God’s rule through Moses, Joshua, the judges, and Samuel. At first thought it may seem strange to have a kingdom without a king. But we must remember that in this kingdom it is God, not man, who rules. Crude as were some of his ideas, Gideon was right about one thing: “I will not rule over you,” he said to the men of Israel, “the Lord shall rule over you” (Judg 8:23). And speaking of that long and remarkable period extending from Moses to Saul, Samuel characterizes it to Israel as an era “when the Lord your God was your king” (1 Sam 12:12). During this period the great leaders of Israel were in all cases chosen by divine appointment and invested with authority to speak and act for God within the scope of their prescribed responsibilities. Moses was to be to Aaron and the people “as God” (Exod 4:16, A.S.V.), a divinely appointed authority which was underscored in terrible fashion by the judgment upon Korah and the rebels who questioned it (Num 16). Joshua was invested with the same mediatorial authority by the word of Jehovah: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee” (Josh 1:5). Of the great leaders who followed, it was said, “The Lord raised up judges,” and judgment fell upon Israel because “they would not hearken unto their judges” (Judg 2:16–17). Of Samuel it was written, “The Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground,” and his word “came to all Israel” (1 Sam 3:10–4:1). In Samuel we have the connecting link between the period of Israel’s great leaders and the period of her kings. But through it all there is a kingdom, and this kingdom is God’s. The constitution and laws of the kingdom were given at Sinai. Altogether too little attention has been given to the many faceted nature of the mediatorial kingdom in history as revealed by the Mosaic code. The limits of these lectures do not permit an adequate discussion of its bearing on matters which are ethical, social, ecclesiastical, political and physical; save to remark that these provisions could still be studied with great profit by modern political and social scientists. This will not surprise the informed premillennialist, of course, since he knows that we have here the foundations of a future millennial kingdom. But there is one thing which is often overlooked, namely, the spiritual aspect. For it is not wrong to say that the historical kingdom was also a spiritual kingdom. This can be shown by a study of the Pentateuchal material in the light of the Biblical meaning of the term spiritual. It is high time that this perfectly good term should be rescued from the abuse it has suffered at the hands of theologians who, either consciously or otherwise, are under the spell of Platonic philosophy. This point will be discussed in a later lecture. The mediatorial kingdom in history reached the pinnacle of its glory under the first three kings. Each, one of these men held his throne by the decree and appointment of Jehovah. The entire monarchical career of Saul is summarized by the prophet Samuel in two brief statements, both addressed to the king: first, “The Lord anointed thee king over Israel,” and second, “The Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel” (1 Sam 15:17, 26). In the stead of Saul, it is Jehovah again who exercises his right of sovereign choice in the case of David (1 Sam 16:1, 13). And David, speaking as a prophet to whom the word of the Lord had come, thus indicates the divinely chosen line of succession, “Of all my sons (for the Lord hath given me many sons) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel” (1 Chron 28:5). It is significant that Solomon, the last of the kings directly chosen by Jehovah, is also the last king of the united kingdom of Israel. Now it has been suggested that the setting up of kings over Israel meant not only a popular rejection of theocratic rule but also its end in history. Such a view cannot be sustained by any careful study of the Biblical record. As a matter of fact, the monarchical form of the mediatorial kingdom had been clearly delineated in prophecy. To Abraham, and also later to Jacob, it was said, “Kings shall come out of thee” (Gen 17:6; 35:11). Not only so, but in Deuteronomy some important rules were laid down for the selection of the kings as well as for their conduct politically, morally, socially, and spiritually (17:14–20). Still further, in giving prophetic directions for the succession of Solomon on the throne of Israel, David carefully guards against any misunderstanding. Solomon may indeed sit upon the throne, but the kingdom is still “the kingdom of the Lord over Israel” (1 Chron 27:5). Let us now review quickly the events leading to the monarchical form. Following the death of Joshua and the elders that outlived him, there was a swift moral and spiritual deterioration in Israel. But after the manner of sinful men in all ages, instead of seeing the source of the trouble within themselves, they made the mistake of supposing that a change of governmental form would solve their problems. First, they tried to set up Gideon as a king, but their proposal was rejected by Gideon who insisted that “The Lord shall rule over you” (Judg 8:22–23). Their folly persisted, however, and finally they demanded a king (1 Sam 8:5); to which demand the God of Samuel assented (8:19–22), only reserving to himself the right to choose the king (10:17–24 ). that it deserves fuller attention than can be given in these lectures. In this brief record we are told how God gave the people their own desire for a government like the nations, and at the same time outlined prophetically the inevitable trend of all such government. The real point does not so much concern the mere political form of government, but rather the desire of the people to exchange a simple theocratic government, based on moral principles and dedicated to the general welfare, for what would become a great top-heavy governmental machine dedicated chiefly to its own perpetuation. First, in wanting a government like the other nations, they took the first step toward the wrong kind of internationalism. Second, a permanent government service would begin, both civil and military in character. Third, this would lead to a bureaucracy swollen by job-making. Fourth, the unnecessary expansion of government service would produce labor shortages in productive pursuits. Fifth, after this they would get government for its own sake. Sixth, such government would demand heavy taxation to support it. Seventh, increasing taxation would lead to the confiscation of private property. Eighth, much of this wealth would go to the partisans of the government. Ninth, at last all the people would become servants of the state. Tenth, the end result would be intolerable oppression and deep distress. Can any thoughtful student of government in our times fail to see these very trends in the world of nations—yes, even in our own land of the free? The decline of the mediatorial kingdom in Old Testament history. With the death of Solomon catastrophe struck the chosen nation. Israel was ruptured by a secession of the northern tribes which established their own government. But this did not mean the end of the kingdom in history. As H. C. von Orelli rightfully observes, “The smaller and often overpowered kingdom of Judah, which faithfully adhered to the royal line of David, passed through many crises and had many unworthy rulers. But the legitimate royal house, which had been selected by Jehovah, constituted spiritually a firm bond which kept the people united, as is seen, e.g., by a glance at the addresses of Isaiah, who is thoroughly filled with the conviction of the importance of the House of David, no matter how unworthy the king who happened to rule appeared to him.” As the dying Jacob had said, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah” (Gen 49:10). But the period of decline had begun, a period characterized by a more indirect mediation of the rule of God. There had been prophets before, but now they appear with greater frequency. Whereas Jehovah had often spoken directly to the great leaders and kings of Israel down to Solomon, now prophets become the immediate spokesmen of Deity, communicating his will to the kings, who sometimes obey. In the divided nation the kings take the throne either by inheritance or by force, and there is swift degeneration with notable exceptions. At the same time the prophets predict disaster and a future kingdom where God will mediate his rule through a righteous king who, like Moses, will be invested with the functions of both prophet and ruler. The close of the mediatorial kingdom in history is dramatically recorded in the book of Ezekiel. The Glory of Jehovah, often referred to in the Old Testament, and called the Shekinah in non-Biblical Jewish writings, was more than a mere symbol of God’s presence. It was indeed a “sign and manifestation of his presence” but it also described “the form” in which God revealed himself. Doubtless we are justified in seeing manifestations of this glory in such phenomena as the burning bush and the pillar of cloud and fire, but there can be no question as to its appearance on the Mount of Sinai where, we are told, “The Lord descended upon it in fire” (Exod 19:18). And when Moses went up by divine command, the inspired record declares that “the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai” (Exod 24:15–16). It was here that the historical kingdom received its divine constitution and laws, and when the tabernacle had been completed according to directions, we read that “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod 40:34). Thus the glory became the visible evidence of God’s presence and rule in the kingdom of Israel. The departure of this same glory is described by Ezekiel under the most dramatic of circumstances, and indicates, I think, the definite close of God’s mediatorial kingdom in history (cf. 8, 9, 10 and 11). The prophet is sitting among his people captive in Babylon on the banks of the Chebar, when he is lifted up by the Spirit and brought in his visions to Jerusalem. There, in spite of the dreadful apostasy unfolded before his eyes, he sees “the glory of God” still in the city of David in its proper place (8:4). A little later an the vision, the prophet sees that “the glory of the God of Israel was gone up…to the threshold of the house” (9:3). There, he writes, “the glory of the Lord…stood over the threshold” for a moment, illuminating even the court with the ineffable “brightness” of Deity (10:4). “Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house” and stood above the cherubim “at the door of the east gate” (10:18–20). Finally the cherubim lifted up their wings and the prophet records the tragic end: “The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city” (11:23). Later on the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt, and within its walls successively two temples were built, but you will read of no glory therein. The immediate presence of Jehovah was departed. But there was something wonderfully gracious in the circumstances of God’s withdrawal. Not suddenly, but slowly, with tender reluctance, as if God were actually yearning to remain. But there was no entreaty or repentance on the part of the people as a nation. The elders of Israel go on bowing down to their idols, the women weep for Tammuz, the priests stand with their backs toward the temple of God and worship the rising sun (8:4–16). God is forgotten. And when God is forgotten, the glory is departed. Yet even in the midst of this melancholy vision, we may read the inspired promise that God will be a refuge to Israel during her scattered and dispersed condition (Ezek 11:16). This promise, however, is not something wholly apart from moral and spiritual attitudes. If God will continue to be a “sanctuary” to Israel, it is also true that to many in the nation He will also be a “stone of stumbling” and a “rock of offence” (Isa 8:14). Furthermore, to the same prophet who saw the departure of the glory and the end of the kingdom in history, the Lord graciously gave a vision of the future return of the glory (Ezek 43:1–7). Just as the Lord’s glory departed by way of “the door of the east gate,” even so the glory will again return: “Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east,” and “the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east” (43:2, 4). As to the general meaning of all this there can be no misunderstanding—the glory will return, the kingdom will again be established on earth, in the city of Jerusalem. Here, the voice of Jehovah declares, is “the place of my throne…where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever” (43:7). And if historically the final appearance of the glory was “upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city” (Ezek 11:23), even so the glory will return in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…and the Lord shall be king over all the earth” (Zech 14:4, 9). First, there was a lack of spiritual preparation on the part of the people. No government can wholly succeed among men unless there exists a sufficient body of its citizens who are in inward harmony with its laws. We are constantly in danger of forgetting the importance of this principle. To cite a rather recent instance—many of the people who helped to pass the 18th Amendment, because they thought it would be good for the nation, were personally not in harmony with the law for themselves. And so the end was dismal failure and repeal. I am not suggesting the possibility of any ultimate failure of the divine government. But even in the kingdom of God, its citizens are not all robots to be controlled mechanically by irresistible power. A second defect of the historical kingdom was the imperfection of those through whom the rule of God was mediated. It is an axiom of political science that no government can be more perfect than its rulers. It will not be necessary to review the lamentable record of even the best of Israel’s leaders and kings: David with his double crime against society and against God; Solomon with his final violation of the most important regulations of the mediatorial economy. The important fact is that in the midst of the darkness of failure on the part of both people and rulers in the historical kingdom, the prophets bid us look forward to a better age when these two defects shall be remedied; an age when the laws of the kingdom will be written in the hearts of its citizens (Jer 31:33), and its mediatorial Ruler will be perfect in his character, wisdom and ways (Isa 11:1–4). It should be observed that the independence and success of the Jewish state is inseparably bound up with the divine re-establishment of the mediatorial kingdom. The Maccabees made one of the most desperate and heroic attempts recorded in all human history to re-establish the Jewish state, and failed. All other attempts, through political and military means alone, will also fail. It must wait for a supernatural intervention on the part of God, just as it began in history with such an intervention at Sinai. “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king” (Hos 3:4). Article above adapted from BSac 112:445 (January 1955), pp.12-28. Alva J. McClain, the founder and first president of Grace Theological Seminary and Grace College, was born in Iowa and later grew up in Sunnyside, Washington. Shortly after his marriage to Josephine Gingrich in 1911, he and his wife were saved under the preaching of Dr. L.S. Bauman. He had been attending the University of Washington, but removed to Los Angeles, where he attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and sat under the teaching of Dr. R.A. Torrey. Upon graduating from Biola, he enrolled in Xenia Theological Seminary and completed work for the B.D. and Th.M. degrees–following which he was called to the First Brethren Church of Philadelphia, where he served from 1918 to 1923. During the pastorate he taught at the Philadelphia School of the Bible. Because of ill health, he resigned and removed to California, where he finished his work for the A.B. degree at Occidental College, graduating as valedictorian. Later he was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D. at Bob Jones University, and the D.D. degree at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. In 1925 and 1926, he served as professor of Bible at Ashland College. In 1927-1929 he taught Christian theology at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. In 1930, the first graduate school of theology in the Brethren Church was organized at Ashland College under his leadership, where he served as its first academic dean and professor of Christian theology. In 1937 Grace Theological Seminary was organized under his direction, and as first president and professor of Christian theology, he served from 1937 to 1962. Dr. McClain authored many short treatises, but will be remembered for his monumental work on Christian theology, The Greatness of the Kingdom, one of seven volumes he had projected concerning the entire scope of Christian faith. He will long be remembered as scholar, theologian, educator, master teacher, and Christian gentleman. This helps me a lot. Thank you for posting! I sit under Dr Stan Toussaint. He is Professor emeritus from Dallas Seminary. He attended these Alva J McClain while a seminary student and still holds this future only Kingdom view. I also graduated from Grace College. A rich heritage. Hello, this is taken from the book The Greatness of The Kingdom? or from other source?. Thanks for sharing! Yes – it is from the Greatness of the Kingdom…hopefully they will keep reprinting this classic – it’s still not available electronically.

2019-04-22T08:44:03Z

https://verticallivingministries.com/2013/07/09/alva-j-mcclain-on-the-greatness-of-the-kingdom-part-1/

Water levels in the Stamp are currently at an average level for mid-November. The Summer-Fall Steelhead fishing for the past few weeks could be described in two words as �mediocre� or slow. Water levels are too high and there is currently severe flooding along the Somass. The Upper Stamp fishing pressure is very �LOW�. The best angling opportunity when water levels come down will likely be just above the Ash River. The Chinook and Coho wild spawn has thinned out but there are plenty of eggs in the river system. The problem is that with the severe flooding the gravel beds and natural egg spawn may be washed out. The Lower River has seen little fishing lately but expectations are that in the next few weeks or when water levels decrease that some late Fall and Winter Steelhead will begin to show and pick up the Stamp River fishing. With the Coho spawn being very strong with the fairly decent Coho returns anglers when it is possible to fish the river should mimick what the Steelhead are feeding on. A bait ban been in effect from �the bucket� so fish egg imitations are a must. Guides are using single egg imitations. Jensen eggs are the most popular. Also gorkies, and spin-n-glows will do well. Ucluelet has already experienced some good Feeder Chinook fishing. The Inner and Outer South Bank earlier in October allowed sport fishermen to have success on salmon up to 17 pounds. This is unusual for the fall but a couple of terrific days for weather permitted a few keen anglers to get out a few miles offshore. Earlier in the fall the T-Rex hootchie was good but recently those anglers fishing on good weather days and close to the Ucluelet Harbor at the �Red Can� Mara Rock, and The Lighthouse Bank have been using white hootchies and also a green needlefish hootchie. A four inch cop car and cookies and cream spoon have also been good lures behind a green or chartreuse hotspot flasher. During the winter Ucluelet offers some of the west coasts best prawn and crab fishing. The Bottom fishing is also very good. One must remember that the Pacific Ocean during the winter can have some magnificent storms but also there are superb days for fishing as the ocean can be completely flat. Winter fishing is often very close to the harbour. Safety of course is always a priority. Ucluelet hopefully will once again be a fisherman�s paradise in the summer of 2017. The migratory fish headed to the large watersheds to the south begin showing as early as late May and continue into late August or early September. Labor Day weekend is upon us and that means it is Salmon Festival weekend in Port Alberni. The Derby takes place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with fishing beginning each day at 6 am. The derby will close on Labor Day Monday at 3 pm with final weigh-in occurring at or before that time. Derby Headquarters and the official weigh-in center will once again be Clutesi Haven Marina located on River Road. There is $55,000 in prizes for those people participating in the Salmon Derby. With this is mind there are plenty of prizes to go around for everyone. The Alberni Valley and all of Barkley Sound has experienced rain fall over the past few days which has helped many of the migrating salmon swim much more quickly to their natal streams, creeks and rivers. Fresh Chinook and Coho are moving from the vast Pacific Ocean into Barkley Sound. The salmon that have recently reached the waters of Barkley Sound will migrate fairly rapidly up into the Alberni Inlet. The water in much of the Inlet and also Barkley Sound is not stagnant and has cooled down dramatically which help the salmon to migrate a little more quickly. The Chinook and Coho will also be a little more eager to bite the variety of lures put out by many anglers. There are currently plenty of Chinook and Coho Salmon in the system. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced that there is a decrease in the Chinook run size returning to the Somass River System. The original forecast of one hundred and twenty thousand Chinook returning to the River system has been cut in half to approximately sixty thousand. The best salmon fishing currently is in Barkley Sound. The many salmon that were in the Alberni Inlet have moved into the River system. The Inlet will fill with fresh salmon in the coming days. Weather conditions are forecast to improve and warmer air is in the immediate forecast which will slow the salmon migration. This will also be very true of the salmon down in Barkley Sound locations. The ample Chinook and Coho at Swale Rock, Harbor Entrance,Pill Point, Assets Island, and the Bamfield Wall should hold for a few days. The Bamfield Wall has been inconsistent for the last ten days. Pill Point, Swale Rock, Harbor Entrance and Assets have all had very consistent sport fishing over the same amount of time. The salmon in the sound have been biting and feeding very hard around tide changes. The Chinook and Coho are also very active between tides. The same scenario has been true for those fishing in the inlet. The salmon are in fairly shallow water in Barkley Sound and also the Alberni Inlet. Fishing between thirty and fifty feet has not been uncommon. The best lures in the Alberni Inlet are the O-2, 0-15, 0-16, spatterback and AORL 12 hootchies. Anchovy in the Inlet is also working. In Barkley Sound anchovy in a variety of Rhys Davis Teaser Heads seem ideal and for many is working the best. Leader lengths from five and a half to six feet behind gold, green, or burgundy flashers with a gold face are working very well. The AORL 12 hootchie with 38 to 42 inches of leader behind a burgundy and gold flasher or a kinetic flasher is ideal for Coho in Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet. Entries for this year�s Salmon Festival Derby have been remarkably encouraging. There will be many boaters on the water. Safety precautions are always of importance. The summer months are quickly moving by and the salmon fishing in many areas of Vancouver Island just seem to be now picking up and getting better and better as we move into mid August. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound and the West Coast off of the Ucluelet Harbor for Chinook and Coho have improved dramatically. The Chinook and Coho on the surf line and the various banks are getting larger and more numerous. Most of these salmon continue to be migratory salmon moving to destinations or watersheds well to the south. Many of the West Coast Vancouver Island salmon are now also beginning to show on surf line areas and on the west and east shorelines of Barkley Sound. We are expecting some of the salmon returning to nearby rivers, streams, and creeks of the Pacific Rim and Alberni Valley regions to be the highest return in a decade. From mid August into the first half of September there should be some world class sport fishing out in most of Barkley Sound. The Port Alberni Inlet with salmon migrating into the Somass River will have a good return of Chinook. By mid August good numbers of these Chinook will begin to show in Inlet areas close to China Creek and the Port Alberni Harbor. The sport fishing in the Port Alberni Inlet for Sockeye salmon in June and July was incredible. The sockeye return forecast still holds at 1.1 million which was a fantastic run and return. Returns to the system for conservation are at four hundred and fifty thousand. These fish have migrated into Sproat and Great Central Lakes and will sit in deep water until the fall before spawning. The Chinook returns to the Somass system should begin with salmon showing in good numbers in Inlet areas by the middle of August. Pre season forecasts are showing s very high number of Chinook returning to the terminal area of Barkley Sound and the Inlet. Most of these fish will be returning to the Robertson Creek Hatchery. The age class of this year�s return is predominately four and five year old Chinook. With this in mind there should be a good number of Chinook in the twenty to twenty-five to thirty pound class. Coho numbers are hopefully expected to be normal. Coho returns to the Pacific Rim and the many creeks and stream tributaries of the Somass system through conservation have become stronger over the past decade. We should see Somass-Stamp River Coho begin to show in Barkley Sound close to the end of August and peak during the second week of September before moving into the inlet. Most of Barkley Sound has been mediocre through June and July and the first week of August. Swale Rock, Austin Island, Cree and Pill Point have been the only spots with any consistency. Meares or Effingham Island and Austin Island out to Cree Island has been the best area for the sport fishery for most of the summer months. The salmon have been out in the deep water on the low tide and often on the flood move in towards the rocks and feed on the huge quantities of rich resourced bait fish. Chinook have been in 80 to 120 feet of water and have been averaging from the mid teens to mid twenties in terms of weight. The Chinook that are now showing and returning to local rivers are much shallower. The Coho have been in twety-five to fifty feet of water and are gorging themselves putting on a pound a week and are currently averaging eight to fifteen pounds. Some of the salmon are migratory fish moving to watersheds to the south. The West Coast Vancouver Island salmon are now arriving. This is not to say that some Somass Chinook and Coho have not already arrived as there have been some fairly early returns to the Somass system over the past ten days. When fishing the waters of Barkley Sound it is ideal if sport fishermen have anchovy on board. To this date anchovy has not been essential as the salmon have been hitting various small three and a half inch coyote spoons and some hootchies behind glow and kinetic flashers. In Coyote spoons, silver glow, Cop Car, Cookies and Cream and Irish Cream have all been working. Various small Coho Killers have all been working. The various whites (AORL12) and greens and blues in hootchies have had some great success over the past week. Anchovy should have at least a six foot leader and the army truck, purple haze, and green haze in Rhys Davis Teaser Head have all been working well. We are expecting Barkley Sound to have continued great salmon fishing well into September. With the late summer run of migratory salmon and local salmon returning to their natural streams and creeks there should be some continued terrific fishing right into mid September in all of Barkley Sound for Coho and Chinook salmon. Areas outside of the Ucluelet Harbor around the Starfish, Hyacinth and Long Beach and as far as the Big Bank or shallows West to Portland Point which is close to Tofino have all had rather phenomenal sport fishing over the last few weeks. Most of the banks have had plenty of bait fish and the migratory salmon have been feeding heavily in these many favorite offshore Ucluelet areas. When bait fish are in the different areas during the summer months the sport fishing is normally extraordinary. The Big Bank (Rats Nose) the Starfish and Hyacinth have been the best areas to fish to date. Hootchies and smaller spoons seem to be working the best offshore. Some sport fishermen are using bait and having great success but like Barkley Sound bait has not been essential. Over the past week the Chinook salmon have been getting bigger as there are many more in the mid to upper twenty pound range being landed by guests on our charter boats. Sport fishermen in their privately owned boats have also been landing some bigger fish. A few Coho offshore are also getting up and over the ten pound mark with a few fish in the low to mid teens being landed. August and September are really exciting months to be on the water. These are the two months that bigger Chinook and Coho begin to arrive along the west coast of Vancouver Island, B.C. as they have been spending weeks during their long migration feeding constantly on bait fish. The saltwater sport fishing for the rest of 2016 should be fantastic on the surf line and offshore west coast Vancouver Island locations. We are really expecting the inshore areas of Barkley Sound to pick up as well as the Port Alberni Inlet during the last two weeks of August. If you are thinking of a fishing trip, this is the year and August and the early part of September is the time to come. The Port Alberni Salmon festival and Derby takes place during the the Labour Day weekend. The 2016 saltwater sport fishing season is closing in on some world class angling opportunities on B.C.�s West Coast. The month of August and the first half of September should provide six to seven weeks of fabulous sport fishing for anglers fishing the Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound and offshore Ucluelet. Chinook forecasts are literally off the chart in terms of returning four and five year old Chinook to the rivers, streams and creeks of West Coast Vancouver Island. The forecast of great returns to the Somass, NitiNat, and Sarita River systems are expected to be the best returns over the past fifteen years. The Sport Sockeye Fishery in the Alberni Inlet CONTINUES to be very good. To date the sport Sockeye season has provided some terrific angling opportunities for everyone. The 2016 season is not like the previous year but with forecast returns of almost 1.2 million Sockeye the sport fishery and been very good. Due to cooler water and air temperatures in June and the first half of July the returns of Sockeye to the Somass River system have been excellent. To date escapement has been four hundred and twenty thousand to Sproat and Great Central Lakes. The summer rain and cooler temperatures in the area has led to excellent migration through the salmon ladders. Currently the Sockeye are schooling from Cous Creek out to the narrows. The Sockeye in the Alberni Inlet are currently sitting in eighty to one hundred and ten feet of water. They are hitting short leader lengths from eighteen to twenty-four inches in length behind a variety of hotspot flashers. The mp2, mp15, pink and blue, pink and black, and the pink with either the green or white head hootchies all seem to be working very well for most of the sport anglers. Many anglers are also using �Black Hooks� behind a green plaid chartreuse hotspot flasher or the purple onion hotspot flasher. Sockeye are attracted to the boat by color. Many anglers will have eight flashers behind their boat. Four are often dummy flashers and the other four with lures of choice. The Sockeye are averaging four to eight pounds. Sockeye are the number one commercial salmon. They are wonderful for summer barbeques and when vacuum packed properly last the winter for those special occasions. With good numbers of fresh Sockeye coming into the system on a daily basis we are hoping the Sockeye Sport fishery will continue into the August Long Weekend. Sockeye fishing is a wonderful fishing opportunity for the whole family. It is a fun fishery for young and old. Don�t miss out on this opportunity in the Alberni Inlet this July and early August. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound has been relatively inconsistent. The best fishing has been out on surf line areas. The islands close to the Ucluelet Harbor Mouth, Meares, Austin, Cree Island, Kirby Point, Edward King and the Bamfield Wall have all had times during the past few weeks with some good Chinook sport fishing. Areas close to the Ucluelet Harbor that have had a few fantastic fishing days are Great Bear and Sail Rock. The inner and outer South Bank, Long Beach, and the Starfish have had some of the transient salmon heading to the big water systems to the south create some wonderful sport salmon fishing opportunity. The salmon in the Sound and inside waters have been hitting anchovy in green glow, army truck, and green haze Rhys Davis Teaser Heads. Small three and a half inch spoons have been working the best. The cookies and cream, Irish cream and the TKO spoons have been excellent. They match up to the very small bait size. The Sonora cuttlefish, Jack Smith and a variety of Turds have been working well out on the banks. The best lures however have been the smaller spoons. Dragging the small spoons close to the bottom has created the best opportunity. We are looking forward to some great sport fishing opportunities during the last week of July, all of August and the first half of September in the Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound and offshore. The numbers of transient and West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook headed to the big watersheds to the south and local rivers and streams are forecast to be very strong which will provide some world class sport salmon fishing. It is early June and weather conditions for most of the 2016 spring season have been terrific on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. With this in mind a lack of rainfall is not environmentally good. The salmon fishing has been relatively consistent close to the Ucluelet Harbor and also offshore Ucluelet. Ucluelet is located on the extreme west coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia. The area is often referred to as the highway of migrating salmon. The fishing in various surf line areas of Barkley Sound has been off and on during late May and early June. The early sockeye salmon have already started their long return from the North Pacific to the Somass River in fairly good numbers. There has been a few Sockeye landed by sport fishermen in the China and Cous Creek areas. With the good weather and higher afternoon air temperatures the Sockeye Migration will slow down as the water temperature in the river and the Alberni Inlet warm up. This will possibly help the Sport Sockeye season get underway in the inlet a little earlier than normal. Salmon and halibut fishing on the west coast have been consistent over the past few weeks. The great fishing in local hotspots is very evident by the increase of vehicles on local roads and highways towing a variety of sport fishing boats. Many of the fishermen are either fishing the scenic and pristine waters of Barkley Sound or are travelling out to the west coast to fish close to Vancouver Island�s rugged coastline or in offshore locations. The 2016 sport salmon fishing season in Ucluelet, Barkley Sound, and the Port Alberni Inlet is forecast to be terrific. In fact this year is predicted to be one of the best seasons in many years. On the west coast the early summer run of Chinook which are currently migrating down the Vancouver Island coastline and stay fairly close to the beach will soon peak and will be followed by the mid summer Chinook returns to southern watersheds. West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook returns will be predominately four year olds. The returns are expected to be more than double the historic numbers. The Sockeye fishing should be extremely good. The return to the Somass River is predicted to be approximately one million in early season forecasts. Don�t miss out on a fabulous 2016 sport salmon fishing year in the Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound, or inshore offshore Ucluelet-Tofino. The Salmon fishing in Barkley Sound especially out at surf line locations has been mediocre over the past few weeks. Many areas have had big bait balls which will bring those migratory Chinook swimming close to the beach to feed on these rich resources of bait fish. Over the past week Effingham, Austin Island, and Cree have produced some nice salmon. Bamfield areas such as Kirby in the morning and Edward King later in the day and also the Bamfield Wall have reported some nice fish being landed by guides and sport anglers. The best results have been fishing from 80 to 120 feet depending on location but it is important that you are fishing where there is bait. It seems that choice of lure really does not seem to matter as many have been using a variety of spoons, plastic, and bait. The best spoons have been the three and a half inch green and blue nickel coyote spoon and also an Irish Cream behind a green glow or chartreuse hotspot flasher. The 155 needlefish has also been very good. Anchovy in army truck, green haze, green UV, and also chartreuse in a Rhys Davis teaser head have been hot at various times. Many of the salmon have been in the mid to high teens with a few up to twenty-five pounds. We are expecting the fish to get bigger as the mid-summer run of Chinook get underway in the latter half of June. This run of salmon will have a good number of four and five year olds. Barkly Sound should be a hotbed for fishing this summer especially out in surf line locations. Ucluelet is often referred to as Vancouver Island�s premier salmon and halibut sport fishing destination. Like Barkley Sound the waters inshore and offshore from the Ucluelet Harbor offer some world class fishing. The water is very rich in bait fish (sardines and needlefish) which the salmon feed on throughout the spring and summer months. The summer salmon fishing seems to be changing. August and early September were often considered peak times for Chinook and Coho sport fishing. With the high numbers of transient Chinook salmon passing along the west coast of Vancouver Island from April to August it often seems that the peak of the season is in the month of July. This is not to say that Chinook sport fishing does not continue in August and September. Coho which were often referred to as the number one sport salmon along coastal fishing locations in B.C. are a major highlight in late August through September. This thought is something to consider when thinking about and organizing sport salmon fishing this summer. The Ucluelet fishing has been consistent over the past few weeks with some good fishing out at the inner and outer Lighthouse Bank and also Long Beach. Mara Rock, Great Bear, Sail Rock, and The Lighthouse which are all very close to the Ucluelet Harbor have been choice selections for sport fishing on those days where the weather has not co-operated for boats to get out a little offshore.. The largest salmon have been averaging twelve to eighteen pounds. The fish out at the inner and banks have been close to the bottom between 130 and 160 feet. Guides have done extremely well on salmon and halibut with the largest hali for guests at forty-five pounds. The best lures to date have been anchovy and a few different spoons in the three and a half inch size. Green nickel, Irish Cream and Cookies and Cream have been working well. Other guides and sport anglers have had great success using needle fish hootchies behind a flasher. The needle fish will hide in the sand and on tide changes will come up to higher levels which creates a very good salmon and halibut bite. If trolling and using anchovy it seems that a green or red glow hotspot flasher with a green or army truck Rhys Davis teaser anchovy head with six feet of leader are working well. One important thing to remember is that during the season the food sources often get bigger and when using spoons and plugs the sizes should increase as the bait increases. The 2016 summer saltwater salmon fishing season is here with many sport fishermen already salmon fishing with success on the Pacific Rim waters for the past few weeks. The 2016 salmon forecasts for salmon migrating to the big watersheds to the south and also returns to West Coast Vancouver Island rivers� and streams look extremely favorable. Many individuals have considered the past few sport fishing seasons as extremely good but the 2016 predictions of transient and local returns especially for Chinook and Sockeye salmon are looking phenomenal. Chinook returning to the big river systems in Washington, Oregon and California are expected to be fantastic. The systems with big returns are predictably the Columbia River, Sacramento River and the Klamath River systems. These transient salmon from late April through August migrate just outside Ucluelet, Bamfield, and beautiful Barkley Sound. Barkley Sound holds huge quantities of rich bait fish as do the many banks off the Vancouver Island West Coast that hold these migrating salmon which normally feed heavily before continuing their long migration. Returns of West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook hatchery fish are forecast to be more than double the average returns. These salmon begin to show along the west coast and into Barkley Sound in early August and peak from mid August into early September. Salmon fishing on the surf line and inner portion of the sound will be excellent through the late spring and all of the summer months as these waves of salmon make their way to their natal river systems. Many of the transient and local returning salmon will be predominately four year olds which means there will be opportunity to land some good sized Chinook in the upper twenty to low thirty pound range. Some of the early summer run Chinook have showed up along the Barkely Sound surf line and the islands outside the Ucluelet Harbor. A large wave of salmon should begin to occur in the second half of May. The early salmon usually migrate relatively close to the beach in May and then along the various sandy banks off the coast in in the summer months. Salmon fishing in the out and inner portion of the sound should be very good through the late spring and all of the summer months as these waves of salmon make their way to their natal river system. To date a low number and Barkley Sound until mid May. The salmon usually migrate fairly close to the beach in May and then along the various sandy banks off the coast in the summer months. Sockeye Salmon returns to the Aberni Inlet this year will not likely be that of the 2015 returns which was absolutely incredible. Returns this year are looking historically good. The pre season forecast is for eight hundred thousand to one million. There has been suggestion that by mid season due to many indicators that the run size could be upgraded. The Sockeye Sport Fishery usually gets underway by mid June and is a fabulous opportunity for families and al avid sport fishermen of all ages. The summer of 2016 looks absolutely phenomenal in terms of sport fishing opportunities. Those fisher persons that prefer open water or for those that enjoy areas that have protection from prevailing wind patterns the saltwater salmon fishing no matter where individuals decide their destination on Vancouver Islands west coast, the opportunity to land a Pacific salmon from six pounds to thirty-five pounds should be a dream come true. The Alberni Inlet is currently very quiet. By mid June however there will be plenty of excitement as sports boat travel the inlet in search of Sockeye Salmon. The returns are expected to to be very good. Environmental conditions are excellent. The sockeye should begin to school in the Inlet in early June. Water conditions should be relatively good for a decent flow into the Somass River and also because of a low snow pack the warmer river and inlet water will likely slow the migration down. Early in the season the Sockeye travel in relatively shallow water but will move into the deep as the air and water temperatures increase. Water temperature of eighteen degrees and above normally slow the migration down. Normally good Sockeye Sport fishing can contine from mid June to the first week of August. Sockeye fishing is a lot of fun and is a great time for families to get out on the water and take part in one of British Columbias best sport fisheries. Sockeye like a slow troll and are attracted to the boats with lots of color in the water fairly close to the boat. Most experienced Sockeye fishermen will have six to eight flashers in the water. Most of the lures are on a short leader from eighteen to twenty-eight inches in length behind a red or green glow hotspot flasher. Sharp hooks are very important as the sockeye gum structure is very soft. The early transient summer run of Chinook and Winter or feeder Chinook fishing in Barkley Sound has been off and on during the last few weeks The feeder chinook will always be found wherever the bait is found. Feeders are just what they are termed as these hearty salmon feed heavily especially on tides changes. Austin Island, Village Reef, Vernon Bay and Swale Rock have had some good days with Chinook up to seventeen and twenty pounds but on average a lot of the salmon have been ten to thirteen pounds. The salmon have been a mix of transient and feeder Chinook. Anchovy in Rhys Davis green glow and chartreuse teaser head holders have been working as have a variety of coyote spoons with the three and three and a half inch Irish Cream being productive. The green splatter needle fish hootchies and blue and silver gold star spoons have recently been the best lures. Meares and Austin Island from ninety to one hundred and twenty feet have both been fairly with the best fishing opportunity on the tide change when the bait rolls in. Closer to Bamfield, Cape Beale, Whittlestone and the west side of Edward King down to Kirby Point have been very consistent for those sport fishermen out on the water. However like the west side of Barkley Sound an area can be hot one day and completely dead the next. The salmon have been in 140 feet of water but up against the rocks closer to Edward King the feeders have been in twenty-five and thirty-five feet of water. Bait is important if fishermen are to find the salmon. Army Truck Hootchie, needle fish hootchies in blue and green, Irish Cream and Army Truck spoons in smaller sizes, have all been working well. Cape Beale and the protected side of Folger Island have also had some relatively decent Halibut fishing. When the weather has been good the three and seven mile and an area called the chair has produced some salmon and halibut catches off the bottom. The summer fishing opportunities look more than fabulous for Barkley Sound and the surf line and of course offshore waters. The big numbers of Chinook that will migrate down the Vancouver Island coastline will produce some very good fishing opportunities for local fishermen and of course guides and their guests. Ucluelet offers magical salmon sport fishing and it is one of those places that one can have opportunity to land a twenty pound salmon twelve months of the year. The salmon fishing continues to be relatively consistent close to the Ucluelet Harbor Mouth. There have been some nice sized clipped Chinook bound for distant rivers. The first big wave of migratory fish will show up in the middle of May. We are expecting some great fishing out on the various banks. Usually in May the fishing will be closer to the Harbor with good spots being The Alley, Beg Island, Great Bear, Mara Rock, Sail Rock and the Red Can to name a few. As we get into June however the hotspots will become the Turtle Head, Inner and Outer South Bank, the Wreck and perhaps for some out as far as The Big Bank. Recently The Alley, Sail Rock and Great Bear have provided some good fishing with limits being bagged on Chinook salmon. The Spatter Back Hootchie and needle fish hootchie in blue, green and a bit of silver have been working very well There have been a few nice fish taken at South Bank that are migrating and these fish have been in the mid teens and have been taking smaller coyote spoons. Green Nickel and Knight Rider have been working fairly well behind a green or red glow hotspot flasher. Needle fish hootchies and army truck hootchies have also been working well with 42 inches of leader behind a flasher. By the middle of this month we should really start seeing the migratory push and by June there will be plenty of tales about the numbers of salmon in the nearby waters and the big one that got away. This will definitely be the year that anyone that desires to land a Pacific salmon will have a genuine opportunity to have this dream come true. Vancouver Island is a majestic geographical area of tall coniferous forests and breath-taking scenic views of rugged terrain and coastlines battered by winter storms. There are also a continuous display of rugged coastlines with wonderful exquisite and secluded beaches with pristine calm water which can be found in Barkley Sound and the waters of the Alberni Inlet. Not only does the West Coast of British Columbia have an unbelievable landscape but the salmon fishing in many areas is nothing but world class. This is truly one area, of this great nation, where individuals have opportunity of hooking into a twenty pound salmon twelve months of the year. It is now April and most avid fisher people say that the 2016 saltwater fishing season is officially here. With weather patterns now becoming more predictable anglers can get out on the water with a little more ease in those many areas that are not located in �protected� waters. The migratory flow of early Chinook salmon headed down the coast line to natal streams to the south begins in April. Feeder or winter Chinook salmon are also in local waters in April and into early May. The Migratory salmon and the feeder Chinook gorge on the ample amounts of bait fish. April can certainly have some very good fishing days in Barkley Sound and around the Ucluelet Harbor. Not only is the ocean fishing good but the Stamp River is often very good with large numbers of wild and hatchery Steelhead in the Lower and Upper River. Many say that April can often be the best month of the year to fish winter Steelhead. This is also a month with very little fishing pressure making it a time where keen river anglers can fish the Stamp in solitude. The 2016 fishing season is shaping up to be a fantastic saltwater season. There are many indicators that show the season should be very good for Chinook and Sockeye salmon. Alberni Inlet Sockeye and West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook Forecasts are excellent for the current year of angling. Prawn fishing in the Alberni Inlet Sub Area 23-2 opened on April 1st. The China Creek, narrows, and Mctush areas are very popular for sporties. Much of Barkley Sound has been open all winter where the prawn fishing has been very good. Traps are usually set in 175 to 230 feet of water. Often in April and early May the Alberni Inlet is covered with red buoys. Make sure if putting out traps that lots of weight is used to keep your traps down. The best bait for prawn fishing is Carlyle Just Tuna Cat food and Ace of Baits prawn pellets. We expect that the Sockeye sport season will get underway by June 15th and that limits in the first part of the season will be four per person and a two day possession limit of eight. Last year well over two million Somass Sockeye Salmon returned to the Somass River system. Pre season forecasts for 2016 are indicating that returns will be around 800,000 which is still a very good and ample return. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound has been hit and miss for winter Chinook. The weather at times has made it difficult for sport fishermen to get out on the water. The last week of March and into early April however has been quite the opposite. Water and Weather conditions were more than perfect and salmon fishing has been quite good in many locations. The Sproat Lake Derby which occurred in early March had a twenty-four pound salmon take top spot. Barkley Sound has been �alive� with bait fish over the past month. The herring spawn in Barkley Sound has been spectacular and with the start of the early summer run of Chinook headed to southern watersheds we are expecting some wonderful fishing out on surf line locations. Areas like Kirby Point, Cree, Effingham, and Edward King have recently had a few good reports of hatchery Chinook being landed. Areas on the inside such as Vernon Bay and Swale Rock have also had some good fishing for winter feeders. As time moves forward into late April and early May the fishing should really improve. We are definitely looking for some great fishing during the summer months. Forecasts are showing that the mid summer Chinook migratory flow to the Willamette and Columbia River will be very strong with most of the Chinook predominately being four year olds. With the weather patterns becoming more reliable those getting out to Barkley Sound should plan on fishing on the troll using hootchies, coyote spoons, or anchovy. One guide boat this past week did well at Effingham and Kirby landing over a two day period eight Chinook in the ten to fifteen pound category. The Chinook were hitting four inch cop car and the green-nickel and blue-nickel coyote spoon. Army Truck and green and blue needlefish hootchies were also working very behind a green glow hot spot flasher. The salmon are deeper. Fishing in one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet is not uncommon depths to fish. If you get close to the bottom around Swale Rock, Folger Island or opposite the Bamfield Wall don�t be surprised if a halibut hits your bait or lure. West Coast fishing during the winter months can often be difficult. It can take a day or more for the water to settle after a storm but by mid-April weather conditions become more of a reliable factor. We are currently fishing feeder Chinook and the beginning of the early summer hatchery Chinook migrating to southern streams. The crab fishing is fantastic and up into Barkley Sound the sport prawn fishing is very good. This is the time of year that we can often fish for a variety of wonderful tasting seafood delights. Often we can fish for what is termed a �seafood safari� and individuals can enjoy a day of crabbing, prawning, and rock and lingcod fishing (opened April 1st) and of course salmon. The salmon fishing close to the Ucluelet Harbor has definitely picked up over the past week. Beg Island, Great Bear, Forbes, Sail Rock, and The Alley has been producing some nice salmon into the mid teens. The herring spawn around Ucluelet has happened and there are big balls of needlefish and pilchards in the area which brings the salmon in close to the beach during tides to feed. Trolling is the best method to fish and it is important to watch the sounder and stay within about thirty feet of the bottom. Usual fishing depths for the areas mentioned are 90 to 120 feet. Coyote spoons have been working. The three and a half and four inch Irish Cream, glow green, and green nickel have been the best. Anchovy in a Rhys Davis teaser head in glow green, chartreuse, or army truck behind purple, red or green glow flashers have been used with success by a few guides although spoons seem to be the best choice at the current time. Summer fishing out of Ucluelet looks very good. The mid-summer run of migratory Chinook salmon and also West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook are forecast to be quite strong. The Chinook are predicted to be predominately four year olds which suggest some bigger salmon in the high mid to high twenty pound range. We are looking forward to a great year with some fantastic salt water salmon fishing opportunities in 2016. If you have not done so it is time to organize your 2016 fishing trip. The month of March has arrived and many individuals living in the Pacific North West and Pacific Rim areas are ready to welcome in spring. The spring months often mean that people living on the West Coast can say good bye to the winter storms that batter the west coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia. March for most sport fishermen often means thinking about summer salmon fishing trips into various Vancouver Island regions. The Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound and offshore Ucluelet are three of the most popular areas for sport fisher people to visit and salt water salmon fish. March on the West Coast, Barkley Sound, and the Port Alberni area also means the first major fishing derby of the year and also one of the biggest festivals on British Columbia�s West Coast. The first weekend of March celebrates the Sproat Loggers salmon fishing derby. This year the popular derby which has had close to 400 entrants in past years takes place on March 5th and 6th. The derby is hosted out of Poett Nook located at the far end of the Bamfield Wall in Sarita Bay. March also welcomes the Pacific Rim Whale Festival. This festival takes place from March 12th to 27th and celebrates the official kickoff to the beginning of the Whale watching season. The vast area of Vancouver Island�s coastal waters between Ucluelet and Tofino witness the migration of over twenty thousand Gray Whales as they make their thirteen thousand kilometre journey from Mexicos Baja Peninsula to the Bering Sea. This event began twenty-nine years ago. The Pacific Rim celebration has many daily events that people of all ages can enjoy. Many events are free and some do have a very minimal charge. One of the biggest features is the Chowder Chowdown which takes place in the Ucluelet Community Centre on Sunday March 20th. Two other spectacular features are the Sweet Indulgence all you can eat dessert and the Blues Concert which takes place at the spectacular Black Rock Resort in Ucluelet. Spring is the beginning of new things and is also the beginning of a spectacular sport salmon saltwater fishing season. Those people looking forward to salmon sport fishing this summer in British Columbia will again be pleased to hear that the fishing opportunities in many of the more ideal locations will have some fabulous salmon fishing in 2016. Vancouver Islands Pacific Rim area will boast some of British Columbia�s best salmon fishing. The summer of 2015 saw record numbers of sockeye return to the Somass River located in Port Alberni. The migratory flow of Chinook salmon that swam the west coast of Vancouver Island heading to various watersheds to the south stayed close to the beach and created a fantastic inshore sport fishing season. The Chinook Migration also created some very good fishing out on the sandy banks in offshore waters. Many Chinook came into the vast coastlines, various inlets, and sounds to feed on the rich resources of bait fish found along the surfline of Barkley Sound. The migratory flow of Chinook salmon in 2016 is expected to be relatively strong. West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook are expected to be in very good numbers with the average age class at four years. Sockeye returns coming into Barkley Sound and returning to the Somass River system are again expected to be just a little above average for the 2016 summer sport fishing season. One can only hope for the same return as 2015 when well over two million Sockeye salmon migrated into the system. The early Sockeye return to the Somass River often begins in mid May. Sport fishing for these number one commercial salmon in the Port Alberni Inlet usually is well underway by the 15th of June with the peak of the season occurring the second or third week of July. Henderson River Sockeye which are often bigger than the Somass River stock begin to show in the middle of July and often swim as far up the Alberni Inlet to Nahmint Bay before turning back to the mouth of the Kildonan Inlet and the Henderson River. Chinook and Coho returns to the Somass-Stamp River system should be better than average. The Robertson Creek Chinook return is looking better than last year but numbers have not yet been fully discussed or publicized. The early Chinook Salmon which are migrating down the Vancouver Island coastline often appear in April and actually go through three very different runs know as early summer, mid summer, and late summer. The Coho appear in early July and from mid July through September will keep west coast sport fishermen busy during their daily fishing excursions. Sport fishing in the Alberni Inlet is very quiet during the winter. Prawn sport fishing is closed in the Alberni Inlet although it is available in some Barkley Sound locations. The Sockeye salmon season which begins in June will re-awake the Inlet this summer. Sockeye Salmon fishing in the Port Alberni Inlet is really a family adventure and can be fun for all from the age of four to ninety-four. Barkley Sound is fishable year round due to the protective waters on the east and west coastlines of the Sound. Winter Chinook fishing in Barkley Sound and the Bamfield area has been off and on. Some good feeder Chinook fishing has occurred along the Bamfield Wall with a few Chinook landed up to fifteen pounds. There has also been some Herring spawn which has produced a few good salmon fishing days in Tseshart and Peacock Channels. Lyle Point and Mayne Bay have had some good days with Winter Chinook averaging ten to twelve pounds. Swale Rock and Vernon Bay have been hit and miss as has Pill Point and Diplock to this date. Winter Chinook fishing along the Bamfield Wall and especially the inside of the Bamfield Harbor mouth have also had some good days. In most of the selected Barkley Sound sport fishing areas the fish are in one hundred to one hundred and forty feet of water. The Sproat Lake Loggers Derby is closing in and is only a few days away. This years� derby takes place on March 5th and 6th with derby headquarters at Poett Nook. Cost per entry in past years has been $15 to $20. Ticket sales have been at Gone Fishing and Port Boat House which are both located in Port Alberni. If you are planning on fishing the Sproat Lake Derby or just coming fishing for Winter Chinook over the next six to eight weeks remember to fish deep and if using hootchies slightly lengthen up on your leader length. Summer lengths are ofter forty-two inches if behind a flasher. During the late winter and early spring forty-four to forty-six inches is not a bad length. Coyote spoons in three and a half or four inch are also good. Three and a half inch seems to work better with smaller bait especially at this time of year. Cop Car, Irish Cream, silver hordes, green glow and Blue or Green Nickel are great choices. It is never a bad idea to also have bait (anchovy) on board ones sport fishing boat. Usually the feeders are where there is bait. So it is important to find the bait balls. The fishing in Barkley Sound through March, April, and May should really pick up as the feeder Chinook move in with the herring spawn and the early summer run of Chinook make their way to southern watersheds and come into the Sound to rest and feed on the rich resources of bait fish. By late June and into the month of July the Sound should fill up with the summer run of Chinook and Coho which hopefully will once again be in very big numbers. Those daring to fish the waters of Ucluelet during the late winter have had some success relatively close to the Ucluelet Harbor. There has been some beautiful winter afternoons and mornings with a few sporties salmon fishing the Alley, Mara Rock, Sail Rock, and Great Bear. There have been some nice feeders amongst the bait fish. Great Bear is often the best spot. As mentioned there are some very nice days on the open Pacific during the winter months. Ucluelet does have a great location as boats can go up Peacock Channel and fish in the quiet and protected waters of Mayne Bay, Lyle Point, or Swale Rock. All of these locations over the years have had some great fishing in March and April. We are expecting some great feeder Chinook fishing right through April and even the first half of May. The early summer run of salmon headed to watersheds to the south should begin to show by mid April which should be the beginning of another fabulous summer of fishing for 2016. Remember the west coast has plenty of activities during the early spring. The Pacific Rim Whale Festival begins March 12th and continues until March 27th in Ucluelet and Tofino. It is the beginning of another saltwater summer fishing season. Plan early and enjoy the 2016 salmon sport fishing season in all Pacific Rim areas. It�s again a New Year for sport salt water fishing and many sport fishermen, guides and potential guests are beginning to think about the many sport fishing opportunities that await them in 2016. The 2015 salmon sport fishing season was a memorable year on Vancouver Island�s scenic West Coast and the Alberni Inlet. Chinook fishing for migratory salmon headed to distant southern watersheds began in late April and continued well into August. West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook salmon returning to local streams and rivers arrived in August and surprisingly continued in excellent numbers into September. The biggest surprise of all was the huge return of Stamp River Sockeye. Sockeye returns to the Somass system hit well over two million. Sport fishermen began landing Sockeye in the pristine and quiet waters of the Alberni Inlet near the end of May and continued landing Sockeye right into September. This was the largest return ever recorded. Hopefully this kind of return, if it does not occur in 2016, will happen once again in the near future. The 2016 West Coast Vancouver Island and Alberni Inlet sport fishing season will begin in the late spring and should continue well into the summer and early fall months. Pre Season forecasts for West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook are very favorable and much better than what was anticipated for 2015. The Sockeye season in the Alberni Inlet will once again be excellent with numbers hopefully reaching 800,000. The Alberni Inlet is a fantastic area to sport fish as the water is protected from summer storms. The salmon sport fishing out in Barkley Sound and offshore Ucluelet should be strong as good numbers of Chinook and Coho are forecast to migrate to the distant southerly watersheds. Vancouver Island is a destination on both coastlines of all five salmon species (Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Pink, and Chum). This gives all avid sport fishermen an opportunity to sport fish a choice of salmon he/she might enjoy to target. Of course these species do arrive at certain times of the summer or fall and each species also peak at specific times. This often means that fisher persons can fish the inlets, sounds and offshore waters for Chinook and Coho and also Sockeye and have opportunity to fish river mouths and various Vancouver Island beaches for Pinks and Coho. Sport fishing for Winter Steelhead in the Stamp River has been off and on. Of course water clarity, flow, and height of the water play a major role in opportunities for those fishing the Stamp. The peak of the season for Steelhead can occur at any time. It is expected that in 2016 the peak will occur sometime in February. There has been some good sized hatchery Steelhead in the system this year. To date winter (feeder) Chinook fishing in Barkley Sound and around the quiet hamlet of Bamfield and the Ucluelet Harbor has been off and on with some reasonable fishing opportunities on those days that the winter season offers. The Alberni Inlet around China Creek has been the biggest surprise for Winter Chinook. For the past three and a half weeks there has been plenty of bait fish which has pushed the feeders up into the upper Inlet water. At times during the winter months a few schools of Winter Chinook will make their way up into the inlet and feed on bait fish. The past few weeks the best kept fishing secret has been the Alberni Inlet. Sport fishermen have had success landing Feeder Chinook averaging six and seven pounds in the China Creek area. The largest reported salmon by a local sporty is twelve pounds landed on a beautiful sunny Sunday January 10th afternoon. Both sides of the inlet from Leaning Tree and the Slide to McTush have been the best areas to fish. There is a lot of undersized Chinook in the area so if using anchovy sporty�s can go through a lot of bait. Hootchies in white, blue and green are working. A green lime glow coyote spoon in three and a half and four inch has been excellent. The Alberni Inlet has the best sport fishing from mid June to mid September. We should see this trend in 2016. The Somass River Sockeye begin to migrate into the river in May and usually begin to school in good numbers around the 10th of June. When the Sockeye build up in big numbers the sport fishing action for the number one commercial salmon really heats up and is a lot of fun for all fisher persons young and old. Sockeye fishing often can continue into the first ten days of August. It is then that the first few Chinook salmon appear in the Inlet. Chinook fishing is followed by Coho with the peak of the Chinook season often occurring around the Labor Day Weekend when the Port Alberni three day Labor Day Weekend fishing derby occurs. The Port Alberni Inlet is a wonderful and very easy area to fish. Many people worry about rough water but the Inlet waters for the most part are very calm. The best fishing time for Sockeye is in the morning hours and the last two hours before dark. Sockeye salmon do seem to be active at any time of the day which makes this sport fishery a very popular opportunity for everyone. Barkley Sound waters are very much like the Port Alberni Inlet. The Sound is protected on both the east and west coastlines. Fishing in the Sound could occur every month of the year without fear of experiencing the big waters often found offshore in the winter and even during the summer months. Winter Chinook fishing has been off and on. Recently the Bamfield Wall and Samatao Bay has had some very good Winter Chinook fishing. The mid-winter months do have some good weather patterns and fairly productive fishing days. The best fishing areas as mentioned to date have been the Bamfield Harbor mouth, the Bamfield Wall, Samatao Bay as well as Swale Rock, Vernon Bay, and the Canoe Pass outside entry points. Pill Point, Sarita Bay and the Poett Nook area are also other spots worthwhile to fish in February and March. The last few weeks has had some anglers fishing the Bamfield Wall. Anglers have had opportunity to land a few Winter Chinook in the eight to nine pound range. There have been many undersize salmon in the mix. The feeders have been hitting cop car coyote spoons in the three and a half and four inch size. Other coyote spoons that have worked are nasty boy the cop car glow and blue and green nickel. Green Spatter back hootchies have been working as well. Anchovy in Chartreuse Rhys Davis Teaser Heads are good but with lots of undersize feeders in the mix one can go through a lot of bait. Winter Springs are in deep water. It is not uncommon to find them in most areas of Barkley Sound from 100 to 145 feet. The Winter Chinook will always be found where one finds good sized bait balls. Coyote Spoons in the three and a half to four inch have been working. Other great spoons to have on board are glow cop car, nasty boy, Green glow, and green and blue nickel. Hootchies are popular but use a shorter leader length than in the summer. Leader lengths from 34 to 38 inches behind a glow green or glow red hotspot flasher are a good choice. The Purple Haze hootchie as well as various whites and greens are also excellent choices. Anchovy is also something all sport fisher persons should have on board. There are days when the salmon will touch nothing else but anchovy. Anchovy in chartreuse or a green glow Rhys Davis Teaser Head is a good choice. Most of the current feeder Chinook landed has been in the 100 to 130 foot level. The first salmon fishing derby on Vancouver Island�s West Coast will once again occur in Barkley Sound and is based out of Poett Nook. The Sproat Loggers Derby will take place the first Saturday and Sunday of March. The Derby is very popular and offers some great prizes and often some great weather and fishing. The derby surprisingly has some good sized feeders landed. It is not uncommon to have fish over twenty pounds entered. Summer fishing in Barkley Sound especially on the surf line most years occurs from late May to early September and is expected in 2016 to be relatively good due to the migratory movement of salmon along the west coast. Good numbers of Chinook and Coho salmon will be moving to watersheds to the South. The migratory flow of Chinook should predominately be 4 year olds. The vast amounts of rich resources of bait fish in the Barkley Sound area during the summer months often bring the salmon into feed and rest before they continue their journey. Some world class fishing usually occurs at Meares, Cree, Edward King, Beale and as far in as Kirby Point and Swale Rock. We are really excited about the great sport salmon fishing opportunity we should have this summer in both the Sound and the Port Alberni Inlet. It is already mid September and fantastic Salmon Sport Fishing continues especially in Barkley Sound along the Bamfield Wall and outside the Ucluelet Harbor close to the beach in Florencia Bay and Wya Point. The Somass-Stamp River system has also picked up dramatically with plenty of Coho and Chinook salmon in the river system as the fish are migrating to their spawning grounds. The Alberni Inlet sport fishing has been slower as the salmon are not holding and making their way to the mouth of the Somass River. Some sport fisher persons are spending time close to the Franklin Wall and have had a little success landing a few good sized Coho. The forty-forth annual Port Alberni Salmon Fest Derby was a huge success over the three day Labor Day Weekend. People worldwide enjoyed themselves either fishing in the derby or just spending time on the grounds at Clutesi Haven Marina. The winning fish was landed by Langley B.C. resident Bob Moulton. His fish was landed on Sunday morning September 6th just outside the Bamfield Harbor using a pink fluorescent hootchie. The fish won Moulton $5,000 for the biggest salmon of the day and another $10,000 for landing the largest fish of the derby. Local Port Alberni sport fisher persons winning daily prizes were Trevor Cootes, Joe VeenKamp, and Brad Jasken. The Alberni Valley did experience some ample rainfall early in the month which provided enough water for Sockeye Salmon to migrate into Sproat and Great Central Lakes. The Return of Sockeye Salmon to the Somass River system in 2015 was the largest return �ever� recorded. Final number in the DFO forecast is just over Two Million. Over five Hundred Thousand have escaped into one of the two lakes mentioned. Sockeye are still in good numbers in the system as they continue their migration. Fresh Chinook and Coho are moving into the Somass system. The salmon in Barkley Sound that are creating a very good sport fishery are headed towards the Somass, the Sarita River, Nitnat, and also to larger watersheds to the south. Rain is in the forecast for the end of this week which means fish will move to their natal creeks, streams and rivers. The salmon that are still offshore will make their way into the system as they continue their long journey. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced that there is a dramatic increase in the Chinook run size returning to the Somass. The original forecast of only twenty-five thousand Chinook returning to the Somass River System has been increased to Sixty Thousand Chinook. In early September the rule of retaining salmon under 77 cm was changed. Sport Fisher persons fishing the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound can now land one salmon over 77 cm per day and have in possession two Chinook salmon with one over 77 cm and one under 77cm each day. A two day possession level of two and two (two under and two over) is now in effect. This was great news for those many individuals fishing in the Port Alberni Salmon Festival Derby and those many sport fishermen taking advantage of fishing during the month of September. The best salmon fishing currently is in Barkley Sound. The many salmon that are migrating into the Alberni Inlet are rapidly swimming into the River system. The Inlet is filling daily with fresh Chinook and Coho. This is also very true in Barkley Sound as Coho and Chinook salmon are still feeding heavily but are getting close to their spawning grounds. The salmon generally end their feeding cycle when they enter fresh water systems or get close to fresh water influences. The Bamfield Wall has been absolutely on �FIRE� since the last week of August. Pill Point and Assets have both been very consistent but have not experienced the same �SPORT Fishing� that �THE WALL� has experienced. The salmon in the sound have been feeding very hard around tide changes but have also been very active between tides. The salmon are in fairly shallow water in Barkley Sound and also the Alberni Inlet. Fishing between thirty and fifty feet has not been uncommon in Barkley Sound. The best fishing has been just outside The Bamfield Harbor mouth down to Kelp Bay. Yankee Bay and Wittlestone have also had excellent sport fishing. There is a huge amount of bait fish in the area that has brought in local and transient salmon. The best lures depending on where one fishes are the 0-15, 0-16 (Alberni Inlet), spatterback and AORL 12 hootchies. Using anchovy in both the Inlet and the Sound seems ideal and for many is working the best. Leader lengths from five and a half to six feet behind green, red, or burgundy flashers with a gold face are working very well. The glow army truck, purple haze, and green haze Rhys Davis Teaser Heads are working by far the best. The AORL 12, purple haze and spatter back hootchie with 38 to 42 inches of leader behind a green, red, and purple gold flasher are also ideal for Chinook and Coho in Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet. Salmon fishing for Coho and Chinook are now under way in the Somass-Stamp River system. There will also be some fantastic Fall Steelhead fishing as we get into October. The Port Alberni Salmon festival and Derby takes place during the three days of the Labour Day weekend. Labor Day weekend is upon us and that means it is Salmon Festival weekend in Port Alberni. The Derby takes place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with fishing beginning each day at 6 am. The derby will close on Labor Day Monday at 3 pm with final weigh-in occurring at or before that time. Derby Headquarters and the official weigh-in center will be Clutesi Haven Marina located on River Road. There is $55,000 in prizes for those people participating in the Salmon Derby. With this is mind there are plenty of prizes to go around for everyone. The Alberni Valley has experienced ample rainfall over the past few days meaning salmon are migrating to their natal streams, creeks and rivers. Fresh Chinook and Coho will move from the vast Pacific Ocean into Barkley Sound. Those fish in the Sound will migrate fairly rapidly up into the inlet. The water is no longer stagnant and has cooled down dramatically meaning the fish will be moving and will be a little more eager to bite the variety of lures put out by the many sport fisher people. There are plenty of Chinook and Coho Salmon in the system. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced that there is a dramatic increase in the Chinook run size returning to the Somass. The original forecast of only twenty-five thousand Chinook returning to the River system has been increased by a much higher number of returning Chinook. With this in mind, the rule of retaining salmon under 77 cm has also been changed. Sport Fisher persons fishing the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound can now land one salmon over 77 cm per day and have in possession two Chinook salmon with one over 77 cm and one under 77cm each day. A two day possession level of two and two (two under and two over) is now in effect. This is great news for those many individuals fishing in the Salmon Festival Derby. The best salmon fishing currently is in Barkley Sound. The many salmon that were in the Alberni Inlet have moved into the River system. However the Inlet will fill with fresh salmon in the coming days. Weather conditions are drying and warmer air is in the immediate forecast which will slow the migration. This will also be very true of the salmon down in Barkley Sound locations. The ample Chinook and Coho at Pill Point, Assets Island, and the Bamfield Wall should hold for a few days. The Wall has been very good for the last ten days. Pill Point and Assets have both been very consistent. The salmon in the sound have been biting and feeding very hard around tide changes but have also been very active between tides. The same scenario has been true for those fishing in the inlet. The salmon are in fairly shallow water in Barkley Sound and also the Alberni Inlet. Fishing between thirty and fifty feet has not been uncommon. Some fisher people fishing everyday in the Inlet are saying that the salmon they are landing for some reason are in seventy-five to ninety feet of water. The best lures depending on where one fishes are the 0-15, 0-16, spatterback and AORL 12 hootchies. Using anchovy in both the Inlet and the Sound seems ideal and for many is working the best. Leader lengths from five and a half to six feet behind green, red, or burgundy flashers with a gold face are working very well. The AORL 12 hootchie with 38 to 42 inches of leader behind a burgundy and gold flasher is ideal for Coho in Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet. Entries for this year�s Salmon Festival Derby have been remarkably encouraging. There will be many boaters on the water. Safety precautions are always of importance. Good Luck to all those fishing. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound for Chinook under 77cm�s and Coho has been quite consistent. Many of these salmon will make their way into Alberni Inlet waters which will thrive on some continued good fishing opportunities into September. The hotspots in Barkley Sound have been the Bamfield Wall, Wittlestone, Swale Rock, and Pill Point. Most of the salmon in these areas are returning to Pacific Rim Rivers and streams and are not in deep water. A variety of hootchies and spoons have been working but anchovy again seems to create the best success for sport fisher persons. The green haze, bloody nose, and army truck Rhys Davis Teaser heads are working very well. The salmon also seem to be holding in those areas that have bait fish in good numbers. The Coho are still putting on a pound a week and will actively feed throughout the day. Finding bait in the sound is often essential. With the many creeks, streams and rivers found in Barkley Sound and with the lack of water in these vital waterways the salmon will sit in Barkley sound actively feeding until the waterways fill with water. The Salmon Fishing in many of the Pacific Rim areas on West Coast Vancouver Island has been very good. The Alberni Inlet has been fabulous for Sockeye Salmon, which are the number 1 commercial salmon, for sport fishermen. The return of Sockeye to the Alberni Inlet is forecast to be at 1.8 million. Escapement for conservation measurements however has been low due to the lack of water in streams and rivers. Chinook and Coho are just beginning to migrate into Alberni Inlet waters and it is apparent that much needed water in the form of rain is of necessity. The sport fishing in Barkley Sound has been on and off as salmon come into the area to feed on the rich resources of bait fish as they migrate to the big watersheds to the south. The best salmon fishing for Chinook and Coho has been the Bamfield Wall, Swale Rock and Gilbraltor Island. Offshore salmon fishing out of Ucluelet and Bamfield has been fantastic as South Bank areas and the Big Bank have been recently very good for Chinook in the high teens to mid twenty pound area in terms of weight. Coho salmon at times are in good numbers and are averaging seven to ten pounds. The Sport fishing up to this time has been consistently very good. August and September should continue to have some GREAT sport fishing opportunities especially for those many anglers visiting West Coast Vancouver Island and fishing with Guided trips or in their own sport fishing boats. The sport fishing in Port Alberni for Sockeye Salmon began in very late May and continues relatively strong right into the first half of August. Numbers of returning sockeye have been absolutely phenomenal. Sockeye are a fun fishery for all fishermen of all ages. The fishing is currently best in the China Creek area. Dunsmuir Point out to McTush has plenty of sockeye that are sitting in deper and cooler water from ninety to one hundred and thirty feet. Anglers are continuing to use mp15 hootchies and also the blue and pink and black and pink hootchies with eighteen to twenty-four inches of leader length. Chinook Salmon are beginning to show in the Inlet. The numbers of returning Chinook is unclear but the strength will be in the three year old class. There have been some early Chinook landed out on the Franklin Wall and also in the narrows and Underwood. The current Rule published by DFO beginning August 1st 2015 is that all Chinook salmon retained in the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound must be under 77cm in length. Those anglers that are beginning to target Chinook in the Alberni Inlet will often have the best success using bait in either a green haze or army truck Rhys Davis Teaser Head with a six foot leader behind green or chartreuse hotspot flashers. Fishing in Barkley Sound has been on and off. There are some West Coast Vancouver Island Chinook and Coho migrating into the area on a daily basis. There are still plenty of migrating fish headed to the big watersheds to the south. The Bamfield Wall up to Whittlestone has had some great Chinook fishing. Swale Rock, Harbor Entrance and Gilbraltor Island at times have all been fantastic. Bait, and hootchies in a variety of green colors have been working very well. Some anglers that like using coyote spoons have done well on silver glow and green and blue nickel. August and the first half of September should see some fantastic fishing opportunities for many sport anglers. As usual the banks outside the Ucluelet Harbor and for that matter the Bamfield Harbor have been consistently very good all summer. The Big Bank, the Chair, Turtle head, Adipose and the inside and outside light located on South Bank have been fantastic fishing destinations. The salmon throughout the summer months have been in water from eighty feet right to the bottom. Over the past week South Bank locations have been extremely good with Chinook salmon sitting in water from ninety to one hundred and thirty feet. Anglers using anchovy, hootchies, and five and six inch spoons have all had great success. South Bank areas are all very close to the Ucluelet Harbor and the protected water of Barkley Sound and are fairly easy for those to fish in smaller sport fishing boats. We are looking forward to some great sport fishing in all areas of West Coast Vancouver Island right through until mid September. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound has been relatively inconsistent. The best fishing has been out on surf line areas. The islands close to the Ucluelet Harbor Mouth, Meares, Austin, Cree Island, Kirby Point, Edward King and the Bamfield Wall have all had times during the past few weeks with some hot Chinook and Coho sport fishing. Areas close to the Ucluelet Harbor that have had a few fantastic fishing days are Great Bear and Sail Rock. The inner and outer South bank and Long Beach have had some of the transient salmon linger creating some good sport salmon fishing opportunity. The Rats Nose however has had the best offshore sport fishing. The Bank is full of large herring which have moved good numbers of migrating Chinook and Coho onto the Bank to feed as they migrate to the big watersheds to the south. Spoons and plugs in the six inch and some five inch have been working the best. Spoons with no flasher have been fantastic. TheThe salmon in the Sound and inside waters have been hitting anchovy in green glow, army truck, and green haze Rhys Davis Teaser Heads. Needle fish hootchies and hootchies in green (spatterback), blue and white have worked well. A few guides have done very well with the army truck glow hootchie and the cuttlefish J-79. The Sonora cuttlefish, Jack Smith, and Blue Meaney Hootchies have been very good out on the banks. Anchovy and a variety of four and five inch coyote spoons have also been working very well. We are looking forward to some great sport fishing opportunities during the second half of July and August in Barkley Sound offshore. The numbers of transient Chinook and Coho headed to the big watersheds to the south are forecast to be very strong which will provide some very excellent sport salmon fishing. The Sport Sockeye Fishery in the Alberni Inlet CONTINUES to be absolutely incredible. To date this has been one of the best, if not the best Sockeye Sport season in many years. Due to very low and warm water in the Somass River, the Alberni Inlet, and the warm air temperatures the Sockeye salmon which are returning in an abundant number are schooling in very large numbers out in the Inlet water. We have had some rain and cooler temperatures in the area which has led to some migration through the salmon ladders. Almost one hundred thousand Sockeye have migrated through the system. The Sockeye are schooling from Cous Creek out to the Nahmint Franklin area. The projected outlook for Sockeye returns to the Somass River has been upgraded to 1.3 million. The Sockeye migrate into the Somass River and then into Sproat and Great Central Lakes. Projected migration into the lakes with a 1.3 million return should be close to four hundred thousand with the updated forecast return. With much of Vancouver Island in drought like conditions it is hoped that some more moisture will arrive to help the migration of all west coast Vancouver Island Salmon returning to the Somass River System. The Sockeye in the Alberni Inlet are currently sitting in eighty to one hundred and twenty feet of water. They are hitting short leader lengths from eighteen to twenty-five inches in length behind a variety of hotspot flashers. The mp2, mp15, pink and blue, pink and black, and the pink with either the green or white head hootchies all seem to be working very well for most of the sport anglers. Sockeye are attracted to the boat by color. Many sport fishermen will often have eight flashers behind their boat. Four are often dummy flashers and the other four with hootchies of choice. The Sockeye are averaging four to eight pounds. Sockeye are the number one commercial salmon. They are wonderful for summer barbeques and when vacuum packed properly last the winter for those special occasions. With good numbers of fresh Sockeye coming into the system on a daily basis we are hoping the Sockeye Sport fishery will continue into the August Long Weekend. The Sport Sockeye Fishery in the Alberni Inlet is currently described as fabulous. To date this has been one of the best Sockeye Sport Seasons in many years. Due to very low and warm water in the Somass River, the Alberni Inlet, and the warm air temperatures the Sockeye salmon which are returning in an abundant number are schooling in very large numbers out in the Inlet water. The Sockeye are schooling from Cous Creek out to the Nahmint Franklin area. The projected outlook for Sockeye returns to the Somass River has been upgraded to 1.2 million. The test fishery boat with testing analysis has projected that over two hundred and forty thousand sockeye salmon schooling in the Inlet area as of the 26th of June. The Sockeye migrate into the Somass River and then into Sproat and Great Central Lakes. Projected migration into the lakes should be close to three hundred and fifty thousand with the updated forecast return. To Date only sixty thousand Sockeye have gone through the fish ways. With much of Vancouver Island in drought like conditions it is hoped that some moisture will come in due time to help the migration of all west coast Vancouver Island Salmon and of course the Sockeye returning to the Somass River System. The Sockeye in the Alberni Inlet are currently sitting in fifty to ninety feet of water. They are hitting short leader lengths from twenty to twenty-four inches in length behind a variety of hotspot flashers. The mp2, mp15, pink and blue, pink and black, and the pink with either the green or white head hootchies all seem to be working very well for most of the sport anglers. Sockeye are attracted to the boat by color. Many sport fishermen will often have eight flashers behind their boat. Four are often dummy flashers and the other four with hootchies of choice. The Sockeye are averaging four to eight pounds. Sockeye are the number one commercial salmon. They are wonderful for summer barbeques and when vacuum packed properly last the winter for those special occasions. Sockeye fishing is a wonderful fishing opportunity for the whole family. It is a fun fishery for young and older. Don�t miss out on this opportunity in the Alberni Inlet this July. The sport fishery will likely last through the end of July and perhaps into early August. The salmon fishing in Barkley Sound has been off and on. The Best fishing has been out on surf line areas or offshore Ucluelet and inshore Ucluelet around some of the islands outside the Ucluelet Harbor. Meares, Austin, Cree Island, Kirby Point, Edward King and the Bamfield Wall have all had time during June when each area has had some hot Chinook sport fishing. Areas close to the Ucluelet Harbor that have had fantastic fishing days are Great Bear and Sail Rock. The inner and outer South bank and Long Beach have had some of the transient salmon linger creating some good sport salmon fishing opportunity. The Big Bank and the Rats Nose however have had the best offshore sport fishing. The fishing out in this area has been fabulous but due to the very high pressure system sitting over the south coast high outflow winds have played detrimental to the number of days in June that sport anglers and guides have been able to get out to the banks. The salmon in the Sound and inside waters have been hitting anchovy in green glow, army truck, and green haze Rhys Davis Teaser Heads. Needle fish hootchies and hootchies in green (spatterback), blue and white have been working. A few guides have done very well with the army truck glow hootchie and the cuttlefish J-79. The Sonora cuttlefish, Jack Smith, and Blue Meaney Hootchies have been very good out on the banks. Anchovy and a variety of four and five inch coyote spoons have also been working very well. We are looking forward to some great sport fishing opportunities during July in Barkley Sound and the outside waters offshore. The numbers of transient Chinook and Coho headed to the big watersheds to the south are forecast to be very strong which will provide some very excellent sport salmon fishing. It is now the beginning of June and the weather is terrific on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. In fact the weather has been so fantastic one would say that it is incredible. But there is one problem which is concerning and that is that much of the West Coast is very DRY and many rivers are low in water. The Weather scenario might sound great but for conservation reasons it is not GOOD. Low river conditions can play havoc with returns of West Coast Vancouver Island. Currently Sockeye Salmon are returning to the Somass River in good numbers. The Somass however is at low historic levels. Along with the current fantastic weather conditions the salmon fishing has been consistent close to Ucluelet Harbour and offshore Ucluelet. Ucluelet is a very small community located on the extreme west coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia. The salmon fishing was very good through the May Long Weekend but has slowed down in the last ten days. We are awaiting the next flow of transient salmon headed to the BIG Watersheds to the south. Salmon fishing in various surf line areas of Barkley Sound has also been quite good but has slowed down considerably. The early sockeye salmon has already started their long return from somewhere in the North Pacific to the Somass River in fairly good numbers. There has been great catches by many sport fishermen camping at the China Creek site and local sport fishermen from the Alberni area. With the good weather and high afternoon temperatures the Sockeye Migration is already slowing down as the water temperature in the river and the Alberni Inlet are currently very warm. This scenario will develop a very good Sport Sockeye season in the inlet a little earlier than normal. Salmon and halibut fishing on the west coast as mentioned has slowed down over the past ten days. Local sport and guide fishermen are awaiting the next push of salmon. The increasing sport fishing opportunities as we now move into June is very evident by the large number of vehicles on local roads and highways towing a variety of sport fishing boats. Many fisher persons are either fishing the scenic and pristine waters of the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound or are travelling out to the west coast to fish close to Vancouver Island�s rugged coastline or in offshore locations. The 2015 sport salmon fishing season in Ucluelet, Barkley Sound, and the Port Alberni Inlet is forecast once again to be terrific. In fact this year is predicted to be once again one of the best seasons for sport fishing for those targeting Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon. On the west coast the early summer run of Chinook which are currently migrating down the Vancouver Island coastline and stay fairly close to the beach will soon peak and will be followed by what is forecast to be a very large mid summer Chinook return to southern watersheds. Chinook and Coho numbers returning to the Columbia River and Bonneville dam where numbers of returning salmon have been recorded since 1938 are predicted to be quite high once again. The Sockeye fishing in the Alberni Inlet should be extremely good. The return to the Somass River is currently assessed at seven hundred thousand to one million. The early run has already been migrating into the Somass River. Don�t miss out on a fabulous 2015 sport salmon fishing year in the Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound, or inshore offshore Ucluelet-Tofino. The Sockeye sport fishery in the Alberni Inlet has been open since the first of May. Limits are four per person per day. That number should remain the same throughout the season. Sockeye usually school in the Inlet when the water of the Somass River and the Inlet warms to 18 degrees Celsius. When there are big numbers of Sockeye entering the system the schools will hold in the inlet for the salmon ahead to push into the river. The river water and the water of the Inlet is warming considerably. With very little snow in the nearby hills the water has already warmed to over eighteen degrees celsius. The Sockeye that are currently in the system have migrated from Barkley Sound and into the Inlet and are swimming in fairly deep water. Those sport fishermen out fishing for Sockeye have had good success in the China Creek area. The slide and up to Ardens have been relatively good. The warm weather conditions have developed a fairly decent Sockeye salmon sport fishery over the past week. It is often safe to say that June 15th is the time to start fishing Sockeye but that rule of thumb is different this year. Some individual sport fisher persons have already had opportunity to land limits of Sockeye. Sport guides and individual fishermen will find good numbers of Sockeye Salmon at hotspots such as Cous Creek, Dusmuir Point, the China Creek Wall, the slide, and the narrows. Sockeye are attracted to color and having six or even eight flashers hooked to the deep line is not unusual. The most popular lures for Sockeye are the mp 2 and 16 also the bubblegum colored mp 15 hootchies. Leader lengths are best at 22 to 27 inches behind a green or red glow hotspot flasher. The Salmon fishing in Barkley Sound especially out at surf line locations has been also relatively consistent over the past few weeks. Many areas have had big bait balls which will bring those migratory Chinook swimming close to the beach into the Sound to feed on the very rich resources of bait fish. Over the past week Austin Island has had some decent sport fishing as has Vernon Bay. The key to land a few nice Chinook is perseverance. Bamfield areas such as Kirby in the morning and Edward King later in the day and also the Wall have reported some nice fish being landed by guides and sport anglers. The best results have been fishing from 80 to 130 feet depending on location but it is important that you are fishing where there is bait. It seems that choice of lure really does not seem to matter as many sport fishermen have been using a variety of spoons, plastic, and bait. The best spoons have been the four inch green and blue nickel coyote spoon behind a green glow hotspot flasher. The four inch Irish Cream spoon, cookies and cream and silver glow have been working behind a chartreuse hot spot flasher. The 155 needlefish hootchie has also been very good. Anchovy in a green UV teaser head, army truck and also in chartreuse have been hot at various times. Many of the salmon have been in the low to mid teens with a few at twenty pounds. We are expecting the fish to get bigger with the arrival of the mid-summer run which will get underway in the latter half of June. This run of migrating salmon should have a good number of four and five year olds. Barkly Sound should be a hotbed for fishing this summer especially in surf line locations. Ucluelet is often referred to as Vancouver Island�s premier salmon and halibut sport fishing destination. Like Barkley Sound the waters inshore and offshore from the Ucluelet Harbor offer some world class fishing. The water is very rich in bait fish (sardines and needlefish) which the salmon feed on throughout the spring and summer months. The summer salmon fishing seems to be changing. August and early September were often considered peak times for Chinook and Coho sport fishing. With the high numbers of transient Chinook salmon passing along the west coast of Vancouver Island from April to August it often seems that the peak of the season is in the month of July. This is not to say that Chinook sport fishing does not continue in August and September. Coho which were often referred to as the number one sport salmon along coastal fishing locations in B.C. are a major highlight in late August through September. This thought is something to consider when thinking about and organizing sport salmon fishing this summer. The Ucluelet fishing has been very consistent over the past few weeks with some good fishing out at the inner and outer South Bank. Mara Rock, Great Bear, Sail Rock, Lighthouse Bank, and Long Beach have been excellent choices for sport fishing. The largest salmon have been averaging twelve to eighteen pounds. The largest landed to date by guides and guests hit twenty-six pounds landed at Sail Rock. This Chinook which like many of the other salmon was a hatchery fish and hit a needlefish hootchie. There was a report of a thirty-one pound Chinook at Great Bear. The fish out at the inner and outer South Bank have been close to the bottom between 130 and 160 feet. The best lures to date have been a T-Rex hootchie and an iridescent Turd and also a few different spoons in brass/copper or four and five inch blue and green nickel. Other guides and sport anglers have had great success using needle fish hootchies behind a flasher. The needle fish will hide in the sand and on tide changes will come up to higher levels which creates a very good salmon and halibut bite. If trolling and using anchovy it seems that a green or red glow hotspot flasher with a green or army truck Rhys Davis teaser anchovy head with six feet of leader work well. One important thing to remember is that during the season the food sources often get bigger and when using spoons and plugs the sizes should increase as the bait does. The Stamp River is one of B.C.�s healthiest river systems. The salmon fishing this year will open on or about August 26th with what is forecast to be a better than normal season. This however will be depending on the river and the amount of water in the system. The season begins with river anglers using wool, spinners, and plugs. The bait ban should be lifted on the 15th of September. For those that enjoy Steelhead fishing there are three runs of Steelhead in the Stamp. Summer and Fall Steelhead and then later in late November the Winter Steelhead begin to show. October and November are perfect months for summer and fall fish. The Steelhead actively feed during the natural spawn of the salmon in the river which is during October and well into November. There is plenty of opportunity to fish the Stamp but all arrangements for trips that are guided should be organized very early in the summer or late spring. Fishing for Sockeye along the banks will begin very quickly�. The West Coast of Vancouver Island is a wonderful area to visit and spend valued time for many people worldwide when on vacation. Known for its unique settings and rugged coastlines, Vancouver Islands west coast also better known as the Pacific Rim, not only offers world class salmon fishing but also offers other adventures and unique cultural activities. The whole of Vancouver Island is located only twenty miles off of British Columbia�s mainland. On this vast island there exists a majestic geographical area of tall coniferous forests and breath-taking scenic views of rugged terrain and coastlines that have been battered by winter storms. There is also a display of wonderful exquisite and secluded white sandy beaches located in areas of pristine and calm water. Those visiting Vancouver Island during the late spring and summer months must take in not only a �fishing adventure� but also explore the great rainforests, beaches, and lakes. When fishing out in scenic Barkley Sound or offshore one can view wildlife and also whale watch. When on land and visiting the many local communities, visitors can seek out west coast culture, spa retreats, and of course take in some great west coast cuisine. Vancouver Islands West Coast has had superb salmon fishing over the years. Salmon fishing in many of the so called �hot spots� has been nothing better than world class. The West Coast is also one of the only spots on Canada�s West Coast where one has opportunity of hooking into a twenty pound salmon twelve months of the year. Of course every year is not entirely the same because predicted run sizes returning to many of the natal rivers, creeks and streams to West Vancouver Island are not as good as other years. When fishing the Pacific Rim and many parts of Vancouver Island�s West Coast the opportunities for landing a Chinook or Coho salmon during the late spring or the summer months are very probable. In the Pacific Rim area we have the opportunity during these fair weather sport fishing months to target the vast quantities of migratory or transient salmon headed for the big watersheds to the south. The 2015 sport salmon fishing season is expected to be �Very� good on the west coast surf line and offshore. Scenic Barkley Sound during the months of June and July and the early part of August should be fabulous. The expectation of high numbers of transient salmon headed to distant southern watersheds is already looking fantastic. Salmon fishing around Ucluelet and a few areas of Barkley Sound has been successful for a few avid fishermen. A few Chinook salmon in the high teens and low twenties have been landed by guides and their guests and also sport anglers fishing in their private boats. Salmon fishing in Barkley Sound, along the surf line, and also offshore waters will continue from now through mid September or longer. There will be great opportunities to fish for Chinook and Coho in the waters of Barkley Sound during the months of May, June, and July. Coho salmon will become predominant in Barkley Sound in August and September with opportunity for Chinook in offshore waters. Look for another banner sport salmon fishing year on British Columbia�s West Coast ---Vancouver Island. The month of April and May is often quiet in the Alberni Inlet except for those individuals fishing for prawns if and when the opportunity for this sport fishing is available. The Prawn fishing in the Alberni Inlet during the year when open has been very slow. Barkley Sound on the other hand has had some good areas for prawn fishing. Guide boats in the early spring often include in their salmon fishing trips to Barkley Sound, prawn fishing. Usually the prawn traps are dropped before fishing and then after fishing the traps are picked up to find the great prize coming up from the ocean floor. Barkley Sound fishing has been fairly consistent over the last few months although one would have to sum up the fishing as being very mediocre. When fishing for feeder or winter Chinook the rule is often where one finds bait there will be Chinook salmon. Swale Rock, Vernon Bay, and Alan Point have all produced some nice salmon in the eleven to fifteen pound range. Austin and Cree Island have also had the odd salmon up to twenty pounds. The Bamfield Wall and the Harbor Mouth have also produced some good salmon fishing. Some of the Chinook as of late have been clipped and the thought is that many of these Chinook are the early run of salmon migrating to rivers to the south. The salmon have been relatively deep from 85 to 150 feet. A variety of coyote spoons have been working. Green glow has been a favorite in the three and a half and four inch size as has the green and blue nickel. White spoons and white hootchies have also been on and off. Green glow, chartreuse, and purple glow hotspot flashers seem to be ideal when using spoons. Needle fish hootchies in army truck and mint tulip have also been working very well. Fishermen trolling with anchovy have had their best success using a chartreuse Rhys Davis teaser head with a six foot tail behind either a Chartreuse or green glow hotspot flasher. There are a good number of undersize salmon so at times it is best to fish with spoons, needlefish and hootchies. We are expecting the fishing during June and July to be terrific. The mid- summer run of Chinook and Coho which are migrating to the big southerly watersheds historically begins in mid June and runs into mid July followed by the fall or �late run� with expected large numbers of these transient salmon headed to the Columbia, Sacremento, and Willamette systems to the south. Many of the salmon migrating down the Vancouver Island West Coast are forecasted to be four and five year olds which often means some good sized Chinook over thirty pounds. The surf line areas of Barkley Sound and out to offshore area at three to seven miles should have some great fishing as the rich resources of bait fish come into these areas which bring in the bigger Chinook. Ucluelet is one of those spots where it is possible to land a twenty pound salmon every month of the year. Of course weather plays an important role in terms of getting out onto the water. During the winter months it seems there are breaks in the weather patterns which make it possible for keen anglers to get out on the water. Some nice quality fish up to twenty pounds have been landed during the latter part of March and the month of April. The Chinook have been feeding on sand lance and needle fish. Great Bear has been relatively good. The Alley, Forbes, Sail Rock and Beg Island have all produced some nice feeder Chinook. Most of the feeders are averaging seven to twelve pounds. With the weather pattern changing and becoming more favorable over the last few weeks guided trips and sports anglers have been periodically able to get further offshore. April 17th to 20th were wonderful days on the Pacific with no wind and little swell. The Inner South Bank as example was perfect with some feeder Chinook and halibut sitting on the bottom feeding on sand lance and needle fish. Sport Fishermen and a few guided trips have at times had some great fishing with a few Chinook weighing up to seventeen and eighteen pounds. As mentioned the Inner South has been most favorable for those fishing close to the bottom at 135 to 150 feet. Some fisher people have had success using purple haze and army truck glow hootchies. However the white Turd and the T-Rex hootchie have been very good for some sport fishermen with both of these lures producing the best catches. The past few weeks has also produced some of the first halibut of the season. The five mile (inside south) and the seven mile (outside south) for those offshore have produced relatively well. Halibut fishing has been best on the ebb tides and using a spreader bar with six inch white grubs. The Halis have been migrating back to the deep after their spawn and by the third week of May will have migrated back to the shallows. The white turd for three sport anglers was good for two perfect sized halibut while fishing the Inner South. May, June, and July should prove to be three very good fishing months with some nice Coho coming into the mix in late June when the big migratory flow of the mid-summer run begins. Look for some salmon in the mid to high thirties this summer. The winter Steelhead season is all but over. Many of the spawned out fish are heading back down the river and making their way out to the waters of the vast Pacific. The Fall of 2015 is once expected to be very good with plenty of early Coho and summer Steelhead in the mix. Those keen on fly fishing should look at booking trips from the 10th of October into the first ten days of November. Joe and three of his grandchildren show off some of their salmon and halibut landed offshore from Bamfield B.C. The West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia has much to offer. The West Coast is a beautiful area of the world with its rugged but scenic coastline outlined by snowcapped mountains in the background. Ucluelet and Tofino both found on Vancouver Islands coast are located south of Clayoquot Sound, which is full of beaches, islands and rainforests. The Pacific Rim National Park (Long Beach) is located in the area and has grown into a very popular tourist destination with oceanfront resorts, hotels, motels, lodges, campgrounds, quaint cafes and restaurants and even art galleries. The Pacific Rim National Park is a paradise for surfers and beachcombers. There are large rolling waves and miles of pristine beaches. Ucluelet is nestled in a small harbor, which is dominated by surf and sandy beaches on the west and rainforests on the east. The area has fantastic walking and hiking trails. The Rainforest Trail, Lighthouse Trail and the sands of Big Beach are areas people can roam for hours. Hi-Tin-Kis Park has spectacular views that people worldwide come to admire. During the winter Ucluelet and Tofino offer spectacular Storm Watch opportunities. Many of the luxurious resorts, which are scattered along the coastline, offer this as part of their packages from November until early March. March and April often finds visitors watching the migration of Gray Whales, which are passing along the coastline making their way to the Beaufort Sea. The Whale Festival begins this year on the 17th of March is featured by the �Chowder Chow Down.� The festival continues into mid April. Ucluelet and Tofino provide some of the best salmon and halibut fishing in the world. The coastline between Ucluelet and Tofino is a feeding and spawning destination of some of the West Coast of British Columbia�s largest runs of chinook and coho. The months of May, June July August and September are considered prime time for sport fishing inshore and offshore. The sport fishing industry is provided with vast amounts of coho, chinook, pink salmon and halibut that are migrating outside the doorstep of Ucluelet.. All of the fish follow the thick balls of bait which most often are herring, sardines, needlefish, squid and krill. The Ucluelet Sport Fishing season gets underway when the wather changes into early spring. The winter often displays battering storms and huge surf, which makes it most difficult and of course dangerous for guides and sport anglers to get out to the fishing grounds. However, during the winter there are some days that one can fish for winter or feeder springs close the Ucluelet Harbor and Barkley sound. The winter season is also a time when individuals have opportunity to fish for Dungeness Crabs, prawns, oysters, clams, and some rock fish. Late February, all of March, and the early part of April often have feeder chinook close to the Ucluelet Harbor and inner surfline of Barkley Sound. Slivers Charters Salmon sport Fishing and other guide services will normally fish Begg Island, Mara Rock, Great Bear, the Red Can, Sail Rock and even South Bank during this time of year. Most of the salmon are feeder springs and can range from 8 to 25 pounds. Most guides and local anglers use a variety of lures. Anchovy is often he best bait choice all year and is rolled behind a Rhys Davis Teaser Head in white, green, purple haze, or pearl. Hootchie choices are often glow whites, purple haze, or various blue green white colors and army truck. Various Coyote and Titan Spoons work well also. This year watermelon has been very good along the whole coast as have silver spoons. During the year there is some bottom or rock fishing. The lingcod season opens April 15th. Halibut fishing most years become more fishable in May and can be combined when fishing for the various salmon species migrating down the coast. During the summer months some guides will troll for Halibut and Salmon at the same time. The Halibut are found at the bottom hiding in the sand and the salmon are found in mid water. During the summer months Ucluelet provides some of the best salmon and halibut fishing in the world. The area has continuous and very consistent fishing due to the migration of salmon which are headed to their spawning grounds. Whatever summer month one decides to fish there will not be disappointment as there is always fish inshore or offshore. People often ask �what should I bring if I am coming to Canada�s West Coast to fish and explore. Of course bring a camera to take all kinds of pictures. Binoculars are also a great idea. Bring Rain Gear and rubber boots. Most of the guide boats have extra rain gear on board but this is not provided when hiking in a rainforest or walking the beach on an early drizzly foggy morning. Be prepared for sunshine and warm days especially later in the morning and the afternoons. The West Coast is a place to be totally prepared for all weather. Dress in layers. There is a saying �Its easy to dress down but not up�. If you do not have the correct warm clothing ones day can be miserable to start. It is important to have coolers to take catches home. If flying most airlines now want people to have a correct airline container, which are available on the coast. People can also be prepared to have their catch sent directly to their home as St. Jeans located in Ucluelet will ship directly after our guides have prepared your catch for shipping. Canada�s West Coast of Vancouver Island is a fantastic area to visit. Those who live in the area take it for granted. This area of the world has a lot to offer and is still undiscovered by many. It is part of super natural B.C. Take some time and come to visit and yes come fishing as this is the place to be in the summer of 2007. Port Alberni is fortunate enough to have a very healthy river system and hatchery (Roberson Creek Hatchery). Chinook and Coho return to the Hatchery and Sockeye return naturally to the river and then to Sproat and Great Central Lake. From the lakes the sockeye move out to tributary streams and then spawn. Chinook 43,000 return as of October 15th. Numbers may have reached 55 to 60,000 by now as many late fish have arrived. Jack chinook 1,000 This number is low and will probably see a low return in three year olds in 2007. Four, Five and Six year olds should be strong in numbers. Adult Coho 11,000 Low in return but enough for hatchery program. Jack Coho 6,142 Great numbers which should give us a very healthy return of adult coho in 2007. These Adult returns should be back to normal in 2007. Adult Sockeye 137,000 return through the counters. Not a strong return as the early prediction was almost 800,000. Winter Spring The Alberni Inlet and the Barkley Sound offer year round fishing at its best. Springs, often referred to as Black Mouths, start showing up in the Barkley Sound in the middle of March. These feisty fish stay and feed in the Sound on the bountiful herring and anchovy that are spawning in the area. These fish range from 5 to 25 pounds and as active feeders provide action filled days for the fishermen. SPRING AND SUMMER This season offers a great opportunity for fishing for many different species of salmon. In May, the Springs are still in the Barkley Sound and the early running Tyees are beginning to appear as they begin their migration up the Alberni Inlet. This season provides excellent fishing for Springs, Tyee and also the famous Sockeye. The Sockeye are the best eating salmon and run in our area is huge. In late June and July, the Sockeye start running up the Alberni Inlet in huge quantities. In 1987, there were an estimated 750,000 Sockeye that came up the Alberni Inlet. You can imagine the success rate for anglers! The Sockeye run continues through August. SUMMER AND FALL The months of July, August and September yield the largest fish of them all - the magnificent Tyee or Chinook Salmon. These fish range from 15 to 70 pounds on average size. At this time of year, the salmon are within 15 minutes of the inner harbour and the Coho are running as well. FRESH WATER FISHING January, February and March is the winter run of Steelhead in the Ash, Stamp and Nahmint Rivers and of the Cutthroat in China Creek. April and May are good months for Steelhead and Cutthroat in Nahmint and Sproat Lake and for Rainbow Trout in Great Central and Loon Lake. June is the start of the best months for the middle of resident runs of coastal Cutthroat in most lakes including Sproat and Great Central Lake. October, November, and December, Rainbow and Cutthroat season ends. The Steelhead season begins in china Creek. All year Trout can be caught in McBride and View Lakes, Brown Trout in Cameron Lake and Rainbow and Cutthroat in Cameron Lake.

2019-04-25T11:53:56Z

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TRACT Optics has announced the addition of the allnew TORIC 12.5x50 binocular to its growing lineup of high-end, feature-filled optics. Featuring highly prized SCHOTT HT (high transmission) glass for superior image quality, the TORIC 12.5x50 binocular combines this proven level of optical clarity and color brilliance with an increased 12.5x magnification for improved longrange viewing. The combination of fully multicoated lenses and prisms, dielectric prism coatings, and phase correction coatings ensures a higher level of light transmission over a larger part of the visible spectrum, while the flat multicoating enhances the color brilliance and increases light transmission over a wide spectrum of light, especially in the green spectrum. Combined with standard features like a magnesium alloy body, argon-filled waterproof and fog-proof construction, and multistep eyecups with rounded edges, these enhancements deliver incredibly sharp and bright images. A locking diopter eliminates inadvertent movement of the diopter in the field. The large ocular diameter enhances the ability to see detail, while the ultra high-definition ED glass and oil-phobic/ scratch-proof/smudge-proof coating provides first-rate performance. For more information, go to www.tractoptics.com. Decibullz, the leader in custom thermofit earplugs and earphones, announced a new addition to its earplug line – Custom Molded Percussive Filters. These hightech filters allow comfortable conversation yet engage automatically to block noise from gunfire through a mechanical filter that doesn't require batteries, so it's always ready. Decibullz's existing earplugs come with an impressive noise reduction rating of 31dB, and the new Percussive Filters offer similar protection levels for users while allowing for some ambient noise to pass through. That added protection is crucial as a single shotgun blast can hit 165 dB. In comparison, the pounding of a jackhammer only reaches 125 dB. Decibullz's new filters offer users that additional protection without compromising their hearing experience. The filters are ANSI IPIL certified up to 166 dB. When no loud noises are present, users can still hear low-level noise, such as conversation. The filters also allow sound directionality and spatiality, meaning users can hear all around them, which is critical for hunters. For more information, go to www.decibullz.com. Named after the state where success is usually found in the high country around 13,000 feet, the Crispi Colorado GTX is built to get you there, help you succeed, and get you home with a heavy pack. The Colorado upper is made out of water-repellent suede, high-resistance fabric and is lined with Gore-Tex performance lining to ensure maximum waterproof action. Optimum ankle support for sidehilling and heavy pack outs is provided with the added Ankle Bone Support System (ABSS). A polyurethanecoated leather rand is triple stitched around the base of the boot to protect the foot from external impacts. The boot is rounded off with a dual density polyurethane Vibram sole, which provides comfort in high impact areas as well as grip in the nastiest of conditions. For more information, go to www.crispius.com. The G45NGMAX advantage starts with Stealth Cam's nextgeneration, high-resolution night imaging technology, which produces 26MP photos to capture crisp, still images across the camera's 100-foot flash range. This exceptional imaging comes courtesy of 45 NO-GLO IR emitters combined with integrated Retina™ Low Light sensitivity, Matrix™ Advanced Blur Reduction, and the super-fast 0.45-second Reflex™ Trigger system technology, delivering the most reliable nighttime performance to ensure the big bucks are captured on camera. In addition to its unrivaled nighttime operation, the G45NGMAX offers diverse setting customization to achieve the best imaging and video results regardless of the terrain or site layout. They've upgraded from 720p to 1080p with a Sony image sensor only found previously in their DS4K series. Utilizing an intuitive menu and easy-tosee backlit LED programming interface, the G45NGMAX also allows the user to set numerous still and video capture parameters. Data logging features time and date, moon phases, temperature, and GPS meta-tagging, which provides essential information for documenting game activity and planning future hunts. For more information, go to www.gsmoutdoors.com. Leupold's RBX-3000 TBR/W combines excellent glass with incredible ranging distances of 3,000 yards on reflective objects and 2,600 yards on trees and soft targets. It features easy-to-read, high-contrast data on a red LED display and dual eyepiece diopter adjustment. An on-board atmospheric sensor will display temperature, air pressure, and humidity. The top-tier optical prescription is reinforced by Leupold's Twilight Max HD Light Management System. The RBX-3000 TBR/W delivers incredibly accurate ranges with its True Ballistic Range/Wind (TBR/W) technology. TBR takes into account the angle of your shot and your rifle's ballistics to put you dead on target. Aircraft-grade aluminum housing ensures the RBX-3000 TBR/W lives up to the rugged durability Leupold products are known for. It is 100% waterproof and fogproof, and the lens features Guard-ion coatings that shed dirt and water for crisp, clear images. For more information, go to www.leupold.com. The Mountain 2700 is a hard-working day pack that can comfortably and quietly support loads of 45 pounds. The internal hydration sleeve accommodates bladders in excess of three liters, ensuring hydration is not your limiting factor. An internal zippered security pocket provides a place to store tags, keys, or a cell phone while the two vertical exterior pockets hold raingear, a Flash Shelter, or most spotting scopes. Side pockets secure tripods, trekking poles, or water bottles, and the triple-density foam waist belt maximizes comfort while velcro placed on the waist belt holds most pistol holsters, bear spray, and other Sitka pack accessories. For more information, go to www.sitkagear.com. The RazorMax is Outdoor Edge's first fixed-blade knife to also feature the patented RazorSafe replaceable blade system. The RazorMax ascends to a new level by becoming first in the line to accept both 3.5" droppoint replacement blades as well as a new 5" boning/ fillet blade. With two blade sizes available for the RazorMax that interchange quickly, safely, and easily, the perfect blade for the job is just a button push away. The included blades are Japanese 420J2 stainless steel and heat-treated and hand-finished to a surgically sharp edge. Each blade locks securely into the RazorMax's black oxide-coated blade holder. The thermoplastic rubber grip is molded with an alternating pattern of Outdoor Edge's signature mountain range for a very positive nonslip grip, and the ergonomically shaped handle prevents tiring and cramping during extended periods of use. Overall length with skinning blade: 9.5" Knife weight with skinning blade: 2.6 oz. Overall length with boning/fillet blade: 11" Overall weight, including sheath: 6.6 oz. For more information, go to www.outdooredge.com. From the backcountry to the back-forty, trust your hunt to Outfitter™ ammunition. Featuring corrosion resistant nickel-plated cases that are sealed watertight and topped with the accurate and rugged GMX® bullet, Outfitter™ ammunition is designed to perform under the toughest conditions. Monolithic copper alloy GMX® bullets provide uniform, controlled expansion, deep penetration, and +95% weight retention. Sealed primer and case mouth provide watertight protection. Nickel-plated cases are corrosion resistant and waterproofed to ensure protection from moisture. California compatible and appropriate for other areas requiring non-traditional bullets. For more information, go to www.vortexoptics.com. With even less noise and 20% less vibration than the award-winning TRIAX®, a completely redesigned grip interface, and our all-new, patent-pending SwitchWeight™ Technology, the 2019 VERTIX delivers an unmatched shooting experience. The new Engage™ Grip interface was designed to ensure consistent hand placement, reducing torque and increasing accuracy. The VERTIX also features 3D Damping Technology that works to control the three perceived axes of vibration stemming from the grip. The patentpending dovetail mounting system was designed to attach the all-new UltraRest Integrate MX™ by QAD. This compact, micro-adjust rest allows for quick and easy set up while providing precision tuning both horizontally and vertically. Draw Weights: 60, 65, 70, & 75 lbs. For more information, go to http://www.mathewsinc.com. When our hunting boot customers kept asking us to build a wildland firefighting boot with the same lightweight comfort, durability, and support as our mountain boots, we realized the challenge that was involved. All of our boots are proudly designed to not let you down in any conditions, but stepping “into the fire” presented us with a new learning curve, which we dove into headfirst. To pass the Independent Laboratory testing for compliance, we had to build a boot that could pass rigorous heat and flame testing and then selfextinguish. After two years of a meticulous design process encompassing every component, our Wildland Fire Boot passed the test. The K-73 FIRE outsole with its high traction, deep lug outsoles responded incredibly, and the Kevlar Hot Zone stitching and laces stood up to every test we threw their way. Kenetrek's renowned durability and lightweight, allday comfort are ready to jump into the fray and assist our firefighters as they risk it all on a daily basis. For more information, go to www.kenetrek.com. Click here to view a video interview with Kenetrek. The new Carbon Fury features the Fierce C3 carbon fiber barrel. This addition significantly enhances the overall value and performance of the Fury. The main benefits include 25% longer barrel life, reduced overall weight, consistent accuracy in all weather conditions, it's weatherproof, and it simply looks cool. The solid lineup of calibers includes 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 7MM REM, 28 Nosler, .300 Win, and .300 Rum. You will not find a better combination of precision components, long-range accuracy, and affordability in any other rifle on the market. For more information, go to http://www.fiercearms.com. Click here to view a video interview with Fierce Firearms. High-quality optics and extreme long-distance ranging capability come together in Vortex's all-new Fury™ HD 5000 10x42 rangefinding binocular. It is capable of ranging reflective targets to an impressive 5,000 yards with an improved, lightning-fast readout. Illuminated right barrel display can be set to yards or meters. It features angle-compensated as well as lineof- sight modes. Scan mode gives readings as you pan or track a moving animal. The all-new last mode gives the range reading of the object furthest away but still within the targeted area. Dialectic, fully multicoated prisms and XR fully multicoated HD lenses serve up impressive views from dawn to dusk. Rubber armored housing provides a solid grip in all weather conditions and extreme durability. Multi-position twist-up eyecups are comfortable and offer customized eye relief. A smooth center focus wheel and left eye diopter ensure optimal image focus. Click here to view a video interview with Vortex Optics. The Axis Hybrid Jacket and Hybrid Pant are designed for the active late season hunter. They are true hybrids, combining fabrics and technologies to provide a garment that is more versatile and performs better in a wide range of temperature and moisture conditions. The Toray high stretch face fabric is bonded to a midweight fleece backer for added warmth, with strategic waterproof paneling in the hood, shoulders, and tops of arms of the jacket and the knees and seat of the pants. The fabric is soft and quiet, has incredible stretch, and provides protection from the elements while regulating body temperature. For more information, go to http://www.kuiu.com. UGQ Outdoor and Prym1 Camo have teamed up to offer the hunting community a never-before-seen product. The Bandit is a high-performance, ultralight, down-filled sleeping quilt intended to keep you on your feet. Prym1 Camo adds a level of concealment never available in down quilts prior to this partnering of UGQ Outdoor and Prym1 Camo. It uses the colors and textures of nature with the organic patterns of wildlife to create a camouflage with the effectiveness of a predator. For more information, go to www.ugqoutdoor.com. Walker's introduces the new Silencer BT high performance digital ear buds with integrated Bluetooth technology, including smartphone app control. The Silencer BT's Bluetooth allows for the streaming of music as well as phone calls. The free Walker's app pairs with the ear buds to allow for independent volume adjustment of each ear, monitoring battery level, adjusting program modes, and configuring auto shutoff time. The Silencer BT incorporates the next generation of SAC (Sound Activated Compression) by utilizing Variable Dynamic Sound Suppression that automatically adjusts the compression time based on the power level of the potentially damaging noise. This helps to deliver the optimum hearing protection in any situation. For more information, go to http://www.walkersgamegear.com. The Traverse Shelter is a versatile, durable shelter designed for all weather conditions. It has an impressive coverage area of 143" x 110" and weighs 24.2 oz. Six tension lock guylines and 12 tie-off points create a customizable surface area. The large triangulated corner guylines easily accommodate the basket of your trekking poles for unique shelter applications. The strong ripstop polyester, taped seams, and thick, waterproof coating ensure that the Traverse Shelter will keep you dry for the long haul. Four aluminum stakes are included with the shelter. For more information, go to www.klymit.com. Click here to view a video interview with Klymit. Redefining top-tier spotting scopes, the SX-5 Santiam HD delivers the relentless performance that diehard hunters and shooters demand. A generous eyepiece means premium edge-to-edge clarity and unmatched sharpness and definition, while fullymulticoated lens coatings eliminate color aberration and distortion throughout the entirety of the magnification range. A rugged, lightweight armor and Diamond-coat scratch resistant lens coatings ensure the SX-5 Santiam HD spotter can handle anything you can throw at it. An ultra-fine center focus wheel, adjustable eyecup, and indexed rotational tripod ring deliver the features elite hunters demand, and it's all backed by Leupold's legendary full lifetime guarantee. For more information, go to http://www.leupold.com. Adaptable to your hunting style, the modular Sitka Bow Sling features a durable four-way stretch polyester composition, self-tensioning padded cam covers, and sight and fletching protectors that can be deployed, stowed, or removed. It is 30-36" axle-to-axle, and it has a durable water-repellent finish. Keep your rifle secure and at the ready without hindering your hike with the Sitka Gun Sling. It features adjustable tri-glide, which integrates with any Sitka big game pack. This sling prevents wear on your gunstock, and it accommodates most rifles. Hunters, campers, hikers, and all other outdoor enthusiasts want to be at their best, and that means not compromising on the fuel they put in their bodies. Remember, what you eat matters! Peak Refuel premium meals are formulated to deliver the fantastic taste you would expect on any adventure. With at least 20 grams of protein per serving and 100% real meat, Peak Refuel has taken all of the necessary steps to create the highest quality and most convenient freeze-dried meals on the market. Peak Refuel currently has four entrees and two breakfast items with more coming in early 2019. Peak Refuel is confident that once you #tastethedifference, you'll have your new go-to outdoor meal. For more information, go to http://www.peakrefuel.com. When hunters wear the IconX Hunting Base Layer shirt and pant, they experience more performance where effective layering begins – next to skin. Lightweight with heavyweight features, IconX delivers what hunters need when they need it most. The 13 performance zones, 7 in the shirt and 6 in the pant, are uniquely designed to keep you cool and comfortable when it's hot and warm when it's cold. When temperatures and your exertion level are high, IconX hollow, HydroWick™ fibers fill with sweat and move moisture to the outermost layer for evaporation. In cool to cold temperatures, the hollow fibers fill with air heated by your body to keep you warm and comfortable. IconX performance zones also support key muscle groups to keep your arms and legs performing at their peak during long days in the field. For more information, go to www.pnumaoutdoors.com. Our new Ares jacket, Cirius jacket, and Cirius vest all come with our new water-resistant down technology called “Kryptek Defender.” It comes in three cold weather pieces and is an absolutely amazing piece of technology that we are really excited about. The color options are HIGHLANDER and TYPHON. Kryptek Defender is additional protection for your down gear. It offers an extra level of moisture protection for down garments exposed to wet environments. Kryptek Defender helps prevent down from clumping and losing its loft when exposed to rain and snow, thereby maximizing its ability to keep you warm and comfortable. The treatment puts a hydrophobic layer on each individual cluster. This treatment is done during the down cleaning process. The finish is extremely durable, allowing the down to maintain its water repellancy for the life of the garment. The treatment also enhances the down̕s integrity and the durability of the cluster, helping to increase its longevity. For more information, go to http://www.kryptek.com. The all-new Ballistic Data Xchange (BDX) rangefinders and riflescopes are equipped with integrated Applied Ballistics® and wireless Bluetooth® technology. This groundbreaking BDX technology enables interoperability and key ballistic holdover information to be exchanged wirelessly between SIG SAUER BDX Electro- Optics products. The BDX family of rangefinders includes: KILO1400BDX, KILO1800BDX, KILO2200BDX, KILO2400BDX, and KILO3000BDX rangefinder binocular. These rangefinders include many of the legacy features that the KILO name was built on, such as Lightwave DSP™ digital rangefinder engine, Hyperscan™ with four times per second scan rate, RangeLock™, and the Lumatic™ auto-adjusting display. The outer and inner tent can be used separately. As with all Hilleberg all-season tents, the outer tent walls extend to the ground and the mesh areas are backed with adjustable fabric panels. The standard inner tent can be replaced with the optional Allak 3 mesh inner tent, which can also be used on its own. For more information, go to www.sigsauer.com. Stealth Cam® has upped the ante on wireless image transmission and expanded its coverage with the new WX Series cellular cameras with options for AT&T or Verizon networks. Users have complete control of their cameras via the updated Stealth Cam Remote App 3.0. The app's new streamlined interface allows the user to configure all camera settings as well as manage the transmission schedule and remotely erase the memory card. New features for 2018 include Take Test Photo, providing the ability to send a command to the camera to take and transmit a photo on demand. Enhanced location function plots cameras on Google Maps within the app, supplying the user a visual reference as to where their cameras are placed. The WX not only incorporates the latest in high speed modems for fast 4G/LTE wireless image and video transmission, but it is also a full featured 22 Megapixel No Glo camera capable of recording high definition video and features Stealth Cam's new Smart Illumination Technology, where the camera automatically adjusts IR output based on changing lighting conditions. This is essential for clear, detailed images during the critical transition periods of dusk and dawn. For more information, go to http://www.stealthcam.com. Spinning off the very popular two-person Allak tent introduced a decade ago, Hilleberg is proud to introduce the new three-person Allak 3 for Spring 2019. Impressively strong, remarkably light, and fully freestanding, the Allak 3 can be pitched anywhere in almost any conditions. The Allak 3 boasts two entrances and two integrated vestibules. It is ready and able to handle winter conditions, yet light and airy enough for summer scouting trips. The Allak 3 features 40.9 square feet of inner tent area and will easily accommodate three people and their gear. With a minimum weight of 7 lbs. 1 oz., the Allak 3 features Hilleberg's Kerlon 1200 outer tent fabric, which is very lightweight, yet it boasts a minimum tear strength of 26 lbs. Its three high-strength aluminum DAC 9 mm poles cross each other in three places, and the easy-to-use pole system combines short pole sleeves with clips for quick and easy pitching. For more information, go to www.hilleberg.com. You'll rarely find a lightweight hiking sock with the same reinforced heel/toe protection and strength we weave into our heavy-duty boot socks. The fine merino wool fibers in the Yellowstone socks are superior with their insulating moisture management and no-itch properties. By blending the soft wool fibers with longwearing synthetics, like nylon or polypropylene, we have dramatically increased the durability of these socks, especially in high wear areas like the heels and toes. The placement of reinforcement padding under the foot, at the toe, and at the heel provides extra padding that you are sure to appreciate after a long, hard day afield. The sock consists of 36% merino wool, 35% polypropylene, 20% nylon, 6% elastic, and 3% lycra. For more information, go to http://www.kenetrek.com. From the tree stand to the tundra, the Catalyst jacket changes the paradigm of technical hunting softshell jackets. We have created a jacket that is warm and breathable while also being lightweight and completely silent. The interior 37.5 fleece lining works to optimize your body temperature while the durable exterior resists moisture with our advanced DWR. The result is an ultra-versatile jacket ideal for a wide range of environments and hunting applications. The Catalyst pant is both warm and breathable while also being lightweight and completely silent. The interior 37.5 fleece lining works to optimize your body temperature while the durable exterior resists moisture with our advanced DWR. Zippered mesh pockets manage tags, GPS, knives, and other accessories without noise or hassle. Whether you are looking for silent warmth while sitting for whitetails during the rut or hoofing it through knee-deep snow on the trail of late season elk, the Catalyst softshell system will help you get it done. For more information, go to www.firstlite.com. The TS-82™ Xtreme Hi-Def™ 20-70x spotting scope meets, and exceeds, the quality, resolution, brilliance, and fidelity of the most highly respected European spotting scopes, many of which come with much higher price tags. The 82mm objective lens helps with outstanding low-light performance, and the magnesium alloy body saves weight, yet it is extraordinarily strong and resistant to thermal shock. HD fluorite glass provides the truest, most brilliant color and razorsharp resolution, and lenses are fully broadband multicoated. Available with straight or angled eyepieces and with an extensive range of accessories available, the TS-82 provides an eye-opening experience. For more information, go to http://www.nightforceoptics.com. Loaded with specialized features while remaining intuitive to use, the Mountain Hauler 6200 is a technical load-hauling pack built for the backcountry hunter. Designed to efficiently haul everything a hunter will need for extended trips and capable of comfortably carrying it all out with a successful harvest, the Mountain Hauler is built to expand the possibilities of demanding mountain pursuits. Available in GORE™ OPTIFADE™ Concealment Subalpine and Open Country. The Hunter Elite Lite Rifle System is the most complete long-range package in the industry. These turnkey systems are individually proven accurate to 950+ yards. It is available in several calibers to meet all of your hunting and shooting needs. This package is built with a lighter stock than our original Hunter Elite and comes in three exclusive stippling colors – Graystone, Foliage, and Midnight Blue. The Hunter Elite Lite stock is a BOTW proprietary design with hand-laid fiberglass and carbon fiber reinforcement. For more information, go to http://www.thebestofthewest.net. With over 30% more down fill than the closest competitor and weighing in at a mere 25 oz., the Chamberlin Puffy provides the industry's best warmth-to-weight, highly-packable insulation for the coldest conditions. Utilizing a revolutionary blend of premium, 800- fill down and 37.5 fibers, we have created a jacket with greater loft and moisture transfer rates than conventional parkas. Body-mapped to maximize heat retention and minimize weight, the Chamberlin is engineered with non-sewnthrough baffling in the core and a heavily-insulated collar and 3D Turret hood that still preserves field of view. Lightweight and compressible, this jacket is the perfect insulator for late-season backcountry hunts. Tricot-lined hand pockets are oriented to the inside of the down fill to protect hands when temps drop, while interior stash pockets provide transparent storage for gloves, a hat, or a GPS. The exterior of the jacket is treated with a DWR to repel moisture and cut wind, while an articulated fit protects range of motion. All of these features come together to make the Chamberlin jacket the answer for the hunter who demands serious warmth for extended late-season expeditions. The ZULU9 from SIG SAUER Electro-Optics will be expanded to include a new model with increased magnification and a larger objective. The ZULU9 binocular combines the premium Abbe-Koenig prism system with SIG SAUER's industry-leading HDX optical design for up to 95% light transmission, delivering extreme brightness when it counts in low-light and twilight hunting viewing conditions. For enhanced ruggedness and durability, this 56mm binocular incorporates a magnesium housing surrounding the fully multicoated Abbe-Koenig prism system. Multi-position twist-up eyecups create generous eye relief, while the durable rubber armor further protects the ZULU9 with an ergonomic non-slip STEALTH ID™ grip design. The ZULU9 is waterproof (IPX-7 rated for complete water immersion up to one meter) and fog proof. It is tripod-compatible and includes tethered objective lens covers, a deluxe neck/shoulder strap, a lens cloth, and a premium padded ballistic nylon case. For more information, go to http://www.sigoptics.com. Phone Skope's Skoped Vision is an adapter that allows you to record what you're seeing through a riflescope through your phone. Skoped Vision is a two-piece system, consisting of a Phone Skope phone-specific phone case and the universal riflescope adapter. Skoped Vision features a binding mechanism that allows for quick attachment and detachment. It works with most riflescopes. Skoped Vision allows you to look through a riflescope as normal and does not alter nor hinder your field of view. You attach your phone to the bayonet mount on the side of the adapter using a Phone Skope phone-specific phone case. You can then take pictures or record video of everything you are viewing or shooting through the riflescope. For more information, go to www.phoneskope.com. Redesigned for 2018, a newly updated flip-top lid opens and locks into place with greater ease for more efficient onehanded use and faster access to your glass. When carrying a bow or rifle in one hand, the harness can be easily opened and the binoculars removed and replaced with the other hand. We added a hook and loop attachment feature at the bottom of the system that allows for easy, secure attachment of the KUIU Rangefinder Holder HL and KUIU Ammo Holder HL. Increased sizing accommodates a larger range of binoculars, taking into account recent changes to the most popular binoculars on the market. Breathable Spacer Air Mesh with anti-odor treatment on the chest and back panels has increased comfort and performance. There is no elastic in the webbing, which allows the binocular harness to hold close to your chest and prevent sag and bounce when crawling or running. The harness allows for a full range of motion while the binoculars are in use. When worn properly, the pouch will not fall forward and the weight will be distributed evenly around your entire torso, eliminating pressure points and creating a weightless feeling. A high-end spotter without the high-end price tag, the new for 2018 Viper HD spotting scope series stands poised to dominate as a best-in-class optic. The HD optical system coupled with lenses fully multi-coated with XR coatings delivers stunning image quality and low light performance. Exterior lenses are protected by ArmorTek. The ultra smooth, fluid, and sleek helical-style focus dials in your image for ultra sharp viewing as well as keeps the spotter's profile trim for ultimate packability. A utilitarian feature, the large surface area of the helical focus is easy to find and operate. The twist up eyecup on the included eyepiece ensures customized eye-relief for the viewer. Adjustable collar allows the spotter to rotate for comfortable, versatile, multiangle viewing. Rubber armoring protects the spotter from impacts and delivers unfaltering in-the-field durability. The 6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge was designed to achieve the highest levels of accuracy, flat trajectory, and extended range performance in a sensibly designed, compact package. Dubbed the big brother to the 6.5 Creedmoor, the 6.5 PRC fits in short or medium actions with a standard magnum bolt face (.532"). Its efficient case geometry features a long cartridge case neck and 30 degree cartridge case shoulder. Utilizing moderate powder charges that result in repeatable accuracy, low recoil, and reasonable barrel life, the 6.5 PRC produces high velocities with performance well beyond 1,000 yards. It is available in loaded Hornady ammunition, 6.5 PRC 143 grain ELD-X Precision Hunter and 6.5 PRC 147 grain ELD Match. Rifle makers currently chambering the 6.5 PRC include: Christensen Arms, Fierce Firearms, GA Precision, Gunwerks, Hill Country Rifles, Horizon Firearms, McRee Precision, Montana Rifles, PROOF Research, Savage Firearms, Sauer, Stuteville Precision, and Seekins Precision. For more information, go to http://www.hornady.com. Executing technical, long-range shots requires a riflescope with application-specific features and rock-solid build quality to ensure accurate, reliable, and repeatable performance every time you squeeze the trigger. The all-new Strike Eagle riflescopes from Vortex boast those features in a trim, lightweight, durable package. The incredibly versatile 6X zoom range lets shooters engage targets from intermediate to extended ranges. An XD optical system, using lenses fully multicoated with antireflective coatings, delivers crisp, bright images. Glass-etched, second-focal-plane reticles give detailed MOA-based hold points when shooting off the reticle, yet remain visually clean for optimal viewing. The fast-focus eyepiece adjusts easily, guaranteeing the reticle always appears sharp. Built on a 30mm, single-piece, anodized, aircraft-grade aluminum tube, these scopes offer an impressive 120 MOA (3-18x44) and 85 MOA (4-24x50) of elevation travel. Exposed laser-etched turrets are easily accessible, feature a zeroreset, and track true. The illumination dial is integrated into the left side parallax/side focus adjustment knob. O-ring sealed and nitrogen gas purged for waterproof, fogproof performance. Leupold & Stevens, Inc. has introduced the VX-Freedom line, part of a new series of riflescopes that deliver relentless reliability and elite optical performance at a price point that's impossible to disagree with, especially given that the line is designed, machined, and assembled in the United States. The VX-Freedom series delivers excellent performance in low-light situations and is exceptional at glare management, thanks to the proprietary Leupold Twilight Light Management System. A combination of lens coatings and physical design elements in the riflescope itself, the Twilight Light Management System helps hunters make the most of low-light conditions found at dawn and dusk. Military spec lens coatings provide abrasion resistance, protecting the riflescope in the most challenging terrain. An ergonomically advanced power selector ring is low-profile, but it provides exceptional grip and ease of use, even in the cold, wet, or when wearing gloves. The VX-Freedom will initially be available in some of the industry's most popular magnification ranges, such as 1.5-4x20, 2-7x33, 3-9x40, 3-9x50, and 4-12x40. All VX-Freedom models offer second focal plane reticles and one-inch maintubes. The series will support muzzleloader, rimfire, and centerfire options for consumers. Duplex, Pig-Plex, and the new Rimfire MOA, Tri-MOA, and UltimateSlam reticles will be available. The Vapor SD is a featherweight, ultra-packable, waterproof jacket for training in unpredictable conditions. The cutting-edge GORE-TEX® SHAKEDRY™ technology creates a permanent beading surface and removes the face fabric of the garment, resulting in an incredibly lightweight and 100% waterproof jacket. The Vapor easily fits in a pocket to provide peace of mind on long runs and exposed ridge traverses. Developed with a 100% proprietary chassis system and weighing less than 7 lbs., the Modern Precision Rifle is built to tackle your next big adventure. The chassis is machined from 7075 billet aluminum and features V-block bedding to promote superior accuracy. Other features include an adjustable folding stock with a locking hinge mechanism, an oversized fluted bolt knob, and black nitride-coated bolt, receiver, and muzzle brake. The Modern Precision Rifle is built with an aerograde carbon fiber barrel, free-floating handguard, and adjustable comb and is guaranteed to shoot sub MOA. Initial caliber offerings include 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. in a variety of barrel lengths. For more information, go to http://www.christensenarms.com. The New Flatline Stabilizer features Mathews' exclusive dampening technology in a new EHS Nano configuration for added vibration dampening and enhanced stabilization. The EHS Nano is paired with a high modulus carbon fiber rod and precision-machined end cap weights to ensure ultimate rigidity, while allowing you to control the amount of added weight. The Flatline Stabilizer comes in six different finishes and in 6" and 8" versions. The 2018 TRIAX is highly maneuverable, deadly accurate, and the quietest, most vibration-free bow Mathews has ever built. It operates off of a 28" ATA platform with a 6" brace height and is powered by the award-winning, highly efficient, and extremely accurate Crosscentric™ Cam system, producing speeds up to 343 fps. The TRIAX features new 3D Damping Technology that works to control the three perceived axes of vibration stemming from the point of contact. The design and location of the new Enhanced Harmonic Stabilizer (EHS) diminishes all three paths of that residual vibration, drastically reducing post-shot noise and virtually eliminating felt recoil. This new location also transfers weight in front of and below the grip for a lower center of gravity, resulting in increased stability and easier aiming. For more information, go to www.mathewsinc.com.

2019-04-23T13:51:02Z

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Toenail fungus is uncommon in kids, even so, the probabilities becomes extra as one’s age increases. Approximately 48% of people today in the United States have at least a single toe affected by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting footwear and layers of nail polish enhances the danger of growing toenail fungus. It can also spread particular person-to-individual in public areas, such as locker rooms and showers. Getting a chronic condition that have an impact on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your risk. The impacted nail will develop into stained and will turn extremely thick and overgrown. 1 may well notice stinking debris below the nail. The nail may disintegrate and in the end fall off completely, or it may develop into so thick that it is quite painful to put on shoes. Toenail fungus, also recognized by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary situation that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The massive toe and the tiny toe are the nails that are most likely to be affected by toenail fungus. This situation is brought on by any one particular of the quite a few varieties of fungi that create in moist and warm surroundings, specifically in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates hard surface of the toenail. Hay fever allergies, also recognized as respiratory allergies surprising affects of the young children in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom associated to hay or trigger a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of kids being impacted by allergies, healthcare understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains restricted. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic condition, and if it is not aching, quite a few people do not get therapy. Even so, to treat toenail fungus, persons with unrelieved illness like diabetes should see a medical doctor if they develop into aware of modifications in their nails as it might be an indication of additional really serious problems. If the nail turn out to be really thick and it is challenging to wear shoes and one feel pain whilst walking then one particular really should go to a doctor. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at residence or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and a lot localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical doctor may advocate a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a medical professional might prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The therapy may well requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some extremely damaging effects that may perhaps not be suitable for some folks. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are pretty a couple of issues you can do in your property to help reduce the symptoms. Eliminating as a great deal dust and pollen from inside the home can make a massive difference in the severity of allergy attacks. It is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes problems. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. Every time these antibodies recognize the identical invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two major varieties of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring via fall) and perennial allergies (all-year long). If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is adequate to look for medical remedy so that a physician will examine the toenail and may perhaps take smaller samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection below a microscope in the lab. Mit Medical School – With the staggering percentage of children becoming affected by allergies, medical understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains restricted. Toenail fungus, also known by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary condition that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The huge toe and the small toe are the nails that are most probably to be affected by toenail fungus. This condition is caused by any 1 of the various varieties of fungi that develop in moist and warm surroundings, specially in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates tough surface of the toenail. Toenail fungus is unusual in children, nevertheless, the probabilities becomes far more as one’s age increases. About 48% of men and women in the United States have at least 1 toe impacted by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting footwear and layers of nail polish enhances the danger of growing toenail fungus. It can also spread individual-to-particular person in public regions, such as locker rooms and showers. Having a chronic situation that have an impact on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your risk. The impacted nail will turn into stained and will turn very thick and overgrown. One may notice stinking debris under the nail. The nail may perhaps disintegrate and eventually fall off completely, or it may grow to be so thick that it is quite painful to wear shoes. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are very a few issues you can do in your home to assist lower the symptoms. Eliminating as much dust and pollen from inside the residence can make a significant distinction in the severity of allergy attacks. It really is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes difficulty. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furniture and bedding. Hay fever allergies, also recognized as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the youngsters in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom related to hay or bring about a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of kids getting affected by allergies, health-related understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains limited. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at household or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and much localized then to treat toenail fungus a physician may possibly suggest a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a physician could prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The therapy could takes about 12 weeks. Both of these drugs have some quite harmful effects that may possibly not be suitable for some individuals. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic situation, and if it is not aching, several persons do not get treatment. Nonetheless, to treat toenail fungus, individuals with unrelieved illness like diabetes really should see a medical professional if they become aware of changes in their nails as it might be an indication of extra severe issues. If the nail turn out to be really thick and it is challenging to put on footwear and one particular really feel discomfort while walking then a single need to go to a medical professional. Each and every time these antibodies recognize the same invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two most important sorts of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring through fall) and perennial allergies (all-year long). If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is adequate to appear for medical therapy so that a medical doctor will examine the toenail and could take tiny samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection beneath a microscope in the lab. Jefferson Medical College Ranking – If the infection is gentle and much localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical professional may possibly advise a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If you’ve watched The Starz Original Series, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the ripped physiques the actors have attained to portray authentic Roman gladiators who fight in the arena as a living. If you have a critical health problem, like a knee replacement, you should seek the advice of your physician just before you start any fitness program. The point is you can full this plan at your personal pace, based on your existing fitness levels. The best element for most girls is the reality that the moves can be customized according to each and every individual’s fitness level. The menopausal period in females can be connected with symptoms such as vasomotor symptoms, sleep disturbance, alteration in mood, lowered libido, and musculoskeletal discomfort. The Hundred Pushups Instruction Plan is a six week coaching system made to enhance strength and physical fitness. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are rather a couple of things you can do in your dwelling to aid lessen the symptoms. Eliminating as significantly dust and pollen from inside the residence can make a huge difference in the severity of allergy attacks. It really is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes problems. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. Toenail fungus, also identified by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary situation that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The major toe and the tiny toe are the nails that are most most likely to be affected by toenail fungus. This situation is triggered by any a single of the several varieties of fungi that create in moist and warm surroundings, particularly in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates hard surface of the toenail. Toenail fungus is uncommon in kids, nonetheless, the probabilities becomes additional as one’s age increases. Around 48% of persons in the United States have at least 1 toe affected by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting shoes and layers of nail polish enhances the threat of rising toenail fungus. It can also spread person-to-particular person in public areas, such as locker rooms and showers. Possessing a chronic situation that have an effect on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your danger. The impacted nail will come to be stained and will turn extremely thick and overgrown. A single may notice stinking debris below the nail. The nail may possibly disintegrate and eventually fall off entirely, or it may grow to be so thick that it is extremely painful to wear footwear. 1 may well notice stinking debris beneath the nail. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic situation, and if it is not aching, several folks do not get treatment. Nonetheless, to treat toenail fungus, people today with unrelieved illness like diabetes need to see a physician if they come to be conscious of changes in their nails as it may possibly be an indication of more severe issues. If the nail turn out to be extremely thick and it is hard to put on shoes and one particular really feel pain while walking then 1 should really visit a physician. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at property or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and a great deal localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical doctor might recommend a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a medical doctor may perhaps prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The treatment might requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some really dangerous effects that may well not be suitable for some people today. Hay fever allergies, also identified as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the youngsters in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom related to hay or lead to a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of kids becoming impacted by allergies, health-related understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains limited. Each and every time these antibodies recognize the same invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two major types of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring through fall) and perennial allergies (all-year lengthy). If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is sufficient to look for health-related remedy so that a medical doctor will examine the toenail and might take compact samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection below a microscope in the lab. Health And Wellness Certification – Every time these antibodies recognize the identical invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at dwelling or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and considerably localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical professional may well advocate a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a physician may possibly prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The remedy may requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some incredibly harmful effects that could not be suitable for some men and women. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic situation, and if it is not aching, quite a few folks do not get therapy. Nevertheless, to treat toenail fungus, individuals with unrelieved illness like diabetes need to see a doctor if they turn out to be conscious of adjustments in their nails as it might be an indication of a lot more severe issues. If the nail turn out to be very thick and it is hard to put on footwear and a single feel pain while walking then one really should stop by a physician. Toenail fungus, also recognized by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary condition that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The big toe and the little toe are the nails that are most likely to be impacted by toenail fungus. This condition is triggered by any 1 of the several sorts of fungi that develop in moist and warm surroundings, specially in the footwear. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates hard surface of the toenail. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are rather a few points you can do in your home to support minimize the symptoms. Eliminating as much dust and pollen from inside the house can make a huge distinction in the severity of allergy attacks. It is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes trouble. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. Hay fever allergies, also known as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the children in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom associated to hay or bring about a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of young children getting affected by allergies, health-related understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains limited. Toenail fungus is unusual in kids, on the other hand, the chances becomes more as one’s age increases. Around 48% of people today in the United States have at least one particular toe affected by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting shoes and layers of nail polish enhances the risk of growing toenail fungus. It can also spread person-to-individual in public areas, such as locker rooms and showers. Having a chronic condition that have an effect on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your risk. The affected nail will become stained and will turn really thick and overgrown. One may possibly notice stinking debris beneath the nail. The nail might disintegrate and ultimately fall off fully, or it could turn into so thick that it is pretty painful to put on footwear. Every single time these antibodies recognize the same invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two key kinds of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring via fall) and perennial allergies (all-year lengthy). If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is sufficient to appear for medical remedy so that a physician will examine the toenail and may perhaps take tiny samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection beneath a microscope in the lab. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at house or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and substantially localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical doctor may well recommend a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a medical doctor might prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The treatment may requires about 12 weeks. Both of these drugs have some quite damaging effects that may well not be suitable for some men and women. Riverpoint Sports And Wellness – The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection below a microscope in the lab. Each of these drugs have some extremely dangerous effects that may not be appropriate for some individuals. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic situation, and if it is not aching, a number of men and women do not get remedy. However, to treat toenail fungus, people with unrelieved illness like diabetes really should see a doctor if they grow to be aware of adjustments in their nails as it may possibly be an indication of more really serious issues. If the nail turn out to be extremely thick and it is complicated to wear footwear and 1 feel discomfort though walking then one particular must go to a doctor. Hay fever allergies, also identified as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the youngsters in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom associated to hay or bring about a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of youngsters being impacted by allergies, medical understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains limited. Toenail fungus is uncommon in kids, having said that, the possibilities becomes additional as one’s age increases. About 48% of individuals in the United States have at least one toe impacted by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting footwear and layers of nail polish enhances the risk of rising toenail fungus. It can also spread person-to-individual in public locations, such as locker rooms and showers. Possessing a chronic situation that have an effect on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your danger. The impacted nail will come to be stained and will turn very thick and overgrown. One may well notice stinking debris below the nail. The nail might disintegrate and ultimately fall off fully, or it might come to be so thick that it is quite painful to wear footwear. Toenail fungus, also identified by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary condition that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The big toe and the tiny toe are the nails that are most likely to be impacted by toenail fungus. This condition is caused by any one of the quite a few forms of fungi that develop in moist and warm surroundings, in particular in the footwear. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates really hard surface of the toenail. One particular may perhaps notice stinking debris beneath the nail. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at dwelling or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and a great deal localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical doctor might advocate a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a medical professional might prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The remedy may perhaps requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some extremely harmful effects that could not be suitable for some persons. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are really a few things you can do in your home to enable decrease the symptoms. Eliminating as substantially dust and pollen from inside the property can make a big distinction in the severity of allergy attacks. It really is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes trouble. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is adequate to look for medical remedy so that a medical professional will examine the toenail and might take small samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection beneath a microscope in the lab. Each and every time these antibodies recognize the similar invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two principal kinds of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring by way of fall) and perennial allergies (all-year lengthy). Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic condition, and if it is not aching, numerous individuals do not get treatment. Nonetheless, to treat toenail fungus, men and women with unrelieved illness like diabetes should really see a doctor if they grow to be conscious of alterations in their nails as it may be an indication of a lot more significant complications. If the nail turn out to be very thick and it is challenging to wear footwear and one really feel pain while walking then a single need to take a look at a medical professional. Wells Fargo Personal & Business Banking – If your youngster has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are quite a few points you can do in your residence to enable decrease the symptoms. Hay fever allergies, also identified as respiratory allergies surprising affects of the kids in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom connected to hay or bring about a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of young children getting impacted by allergies, medical understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains restricted. Toenail fungus is uncommon in youngsters, nonetheless, the chances becomes much more as one’s age increases. Roughly 48% of people today in the United States have at least 1 toe impacted by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting shoes and layers of nail polish enhances the danger of rising toenail fungus. It can also spread person-to-person in public places, such as locker rooms and showers. Getting a chronic situation that have an impact on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your threat. The impacted nail will become stained and will turn pretty thick and overgrown. One may possibly notice stinking debris below the nail. The nail may possibly disintegrate and eventually fall off totally, or it may come to be so thick that it is really painful to wear shoes. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are fairly a handful of points you can do in your residence to support lessen the symptoms. Eliminating as much dust and pollen from inside the home can make a big difference in the severity of allergy attacks. It’s not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes trouble. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. Toenail fungus, also known by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary situation that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The significant toe and the small toe are the nails that are most likely to be impacted by toenail fungus. This condition is brought on by any a single of the many varieties of fungi that develop in moist and warm surroundings, particularly in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates really hard surface of the toenail. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at dwelling or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and significantly localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical doctor may advocate a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a medical professional could prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The therapy may perhaps requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some incredibly dangerous effects that may possibly not be suitable for some individuals. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic condition, and if it is not aching, quite a few individuals do not get remedy. Nonetheless, to treat toenail fungus, people with unrelieved illness like diabetes ought to see a physician if they turn into conscious of changes in their nails as it may well be an indication of additional severe problems. If the nail turn out to be quite thick and it is complicated to put on footwear and a single feel discomfort although walking then 1 must visit a medical doctor. Each and every time these antibodies recognize the similar invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two main sorts of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring through fall) and perennial allergies (all-year extended). If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is adequate to appear for health-related treatment so that a physician will examine the toenail and may possibly take modest samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection under a microscope in the lab. University Of Central Florida Medical School – Each and every time these antibodies recognize the same invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. Hay fever allergies, also identified as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the children in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom associated to hay or result in a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of children becoming impacted by allergies, medical understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains restricted. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic situation, and if it is not aching, quite a few people do not get therapy. Having said that, to treat toenail fungus, folks with unrelieved illness like diabetes need to see a medical professional if they turn into aware of changes in their nails as it could be an indication of much more really serious difficulties. If the nail turn out to be extremely thick and it is complicated to wear footwear and one feel discomfort when walking then one particular must take a look at a doctor. Toenail fungus is uncommon in young children, having said that, the chances becomes far more as one’s age increases. Approximately 48% of folks in the United States have at least one particular toe impacted by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting footwear and layers of nail polish enhances the danger of rising toenail fungus. It can also spread individual-to-individual in public areas, such as locker rooms and showers. Obtaining a chronic situation that have an impact on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your danger. The affected nail will turn into stained and will turn quite thick and overgrown. One particular may perhaps notice stinking debris beneath the nail. The nail may possibly disintegrate and ultimately fall off absolutely, or it could grow to be so thick that it is really painful to wear shoes. If your child has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are rather a few items you can do in your property to enable lower the symptoms. Eliminating as much dust and pollen from inside the residence can make a significant distinction in the severity of allergy attacks. It’s not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes problems. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at property or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and a lot localized then to treat toenail fungus a physician may perhaps suggest a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a doctor might prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The remedy may takes about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some very harmful effects that might not be appropriate for some persons. Toenail fungus, also known by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary condition that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The huge toe and the little toe are the nails that are most likely to be affected by toenail fungus. This situation is caused by any a single of the many types of fungi that create in moist and warm surroundings, particularly in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates challenging surface of the toenail. If a fungal infection turns into scratchy, it is adequate to look for healthcare remedy so that a physician will examine the toenail and may perhaps take small samples. The nail can be scrutinized for fungi or some other infection under a microscope in the lab. Each and every time these antibodies recognize the same invading allergens histamine is released into the bloodstream causing irritating hay fever, respiratory allergies symptoms. There are two most important forms of allergies: seasonal allergies (spring through fall) and perennial allergies (all-year lengthy). Ihaveinsurance Wells Fargo – With the staggering percentage of youngsters being affected by allergies, healthcare understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains limited. You will discover an in depth range of herb plants to delight the chef, intrigue the gardener and fascinate any individual with an interest in herbal remedies or option medicine. Due to the fact anxiety is such a prevalent element in our overall well-becoming, we’ll talk a bit about the nervous system why a calm, sturdy nervous method can lay the foundation for better health and provide recommendations for headache relief and herbs and way of life habits to assistance very good sleep. Explore the many advantages of medicinal herbs with our substantial choice – including more than 400 wildcrafted herbs, gathered from the United States and worldwide. Tender herbs – such as basil, chervil, chives, coriander, dill, mint, parsley, tarragon – can also be utilized raw and make scrumptious salad ingredients. Wonderful and I see that such writing needs making a list of the descriptive words 1st in order to operate on them correctly. Bush basil, sage, winter savory, parsley, chives and varieties of oregano and thyme are some of the best herbs for growing in containers. For details on drying herbs, seek advice from the truth sheet HGIC 3086, Drying Herbs, Seeds & Nuts Freezing is an exceptional approach to preserve the flavor of certain herbs such as basil that shed flavor when dried. Apart from herbs such as bay that are utilised whole, herbs are usually very best ready by selecting the leaves from the stalks (though this is not often essential), then chopping them as finely as preferred with a chefs’ knife or two-handled rocking knife (mezzaluna) alternatively, cut bunches of tender herbs such as chives into modest pieces using kitchen scissors. I have a number of of these herbs outdoors and even though I live in Hawaii and in no way close our windows, I will bring some inside! Herbs can be classified into innumerable categories depending on their scientific household and genus, but in this report, we will talk about two common categories, namely Chinese herbs and medicinal herbs. Get ready to mix up new recipes in the kitchen, use spices and herbs you in no way knew had medicinal properties, and walk away inspired to pursue your herbal research at the intermediate level and beyond! The word herb has numerous definitions, but practically speaking, herbs are plants that are grown for their medicinal, aromatic and/or seasoning uses. If your youngster has been diagnosed with respiratory allergies, there are fairly a couple of points you can do in your house to aid minimize the symptoms. Eliminating as significantly dust and pollen from inside the residence can make a major difference in the severity of allergy attacks. It really is not just the dust you see in the air or on desktops that causes problems. There is also dust hiding in carpets, furnishings and bedding. Hay fever allergies, also identified as respiratory allergies surprising impacts of the young children in America. To ones surprise, hay fever allergies are seldom connected to hay or lead to a fever, nor does a virus induce hay fever allergies. With the staggering percentage of kids getting affected by allergies, healthcare understanding of how to treat hay fever and respiratory allergies remains restricted. The nail can be filed down and trimmed cautiously, either at property or by a podiatrist. If the infection is gentle and a great deal localized then to treat toenail fungus a medical professional might propose a medicated nail polish containing either Loceryl or Loprox. If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a physician might prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil. The remedy may well requires about 12 weeks. Each of these drugs have some extremely dangerous effects that could not be appropriate for some persons. Toenail fungus turns to be a chronic condition, and if it is not aching, quite a few people do not get treatment. Nonetheless, to treat toenail fungus, persons with unrelieved illness like diabetes really should see a doctor if they come to be aware of alterations in their nails as it may possibly be an indication of much more critical troubles. If the nail turn out to be extremely thick and it is difficult to wear footwear and 1 feel discomfort when walking then a single should really go to a medical professional. Toenail fungus is uncommon in youngsters, nevertheless, the chances becomes extra as one’s age increases. Roughly 48% of men and women in the United States have at least one particular toe affected by the time they are 70 years of age The uncomfortable tight fitting footwear and layers of nail polish enhances the risk of increasing toenail fungus. It can also spread person-to-individual in public regions, such as locker rooms and showers. Possessing a chronic condition that have an effect on a circulation, such as diabetes or HIV also enhances your danger. The impacted nail will turn out to be stained and will turn very thick and overgrown. One particular may notice stinking debris beneath the nail. The nail might disintegrate and in the end fall off totally, or it may possibly come to be so thick that it is really painful to put on shoes. Toenail fungus, also known by the term onychomycosis, is an ordinary condition that disfigures and even demolishes the toenail. The significant toe and the small toe are the nails that are most most likely to be impacted by toenail fungus. This situation is brought on by any 1 of the many kinds of fungi that develop in moist and warm surroundings, particularly in the shoes. As they rise, they invade and feed on the protein that creates tough surface of the toenail. Wells Fargo Maximum Atm Withdrawal – If the infection persists or carry on spreading then a doctor may prescribe an oral, systemic anti-fungal medication such as Sporanox or Lamisil.

2019-04-19T16:44:50Z

https://www.psyhut.com/2018/06

Why focus on childhood obesity prevention through integrated public health policies? Which theories can explain integrated policy development, and what are their limitations? Which theories provided the basis of our current framework? Who are the target group of the framework? Which organizational behaviors encourage integrated health policies to be developed? What determinants need to be present to achieve a particular organizational behavior? How are the determinants conceptualized? Which interventions can influence the COM-B? Which policies can enable the interventions? How can the behavior change ball be applied? Childhood obesity is a ‘wicked’ public health problem that is best tackled by an integrated approach, which is enabled by integrated public health policies. The development and implementation of such policies have in practice proven to be difficult, however, and studying why this is the case requires a tool that may assist local policy-makers and those assisting them. A comprehensive framework that can help to identify options for improvement and to systematically develop solutions may be used to support local policy-makers. We propose the ‘Behavior Change Ball’ as a tool to study the development and implementation of integrated public health policies within local government. Based on the tenets of the ‘Behavior Change Wheel’ by Michie and colleagues (2011), the proposed conceptual framework distinguishes organizational behaviors of local policy-makers at the strategic, tactical and operational levels, as well as the determinants (motivation, capability, opportunity) required for these behaviors, and interventions and policy categories that can influence them. To illustrate the difficulty of achieving sustained integrated approaches, we use the metaphor of a ball in our framework: the mountainous landscapes surrounding the ball reflect the system’s resistance to change (by making it difficult for the ball to roll). We apply this framework to the problem of childhood obesity prevention. The added value provided by the framework lies in its comprehensiveness, theoretical basis, diagnostic and heuristic nature and face validity. Since integrated public health policies have not been widely developed and implemented in practice, organizational behaviors relevant to the development of these policies remain to be investigated. A conceptual framework that can assist in systematically studying the policy process may facilitate this. Our Behavior Change Ball adds significant value to existing public health policy frameworks by incorporating multiple theoretical perspectives, specifying a set of organizational behaviors and linking the analysis of these behaviors to interventions and policies. We would encourage examination by others of our framework as a tool to explain and guide the development of integrated policies for the prevention of wicked public health problems. This article addresses key questions that arise within the context of integrated public health policies (e.g., ‘Healthy Public Policy’ or ‘Health in All Policies’ [2–4]) and introduces a conceptual framework to study and guide their development. In most countries, such policies are developed by local policy-makers who work within local governments (i.e., municipal authorities) [3–12], so we focus on policy development at local government level. We focus on policies that aim to prevent ‘wicked’ public health problems [13, 14] (e.g., childhood obesity ), since such problems defy traditional intra-sectoral problem-solving approaches and therefore require innovative integrated approaches in which health and non-health sectors collaborate (i.e., intersectoral collaboration) [16–19]. Despite differences between countries or between the states of federal countries in the involvement of national or provincial governments, the roles, functions, and types of governance structures , and in policy approaches to public health problems (e.g., smoking or gun control), the core of policy development for wicked public health issues remains similar in most countries [21–26]. In the Netherlands, for example, the national government sets priorities every four years that are then operationalized (i.e., developed into a health policy document) by local policy-makers [9–12], while in the United States, most policy priorities are set by state (rather than national) government and then operationalized by local policy-makers [25, 26]. The core of public health policy-making with respect to wicked problems remains the need to implement an integrated approach aimed at collaboration between different (health and non-health) sectors. Assisting local policy-makers, public health professionals and researchers in developing and implementing integrated public health policies requires a conceptual framework to study and guide this development and implementation effort [17, 18], so our goal was to develop such a framework. Our framework was mainly inspired by the ‘Behavior Change Wheel’ (BCW) (Figure 1) that was recently presented by Michie and colleagues . Since the BCW was developed from an extensive review of existing frameworks and has been tested in other theoretical domains (primary implementation) [27, 28], it provided a sound basis for the development of our own framework. We extended the BCW so it could be used as: a practical tool to assist local policy-makers and those who support them in overcoming barriers to developing and implementing integrated public health policies to prevent wicked public health problems; and as a theoretical tool to drive empirical research and stimulate theory development in the field of local integrated public health policies to prevent wicked public health problems. The development of our framework was guided by the research question: ‘How are integrated public health policies for the prevention of wicked public health problems developed?’ Data were collected among policy actors and categorized into ten organizational behaviors expected to be at the core of policy development. The aims of this paper are: to reflect on the complexity of making integrated public health policy for wicked public health problems; to reflect on the context in which integrated public health policies for wicked public health problems are developed; and to introduce a framework for the development and implementation of integrated public health policies. To illustrate the Behavior Change Ball (BCB), we use the development of public health policies for childhood obesity prevention at the local government level as an example throughout this article. Prevalence rates of childhood obesity have doubled over the last three decades, and approximately 170 million children (< 18 years) worldwide are now estimated to be overweight or obese [29–32]. Childhood and adolescent obesity is associated with poorer subjective as well as objective health [33–40] and often tracks into adulthood . Consequently, it causes huge rises in healthcare costs, affecting economic growth [42, 43]. In view of these consequences, governments are increasingly focusing their attention on preventing childhood obesity e.g., [44, 45]. However, though much research is available on the determinants of childhood obesity, it has not yet been clearly established how this information can be used to develop effective prevention approaches . The complex interactions between so-called ‘thrifty genes’ , consumerist life-styles and ‘obesogenic’ urban environments , make it difficult to decide on the right avenue for prevention . Experts argue that significant health improvements can be achieved by focusing on factors at all levels of society within and outside the health sector [1–4, 49–57]; they therefore recommend that governments implement so-called ‘integrated approaches’ (including integrated policies) that are characterized by a combination of coordinated interventions by multiple organizations and sectors, and are developed through intersectoral collaboration, (i.e., ‘collaboration between the most relevant sectors within and outside the health domain to improve public health’ ). Examples of policies developed through intersectoral collaboration are preventing the establishment of fast food restaurants near schools and increasing the safety of playgrounds in deprived neighborhoods. Such policies can only be implemented if zoning policies (policies that regulate the size, type, structure and use of land or buildings in designated areas) developed by the department of spatial planning are aligned with the goals of the public health department (see for 93 examples of such policies). Since such integrated policies have the potential to decrease the availability of energy-dense cheap foods and increase children’s physical activity levels , their development is of great interest to those who seek to prevent wicked public health problems such as childhood obesity [32, 60, 61]. In practice, however, a wide range of content- and process-related factors (Table 1) [62–90] appear to hamper the development and implementation of integrated public health policies for such wicked public health problems [91–94]. Lack of awareness of the childhood obesity problem in non-health sectors. The Dutch Law on Public Health has decentralized the public health tasks to local governments. With regard to jurisdiction, the public health policy domain has a position similar to other jurisdictions such as public safety. In practice, however, public health is not a dominant policy domain: resources for public health are limited, and other jurisdictions (e.g., public safety) are considered important issues, while health promotion is considered less interesting, depending on the political priority given to certain policy domains. ‘Wicked’ nature of obesity makes it very unattractive to invest in its prevention. Decreasing the incidence of childhood obesity is very unlikely within the short timeframe in which most politicians work (determined by election frequencies). Difficulty of developing consensus about ways to tackle the problem due to the lack of hard scientific evidence about effective solutions. Framing of childhood obesity (especially by neo-liberal governments) as an individual health problem instead of a societal problem. Responsibility for achieving healthy-weight promoting lifestyles is thus shifted completely away from governments to individual children and their parents. Ambiguous political climate: governments do not seem eager to implement restrictive or legislative policy measures since this would mean they have to confront powerful lobbies by private companies. Local government officials lacking the knowledge and skills to collaborate with actors outside their own department. Lack of clarity about the notion of intersectoral collaboration. Not being clear about the aims and added value of the intersectoral approach. Top-down bureaucracy and hierarchy, disciplinarity and territoriality, sectoral budgets, and different priorities and procedures in each sector. Poor quality of interpersonal or interorganizational relationships. Top management not supporting intersectoral collaboration. Lack of involvement by managers in collaborative efforts. Lack of common vision and leadership. - disincentives lead to adverse selection: innovative people choose careers outside the public sector. Adaptive management – flexibility of management required, focusing on learning by doing. Lack of communication and insufficient joint planning. Achieving the unique advantage of collaboration, which is referred to as ‘synergy,’ is harder in diverse groups, but at the same time such diverse groups have the potential to lead to greater synergy compared to collaboration within homogeneous groups. A wide range of theories can be used to explain the development of integrated public health policies [17, 18]. Some theories describe a continuum of integration e.g., [95–98], while others focus on intersectoral, cross-sectoral or multisectoral collaborations, coalitions and partnerships e.g., [99–103]. In addition, there are theories with a broader focus, which can also be applied to understanding intersectoral collaboration, such as individual behavior change theories e.g., , diffusion and implementation theories [105, 106], and organizational change theories e.g., . Other theories describe processes of policy-making: coalition theories [108, 109] focus on the role of policy subsystems, while technocratic [110, 111], garbage-can [112, 113], and incremental models describe how policies are developed. Each of the above theories offers unique and useful insights, but they have three important limitations, making it difficult to apply them satisfactorily to the local government setting. First of all, most of these theories apply only to specific aspects of collaboration, and together do not provide a comprehensive approach. Kingdon’s stream theory , for example, is very useful for the conceptualization of agenda setting, which is an important part of the policy-making process, but it is not able to account for other parts of the policy process (e.g., implementing policy solutions). Although such theories are very useful for fundamental research (in which the creation of immediately useful knowledge is not the primary purpose) [115–117], action-oriented researchers and especially the policy-makers themselves need ‘actionable knowledge’ , i.e., knowledge that can guide the way to solutions after barriers or facilitators within the process have been identified. A second limitation is that most of the theories are based on research within organizational settings rather than within governmental settings. Although we recognize that local governments are also organizations, the conditions in non-governmental organizations are very different from those in local governments, so research results derived from non-governmental settings cannot be directly transferred to that of local government [119, 120]. For example, local policy-makers have to work within a context: of policies that are delegated to them by national governments; of a democratic political system leading to changes in government policies after every new parliamentary election, making it difficult to work towards long-term goals; in which mistakes made by the authorities are highlighted in the media since citizens are critical about the way governments spend their tax money, so tolerance of errors is low; with a far more hierarchical organizational structure than that of a typical non-governmental organization; and in which policy implementation is often not under their own control or in their own interest, while in non-governmental organizations, policies are usually implemented by the same organization that has developed them [76, 119]. A third limitation of theories to explain the development of integrated public health policies is that most policy-making models are developed for simple or fairly uncomplicated public health problems (i.e., tame problems) [19, 110, 121]; such policy models fail to take into account the factors that make policy development for complex public health problems (i.e., wicked problems) difficult (Table 1) [19, 110]. Current policy models usually distinguish among several policy-making stages, such as problem definition, selecting policy solutions, gaining political and public support for the policy solution, policy implementation, evaluation of the policy, and dissemination of effective policies [12, 110]. These stages represent the practice of policy formulation when clear policy goals can be established, adequate information is available, and appropriate methods can be chosen that can lead to activities that efficiently and effectively achieve these goals. However, these preconditions are violated when policies for the prevention of wicked public health problems are developed. Since neither the problem nor the solution is perceived in the same way by the many different parties involved , current policy-making models cannot be satisfactorily used to explain the development of policies for such problems within local governments. To overcome these limitations, we developed a more comprehensive conceptual framework. Although some researchers have argued that it is unlikely that a single comprehensive framework can be developed , progress in this field can only be made if researchers are willing to invest effort in developing such a framework. We used two conceptual models as the basis of our framework. Following Jansen , we distinguished categories of local policy-makers (e.g., strategic, tactical and operational levels), and we also adopted the core concepts of the BCW (capability, opportunity, motivation, and behavior, or ‘COM-B’; intervention functions, policy categories, and the relationships between them). In addition, we integrated theories from political and policy science, organizational science, marketing, psychology, and health science [95–114] to achieve a cross-fertilization that might lead to new insights. Our main inspiration was the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) by Michie et al. (Figure 1). This framework was developed from an extensive review of existing frameworks, and has been tested in other theoretical domains (primary implementation) . The function of the BCW is to link an analysis of target behavior (the ‘B’ from the COM-B model of behavior) to intervention functions and policies. When we tried to apply it to our target population, i.e., local policy-makers, however, we encountered a limitation of the BCW with regard to our context. In our context, local policy-makers, public health professionals and researchers would first need to define which organizational behaviors need to be introduced, reinforced or replaced for the development and implementation of integrated public health policies. We considered that pre-defining a set of organizational behaviors based on theories might support the users of the framework. The current framework thus builds on the principles of the BCW, but modifies the ‘behavioral goals’ by specifying relevant organizational behaviors and linking them to policy-makers at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. We wanted to provide a theoretical framework that could function: as a practical tool to assist local policy-makers and those supporting them in overcoming barriers to developing and implementing integrated public health policies to prevent wicked public health problems; and as a theoretical tool to drive empirical research and stimulate theory development in the field of local integrated public health policies to prevent wicked public health problems. We therefore decided to extend the BCW in three ways, which are outlined below. In contrast to Michie et al., who applied the BCW to the behaviors of the traditional target population of health-promoting interventions (i.e., intermediaries and the ultimate target group of people who are assisted in a health behavior change process), we had a target population consisting of the ‘enablers’ of health promotion interventions, namely local policy-makers. Furthermore, since our target population is tied to the organization in which they work (the local government) we decided to refer to their behavior as ‘organizational behavior’ rather than just ‘behavior’ . These organizational behaviors may consist of collective and individual behaviors and can also be seen as critical factors or processes for the development and implementation of integrated public health policies. By adding organizational behaviors that are indicative of an integrated approach, the ‘hub of the wheel’ becomes not only a heuristic tool (linking an analysis of behavior to theory-based interventions and policies) but also a diagnostic tool within the context of local government. Thus, the original goal of the BCW (heuristic) has been extended by a second function: providing a structure to categorize the most important aspects of an integrated approach (i.e., functioning as a diagnostic tool), as depicted in the yellow parts of the model (Figure 2). To include such a diagnostic function, it was necessary to pre-define a set of organizational behaviors that will enable an assessment of the current situation in local government organizations with regard to the development and implementation of integrated public health policies. The behavior change ball, adapted from Michie et al. ’s behavior change wheel. The yellow parts of the framework depict the diagnostic function of the framework: an assessment of the policy context in which integrated public health policies should be developed and implemented. The blue parts depict the heuristic function of the framework: based on the diagnosis, the framework guides the way to solutions (interventions and policies). Compared to the Behavior Change Wheel, the Behavior Change Ball also specifies organizational behaviors and relates them to the most relevant actors, categorized into three hierarchical levels that can be found in local governments; these are displayed as ‘wedges’ (agenda setting, leadership, policy formulation, adaptive management, network formation, innovation, teamwork, policy formulation, and implementation) and levels (operational, tactical, strategic). In the Behavior Change Wheel, the ‘wedges’ are not specified, but are displayed as a black dot at the center, which reflects a single specific behavioral goal . Our specification of the behavioral goals into ten wedges adds a second function to the Behavior Change Wheel, making our framework more comprehensive, which is what we needed to explain and guide the development and implementation of integrated public health policies. Since each of the concepts in our framework can strengthen the initiation, implementation and continuation of effective policies, the dynamics of the political and obesity-related environmental context prompted us to use the metaphor of a ball that is rolling around in a mountainous landscape (Figures 3 and 4). This metaphor could explain why current implementation attempts have often failed. The steep hills surrounding the ball reflect the systems’ resistance to change; the forces of gravity make it difficult to roll a ball towards a mountain peak. Therefore, we decided to ‘reinvent the wheel’ (which is two-dimensional) and develop it into a ball (three-dimensional). The metaphor of a ball moving through a landscape has also been applied successfully in other research areas to reflect the dynamics that are at work in complex systems [123, 124]. In the following sections, we present our proposed framework, the ‘Behavior Change Ball,’ with which we aim to enhance empirical research grounded in theory. All circles can rotate independently. The Behavior Change Ball consists of circles that reflect organizational behaviors, actors within three hierarchical levels, determinants of organizational behaviors, interventions, and policies or programs. Policies or programs enable interventions, and determinants are necessary for each of the organizational behaviors that are related to actors at the operational, tactical, or strategic level. The landscape and the behavior change ball. The proposed relationships between the theoretical concepts from the Behavior Change Ball are best illustrated by the metaphor of a ball moving through a landscape. Before outlining the components of the ‘Behavior Change Ball’ (BCB) (COM-B, intervention functions, and policy categories) and its application, we describe its development and target group. To identify the ten organizational behaviors (displayed in the wedges) that need to be carried out by certain levels of local policy-makers, we interviewed local policy-makers at strategic, tactical, and operational levels within several Dutch local governments, attended meetings of the public health service in one Dutch region, developed theoretical reflections [95–114] and held discussions with experts in the field of integrated public health policy development, politics, and intersectoral collaboration. We related the organizational behaviors to the organizational levels at which the behavior needed to be carried out. For example, we found that agenda setting is controlled by local policy-makers at the strategic level (e.g., the municipal executive), while local policy-makers at the tactical level (e.g., heads of departments) are responsible for adaptive management. By categorizing these organizational behaviors, we aimed to integrate them into one comprehensive framework. After having designed an early version of this framework, we discussed it with experts and key informants. Based on their recommendations, we adapted the framework where necessary. To increase the generalizability of our framework, to improve the construct definition of its concepts, and to raise the data to a theoretical level, we constantly compared our data with relevant literature and similar or alternative frameworks. The outcome of this inductive and iterative research process was our conceptual framework (Figures 2, 3, 4) . The target group of our framework consists of the local policy-makers who are involved in developing integrated public health policies. Local policy-makers work within a complex environment in which members of the municipal executive and local politicians (strategic level) direct local government managers (tactical level) and professionals (operational level) towards the development and implementation of certain policies. They can be divided into three levels reflecting the kind of decisions they make [64, 83]. Simply stated, policy-makers at the strategic level (the municipal executive, known in the Netherlands as the College of Mayor and Aldermen) decide ‘what will be done within the organization,’ while tactical level policy-makers (heads of departments) decide ‘how (and sometimes also when) it will be done’ (e.g., which preconditions have to be fulfilled), and operational level policy-makers (civil servants) decide ‘who will do what and when’ (e.g., how to achieve a goal). These levels are related to the traditional levels of top management, middle management, and operational management , or Mintzberg’s strategic apex, middle line, and operational core . To develop integrated public health policies, these three levels should collaborate vertically (between levels) as well as horizontally (between the sectors within one level) [64, 83]. Despite attempts to involve the ultimate (e.g., children and their parents) and intermediate (e.g., commercial organizations within the community) target populations of health-promoting interventions in the process of developing policies, they are at a greater distance from the policy-making process than the local policy-makers themselves . Therefore, we do not regard them as our key target group, but as external influences; they include, for example, international ambassadors for childhood obesity prevention (like Michelle Obama), experts advising the local policy-makers, and other levels of government (national, state, provincial, international). Ten wedges, displayed at the hub of the ball, represent a categorization of ten organizational behaviors (e.g., agenda setting) that are relevant to the development of integrated public health policies. We decided to categorize the organizational behaviors to a specific level of local policy-makers. For example, agenda setting is formally the responsibility of the municipal executive and therefore categorized under the strategic level in our proposed framework. Although we acknowledge that others can influence agenda setting (e.g., by reminding the executive to think about childhood obesity prevention), they are not officially in charge of it, and are therefore considered external influences situated in other parts of our proposed framework (e.g., as determinants or interventions). Each of the organizational behaviors is discussed in more detail below. A new policy can only be developed if a problem attracts enough attention to appear on the political agenda . Agenda setting is defined as: ‘the first stage of the public policy process during which some issues are given attention by policymakers and others receive minimal attention or are neglected completely’ . In the case of childhood obesity prevention by means of integrated approaches, many agendas need to be set. Compared to mono-sectoral approaches, a much wider and more diverse group has to develop a shared vision, agree upon a strategy, and decide to invest resources [52, 129]. Only then do lower level, local policy-makers (the tactical and operational levels) feel facilitated to elaborate on this shared vision . A policy entrepreneur can stimulate agenda setting [112, 131]. For example, a local alderman might visit a neighboring municipality and inspire them to give priority to childhood obesity prevention. Leadership can be defined as: ‘a process of social influence’ . Such influence is especially important for the prevention of public health problems, since the benefits of prevention only become visible in the long run [32, 52]. Prevention is therefore not of great interest to most politicians, who tend to work with shorter time frames [62, 65, 66, 69, 93]. To overcome this lack of interest, leaders in the effort to improve public health should be politically aware and skilled in formulating a clear, integrated vision of the public health problem: when defining the problem of childhood obesity, leaders need to emphasize the wicked nature of obesity and guide the search for systemic solutions [69, 132, 133]. For example, an alderman can emphasize that we all have created an ‘obesogenic environment’ and that overweight children and their parents are not solely to blame. Formulating policies is the raison d’être of governments; it is the process of translating agenda topics into a set of policy measures . Policies can be formulated at the various governmental levels, each with its own goals . This section focuses on policies at the strategic level. Strategic level policies set out the vision and strategy for a problem, guide the debate and set out the tasks for local policy-makers at the lower levels of the municipal hierarchy (the tactical and operational levels). They are symbolic and aim to motivate people or create momentum, and can give agenda topics a permanent character by securing resources [112, 135]. For example, the program proposed by the municipal executive might include a section securing the resources that will be invested in implementing the integrated approach towards overweight prevention. The management of wicked public health problems requires an adaptive approach, which is characterized by an emphasis on learning from available evidence and utilizing this evidence in experiments [81, 136, 137]. This is especially important when addressing problems such as obesity, since most ‘solutions’ for childhood obesity prevention are not yet firmly rooted in scientific evidence. Adaptive management is an instrument that is used to change and learn about the system . This implies that heads of departments, who are the day-to-day managers of the officials working in local government, should adopt an open and learning attitude and involve people such as researchers to evaluate their policies. Such an attitude stimulates the creativity of local policy-makers at the operational level, which is needed for the development of innovative policies [107, 130]. For example, when managers are skeptical toward new working methods, such as intersectoral collaboration, new experiences will not be created, and officials will not learn new collaboration skills. Leadership at the tactical level is important since the integrated approach to childhood obesity prevention requires that policies are developed in a new way, viz. through intersectoral rather than intra-sectoral collaboration. Officials from different policy sectors (e.g., spatial planning and public health) should have the opportunity to jointly lead the process of development and change . Leadership by the heads of the departments is expected to be very important to facilitate this change process; they should support their subordinates in producing innovations . For example, a manager might create new performance indicators that also incentivize officials who have successfully implemented initiatives for the integrated approach; this can create a culture in which others might also want to collaborate. A network is defined as: ‘a group of interdependent but autonomous actors that come together to produce a collective output (tangible or intangible) that no one actor could produce on its own’ . Networks that also involve non-health sectors should be formed to implement the integrated approach [2–4]. To attract these non-health stakeholders, actors from the health sectors should move out of their ‘comfort zone’ and ‘niche’ [83, 133]. For example, spatial planning officials should be involved in the implementation of certain policies that require changes to physical environments. Additionally, such networks can boost agenda setting by mobilizing actors and increasing the collective capacity to confront opponents [1, 112]. Innovation is currently very important within the policy context, since the traditional ways of solving childhood obesity problems have failed . Innovators are the gatekeepers for the introduction of new ideas into the network. They are defined as: ‘the first individuals to adopt an innovation’ . Innovation is becoming increasingly important in the policy process since national governments are encouraging local governments to implement integrated policies through public-private partnerships. In attempts to achieve such changes, an innovator may be the key to the exchange of new ideas between public and private organizations and may bridge the gaps between them. For example, officials might be motivated to use their contacts with the local supermarket to implement some of their policy ideas, but might need to overcome resistance from others within the organization who are afraid that the risk of failure of such collaboration is too high. Based on the initiatives developed by the network, the core of the network should take further initiatives through ‘teamwork’: ‘a set of interrelated thoughts, actions, and feelings of each team member that are needed to function as a team and that combine to facilitate coordinated, adaptive performance and task objectives resulting in value-added outcomes’ . Currently, actors in the public health services are not yet fully accustomed to working in teams that include local policy-makers from different policy sectors, and thus are confronted by a totally new way of working. To be able to capitalize on their knowledge and skills , they need other ‘new’ competencies and tools [64, 142–144], for example, spanning boundaries between problems and solutions, and bringing diverse partners together. Teamwork by local policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders results in decisions being made on the way strategic policies are translated into operational policies (i.e., ‘work’ or ‘action’ plans). They are action-oriented instead of symbolic. In contrast to strategic policies, operational policies translate the policy goals into concrete actions ready for implementation. Operational planning documents should describe the policy goals, instruments, and actions in a specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) format , for example by describing when a law will be implemented that bans vending machines from primary schools. Policies can only impact childhood obesity rates when they are implemented properly, so it is very important that implementation is considered a part of the planning and policy process . Although this seems like stating the obvious, governments are usually judged on their policy documents rather than on the implementation of their policies [76, 145]. Lack of implementation is therefore a commonly cited problem in the governmental context [76, 119]. Usually, a package of policy measures is developed by policy-makers, but in the subsequent implementation stage, most of the measures need to be implemented by other actors than the local policy-makers themselves . It is therefore important to involve outside stakeholders in policy development at an early stage [74, 105, 106, 145] and to regularly evaluate implementation efforts to tackle current implementation obstacles and anticipate potential barriers for continuation [105, 106, 145]. The second circle of the model displays three categories of interrelated determinants of behavior: capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM) (Figures 1–3). These determinants are needed for each of the ten organizational behaviors to occur. Other research fields such as marketing e.g., , health sciences e.g., , policy science e.g., , and implementation science e.g., also use this categorization. Capability, opportunity, motivation, and behavior (‘COM-B’) are united in a ‘behavioral system’; if determinants are insufficiently present, COM-B may not function appropriately, and the behavior may not be established. ‘Capability’ is the extent to which individuals can adapt to change, generate new knowledge, and continue to improve their performance : ‘capability is what people are able to do and to be’ . ‘Psychological capability’ refers to the ability to engage in the necessary thought processes, such as comprehension and reasoning , and is closely related to competence, which refers to what individuals know or are able to do . Important aspects in the context of intersectoral collaboration are assumed to be boundary-spanning, collaboration, and leadership skills [69, 150]. There is also a ‘physical capability,’ but this is not directly relevant to this paper . ‘Opportunity’ refers to conditions that are external to the individual actor , that is, all social, political and organizational resources within a specified system that interact with the local policy-makers [105, 106]. Two forms of opportunity are distinguished: physical and social. Physical opportunity is afforded by the environment (e.g., organizational structures). Social opportunity refers to the milieu that dictates the way that we think about things, the words and concepts we use, and the predominant discourse (e.g., organizational culture) . ‘Motivation’ can be divided into reflective and automatic processes. Reflective motivation involves reflective decision-making processes involving analytical choices or intentions (e.g., evaluation and plans) . An example is deciding to collaborate with other sectors since one has positive beliefs about intersectoral collaboration. Automatic motivation involves processes in which emotions and impulses that arise from associative learning or innate dispositions lead to certain choices . Examples of automatic motivation are resistance to change or work engagement [142, 151–153]. If the COM-B is suboptimal, interventions might be needed to increase the likelihood that certain organizational behaviors are effectively accounted for [27, 154]. They are outlined below. ‘Education’ involves increasing knowledge and understanding . Since policy sectors are not always aware of the way their policies influence health , education might increase awareness among all policy sectors and stimulate intersectoral collaboration. An example of a tool to create such awareness is Health Impact Assessment [154, 155]. ‘Persuasion’ means that communication is used to elicit or enhance positive or negative feelings or to stimulate action . A national politician could, for example, persuade local, economically oriented politicians that obesity prevention is worth investing in because of the economic consequences of obesity in terms of work absenteeism in the future . ‘Incentivization’ means that expectations of rewards are created . Incentivization is based on marketing and learning theory principles of direct reinforcement [146, 156]. Reward systems that are built into the organizational structure, such as bonuses, are an example of incentivization since they can stimulate individuals by offering financial rewards . ‘Coercion’ means the use of punishment or costs , for example to force municipalities to subject their policies to a Health Impact Assessment [154, 155]. ‘Training’ can be used to overcome skills-related problems . For example, attracting the right stakeholders for the development of integrated policies requires negotiation skills that might be trained . ‘Restriction’ refers to rules defining which behaviors are allowed or not allowed . Institutions incorporate not only formal rules but also informal rules that shape the behavior of those working in them and thus may hamper intersectoral collaboration . For example, performance management can restrict collaboration, especially when tight budgets result in a tendency to return to ‘core business’ . ‘Environmental restructuring’ is intended to change the social or physical context . Changes in the social context refer to changes in culture (e.g., pressure from the media), while changes in the physical context refer to changes in the structure (e.g., institutional arrangements) [154, 157, 158]. A good example is the work of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver: media attention has enabled him to put the poor quality of school lunches on the political agenda. ‘Modeling’ provides an example that people can and like to copy . It is based on social learning theories . Managers may act as a model for the type of collaboration they want to encourage across policy sectors [64, 79, 154], and well-known mayors like Michael Bloomberg may act as models to invest in local obesity prevention through policies . ‘Enablement’ means creating new ways to deal with or remove barriers . At the strategic level, for example, a barrier to intersectoral collaboration, viz. ‘not having a shared goal,’ might be removed by an official having two policy sectors, such as spatial planning and public health, in their portfolio . Nine policies are displayed in the outermost circle. They enable particular interventions and are outlined below . ‘Communication and marketing’ involves using print, electronic media, telephone or broadcast media . For example, in order to achieve broad political commitment for the prevention of childhood obesity, a local alderman might be appointed as ambassador. ‘Guidelines’ involve documents that recommend or mandate practice . An example might be using a contract to formalize network activities to make sure that commitments for investing in childhood obesity prevention are followed up. ‘Fiscal measures’ involve the use of the tax system to reduce or increase the financial cost of certain activities that might affect childhood obesity, for example by subsidizing municipalities that develop and implement integrated public health policies. Such financial support can stimulate local governments to invest in intersectoral collaboration, since innovating current working practices often requires additional investment of resources [105, 106]. ‘Regulation’ involves establishing rules or principles of behavior or practice . Pooling resources, for example, can be seen as a working principle that fosters intersectoral collaboration; when targets are set for the governmental system as a whole, officials from the economic or spatial planning departments can share resources with health sectors and therefore become direct stakeholders of public health. ‘Legislation’ involves making or changing laws . Laws aim to change behavior in a non-voluntary manner . An example is the Dutch law on public health; the Dutch national government obliges local governments to produce a health policy document every four years , and the Health Care Inspectorate checks whether the laws are adhered to . ‘Environmental or social planning’ involves designing and/or controlling the physical or social environment . An example is giving attention to the design of the organizational structure so it does not obstruct intersectoral collaboration. ‘Service provision’ involves delivering services . Examples include offering specific training courses for civil servants who want to use social marketing to prevent obesity, or training courses on how to select evidence-based interventions. The framework can be applied within local governments by local policy-makers or those who assist them (e.g., action-oriented researchers) to develop and implement integrated public health policy for the prevention of wicked public health problems. It can be applied for practical or theoretical purposes. For practical purposes, the following four steps should be taken. First, identify the local policy-makers’ organizational behaviors that are described in the wedges of the ball (i.e., not assessing the COM-B from scratch as in the BCW); this assessment should identify which organizational behaviors need to be introduced, reinforced, or replaced. For example, it may become clear that childhood obesity prevention is not on the agenda of the aldermen who is responsible for it (agenda setting). Second, based on the identification of the organizational behaviors that need attention, an analysis of the COM-B needs to indicate what might be an important avenue for improvement. For example, to set the agenda, the aldermen might first need to be informed about the severity of childhood obesity (agenda setting through increasing motivation). Michie et al. describe how to select appropriate interventions (third) and policies or programs (fourth) to change the COM-B. For example, communication (policy) enables modeling (intervention) and influences automatic motivation, which may lead to agenda setting (organizational behavior) at the strategic level (our target population). For theoretical purposes and to enable further study, the BCB can be used to structure or map data. For example, the BCB’s constructs can be used as topic lists or coding systems, or to map data from observations, interviews, or policy documents. Applying the BCB may reveal the value of certain theories in explaining the development and implementation of integrated public health policies and thus provide directions for further research. A limitation of this study is that the linkages it identifies between the organizational behaviors are based on one research study. Although we grounded the linkages in existing theoretical assumptions and literature, we acknowledge that they should be further tested. We therefore hope to inspire other researchers to conduct more theory-based empirical research to validate and refine the BCB. Another limitation of this study could be that this framework was developed in the Netherlands, and may thus not be valid for countries where local governments bear less responsibility for developing public health policies. Also, our categorization of local government actors might appear less appropriate in some countries, although similar categories frequently appear in other theoretical reflections [64, 83, 126, 127]. To increase the value of the framework, we have linked our categorization of policy-makers (strategic, tactical and operational) to internationally familiar management concepts [126, 127]. By introducing the BCB in the field, we aim to stimulate local policy-makers and those who support them (e.g., researchers) to think about the organizational behaviors that are relevant to developing and implementing integrated public health policies. We want to strengthen the evidence base regarding the reality of policy formulation and implementation, and therefore recommend that researchers apply the BCB in case study designs or narrative inquiries. Such research designs are seen as most appropriate due to their potential to illuminate the dynamic policy process [125, 161]. It is our hope that use of the BCB will lead to its further development as a practical and theoretical tool to explore the barriers and facilitators for developing integrated public health policies. This paper has tried to answer some key questions within the context of integrated local public health policies and has introduced a comprehensive framework that can map the various aspects relevant to the development and implementation of such policies. The framework was developed by translating and extending the key assumptions of the ‘Behavior Change Wheel’ (BCW) within a framework called the ‘Behavior Change Ball’ (BCB). Since the BCW and BCB are designed to be applied in different contexts and for different purposes, we propose that both frameworks should co-exist. Throughout our article, we used childhood obesity prevention as an example, since this is a typical wicked problem that requires integrated preventive public health policies. We encourage researchers who are trying to support local policy-makers to apply the framework and report their experiences. This study was funded by ZonMw, the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (project no. 200100001) and is part of the CIAO (Consortium Integrated Approach Overweight), a research consortium of five Academic Collaborative Centers. AMH carried out the interviews and literature search, and drafted the manuscript. MJ and SK conceived of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. JG, TP, and NdV helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

2019-04-19T11:27:37Z

https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-5908-8-46

Obamacare Tennessee open enrollment period ended on Jan 31, 2016. It will reopen again on Nov 1, 2016 through the end of Jan 2017. There will still be an opportunity for you to purchase a policy after the open enrollment period is over if you have certain life changing events. Remember that you will need to have coverage to avoid the tax penalty. If you missed the deadline you can still apply for outside insurance to avoid the tax penalty. To Get a free health insurance quote Click here. Obamacare Tennessee Plans and Networks – Tennessee residents need to have health coverage if they hope to be in line with the law put forth by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare Tennessee, as many call it. Fortunately, there are a number of options when it comes to plans and providers. However, the open enrollment period for 2016 is now over. It lasted from November 1, 2015 through January 31, 2016. If you don’t have coverage yet, it means you will not be able to enroll in a plan (on the exchange or off the exchange) until the enrollment opens again in November of 2016. There are limited ways that you could get on a plan during the year. If you qualify for special enrollment, you could choose a plan. However, you would need to have a qualifying event happen in your life for this possibility. Some potential qualifiers include having a child, moving to the state, getting divorced, or getting married. In addition, Native Americans are able to enroll at any time of the year. Those who are eligible for CHIP and Medicaid can enroll all year long as well. If you do not have coverage, then you will have to pay a fine to the IRS. The current cost of the fine for adults is $695, and the penalty for those who are under 18 is $347.50. Understanding the Tiers – When you are eligible to enroll, you will notice that there are several different tiers available in Obamacare Tennessee, each named after a precious metal. These indicate the coverage levels. They start at bronze and then work their way up through silver, gold, and, finally, platinum. The plans that are a part of the bronze tier will have the lowest monthly premiums, but they have the highest out of pocket expenses for things such as copays and deductibles. As you work your way up through the tiers, this changes. At the top level are the platinum plans. These have the highest of the monthly premiums, but the out of pocket expenses are very low. The plans will cover 90% of your costs. Obamacare Tennessee Providers – When you are going through the exchange for Obamacare in Tennessee, you will have four different providers from which you can choose. These include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. Each of the providers then has a number of different plans from which you can choose. Regardless of which plan you have, they will all contain at least the essential benefits including outpatient care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services and lab services. Of course, more expensive plans may have much more than just these essential benefits covered. When you are looking for your plan during the enrollment period, you need to make sure that you enroll in time. However, you also have to make sure that you choose a plan that is best suited to your needs and to your budget. To Get a free health insurance quote Click here. Getting Coverage for Obamacare Tennessee – To find Obamacare in Tennessee, you will be going through their exchange, which is available at Healthcare.gov. They use the federal exchange, as many states have decided to do. It was easier and more convenient for them than making their own exchange. There have been hundreds of thousands of people who have enrolled in Obamacare in Tennessee over the past few years and if you are planning to follow suit, then you need to understand what to expect. The Enrollment Period and Special Enrollment for Obamacare Tennessee- The first thing you have to realize is that you need to enroll during the open enrollment period. The open enrollment for 2016 started on November 1, 2015 and went through January 31, 2016. The next open enrollment will not start until November of 2016. If you didn’t enroll when it was open, you will no longer be able to. The only exception is for those who qualify for special enrollment, Native Americans, and those who qualify for Medicaid and CHIP. Special enrollment is only available for those who have qualifying life events, as determined by the exchange. Some of the most common examples of events that would qualify for a 60-day special enrollment period are getting married, having a child, and moving to the state. Finding the Plan and Provider – You will then need to look at the different types of plans available. The plans are separated into metal categories or tiers. They include bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Plans at the platinum level have the highest monthly premiums, but the lowest out of pocket costs. At the opposite end are the bronze plans. They have the highest out of pocket expenses for copay and deductibles, but they have the lowest monthly premiums. Those who are under 30 and in good health could qualify for the catastrophic plans, which are very affordable. Like the bronze plans, they will have high out of pocket costs. There are a number of companies offering plans on the exchange. You can choose from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. All of the plans from the providers will include the essential benefits. These include ambulatory care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services, lab services, and prescription drugs. To Get a free health insurance quote Click Here. Paying for Coverage in Obamacare Tennessee – Once you have chosen a plan through the exchange, you will then fill out your application to enroll. At that point, you will start to pay your monthly premiums to the insurance company. If you have tax subsidies, they will go to the company for you each month and lower your payments. It is important to make sure you submit your payments on time each month so you do not have your coverage cancelled. If you do, you will have to wait until the next enrollment to get coverage. Renewing Obamacare Tennessee Policies – The plans should be renewed automatically each year, so you do not have to worry about it. If the plan you are on is no longer available, the company will let you know so you can look at your other options. It is always a good idea to check out the different plans each year, even if yours renews automatically. This way, you can get the Obamacare coverage in Tennessee that’s right for you. For many individuals and families in Tennessee, money is tight. The income they have goes toward bills and food, and sometimes it seems as though there is very little left over. With the arrival of Obamacare, it has caused Tennessee residents to wonder just how they are supposed to pay for health insurance on top of all of their other responsibilities. Some had avoided coverage for years because the prices were too high and now they know that if they don’t pay for coverage, they will still have to pay penalties. Medicaid and CHIP – Even though Tennessee was one of the 19 states that decided they would not expand their Medicaid coverage, it is still an option for some individuals and families. Those who qualify will be able to receive their healthcare for free and they will have satisfied the requirement of Obamacare, so they no longer have to worry about fines and penalties. The Children’s Health Insurance Program is another option. This is for children and it can help families by providing coverage for the kids, which should make it easier for them to afford Obamacare plans for themselves. When you apply for Obamacare in Tennessee, you will automatically find out if you qualify for any of these coverage types. Tax Subsidies for Obamacare Tennessee – A large number of people in the state (85% of the people who signed up this year) are going to qualify for tax subsidies. The government realized that many people were going to have trouble paying for coverage, so they introduced this option. When you sign up for Obamacare, if you make between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, you will qualify for tax subsidies. You have a choice of how and when to use these subsidies. Some people choose to hold onto them until the end of the year. Then, they apply them to their taxes. It can reduce the amount of taxes they owe. If they were getting a refund, it would increase the amount of the refund. However, with many people living paycheck to paycheck in Tennessee, using the subsidies immediately makes more sense. In that scenario, they would have the subsidies applied to their monthly premiums. This would lower them to the point where the coverage is affordable for more people in the state. The Plans in Obamacare Tennessee – When you are looking for other ways to save money, take the time to look at the various plans and providers available. You should be able to find a number of different plans in the state, and some will be more affordable than others. All of them will contain the necessary essential benefits including outpatient care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services and lab services. There are many different options that can help to make it easier for you to afford the coverage you need. Having health coverage is actually no longer a choice. If you do not have health insurance coverage through the exchange, your employer, through a private company off the Obamacare exchange, or Medicaid, then you are subject to a penalty that the IRS will collect. The fines for not having coverage are high and getting higher each year. The current fees are $695 for an adult and $347.50 for a child. In 2016, a large number of people in Tennessee applied for coverage, as did millions across the country. Many ended up making some mistakes on their application, which delayed their enrollment. You do not want to make those same mistakes. Let’s look at some of the most common mistakes on the application process. Missing and Incorrect Information – Many times, people simply do not fill out all of the information required on the form. Whether they miss a section or they don’t think it is important, they are turning in applications that are missing some important info. When you fill out the application, it is important to look at all of the required sections and to provide accurate information. The accuracy of the information entered has been a problem as well. You should always make sure to double-check all of the information on the application including names, birthdays, and Social Security Numbers. Make sure everyone included on the application is in the right section as well. In some instances, officials have found spouse’s names in the section for dependents. In addition, be sure to include everyone on the application that you want to have covered under a plan. Remember that the changes to the law with Obamacare now allow children who are up to 26 years old to remain on their parent’s coverage. Incorrect Income – Another issue that the officials have seen is incorrect reporting of income. When you fill out the application, you need to give an accurate (as accurate as possible) account of your income. The amount that you make will determine how much money you may be eligible to receive in tax subsidies. If you report that you make more income than you actually do, it will mean you are not able to get as much in subsidies. However, if you try to take the opposite approach and under report your income as a way to get more in subsidies, you can be sure the IRS will find out. Not Remembering the Open Enrollment Period for Obamacare Tennessee – Finally, you have to be aware of the open enrollment period. For 2016, the open enrollment was from November 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016. This means it is now closed. You will not be able to enroll for coverage until November of 2016 unless you qualify for special enrollment due to a qualifying event. Always make sure you are within the bounds of the open enrollment when choosing your plan and enrolling. You want to take your time, but you do not want to miss the enrollment or else you will be forced to pay more fines. One of the big fears that small business owners had when it came to the Affordable Care Act was what it would mean for their responsibilities to their employees. A number of business owners in Tennessee worried that it would cost too much for them to provide coverage and that they would not be able to stay afloat. However, not all small businesses need to provide Obamacare coverage. It depends on several things. Those companies who do not have more than 50 employees are under no obligation to provide coverage to their employees. However, whenever they bring aboard a new employee, they are required to let them know about Obamacare in Tennessee and how it works, so they can get coverage on their own. You can find the information you need to pass on to your employees through the US Department of Labor. Consider Enrolling in Obamacare Tennessee- Even though your business might not be required to provide Obamacare coverage to your employees, that doesn’t mean it is a bad idea to consider. You can find some great benefits when you provide coverage to your staff. They will be more likely to want to stay with your company since they have coverage. In addition, it helps to keep them healthy and happy, which can make them more productive while cutting down on absences. Those who live in Tennessee are well aware that Obamacare is now the law of the land. They understand that the law has overhauled the insurance companies and that it requires people to have coverage. However, they might not understand exactly what all of that entails and how it will affect them. It is important to get a better grasp of what Obamacare will mean to you and your family. You Need Health Insurance – Health insurance coverage has gone from simply being a good idea to being a requirement. You no longer have a choice of whether you want to have coverage or not unless you are exempt. Some examples for being exempt include religious reasons and being a Native American. If you aren’t exempt, and you don’t have Medicaid or coverage from your employer, then you need to have Obamacare coverage in Tennessee. Those who do not get coverage will not face jail time. However, they will have to pay a penalty to the IRS. The current penalty is $695 for adults without coverage or 2.5% of their income (they choose whichever is higher) and $347.50 for children with no coverage. You Must Enroll During Open Enrollment – You can’t simply choose to enroll whenever you like throughout the year. You are required to do so only during the open enrollment. The 2016, open enrollment was from November 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016. It will not open again until November 1, 2017. If you don’t have the proper coverage, it means you will have to pay the aforementioned penalties. Changes to the Insurance System – Obamacare has brought with it a number of changes to the health insurance system in the United States and many feel these changes are for the better. One of the biggest changes is the fact that an insurance company is no longer allowed to deny someone coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. In addition, they are not allowed to charge those people more because of their condition. They are unable to cancel the policies of these individuals as well, unless they are committing fraud. Another change is that parents are allowed to keep their children on their coverage until they are 26 years old now. This provides the young adults with more of a cushion while they are in college and starting to make their way through the world. Plans and Tiers in Obamacare Tennessee- There are currently four providers on the exchange in Tennessee offering Obamacare plans. These include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. They have a number of different plans that are separated into bronze, silver, gold, and platinum tiers. The bronze tiers have high out of pocket expenses and low monthly premiums. The platinum plans have high monthly premiums and low out of pocket costs. When you are choosing a plan, it is important to learn as much about Obamacare, as well as the individual plan, as possible. This ensures you know exactly what your plan will cover. People have been very concerned about what Obamacare will mean for their individual taxes. They aren’t only concerned that they might have to pay more taxes to pay for the system, but they wonder just how the addition of Obamacare will affect how they will pay those taxes. Residents of Tennessee will find that even though there are some changes, they are not overly complicated, and most people will not have any trouble figuring out how to do their taxes. However, it is important to remember that you need to have some type of coverage if you do not want the IRS to impose penalties on your taxes. The current fines are $695 for adults and $347.50 for children who are under 18 and who do not have coverage. If you do not have coverage, you can expect these penalties on your taxes. The Forms for Your Taxes – The forms that you will receive will depend on how you get your health coverage in Tennessee. Obamacare recipients will receive a 1095-A, which is the Healthcare Insurance Marketplace Statement. This form will provide you with the information you need to complete your taxes and it should arrive in the mail well before your taxes are due. If you have coverage through a company that is not on the exchange, then you will receive a 1095-B form. This is called the Health Coverage form. Your insurance company will send this to you before the taxes are due. It proves to the IRS that you have coverage that is deemed acceptable by Obamacare. Those who have health insurance coverage through their employer will receive the 1095-C, called the Employer Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage form. Each of the forms will give you the information you need about your coverage and how it affects your taxes. It also works as proof of coverage, so you should keep it in your files in case there are any issues with the IRS not getting the proper information and trying to charge you a penalty. If you are waiting for the 1095-A, you actually do need to wait until you receive it before you can submit your taxes. It has information you need. Those who are getting either of the other two forms do not have to wait before they file their taxes. Doing your taxes with the 1095-A does include a couple extra steps and you do need to wait until the form arrives. However, it is generally considered to be easy for most people to add the information to their taxes. For those who have complicated taxes, though, there is always the chance that it could be confusing. For those individuals, it might be a good idea to speak with a tax professional, which will ensure you fill them out correctly. File on Time – Always make sure you file your taxes and be sure to file them on time. If you don’t, then the IRS may not allow you to have tax subsidies, which you likely need to help pay for your Obamacare in Tennessee. What’s New for Obamacare Tennessee in 2016? In the 2016 open enrollment period for Obamacare in Tennessee, 268,876 people enrolled. This was an increase over the previous year by about 16% and around 48% of the people enrolling in 2016 were brand new to the exchange. This increased number has been promising and it shows that the program is working in the state. Many of the people who enrolled – 85% of them – were able to receive subsidies that help them to lower the amount they are paying for their coverage. The Enrollment Period Is Over for Obamacare Tennessee – The open enrollment for 2016 lasted from November 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016. It will not open again until November of 2017. The only way that you will be able to enroll in a plan, whether it is on the exchange or off the exchange, is if you have a qualifying event. Examples of qualifying events include having a child, moving to the state, and getting married. Native Americans are allowed to enroll at any time of the year, and they do not have to have any qualifying event to do so. In addition, those who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP can enroll in those plans throughout the year. The Available Providers – This year, one of the providers that was offering Obamacare in Tennessee is no longer available. Community Health Alliance stopped operations because the regulators felt that there was too great of a chance that it could fail in 2016, which would have caused more problems in the market if it happened in the middle of the year. They ceased operations and gave the people who were currently on plans with them plenty of time to find other plans from different providers during the open enrollment. A number of co-ops closed as well. Still, there are four providers who are on the exchange and who are offering plans. These include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. In addition, there are four off market providers that have plans that will satisfy your requirements for Obamacare in Tennessee. They include Tennessee Rural Health, United Healthcare Life Insurance Company, Aetna, and Freedom Life Insurance Company of America. Each of the plans from these providers include the essential benefits – ambulatory care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services and lab services. Rates Are Climbing in Obamacare Tennessee – One of the things that many who are on Obamacare in Tennessee are unhappy about in 2016 is the increase in rates. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee is seeing the largest of the rate increases. The average rate increase is 36.2%. Since this provider accounts for 72% of the market share in the state for individuals, this means that many people are going to be paying more for their coverage this year. Humana is also seeing an increase. Their increase is a more modest 5.8%. Cigna will see a 0.4% increase, and United Healthcare will not see any increases this year. These are the major changes and increases that residents of Tennessee should be aware of concerning Obamacare in 2016. You no longer have a choice of whether you are going to get health insurance or not, unless you want to pay a hefty penalty. With the arrival of the Affordable Care Act several years ago, it has brought out opponents and proponents in droves and there are still people arguing about the flaws and merits of the system. Regardless of personal feelings, it is important to realize that it is now the law, and that means you need to have coverage. Before praising or condemning the system too much, it is a good idea to look at the cons and the pros that Obamacare has for residents of Tennessee. Cons of Obamacare Tennessee – One of the biggest issues that people have when it comes to Obamacare is not the overhaul of the powers of insurance companies, but rather the fact that the new law takes choice out of the equation for citizens. Even though it is a good idea to have insurance coverage, people dislike being told that they have to buy coverage or face a fine. They wish they had the ability to forego coverage and not have to pay a fine. The current fines are quite high. Adults who do not have coverage will be paying a fine of $695 per year, or 2.5% of their income, whichever is higher. The penalty for those who are under 18 is $347.50. Another one of the issues that some people have with the system is the limited enrollment period. If they could enroll at any time of the year, they would likely have less of a problem with it. However, as the system is set up now, residents of Tennessee in need of Obamacare, as well as in other states, have to enroll during the open enrollment period. If they miss the open enrollment, which is generally from November to January, they are unable to enroll in a program and will have to pay a fine unless they are able to qualify for special enrollment. Pros of Obamacare Tennessee – Of course, even though there are these cons to Obamacare, that certainly doesn’t mean it is all bad. In fact, there are a number of great things that Obamacare has helped to bring about in the health insurance field. One of the biggest benefits is that insurance providers are no longer able to deny coverage to someone who has a preexisting condition. In addition, they can’t increase the premiums for someone just because they have a condition. Another one of the benefits helps residents of Tennessee to pay for their coverage. Tax subsidies will help with the costs, and many individuals and families will qualify for them. The amount of subsidies you will receive will depend on your level of income as well as the number of people in your family. Regardless of what you think about Obamacare, you will have to get coverage of some sort if you plan to comply with the law. Take the time to find a good plan during the open enrollment to get the coverage you need. If you are a resident of Tennessee and you don’t have Obamacare coverage yet, it might be due to the fact that you want to learn more about the system. You probably have a few questions that you would like answered before you sign up during the next open enrollment. Let’s look at some of the most common questions that people have when it comes to Obamacare so you can have a better idea of what you should expect. Is Coverage Really Necessary? – In the past, having health insurance was a good idea, but it wasn’t required. Today, that’s different. Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, it means that you need to have coverage that satisfies the Obamacare requirement. If you have Medicaid, CHIP, or coverage through your employer, then you do not need to go through the exchange for coverage. In addition, if you are specially exempt because you are a Native American or because of religious reasons, you will not have to get coverage. The majority of the people in the state will need coverage though. What Happens If You Don’t Have Coverage? – One of the misconceptions that people had about Obamacare is the belief that if you don’t have insurance you will have to go to jail. That’s not the case. However, the IRS will impose penalties on you. The current penalties are quite high. They are $695 for adults (or 2.5% of their income) and $347.50 for children without coverage. What Providers Are Available for Obamacare Tennessee? – In the state of Tennessee, Obamacare plans on the exchange are offered by just four different providers – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. Even though there are only four carriers in the state on the exchange, there are also providers who are off the exchange, but who still provide coverage that satisfies the Obamacare requirements. These other four companies are Tennessee Rural Health, United Healthcare Life Insurance Company, Aetna, and Freedom Life Insurance Company of America. What Are the Essential Benefits? – No matter which provider and plan you choose, you will find that they are all going to offer at least the 10 essential benefits. The essential benefits include ambulatory care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services and lab services. Many of the plans will offer more than just these services, so it is always important to see exactly what your plan will feature. Does Your Preexisting Condition Mean You Can’t Get Coverage? – One of the biggest problems with the health insurance system before these changes with Obamacare occurred was that many insurance companies would deny coverage, raise rates, and cancel coverage on people who had a preexisting condition or who developed a condition. The new law makes it so this is no longer possible. You can get the coverage you need. These are some of the most commonly asked questions regarding Obamacare today. Make sure you have answers to all of your questions before you choose a plan. When the Affordable Care Act passed several years ago, it meant that everyone, in all states in the country, would be required to have health coverage. You will need to have a plan that is approved by Obamacare to provide you with the coverage needed to satisfy the law. This could be one of the programs available through the exchange, but it doesn’t have to be. Those who qualify for Medicaid, as well as those who have coverage through their employer or through another company that provides adequate care, would satisfy the law’s requirements. No Expanded Medicare – There are 32 states in the country that decided to expand their Medicaid coverage, which would allow for more people to get onto Medicaid who might not be able to afford the cost of healthcare. 19 states chose not to expand Medicaid, and, unfortunately, Tennessee is one of those states. This means it is more difficult for many individuals and families to get help paying for their health coverage. Limited Number of Providers – Each state has certain carriers that offer plans for their residents. In Tennessee, there are currently only four options when it comes to providers. This is smaller than it is in many states around the country. Residents in Tennessee who need Obamacare can check out the plans that are available from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Humana, Cigna, and United Healthcare. One company that had offered coverage last year is no longer available in Tennessee. Community Health Alliance shut down. Regardless of the provider or plan that you choose, you are able to receive the essential benefits at a minimum. The essential benefits include outpatient care, emergency services, treatment in the hospital, maternity and newborn care, addiction treatment and mental health services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, pediatric care, preventative services and lab services. Keep in mind that even though all of the plans contain these benefits, they may have a number of other features and offerings. When you are choosing your provider and plan for Obamacare in Tennessee, you will want to know everything that your plan does and does not include, so you can choose the one that makes the most sense for your needs. In addition to the companies offering coverage through the exchange in Tennessee, there are four additional carriers that offer plans outside of the exchange. They include Tennessee Rural Health, United Healthcare Life Insurance Company, Aetna, and Freedom Life Insurance Company of America. You Will Still Have Subsidies – One of the nice things about the Obamacare system is that many individuals and families will qualify for tax subsidies. There was concern that these subsidies might go away this year, but the Supreme Court ruled that the subsidies are legal in all states, including Tennessee. If this had not been approved, then Tennessee carriers would have had to resubmit their rates. There are many similarities in Obamacare in Tennessee and in other states. However, it is important for residents to understand the differences when it comes time to look for their plans. To Get a free health insurance quote Click here. You can also call the phone number below to speak to a live agent.

2019-04-24T18:37:36Z

https://obamacareplans.co/obamacare-tennessee/

Chapter 5. Desertion and Nonsupport. Repealed by Acts 1988, cc. 866, 878. § 20-61.3. Consequences of a putative father failing to appear. If a putative father fails to appear after having been personally served with notice, in accordance with the provisions of subdivision 1 of § 8.01-296 or § 8.01-320, alleging that he is the father of a minor child, the court shall proceed in hearing the evidence in the case as provided in Chapter 3.1 (§ 20-49.1 et seq.) of Title 20 as if the putative father were present. The order of the court in any such proceedings shall be served upon the father in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 8 (§ 8.01-285 et seq.) or Chapter 9 (§ 8.01-328 et seq.) of Title 8.01. 1988, cc. 867, 894; 1994, c. 869. § 20-62. Commitment to workhouse, city farm or work squad for such desertion. In the event that the cities or counties of this Commonwealth or any of them establish workhouses, city farms or work squads on which prisoners are put to work, persons convicted of nonsupport under the provisions of this chapter may be committed to the farms, workhouses or work squads instead of to jail. Persons sentenced to jail or to a workhouse or city farm under the provisions of this chapter shall be required to do such work as they are capable of in accordance with the opinion of the physician examining such persons pursuant to § 53.1-33 and shall be returned, when released, to the court which exercised original jurisdiction in the case and by that court may be placed on probation upon the terms and conditions and in the manner prescribed by law for probation of original offenders in such cases. 1944, p. 210; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1936; 1954, c. 481; 1970, c. 630; 1978, c. 377. § 20-63. Support payments by county or city. It shall be the duty of the governing body of the county or city within the boundaries of which any work is performed under the provisions of this chapter to allow and order payment at the end of each calendar month, out of the current funds of the county or city, to the Department of Social Services for the support of the prisoner's spouse or child or children, a sum not less than $20 nor more than $40 for each week in the discretion of the court during any part of which any work is so performed by such prisoner. 1944, p. 211; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1936a; 1954, c. 481; 1958, c. 637; 1966, cc. 120, 437; 1974, c. 464; 1978, c. 586; 2016, c. 220. § 20-64. Proceedings instituted by petition. Proceedings under this chapter may be instituted upon petition, verified by oath or affirmation, filed by the spouse or child or by any probation officer or by any state or local law-enforcement officer or by the Department of Social Services upon information received, or by any other person having knowledge of the facts, and the petition shall set forth the facts and circumstances of the case. 1944, p. 211; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1937; 1974, c. 464; 2002, c. 747. § 20-66. Contempt proceedings; trial in absence of defendant. (a) If the person so summoned fails without reasonable cause to appear as herein required, he or she may be proceeded against as for contempt of court and the court may, (1) proceed with the trial of the case in his or her absence and render such judgment as to it seems right and proper, or (2) continue the case to some future date. (b) If the trial be proceeded with in the absence of the defendant and judgment of conviction be entered against him or her, he or she may, within thirty days after the judgment of conviction is rendered, make application to the court to have the case reopened, and after due notice to the original complainant, for good cause, the court may reopen the case and enter such judgment or order as is right and proper. 1944, p. 211; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1937a; 1974, c. 464. Proceedings under this chapter shall be had in the juvenile and domestic relations district courts, which shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all cases arising under this chapter, except that any grand jury of any circuit court may indict for desertion and nonsupport in any case wherein the defendant is a fugitive from the Commonwealth, and any defendant so indicted or presented and apprehended may be tried by the court in which the indictment or presentment is found or, in the discretion of the court, referred to the juvenile and domestic relations district court. 1944, p. 212; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1937c; 1974, c. 464; 1975, c. 644. The person accused shall have the same right of appeal as provided by law in other similar cases; provided that any order of court requiring support of a spouse or children shall remain in full force and effect until reversed or modified by judgment of a superior court, and in the interim the order shall be enforceable by the court entering it and the court may punish for violation of the order as for contempt. After the judgment of conviction and entry of order of support from which no appeal is taken the hearing in the appellate court on an appeal from any subsequent order, modification or amendment shall be restricted to the particular matter or order appealed from. § 20-70. No warrant of arrest to issue. Except as otherwise in this chapter provided, no warrant of arrest shall be issued by a magistrate against any person within the terms of this chapter, but all proceedings shall be instituted upon petition as aforesaid, provided that upon affidavit of the spouse or other person that there is reasonable cause to believe that the spouse or parent is about to leave the jurisdiction of the court with intent to desert the spouse, child or children, the court of, or any magistrate serving, the city or county may issue a warrant for the spouse or parent returnable before the court. 1944, p. 211; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1937b; 1974, c. 464; 1975, c. 644; 2008, cc. 551, 691. § 20-71. Temporary orders for support. At any time before the trial, upon motion of the complainant, with notice to the defendant, the court may enter such temporary order as seems just, providing for the support of the neglected spouse or children, or both, pendente lite, and may punish for violation of the order as for contempt. 1944, p. 212; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1938; 1974, c. 464. § 20-71.1. Attorneys' fees in proceedings under § 20-71. In any proceeding by a spouse petitioning under § 20-71 before the juvenile and domestic relations district court or on appeal before a court of record, to be allowed support for himself or herself or the infant child or children of the defendant, the juvenile and domestic relations district court may direct the defendant, in addition to the allowance to the spouse and support and maintenance for the infant children, to pay to the spouse's attorney, upon such terms and conditions and in such time as the court shall deem reasonable, an attorney's fee deemed reasonable by the court for such services as said attorney before said court. Upon appeal of the matter to a court of record, the judge of the circuit court may direct that the defendant, in addition to the fees allowed to the spouse's attorney by the juvenile and domestic relations district court, pay to the spouse's attorney at such time and upon such terms and conditions as the judge deems reasonable, an attorney's fee deemed reasonable by the court for such services of said attorney before said court of record, but in fixing said fee such court shall take into consideration the fee or fees directed to be paid by the court from which said appeal was taken. 1950, p. 741; 1974, c. 464; 1975, c. 644. § 20-72. Probation on order directing defendant to pay and enter recognizance. Before the trial, with the consent of the defendant, or at the trial on entry of a plea of guilty, or after conviction, instead of imposing the penalties hereinbefore provided, or in addition thereto, the judge, in his discretion, having regard to the circumstances of the case and to the financial ability or earning capacity of the defendant, shall have the power to make an order, directing the defendant to pay a certain sum or a certain percentage of his or her earnings periodically, either directly or through the court to the spouse or to the guardian, curator or custodian of such minor child or children, or to an organization or individual designated by the court as trustee, and to suspend sentence and release the defendant from custody on probation, upon his or her entering into a recognizance with or without surety, in such sum as the court may order and approve. Code 1919, § 1939; 1932, p. 466; 1940, p. 476; 1952, c. 692; 1974, c. 464. § 20-73. Condition of the recognizance. The condition of the recognizance shall be such that if the defendant shall make his or her personal appearance in court upon such date as may be specified by the court, or whenever, in the meantime, he or she may be ordered so to do, and shall further comply with the terms of such order, or any subsequent modification or amendment thereof, then such recognizance shall be void, otherwise in full force and effect. Code 1919, § 1939; 1932, p. 466; 1940, p. 477. § 20-74. Support orders to remain in effect until annulled; modification. Any order of support or amendment thereof entered under the provisions of this chapter shall remain in full force and effect until annulled by the court of original jurisdiction, or the court to which an appeal may be taken; however, such order of support or terms of probation shall be subject to change or modification by the court from time to time, as circumstances may require, but no such change or modification shall affect or relieve the surety of his or her obligation under such recognizance, provided notice thereof be forthwith given to such surety. No support order may be retroactively modified, but may be modified with respect to any period during which there is a pending petition for modification in any court, but only from the date that notice of such petition has been given to the responding party. Code 1919, § 1939; 1932, p. 467; 1940, p. 477; 1975, c. 644; 1987, c. 649; 2004, c. 204. § 20-75. Procedure when accused outside territorial jurisdiction. Whenever the accused is outside the territorial jurisdiction of the court, instead of requiring his or her arrest and personal appearance before the court, the court may allow the accused to accept service of the process or warrant and enter a written plea of guilty. The court may thereupon proceed as if the accused were present and enter such order of support as may be just and proper, requiring the accused to enter into the recognizance hereinbefore mentioned. For the purposes of this chapter the court may authorize the entering into of such recognizance outside the territorial jurisdiction of the court before such official of the place where the accused or his or her surety may be and under such conditions and subject to such stipulations and requirements as the court may direct and approve. The provisions of this chapter as to the entering into of recognizances outside the territorial jurisdiction of the court shall likewise apply to any renewal of any recognizance heretofore or hereafter entered into in any desertion and nonsupport case. Code 1919, § 1939; 1932, p. 467; 1940, p. 477; 1975, c. 644. Repealed by Acts 1974, c. 464. § 20-78. Continuance of failure to support after completion of sentence. Any person sentenced under §§ 20-72 to 20-79 who, after the completion of such sentence, shall continue in his or her failure, without just cause, adequately to support his or her spouse or children, as the case may be, may again be sentenced on the original petition, as for a new offense, in the same manner and under like conditions as herein provided, and so on from time to time, as often as such failure or failures shall occur. Code 1919, § 1939; 1932, p. 467; 1940, p. 478; 1974, c. 464. § 20-78.1. Effect of entry of support order in certain garnishment proceedings. A. A judgment for arrearage, or an order or decree of support for a spouse or support and maintenance of a child or children entered under the provisions of this chapter or §§ 16.1-278.15 through 16.1-278.18, 20-103 and 20-107.1 through 20-109 may be enforced in any garnishment proceeding in which the liability is against the United States of America. B. Except as otherwise provided herein, the provisions of Article 7 (§ 8.01-511 et seq.) of Chapter 18 of Title 8.01 shall govern such garnishment. Any garnishment under the provisions of this section shall continue until modified by the issuing court, or in the case of an arrearage, until the sum or sums of money found to be in arrears are paid in full. C. The provisions of this section shall apply to arrearages accumulated prior to and after July 1, 1976. 1976, c. 659; 1978, c. 736; 1980, c. 102; 1987, c. 597; 1991, c. 534; 1999, c. 577. § 20-78.2. Attorneys' fees and interest on support arrearage. The entry of an order or decree of support for a spouse or for support and maintenance of a child under the provisions of this chapter or §§ 20-107.1 through 20-109 shall constitute a final judgment for any sum or sums in arrears. This order shall also include an amount for interest on the arrearage at the judgment interest rate as established by § 6.2-302 unless the obligee, in a writing submitted to the court, waives the collection of interest; and may include reasonable attorneys' fees if the total arrearage for support and maintenance, excluding interest, is equal to or greater than three months of support and maintenance. 1983, c. 488; 1987, c. 190; 1995, c. 483; 2005, c. 880. § 20-79. Effect of divorce proceedings. (a) In any case where an order has been entered under the provisions of this chapter, directing either party to pay any sum or sums of money for the support of his or her spouse, or concerning the care, custody or maintenance of any child, or children, the jurisdiction of the court which entered such order shall cease and its orders become inoperative upon the entry of a decree by the court or the judge thereof in vacation in a suit for divorce instituted in any circuit court in this Commonwealth having jurisdiction thereof, in which decree provision is made for support and maintenance for the spouse or concerning the care, custody or maintenance of a child or children, or concerning any matter provided in a decree in the divorce proceedings in accordance with the provisions of § 20-103. (b) In any suit for divorce, the court in which the suit is instituted or pending, when either party to the proceedings so requests, shall provide in its decree for the maintenance, support, care or custody of the child or children in accordance with Chapter 6.1 (§ 20-124.1 et seq.), support and maintenance for the spouse, if the same be sought, and counsel fees and other costs, if in the judgment of the court any or all of the foregoing should be so decreed. (c) Enforcement of orders. In any suit for divorce or suit for maintenance and support, the court may after a hearing, pendente lite, or in any decree of divorce a mensa et thoro, decree of divorce a vinculo matrimonii, final decree for maintenance and support, or subsequent decree in such suit, transfer to the juvenile and domestic relations district court the enforcement of its orders pertaining to support and maintenance for the spouse, maintenance, support, care and custody of the child or children. Transfer of case for modification. After the entry of a decree of divorce a vinculo matrimonii the court may transfer to the juvenile and domestic relations district court any other matters pertaining to support and maintenance for the spouse, maintenance, support, care and custody of the child or children on motion by either party, and may so transfer such matters before the entry of such decree on motion joined in by both parties. A court shall not (i) transfer a case for modification to the juvenile and domestic relations district court in the absence of a motion by either party or (ii) require a provision for transfer of matters for modification to the juvenile and domestic relations district court as a condition of entry of a decree of divorce a vinculo matrimonii. Change of venue. In the transfer of any matters referred to herein, the court may, upon the motion of any party, or on its own motion, and for good cause shown, transfer any matters covered by said decree or decrees to any circuit court or juvenile and domestic relations district court within the Commonwealth that constitutes a more appropriate forum. An appeal of an order by such juvenile and domestic relations district court which is to enforce or modify the decree in the divorce suit shall be as provided in § 16.1-296. Code 1919, § 1939; 1940, p. 478; 1960, c. 76; 1964, c. 636; 1970, c. 459; 1974, cc. 464, 473; 1975, c. 644; 1976, c. 345; 1977, c. 71; 1988, c. 502; 1994, c. 769; 2018, c. 254. § 20-79.1. Enforcement of support orders; income deduction; penalty for wrongful discharge. A. As part of any order directing a person to pay child support, except for initial orders entered pursuant to § 20-79.2, or spousal support pursuant to this chapter or §§ 16.1-278.15 through 16.1-278.18, 20-103, 20-107.2 or § 20-109.1, or by separate order at any time thereafter, a court of competent jurisdiction may order a person's employer to deduct from the amounts due or payable to such person, the entitlement to which is based upon income as defined in § 63.2-1900, the amount of current support due and an amount to be applied to arrearages, if any. The terms "employer" and "income" shall have the meanings prescribed in § 63.2-1900. The court shall order such income deductions (i) if so provided in a stipulation or contract signed by the party ordered to pay such support and filed with the pleadings or depositions, (ii) upon receipt of a notice of arrearages in a case in which an order has been entered pursuant to § 20-60.3, or (iii) upon a finding that the respondent is in arrears for an amount equal to one month's support obligation. The court may, in its discretion, order such payroll deduction (a) based upon the obligor's past financial responsibility, history of prior payments pursuant to any such support order, and any other matter which the court considers relevant in determining the likelihood of payment in accordance with the support order or (b) at the request of the obligor. B. Any income deduction order shall be entered upon motion and concurrent proper notice sent by the clerk or counsel. The notice shall cite this section. If the notice is sent by the clerk, it shall be served in accordance with the provisions of § 8.01-296 or 8.01-329, or sent by certified mail or by electronic means, including facsimile transmission, to the employer. An employer paying wages subject to deduction shall deliver the notice to the person ordered to pay such support. The notice shall advise the obligor (i) of the amount proposed to be withheld, (ii) that the order of the court will apply to current and future income, (iii) of the right to contest the order, (iv) that the obligor must file a written notice of contest of such deduction with the court within 10 days of the date of issuance of the notice, (v) that if the notice is contested, a hearing will be held and a decision rendered within 10 days from the receipt of the notice of contest by the court, unless good cause is shown for additional time, which shall in no event exceed forty-five days from receipt of the notice by the obligor, (vi) that only disputes as to mistakes of fact as defined in § 63.2-1900 will be heard, (vii) that any order for income deduction entered will state when the deductions will start and the information that will be provided to the person's employer, and (viii) that payment of overdue support upon receipt of the notice shall not be a bar to the implementation of withholding. Whenever the obligor and the obligee agree to income deductions in a contract or stipulation, the obligor shall be deemed to have waived notice as required in this subsection and the deduction shall be ordered only upon the stipulation or contract being approved by the court. C. The income deduction order of the court shall by its terms direct the clerk to issue an order in accordance with § 20-79.3 to any employer and, if required, to each future employer, as necessary to implement the order. The order shall cite this section as authority for the entry of the order. D. The rights and responsibilities of employers with respect to income deduction orders are set out in § 20-79.3. E. The order to the employer pursuant to this section shall be effective when a certified copy thereof has been served upon or sent to the employer by electronic means, including facsimile transmission. A copy shall be provided to the employee by the employer. If the employer is a corporation, such service shall be accomplished as is provided in § 8.01-513. F. Any order issued pursuant to this section shall be promptly terminated or modified, as appropriate, after notice and an opportunity for a hearing for the parties when (i) the whereabouts of the children entitled to support and their custodian become unknown, or (ii) the support obligation to an obligee ceases. Any such order shall be promptly modified, as appropriate, when arrearages have been paid in full. G. The Department of Social Services may charge an obligee an appropriate fee when complying with an order entered under this section sufficient to cover the Department's cost. H. If a court of competent jurisdiction in any state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia has ordered a person to pay child support, a court of competent jurisdiction in this Commonwealth, upon motion, notice and opportunity for a hearing as provided in this section, shall enter an income deduction order, conforming with § 20-79.3 as provided in this section. The rights and responsibilities of the employer with respect to the order are set out in § 20-79.3. Similar orders of the courts of this Commonwealth may be enforced in a similar manner in such other state, territory or district. I. The court or clerk shall attempt to ascertain the obligor's pay period interval prior to service of the clerk's order. If, after the order is served, the employer replies to the court that the pay period interval in the income deduction order differs from the obligor's pay period interval, the clerk shall convert the single monetary amount in the income deduction order to an equivalent single monetary amount for the obligor's pay period interval pursuant to a formula approved by the Committee on District Courts. The equivalent single monetary amount shall be contained in a new order issued by the clerk and served on the employer and which conforms to § 20-79.3. J. If the Department of Social Services or the Department's designee receives payments deducted from income of the obligor pursuant to more than one judicial order or a combination of judicial and administrative orders, the Department or the Department's designee shall first allocate such payments among the obligees under such orders with priority given to payment of the order for current support. Where payments are received pursuant to two or more orders for current support, the Department or the Department's designee shall prorate the payments received on the basis of the amounts due under each such order. Upon satisfaction of any amounts due for current support the Department or the Department's designee shall prorate the remainder of the payments received on the basis of amounts due under any orders for accrued arrearages. 1982, c. 298; 1983, c. 481; 1985, c. 488; 1986, c. 594; 1987, cc. 658, 706; 1988, c. 906; 1990, c. 896; 1991, c. 534; 1997, cc. 648, 663; 1998, c. 727; 2018, c. 707. § 20-79.2. Immediate income deduction; income withholding. Every initial order entered on or after July 1, 1995, directing a person to pay child support shall include a provision for immediate withholding from the income of the obligor for the amount of the support order, plus an amount for the liquidation of arrearages, if any, unless the obligor and either the obligee or the Department on behalf of the obligee, agree in writing to an alternative payment arrangement or one of the parties demonstrates and the court finds good cause for not imposing immediate withholding. In determining whether good cause is shown, the court shall consider the obligor's past financial responsibility, history of prior payment under any support order, and any other matter that the court considers relevant to the likelihood of payment in accordance with the support order. An alternative payment arrangement may include but is not limited to, a voluntary income assignment pursuant to § 20-79.1 or § 63.2-1945. An order which modifies an initial order may include a provision for immediate income withholding. The total amount withheld shall not exceed the maximum amount permitted under § 34-29. A withholding order issued to an obligor's employer pursuant to this section shall conform to § 20-79.3. The rights and obligations of the employer with respect to the order are set out in § 20-79.3. The order shall direct the employer to forward payments to the Department for recording and disbursement to the obligee, or as otherwise required by law. The Department shall not charge a fee for recording and disbursing payments when it is providing support enforcement services to the obligee pursuant to § 63.2-1904 or § 63.2-1908. 1988, c. 906; 1990, cc. 836, 896; 1991, c. 534; 1995, c. 714; 1998, c. 727. § 20-79.3. Information required in income deduction order. 19. That the employer shall provide to the employee a copy of the withholding order and the notice to the employee sent by the court. B. If the employer receives an order that (i) does not contain the obligor's correct social security number, (ii) does not specify a single monetary amount to be withheld per regular pay period interval of the obligor, (iii) does not state the maximum percentage which may be withheld pursuant to § 34-29, (iv) contains information which is in conflict with the employer's current payroll records, or (v) orders payment to an entity other than to the Department of Social Services or the Department's designee, the employer may deposit in the mail or otherwise file a reply to that effect within five business days from service of such order. The order shall be void from transmission or filing of such reply unless the court or the Department, as applicable, finds that the reply is materially false. In addition, an employer of 10,000 or more persons may also file a reply, with like effect, if payment is ordered other than by combined single payment in the case of withholdings from multiple employees to the Department's central office in Richmond, without the employer's express written consent, unless the order is from a support enforcement agency outside the Commonwealth. 1990, c. 896; 1991, cc. 651, 694; 1994, c. 767; 1996, c. 416; 1998, c. 727; 2001, c. 209; 2006, c. 365; 2007, c. 557. § 20-80. Violation of orders; trial; forfeiture of recognizance. If at any time the court may be satisfied by information and due proof that the defendant has violated the terms of such order, it may forthwith proceed with the trial of the defendant under the original charge, or sentence him or her, under the original conviction, or annul suspension of sentence, and enforce such sentence, or in its discretion may extend or renew the term of probation as the case may be. Upon due proof that the terms of such order have been violated, the court shall in any event have the power to declare the recognizance forfeited, the sum or sums thereon to be paid, in the discretion of the court, in whole or in part to the defendant's spouse, or to the guardian, curator, custodian or trustee of the minor child or children, or to an organization or individual designated by the court to receive the same. Code 1919, § 1940; 1918, p. 761; 1922, p. 846; 1974, c. 464. § 20-81. Presumptions as to desertion and abandonment. Proof of desertion or of neglect of spouse, child or children by any person shall be prima facie evidence that such desertion or neglect is willful; and proof that a person has left his or her spouse, or his or her child or children in destitute or necessitous circumstances, or has contributed nothing to their support for a period of thirty days prior or subsequent either or both to his or her departure, shall constitute prima facie evidence of an intention to abandon such family. Code 1919, § 1941; 1918, p. 761; 1922, p. 846; 1974, c. 464. § 20-82. Husband and wife competent as witnesses. In every prosecution under this chapter both husband and wife shall be competent witnesses to testify against each other in all relevant matters, including the facts of such marriage, provided that neither shall be compelled to give evidence incriminating himself or herself. Code 1919, § 1941; 1918, p. 761; 1922, p. 846. Whenever the judge of, or magistrate serving, the jurisdiction wherein such offense is alleged to have been committed shall, after an investigation of the facts and circumstances thereof, certify that in his opinion the charge is well founded and the case a proper one for extradition, or in any case if the cost of extradition is borne by the parties interested in the case, the person charged with having left the Commonwealth with the intention of evading the terms of his or her probation or of abandoning or deserting his or her spouse, or his or her child or children, or failing to support them, shall be apprehended and brought back to the county or city having jurisdiction of the case in accordance with the law providing for the apprehension and return to the Commonwealth of fugitives from justice, and upon conviction punished as hereinabove provided. Code 1919, § 1942; 1918, p. 761; 1922, p. 846; 1974, c. 464; 2008, cc. 551, 691. Repealed by Acts 1988, c. 495. Repealed by Acts 2003, c. 467. It shall be the joint and several duty of all persons eighteen years of age or over, of sufficient earning capacity or income, after reasonably providing for his or her own immediate family, to assist in providing for the support and maintenance of his or her mother or father, he or she being then and there in necessitous circumstances. If there be more than one person bound to support the same parent or parents, the persons so bound to support shall jointly and severally share equitably in the discharge of such duty. Taking into consideration the needs of the parent or parents and the circumstances affecting the ability of each person to discharge the duty of support, the court having jurisdiction shall have the power to determine and order the payment, by such person or persons so bound to support, of that amount for support and maintenance which to the court may seem just. Where the court ascertains that any person has failed to render his or her proper share in such support and maintenance it may, upon the complaint of any party or on its own motion, compel contribution by that person to any person or authority which has theretofore contributed to the support or maintenance of the parent or parents. The court may from time to time revise the orders entered by it or by any other court having jurisdiction under the provisions of this section, in such manner as to it may seem just. The juvenile and domestic relations district court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all cases arising under this section. Any person aggrieved shall have the same right of appeal as is provided by law in other cases. All proceedings under this section shall conform as nearly as possible to the proceedings under the other provisions of this chapter, and the other provisions of this chapter shall apply to cases arising under this section in like manner as though they were incorporated in this section. Prosecutions under this section shall be in the jurisdiction where the parent or parents reside. This section shall not apply if there is substantial evidence of desertion, neglect, abuse or willful failure to support any such child by the father or mother, as the case may be, prior to the child's emancipation or, except as provided hereafter in this section, if a parent is otherwise eligible for and is receiving public assistance or services under a federal or state program. To the extent that the financial responsibility of children for any part of the costs incurred in providing medical assistance to their parents pursuant to the plan provided for in § 32.1-325 is not restricted by that plan and to the extent that the financial responsibility of children for any part of the costs incurred in providing to their parents services rendered, administered or funded by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services is not restricted by federal law, the provisions of this section shall apply. A proceeding may be instituted in accordance with this section in the name of the Commonwealth by the state agency administering the program of assistance or services in order to compel any child of a parent receiving such assistance or services to reimburse the Commonwealth for such portion of the costs incurred in providing the assistance or services as the court may determine to be reasonable. If costs are incurred for the institutionalization of a parent, the children shall in no case be responsible for such costs for more than sixty months of institutionalization. Any person violating the provisions of an order entered pursuant to this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment in jail for a period not exceeding twelve months or both. 1920, p. 413; 1922, p. 544; 1928, p. 745; 1942, p. 406; Michie Code 1942, § 1944a; 1952, c. 510; 1954, c. 481; 1962, c. 557; 1968, c. 665; 1970, c. 278; 1974, c. 657; 1975, c. 644; 1982, c. 472; 1984, c. 781; 2009, cc. 813, 840. Repealed by Acts 1992, c. 662. § 20-88.02. Transfer of assets to qualify for assistance; liability of transferees. A. As used in this section, "uncompensated value" means the aggregate amount by which the fair market value of all property or resources, including fractional interests, transferred by any transferor after the effective date of and subject to this section, exceeds the aggregate consideration received for such property or resources. B. Within thirty months prior to the date on which any person receives benefits from any program of public assistance or social services as defined in § 63.2-100, if such person has transferred any property or resources resulting in uncompensated value, the transferee of such property or resources shall be liable to repay the Commonwealth for benefits paid on behalf of the transferor up to the amount of that uncompensated value less $25,000. C. In their discretion, the heads of the agencies which administer the appropriate program or programs of public assistance may petition the circuit court having jurisdiction over the property or over the transferee for an order requiring repayment. That order shall continue in effect, as the court may determine, for so long as the transferor receives public assistance or until the uncompensated value is completely repaid. With respect to all transfers subject to this section, a rebuttable presumption is created that the transferee acted with the intent and for the purpose of assisting the transferor to qualify for public assistance. If the presumption is rebutted, this section shall not apply and the petition shall be dismissed. D. After reasonable investigation, the agency or agencies administering the program of public assistance shall not file any petition, and no court shall order payments under subsection B of this section if it is determined that: (i) the uncompensated value of the property transferred is $25,000 or less, (ii) that the property transferred was the home of the transferor at the time of the transfer and the transferor or any of the following individuals reside in the home: the transferor's spouse, any natural or adopted child of the transferor under the age of twenty-one years or any natural or adopted child of the transferor, regardless of age, who is blind or disabled as defined by the federal Social Security Act or the Virginia Medicaid Program, or (iii) the transferee is without financial means or that such payment would work a hardship on the transferee or his family. If the transferee does not fully cooperate with the investigating agency to determine the nature and extent of the hardship, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that no hardship exists. 1992, c. 662; 2002, c. 747. § 20-88.02:1. Limitations on spousal support orders resulting in eligibility for medical assistance services; definitions. 1. The court shall not enter the requested spousal support order unless the court first orders the institutionalized spouse to make available the maximum income contribution to the community spouse. 2. The court must ascertain, when determining additional income in excess of the federally established community spouse minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance, that the increase is necessary due to exceptional circumstances resulting in significant financial duress to the community spouse. 3. When determining the amount of any additional resources to be allowed to raise the community spouse's income up to either the federally established community spouse minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance or in excess of such minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance, the amount of such additional resources to be allowed shall be the greater of (i) those additional resources necessary to generate an amount sufficient to increase the community spouse's income to the applicable monthly needs or income allowance, as the case may be when based on the current earnings of such resources or (ii) the amount necessary, at the time of the court's deliberations, to purchase a single premium annuity that would generate monthly income to the community spouse in an amount sufficient to increase the community spouse's income to the applicable monthly needs or income allowance, as the case may be. "Community spouse" means the spouse of an individual residing in a medical institution or nursing facility. "Federally established maximum spousal resource allowance" means that amount established as the maximum spousal resource allowance in 42 U.S.C. 1396r-5 (f) (2) (A) as adjusted annually in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1396r-5 (g). "Institutionalized spouse" means an individual who has been residing in a medical institution or nursing facility for at least thirty consecutive days and who is married to an individual who is not residing in a medical institution or nursing facility. "Significant financial duress" means, but is not limited to, threatened loss of basic shelter, food or medically necessary health care or the financial burden of caring for a disabled child, sibling or other immediate relative.

2019-04-20T10:53:01Z

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title20/chapter5/

Manufacturing jobs in USA had its glory days during the 1970s when it peaked at 19.4 million (Figure 1). At that time about one in five American workers had a job in manufacturing. For the next two decades, it was fluctuating around 17.5 million. The free fall happened at the beginning of this millennium from 17.3 million in 2001 to the lowest of 11.5 million in 2010. The mild recession in 2001 and the Great Recession during Dec 2007 to June 2009 accelerated this fall. In the last six years, manufacturing sector just added 800,000 jobs out of the 5.8 million jobs vanished in the first decade of this millennium. Now only one in thirteen American workers has a job in the manufacturing sector. What happened to those experienced and skilled employees? Some of them were moved to low-paying jobs in other industries, some resorted to part-time work, and the remaining just frustrated out of the job market unsuccessfully trying to change their skill sets. The federal and state governments provide many great services for the unemployed including help with job searching, career counseling, and job training. The effectiveness of these training programs, in helping the unemployed to transition to a new job and boosting the local economy with respect to opportunities available, need to be evaluated. The orientation of American economy has transitioned primarily from agriculture (early 1800s) to manufacturing (late 1800s) to service (1980s) sectors. Figure 2 shows the decline in manufacturing sector’s contribution to U.S. GDP and the corresponding increase in service sectors. It decreased from 22.9% in 1970 to 12.1% in 2015 for manufacturing. During the same period, service sector’s (Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing / Professional and business services / Educational services, health care and social assistance) contribution increased from 23% to 41%. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, job growth is expected to be the highest for health care and social assistance sector in the next decade and it will have the highest number of jobs among the entire service sectors by 2022. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Industry Data”, http://www.bea.gov/industry/gdpbyind_data.htm. Why manufacturing jobs are important for U.S. economy? Manufacturing sector is the backbone of any major economy. A county cannot sustain solely based on service sectors. Manufacturing companies drive innovation through their research and development that in turn result in better products and better standard of living. As shown in figure 3, economic multiplier is the highest for the manufacturing sector ($1.33). It means that each dollar in final sales of manufacturing supports $1.33 in output from other sectors. This indicates the positive ripple effects that manufacturing jobs make in our economy. Economic multiplier is the lowest for service sectors. Source: Manufacturing Institute, “Manufacturing’s Multiplier Effect is Stronger that Other Sectors’”, http://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org/Research/Facts-About-Manufacturing/Economy-and-Jobs/Multiplier/Multiplier.aspx. Boosting the Manufacturing sector in U.S. Two suggestions for boosting manufacturing sector are fixing the U.S. corporate tax system and improving the environmental protection policies (DiMicco, 2015). USA has the highest corporate tax rate (39.1 percent) among industrialized nations. In his book, “American Made: Why Making Things will Return Us to Greatness”, Dan DiMicco argues that the ideal corporate tax rate should be 23 percent. It will greatly encourage companies to keep the base and significant presence here in U.S. soil. The environmental regulations are very stringent in United States compared to other countries and may put a drag on the expansion of manufacturing sector. The increasing compliance costs for these regulations will discourage existing and aspiring companies as it is not practical to pass these costs to customers. The impact can be summarized as follows: The air may be microscopically cleaner, but only because nobody’s working (DiMicco, 2015). Following are the two major initiatives under Obama administration that support the manufacturing sector. Formation of Manufacturing USA – the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Through Manufacturing USA, industry, academia, and government partners collaborate and leverage existing resources to establish manufacturing institutes each with a distinct technology focus area. The goal is to secure America’s future through manufacturing innovation, education, and collaboration (Manufacturing.Gov, 2016). Federal government is also working on getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ratified. TPP is a trade agreement among 12 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, USA, and Vietnam) to reduce trade barriers. TPP will eliminate and reduce import taxes–or tariffs-on the American exports to TPP countries and will significantly boost the U.S manufacturing sector (USTR.GOV, 2016). DiMicco, D. (2015). American Made: Why Making Things Will Return Us to Greatness. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN TRADE. Agile has been evolving as the most sought after methodology for Information Technology projects and software product development. With all buzz around agile, organizations that were reluctant earlier on its adoption are now seriously considering to try out some flavor of it. This article explores the evolution of Agile since its humble beginnings in the 1980s and the key differences between Scrum and Kanban, the two most popular Agile approaches. 1984 – Barry Boehm published an empirical study about projects that use prototyping. He pointed out the increasing popularity in the iterative approach. At this point, Agile was meant to have two iterations in a project. The first iteration creates the prototype and the second iteration develops actual product based on feedback received from prototype validation. 1984 – In their paper ‘Knowledge-based communication processes in software engineering’, Gerhard Fischer and Matthias Schneider mentions about incremental design processes based on Rapid Prototyping approach as complete and stable specifications are not available at the beginning of development. 1985 – Tom Gilb published the paper ‘Evolutionary Delivery versus the “waterfall model”’ in which waterfall methodology was criticized as unrealistic and dangerous to the primary objectives of any software project. He introduced Evolutionary Delivery model as an incremental alternative to the traditional approach. 1986: In his paper ‘A Spiral model of software development and enhancement’, Barry Boehm presented an iterative model geared to identifying and reducing risks through prototyping, benchmarking, simulation, reference checking, analytic modeling, or combinations of these and other risk resolution techniques. 1988 – Scott Schultz and James Martin refined the ideas of prototyping and iterative development into a methodology called Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping (RIPP). It focused on the use of ‘timeboxed’ iterations for software development by small and motivated teams. 1991 – James Martin further expanded and formalized RIPP and published the book Rapid Application Development (RAD). It focused on faster development of higher-quality products through more expedient processes such as early prototyping, reusing software components, and less formality in team communications. 1992 – The Crystal family of methodologies was initiated by Alistair Cockburn (it was officially named Crystal in 1997). It comprised of the agile methodologies such as Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, Crystal Orange, and others whose characteristics are driven by team size, system criticality, project priorities, etc. It addresses the fact that each project requires a customized set of policies, practices, and processes to meet the unique characteristics of a project. 1994 – Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) was jointly developed and promoted by the members of DSDM Consortium. It is an Agile framework created out of the need for an industry-standard RAD framework. 1995 – Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland published the paper ‘SCRUM Software Development Process’ that assumed systems development process as unpredictable and complicated and suggested cross-functional and self-organizing teams to develop product increments. Scrum uses the empirical inspect and adapt feedback loops to cope with complexity and risk. 1996 – Extreme Programming (XP) was formulated by Kent Beck. It is renowned for the practices such as pair programming and test driven development. XP empowers the developers to confidently respond to changing customer requirements, even late in the software development lifecycle thus achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction. It promotes high customer involvement, continuous planning, continuous testing, rapid feedback loops, and close teamwork to deliver working software at very frequent intervals. 1997 – Feature Driven Development (FDD) was introduced by Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad. It consists of two main stages: discovering the list of features and then the feature-by-feature implementation. FDD has more formal requirements and steps than XP. 1997 – Adaptive Software Development (ASD) was derived from FDD by Jim Highsmith and Sam Bayer. It consists of a repeating series of speculate, collaborate, and learn cycles that are feature-based, iterative, timeboxed, and risk-driven and facilitates continuous learning and adaptation. 2001 – Representatives from the non-waterfall light processes met together in Utah. They established the term ‘Agile’ for those light processes and developed Agile Manifesto that focuses on a common set of principles. Agile Alliance was incorporated. 2005 – David Anderson experimented with a visual board called the Virtual Kanban System for Software Engineering for a project at Microsoft. Kanban is a form of lean software development approach. The project team uses Work-In-Progress (WIP) limit to the number of items they work at any point in time and ‘pull’ the next work item accordingly. 2009 – Two entities for exploring the Kanban approach were formed, one addressing business concerns, the Lean Systems Society (LSS) and the other aimed at giving the community more visibility, the Limited WIP Society. 2012 – Dean Leffingwell published the first version of Scaled Agile Framework (SaFe) that combines Agile approaches with more enterprise-centric organizational practices to scale Agile to the enterprise-level. 2013 – Craig Larman and Bas Vodde introduced Large-scale Scrum (LeSS) framework for inspecting and adapting the product and process when there are many teams – at least two teams and up to groups of 500 or 1000 people. It exposes weaknesses in organizational design with respect to structure, processes, rewards, people, and tasks and supports organizational change to facilitate an effective Agile transformation. According to a survey (Fig 1) on product methodology adoption rates conducted by Actuation Consulting in November 2014, only 10% of organizations are using the traditional Waterfall methodology for software product development. About 45% of the organizations are using some form of Agile methodology with Scrum (33%) as the leading choice followed by Kanban (3%). The remaining 45% use a cautious and experimental, blended approach by choosing Agile for some of the projects and Waterfall for others. This survey indicates the acceptance of Agile methodology for software product development and the trend favoring Scrum and Kanban approaches. Scrum has garnered increasing popularity in the agile software development community due to its simplicity, proven productivity, and ability to act as a wrapper for various engineering practices promoted by other agile methodologies (McLaughlin, 2015). But, it may not be a one-stop solution towards agility. Due to the organizational culture or the nature of the project, there can be scenarios in which Scrum may not work effectively. In those situations, teams have started opting for Kanban that is less prescriptive and more adaptive in nature. Kanban got only two constraints: Visualize Your Workflow and Limit Your WIP; everything else is up to the team to get adapted to. Following are the major differences between Scrum and Kanban. Organizations are realizing that adoption of Agile processes may not be as easy as it sounds and requires significant organizational culture and process changes and sustained management commitment to gain most out of it. Inspect and adapt nature of Agile methodology can be utilized by teams to experiment and choose an approach (XP, Scrum, Kanban, etc.) that works best for them. Teams can do trial and error on the prescriptive and adaptive processes of an Agile approach and choose the ones that work best for them. The Agile adoption trends towards incorporating the processes from multiple Agile approaches that enable the teams and organizations to be more productive. It will be interesting to see the continuous evolution of Agile practices that facilitate more effective and sustainable enterprise-wide Agile transformation. Kniberg, H., & Skarin, M. (2009). Kanban and Scrum – Making the most of both. InfoQ. As per US Department of Labor statistics, about 30% of the start-up businesses fail within two years and 50% within five years. The longer it takes for failure, the higher will be the product development costs that get wasted. Instead of ‘doing everything you can make it to succeed’, the angel investors and venture capitalists now demand ‘failing fast’ within the first one or two years in order to reduce the overall risk of their investment portfolio. According to Eric Ries, the author of ‘Lean Startup’, technology risk – the risk that the company cannot develop what it is intended to build- is no more an issue. Instead, market risk – the risk of users who do not really want the product – is the factor that decides the fate of a product. He promotes a series of experiments that can be done quickly and inexpensively to gauge customer reactions to new product ideas or features. These experiments can be as simple as customer interviews at a local shopping mall or demonstrating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to customers. Companies can save many millions of dollars by adopting a ‘failing fast’ strategy for a brand new product or a new product feature much before it gets to the production stage. For software product development, Agile methodology supports the implementation of failing fast strategy. The cross-functional and self-organizing teams can develop the most valued features of a product at small increments and test it immediately with customers. The feedback received can be utilized to make improvements to the product or the product idea itself can be abandoned without incurring any additional cost. The travel retailer lastminute.com took this strategy to a new level by moving their development team to the lobby of Cumberland Hotel in London. It allowed the team to show prototypes to travelers directly and getting feedback on risky or raw product concepts (Computer Weekly, 2013). According to Bill Beckler, director of innovation at lastminute.com, their goal is to fail fast rather than letting bad ideas occupy the team’s product backlog. This approach enabled them to demonstrate many ideas directly to the customers and then make additional investment decisions only if that idea created or added value to customers. At Microsoft it used to take a longer time for a defect fix to reach customers due to its extensive development and testing cycles. After realizing that failure is cheap, most new products like Azure and Office 365 have monthly release cycles that incorporates changes demanded by customers. This makes sense for every product development especially considering the faster pace at which technology and consumer tastes change. For an organization, failing fast strategy should enable it to create a company culture based on iterations and continuous improvement. High risk taking and the associated success or failure should be equally rewarded to create an entrepreneurial and friendly environment. This will promote innovation, improve time to market, and reduce development costs. It will only be a failure if organizations fail to learn from its failures. In this month (September, 2014) I have reached a major milestone in my professional life. After being with my current employer for 14 years I made the decision to accept a new job offer. It is going to be a big transition from the comfort zone of the current job to the new uncertain challenges. As I prepare this writing all those memories since the early years in USA started pouring in my mind. Those initial four years in Louisville, Kentucky, learning and adapting to the life in USA, the six months of transit in Troy, Michigan, and then the long ten years in Bloomington, Illinois; life was eventful in the past 14 years. Arrived in USA in 2000, the first year was spent in exploring and verifying whether all those facts and hypes about US was real or not. In the first interaction, my client manager queried whether I am single or married. After conveying my single status, the next question was ‘do you have kids?’. This was an initial experience of the culture shock. Due to the conservative background, such a follow-up question would not generally be asked in India especially if you are single. There were lots of firsts for me in that year; the first car, the first mobile phone, driving the first U-Haul, the first snow, and so on. The Information Technology (IT) department at the Louisville client was very small. Each team member had to perform multiple roles such as of a designer, developer, tester, and trainer in the software application development projects. Even though the concept and terms of Agile/Scrum was not widely known at that time, later I realized that it was one of the best collaborative environments I have involved with. The average duration of an IT project was much shorter although the quality of the final product got compromised at times. The short stint at Troy as an offsite team member for the next client polished the qualities of integrity, responsibility, and timeliness as the client is not directly watching you. The only limitation I found at that time was the lack of instant access to onsite resources. After moving to onsite at the client site in Bloomington, I began to be a part of role-specific assignments. In this highly organized environment, each IT role has its own tasks and you are authorized or expected to perform those tasks only. You can become an expert in that specific job function. It provides the avenue for sharpening specific job skills and helps improve the overall product quality; but negatively affects the average duration of projects. The Agile methodology worked extremely well in certain stand-alone projects to improve productivity and to achieve faster time-to-market; but could not be effectively applied in larger enterprise-wide initiatives. Achieving the right balance of project duration and the product quality should be of upmost importance to the IT departments to make sure that the product is delivered faster than the competitors and the most current needs of the customers are fulfilled. I leave my company and the client with much gratitude and appreciation for the opportunities and the stability it has provided over the years. Thanks to my loving family, wonderful friends and amazing colleagues for your support and encouragement. Best wishes for a better tomorrow and always hope for the best! Note: The opinions expressed in this post are solely of mine and do not represent the opinions of my employer. Is Internet connectivity a human right? In his article Is Connectivity a Human Right?, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, points out the significance of the global knowledge economy and how the access to the Internet can contribute and enhance the global collaboration and productivity. In order to achieve this, he promotes Internet connectivity as a human right. Even though the vast majority of the world population lacks the Internet connection, it may not be right to term it as a human right. Instead, I prefer to see it as a medium for each country to empower its citizens and utilize the Internet’s possibilities to achieve economic prosperity. The infrastructure gets expanded progressively by the market-savvy and profit-seeking Internet applications and telecommunications companies. It is up to the political leaders of each country to take the bold policy initiatives to ensure seamless and unfiltered internet connectivity to shape its economic future. Following are the three major challenges in providing the internet connectivity to all. First, building a cost effective infrastructure is the biggest one. Wireless technologies seem to be promising in covering the remote areas of the world effectively. In addition to the efforts by Facebook as listed in this article, Google has recently initiated an effort to build and run wireless networks to help connect a billion or more people to the internet. Second, each customer segment should be studied thoroughly and offered the internet applications that will directly help them to improve their daily lives. For farmers, weather related information and pricing updates for their goods are of more importance than access to a social media site. Third, obtaining the political will of a country’s leaders is a significant challenge especially considering the corruption in government establishments in the developing and third-world countries. They may be afraid that empowering the common people would affect their existence. Internet has proven itself as a great medium to invoke entrepreneurship spirit and to enable the timely communication of key information. As the acceptance and utilization of Internet’s infinite possibilities increase, it in turn accelerates the economic growth of a country. The Internet connectivity need not be considered a human right, but its enormous benefits, if properly leveraged, can enhance the lives of people. If the political leadership of each country can realize this aspect and formulates a vision for the cost effective internet connectivity, the world will definitely be a better place. Fidelman, M. Why Mobile is Critical to Developing Nations. Retrieved August 30, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com. Worstall, T. Google’s excellent plan to bring wireless internet to developing countries. Retrieved August 30, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com.. Imagine yourself in the year 2020 shopping around to change the auto insurance provider. You will come across Usage Based Insurance (UBI) quotes where a basic premium need to be paid every month for the liability coverage. The additional premium amount will be calculated based on the number of miles you drive, the location you drive, and how efficiently you drive. All this customer information is transferred automatically from your car to the insurance company and the final premium will be calculated based on your average risk profile value for the month. Are you seeing a similarity with the utility bill calculation that is based on the usage? Yes, Insurance industry will undergo a major transformation in the coming decade in its approach on assessing the risk profile. There will be more usage based offerings that fit the need of the modern customer. This will be made possible by the technological advancements and the efficient utilization of Big Data. Big Data is not a technology, but rather a phenomenon resulting from the vast amount of raw information generated across society, and collected by commercial and government organizations (TechAmerica Foundation, 2013). The four basic characteristics of Big Data are the volume (data at rest), velocity (data in motion), variety (data in many formats), and veracity (data quality). Volume refers to the large quantity of data that must be analyzed and managed to make decisions. Velocity is the speed at which data is produced, changed and processed. The Variety attribute refers to the structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that comes from within and outside of the organization. The Veracity points to the quality of received data. Insurance companies have been processing the structured data for many decades and it helps them to better serve the customers with innovative products and services. In the insurance industry, volume indicates the large amount of transactions that occurs every day from quotes, policy, claims, and payments. The velocity aspect provides the ability to calculate the risk profile of the insured person every hour or every day. The variety aspect of Big Data is also interesting. Organizations can gather unstructured data such as text, voice, and video from non-traditional data sources such as mobile, social media, videos, chat, and sensors. Analyzing the structured data with the data gathered from non-traditional sources enable an organization to make better and informed decisions and thus improve its competitive advantage. The insurance industry faces many challenges in properly integrating the structured and unstructured data. Legacy IT systems, lack of skilled resources, credibility and reliability of big data, and privacy issues are the hurdles the industry has to overcome to harness the full potential of Big Data (Pozzi, 2014). Companies that can overcome these challenges and incorporate Big Data in their decision process will be able to add more value to their customers and other stakeholders. Pozzi, S. (2014). Big Data Big opportunities. Best’s Review, March 2014, p 60. When does an idea become an opportunity? The thought of a new idea can sometimes be so exciting that we tend to initiate the work on the prototype right away. It is very essential to understand that all ideas not necessarily lead into or turn out to be good opportunities. I came across this idea of creating a personal bill management solution (say e-Bill) that provides a platform to effectively manage the bills/statements consumers receive from the providers of utilities, credit cards, banking, mortgages, and other services. Let us evaluate this idea based on the required characteristics of a real business opportunity. Value is created when the benefits to the customer exceed the costs of product or service. The e-Bill idea offers great value to both the bill providers and the consumers. The bill providers are benefited from the cost savings in not printing the paper copies of the bills and statements. For consumers, the e-Bill solution provides a one-stop solution for managing and paying their personal bills and statements. 2. Fix a real problem in the market, something that is truly a market pain. When analyzing at the customer survey I took for this idea, it turns out that about 52% of consumers do not have any concerns. But a promising 33% have some concerns about the existing solutions. 3. The need for the product or service is pervasive, the customer wants urgently to fix it, and the customer is willing to pay to fix it. When looking at the following two responses, about 86% of consumers are interested in a new bill management solution and are ready to give it a try. About 38% of those are willing to pay an annual fee for it. 4. They have robust market, margin, and profitability characteristics that the entrepreneur can prove. In a seven year financial projection, it shows that e-Bill solution attains one million customers in the fourth year of its operation. Also, the startup becomes profitable only in the fifth year. 5. The founders and management team have collective domain experience that matches the opportunity. The two founders have three decades of collective experience in designing and managing software products. In order for an effective execution, the team needs an advisory board with expertise in operations, sales and marketing, and human resources. By applying these characteristics to the e-Bill idea, I have arrived at the conclusion whether it is just an idea or a real opportunity. I will share it in a future blog post. Spinelli, S., & Adams, R. (2012). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century. Business and Economics. What does MBA mean to me? The Commencement ceremony at University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) on May 17th, 2014 marked the culmination of my pursuit towards an MBA degree. Last two years were extremely busy with a dedication of 40 hours per week for studies in addition to my full time job commitment with the same number of weekly work hours. While relaxing at home this weekend without any stress for meeting an assignment deadline, I started to reflect on what exactly the MBA degree means to me. Am I a different person thinking in terms of the management and finance language? Does it add more value to my current career and search towards a career change? Was it worth the time and money as many potential MBA aspirants concerned about? Unlike a medical or law degree, an MBA does not entitle one to do any specific thing professionally. It will not automatically qualify a person to march towards the executive leadership position. The fourteen courses that I took in five semesters imparted lots of new knowledge that I always wanted to learn about. I chose to do the electives in Entrepreneurship to get a certification in that field. It opened up more avenues in understanding how to capitalize on opportunities and the various stages of starting a company and how differently one needs to think when creating an actual business plan. But an MBA in Entrepreneurship does not guarantee success in my endeavors. Actually one does not need to get an MBA to be a successful entrepreneur or to get on top of the executive ladder. It is an individual’s personal drive and how effectively he/she can utilize the available resources and contacts make the difference. For me the Entrepreneurship concentration provided the tools and confidence to start my own venture and/or to identify the entrepreneurship opportunities within the current job in order to create or add significant value to a customer or end user. Attending the Springfield Angel Investor meet and the Chicago Startup Weekend provided a great practical experience that no textbooks can provide. I attended the UIS Cohort program that enabled a batch of fourteen students to start and finish the MBA together by following a defined set of courses in every semester. It also facilitated more collaboration among the students. The classes were on Friday evenings and on Saturdays at Peoria, Illinois; for certain electives, I needed to attend classes at Springfield or online. Learning from your peers is a true and fulfilling experience. During the class discussions or the course assignments, we had the opportunity to hear the real experiences and problem-solving stories from fellow-students. The quality of your peers can affect the way we understand a concept or like/dislike a course. Our batch was fortunate to have a wide mix of backgrounds that has enhanced our learning experience. Each subject ended with still more readings to be done and discussions to be made. We plan to continue our interactions through a social networking group and through annual get-togethers. Yes, an MBA can make you a different person in terms of your thinking and interactions; but like any motivational speech, the effects will be temporary unless you continue the momentum through your real and sincere efforts. In your current career, an MBA can have positive effects if the employer mandates it for certain positions. Also, the way in which you proactively project yourselves as a change agent in applying the newly acquired knowledge can make a big difference. For the risk takers, sky is the limit if you like to change your career direction or do a career progression by moving to a new employer. You should be prepared to accept a lower salary if your new interest or dream position is different from the current one and you possess minimal or no experience in that. I strongly feel that I did the right decision to spend my time and money on earning an MBA and it will help me grow personally and professionally. It will hold true as long as I can effectively identify the right opportunities and act on it to add more value to all the stakeholders. What do Banks look for in a Commercial Loan Application? I had the opportunity to hear from Mark Vance, SVP of Carrollton Bank, on the review process for the commercial loan applications they receive. Here are the six key factors that Bankers review before approving a commercial loan. These factors are listed in the order of its significance. The clean image of the founders/executives of the applicant company is a key factor in the approval process for a loan. If those executives are introduced to the bank through a strong referral, it will be a great advantage. If the referencing person is already a reputed customer of the Bank, it will have a huge influence on their final approval. Banks look for an excellent credit score for the founders/executives of the company. If you have bad stories from the past, do not try to hide those facts. You can try to be frank and explain the specifics of those situations. Creditors always like to hear how an applicant braved the adverse circumstances in the past and became successful. A company’s cash flow is the net profit plus its non-cash expenses minus the depreciation and amortization. The creditors look for some minimal levels of cash flow as it can be used to pay back the loan. Also, other creditors and employees can be paid on time indicating the stability for the company. There must be enough cash balance needed to handle the losses, if any, during the initial months. The other income of the founders/executives is scrutinized at this stage to assess the loan-repayment capacity. The Bankers want to identify the other assets of the applicant/co-applicants so that it can be easily converted to cash if needed. These include real estate holdings, certificate of deposit, savings accounts, and stock portfolios that can be liquidated faster. Banks may not approve the loan without any collateral. Usually the repayment of the loan can be done if the company has enough cash flow. Otherwise, it can be repaid using the available cash or by using the Net Worth items listed above. All these six factors need not be absolutely perfect for an applicant even though a healthy mix will work out to be ideal. The applicant company should also produce a Business Plan that encompasses these six items. Business Plan should not be an optional document; instead it is a pre-requisite for the loan application. An easy-to-read, visually appealing Business Plan can be a deal-winner. Power by definition is the ability to recognize and realize the potential of whatever position you are in. The Conviction and Connection model of power shows the fine point where the self-oriented (conviction) and the other-oriented (connection) dimensions meet. Conviction is defined as having a clearly defined position and being both willing and able to communicate it. Connection is the ability to listen, empathize, understand, and care about another person’s point of view (Purcell, 2013). There are two extremes for conviction. One extreme is the rigid position in which there is no conflict because ‘I AM RIGHT’. In the other extreme, it is wishy-washy like a wet bar soap. There is no conflict here, but the leader is un-reliable, incompetent and non-trustworthy. For connection, there are two extremes as well. One extreme is the cut-off where the person unplugs, shows attitude and try to avoid others. In the other extreme, the person is too curious about and over-accommodating others that raise eyebrows and suspicion. There can be moments in our work life where we may not have a clearly defined position during the project discussions and incidents where we care more about others’ positions so as not to hurt their feelings. In order to become powerful, or cultivate leadership traits, one needs to move away from these extremes and find the right balance of both conviction and connection. Even when we have a clearly defined position, if we are not willing to effectively communicate that, it will be a clear case of under-conviction. In the similar way, if we do not listen to or clarify others’ positions by taking an indifferent approach, we will not be able to connect with them at all. True leaders always strive to find the right balance between conviction and connection.

2019-04-18T19:01:58Z

http://www.samkurian.com/

depending on the application, the failure mode, consequences, etc. determine the maximum sustainable load the system can handle. transaction arrival rate in performance testing. * TESTING means "quality control" What is black box/white box testing? But I was involved/participated actively with my Team Leader while creatiing Test Plans. meets the requirements and expectations and is maintainable. In practice. plans. etc. which . Unit testing is usually associated with structural test design. What do you like and dislike in this job? Like: Finding faults with the code and driving an application to perfection. White-box test design allows one to peek inside the "box". code. Behavioral test design is slightly different from black-box test design because the use of internal knowledge isn't strictly forbidden. Verification evaluates documents. and not vice versa. carrying out testing with limited resources. system testing. requirements and specifications. opaque-box. walkthroughs and inspection meetings. While black-box and white-box are terms that are still in popular use. How do you determine what to test? The duties of the software Tester is to go through the requirements documents and functional specification and based on those documents one should focus on writing test cases.black-box include: behavioral. One has to use a mixture of different methods so that they aren't hindered by the limitations of a particular one.) can use any test design methods. Have you ever created a test plan? I have never created any test plan.limited time and limited effort and uncovering bugs is a very challenging & creative task. but others wish we'd stop talking about boxes altogether. specifications and requirements. I developed and executed testcases. but this is because testers usually don't have well-defined requirements at the unit level to validate. and it focuses specifically on using internal knowledge of the software to guide the selection of test data. Dislikes: There is nothing that I can state as my dislike for my role as a tester.challenging by thinking about the application in the end user's perception. The input of verification are checklists. it hasn't proven useful to use a single test design method. The output of verification is a nearly perfect set of documents. it is interesting that we are doing destructive work but in the long term it is a consructive work. Some call this "gray-box" or "translucent-box" test design. Synonyms for white-box include: structural. glass-box and clear-box. Note that any level of testing (unit testing. Validation evaluates the product itself. Define quality for me as you understand it It is a software that is reasonably bug-free and delivered on time and within the budget. and closed-box. plans. it's very interesting. It is important to understand that these methods are used during the test design phase. functional. many people prefer the terms "behavioral" and "structural". reviews and meetings. Describe the difference between validation and verification Verification takes place before validation. and their influence is hard to see in the tests once they're implemented. issue lists. The input of validation is the actual testing of an actual product. but it's still discouraged. Software testing is a trade-off between budget. the main course of testing is to check for the existance of defects or errors in a program or project or product.use cases. The integration of one or more components is a component. Unit Testing: in unit testing called components (or communicating components) are replaced with stubs. Correctness testing and reliability testing are two major areas of testing. this type of testing conducting who knows the domain knowledge.B). larger. it does not include any called sub-components (for procedural languages) or communicating components in general. or reliability estimation.Also we can say that the Purpose of Testing is to Analyse that the Product or project is according to Requirnments. verification and validation. As defined. Testing can be used as a generic metric as well. What are unit. components A and B are integrated to create a new. Thus.sanity testing in this situation i will try to test the application with the perception of end user. Note: The reason for "one or more" as contrasted to "Two or more" is to allow for components that call themselves recursively. Once the build is ready for testing. or trusted components. A unit typically is the work of one programmer (At least in principle). What is the purpose of the testing? The purpose of testing can be quality assurance. based up on some predefined instructions or conditions. The tester should carry out all these procedures at the time of application under development. so that all other testers can be ready for testing their modules/functionality. They have been compiled. b.it just means that A is a big component . The unit is tested in isolation.frame work. Make sure. Calling components are replaced with drivers or trusted super-components. and i use my(or someones) previous experiences. component and integration testing? Unit. The smallest compilable component. here we are not prepare any formal test plans and testcase documents. They have successfully passed the integration tests at the interface between them. component: a unit is a component. we know what to test and how to proceed for the testing. this type of testing conduting ad-hoc testing.covers all the functionality to be tested. time and quality. component (A. and loaded together.this is mainly called ad- hoc testing. How do you test if you have minimal or no documentation about the product? based on previous experiance on that particular product we start testing . most of the time we perform ad-hoc on this type of applications. main functionality is tested first. simulators. linked. Two components (actually one or more) are said to be integrated when: a. component testing: the same as unit testing except that all stubs and simulators are replaced with the real thing. Note that this does not conflict with the idea of incremental integration -. of course. passage of data through global data structures and/or the use of pointers.not based on any knowledge of internal design or code. There have been variations on these definitions. Let A and B be two components in which A calls B. branches. and B. the component in question is the entire system). and regression testing. is a small one. Examples of system testing issues: resource loss bugs. Not always easily done unless the application has a well- designed architecture with tight code. as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. Note: Sensitize is a technical term. .based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application's code. Tbsa + Tab == the integration test suite (+ = union). the component added. requires that various aspects of an application's functionality be independent enough to work separately before all parts of the program are completed. recovery. Tests are based on requirements and functionality.the inputs are to A. incremental integration testing . transaction synchronization bugs (often misnamed "timing bugs"). especially as concerns integration testing. based on them. System testing specifically goes after behaviors and bugs that are properties of the entire system as distinct from properties attributable to components (unless. done by programmers or by testers. Integration testing: This is easily generalized for OO languages by using the equivalent constructs for message passing. What kinds of testing should be considered? Black box testing . but the key point is that it is pretty darn formal and there's a goodly hunk of testing theory.continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added. throughput bugs. not B. the word "call" is to be understood in the most general sense of a data flow and is not restricted to just formal subroutine calls and returns -.for example. may require developing test driver modules or test harnesses. The inputs are to A. paths.the most 'micro' scale of testing. to test particular functions or code modules. OO testing. The outcome of the test of B may or may not be affected. Tbsa The tests in B's suite for which it is possible to sensitize A -. Tbsa is the set of tests which do cause A to follow a path in which B is called. performance. White box testing . As to the difference between integration testing and system testing. conditions. In the following. Tests are based on coverage of code statements. or that test drivers be developed as needed. security. It means inputs that will cause a routine to go down a specified path. Let Ta be the component level tests of A Let Tb be the component level tests of B Tab The tests in A's suite that cause A to call B. unit testing . Not every input to A will cause A to traverse a path in which B is called. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers. if the new software is crashing systems every 5 minutes. Also used to describe such tests as system functional testing while under unusually heavy loads. context-driven testing .re-testing after fixes or modifications of the software or its environment. informal software test that is not based on formal test plans or test cases. failover testing . applications. Programmers and testers are usually not appropriate as usability testers. It can be difficult to determine how much re-testing is needed. minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing.black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application.determining if software is satisfactory to an end-user or customer. functional testing . or upgrade install/uninstall processes. or interacting with other hardware.term often used interchangeably with 'stress' and 'load' testing. or systems if appropriate. the software may not be in a 'sane' enough condition to warrant further testing in its current state. covers all combined parts of a system. surveys. ad-hoc testing . end-to-end testing . or corrupting databases. acceptance testing . user acceptance testing . For example. etc.testing of combined parts of an application to determine if they function together correctly. or other catastrophic problems.comparing software weaknesses and strengths to competing products. partial. involves testing of a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use. Clearly this is subjective.similar to exploratory testing. recovery testing .term often used interchangeably with 'load' and 'performance' testing. or based on use by end-users/customers over some limited period of time.final testing based on specifications of the end-user or customer. compatability testing . hardware failures. Ideally 'performance' testing (and any other 'type' of testing) is defined in requirements documentation or QA or Test Plans. such as testing of a web site under a range of loads to determine at what point the system's response time degrades or fails. especially near the end of the development cycle. alpha testing . and other techniques can be used. regression testing . using network communications. The 'parts' can be code modules. bogging down systems to a crawl.testing of an application when development is nearing completion. not by programmers or testers. exploratory testing . stress testing .testing of full.) system testing .typically an initial testing effort to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to accept it for a major testing effort.integration testing .similar to system testing.testing driven by an understanding of the environment.black-box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications. input of large numerical values. install/uninstall testing . performance testing . environment. etc.testing an application under heavy loads. This doesn't mean that the programmers shouldn't check that their code works before releasing it (which of course applies to any stage of testing. User interviews. usability testing . Automated testing tools can be especially useful for this type of testing.typically used interchangeably with 'recovery testing' security testing . and intended use of software. testers may be learning the software as they test it. culture. client and server applications on a network. load testing . For example. comparison testing .often taken to mean a creative.testing for 'user-friendliness'. willful damage. . but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software before testing it.testing how well a system recovers from crashes. video recording of user sessions. heavy repetition of certain actions or inputs. Typically done by end-users or others. etc. this type of testing should be done by testers. sanity testing or smoke testing . This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems. may require sophisticated testing techniques.testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access. large complex queries to a database system. and will depend on the targeted end-user or customer.testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating system/network/etc. the testing approach for life-critical medical equipment software would be completely different than that for a low-cost computer game. the 'macro' end of the test scale. individual applications. such as interacting with a database. by deliberately introducing various code changes ('bugs') and retesting with the original test data/cases to determine if the 'bugs' are detected. easy to chage What are basic. walkthroughs usin check lists.when project deadlines comes 3. core.a method for determining if a set of test data or test cases is useful.less complexity 5.Bug rate falls down to certain level 5. 3.its a continuous process. CVS and many others. tools.all the test cases are executed with the certain percentage of pass.well documented 6. Proper implementation requires large computational resources. his work is preventive work. he does his work by conducting reviews. libraries.verifying the completeness and correctness of ITEMS. compilers. problems.Alpha and beta tesing period expires 6. patches and changes made to them. practises for a QA specialist? QA always monitors the project from beginning to end.meetings. What is Configuration management? Tools used? Software configuration management (SCM) is the control. designs. software configuration management is the decipline for systematically controlling the changes that take place during development.The Exit criteria are met 2. Typically done by end-users or others.independent 4. SCM covers the tools and processes used to control. PVCS. if there is process violation takes places then he takes a CAPA(corrective action and preventive action). SCM is the process of identifying and defining the ITEMS in the system. here configuration means arrangement of the parts of the software. and the recording that are made to the software and documentation throughout the software development cycle (SDLC). requirements.bug free 2. 1. mutation testing .beta testing . coordinate and track code. 2. change requests.testing when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before final release. 8. and to keep track of who males the changes. not by programmers or testers.But there can be some factors influencing the span of testing process: 1. Tools include Rational ClearCase.recording and reporting the status of the ITEMS and change requests 4. Managemet which configures the software is called SCM. documentation. Doors. issue lists. .when all the core functionality is tested 4.reusable 3.All high seviority bugs are closed What is good code? a code which is 1.when all the test cases are passed with certain level 7. controlling the change of these ITEMS throughout their life cycle.. When should testing be stopped? There can be no end to Testing. require walkthroughs and inspections when appropriate. design. miscommunication . make extensive use of group communication tools . as an automation engineer. If changes are necessary. and documentation. we can test data base retrieval time by using some complex and simple querries. intranet capabilities. budget etc. and how do you manage them? Main issue is the frequent change request. we need to take care of the changing objects and functionalities to update the scripts. Use prototypes to help nail down requirements. What are 5 common problems in the software development process? poor requirements . networked bug-tracking tools and change management tools.allow adequate time for planning. etc. 'Early' testing ideally includes unit testing by developers and built-in testing and diagnostic capabilities. attainable. insure that information/documentation is available . What issues come up in test automation.clear. complete. they should be adequately reflected in related schedule changes. In 'agile'-type environments. problems are inevitable. inadequate testing .requests to pile on new features after development is underway. personnel availability.be prepared to defend against excessive changes and additions once development has begun. groupware. detailed. What are 5 common solutions to software development problems? solid requirements .if too much work is crammed in too little time.There are several points to be considered here. incomplete. featuritis .e-mail. and be prepared to explain consequences. If possible.Exhaustive testing is not possible and also a time consuming process and hence not recommended. bug fixing.no one will know whether or not the program is any good until the customer complains or systems crash. work closely with customers/end-users to manage expectations.Should we test every possible combination/scenario for a program? Its not mandatory. changes. problems are guaranteed. re-testing. testing.Using boundary value analysis techinque and equivalence class we can reduce the no of possible combination Is an "A fast database retrieval rate" a testable requirement? it depends on the end user requirement if the end user required that data from the database must retrieved fast then it is a testable requirement.if developers don't know what's needed or customer's have erroneous expectations. But we should conver to the maximum extent satisfying the primary functionalities which are important and too much visible from the customer point of view. re-test after fixes or changes. and not testable. there will be problems. extremely common. adequate testing . too general.start testing early on. communication . personnel should be able to complete the project without burning out. continuous coordination with customers/end-users is necessary. realistic schedules . plan for adequate time for testing and bug-fixing. availble resources. Delivery time available.if requirements are unclear.. stick to initial requirements as much as possible . complexity of the application under testing. If there are frequent changes in the system. cohesive. This will provide them a higher comfort level with their requirements decisions and minimize excessive changes later on. testable requirements that are agreed to by all players. unrealistic schedule . Level 3 . and 0.S. Defense Department to help improve software development processes.and up-to-date . meets requirements and/or expectations. It will depend on who the 'customer' is and their overall influence in the scheme of things. delivered on time and within budget. processes. 27% were rated at Level 1. successes may not be repeatable.S. successful practices can be repeated. developed by the SEI. quality is obviously a subjective term. magazine columnists.) The median size of organizations was 100 software . However. Project performance is predictable. Defense Department contractors. many of the QA processes involved are appropriate to any organization. now called the CMMI ('Capability Maturity Model Integration').preferably electronic. etc. requirements management. Level 1 . Level 2 .the focus is on continouous process improvement.characterized by chaos. realistic planning. 23% at 2.4% at 5. a Software Engineering Process Group is is in place to oversee software processes. 39% at 2.standard software development and maintenance processes are integrated throughout an organization. What is SEI? CMM? CMMI? ISO? IEEE? ANSI? Will it help? SEI = 'Software Engineering Institute' at Carnegie-Mellon University. promote teamwork and cooperation. and heroic efforts required by individuals to successfully complete projects. not paper. and 5% at 5. and if reasonably applied can be helpful. CMM = 'Capability Maturity Model'. The impact of new processes and technologies can be predicted and effectively implemented when required. and products. It is geared to large organizations such as large U. and training programs are used to ensure understanding and compliance. use protoypes if possible to clarify customers' expectations. 6% at 4. Organizations can receive CMMI ratings by undergoing assessments by qualified auditors.metrics are used to track productivity. What is software 'quality'? Quality software is reasonably bug-free. and is maintainable. 2% at 4. initiated by the U. Of those. and configuration management processes are in place. and quality is consistently high. Few if any processes in place. customer acceptance testers. A wide-angle view of the 'customers' of a software development project might include end-users.software project tracking. Each type of 'customer' will have their own slant on 'quality' . 13% at 3. 23% at 3. (For ratings during the period 1992-96. Perspective on CMM ratings: During 1997-2001. 62% were at Level 1. 1018 organizations were assessed. Level 5 . Level 4 . customer management. stockholders. periodic panics. future software maintenance engineers. customer contract officers. However. the development organization's management/accountants/testers/salespeople.the accounting department might define quality in terms of profits while an end- user might define quality as user-friendly and bug-free. It's a model of 5 levels of process 'maturity' that determine effectiveness in delivering quality software. The full set of standards consists of: (a)Q9001-2000 . Bootstrap.Quality Management Systems: Guidelines for Performance Improvements. ITIL.S. Also see http://www.iso.S. By using a test plan that requires you to test each unit and ensure the viability of each before combining units. creates standards such as 'IEEE Standard for Software Test Documentation' (IEEE/ANSI Standard 829). TickIT. This allows high-level logic and data flow to be tested early in the process and it tends to minimize the need for drivers. 'IEEE Standard for Software Quality Assurance Plans' (IEEE/ANSI Standard 730).The ISO 9001:2000 standard (which replaces the previous standard of 1994) concerns quality systems that are assessed by outside auditors. publishes some software-related standards in conjunction with the IEEE and ASQ (American Society for Quality). You can do integration testing in a variety of ways but the following are three common strategies: The top-down approach to integration testing requires the highest-level modules be test and integrated first. MOF.it indicates only that documented processes are followed. Another disadvantage of top-down integration testing is its poor support for early release of limited functionality. and others. two units that have already been tested are combined into a component and the interface between them is tested.org/ IEEE = 'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' . The idea is to test combinations of pieces and eventually expand the process to test your modules with those of other groups. production. development. and certification is typically good for about 3 years. In the U. However. and it applies to many kinds of production and manufacturing organizations. A component. refers to an integrated aggregate of more than one unit.Quality Management Systems: Requirements. 'IEEE Standard of Software Unit Testing (IEEE/ANSI Standard 1008). testing.. they should be tested in pairs rather than all at once. (c)Q9004-2000 . Beyond that. Eventually all the modules making up a process are tested together. utility modules are tested early in the development process and the need for stubs is minimized. Trillium. Integration Testing :- Integration testing is a logical extension of unit testing. which are in turn aggregated into even larger parts of the program. 32% of organizations were U. These units are frequently referred to as utility modules. Other software development/IT management process assessment methods besides CMMI and ISO 9000 include SPICE. not just software. It covers documentation.S. By using this approach. In a realistic scenario. and CobiT. This method reduces the number of possibilities to a far simpler level of analysis. the need for stubs complicates test management and low-level utilities are tested relatively late in the development cycle. ANSI = 'American National Standards Institute'. The downside. federal contractors or agencies. and other processes. if the program is composed of more than one process.among other things. (b)Q9000-2000 . however. ISO = 'International Organisation for Standardization' . the primary industrial standards body in the U. installation. engineering/maintenance personnel. the most problematical key process area was in Software Quality Assurance. many units are combined into components. For those rated at Level 1. Note that ISO certification does not necessarily indicate quality products . design. In its simplest form.Quality Management Systems: Fundamentals and Vocabulary.asq.ch/ for the latest information. Integration testing identifies problems that occur when units are combined. To be ISO 9001 certified. after which a complete reassessment is required. servicing. in this sense. the standards can be purchased via the ASQ web site at http://e-standards. The bottom-up approach requires the lowest-level units be tested and integrated first. is . a third-party auditor assesses an organization. you know that any errors discovered when combining units are likely related to the interface between units. Often it is noticed that during testing of the application. This paper presents an approach to handle different factors that affect application security testing. the bottom-up approach also provides poor support for early release of limited functionality. Infrastructure security etc are not under developers’ control. The developers should only define the highest priority features. the inputs for functions are integrated in the bottom- up pattern discussed above.Trust is a key component to customer adoption and retention. Subject: What's the 'spiral model'? Basically. Like the top-down approach. Why Web Application Security Should be Part of Your Web Risk Management Program There are many reasons your organization should identify and address web application security vulnerabilities as part of your web risk management program: Reduce Cost of Recovery and Fixes -. and other features of a description of functionality. With this knowledge. First. operating system hardening procedures. in that it can be less systematic than the other two approaches. intrusion detection systems.The basic idea involves counting inputs. etc. Web based Application Security Testing 1. Most organizations already have some degree of online security infrastructure like firewalls. Subject: What's a 'function point'? Function points and feature points are methods of estimating the "amount of functionality" required for a program. The outputs for each function are then integrated in the top-down manner. security doesn't get due focus and whatever security testing is done it is mainly limited to security functionality testing as captured in the requirements document. and are thus used to estimate project completion time.that the need for drivers complicates test management and high-level logic and data flow are tested late. they should then go back to define and implement more features in smaller chunks. Application Security is under developers’ control but other security aspects like IT security. requires testing along functional data and control-flow paths. • Encourage Website Adoption -. This white paper talks about application security for web based application. 2. The Tower Group cited that 26% of customers don’t use online banking for security fears and another 6% do not due . The potential weaknesses of this approach are significant.outputs. then get feedback from users/customers (such feedback distinguishes "evolutionary" from "incremental" development). Network Security. Don't define in detail the entire system at first. It also helps minimize the need for stubs and drivers. Introduction Security is one of the prime concerns for all the Internet applications.Consumers are still not adopting websites as a preferred channel for doing business.Computer security attacks cost as much as $10 billion a year. The primary advantage of this approach is the degree of support for early release of limited functionality. however. the idea is evolutionary development. The third approach.3 Ensure Customer Trust -. it's intended to help manage risks. Define and implement those. Any mistake at requirement gathering stage can leave the application vulnerable to potential attacks. The problem is that they often overlook the need to secure and verify the integrity of internally developed applications and code pages against external attacks. leading to the need for more regression testing. using the waterfall model for each step. sometimes referred to as the umbrella approach. damage to credibility.to privacy issues. are probed daily. Prominent sites from a number of regulated industries including financial services. healthcare. 3. They include forms that collect personal. most companies deploy several patches a week.000 lines of code. government. therefore. legal liability.5 full workweeks or 700 hours.000 servers can spend $300. No one on the Internet is immune from security threats.200 vulnerabilities published by CERT last year for just 10 minutes would have required 1 staffer to research for 17. a business gets done. and confidential information such as medical history. many Web-based applications have inherent vulnerabilities and security- oriented design flaws. . Web applications are used to perform most major tasks or website functions. and loss of customer trust. and retail. Other organizations spend millions on outsourced security assessment and ethical hacking resources. has noted that almost 75 percent of attacks are tunneling through web applications.Many organizations are using trust as a key competitive advantage and are leveraging customer fears to proactively implement security and privacy programs to ease the uncertainty.000 lines of code. Web-based applications are enabling interaction among customers. and partners. classified. Consider these statistics: On average. Why Web Application Security is Important The Internet has forever changed the way. web applications have been developed and deployed with minimal attention given to security risks. or roughly $30. there are anywhere from 5 to 15 defects per 1. Internet- based attacks exploit these weaknesses to compromise sites and gain access to critical systems. In the race to develop online services. resulting in a surprising number of corporate sites that are vulnerable to hackers. Fixing one of these defects takes 2 to 9 hours each. prospects. Unfortunately.4 Maintain Competitive Advantage –. • Gartner Group estimates that a company with 1.000. The consequences of a security breach are great: loss of revenues. Security awareness for Web-based applications is. Gartner Inc. credit and bank account information and user satisfaction feedback. Web application security is a significant privacy and risk compliance concern that remains largely unaddressed. test security using costly manual processes that cannot address all potential website risks. Reduce Cost of Manual and Outsourced Security Testing -– Many organizations today. • A 5-year Pentagon study concluded that it takes an average of 75 minutes to track down one defect. essential to an organization’s overall security posture. That translates to 150 hours. to clean every 1.000 to test and deploy a patch. • Researching each of the 4. especially ones in regulated industries. • Attacker can easily change any part of the HTTP request before submitting o URL o Cookies o Form fields o Hidden fields o Headers • Encoding is not encrypting • Inputs must be validated on the server (not just the client) Countermeasures • Tainting (Perl) • Code reviews (check variable against list of allowed values. The baseline is "not trust user input" and "not trust client side process results". with a user falling into a member of groups or roles with different abilities or privileges.1. to some users and not others. and eGraffiting 9 Stealth Commanding Concealing Weapons 10 3r d Party Mis-configuration Debilitating a Site 11 XML and Web services New layers of attack vectors & Vulnerabilities malicious use 12 SQL Injection Manipulation of DB information 3. Identity Theft. Threat Two: Access Control Access control is how an application grants access to content and functions.Examples of vulnerabilities S No Hacking attack What hackers use it for 1 Cookie Poisoning Identify theft/ Session Hijack 2 Hidden field Manipulation eShoplifting 3 Parameter tampering Fraud 4 Buffer Overflow Denial of Service/ C losure of Business 5 Cross Site Scripting Identity Theft 6 Backdoor and Debug options Trespassing 7 Forceful Browsing Breaking and Entering HTTP Response Splitting Phishing. access control flaws are very likely to happen.2. If access control rules are implemented in various locations all over the code. Possible Security Threats 3. A web application's access control model is closely tied to the content and functions that the site provides. • Usually inconsistently defined/applied • Examples o Insecure session IDs or keys o Forced browsing past access control checks o Path traversal o File permissions – may allow access to config/password files o Client-side caching . Threat One: Input Validation files. not vice-versa) • Application firewalls 3. com 25 o Replace this with something like this… o char shellcode = “\xeb\xlf\x5e\x89\x76\x08…” Countermeasures o Keep up with bug reports o Code reviews o Use Java 3.7. To test this vulnerability. Allows attacker to relay malicious code in form variables or URL o System commands o SQL o Interpreted code (Perl. Python.. Giving a generic error messages would take the application away from vulnerability scanning radar screens. etc. When user input is not adequately checked./” o Add more commands: “. DB dumps Helps attacker know how to target the application Inconsistencies can be revealed too “File not found” vs. etc. Mostly affects web/application servers Can affect apps/libraries too Goal: crash the target application and get a shell Buffer overflow example o echo “vrfy `perl –e ‘print “a” x 1000’`” |nc www. test the input with all the OS commands that the server box is set up to support and a defect can be filled for developers' investigation if HTTP 200 ok with an OS command input comes. it is possible to exec uting operating system commands. Threat Six: Command Injection flaws Majority of programming languages have syst em commands to aide their functionality. rm –r *” o SQL injection Countermeasures o Taint all input o Avoid system calls (use libraries instead) Run application with limited privileges 3.targetsystem.6. 401. This can greatly reduce script kids’ attacks.) . “Access denied” File-open errors Need to give enough information to user w/o giving too much information to attacker Countermeasures o Code review Modify default error pages (404. Examples: stack traces. change data.example. or disclos e confidential information.) Many applications use calls to external programs o Send mail Examples o Path traversal: “. damage the user's f iles. Buffer overflow attacks are said to have arisen because the C programming language supplied the framework. Threat Seven: Error Handling Problems All current exit vulnerability-scanning tools identify known vulnerabilities through known web site response or error messages. and poor programming practices supplied the vulnerability. If successful. SQL Injection is the ability to inject SQL commands into the database engine through an existing application. Threat Ten: Database Testing The root cause of SQL injection is that an application uses dynamic SQL calls. SQL injection mainly exists in the context of Web applications where: (1) Web application has no. which are generated from users' input. These functions. passwords. or poorly implemented.10. Threat Nine: Web and Application server Misconfigurations Most of networks have deployed some sort of security patch update servers. SUS or SMS.3. Tension between “work out of the box” and “use only what you need” Developers web masters Examples o Un-patched security flaws (BID example) o Misconfigurations that allow directory traversal o Administrative services accessible o Default accounts/ passwords Countermeasures o Create and use hardening guides o Turn off all unused services o Set up and audit roles. Threat Eleven: Privilege Elevation Privilege elevation is a class of attacks where a hacker is able to increase his/her system Privileges to a higher level than they should be. which could be a patch missing on the patch server. etc.9. permissions. have proven difficult to code properly. this type of attack can . Threat Eight: Insecure use of Cryptography Web applications often use cryptographi c functions to protect information and credentials. Insecure storage of credit cards. along with the code to integrate them. a test en gineer needs to walk through all the boxes to ensure that security patch update client software is installed and started. input validation (2) The web application communicates with a database server and (3) An attacker has access to the application through the Internet.8.11. For example. 3. Poor choice of algorithm (or invent your own) Poor randomness o Session IDs o Tokens o Cookies Improper storage in memory Countermeasures o Store only what is must o Store a hash instead of the full value (SHA-1) o Use only vetted. As part of deployme nt testing. and accounts o Set up logging and alerts 3. public cryptography 3. It's also a good idea to run a pa tch update scan to ensure no security patches are missing. often resulting in weak protection. b) id s and passwords being transmitted over a network or stored on a server without encr yption. 3. Recent new vulnerabilities and attack methods discovered or reported show an al arming trend toward attacks with multi- faceted damages and even anti-forensics capabilities. As web applications become more pervasive and more complex.ciac. General consensus has pegged SQL Injection as the method used behind the massive compromise of credit card numbers in February of last year.2 could gain the ability to run arbitrary code with super user privileges. allowing an attacker to 'poison' the cookie. How do these Vulnerabilities Affect Your Customers Your customers can be affected in a variet y of ways: from identity theft to session hijacking to the compromise of confidenti al and private customer data. so do the techniques and attacks hackers are using against them. Threat Twelve: Identify Spoofing Identity spoofing is a technique where a hacker uses the cred entials of a legitimate user to gain access to an application or system . In this example. An example of such an attack can be found at http://www. 4. Many of the phishing email-based schemes use cross-si te scripting and other application layer attacks to trick users into giving up their credentials. This means hackers are using more powerful attacks to cause significantly more damage. We still see many cases where cookies aren't properly secu red. This can be a result of: a) users being careless with their ids and passwords. it attacks the user via a flaw in the website that enables the attacker to gain access to login and account data from the user.org/ciac/bulletins/m-026. or by the use of hardware tokens. he/she can login to the application with all of the privileges normally assigned to that user. 5. or c) users setting easy to guess passwords.12. Once a hacker has possession of a user's credentials.shtml.result in a hacker gaining privileges as high as root on a UNIX system. Cross-site Scripting is one of the leading methods used in identity theft (and an obvious concern to financial and healthcare institutions). The approach to be taken depends on the value of the data protected by the id and password. This threat can be reduced or eliminated by re quiring the use of strong pa sswords and forcing frequent password changes. hijack active sessions or manipulate hidden fields to defraud e-commerce sites. Security Testing: Approach Identify security threats and map with specific application Create Security Test Plan Write Security Test Cases Execute Security Test Cases after functional testing is completed Analyze test results Report security flaws to the developers Track to Closure 6. the entire system is effectively compromised. while at the same time covering their tracks is becoming easier. authorized users of versions of OpenSSH earlie r than 3.0. Some common mistakes in application security System Admin password is hard-coded in the application . SQL injection is one of the main atta cks used when backend databases are compromised. Once a hacker is able to run code with this level of privilege. by not storing or transmitti ng clear-text passwords. login error messages. APIs. client function manipulation. communication protocols used between .Password is sent over the wire in unencrypted form Database roles are not used Permissions are given in an adhoc manner Application roles are not used Multiple applications run in a single machine Stored procedure level security is almost missing Stored procedures are not encrypted Errors triggering sensitive information leak SQL injections Back doors and debug options: Cross-site scripting Weak session management Insecure use of cryptography 7. Recommended areas of security testing S Test Area Description No 1 Authentication User ID complexity. 7 Server Side Web application execution environment. hidden form fields. caching. client Vulnerabilities code reverse engineering susceptibility. no customized error pages revealing useful information 10 Security of 3rd Party Single sign on. susceptibility to session hijacking/ session replay attacks 3 Information Leakage Review HTML page source code for: revision history. password policy 2 Authorization Cookie use and complexity. database Application interaction. lockout after x number of incorrect login attempts. internal proxying. internal host information. username harvesting. reusing older credentials to gain access 6 Cache Control No sensitive information stored locally. susceptibility to brute forcing. Control system calls. saving of passwords locally. cross site scripting. unauthorized Logic command execution 8 Client Side Software Code obfuscation. SQL injection. URL re-writing 5 Session Time-out and No back button. error messages 4 Field variable Buffer Overflow. no database or middleware errors that reveal software used. multiple logins Log-out allowed for single user. no tracking material stored that could replay session. client privilege escalation 9 Error Handling No 404 errors. middleware or content control Applications applications with published security flaws. comments. email addresses. cookie validation. tracking logic. client connection DOS. 3. 2. key management/ revocation. remote Administration access security 12 Use of Encryption Obfuscation. Finally. there needs to be criteria by which to measure the successes or failures of the procedures implemented. ports. scalability 8. it is imperative to get the right information to the right stakeholder. Risk. Web Application Security Action Plan A Web Application Security Process can be implemented using 3 key guidelines: 1. Similarly. secured integration of software into the Web environment. password storing. . Development needs to understand what these vulnerabilities and compliance exposures are in development terms. Using their existing methods and metrics they. There are several good sources both online and in security testing tools for developers. Performing security testing during the application development lifecycle at key points during the various stages from develo pment to QA to Staging will reduce costs and significantly reduce your online risk. secure configuration of software. Ultimately. can properly prioritize and monitor the defect remediation process as well as accurately assess release candidacy. Understand: Perform security audits and defect testing throughout the Application lifecycle. one must not forget that the application development lifecycle is the breeding ground for the defects that cause the risks. i. trend and regression analysis on the security defects just like they do for performance and functionality flaws. Organizations use trending and defect remediation analysis metrics to identify areas and issues to focus on. Production applications are an obvious first place to implement regular audits and analysis to determine security and compliance risk to an organization. QA must be able to perform delta. with the ever-increasing number and scope of Government and internal regulations and policies. Communicate: After risks and security defects have been identified. applications. Compliance and R&D need to communicate and validate application risks against these very real business drivers. This means providing details around how the attack works and guidance on remediation.e. there may be a certain security defect type that keeps cropping up which can then be identified and dealt with through targeted education and training to recognize repeated risks with a particular infrastructure product or vendor. along with Product Management. login credentials. At the same time. 11 Application Policy procedures. teams from Security. Measure: For any process to be successful. measuring and analyzing scan results will contribute to a reduction in liability and risk brought about by implementing a web application security plan.

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We take a lot of pride in eating well here. If you have ever visited our cafeteria, aka “The Lone Tree Cafe,” you know exactly what that means. Good food is an important part of our health, and we know that this time of year it can be especially challenging to eat right. That’s why we are once again offering our Happy, Healthy Holiday eCookbook for free download. You can also find it on our Nutrition Services page, and under Fitness & Wellness. These recipes have been reviewed by our Registered Dietitian, Lisa Berns, and include easy to read ingredient lists, directions, and nutritional content. There has never been an easier way to get clinically approved holiday fare ready for you and your loved ones. Download your free copy today, and if you enjoy the recipes let us know! We’d love to see pictures of your healthy holiday fare on Facebook and Twitter. so we can find your culinary creations! Nurses at Greene County General Hospital are being honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. Kensey Goad, RN, who works in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit was the DAISY Award Winner. Kensey was nominated by a patient who deeply appreciated her compassion and excellent care. Two nurses were recognized as DAISY Runners-Up: Susan O’Neall and Brooke Driscol; and nurses recognized as DAISY nominees included Jackie Goodwin, June Herndon, Sarah Hodson, Brandee McKee, Chris Moore, Adam Morrill, and Patrick Sparks. The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families. Three times each year, a nurse is selected by Greene County General Hospital’s nursing administration to receive The DAISY Award. At a presentation given in front of the nurse’s colleagues, physicians, patients, and visitors, the honoree will receive a certificate commending her or him for being an “Extraordinary Nurse.” The certificate reads: “In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people.” The honoree will also be given a beautiful and meaningful sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa. May 9, 2017 – Linton, IN – Greene County General Hospital welcomed Bonnie and Mark Barnes, Co-Founders of the DAISY Foundation for a unique award presentation today. The DAISY Foundation is a national award program that recognizes nurses for outstanding patient care. The Barnes started the Foundation when their son, Patrick, passed away after weeks in a hospital in the early 1990’s. “The only positive thing that came of Patrick’s ordeal was his nurses,” said Bonnie Barnes, who went on to say that they chose to focus on the wonderful care and compassion they experienced. Their desire to honor the nurses who cared for Patrick and the entire nursing community became the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. Greene County General Hospital has been a participating member of the DAISY Award since 2015, and presented its fourth award during the Barnes’ visit to ICU Nurse, Susan O’Neall. Flanked by previous honorees, Eric Corbin (ER) and Brooke Driscoll (OB), O’Neall received her award in a room filled with colleagues and family while the Barnes family told their story and thanked her for her service. DAISY Award coordinator and Quality Assurance Director Jill Raines read O’Neall’s nomination to the group, an emotional story about a mother and her son. The patient had been hospitalized on her son’s wedding day and would miss the ceremony due to a serious illness that would take her life the very next day. O’Neall served as her nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, and knew how important it was to her patient to see the ceremony. O’Neall quickly secured a tablet for her patient and was able to connect her to the ceremony via Skype. They watched the entire ceremony, even the kiss, from the patient’s hospital bed. The Barnes family was deeply touched by this story of compassion and excellence in nursing, remarking that the story was a perfect example of the kind of care they experienced first-hand and know to be common among nurses who rarely see their service as extraordinary. The celebration included special refreshments unique to the DAISY Award. The hospital’s cafeteria provided homemade cinnamon rolls, the only food Patrick Barnes was able to eat during his hospitalization. A connoisseur of the treats, Mark Barnes remarked that they were the best he had ever had. Greene County General Hospital accepts nominations for the DAISY Award year round. Forms are available on the website at GreeneCountyHospital.com, or at the DAISY Award stations placed throughout the hospital. Dr. Fred Ridge Joins Greene County Health, Inc. Dr. Fred Ridge has announced the merging of his practice with Greene County Health, Inc. Ridge has long been affiliated with Premier Healthcare, a Bloomington-based physician group that has recently joined IU Health, Southern Indiana Physicians, Bloomington. Dr. Ridge and his team will continue seeing patients in his current office. Dr. Fred Ridge is board certified in Family Medicine. Board Certified Family Physicians are medical specialists who provide continuing and comprehensive medical care, health maintenance, and preventive services to patients of all ages and conditions. Greene County General Hospital and Greene County Health, Inc. are separately operated, but work together closely to provide optimal patient care to Greene County residents and the surrounding area. Greene County Health, Inc. is a family practice physician group offering same day appointments and weekend hours at six locations throughout Greene County. They offer full spectrum family medicine, including OB-GYN, pediatrics, minor surgery, and much more, at their locations in Bloomfield, Jasonville, Linton (2), WestGate, and Worthington. Greene County Health, Inc. is currently pursuing Federally Qualified Health Center Lookalike status. Greene County General Hospital CEO, Brenda Reetz, had an opportunity to sit down with Rural Business HQ, an online magazine and podcast, to talk about the challenges in modern health care. Keeping the local hospital strong is a must for building a rural economy. Those receiving services at Greene County General Hospital will soon have a new way to access clinical summary information via a newly launched Patient Portal. In compliance with the federal government’s Meaningful Use Initiative, all hospitals will soon be required to provide patients (and/or a patient-authorized user) access to their patient record electronically. Patients – inpatient and outpatient – are now asked to provide the Registration Department with a secure email address. Chief Nursing Officer Lea Ann Camp said patients need to be confident in the security of the email address they provide. Work email addresses, Camp said, will not be accepted. Having this electronic access through your personal, secured email will allow you as the patient the ability to review your medical history during your stay here at our facility. This access provides you with information, including but not limited to, procedures completed, medical history, medications taken, allergies, existing or developing medical conditions, etc. You can also virtually download your confidential medical record to your own private computer for your records. Upon discharge from our facility, patients will receive an auto-generated email to the email account collected during registration inviting them to create a user account at www.mymedicalencounters.com. The email will be generated from [email protected] with the subject of “GREENE COUNTY HOSPITAL – Patient Portal New User”. The email will direct patients to step-by-step instructions on how to access their personal medical record. Instructions and more information can be found on the hospital’s website, www.greenecountyhospital.com. For assistance, please contact the registration or medical records departments at 812-847-2281. Once your account has been activated, you can view it at any time by visiting www.greenecountyhospital.com or www.mymedicalencounters.com. Lyons – Just after 6:00 o’clock this morning, a crash occurred on State Road 67 near County Road 700 West. A 2005 Dodge van, was travelling southwest on State Road 67 approaching a 2001 Freightliner tractor trailer combination loaded with coal, travelling northeast. For reasons unknown, the Dodge van traveled left of center and sideswiped the semi tractor. After initial contact was made, the van continued striking the left tandem axles of the trailer. After the collision, the van spun partially off the highway before coming to final rest. The semi came to a stop with the trailer partially blocking the southbound lane of State Road 67. The Dodge van was driven by Dakota L. Burnette, 26, of Oolitic, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Burnette’s family has been notified. A passenger in his vehicle was taken via Greene County Ambulance to Greene County General Hospital to be treated for his injuries. The driver of the semi, Timothy D. Stines, 44 of Bedford was uninjured. Agencies assisting at the scene were the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, Lyons Town Marshal, Greene County Ambulance Service, Switz City Fire Territory, Lyons Fire Department and the Linton Fire Department. Local leaders and residents turned out to discuss the pros and cons of Greene County during a Community Health Needs Assessment meeting, which was held at the Greene County General Hospital on Tuesday. The purpose of the meeting was to gather information such as strengths and weaknesses of the county in order to create a survey that will be made available to the public at a later date, explained Ally Orwig, a representative of the Indiana Rural Health Association. “We invited leaders in the community, such as clergy, education leaders, and others. The point is to [pinpoint] matters that need addressed in the community,” she added. A report highlighting the outcome of the survey will then be created, and the Greene County General Hospital will have three years to work on any issues, Orwig said. “The whole process will then be started over every three years,” she added. Some of the pros of Greene County that were brought to the forefront included the following: Good people, rural environment, individualism, small population, small schools, outdoor recreation opportunities, NSWC Crane, WestGate, Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area, Greene County General Hospital, agriculture, and coal, among others. On the other hand, some of the cons that were highlighted included the following: Poverty, lack of public transportation, obesity, lack of post-secondary jobs, drug addiction, drop in school funding, drop in school enrollment numbers, lack of fitness facilities, and others. The Greene County General Hospital is the largest employer in the county with an annual payroll that exceeds $15 million. Greene County General Hospital is pleased to announce that outpatient speech therapy services are now being offered. Kristen Witt, a 2003 graduate of Linton-Stockton High School, recently joined the hospital’s staff and began offering a variety of speech therapy services to all ages ranging from pediatrics to geriatrics. Witt holds a bachelor’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Purdue University and a master’s degree in Communication Disorders from Western Kentucky University. Articulation disorders: Problems making/saying sounds correctly. Sounds can be substituted, left off, added or changed. These errors may make it hard for people to understand you. Phonological Disorders: Involves patterns of sound errors. For example, substituting all sounds made in the back of the mouth like “k” and “g” for those in the front of the mouth like “t” and “d” (e.g., saying “tup” for “cup” or “das” for “gas”). Language Disorders: A problem with understanding and/or using spoken, written, and/or other symbol systems (e.g., gestures, sign language). The disorder may involve the form of language (phonology, morphology, syntax), the content of the language (semantics), and/or the function of language in communication (pragmatics) in any combination. Fluency Disorders (stuttering) is an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech and is characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases. Motor Speech Disorders, which are impairments of speech arising from damage to the central or peripheral nervous system, such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Dysarthria. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), which includes all forms of communication (except oral speech) that are used to express thoughts, needs, wants and ideas. AAC is used when making facial expressions or gestures, using symbols or pictures, and writing. People with severe speech or language problems rely on AAC to supplement existing speech or replace speech that is not functional. Voice Disorders, which are characterized by inappropriate pitch (too high, too low, never changing, or interrupted by breaks); quality (harsh, hoarse, breathy, or nasal); loudness; resonance and duration. Cognitive-Communication Disorders, which are the impairment of cognitive processes including attention, memory, abstract reasoning, awareness and executive functions such as self-monitoring, planning and problem solving). Aphasia therapy: A disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language. Aphasia causes problems with any or all of the following: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. While treating a patient who has been diagnosed with Aphasia (following a stroke), Witt works on drills and exercises to improve specific language skills affected by damage to the brain. For example, the patient may practice naming objects, following directions, or answering questions about stories. These exercises vary depending on individual needs and become more complex and challenging as skills improve. She also teaches patients ways to make use of stronger language skills. For example, some patients may find it easier to express their ideas through gestures and writing than with speaking. Witt can teach patients to use both writing and gestures to help remember words for conversation. In addition, she treats swallowing disorders in pediatrics to geriatrics. Speech therapy services must be referred by a physician. Witt said she’s always been interested in working for a hospital. Currently, Witt is available to see patients three days a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. As the patient load increases, Witt’s schedule will expand. To schedule an appointment with Witt, please call 847-5209. Terre Haute resident Jason P. Ralstin was taken to Greene County General Hospital to be treated for minor lacerations to his arm and face after a vehicle accident that occurred around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Ralstin, 31, told Greene County Sheriff’s Department Deputy James Carpenter that he was driving south on County Road 1000 W. when a vehicle in the opposite lane crossed into his. He said he drove his 2010 Lincoln AKT SUV off the road while trying to avoid an accident. Carpenter reported that Ralstin’s vehicle drove down a ditch and stopped on top of a frozen creek. Ralstin then exited his vehicle and waited for medical personnel to arrive. Greene County General Hospital and the Indiana Rural Health Association invite the public to a community health needs assessment meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 25 at the hospital cafeteria. GCGH Director of Marketing and Physician Recruiting Corey Sparks explained that the meeting will be an opportunity to talk to members of the community and find out what the health needs of the area are, so that the hospital can work to address those needs. “We’ll be working with the Indiana Rural Health Association and they will have some of their employees here and the group will be broken down into smaller groups and then they’ll have questions for the participants,” he explained, noting that they hope plenty of people attend the meeting to give them a good sample of the general population. Information from the meeting will be used to plan health care and future public health programs. Light refreshments will be available during the meeting. Greene County General Hospital’s Friends Friday program recently benefited Pregnancy Choices.During the month of January, departments battled one another in a penny war. The contest raised more than $1,000 for Pregnancy Choices. Pediatrician Chris Holmes, MD and Physician Assistant Corianne Vanderkolk presented the collection to Pregnancy Choices Director Michelle Brown. Dr. Holmes and Vanderkolk represented Greene County Health, the hospital’s family practice physician group, as the contest’s winning department. Greene County Health offers full spectrum family medicine at five locations throughout Greene County. Locations include: Bloomfield, Linton, Lone Tree, WestGate, and Worthington. Multiple homes in the Linton area were without electricity when a vehicle accident by the former Jack Wheeler Ford building resulted in a downed power line Friday night. Deputy Bobby Pierce, of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, stated in a news release that 26-year-old Matthew A. Johnson reported losing control of his 98 Oldsmobile Bravada at the intersection of State Road 54 and State Road 59. Johnson allegedly told Pierce that he may have been traveling too fast and believed he struck ice when his vehicle crossed the center line on State Road 54 and traveled about 400 feet off the roadway and across other traffic lanes. According to Pierce, the Dugger resident’s vehicle struck a utility pole and then a ditch, rolled over, and came to rest upside down. Greene County Ambulance Service took Johnson to Greene County General Hospital to be treated for lacerations to his side and leg, as well as neck pain. The intersection was shut down for several hours so that REMC could repair the utility pole and restore electricity. The investigation into the accident is pending. The Linton Police Department, the Linton Fire Department, and INDOT all assisted at the scene. Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce members were updated on several items of interest during the organization’s monthly meeting on Thursday. Chamber President Joshua Riggins noted numerous upcoming chamber events. “We have several activities and events that we are meeting and planning for,” Riggins said, noting the Farmers Market, Town-Wide yard Sales, and a circus, among others. The town’s new logo will also be presented at the Bloomfield Art Festival, which is slated for later this year. In other business, Chamber Member Ed Cullison shared information about the Farmers and Mechanics Federal Team Relay for Life Fundraiser, which is slated for May 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. at 225 E. Main St. in Bloomfield. The event will allow people to dispose of old documents as well as obsolete electronics, computers, small appliances, and scrap metal. Documents will be properly disposed of by Shredding and Storage Unlimited. Green Geek Recycling will accept obsolete electronics and A&E Salvage and Recycling will accept any scrap metal such as pet food and soup cans, car batteries, and aluminum items such as pop cans. Television sets may also be disposed of for a minimum donation. Monetary donations will be accepted with all proceeds going to Relay for Life. Chamber Member Joe Boone also shared information about an advanced manufacturing certified production technician program, which offers an eight-week course that requires 20 weeks of classroom study. Classes begin March 3. For more information on the program, contact WorkOne in Linton at (812) 847-4479. Chamber Treasurer Corey Sparks also invited members to the upcoming Greene County General Hospital Commission meeting, which is slated for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the hospital. In other business, Chamber Vice President Randall Brown served as the guest speaker and provided information on small business retirement plans as well as other financial tips. Brown is a Financial Advisor at Edward Jones in Bloomfield. Greene County General Hospital is pleased to announce that Gastroenterology services are now available in its Outpatient Specialty Clinic. Board certified gastroenterologists Jitender Bhandari, MD; Prody Ghosh, MD; Amar Pinto, MD; Daniel Selo, MD; and Bret Spier, MD will provide a variety of services locally. The group began seeing patients in Greene County General Hospital’s Outpatient Specialty Clinic, which is located on the hospital’s second floor, at the beginning of February. Their specialties encompass diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the esophagus, stomach, colon, gallbladder, liver and pancreas. In addition to general consultation in gastroenterology, they also provide expertise in: colorectal cancer screening and prevention; evaluation and treatment of gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) and heartburn, peptic ulcer disease; management of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease; assessment of diarrhea and constipation; evaluation of Hepatitis C and other forms of liver, gallbladder and pancreatic diseases. They will be providing diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy and colonoscopy. The doctors are seeing patients one half day every other week; however, frequency could increase with patient volume. “We expect to do outpatient and inpatient consulting and also diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic services locally at Greene County General Hospital. The goal is to see patients locally and take care of them locally as much as possible,” Dr. Ghosh said. Referrals and scheduling can be handled by calling 812-355-6956. The Greene County Commissioners met Tuesday morning. Auditor Matthew Baker noted that the county has had six or seven Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) cases in as many months. The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons while retaining their group health insurance as if they had not taken leave. He said his office needs to be kept up-to-date on these cases and requested that the commissioners allow Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates, a professional management consulting firm, to help them. The board voted to enter into an agreement with Waggoner, Irwin, and Scheele. The firm will handle FMLA paperwork and advise on the cases for a $450 a month retainer that will cover up to one FMLA case per month. A decision on installing EasyWater no salt water conditioning systems in the courthouse and county jail was tabled until the next commissioners meeting. This system promises to remove existing scaling from equipment and also prevent future scale from forming. The company surveyed the courthouse and jail in December. If the county chooses to install the water conditioners in both locations, EasyWater will waive the $850 jail installation fee. Two annual uniform conflict of interest disclosure statements were acknowledged– one from Attorney John Rowe, who is a board member of the Greene County General Hospital, and the other from County Council Member Ed Cullison, who is a Farmers and Mechanics Federal Savings and Loan Association employee. County Attorney Marilyn Hartman has prepared the final draft of a commercial lease for the former Russ Tire Center Property on the east side of Bloomfield, and the commissioners are ready to move forward with leasing the property. The state and the Indiana Rail Road Company would like to put guardrails up along County Road 350 North in the Redbird area. Commissioner President Rick Graves suggested that Hartman write a contract to allow it, as long as the county does not have to pay or accept any liability for the installation. The next regular public meeting of the Greene County Commissioners will be held at 9:30 a.m. on February 4, in the Commissioners’ Room on the third floor of the courthouse. Thursday night, at the Linton-Stockton Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Dinner and Awards Banquet, both Mayor John Wilkes and 2014 Chamber of Commerce President Dale Knotts spoke about looking forward to taking Linton into a new year and beyond. Knotts noted that it is a good time to look back into our personal lives and ask ourselves if we’re really where we want to be, what we did well last year, and what areas we can improve in this year. He said the task of the chamber is no different. “Maybe we get in a rut, maybe we continue to do the same things and once in awhile we need to shake things up and see if we can do them a little bit better,” Knotts explained, adding that it is the job of the incoming president to look forward, not just to the next year but to the years to come. “As we read and listen to the news, I think we’ve all probably come to the conclusion that money in the state of Indiana and money in Washington, D.C. is probably going to be a little bit harder to come by next year and perhaps the year after,” he continued. Knotts noted that the state legislature is considering reducing the business tax on equipment. “If that happens– and I’m not preaching politics, but the reality is that money was used for schools, hospitals, and cities. If that goes away, we’re going to have to look for a different source of funding. Mayor Wilkes and I talk often, and he made a comment awhile back that I thought was very appropriate. John said, looking at the economic situation, we’re just simply going to have to find a way to take care of ourselves. I don’t think we can depend on other folks to take care of us completely,” he stated. Knotts said he’s an optimist by nature but realistic enough to know the chamber and the city need to think about how they’ll get through the year. He remarked that Goose Pond– love it or hate it– is important to our community, and quoted a recent article estimating that 85 million Americans watch, feed, or photograph birds, and an estimated 18 million Americans are serious birders. He also mentioned that birding ranks 15th among popular outdoor activities– just below bicycling. “I don’t know that we have a good way to count all the folks who come into Greene County every year to drive down to the Goose Pond, but that’s one area that I think we can probably focus on and do a little bit better job of promoting. It’s down there for all the world to see,” he added. Knotts noted that in order to support Linton, the chamber, and Greene County, residents need to rethink their purchasing habits and refocus on where they do their shopping. Knotts said locals also need to encourage their families and their friends to come to Greene County. “I’ve always thought the Fourth of July Parade was as good as it gets for showcasing Linton, Indiana for one day of the year. How else, or how better, can you put your best foot forward to 20,000 or 30,000 people in one day? That’s the kind of focus we need. We need to impress folks who come that day [so they’ll want] to come back and visit us again,” he urged, noting that he believes 2014 will be the 109th Freedom Festival Parade. Wilkes explained that there are many projects moving forward in Linton, including the Cine Project, which he said will be great for the downtown area, and a multi-million dollar remodeling of the school. He also mentioned improvements to the Greene County General Hospital, totaling around $8 million, and the $4 million wastewater plant, which should be completed within the next two to three months. Wilkes said Linton’s greatest asset is its people, and that he once read that geese flying in formation are 71 percent more effective than a bird flying alone. Wilkes urged anyone interested in helping out with any of the projects the city is involved in to contact him or Dale Knotts. “We’ll be more than glad to put you to work because we need all the help we can get. We are going to work, and we are going to go forward,” the mayor promised. Ronald E. Fox II, 48, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant for a charge of battery committed by means of a deadly weapon or resulting in serious bodily injury, a class C felony, after allegedly fracturing another man’s skull in November of last year. Early on the morning of November 29, the Jasonville Police Department received a report of a fight involving multiple people. Linton Police Department Officer Paul Clark responded to the residence on South Lawton Street first and spoke with Fox, who told him that everyone was okay and, according to a probable cause affidavit, seemed dismissive of the situation. Clark stated that Fox said he was looking for his keys, and that when he was asked where the other individuals involved were located he said that one man was inside the residence. Clark contacted medical personnel to examine the second man, who complained of blurred vision to his left eye and stated that he could not hear from his left ear. Officer Ryan Van Horn, of the Jasonville Police Department, arrived and noted that Fox had blood and cuts on both hands. The second man told Van Horn that he had been at a bar with Fox when they met two other men. He said one of the other men flirted with some girls, which upset Fox. The man said he and Fox left the bar and went to his house but that later, when Fox was very upset and angry, the man who had upset him tried to apologize and when Fox became agitated and started towards that man he stepped between them to prevent a fight. He told Van Horn that Fox began yelling at him and then attacked him, slamming him to the ground. He added that he could not remember anything after that point, and a family member took him to Greene County General Hospital. Van Horn stated in the court document that both of the men who witnessed the situation gave a similar account of it, and said they were concerned for the man because he was not acting right after he hit his head being slammed to the ground by Fox. Fox was taken into custody and interviewed at the Greene County Jail. He told Van Horn there was an issue at the bar when another man flirted with married girls and that he thought it was tacky. He stated that when everyone was at the residence the injured man went after him and took him to the ground. He said he never slammed that man to the ground and that there was never a fight. Van Horn noted that Fox continually stated that he was the guy on the bottom trying to get on top. Officer Andrew Duguay interviewed the two other men who were present at the bar and at the residence, as well as a neighbor who said she got a call from Fox telling her to go the residence. She told Duguay that Fox and the man who was injured started fighting and that the other two men tried to pull them apart. She said they got them apart but a short time later they started fighting again. The woman advised that during the second fight the injured man was on the bottom, Fox was in the middle, and one of the other men was hitting Fox. She said she did not recall seeing Fox throw the man but that when Fox is drunk he is mean, and added that after the fight Fox went toward the house, punched a window out, and hit his head off the wall. One of the men told Duguay that the fight started when the injured man tried to calm Fox down. He said that when Fox slammed the other man on the ground he could hear his head hit, and that he then became involved in order to get Fox off the other man. He added that a neighbor broke the incident up a short time later. The last man said that the injured man was trying to keep things calm when Fox started making comments to antagonize him, and that it became a pushing match that led to Fox trying to punch the other two men. He said the neighbor arrived and tried to break the fight up and that Fox then caused the man to hit his head on the ground. He told Duguay that after they got the injured man away the other man fought with Fox to keep him down. He added that a short time later the incident was broken up by a neighbor. Van Horn noted that medical records from Greene County General Hospital showed that the man who hit his head had a skull fracture in the left occipital region. Greene County residents looking to get out of town might want to consider scheduling a good deed into their plans for Friday or Saturday. The Indiana Blood Center is currently working to restore the state’s blood supply after days of minimal collections due to the winter weather. On Monday, all eight donor centers were closed and mobile blood drives were cancelled. Tuesday, Metro-Indianapolis centers were open from noon until 7 p.m., but the Terre Haute center did not reopen until Thursday. The Indiana Blood Center supplies 60 hospitals across the state, including Greene County General Hospital, and Corporate Communications Specialist Lucy Wehking encouraged eligible donors to visit a donor center and help out. Donor centers are located at Carmel, Columbus, Downtown Indianapolis, Fishers, Greenwood, Lafayette, Muncie, and Terre Haute. If you donate blood Friday or Saturday, you will receive an Indianapolis Colts playoff poster, as long as supplies last. Wehking said the center is thankful for their partnership with the team, and for anyone who comes out to pick up a poster and help them keep area hospitals supplied. Appointments to donate can be made at www.DonorPoint.org or by calling 800-632-4722 or 317-916-5150. The Greene County General Hospital welcomed its firstborn of 2014 on Wednesday. Devyn Matthew Delph, son of Seth and Pam Delph, of Coal City, arrived at 2:43 a.m. on Jan. 1. The bundle of joy weighed in at 5 pounds and 5 ounces and was 20 inches long. Seth Delph expressed his excitement about raising another human being. Pam Delph had a smooth delivery, and noted her hospital stay was good, but explained she was ready to go home. Devyn is the firstborn to the Delph family. Several family members were also present to welcome the New Year’s baby. In lieu of Devyn’s birth, GCGH staff presented the Delph family with a New Year’s baby basket. “This is the first year the hospital has become more involved [with the first baby of the year] versus the OB department by itself,” explained RN Jane Hughes. Do you want to stop using tobacco products? Greene County General Hospital is offering free tobacco cessation classes beginning on Jan. 6. The class will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. on Mondays Jan. 6 through Feb. 24 in the Violet Newton Conference Room at Greene County General Hospital. The classes are taught by Chris Sparks, RN, who works for Greene County Home Healthcare. Assisting with the classes is Racheall Lengacher, a respiratory therapist who manages the hospital’s Respiratory Therapy Department, and Lana Heath, a registered respiratory therapist. “It’s a free opportunity for them (participants) to have a healthier life. We offer free patches and gum and free support. My philosophy is you have to want to quit and you have to believe that you can. It’s like any other addiction – you have to believe in yourself,” Sparks said. Sparks said the atmosphere in the classes is very laid back and comfortable. Since she began teaching tobacco cessation classes in February 2002, Sparks boasts a 49 percent quit rate among participants. However, with her most recent class, 100 percent of participants stopped using tobacco products – cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco. “That’s pretty awesome,” Sparks said. Sparks, who successfully quit smoking several years ago, offers an insider perspective for her students. • Chris is an excellent mentor. She had relayed to all of us the struggles she went through when she was trying to quit years ago, which in turn; I know she was sincere in her quest to help us with quitting smoking/chewing. She was available to us 24/7 which helped everybody’s mindset. She has a very positive attitude which is contagious and makes you try even harder. • This is a real good program. This was the second program for me and this one beat the other one hands down. • This was the best class. I wouldn’t have made it without this class. It was a great support. Hopefully this class goes on and on in the future. I give this class a high five. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. • Try it. It works! For more information or to sign up for tobacco cessation classes, call 847-9496. Cold and flu season is among us, so it’s only fitting that December 1-7 is National Handwashing Awareness Week. Keeping our hands clean is one of the most important steps in stopping the spread of germs as so many diseases and conditions are spread by people not washing their hands with soap and clean running water. If soap and water are unavailable, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol to clean hands. The CDC’s website offers several tips for handwashing. • Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold) and apply soap. • Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well; be sure to scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. • Continue rubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice. • Rinse your hands well under running water. • Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs. Hand sanitizers are not effective when hands are visibly dirty. How do you use hand sanitizers? • Apply the product to the palm of one hand. • Rub your hands together. Take a few moments during Handwashing Awareness Week to ensure you’re washing your hands properly. If you have children, review handwashing tips with them. Challenge your child to create a 20 second handwashing song, or even better, help create one with them. This will make handwashing a fun experience for them. Remember, washing your hands properly is one of the most important steps to stop the spread of germs. Take your part in washing germs down the drain seriously. Late last Saturday morning Linton Police Department Officer Brock Garrison responded to a battery complaint. The victim’s injuries, which included two abrasions that required stitches, contusions, swelling, a broken nose, and a concussion, were treated at the Greene County General Hospital. Afterwards, he spoke with Garrison at the Linton Police Department. According to a probable cause affidavit, the victim said he woke up Saturday morning at about 9 a.m. to the sound of knocking. Two men were at his front door and one, later identified as Jared M. Rush, 30, of Lyons, was looking for a woman who was at the victim’s residence. The victim told Garrison that he first told Rush she was not there, but then Rush stepped into his residence while yelling for the woman. The victim then told him to get out of his house and then he would go get the woman. He tried to close the front door but Rush threw up his hand, preventing him from shutting it. The victim said he then went to get the woman, and when he returned with her Rush entered the residence uninvited and struck him in the side of the face, knocking him onto the couch. The victim told Garrison the second man, later identified as Ryan R. Wilson, 28, of Sullivan, also entered the residence and began to hit him in the face. He stated that both men punched him in the face several times while he was on the couch. After the beating, the victim said he told the men to leave, which they did after arguing for a few moments. Wilson was located, arrested, and taken to the Linton Police Department. He told Garrison that Rush and a man at the residence got into a physical altercation and he stayed on the porch, and added that he had not seen or talked to Rush since Rush dropped him off at his truck after the incident. The woman also spoke with Garrison, and told him she was intimidated by Rush but that she went to the front of the house when she heard the victim and Rush arguing. She said she saw Rush striking the victim in the face and that Wilson also entered the residence and she believed he was striking the victim in the face, too. She added that when Wilson came in he kicked a vase and broke it, and that the men stopped hitting the victim after she told them she was calling the police. The woman also told Garrison she knew both men. A warrant for Rush’s arrest was issued on Tuesday, and he was booked into the Greene County Jail around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Both men are charged with battery resulting in serious injury, a class C felony, and residential entry, a class D felony. Officer Jason Wilson assisted in the investigation.

2019-04-25T15:45:58Z

http://greenecountyindiana.com/tag/greene-county-general-hospital/

The invention relates to a method of transmission and reception of data, a transmission system for the transmission and reception of data, a transmitting section and receiving section for such a system. A method and system of this kind is known from the book "Error correction coding for digital communications" by G.C. Clark and J.B. Cain, Plenum Press New York, 1981, sections 8.5 and 8.3.2. The cited book describes a system which is intended to counteract jamming. This is achieved by a spread spectrum technique, which involves greatly expanding the transmit spectrum relative to the data rate. The idea is that this forces the jammer to deploy his power over a much wider bandwidth than would be necessary for an unspread spectrum. The anti-jamming system modulates the information successively at different frequencies. As a function of time, the frequency "hops" from one frequency channel to another. To protect against jammed channels the information is encoded in an error correction code prior to modulation. In addition, the encoded information is interleaved: the time sequential order in which the data-items are modulated is permuted with respect to the order in which they succeed each other in the error protection code. In the prior art technique, interleaving serves to make the anti-jamming system more robust against pulses that jam all frequency channels for part of the time. The described system makes very inefficient use of the frequencies available. This forces the jammer to deploy his power over a much wider bandwidth and is therefore essential for anti-jamming as described in the book by G.C. Clark and J.B. Cain. US 4,394,642 discloses an interleaver and de-interleaver in which successive blocks of data are written into an interleaver memory and read out in a different order. In one example the data bits are read into the interleaver memory in a sequential order and read out in an order determined from addresses stored in a read only memory. The addresses form a quasi random pattern. In another example, the bits of data of the blocks are written into memory and read out of memory using addresses which are generated alternately from the quasi random memory addresses and the sequential addresses so that bits from one block can be read out of the interleaver memory as the bits from the next block are written into the interleaver memory. EP 0578313 discloses a multi-carrier modulation communication system in which data bits are encoded and mapped onto modulation symbols. The modulation symbols ate then interleaved before being transmitted on one of a number of narrow band carrier frequency signals. It is inter alia an object of the invention to apply pseudo random interleaving to applications which make more efficient use of the frequencies available. It is a further object of the invention to provide for multichannel broadcasting which is robust against degradation due to multipath transmission and which makes efficient use of the frequencies available. characterized in that the de-interleaving comprises writing the received data-items into locations in a memory in an order of writing, and reading the data-items in a de-interleaved order of reading, de-interleaving being performed in successive versions of a basic cycle, the data-items for a version of the basic cycle being written in the locations as the locations become available on reading for a directly preceding version of the basic cycle, the order of writing the data-items in successive cycles being alternately an order of locations with monotonously ascending or descending addresses and an order with addresses permuted according to a pseudo random function, the data-items being interleaved so as to provide an inverse of the de-interleaving. As a result of the simultaneous transmission of information in a number of frequency channels, the frequencies available are efficiently used. The invention addresses the problem of transmission channels that may suffer from multipath transmission rather than from jamming. In the case of wireless broadcasting, for example indirect transmission may occur in addition to direct transmission of electromagnetic radiation, for example due to reflection of the radiation by a building. It has been found that this often leads to variations in the receivability of the various frequency channels. Moreover, it has been found that this variation is often periodic, i.e. it recurs as a function of the frequency after a number of channels. The recurrent period is dependent on the receiving conditions and, generally speaking, it cannot be predicted. The use of pseudo-random interleaving prevents multipath transmission from causing burst errors that are so long that they cannot be corrected. Thus, interleaving is performed by writing data items into a memory and by subsequently reading the data items therefrom in a different order. New data is then written into memory locations vacated by reading before all other locations have been read, which makes it possible to save memory space. For monotonously ascending address series this is known per se from US 5,151,976 . The invention, however, applies this operation to the writing according to a pseudo- random sequence. Despite the fact that such a pseudo-random sequence is far more complex than a monotonous series, it has been found that notably the use of direct writing after reading with random sequences can be used for interleaving. In an embodiment of the method of the invention the memory addresses are selected alternately as a monotonously ascending or descending order and as the pseudo random function of that order. By using only two different series of addresses in an alternating fashion, interleaving is simplified. n being the position of a particular data-item in the second order, Xn being the address from which that particular data-item is read, M being the number of selectable memory locations, a and c being a factor and a summand for a linear congruential sequence respectively, the combination of the factor and the summand used being changed for each version of the basic cycle. The factor a and summand c for linear congruential sequences are such that c is a relative prime with respect to M, a-1 is a multiple of all primes factors of M, and a-1 is a multiple of 4 if m is a multiple of 4. This provides for a simple way of generating the addresses. In particular it has been found that, when all "a" used for different versions are such that the square of (a-1) is divisible by M, it is ensured that all orders of addresses which are successively required to read data-item that have been written in the order of locations in which the preceding data-items have been read, can always be generated in correspondence with this formula. The invention also related to a method of receiving data, and to a system for applying the method and its components, to which similar measures can be applied mutatis mutandis to obtain similar advantages. Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of an address generator. Fig. 1 shows a transmission system. It comprises a cascade connection of successively an encoder 10, an interleaver 12, a modulator 14, a transmission channel, a demodulator 16, a de-interleaver 18 and a decoder 20. During use data is presented to an input of the encoder 10. The encoder 10 encodes this data in an error correction code. Any known error correction code, for example a convolution code, can be used for this purpose. The encoded data is composed of, for example blocks, each of which contains a logic succession of bits. The decoder 20 corresponds to the encoder 10 and corrects bit errors incurred during transmission from the encoder 10 to the decoder 20. The error correction code is such that bit errors which occur distributed throughout the logic succession can be readily corrected. Burst errors, where a number of successive bits in the logic succession are incorrect, can be less readily corrected when they are too long. The modulator 14 produces a signal with a number of frequency channels which are simultaneously transmitted. The bits of each block are distributed among a number of groups. Each group corresponds to a frequency channel and the information of the bits in a group is transmitted in the corresponding frequency channel. This can be realised, for example by interpreting the bits of each group as a number, by arranging these numbers in a series and making an FFT (fast Fourier transform) of the series. The result of the FFT is subsequently transmitted via the transmission channel, for example a wireless terrestrial broadcast channel. FFT and transmission are repeated for successive blocks. This corresponds to the known OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technique. The demodulator 16 corresponds to the modulator 14. The demodulator receives the various frequency channels simultaneously and reconstructs the groups of bits transmitted in a respective frequency channel. According to the OFDM technique, this is performed, for example by making an inverse FFT of the signal received and by reconstructing the numbers and hence the groups therefrom. The interleaver 12 serves to ensure that bits which are directly adjacent in the logic succession are substantially always modulated in different frequency channels. The spacing of these channels (in terms of channels with intermediate frequencies) is preferably larger than zero, so that adjacent bits will enter non-adjacent channels. This serves to ensure that a disturbance of a single channel, or of a number of neighbouring channels, does not lead to burst errors in the logic succession. The de-interleaver 18 corresponds to the interleaver 12 and performs the reverse operation, so that the logic succession is reconstructed in terms of order (i.e. except for bit errors) before being presented to the decoder 20. The interleaver 12 places every adjacent pair of bits, which succeed one another in the logic succession, at a respective distance, amounting to a number of channels, from one another. The respective distances have different values and it is ensured that the various distances occur approximately equally frequently. As a result, the system is robust to disturbances of the transmission channel which lead to poor reception in a periodic system of frequency channels (in this context a periodic system is to be understood to mean a system in which the poor reception recurs as a function of the frequency each time after the same number of channels). All other pairs of bits which are so near to one another that a simultaneous error in the bits of such a pair could give rise to burst problems are also placed at a respective distance of a number of channels from one another. These respective distances preferably also have different values and it is ensured that these different distances occur approximately equally frequently. Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of an interleaver, this device is also suitable as a de-interleaver. The interleaver of Fig. 2 comprises a data input 42 which is coupled, via a multiplexer 34, to respective data inputs/outputs of a first and a second memory 30, 32. The data inputs/outputs of the memories 30, 32 are also coupled, via the multiplexer 34, to an output 44 of the interleaver. The interleaver also comprises a clock input 37, coupled to clock inputs of a first and a second address generator 38, 40. The output of each of the address generators is coupled to a further multiplexer 36. The outputs of the further multiplexer 36 are coupled to a respective address input of the first and the second memory 38, 40. During operation the interleaver is switched to and fro between two modes. In a first mode the multiplexer 34 couples the input 42 to the data input of the first memory 30 and the output 44 to the data output of the second memory 32. Furthermore, the further multiplexer 36 couples the output of the first address generator to the address input of the first memory 30 and the output of the second address generator 40 to the address input of the second memory 32. In the second mode the roles of the first and the second memory 30, 32 are reversed in comparison with the first mode. The first address generator 38 generates a clocked first series of addresses. The various data items presented to the input 42 during successive clock cycles are written at these addresses. Data is read from the second memory 32 in a similar manner, addressed by a second series of addresses from the second address generator, and applied to the output 44. The first and the second series of addresses deviate from one another, resulting in interleaving. The first series of addresses is, for example a monotonously ascending series (1, 2, 3 ...) and the second series of addresses is a pseudo-random series, for example a series in which a respective difference exists between each pair of directly successively generated addresses; these respective differences have various values and it is ensured that the various values occur approximately equally frequently. The differences correspond to the distances between the frequency channels in which successive bits of the logic succession are arranged. The corresponding de-interleaver has the same structure as shown in Fig. 2, be it that the first address generator of the de-interleaver generates the same address series as the second address generator of the interleaver and vice versa. These addresses can be obtained by multiplication and addition, without utilizing a ROM. A further alternative consists in the use of an LFSR (Linear Feedback Shift Register). Fig. 3 shows a further embodiment of an interleaver. This embodiment comprises only one memory 56. The input and the output of the interleaver are coupled to a data input and a data output, respectively, of this memory 56. The interleaver also comprises a clock input 50 which is coupled to an address generator 54. An output of the address generator 54 is coupled to an address input of the memory 56. The clock input 50 is also coupled, via a read/write control unit 52, to a read/write control input of the memory. The address generator 54 generates a series of addresses during operation. For each address a first data item is read from the memory 56 so as to be applied to the output; subsequently, the read/write control circuit switches the memory to the write mode and a data item originating from the input is written into the memory at the same address. The address generator 54 each time generates such a series of addresses. Each series contains substantially the same addresses. The order in which the addresses succeed one another in directly successive series, however, differs each time. For example, alternately a pseudo-random series (X1, X2, X3 ... xn) and a normal monotonously ascending series (1, 2, 3 ... N) can be taken. This results in interleaving with a substantially uniform distribution of the differences between successive addresses. By using only two different series of addresses in an alternating fashion, deinterleaving is simplified (same two series, so that each time the data items are written in the de-interleaver in memory locations which correspond to the locations wherefrom they have been read in the interleaver). However, this approach has the drawback that the method of interleaving is often repeated, so that the transmission system becomes susceptible to systematic disturbances. Therefore, as an attractive alternative it is possible to use more than two different series and to repeat the pattern of series of addresses used only after more than two complete series. To this end, for broadcast applications a linear congruential sequence is preferably used at the receiving side in the de-interleaver, because such a sequence can be simply implemented. At the transmission side, for example an interleaver comprising a ROM is then used, the ROM containing the inverse permutation of what the de-interleaver contains at the receiving side. Given the permutation realised by the interleaver, this inverse permutation can be calculated, for example numerically. If a recurrent pattern of mutually different series of addresses is used in the de-interleaver, including a monotonously ascending series (1, 2, 3), this inverse permutation requires only a limited amount of space in the memory ROM. When different address series are used, a synchronization signal is desirable between the receiving side and the transmission side, so that the de-interleaver can start the pattern of series of addresses in the correct phase (so as to serve as the inverse of the interleaver). For this purpose use is preferably made of a transmitted synchronization signal which also serves to mark header information for the further processing of the encoded symbol. Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of an address generator 54 for use in an interleaver as shown in Fig. 2 or 3. The address generator 54 comprises a register 60, an output of which is coupled to the output of the address generator and to a first multiplicand multiplier 62. The output of the multiplier 62 is coupled to a first summand input of an adder 64. The output of the adder 64 is coupled to an input of the register 60. The address generator comprises a factor memory 63 and a summand memory 65 which are coupled, by way of an output, to a second multiplicand input of the multiplier 62 and to a second summand input of the adder 64, respectively. where M is the length of the address series. The factor "a" and the summand "c" are derived from the factor memory 63 and the summand memory 65, respectively. Between successive series the memories 63, 65 receive signals, whereby another factor and/or summand is applied to the multiplier and the adder, so that subsequently a different series is generated. In one of the series, for example a=1 and c=1, resulting in a monotonously ascending series. In the other series a is then unequal to 1 and is chosen, in a manner which is known per se, so as to generate a pseudo-random sequence (c relative prime with respect to M, a-1 is a multiple of p for all primes p sharing M (e.g. if M=45=3*3*5 then a-1 must be a multiple of both 3 and 5) and a-1 is a multiple of 4 if M is a multiple of 4). By storing a number of different usable values of a and c, a corresponding number of different series of addresses can be generated. Preferably, the "a" values are selected only such that (a-1) squared is divisible by "M", i.e. such that (a-1) contains each prime factor of m at least half as many times as "M" itself (for example when M=675=3*3*3*5*5, (a-1) could be 45=3*3*5, in general large M values with several prime factors are required: of the M values of 1 to 20 only M=8, 9, 12, 16, 18 qualify). It can be proven that, when only "a" values having the property that the square of (a-1) is divisble by M are used for generating the addresses, any pseudo random permutation of the bits described by the formula Xn+1= (a Xn + c) mod M can be realized with an "a" value that also satisfies this condition. Also it has been found that both the addresses for interleaving and deinterleaving can then be realized with such pseudo random permutations in that case. Hence no address ROM is needed. It has been found that this is true only when the square of (a-1) is divisible by M. In this case the addresses need not be calculated by actually calulating the formula Xn+1= (a Xn + c) mod M. In stead, one may use Xn+1= Xn+vn mod m; vn+1= vn+d mod m, with d=c(a-1), and v0 initialized to (a-1)Xo+c. (For example, when M=100(=2*2*5*5), "a" may be chosen as 21 (a-1=4≠5) and c=1). When the modulus M with which the multiplier and adder operate is made adjustable, the interleaver/de-interleaver can be simply switched between different block lengths. Evidently, the invention is not restricted to the embodiments given. For example, instead of operating with bits it is also possible to operate with larger symbols, for as long as the error correction code is capable of correcting random and isolated errors in these symbols better than random errors in the form of a burst. Furthermore, the logic succession of bits produced by the encoder is not necessarily a temporal succession. Bits are "logically successive" if simultaneous errors in these bits can be corrected less readily than simultaneous errors in "non-logically successive" bits. The inner frequency interleaving is a pseudo-random bit interleaving. The interleaving is on a block basis, i.e., the bits in each OFDM symbol are permuted in a fixed way such that bursts are randomized. However, bits of a given OFDM symbol are not mixed with bits originating from any other OFDM symbol. In a practical example, an OFDM symbol consists of N useful subcarriers, where N equals 6361 or 5937, that each contain 2,4 or 6 bits of information. The task of the interleaver is to decorrelate the bits at the input of a Viterbi detector. The (de)interleaver consists of a memory (RAM) having the size of 8 times 8192 bit and an addressing unit. The addressing unit generates a 16 bit address that can be distinguished in 3 lsb bits and 13 msb bits. The 13 msb bits determine a particular subchannel, while the 3 1sb bits determine which bit from a given subchannel. Each time as the RAM is addressed, the contents are read and put forward to the downstreamdecoder and the next bit at the input is written in the current location. At each cycle, all relevant locations must be addressed. The three 1sb bits periodically go through relevant states (dependent on the number of bits per symbol), while the 13 msb bits are generated by an algorithm producing all relevant addresses in a special sequence. Since 6361 is prime and 5937 is divisible by three, the Isb addresses can be generated in pairs, an algorithm is defined that works for 2 bits of information per subcarrier and this algorithm is used 1, 2 or 3 times dependent on the number of bits per symbol, each time with a different fixed offset on the 1sb. In this way it is assured that all bits will be addressed under all circumstances before the addressing unit will be in the same state. ct = ct-1 * c0 mod N, where c0 is a judiciously chosen initial increment that corresponds to the actually realized interleave depth. In summary, the invention relates to a transmission system, which comprises an encoder, an interleaver, a modulator, a transmission channel, a demodulator a deinterleaver and a decoder. The encoder is used for encoding a data block in an error correction code containing a logic succession of data items. The decoder is used for correcting errors in the transmission between the encoder and the decoder. The error correction code is more robust to errors which occur simultaneously and in an isolated fashion in the logic succession than to errors which occur simultaneously and in the form of a burst therein. The modulator is used for generating a signal which comprises a number of frequency channels to be transmitted simultaneously, each of the frequency channels corresponding to a group which comprises at least one of the data items and is modulated in the respective channel. The transmission channel is located between the modulator and the demodulator. The demodulator reconstructs the groups and applies the groups to the decoder. The interleaver distributes the data items between the groups and introduces a pseudo-random relationship between the logic succession and the distribution between the successive frequency channels. The de-interleaver reconstructs the logic succession from the groups reconstructed by the demodulator, before presentation to the decoder. This transmission system can be improved when the interleaver and/or the deinterleaver realise the distribution by way of a non-monotonous linear congruential sequence. The transmission system can be further improved when the interleaver and/or the de-interleaver are provided with a memory for the data items and with write and read means, the write means writing each time a data item in a location of the memory which has just been read before the read means read a data item from a next location of the memory, and in which an order of locations in which the logic succession is written differs for successive logic successions. A further improvement concerns a transmission system in which the orders are periodically recurrent with a period of at least two blocks in which one monotonously ascending or descending order occurs. Also the write and/or read means may comprise an address generator which is arranged to form a linear congruential sequence with a factor and a summand, and also arranged to replace the factor and/or the summand from one block to another. Fig. 5 shows an embodiment of the transmitting section according to the invention. The transmitting section contains a data bus 70 and a address bus 71 connecting a memory 72, a processor 76 and a transmitter 78. An encoder 74 is coupled to the data bus 70. The encoder 74 is coupled to the address bus 71 via an address generation unit 75. In operation, the encoder 74 receives the data block and encodes it as a succession of bits. Each successive bit is fed to the data bus 70, and the presence of the bit is signalled to the address generator 75. The address generator 75 generates a respective address for each successive bit according to the pseudo random sequence. The address indicates both a word location in the memory 72 and a bit location within the word location. The word location corresponds to the group to which the bit is assigned, and the bit location corresponds to the location of the bit within the group. The address generator 75 ensures that bits which are logically adjacent are substantially always stored in different word locations. The spacing of these word locations is preferably larger than zero, so that logically adjacent bits will enter non-adjacent word locations. The address is applied to the data bus and the bit is stored in the memory 72 at a location that corresponds to the address generated for it by the address generator 75. When the entire data block has thus been encoded in the error protecting code, and stored in the memory 72, the processor 76 is started. The processor 76 computes the FFT of the words stored in memory 72. For this purpose, it reads the words each time as they are needed for the FFT algorithm. For this purpose a known FFT algorithm can be used, which addresses the word locations of the memory 72 in a normal way, i.e. without requiring knowledge of the interleaving process. Because the bits which are logically adjacent have substantially always stored in different word locations, these adjacent bits are modulated in different frequency channels in the result of the FFT. This result is subsequently read by the transmitter 78 and transmitted via the transmission channel (not shown). A structure similar to that of Fig. 5 can be used for the receiving section, with a receiver replacing the transmitter 78 and a decoder replacing encoder 74. In this case the receiver writes words into memory 72 and the processor 76 performs an FFT on this words. Address generator 75 effects the pseudo random interleaving, issuing successive word/bit address pairs to read out the results of the FFT bit by bit for error correction by the decoder. a modulator (14) arranged in operation to modulate the interleaved data-items onto the number of simultaneously active frequency channels for transmission via the transmission channel, wherein the interleaver includes an address generator, the address generator being arranged to generate the addresses using a linear feedback shift register. an encoder (10) for encoding the data in each version of the basic cycle into a respective logic succession of data-items in an error correction code which is more robust against errors that are separate from each other than against errors that occur in a burst in the respective logic succession. A transmitting apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the modulator (14) is configured to generate a signal comprising the number of frequency channels the data-items for a version of the basic cycle being modulated in respective ones of the frequency channels that are simultaneously active. interleaver (12) is arranged to select for each particular data-item a particular frequency channel dependent on a particular position of the data-item in its logic succession; the modulator (14) being arranged to modulate each frequency channel of the signal in dependence on at least a respective one of the data items, the particular data item being modulated at the particular frequency channel. A transmitting apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the interleaver (12) includes an address generator for generating the addresses of the memory the order of the addresses being permuted according to the pseudo random function. the data-items for a version of the basic cycle being written in the locations, the order of writing the data-items in successive cycles being an order of locations with monotonously ascending or descending addresses and an order with addresses permuted according to a pseudo random function, the data-items being interleaved so as to provide an inverse of the de-interleaving, wherein the de-interleaver includes an address generator, the address generator being arranged to generate the addresses using a linear feedback shift register. a decoder for decoding the data-items received according to the error correcting code applied to the logic sequence as obtained by the de-interleaver (18, 52, 54, 56). reading means for reading the data items for that particular version from the memory in an order of reading addresses for the particular version, permuted according to a pseudo random function with respect to the order writing addresses for the particular version, the writing means writing the data-items of the particular version at addresses as these addresses come available during reading of the data items of a directly preceding version of the basic cycle. A receiving apparatus as claimed in Claim 6, wherein the de-interleaver includes an address generating means (52, 54) for generating the orders of writing and reading addresses, the order of reading addresses in the particular version of the basic cycle being permuted with respect to the order of reading addresses used in a directly preceding version of the basic cycle according to the pseudo random function, the pseudo random function being particular to the version of the basic cycle; the address generating means generating the order of reading and writing addresses periodically, each order of reading addresses recurring each time after a period of exactly two versions of the basic cycle, the order of reading addresses being alternately a monotonously ascending or descending order of addresses and an order in which the addresses for reading are permuted according to the pseudo random function. modulating the interleaved data-items onto the number of simultaneously active frequency channels for transmission via the transmission channel, the interleaving including generating the addresses using a linear feedback shift register. A method of transmitting as claimed in Claim 10, comprising encoding the data in each version of the basic cycle into a respective logic succession of data-items in accordance with an error correction code which is more robust against errors that are separate from each other than against errors that occur in a burst in the respective logic succession. generating a signal comprising the number of frequency channels the data-items for a version of the basic cycle being modulated in respective ones of the frequency channels that are simultaneously active. modulating each frequency channel of the signal in dependence on at least a respective one of the data items, the particular data item modulating the particular frequency channel. generating the addresses permuted according to the pseudo random function by using a linear feedback shift register. decoding the data-items received according to the error correcting code applied to the logic sequence as obtained by the de-interleaver (18, 52, 54, 56).

2019-04-25T00:35:20Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/EP2302805B1/en

Therapy with lipid-altering agents should be only one component of multiple risk factor intervention in individuals at significantly increased risk for atherosclerotic vascular disease due to hypercholesterolemia. Drug therapy is indicated as an adjunct to diet when the response to a diet restricted in saturated fat and cholesterol and other nonpharmacologic measures alone has been inadequate. In patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or at high risk of CHD, Zocor® can be started simultaneously with diet. Reduce the risk of total mortality by reducing CHD deaths. Reduce the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction and stroke. Reduce the need for coronary and non-coronary revascularization procedures. Reduce elevated total cholesterol (total-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein B (Apo B), and triglycerides (TG), and to increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in patients with primary hyperlipidemia (Fredrickson type IIa, heterozygous familial and nonfamilial) or mixed dyslipidemia (Fredrickson type IIb). Reduce elevated TG in patients with hypertriglyceridemia (Fredrickson type lV hyperlipidemia). Reduce elevated TG and VLDL-C in patients with primary dysbetalipoproteinemia (Fredrickson type lll hyperlipidemia). Reduce total-C and LDL-C in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) as an adjunct to other lipid-lowering treatments (e.g., LDL apheresis) or if such treatments are unavailable. Two or more other CVD risk factors are present in the adolescent patient. The minimum goal of treatment in pediatric and adolescent patients is to achieve a mean LDL-C <130 mg/dL. The optimal age at which to initiate lipid-lowering therapy to decrease the risk of symptomatic adulthood CAD has not been determined. Zocor has not been studied in conditions where the major abnormality is elevation of chylomicrons (i.e., hyperlipidemia Fredrickson types I and V). The usual dosage range is 5 to 40 mg/day. In patients with CHD or at high risk of CHD, Zocor can be started simultaneously with diet. The recommended usual starting dose is 10 or 20 mg once a day in the evening. For patients at high risk for a CHD event due to existing CHD, diabetes, peripheral vessel disease, history of stroke or other cerebrovascular disease, the recommended starting dose is 40 mg/day. Lipid determinations should be performed after 4 weeks of therapy and periodically thereafter. Due to the increased risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, particularly during the first year of treatment, use of the 80-mg dose of Zocor should be restricted to patients who have been taking simvastatin 80 mg chronically (e.g., for 12 months or more) without evidence of muscle toxicity [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. Patients who are currently tolerating the 80-mg dose of Zocor who need to be initiated on an interacting drug that is contraindicated or is associated with a dose cap for simvastatin should be switched to an alternative statin with less potential for the drug-drug interaction. Due to the increased risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, associated with the 80-mg dose of Zocor, patients unable to achieve their LDL-C goal utilizing the 40-mg dose of Zocor should not be titrated to the 80-mg dose, but should be placed on alternative LDL-C-lowering treatment(s) that provides greater LDL-C lowering. The dose of Zocor should not exceed 10 mg/day [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1), Drug Interactions (7.3), and Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. The dose of Zocor should not exceed 20 mg/day [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1), Drug Interactions (7.3), and Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. The recommended dosage is 40 mg/day in the evening [see Dosage and Administration, Restricted Dosing for 80 mg (2.2)]. Zocor should be used as an adjunct to other lipid-lowering treatments (e.g., LDL apheresis) in these patients or if such treatments are unavailable. Simvastatin exposure is approximately doubled with concomitant use of lomitapide; therefore, the dose of Zocor should be reduced by 50% if initiating lomitapide. Zocor dosage should not exceed 20 mg/day (or 40 mg/day for patients who have previously taken Zocor 80 mg/day chronically, e.g., for 12 months or more, without evidence of muscle toxicity) while taking lomitapide. The recommended usual starting dose is 10 mg once a day in the evening. The recommended dosing range is 10 to 40 mg/day; the maximum recommended dose is 40 mg/day. Doses should be individualized according to the recommended goal of therapy [see NCEP Pediatric Panel Guidelines1 and Clinical Studies (14.2)]. Adjustments should be made at intervals of 4 weeks or more. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP): Highlights of the Report of the Expert Panel on Blood Cholesterol Levels in Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics. 89(3):495-501. 1992. Because Zocor does not undergo significant renal excretion, modification of dosage should not be necessary in patients with mild to moderate renal impairment. However, caution should be exercised when Zocor is administered to patients with severe renal impairment; such patients should be started at 5 mg/day and be closely monitored [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1) and Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. Tablets Zocor 5 mg are buff, oval, film-coated tablets, coded MSD 726 on one side and Zocor 5 on the other. Tablets Zocor 10 mg are peach, oval, film-coated tablets, coded MSD 735 on one side and plain on the other. Tablets Zocor 20 mg are tan, oval, film-coated tablets, coded MSD 740 on one side and plain on the other. Tablets Zocor 40 mg are brick red, oval, film-coated tablets, coded MSD 749 on one side and plain on the other. Tablets Zocor 80 mg are brick red, capsule-shaped, film-coated tablets, coded 543 on one side and 80 on the other. Concomitant administration of strong CYP3A4 inhibitors (e.g., itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, HIV protease inhibitors, boceprevir, telaprevir, erythromycin, clarithromycin, telithromycin, nefazodone, and cobicistat-containing products) [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. Concomitant administration of gemfibrozil, cyclosporine, or danazol [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. Hypersensitivity to any component of this medication [see Adverse Reactions (6.2)]. Active liver disease, which may include unexplained persistent elevations in hepatic transaminase levels [see Warnings and Precautions (5.2)]. Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. Serum cholesterol and triglycerides increase during normal pregnancy, and cholesterol or cholesterol derivatives are essential for fetal development. Because HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) decrease cholesterol synthesis and possibly the synthesis of other biologically active substances derived from cholesterol, Zocor may cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Atherosclerosis is a chronic process and the discontinuation of lipid-lowering drugs during pregnancy should have little impact on the outcome of long-term therapy of primary hypercholesterolemia. There are no adequate and well-controlled studies of use with Zocor during pregnancy; however, in rare reports congenital anomalies were observed following intrauterine exposure to statins. In rat and rabbit animal reproduction studies, simvastatin revealed no evidence of teratogenicity. Zocor should be administered to women of childbearing age only when such patients are highly unlikely to conceive. If the patient becomes pregnant while taking this drug, Zocor should be discontinued immediately and the patient should be apprised of the potential hazard to the fetus [see Use in Specific Populations (8.1)]. Nursing mothers. It is not known whether simvastatin is excreted into human milk; however, a small amount of another drug in this class does pass into breast milk. Because statins have the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants, women who require treatment with Zocor should not breastfeed their infants [see Use in Specific Populations (8.3)]. ​Simvastatin occasionally causes myopathy manifested as muscle pain, tenderness or weakness with creatine kinase (CK) above ten times the upper limit of normal (ULN). Myopathy sometimes takes the form of rhabdomyolysis with or without acute renal failure secondary to myoglobinuria, and rare fatalities have occurred. The risk of myopathy is increased by elevated plasma levels of simvastatin and simvastatin acid. Predisposing factors for myopathy include advanced age (≥65 years), female gender, uncontrolled hypothyroidism, and renal impairment. Chinese patients may be at increased risk for myopathy [see Use in Specific Populations (8.8)]. The risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, is dose related. In a clinical trial database in which 41,413 patients were treated with Zocor, 24,747 (approximately 60%) of whom were enrolled in studies with a median follow-up of at least 4 years, the incidence of myopathy was approximately 0.03% and 0.08% at 20 and 40 mg/day, respectively. The incidence of myopathy with 80 mg (0.61%) was disproportionately higher than that observed at the lower doses. In these trials, patients were carefully monitored and some interacting medicinal products were excluded. In a clinical trial in which 12,064 patients with a history of myocardial infarction were treated with Zocor (mean follow-up 6.7 years), the incidence of myopathy (defined as unexplained muscle weakness or pain with a serum creatine kinase [CK] >10 times upper limit of normal [ULN]) in patients on 80 mg/day was approximately 0.9% compared with 0.02% for patients on 20 mg/day. The incidence of rhabdomyolysis (defined as myopathy with a CK >40 times ULN) in patients on 80 mg/day was approximately 0.4% compared with 0% for patients on 20 mg/day. The incidence of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, was highest during the first year and then notably decreased during the subsequent years of treatment. In this trial, patients were carefully monitored and some interacting medicinal products were excluded. There have been rare reports of immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM), an autoimmune myopathy, associated with statin use. IMNM is characterized by: proximal muscle weakness and elevated serum creatine kinase, which persist despite discontinuation of statin treatment; muscle biopsy showing necrotizing myopathy without significant inflammation; improvement with immunosuppressive agents. All patients starting therapy with Zocor, or whose dose of Zocor is being increased, should be advised of the risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, and told to report promptly any unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness particularly if accompanied by malaise or fever or if muscle signs and symptoms persist after discontinuing Zocor. Zocor therapy should be discontinued immediately if myopathy is diagnosed or suspected. In most cases, muscle symptoms and CK increases resolved when treatment was promptly discontinued. Periodic CK determinations may be considered in patients starting therapy with Zocor or whose dose is being increased, but there is no assurance that such monitoring will prevent myopathy. Many of the patients who have developed rhabdomyolysis on therapy with simvastatin have had complicated medical histories, including renal insufficiency usually as a consequence of long-standing diabetes mellitus. Such patients merit closer monitoring. Zocor therapy should be discontinued if markedly elevated CPK levels occur or myopathy is diagnosed or suspected. Zocor therapy should also be temporarily withheld in any patient experiencing an acute or serious condition predisposing to the development of renal failure secondary to rhabdomyolysis, e.g., sepsis; hypotension; major surgery; trauma; severe metabolic, endocrine, or electrolyte disorders; or uncontrolled epilepsy. The risk of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis is increased by elevated plasma levels of simvastatin and simvastatin acid. Simvastatin is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 isoform 3A4. Certain drugs which inhibit this metabolic pathway can raise the plasma levels of simvastatin and may increase the risk of myopathy. These include itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, the macrolide antibiotics erythromycin and clarithromycin, and the ketolide antibiotic telithromycin, HIV protease inhibitors, boceprevir, telaprevir, the antidepressant nefazodone, cobicistat-containing products, or grapefruit juice [see Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. Combination of these drugs with simvastatin is contraindicated. If short-term treatment with strong CYP3A4 inhibitors is unavoidable, therapy with simvastatin must be suspended during the course of treatment [see Contraindications (4) and Drug Interactions (7.1)]. The combined use of simvastatin with gemfibrozil, cyclosporine, or danazol is contraindicated [see Contraindications (4) and Drug Interactions (7.1 and 7.2)]. Caution should be used when prescribing other fibrates with simvastatin, as these agents can cause myopathy when given alone and the risk is increased when they are coadministered [see Drug Interactions (7.2)]. Cases of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, have been reported with simvastatin coadministered with colchicine, and caution should be exercised when prescribing simvastatin with colchicine [see Drug Interactions (7.7)]. The benefits of the combined use of simvastatin with the following drugs should be carefully weighed against the potential risks of combinations: other lipid-lowering drugs (fibrates or, for patients with HoFH, lomitapide), amiodarone, dronedarone, verapamil, diltiazem, amlodipine, or ranolazine [see Dosage and Administration (2.4), Drug Interactions (7.3)]. ​Cases of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, have been observed with simvastatin coadministered with lipid-modifying doses (≥1 g/day niacin) of niacin-containing products [see Drug Interactions (7.4)]. Prescribing recommendations for interacting agents are summarized in Table 1 [see also Dosage and Administration (2.3, 2.4), Drug Interactions (7), Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. For patients with HoFH who have been taking 80 mg simvastatin chronically (e.g., for 12 months or more) without evidence of muscle toxicity, do not exceed 40 mg simvastatin when taking lomitapide. Persistent increases (to more than 3× the ULN) in serum transaminases have occurred in approximately 1% of patients who received simvastatin in clinical studies. When drug treatment was interrupted or discontinued in these patients, the transaminase levels usually fell slowly to pretreatment levels. The increases were not associated with jaundice or other clinical signs or symptoms. There was no evidence of hypersensitivity. In the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S) [see Clinical Studies (14.1)], the number of patients with more than one transaminase elevation to >3× ULN, over the course of the study, was not significantly different between the simvastatin and placebo groups (14 [0.7%] vs. 12 [0.6%]). Elevated transaminases resulted in the discontinuation of 8 patients from therapy in the simvastatin group (n=2,221) and 5 in the placebo group (n=2,223). Of the 1,986 simvastatin treated patients in 4S with normal liver function tests (LFTs) at baseline, 8 (0.4%) developed consecutive LFT elevations to >3× ULN and/or were discontinued due to transaminase elevations during the 5.4 years (median follow-up) of the study. Among these 8 patients, 5 initially developed these abnormalities within the first year. All of the patients in this study received a starting dose of 20 mg of simvastatin; 37% were titrated to 40 mg. In 2 controlled clinical studies in 1,105 patients, the 12-month incidence of persistent hepatic transaminase elevation without regard to drug relationship was 0.9% and 2.1% at the 40- and 80-mg dose, respectively. No patients developed persistent liver function abnormalities following the initial 6 months of treatment at a given dose. It is recommended that liver function tests be performed before the initiation of treatment, and thereafter when clinically indicated. There have been rare postmarketing reports of fatal and non-fatal hepatic failure in patients taking statins, including simvastatin. If serious liver injury with clinical symptoms and/or hyperbilirubinemia or jaundice occurs during treatment with Zocor, promptly interrupt therapy. If an alternate etiology is not found do not restart Zocor. Note that ALT may emanate from muscle, therefore ALT rising with CK may indicate myopathy [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. The drug should be used with caution in patients who consume substantial quantities of alcohol and/or have a past history of liver disease. Active liver diseases or unexplained transaminase elevations are contraindications to the use of simvastatin. Moderate (less than 3× ULN) elevations of serum transaminases have been reported following therapy with simvastatin. These changes appeared soon after initiation of therapy with simvastatin, were often transient, were not accompanied by any symptoms and did not require interruption of treatment. Increases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Zocor. In the pre-marketing controlled clinical studies and their open extensions (2,423 patients with median duration of follow-up of approximately 18 months), 1.4% of patients were discontinued due to adverse reactions. The most common adverse reactions that led to treatment discontinuation were: gastrointestinal disorders (0.5%), myalgia (0.1%), and arthralgia (0.1%). The most commonly reported adverse reactions (incidence ≥5%) in simvastatin controlled clinical trials were: upper respiratory infections (9.0%), headache (7.4%), abdominal pain (7.3%), constipation (6.6%), and nausea (5.4%). In 4S involving 4,444 (age range 35-71 years, 19% women, 100% Caucasians) treated with 20-40 mg/day of Zocor (n=2,221) or placebo (n=2,223) over a median of 5.4 years, adverse reactions reported in ≥2% of patients and at a rate greater than placebo are shown in Table 2. In the Heart Protection Study (HPS), involving 20,536 patients (age range 40-80 years, 25% women, 97% Caucasians, 3% other races) treated with Zocor 40 mg/day (n=10,269) or placebo (n=10,267) over a mean of 5 years, only serious adverse reactions and discontinuations due to any adverse reactions were recorded. Discontinuation rates due to adverse reactions were 4.8% in patients treated with Zocor compared with 5.1% in patients treated with placebo. The incidence of myopathy/rhabdomyolysis was <0.1% in patients treated with Zocor. Other adverse reactions reported in clinical trials were: diarrhea, rash, dyspepsia, flatulence, and asthenia. In a 48-week, controlled study in adolescent boys and girls who were at least 1 year post-menarche, 10-17 years of age (43.4% female, 97.7% Caucasians, 1.7% Hispanics, 0.6% Multiracial) with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (n=175), treated with placebo or Zocor (10-40 mg daily), the most common adverse reactions observed in both groups were upper respiratory infection, headache, abdominal pain, and nausea [see Use in Specific Populations (8.4) and Clinical Studies (14.2)]. Because the below reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is generally not possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure. The following additional adverse reactions have been identified during postapproval use of simvastatin: pruritus, alopecia, a variety of skin changes (e.g., nodules, discoloration, dryness of skin/mucous membranes, changes to hair/nails), dizziness, muscle cramps, myalgia, pancreatitis, paresthesia, peripheral neuropathy, vomiting, anemia, erectile dysfunction, interstitial lung disease, rhabdomyolysis, hepatitis/jaundice, fatal and non-fatal hepatic failure, and depression. There have been rare reports of immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy associated with statin use [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. An apparent hypersensitivity syndrome has been reported rarely which has included some of the following features: anaphylaxis, angioedema, lupus erythematous-like syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, dermatomyositis, vasculitis, purpura, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, hemolytic anemia, positive ANA, ESR increase, eosinophilia, arthritis, arthralgia, urticaria, asthenia, photosensitivity, fever, chills, flushing, malaise, dyspnea, toxic epidermal necrolysis, erythema multiforme, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome. There have been rare postmarketing reports of cognitive impairment (e.g., memory loss, forgetfulness, amnesia, memory impairment, confusion) associated with statin use. These cognitive issues have been reported for all statins. The reports are generally nonserious, and reversible upon statin discontinuation, with variable times to symptom onset (1 day to years) and symptom resolution (median of 3 weeks). Strong CYP3A4 inhibitors: Simvastatin, like several other inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase, is a substrate of CYP3A4. Simvastatin is metabolized by CYP3A4 but has no CYP3A4 inhibitory activity; therefore it is not expected to affect the plasma concentrations of other drugs metabolized by CYP3A4. Elevated plasma levels of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity increases the risk of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis, particularly with higher doses of simvastatin. [See Warnings and Precautions (5.1) and Clinical Pharmacology (12.3).] Concomitant use of drugs labeled as having a strong inhibitory effect on CYP3A4 is contraindicated [see Contraindications (4)]. If treatment with itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, erythromycin, clarithromycin or telithromycin is unavoidable, therapy with simvastatin must be suspended during the course of treatment. Cyclosporine or Danazol: The risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis is increased by concomitant administration of cyclosporine or danazol. Therefore, concomitant use of these drugs is contraindicated [see Contraindications (4), Warnings and Precautions (5.1) and Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. Gemfibrozil: Contraindicated with simvastatin [see Contraindications (4) and Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. Other fibrates: Caution should be used when prescribing with simvastatin [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. The risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, is increased by concomitant administration of amiodarone, dronedarone, ranolazine, or calcium channel blockers such as verapamil, diltiazem, or amlodipine [see Dosage and Administration (2.3) and Warnings and Precautions (5.1), and Table 3 in Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. Cases of myopathy/rhabdomyolysis have been observed with simvastatin coadministered with lipid-modifying doses (≥1 g/day niacin) of niacin-containing products. The risk of myopathy is greater in Chinese patients. In a clinical trial (median follow-up 3.9 years) involving patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease and with well-controlled LDL-C levels on simvastatin 40 mg/day with or without ezetimibe 10 mg/day, there was no incremental benefit on cardiovascular outcomes with the addition of lipid-modifying doses (≥1 g/day) of niacin. Coadministration of Zocor with lipid-modifying doses (≥1 g/day) of niacin is not recommended in Chinese patients. It is unknown if this risk applies to other Asian patients [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1) and Use in Specific Populations (8.8)]. In one study, concomitant administration of digoxin with simvastatin resulted in a slight elevation in digoxin concentrations in plasma. Patients taking digoxin should be monitored appropriately when simvastatin is initiated [see Clinical Pharmacology (12.3)]. In two clinical studies, one in normal volunteers and the other in hypercholesterolemic patients, simvastatin 20-40 mg/day modestly potentiated the effect of coumarin anticoagulants: the prothrombin time, reported as International Normalized Ratio (INR), increased from a baseline of 1.7 to 1.8 and from 2.6 to 3.4 in the volunteer and patient studies, respectively. With other statins, clinically evident bleeding and/or increased prothrombin time has been reported in a few patients taking coumarin anticoagulants concomitantly. In such patients, prothrombin time should be determined before starting simvastatin and frequently enough during early therapy to ensure that no significant alteration of prothrombin time occurs. Once a stable prothrombin time has been documented, prothrombin times can be monitored at the intervals usually recommended for patients on coumarin anticoagulants. If the dose of simvastatin is changed or discontinued, the same procedure should be repeated. Simvastatin therapy has not been associated with bleeding or with changes in prothrombin time in patients not taking anticoagulants. Cases of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, have been reported with simvastatin coadministered with colchicine, and caution should be exercised when prescribing simvastatin with colchicine. Zocor is contraindicated in women who are or may become pregnant. Lipid lowering drugs offer no benefit during pregnancy, because cholesterol and cholesterol derivatives are needed for normal fetal development. Atherosclerosis is a chronic process, and discontinuation of lipid-lowering drugs during pregnancy should have little impact on long-term outcomes of primary hypercholesterolemia therapy. There are no adequate and well-controlled studies of use with Zocor during pregnancy; however, there are rare reports of congenital anomalies in infants exposed to statins in utero. Animal reproduction studies of simvastatin in rats and rabbits showed no evidence of teratogenicity. Serum cholesterol and triglycerides increase during normal pregnancy, and cholesterol or cholesterol derivatives are essential for fetal development. Because statins decrease cholesterol synthesis and possibly the synthesis of other biologically active substances derived from cholesterol, Zocor may cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. If Zocor is used during pregnancy or if the patient becomes pregnant while taking this drug, the patient should be apprised of the potential hazard to the fetus. There are rare reports of congenital anomalies following intrauterine exposure to statins. In a review2 of approximately 100 prospectively followed pregnancies in women exposed to simvastatin or another structurally related statin, the incidences of congenital anomalies, spontaneous abortions, and fetal deaths/stillbirths did not exceed those expected in the general population. However, the study was only able to exclude a 3- to 4-fold increased risk of congenital anomalies over the background rate. In 89% of these cases, drug treatment was initiated prior to pregnancy and was discontinued during the first trimester when pregnancy was identified. Simvastatin was not teratogenic in rats or rabbits at doses (25, 10 mg/kg/day, respectively) that resulted in 3 times the human exposure based on mg/m2 surface area. However, in studies with another structurally-related statin, skeletal malformations were observed in rats and mice. Women of childbearing potential, who require treatment with Zocor for a lipid disorder, should be advised to use effective contraception. For women trying to conceive, discontinuation of Zocor should be considered. If pregnancy occurs, Zocor should be immediately discontinued. Manson, J.M., Freyssinges, C., Ducrocq, M.B., Stephenson, W.P., Postmarketing Surveillance of Lovastatin and Simvastatin Exposure During Pregnancy, Reproductive Toxicology, 10(6):439-446, 1996. It is not known whether simvastatin is excreted in human milk. Because a small amount of another drug in this class is excreted in human milk and because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants, women taking simvastatin should not nurse their infants. A decision should be made whether to discontinue nursing or discontinue drug, taking into account the importance of the drug to the mother [see Contraindications (4)]. Safety and effectiveness of simvastatin in patients 10-17 years of age with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia have been evaluated in a controlled clinical trial in adolescent boys and in girls who were at least 1 year post-menarche. Patients treated with simvastatin had an adverse reaction profile similar to that of patients treated with placebo. Doses greater than 40 mg have not been studied in this population. In this limited controlled study, there was no significant effect on growth or sexual maturation in the adolescent boys or girls, or on menstrual cycle length in girls. [See Dosage and Administration (2.5), Adverse Reactions (6.1), Clinical Studies (14.2).] Adolescent females should be counseled on appropriate contraceptive methods while on simvastatin therapy [see Contraindications (4) and Use in Specific Populations (8.1)]. Simvastatin has not been studied in patients younger than 10 years of age, nor in pre-menarchal girls. A pharmacokinetic study with simvastatin showed the mean plasma level of statin activity to be approximately 45% higher in elderly patients between 70-78 years of age compared with patients between 18-30 years of age. In 4S, 1,021 (23%) of 4,444 patients were 65 or older. Lipid-lowering efficacy was at least as great in elderly patients compared with younger patients, and Zocor significantly reduced total mortality and CHD mortality in elderly patients with a history of CHD. In HPS, 52% of patients were elderly (4,891 patients 65-69 years and 5,806 patients 70 years or older). The relative risk reductions of CHD death, non-fatal MI, coronary and non-coronary revascularization procedures, and stroke were similar in older and younger patients [see Clinical Studies (14.1)]. In HPS, among 32,145 patients entering the active run-in period, there were 2 cases of myopathy/rhabdomyolysis; these patients were aged 67 and 73. Of the 7 cases of myopathy/rhabdomyolysis among 10,269 patients allocated to simvastatin, 4 were aged 65 or more (at baseline), of whom one was over 75. There were no overall differences in safety between older and younger patients in either 4S or HPS. Zocor is contraindicated in patients with active liver disease which may include unexplained persistent elevations in hepatic transaminase levels [see Contraindications (4) and Warnings and Precautions (5.2)]. In a clinical trial in which patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease were treated with simvastatin 40 mg/day (median follow-up 3.9 years), the incidence of myopathy was approximately 0.05% for non-Chinese patients (n=7367) compared with 0.24% for Chinese patients (n=5468). The incidence of myopathy for Chinese patients on simvastatin 40 mg/day or ezetimibe/simvastatin 10/40 mg/day coadministered with extended-release niacin 2 g/day was 1.24%. Chinese patients may be at higher risk for myopathy, monitor patients appropriately. Coadministration of Zocor with lipid-modifying doses (≥1 g/day niacin) of niacin-containing products is not recommended in Chinese patients [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1), Drug Interactions (7.4)]. Significant lethality was observed in mice after a single oral dose of 9 g/m2. No evidence of lethality was observed in rats or dogs treated with doses of 30 and 100 g/m2, respectively. No specific diagnostic signs were observed in rodents. At these doses the only signs seen in dogs were emesis and mucoid stools. A few cases of overdosage with Zocor have been reported; the maximum dose taken was 3.6 g. All patients recovered without sequelae. Supportive measures should be taken in the event of an overdose. The dialyzability of simvastatin and its metabolites in man is not known at present. Zocor (simvastatin) is a lipid-lowering agent that is derived synthetically from a fermentation product of Aspergillus terreus. After oral ingestion, simvastatin, which is an inactive lactone, is hydrolyzed to the corresponding β-hydroxyacid form. This is an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase. This enzyme catalyzes the conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate, which is an early and rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. Simvastatin is a white to off-white, nonhygroscopic, crystalline powder that is practically insoluble in water, and freely soluble in chloroform, methanol and ethanol. Tablets Zocor for oral administration contain either 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg or 80 mg of simvastatin and the following inactive ingredients: ascorbic acid, citric acid, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hypromellose, iron oxides, lactose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, starch, talc, and titanium dioxide. Butylated hydroxyanisole is added as a preservative. Simvastatin is a prodrug and is hydrolyzed to its active β-hydroxyacid form, simvastatin acid, after administration. Simvastatin is a specific inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate, an early and rate limiting step in the biosynthetic pathway for cholesterol. In addition, simvastatin reduces VLDL and TG and increases HDL-C. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that elevated levels of total-C, LDL-C, as well as decreased levels of HDL-C are associated with the development of atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular risk. Lowering LDL-C decreases this risk. However, the independent effect of raising HDL-C or lowering TG on the risk of coronary and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has not been determined. Simvastatin is a lactone that is readily hydrolyzed in vivo to the corresponding β-hydroxyacid, a potent inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase. Inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase is the basis for an assay in pharmacokinetic studies of the β-hydroxyacid metabolites (active inhibitors) and, following base hydrolysis, active plus latent inhibitors (total inhibitors) in plasma following administration of simvastatin. Following an oral dose of 14C-labeled simvastatin in man, 13% of the dose was excreted in urine and 60% in feces. Plasma concentrations of total radioactivity (simvastatin plus 14C-metabolites) peaked at 4 hours and declined rapidly to about 10% of peak by 12 hours postdose. Since simvastatin undergoes extensive first-pass extraction in the liver, the availability of the drug to the general circulation is low (<5%). Both simvastatin and its β-hydroxyacid metabolite are highly bound (approximately 95%) to human plasma proteins. Rat studies indicate that when radiolabeled simvastatin was administered, simvastatin-derived radioactivity crossed the blood-brain barrier. The major active metabolites of simvastatin present in human plasma are the β-hydroxyacid of simvastatin and its 6'-hydroxy, 6'-hydroxymethyl, and 6'-exomethylene derivatives. Peak plasma concentrations of both active and total inhibitors were attained within 1.3 to 2.4 hours postdose. While the recommended therapeutic dose range is 5 to 40 mg/day, there was no substantial deviation from linearity of AUC of inhibitors in the general circulation with an increase in dose to as high as 120 mg. Relative to the fasting state, the plasma profile of inhibitors was not affected when simvastatin was administered immediately before an American Heart Association recommended low-fat meal. In a study including 16 elderly patients between 70 and 78 years of age who received Zocor 40 mg/day, the mean plasma level of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity was increased approximately 45% compared with 18 patients between 18-30 years of age. Clinical study experience in the elderly (n=1522), suggests that there were no overall differences in safety between elderly and younger patients [see Use in Specific Populations (8.5)]. Kinetic studies with another statin, having a similar principal route of elimination, have suggested that for a given dose level higher systemic exposure may be achieved in patients with severe renal insufficiency (as measured by creatinine clearance). Simvastatin acid is a substrate of the transport protein OATP1B1. Concomitant administration of medicinal products that are inhibitors of the transport protein OATP1B1 may lead to increased plasma concentrations of simvastatin acid and an increased risk of myopathy. For example, cyclosporine has been shown to increase the AUC of statins; although the mechanism is not fully understood, the increase in AUC for simvastatin acid is presumably due, in part, to inhibition of CYP3A4 and/or OATP1B1. The risk of myopathy is increased by high levels of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity in plasma. Inhibitors of CYP3A4 can raise the plasma levels of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity and increase the risk of myopathy [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1) and Drug Interactions (7.1)]. Results based on a chemical assay except results with propranolol as indicated. Results could be representative of the following CYP3A4 inhibitors: ketoconazole, erythromycin, clarithromycin, HIV protease inhibitors, and nefazodone. Simvastatin acid refers to the β-hydroxyacid of simvastatin. The effect of amounts of grapefruit juice between those used in these two studies on simvastatin pharmacokinetics has not been studied. Double-strength: one can of frozen concentrate diluted with one can of water. Grapefruit juice was administered TID for 2 days, and 200 mL together with single dose simvastatin and 30 and 90 minutes following single dose simvastatin on Day 3. Single-strength: one can of frozen concentrate diluted with 3 cans of water. Grapefruit juice was administered with breakfast for 3 days, and simvastatin was administered in the evening on Day 3. In a study of 12 healthy volunteers, simvastatin at the 80-mg dose had no effect on the metabolism of the probe cytochrome P450 isoform 3A4 (CYP3A4) substrates midazolam and erythromycin. This indicates that simvastatin is not an inhibitor of CYP3A4, and, therefore, is not expected to affect the plasma levels of other drugs metabolized by CYP3A4. Coadministration of simvastatin (40 mg QD for 10 days) resulted in an increase in the maximum mean levels of cardioactive digoxin (given as a single 0.4 mg dose on day 10) by approximately 0.3 ng/mL. In a 72-week carcinogenicity study, mice were administered daily doses of simvastatin of 25, 100, and 400 mg/kg body weight, which resulted in mean plasma drug levels approximately 1, 4, and 8 times higher than the mean human plasma drug level, respectively (as total inhibitory activity based on AUC) after an 80-mg oral dose. Liver carcinomas were significantly increased in high-dose females and mid- and high-dose males with a maximum incidence of 90% in males. The incidence of adenomas of the liver was significantly increased in mid- and high-dose females. Drug treatment also significantly increased the incidence of lung adenomas in mid- and high-dose males and females. Adenomas of the Harderian gland (a gland of the eye of rodents) were significantly higher in high-dose mice than in controls. No evidence of a tumorigenic effect was observed at 25 mg/kg/day. In a separate 92-week carcinogenicity study in mice at doses up to 25 mg/kg/day, no evidence of a tumorigenic effect was observed (mean plasma drug levels were 1 times higher than humans given 80 mg simvastatin as measured by AUC). In a two-year study in rats at 25 mg/kg/day, there was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of thyroid follicular adenomas in female rats exposed to approximately 11 times higher levels of simvastatin than in humans given 80 mg simvastatin (as measured by AUC). A second two-year rat carcinogenicity study with doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg/day produced hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas (in female rats at both doses and in males at 100 mg/kg/day). Thyroid follicular cell adenomas were increased in males and females at both doses; thyroid follicular cell carcinomas were increased in females at 100 mg/kg/day. The increased incidence of thyroid neoplasms appears to be consistent with findings from other statins. These treatment levels represented plasma drug levels (AUC) of approximately 7 and 15 times (males) and 22 and 25 times (females) the mean human plasma drug exposure after an 80 milligram daily dose. No evidence of mutagenicity was observed in a microbial mutagenicity (Ames) test with or without rat or mouse liver metabolic activation. In addition, no evidence of damage to genetic material was noted in an in vitro alkaline elution assay using rat hepatocytes, a V-79 mammalian cell forward mutation study, an in vitro chromosome aberration study in CHO cells, or an in vivo chromosomal aberration assay in mouse bone marrow. There was decreased fertility in male rats treated with simvastatin for 34 weeks at 25 mg/kg body weight (4 times the maximum human exposure level, based on AUC, in patients receiving 80 mg/day); however, this effect was not observed during a subsequent fertility study in which simvastatin was administered at this same dose level to male rats for 11 weeks (the entire cycle of spermatogenesis including epididymal maturation). No microscopic changes were observed in the testes of rats from either study. At 180 mg/kg/day, (which produces exposure levels 22 times higher than those in humans taking 80 mg/day based on surface area, mg/m2), seminiferous tubule degeneration (necrosis and loss of spermatogenic epithelium) was observed. In dogs, there was drug-related testicular atrophy, decreased spermatogenesis, spermatocytic degeneration and giant cell formation at 10 mg/kg/day, (approximately 2 times the human exposure, based on AUC, at 80 mg/day). The clinical significance of these findings is unclear. Optic nerve degeneration was seen in clinically normal dogs treated with simvastatin for 14 weeks at 180 mg/kg/day, a dose that produced mean plasma drug levels about 12 times higher than the mean plasma drug level in humans taking 80 mg/day. A chemically similar drug in this class also produced optic nerve degeneration (Wallerian degeneration of retinogeniculate fibers) in clinically normal dogs in a dose-dependent fashion starting at 60 mg/kg/day, a dose that produced mean plasma drug levels about 30 times higher than the mean plasma drug level in humans taking the highest recommended dose (as measured by total enzyme inhibitory activity). This same drug also produced vestibulocochlear Wallerian-like degeneration and retinal ganglion cell chromatolysis in dogs treated for 14 weeks at 180 mg/kg/day, a dose that resulted in a mean plasma drug level similar to that seen with the 60 mg/kg/day dose. CNS vascular lesions, characterized by perivascular hemorrhage and edema, mononuclear cell infiltration of perivascular spaces, perivascular fibrin deposits and necrosis of small vessels were seen in dogs treated with simvastatin at a dose of 360 mg/kg/day, a dose that produced mean plasma drug levels that were about 14 times higher than the mean plasma drug levels in humans taking 80 mg/day. Similar CNS vascular lesions have been observed with several other drugs of this class. There were cataracts in female rats after two years of treatment with 50 and 100 mg/kg/day (22 and 25 times the human AUC at 80 mg/day, respectively) and in dogs after three months at 90 mg/kg/day (19 times) and at two years at 50 mg/kg/day (5 times). In 4S, the effect of therapy with Zocor on total mortality was assessed in 4,444 patients with CHD and baseline total cholesterol 212-309 mg/dL (5.5-8.0 mmol/L). In this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, patients were treated with standard care, including diet, and either Zocor 20-40 mg/day (n=2,221) or placebo (n=2,223) for a median duration of 5.4 years. Over the course of the study, treatment with Zocor led to mean reductions in total-C, LDL-C and TG of 25%, 35%, and 10%, respectively, and a mean increase in HDL-C of 8%. Zocor significantly reduced the risk of mortality by 30% (p=0.0003, 182 deaths in the Zocor group vs 256 deaths in the placebo group). The risk of CHD mortality was significantly reduced by 42% (p=0.00001, 111 vs 189 deaths). There was no statistically significant difference between groups in non-cardiovascular mortality. Zocor significantly decreased the risk of having major coronary events (CHD mortality plus hospital-verified and silent non-fatal myocardial infarction [MI]) by 34% (p<0.00001, 431 vs 622 patients with one or more events). The risk of having a hospital-verified non-fatal MI was reduced by 37%. Zocor significantly reduced the risk for undergoing myocardial revascularization procedures (coronary artery bypass grafting or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) by 37% (p<0.00001, 252 vs 383 patients). Zocor significantly reduced the risk of fatal plus non-fatal cerebrovascular events (combined stroke and transient ischemic attacks) by 28% (p=0.033, 75 vs 102 patients). Zocor reduced the risk of major coronary events to a similar extent across the range of baseline total and LDL cholesterol levels. Because there were only 53 female deaths, the effect of Zocor on mortality in women could not be adequately assessed. However, Zocor significantly lessened the risk of having major coronary events by 34% (60 vs 91 women with one or more event). The randomization was stratified by angina alone (21% of each treatment group) or a previous MI. Because there were only 57 deaths among the patients with angina alone at baseline, the effect of Zocor on mortality in this subgroup could not be adequately assessed. However, trends in reduced coronary mortality, major coronary events and revascularization procedures were consistent between this group and the total study cohort. Additionally, Zocor resulted in similar decreases in relative risk for total mortality, CHD mortality, and major coronary events in elderly patients (≥65 years), compared with younger patients. The Heart Protection Study (HPS) was a large, multi-center, placebo-controlled, double-blind study with a mean duration of 5 years conducted in 20,536 patients (10,269 on Zocor 40 mg and 10,267 on placebo). Patients were allocated to treatment using a covariate adaptive method3 which took into account the distribution of 10 important baseline characteristics of patients already enrolled and minimized the imbalance of those characteristics across the groups. Patients had a mean age of 64 years (range 40-80 years), were 97% Caucasian and were at high risk of developing a major coronary event because of existing CHD (65%), diabetes (Type 2, 26%; Type 1, 3%), history of stroke or other cerebrovascular disease (16%), peripheral vessel disease (33%), or hypertension in males ≥65 years (6%). At baseline, 3,421 patients (17%) had LDL-C levels below 100 mg/dL, of whom 953 (5%) had LDL-C levels below 80 mg/dL; 7,068 patients (34%) had levels between 100 and 130 mg/dL; and 10,047 patients (49%) had levels greater than 130 mg/dL. The HPS results showed that Zocor 40 mg/day significantly reduced: total and CHD mortality; non-fatal MI, stroke, and revascularization procedures (coronary and non-coronary) (see Table 4). Two composite endpoints were defined in order to have sufficient events to assess relative risk reductions across a range of baseline characteristics (see Figure 1). A composite of major coronary events (MCE) was comprised of CHD mortality and non-fatal MI (analyzed by time-to-first event; 898 patients treated with Zocor had events and 1,212 patients on placebo had events). A composite of major vascular events (MVE) was comprised of MCE, stroke and revascularization procedures including coronary, peripheral and other non-coronary procedures (analyzed by time-to-first event; 2,033 patients treated with Zocor had events and 2,585 patients on placebo had events). Significant relative risk reductions were observed for both composite endpoints (27% for MCE and 24% for MVE, p<0.0001). Treatment with Zocor produced significant relative risk reductions for all components of the composite endpoints. The risk reductions produced by Zocor in both MCE and MVE were evident and consistent regardless of cardiovascular disease related medical history at study entry (i.e., CHD alone; or peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes or treated hypertension, with or without CHD), gender, age, creatinine levels up to the entry limit of 2.3 mg/dL, baseline levels of LDL-C, HDL-C, apolipoprotein B and A-1, baseline concomitant cardiovascular medications (i.e., aspirin, beta blockers, or calcium channel blockers), smoking status, alcohol intake, or obesity. Diabetics showed risk reductions for MCE and MVE due to Zocor treatment regardless of baseline HbA1c levels or obesity with the greatest effects seen for diabetics without CHD. N = number of patients in each subgroup. The inverted triangles are point estimates of the relative risk, with their 95% confidence intervals represented as a line. The area of a triangle is proportional to the number of patients with MVE or MCE in the subgroup relative to the number with MVE or MCE, respectively, in the entire study population. The vertical solid line represents a relative risk of one. The vertical dashed line represents the point estimate of relative risk in the entire study population. In the Multicenter Anti-Atheroma Study, the effect of simvastatin on atherosclerosis was assessed by quantitative coronary angiography in hypercholesterolemic patients with CHD. In this randomized, double-blind, controlled study, patients were treated with simvastatin 20 mg/day or placebo. Angiograms were evaluated at baseline, two and four years. The co-primary study endpoints were mean change per-patient in minimum and mean lumen diameters, indicating focal and diffuse disease, respectively. Zocor significantly slowed the progression of lesions as measured in the Year 4 angiogram by both parameters, as well as by change in percent diameter stenosis. In addition, simvastatin significantly decreased the proportion of patients with new lesions and with new total occlusions. Zocor has been shown to be effective in reducing total-C and LDL-C in heterozygous familial and non-familial forms of hyperlipidemia and in mixed hyperlipidemia. Maximal to near maximal response is generally achieved within 4-6 weeks and maintained during chronic therapy. Zocor significantly decreased total-C, LDL-C, total-C/HDL-C ratio, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio; Zocor also decreased TG and increased HDL-C (see Table 5). mean baseline LDL-C 156 mg/dL and median baseline TG 391 mg/dL. The results of a subgroup analysis in 74 patients with type lV hyperlipidemia from a 130-patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 3-period crossover study are presented in Table 6. The median baseline values (mg/dL) for the patients in this study were: total-C = 254, LDL-C = 135, HDL-C = 36, TG = 404, VLDL-C = 83, and non-HDL-C = 215. The results of a subgroup analysis in 7 patients with type lll hyperlipidemia (dysbetalipoproteinemia) (apo E2/2) (VLDL-C/TG>0.25) from a 130-patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 3-period crossover study are presented in Table 7. The median baseline values (mg/dL) were: total-C = 324, LDL-C = 121, HDL-C = 31, TG = 411, VLDL-C = 170, and non-HDL-C = 291. In a controlled clinical study, 12 patients 15-39 years of age with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia received simvastatin 40 mg/day in a single dose or in 3 divided doses, or 80 mg/day in 3 divided doses. In 11 patients with reductions in LDL-C, the mean LDL-C changes for the 40- and 80-mg doses were 14% (range 8% to 23%, median 12%) and 30% (range 14% to 46%, median 29%), respectively. One patient had an increase of 15% in LDL-C. Another patient with absent LDL-C receptor function had an LDL-C reduction of 41% with the 80-mg dose. In clinical studies, simvastatin did not impair adrenal reserve or significantly reduce basal plasma cortisol concentration. Small reductions from baseline in basal plasma testosterone in men were observed in clinical studies with simvastatin, an effect also observed with other statins and the bile acid sequestrant cholestyramine. There was no effect on plasma gonadotropin levels. In a placebo-controlled, 12-week study there was no significant effect of simvastatin 80 mg on the plasma testosterone response to human chorionic gonadotropin. In another 24-week study, simvastatin 20-40 mg had no detectable effect on spermatogenesis. In 4S, in which 4,444 patients were randomized to simvastatin 20-40 mg/day or placebo for a median duration of 5.4 years, the incidence of male sexual adverse events in the two treatment groups was not significantly different. Because of these factors, the small changes in plasma testosterone are unlikely to be clinically significant. The effects, if any, on the pituitary-gonadal axis in pre-menopausal women are unknown. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 175 patients (99 adolescent boys and 76 post-menarchal girls) 10-17 years of age (mean age 14.1 years) with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) were randomized to simvastatin (n=106) or placebo (n=67) for 24 weeks (base study). Inclusion in the study required a baseline LDL-C level between 160 and 400 mg/dL and at least one parent with an LDL-C level >189 mg/dL. The dosage of simvastatin (once daily in the evening) was 10 mg for the first 8 weeks, 20 mg for the second 8 weeks, and 40 mg thereafter. In a 24-week extension, 144 patients elected to continue therapy with simvastatin 40 mg or placebo. Zocor significantly decreased plasma levels of total-C, LDL-C, and Apo B (see Table 8). Results from the extension at 48 weeks were comparable to those observed in the base study. After 24 weeks of treatment, the mean achieved LDL-C value was 124.9 mg/dL (range: 64.0-289.0 mg/dL) in the Zocor 40 mg group compared to 207.8 mg/dL (range: 128.0-334.0 mg/dL) in the placebo group. The safety and efficacy of doses above 40 mg daily have not been studied in children with HeFH. The long-term efficacy of simvastatin therapy in childhood to reduce morbidity and mortality in adulthood has not been established. NDC 0006-0726-31 unit of use bottles of 30. NDC 0006-0735-54 unit of use bottles of 90. NDC 0006-0740-54 unit of use bottles of 90. NDC 0006-0749-54 unit of use bottles of 90. NDC 0006-0543-54 unit of use bottles of 90. Patients should be advised to adhere to their National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)-recommended diet, a regular exercise program, and periodic testing of a fasting lipid panel. Patients should be advised about substances they should not take concomitantly with simvastatin [see Contraindications (4) and Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]. Patients should also be advised to inform other healthcare professionals prescribing a new medication or increasing the dose of an existing medication that they are taking Zocor. All patients starting therapy with Zocor should be advised of the risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, and told to report promptly any unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness particularly if accompanied by malaise or fever or if these muscle signs or symptoms persist after discontinuing Zocor. Patients using the 80-mg dose should be informed that the risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, is increased with use of the 80-mg dose. The risk of myopathy, including rhabdomyolysis, occurring with use of Zocor is increased when taking certain types of medication or consuming grapefruit juice. Patients should discuss all medication, both prescription and over the counter, with their healthcare professional. It is recommended that liver function tests be performed before the initiation of Zocor, and thereafter when clinically indicated. All patients treated with Zocor should be advised to report promptly any symptoms that may indicate liver injury, including fatigue, anorexia, right upper abdominal discomfort, dark urine or jaundice. Women of childbearing age should be advised to use an effective method of birth control to prevent pregnancy while using Zocor. Discuss future pregnancy plans with your patients, and discuss when to stop taking Zocor if they are trying to conceive. Patients should be advised that if they become pregnant they should stop taking Zocor and call their healthcare professional. Women who are breastfeeding should not use Zocor. Patients who have a lipid disorder and are breastfeeding should be advised to discuss the options with their healthcare professional. Copyright © 1999-2019 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. Each tablet contains 5 mg of simvastatin. Each tablet contains 10 mg of simvastatin. Each tablet contains 20 mg of simvastatin. Each tablet contains 40 mg of simvastatin. Each tablet contains 80 mg of simvastatin. What are the side effects of statins?

2019-04-19T22:58:28Z

https://www.drugs.com/pro/zocor.html

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• Born 25 December 1919 Covington, Kenton County, Ky, Died 24 January 2008, Monroe, Ga. • Graduated Palm Beach High School, class of 1939. • Enlisted 28 January 1943, Released 3 July 1946. • Served in US Army Air Force, Captain. • Lived at 701 S. Poinsettia, apt 3A. • Mother Elizabeth M. Abare. • Father Enos William Abare, Divorced 1937. • Born 21 April 1923 in Massachusetts, Died 16 December 2006, Sun City Center, Hillsborough, Florida. Buried in Lake Worth, FL. • Father - Nackely Abdo, Mother Teresa Abdo. • 850 Nottingham, West Palm Beach 1942. • US Navy, LST 823, Muster Date 28 February 1945, PhoM3c. • Born 31 January 1921 in Massachusetts, Died 9 February 2012, Interred in Piedmont ,SC. • Married Charlena Lative Fayed in 1954. • 1422 Pine Rd., Cloud Lake, FL. • Enlisted 25 November 1940, US Army, National Guard Infantry. • Navy Seabee, Camp Allen, Norfolk, Va. In 1942. • Later the Clerk of Palm Beach Shores. • Born 1 December 1923 in Akron, Ohio, Died 26 September 1987 in Bay Pines, FL. • Born 27 August 1917 in Green, OH. Father was Charles Wallace Adair, Mother Sarah Goulard. • Died 19 February 2005, Venice, Sarasota County, FL. • Lived at 706 Nottingham Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL, in 1941 with wife, Jean Riddle. Worked as a salesman. • Enlisted 1 September 1943. Served in NOAA. Released 20 February 1946. • Born 9 August 1919 in West Palm Beach, FL. Father was Ab Cling Adams, Mother was Dorian E. Adams. Lived on Okeechobee Road. Worked as Electrical Service Man. • In group photo of Palm Beach High School yearbook, 1938. • Died 1 April 1999, Boca Raton, FL. • Enlisted 26 June, 1943 in US Coast Guard. Released 13 March, 1946. • Born 19 June 1919. • 712- 20th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 1922, Died 2004, interred in Lauderdale Memorial Park, Fort Lauderdale, FL. • Born 29 November 1921, Died 19 May 2003 in West Palm Beach, FL. • Photo in PBHS yearbook 1938. • Enlisted 18 July 1942, US Army at Camp Blanding. • Born 24 June 1919. • Died 22 October 1982, Palm Beach County. • Enlisted US Army at Camp Blanding, 18 March 1942. • Released from service 7 Jan 1946. • Born 13 May 1915, Polk County, FL. • Married 1947 Glades County, FL. • Died 15 February 1990, Alva, Lee County, FL. • Born 2 August 1920 in Missouri. • Died 25 July 1978 in Ruskin, Hillsborough County, FL. • Enlisted US Navy 1 July 1941 in Houston, TX. • Born 22 February 1919. • Father - Jarvey Dale Adcock, Mother Mary Kate Hunter. • Died 25 March 1977, West Palm Beach, FL. • Lived at 222 S. Poinsettia, West Palm Beach in 1922. • Born 30 April 1920. • Father - B. Aron Adkins. • Married Mary Christina Weeks in 1945 in Okeechobee, FL. • Died 25 December 2008 in Lancaster County, SC. Buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Okeechobee, FL. • Enlisted 30 July 1937, US Marine Corp. in Savannah, GA. • Born 22 November 1916. • Parents - William Edward Agner, Della Pearl Faulkner. • Married Maxine Lucille Young, 31 December 1943. • Died 1 February 1996, Indianapolis, IN. • Enlisted 20 March 1941, Camp Blanding, FL, in US Army. • Born 9 April 1919, West Palm Beach. • Lived on Murray Road. • Father - Frank F. Ahrens, Mother -- Gertrude Ahrens. • Died 19 May 2011. • Enlisted 26 January 1942, US Navy, Motor Machinist Mate 2/c, Served in the Mediterranean. • Born 1 August 1921, West Palm Beach. • Graduate of Palm Beach High School. • Enlisted 13 August 1942 in US Coast Guard in Savannah, GA. • Died on 21 July 1982, Alachua, FL. • Graduated Palm Beach High School in 1941. • Enlisted 16 November 1942 in US Navy. • Metal Smith 3/c, Naval Air Station, Norfolk, VA. • Lived at 244 Murray Road. • Attended Palm Beach High School. • Enlisted US Navy 24 July 1943. • Boot Camp at Bainbridge, MD. • Born 25 August 1920. • Parents - Fred LeMaster Akin, Estella Mullins. • Wife - Grace, lived at 717-1/2 S. Poinsettia in 1942. • Died 17 August 1996 in Okeechobee, FL. • Born 5 September 1925, West Palm Beach, FL. • Father George M. Albertson, Mother Neva Albertson. • Biscayne Drive, West Palm Beach in 1930. • Married Mary Lou Brown in 1945. • Entered US Navy 22 December 1942. • Stationed on USS Wharton, Dutch Harbor, AK. • Died 21 November, 2009, Blairsville, GA., Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach. • Born 9 June 1919, West Palm Beach. • Parents William and Elinor Albertson. • Palm Beach High School Yearbook, 1938. • Enlisted 12 October 1942 in Army Air Corp, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 11 April 1994, Jensen Beach, FL. Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach. • Born 10 January 1915 in Washington. • Parents R. Leigh and Maud Albertson. • Enlisted 15 February 1946 in US Army at Camp Blanding, FL., for Panama Canal Department. • Died January 1962 in Palm Beach County. • Born 1923 in Washington. • Parents - Leigh and Maud Albertson. • Lived at 605 Avon Rd. • 1938 Palm Beach High School Yearbook. • Enlisted 4 April 1942, Morrison Field, West Palm Beach in US Army Air Corps. • Died November 1978, West Palm Beach. • Named in Palm Beach High School yearbook, 1944. • Born 16 May 1919, Okeechobee, FL. • Parents - Enoch and Viola Alderman. • Corporal, US Army Air Corp. • Died of Non-Battle related causes, 12 February 1943 in Kansas. • Monument in Fort Scott National Cemetery, KS. • Born 5 May 1916, Red Bank, NJ. • Lived at 856 - 31st Street, West Palm Beach. • Married 7 October, 1942. • Died 2 November 1977, New Bern,NC. • Born 17 February 1915. • Lived on Lake Shore Drive, West Palm Beach in 1940. • Died 8 November 1977, Ft. Myers, FL. • Born 13 September 1922 in Palm Beach County. • Parents - Samuel H. Adams, Naomi Cook. • Lived at 4 SE. 1st Street, Delray, FL. • Died 20 July 1992. • Born 22 October 1926. • Parents - Samuel and Naomi Allen. • Lived at 4 S.E. 1st Street, Delray, FL. • US Army Air Corp. • Born 1 June 1915. • Lived at 30th and Dixie, West Palm Beach, FL. • Staff Sergeant, US Army, Pearl Harbor in 1944. • Died 5 November 1990, Delray Beach, FL. • Fireman Third Class, US Navy. • Missing 8 May 1942. • Monument Fort William McKinley, Manila, the Philipines. • Awarded the Purple Heart. • Born 1923 or 1924. • Lived at 383 S. "K" Street, Lake Worth, FL. • Parents - John And Vera Ambrosine. • Spouse - Helen Faye Ambrosine. • Enlisted - 16 July 1943, US Navy. • Served on USS Frybarger, DE-705. • Released on 19 December, 1945. • Died 2 August 2008. • Buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens, Lake City, FL. • Born 20 August 1921 in Georgia. • Enlisted in US Army on 23 October 1942 at Camp Blanding, FL. • Wife - Gladys Halverson. • Died 8 July 2002. • Buried at Ft. McCoy Cemetery, Marion County, FL. • Born 10 February 1917, Boston, MA. • Lived at 259 List Road, Palm Beach. • Parents - Charles Minton Amory, Gladys Mildred Munn. • Enlisted US Army Air Corp. 16 Jan 1941. • Awarded Air Medal, Oak Cluster as a Second Lt. with 307th Bomb Group. • Died 11 May 2002 in Palm Beach. • Born 7 February 1919. • Lived 930 Edgewood Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted in US Army 28 April 1942 at Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died on 8 September 1957. Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted 28 November 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • Was a Private in US Army. • Died a non-battle death, 20 May 1944. • Born 21 November 1918. • Died 2 November 1994. • Born 14 October 1920. • US Navy, USS Aquila, AK - 47 in 1944. • Died 7 June 1990, St. Johns County, FL. • Born 7 August 1919, Bullock County, GA. • Enlisted 20 September 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. • Regular Army Air Corp. • Died 4 December 1976, Plant City, FL. • Burial - Boston, GA. • Born 12 September 1919. • Parents - Emile and Kathleen Anderson. • Spouse - Elizabeth Wight. • Lived at 2018 Ponce de Leon Ave., West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 6 May 1976 in West Palm Beach, FL. • Lived at 519 - 28th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Anders S. and Selma B. Anderson. • Noted at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1939. • Born 17 October 1919, Newberry, SC. • Lived in West Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Paul Anderson and Sarah Strothed Pope. • Picture on right from 1938 Palm Beach High School Yearbook. • Graduated from Clemson University in 1942 and entered service. • Lieutenant in US Army Air Corps, stationed in Bomber Group in Dyersburg, TN. • Died 5 September 1943 in bomber crash in Tennessee. • Buried in Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, SC. • Born 15 September 1920, Chicago, IL. • Graduated Northwestern University and Northwestern University Medical School. • Entered US Army Medical Corps as a Captain. • Chief of Surgery at Oliver General Hospital in Augusta, GA. • General practice in West Palm Beach, FL. • Wife Catherine in 1943. • Died 24 May 1990 in West Palm Beach, FL. • Buried at Arlington National Cemetery. • Born 2 November 1917. • Lived at 16A - 3rd St., West Palm Beach. • Mother - Katie Anderson. • Enlisted 25 January 1941, US Army at Fort Blanding, FL. • Obtained rank of Sergeant. • Died 23 April 2003. • Buried in Westview Community Cemetery, Pompano Beach, FL. • 1930 Employed as a farmer in Moore Haven, FL. • Born 17 January 1924, Moore Haven, FL. • Parents - Berry and Marie Anderson. • Enlisted in US Navy 1 April 1941. • Served as Seaman 2nd Class - USS Heywood, USS Neville, USS McCawley. • Died 31 December 1988. • Buried Oak Grove Memorial Cemetery, Branford, FL. • Born 15 November, 1916. • Photo University of Florida Yearbook, 1938. • Enlisted US Army, Camp Blanding, 29 August 1942. • Died 21 January 2010, Orlando. • Buried Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, FL. • Left Photo - Sophomore in Palm Beach High School, 1938. • Right Photo - Palm Beach County Attorney - 1964. • Born 8 January 1923, West Palm Beach, FL. • Lived on South Dixie, West Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Frank and Mae Anderson. • Enlisted in US Army, Field Artillery, 17 November 1942. • Died 31 October 2010, Palm Beach County. • Born 14 March 1925 - Savannah, GA. • Parents - Robert and Ruth Eva. • 1952 Marriage to Gwendolyn Marie Goldina. • Died 9 July 2012, Luthersville, GA. • Born 2 September 1921. • Lived at 532 SW Ave. B, Belle Glade, FL. • Enlister 5 February 1943, Camp Blanding. • Coast Guard Training Reserve. • Born 26 June 1922, Kentucky. • Lived 1935 - 1940 in Pahokee, FL. • Parents Leslie and Lydia Angel. • Enlisted US Navy. Served on USS PC 1180, 1944-1945. • Died 18 August 1997 in Alachua County. • Buried in First Baptist Church Cemetery, Fort McCoy, Salt Springs, FL. • Born 27 December 1924, Clewiston, FL. • 1943 - Gunners Mate Third Class, US Marines. • Stationed at Ordnance School and Repair Depot, Quantico, VA. • Married Betty Louise Marsh - 1950. • Died 15 September 2010, Frostproof, FL. • Buried Georgia National Cemetery, Canton, GA. • Born 14 October 1919, Weaverville, NC. • Lived in West Palm Beach, High School at Palm Beach High School. • College at University of North Carolina. • Enlisted in US Army, 18 June 1942 at Camp Blanding, FL. • Served with 77th Infantry in Guam, Philipines, Okinawa and Occupation of Japan. • Awarded 5 Battle Stars. • Died 10 November 2002 in West Palm Beach, FL. • Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 8 April 1924. • 1940 - Wildemere Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted US Army 6 April 1943, Released 10 March 1946. • Died 10 June 1985. • Born 23 November 1921. • Lived Arlington Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 27 May 1920, Colorado. • Lived at 477 Bacom Point Road, Pahokee, FL. • Parents - Longo and Blanche Armstrong. • Enlisted 16 May 1941, McDill Airfield, FL. • Regular Army Air Corps. • Born 5 November 1916. • Lived So. Military Trail, Palm Beach County. • Worked as a roofer. • Parents - Benjamin B. and Lou P. Armstrong. • Enlisted 4 March 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. In US Army. • Died 16 May 1991. • Born 1912 in Ohio. • Enlisted 23 April 1941 at Ft. Barrancas, FL., in US Army. • Born 28 July 1921, Richmond, NC. • Lived in Palm Springs, FL. • Photo – 30 May 1944 at Souix City Air Force Base, Sergeant Bluff, IA. Earl and his wife in 1944. Earl was returning to US Air Force Base following birth of his son Earl, Jr. • Earl was Radio Operator and Machine Gunner, 328th Heavy Bomb Group, 16 July 1942 to 12 August 1948. • Died 20 April 1998, West Palm Beach. • Buried in Lake Worth Pinecrest Cemetery. • Born 11 October 1924, Georgia. • Lived at 237 Pendleton Ave., Palm Beach, FL. • Founded Arnold Construction Co. • Died 28 February 1977. • Born 23 February 1921. • Photo - Sophomore, Palm Beach High School, 1938. • Served in US Navy. • USS Murray DD 576, April 1943. • USS Chevalier DD 805, 7 January 1945. • Born 1920, Pahokee FL. • Born 12 March 1915. • Lived at 701 - 37th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Ada M. Asenjo. • Enlisted in US Navy 13 May 1942. • Released from service 25 September 1945. • Died 3 July 1978, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 16 January 1910. • Lived at 3305 Pinewood Ave and 226 Monroe Dr., West Palm Beach, FL. • Worked as an Auto Mechanic. • Spouse - Mary Davis. • Died 16 July, 1993, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 31 October 1918, Salt Lake City, UH. • Parents - Albert and Mable Astholz. • Lived 5100 Webster Ave, West Palm Beachm FL. • Died 16 November 2003, Cook, NE. • Born 18 October 1917, Georgia. • Parents - A. A. and Hara Atkins. • Worked as a cook. • Enlisted 21 May 1941, Camp Blanding, FL., US Army. • Born 8 March, 1918, Newport, RI. • Parents - Samuel and Ida Auerbach. • Lived 429 Sunset Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Photo - Marriage to Florence 9 June, 1946, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted 13 September 1941, Camp Blanding, US Army. • Died 4 May 2004, Stuart, FL. • Buried Forest Hill Memorial Park, Palm City, FL. • Born 12 March 1915, Athens, GA. • Parents - William Lester and Paula Ayers. • 1930 Residence - Riviera Beach, FL. • 1940 Residence - 301-20th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted - 23 February 1941 to 4 September 1945. • Active in National Guard until 1951. • Died 27 February 2013, Jupiter, FL. • Born 21 May 1919, Athens, GA. • 1930 Residence - Flagler Ave., Riviera, FL. • Enlisted in 1937 in West Palm Beach in the US Army and worked up the ranks to Major. • Served in WWII and the Korean War. • Led a company in the Battle of the Bulge and received many medals and Purple Hearts. • Retired in 1960 and moved to Tallahassee, FL. • Died 19 January 2010. • Buried in Roselawn Cemetery, Tallahassee, FL. • 1933 Residence - 916 So. Poinsettia, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1935 - Served in the US Army Reserve in West Palm Beach, FL. • Advanced to the rank of Major. • Served with the 52nd Infantry Regiment of the 51st Philippine Infantry Division. • Died 10 January 1945 during transportation by ship from Olongapo to San Fernando, Philippine Islands as a Japanese POW. • Awarded the Bronze Star medal. • He is listed on a tablet at the Manila American Cemetery, Fort William McHenry, Philippine Islands. • The US Army Reserve Training Center on Tuxedo Ave., West Palm Beach is named after Elliott Babcock. • Parents - Charles and Marian Bacon. • 1920 Residence - Lake Worth. • 1930 Residence - 537-37th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 Residence - Atlanta, Ga. • Spouse - Margaret Bacon. • Born 25 September 1918, Savannah, GA. • Parents - Rudolf and Georgia Bacon. • 1940 Residence - 319 Kenilworth, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1941 - Married Mildred, Divorced 1947. • Enlisted US Army, Philippine Division, 3 September 1940, Jacksonville, FL. • Died 22 December 1969, North Carolina. • Born 6 October 1923, Ohio. • Parents - Henry W. and Sadie Bailey. • 1940 Residence - 326 Fordham Rd., Lake Worth, FL. • Enlisted 29 December 1943, US Army Air Corps at Camp Blanding, FL.. • Served in Squadron H., US Army Air Corps. • Died of non-battle causes, 18 July 1945. • Interred in Pine Crest Cemetery, Lake Worth, FL. • Parents - Keith K. and Nell J. Bailey. • 1930 Residence - 836 Upland Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 22 July 2013. • Born 11 April 1924, Miami, OH. • Parents - Henry Clarence and Ethel B. Bair. • 1940 Residence – Pahokee, FL. • Enlisted 20 May 1941 in US Navy. • Served at Naval Air Station, Alameda, California. • Released from service, 22 April 1947. • Served as Fire Chief in Belle Glade, FL. • Died 15 January 1996 in Belle Glade, FL. • Buried in Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, FL. • Born 21 September 1922. • 1942 Residence - 4100 So. Olive Ave, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 21 December 2004. • 1940 Home - Delray Beach, FL. • Died 9 July 1993. • Buried in Hart Cemetery, Lemon Grove, FL. • Born 8 January 1921. • 1940 Residence - 901 Southdale Rd, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 6 May 1987. • Born 23 February 1925 – Pahokee, FL. • Enlisted 3 September 1943, Camp Blanding, FL. • Private US Army, 331 Infantry Regiment, 81st Division. • Killed in Action 18 July 1944. • Buried in Port Mayaca Cemetery, Canal Point, FL. • Born 17 June 1922, Norwalk, Connecticut. • Lived in Boynton Beach and 223 Sunset Ave, Palm Beach, FL. • Died 12 March 1989, Palm Beach County. • Born 7 December 1924. • Served in US Army. • Died 18 August 2004. • Buried Delray Beach Cemetery, Delray Beach, FL. • Born 3 May 1923 in Virginia. • 1940 Residence - New Garden, VA. • Died 19 January 1997 - Russell Memorial Cemetery, Lebannon, VA. • Born 6 October 1919. • Parents - Leon L. and Louise Ballentine. • Spouse - Ronelle Ballentine. • Served in US Navy on board the USS Ard. • Died 14 April 2000, West Palm Beach, FL. • Buried Prosperity Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. • Born 1919, Leona, FL. • Parents - Robert and Vera Bardin. • Lived in Canal Point, FL. • Worked as a Ball Player. • Enlisted 25 March 1941, Camp Blanding, FL., in US Army. • Lived at 130 Rutland Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL. • Served in US Navy stationed in Alaska. • 1935 Residence - 329 Fern Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1941-1942 was a Private in Company "C" of the National Guard in West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 1954 - Dade County, FL. • Born 8 July 1925. • Parents - Orrin Charles and Edna Pasco Barker. • Died 1 February 2003, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 1 October 1916. • Died 29 May 1944 in Indonesia. • Buried in Oakdale Cemetery, Deland, FL. • Enlisted US Army - Philippine Division, 9 October 1939 in Tennessee. • Pinecrest Cemetery, Lake Worth, FL. • Served in US Navy on board the USS Indiana. • 1940 Residence - Pahokee, FL. • Enlisted 10 April 1941 in US Army at Camp Blanding, FL. • Left Photo - Bill Barnes (L) and Brother Jack Barnes (R), ca 1944-45. • Born - 28 February 1921 – Macon, Georgia. • Parents - John Wright and Mary Ella Barnes. • Enlisted 19 April 1844 at Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Ga., in the US Army Air Corps. • Served in WWII and Korea. • Spouse - Olive Barnes. • In 1960 elected Chief of Police for West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 8 February 2009, West Palm Beach, FL. • Buried Hillcrest Memorial Park, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 23 June 1916, Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Clyde Haygood Barnett and Zela Ramona Stoner. • Married Janet E. Williams, 1941, Selma, AL. • Graduated University of Florida, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. • Enlisted 26 April 1941, McDill Field, Orange, FL., US Army Air Corps. • Served as a pilot. • Left service as a Captain, November 1944. • Died 24 April 2002, Sterling, VA. • Born 1919, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1920 - Rodella St., West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 - 725 "I" Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted - 26 February 1943, Ft. McPherson, Atlanta, GA. • Born 29 September 1924, Watson, Palm Beach County. • 1940 Residence - 725 S. "I" Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted in US Navy, 5-10-1952. • Served on USS Baltimore. • Died 15 October 2010, Simpsonville, SC. • Buried in Graceland East Memorial Park, Simpsonville, SC. • 1940 Residence - 907 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1941 - 1942, Served in US Navy at Miami Naval Air Station. • Died 23 October 1973. • Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, VA. • Born 27 June 1917, So. Plainfield, NJ. • Lived at 11635 Ficus Street, Lake Park, FL. • Died 2 April 2002, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 12 March 1922. • Died 8 December 1995. • Buried Myrtle Hill Cemetery, Hogansville, GA. • 1942 - City Fireman, West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Melby Barrows. • Teacher - West Palm Beach, FL. • 333 Pembroke Pines, West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Marine Barshell. • Died 10 April 2007. • Born 13 December 1923, Thomas, GA. • 1930 Residence - Canal Point, FL. • Married 5 May 1944. • Enlisted US Army 3 October 1942 at Cochrane Field, Macon, GA. • Served in Company B, 264th Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division, US Army. • Died 24 December 1944. • Photo - Burial plot - Barnetts Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Ochlocknee, Thomas, GA. • Memorial Cemetery - Tablets of the Missing Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France. • Enlisted US Army, 27 January 1940. • Born 4 September 1916, Georgia. • Monument - National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii. • Born 15 May, 1919, District of Columbia. • Parents - Daniel Corban Batson and Mary Batson. • Residence 1930, 1935, 1940 - West Palm Beach, 3405 Greenwood Rd. • Worked as Truck Driver. • Enlisted 2 January 1941 in US Army Air Corps at McDill Field, FL. • Rank of Technical Sergeant. • 1969 - Married Francis Patterson. • Died 24 November 1992, West Palm Beach, FL. • Residence 1935 - 621-28th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Worked as Civil Engineer and Surveyor. • US Navy Veteran of WWII. • Died in St. Petersburg 21 January 1997. • 405 S. Flagler Dr., West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 27 October, 1990. • 4010 Washington Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 25 November 1925. • 1940 Residence - 2369 Edgewater Dr., Cloud Lake, FL. • Major, US Air Force. • Died 30 March 2003. • Buried Riverview Memorial Gardens, Valdosta, GA. • Born January 1899, Knox, TN. • 414 Palm Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 1979, Key West, FL. • Born 13 October 1916. • Enlisted 6 June 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 27 September 2004. • Buried Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, FL. • Enlisted 28 July 1941, Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 19 July 1916, Illinois. • 1940 Residence - 2527 S. Flagler Dr., West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Ann Perchaz – 1945. • Died 24 September 2008. • Buried in Buckhorn Cemetery, Gulf, FL. • Parents - Thomas C. and Sally Beaty. • 1930 Residence - 109 N. "P" Street, Lake Worth, FL. • Parents - Charles and Elizabeth Beauchamp. • 1940 Residence - 631-39th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted 8 August 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. • Born 13 September 1920, Iowa. • Parents - Herman and Alleta Bechtel. • 1940 Address - 316 Fordham Rd., Lake Worth, FL. • Became an M.D., moved to Melbourne, Fl. • Died 13 April 2006. • Buried in Holy Trinity Church Memorial Garden, Melbourne, FL. • Born 18 March 1922, Iowa. • 1940 Address - 316 Fordham Dr., Lake Worth, FL. • US Army Air Corps - Radio Operator. • Married Etta Bridgeman, 1944. • Died 25 May 2013. • Interred South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth, FL. • Born 1 August 1922, Mississippi. • Enlisted 5 February 1941, Ft. McPherson, GA. • Coast Artillery Corps, Hawaiian Department. • Spouse - Lola W. Beeman. • Died 21 November 1991, Everett, Washington. • Born 11 September 1922. • 1941 Address - 319 Seminole Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 2 July 1915. • 1941 Address - 319 Seminole Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 1 November 1916, Alabama. • Parents - Aubrey Jackson Belcher and Mary Lou Marsh. • Enlisted 27 February 1941 - Camp Blanding, FL. • US Army; served in Europe. • Married Mildred Hendrix 1944. • Died 3 April 1994, Eufaula, AL. • Interred in United Methodist Church Cemetery, Eufaula, AL. • Born 7 November 1918. • 1940 Residence - Okeechobee, FL. • Enlisted 4 November 1942 in Salt Lake City, UT. • US Army Coast Artillery Corp. • Died 17 April 1990, Okeechobee, FL. • Interred in Evergreen Cemetery, Okeechobee, FL. • Parents - Lawrence W. Belle and Mabel M. Belle. • 1940 Residence - 717-53rd Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 16 July 1920, Dothan, AL. • Enlisted 23 October 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • Married Emma Lou, August 1999. • Died 27 December 2001, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. • Buried Fred Hunter's Hollywood Memorial Gardens East, Hollywood, FL.. • Born 18 March 1914, Dothan, AL. • Parents - Daniel Wesley Belyeu and Lata Belyeu. • Residence 1940 - Pahokee, FL. • Enlisted 12 July 1940, Key West, FL. • US Army Quartermaster Corps, Philippine Department. • 1942 Married Dolly Margaret Charlow. • Died 20 June 1956 in North Korea. • Buried in Key West, FL. • Born 7 July 1922, Minnesota. • Parents - Guy and Ruby Bender. • Residence 1925 - West Palm Beach, FL. • Residence 1930 - Boca Raton, FL. • Enlisted in US Army Air Corps 23 February 1943 in Miami Beach, FL. • Buried Orchard Mesa Cemetery, Grand Junction, CO. • Residence - Lake Worth, FL. • Born 20 March 1923, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 Residence - 621 ”P" Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted in US Army 29 December 1943, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 12 December 2001. • Buried Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 8 February 1925. • Enlisted 23 April 1943, Camp Blanding, FL. • 1940 Residence - 1020 Charlotte Ave., West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 26 October 1924, West Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Norman Kelley and Emma Estelle Bennett. • 1940 Residence - 621 "P" Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted US Army, 4 March 1943, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 12 February 2005, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 3 October 1916, Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Clyde and Marion Bennington. • Enlisted - 22 January 1946 - US Navy. • Released - 3 May 1954. • Died 4 September 1986, Long Beach, CA. • Interred - Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, CA. • 1942 Residence - 610 El Prado Way, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died August 1966, Palm Beach County. • 1942 Residence - 527 - 36th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 1922, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 Residence - 521- 36th Street. • Enlisted 25 November 1940, West Palm Beach, FL. • Private First Class 502nd Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. • Died of Non-Battle causes, 3 September 1944. • Buried in Cambridge, England. • Born 10 February 1917, Jacksonville, FL. • Parents - George F. and Ernestine Bensel. • 1940 Residence - 327 Nathan Hale Rd., West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 - Worked at B.D.Cole Insurance. • Married Lois Eugenia 14 July 1941. • Enlisted US Army, 31 December 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 26 August 2000, Palm Beach County. • Interred Hillcrest Memorial Park. • Born 27 April 1919. • 2013 - 6th Ct. South, Lake Worth, FL. • Died 5 December 1995, Palm Beach County. • Born 25 May 1919, Canton, OH. • 1940 - 523 Gardenia Ave, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 Married Elsie Young. • Enlisted 29 April 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 26 September 2003, Jupiter, FL. • Enlisted 14 November 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • Born 13 April 1925. • 631 Iris Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 16 March 1984, West Pam Beach, FL. • Born 19 March 1915. • 1940 Residence - 8001 Arlington Place, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 25 June 2000, Port St. Lucie, FL. • Born 10 April 1920, Chicago. • Enlisted in US Navy, 20 January 1945. • Released from service 4 January 1946. • Died 5 January 1980, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1942 - 220 Seminole Ave., West Palm Beach, FL. • 1945 - Spouse Marion Louise. • 1955 - US Air Force 627 Cocoanut Ave., Sarasota, FL. • Born 24 November 1921, Sarasota, FL. • Parents - Joseph M. and Mellivinia Julia Betts. • 319 Eucalyptus Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Married 20 December 1941, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 5 January 1999, Lake Worth, FL. • Interred Myakka Cemetery, Sarasota County, FL. • 1937 Married Mary E. Simmons. • 1940 Lived on West Center Road, Jupiter, FL. • 1946 Divorced Mary E. Simmons Bieger. • 1946 Married Florence Irene Post. • Born 12 July 1924. • Residence 1930-1945, West Palm Beach, FL. • Commander, US Navy, World War II. Served in Korea and Vietnam. • Spouse - Beatrice Ola Rains. • 1993 - Plant City, FL. • Died 25 December 2003, Tampa, FL. • Interred 18 February 2004, Arlington National Cemetery. • Born 29 July 1918, Dalton, GA. • Parents - James Levi Biles and Ethel Carolyn Thomas. • 1935 - 333 Fern Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 - 615 Rockland Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1948 - 510 Florida Avenue, West Palm Beach - in US Army. • Enlisted in US Army Air Corps - 23 July 1941 at Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 29 June 1995, Santa Barbara, CA. • Born 28 February 1918, Palm Beach County. • Parents - Orlo James Billings and Julia Evelyn White. • !940 - Delray Beach, FL. • 1951 - 322 NE 1st Ave, Delray Beach, FL. • Spouse - Anne B. Billings. • First LT., US Army Air Corps. • Served in South Pacific. • Died 30 July 1999, Spartenburg, SC., Greenlawn Memorial Gardens. • Born 1905, District of Columbia. • Enlisted in US Army, 25 June 1942, Camp Blanding, FL. • 1948 Residence - 319 North "O" Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1955 - Married Teresa A. Murtagh. • 1942 Residence - 413 Hampton Rd., West Palm Beach, FL. • 1948 Residence - 511 Georgia Ave., West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Ida R. Bird. • Born 23 August 1921, Illinois. • Parents - Roland and Clara Bird. • 1940 Residence - 404-4th Street, Delray Beach, FL. • Enlisted US Army 27 January 1942. • Served as a Major in WW II. • Married Phyllis W. in 1946, divorced in 1964. • 1955 Residence - 803 NW. 7th Ave. Delray Beach, FL. • Died 9 December 2001, Avon Park, FL. • Interred Bay Pines National Cemetery, Bay Pines, FL, 16 January 2002. • Born 3 March 1923, Chicago, IL. • Parents - Rowland Greenwood and Clara Marie Bird. • 1940 Residence - 404 - 4th Street SE, Delray Beach, FL. • Died 17 March 1998, Avon Park, FL. • Interred Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Avon Park, FL. • Parents - John and Caroline Birdsall. • 1930 - 2425 South Poinsettia, West Palm Beach, FL. • 1940 - Escambia, FL. • Graduated as Engineer from Auburn University. • 1948 - Andrews Rd, West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - 1936 Jennie Dodge. • Born 27 August 1923, West Palm Beach, FL. • !930 and 1940 - 2425 South Poinsettia, West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Betty Birdsall. • Served in US Army, European Theater, WWII. • 1984- Palm Springs, FL. • 1993 - Ocala, FL. • Died 23 July 2007, Ocala, FL. • Born 24 July 1920. • 640 Park Ave., Lake Park, FL. • Born 28 November 1918(7), Florida. • Enlisted 2 March 1943, Camp Blanding, FL. • Was a guard on the grounds of the FDR Home, Hyde Park, New York. • Died 14 August 1998, Jacksonville, FL. • Born 19 July 1923. • Parents - Samuel J. and Melvina Blakely. • Kelsey City, Palm Beach County. • Married 30 January 1944. • Died 19 June 1993, West Palm Beach, FL. • Parents - Samuel and Melvina Blakely. • 1937 - Married Buna Spangler. • Born 21 April 1921, Mississippi. • Parents - Zach L. and Eva Mary Yelverton. • Died 01 April 1969, Palm Beach County. • Parents - F.W and Helen C. Blandford. • 1930 - 1000 North Olive, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 2 April 1922, Lake City, FL. • Enlisted US Army, 25 June 1942 to 30 December 1945. • Served as a State Senator. • Died - 14 December 1988, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 23 October 1923, St. Cloud, FL. • In WWll advanced to LT- junior grade. • Saw action while serving as pilot of a Navy Torpedo Plane on the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the Philippines. • The Navy Cross was awarded posthumously for heroism while serving as a pilot of a Navy torpedo plane in Torpedo Squadron Fifteen of the USS Essex in action against the Japanese Fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 24 October 1944. • The Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded for heroism while flying a torpedo plane from the USS Essex in an attack on a large convoy in the Mariana Islands and sinking a Japanese merchant vessel, 12 June 1944. • Awarded three air medals. • Awarded Presidential Unit Citation. • Killed in action in the Philippines, 10 August 1945. • Buried Mount Peace Cemetery, St. Cloud, FL. • Born 26 April 1923, Florida. • Parents - Forest Clyde and Effie Marie Boatwright. • 1940 - 1231 Roebuck Court, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted in US Army Air Corp 5 June 1941, Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, FL. • Married Lois, 7 February 1951. • Died 28 January 2002, Prosperity, SC. • Born 25 May 1919, Georgia. • Parents - James Louis and Willie Lee Boatwright. • Enlisted US Army, 23 May 1944, Fort McPherson, Atlanta, GA. • 2740 Cherokee Ave., West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 8 October 1999, Tarrytown, GA. • City Commissioner of Pahokee, FL, for nineteen years. • Married to Beula Pearl. • Born 15 February 1921, West Virginia. • Enlisted in Women's Army Corps, 9 September 1943 in Miami, FL. • Died 14 July 2002 in Phoenix, AZ. • Born 10 September 1923 in Miami, FL. • 1940 Residence - 4500 Garden Ave. West Palm Beach, FL. • Spouse - Anna Fackler. • Enlisted in the Army Air Corps 31 January 1943 in Miami Beach, FL. • Died May 1987, Live Oak, FL. • Born 1925 in Florida. • Enlisted in Panama Canal Department 21 January 1946. • Spouse - Rose Boone. • Born 18 September 1919, Connecticut. • Parents - Stanley K. Booth and Ona Crawford Booth. • 1940 Residence - 737 Talladega Road, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted 6 August 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. • Died 4 January 1988, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 14 March 1918, Connecticut. • Enlisted in US Army, 21October 1941, San Francisco, CA. • Died 5 May 1988, West Palm Beach, FL. • Born 29 November 1920. • Enlisted US Army, 18 June 1942, Camp Blanding, FL., Private First Class. • Spouse - June Howe. • 1942 Residence - 321 - 11th Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died 25 October 2003, Hendersonville, NC. • Buried Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery, Black Mountain, NC. • Born 19 September 1920, Georgia. • Parents - Jesse Highsmith Bordeaux and Eleanor Jane Pratt. • 1940 Address - Lake Shore Drive, Palm Beach County. • Enlisted US Navy, 12 October 1940. • USS Lassen, 30 September 1941. • USS Mercury, 31 July 1942. • USS LCI L 821, 1 June 1946. • Died 9 September 1971. • Born 3 August 1927. • 1944 - 16 S. "K" Street, Lake Worth, FL. • Spouse - Agnes Borden. • Spouse - Jane C Borman, Divorced 1951, Palm Beach County. • 1947 - 207 Oleander Ave, West Palm Beach, FL. • Died - May 1958. • 1930 address, 628 42nd Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Enlisted US Army 17 October 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. • PFC 158th Infantry Regiment. • KIA - 24 January 1945. • Awarded Purple Heart, Silver Medal. • Buried in Manila Cemetery, Fort William McKinley, the Philippines. • Born 16 August 1918, Pennsylvania. • Mother - Blanch Baukat. • 1940 Residence - 321 Avonia Street, West Palm Beach, FL. • Served in US Marines from 1941 to 1958. • Paris Island, Jacksonville, Quantico, San Diego, CA. • Died 23 September 1996, San Diego, California, CA. Boyd, a veteran of World War I, and an avid aviator, was involved with the design and construction of the Lantana, Pahokee, and Morrison Field airports. He served in the Florida Defense Force, Civil Air Patrol, and the US Navy in the Engineer Corps known as the Seabees. Capt. Boyd received the Legion of Merit Medal and participated in campaigns in the Aleutians and the Philippines. Brown, a West Palm Beach native married Mary (May) Holmes in November 1943 in Belfast, Ireland. Considered 4-F by the military, Richard, whose family owned Brown’s Moving and Storage, knew how to drive trucks. As a civilian working for a special unit, he served the war effort by delivering goods in Belfast, Ireland, where he met May. After the war, they returned to WPB where they raised four children. A Florida native, Carves joined the Army Air Corps and earned his wings in June 1943. Sent to New Guinea as a B-25 pilot with the 71st Bomber Squadron, 38th Bomber Group, 2nd Lt. John Carves was shot and killed by a tracer bullet during a bombing mission on December 20, 1943. He received the Purple Heart and the Silver Star posthumously. In 1917 Chillingworth graduated from University of Florida and was admitted to practice law in the courts of Florida, the Federal District Courts, and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Chillingworth enlisted with the Navy in November 1917. He served at Key West; Annapolis, Maryland; and he was assigned convoy duty in the Atlantic on the USS Minneapolis. Chillingworth was commissioned as an ensign in 1918, and served until July 1919. After the war, he was elected as a county judge and elected as the youngest circuit judge in Florida. In 1942 Chillingworth returned to active duty in the Navy as a lieutenant commander. He served at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, England, and Hawaii. He left active duty in November 1945 and was awarded a citation for his service and resumed his position in the circuit court. He and his wife, Marjorie, disappeared on the night of June 15, 1955. Five years later, authorities were able to prove the Chillingworths had been victims of a murder conspiracy. Cornelius, a Palm Beach County Commissioner, enticed the US government to lease Morrison Field for military use. Using local contractors and workers, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) enlarged Morrison Field’s runways and constructed numerous airplane hangars, barracks, and administration buildings, turning the majority of the county’s airport into an Army Air Field. Zeke owned Cornelius Insurance Agency and, in his spare time, volunteered as a pilot in the First Air Squadron, Florida Defense Force, transferring to the Civil Air Patrol when activated in March 1942. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Air Force in July 1943, he was stationed at Morrison Field, where he helped brief transient airplane crews about the hazards of the route they were about to follow on their way to war. After the war, Zeke returned to his insurance company which he expanded, adding partners Richard S. Johnson and William C. Clark, forming Cornelius, Johnson, and Clark, the county’s largest independent insurance agency. A legendary American sportsman, Cunningham was an America's Cup yachtsman, aviator, and auto racer who nearly won the Le Mans 24-hour race in the 1950s. He fielded and self-funded a private team running a series of unique, Chrysler hemi-powered sports cars built in West Palm Beach, Florida, called Cunninghams. Briggs served in Coastal Patrol Base 3, Civil Air Patrol, hunting German U-boats off Florida’s East Coast. Former chief of pediatrics at Good Samaritan Hospital Derrick practiced medicine in West Palm Beach for more than 40 years. During WWII he served with a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Pacific Theater and received the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart. After the war, he returned to pediatrics caring for 50,000 children, including several Kennedy children, during his career. Heir to the Woolworth fortune, Donahue lived in both New York and Palm Beach. At the beginning of World War II, Donahue served with the 1st Air Squadron, Florida Defense Force and with the Civil Air Patrol’s Coastal Patrol 3 until he was inducted into the military in 1944. Donahue received the Air Medal in 1948 for serving in the CAP.

2019-04-21T18:13:41Z

http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/servicemen_and_women_a-d

Appleby presents a vibrant tapestry of the lives, callings, decisions, desires, and reflections of those Americans who were born after the Revolution—the first generation to inherit a truly new world. BRIAN LAMB, HOST: Joyce Appleby, author of "Inheriting the Revolution." Where'd you get the idea for this book? Professor JOYCE APPLEBY, AUTHOR, "INHERITING THE REVOLUTION": Well, it was a long time gestating--gestating. It--I'm an early American historian and so I'd studied 17th and 18th century America, the colonies, and then I'd particularly been interested in the American Revolution and the era of the writing of the Constitution and then I became very curious about what happened to this revolutionary heritage. How did it turn into a heritage? What difference did it make to the lives of those people who were the sons and daughters of the revolutionaries? And that--that was the beginning, that question, and it took me--it took me a couple of years to figure out the best way for me to answer it. LAMB: So what period are you writing about? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I'm really writing about--oh, the 1790s through the 1820s, a little bit into the 1830s. But, as you know, I'm writing about a cohort of people and so what I decided to do was to study those men and women who were born between 1776 and 1800 because they would not have any contact with--would not have had any contact with the colonial era. They would have none of the sensibilities of having been subjects to the king of England and they were the inheritors of the revolution and so I followed their lives and I really stopped when I figured that they were no longer the dominant force in public life. And that's--that's about the end, the late '20s, early '30s. LAMB: Where did you find the material? Prof. APPLEBY: Everywhere actually. I, first of all, just began to collect information about individuals. I knew I wanted to build it up through lives and so wherever--there were dictionaries, there were, you know, a list of West Point graduates. There were the, you know, pioneer ministers of the disciples of Christ. Wherever I could find information about individuals, I gathered it. And then I discovered that about 300--oh, about 350, 360 of these people in this cohort had written autobiographies and that was a wonderful resource. So I s--set about reading those autobiographies. Prof. APPLEBY: Cohort is--well, you know, it's a military term. It--it means that people who have--a band of people who have a similarity. Demographers use cohort to mean people who are born at a particular time. So I use that--cohort interchangeably with generation. These people, as I said, who were born in the 24 years after the revolution. LAMB: How many people lived in this country in 1800? Prof. APPLEBY: In 1800, about eight million. The first census was 1790. It was just shy--oh, I'm sorry. No. No. No. Yeah--no. It would have been more like six--six million. The first census, the--the population was just shy of four million. And the American population doubled about every 20 years. So in between, as you're saying 1800, it would have been around six million. LAMB: What--where did they live? I mean, w--or maybe where didn't they live? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, pretty much--well th--well--well, they lived in what you might call sort of the Appalachian shelf--that--that Atlantic shelf between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. That's where they started out living. It was--it was a little bit in the West, but not a great deal, because the revolution prevented migration into the West. But once the Revolutionary War had been won, then you had a outpouring of people from this little shelf--this confined area up and down the Atlantic Coast into the western parts of the original states. New York--western New York was the frontier of the 1790s, in the early decades of the 19th century, but also western Virginia, western Georgia, western Pennsylvania. LAMB: What was the difference between the North and the South then? Prof. APPLEBY: Well interestingly, the most important difference between North and South is a consequence of events that were--that took place after the revolution. After the revolution in--as--and it was no part of the revolution, directly at least. After the revolution, the states--the Northern states one by one found the means for abolishing slavery. Prior to that, slavery had been--existence everywhere though obviously much more concentrated in the South. So you could say that slavery was the big difference between the two, but there were lots of other differences. One of them is that the Southerners had pursued a very profitable intensive monoagriculture. Maybe it was rice one place or tobacco another place. That was different, where there was much more of a mixed economy in the North. But I started to say about Northern abolition--that had a tremendous ideological and social impact on the North and differentiated it from the South in a very conspicuous way, because now it wasn't just the paucity of slaves in the North, it was an actual moral stance having been taken against slavery. LAMB: How many slaves were there in the North? LAMB: What was the impetus to get rid of the slaves or take them out of slavery? Prof. APPLEBY: I--the impetus was very much a sense of the contradiction between the natural rights affirmed in--in America's founding, in the Declaration of Independence. It was a--it was a--a dramatic move. It was the first legislative act abolishing slavery in the history of the world. It's in--interesting that England gets credit for being the first country to abolish slavery because the United States as a whole didn't abolish it, but these states had--the Constitution left the states in control of having laws that created property in human beings or abol--getting rid of those laws. So actually the state of Pennsylvania, in 1780, was the first political unit to abolish slavery. LAMB: Why didn't that happen in the South? Prof. APPLEBY: It didn't happen in the South because there wasn't the same drive to do it. There was a m--and there were many, many more slaves in the South--th--about 40 percent of Virginia's population, which is a--far and away the largest state in the Union was African-American. South Carolina had a slave majority--more like 60 percent of the population. So there were many more complicated problems associated with abolishing slavery in the South. And as I said, it didn't have the same group of--of reformers--anti-slavery reformers. But there was anti-slavery agitation in the South. North and South the contradiction between slavery and the Declaration of Independence was evident and spoken about, but it was just a much more difficult--th--in so many different ways it would have been harder because in the s--the North, there was a--a small free black population to grudgingly integrate into the white population. One thing--interesting things about Northern abolition is that it was gradual. It was peaceful and it was gradual. Typically, a state would, you know, pass a law that would say: All slaves will be--born after this date will be free when they reach the age of 21 for women, or 24 for men. So it was a gradual way. They--there--it would have been difficult to have a gradual emancipation in the South, or at least it would have been straining the moral and economic resources of the South in a way that it wasn't in the North. LAMB: Did you write about people that were born in this country? LAMB: They didn't--they didn't come here from somewhere else. Prof. APPLEBY: There are a couple of people who float through who come--who immigrate in the 1790s, but it's--yes, primarily--overwhelmingly about people born here. LAMB: How many autobiographies did you read for this book? LAMB: How long were those? LAMB: And where--and where do you find them? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, fortunately someone before me has made a bibliography of American autobiographies, which I used to find them; though I did find some on my own. Some of them are still in manuscript, but most of them have been published. Sometimes they're published by grandchildren or they're published by an historical society. LAMB: What was your biggest--or--or a couple of your surprises that--in them and what were the names of the people? Anybody. Prof. APPLEBY: You mean in the lives of them? LAMB: In all the lives you found. Prof. APPLEBY: Oh, Icabod Washburn was a--had a life that I was bou--rather fascinating. Cumulative, there were more surprises. Julia Tevis was a big surprise. A really fascinating woman. Prof. APPLEBY: Well, she was a--a young woman who was born in the Kentucky frontier, but her father was a German. His name was Aronamous, so she was born Julia Aronamous, and he had a very advanced idea of the importance of education for his children, including his--his daughters, and he brought--came back to Washington, DC, from Kentucky because he didn't think they could get the proper education. And then her father subsequently dies and a brother also dies, so she becomes the supporter of her mother and younger sister and she becomes a school teacher. She's converted by a Methodist minister and marries a Methodist circuit writer. And the most amazing thing is that on her honeymoon she convinces her husband to give her the wedding gift from his family of a house and to turn that house into a school for girls. And she converts it into the Science Hill Academy. She used the word `science' because she wants to demonstrate that women can learn about science just as men. And for the next 60 years, she runs this school. Sh--her first child--she has seven children. Her first child is born a couple of months after the school is opened. But just this vision that she had and the determination and the sense that there was an opportunity and she figured out how she could act on it. LAMB: Why did they write the autobiographies? Prof. APPLEBY: I think they wrote the autobiographies for a number of reasons. One of them is that their lives saw dramatic changes. A--a--this is the age of invention. This is when people could--for--for th--be born and never see anything more complicated than a windmill and end up with railroads and steam engines doing everything. So there was--there were dazzling technological changes. There was a sense of being a part of a--of a new country and this American experiment. They--all of them were modest successes. People who are failures don't write autobiographies. So they wrote to tell generat--their family what they had seen, how the times they had a changed and also to register their accomplishments. LAMB: Did they publish these autobiographies? Prof. APPLEBY: Some of them do, but most of them are published after their deaths. Prof. APPLEBY: So it's a mixed bag. LAMB: ...just--just to have on the record for the families? Prof. APPLEBY: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think--I think Benjamin Franklin had something of a--of an influence. I think that--that was one of the first autobiographies and I think it was sort of a model. Here was an American that you would like to emulate, who had put down information about his childhood and what he had seen and how he had grown and developed. LAMB: Can you parallel the public figures that were revolutionary vs. the ones that you're thinking about? Prof. APPLEBY: Yes. Well, I mean, you know, there are all the--the John Adamses, Thomas Jeffersons, James Madison, all of those are--would be parents or grandparents of the people that I am looking at. The political figures in my cohort are the presidents: John Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, Martin Van Buren, John Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay. These are the--the political stars of this generation. LAMB: Where did you write the book--what part of the country? Prof. APPLEBY: In Los Angeles--west Los Angeles. LAMB: What do you do out there? Prof. APPLEBY: I teach history. Prof. APPLEBY: The University of California at Los Angeles. Prof. APPLEBY: I've taught history for 33 years and I've been at UCLA since 1981. Prof. APPLEBY: You know, I think--I have a theory about people and why they become what they become. I think there are about four basic ways to understand reality or understand the world. One of them is, obviously. through measuring and it, you know, it appeals to people who are--who be--who become scientists of observation and measurement. Another one is clearly a religious sensibility. There's also, I think, a poetic and imaginative way of grasping reality. And another is to understand what has gone before--to see what human beings in very different times and different places have created out of this human potential. And there are just people who are naturally curious historically and I'm one of them. LAMB: When did you start being curious? Prof. APPLEBY: I--I was a history major as an undergraduate and I think I was curious before then, though I tended to satisfy my curiosity by reading novels. Nineteenth century novels taught me an awful lot about the past. LAMB: What book is this, what number for you? Prof. APPLEBY: Four and a third. LAMB: What were the others about? Prof. APPLEBY: I wrote one about economic thought in 17th century England. It was a kind of--that was the first book that I published. I did by doctoral dissertation on how the French used American ideas in their--the opening months of the French Revolution and that I published as articles. And then I did a study of economic thought in England which was tied into America. I was interested in--in how Americans had come to conceive of soci--society as having a natural harmony--what--what was--what was behind Americans' belief in limited government and an expansive ambit for voluntary action and individual ambition. And so it took me back to economic writings in 17th century England. And then I wrote a book about the Jeffersonians in the 1790s, the battle with the Federalists. The battle royal in American politics is the--is the battle that changed am--this--the direction of the American Revolution and has informed our political system ever since. And then my third book--that is to say my one-third book--I did with co-authors Lynn Hunt and Marcus Jacob and it's called "Telling the Truth About History." And it's a study of what we expect from history and historians, what kind of knowledge and truths we seek in the past. LAMB: There were three little things--maybe they're not so little, but they're symbols that you write about that--for instance, was it John Adams that developed the Mister President title? Prof. APPLEBY: Mm-hmm--no, he--no, he lost. Prof. APPLEBY: Yes. Right. Yes. Yes. LAMB: ...during--what--what did he want? Prof. APPLEBY: Oh, I think he wanted `your excellently,' `his highness,' `the protector of our liberties,' something like that. Prof. APPLEBY: Because he believed as--he was a cons--he was a conservative revolutionary and he believed that order was fragile and that in order to maintain order, you had to en--create some awe between the people and their officeholders. And the president he saw as the pre-eminent officeholder in America and he thought that the president needed all the respect and honor, adulation and obeisance almost possible in order to keep this frail republic intact. LAMB: Who--who beat him on this? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, the--the--the people who later became Jeffersonians. They weren't that yet in the first Congress. They came as just elected men from their neighborhood. They weren't clearly defined by party yet. But there were people like James Madison. Others just thought this was laughable. It was just ridiculous. LAMB: Well, you say that--was it Madison or his wife that wanted the "Hail to the Chief"? Prof. APPLEBY: Yes, that was later. Prof. APPLEBY: Well, let me--let me start with that. So--so they won the battle and--and they settled with Mister President. You couldn't have a--a--a sparer title for that. Then fast forward to the presidency of James Madison. James Madison was a small man. He was--people described him as sort of birdlike. Always in a black suit. And m--Dolly Madison noticed that when the president and she arrived at various receptions around Washington, that no one paid any attention to the fact the president had entered the room and this disturbed her. And so she arranged and worked with someone to have "Hail to the Chief" written and performed wherever there was a reception to--to which her husband was going. And so that's how "Hail to the Chief" came. But those--those are--they're similar, but they're also different. And--but, yes I guess you could say that she was concerned with the same issue that had bothered Adams, but after the informality had--had entered in to a degree that seemed alarming. LAMB: And then you wrote about Thom--Thomas Jefferson being interested in getting rid of the wig, getting rid of the bow. Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I think Jefferson was very, very shrewd. And he saw that if you wanted to have democratic politics and you wanted to have participatory politics where voters were not just opinion-givers at--on Election Day but active participants in the political process, informed and giving opinions and sharing information, that you had to collapse the distance between officeholders and voters so that there wasn't this awe that made people tongue-tied. So he did everything he could to remove formality from the presidency. If the doorbell rang and he was near the door, he opened it. If he was still in his morning coat, he opened it still. He got rid of all the protocol. There was a--protocol at state dinners was that the president usually entered the dining room when the dinner was served with the wife of the ambassador of Great Britain on his arm, and then the ambassador would come with the president's hostess on his arm, a wife if there was a wife. Jefferson had the rule: He who is next to the door goes in first. This created a diplomatic flap because the ambassador of Great Britain was just outraged at this. LAMB: Again, you--you're writing about people who were born between 1776 and 1800. LAMB: So the focus--the years that you're really focused of them being old enough to be involved, would be what? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I would say really the first three decades of the 19th century. Prof. APPLEBY: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I have material on the 1790s because it's a very tumultuous decade and it's important, and there are some of them who, by that time, are in their 20s. But, yes, most of the action. LAMB: Give us a profile on what the United States looked like in those 30 years: people, where they had come from, what their religion was. Prof. APPLEBY: Well, to give a profile of a country that was as rambunctious as American society in those decades is going to be very hard. I can give you some snapshots. In 1810, a third of the Americans lived in new communities. Never have we had that many people in--on the frontier. So it was a--a society in motion, moving West, moving into the cities. The American cities double; they're--they're doubling in population every 10 years when the nation as a whole takes 20 years. Religion, too, is just going through an exuberant period; it's what historians refer to as the Second Great Awakening. But what happened is that the old-line churches lost their financial support. In time, all churches in America are turned into voluntary associations. And the people are moving West, and there are no churches going with them. It's--it's expensive. LAMB: What--what are the old-line churches? Prof. APPLEBY: The Episcopalian Church, which was the Church of England; the Presbyterian Church; the Congregational Church is a dominant church in New England. Those are the old-line churches. The Methodists are a new group that grew--they began in the--the bosom of the Church of England, but they break with the Church of England, they break with Episcopalians, become a separate mesc--Methodist Episcopal Church in America. And then the Baptists--now there had always been Baptists in America, but they were very small sects. But they--what's happened is that these--the Methodists and the Baptists have the means to reach the people in the West who are going west without churches and after five, 10 years, are unchurched. Their children are unbaptized; they're getting married without marriage ceremonies. And there is a thirst for religion. And you have these often unskilled--I shouldn't say unskilled--uneducated preachers; they do have a skill and a talent and a calling to preach. But you have them going into the frontier and preaching and creating converts and building new churches. So religiously for these--at this time, you have a proliferation of sects. They finally pull back and don't maintain the distinction between church and sect and call them all denominations. LAMB: As you know, a quarter of the population today is Catholic, and about six million of the population are Jewish. When did the Jews and the Catholics come to the United States? Prof. APPLEBY: There--there--the first Jewish congregation came in the 17th century, actually. It came from Brazil to New York City. But that population--the Jewish population, I mean, was very small. There's several people in my cohort who are Jewish, but it's very small. And that population, the real Jewish immigration doesn't come till the end of the 19th century. Catholic population, there are some Catholics with the Irish population that came in the 18th century, but many more Scotch-Irish, as they were called, who were Presbyterians. Catholic immigration begins in the 1840s, with the potato famine and--and other dislocations in Ireland, and then also in Germany. So you don't have very much--let me just--this also is a period with the lowest foreign-born population in American--percentage in American history; about only 3 percent are foreign, and most of those are slaves who've come in with the opening up of the slave trade, the brief opening up. LAMB: And I--I just saw a figure, I think it's like 9 1/2 percent now foreign-born in the country. LAMB: And there were times when it was a lot larger than that. Prof. APPLEBY: Much larger. At the end of the 19th, early 20th century, it was--two-thirds of the people in American cities at the end of the 19th century were either foreigners or foreign-born. Prof. APPLEBY: Who, all the people? LAMB: Back in--back--back in those--those three decades. Prof. APPLEBY: No, no electricity. Prof. APPLEBY: No, not yet. The first railroad is, I think, 1832, the B&O. They're--you know, they're just beginning. There're canals. The Erie Canal was the great engineering triumph. It s--opened in 1825. That--there--and there're roads. There's a national road; there are post roads; there are toll roads. They're doing everything they can to connect the country in a transportation system. There is a steamboat which finally enables the--the Western farmers to get their boats back up the Mississippi and the--and the Ohio. LAMB: You say that--that women and couples had lots of children, like there was a--once there was, I remember, as many as nine children on average per family. Prof. APPLEBY: Yes, yes. There's a pretty high mortality rate, though. It's unusual to have a big family. The average number, I think the demographic figures, the average number of children is about seven point something at the beginning of the 19th century, and it's dropped to four by the end. So there are some big families. But there are also--I have lots of families that are just--children wiped out by diphtheria or tuberculosis or cholera. I mean, so it's--it's a mixed picture; it's not--it's not even. And that's true of just about everything about this generation. Prof. APPLEBY: Well, in the North, almost everyone, including free blacks got three years of three-month schooling. That was the goal, to teach reading, writing and ciphering. South, it would be many fewer, but there were lots of academies for planters' children in the South. What's fascinating about teaching is that--illiteracy--is that teaching was the great s--bridge for talented boys and even some talented girls to get off the family farm, then if they were good at book learning, they could become teachers, and then a year or two they could move into one of the new areas, perhaps become a lawyer, move on to becoming a newspaper editor, a clerk in a store. It's fascinating what teaching offered young people. LAMB: How big was the military? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, the military was very, very small. It swells at the time of the War of 1812. I think at the end of the war, there were about 70,000 in the Army. They quickly d--demobilize and get down to a force of about 13,000, 14,000. West Point is founded in--in the first decade of the 19th century. LAMB: And how important was the--if you were in the military back in those years, were you a big deal? Prof. APPLEBY: You were in the War of 1812. It created a lot of--of particularly Naval heroes. I don't think so. I don't think it was terribly important. I think at time of war, yes, you had some heroes. What you did have the military doing is teaching men civil engineering, and the Army virtually lent civil engineers to railroad companies and to canal companies and to expeditions--expedition that found Yellowstone, Stephen Long's expedition. So there were many ways that military people participated in the economic life. LAMB: Would you have liked to have lived back then? Prof. APPLEBY: No. I love my own time. LAMB: What do you think would be the major differences? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, a much more circumscribed role for women, which I couldn't help but think of instantly. LAMB: Could you have taught school back then? Prof. APPLEBY: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, but I couldn't have taught at the university. I couldn't have been a scholar. There are very--I don't think there are any women who were scholars. There were certainly some brilliant women. LAMB: You couldn't have voted, or could you in some places? Prof. APPLEBY: I could have in New Jersey for a brief period, if I had property and no husband. LAMB: Why no property--I mean, why property and no husband? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, because the way the law was written, it would be--there was a property qualification, and they didn't put in that you had to be a man. And so women voted. But women only controlled their property if they didn't have a husband, and so it was mainly wealthy widows who voted. And then that was changed, and then `women' wa--was put in and the vote was taken away from them. LAMB: How many states in the early 1800s? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, that ch--the voting is determined by states, and so that d--could be--it'd be very different. African-American--free African-Americans vote in New Hampshire and Massachusetts all through this period. They voted in North Carolina, and then it was taken away from them. There is a movement to begin to have white male suffrage, but it--in 1850, Virginia still has property qualifications. Vermont comes in with no slavery and no property qualifications. So it's a patchwork quilt. But the--the move, the thrust is for free white men to be able to vote. LAMB: Someplace you say that a black could not be a mailman? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, postmaster, I think it was. There--the--the Congress passed very--very differently--I mean, you--a black couldn't be in the Marines, but a black could be in the Army or the Navy. They were very different. Again, it's kind of featurive of the United States, and partly because we have states and federal government. It's--it's--has to be quite specific to the place and time. LAMB: Don't know where the exact numbers are, but I remember you--back in those years, that a member of Congress represented something like 33,000 people where today it's over 600,000. Prof. APPLEBY: Right. Right, right. Right. LAMB: ...like, 1912 or something like that. But back then, it went from 100 to a couple hundred. Prof. APPLEBY: Yes. Right, because they changed the--the--the proportions, and that often was done after the census was taken. But it was--what I estimated also, I think in that same business about 33,000 people, that the actual voters were more like 6,000, and the voting pool would be the candidate pool. And that's pretty--that's--you could know those people in your district. You could know all the voters if you were out there as a politician and interested. LAMB: You built up a--a kind of a--a battle between the Federalists and the non-Federalists. Prof. APPLEBY: Mm-hmm, that's right. LAMB: Who would have been a Federalist back in those early 1800 years, and what would that have meant? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, the Federalist is the party that--that wrote the Constitution. Its most lu--illustrious members are George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton. And, by and large, these were men who were conservative. They wanted to retain what they'd gained in the Revolution, but they believed in order, and they thought that order was fragile. And they really wanted to have a Great Britain cleansed of the impurities and corruptions of Great Britain. Now Thomas Jefferson wa--and--and I use him to stand in for other people, but he was so far and away the important figure here--saw this as a--just a terrible loss if the Revolution in America just stopped at being another Great Britain, and he wanted to see a revolution in the sense of creating a new kind of society that was thoroughly democratized, where there was political participation, where there was free speech. He wanted to animate the--the--the public. He--and he very much wanted religious toleration, and he was very interested in scientific speculation. But he had this idea that human beings--and he--we have to say he really meant white men had been shackled down, they'd been burdened by hierarchies: hierarchies in the church, hierarchies at home and the father, hierarchies in politics. And if you could just get rid of those hierarchies, you would release the energy that's just bubbling in there, in each human being. So he challenges Washington's administration, and they do it around such issues as political participation, forming political clubs, free speech. The Federalists then pass laws to restrict free speech, alien sedition laws. So it thoroughly politicizes this generation, these battles of the 1790s. And because democratic politics is new, men take political disputes as an inf--impugning their honor. I think you may have read in there how important dueling was; `important' sort of the wrong word, but how--what a prominent part dueling plays because these men aren't used to disagreeing. They don't have a concept of an issue, something that good men can disagree on. LAMB: You wrote that it's something like 100 people in politics have been killed. Prof. APPLEBY: That's--that's--that's what one of the newspapers estimates, and I find duels everywhere, and they're al--and the amazing thing is that three-quarters of these duels, according to contemporaries, were over politics. They weren't over gambling debts or women, which was typical in Europe. They were about politics--being on the opposite side in politics, getting up and--and--and slurring someone in a speech because of his support of a Navy or a salt tax or a--a road to be built a certain place. LAMB: Alexander--I mean, Andrew Jackson. Prof. APPLEBY: Andrew Jackson was--was known as a dueler. Prof. APPLEBY: Yes. Yes. Indeed. In fact, it was--this was particularly awful because the young man's gun--it was a much younger man--gun was--was--misfired, so he had to just stand there while Jackson points his gun and kills him. But, yes. I mean, so the--the Federalists--to get back to your question, so the Federalists in the early part of the 19th century were dramatically defeated by Jefferson. Not that it was a landslide; it was very even. But they're so astounded that they would be turned out of office, and then after that they are the conservers of a more traditional set of political values. LAMB: You mention that after the War of 1812 veterans received 160 acres of land. LAMB: How did that work? And what impact did that have on where people went in those years? Prof. APPLEBY: It had a big--another surge forward into the West. Some veterans would sell those bounties--they might set up a store and sell the bounty. So there was always a brisk trade in the--the paper involved in--in land. But, in fact, most of them went west, and that's when you have these states of the Northwest and the old Southwest coming into the Union. LAMB: There's a quote you have here from John Adams, "Americans are ambitious because the lowest can aspire as much as the highest." Why did that happen in this country and say, not in Britain or not in other European countries? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I think in part because of this Jeffersonian challenge that just--it chal--it broadly challenged not only politics, but the social forms of hierarchy. Also, just as you asked me about how many people were living there, there were four million of them, they're on the edge of a very, very fertile continent, so they have the opportunity--indeed, everybody wants to see them be ambitious--and then the nation is--is forming at a time of economic development--the beginning of the--of industrialization, of trade, of finance, of the professions. So it's a very fortuitous convergence of developments. LAMB: What impact did the printed word have back then? LAMB: Did anybody have an unusual amount of concentration of power back then in the print? Prof. APPLEBY: No. No. There--there are lots of publishers, lots of printers. They tend to--oodles of printers. I started to do something on printers; there were too many of them to handle. There are just hundreds and hundreds of printers, and newspapers. In 1822, Americans are buying more issues of the newspaper than any country in the world regardless of size, regardless of population. It's just a phenomena. Foreigners are just dazzled by this. They say everybody reads the newspaper. The little African-American bootblack reads the newspaper, the woman who's hocking fruit reads the newspaper, fathers read the newspaper to their children at breakfast. LAMB: You say there were 371 dailies in 1810. Prof. APPLEBY: That's a lot. That--that's a coun--a country of eight million. LAMB: What about education? How--was there college? Prof. APPLEBY: Yes, there were seven colonial colleges, and then after the Revolution there are a number of new colleges that are formed. In my period you have the beginning of the state universities. So there are--I don't know--I don't--I hesitate to guess--probably 30 or 40 by the end of my period. And, of course, the religious revivals inspire colleges, because groups wish to have their boys and girls reared in the--in their church and learn th--do their actual secular learning in a religious environment. And then, of course, there are seminaries for preachers. LAMB: There is not a chapter you have in here where slavery doesn't come up. Prof. APPLEBY: No, it's everywhere. LAMB: Was it everywhere when you found your material from back then? Prof. APPLEBY: Yes, they talk about it. It is the problem that they cannot resolve. Absolutely. It is fascinating. I think what's--what's--one of the fascinating things is that the Founding Fathers and the next generation, they knock out slavery where it's weakest and they leave it where it's strongest. And they almost make the Civil War inevitable by doing that. Prof. APPLEBY: Wa--well, it happened because they--there were reformers who took the initiative and abolished slavery in the North, and the absence of slavery in the North not only meant that they didn't have slaves, it meant that it freed Northerners to imagine a world without slaves, to write critically of slavery. If slavery had still been in the m--in their midst in the North, you wouldn't have had people being so freely critical of it. I--so I think it's both the absence in the North and the presence in the South that keeps it in the public eye. And then, of course, there are vocal anti-slavery people. Congress opens each session, and there are a bunch of petitions, some of them from free blacks, some of them from Quakers. They can't get away from it. Southerners are just enraged that this--that this, their institution which they understand and want to wall off, is--is having--you know, is being examined and criticized by former slaves. LAMB: What was the American Colonization Society? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, that's a group that forms to resettle free blacks in Africa. They're actually the founders of Liberia on the west coast of Africa, like Sierra Leone was founded by Great Britain in order to prev--provide a haven for former slaves that the British freed in--during the--the American Revolution. The Colonization Society attracted a lot of attention as a possible solution to the problem of slavery in America, because the problem was twofold. It was not only the existence of this hideous and degrading institution, which was now being publicly exposed, but there was a problem of white America's disin--being disinclined to live in a biracial society. So the thought was, `Well, what if we repatriate free slaves, send them back to Africa?' And indeed a couple of thousand do go back and form the nucleus of Liberia. But it's--it's--it's a fantasy solution. The population of slavery is, you know, doubling every 20 years. LAMB: Some big names in history--Henry Clay and later on Abraham Lincoln--were for this idea? LAMB: Why do you think they were for it? Prof. APPLEBY: Oh, Clay, I can sort of understand. Lincoln is more difficult. I--it--I suppose it offered some hope of solving a problem that--that seemed too big for anyone to solve. It's--it's perplexing to me, it really is, because it is--if you just sat down with a pencil and paper and counted up the number of slaves in America and the number of boats it would take, wha--there was no organization that could have transplanted all of the slaves back to Africa. LAMB: And the total number of slaves in the United States in these early 1800 years? Prof. APPLEBY: A million moving to four million by the time of the revo--of the Civil War. LAMB: Now I remember a figure you had in here of 197 free blacks--197,000 free blacks. Prof. APPLEBY: Right. Right. There are about 500,000 by the end of my period. LAMB: By the end of your period? LAMB: Could have the s--they have the same rights as everybody else? Prof. APPLEBY: No. Their s--their citizenship is circumscribed very definitely, again, depending upon the states. They could not serve in the militia, and this often prevented them from voting. It was really a catch-22. They couldn't vote because they couldn't serve in the militia. And also the--they were often in the--in court action. They couldn't be witnesses against a white person, which was very difficult for people in business, because if they didn't have a bill paid to them, they didn't have the same access to the courts. In other--free blacks, their lives, their civic personality was circumscribed dramatically. Prof. APPLEBY: Yeah, isn't that interesting? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I think that--that Americans w--contemporaries said they were money mad. Does that surprise us? I mean, it--it was a very ebullient economy, they were all--there was this release of ordinary ambition and there was this sort of scrambling for land. In the South you had a scrambling for land and slaves. But the Southerners managed to keep this out of public view. In the North it was much more open, and this was new; this was novel. It wasn't refined. It wasn't restrained the way it had been, and people were shocked at this open avidity for gain. LAMB: Where did it come from? LAMB: ...the--the rush for money. I mean, that comes up in your--materialism. Prof. APPLEBY: I--I think it came from the absence of restraints. I think it m--it meant that people could follow their ambition and they could be--they could brag about it at the tavern, they could talk about it in the parlor. And maybe there were some people who were outraged that they were doing this. I mean, people of taste, no doubt, you know, were offended. But it was the--the arbiters--the social arbiters had been dismissed. They had been sent home, sent away, and the public was pretty much open to whatever group was out there and wanted to do something in the public. LAMB: Any other place in the world like it then? Prof. APPLEBY: I don't think so. No, not at all. I think it was remarkable. And foreign travelers attest to its remarkable status. I mean, they were fascinated. LAMB: ...Charles Dickens? And what did they find when they came here? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, they found much of what I'm reporting. They found a society that was intoxicatingly free. They saw things that they--that they loved. They s--they loved this outpouring of human energy. They loved to see these associations that were forming. But they were appalled at--at other things like the scramble for money or the--the servants' lack of respect appalled everyone. Servants in America were saucy. They wouldn't accept the word `servants'; they were `help.' That was an Americanism that the British thought was just ridiculous; you don't have servants. So they--there was a mixed report. It--it was a society in which the--all the arrows were not pointing in the same direction. LAMB: Where did the rush for temperance come from? Prof. APPLEBY: I think it came from--well, obviously, the religious revivals had a lot to do with it, because you're not in control of yourself if you're--if you drink too much. And--and the Revolutionary generation drank a lot, way more than we drink today. And so I think there was this desire for more control; the control had religious impetus, but I also think that it had to do with ambition. If you have a plan, a life plan, and you want to succeed in that life plan--this is not an easy society to get ahead in; it takes a lot of hard work--it's incompatible with drinking in the morning or drinking in the afternoon, whereas in the old society, in an artisan's shop, as a printing shop, the youngest apprentice went out at--at 10:30 and came back with a bottle of--of liquor, and then at 2:00 they went out. I mean, there--no one ever built a ship or raised a house without providing liquor for the--for the workers. So drink was--was, you know, just implicated in all the--it--everyday routines, and I think it became incompatible with many people's sense of--of how to--how to get what they want, how to get ahead, how to do what they--activate their plans. LAMB: How far did the restrictions go? Prof. APPLEBY: Restrictions on drink? LAMB: They did--they didn't s--it wasn't like Prohibition? Prof. APPLEBY: No, no, no. LAMB: They didn't--they didn't stop? Prof. APPLEBY: No, no, no. No. No. The only thing I know that was sort of violent was--that was--may have been …--they--once the temperance for--once they formed associations, then they wanted to get rid of all liquor, and they cut down hundreds of apple trees to get rid of apple cider which was fermented, and hard apple cider was one of--one of the liquors. No, it was all voluntary, but I--you know, this--we conform to the social mores if we see that something is going to get--earn us frowns and--and--and ugly looks, we'll move away, just like smoking today. The poor people who smoke and have to huddle up against business buildings outside, you know, that--that's a miracle of the anti-smoking campaign in the last 30 years. LAMB: What was the Sabbath Crusade? Prof. APPLEBY: Sabbath Crusade was to stop all business on Sunday, and--and this--most churches and churchgoers observed that; they observed the Sabbath and they didn't do any ordinary work on Sunday. But as the tempo of commerce increases, post offices stayed open on Sunday. And the worst thing is that the Erie Canal ran on Sunday 'cause you couldn't stop the Hudson River and the other rivers from flowing; you couldn't stop the canal. So this upset people, and there was a move to get the federal government to enforce the Sabbath in the ways that it could. One of them was to--to not deliver the mail on Sundays, and the--and this failed. A--in this case, the churches were beaten back by those people who argued that the government shouldn't interfere in this way. LAMB: ...did he kill Tecumseh? LAMB: Went on to be vice president. You find--did you find much about him? Prof. APPLEBY: Not a lot. Y--you remember, he was the--the--he was such a hero that the--that--that when he was a congressman, they got him to put forward the bill to raise the salaries, the congressional salaries. Prof. APPLEBY: And just--people were just outraged that the congressmen were going to vote themselves a raise. I think it was a 25 percent raise. And they--the people rose up and--as I say, locally and formed associations and--and defeated all the incumbents--not all of them, but just an--an incredible number of incumbents the next time around, and got the--their congressmen to pledge that they would repeal the act, and they did. LAMB: When you did your research, could you find newspapers from this period? LAMB: Where do they keep them? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, the American Antiquarian Society has a wonderful collection of newspapers. It's--it's in Worcester, Massachusetts. And actually, the nephew of the founder of the American Antiquarian Society is in my book. So they have a--they have a great collection. They're in the Library of Congress. I read most of the autobiographies in the Library of Congress. LAMB: Now one of the things you--you mentioned in here Thomas Paine in your book, and I was--because we were having a guest on our program from TomPaine.com, saw your name on the advisory committee. Prof. APPLEBY: What is TomPaine.com? LAMB: Yeah, and how did you get involved in that? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I'm not deeply involved in it. I'm sort of there as an adviser. It's--it's a Web site where opinions--pieces are posted and letters are invited, and it--it--they produce editorials that are concerned with issues--public issues of the sort that Thomas Paine might be--might have been interested in: good government, you know, the watchdog on--on our governors. LAMB: What role did Thomas Paine's writings--and I know they came mostly before this period--what di--role did they have in the thinking that went on in the early 1800s? Prof. APPLEBY: Hard to say. I mean, "Common Sense" does articulate the idea of a natural social harmony of a society of limited government in which the people's cooperative--natural cooperative instincts are brought out. But you know, Paine went on to write "The Age of Reason," which is an attack on organized religion. So when he--he does return to the United States many years later, and he's not warmly received because he's then seen as an infidel; he's seen as someone who's attacked religion, and the country has become a great deal more religious than it was during the Revolutionary era. So he comes back and--and really is in--and--is--just lives in obscurity and dies in New Rochelle. Prof. APPLEBY: I certainly care a lot about a lot of things. I don't know that I'd characterize myself as an activist. I march occasionally and--and, you know, participate in discussion groups and lend financial support to causes that I care about. But I--I don't think I could be characterized as an activist now. LAMB: Are people more or less active today in things like this than back in the 1800s? Prof. APPLEBY: I think--oh, I think less active. Oh, definitely less active. Prof. APPLEBY: I suppose because there's so many more things for them to be active in, so many more recreational pursuits, so many other intellectual interests, so many other tastes to indulge, so much just pure recreation to enjoy. And there wasn't that. But also I think this generation took very seriously the fact that they had inherited a remarkable revolution, and they wanted to demonstrate to a world of monarchs and monarchies what democracy--what a democratic society could truly be. LAMB: So looking back to this time period, who do you--who would you th--name as the most responsible for what we are today? Back in, you know, the--the activists back in the 1800s. Prof. APPLEBY: Mm. You know, there are--there are a number of them; I don't think there is any one. I would say that Thomas Jefferson's influence was the most pervasive in this generation. They frequently talk about him. As a hero, Henry Clay looms large, as does George Clinton and--I'm sorry, not Clinton--George Clinton; his nephew DeWitt Clinton, because he was the one who championed the--the Erie Canal. So those figures in my generation are important. Interestingly enough, Andrew Jackson doesn't figure as a--as a great hero. I'm sure he was to people, but he doesn't seem to be to the people that I've read. But Jefferson was important because he so clearly articulated a different conception of what a republic could be, and a d--and he had a different vision of how human beings--how--could participate in their society. And this--people refer to him throughout this period. LAMB: Where are you from in the country originally? LAMB: How long'd you live there? LAMB: Where from--where did you go from there? Prof. APPLEBY: I went to Dallas, Texas, and then to Kansas City, Missouri, and then to Evanston, Illinois, and then to Phoenix, Arizona, and then to Pasadena, California. LAMB: Why all the moves? Prof. APPLEBY: My father was with a large corporation, and they were transferring him. LAMB: How about your mom? What'd she do? Prof. APPLEBY: She was a homemaker and voluntary worker. LAMB: Who got you interested in--i--or--I don't know if it's a person, but in--in the history thing in the first place, do you think? LAMB: What side were they on? Prof. APPLEBY: Oh, they were always on the--my father became increasingly conservative as he became part of the business community. And so they were always on the radical side of Roosevelt's administration. And there was a divide in 1936, '7, and they were always on the more--the more radical side. Prof. APPLEBY: I went to Stanford. LAMB: And how about what--the rest of your degrees? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I got a master's at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and I got my PhD at Claremont Graduate School, which is the graduate school for the Associated Colleges of Claremont, Pomona College now. LAMB: And what about students today and when you teach your history? Do they--do they care? Are they interested? LAMB: Now what courses will you teach them? Prof. APPLEBY: Well, I'm teaching a course now on the impact of the Enlightenment on American nation building. That's a--a seminar that I'm teaching. I teach the introductory course in 17th- and 18th-century America. I teach upper-division courses on the Revolution and the writing of the Constitution. That's, you know, a mix, but almost always 17th and 18th century. LAMB: You say you've been at UCLA since 1981. LAMB: What's changed in 19 years of teaching at UCLA? Prof. APPLEBY: I don't know that the teaching has changed. The--the quality of interaction of the students has changed, and it's just--I l--I really love it. UCLA is an extraordinarily diverse campus. I mean, we're just every ethnic group, every religion, every race. And I--over the 18 years, 19 years, I have seen the students become more and more at ease with each other. It's--it truly is wondrous to watch their interaction. There was always I--a lot of goodwill, but it--but it tended--there was a certain formality, and that's just gone. They're just college students. LAMB: You mentioned in your book the Second Great Awakening, which was back during this period. What was the first? Prof. APPLEBY: First was a religious revival in the 1740s, the one that's associated with Jonathan Edwards. And it was much more confined and it was much more intellectual. It ha--it was a--both of them were efforts to go back to recapture religious experience, a really intense zeal, an intimate personal experience of God. Both--that was a common feature, but the first Great Awakening had its intellectual disputes, and it tended to end, whereas the Second Great Awakening never really has ended in the United States. It--it created American Christianity, with its emphasis upon the, you know, evangelizing, reaching out to people, upon the personal experience of sin, about being an active soldier for Christ in society. That is there in the Second Great Awakening, and I don't think--and it left a f--a--a--interlocking groups of churches in America that persist to this day. LAMB: You told us you probably wouldn't want to go back and live in that period, but of the things that you learned about that period, what would be your favorite if you could capture something that happened back then or, you know, the way they lived back then that they don't now? Prof. APPLEBY: Oh, I think the--the--the voluntary association, the zeal that just, you know, getting people together and forming a society to determine America's national character or to get rid of liquor or to honor the Sabbath or to whatever, just the idea that there was--that these people could move for women's rights, which of course happens in the next decade. I think that voluntary spirit was--was wonderful because it did create a--the--the social integration that I think is sometimes lacking in our world today. LAMB: You have another book in ya? LAMB: If you--if you'd had time, what would you write? Prof. APPLEBY: I don't--I really don't know. I'm sort of eager to find out. LAMB: This is the book we've been talking about by Joyce Appleby called "Inheriting the Revolution"--that period back there--"The First Generation of Americans" born in this country somewhere between 1776 and 1800. Thank you very much.

2019-04-21T14:31:14Z

http://booknotes.org/Watch/157235-1/Joyce-Appleby

Imagine having no sense of smell. It's hard, because we actually use our sense of smell for much more than we realize. For example, without a sense of smell, it's impossible to taste what we're eating. .. or the scent of fresh baked bread. Now, imagine going in for an operation and waking up after the anesthesia with your sense of smell gone. And it doesn't come back. That's exactly what happened to Birthe. There's a term for not having a sense of smell. It's called anosmia. Although I was aware some people suffer from anosmia, I'd never really given it much thought until I met Birthe, who told me a fascinating account of how she got her sense of smell back by a rather unusual method. "Essential oils? Must be some kind of alternative voodoo method," some might think. It was in fact Birthe's regular doctor who recommended she use 4 specific essential oils to help restore her sense of smell. She was instructed to open and sniff each bottle 3-6 times a day for 3 months. This precise choice of oils represents 4 distinctly different categories. Anyone with a sense of smell would be able to distinguish the difference. Not so much a person with no sense of smell. Birthe struggled with the task she was set. But she was determined to give this a chance, so she continued. And after a few short weeks, she began to be able to tell the difference between them. And it just kept getting a little easier every day after that. Today, she says her sense of smell is 'pretty much back to normal'. Can essential oils really help restore the sense of smell? I was fascinated by Birthes story and did a bit of digging around. It does indeed look like it's true that essential oils can help restore the sense of smell. Not only that, but science seems to be taking an in-depth look at the human olfactory system and what it means to have a functioning sense of smell. Did you know certain odour compounds can even impact our skin function and influence stress levels? This is definitely one area of research I will be following with interest. Meantime, I have a new appreciation for the many functions my nose performs on a daily basis. Do you know anyone with anosmia? I'd love to hear about it in a comment below! Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to contact me via my website or placed a comment with information. Check Facebook for these groups*. HI Karen - This is a fascinating account and certainly an eye-opener to hear that it can be downright dangerous to not have a sense of smell (the ammonia incident!). You might find additional helpful information about the essential oil sniffing method through some of the links at the bottom of the post. I hope this method will be of some help to you and I would be very interested to hear how it goes for you - regardless of what kind of success you have. Feel free to drop a follow-up comment on this post. I follow the comments on every post - no matter how old it is. Thanks again for sharing your story. I am rooting for your problem not being genetic! HI Lisa. Beginning tomorrow, October 1st I will try this use of essential oil to see if I can get back some of my sense of smell/taste. Feb/2012 my taste and smell pretty much went away following an emergency surgery for internal bleeding. Now, if scents get to complicated I can't pick up the distinct differences. Cigarette smoke smells different. Burnt toast triggers in my chest, not my nose. Foods,for the most part, are flat in flavor/smell because of multiple scents emerging. My favorite perfumes don't even register in my brain anymore, but I can smell basic single notes of some oils. I will try this specific combination to see if it makes a difference by the end of the year. I am just shocked and feel bad for these ladies. I read about this 7 yrs ago, after having radiation for Graves' disease and 5 nodules. The Radiation was just Unbelievably painful for me. I did not expect that reaction TBH. I was bed ridden 6 months before and after, total. Given a laptop and somehow, came across natural body are, when I realizide my dream of being a perfumer was probably unrealistic for now. I am disabled with Epilepsy. I have a VERY sensitive since of smell, most times a GOOD thing...... Sometimes not so good.lol But reading that article after the radiation, terrified me! Because I was not sure what it would do to me later on! I have always had ear and sinus issues too.....so bad that I have gotten pneumonia. I lost my sense of smell AND much of my hearing too. Me, NOR my family understood why I had the TV all the way up, laying on the floor in front of it. I have to have a shot every 5 yrs now. ALERGIES in Spring and fall.......and MOLD SPORES, living near the beach, has caused ALERGIC ASTHMA also. I was 26 the first time that hit. I didn't even realize I could barely breath, till very very ill. My 34 yr. old, was also hit with it @ 10. He woke with blue lips and black eyes. Dr. said he was not to walk or play. It takes 3 months to heal from it. My advice to ANYONE with just the ALERGy Attacks, do your best to keep your nose dry and blown. It is while you are sleeping, that all that infection can go into your lungs. And literally, you don't know how sick you really are, especially your children. That literally kept me scared to death, till the Dr. said he could play again. I can't wait to try this!! I would love to regain my sense of smell! I was hoping I could find a way through essential oils! I am out of town but will be back home tomorrow where my oils are. This is very exciting! Ooh Cathy best of luck with it!! I to list my sense of smell after foot surgery. I have tried many things including Acupunture. It has been almost 3 years. Do you think these scents would help me? Hey there Anon - It sounds like you had the same experience as the lady I wrote about in the blog post. It certainly helped her, so my only suggestion is to give it a go. I wish you the best of luck with it. So excited to find this blog post. Last December I started experiencing a strong and constant smell of cigatettes. Sleep was my only escape, but after a while I began to wake in the middle of the night after dreaming I was trapped in a fire. So much for escaping the phantom smoke smell. I am virtually never exposed to cigarette smell and I strongly dislike it. Imagine being in a room full of chain smokers 24/7, complete and utter misery. My doctors have no explanation and an MRI of my brain ruled out any kind of tumor. I feel left alone to either come to terms with it or find my own cure. After reading that some people with similar issues have had success ridding themselves of the constant smell of cigarettes by taking a combination of garlic and St John's wort, I tried that and was at least able to being the phantom smell down to a tolerable level. But my sense of smell remains at about 5-10% of what it used to be. I have started using therapeutic grade essential oils for other issues like headaches and insomnia. I know they work. I am so excited to give this a try. Living without smell is challenging. Since I have become accustomed to the constant smoke smell in my nose, I cannot detect actual smoke. Same goes for any spoiled food, the smell of natural gas... I never realized how many memories are tied to smells. Life feels so much emptier. Ah, and I forgot to mention that it also affects the sense of taste. My taste is currently limited to sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Most of the time I have a bitter taste in my mouth. I am going to get started on this regimen right away and hope to be able to report back with good news! Hey there Karen - Thank you so much for sharing this. I really hope this helps you. I have had so many reactions to this post from all corners of the globe, and I feel a little privileged if this post can in some way help some people. I wish you the very best of luck with this! At this point, anything is worth a try to get my sense of smell back. In 1999, I had a bad accident with a horse that left me with a fractured skull, bruising, bleeding & a blood clot on the brain. I was in a coma for 7 days. When I woke from the coma, I didn't notice right away that I could no longer smell. I realized it a few weeKS later. It's been 17 years now with absolutely no sense of smell.I'm going to try the essential oils to see if I can get my sense of smell back. Oh Sharon what a terrible thing to have happen! I really hope this is of some help to you. I'd love to hear back on how it works out - both positive or negative. I would like to encourage those who have posted here with some resources. I am an acquired anosmic/parosmic and have been for about a year and a half now. My quest to regain my senses of smell and taste have taken me down the road of smell training which I have just begun. There are a plethora of essential oils available for smell training which I would encourage any of you to try. I am encouraged about the possibilities! There are also a couple of Facebook groups that offer support for the very real struggles with these conditions. They are closed so you would need to be added; Anosmics of the World, Unite! and Living Well With Anosmia. Very encouraging places! Blessings to all as you struggle. I hope to see you in one or both of the groups. Thank you for posting on this Lise! Hey there Unkown- thanks for this great input! I didn't know there were groups where people could find support. Wonderful effort! Hi,I was born without a sense of smell, as was my father and one of my sons. It's 100% genetic. I was told the oils still have an impact on the olfactory system. What information might you have on a genetic condition that is irreversible? Can the oils still have a benefit if inhaled? Hi Annie - I sure wish I had an answer for you but I am not an expert in this particular field and hardly even know where to recommend you to ask other than checking for Facebook groups for people with this condition. If you read the comment just above yours there are a couple of hopefully useful suggestions. I wish you the best of luck. Friends, as mentioned, I am using essential oils as a part of smell training to hopefully regain some olfactory function. I can say that I have had a slight measure of success in being able to distinguish amongst the oils I started with although they do not smell as they did pre-anosmia. I am just learning about the essential oil role so I don't have any information to share to benefit congenital anosmics. I am an acquired anosmic and have parosmia as well. I can share that even as an anosmic, essential oils have benefited me. The jury is still out on the aromatherapy part but as you know, you can diffuse them and apply them topically as well. I am experiencing health and healing with them even though I cannot smell them in the traditional sense. I'm not going to let that stop me from fully taking advantage of the health benefits offered through these oils! I encourage you to join the Facebook groups referenced as there are a TON of people out there who share your experiences and will be of great encouragement!! I hope this helps. You are not alone in your struggles to cope with our conditions! God bless. Dear Lise, I am glad to have found your blog and grateful that you have shared this information. ANd now I am compelled to share my story: I started to lose my sense of smell about a 14 years ago, until it was completely gone about 9 years ago. According to my ENT, after several tests, the cause was damage to the nerve endings in my nose which send the message to the brain of a scent. This damage, he diagnosed, was caused by chronic sinus infections. I am, as the others, hopeful that the essential oils will be help. I will keep you posted of whatever the outcome. Hi Lillian - Thank you so much for sharing this. I hope you will be returning with positive news! I have no sense of smell have lost all hope which interferes with my life I have to listen to my body when I get hungry went to an oncologist no answer Doctor told me no cure now I feel it's endangering my health what to do. I am so excited! I lost my sense of smell in the early 1980's while in the Air Force. Doctors can find no physiological reason for the loss. Said it was probably "chemical". No idea what caused it. So, I have been living with no sense of smell and the resulting loss of taste. All I have is a sense of sweet, salty, bitter, sour. I would be beyond ecstatic to regain this sense. I miss the smell of fresh cut grass, thanksgiving dinner cooking, all the memories smells and so much more. I have a smoke detector in every room. Am going to give the essential oils a try and see what happens. EXCITED!!!!! hello, my name is Haryogi, MD. I am resident in ENT department from Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java, Indonesia. 1. is there any special store that i can buy the odorant of essential oils for my thesis? 2. is there any specific percentage of odorant / essential oils, i mean for example 70% or 95% or something specific numbers of the essential oils that can be used for professor Hummel method olfactory / smell training? 3. if don’t, is the essential oils that maybe i can found in bodyshop/perfume shop can be used for this smell / olfactory traning? Be sure you are using pure essential oils - NOT a dilution and NOT a perfume. Best of luck with it. hello Lise, thank you for your reply! well, now I know that I have to find essential oils, and NOT the DILUTED essential oils, thank's for your advice! there's one more thing that bother in my mind,, where can I find the Sniffin' Stick Test? Hi Yogie. You have a couple of possibilities here. You could obtain empty INHALER casings and make your own. Please check this blog for a how to on making inhalers if you are in doubt about what i mean. Aletrnatively, if you are looking for the kind of scent-papers usually used to test perfumes, I am guessing a supplier of perfumery items or soap making would be possibilities. I lost my smell after a bout of flu. It did come back, quite a bit, but then faded away again. It would be nice to know if anyone found trying these essential oils was successful to some degree? Hi Ann, I encourage you to check some of the comments above. There is a special group on Facebook about this. Hi MtnLioness - If you check the comments post, you'll find a mention of a Facebook group. I believe you might find more answers there. Just want to point out that your claim of not being able to taste with anosmia is false. I developed anosmia after a bad concussion when I was 19 (I could smell and taste perfectly my entire life leading up to that). I can still taste just fine; the taste is just a bit dulled from what it was before. Your sense of smell only enhances your sense of taste. It doesn't completely define it. I lost my sense of smell in early January after a bout of sinusitis and a bronchial infection. It is driving me crazy. I started doing the therapy you described in your blog today and hope to have good luck with it. Hi Karen. Thanks for sharing. I feel like I just read about myself. I have 24/7 gross green discharge. Ill try limiting sugars. Have u tried the essential oils? Did it work? I have had the same experience. Fractured skull and loss of smell due to a horse back riding injury. Did this help you at all? Hi Anon - thanks for sharing this. I encourage you to check the comments for the name of a Facebook group where you can interact with orhers on this issue. I wish you the best of luck. After a very bad cold, sinus infection and bronchitis I lost my sense of smell/taste. It has been 7 weeks now and I am starting an essential oil therapy regimen to try and regain my senses. I am 59 years old and am hoping and praying This therapy will work. I consulted with a specialist at Johns Hopkins and he recommended trying the essential oil therapy. I have had chronic sinusitis and allergies for many years, but I have never experienced anything like this. I will keep posting updates. The doctor started me on steroids for severe sinus inflammation and I have started using a few oils. My question is: how long do I sniff each of the oils, and how often? I also have sleep apnea and was wondering if it would be safe/effective to add a couple of oil drops to the CPAP humidifier reservoir. Has anyone asked about this? Thank you for having this blog. I am very encouraged by the posts and have faith that my senses will eventually be restored. Thanks you for sharing your story. I do hope you find help with this. If you scroll up and check the comments in this thread, you should find answers to your questions. You may also wish to join three Facebook group that is mentioned in one of the comments so you can share your experiences with others in the same situation. I hope this therapy works for you. Hey not sure if this will work for me I had a mva almost a year ago. Severe brain trauma. One of the lasting effects was loss of smell and altered taste. I'm a nurse I rely greatly on my sense of smell to do my job well. I like to travel trying new foods in other countries has been scary because I can't tell if there's something wrong. Sometimes I mouth hates the food but idk y. Sometimes the "smell" around me changes but idk if it's good or bad (did i remember deodorant? Did my patent use the bathroom? Did my clothes sit in the washer too long? Ect) it's awkward to ask others what's that smell? Do I smell weird? I can taste n smell alcohol but it all comes off as running alcohol. Processed sweets taste like ..... choc protein powder. The sweeter the food the stronger the taste. I have a hard time explaining to people what I experience and some don't believe me when I do. I never considered that it might have been from the surgeries I had after the accident. I don't remember exactly when I loss those senses so it's possible. I am going to try this I hope it works. Mine is driving me crazy. The only smell that I experience is that things smell and taste like rancid grease. Most food doesn't even taste good but you have to eat. @Megan - Oh gosh that sounds like a real pain and a half! I sure hope you get some positive results with the essential oils! @Linda K - It sounds like enjoying a meal is a real challenge for you. I am so sorry to hear this and hope you are able to find some relief! I've just come across this story and read your comment on here about having no smell. Im 45 next week and dont ever being able to smell. I'm curious to know if you did try the method of oils in the above story and if you had any success? I look forward to hearing how you went with it. Hello, I came across your blog after seeing it mentioned by Rachel Whittaker and love the articles here. I couldn't resist looking at this one as I am a clinical aromatherapist and perfumer, and I was a nurse before I found this amazing work. I experienced a three month anosmia after a particularly nasty bout of flu last year - and as my work requires a sense of smell it was an absolute nightmare! I was horribly upset when I first realised but then fascination kicked in, because it gave me a different perspective on the world. I hadn't realised how acute my sense of smell had always been, because it was normal for me. Without it, the world seemed very one-dimensional, as I have always linked emotions and my other senses with smell. For example, a turquoise sea lapping at a sandy beach on a sunny day smells very different than a silvery UK sea lapping on a pebbled beach on an overcast day - even allowing for the fact that different temperatures make the air smell different. There is so much I want to say in response to a lot of the comments - but I must preface that I haven't yet looked up the test you refer to. The main thing is, I absolutely disagree with the idea that you should sniff these (or any) oils directly from the bottle - particularly close up. Whilst I understand the reason for these particular choices of oil, strength! of course, but also familiarity, that same strength makes them "dangerous". I am not surprised that at least one person developed skin lesions. Smelling strips are better, but should be wafted at least a couple of inches away from the nose. Nose bleeds are also a potential issue of unregulated deep inhalations of such strong oils. That said, I don't believe essential oils are dangerous when used correctly - I just get upset when I see them being used incorrectly as this ultimately has the effect of discrediting essential oils when things go wrong! Essential oils have so much inherent "magic" and so much potential for good. I'm going to stop talking and go investigate this "treatment" in more depth now. Maybe there will be a suitable space for me to discuss more suitable oils, that could potentially heal whatever damage has gone on, much faster!!! Thank you for bringing this "treatment regime" to my attention. I do love being fired up! Hello Karen - Thank you for your feedback! It's always a pleasure to get an in depth comment like yours. I understand your reaction to sniffing directly from the essential oil bottle - I was a little surprised about this myself. You have to keep in mind this was anectdotal, so it is entirely possible the recommended method for this treatment is actually different. Researching this has been on my to do list for a while. You may find more input in the Facebook group mentioned in one of the comments above - I'm sure there are others who have tried this method and they may have been given different instructions from their doctors. Lost my sense of smell back in the mid 1980's for some reason...I am trying these four oils suggested to see what it may do for my anosmia...ever knew there was a name for it...consequently I cannot taste herbs and essential oils. Worked with chain smokers in 1984 until smoking was no longer allowed in the workplaces...smoke hung in the middle of the room..no ventilation to speak of either. I believe that contributed to my loss of smell because I could smell just fine up until I started working at that job which I kept until I retired this year...33 years. Thanks for all the posts and comments. I lost my sense of smell when I hit puberty in the 1970's...also had chronic colds at that time as well. I can taste with no problem and I only got my smeller back once when I was put on strong course of steroids, but when the course was completed, my smeller left again. I also was told my tight nasal passage was due to allergies, yet several tests have confirmed I am not allergic to anything. It's been over 40 years without smeller. Have nearly burned the house down leaving things on the stove and thank goodness for fire alarms! Never had a problem changing a smelly diaper, but have never smelled the scent of a baby, or my own children. I remember what things smell like from when I was a kid, but haven't smelled in such a long long time. Just discovered the essential oils and will update when I have given it some time to work. I am hopeful! Hey there Bingo Crickets - thanks for sharing your story. That sure is a long time to suffer from a condition and not know the cause! I sure hope this method is of use to you. About 10 years ago, I had a severe migraine that lasted three days. It was my first and only migraine. I've had headaches, but nothing like that s. For two weeks after the migraine subsided, it felt like I had been hit in the lower back of my head with a 2x4. After that pain subsided, I realized I couldn't smell ... absolutely nothing! Then my sense of taste started getting a little wonky. I've tried different "detox" remedies and solutions, but ultimately was told to just get used to it. I will definitely give this a try. I am a skeptic though. I also tried some oils for motion sickness, didn't seem to work on me and the smell bothered everyone else but me because I couldn't smell it. Hi Karen - Thank you for sharing this amazing and unusual atory. I can't help wondering what reason your doctor gave for this, because I don't believe I've hrard anything like this. You might find some support in the Facebook group mentioned in one of the comments above. I wish you the best of luck with this method and hope it helps. My ENT said my nerve endings, the ones that control the sense of smell and taste, are dead from having so many severe sinus infections. I have had no taste or smell for nearly 3 years. Would essential oils restore anosmia of this sort? Thanks! Hi Kimberly - I sure wish I could tell you yes, but I just don't know. The lady I wrote about in this post didn't give me more information than I have reported here. My only suggestion would be to try it for a period of time and see if there is a difference. I wish you the very best and truly hope it helps you! Hi, I lost my sense of smell in April 17. I have had an MRI to which nothing was found to be causing any problems. However this left me without any answers and very frustrated . After trying to complete a smell training booklet given to me by my ent consultant, I got 15/40 and he told me it was highly unlikely my smell would ever return. Use my other senses he said coldly!! I came out of this appointment devastated. I joined 5th sense and decided to try the smell training I had read about. I am regaining some sense of smell and can always tell which scent I am smelling now from the essential oils, I have since bought 5 more to try and these are also easy now for me to tell the difference between :-) However I still can't smell bacon cooking or my daughters dirty nappy or my freshly laundered washing but I am hopeful as in April I could smell absolutely nothing at all. Hello Sarah - Thank you SO much for sharing this. Your story gives everyone who suffers with this condition hope. I am hoping you will indeed be able to smell your fresh laundry and all the other scents again. Hello. On Black Friday 2016, I came down with the most godawful head cold I ever had. It finally let go the day after Christmas. For 31 days, I constantly blew my nose. When through four rolls of TP. And, when I could breathe through my nose again, I had no sense of smell. I didn't notice it at first. I think cleaning the cat box was where I first noticed it (the only true benefit of not having a sense of smell). Over the past nine months, occasionally, a smell would come through. I use Citrus Magic (which is orange essential oil) and one day I smelled something, but it wasn't orange. Tonight, I was filling my son's diffuser and I could smell clove that had dripped on a finger and it suddenly hit me that since essential oils works with the olfactory system, maybe it could rejuvenate my sense of smell. I had lavender at hand and I smelled something, thought not the full fragrance, so I'm going to start your regimen and continue researching. I've had training in aromatherapy and have always had good results using them. Hello Anon - Thanks for sharing your story. How good that you are finding a method that is working for you. I hope your sense of smell returns in full (even at the risk of experiencing stinky cat litter boxes in full). Hi, I'm 17 years old. I don't think I have full-on anosmia, but I have grown up not being able to tell apart most smells and even tastes. I know the taste of most foods, and can definitely smell peppermint, but that's the only scent I might be able to determine for sure. Sometimes when I compare radically different smells, I sense a difference between them but cannot determine either of them. When it comes to certain spices in food, I usually can't name any by taste or smell. I just know sweet, salty, spicy etc., but can't specifically say sesame, cayenne, oregano, cinnamon etc. My family and friends have wondered about it, but I've never really thought about it much until recently. I have been in situations when something was burning in the oven but I couldn't smell the smoke, which makes me worry for when I live independently and don't have anyone to alert me of my house burning! I never knew there was a word for having no sense of smell and it's really great to have a place to talk about this! I like essential oils, mostly because people hold them in such high regard honestly. I recently learned how magically medicinal they can be and want to try this experiment to see if I can learn the difference between smells! Do you know whether anyone has had success using the four oils mentioned? I just happen to go over to my desk and I had to essential oil packets sitting on it . They've been there for a long time. One was peppermint and one was lemon . I was drawn to the lemon so I opened it and just gently started to smell the essential oil. And was very calming and I could smell it. I've lost my sense of smell about 4 years ago. I think when I hit my head on a cabinet in my kitchen. I can smell some things. The strangest thing for me is that sometimes I'm only smelling some part of a smell. Like I'm getting something different from a full smell. I can't really explain it. I can smell Foods and some things I have to put right up to my nose in order to smell. I do have a deviated septum. I'm wondering if that's my problem because I can smell some things and not others. It's disturbing for me because I'm a little bit worried how about maybe food that's bad or the gas from my stove is on and I vant smell that. Could be dangerous if I can't smell these things. I'm going to look up that Facebook page. I'm very thankful for this mystery of posts over the last few years. Finding it fascinating. And it even has a name, I did not know that! soo. thank you. Im looking forward to cure! To think I just walked over to my desk, open the packet of lemon essential oil that I have had for 6 months... And it led me to Google essential oils and loss of sense of smell. It also led me to you and all of these helpful posts. Hey there Anon - thanks for sharing this!This is very interesting to hear that you have partial sense of smell. I really hope this method is of help to you and wish you the best! I just read your Post on the use of essential oil’s in restoring the sense of smell. I’ve worked in the wine industry for about 10 years. About two years ago I lost my sense of smell. This affected my sense of taste as well. I managed and operated wine bars in airports. This was very discouraging since smell was the largest part of my job. I recently joined Young living and begin using essential oil’s. I happened on to your blog today and have decided to try this method of smelling the different oils and try and restore my sense of smell. Right now, I cannot till one from the other. The only one that I can smell is peppermint. I actually had to resign from my position with the wine bar because I was so discouraged having lost my sense of smell and taste. We will see how it goes. Thank you for posting this. There have been over 12 peer-reviewed research papers to date that suggest smell training is of benefit to patients with post-viral smell loss. Some research suggests that brain injury patients are also helped. The main criteria is that you must have some minimal function of the olfactory nerve. This might mean you experience "white noise" type smells that do not really give you information about what you are smelling. The olfactory nerve does indeed regenerate, but slowly. Recovery is activity dependent. To help the nerve regrow, you must stimulate it. How do you stimulate the olfactory nerve? Through smell training. Is smell training a "cure"? No. But it is a helpful therapy, like physio for people who have had a stroke. Smell training is brain training. For other types of smell dysfunction, such as polyps, chronic rhinosinusitis and of course idiopathic anosmia, the picture is less clear. More research is being done. The role of smell training in patients with Alzheimers and Parkinsons, which is ongoing, will be of particular interest. The original essential oils described by Professor Hummel, of the University of Dresden in his 2009 paper on the subject (the first mention of smell training in the scientific literature) were lemon, rose, clove and eucalyptus. The important point is that the usefulness of the essential oils comes from their role as a stimulant for the nose, rather than any benefits that might be assigned to them in an aromatherapy context. Anyone wishing to have more information about smell training is encouraged to join the Facebook/groups/smelltraining page. I also run an instagram page devoted to food issues: #smelltraining. Hello Chris - Thank you for your comment and information. I am sure it will be helpful for the many visitors to this post. I wish you a very happy 2018. Hi, I have had total anosmia since 2011. The doctors are stumped as to the cause, other than perhaps stemming from a virus. I also have multi-system sarcoidosis (diagnosed in 2015 after many years of various symptoms) and have asked them if they feel the sarcoid could be affecting the cranial nerve responsible for smell. Again, the doctors cannot give me a definite answer. When I first was diagnosed, I saw went to the University of Pennsylvania Taste and Smell Center. The specialist there had suggested use of alpha lipoid acid for 6 months (which I used) and he also told me to sniff bottles of some of my favorite scents, 3 or 4 times a day, for 3 months. I used vanilla, lilac, and lemon, as he did not give me more explicit instructions. He also told me, at time of his diagnosis of total anosmia, that if I did not regain my smell after 1 year, that it would be a permanent condition. This condition may seem minor to folks who do not have it, but it has been severely depressing for me at times. The sense of smell is truly vital to ones sense of well-being. I have withdrawn from social situations involving food, as I become upset listening to folks describing how delicious the food tastes, etc. Today I did a search on whether essential oils can benefit a person who has anosmia, that is, who cannot smell the oils. And I found your page. I am truly interested in learning about smell training. I do not use instagram, but I am an avid Facebook user and I will join the group on smell training. Please advise, if you feel there are any other channels I can explore. Hello Robbin and thank you for sharing your story. I think you will find help in the Facebook community you mentioned. If you check the comment posted just above from Chris Kelly, you will find additional links. I wish you all the best in your quest for recovering your sense of smell! OMG! I am so relieved to know that there is a name for what I experience. My mom lost her sense of smell in her later decades and it appears that I have also (I'm 70 and have not been able to smell for about 10 years). She suffered from post-nasal drip all her life, and I, too, have had sinus issues pretty consistently since I was a young adult. The strange thing for me is that I often can smell chemical aromas, but not natural gas. Once my husband came rushing into the kitchen to turn of a burner that hadn't lit - I was completely unaware! I will definitely join the Facebook group, and work with essential oils (we've been doing Young Living for 15 years, but it never occurred to me to try them for this ailment). I feel hopeful now! Thanks to all for their very helpful posts. Hello Carolee and thank you for sharing. I hope you find support and help in the groups mentioned in the comments here. HI MJ - Oh dear that sounds like a real annoying situation! I don't believe I have heard anyone mention this before. I wish I knew what to tell you, except maybe to give it a try and see? I hope it help! HI Linda - I hope you will find some help in this method. Thank you for posting encouraging words to others. I am almost 60 years old and haven't had a sense of smell since I was 18. Over the years I have had 12 operations for nasal polyps approximately every 3-4 years. My consultant said it would take a miracle for my sense of smell/taste to ever come back. In 2014 I was diagnosed with MS and after reading as much as possible about the condition I decided to give up Gluten. Within 4 days I had a sense of smell, it wasn't perfect but I could smell !! I then decided to give up Dairy and the effect was even more impressive. I could smell properly for a couple of months,( my life was complete) before it started to fade again. My food was much more enjoyable, especially the delicate things like strawberries. I had allergy tests and was told I was allergic to Gluten, Dairy & Soy. My last nasal polyp operation was in Feb 11, the longest I have ever lasted. Apparently the worst things for nasal problems are Dairy and Gluten, just wish I had been told this when I was 18. Since having MS I have tried using essential oils, which is very difficult when you cannot smell, but after using Frankincense I started to feel it coming back again. I have recently tried other oils, mainly to help me sleep and for cramps in my legs. I haven't used Frankincense for a few months and my smell has gone again. Am I imagining that Frankincense may help a sense of smell ? Hello Wendymac and thank you for sharing your story. I wonder if you have read some of the comments from others as there are links to some support groups for others who have the same condition. It sounds wonderful that you may be on track to getting your sense of smell back. I wish you the very best. Hello! I am like the others and have anosmia due to bad polyps and sinus issues. Had sinus surgery last week for the third time and my ENT told me to pray for my smell to come back. I figure that is a sad story when that's all she's got! But she did recommend the "smell retraining" with the essential oils. So I started today. We shall see. She said that if your smell is gone for more than a year, there isn't a lot of hope to get it back. I will cross my fingers! I have read about zinc and Vitamin D deficiencies as being culprits as well. I am not one to back down from a fight, so I will find the answer! Thanks for this blog post. Hello Carole and thank you for sharing! I am crossing fingers this method works for you. Hey there Anon - try checking some of the previous comments for support groups. Best of luck! My son is suffering from anosmia after a Traumatic Brain Injury from a fall. He, his wife and I used to love trying new restaurants, new foods, new recipes but since the injury he has little interest in food, eating only to heal. This has significantly impact all of our quality of life. My daughter in law due to her love and devotion to my son researched anosmia and discovered studies demonstrating success in restoring smell through consistent exposure to essential oils in some individuals. He plans to try it believing it can’t hurt especially since there are currently no other options. This gives us hope. He has other issues of course he is working on, but the sense of smell can give such pleasure. I was sent your post about loss of smell due to surgery. I lost mine several years ago after some surgeries and nothing has seemed to help me regain it. I am now in the process of using the 4 oils you listed but don’t feel I am improving any and trying not to get discouraged. Did you ever smell anything after you lost the sense of smell? Occasionally, but not often, I notice a fleeting smell and it’s wonderful, even if it’s a bad smell 🙂 I get excited, but it’s gone as quickly as it came. Any additional information about the process would be appreciated, and I’m so glad for you that you have regained your sense of smell!! Hey there Anon - thanks for your comment. I am afraid there is a bit of a misunderstanding here. This post is not about my personal experience with this method, but a woman I met who said it helped her. You might find some help from one of the support groups linked in the post. I wish you the best of luck and hope you have success with this method. I find this very interesting since I have never been able to smell anything my entire life. HI Unknown - thanks for sharing this. I cannot even imagine not having a sense of smell. I actually suffer from anemia. I have had it as long as I can remember. I can taste perfectly fine but cannot smell ANYTHING except for nail polish remover and rubbing alcohol. However, I have been using essential oils for the past year or so (not every day) and I PROMISE YOU I smelled my deodorant earlier today. After reading your article, I will invest in bottles of essential oils and begin smell training. Hi there Anon - Thanks for sharing! Wishing you the best of luck ! oil information and sources. There are several USA providors. I believe you can replace the rose essential oil with rose geranium as this will be more pocketbook friendly. I truly hope this method is of help to your mom. If I could promise you this method will work, I would, but I am unfortunately unable to do that. If you read the comments here you will get an idea of the different kinds of responses people have had as well as the names of some support groups on Facebook. Hi Danny. I am the person who runs the website you mentioned in the UK. I am also an anosmia sufferer myself, and I know how terrible life can be without taste or smell. I have some answers for you. About smell training kits and oils: you can easily make your own kit and you can find instructions on how to smell train and make kits here: abscent.org/learn-us/smell-training. The original scientific research on smell training used rose, lemon, clove and eucalyptus. They weren’t chosen for any particular properties of those oils, but because when used in smell training, they *stimulated* the smell response. You could use any oils you like. People generally want to use what was recommended in the many studies that have been done since then, but don’t be afraid to make substitutions. The instructions on how to make a kit (above link) make an important point about smell training with jars rather than straight from the bottles, especially if the person is new to smell training. I have amnosia due to a virus (or the drugs they gave me). 2 years later, I still haven't gotten mine completely back. I have certain very strong smells that I can smell clearly (bleach and smoke) but only for a whiff. Certain other things trigger a scent to me but it isn't usually pleasant or identifiable. I have tried using smell training and it hasn't helped yet. I will read the above blog and see if that helps. I know how your mom feels Danny. It really is no fun.

2019-04-18T19:32:26Z

https://www.lisaliseblog.com/2015/07/how-essential-oils-may-be-answer-to.html

A new Cochrane Review has examined large welfare-to-work studies conducted in North America. Led by Dr Marcia Gibson from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, the review looks at a series of welfare-to-work studies, comparing what happened to lone parents who were in welfare-to-work interventions with lone parents who were not. The review indicates that welfare-to-work interventions probably have little to no effect on the health of lone parents. The study also found that effects on lone parent employment rates were small, as those who were not in the interventions often found work on their own. The studies included in the Cochrane Review were large welfare-to-work studies, conducted in North America, where welfare reform was implemented in the 1990s. Although in some countries lawmakers and policy advisors have argued that such policies will have positive health benefits, the Cochrane Review findings indicate that there is probably very little to no effect on health. Poverty and depression remained high among all participants in the studies analyzed, whether they took part in a welfare to work intervention or not. Lone parents appear to find work by themselves when jobs are available. Economic conditions may have a stronger influence on lone parent employment than interventions in the welfare system that mandate employment. Employment increased both for parents who were in welfare-to-work programmes and those who were not, but income did not increase. Work on the Cochrane Review “Welfare-to-work interventions and their effects on the mental and physical health of lone parents and their children” was funded by the UK Medical Research Council and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office. Charles Shey Wiysonge, Director of Cochane South Africa, gave an interview to the World Health Organization Bulletin. Here is a re-post , with premission, from their recent publication. Charles Shey Wiysonge is devoted to encouraging better use of scientific evidence for health policies and programmes in African countries. He is the director of the South African Cochrane Centre, a unit of the South African Medical Research Council, and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the department of Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He was Chief Research Officer at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 2006–2007 and a Medical Research Council Africa Fellow at the University of Cape Town (UCT) 2004–2006. In Cameroon, he worked for the National Ministry of Public Health 1998–2004. From 1995 to 1998, he was a physician at the University Teaching Hospital in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He is a member of several editorial boards and joined the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization in 2016. He graduated in medicine from the University of Yaoundé I in 1995, earned his Master’s degree in epidemiology from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and a Doctor of Philosophy in vaccinology from UCT. Q: How did you become interested in medicine and public health? A: Growing up in Cameroon I wanted to study mathematics and was drawn to complex equations and aeronautics, but people said I should study medicine, so I did. At medical school most students wanted to become clinical specialists, public health was not popular at all. After graduating, several things drew me to public health. I worked as a hospital physician and saw several outbreaks of measles. People used to say “don’t count your children until measles have come and gone.” Children were dying of measles every day. This experience eventually led me to work on immunization. Also, while working in internal medicine, there were several treatment options for hypertension and heart disease. I was not always sure which was the best. That’s when I discovered evidence-based medicine. At that time – around the year 2000 – the Cochrane Collaboration started a new fellowship to train leaders in evidence based medicine from low- and middle income countries. I applied, became the first holder of the award and trained at the Cochrane Centre in Oxford. Q: What is evidence-based medicine? A: Research and other evidence are constantly changing and health-care professionals need to keep up with the latest developments so they can offer the interventions that are known to work and not those that are harmful or ineffective. There are many examples of unspeakable and unnecessary suffering resulting from the failure to take an evidence-based approach to clinical care. For example, in 1999 Cochrane researchers did a systematic review to find out whether drugs that inhibited massive calcium influx into cells reduce the risk of death or dependency after stroke. At the time, stroke patients were widely treated with calcium channel blockers. They found no evidence of a beneficial effect. Evidence-based medicine has been defined as the “conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients”, although today, health-care professionals prefer the term “evidence-based health care” for a more holistic approach. Q: You did not learn about evidence based health care at medical school, is it included in medical curricula today? A: Some medical and dental schools in South Africa offer separate courses on evidence-based health care, others have embedded the approach in all courses, and some do both. Our Cochrane collaborators at the universities of Calabar in Nigeria and Yaoundé I in Cameroon also offer programmes in the evidence-based approach for physicians. Evidence-based health care is included in the curricula for health-care professionals in these and some other African countries, but more needs to be done at the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels across the continent. Q: The Cochrane Collaboration prepares and disseminates information on what works and what doesn’t in health care globally. How is the South African Cochrane Centre doing this in Africa? A: Our centre was set up in 1997 as a unit of the South African Medical Research Council. It is the only Cochrane centre in Africa and has a branch in Nigeria. There is increasing recognition in sub-Saharan African countries, that policy-making should be based on the best available scientific evidence. To this end, we have been training researchers in these countries to do systematic reviews and recently expanded these activities via the recently established Cochrane African Network. The Cochrane Collaboration charges a fee to access its global library of systematic reviews and other evidence. Low-income countries can access this evidence via a special online platform, thanks to the Evidence Aid initiative. In South Africa, free access to the Cochrane Library is now provided by the South African Medical Research Council and we hope other middle-income countries in Africa will follow this model. Q: Are the Cochrane reviews useful in Africa too, or do countries in Africa need evidence that is tailored to their specific situation? A: Not all Cochrane reviews are applicable to Africa. Since 2007, the South African Cochrane Centre has collaborated with the Centre for Informed Health Choices in Norway and others to improve the use of reliable research evidence in policy and management decisions in Africa. We found, overall, that most primary studies on health system issues are from high-income countries and that only some of these reviews are applicable in low-income settings, including parts of sub-Saharan Africa. For this reason, reviews that synthesize such studies have limited relevance to Africa, especially those written by researchers with no experience in Africa. Q: So more research is needed that is specific to sub-Saharan Africa? A: Our analyses suggest that external partners, rather than national priorities, have driven health research in most African countries over the last two decades. However, we don’t need to re-invent the wheel, as much of the global research evidence is applicable to Africa. A major priority for new research in African countries should therefore be implementation research. This type of research helps us understand which health-care interventions work in specific contexts and which do not, and to test different ways to make health-care more effective. African countries often fail to make optimal use of evidence in decision-making, resulting in unnecessary loss of life, reduced quality of life and lost productivity. An example, is acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) denialism in South Africa from 1998 to 2003, characterized by the refusal to use antiretrovirals for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and treatment. This resulted in a reversal of gains in child survival and life expectancy and the loss of a generation of economically active adults in their prime. Q: How are you working to make policymakers in Africa more aware of the need to base their health-care decisions on the best available scientific evidence? A: The use of health research in decision-making in African countries is generally weak. That’s why we advocate for the dissemination and use of evidence, and building partnerships to promote evidence-informed health care in collaboration with decision makers. African countries sometimes develop new guidelines, but often adopt or adapt existing WHO guidelines to suit national contexts. Our analyses of the development or contextualization of guidelines used in African countries reveals deficiencies in the rigour of development and adherence to international reporting standards. We advise countries on how to develop guidelines for their specific national contexts. We try to work with the health ministries through expert groups to encourage governments to base their policies on the best available evidence and we are involved in initiatives, such as the Effective Health Care Research Consortium, an international group with partners in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. However, we are limited by financial constraints, as our work does not attract much funding. Q: What are the barriers stopping African countries from basing their public health policies and practice on the best scientific evidence? A: There are several barriers. The health research field in Africa is characterized by numerous players, diverse interests, dispersed efforts and uncertain outcomes in relation to its impact on the major health challenges of the continent. For a better understanding and uptake of scientific evidence in health policymaking, we need a stronger research community – research is not well funded or supported in many African countries – and this community needs to forge closer links with policy-makers, programme managers and implementers. Sometimes the evidence is difficult for policy-makers to understand. That’s why we provide easy-to-read summaries for them. Sometimes, policy-makers ignore the evidence because it’s not what they want to hear. For example, the South African Department of Health once asked the South African Cochrane Centre to prepare a review of the evidence on how best to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection. But when we gave them the review, they ignored it. Q: Have you noticed any improvement in the uptake of evidence in health policy-making? A: We have seen a positive change in attitudes towards the use of evidence in health-care planning. For example, the Paediatric Association of Kenya has been using explicit, transparent guideline development procedures when developing recommendations for the prevention and treatment of childhood conditions for the last decade. Another example is the increasing number of African countries with functioning national immunization technical advisory groups, which provide evidence-based advice to national health authorities on how to implement WHO vaccine policies and recommendations. Q: How will the conference you are hosting in Cape Town from 13 to 16 September contribute to improving the uptake of scientific evidence in policy-making in Africa? A: The Cochrane Collaboration holds a colloquium every year. This year will be the first time that Cochrane will be joined by the four other biggest players in evidence-based policy: the Campbell Collaboration, the Johanna Briggs Institute, the Guidelines International Network and the International Society for Evidence based Health Care, to organise the first ever Global Evidence Summit. We are expecting thousands of participants, including those from every health-care discipline and from virtually every country on the continent of Africa. There is strong evidence that such interactive, educational meetings, can help health-care workers improve their performance. Participants will have the chance to learn more about guideline development, using evidence for emerging global health and social crises and how the evidence community can overcome denial of clear scientific findings. We are really excited about this opportunity to highlight the evidencebased approach to policy and practice in health for countries in Africa. Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of research in health care and policy. They are internationally recognized as a high-quality source of evidence for decision-making. They collate and summarize all the best available research evidence on the effects of healthcare interventions or the accuracy of diagnostic tests into a systematic review. Diagnostic Test Accuracy Reviews (DTA) provide essential information regarding the accuracy of the available diagnostic tools for key decision makers, including patients, clinicians, guideline developers and researchers. The purpose of a Cochrane DTA review is very like the purpose of a conventional Cochrane systematic review. Using explicit, transparent, and systematic methods to pool together all the available evidence relevant to a DTA research question, we can obtain more precise estimates of the accuracy of diagnostic tests than single DTA studies alone can provide. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity may also be more generalizable than estimates from single studies. Cochrane GNOC has recently published its DTA review: Cytology versus HPV testing for cervical cancer screening in the general population. How important was this Cochrane Review to produce? Jo Morrison: The review compares the accuracy of two different methods of testing cervical smears in picking up pre-cancerous changes (known as high grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia – HG CIN). Both tests start with a smear test, taken by directly visualising the cervix and using a ‘broom’ or spatula to sweep cells off the cervix. The difference is in what is done with the test once it is in the pot. One test puts cells onto a slide so they can be examined under a microscope and is called cytology, often called a Pap test. The other test takes a sample of cells and checks for the presence of viruses that can lead to pre-cancerous changes in the cervix (HG CIN). These viruses are called high risk Human Papilloma Virus or HR HPV. The test for the virus looks for genetic material (either DNA or RNA depending on the test) using a process called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and does not rely on someone looking at cells down a microscope. Kate Sanger: This review is timely, as in the UK it has been announced that testing for HPV as the primary cervical screening test is to be rolled out over the coming years. We are in a position where the implications of this change on the workforce, systems and indeed patients are at the top of the agenda. The aim of the screening programme is to reduce incidence and mortality from cervical cancer through identifying women who are more at risk of the disease and providing treatment where appropriate. The confirmation through this review that screening for HPV is more sensitive and therefore more effective at identifying cases of CIN 2 or greater is extremely welcome and positive. Jo Morrison: This DTA review found 40 studies comparing the two tests in over 140,000 women who had a smear test. Testing a smear test for HR HPV is less likely to miss HG CIN, as it is a more sensitive test than cytology. However, if the test is positive there is a lower chance that there really is HG CIN, as it is a less specific test. For every 1000 women who had a smear test, 20 actually had HG CIN. Cytology (Pap test) would have correctly identified 12 of these women (but missed 8 women with HG CIN); HPV testing would have correctly identified 16 women (and missed 4). The test is therefore more sensitive and has fewer false negative tests than cytology. However, this increased sensitivity comes at a cost. The HPV test would have suggested that 101 women had HG CIN when in fact they did not, whereas only 29 women would have had an over-call (false positive) with cytology (Pap) testing. This would result in an increase in women needing to be referred to a clinic for colposcopy, were the HPV test used as a stand-alone test, causing increased anxiety for these women. This is because the test is less specific and has more false positive test results than cytology. Jo Morrison: For the UK, this will mean that we can change the cervical screening programme. Currently all smears are screened for cytology first and those with features of low grade dyskaryosis are ‘triaged’ using HPV testing – those with HR HPV detected are referred to colposcopy. And those with no HR HPV are returned to routine re-call. However, mathematically, it makes more sense to use the most sensitive test (HPV test) up-front and then use cytology on those found to have HR HPV. By introducing a second level test after HPV testing, fewer false positives will be generated and fewer women will require colposcopy than with HPV testing alone. However, this change will have major implications for the screening programme since: 1) more women may be referred to colposcopy; 2) overall many fewer smears will require cytological evaluation. This has repercussions for the current laboratory services, since many fewer cytopathology screeners will be required and the service could be streamlined to only a few laboratories providing this service across the UK (since there are minimum numbers of smears screened per screener to maintain expertise). World-wide this has major benefits since HPV testing is much more easily deliverable in the developing world that cytological screening, which is where the heaviest burden of disease from cervical cancer lies. Kate Sanger: For patients, there is a clear need for increased information provision regarding why the changes to the screening programme are beneficial and the different pathways women invited for screening may take depending on the outcome of their initial HPV test. For women testing negative for HPV it is essential that they fully understand the need to continue to attend screening when next invited; greater symptom awareness for all women must also be increased. It is especially important that women who test positive for high risk HPV, but do not have cell changes that require treatment, fully understand what it means, for example with women starting new relationships or who may have multiple sexual partners. This is essential to reduce uncertainty, distress and to ensure being ‘HPV positive’ does not get a negative stigma attached to it. Information and support need to be available to women at every stage with clinicians able to signpost women to external sources. Nuala Livingstone: Overall, I would consider this evidence to be robust. The review authors have provided detailed, and carefully considered information in this review to assist the user in assessing the ‘robustness’ of the evidence. Firstly, they assessed the methodological quality of the included studies using the QUADAS tool, as recommended by the Cochrane Diagnostic Test Accuracy Working Group. This assessment revealed that most the included studies in this this review were ‘low risk of bias’. Review authors also assessed the quality of the body of evidence for each outcome in the Cochrane review using the GRADE considerations. This assessment considers the methodological quality of the included studies (as assessed by QUADAS) along with the precision, consistency, completeness and applicability of the evidence available. Based on these factors, review authors judged the overall quality of the evidence in this review to range from moderate to high. Evidence was downgraded from ‘high’ to ‘moderate’ quality because the sensitivity values among included studies were slightly inconsistent, with values ranging from 52%-94% for Cytology, and 61% to 100% for HPV testing. Kate Sanger: It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the research by age group, as women under 25 and over 65 were part of the study and in the UK these women are not invited for screening. Data on women over 65 could contribute to evidence as to whether there should be a consideration of increasing the screening age in the UK. With women under 25 further research into the impact of the HPV vaccination on incidence will be particularly important, especially following the potential introduction of Gardasil 9. How clinically relevant is it, and how can the evidence be used? Jo Morrison: This review is highly clinically relevant and affects all women in a screened population – ideally it should be relevant to all women world-wide, since universal cervical screening would be a major contributor to global health and the burden of disease is largely in less developed countries. What would your message be to clinicians and policy-makers in this area or cervical screening? Jo Morrison: HPV-testing has increased sensitivity, but less specific than cytology. Used as the up-front test in a two-stage screening test, it has the potential to reduce the number of false-negative tests, thereby reducing the number of ‘interval’ cancers, which are missed by cytologyical screening. There are also potentials for cost savings, although this review did not perform an economic evaluation. What would your message be to patients? Nuala Livingstone: The high sensitivity of this test should provide reassurance that a negative result on this test is highly likely to be accurate. This finding is supported by moderate to high quality evidence, which suggests we can be fairly certain in the result. However, a positive result will not necessarily prove to be true. Jo Morrison: HPV testing is much less likely to miss changes than conventional cytology, although this may come at the price of more women needing referral to colposcopy for someone to look at their cervix and possibly perform biopsies. It is hugely reassuring to have a negative HPV test, since this shows that the risk of having CIN is very low. There is the possibility that the interval between smear tests could be extended, reducing the frequency that women need smears, which nobody enjoys! However, this would need to be tested in a different sort of study than a DTA study. Jo Morrison: The results of studies comparing screening programmes using conventional cytological screening up-front versus HPV screening up-front are in progress and initial results demonstrate that this is likely to reduce the number of cancers missed by the screening test due to false negative smear results. Kate Sanger: This review provides evidence which will hopefully increase activity to ensure the roll out of HPV primary in the UK is not delayed. It also provides a range of considerations that policy makers and clinicians need to address to ensure the physical and emotional health of the women in their population is protected. We must however not lose sight that across the UK attendance of screening is in worrying decline and addressing this, regardless of the screening test, must remain a priority. Nuala Livingstone: The results of this review have provided detailed an important information regarding the statistical evidence available for this research question. However, I would like to see further research that provides information regarding the clinical importance of the evidence, and the long-term implications for women. Jo Morrison, Nuala Livingstone, Kate Sanger. Jo, Nuala and Kate’s words stated and expressed in this blog are entirely personal, and do not represent any official views or opinions of Cochrane. CGNOC's main task is to facilitate the identification of reports of controlled clinical trials and to carry out systematic reviews which are then published on the Cochrane Library. The reviews are updated as new evidence is identified. This ensures that Cochrane reviews are relevant, useful, usable and used. August 2017: The Cochrane Official Blog is curated and maintained by the Communications & External Affairs Department. To submit items for publication to the blog or to add comments to a blog, please email [email protected]. Cochrane Norway and the Norwegian Satellite of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) review group, which has the responsibility for developing systematic reviews of interventions to improve health systems are seeking a full-time statistician. Closing date for applications is 1 September. For complete information on the job and how to apply, read more at the Norwegian Insitute of Public Health websbite. Cancer Council NSW is seeking a Systematic Reviewer to join their Cancer Research Division on a two-year, full-time contract. Closing date for applications is 15 August. For complete information on the job and how to apply, read more at the Cancer Council site. Cochrane UK is seeking an organized and enthusiastic individual to join our small, friendly team at the UK Cochrane Centre in the role of Events and Office Coordinator. This is an exciting time to join us, as we are organizing a global healthcare evidence conference for 1200 delegates in September 2018. This role is vital to the organization of the event and offers an opportunity, as a 14-month post, to organize and deliver an inspiring and successful conference. Main responsibilities include day-to-day running of the office, coordination of our training programmes, diary management and events organization. This is a full-time maternity cover band 5, NHS employed position, based in Summertown, Oxford. It would suit a highly motivated individual, with previous experience in organising events, who works well as part of a team, is adaptable, enjoys communicating with a wide range of people and is keen to contribute to a global effort to produce reliable, accessible healthcare evidence. Cochrane UK is one of 14 Cochrane Centres around the world supporting the global work of Cochrane. Cochrane UK is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and hosted by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The centre supports the production of Cochrane systematic reviews through a learning and development programme. We also aim to maximize the impact of Cochrane reviews by disseminating the findings widely to health professionals, researchers, commissioners, the public, charities and the media, through social media, events, presentations and partnerships. For additional details and to apply, see posting on the Oxford Univerity Hospital. Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health. Cochrane produces reviews which study all of the best available evidence generated through research and make it easier to inform decisions about health. Find out more at www.cochrane.org or follow on twitter @cochranecollab. The Cochrane Library is published by Wiley. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for research in tropical diseases. This includes the Centre for Evidence Synthesis in Global Health, which houses the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group (CIDG), one of the first Cochrane Groups and highly successful, and well known for its exacting standards. As the Managing Editor of CIDG you will help organize review production across over 600 authors from some 52 countries. These reviews are around the effects of healthcare interventions for infectious diseases, particularly malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS. You will be interacting with Editors from CIDG of international repute, working closely with the dynamic team of in-house researchers, administrators and communication specialists as well as authors and partners who are part of the Effective Health Care Research Programme Consortium. You will also be the link between the existing and potential authors who need support for the Cochrane Reviews. As a representative of CIDG, you will participate in events and working groups and ensure that developments on both sides are communicated and updated. You will be responsible for the day to day management of the CIDG Editorial team in addition to implementing the CIDG strategic plan. It is essential for this role that you possess a postgraduate degree in biomedical science or a health-related subject, with proven experience in writing up medical or biomedical scientific research clearly and concisely. If you have been involved in working with Cochrane Reviews, or systematic reviews, and have experience of technical editing; including copy editing/proof reading in medicine or biomedical science, it will also be an added advantage. Given the wide scope in people management and interactions, the job holder must have worked with and managed teams from diverse backgrounds and qualifications. The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate scientific writing skills, have advanced IT and excellent project management skills, as well as the ability to adapt to new software. Given the nature of the role, you must be able to travel nationally and internationally. Latest evidence published in the Cochrane Library suggests that taking vitamin supplements, such as vitamin E or beta-carotene, may not prevent the common eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD). There are numerous unanswered questions in the prevention of AMD. There has been a growing perception amongst eyecare professionals that taking vitamin supplements - in particular, antioxidant supplements such as lutein and zeaxanthin - may protect patients against the onset of the eye disease. A team of Cochrane researchers conducted a study to assess whether taking antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplements prevents the development of AMD. They collected and analysed data from five studies involving men and women from Australia, USA, and Finland. This is a topic that is currently of much interest to people in the general population. The review was last updated in 2012 and we knew that there were new studies available. We found five large studies that compared taking vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and multivitamin with taking a placebo in people in the general population. People taking these supplements had a similar chance of developing AMD compared with people not taking the supplements. We did not find any relevant studies of lutein and zeaxanthin in the general population. If you are healthy, with a healthy diet, and you do not have problems with your eyes, then taking vitamin supplements is not necessary. The evidence is robust. The studies were large (more than 75,000 people) and were well conducted. There is an evidence gap for whether or not to take lutein or zeaxanthin to prevent AMD. Be aware that there is no evidence that antioxidant supplements prevent AMD. What would your message be to patients already taking vitamin supplements to prevent AMD? The decision as to whether or not to take vitamin supplements is up to you. Vitamin supplements are generally regarded as safe. You may wish to discuss these again at your next visit to your eyecare practitioner. What does this mean for patients who think they are at higher risk of contracting the disease? The decision as to whether or not to take these supplements is up to you. If you choose not to take them, you are unlikely to be putting yourself at greater risk of developing AMD. It would be good to have a large trial comparing lutein and zeaxanthin with taking no supplement in people who have not yet developed AMD. The aim would be to see whether taking supplements reduces the chance of developing this condition. Martin Burton has been appointed by the Board as its Co-Chair for a term of two years. Martin served as a member of the Board until this month, and already has substantial leadership experience in Cochrane as Director of Cochrane UK and Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Ear Nose & Throat Review Group. Martin is based in Oxford, UK, and will share chairing duties with Cindy Farquhar, who is Co-ordinating Editor of the Gynaecology and Fertility Review Group, and is based in Auckland, New Zealand. Tracey Howe - director of the Cochrane Global Ageing Field and based in Glasgow, UK. Joerg Meerpohl - serving Board member who has now been re-elected. Co-Director of Cochrane Germany and based in Freiburg, Germany. David Hammerstein Mintz - civil society advocate for the Commons Network, an organization that he co-founded, former Member of the European Parliament and based in Valencia, Spain. Rae Lamb - Aged Care Complaints Commissioner for Australia and has a background in health journalism and health services research; based in Melbourne. Cochrane congratulates and welcomes the new members and extends its grateful thanks to Lisa Bero, outgoing Co-Chair; and Mona Nasser and Denise Thomson, outgoing Board members, for their outstanding contributions to Cochrane as members of the Board. Cochrane and the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) have been formal partners since 2014. We work together collaboratively to ensure that evidence is both useful and used by people making decisions about health, from individuals to clinicians to international health policy-makers from all over the world. The latest collaboration between Cochrane and G-I-N is a new release of Cochrane's TaskExchange platform, which extends TaskExchange's remit to include tasks related to developing guidelines. For more information, please see the full update, including a video presenting the partnership, on the Cochrane Community site. This role is an exciting opportunity to use your administration experience to make a difference in the field of health care research. Working as part of a team, the Administrator will handle a variety of office support tasks such as servicing meetings, making travel arrangements, diary management and maintaining electronic records. The role also includes dedicated support for our External Affairs team, administering funding applications, maintaining donor reports and managing contact databases. Intermediate level IT skills, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. A flexible approach with the ability to respond quickly to issues as they arise. A pro-active approach to problem-solving. Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information. An understanding of Cochrane’s work and the healthcare charity sector more generally is an advantage, but not essential. If you would like to apply for this position, please send a CV along with a supporting statement to [email protected] with ‘Administrator’ in the subject line. The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements for the post outlined in the job description using specific examples. List your experience, achievements, knowledge, personal qualities, and skills which you feel are relevant to the post. Recent injuries in two major sporting events: Wimbledon and the Tour de France. Helen Handoll, Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma and Senior Reserarch Fellow at Teeside Univerity, takes a look at sports injuries and evidence. Dr Handoll research interests focus on getting the evidence to inform the management of people with hip, shoulder and wrist fractures, either via primary research or conducting Cochrane systematic reviews. Wimbledon is upon us – yippee for all tennis fans – and the spectre of sports injury is on Centre Court. Two matches stopped early for leg injuries, with some grumblings over whether they should have started in the first place. The various pressures on sportsmen and women to play despite injury have been highlighted. Even being on court can be bruising, with one line judge being struck by the ball three times during one match. Dementia is the focus of a blog series running throughout July on Evidently Cochrane . Many of us are caring for a family member with dementia, know someone with dementia, or may be looking ahead to our own futures, perhaps wondering what we could do to avoid or delay developing dementia ourselves. There are also many working in health and social care, and numerous third sector organisations, looking after and supporting people with dementia; and researchers working to change the future of dementia. There can’t be very many of us not touched by dementia in some way. Dementia in the spotlight: Evidence and Experience. An introduction to the blog series. I have dementia and I take part in research. Here’s why. Patient with young onset dementia writes about taking part in dementia research, being valued, and opportunities to change the future. Rivastigmine reviewed: doubts about dementia drug. Care home nurse reflects on Cochrane evidence on rivastigmine and the use of this drug in practice. This year is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the firstCochranecentre in Spain. It was founded in 1997 as the Spanish Cochrane Centre and was located at the Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí in Sabadell. On 2000,thecentre was renamed as Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre (IbCC) and has continued its activity at its current headquarters in the Hospital de la SantaCreui Sant Pau in Barcelona. To celebrate this 20years of history, the centrehelda Conference on May, 24thand 25th –within the framework of CIBERESP– to observe the different aspects related to this initiative and to offer training activities. The conference was held in the Casa de Convalescencia, one of the Art Nouveau venues of the hospital, and Mark Wilson participated in the opening of the event together with Jaime Kulisevsky (Director of the Biomedicinal Research Institute Sant Pau), and Xavier Bonfill (Director of the Iberoamerican Cochrane Network). The projection of two videos, from Elena Andradas (Director of Public Health, Quality and Innovation, Spanish Ministry of Health) and from a representative of the Spanish Organisation of Consumers and Users, completed the opening. The topics of the different panel discussions held the first day of the event were “How are the systematic reviews needed today and how can we use them better?”–with the participation of Karla Soares (Deputy Editor in Chief) talking about new horizons of Cochrane reviews–, “Methodological tools to answer research questions”; and several Systematic Reviews experiences. On May, 25th there were several workshops about GRADE and Systematic Reviews –free under registration– taught by members of the Iberoamerican Cochrane Network. Furthermore, the evening before the Conference, the former and current IbCN staff threw a party to celebrate the anniversary. The event included different types of musical and comedy performances. Some of our former staff members and friends contributed to this lovely evening by sending their greetings via video from all over the world. Associate Professor Julian Elliott from Cochrane Australia in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University has been awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research 2017 at a ceremony in Melbourne last night. The medal is bestowed annually to the top-ranked Career Development Fellowship applicant through the National Health and Medical Research Council. A Career Development Fellowship (CDF) is a highly competitive, four-year fellowship that supports the most outstanding early- to mid-career health and medical researchers. The medal for best application comes with an additional $50,000 research grant to be used by Associate Professor Elliott on top of his CDF funding. Associate Professor Elliott’s work focusses on methods and systems to successfully gather, process and meta-analyse all research data relevant to a particular health question. This includes the development of ‘living’ systematic reviews – high quality summaries of research that are updated whenever new research is produced. These systems incorporate text mining, artificial intelligence, online software platforms, and ‘citizen science’. For example, Covidence is a software platform that is used around the world to produce systematic reviews; and Cochrane Crowd is a citizen science platform with over 5,000 members. This platform has demonstrated that given appropriate training, members of the public can accurately identify scientific research papers that can be incorporated into systematic reviews. Such reviews often inform critical government funding and approval decisions. Associate Professor Elliott has over 90 publications including papers in leading scientific journals such as Nature, Lancet and PLOS Medicine. In the last five years he has been a chief investigator on 20 grants totalling over $8million.

2019-04-23T08:11:57Z

https://croatia.cochrane.org/hr/aggregator/sources/1?page=21

Antileukoproteinase (ALP) is a physiological inhibitor of granulocytic serine proteases that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties in addition to its antiproteolytic activity. On the basis of its potential to block anti-collagen type II (CII) antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) and to suppress the conformational activation of β2-integrins in leukocytes, the present study was undertaken to investigate its interference with leukocyte adherence to cytokine-activated endothelium. The potential of recombinant ALP to block the interactions of leukocytes with the endothelial lining was concomitantly investigated in vitro and in vivo. Thus, intravital fluorescence microscopic imaging of leukocyte rolling and firm adhesion to postcapillary venules were performed in the knee joints of DBA1/J mice after intravenous injection of anti-CII mAbs. An IL-1β-activated endothelial layer formed by a murine glomerular cell line (glEND.2) was used to assay the interaction with human leukocytes in vitro. Electromobility shift and luciferase reporter gene assays permitted the analysis of cytokine-induced activation of the NF-κB pathway. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting was applied to determine endothelial E-selectin expression. Leukocyte rolling and firm adhesion to the synovial endothelium in an early response to the anti-CII antibody transfer were significantly decreased in ALP-pretreated mice. Concomitantly, ALP suppressed the IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation and the upregulation of E-selectin expression in glEND.2 cells in vitro. These findings support the notion that the newly uncovered properties of ALP to interfere with cytokine signalling and upregulation of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells are likely to contribute to the therapeutic potential of ALP in immune-complex-induced tissue injury. Antileukoproteinase (ALP), also named secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), is a highly basic (pI > 10), acid-stable inhibitor of neutrophil serine proteinases (molecular mass 11 kDa) . Originally described as a specific protector against proteolytic attack of the upper respiratory and urogenital tract, the physiological expression of ALP has also been demonstrated for a variety of extramucosal cells, including neutrophils and macrophages . In addition to antiproteolytic properties, ALP exerts a variety of anti-inflammatory actions on monocytes and neutrophils [4, 5]. It has also been proposed that the ability of ALP to downregulate the lipopolysaccharide response in macrophages is most probably related to an inhibitory effect on NF-κB activation . More recently it has been demonstrated that treatment with ALP significantly decreased the incidence and severity of anti-collagen type II (CII) antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA). In addition to clinical amelioration, decreased leukocytic infiltration of synovial tissue and protective effects on cartilage and bone erosion in ALP-treated mice was seen . The effect on leukocyte extravasation and tissue destruction could be ascribed, at least partly, to the interference of ALP with cytoskeletal changes in Fc-receptor-stimulated granulocytes . The downmodulation of stimulation-induced F-actin assembly in neutrophils through the interaction of ALP with the actin-bundling protein l-plastin caused a blockade of the conformational activation of β2-integrins . Because regulating the avidity of leukocyte β2-integrins LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18) and Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18) is critical for the recruitment of leukocytes into inflamed tissues [7–9] we focused the present investigation of ALP effects on the initial steps of leukocyte interaction with the endothelial layer after an inflammatory stimulus. A statistical analysis of intravital microscopic images recorded from the knee joints of untreated control mice during an early time span of 24 hours after the transfer of anti-CII mAbs revealed an antibody-induced increase in leukocyte adhesion to the vessel walls. Preventive administration of ALP as a single dose of 100 μg per mouse led to a significant suppression of leukocyte rolling on, and of firm adhesion to, the synovial venular endothelium. Accompanying experiments in vitro with IL-1β-activated endothelial cells demonstrated the capacity of ALP to suppress the cytokine-induced increase in leukocyte adhesion. Moreover, an inhibitory effect of ALP preincubation on IL-1β-induced endothelial E-selectin surface expression was recorded by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis of anti-E-selectin antibody-stained glEND.2 cells (a murine glomerular cell line). The subsequent elucidation of a suppressive effect of ALP on IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation in glEND.2 cells also suggests that the modulation of this signalling pathway is probably involved in the ALP-dependent inhibition of IL-1β-induced E-selectin expression. Moreover, the observed suppression of leukocyte rolling in vivo as a selectin-dependent interaction with the vessel wall is easily reconcilable with the newly uncovered blocking effect of ALP on a crucial cytokine signalling pathway in endothelial cells . This regulatory potential and the inhibition of firm leukocyte adhesion in vivo by ALP, which probably reflects the already known interference with β2-integrin activation on leukocytes, complement each other in their anti-inflammatory effect. This synergism may contribute to the established capacity of ALP to block leukocyte infiltration and tissue injury in a variety of experimental models of inflammation, such as streptococcal cell wall arthritis , CAIA or ischaemia/reperfusion-induced organ damage . The experimental protocol was approved by the local animal ethics committee and followed the National Institutes of Health guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. DBA1/J mice were obtained from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME, USA). All mice were kept under standard conditions at the animal care facility of the University of Rostock. For the induction of immune-complex-induced inflammation, 14-week-old mice (n = 8 per group) received two mAbs (CIIC1 and M2.139 [5, 15]; 4.5 mg of each) intravenously into the caudal vein. Simultaneously the animals were treated with either 100 or 300 μg of recombinant human ALP [5, 16] (kindly provided by Dr Heinzel-Wieland, Darmstadt, Germany) or 300 μg of a control protein (human serum albumin; Octapharma, Langenfeld, Germany), or received an equal volume of saline only. After 6 and 24 hours, animals (n = 6 to 8 per time point) were anaesthetized with ketamine (90 mg/kg body weight) and xylacin (6 mg/kg) for subsequent in vivo multifluorescence microscopy. Animals were placed on a heating pad to maintain a body temperature of 37°C and a catheter was placed in the left jugular vein for the application of fluorescent dyes. For in vivo multifluorescence microscopy of synovial microcirculation, the knee joint model was used as described . In brief, skin was incised distal to the patella tendon. After removal of the overlying soft tissues, the patella tendon was cut transversely and the proximal and distal parts carefully mobilized. After exposure, the Hoffa's fatty body was superfused with physiological saline solution ay 37°C to prevent tissues from drying and was finally covered with a glass slide. After a 15-minute stabilization period after surgical preparation, in vivo microscopy of the synovial tissue was performed. At the end of each experiment the animals were killed by exsanguination. Human ALP was produced as a recombinant protein in Escherichia coli and subsequently purified to homogeneity by a multistep purification protocol by ion-exchange, metal-chelate and size-exclusion chromatography as originally described by Heinzel-Wieland and colleagues . Analytical reverse-phase chromatography revealed a single peak, and SDS-PAGE exhibited a single band with the expected electrophoretic mobility on being stained with silver. The material was tested for inhibition of granulocyte elastase and cathepsin G. To ensure the removal of any endotoxin contamination, the ALP charges were run on detoxi-gel columns (polymyxin B-conjugated columns; Perbio Science, Bonn, Germany) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Routine testing of the final ALP preparations before use demonstrated that for all analysed samples the endotoxin content remained below the detection limit (0.05 U/ml) of the applied Limulus amoebocyte lysate gel-clot assay (Sigma, Taufkirchen, Germany). After intravenous injection of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labelled dextran (15 mg/kg body weight) (Sigma, Deisenhofen, Germany) and rhodamine 6G (0.15 mg/kg body weight) (Sigma), in vivo microscopy was performed with a Zeiss microscope (Axiotech Vario 100HD; Carl Zeiss, Jena, Germany) equipped with a 100 W mercury lamp and filter sets for blue (excitation at 465 to 495 nm; emission at more than 505 nm) and green (excitation at 510 to 560 nm; emission at more than 575 nm) epi-illumination. By the use of water-immersion objectives (× 20 W/numerical aperture (NA) 0.5 and × 40 W/NA 0.8; Zeiss) final magnifications of × 306 and × 630 were achieved. Images were recorded by means of a charge-coupled device video camera (FK 6990-IQ-S; Pieper, Schwerte, Germany) and transferred to an S-VHS video system for subsequent off-line analysis. For quantitative off-line analysis a computer-assisted microcirculation image analysis system was used (CapImage v.7.4; Zeintl, Heidelberg, Germany). For the assessment of interaction between leukocytes and endothelial cells in postcapillary venules, the flow behavior of leukocytes was analysed with respect to free floating, rolling and adherent leukocytes [17, 18]. Rolling leukocytes were defined as those cells moving along the vessel wall at a velocity less than 40% of that of leukocytes at the centreline and were expressed as a percentage of the total leukocyte flux. Venular leukocyte adherence was defined as the number of leukocytes not moving or detaching from the endothelial lining of the venular vessel wall during an observation period of 20 seconds. Assuming cylindrical microvessel geometry, leukocyte adherence was expressed as non-moving cells per endothelial surface (n/mm2), calculated from the diameter and length of the vessel segment analysed. Results are given as means ± SEM. After proving the assumption of normality, comparisons between the experimental groups were performed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the appropriate post-hoc multiple comparison procedure, including Bonferroni correction. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Blood cells were obtained from heparinized venous blood from healthy donors. In brief, granulocytes were isolated by discontinuous Percoll density gradient centrifugation with 70% and 62% Percoll (Biochrom, Berlin, Germany). The phase containing the granulocytes was separately transferred to a new tube and washed with PBS. Contaminating erythrocytes were removed by hypotonic lysis and a subsequent centrifugation step. The purified granulocytes were recovered from the cell pellet and resuspended in DMEM at a final concentration of 106 cells/ml. The leukocyte adhesion assays were performed as described by Hammel and colleagues , with slight modifications. glEND.2 cells were produced and characterized as described for mlEND.1 cells . They were seeded on Labtek chamber slides (6 × 104) and grown to confluence. glEND.2 cells were incubated for 2 hours with different concentrations of ALP (100 nM to 5 μM). The upregulation of adhesion molecules on the glEND.2 cells was induced by activating the cells with IL-1β (20 ng/ml, R&D Systems GmbH, Wiesbaden, Germany) for 4 hours at 37°C. The cells were washed intensively with DMEM and the freshly isolated human granulocytes were added in a volume of 200 μl to the endothelial cell layer and agitated horizontally at 75 r.p.m. for 20 minutes at 4°C. Cells were washed carefully three times in DMEM and fixed overnight in 2.5% glutardialdehyde (Roth, Karlsruhe, Germany). On the next day, the adherent cells were evaluated by direct microscopic counting of four randomly chosen visual fields. Some experiments were performed with the human endothelial cell line EA.hy 926 that was originally derived by the fusion of human umbilical-vein endothelial cells with the epithelial cell line A549 . In that case the granulocytes were prelabelled with carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl diester (CFDA-SE), Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, USA), to facilitate the counting of adherent granulocytes in randomly chosen visual fields by fluorescence microscopy (× 10/NA 0.3, objective Axiophot; Zeiss) as described . glEND.2 cells were seeded on 48-well plates (4 × 104) in complete low-glucose DMEM and grown to 80% confluence. ALP treatment was performed after a PBS washing step with 2 to 12 μM ALP for 2 hours at 37°C. Medium was removed and the cells were washed twice with PBS and activated for 4 hours with 20 ng/ml IL-1β. E-selectin expression was detected on staining with a rat anti-mouse CD62E-biotin (dilution 1:400; BD Biosciences Pharmingen, San Diego, CA, USA) antibody and phycoerythrin-labelled avidin (dilution 1:1,000; BD Biosciences Pharmingen). After a final centrifugation, the cells were resuspended in 1 ml of PBS and their fluorescence was measured by flow cytometry in a Coulter Epics XL flow cytometer (Beckman CoulterCorp., Miami, FL, USA). For the analysis, the gates of forward and sideways light scatter were set on the glEND.2 cell population. The average of E-selectin expression in the endothelial cell population was expressed as the mean of the fluorescence intensity. glEND.2 cells were grown to 80% confluence in 75 cm3 culture flasks and treated with different concentrations of ALP (250 nM to 10 μM) for 2 hours at 37°C. After an intensive washing step, cells were activated with 10 ng/ml IL-1β for 1 hour. Subsequently, electrophoretic mobility-shift assay (EMSAs) of nuclear extracts from ALP-treated and untreated glEND.2 cells were prepared as described . In brief, cells were resuspended in 200 μl of hypotonic lysis buffer A (10 mM HEPES pH 7.9, 10 mM KCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol) and incubated on ice for 15 minutes before the addition of 5 μl of 10% Nonidet P40. After vortex-mixing, the nuclei of the lysed cells were collected by centrifugation, washed once in buffer A and subjected to a subsequent protein extraction procedure by vortex-mixing vigorously in 50 μl of hypertonic extraction buffer B (10 mM HEPES pH 7.9, 400 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol). The nuclear proteins were obtained by collecting the supernatants after centrifugation. The protein concentration of each extract was measured with the micro-bicinchoninic acid (BCA) assay reagents from Pierce (Rockford, IL, USA). NF-κB binding reactions were performed with 5 μg of nuclear proteins and a 32P-labelled double-stranded oligonucleotide containing the NF-κB consensus sequence derived from the mouse κ intronic enhancer (5' -GATCAGAGGGGACTTTCCGAG-3'). Approximately 20,000 c.p.m. of the labelled double-stranded oligonucleotide was applied to each binding reaction. After incubation for 10 minutes at room temperature the nuclear proteins were separated by electrophoresis on a 5% nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel. For specificity, control blocking experiments were run with unlabelled specific double-stranded oligonucleotides or a respective mutant variant (5' -CATCAGAGGCGACTTTCCGAGGGATG-3') at 10-fold and 100-fold molar excess of the labelled NF-κB probe. Subsequently, the electrophoresis gels were dried, exposed on a PhosphoImager plate and analysed with a FLA-3000 laser-based imaging system (Fujifilm Europe GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany). For normalization of the nuclear translocation of NF-κB in a quantitative analysis, aliquots (5 μg) of the nuclear proteins were assessed in parallel for their binding activity to a 32P-labelled double-stranded oligonucleotide containing the specific recognition sequence of the constitutively active transcription factor Oct-1 (5' -CTGTCGAATGCAAATCACTAGAAG-3'). The numerical proportion between NF-κB-binding and Oct-1-binding activity as determined by the PhosphoImager in c.p.m. served as the parameter of NF-κB activation. For transient transfection, 4× 104 glEND.2 cells grown in 24-well trays were transfected with a NF-κB reporter plasmid, pBIIx-luc [24, 25], using the Fugene6 transfection reagent (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). All DNA/Fugene6 incubations were performed at a ratio of 1.5 μg of DNA to 3 μl of Fugene6 in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended protocol, in DMEM (PAA Laboratories, Pasching, Austria). After 24 hours, transfected and control glEND.2 cells were treated for 2 hours with 8 to 20 μM ALP. The activation of the luciferase reporter gene was induced by 10 ng/ml IL-1β for 4 hours and monitored by the application of a commercial luciferase reporter assay. On cell lysis, luciferase activity was determined in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturer of the luciferase assay kit (Promega, Mannheim, Germany) with a luminometer (Luminat LB 9501; Berthold). Protein concentrations of cell lysates were determined with the bicinchoninic acid micro-assay method (Pierce, Bonn, Germany). Although the systemic administration of the anti-CII mAb did not cause clinical signs of arthritic disease in the knee joints investigated by intravital microscopy within the first 24 hours, inflammatory cell responses in the synovial tissue were clearly provoked. Activation by inflammatory stimuli after antibody transfer to the mice was indicated by increases in leukocyte rolling along and attachment to the venular endothelium (Figure 1). These microcirculatory alterations are not spontaneously occurring phenomena in the knee joints of uninduced control mice (Figure 1a) . However, the enhanced leukocyte-endothelial-cell interaction induced by the transfer of anti-CII mAb was significantly (p < 0.05) suppressed in the ALP-pretreated mice. This blocking effect of ALP on leukocyte adherence to the vessel intima (Figure 2) occurred on both the initial rolling and the subsequent phase of firm adhesion. Dose dependence of inhibition was clearly detectable at 6 hours after the transfer of anti-CII mAb. Later in the observation period the suppressive effect declined. However, in this respect the ALP blockade of firm adhesion was more pronounced and persisted for the entire observation period of 24 hours (Figure 1). The blocking effect was ALP-specific because human serum albumin (hSA) as an irrelevant control protein affected neither the antibody-induced increase in leukocyte rolling nor the firm leukocyte adhesion. This result is consistent with an inhibitory effect of ALP on both selectin-dependent and integrin-dependent interactions of leukocytes with the activated synovial endothelium. With regard to the observed suppression of firm leukocyte adhesion, the effect in vivo complies very well with the earlier described ALP-induced blockade of leukocyte β2-integrin activation. However, the impairment of leukocyte rolling by ALP was rather surprising and required further investigation. Inhibition of leukocyte interaction with the postcapillary endothelium by ALP in vivo. (a) Inhibition of leukocyte rolling along the postcapillary endothelium by antileukoproteinase in vivo. The results show the fraction of leukocytes rolling along the endothelium of postcapillary synovial venules (expressed as a percentage of all passing leukocytes) in anti-collagen II (CII) antibody-induced DBA1/J mice pretreated with either antileukoproteinase (ALP; 100 and 300 μg), human serum albumin (hSA, 300 μg) or NaCl in comparison with healthy mice (HC) that did not receive the antibody challenge. Intravital fluorescence microscopy of the knee joints was performed at 6 and 24 hours after the systemic transfer of anti-CII mAb. Results are shown as means and SEM for n = 8 animals per group; *p < 0.05. (b) Inhibition of leukocyte adherence to the postcapillary endothelium by ALP in vivo. The results show the number of leukocytes adherent to the endothelium of postcapillary synovial venules (expressed as cells per mm2 endothelial surface) in anti-CII antibody-induced DBA1/J mice pretreated with either ALP (100 and 300 μg), hSA (300 μg) or NaCl in comparison with healthy mice (HC) that did not receive the antibody challenge. Intravital fluorescence microscopy of the knee joints was performed at 6 and 24 hours after the systemic transfer of anti-CII mAb. Results are shown as means and SEM for n = 8 animals per group; *p < 0.05. Imaging of adherent leukocytes in vivo. The figure shows a representative fluorescence microscope image (original magnification × 306) of a postcapillary venule showing an increased number of cells adhering to the wall of the postcapillary venule in a control animal that received the anti-collagen II (CII) antibodies and a pre-treatment with NaCl compared to an antileukoproteinase-treated mouse at 24 hours after anti-CII mAb transfer. The model of the IL-1β-activated murine endothelial cell line glEND.2 permitted the analysis of effects of ALP on granulocyte attachment under conditions that had earlier been proved to depend partly on selectin-mediated interactions . Preincubation of the endothelial layer with ALP (in 20 μl of PBS carrier solution dissolved in DMEM to a final volume of 200 μl) instead of medium control (200 μl DMEM) before IL-1β activation resulted in a significantly decreased attachment of purified human granulocytes (the total cell number per chamber was 2 × 105 per 200 μl) in eight independent experiments, as shown in Figure 3. In Figure 3 the quantitative measure for leukocytes that adhered to the glEND.2 cells under the respective incubation conditions are expressed as percentages of the positive control (3,782 ± 624 cells in four randomly chosen visual fields), which is the mean number of cells adhering to IL-1β-activated endothelium in medium (DMEM). Figure 3 clearly shows the highly significant decrease (p < 0.01; ANOVA with Dunnett's correction for multiple testing) in leukocytes adhering to IL-1β-activated glEND.2 cells under pretreatment conditions with ALP (1 μM, 36.25 ± 6.67% (mean ± SEM)) compared with those with the respective control protein hSA (5 μm, 99.66 ± 18.88%; unstimulated glEND.2 cell control, 10.99 ± 5.79%). Inhibition of leukocyte attachment to IL-1β-activated glEND.2 cells by antileukoproteinase in vitro. The adherence of human granulocytes to layers of glEND.2 cells was assessed microscopically. The quantitative measure for leukocytes adhering to the glEND.2 cells under the respective incubation conditions is expressed as a percentage of the positive control, which is the mean number of adherent cells to IL-1β-activated endothelium in medium (+IL-1β control; stimulation with 20 ng/ml IL-1β for 4 hours). The percentages of adherent leukocytes to glEND.2 cells were derived from eight independent experiments and are expressed as means and SEM for the following experimental conditions: no stimulus (- IL-1β control), IL-1β stimulation after pretreatment with either antileukoproteinase (ALP) or with human serum albumin (hSA) (0.1, 1 or 5 μM) as a control protein for 2 hours. The inhibitory effect of pretreatment with ALP on granulocyte adherence was statistically significant at 1 and 5 μM (*p < 0.01; analysis of variance with correction for multiple testing). These results suggest that pretreatment with ALP has a blocking effect on the subsequent cytokine-induced activation of selectin-dependent endothelial interactions with leukocytes. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of ALP is likely to affect primarily the endothelial cell because a thorough washing procedure preceded the addition of the isolated granulocytes, to ensure that the cellular interaction took place after the removal of the cytokine and the ALP from the medium. Additional experiments (n = 8) performed with human CFDA-SE-labelled granulocytes and a human endothelial cell line EA.hy 926, an accepted in vitro model system for the investigation of leukocyte-endothelial-cell interaction [21, 22], confirmed the blocking effect of ALP on granulocyte adhesion to the IL-1β-activated endothelial cells. The quantitative assessment of the experiments, from which four representative panels are shown in Figure 4, clearly revealed the significant decrease (p < 0.01; ANOVA) in adherent leukocytes to IL-1β-activated EA.hy 926 cells pretreated with ALP (5 μM, 32.1 ± 5.8%) compared with hSA (5 μM) control (97.2 ± 15.2%). Inhibition of leukocyte attachment to IL-1β-treated EA.hy 926 cells by antileukoproteinase in vitro. Adherence of human CFDA-SE (carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl diester)-labelled granulocytes to layers of EA.hy 926 cells was assessed by fluorescence microscopy. A comparison of granulocyte adherence to EA.hy 926 cells that were either untreated (- IL-1β) or cytokine-stimulated (+IL-1β) is shown. Pretreatment of EA.hy 926 cells with 5 μM antileukoproteinase (ALP) (+IL-1β +ALP) but not with 5 μM hSA (+IL-1β +hSA) resulted in a marked decrease in granulocyte adhesion. On the basis of the above experimental evidence for the capacity of ALP to block leukocyte interaction with cytokine-activated endothelium to the same extent as specific E-selectin mAbs under similar conditions , we considered the possibility of a direct E-selectin-modulation by ALP and investigated it further. Thus, E-selectin expression on glEND.2 cells that were either preincubated with medium or ALP before stimulation for 4 hours with IL-1β was assessed in parallel by FACS analysis of the cells stained with anti-E-selectin. The fluorescence intensities were determined in six independent experiments; an example is shown in Figure 5a. The results of the statistical analysis of the mean fluorescence intensities are shown. In Figure 5b we demonstrate a significant decrease in the cell-surface expression of E-selectin on glEND.2 cells that had been exposed to ALP before the cytokine stimulus (2 μM ALP, 52.2 ± 4.7 (mean ± SEM); 12 μM ALP, 39.6 ± 6.5) compared with the respective controls without ALP pretreatment (76.7 ± 9.7; control of unstimulated glEND.2 cells, 10.2 ± 0.7). Our investigations therefore support a direct suppression of IL-1β-induced E-selectin upregulation in glEND.2 cells by ALP. Inhibition of IL-1β-induced upregulation of E-selectin in glEND.2 cells by ALP. (a) Inhibition of IL-1β-induced upregulation of E-selectin in glEND.2 cells by antileukoproteinase (ALP). Determination of E-selectin expression on glEND.2 cells was performed by FACS analysis after staining with a biotinylated anti-E-selectin mAb and phycoerythrin-labelled-streptavidin. The histograms obtained after gating on glEND.2 cells for forward and sideways light-scattering properties and counting of 5,000 events demonstrate the increasing surface expression of E-selectin in response to stimulation with IL-1β (curve shifted furthest to the right) compared with the unstimulated control (leftmost curve). The intermediate curve represents the E-selectin distribution on glEND.2 cells pretreated with ALP (2 μM) before stimulation with IL-1β. (b) Inhibition of E-selectin expression by ALP. Mean fluorescence intensities were determined as a measure of the E-selectin expression levels in six independent experiments and used to calculate the mean and SEM for the following experimental conditions of glEND.2 cell activation: no stimulus (- IL-1β control), IL-1β stimulus (+IL-1β), IL-1β stimulation after pretreatment with ALP for 2 hours (+IL-1β ALP 2 μM and +IL-1β ALP 12 μM). The inhibitory effect of pretreatment with ALP on E-selectin expression was statistically significant for both concentrations of ALP (*p < 0.05). NF-κB has a pivotal role in the cytokine-induced signalling pathways that lead to an upregulation of E-selectin on the cell membrane . We therefore analysed the possibility that ALP interfered with IL-1β-induced NF-κB-signalling in glEND.2 cells. EMSAs were performed with nuclear extracts from unstimulated control cells and IL-1β-stimulated glEND.2 cells that had been preincubated in either the presence or the absence of ALP. As shown in Figure 6a, pretreatment of the glEND.2 cells with ALP, but not with the irrelevant control protein hSA, was associated with a markedly decreased nuclear NF-κB DNA-binding activity. As a control, a parallel EMSA from the same experiment showing the electrophoretic mobility of Oct-1 binding nuclear proteins was performed. The control EMSA exhibited neither an IL-1β-induced increase in Oct-1 nuclear binding activity nor a suppressive effect on the dependence on pretreatment of the cells with ALP or hSA. The densitometric evaluation of another independently performed EMSA experiment also revealed a clear difference in NF-κB signal intensities between IL-1β-stimulated glEND.2 cells preincubated with either ALP (5 μM) or hSA (5 μM) (Figure 6b). Inhibition of IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation in glEND.2 cells by antileukoproteinase. (a) The left panel shows an electrophoretic mobility-shift assay (EMSA) performed with nuclear extracts from unstimulated control cells (lane 4) and IL-1β-stimulated glEND.2 cells that had been preincubated in either the absence (lane 1) or the presence of antileukoproteinase (ALP; lane 2) or human serum albumin (hSA; lane 3) as an irrelevant control protein. Pretreatment of the glEND.2 cells with ALP was associated with a clearly decreased nuclear translocation of NF-κB reflected by the weakened intensity of the corresponding band shifts of the radiolabelled NF-κB-specific oligonucleotides. For comparison a concomitantly developed EMSA from the same experiment shows the electrophoretic mobility of the constitutively active transcription factor Oct-1 (right panel; lanes loaded as described for the left panel). (b) The densitometric evaluation of an independently performed EMSA experiment depicts the difference in NF-κB signal intensities between unstimulated control (- IL-1β control) and IL-1β-stimulated glEND.2 cells preincubated with either 5 μM ALP or 5 μM hSA. As a quantitative measure of the nuclear translocation of NFκ-B the figure shows the relative DNA-binding activity of NF-κB. This parameter represents the numerical proportion between NF-κB-binding and Oct-1-binding activity in c.p.m. The protein binding to the radiolabelled specific probe for the constitutively active transcription factor Oct-1 served as an internal standard for normalization of the nuclear extracts. (c) An additional specificity control for the NF-κB EMSA. Before electrophoretic separation, nuclear extracts from IL-1β-stimulated glEND.2 cells were incubated not only with the radiolabelled NF-κB but also with two different concentrations of unlabelled competitor probes. The results of the blocking experiments of the NF-κB EMSA with an unlabelled NF-κB-probe (Inh) (showing blocking at 10-fold (*) and 100-fold (#) molar excess) and a mutant NF-κB probe (Mut) that did not suppress the NF-κB signal at 10-fold and 100-fold molar excess, respectively, are shown. Lane 1 was loaded with a sample without competing probe as in (a). We also controlled for the specificity of the NF-κB EMSA by competition experiments containing the radiolabelled NF-κB probe and unlabelled probes. The results of the blocking experiments of the NF-κB EMSA with an unlabelled NF-κB probe (showing blocking at 10-fold and 100-fold molar excess) and a mutant NF-κB probe that did not suppress the NF-κB signal at 10-fold and 100-fold molar excess, respectively, are shown in Figure 6c, providing clear evidence for the specificity of the NF-κB EMSA. To further investigate the influence of ALP on the transcriptional activity of NF-κB, endothelial glEND.2 cells were transfected with an NF-κB-dependent luciferase reporter gene and the luciferase activity in lysed cells was quantified. As expected, the transcriptional activity of NF-κB was strongly induced by stimulation with IL-1β. Preincubation with ALP dose-dependently inhibited the IL-1β-induced transcriptional NF-κB activity, as shown in Figure 7. This result is in agreement with the finding of decreased nuclear NF-κB DNA-binding activity after treatment with ALP. Inhibition of IL-1β-induced NF-κB transcriptional activity in glEND.2 cells by antileukoproteinase. Effects of antileukoproteinase (ALP) on glEND.2 cells that had been transfected with an NF-κB-luciferase reporter gene construct were analysed separately. The determination of luminescence signals in the luciferase assay of the lysed cells permitted the quantification of the IL-1β-induced upregulation of transcriptional NF-êB-activity (expressed as a percentage of luminescence maximum). The stimulatory cytokine effect on NF-κB activation (+IL-1β) above the level of the unstimulated control (- IL-1β control) was significantly suppressed by ALP (*p < 0.05) in a concentration-dependent manner (+IL-1β ALP 8 μM and +IL-1β ALP 20 μM). Results are means and SEM for 16 independent experiments. ALP has previously been shown to exert a variety of anti-inflammatory effects beyond its function as an inhibitor of granulocytic serine proteinases [3–5, 13]. We have recently demonstrated its antiarthritic effect in the CAIA model as well as a suppressive effect on immune-complex-induced activation of β2-integrins in leukocytes. Because of the modulatory potential of ALP on the function of integrins that are crucially involved in leukocyte extravasation , the present study focused on its interference with leukocyte-endothelial-cell interactions. Accordingly, a blocking effect of ALP on the firm leukocyte adhesion induced by anti-CII mAb transfer in vivo was detectable. This effect is consistent with the well established inhibitory effect of ALP on the cytoskeletal reorganization of stimulated granulocytes and the accompanying suppression of conformational changes of the β2 chain of the integrins LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18) and Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18) , because the activation of these molecules is a requirement for firm leukocyte attachment to the activated endothelial lining [7–9]. Interestingly, a slight but significant decrease in firm leukocyte adhesion to the vessel wall is also detectable in the NaCl-control cohort during the interval between 6 and 24 hours after anti-CII antibody transfer (from 1,354 ± 125 (mean ± SEM) to 953 ± 67). However, this tendency did not continue spontaneously in the later course. Measurements of leukocyte attachment at 72 hours after antibody transfer (928 ± 84) suggest that the level reached at 24 hours after an initial decline from the early peak already represents the plateau value that is highly elevated above normal and maintained until at least 72 hours, a time point coinciding with first clinical signs of arthritis in the arthritis model induced by anti-CII antibody. In addition to the suppression of firm leukocyte adhesion in ALP-pretreated mice, inhibitory effects on the rolling phase of the leukocytes along the vessel wall were observed by intravital microscopy. During an inflammatory response, leukocytes roll along the endothelial layer of cytokine-activated venules before they arrest, adhere and transmigrate. CD18 integrins, as known targets of ALP action , have been shown to be unable to mediate leukocyte rolling independently of selectins [26, 27]. In this respect, selectins seem to ensure an appropriate decrease in rolling velocity that enables the leukocytes to spend a critical time span in close contact with the endothelium in most tissues . This decelerated rolling allows proinflammatory cytokines to be displayed by the endothelium, for example by means of proteoglycans , to engage their respective receptors on the leukocyte membrane, thereby leading to the activation of β2-integrins. The subsequent β2-integrin-dependent interactions with endothelial ligands (such as ICAM-1) stabilize the retardation of rolling, provoke arrest and cause firm adhesion as preconditions for the final transmigration through the blood vessel wall . In accordance with this complex interwoven action of selectins and CD18 integrins in leukocyte rolling and adhesion, it was consistent to propose blocking effects of ALP on leukocyte rolling in vivo as an additional interference with selectin interactions beyond the already known suppression of leukocyte integrin activation . In an in vitro assay of E-selectin-dependent leukocyte attachment to the IL-1β-activated glEND.2 cells, the significantly decreased adherence to the ALP-pretreated endothelial layer provides first evidence for ALP-induced modulation of the endothelial function of E-selectin. Moreover, our investigations have elucidated a suppression of the cytokine-induced upregulation of E-selectin on the endothelial membrane by ALP. E-selectin expression is regulated primarily at the level of transcriptional activation, a process mediated by a series of tandem NF-κB sites in the promoter of this gene . Stimuli such as IL-1β can rapidly enhance the expression of the E-selectin gene in endothelial cells by inducing a cytoplasmic-nuclear shuttling of NF-κB that causes transcriptional activation on binding to the E-selectin promoter [12, 31]. Although suppressive effects of ALP on the NF-κB signalling pathway by inhibitory mechanisms that are as yet unresolved had already been described in other experimental systems in vivo and in vitro [6, 13], it was not at all clear that this action also had the potential to counteract IL-β-induced endothelial cell activation. Therefore this newly uncovered interference with the IL-β-induced nuclear translocation of transcriptionally active NF-κB is likely to account for the observed suppression of cytokine-activated E-selectin upregulation by ALP. However, the precise molecular mechanism underlying the suppressive effect of ALP on IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation in endothelial cells remains enigmatic. Similarly, the suppressive effect of ALP on lipopolysaccharide-induced NF-κB activation in monocytic cells (U937) has been shown to imply an inhibition of the cytoplasmic degradation of IκBα. However, ALP did not suppress the phosphorylation or ubiquitination of IκBα and did not exhibit activities of a broad-spectrum inhibitor of the proteasomal degradation machinery . More recently, the cytoplasmic localization of ALP after rapid uptake from the extracellular space and its subsequent translocation into the nucleus, associated with direct binding to nuclear NF-κB sites, have been described in U937 cells . However, we could not detect in our EMSA shifts (Figure 6a), performed with NF-κB-specific probes, any ALP-oligonucleotide complexes in the expected lower molecular mass range, rendering the possibility of direct nuclear binding of ALP to NF-κB sites and thus competition with p65 interaction a rather unlikely explanation for our results obtained in endothelial cells. Whether ALP induces other IκB proteins or exerts its suppressive effect on NF-κB through the activation of alternative signalling pathways remain interesting possibilities. Irrespective of the precise mode of ALP action, NF-κB inhibition and its closely associated suppression of cytokine-activated E-selectin upregulation provide an attractive explanation for the observed inhibitory effects on selectin-dependent leukocyte attachment to murine glEND.2 and human EA.hy 926 cells in vitro. Moreover, it is rather likely that modulation of selectins is also involved in decreased leukocyte rolling after anti-CII mAb transfer in ALP-treated mice in comparison with the control in vivo. In addition, the suppression by ALP of IL-1β-induced NF-κB signalling is likely to have a much broader spectrum of anti-inflammatory effects on the endothelial cells than the downregulation of E-selectin expression investigated as an example because the inhibited signalling pathway is critical for the upregulation of a plethora of adhesion molecules and inflammatory mediators . This broad suppressive effect on the activation of the endothelial layer cooperates with already known properties of ALP to downmodulate β2-integrin-dependent proinflammatory functions in leukocytes to counteract leukocyte extravasation. Indeed, this inhibitory effect of ALP on leukocytic tissue infiltration has already been demonstrated in a variety of models such as streptococcal cell wall arthritis , CAIA , reverse passive cutaneous Arthus reaction (B. Sehnert, A. Cavcic, and H. Burkhardt, unpublished results) and inflammatory organ injury in a murine ischaemia/reperfusion model . This potential of ALP to inhibit leukocyte extravasation in response to quite diverse inflammatory stimuli suggests its extended role as a regulatory molecule of innate immunity. Of course, interesting questions remain to be answered in further studies: the effect of ALP on the regulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as TGF-β, on vascular permeability or its potential to interfere with trafficking of other cells of the innate and adaptive immune system such as lymphocytes, monocytes, dendritic cells and mast cells. The answers to these questions will help in judging therapeutic potential in future treatment strategies. However, the effect of ALP on both β2-integrins on leukocytes and endothelial cell adhesion molecules such as E-selectin suggests a modulatory role of cell-cell adhesion mechanisms without complete suppression, because otherwise the combination of blocking selectins and integrins would result in a complete lack of polymorphonuclear cells adhesion. ALP therefore offers an attractive possibility for modulating the immune response. In this respect our work has uncovered for the first time the suppressive effects of ALP on selectin-dependent and integrin-dependent leukocyte adhesion events to the vessel walls that cooperate in the prevention of subsequent leukodiapedesis. The newly uncovered ability of ALP to interfere with cytokine signalling and with the upregulation of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells probably contribute to its protective effects on immune-complex-mediated tissue injury. These new insights into the spectrum of anti-inflammatory actions of ALP might prove useful in the development of therapeutic interventions in endothelial barrier dysfunction caused by misdirected leukocyte activation in the joints or at extra-articular sites of immune-complex deposition in systemic disease. The authors thank Christine Zech, Sabine Wilhelm and Kathrin Sievert for excellent laboratory assistance. The study was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, BU 584-2/1 and SFB 643, projectB3), the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research of the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the Swedish Research Council. BS performed the in vitro assays (cell adhesion assays, FACS analysis, reporter gene assays) and the statistical analysis. PG and AK performed the animal experiments and intravital fluorescence microscopic analysis. RV conducted the electromobility shift experiments and contributed to the design of the reporter gene assays. KSN produced and purified the CII-specific mAbs for the transfer experiments. SI, BV and RHo participated in the design and coordination of the animal experiments and contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. RHa established the endothelial cell line and participated in the design of the adhesion assays. HB conceived the entire study, participated in the design, coordination and analysis of the in vitro studies and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

2019-04-26T16:45:19Z

https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/ar1973

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2019-04-19T13:18:38Z

https://www.tamrecruiting.com/terms

An all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) device includes a primary ADPLL circuit and a controller which allow an in-phase output signal to be generated even when the incoming reference signal is lost. The primary ADPLL loop includes a phase detector, a digital loop filter, a first digital control oscillator (DCO) for generating a loop signal which is phase-locked to a received reference signal, and a frequency divider. The controller generates control signals to be used by a secondary DCO or the first DCO to generate a synchronized system output signal. The controller includes an accumulator which accumulates the number of phase-hopping events performed by the first DCO for a certain time period, a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer which stores a number of consecutive phase-hopping samples from the accumulator, and a calculator for determining an average of the consecutive values stored in the FIFO buffer. The control signals generated by the controller may be used by the secondary DCO to achieve a synchronized system output signal during both normal and holdover operating modes, or may be used by a single DCO only during the holdover mode. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling a phase-locked loop (PLL) system to generate a synchronized output signal during periods when the incoming reference signal is interrupted, and more particularly to a new method and apparatus for an all digital holdover circuit. In data transmission systems, the transmitter and the receiver must be synchronized to accurately access transmitted data. Phased-locked loop (PLL) circuits have been used for many years to achieve such synchronization. A typical PLL circuit receives an accurate reference input signal and performs a feedback control operation to lock the output signal in phase with the incoming reference signal. Essentially, an analog PLL circuit continuously tests the output of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) through a feedback loop, and when the output of the VCO drifts away from the incoming reference signal, an error voltage is generated to pull the VCO back into synchronization with the incoming reference signal. PLL circuits thus have been widely used in a variety of applications such as communication systems, computers networks, television transmissions, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a conventional analog PLL circuit consists of three main components: a phase detector (PD) 14, a loop filter 12, and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 10. The conventional analog PLL circuit illustrated in FIG. 1 further includes a frequency divider 16 which adjusts the frequency of the VCO output signal fout to correspond to the frequency of an incoming reference signal. The PD 14 compares an incoming reference signal fref and the fed-back output of VCO 10 fout /N, and generates an error signal which represents any phase differences between the reference signal fref and the VCO output. The loop filter 12 acts as a low-pass filter, thereby removing alternating current (ac) components to provide a direct-current (dc) voltage signal to drive the VCO 10. This input voltage supplied from the loop filter 12 controls the output frequency of the VCO. The output fout of the VCO 10 is fed-back to the PD 14 through the frequency divider 16 and is continuously driven in a direction that will minimize the error signal generated by the PD 14. Once the signals fref and fout /N are made equal, the output of VCO is said to be locked to the input reference signal, and any phase differences between the two signals will be controlled. All digital PLLs have also been developed to continuously monitor the output of a digital control oscillator (DCO), instead of the analog VCO, and to generate digital control signals which pull the DCO back into synchronization with the incoming reference signal. Such all digital PLLs generally provide advantages over analog PLLs because expensive external components, such as a VCxO, are not required. A problem occurs for conventional analog/digital PLL circuits used to synchronously read a transmitted information stream when the incoming reference signal is lost or interrupted. During the absence of the incoming reference signal, the output frequency of the VCO/DCO may drift, thereby causing the receiver to read data from the received information stream out of synchronization. Prior art techniques have therefore been developed to compensate for periods when the incoming reference signal is interrupted. One such prior art technique for generating an in-phase output signal during a period of incoming reference signal absence selects an alternate reference signal when the primary incoming reference signal is lost. This holdover system, however, is not applicable to communication systems which use a single reference signal. In another prior art holdover technique, two PLL circuits, each utilizing a VCxO, are provided to protect the accuracy of the output signal of the first PLL when the incoming signal is absent. In this system, however, two separate PLL circuits are required, in addition to a digital-to-analog converter which is needed to convert the signals from a digital up/down counter of the second PLL circuit to the analog signal needed for VCO input. In yet another prior art technique, a PLL circuit having a VCO employs a crystal maintained at a constant temperature so that a phase-locked lock signal having minimal drift is provided. In this analog system, however, high power consumption is required to maintain the crystal at the constant temperature. It is an object of the present invention to provide a phase-locked loop apparatus which maintains a phase-locked signal even when an incoming reference signal is absent or interrupted. It is another object of the present invention to provide an all-digital phase-locked loop circuit which utilizes off the shelf components and consumes low power. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for maintaining a phase-locked signal upon absence or interruption of an incoming reference signal. a controller which calculates an average number of phase adjustments performed by the primary PLL circuit for a given time period and generates a secondary control signal in accordance with the average number, the secondary control signal being used by the apparatus to generate the synchronized output signal during a holdover mode. the method generates a synchronized output signal in accordance with the secondary control signal during a holdover mode. The PLL apparatus of the present invention includes a primary all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) circuit having a phase detector, a digital loop filter, and a DCO. When a reference signal is received (normal operating mode), the phase detector determines phase differences between the incoming reference signal and the loop output signal. The digital loop filter generates control signals based on such phase differences. The control signals from the digital loop filter cause the DCO to adjust the loop output by performing a phase-hopping operation. During this period, an accumulator monitors the phase-hopping events performed by the DCO. A series of consecutive phase-hopping accumulation values are stored. An average of a predetermined number of phase-hopping accumulation values is used to generate secondary control signals which control the phase-hopping operation of a second DCO during both a normal operating mode and a holdover mode, or which control the DCO of the primary ADPLL loop during the holdover mode. In this device, the phase adjustments during the holdover mode are performed based on previous normal operating mode phase-hopping operations and thereby provide a stable output signal with minimal drift. Furthermore, all circuits of this PLL apparatus can be implemented with off the shelf digital components. Further scope and applicability of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. FIG. 9 is a flowchart, according to the present invention, which illustrates a method for generating secondary control signals used to control a phase-hopping operation. The present holdover mode apparatus/method is particularly applicable to an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) circuit such as that previously disclosed in co-pending applications Ser. Nos. 08/555,941 and 08/816,249, filed Nov. 13, 1995 and Mar. 13, 1997 respectively, which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Although described in the context of the ADPLL circuit set forth in these co-pending applications, the holdover method/apparatus described herein is equally applicable to other types of ADPLL circuits as will be apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art. The previously disclosed ADPLL circuit illustrated in FIG. 2 includes four main components: a digital control oscillator (DCO) 20, a digital loop filter 30, a phase detector (PD) 40, and a /N counter 50. The /N counter 50 receives a loop output signal fout from the DCO 20 and adjusts the frequency of fout to correspond to the frequency of an incoming reference signal. The PD 40 receives two incoming signals, fin and fout /N, which respectively represent an input reference signal and the fed-back output of the DCO 20, and compares fin and fout /N to detect any phase differences. The PD 40 outputs signals UP and DN which signify phase differences between fin and fout /N. As shown for example in FIG. 3A, when fin and fout /N are in phase the positive edges of these signals occur at the same time, thereby creating a zero level output from the PD 40. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, when the positive edge of the reference signal fin leads the positive edge of the fed-back output signal fout /N, these signals are out of phase, and the UP portion of the PD 40 output is pulsed to set the PD 40 in a state which signifies a positive phase error. As illustrated in FIG. 3C, when the positive edge of fin lags the positive edge of fout /N, these signals are again out of phase, and the DN portion of the PD 40 output is pulsed to set the PD 40 in a state which signifies a negative phase error. The output signals UP and DN from the PD 40 are sent to the digital loop filter (LF) 30 which operates in conjunction with the DCO 20 to adjust the output of the ADPLL circuit. When the total pulse width of the UP signal output from PD 40 is greater than that of the DN signal, the frequency of the loop output will be increased (i.e., sped up). When, on the other hand, the total pulse width of the UP signal is smaller than that of the DN signal, the frequency of the loop output will be reduced (i.e., slowed down). The digital LF 40 may consist of, for example, a K-counter having both an up counter and a down counter which together allow the k-counter to generate a "carry" output (CA) and a "borrow" output (BO). The CA and BO signals generated by the digital LF 30 are output and received by the DCO 20. When the DN output of the PD 40 is active, this enables the down counter of the digital LF 30 to decrease a count value maintained by the K-counter. When, on the other hand, the UP output from the PD 40 is active, this enables the up counter of the digital LF 30 to increase the count value maintained by the K-counter. Therefore, when the digital LF 30 is in a state of "underflow" as a result of the counting operations of the up and down counters, a "borrow" pulse is generated for signal BO. On the other hand, when the digital LF 30 is in a state of "overflow" as a result of the counting operations performed by the up and down counters, a "carry" pulse is generated for signal CA. The DCO 20 receives the CA and BO signals from the Digital LF 30, and further receives a local clock signal fc. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the DCO 20 may be configured to include three main components: a delay line 24 having L delay stages, an UP/DN Counter 26, and a multiplexer 22. The delay line 24 receives the local clock signal fc and, in the example illustrated in FIG. 4, has sixteen delay stages D1 -D16 (L=16) which together generate sixteen phase-different clock signals C1 -C16. Each of the sixteen phase-different clock signals C1 -C16 is sent to the multiplexer 22. This series of phase-different clock signals C1 -C16 allow the DCO 20 to implement a phase-hopping action which compensates for phase errors detected by the PD 40. As illustrated in FIG. 5, "borrow" pulses of signal BO cause the DCO 20 to select a phase-different clock signal among C1 -C16 to delay the loop output signal fout. On the other hand, "carry" pulses on signal CA cause the DCO 20 to select a local clock signal from C1 -C16 which advance the loop output signal fout. In the specific example illustrated in FIG. 5, a BO pulse initially directs the multiplexer 22 to select a phase-lagging signal Ci+1 so that fout is slowed down. As a subsequent phase error is detected in the opposite direction, a CA pulse directs the multiplexer 22 to select phase-leading signal Ci so that fout is sped up. In this way, each time the BO pulse forces the multiplexer to select a phase-lagging local clock, the loop's output is delayed by 1/L cycle. Likewise, each time the CA pulse forces the multiplexer to select a phase-leading local clock, the loop's output is advanced by 1/L cycle. Accordingly, 16 phase hopping events in the phase-leading direction will cause the loop's output to advance by 1 Hz, and the same number of phase hopping events in the phase-lagging direction will cause the loop's output to be delayed 1 Hz. The UP/Dn counter 26 of the DCO illustrated in FIG. 4 accepts the CA and BO signals from the digital LF 30 and outputs an address to multiplexer 22, to thereby select a corresponding phase-different clock from the set of phase different clocks C1 -C16 provided by the delay line 24. FIG. 6 illustrates an apparatus, according to the present invention, for maintaining an in-phase output even when the incoming reference signal fin is interrupted or absent. This apparatus includes a primary ADPLL circuit 110 having components such as those illustrated in FIG. 2, and further includes components which maintain an in-phase output signal during a period when the incoming reference signal fin has been interrupted. Therefore, the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 6 is able to function accurately in both a normal operating mode and a holdover mode. The primary ADPLL circuit which generates a phase-adjusted loop output signal fout is labelled 110 and includes a phase detector (PD) 116, a digital loop filter (LF) 114, a first digital control oscillator (DCO) 112a, and an N/ counter 118. The structural connection and operation of the elements in the ADPLL unit 110 have been described in detail with the regard to FIG. 2, and therefore a description of the connection and operation of these elements is omitted here. As will be detailed below, the loop output signal fout generated by the first DCO 112a is not output as the system clock, and instead is only used as a fed-back signal to the PD 116. Instead, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6 a secondary DCO generates the output system signal during both a normal operating mode and a holdover mode. To provide an in-phase output signal during both a normal operating mode and a holdover mode, the ADPLL apparatus illustrated in FIG. 6 includes, in addition to the primary ADPLL circuit 110, three main components: a loss of signal (LOS) indicator 120, a controller 140, and a second DCO 112b. The LOS indicator 120 receives the incoming reference signal fin and outputs a LOS signal to the controller 140 to indicate when the incoming reference signal fin has been interrupted. The controller 140, which may be realized for example as a micro-controller, receives the control signals CA and BO output from the digital LF 114 in addition to the LOS signal output by the LOS indicator 120. The controller 140 outputs secondary control signals CA' and BO' which are used to control a phase-hopping operation of the second DCO 112b. The second DCO 112b receives the secondary control signals CA' and BO' output by the controller 140, receives the local clock signal fc which is similarly received by the first DCO 112a, and outputs a synchronized system output signal fout '. The operation of the ADPLL apparatus illustrated in FIG. 6 is described as follows. By receiving the incoming reference signal fin, the LOS indicator 120 is able to determine when the incoming reference signal fin has been interrupted, and subsequently initiate a holdover mode. During both a normal operating mode and the holdover mode, the controller 140 generates secondary control signals CA' and BO' which, like the control signals CA and BO received by the first DCO 112a described above, control a phase-hopping operation by causing the second DCO 112b to select either a lagging phase-different clock signal or a leading phase-different clock signal, depending on whether the output signal fout ' should be delayed or advanced. A specific arrangement which may be utilized as the controller 140 is illustrated in FIG. 7, and includes four main components: an accumulator 142, a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer 144, an average calculator 146, and a switch 148. During the normal operating mode of the ADPLL apparatus 100, the accumulator receives the phase-hopping control signals CA and BO output by the digital LF 114 which control the phase-hopping operation of the first DCO 112a. The accumulator 142 accumulates the phase-hopping events represented by the phase-hopping control signals CA and BO that occur in a given time period (e.g., 0.1 seconds). Each accumulation value is output by the accumulator 142. The FIFO buffer 144 receives consecutive accumulation values output by the accumulator 142 via a closed switch 148. The LOS signal output by the LOS indicator 120 keeps the switch 148 closed during the normal operating mode so that consecutive accumulation values are shifted into the FIFO buffer 144. On the other hand, the LOS signal output by the LOS indicator 120 opens the switch 148 during the holdover mode so that no additional accumulation values from the accumulator 142 are shifted into the FIFO buffer 144 until the incoming reference signal fin has been restored. The FIFO buffer 144 stores a number of consecutive accumulation values from the accumulator 142. In FIG. 7, the FIFO buffer has ten stages, and thus stores ten consecutive outputs from the accumulator 142. The consecutive values stored in the FIFO buffer of FIG. 7 thus represent a full second of phase-hopping events performed by the first DCO 112a. Alternatively, the FIFO buffer 144 may consist of a greater or lesser number of stages, such as one hundred, to store accumulation values for a longer/shorter period of time (e.g., 10 seconds). The FIFO buffer 144 outputs each accumulation value stored therein to an average calculator 146. The average calculator 146 receives the plurality of accumulation values output by the FIFO buffer 144 and computes the average of these values. This average value is used to generate secondary control signals BO' and CA' which are output by the controller 140 to control the direction (i.e, phase-lagging direction or phase-leading direction) and hopping operation count (i.e., number of phase-hopping events for a given time period) of the second DCO 112b. The average calculator 146 generates two values (d, x), with x representing the average number of hopping events for given time period (e.g., 0.1 seconds) and d representing the phase hopping direction. For example, when d=0, the second DCO 112b will increase the output frequency of signal fout ' x number of times for each 0.1 second time period. On the other hand, when d=1, the second DCO 112b will decrease the output frequency of signal fout ' x number of times each 0.1 second time period. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the secondary control signals CA' and BO' are used to represent (d, x), and are output by the controller 140 to the second DCO 112b. Thus during the normal operating mode of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6, the secondary control signals CA' and BO' generated by the controller 140 are based on a running average of the phase-hopping events indicated by the first control signals CA and BO. For the holdover mode operation of the ADPLL apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 6-7, when the LOS indicator 120 senses that the incoming reference signal fin is absent, a holdover mode is initiated so that the FIFO buffer 144 ceases to receive additional accumulation values from the accumulator 142. The average of the values stored in the FIFO buffer 144 at this instant, calculated by the average calculator 146, is used during the entire holdover mode duration to generate secondary control signals CA' and BO' for the second DCO 112b output signal fout '. Thus during the holdover mode, the secondary control signals CA' and BO' generated by the controller 140 are based on a constant average of the values stored in the FIFO 144 when a loss of incoming reference is indicated by the signal LOS. Because the LOS indicator 120 takes less that 0.1 second to detect that the incoming reference signal fin is absent, the values that are shifted into the FIFO buffer 144 will always be available and accumulation values for a shortened accumulation period (caused by a loss of fin) will not be output to the FIFO, thereby ensuring the output quality of the second DCO 112b output signal fout '. As soon as the LOS indicator 120 detects that the incoming reference signal fin is present, the accumulator 142 resets and accumulates the phase hopping events represented by signals CA and BO again. As discussed above with reference to FIG. 4, like the first DCO 112a, the second DCO 112b may include a delay line 24 which receives the local clock signal fc and generates a number of phase-different clock signals C1 -C16. FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative embodiment, according to the present invention, for maintaining an in-phase output signal when an incoming reference signal fin is interrupted. For this embodiment, the operation of the primary ADPLL circuit 110 (including the PD 116, the digital LF 114, the DCO, the IN counter 118) and the LOS indicator 120 is the same as that described in detail above. Accordingly, a discussion of these components will be mostly omitted for the description of the alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, instead of a second DCO 112b, a multiplexer 150 receives the secondary control signals CA' and BO' generated and output by the controller 140. The multiplexer 150 is positioned between the digital LF 114 and the DCO 112 to receive the control signals CA and BO output by the digital LF 114. The multiplexer 150 is further positioned between the controller 140 and the DCO 112 to receive the secondary control signals CA' and BO' generated and output by the controller 140. The multiplexer 150 further receives a switching signal SW from the controller 140 which instructs the multiplexer 150 to output the normal operating mode phase-hopping control signals CA, BO or the secondary control signals CA', BO'. The alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8 operates as follows. When the LOS indicator 120 senses that the incoming signal is absent, the ADPLL apparatus operates in a holdover mode. When operating in the holdover mode, as discussed above, the FIFO buffer 144 of the controller 140 stops receiving accumulation values from the accumulator 142. The average value computed by the average calculator 146 at the instant the incoming reference signal fin is lost and the switch 148 opened is used during the entire holdover mode. When the holdover mode is initiated, the controller 140 outputs a signal SW to the multiplexer 150 to indicate that the secondary control signals CA', BO' are to be output to the DCO 112 instead of the normal operating mode control signals CA, BO. Consequently, the DCO 112 performs the phase-hopping operation discussed above in accordance with the secondary control signals CA' and BO' generated by the controller 140. When the incoming reference signal fin is restored, the accumulator 142 resets, and the controller again instructs the multiplexer 150 to select the normal operating mode phase-hopping control signals CA, BO as the input to the VCO 112 in accordance with the signal SW received from the controller 140. Therefore, in the alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, the loop output signal of a single DCO 112 is used as the system output signal and is adjusted based on control signals CA, BO during a normal operating mode and secondary control signals CA', BO' during a holdover mode. FIG. 9 is a flowchart which illustrates a method, according to the present invention, for calculating the secondary control signals CA' and BO'. Specifically, as indicated by step S202, the accumulator 142 and the FIFO buffer 144 are reset immediately following a holdover mode. Next at step S204, the accumulator 142 accumulates phase-hopping events indicated by control signals BO and CA for a given time period (e.g., 0.1 seconds). Next at step S206, it is determined whether the LOS indicator 120 indicates that the incoming reference signal fin has been lost. If "NO," the accumulation value generated by the accumulator 142 is shifted into the FIFO buffer 144 at step S208. If, on the other hand, the determination at step S206 is "YES," the operation returns to step S204 described above. After step S208, the holdover mode operation proceeds to step S210, at which the average calculator 146 averages the values stored in the FIFO buffer 144. The operation next returns to step S204, at which the accumulator 142 accumulates an additional hopping event for the given time period (e.g., 0.1 seconds). The ADPLL embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 6-8, which include holdover mode components, accurately generate synchronized output signals even when the incoming reference signal fin has been lost. For example, according to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6, where the accumulation sample period is 0.1 seconds, the FIFO buffer 144 has ten stages, and the VCO utilizes a 16 stage delay line, the average output value generated by the controller 140 covers a full second of phase-hopping events (i.e., 0.1 second accumulation period×10 FIFO stages). The error of this average will be ±1/16 clock signal errors per second. If the output clock frequency is 50 Mhz, the clock accuracy will thus be 1/16×1/50 ppm=1.25×10-3 ppm. In addition to holdover mode accuracy, the ADPLL embodiments according to the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 6-8 can be achieved with a low level of hardware complexity, using a single ADPLL circuit, without requiring analog components, an AD/DA converter, or an expensive VCxO component. Additionally, the circuit can be implemented using a purely digital cell library or field programmable gate array (FPGA). Although the invention has been described using a particular primary ADPLL circuit having a digital loop filter which generates control signals CA and BO, it will be evident to one having ordinary skill in the art that the present invention can extend to various kinds of ADPLL circuits. For example, certain ADPLL circuits adjust the output frequency generated by a DCO by using insert and delete pulses, instead of CA and BO pulses. Applying the concepts described above to such a circuit, insert/delete pulses may be accumulated for a certain period of time by the accumulator, and the average of these events can be taken in similar fashion to that described above to generate the secondary control signals CA' and BO'. Similarly, certain ADPLL circuits control the output frequency by using a programmable frequency divider. In such a circuit, when the frequency of the DCO output should be increased, a smaller frequency divisor is used. On the other hand, when the frequency of the DCO output should be slowed down, a larger frequency divisor is used. Therefore, for such an ADPLL circuit, the accumulator of the present invention may record the count of larger/smaller divisors used within a given time period, and use the average of such a count to generate the secondary control signals CA' and BO'. Furthermore, while the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but to the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. a controller which calculates an average number of phase adjustments performed by said primary PLL circuit for a given time period and generates a secondary control signal in accordance with said average number, said secondary control signal being used by said apparatus to generate said synchronized output signal during a holdover mode in which said primary PLL circuit does not receive said incoming reference signal. a digital loop filter which receives said error signal from said phase detector and outputs said first control signal. a second oscillator which receives said local clock signal and said secondary control signal, and generates said synchronized output signal in accordance with said secondary control signal. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said second oscillator generates said synchronized output signal in accordance with said secondary control signal during both a normal operating mode and said holdover mode. an indicator which detects when said input reference signal is interrupted, and outputs an enable signal to said controller which instructs said controller to switch from a normal operating mode to said holdover operating mode. averaging means which calculates the average of the consecutive accumulation values stored in said memory. 7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said memory is a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer. 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is an all-digital phase-locked loop apparatus. 9. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said oscillator is a digital control oscillator. 10. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said first oscillator and said second oscillator are each a digital control oscillator. 11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said all-digital phase-locked loop apparatus is implemented with a field-programmable gate array. said method generates a synchronized output signal in accordance with said secondary control signal during a holdover mode in which said incoming reference signal is not received. averaging said predetermined number of consecutive accumulation values. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said storing step is achieved by shifting consecutive accumulation values into a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer. suspending said step of shifting consecutive accumulation values into said FIFO buffer during said holdover mode. 16. The method according to claim 12, wherein said method generates said synchronized output signal in accordance with said secondary control signal during said normal operating mode and said holdover mode. said synchronized output signal is generated by a second oscillator. 18. The method according to claim 12, wherein said synchronized output and said phase-adjusted signal is generated by a single oscillator during both a normal operating mode and said holdover mode based on said secondary control signal. 19. The method according to claim 17, wherein said first oscillator and said second oscillator are each a digital control oscillator. 20. The method according to claim 18, wherein said oscillator is a digital control oscillator.

2019-04-21T05:32:40Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6052034A/en

Montenegro will be at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden represented by Podgorica band "Highway", which originally consisted of singer Petar Tošić and guitarists Marko Pešić and Luka Vojvodić. On December 16, 2015, it was announced that the band will also be joined by Bojan Jovović, ex-member of "No Name" and "Neon" as keyboardist and vocalist. Petar is a first year student of Electro-Technical Faculty in Podgorica. He attended elementary music school Vasa Pavić and played the violin. Luka, son of RTCG Director General Rade Vojvodić, is a first year student of Faculty of Economic. Marko is a second year student of Faculty of Economics. He also graduated from an elementary music school Vasa Pavić playing guitar. Luka and Petar know each other for life, and they met Marko two years ago. The idea to form a band came to them three years ago during summer holidays in Herceg Novi. Boys prefer to listen to pop, rock, blues, jazz music. As their idol they name Ed Sheeran, and as a favorite song, "Do I want to know" of Arctic Monkeys'. Bojan is the most experienced member of the band, having behind 11 years of stage career, who also performed at Eurovision 2005 as part of "No Name". "In the evening we played together in the mall, and people would come up to us and asked us whether we have the footage on YouTube and whether we have recorded our songs. It was one of the reasons that we begin together to play in the band", explain band members. The Commission, consisting of members of the RTCG Council, lyricist Dragan Tripković, music editor at Radio Montenegro Nada Vučinić, music editor at RTCG Slaven Knezović and famous jazz musician Milorad Šule Jovović, suggested that "Highway" should represents Montenegro at the biggest international music competition. Executive board of the broadcaster has unanimously supported the Commission's proposal. The choice has been revealed to the public on 2 October 2015. The band "Highway" became popular after the success in the regional competition "X Factor Adria", in which they took the fourth place."Marko was the most enthusiastic to apply for X-Factor, at first, this idea was not really liked by Luka and Petar, but in the end we all three realized that it was the right choice for us, so that more people hear our music". They were mentored by Tonči Huljić, who was in charge of bands category at the competition, getting in the line-up as Second Chance entry. At the shows they have performed own song "Lud" they wrote in 15 minutes, "Zauvijek moja" of "No Name", "Neko te ima", "I Need a Dollar", "Par godina za nas" / "Ti si sav moj bol". In the final they performed "Do I Wanna Know?" and "Sve je lako kad si mlad" / "Šta sada ljubav ima s tim". In September "Highway" have formalised cooperation with the publishing house Menart, which is the regional representative of "Sony Music" label. "Highway" with the song "Bar na kratko" (their audition song at X Factor) won third place in the "New Stars" evening of this year's festival "Sunčane Skale". On 23 November they have presented their first music video on the song "Sam". New joining Bojan Jovović revealed that he will share vocal duties in the Eurovision Song Contest entry, as well as plans to propose two tracks written by him for the inclusion to the debut album of "Highway", planned for the late 2016. "I like that Petar, Luka and Marko are ready to ask, accept advice and criticism. Regardless of the popularity they have gained in a short time, they do not act as the stars who know everything. It's nice to get on, I'm sure we will get some ideas to negotiate easily,", he said. "I think we all need to stand behind Highway because what the band does, is completely different from anything in the Balkans. Today it is not easy," adds Jovović. Montenegrin entry "The Real Thing" has been presented during the TV special, aired on 4 March live from Hotel Splendid in Bečići. "I think we'll do a very good show and that our song will be liked by the European audience", said Marko Pešić. Bojan Jovovic added that the song is demanding, but that suit their own skills. Luka Vojvodić compared the style of composition to those created by the famous bands Depeche Mode, Muse and Arctic Monkeys. Producer of the song Srđan Sekulović Skansi called the song "unusual and different". "The song is quite challenging, because it's energetic and loud. We wanted to sound different and to set the audience in fire with our music. We like to work with each other and we are glad that we came up with this song. The Eurovision is an amazing event. We take it quite seriously and we will our best" The composers of the song are Skansi, the band guitarist Luka Vojvodic and Maro Market, the lyrics are written by Skansi, who is also responsible for the arrangement and production along with D'Knock, who was also credited with the mix and postproduction. Skansi is a renowned Croatian producer who has previously worked with numerous national top performers. He has collaborated with artists like Dino Dvornik, Massimo, Toni Cetinski, Josipa Lisac, Psihomodo Pop and other popular musicians in the Balkans. D'Knock is also an eminent producer who, independently and as a member of the production duo PlayOne, has achieved numerous worldwide successes, such as cooperation with the legendary British band Simply Red, remixing a single for their latest album, "Queen Of House Music" Barbara Tucker, legendary British producer and Grammy Award winner Andy Wright, popular Macedonian singer Kaliopi and many Croatian performers such as: Nina Badric, The Divas, Toni Cetinski and many others. "The Eurovision Song Contest is important for us, because we got an opportunity to represent our country, and we'll give our best.We believe we have something new to offer. The song is quite different, so you can never get tired of listening to it. The show we are preparing will have a lot of surprises and we can promise that people won't forget it" Montenegrin representatives at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, members of the band "Highway" came back from London, where they participated in a promotional concert of Europe's largest music festival. "It was great. The first impression is that the audience is a little different from those in Amsterdam, where we played two weekends ago. It was much better reacting to the song, perhaps because the British people love this kind of music. We gave far more interviews for various portals and radio shows. We were satisfied,", says Marko Pesic. As was announced before, their performance in London was attended by the representative of the publishing house of famous producer Simon Cowell, the creator of X Factor. "She was a manager who works for him. Her job is to monitor all the X Factor finalists from Europe. She said she was delighted with our performance and she was amazed that we have not yet signed a contract with a record company. Problem however is that publishing house "Sony", which was interested in us even when we were part of the aforementioned competition, has no office in Montenegro, so we have to work with their representatives somewhere in the region," explained Pesic. The guys from the band "Highway", which will represent Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, this morning were guests of the live broadcast of morning show of Croatian Television HRT "Dobro jutro Hrvatska". "This visit is a part of our activities related to the promotion of the song. We thank our colleagues from HRT who have allowed us to be live on a connection from Dubrovnik, in order to reduce costs, and we got a great promotion of our entry in the most watched morning program of Croatia", says Sabrija Vulic. Promotional activities of "Highway" end with the participation in a concert in London this weekend. Also this week "The Real Thing" has finally reached the top spot at the MTV Adria chart Domaćica. "We were delighted when we heard the news. They informed us while we were at sound check in Amsterdam and we were just glad that people like and still vote for our song. This is probably a sign that during the Eurovision the region will also support us, ", said Marko Pesic. Earlier this week, in the premises of Radio Montenegro, was organized a radio conference, titled "Good luck in Stockholm", dedicated to this year's song contest and Montenegrin representatives of the group "Highway". Studio 98 hosted members of the band, media representatives, large number of fans. The event was also attended by Director General of RTCG Rade Vojvodic. With a group of "Highway", at the conference, was the head of the delegation RTCG, Ivan Maksimovic. Representative of San Marino in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Serhat Hadžipašalioglu, has visited Montenegro, where he took part in the joint press-conference with the representatives of this country band Highway. Serhat told press that he has double responsibility representing the two countries on a biggest stage of Europe. "It is for me a great appreciation, but also an obligation, because Turkey is not taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest. It means that as a Turkish singer have a double responsibility, because I will represent San Marino, but Turkey too will be with me on stage," said Hadžipašalioglu. He also revealed that he has received the full support of his fellow citizens, which is, as he points out, a great privilege. "After I was chosen as the representative for San Marino, we had press-conference in both San Marino and Turkey. I'm happy that people of my country reacted very well and supported my decision to represent San Marino. It is a privilege that I have support of my country people", said Hadžipašalioglu. He praised the song "The Real Thing" of the Montenegrin representatives, the group "Highway", calling it 'special' and wished them good luck in the competition. "In my career I always paid attention and supported different things. I do not like the 'copy-paste' music. I like the 'Highway' genuine style and that they are offering a different track to Europe. As you know, often at the Eurovision Song Contest there are generally similar songs. This is a great opportunity that bring something new to the contest. Therefore, I have a lot of respect for your decision to select this song, and I'm very glad you stayed true to your style. I hope we can all have a good time in Stockholm", he concluded. These days representatives of Montenegro Highway band are recording their Eurovision postcard together with the team of Swedish Television. Part of postcard was recorded in Podgorica on the Budućnost basketball court in the Njegošev park, in Music school "Vasa Pavic", while a portion will be recorded on a section of the old road between Kotor and Njeguši. As promised earlier, Highway band has released Club Remix of their entry - listen to it here. Last Sunday Highway members have visited Belgrade, where they were making the concept of their performance in the arena of "Globen". "We had to make a sketch of the show, so we send it to the Eurovision producers so they will know what and whom at what point should be filmed. Our performance is directed by Igor Bosorović, and produced by Mirko Vukomanović, with whom we practicing it in Belgrade", says Marko Pešić to Vjesti. In addition to the four Highway members, the band will be joined on the stage by two back up singers. "They are our friends from X Factor - Nikola Marjanović and Marija Lazić. Nikola is a great singer, was the lead singer of the band Sane, now works with Songkillers, while Marija is known as a member of Anđelina", revealed Pešić. "When I heard the song "The Real Thing" I was surprised, but after a few listens I liked it a lot. Unusual, and not peculiar to this contest", says Nikola Marjanović. "But I will not be making any forecasts, as usually when I try to guess something it goes the other way around" While visiting the Serbian capital, the band also used time to promote the song, having numerous guest appearances on radio and TV stations. "The response to our song was positive. The best comment we received at the Belgrade radio, where they told us that we are totally different from all the others. I am particularly pleased by the fact that the comments on the Youtube channel are much more positive, almost no negative ones. We visited also MTV, so I hope that we will have the support of them. We are aware that the public in Serbia will not be able to vote for us in the semi-finals, but it would be stupid not to take advantage to promote the song, while we're there, "said Pešić. Highway will also be promoting their entry in Bosnia and Croatia and then will travel to Eurovision parties in Amsterdam and London. "The popularity that we have gained in the X factor is enough for us and so far has helped, but what makes us happy is that it is thanks to our participation in that program, its creator Simon Cowell promised that people from his production company will come to our show in London as support. They are trying to follow all the participants X factor, and in London we will have their support," said Pešić. Montenegrin representatives will in the coming days record their Eurovision postcard. "The Swedish team arrives in Montenegro on 19th and 20 March will be entirely devoted to the shootings. They asked to submit to them some interesting spots, and we will try to fit it all into the concept they have," said Pešić. Although the last few days have been quite busy, Marko and other members of the Highway have managed to listen to some of the songs with which they will be "measuring their swords" in Stockholm. "We first event focused on what comes from the ex-YU region and I am proud to say that all former Yugoslav republics have great songs. Nina Kraljić has a very unusual track and unusual vocal, also a representative of Serbia Sanja Vučić has a good track and is quite reminiscent of Amy Winehouse. There are also representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina that currently can be considered among the favorites, and Kaliopi was masterful. Only one whose song I have not managed to listen to yet is the representative of Slovenia, but I'll certainly listen to it these days," promises Marko. Band will also be releasing club remix for their entry The Real Thing. The head of Montenegrin delegation Sabrija Vulić says that despite the different opinions of the audience, they are proud of the song. "In any case we can be proud of what made us to introduce young Podgorica group at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. The old rule is that the taste is not worth discussing, especially in the case of the song The real thing. It brings new sound and new energy, unusual for this area, which is used to light notes and songs about sad love. this is a serious sound and we are not surprised that the song is not liked by everyone. In any case, it leaves no one indifferent, what is most important" commented Vulić. "There was a very long waiting period, the whole project has been going on for four months. We have invested a lot of energy, effort and work. This evening is a crown of our work. As you have the opportunity to hear, the song is different from what can be heard, not only at the Eurovision Song Contest, but anywhere in the world. The song is an energetic and that is why we will do our best to create a spectacular stage performance in Stockholm, " said Marko Pešić after presentation of "The Real Thing. Asked by Vijesti.me what he expected from the Eurovision Song Contest, Pešić was modest. "We expect the first place," he said with a laugh. He says the band has achieved the goal of being different from the rest. "We wanted to introduce something new and thus to become a highlight. I think that with this song we can do it and this is the real deal". Pešić believes that the festival should be diversified. "If it was only for pop music, they would have probably called it "Contest for the best pop ballad". Eurovision is well-known for it's variety of genres. It is true though that pop music is prevailing there, so the viewers who tune in only with the interest to listen to the songs in this genre may be shocked when they hear our song. We are waiting for the May 10, the first semifinals, our first goal is to get into the finals, that was a mini-tradition of Montenegro in the past two years. Then in the final we will give our best, and see what happens, " he said. "We have really provoked strong reactions and comments go from one extreme to another. There are those who feel that the song is phenomenal, even we had some British producers to comment that we have invented a new genre. Of course, there were some negative comments as well, and people who did not like our song, but many after listening several times understand what it is", explains Marko Pešić. Band will continue their preparations in Belgrade, where they will practice the choreography and singing, in March, besides Serbia, they plan to visit with promotion Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia as well, and in April band will attend events in Amsterdam and London. Television of Montenegro is preparing the presentation show for the entry of Highway band "The Real Thing", that will be aired live from Hotel Splendid in Bečići on Friday at 20.00 local time. Special guests of the show will be last year representative Knez, entrants of Bosnia Dalal and Deen, and still to be confirmed appearance of representative of Albania Eneda Tarifa. Program will also feature presentation of music video for the entry as well as "making of" footage. Presentation of the entry of Highway band and music video on it is scheduled for 4 March. Music video was directed by Julian Wood and filmed in the studio Depo of Belgrade, and, according to the band members, will share the same art concept with what will be seen on the Eurovision stage. "We want to demonstrate the whole energy of the band and the effects that are generated by the specific form of the song", says Marko Pešić. It was earlier announced that the music video will be filmed in Kotor, but due to bad weather in the region the band was forced to change the location and the concept of the video. Music video for the Highway entry will be filmed in mid-February at the locations in Kotor and will be directed by Bane Milatović. Presentation of the entry will be held shortly afterwards in early March. Head of Montenegrin delegation Sabrija Vulic has also confirmed participation of Highway in the promotional concerts in Amsterdam and London. "These are very important events. If you have in mind that, for example, last year in the finals were all participants of Amsterdam, you understand how important it is to appear there", said Vulić to MNE Magazine. Check the first TV appearance of Highway band with Bojan Jovović. They become guests of Kod Mila program on RTV Atlas Montenegro, where besides giving long interview also performed songs Bar na kratko and I Need A Dollar. Meanwhile, music video for the song "Sam" has topped this week Domaćica – Top liste chart on MTV Adria. "We are glad that people from all over the former Yugoslavia recognized the quality. Therefore our aim is to keep audiences pleased with our songs", promises Marko Pešić. Highway will complete the successful year with a performance at the Podgorica Republic Square on December 31. "We have prepared a different repertoire than what usually bands play. The audience will have the opportunity to hear both our own songs, and rock hits. We can promise the energetic and engaging performance", said Pešić. He hopes that the new year will be as successful for the band. Work on the Eurovision entry will continue after the New Year holidays. "The song is in rock style and everyone who had the opportunity to listen to the demo, believs it can win the audience at the very first listen. At the Eurovision we will sing in English, and the song will be performed by the four vocalists". The work should be completed by the end of February and song presentation will be held in a special TV show in late February or early March. Band Highway, which will represent Montenegro at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest, is no longer a trio. Petar Tošić, Luka Vojvodić and Marko Pešić were joined by Bojan Jovović. A former member of the "No Name" and "Neon", decided that after these two band and solo career, his musical pat leads to "Highway" whose popularity is growing not only in Montenegro, but in the region, as evidenced by this week's fourth place in Domaćica – Top liste on MTV Adria. "I heard that these guys want to do serious things. I like the music they do because it's different, and as they needed a keyboardist and vocalist because they planned to expand the band for concerts and participation in Eurovision expand the band, I decided to join them," said Jovović, who began his career as a singer and keyboardist in most popular Montenegrin boy band - "No Name", which represented Serbia and Montenegro in Eurovision Song Contest 2005. After "No Name" as solo artist he had released several hit singles, but always considering group work special, he joined "Neon", and then "Highway". "I have always been attracted to the Bands story, but it is certainly more difficult also because there should be five or six people to agree on every detail. In the world bands are much more popular than the solo performers," says Jovović. During a solo career Bojan has also developed as songwriter, who has later also worked on tracks for other artists. He plans to show his creativity also as a member of the "Highway". "I already have two tracks in mind. After we finish the song for the Eurovision Song Contest, will continue recording the album which will be published by the end of 2016. I am very pleased with the plan, and that "Highway" want to work seriously," admits Jovović. Bojan denies that his joining is a special for the Eurovision Song Contest. "I feel as an equal member of the Highway. Currently we're busy making joint plans, and there is a lot to do," Jovović reveals. "I like that Petar, Luka and Marko are ready to ask, accept advice and criticism. Regardless of the popularity they have gained in a short time, they do not act as the stars who know everything. But I am 10 years older than them, and I have experience of 11 years on the stage, so that can only help them. It's nice to get on, I'm sure we will get some ideas to negotiate easily," says Jovović, who will show his singing skills already at Eurovision. "It will be a surprise, but you will find out more about it at the beginning of the year. Would be unfair if I reveal anything before everyone else. We recently stayed in Zagreb, we did some recordings, and our voices are perfect match," says Jovović to Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti. "I prefer to do one thing at a time, so that now there is only Highway and I'm not thinking about a solo career. It would be counterproductive to work with the band and be building a solo career at the same time. With Neon I performed recently because it was one of their comeback concerts, and I'm still friend with the other members of the band," he explained. Bojan adds that he has never been sorry for leaving "No Name" which had ceased to exist after his departure. "Marko Perić and I, together with songwriter Minja Perić, were the founders of the "No Name". Minjo was the one who believed in the band the most and was giving us a push. After the departure of Marko somehow we have lost the direction, so I decided that I leave "No Name", because it seemed that the rest of the band are also more thinking about solo careers, but not about the band. I do not regret that decision, and I stayed with everyone in the excellent relations. When it comes to that, it is much better to stop than to keep struggling and to start building a solo career, so not be sitting on two chairs," says Jovović. Bojan has already gained a big support and achieved big success with his first band, and now he believes that "Highway" deserves the same treatment. "I think we all need to stand behind Highway because what the band does, is completely different from anything in the Balkans. Today it is not easy," says Jovović. Черногорию на конкурсе Евровидение 2016 в Швеции представит группа "Highway" из Подгорицы, в которую входят солист Петар Тошич и гитаристы Марко Пешич и Лука Войводич. 16 декабря 2015 стало известно, что к коллективу в качестве клавишника и вокалиста присоединится и бывший участник групп "No Name" и "Neon" Боян Йовович. Петар учится на первом курсе электро-технического факультета университета Подгорицы. Ранее, он занимался в начальной музыкальной школе им. Васы Павича, где играл на скрипке. Лука, сын генерального директора телекомпании РТЦГ Раде Войводича, учится на первом курсе факультета экономики. Марко занимается на втором курсе этого же факультета, и также закончил музыкальную школу им. Васы Павича, где играл на гитаре. Лука и Петар знакомы с детства, а с Марко они познакомились два года назад. Идея создать музыкальную группу пришла к ним три года назад во время летних каникул в Херцег Нови. Парни предпочитают слушать поп, рок, блюз и джазовую музыку. В качестве своего музыкального кумира они называют Эда Ширана, а в качестве любимой песни - "Do I want to know" из репертуара Arctic Monkeys. Боян - самый опытный участник коллектива, обладающий 11-летним опытом сценических выступлений, и выступавший на Евровидении 2005 в составе группы "No Name". "Однажды вечером мы играли в суперамаркете, и к нам подходили люди, спрашивая, можно ли посмотреть наши видео на Youtube и есть ли у нас записанные песни. Это стало одной из причин, почему мы решили начать играть вместе в группе", объясняют музыканты. Комиссия, в которую вошли представители исполнительного совета телеканала РТЦГ, автор песен Драган Трипкович, музыкальный редактор Радио Черногории Нада Вучинич, музыкальный редактор РТЦГ Славен Кнезович и прославленный джазовый музыкант Милорад Шуле Йовович, предложили отправить на крупнейший музыкальный конкурс Европы группу "Highway". Исполнительный совет вещателя единогласно поддержал предложение комиссии. Выбор был объявлен публике 2го октября 2015 года. Группа "Highway" приобрела популярность после успеха на региональном конкурсе талантов "X Factor Adria", в котором она заняла четвертое место. "Марко больше всех из нас хотел принять участие в X-Factor, сначала Петар и Лука не поддерживали его идеи, но в конце концов мы все поняли, что это было правильным выбором, и возможностью донести нашу музыку до большого количества людей". Ментором коллектива в конкурсе стал Тончи Хульич, который отвечал за секцию музыкальных групп, а попали в телевизионные шоу они в составе артистов, которым был дан Второй шанс. На шоу группа исполнила собственную песню "Lud", которую они написали за 15 минут, "Zauvijek moja" группы "No Name", "Neko te ima", "I Need a Dollar", "Par godina za nas" / "Ti si sav moj bol". В финале Highway исполнили "Do I Wanna Know?" и "Sve je lako kad si mlad" / "Šta sada ljubav ima s tim". В сентябре "Highway" заключили контракт с издательским домом Menart, региональным представителем лейбла "Sony Music". C песней "Bar na kratko" (которую они исполняли и на прослушивании в X Factor), группа завоевала третье место в вечере "Новых звезд" на фестивале Sunčane Skale этого года. 23го ноября группа представила свой первый видеоклип на песню "Sam". Присоединившись к составу группы Боян Йовович рассказал о том, что его вокал также можно будет услышать на Евровидении, и он планирует предложить пару песен своего авторства для включения в дебютный альбом коллектива, выпуск которого запланирован на конец 2016 года. "Мне нравится то, что Петар, Лука и Марко готовы спрашивать, принимать советы и критику. Несмотря на популярность, которой они добились за короткое время, они не ведут себя как всезнающие звезды. Я хорошо нахожу с ними нахожу общий язык, и я думаю, что мы вместе легко сможем обговорить некоторые идеи," говорит Йовович. "Я думаю, что все должны поддержать группу "Highway", потому что то, что она делает, полностью отличается от всего, что существует в балканской музыке. Сегодня это не так легко," добавляет он. Черногорская песня "The Real Thing" была представлена во время специального телешоу, вышедшего в прямой эфир 4го марта из отеля Splendid в Бечичах. "Я думаю, что мы покажем хорошее шоу, и что наша песня понравится Европейским зрителям", говорит Марко Пешич. Боян Йовович добавляет, что она требует хороших умений, но это соответствует тому, на что способны члены группы. Лука Войводич сравнил стиль композиции с творениями известных групп Depeche Mode, Muse и Arctic Monkeys. Продюсер песни Срджан Секулович Сканси назвал ее "необычной и отличающейся от других". "Песня довольно сложная для исполнения, потому что она энергичная и громкая. Мы хотели прежде всего выделиться по звучанию и зажечь зрительскую аудиторию своей музыкой. Нам нравится работать друг с другом и мы очень рады тому, что смогли создать данную песню. Евровидение - это потрясающее мероприятие. Мы воспринимаем его весьма серьезно и постараемся показать себя с наилучшей стороны" Композиторы песни - Сканси, гитарист группы Лука Войводич и Маро Маркет, текст песни написан Сканси, который также подготовил аранжировку и продакшен композиции вместе с D'Knock, отвечавшим еще и за микширование и постпродакшн. Сканси - известный хорватский продюсер, который имеет опыт работы с лучшими исполнителями своей страны. Он сотрудничал с такими артистами, как Дино Дворник, Массимо, Тони Четински, Йосипа Лисац, Psihomodo Pop и другими известными музыкантами Балкан. D'Knock - также известный продюсер, который самостоятельно и в составе продюсерского дуэта PlayOne, достиг ряда международных успехов, в том числе сотрудничества с легендарной британской группой Simply Red, ремикшируя сингл для их последнего альбома, "Queen Of House Music" Барбары Такер, легендарным британским продюсером и обладателем премии Grammy Энди Райтом, популярной македонской певицей Калиопи и многими хорватскими исполнителями, такими как Нина Бадрич, The Divas, Тони Четински и многими другими. "Конкурс Евровидение очень важен для нас, поскольку мы получили возможность представить свою страну, и мы покажем все, на что мы способны. Мы полагаем, что у нас есть нечто новое, чтобы предложить зрителям. Песня отличается от других, она такова, что никогда не устаешь ее слушать. Шоу, которое мы готовим, будет нести в себе множество сюрпризов, и мы обещаем, что вы его никогда не забудете" Представители Черногории на конкурсе Евровидение этого года, участники группы Highway, вернулись из Лондона, где приняли участие в промо-концерте London Eurovision. "Было здорово. Первое впечатление, что аудитория там немного отличается от амстердамской, где мы выступали две недели назад. Она намного лучше приняла нашу песню, возможно, потому что британцам нравится подобная музыка. Мы дали намного больше интервью различным порталам и радио-программам. В общем, мы довольны,", говорит Марко Пешич. Как сообщалось ранее, выступление группы в Лондоне посетила представительница издательского дома знаменитого продюсера Саймона Коуэлла, основателя X Factor. "Это - менеджер, работающая с ним. В ее задачу входит мониторинг всех финалистов X Factor со всей Европы. Она сказала, что была восхищена нашим выступлением и была очень удивлена, что у нас до сих пор не подписан контракт с издателем. Проблема заключается в том, что у лейбла Sony, который весьма интересовался нами еще когда мы принимали участие в вышеупомянутом конкурсе, не имеет представительского офиса в Черногории, потому нам приходится работать с их представителями в других странах региона", объясняет Пешич. Участники группы "Highway", которые представят Черногорию на конкурсе Евровидения в Швеции, этим утром стали гостями прямого эфира утреннего шоу хорватского телевидения HRT "Dobro jutro Hrvatska". "Этот визит стал частью промо-мероприятий в поддержку песни. Мы благодарим наших коллег из HRT, которые позволили нам выйти в прямой эфир из Дубровника, что позволило нам сократить затраты, и в то же время сделать крупное промо нашей песни в самой популярной утренней програме Хорватии", говорит Сабрия Вулич. Промо-мероприятия с участием "Highway" завершатся на этой неделе их участием в концерте в Лондоне. Также на этой неделе "The Real Thing" наконец достигла высшей строчки чарта MTV Adria Domaćica. "Мы были невероятно обрадованы этой новости. Мы узнали о ней во время саундчека в Амстердаме. Мы просто рады тому, что зрители все еще продолжают голосовать за нашу песню, значит она им очень нравится. Надеемся, что это знак того, что страны региона поддержат нас и в голосовании на самом Евровидении", говорит Марко Пешич. Ранее на этой неделе в помещении Черногорского радио прошла радиоконференция "Удачи в Стокгольме", посвящанная конкурсу этого года и представителям Черногории Highway. В Студии 98 вместились участники коллектива, представители СМИ и большое количество поклонников группы. На мероприятии также выступил генеральный директор телеканала РТЦГ Раде Войводич. С группой Highway на конференции присутствовал и новый глава делегации канала РТЦГ Иван Максимович. Представитель Сан-Марино на конкурсе Евровидение этого года, Серхат Хаджипашалиоглу посетил Черногорию, где принял участие в совместной пресс-конференции с представителями этой страны группой Highway. Серхат рассказал прессе, что у него двойная ответственность, поскольку он представляет две страны на самой большой сцене Европы. "Для меня - это большая честь, но в то же время и обязательство, поскольку Турция не принимает участия в конкурсе этого года. Это значит, что как гражданин Турции, я несу двойную ответственность, я буду представлять Сан-Марино, но и Турция также будет со мной на сцене, рассказал Хаджипашалиоглу. Он также поведал о том, что получил полную поддержку со стороны своих соотечественников, что, по его словам, является большой привилегией. "После того, как я был выбран представителем Сан-Марино, мы провели пресс-конференцию как в Сан-Марино, так и в Турции. Я счастлив тому, что жители моей страны отлично отреагировали на эту новость и поддержали мое решение выступить за Сан-Марино. Иметь поддержку своего народа - большая привилегия", говорит Серхат. Он также похвалил песню "The Real Thing" представителей Черногории группы "Highway", назвав ее "особой" и пожелав им успеха. "В своей карьере я всегда обращал внимание и поддерживал различные вещи. Я не люблю музыку, созданную методом "copy+paste". Мне нравится своеобразный стиль Highway и то, что они предлагают для Европы особенный трек. Как вы знаете, часто на конкурсе Евровидение исполняются похожие песни. Это - прекрасная возможность привнести в него что-то новое. Потому, я уважаю ваше решение выбрать эту песню, и я рад, что вы остались преданы своему стилю. Я надеюсь, что все мы хорошо проведем время в Стокгольме", завершил он. В эти дни представители Черногории группа Highway вместе с командой шведского телевидения снимают свою визитку для Евровидения. Съемки проходят в Подгорице, на баскетбольной площадке Budućnost в парке Njegošev, в музыкальной школе "Vasa Pavic", а еще часть будет снята на старой дороге между Котором и Негуши. В прошлое воскресенье группа Highway посетила Белград, где работала над концепцией сценического представления своей песни в Глобен-Арене. "Мы должны были сделать скетч нашего номера, и отослать его продюсерам Евровидения, чтобы они знали, что, кого и с какой точки снимать в какой момент времени. Режиссером нашего выступления является Игорь Босорович, а продюсером - Мирко Вукоманович, с которыми мы и репетировали его в Белграде", говорит Марко Пешич газете Вести. Помимо четырех членов группы Highway, на сцене будут и два бэк-вокалиста. "Это - наши друзья с X Factor - Никола Марьянович и Мария Лазич. Никола - замечательный исполнитель, он был солистом группы Sane, сейчас работает с Songkillers, а Мария известна как член группы Anđelina", рассказывает Пешич. "Когда я услышал песню "The Real Thing", то я был удивлен, но после нескольких прослушиваний она мне очень понравилась. Необычная и не свойственная для этого конкурса", говорит Никола Марьянович. "Но я не буду делать каких-либо прогнозов, потому что всегда, когда я пытаюсь что-то угадать, все получается наоборот" Во время посещения столицы Сербии группа также использовала возможность для продвижения своей песни, посетив ряд теле и радиостанций. "Реакция на нашу песню была весьма положительным. Лучший комментарий мы получили на Белградском радио, где нам сказали, что мы совершенно отличаемся от всех других. Я особенно доволен тем, что комментарии на Youtube к песне в большей степени положительны, практически нет негативных. Мы также побывали на MTV и надеемся на получение поддержки от них. Мы понимаем, что жители Сербии не смогут проголосовать за нас в полуфинале, но было бы глупо не использовать возможность раскрутки своей песни, пока мы находимся здесь", говорит Пешич. Highway также будут раскручивать свою песню в Боснии и Хорватии, а затем отправятся на вечеринки Евровидения в Амстердаме и Лондоне. "Популярность, которую мы заработали благодаря участию в X Factor достаточна для нас и очень помогает нам, но что делает нас еще более счастливыми, это то, что благодаря нашему участию в этой программе, ее создатель Саймон Кауэлл пообещал, что представители его продакшн-компании побывают на нашем выступлении в Лондоне. Они стараются отслеживать прогресс всех выходцев из X Factor, и в Лондоне мы можем рассчитывать на их поддержку," говорит Пешич. В ближайшие дни пройдет съемка посткарда для Евровидения. "Шведская команда прибудет в Черногорию 19го марта, и 20го будет полностью посвящено съемкам. Они попросили нас сообщить им интересные места, и мы попытаемся вписать это в концепцию, что есть у них," объясняет Пешич. Несмотря на то, что последние дни были достаточно занятыми, Марко и другие члены группы Highway послушали некоторые из песен, с которыми им предстоит "скрестить свои мечи" в Стокгольме. "Сначала мы уделили внимание тем песням, что выставлены на конкурс странами бывшей Югославии, и я с гордостью считаю, что у всех бывших Югославских стран прекрасные песни. У Нины Кральич очень необычный трек и необычный вокал, у представительницы Сербии Саньи Вучич также отличная песня, и она напоминает стилистику Эми Уайнхаус. Представители Боснии и Герцеговины уже входят в число фаворитов, и Калиопи, как всегда - мастер своего дела. Единственная песня, которую я пока не послушал - это представителя Словении, но обещаю сделать это в ближайшие дни," обещает Марко. Группа также выпустит клубный ремикс на свою композицию The Real Thing. Глава делегации Черногории Сабрия Вулич говорит, что несмотря на смешанное мнение слушателей, они гордятся песней. "В любом случае мы можем гордиться тем, что заставило нас выставить молодую группу из Подгорицы на конкурс Евровидение в Стокгольме. Старое выражение говорит "на вкус и цвет товарищей нет", что особенно применимо к песне The Real Thing. Она приносит с собой новое звучание и новую энергетику, необычную для нашего региона, привыкшего к легкой музыке и печальным песням о любви. Здесь мы слышим серьезное звучание, и потому мы не удивлены, что песня не пришлась по вкусу абсолютно всем. Важно другое - она не оставляет никого безразличным", комментирут Вулич. "Был очень большой период ожидания, проект длился уже четыре месяца. Мы вложили массу энергии, усилий и работы. И этот вечер - венец нашей работы. Как у вас была возможность услышать, наша песня отличается от всего, что можно услышать, не только на конкурсе Евровидение, но и вообще в мире. Наша песня очень энергичная, и потому мы постараемся создать эффектное сценическое выступление в Стокгольме, " сказал член Highway Марко Пешич после презентации "The Real Thing". На вопрос Vijesti.me о том, что он ожидает от конкурса Евровидение, Пешич проявил скромность: "Мы ожидаем первое место,", ответил он, усмехнувшись. Марко говорит, что группе уже удалось достичь своей цели отличиться от других. "Мы хотели представить что-то новое, и тем самым запомниться. Я думаю, что с песней "The Real Thing" нам удалось добиться этого". Пешич считает, что Евровидение должно оставаться разнообразным. "Если бы это был только фестиваль поп-музыки, то его бы, наверное, назвали "Конкурс на лучшую поп-балладу". Евровидение известно своим разнообразием жанров. Действительно, превалирует там все-таки поп-музыка, потому некоторые слушатели, которые нацелены видеть там только песни в этом жанре, могут быть шокированы, услышав нашу песню. Сейчас мы ждем первого полуфинала, 10 марта, и наша первая цель - попасть в финал, продолжив мини-традицию, установившуюся в Черногории в последние два года. В финале мы постараемся показать все, на что мы способны, и уже что будет - то будет", говорит он. "Мы уже вызвали сильную реакцию и комментарии от одной крайности до другой. Есть и те, кто считает нашу песню феноменальной, некоторые британские продюсеры даже написали нам, что мы изобрели новый жанр. Конечно, были и негативные комментарии, и те люди, которым песня не понравилась, но после нескольких прослушиваний все-равно большинство понимают ее суть", объясняет Марко Пешич. Группа продолжит свою подготовку в Белграде, где будет оттачивать хореографию и вокальное мастерство, в марте, помимо Сербии, с промо-туром посетит еще Боснию и Герцеговину и Хорватию, а в апреле побывает на вечеринках Евровидения в Амстердаме и Лондоне. Телевидение Черногории завершает подготовку шоу-презентации песни группы Highway "The Real Thing", которое выйдет в эфир из отеля Splendid в Бечичи в эту пятницу в 20:00 местного времени. Специальными гостями шоу станут прошлогодний представитель Черногории Кнез, представители Боснии этого года Далал и Дин, а также все еще ждет подтверждения участие представительницы Албании Энеды Тарифы. В программе также будет представлен видеоклип на конкурсную песню, а также рассказ "making of" о его съемках. Презентация песни черногорской группы Highway и видеоклипа на нее пройдет 4го марта. Видеоклип был снят режиссером Джулианом Вудом в студии Депо в Белграде, и, по словам участников группы, будет отражать ту же концепцию, что можно будет увидеть позднее и на сцене Евровидения. "Мы хотели показать всю энергию, присущую группе, а также подчеркнуть те эффекты, которые происходят от особой формы композиции", рассказывает Марко Пешич. Ранее сообщалось о том, что съемки видеоклипа пройдут в Которе, но из-за плохой погоды в регионе, группа была вынуждена изменить месторасположение съемок и концепцию клипа. Видеоклип на песню группы Highway будет снят в середине февраля в различных точках Котора, его режиссером станет Бане Милатович. Презентация песни пройдет вскоре после этого в начале марта. Глава делегации Черногории Сабрия Вулич также подтвердил участие группы Highway в промо-концертах в Амстердаме и Лондоне. "Это - очень важные мероприятия. Если вы вспомните, что в прошлом году в финале были все участники концерта в Амстердаме, то вы поймете - насколько важно выступить на нем", заявил Вулич MNE Magazine. Предлагаем вашему вниманию видеозапись первого ТВ выступления группы Highway в качестве квартета с участием Бояна Йововича. Коллектив стал гостями программы Kod Mila на RTV Atlas, где, помимо длинного интервью, также исполнил две песни - Bar na kratko и I Need A Dollar. Тем временем, на этой неделе видеоклип на песню "Sam" возглавил хитпарад Domaćica – Top liste на MTV Adria. "Мы рады тому, что люди со всей бывшей Югославии признали качество нашей песни и клипа. Наша цель продолжить дарить удовольствие слушателям нашими песнями", обещает Марко Пешич. Highway завершат успешный год выступлением на площади Республики в Подгорице 31го декабря. "Мы подготовили репертуар, отличающийся от других групп. Зрители получат возможность услышать как наши собственные песни, так и мировые рок-хиты. Мы можем пообещать вам очень энергичное и захватывающее выступление", говорит Пешич. Он надеется, что новый год станет таким же успешным для группы. Работа над песней для Евровидения продолжится после новогодних праздников. "Песня в рок-стиле, и все, у кого была возможность услышать ее демо-версию, соглашаются с тем, что она может захватить зрителей с самого первого прослушивания. На Евровидении мы будем петь на английском языке, и песню будут исполнять четыре вокалиста". Работа над песней должна завершиться к концу февраля, и ее презентация пройдет в специальном телешоу в конце февраля - начале марта. Группа Highway, которая представит Черногорию на предстоящем конкурсе Евровидение, больше не трио. К Петару Тошичу, Луке Войводичу и Марко Пешичу присоединился Боян Йовович. Бывший участник групп "No Name" и "Neon" решил, что после двух групп и сольной карьеры, его музыкальная дорога ведет в "Highway", чья популярность продолжает расти не только в Черногории, но и во всем регионе, что очевидно из достигнутого на этой неделе четвертого места в хит параде Domaćica на MTV Adria. "Я слышал, что эти парни настроены очень серьезно. Мне нравится та музыка, которой они занимаются, поскольку она выделяется, и так как им требовались клавишник и вокалист для расширения группы, концертов и участия в Евровидении, я принял решение присоединиться к ним," говорит Йовович, который начал свою карьеру в качестве солиста и клавишника в самой популярной черногорской группе "No Name", представлявшей Сербию и Черногорию на Евровидении 2005. После "No Name", как сольный артист, он выпустил несколько хит-синглов, но всегда продолжал считать работу в группах особенной, потому присоединился сначала к "Neon", а затем к "Highway". "Меня всегда привлекали истории музыкальных групп, хотя, конечно, это намного сложнее, ведь пять-шесть человек должны постоянно соглашаться на каждый шаг. Но в мире группы всегда значительно популярнее сольных исполнителей," говорит Йовович. За время своей сольной карьеры Боян также развил в себе таланты автора песен, и позднее работал над композициями и для других артистов. Он планирует показать эту сторону своего творчества и в составе "Highway". "Я уже держу в уме две песни. После того, как мы закончим работу над песней для Евровидения, мы продолжим запись альбома, который планируется к выходу в конце 2016 года. Я очень доволен этим планом, и тем, что "Highway" серьезно относятся к работе," признается Йовович. Боян отрицает, что его присоединение к группе - это разовый шаг для Евровидения. "Я ощущаю себя полноценным членом коллектива. Сейчас мы все вместе работаем над будущими планами, нам многое предстоит сделать," рассказывает Йовович. "Мне нравится то, что Петар, Лука и Марко готовы спрашивать, принимать советы и критику. Несмотря на популярность, которой они добились за короткое время, они не ведут себя как всезнающие звезды. Я на 10 лет старше их, имею 11-летний опыт выступлений на сцене, так что мой опыт может только помочь. Я хорошо нахожу с ними нахожу общий язык, и я думаю, что мы вместе легко сможем обговорить некоторые идеи," говорит Йовович, который продемонстрирует свои вокальные данные уже на Евровидении. "Пока это сюрприз, но вы узнаете все подробности в начале года. Было бы несправедливо мне рассказывать об этом раньше, чем всем остальным. Недавно мы побывали в Загребе, где сделали несколько записей, и наши голоса прекрасно подошли друг к другу," рассказал Йовович в интервью черногорской газете "Вести". "Я предпочитаю заниматься только одной вещью в одно время, потому, раз я работаю в "Highway", то я не думаю о своей сольной карьере. Было бы контр-продуктивным работать с группой и развивать свою сольную карьеру в то же время. С "Neon" я недавно выступал только потому, что это был один из их концертов в честь воссоздания группы, и мы все еще дружим с другими ее участниками," объясняет он. Боян добавляет, что никогда не сожалел о том, что покинул "No Name", которая прекратила свое существование вскоре после его ухода. "Основателями "No Name" были Марко Перич и я, вместе с автором песен Миньей Перичем. Миньо был именно тем, кто больше всего верил в группу, и подталкивал нас к совершенствованию. Но после ухода Марко мы каким-то образом утеряли смысл для продолжения, и потому я также решил выйти из "No Name", где большинство из участников думали о своих сольных карьерах, а не о группе. Я не сожалению о данном решении, и до сих пор нахожусь в прекрасных отношениях с другими участниками коллектива. Но когда дело доходит до такой стадии, то лучше принять решение и остановиться, чем продолжать мучаться, и начать заниматься сольной карьерой, не пытаясь усидеть на двух стульях," говорит Йовович. Боян, который уже получил большую зрительскую поддержку и добился большого успеха со своей первой группой, верит, что и "Highway" заслуживает подобного отношения. "Я думаю, что все должны поддержать группу "Highway", потому что то, что она делает, полностью отличается от всего, что существует в балканской музыке. Сегодня это не так легко," говорит Йовович.

2019-04-25T10:51:42Z

http://esckaz.com/2016/mon.htm

Middlefield Road in Palo Alto is scheduled for some updates that officials hope will improve safety around Jordan Middle School, provide better access to Lucie Stern Community Center, reduce speeding and improve safety for bicyclists. The design changes will include the narrowing of lanes on Middlefield between the two legs of North California Avenue and addition of crosswalks and bike lanes from Forest Avenue to Oregon Expressway, according to plans recently released by the city. Road work will take place in two phases, starting this summer and concluding next year. The first phase, from Oregon to Embarcadero Road, will also include changes along a stretch of North California Avenue from Alma Street to Newell Road. Middlefield Road changes will include re-striping of lanes at some intersections to improve turning by vehicles; adding new marked crosswalks; reducing the width of car lanes to discourage speeding; and constructing a new, separate bikeway and a widened sidewalk in front of Jordan Middle School. There will be no changes to on-street parking or the number of lanes on Middlefield. Work along North California will entail adding bicycle lanes on North California by removing one parking lane; adding a wide, separate bike lane on North California; signal changes on North California at the Middlefield Road intersection to simplify car and bicycle turns; and extending a separate bikeway to Newell and Jordan Middle School's secure bike-parking area. The bikeway should help cyclists at the North California Avenue/Middlefield Road dogleg intersection to cross more easily, according to city planners. High-visibility crosswalks, directional signage for cyclists, and advisory signs for drivers should improve safety and provide students a convenient bike connection to the Bryant Street Bike Boulevard and improved safe access to the bike parking area for Jordan Middle School students. Narrower car lanes on Middlefield and a simplified centerline striping will aim to calm speeding and better vehicle turning movement. Speed data will be collected and analyzed before and after the changes to determine their effectiveness, Chief Transportation Official Joshuah Mello said June 9 at a public meeting on the road changes at City Hall. To address cars that typically speed and pass aggressively and unsafely on the right at Middlefield and Kingsley Avenue, the city plans to narrow lanes, paint cross-hatched areas near the intersection, and install 6-inch-tall "traffic buttons" in the pavement, which would improve safety for traffic turning on to Middlefield from Kingsley. A similar cross-hatched section of roadway will be installed near the Walter Hays Elementary School driveway to prevent cars from passing, and a new right-turn lane will be striped on Middlefield to let drivers entering the school to pull to the curb and keep the road clear. Narrower lanes will also slow traffic near the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo and the Lucie Stern Community Center. To shorten crossing distances and increase visibility for pedestrians, a concrete bulb-out and crosswalk will be added to the north side of Kingsley. Seale Avenue at Middlefield will also gain a high-visibility crosswalk. In addition, two new dedicated left-turn lanes will be added from both directions of Middlefield onto Embarcadero Road. The traffic signal at the intersection will be adjusted in the future, Mello said. Other changes north of University Avenue at Middlefield, where residents have called for fewer lanes, will be addressed in a separate phase, Mello said. More information and renderings of the project are available online at cityofpaloalto.org/transportation. How is Middlefield unsafe??? I thought Bryant, Cowper and Ross were being redesigned for bikes. Middlefield should have the speed limit raised to 30. No one drives 25. PA cops regularly roll down Middlefield going 40 mph. The results of artificially shrinking Middlefield will be sudden congestion forcing cars onto Cowper and Louis. I thought you didn't want that?? The radical War on Cars is reaching a fever pitch. Narrowing lanes on Middlefield means that buses, trucks, even garbage trucks, will take more space than the width of their lane. This sounds particularly stupid to me. Likewise, slowing traffic to a standstill can't be the aim of efficient traffic management. When traffic is gridlocked, it encourages people to do unsafe things such as darting out into traffic whether they are in a car, on a bike or on foot. I can't see how any of this will make Middlefield safer. The lanes on Middlefield are already so narrow that VTA, SamTrans, Google and other buses have to straddle BOTH lanes--which holds up traffic, preventing other vehicles from passing. There is not enough safe room for bikes NOW--and this will make it more dangerous still! Someone has some loose screws, and needs to tighten them ASAP! When are we going to start teaching better pedestrian safety? I know that pedestrians have right of way at intersections, etc., but so many pedestrians seem to take that to mean they can step out without looking in all directions, acting unpredictably, wearing dark clothes at night, and having an invincible attitude about their own safety. This is particularly true in crowded arenas like around schools, but also on quiet, poorly lit streets with lots of dark shadows. I would like to see pedestrians acting with more safety consciousness. I have traveled a lot overseas, and nowhere else have I seen pedestrians acting the way they do around here. All of us using the roads should be a lot more pro-active towards our own personal safety. We agree that vehicle speeds on Middlefield need to be brought under control. We regularly see cars going 40mph or faster between California Ave and Embarcadero. There are no stop lights in this section or even marked crosswalks. Kids trying to cross the street are in extreme danger and walking all the way out to Embarcadero to cross the street doesn't really help because a lot of cars run the stop lights there and don't respect the crosswalks. seem to be able to drive in their own lanes correctly? The speed limit is 25 mph. Why can't the police enforce the speed limit? Instead of costing money, it will be revenue! Have the safety consequences been fully evaluated? For example, with narrower lanes, won't there be more risk of head-on/side swipe collisions? Also, have thoroughfare standards with respect to transit buses been fully evaluated to be sure we won't lose bus service as a result of this. This is so ironic to me, because I have pointed out real safety hazards along El Camino in personal phone calls and emails with both the City Manager and Chief of Police. They told me to take care of it myself by stopping my vehicle and speaking to the truck driver who was creating the safety hazard. This is an example of a problem with the City's safety culture -- ignoring real issues while chasing phantasms. I agree with the sentiments of most commenters. Is Middlefield unsafe now? Have there been a spate of accidents I don't know about? Or is this really an exercise in redesigning the road with current standards and practices in mind? Personally, I'd like to save our money for places where improvements are needed. But then I've tried to make the same argument with respect to aspects of the planned bike boulevard improvements to no avail. As a cyclist, Middlefield is a disaster. Around mid town shopping, there is barely a bikes width to ride between the second lane and the sidewalk. Right at Colorado is scary narrow. Then you get to Jordan where it changes to a single lane, and there is so much extra room that dimwitted rivers perceive a second lane where there is none, and dive into no man's land to take a right at California. I don't think lane narrowing is the right answer, but there is a lot of room for improvement. This is absurd. My guess is that there is no data on what about Middlefield has proven to be unsafe that would justify the cost and congestion of this ridiculous and dangerous decision ( believe this decision will cause accidents). Enforcing the speed limit should be the first step, if there really is such data that shows significant safety issues. If there is none, as I suspect, then increase the speed limit to 30 and enforce that. And, I agree that I see cops going 40 mph down Middlefield. Why? because it's safe to do so. This is yet another attempt by the transportation department to implement a city council policy to create maximum automobile congestion on the roads in Palo Alto in the hopes that everyone will simply abandon driving bc the city has purposely made it so difficult. Resident has it right. The radical War on cars continues. I'm sure there's grant money that's burning a hole in the pockets of the transportation department. Rather than spend it on something worthwhile, they choose to screw up traffic again. It's ridiculously obvious that Mr. Mello is pursuing his own expensive vision rather than that of the residents who attended the last meeting about the "redesign" of Middlefield. Why do we bother spending money on "community outreach" when our highly paid officials ignore our feedback and pursue their own vision that ignores OUR reality?? We told him the street was already too narrow. We told him that the time window for being about to get in and out of our driveways was narrowing because of the cars gridlocked for blocks. We told him that the buses rarely stay in their own lanes. We told him the buses NEVER yield to let us out of our driveways even when they'll be stuck at the same traffic light anyway. We've begged him to work with the schools on SCHOOL BUSES and to fix the shuttle timing to reduce the gridlock from parents dropping off and picking up their kids. We've told him and told him about how frustrated drivers backed up interminably at the Embarcadero light are forming their OWN lanes yet Mr. Mello continues to ignore our pleas to fix the traffic light timing. We've had TWO cars parked in front of our house hit by distracted drivers in broad daylight. About a month ago I was almost run down putting out the trash cans one evening by a frustrated driver trying to speed up to the light. Fixing the traffic light timing would be a LOT more useful and a LOT less costly than the grandiose plans described here. Putting up more signage and painting the streets different colors will only contribute to the confusion and ugliness that's becoming Palo Alto. The lanes on Middlefield are only too narrow for you if you are driving too fast! Slow down, turn off the cell phone, and pay attention!!! The goal is to the cover the city with paint and signs. That's it. That is the motivation here. enforcement, more police, but that is not even part of the discussion. This is all just part of the steep,drastic downward trajectory of the City. from this diagram/picture Web Link it appears that there will be a two-way bicycle lane on the northeast (Jordan) side of Middlefield between California Avenue and California Avenue. I suspect this is being recommended/done because there is only one traffic light and therefore only one place for the Jordan students to cross safely. While I am willing to "give this a try", I am concerned that most drivers will be unprepared for cyclists approaching them on their right, and I am concerned that (student) cyclists will remain safely within their lane. The only (visual) separation I see are slim, vertical 'battens'. I suspect that the school will (need to) have teachers or aides or parents standing guard at school closure time, but what about other times of the day/week? Let's be careful out there. ah, yes, the two bicycle lanes are also seen on California Avenue where it turns NE at Jordan school in this image Web Link. When school is getting out and students are bicycling there, cars turning right will (most likely) turn very slowly and block or slow traffic continuing on Middlefield. Also, has the (adult) Bicycle Community been involved in this? Are adult bicyclists, who are normally used to riding in/with traffic, be likely to use this 'wrong side' bicycle lane? Or will they ride as 'vehicles'? And will that mean bicycles on the both sides of California and Middlefield? Just more to be considered. Signs: a former traffic manager owns or is connected to a sign company. The number of signs around town is becoming comical. How many can you read as you are driving? Enforcement of all city rules and giveaways is almost non-existent. Just sounding good is all the City Manager is aiming for. They know they aren't going to enforce. Just fix the timing of the Embarcadero/Middlefield light already and watch many of the problems disappear. Also fix the timing at Newell and Embarcadero since Embarcadero becomes effectively becomes one lane when traffic is backed up waiting to turn on Newell and cars off Middlefield and heading to 101 have NO place to go. Also it would be nice if our traffic dept. talked to the traffic dept. of Menlo Park to discuss the backups caused by Menlo Park's decision to eliminate the right turn on red at Willow. Traffic doesn't exist in a vacuum. Isn't 10 feet too narrow for buses? Hasn't the City learned its lesson, due to changing from 2 lines to one lane with turn lanes on Charleston between El Camino and Foothill and caused horrendous traffic backups. Previous to eliminated the second lane, It was possible to traverse that section of Charleston without difficulty. Since they eliminated the second lane it impossible to traverse that section of Charleston at commute hours. Thus, many traverse Los Altos Avenue to get to Foothill. Five Coats, they want to have a clearly visible green bike lane just in case a Gunn student gets hit. Their rationale is preventing worst case scenarios. However, in reality, 5% of traffic at the Arastadero/Foothill intersection is bicycles. The rest is cars trying to get on 280. Bicycles CANNOT replace most car trips so the concept of people being "encouraged" to ride bicycles if they only build infrastructure goes out the window. So we have one congested lane and a mostly empty, unused green bike lane. The proper solution is to open up BOTH Miranda lane and the old right turn lane so cars can get on Foothill smoothly without a pointless, unused green bike lane in the way.w Wthout the gridlock, Gunn students would be much safer and learn to share the road -- instead of being isolated on a green bike lane flanked by walls of congested traffic. But again, the bureaucrats in office have this crude belief that cars are inherently evil. We are being ruled by medieval do-gooders instead of true leaders who actually use logic and common sense. If liberals want fairness & equality than why are bicyclists being treated as superior to motorists? Artificial congestion makes people drive more dangerously. "No Emforcement wrote "Signs: a former traffic manager owns or is connected to a sign company. The number of signs around town is becoming comical. How many can you read as you are driving?" I added that that the same former traffic manager was awarded a contract to synchronize our traffic light timing upon leaving his post and cited the amount of that contract -- which is a matter of public record -- so I'm not sure why the moderator deleted it. I urge all of us to refer the City Council to this discussion since opinion of the plans seems to be pretty unanimous. The geniuses who thought of this also brought you the turn lanes off Oregon Expressway. Five minutes to wait for a left turn light on Ross during the week. Nice job....did you go to Berkeley? If this is done then emergency response times will significantly increase. these days, but no fire engine has to drive just in one lane. these days, but no fire engine has to drive just in one lane." Really? MPFPD fire engines frequently take 20 minutes to get from Middlefield to 101 on Willow Road because there is insufficient room for them to get through traffic during peak travel times. When you reduce the number of lanes on major city streets you force the traffic into the residential areas. I am now learning how to cross town consistent with the traffic lights on the major cross streets going through the residential areas which I am sure is not appreciated by the residents who now have more cars in their area. You are not "calming" anything here - you are creating disruption on the intended use of the major roads to cross town. As to the bikers why don't they use the residential streets to cross town? This is like a bunch of people who are trying to justify their jobs by creating chaos and using double speak in the process to accomplish it. lets mess up the traffic, choke the main arteries and then blame all the businesses so we can tax them. While having smarter light timing is always beneficial the main cause of traffic congestion ion MIddlefield is due to the ridiculously slow work on 101. Bob Gleason's right about how the slow work on 101 is pushing people onto roads like Middlefield. When traffic's totally gridlocked, cars can't move over since there's no place for them to go until the cars around them move over. Just watch ambulances and fire engines trying to get through the Embarcadero / Town & Country gridlock trying to get to /from Stanford Hospital (or wherever). So how will narrowing lanes help anything? It just reduces the size of the shoulders. Peter Carpenter is absolutely right when he says "Really? MPFPD fire engines frequently take 20 minutes to get from Middlefield to 101 on Willow Road because there is insufficient room for them to get through traffic during peak travel times." In fact the Menlo Park Fire Chief blamed a recent death on 101 to their failure to reach the victim in time He's quite outspoken on the dangers of congestion and gridlock and whenever I read his quotes, I wonder what our transportation folks think. So where does the city think the traffic will go when Middlefield's under construction? Waverly? Cowper? El Camino? And thinking more about fire engines, does it really make sense to expand the fire house at Embarcadero and Newell? I checked the Photosimulation provided in the link. You can see exactly what they're planning. The two-way bike lane is a bizarre, unnecessary waste of space because Jordan students ride their bikes straight into campus, they don't ride up Middlefield and then make a right onto N. California to get to Jordan. And I've never seen a two-bike lane like that, just really strange and inexplicable. But the real problem is that a northbound vehicle waiting to make a left onto N. California (or southbound making a left onto Garland) will completely hold up traffic because drivers can't use the shoulder to get around them... because now there is a fancy RAIL cordoning off the double-bike-lane so drivers can't go over these bike lanes, even if they're completely clear. So this intersection is now completely hostile to cars. It seems like there is moral preening going on. They focus on the perceived "safety" of Jordan students while utterly ignoring everything else. Oh the children! Think of the children! But the children!!! This is just make-work by some of our useless city staff who need to feel like they are actually doing something! When is this construction supposed to happen? I've asked the workers who've been working on the Middlefield driveway curb cuts for the last month and all they know is it's going to happen on "some" Saturday. Perhaps our community outreach folks could reach out with some tangible info instead of just preaching to us about conservation etc. I will echo some of the comments here. The PA planning dept lead by Josh Mello, has an extensive list of traffic 'calming' measure in their toolbox that it would seem, they are simply dying to deploy around town. Just like the 'improvements' destined to wreck havoc on the Bryant Bike route, which has been a huge success for decades, Josh et. all are determined to leave their mark by making changes, where there is no data I'm aware of, to substantiate any of the justifications used to peddle the cure. As indicated by others, and words in the article, there do not appear to be any data, no numbers, to justify any changes. It appears that testing happens after the changes to Bryant and Middlefield, of course, long after millions have been spent, enver to be seen again. With respect to Bryant, I still ask, does Josh, or anyone in the transportation dept bike commute to work? How about bike commute on Bryant? How about ride a bike anywhere? And this is where the expert decision making comes from? With respect to Middlefield, the lanes are pretty crowded already, as pointed out. If traffic moves too quickly between a good number of blocks, how about a stop sign?! I imagine one could literally appear overnight, and not cost millions. Show some data demonstrating the problem, and the cure may be self evident. Fixing a problem with speculative remedies, simply because you can, is a fools errand. Peter Carpenter, why do you persist in making arguments that do not apply? -- MPFPD fire engines frequently take 20 minutes to get from Middlefield to 101 on Willow Road because there is insufficient room for them to get through traffic during peak travel times. enough room that if all cars pull over a firetruck can get through the middle. Willow Road is a terrible design, and it would be a terrible design to narrow Middlefield Road too. 1) it takes time for all the cars to move over to clear a path for the firetruck IF they have room to pull over given the congestion. 3) Where are the cars packed 3 abreast backed at intersections up going to go? Into people's driveways like I witnessed just a few days ago. Neither car had anywhere to go. All the backed up drivers waited politely for the two drivers to figure out where and how to exchange their info without going through the intersection. The driver of the car in the right lane that was rammed tried a few times to get out of his car and then realized the lanes were so close together he could't open his drivers door. The "rammer" almost slammed into the car on the right AGAIN while the driver was trying to open the door. The "rammer" then cut it off AGAIN when it abruptly turned into the driveway in front of the 1st car almost slamming into the resident's car parked in the driveway! We were backed up for 4 light cycles watching this Keystone Kops episode. "Peter Carpenter, why do you persist in making arguments that do not apply?" 3 - Because in my opinion as someone directly involved with the fire service the proposed narrowing of Middlefield has the potential for causing significant delays in emergency response times. It is also relevant to note that Willow Rd between Middlefield and 101 use to be 4 lanes and it was "narrowed" by parking, bulb outs, bike lanes etc and now it is virtually impassable by emergency vehicles during rush hours - which means from 7-10 AM and 4-7 PM. There is no reason to believe that the same will not happen to a narrowed Middlefield. Middlefield's gridlock times are MUCH worse than "7-10 AM and 4-7 PM" because you have two schools and a community center due to school pick and drop-off times which have practically eliminated the window to get out of our drivways to 10-11 and 3:30-4 depending on school hours. At LEAST fix the shuttle schedules which should be under Mr. Mello's department and have the City Council and School Boards start working together on the school buses. with cars parking on it. If people do not pull over that is not unique to Middlefield. is an invalid comparison. Where were you then PC? or ever redesigned to be an expressway. Middlefield is not El Camino, or Oregon. a specific location, especially when it is not valid. "There is no reason to believe that the same [bad stuff] will not happen to a narrowed Middlefield." Yes there is. Middlefield is 2-lanes in Atherton, and everything works fine. Middle and High school students do NOT ride in a single file. The idea of bike lanes that operated side by side (with bikes going in both directions next to each other, like cars) will result in collisions. Drive down Newell, North California (the Old Palo Alto portion), Kingsley in Professorville or Bryant in Old Palo Alto after school and you will see students riding 2, 3 or 4 across, chatting and occasionally texting. My sister lives in Willow Glen, where they have reduced Lincoln AVE, the main drag of the area, two one narrow lane in each direction. OUTWARDLY, it looks like a success, because there are now fewer cars and more bikes on Lincoln. TRUTHFULLY, it has been a disaster for people who live on the surrounding streets, because that is where the traffic goes now, to get around the slow bottleneck that is now Luncoln Avenue! Residents are VERY fearful for their children when the new school year starts, and many feel it is now u safe for their kids to bike ride to school-- and will DRIVE them, instead! The unintended consequences have been counterproductive, because traffic does not just disappear. Walking, biking, public transit are all too slow in this speeded-up, impatient, high tech society in which everyone is rushed and sleep deprived. Cars are still the fastest way to get from point to point, so they simply re- route, per Waze. This two way bike path is something I find amazingly bad, particularly in relation to school kids. Presumably, there will be a morning commute for the bikes in the direction to the school bike racks, and presumably an afternoon commute for the bikes in the direction away for the bike racks. My assumption is therefore that even if these are two way paths, the school kids will be riding on both sides in the same direction rather than it be a two way path. What will happen if a lone bike with nothing to do with the school commute wants to go in the opposite direction. I foresee big problems with this idea. " There are always places to pull over for Emergency vehicles on Middlefield," That will no longer to true if Middlefield is narrowed. Menlo Park did not intend to turn Willow Road into an obstacle course for emergency vehicles but that was the direct result of narrowing Willow Road. Of course one can simply ignore experience of others and insist on making one's own mistakes. "Middlefield is 2-lanes in Atherton, and everything works fine." Simply because no parking is allowed, there are no bulb-outs and there is ample room on the shoulders to pull over to yield to emergency vehicles. I think it's time for Josh Mello to go. It's interesting to look at his background on the NACTO website - it states that his expertise is in "urban environments," which should raise the hackles of the residentialists. His bio screams that he has a "cyclist" agenda. He's like the Manchurian Candidate for Critical Mass - trying to make it so painful to drive that everyone must adopt bicycling. The whole point of city planning is to lay out a city grid that gets people across and through town on major highways and roads that bypass the residential areas that are in between the major roads. All of the "calming" to date has moved people off the major roads into the residential areas which is counter-productive. Many comments on Willow - all of those "bulbs" sticking out looks like accidents waiting to happen - cross Willow off as a major road. Charleston has been reduced in number of lanes - this used to be a major road but is now choked in traffic at major commute times of day pushing people into the residential areas. Did city planning go down the drain somewhere? Why is it being targeted by a bunch of "city planners" who think they are being productive by disrupting the city grid. If you want to do something useful put in a left hand turn lane on Charleston onto Fabian. There is now a lot of traffic going onto Fabian for both work and apartments. "The whole point of city planning is to lay out a city grid that gets people across and through town on major highways and roads that bypass the residential areas that are in between the major roads." Way too late for that in this town, which was planned before there was auto traffic. But there is nothing wrong with distributing the traffic burden equitably, and much to say in its favor. Like, nobody gets all smug that traffic is somebody else's problem. There is real incentive to work together on solutions. The real solution is to eliminate the reduction of lanes on the major city roads so that traffic can move effectively though town. It was thought out by very bright people so leave it as originally planned. And yes we had cars for a long time in California - cars are not new. Having safe bike routes does not mean turning every street into a shared bike/car accident-in-waiting. Let's enhance the less car-traveled bike routes to make them world class and leave streets like El Camino and Middlefield to cars & busses. And please, bikes, get off of Alma where there is no bike lane and take a safer alternative! I think that narrowing the lanes on Middlefield is a very bad idea. The road is already pretty congested, what with people parking on both sides and the extra traffic during the beginning and end of school days. Regarding the two-way bike lane, it is already difficult enough to get bikers to use the correct side of the road, and having two-way bike traffic will only be confusing and unexpected for drivers and bikers alike. Keeping the speed down to 25 mph is unrealistic as cars already travel at 40 mph, and will only irritate the faster drivers making them more likely to make unsafe maneuvers. Having more lights/crossing zones activated by pedestrians would make it safer for them to cross and slow down traffic. Why can't there be extra traffic enforcement by police to ticket the speeders? This proposed project is unsafe for all and a waste of money which could be better spent repairing the roads. There doesn't seem to be much common sense these days at city hall. I oppose these periodic odd schemes for the significant roads in Palo Alto. We need some method of moving auto traffic across the city, if you think of the city in a sort of grid with hatch-marks, then it does NOT make sense to narrow, remove lanes, put in sudden bulbs or little roundabouts or speed humps, etc. on those roads. Every so often on the "grid"of the city we need major roads so autos can get across and onward without crazy backups. I appreciate the reality that this city has a lot of schools, and that is a consideration. But distances are great enough that we cannot prioritize bicycling over effective and efficient mass movement of autos. Sorry. Over-painting of roads and excessive signage become distractions. Considerations for emergency vehicles must be carefully included in the discussion. Meantime, I sincerely wish drivers, bikers, and walkers would get off their cellphones while moving about in public. Stop in a safe place: park the car, pull over if on a bike, step aside if walking and THEN check out your phone. Then maybe we would all be a lot safer. I went to the community meeting. I heard -- Traffic on Middlefield is so hectic and out of control that residents of Middlefield could not contemplate parking their cars on the opposite side of the street. "Crossing the street is too dangerous, don't make us do that!" So this plan tries to reduce speeds, and reduce chaos. Painting the narrow lanes is just an attempt to induce drivers to go slower. All the space is still there. Now you know the secret. Other aspects will make it difficult to zip around on the right side of left turning cars. Sorry if that is your mode. Except for at N. California, no lanes are removed. The changes may make the Embarcadero/Middlefield intersection work more efficiently, which would reduce delay. Outside of the N. California jog, there is nothing for bicyclists here. Cyclists should be very brave and highly visible. It's illegal to go into the bike lane to go around a car that is waiting to turn. Cars turning right are supposed to drive into the bike lane when the line breaks (prior to the corner). Cars are not supposed to drive to the corner, then turn right. They are supposed to already be in the bike lane prior to reaching the corner. Some of the worst drivers around Jordan are the parents of Stratford students because they are coming from out of town, hurriedly dropping off their kids before work. They speed and drive recklessly around the Jordan children. PAUSD should force them to change their schedule to start at 8:30 so they don't conflict with the 8:10 Jordan arrival time. Robert Neff, it's crucial for drivers to be able to "zip" around left turners at N. California. They are currently able to do so and there hasn't been an accident at this junction. Taking this away will ensure that Oregon/Middlefield intersection gets needlessly congested every day. Don't you understand traffic flow??? I agree that residents should be able to cross the street. A crosswalk at Seale is all we need here. Low-cost, common sense solution. 10 feet is too narrow for many vehicles: Fire, (UPS/FedEx size)Delivery Vans, Hummers, RV's, which are 8' wide at the BODY <tip: Clearance lights are required by the FED on these sized vehicles> . The CVC REQUIRED mirrors extend further to each side. Did I mention the 'Crown'? That tilts the top of taller vehicles over the curb line. @SteveU, haven't taken my measuring tape to it, but I believe the VTA Gilligs are 8 foot 6, plus mirrors. CVC35100 (specifically 35106 and 35109) allows 102 inches plus 10 inches on either side for mirrors. Also want to measure the northbound Middlefield lanes at Oregon. Looks like 5 lanes are crammed into 45 feet. Do the math. Amusing to watch drivers scatter when the VTA #35 muscles through. No wonder VTA considers eliminating that route. So where is our expensive community outreach to tell us when this is going to happen? PLEASE write to the City Council -- [email protected] -- and refer them to this topic so they can see by the number of comments how outraged we are at these expensive and poorly thought-out-plans that will only increase congestion. Also tell them to respond to the comments here if they really want to reach out instead of just patting themselves on the backs that they have community outreach.

2019-04-22T20:29:55Z

https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/07/01/narrower-lanes-on-middlefield-road-could-slow-traffic-improve-safety

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A booming compensate and recognition software does indeed not want to become complicated or expensive to work. In case you go exercising immediately before eating then you are going to find the positive aspects of walking several conditions through the evening therefore you could also get the advantage of offsetting artery damage that eating can easily instill. What the most of individuals have a tendency to overlook, even so, is now there are a lot of positive aspects and positive aspects of becoming muscular, besides simple pride. Successful folks are constantly searching for opportunities to help other folks. The trick of making it is concealed your everyday routine. Since you walk more often you are likely to think as if you happen to be making improvement and that is going to keep you taking walks just about every single time, many times per day very well into the future. Careers and job environments by using high-involvement actions provide people with autonomy, learning opportunities, so this means, purpose, and a means to increase and get ahead, as well as a array of rewards for the supplier as well. Firstly it may well certainly not become possible for every single BO or company owner to have got their particular store. Home based businesses may be exceptionally diligence, thus a sensation of wit is an essential element in your accomplishment recipe. The organization is just among the fastest-growing finance firms in the nation. Several other businesses forked out millions of dollars for top level logo money can pay for. Firms, on the other hand, generally just simply have a concise description on the firm on the leading page therefore you need to be an associate to see the remainder of the web-site. To get instance, every time a firm is without question exporting the whole result, the superior degree of demand at home is not going to matter. Emotional intelligence is important for human being life, since it is helpful to see, appreciate and control emotions. Sociable brains is the ability to make use of emotional mind in interpersonal situations. Not enough interaction as well generated a lack of close or perhaps friendly romance among the associates of the group. The idea of new and old money is hard to get the common modern audience to know. When someone comes up with an understanding, irrespective of what you could think of it originally, encourage someone to give this a try over a small increase to see whether it performs. You will find different suggestions away there, and a phrase in another short content or a reserve could be the key point you should proceed farther than you’ve ever before gone ahead of. There happen to be several good achieve that. Inside my own mind, one could never perform enough for them. It’s practical so you might obtain a feeling of different methods a commercial might move. The need of reliability seems to have to always be accomplished prior to the individual can receive the genuine being of belonging. Learning isn’t very attained by simply chance. Discovering how to persuade and effect can produce the difference among hoping to have a better salary and having a better income. The will need to fulfill specific potential uses physical and societal types are accomplished. The demand designed for self actualization comes following the rest of the necessities happen to be completed. Also genuinely bad early morning persons identify their motivation levels go up as soon mainly because they will obtain started, regardless of they was feeling earlier in the day. Furthermore, practicing the speech is just one of the best ways to higher communication expertise overall. Basically, it possesses ever been seen as a great ability to work together successfully with other persons. Superhuman possibilities are furthermore a consequence of simple fact strain. Whether a person interprets he is certainly not what he wishes being, he is certainly considerably more willing being stimulated to take part in activities that bring him nearer to his perfect home. Inspiration is important designed for self-improvement. It isn’t a new principle to virtually all of us. In fact, this now serves as a vital device to get the endeavors, goals and aims associated with a corporation realized. If not more than that, searching at winning trades it’s a great approach to boost determination. Determination is a significant matter of coming. Any time poor inspiration is settled, you could possibly need to examine the business’ whole type of management. Great teamwork can help your self-improvement. As mentioned premature, incentives can easily drop worth when time goes. Your repay would not need to cost you a good package. A prosperous pay back and acknowledgement program does indeed not will need to be complicated or expensive to work. If you happen to go doing exercises immediately just before eating then you certainly are going to get the positive aspects of taking walks several times through the day and you can also find the advantage of offsetting artery damage that eating can instill. What the most individuals usually tend to overlook, on the other hand, is right now there are several advantages and advantages of getting muscular, besides simple self-importance. Successful individuals are constantly searching for opportunities to help other folks. The trick of further is hidden in your everyday routine. When you walk more frequently you can come to feel as if you are making progress and that is going to keep you jogging every single daytime, many times per day very well into the future. Jobs and do the job environments making use of high-involvement actions provide people who have autonomy, learning opportunities, meaning, purpose, and a means to raise and succeed, as good as a range of benefits to the supplier too. First of all it will not really end up being possible for every single BO or perhaps company owner to contain their own store. Home-based businesses could be unbelievably hard work, as a consequence a sensation of sense of humor may be a vital element in your achievement recipe. The business is just among the fastest-growing financial services firms in the nation. Other sorts of businesses forked out millions of dollars to find the best logo funds can get. Firms, however, generally simply have a concise description on all their company on the entry page and you need to be an associate to see the remainder of the site. For the purpose of instance, each time a firm is undoubtedly exporting it is whole end result, the large degree of demand by home will not matter. Emotional intelligence is important for individual life, since it is helpful to see, figure out and manage feelings. Public brains is the ability to make use of mental intelligence in public circumstances. Insufficient connection as well resulted in a deficiency of close or friendly marriage among the associates of the group. The concept of new and old funds is hard for the purpose of the typical modern day person who reads to know. When an individual comes up with a preview, regardless of what you could think of it initially, encourage anyone to give that a try over a bit of degree to see whether it performs. You will discover numerous concepts away there, and a word in an alternative brief document or maybe a book could be the key you should choose farther than you’ve ever gone before. There are several reasons to achieve that. Inside my own mind, one could never perform enough for these people. It’s practical that you acquire a sense of several ways a job may travel. The need of protection includes to end up being satisfied just before the person can receive the original being of belonging. Learning actually attained by simply chance. Finding out how to encourage and affect definitely will make the difference between hoping to experience a better profits and having a better salary. The should certainly fulfill specific potential comes after physical and societal kinds are satisfied. The demand for the purpose of self actualization comes after the rest of the requirements happen to be satisfied. Possibly genuinely foul early morning people identify their reason levels grow seeing as soon when they get started, regardless of how they sensed earlier inside the day. Furthermore, practicing your speech is just one of the very best ways to better communication skills overall. Simply, it provides ever been considered as a great ability to work together effectively with other persons. Superhuman credentials are likewise a consequence of reality anxiousness. If the person interprets he is not really what he wishes to become, he is considerably more predisposed to be prompted to join activities that deliver him closer to his perfect home. Determination is important meant for self-improvement. It isn’t a new idea to virtually all people. In fact, this now serves as a vital tool to get the endeavors, goals and targets of the firm attained. In cases where not more than that, looking at invariably winners it’s a amazing method to further improve inspiration. Motivation is a significant factor of following. Whenever poor determination is created, you may possibly need to measure the company whole kind of management. Great teamwork can help your self-improvement. As explained premature, advantages can drop benefit because time goes over. Your encourage does not need to cost a good deal. A booming prize and acceptance plan truly does not need to end up being complicated or perhaps expensive to work. If you happen to go working out immediately ahead of eating then you definitely are going to find the positive aspects of walking several occasions through the day time therefore you could also get the advantage of offsetting artery damage that taking can easily inflict. What the most individuals have a tendency to overlook, even so, is right now there are several advantages and positive aspects of becoming muscular, besides simple self-importance. Successful persons are constantly looking for opportunities to help others. The secret of thriving is concealed your each day routine. Simply because you walk more often you can come to feel as whenever you happen to be making improvement and that is going to keep you strolling just about every single working day, multiple times per day very well into the future. Jobs and do the job environments taking on high-involvement activities provide individuals with autonomy, learning opportunities, meaning, purpose, and a means to raise and get ahead, as well as a array of rewards towards the company too. First of all it would not really come to be possible for every single BO or perhaps company owner to contain their particular store. Work from home businesses may be unbelievably work, as a result a feeling of laughter is mostly an essential component in your success recipe. The business enterprise is just among the fastest-growing financial services firms inside the nation. Other sorts of businesses have paid millions of dollars for top level logo money can purchase. Firms, however, generally just simply have a concise description on all their organization upon the front side page and also you need to be an associate to find the remainder of the website. For the purpose of instance, every time a firm is going to be exporting the whole productivity, the increased degree of demand at home does not matter. Psychological intelligence is important for individual life, because it is helpful to perceive, understand and control thoughts. Public brains is the ability to make use of psychological intellect in interpersonal circumstances. Substandard communication also triggered a lack of close or perhaps friendly relationship amidst the affiliates of the group. The concept of new and old cash is hard for the standard modern readership to know. When someone comes up with a preview, no matter of what you might think of it in the beginning, encourage anyone to give it a make an effort on a tiny basis to see if it functions. You will discover several tips away there, and a post title in a further brief content or possibly a book could be the answer you should choose farther than you’ve ever before gone prior to. There will be several good achieve that. Inside my personal mind, you can actually never do enough to them. It’s practical so you might obtain a feeling of different methods a change could choose. The need of reliability has to end up being connected with prior to the person can acquire the genuine sense of owed. Learning isn’t really attained by chance. Finding out how to convince and influence can make the difference among hoping to own a better income and getting a better cash. The should certainly fulfill specific potential comes after physical and societal kinds are met. The demand just for self actualization comes after the rest of the requirements will be fulfilled. Possibly seriously awful morning people discover their reason levels grow as soon simply because they acquire started, regardless of how they thought earlier in the day. Furthermore, practicing your speech is merely one of the most effective ways to better communication skills overall. Simply, it provides ever recently been viewed as a great capacity to interact effectively with other persons. Superhuman skill sets are in the same way a consequence of simple fact stress and anxiety. If the person interprets he is not really what this individual wishes to become, he is definitely even more inclined to get enthusiastic to take part in actions that deliver him deeper to his perfect self applied. Inspiration is necessary meant for self-improvement. It is not a new strategy to most people. On fact, that now serves as a essential program to get the endeavors, goals and goals associated with an institution obtained. Any time nothing else, looking at winners it’s a wonderful approach to enhance motivation. Motivation is a significant matter of succeeding. If perhaps poor determination is entrenched, you could need to examine the company whole form of management. Superb teamwork can help your self-improvement. As mentioned early, benefits may drop benefit seeing that time goes over. Your reward shouldn’t need to cost a good offer. A booming compensate and reputation software truly does not will need to come to be complicated or perhaps expensive to work. In case you go training immediately before eating then you certainly are going to find the advantages of going for walks several conditions throughout the evening and you simply can also get the advantage of offsetting artery harm that eating can certainly instill. What the most of individuals tend to overlook, however, is right now there are a lot of advantages and positive aspects of being muscular, besides simple self-importance. Successful folks are constantly searching for opportunities to support others. The key of succeeding is hidden in your everyday workout. Simply because you walk more frequently you can expect to truly feel as any time you happen to be making progress and that is likely to keep you jogging every single working day, multiple times every day well into the future. Jobs and job environments featuring high-involvement activities provide individuals with autonomy, learning opportunities, so this means, purpose, and a means to raise and succeed, as well as a choice of benefits to the service provider as well. Firstly may well not end up being possible for each and every BO or perhaps company owner to contain their particular shop. Home-based businesses may be unbelievably diligence, thus a sensation of joy may be an essential component in your success recipe. The business is just among the fastest-growing financial services firms in the nation. Other sorts of businesses paid millions of dollars for top level logo cash can pay for. Businesses, on the other hand, generally simply have a concise description on their very own company in the building page therefore you need to be a member to find the rest of the web page. For instance, because a firm is certainly exporting its whole end result, the large degree of demand in home fails to matter. Mental intelligence is very important for human life, since it is helpful to understand, appreciate and deal with feelings. Public mind is the ability to use mental intelligence in sociable instances. Substandard communication also generated a deficiency of close or friendly romance among the associates of the group. The concept of new and old funds is hard with respect to the regular modern day reader to know. Whenever somebody comes up with a thought, irrespective of what you may think of it originally, encourage anyone to give it a try on the little scale to see if it functions. You will discover completely different options away there, and a term in a further brief content or maybe a reserve could possibly be the key you must choose farther than you’ve ever before gone just before. There happen to be several great achieve that. Inside my own mind, one could never do enough in their eyes. It’s likely for one to obtain a perception of different methods a trade could travel. The need of reliability comes with to end up being reached just before the individual can acquire the genuine feeling of belonging. Learning merely attained simply by chance. Figuring out how to encourage and effect will certainly develop the difference between hoping to have a better salary and developing a better profit. The should fulfill individual potential comes after physical and societal types are fulfilled. The demand with respect to self actualization comes after all of those other desires are accomplished. Actually genuinely horrible morning hours persons find their reason amounts rise while soon while that they get started, regardless of they seemed earlier in the day. Furthermore, practicing the speech is just one of the best ways to raised communication expertise overall. Simply put, it has ever recently been viewed as a capability to work together properly with other people. Superhuman talents are similarly a consequence of actuality tension. If the person interprets this individual is not really what he wishes being, he is usually considerably more inclined to get enlightened to join activities that take him closer to his perfect personal. Determination is necessary for the purpose of self-improvement. Not necessarily a new strategy to virtually all individuals. On fact, it now serves as a essential device to get the purposes, goals and goals of any company obtained. Any time nothing else, looking at winning trades it’s a terrific approach to improve determination. Inspiration is a significant phase of making it. Any time poor motivation is entrenched, you may well need to examine the business’ whole sort of management. Great teamwork will help your self-improvement. As stated earlier, benefits may drop worth since time travels. Your reward fails to need to to cost you a good offer. A prosperous rewards and attention software will not need to become complicated or expensive to work. If you happen to go training immediately prior to eating then you definitely are going to get the advantages of walking several occasions through the working day therefore you may also find the advantage of offsetting artery damage that feeding on can certainly inflict. What the most individuals can overlook, even so, is right now there are a lot of positive aspects and advantages of becoming muscular, besides simple self-importance. Successful individuals are constantly trying to find opportunities to help others. The secret of coming is hidden in your every day workout. Since you walk more sometimes you can look as if you will be making improvement and that is likely to keep you strolling just about every single time, too many times per day well into the future. Careers and do the job environments featuring high-involvement activities provide people with autonomy, learning opportunities, meaning, purpose, and a means to raise and succeed, as good as a collection of benefits towards the specialist too. First of all may well not be possible for every BO or company owner to currently have their particular store. Work at home businesses could be incredibly work, as a consequence a feeling of sense of humor is actually an essential ingredient in your achievement recipe. The company is just one of the fastest-growing finance firms in the nation. Other sorts of businesses paid millions of dollars to find the best logo funds can acquire. Companies, nevertheless, generally merely have a concise information on the business on the entrance page and also you need to be a part to find the rest of the internet site. Intended for instance, if your firm is exporting it is whole outcome, the huge degree of demand in home will not matter. Psychological intelligence is important for human life, since it is helpful to see, understand and control thoughts. Social brains is the ability to make use of emotional mind in public situations. Lousy interaction likewise resulted in a deficiency of close or friendly romance amidst the users of the group. The thought of new and old money is hard meant for the common modern reader to understand. Whenever someone comes up with a concept, irrespective of what it might seem of it originally, encourage someone to give that a make an effort over a very little degree to see whether it performs. You will find distinct concepts away there, and a phrase in one more short content or possibly a reserve could be the major you must proceed farther than you’ve ever before gone before. There happen to be several great achieve that. Inside my personal mind, it is possible to never carry out enough for the kids. It’s practical for one to obtain a feeling of completely different methods a job may well choose. The need of reliability has got to be achieved ahead of the specific can obtain the genuine feeling of owed. Learning isn’t attained by chance. Figuring out how to encourage and affect will certainly generate the difference between hoping to own a better income and using a better profit. The should certainly fulfill individual potential uses physical and societal kinds are accomplished. The demand for the purpose of self actualization comes following other preferences happen to be accomplished. Possibly really awful morning persons discover their reason amounts rise while soon seeing that they will obtain started, regardless of they thought earlier inside the day. Furthermore, practicing your speech is merely one of the best ways to raised communication abilities overall. Quite simply, it provides ever been viewed as an ability to socialize properly with other people. Superhuman abilities are in a similar fashion a consequence of certainty nervousness. If the person perceives this individual is certainly not what he wishes to become, he is normally extra likely to become driven to join activities that provide him nearer to his perfect self. Inspiration is required just for self-improvement. It’s not a new concept to virtually all people. In fact, this now is a essential program to get the seeks, desired goals and objectives associated with a business realized. If nothing else, searching at winning trades it’s a amazing way to boost inspiration. Inspiration is a significant contributing factor of being successful. If perhaps poor determination is created, you may possibly need to measure the business’ whole type of management. Great teamwork can assist your self-improvement. As mentioned in the past, benefits can drop value while time goes by. The rewards is not going to need to cost you a good deal. A booming praise and status course does indeed not want to be complicated or perhaps expensive to work. In case you go doing exercises immediately ahead of eating then you certainly are going to get the positive aspects of jogging several times through the day time therefore you may also find the advantage of offsetting artery destruction that eating can easily inflict. What the most of individuals tend to overlook, however, is presently there are a lot of advantages and positive aspects of becoming muscular, besides simple pride. Successful individuals are constantly searching for opportunities to help other folks. The key of being successful is concealed your day-to-day routine. While you walk more quite often you can expect to come to feel as in the event that you will be making progress and that is going to keep you strolling just about every single time, multiple times per day very well into the future. Careers and work environments utilizing high-involvement actions provide people with autonomy, learning opportunities, interpretation, purpose, and a means to increase and succeed, as well as a choice of rewards for the corporation also. First of all may well certainly not become possible for every BO or company owner to have their particular store. Work at home businesses could be extremely work, thus a sensation of sense of humor may be an essential component in your success recipe. The business enterprise is just one of the fastest-growing finance firms inside the nation. Several other businesses have paid millions of dollars for top level logo cash can buy. Companies, nevertheless, usually merely have a concise description on their very own organization about the facade page and also you need to be an associate to see the rest of the internet site. For instance, each time a firm is exporting its whole outcome, the increased degree of demand by home fails to matter. Mental intelligence is very important for real human life, since it is helpful to perceive, appreciate and deal with feelings. Community cleverness is the capacity to use psychological mind in interpersonal instances. Bad connection as well resulted in a deficiency of close or friendly relationship among the paid members of the group. Thinking about new and old money is hard for the purpose of the popular modern day audience to comprehend. Anytime somebody comes up with a good idea, irrespective of what you may think of it originally, encourage someone to give it a make an effort on the very little degree to see if it performs. You will discover distinctive choices away there, and a sentence in one more brief document or maybe a book could be the key element you must travel farther than you’ve ever gone ahead of. There are several good achieve that. Inside my mind, you can actually never carry out enough for them. It’s conceivable that you should get a feeling of several methods a investment may visit. The need of protection features to end up being realized just before the person can receive the original sensing of owed. Learning isn’t really attained by simply chance. Discovering how to persuade and impact will certainly make the difference between hoping to contain a better cash flow and using a better cash flow. The ought to fulfill specific potential comes after physical and societal types are connected with. The demand pertaining to self actualization comes following the rest of the preferences happen to be satisfied. Even seriously dreadful early morning people track down their motivation amounts surge as soon seeing that they obtain started, regardless of how they sensed earlier inside the day. Furthermore, practicing your speech is just one of the finest ways to raised communication abilities overall. This means that, it features ever been considered as an ability to work together successfully with other people. Superhuman abilities are furthermore a consequence of truth stress and anxiety. If the person thinks he is not what this individual wishes to be, he is even more willing to get stimulated to take part in actions that carry him better to his perfect home. Motivation is necessary pertaining to self-improvement. It isn’t a new strategy to most people. In fact, it now is a essential tool to get the goals, desired goals and goals of any corporation achieved. If not more than that, looking at winners it’s a great way to enhance determination. Determination is a significant factor of being successful. In the event that poor determination is created, you could possibly need to examine the company whole sort of management. Great teamwork can help your self-improvement. As explained quick, rewards can easily drop benefit when time goes. Your rewards does not need to cost you a good offer. A booming reward and realization course does indeed not need to be complicated or expensive to work. If you happen to go working out immediately prior to eating then you definitely are going to get the advantages of going for walks several conditions through the day time and also you may also get the advantage of offsetting artery damage that eating can easily inflict. What the many individuals have a tendency to overlook, however, is at this time there are a lot of advantages and positive aspects of becoming muscular, besides simple pride. Successful people are constantly searching for opportunities to support others. The key of making it is hidden in your every day plan. Mainly because you walk more sometimes you are going to come to feel as if you are making improvement and that is likely to keep you strolling every single day time, many times per day well into the future. Careers and do the job environments employing high-involvement activities provide people who have autonomy, learning opportunities, so this means, purpose, and a means to increase and get ahead, as good as a collection of benefits towards the professional as well. First of all it’d not be possible for each and every BO or company owner to possess their particular shop. Work from home businesses may be surprisingly diligence, as a result a sensation of laughter is actually a vital component in your accomplishment recipe. The business enterprise is just among the fastest-growing finance firms in the nation. Several other businesses forked out millions of dollars to find the best logo funds can get. Corporations, nevertheless, generally just have a concise information on their particular enterprise in the building page and you need to be an associate to see the rest of the web-site. Meant for instance, each time a firm is certainly exporting the whole output, the excessive degree of demand in home doesn’t matter. Mental intelligence is very important for human life, since it is helpful to perceive, appreciate and deal with thoughts. Public thinking ability is the capacity to make use of psychological brains in cultural instances. Bad conversation as well triggered a deficiency of close or friendly romantic relationship amidst the individuals of the group. The idea of new and old cash is hard with regards to the usual modern day subscriber to know. When an individual comes up with a preview, irrespective of what you might think of it primarily, encourage anyone to give that a make an effort on a small increase to see whether it functions. There are several concepts away there, and a term in a second short article or possibly a book could possibly be the key you must get farther than you’ve at any time gone just before. There happen to be several good achieve that. Inside my mind, one could never perform enough on their behalf. It’s likely so that you can receive a feeling of completely different techniques a craft may move. The need of secureness comes with to end up being realized before the person can receive the genuine sense of owed. Learning isn’t very attained by simply chance. Discovering how to encourage and influence can create the difference between hoping to contain a better money and possessing a better money. The ought to fulfill individual potential uses physical and societal ones are achieved. The demand for the purpose of self actualization comes following all of those other necessities happen to be achieved. Actually genuinely harmful morning hours persons discover their reason amounts grow seeing that soon since they receive started, regardless of how they were feeling earlier in the day. Furthermore, practicing the speech is merely one of the most effective ways to raised communication expertise overall. Basically, it provides ever been viewed as a great capacity to socialize properly with other persons. Superhuman expertise are furthermore a consequence of certainty panic. Whether a person thinks this individual is certainly not what this individual wishes to get, he is definitely extra willing to become excited to join activities that deliver him better to his perfect self.

2019-04-24T04:41:26Z

http://www.blackmuslimlife.com/?page_id=8&paged=5

Tag Bionik is a biofertilizer product containing a mixture of most useful range of mycorrhizae (VAM) spores and propagules. It is recommended to apply along with required quantity of farm yard manure or oil cakes. Tag Bionik contains a selected strains of most effective species of following mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae are so closely connected to the roots of plants that they are considered an extension of the root system. The extension of the effective root area of the plant, increase the absorption and translocation of immobile nutrients. Many elements like N, P, K, S, Zn, Ca, Mn & Cu is taken.The available Phosphorus concentration in the root zone is increased. Increases biomass, production and yield. Protects crop from harmful plant diseases and increase the resistance of plants. Stress tolerance and better water retention capacity in soil. Application can be made along with farmyard manure or compost or organic manure or soil. Gold Bionik is a water soluble powder Biofertilizer formulation containing a mixture of most useful range of mycorrhizae (VAM) spores. It is recommended to apply through drip irrigation or as soil drench. Gold Bionik contains a selected strains of most effective species of following mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae are so closely connected to the roots of plants that they are considered an extension of the root system. The extension of the effective root area of the plant, increase the absorption and translocation of immobile nutrients. Many elements like N, P, K, S, Zn, Ca, Mn & Cu is taken. The available Phosphorus concentration in the root zone is increased. Suitable for seed treatment and application through drip irrigation system. Nitrorich is a biofertilizer product containing Rhizobium, a bacterium, forming symbiotic relationship with leguminous crops. It colonizes plant cells within root nodules and converts atmospheric Nitrogen to NH4 form which is useful to the plants. Rhizobium fixes atmospheric nitrogen through root nodules. Tropical Agrosystem offers 4 different crop specific formulations viz. Crop specific Rhizobium, viz. Rhizobium for Soybean, Rhizobium for Groundnut, Rhizobium for Chickpea and Rhizobium for other leguminous crops. Best suited for seed treatment. Very high concentrated product with heavy load of Rhizobial spores. Reduces chemical Nitrogen fertilizer dose by upto 25%. 10 gm for seeds required for 1 acre. For seed treatment, mix 50 ml Biosticker (provided along with the product) in 500 ml water. Finally add 10 gm of Nitrorich and thoroughly mix. Slowly pour this solution and thoroughly mix with seeds required for one acre. The treated seeds are shade dried for 30 minutes and are ready for sowing. Crop specific Rhizobium, viz., Rhizobium for Soybean, Rhizobium for Groundnut, Rhizobium for Chickpea and Rhizobium for other leguminous crops. Azotobat is a biofertilizer product containing Azotobacter chroococcum, a nitrogen fixing bacterium that fix molecular nitrogen from the atmosphere, releasing it in the form of ammonium ions into the soil, that are made available to the plants. Contains virulent strain of Azotobacter chroococcum for efficient nitrogen fixing. Very high concentrated product with heavy load of spores. Reduces the requirement of chemical Nitrogen fertilizer dose by upto 25%. Recommended on all the crops, except legumes. Finally add 10 gm of Azotobat and thoroughly mix. Phosphobat is a biofertilizer product containing highly efficient strain of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (Bacillus megaterium) that grow and secrete organic acids, which dissolve unavailable phosphate in the soil into soluble form and make it available to the plants. Contains virulent strain of Bacillus megaterium for efficient phosphorus solubilization. Reduces the requirement of chemical Phosphate fertilizer dose by upto 25%. Recommended on all the crops. Finally add 10 gm of Phosphobat and thoroughly mix. Spirobat is a biofertilizer product containing Azospirillum lipoferum, a nitrogen fixing bacterium that fix atmospheric nitrogen in the form of ammonium, that are made available to the plants.Biological nitrogen fixing process happens through assimilation of ammonium and the activity of nitrogenase. Recommended on cereals, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and plantation crops. Finally add 10 gm of Spirobat and thoroughly mix. Tag Topup is an effective organic plant growth booster based on consortium of agriculturally beneficial plant growth promoting rhizobacterial microorganisms, microbial growth promoting hormones, etc., for boosting the plant growth and increasing crop productivity. Product with high cell count, longer shelf life and greater protection against environment stresses. Special product for boosting plant growth. Reduces the dependency on chemical fertilizer to great extent. Recommended on sugarcane and other graminaceous crop. Do not mix Tag Topup with any chemical fertilizer or any chemical. Tag Fillup is unique organic based agro product containing agriculturally beneficial plant growth promoting rhizobacterial micro-organisms, organic plant nutrients, microbial growth promoting hormones, etc., for the restoration of biological fertility in soil. Increased field efficiency and improve yield. 1 Lt / acre through drip irrigation or as soil drenching. 1 Lt / acre along with FYM or organic compost and apply at the time of planting. Do not mix Tag Fillup with any chemical fertilizer or any chemical. Improves overall growth and yield of the crops. Increases rate of photosynthesis and reduces the intensity of chlorosis. Compatible with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Significantly reduces the dependency on chemical fertilizer. Eco friendly and certified organic product. Tag Nano Phos is an innovative, first of its kind product that combines gluconated phosphorus fertilizer and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) '4G' Nano nutrient technologies.Tag Nano Phos is a unique proteino-lacto-gluconate formulation that helps to prevent and correct Phosphorus deficiency in the cultivated crops. It also reduces the intensity of chlorosis, withering in patches, formation of abnormal leaves, increases crop tolerance to diseases and boost growth. Based on latest green technology. Significantly reduces the dependency on chemical phosphorus fertilizer. Accelerates photosynthesis that results in increased synthesis of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Reduces the intensity of chlorosis. Increases stress tolerance of plants. Tag Nano Cal is an innovative, first of its kind product that combines gluconated fertilizers and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) '4G' Nano nutrient technologies. Tag Nano Cal is a unique proteino-lacto-gluconate formulation,containing bio-available calcium, magnesium, sulphur and all secondary nutrients. Improves physiological activities of the plants. Tag Nano Zinc is an innovative, first of its kind product that combines gluconated fertilizers and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) '4G' Nano nutrient technologies. Tag Nano Zinc is a unique proteino-lacto-gluconate formulation, formulated with organic and chelated Zinc, vitamins and probiotics. Improves flower formation, fruit set and overall growth and yield of the crops. Reduces the intensity of chlorosis and reduces withering in patches. Taglife - V contains Trichoderma viride, an antagonistic fungus, effective against a wide range of seed and soil borne plant diseases. Taglife – V effectively controls wilt, root rot, dieback and fruit rot causing seed and soil borne plant pathogens like Sclerotium spp, Pythium spp, Phytophthora spp, Fusarium spp, Rhizoctonia spp, Sclerotinia spp and Ustilago spp. which infects different kinds of crops. The product contains most virulent strain of T. viride. Effective against wide range of soil and seed borne plant diseases. Control tough to control plant pathogens like Fusarium, etc. Does not leave any harmful residues in food product and soil. Soil application can be done either as soil drenching or through broadcasting along with FYM / Soil. Use Taglife - V for seed treatment as a prophylactic measure and apply in the field, immediately on appearance of disease symptoms in various crops, preferably late in the evenings for optimum efficacy. Do not mix with chemical fungicides. The product contains most virulent strain of T. harzianum. Use Taglife - H for seed treatment as a prophylactic measure and apply in the field, immediately on appearance of disease symptoms in various crops, preferably late in the evenings for optimum efficacy. Apply 7 days after application of chemical fungicides. Tag Monas contains Pseudmonas fluorescens, an antagonistic bacteria, effective against a wide range of foliar, seed and soil borne plant diseases. It is antagonistic to foliar or rhizosphere plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Grows abundantly on host surface and acts as a shield, thus preventing penetration of nematodes inside plants. The product contains most virulent strain which is effective against wide range of fungal and bacterial diseases in several crops. It is recommended in wet land crop like Rice. It is capable of thriving well even in saline soils that is characteristic of Rice and millet growing areas. Tag Monas is used in the control of leaf diseases. It is effectively utilized to control plant pathogenic organisms like Sarocladium, Pyricularia, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium, Pythium, Phytophthora, etc. Safe to human, animals, non target organisms and environment. No waiting period. Does not leave any residues in produce and in environment. Tag Nema contains most virulent strain of Paecilomyces lilacinus, a nematophagous fungus, which is effective against nematodes like cyst nematodes, citrus nematode, burrowing nematode, reniform nematode, root knot nematodes, etc., infesting various crops. The product contains most virulent strain of P. lilacinus. Attack all stages of nematodes like egg, juvenile and adult. Does not leave any residues in produce and in environment. Tagveria contains most virulent strain of Beauveria bassiana, a broad spectrum entomopathogenic fungus, which is effective against various pests like aphids, hoppers, scales, beetles, grubs, termites, lepidopteran larvae, etc. Tagveria contains most virulent strain of B. bassiana. Compatible with chemical pesticides, except fungicides. Best IPM tool for resistance management. 1 kilogram per acre with wetting agent (Kloud). Wetting agent improves the efficacy of the product. Nasa is a granulated organic manure formulated with USA technology using a combination of plant growth promoting substances & organic essence in correct balance. It is used for increasing yield and quality of all kinds of crops including cereals, cotton, oilseeds, pulses vegetabes, fruit crops, plantation crops, etc. Improves tolerance against stress conditions. Safe to human being, animals, non-target organisms and environment. 1 – 2 Kg / acre. Broadcast application along with FYM / Organic Manure / Fertilizers. Rice, other cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses coffee, tea, ornamentals and plantation crops. Tag Bumper acts by binding soil particles with humus. With a higher cation exchange capacity, it helps retain nutrients and makes them available to plants. Tag Bumper improves the nutrient use efficiency of the treated plants and the recommended dose of fertilizer can be reduced to 80% of the recommendation. Tag Bumper increases growth parameters such as tiller numbers / branches, panicle length / panicle numbers, buds and flowers, grain numbers and grain weight. Tag Bumper application induces profuse flowering and fruiting and also prevents flower and fruit drop. Best product in the plant growth promoting products segment. Induce profuse flowering and prevents dropping of flowers and fruits. Better seed germination and increases yield significantly. Improves nutrient uptake, photosynthesis and nutrient use efficiency. Compatible with biopesticides, chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Improves soil structure and soil aeration. No waiting period. Does not leave any harmful residues in produce and in environment. 3 – 4 ml / water as foliar spray / soil drenching. 5 ml / Litre water for seed treatment. 1 lt / acre through drip irrigation system. Tag Bumper can be applied through drip irrigation along with water soluble fertilizers. Due to high Cation Exchange Capacity, Tag Bumper helps to minimize scaling in drip lines. Recommended on all the crops including Rice, other cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses coffee, tea, ornamentals and plantation crops. Super Power G is a naturally occurring organic soil conditioner. Super Power G in granular form is specifically designed for soil application, ensuring rapid action due to its high solubility in water. (ii) Accelerating organic matter decomposition. (iii) Increasing humus / carbon content. Increases root mass, fruit yield and bio mass of the plant. Improves uptake of macro and micro nutrients from the soil. 5 – 10 Kg / acre. All kinds of crops including cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses coffee, tea, ornamentals and plantation crops. Agro Charger is a herbal, biodegradable organic crop growth enhancer transformed into Nano molecules, half the size of a DNA. The ultimate colloidal formulation based on the principle "Quantum Electro Mechanical Physics” and “Colloidal Technology". Increases water use and nutrient use efficiency in treated plants. Enhances the growth, crop hardiness and yield. Improves plant resistance to cold weather. No waiting period. Ecofriendly and safe. 15 – 20 days after the first application. It can also be applied through drip irrigation. Recommended for all the crops. Tag Exotica is unique product containing concentrated extract of marine flora and fauna. It works at the energy centre of plant cells enabling them to hasten all critical metabolic and bio-chemical processes within the plant system, leading to rapid vegetative and reproductive growth of plants. Treated plants develops great resistance to adverse stress conditions. Increases yield significantly and better quality of end produce. Foliar spray: 1 – 2 gm / Lt water. Drip irrigation system: 250 – 500 gm / acre. Recommended to use in a wide range of crops such as cotton, paddy, vegetables, plantation crops,oilseeds, pulses, horticultural crops such as grapes, banana, citrus, pomegranate, etc. Humacid (Humic acid) comes from vegetation deposits that have heated up,compacted and slowly carbonized to become coal. This natural process exuded acids and esters from the vegetation on top of the coal (Leonardite) deposits. Humacid is a growth stimulant and a chelating agent. Humacid increases a plant's tolerance for drought. Humacid increases sugar and chlorophyll content in the plant. Humacid is non-toxic and completely natural. Seed Treatment : 5-10 ml / kg of seed use 10-15 ml / l kg for small seeded crops. Seedling Root Treatment : 20-25 ml / litre of water. Dip the seedling root for sufficient time before transplanting. Foliar Application : 1-2 ml / litre water using knapsack sprayers . 2-4 ml of / liter of water using power sprayers. Drip Irrigation : 1- 2 litre / acre. Humacid can be safely used on all Field Crops, Fruit Crops, Plantation Crops, Vegetable Crops, Ornamentals, Lawns, Turf grass and House plants. In short, Humacid can benefit almost anything which grows. Tropicana increases flowering, fruit setting and yield. Tropicana stimulates metabolic processes and energizes the plant system. Tropicana promotes the uptake of nutrients both during vegetative and reproduction growth stages of the plant. Tropicana boosts flowering and improves uniform grain development. Foliar spray : 250- 500 ml / ac. Cotton, Paddy, Vegetables, Tea, Coffee, Grapes, horticultural crops. Tag Bio contains 100% natural and enriched organic biostimulant. Tag Bio helps to increase the yield and quality of produce. Increases the uptake of nutrients. Enhances the growth of micro-organisms. Tagzyme is a liquid extract of the fastest growing seaweed in the world - Ecklonia maxima. Tagzyme is the only extract produced from the "Cold Cell Burst Method”. This method simply ruptures the cell walls releasing vital plant hormones without any denaturing. Tagzyme promotes a larger and more vigorous root system. Tagzyme helps crops recover from stress situations. Tagzyme encourages strong stem cell development, reducing lodging of cereal crops and head drop in flower crops. Tagzyme reduces senescence in many leaf crops. Tagzyme promotes plant growth, development of buds and fruiting. Foliar spray : 200 ml / ac. 1 - 2 ml / Lt water. Cotton, Paddy, Vegetables, fruit crops, Tea, Coffee, Grapes, pulses, oilseed crops, wheat sugarcane, horticultural crops. Tagzyme Granules is combination of microbial metabolites such as proteins, protein hydrolyzates, amino acids, organic acids, enzymes, growth promoters and vitamins with complex chelated secondary metabolites and micronutrients. Tagzyme Granules stimulates increased root growth. Tagzyme Granules enhances photosynthesis by increasing plants chlorophyll. Tagzyme Granules increases the uptake of natural and added minerals. Tagzyme Granules improves the growth and yield of treated crops. Tagzyme Granules is recommended @ 8 – 16 kg/ ac. This should be uniformly broadcasted all over the field. : At the time of basal dose application. : 30-50 days after sowing/ transplanting. : 55-60 days after sowing/transplanting. HOW TO APPLY TAGZYME GRANULES? Apply near the root zone and mix well with the soil. Irrigate the field after application of Tagzyme Granules. Tagzyme Granules can be applied along with all chemical fertilizers and granular insecticides. However, it should not be applied with growth retardants or weedicides. Tag Tryple is 100% imported organic biostimulant of marine plant origin. Tag Tryple is a biostimulant which enhances growth and flowering in plants leading to increased yield. 2-3 spray applications of Tag Tryple at 20-25 days interval, during vegetative, flowering and fruiting phase of the crop is recommended. Cotton, Paddy, Vegetables, Pulses, Oilseeds, Chillies, Tea, Coffee, Grapes, all Horticultural crops, Floriculture, etc. Tag Folder contains proprietary formula of unique combination of metabolites. It has broad spectrum action against a wide range of sucking insect pests, mites and early instar leaf folder caterpillars. Tag Folder has synergistic relationship with all the commonly used insecticides and fungicides for plant protection. Mortality is observed from one day after spray and the effect is reasonably longer and continue to act against the target insects. Compatible with chemical insecticides and fungicides. Also compatible with biological pesticides. No waiting period. Does not leave any harmful residues. Foliar spray : 3 – 4 ml / Litre water (or) 300 – 400 ml / acre, depending upon the severity of the pest incidence. Tag Combo contains proprietary formula of unique combination of secondary metabolites. It has a broad spectrum action against a wide range of pests like sucking insect pests, mites,and caterpillars. Tag Combo is first of it’s kind formulation which has promising action against a wide range of insect pests and mites. The water soluble nature of the formulation makes it more versatile and easy to apply as foliar spray, soil drench and through drip irrigation. Tag Combo contains a unique combination of secondary metaboltes. Compatible with chemical insecticides, but not fungicides. Synergistic action with chemical insecticides. Foliar spray : 1 gm / Litre water (or) 70 – 100 gm / acre, depending upon the severity of the pest incidence. Soil drenching : 1 gm / Litre water. Tag Poly contains proprietary formula of unique combination of secondary metabolites It has broad spectrum action against a wide range of fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. Tag Poly works by initiating and enhancing systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in treated plants against plant pathogens causing diseases in cultivated crops. Tag Poly contains a unique combination of metabolites. Compatible with chemical insecticides, but not chemical fungicdes. Soil drenching @ 1 gm / Litre water. Do not mix with chemical fungicdes. Apply 7 days after application of chemical fungicdes. Gama Flo contains proprietary formula of unique combination of metabolites. It has broad spectrum action against a wide range of soil borne problems like plant pathogens, nematodes and soil borne insects. Gama Flo works by initiating and modulating the natural immune system in treated plants and effectively protects the root zone and prevents all soil borne problems. Effective for managing soil borne problems. Soil drenching : 2 - 3 gm / Litre water (or) 250 gm / acre. Seed treatment @ 2 - 3 gm / Kg seed. Eco is an organic bio-input derived from botanical extracts. It contains vegetable alkaloids and other derivatives extracted from several medicinal plants for total crop care. Eco develops plant immune system to resist crop pests and diseases. Eco promotes vegetative growth in plants and increase the yield. Eco provides total care to the plants. Improves yield and protects crop against pests and diseases. 2 – 3 gm / Litre of water. Can be applied as foliar spray or soil drench, once in 15 – 20 days, starting from 15 – 25 days after sowing / planting. Agro Clean is an incredibly powerful, yet amazingly safe, next generation all natural bio-based (herbal) product, developed through recent advances in organic chemistry. Agro Clean is so powerful that it is able to disinfect plants and neutralizes insects, bacteria and fungi. Agro Clean is fundamentally an augmented bioremediation technology derived from a relatively new field of advanced materials science known as organic colloidal chemistry. Using a proprietary manufacturing process, renewable, sustainable plant and vegetable oils are blended to create a truly eco-friendly particle. Agro Clean is useful against pests like whiteflies, mealybugs. scales, thrips and mites as well as bacterial and fungal plant pathogens. Effective against sucking insect pests and mites. Effective against bacterial and fungal plant pathogens. Compatible with biopesticides and chemical pesticides. 4 in 1 Unique Granular Product. Imparts immunity to plants against Nematodes, Soil borne Diseases and Termites. Increases root and shoot growth and yield. Vegetable crops like Tomato, Chillies, Brinjals, potato and other crops. Second application at 50 % dose after 25 days . 1 to 2 kg per acre as basal application. If required, second application at 25 days of transplanting. Recommended to be applied as Basal at the time of sowing or transplanting. For best results apply before attack of insect pests and plant pathogens. Crops like Garlic, Onion, Rice, Banana, Cumin, Tomato, Chillies, Brinjals, potato, groundnut, carrot, cotton and other crops. 4 to 5 kg per acre as basal application. If required, second application at 25 days of sowing / transplanting. Tag Orbit functions as a plant protector by activating resistance mechanism in the plant against a wide variety of diseases like Powdery Mildew, Leaf spot, Leaf Blight, Fruit rot, Anthracnose, Blast, Sheath blight etc. Tag Orbit is recommended on a wide variety of crops like Grapes, Chillies, Tomato, Pomegranate, Rice, vegetables, Cereals, Oilseeds, Plantation crops etc. Foliar spray: Dissolve 1-2 gms per litre of water and spray uniformly to cover the plant surface thoroughly. Tropical Agrosystem offers two formulations based on varied concentration of Azadirachtin viz.,1500 ppm (0.15%) and 10000 ppm (1%). Tag Neem works against insects as Antifeedant, Insect growth regulator (IGR), Oviposition deterrent, Repellent, Chitin synthesis inhibitor, Disrupt mating and sexual communication. Increase effectiveness (synergism) of microbial biopesticides when used in combinations. Broad spectrum botanical insecticide with multiple modes of action. Does not leave any toxic residue in crop and in the environment. Kloud is a best in class; proprietary, organo-modified trisiloxane based spreading and wetting agent. It is a tailor made, non-ionic surfactant, known for its super spreading (zippering effect) and high wetting and targeting action (cuticular penetration when used in all agricultural spray programmes. Its inherent rainfastedness (tolerate rain after one hour of application) allows larger amount of active ingredient to penetrate plant cuticle even under adverse conditions, thus saving spray volumes. Extremely versatile product which can be used as a tank-mix adjuvant to enhance the control of pests, diseases and weeds. Kloud safeguards the performance of pesticides and foliar fertilizers. Penetrates the dust covered surface of the target plants. Wets and penetrates the waxy surface of weather-hardened plants. Improves coverage when spray volumes are reduced. Enhances the dissolution of solid formulations in the tank e.g. WG and WP. Not phytotoxic to crops when used as directed. 50 - 100 ml / acre. (0.25 - 0.50 ml / Lt water). Use as in-tank mix along with other agricultural inputs like agrochemicals, biological products, foliar fertilizers, etc. Tank master belongs to latest class of customized surfactants, addition of which, enables very good adhesion of spray droplets of widely used crop protection agents, through zippering action,stomatal infiltration and rainfastening, on the leaf surface. Regular use of Tank Master in crop protection, will significantly add on to the efficiency of pesticide sprays through enhanced crop coverage with minimum spray mass at low cost. Used as a tank-mix adjuvant to enhance the effectiveness of pesticides and foliar fertilizers. Wets and penetrates the leaf cuticle through stomatal infiltration. Tank Master safeguards the performance pesticides and foliar fertilizers. 50 ml / acre. (0.25 / Lt water). Use as in-tank mix along with other agricultural inputs like agrochemicals, foliar fertilizers, etc. Helper is a highly effective wetting agent, which increases the efficiency of your pesticide application through enhanced spreading and sticking activity. Helper binds herbicides to plants after spray as a surfactant. Helper penetrates the waxy coating of leaves on tough plants. Helper provides better coverage without excessive runoff. Helper improves the penetration of pesticides into the plant tissue. Helper makes the spray droplets more uniform to improve coverage. Mix required quantity of pesticide in water and stir well. To this solution, add 0.5ml - 1.0 ml of Helper / lt of water. Mix the solution thoroughly and pour into the spray tank and spray. Propel is a digester which contains unique mixture of composting microbes for activating the composting process, comprising of microbial enzymes, cellulose, starch, phenol and lignin digesting microbes to degrade the farm residues. It can be used for preparation of compost from different kinds of agricultural waste, domestic waste, municipal solid waste, vegetable and garden waste, leaf waste and wood clippings. The product contains most virulent strain of 8 different composting microbes. Effective in digesting and composting any biodegradable wastes. Make compost easy and faster. Eco-friendly and safe to environment and non-target organisms. One Lt of Propel is mixed with 20 Liter of 1 Kg jaggery solution. The container is closed tightly and kept for 2 days. 5L of the mixture per ton of the solid waste. 5L can be diluted with 200L water and applied uniformly to 1MT of Solid waste. Application of Propel is to be made at 2 stages. First spray at the time of dumping and the second, after 15 days. Make a heap of organic waste at 3 feet height and 3 feet breadth and convenient length depending upon the availability of the material. Spray the above prepared mixture solution uniformly. Phantom Gold+ contains 100% imported natural green technology product derived from organic manure. It helps in promoting both vegetative and reproductive growth in plants, resulting in higher yields. Balanced combination of active ingredients to promote growth. Enhances stomatal opening and chlorophyll synthesis. Tagflower-n is a plant stimulant and yield booster containing 24 % w/w nitrobenzene with non toxic specialty surfactants for enhanced cell permeability. Tagflower-n facilitate transition phase from vegetative growth to flowering. Foliar spray 2-3 ml/ L water. Prevents / corrects micronutrient deficiencies. Enhances size, weight and keeping quality of fruits and vegetables. Available in 600 gm and 1200 gm LDPE pouches placed inside cartons. Hexacon Super, containing Hexaconazole 5% SC as active ingredient, is a systemic fungicide with protective and curative action. Hexacon Super is effective for the control of many fungi, particularly Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes. It is recommended for the control of powdery mildew of mango and sheath blight of rice. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml. 500 ml, 1 Litre and 5 Litre HDPE containers. Hexacon is a systemic fungicide with protective and curative action, effective for the control of many fungi, particularly Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes. Hexacon is recommended for the control of Powdery mildew of grapes, pea and mango, Scab of apple, Blast and Sheath blight of rice, Tikka of groundnut and fruit and leaf spot of pomegranate. Available in 100 ml, 250ml, 500 ml,1 Litre and 5 Litre Aluminum container and 20 Litre MS drums. Mantram is a readymix combination fungicide containing Metiram 55% + Pyraclostrobin 5% WG. Mantram is a broad spectrum fungicide recommended for the control of Late Blight, Early Blight, Downy Mildew and Anthracnose diseases in various vegetable and horticultural crops. Available in 300 gm, 600 gm and 3 kg HDPE containers. Pamper is a systemic fungicide containing the active ingredient, Difenconazole 25% EC. Tamper provides excellent action against diseases such as Apple Scab Sheath blight in Rice, Die back in Chilli etc. Pamper is taken up by the plant and acts on the fungal pathogen during penetration and haustoria formation. It stops the development of fungi by interfering with the biosynthesis of sterols in cell membranes. Tamper provides long-lasting preventive activity combined with curative and eradicant properties, fast uptake and good translaminar movement. Available in 50 ml,100 ml, 250ml, 500 ml and 1 Liter HDPE bottles. Revive is a very effective protective and curative fungicide. It has excellent broad spectrum activity and can be used for the control of a wide range of plant diseases. Available in 20 gm, 50 gm, 100gm, 250 gm, 500gm and1 kg in Trilaminate pouches. Tagmar 20-20 is a non-systemic antibiotic with fungicide action. It inhibits the enzyme trehalase which is very vital for the growth and activity of the fungal and bacterial pathogens. It also exhibits strong fungistatic activity against fungal pathogens. Tagmar 20 -20 is effective against several soil borne fungal diseases like Sheath blight of Rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani, vascular wilt in Tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum, bacterial diseases such as cabbage black rot and cabbage soft rot caused by Xanthomonas campestris, etc. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml,1Litre HDPE containers. Tagmil 72% W.P. is a protectant fungicide containing a mixture of the systemic fungicide Metalaxyl and the contact fungicide Mancozeb. Tagmil contains 80 gm / kg. metalaxyl and 640 gm/kg. mancozeb. Tagmil ensures a double protection of the target plants during the period of active growth from the inside due to systemic activity of metalaxyl and from the outside due to contact activity of mancozeb. Available in 100gm, 250gm, 500gm and 1 kg pouch inside cartons. Tagmycin is a broad spectrum chemical bactericide which contains a combination of Streptomycin Sulphate + Tetracycline Hydrochloride 90:10 SP. It is recommended for selective control of bacterial disease of plants. Tagmycin is very effective when applied after the crop is infected and hence has good curative action against bacterial infection in plants. Chillies and tomatoes Black Spot 6 g in 60 to 120 Lt. water 1st spray after 30 days of sowing 2nd spray 30 days after transplanting and 3rd spray at fruiting. Potato Brown rot 6 g in 60 to 120 Lt. water Dip cut potato pieces for half an hour before planting. 1st spray 20 days after planting and 2nd spray after 15 days of 1st spray. Cucumber Leaf Spot 6 g in 120 Lt. Spray 2 to 3 times at 15 days gap. First spray 30 days after sowing. Cotton Angular leaf 6 g in spot & black arm 6gm in 60 Lt. water 6 gm in 120 Lt. water Soak 12-15 Kg. seed in the solution for at least two hours and then sow. Three sprays at twenty days gap. First spray 30 days of sowing. Citrus Citrus Canker 6 g in Spray as soon as Canker spots are seen on the leaves & fruits. Grapes sugarcane Mango Etc. Bacterial Disease 6 g in 60-120 Lt. water. In certain regions bacterial diseases are reported in these crops. Tagron contains metalaxyl 35 WS as active ingredient. Tagron is a systemic, benzenoid seed dressing fungicide used specifically for the control of systemic downy mildew diseases. It is also very effective for the control of pre-emergent and post-emergent damping off diseases caused by Pythium and Phytophthora. Tagstin is a systemic fungicide containing Carbendazim 50% WP. Tagstin controls a wide range of Ascomycetes, fungi imperfecti, numerous Basidiomycetes on cereals, cotton, fruits, grapes, bananas, ornamentals, plantation crops, soybeans, tobacco, turf, vegetables, mushrooms and several other crops. Available in 100 gm, 250 gm, 500 gm and 1 kg Trilaminate pouches. Tagsul is a non-systemic contact and protectant fungicide with secondary acaricidal activity. Tagsul is used for control of brown rot, powdery mildew,scab, leafspot, mildew on roses and mites on several fruits and vegetables. Crop Name Disease Name A.I (%/ gm ) Dosage / per Ha. Formulation ( gm ) Dosage / per Ha. Dilution in water (Litres) Dosage / per Ha. Note: Sulphur is not recommended for application on sulphur "shy" vegetables e.g. cucurbits etc. Application of sulphur will be phytotoxic to certain variety of apples, pears and other fruits under high temperature conditions (85 deg F or 30 deg. C). Available in 1 kg carton, 3 kg, 5 kg, 10 kg and 25 Kg LDPE bags. Available in 25 gm, 50 gm, 60 gm, 100gm,120 gm and 250 gm, Trilaminate pouches. Tagthene is a fungicide containing the active ingredient, dinocap 48% EC. Tagthene is a contact fungicide which provides both protective and curative activities against powdery mildews, fruit rots, stem rots, leaf spots, brown rots, etc, in a wide range of crops including pome fruits, citrus, vines, hops, ornamentals and berries. Dinocap inhibits germination of spores and growth of fungal mycelium. The degrardation of dinocap to nitrophenol is active against the fungi. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500 ml and 1 Liter Aluminum containers. Tagzol is a triazole fungicide that has protective, curative and systemic activity. It is a foliar fungicide with broad range of activity against Powdery Mildew, Septoria Blotch, Eyespot, Rusts, Leaf scald, Leaf spot and Blister blight. Tagzol can be used on wheat, maize, rice, groundnut, soybean, tea, banana, coffee, sorghum, mushrooms and several other fruit and vegetable crops. During ergosterol biosynthesis, Tagzol prevents the formation of cell walls of disease causing fungi. This slows the growth of the fungus thus preventing further infection and invasion of host tissues by the fungus. Tagzol is considered as a good fungistatic or growth inhibiting fungicide. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 Litre and 5 Litre in PET and Aluminum containers. Talon is fungicide containing the active ingredient, dimethomorph 50% WP. It is a systemic protectant and an antisporulant fungicide belonging to the morpholine class.The mode of action of Talon is through inhibition of ergosterol synthesis. Ergosterol is the major sterol in most fungi which is essential for membrane structure and function. Available in 100 gm and 200 gm trilaminate pouches placed inside cartons and 1 kg trilaminate pouches. Temper is a systemic triazole fungicide containing Tebuconazole 25.9% EC as active ingredient. Temper is used as a foliar spray for the control of powdery mildew and fruit rot of chillies, leaf spot and rust diseases in Groundnut and sheath blight in Rice. Temper is a Preventive, Curative & Eradicative Action fungicide. Zinthane is a protective fungicide which contains Mancozeb 75 % active Ingredient. Zinthane is used to prevent crop damage in the field and to protect harvested crops from deterioration in storage or transport. Zinthane is used to protect many fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops against a wide spectrum of diseases, including potato blight, leaf spot, scab (on apples and pears) and rust (on roses). Crop Disease A.I (%/ gm ) Dosage /Ha. Formulation ( gm ) Dosage /Ha. Dilution in water (Litres) Dosage /Ha. Name of Crop Name of the Weeds AI (kg) Dosage / per Ha. Formulation(kg) Dosage / per Ha. Dilution in water (Litres.) Dosage / per Ha. Waiting period in days Dosage / per Ha. Available in 100 gm, 250 gm and 500 gm trilaminate pouches inside cartons. Kaptan is a selective post-emergence herbicide containing a combination of Imazethapyr 35% + Imamox 35% WG. When Kaptan herbicide is applied early post-emergence, absorption may occur through both the roots and foliage. Susceptible weeds stop growing and eventually die. Kaptan acts by inhibition of acetyl CoA carboxylase ACCase. These chemicals block an enzyme called ACCase. This enzyme helps the formation of lipids in the roots of grass plants. Without lipids, susceptible weeds die. Available in 40 gm, 100 gm HDPE bottle and 200 gm carton. Kilharb is a soluble powder formulation containing 2,4-D, Sodium Salt technical. (2,4-D acid 80 % w/w ) Kilharb is effective against wide range of broadleaved weeds in crops like Sugarcane, Wheat and Grapes. Wheat : Blanket spray 25-28 days after sowing. Grapes : post – pruning during dormant periods as directed spray. Available in 500 gm LDPE pouch in carton. Available in 250 ml, 500 ml and 1 Litre tin containers. Nova Super is a post emergent herbicide containing Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl 9.3% w/w EC (9% w/v). Nova Super is a selective grass herbicide very useful for control of weeds in a wide range of crops. The mode of action of Nova Super is through inhibition of the synthesis of fatty acids in merstematic tissues. Safal is a broad-spectrum, non-selective systemic herbicide containing Glyphosate 41% ai. It is useful on essentially all annual and perennial plants including grasses, sedges, broad-leaved weeds and woody plants. Safal can be used on non-cropland and among a great variety of crops. Safal is effective against annual and perennial grasses and broadleaf weeds in tea. Tea & non crop area:- Apply as directed spray when the weeds are young and actively growing. Available in 250ml, 500ml,1 Litre, 5 Litre and 20 Litre HDPE containers. Safal 71% SG is a non-selective, post-emergence herbicide for the control of annual, perennial, broadleaf and grassy weeds. Safal 71% SG, when applied to foliage reaches the roots and rhizomes of the plant by the process of translocation, thus destroying the weeds from below the plant. It is especially effective against the difficult to control weeds. Tea & non crop area : Apply as directed spray when the weeds are young and actively growing. Available in 100 gm and 1 Kg trilaminate pouches. Tag Globe is a selective herbicide containing Oxyfluorfen as active ingredient 23.5% w/w. Tag Globe is a diphenyl-ether herbicide used for broad spectrum pre- and post-emergent control of annual broadleaf and grassy weeds in Rice, Tea, Potato, Onion and Groundnut and other field crops. Tag Globe kills weeds by destroying cell membranes within leaves and shoots. Available in 50 ml, 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml and 1 Litre Aluminum bottles. Tag Super is a post emergent Sulfonylurea herbicide containing Chlorimuron Ethyl 25% WP. Tag Super exhibits both contact and residual soil activity against many broad leaf weeds and sedges. Once taken up by a susceptible species, either through the foliage or the roots, the herbicide is rapidly translocated through the plant, inhibiting shoot and root growth of weeds. Susceptible weed plants will cease to grow immediately after post emergence treatment and are killed within 7-14 days. TAGHIT is a selective pre-emergence broad spectrum herbicide with excellent action against annual grasses, sedges and broadleaved weeds. It contains 500g per litre of emulsifiable concentrate (EC) formulation. Name of Crop Name of the Weeds AI (kg) Dosage / per Ha. Formulation(Litre) Dosage / per Ha. Dilution in water (Litres.) Dosage / per Ha. Waiting Period from last spray to harvest (days) Dosage / per Ha. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml,1 Litre and 5 Litre PET bottles. Tagpendi is a selective herbicide containing pendimethalin as active ingredient 30% w/w. Tagpendi is a dinitroaniline (DNA) herbicide that effectively controls a broad spectrum of annual grasses and broad-leaved weeds in Wheat, Rice, Cotton, Soybean, Groundnut, Chillies, Onion and a wide range of other crops. The primary mode of action of Tagpendi is to stop plant cells dividing and elongating in susceptible species. Best control of target weeds is achieved by application to soil prior to germination and before weeds emerge. Weeds die shortly after germination or soon after emergence from the soil. Name of Crop Name of the Weeds AI (kg) Dosage / per Ha. Formulation(Litre) Dosage / per Ha. Dilution in water (Litres.) Dosage / per Ha. Waiting period in days Dosage / per Ha. Available in 250 ml, 500 ml, 1Litre and 5 Litre Tin containers. Tagpyr is a herbicide based on the active ingredient Imazethapyr. It is recommended for use in Soybean and Groundnut for control of annual grasses and broad leaf weed. Tagpyr application causes a disruption in protein synthesis which, in turn, leads to an interference in DNA synthesis and cell growth. Tagpyr is applied early post emergence. Absorption may occur through both the roots and foliage of susceptible weeds which stop growing and eventually die. The weed killing activity of Tagpyr involves herbicide uptake by weed roots and rapid translocation to the growing points. Therefore, adequate soil moisture is important for optimum Tagpyr activity. Addition of a non-ionic surfactant and liquid fertilizer is essential for postemergence application, improving uptake of the product by weeds resulting in improved herbicidal activity. Crop Common & Scientific Name of Weeds AI (gm) Dosage / per Ha. Formulation(ml) Dosage / per Ha. Dilution in water (Litres.) Dosage / per Ha. Waiting Period from last spray to harvest (days) Dosage / per Ha. Tagyr should be applied as early post emergence application before the weeds reach the 3 true leaf stage. Available in 250 ml, 500 ml and 1litre HDPE bottles. Tagquit is a quartenary nitrogen herbicide containing Paraquat dichloride 24% SL widely used for weed control. It is a quick acting, non-selective compound, that destroys green plant tissue on contact and by translocation within the plant. Tagquit is also used as a crop desiccant and defoliant, and as an aquatic herbicide. Tagquit is inactivated on contact with soil. Rubber (Post-emergence directed inter row application at 2-3 leaf stage of weeds) Digitaria sp., Eragrostis sp., Fimbristylis sp. 0.3-0.6 kg 1.5-2.5 600 N.A. Rice [pre-plant (minimum tillage) before sowing/transplanting for controlling standing weeds] Echinochloa crusgalli, Cyperus iria, Ageratum conyzides, Commelina benghalensis, Marsilea quadriofoliata, Brachiaria mutica 0.3-0.8 kg 1.25-3.5 500 N.A. Apple(Post-emergence directed inter row application at 2-3 leaf stage of weeds) Rosa moschata Rosa eglantaria Rubus ellipticus 0.75 kg 3.25 ltrs 700-1000 N.A. Available in 250ml, 500ml, 1Litre, 5 Litre and 20 Litre HDPE containers. Tagrip is selective herbicide containing Metsulfuron methyl 20% WP as active ingredient. Tagrip is a residual sulfonylurea compound used as a selective pre- and post emergence herbicide for broadleaf weeds and some annual grasses. It is a systemic compound with foliar and soil activity, and it works rapidly after it is taken up by the plant. Its mode of action is by inhibiting cell division in the shoots and roots of the plant, and it is biologically active at low use rates. Available in 8 gm HDPE container with 200 ml surfactant in HDPE container inside carton. Tagtaf is a herbicide containing Atrazine 50% WP as active ingredient. Tagtaf is a selective triazine herbicide used to control broadleaf and grassy weeds in corn, sorghum, sugarcane, pineapple and other crops. It is also used as a non-selective herbicide on non-cropped industrial lands and on fallow lands. Maize : Immediately after sowing (pre-emergence). Sugarcane: Pre-emergence on weed free soil. Available in 500 gm LDPE pouches in cartons. Thunder is a pre emergence, selective, systemic herbicide containing the active ingredient, Butachlor 50% EC.Thunder belongs to the Chloroacetamid chemical family and its mode of action is through inhibition of cell division. Thunder is used to control germinating annual weeds, especially grasses. The primary mechanism of action is through interference with nucleic acid and protein synthesis. Thunder is absorbed primarily through germinating shoots and secondarily by roots. Translocated throughout the plant, with higher concentration in the vegetative parts than the reproductive parts. Apply within 4 days after transplanting and in direct seeded rice 10-12 days after emergence of weeds. Available in 500 ml,1 Litre and 5 Litre HDPE containers. Thunder is a pre emergence, selective, systemic herbicide containing the active ingredient, Butachlor 50% EC. Thunder belongs to the Chloroacetamid chemical family and its mode of action is through inhibition of cell division. Thunder is used to control germinating annual weeds, especially grasses. The primary mechanism of action is through interference with nucleic acid and protein synthesis. Thunder is absorbed primarily through germinating shoots and secondarily by roots. Translocated throughout the plant, with higher concentration in the vegetative parts than the reproductive parts. Available in 500 ml, 1 Liter and 5 Litre Tin containers. Action 500 is an organophosporous insecticide containing Chlorpyrifos 50 %EC as active ingredient. Action 500 is a broad spectrum insecticide used to kill a wide variety of insects. Action 500 is effective in controlling cutworms, corn root worms, root grubs, flea beetles, caterpillars, etc. It is used as an insecticide on cereals, cotton, field, fruit, nut and vegetable crops, and well as on lawns and ornamental plants. Action 500 acts on pests primarily as a contact poison, with some action as a stomach poison. Available in 50 ml,100 ml, 250ml,500ml,1 litre and 5 litres PET bottles. Action 505 is an insecticide which is a combination of two active ingredients, chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin. The former belongs to phosphorothioate group of organophosphorus pesticides and the later is a synthetic pyrethroid. Action 505 affects both the axonic and synaptic transmission of the nerve impulses in the insect nervous system. Action 505 is a broad spectrum contact and stomach poison, with fumigant action. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml, 1 Litre and 5 Litre PET bottles. Action Super is a pyrethroid insecticide containing permethrin 25% EC. Action Super is a broad spectrum insecticide, used against a variety of pests, on fruit, vegetable, cotton, ornamental, mushroom, potato, and cereal crops. Action Super has both acute contact action and is also a stomach poison. Available in 100 ml, 250ml, 500ml,1 Litre and 5 Litre PET bottles. Bannerr is an insecticide containing Bifenthrin 10% EC, belonging to the pyrethroid group of insecticides. Bannerr is effective by contact or ingestion. Bannerr is a Type I pyrethroid that affects the central and peripheral nervous system by interfering with sodium channel gating. Challenger 10 EC is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide containing 100gm (m/m) of cypermethrin as active ingredient per kilogram of formulated material. Challenger 10 EC is a contact action insecticide and has quick knock down action. It also acts as a stomach poison. Challenger is very effective for the control of a broad spectrum of sucking and caterpillar pests on a wide range of field, vegetables and horticultural crops. Available in 50ml, 100 ml, 250ml, 500ml,1 Litre and 5 Litre PET bottles. Challenger 25 is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide containing 250gm (m/m) of cypermethrin as active ingredient per kilogram of formulated material. Challenger 25 is a contact action insecticide and has quick knock down action. It also acts as a stomach poison. Challenger 25 is very effective for the control of a broad spectrum of sucking and caterpillar pests on a wide range of field, vegetable and horticultural crops. Demand is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide and acaricide containing Lambda-cyhalothrin 2.5% as active ingredient. Demand is used to control a wide range of pests in a variety of applications. Pests controlled include Jassids, beetles and caterpillars. Demand is a contact, residual and stomach acting insecticide with repellency properties. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 Litre and 5 Litre PET bottles. Divipan is an insecticide containing Dichlorvos ( DDVP ) as active ingredient. It is used to control agricultural, household, public health, and stored product insects. Divipan is effective against aphids, spider mites, caterpillars, thrips, and white flies in greenhouse, outdoor fruit, and vegetable crops. It acts against insects as a contact and a stomach poison and has fumigant action also. Fast belongs to a novel class of insecticide and contains Cartap hydrochloride as active ingredient. Fast is a derivative of nereistoxin which is a naturally occurring insecticidal substance isolated from the marine segmented worms. Fast 50 SP is a systemic insecticide with contact and stomach poison activity. It is very effective for the control of chewing and sucking insects (particularly Lepidoptera and Coleoptera), on many crops, including rice, potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables, soybean, peanuts, sunflowers, maize, citrus fruit, ginger, tea, cotton, and sugar cane. Available in 25 gm, 50gm,100gm, 250 gm, 500 gm and 1 Kg trilaminate pouches. Fast 4 G belongs to a novel class of insecticide and contains Cartap hydrochloride as active ingredient. Fast is a derivative of nereistoxin which is a naturally occurring insecticidal substance isolated from the marine segmented worms. Fast 4G is a systemic insecticide very effective for the control of chewing and sucking insects (particularly Lepidoptera and Coleoptera), at almost all stages of development, on many crops, including rice, soybean, ginger and sugar cane. Available in 1 kg and 5 kg LDPE bags with outer trilaminate pouches. Helmet is an organophosphorus insecticide and acaricide that controls pests by systemic, contact, and fumigant action. It is used against sucking and chewing insects, leafhoppers, leafminers, mites, some nematodes and rootworms. Helmet is used in root and field crops, including rice, corn, cotton, coffee, some ornamental and herbaceous plants and bulbs. Available in 1kg and 5 kg in trilaminate pouches. Kargil is an insecticide containing the active ingredient Triazophos 40% EC. It has a broad spectrum of activity with quick knock down and residual toxicity against bollworms and whiteflies on cotton and stem borer, leaf folder green leaf hopper, hispa on rice. Kargil is a contact and stomach poison insecticide. It is non-systemic, but penetrates deeply into the plant tissues. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml and 1 litre Tin and PET containers. Macrophos is an organophosphorus insecticide and acaricide which has both strong systemic and contact action. Macrophos is used to control a variety of sucking, chewing and boring insects and spider mites on cotton, sugarcane, groundnut, ornamentals, and tobacco. Warning: Banned for use on vegetables. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml,1Litre and 5 Litre HDPE containers. Pataka is a foliar insecticide with acaricidal properties for use in cotton and several other crops. Pataka contains 400g Profenofos + 40g Cypermethrin per liter of emulsifiable concentrate formulation. The mixture of Profenofos + Cypermethrin has been found to be synergistic in activity especially against resistant Heliothis. Pataka provides good control of a range of lepidopterous pests as well as sucking pests like whiteflies, aphids, jassids and mites. Available in 100 ml, 250ml, 500ml 1 Litre and 5 Litre PET containers. Tag Command Super is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide containing Lambda-cyhalothrin 4.9 % CS. Tag Command Super is a capsule suspension formulation. The active ingredient is sealed in a tiny-thin walled capsule suspended in water and is released only when the spray deposit dries on the target pest and leaf surface. Tag Command Super offers reduced toxicity hazard while spraying, improved residual activity and environmental safety. It is recommended for the control of the rice stem borer and leaf folder and bollworms in cotton. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml and 1 liter HDPE Co-ex bottles. Tag Command is an insecticide containing Lambdacyhalothrin 5% EC as active ingredient. Tag Command is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide and acaricide used to control a wide range of pests in a variety of applications. Pests controlled include Jassids, beetles and caterpillars. Crops on which it may be applied include cotton, cereals, ornamentals, potatoes, vegetables or others. Tag Command is a contact, residual and stomach acting insecticide with repellency properties. Available in100ml, 250ml, 500ml, 1 litre and 5 litre PET containers. Tag Emboz is a selective insecticide containing the active ingredient Emamectin benzoate. Tag Emboz is second generation avermectin insecticide. The active ingredient in Tag Emboz is a semi-synthetic derivative of the avermectin family of naturally-derived products. Tag Emboz is an excellent insecticide for the control of caterpillar pests on a variety of crops. When sprayed on the plant, Tag Emboz quickly penetrates the leaf and remains within the tissues for a long time. Available in 10 gm, 50 gm, 100 gm, 250 gm and 1 Kg HDPE bottles. Acephate is an organophosphate foliar spray insecticide with contact action and residual systemic activity of about 10-15 days at the recommended use rate. It is used for control of a wide range of biting and sucking insects, especially aphids, including resistant species, in fruit, vegetables, horticulture and ornamentals (e.g. on roses and chrysanthemums grown outdoors). It also controls leaf miners, lepidopterous larvae, sawflies and thrips in the previously stated crops as well as turf and forestry. Tag Agent is a highly effective, broad spectrum granular insecticide containing the active ingredient Fipronil. It has the potential value for control of a wide range of agricultural crops, public health, amenity and veterinary pests.Tag Agent is a member of a class of insecticides called phenyl pyrazoles. It works by disrupting the central nervous system of insects. Available in 1 kg and 5 kg in LDPE bags with outer trilaminate pouches. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml,1Litre and 5Litre HDPE containers. Tagban is an organophosporous insecticide containing Chlorpyrifos 20 %EC. Tagban is a broad spectrum insecticide used to kill a wide variety of insects. Tagban is effective in controlling cutworms, corn root worms, root grubs, flea beetles, caterpillars, etc. It is used as an insecticide on cereals, cotton, field, fruit, nut and vegetable crops, and well as on lawns and ornamental plants. Tagban acts on pests primarily as a contact poison, with some action as a stomach poison. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500 ml, 1litre and 5 litre PET bottles. Tag Jiyo is a thiourea insecticide and miticide containing the active ingredient Diafenthiuron. Tag Jiyo is mainly used to prevent and kill white flies, Aphids, Thrips, Jassids and mites in a wide range of crops. Tag Jiyo has translaminar action on pests by killing insect pests on the lower surface of treated leaves. The mode of action of Tag Jiyo is through inhibition of mitochondrial ATP synthase. Available in 500gm and 1 Kg Trilaminate pouches. Tagmyre is a systemic insecticide containing Imidacloprid as the active ingredient. Tagmyre is a chloro-nicotinyl insecticide with soil, seed and foliar uses for the control of sucking insects including rice hoppers, aphids, thrips, whiteflies, termites, turf insects, soil insects and some beetles. Imidacloprid works by interfering with the transmission of stimuli in the insect nervous system. It is effective on contact and as stomach poison. Tagmyre 70% WG is an improved formulation of Imidacloprid. Available in 30g, 75g and 150g HDPE bottles. Tagnomite is a highly effective broad spectrum acaricide containing the active ingredient, Propargite. Tagnomite has two different modes of action on mites and hence there is no confirmed cases of resistance despite long years of usage. Due to the effectiveness on motile stages with very good persistence and fumigant effect at higher temperatures, newly emerged mites stop feeding and die soon after. Tagnomite can be recommended on a wide range of field and horticultural crops. Available in 100 ml, 250ml, 500ml and 1 Litre HDPE bottles. Tagpro is a foliar insecticide containing Profenofos 50% EC as active ingredient. Tagpro is a contact action and stomach poison insecticide. Tagpro has good ovicidal action especially against Heliothis and Spodoptera. Tagpro has excellent translaminar action and it rapidly penetrates into the plant tissues. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 liter and 5 liter PET and Tin containers. TAGRIDE is a soluble powder formulation containing 20% of the active ingredient acetamiprid. Tagride is a highly effective systemic insecticide for the control of Aphids, Jassids and Whiteflies in cotton. Available in 20gm, 40 gm, 50gm, 100gm, 500 gm and 1 kg trilaminate pouches inside cartons. Tagvoltage is an insecticide containing Buprofezin 25% SC as active ingredient. Tagvoltage is an insect growth regulator with thiadiazine structure, acting as chitin synthesis inhibitor. Chitin is an important component of insect's cuticle. Tagvoltage blocks the production of chitin. An insect poisoned by Tagvoltage cannot make chitin and so cannot molt. Because molting must take place for the insect to reach the adult stage. Eventually, the insect dies. Available in 250 ml, 500 ml and 1 litre HDPE containers. Tagxone is a foliar-applied insecticide containing the active ingredient thiamethoxam. Thiamethoxam is a second-generation neonicotinoid insecticide, belonging to the thianicotinyl subclass of chemistry and possessing unique chemical properties that result in excellent control of many sucking and chewing pests. Tagxone is used at very low rates and exhibits excellent translaminar movement into plant tissue. This movement results in part from the high water solubility and low partition coefficient of thiamethoxam. Tagxone interferes with a unique receptor site in the insect’s nervous system, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, and is not known to be cross-resistant to any other insecticide classes. Available in 100gm, 250 and 500 gm and 1 Kg HDPE bottles. Thril is a highly active pyrethroid containing Alphacypermethrin 10% EC. It is a contact and stomach poison insecticide with good knock down action and long persistence against a wide range of caterpillar and sucking pests. Available in 50 ml, 100ml, 250 ml, 500ml, 1 litre and 5 litre PET containers. Tridelta is quick knock down action insecticide containing Deltamethrin 1% + Triazophos 35% EC. It is both a contact and stomach poison ready-mix insecticide with translaminar action. It is very effective for the control of major pests on Cotton, particularly, bollworms and whiteflies. Tropical Magik 70 WS is systemic insecticide containing imidacloprid as active ingredient. It is a low toxicity seed dresser, systemically acting insecticide with a broad spectrum of activity for controlling sucking insects such as Aphids, Jassid, Whitefly, Thrips, Termites in cotton, Okra, Chillies and Sugarcane. When handled properly according to good agricultural practices it is suitable for use in Integrated Pest Management. *Setts dip treatment with 0.10 to 0.150 kg of imidacloprid 70% WS in 100 litre of water. Any small quantity of seed can be readily treated on the farm by mixing the proper amount of imidacloprid 70% WS and seed in closed mixing drum or a concrete mixer. Roll the seed until each grain is uniformly coated with the insecticide. Seed treatment on commercial basis can be carried out by specialized spectrum seed dressing equipment. Available in 5 x 1 gm in HDPE bottle, 10 gm and 1 Kg pouches. Tropical Magik Super is a powerful insecticide containing the active ingredient, Imidacloprid 30.5% SC. It belongs to the new chloronicotinyl group of insecticides.Tropical Magik Super has excellent systemic action against a wide range of sucking pests. Tropical Magik Super has both acute contact action and is also a stomach poison. Tropical Magik is a systemic, chloro-nicotinyl insecticide with soil, seed and foliar uses for the control of sucking insects including rice hoppers, aphids, thrips, whiteflies, termites, turf insects, soil insects and some beetles. It is most commonly used on rice, cereal, maize, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, fruit, cotton, hops and turf, and is especially systemic when used as a seed or soil treatment. Tropical Magik works by interfering with the transmission of stimuli in the insect nervous system. It is effective on contact and as stomach poison. Available in 100ml, 250ml, 500ml,1 Litre HDPE containers. Tag-Gibb is a plant growth regulator containing a mixture of Gibberellins. Tag- Gibb is an important plant hormone used to improve seed germination, plant growth and size. Tag-Gibb can also influence the timing of flowering, flower gender and flower size. The technical material is directly used in the field after suitable dilution. Grape fruit At full bloom 500-1000 One directed spray 500-750 55-11.0 gm of 90% Gibberellic acid inh 10 Ltr. of water. Grape At full bloom & fruit set 100 One directed spray 500-750 1.1 gm 90% of spray Gibberellic acid in 10 ltr. of water. Grape (seed less) At full bloom & post bloom. 15-60 2 blanket spray 500-750 0.17-0.68 90% in gibberellic acid in 10 ltr. of water. Grape fruit : At full bloom (for fruit set) week of 1st / may (for June fruit crop) week of 1st / Oct. for pre - harvest crop. Sweet cherry - When more than 60% buds opened fully. Grape : Full bloom and fruit set Grapes (Seedless) . b) Spray when 4 weeks old. 1 gm of Sodium Bicarbonate powder in a small LDPE pouch along with Tag-Gibb is supplied. Sodium Bicarbonate may first be dissolved in 1 Litre of water to form a solution. 1 gm of Tag-Gibb may be mixed in the in the above solution and used for treatment of the required crops, after preparing the necessary dilutions. Tagpon 39 SL is a plant growth regulator. Its use varies with plant species, chemical concentration, and time of application. Tagpon regulates phases of plant growth and development by application to various growth sites. It is used on apples, barley, cherries, coffee, cotton, cucumbers, grapes, guava, ornamentals, peppers, pineapples, sugarcane, tobacco, tomatoes, walnuts, wheat, etc. Tagpon’s mode of action acts via liberation of ethylene, which is absorbed by the plant and interferes in the growth process. It is also used in the acceleration of ripening of fruits and vegetables. Mango (for breaking alternate bearing tendencies) : First spray in mid October or early November total 5 spray at fortnightly interval. Mango (for flower induction) : Commencing from early November total 5 spray at weekly interval. Mango (post harvest treatment): Dip mature fruits in the solution for uniform ripening or spray. Pineapple (for flower induction) : 30 - 37 leaf stage or 10 - 12 months. One spray. Coffee (Arabica uniform ripening of berries ) & Coffee Robusta : Fly picking stage when 10 - 15% of berries are ripened one spray. Tomato (post harvest treatment) : Fruits post harvest treatment. Dipping only or spray Rubber-- March, August, September, November (four application) brushing once in two months on the tapping cut of the bark. Vishal is a natural organic product containing Triacontanol 0.1% EW. Vishal increases the yield of a number of crops like cotton, wheat, maize, paddy, bhendi, cucumber, cucurbits,coffee, tea, spices as well as tomato, potato and brinjal. Vishal stimulates photosynthesis and several enzyme activities that increase the sugar level in fruits. Available in 100 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 Litre and 5 Litre HDPE containers.

2019-04-23T13:50:59Z

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This post is the third of a Three Part Series of K&F Business and International Tax Developments Posts on the Proposed Regulations to the New Partnership Audit Regime which legislation is due to go into effect for all unincorporated entities treated as partnerships, in general, for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. Part One, which was posted on February 17, 2017, summarized the legislation which enacted the new partnership audit rules as part of The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114-74, Act §1101 (the “Budget Act”) which was signed into law on November 2, 2015, (as modified by Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114-113 (the “PATH Act”)). The Proposed Regulations were issued on January 18, 2017 (REG-136118-15). In a Memorandum from Reince Priebus, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, issued on January 20, 2017 to all Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on behalf of President Trump, a regulatory freeze on the issuance of new regulations was announced to take effect immediately. In particular, proposed regulations that had neither been published in the federal register or had been waiting for their effective date, were immediately withdrawn for review and approval of the department or agency head appointed or designated by the President. Therefore, the Proposed Regulations to the partnership audit rules issued just two days earlier, were technically withdrawn on January, 20, 2017. See “White House Memo Puts Freeze on All New and Pending Regs”, Tax Notes, Jan. 20, 2017. In a recent announcement made on March 3 by Ms. Hodes, attorney-adviser, Treasury Office of Tax Legislative Counsel, in addressing the Federal Bar Association Section on Taxation, practitioners were urged not to assume the IRS will be unprepared for January 1, 2018, the deadline for the commencement of the new partnership audit regime. the rules under the Proposed Regulations on the “imputed underpayment rules” and modifications. This Part Three, addresses the important “push-out election” made by the partnership representative to the reviewed year partners and other procedural rules, including the new administrative adjustment request provision. A criticism of the new legislation follows in the form of an Editorial Comment at the end of this Post. The comments are drawn primarily from the Preamble to the Proposed Regulations and other articles that have been written by Jerry August and cited in footnote 1. a. In General. Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-1(a) provides that a partnership may, as part of the centralized audit provisions, elect, through its partnership representative, to “push out” the adjustments that had comprised the determined “imputed underpayment” amount to its reviewed year partners, in accordance with their distributive shares of partnership income, loss, deduction or credit, in lieu of requiring the partnership to pay the imputed underpayment amount under §6225. Where a partnership makes a valid election in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-1, the partnership avoids liability in full with respect to the imputed underpayment amount. Many partnership agreements will undoubtedly be drafted to require the partnership representative to “push-out” all imputed underpayments arising out of an IRS audit. b. “Push-Out Election”. A partnership may make an election under this section with respect to one or more imputed underpayments identified in an FPA. For example, where the FPA includes a general imputed underpayment and one or more specific imputed underpayments, the partnership may make an election with respect to any or all of the imputed underpayments. This is part of the multiple imputed underpayment rules set out in the proposed rule-making. c. Impact on Reviewed Year Partners. Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-1(b)(1) provides that where a partnership makes a valid election in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-1, the reviewed year partners of the partnership are liable for tax, penalties, additions to tax, and additional amounts, as well interest on such amounts, after taking into account their share of the partnership adjustments determined in the FPA. Any modifications approved by the IRS under Prop. Reg. § 301.6225-2 are also reported to the reviewed year partners. In addition, the proposed regulations state, under Prop. Reg. §301.6226-1(b)(2), that for adjustments that do not result in an imputed underpayment in certain instances such adjustments may nevertheless be included in the reviewed year partners' share of the partnership adjustments reported to the reviewed year partners of the partnership. Under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-1(c), a “push-out” election under 6226 is not valid unless the partnership complies with all the provisions for making the election, including the obligation to issue statements to the reviewed year partners and file all such statements electronically with the IRS. See Prop. Regs. §§301.6226-1, 301.6226-2. It is important to understand that once made, a “push-out” election by the partnership may only be revoked with the consent of the IRS. d. Defective Push-Out Election. Under the proposed regulations, where the IRS determinates that a push-out election is invalid or otherwise defective, it must notify the partnership and the partnership representative within 30 days of the determination of such defective election and set forth the ground or grounds for its invalidity. Prop. Reg. §301.6226-1. The impact of an invalid “push-out” election is obvious. The result is that the aggregate imputed underpayment is pushed back to the partnership which again becomes primarily liable for the imputed underpayment as well as additions to tax in the form of penalties and interest. See §6233. 2. Applicable Rules for Making the “Push-Out” Election. a. Time for Making Push-Out Election. The partnership must make the “push-out” election within 45 days of the date that the FPA was mailed to the partnership by the IRS. Prop. Reg. §301.6226-1(c)(3). At present there is no provision for extending the time to make the election although presumably the IRS may consent to give the partnership an extension. The push-out election is required to be signed by the partnership representative and filed in accordance with published guidance. Prop. Reg. §301.6226-1(c)(4)(ii) provides, in this regard, that the election must include the name, address, and correct taxpayer identification number (TIN) of the partnership, the taxable year to which the election relates, the imputed underpayment(s) to which the election applies (if there is more than one imputed underpayment in the FPA), each reviewed year partner's name, address, and correct TIN, and any other information required under forms, instructions, and other guidance. A copy of the FPA to which the push-out election relates must also be attached to the election. b. Consequence of Push-Out Election to Partners. As a formal partnership action under §6223, all reviewed year partners (for each year under review) are bound by the election and each reviewed year partner must take the adjustments on the statement into account in accordance with § 6226(b) and report and pay additional chapter 1 tax (if any) per Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3. A reviewed year partner may therefore not treat items reflected on a statement described in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2 inconsistently with how those items are treated on the statement that the partnership files with the IRS. There is no recourse on the part of a reviewed partner to file an “inconsistency statement” as with the filing of form 1065. See Prop. Reg. §301.6222-1(c)(2). c. Issuance of Statements to Review Year Partners. As mentioned, the proposed regulations (Prop. Reg. §301.6226-2(a)) require that where a partnership makes a “push-out” election, it must furnish statements to the reviewed year partners with respect to the partner's share of the adjustments and file those statements with the IRS in the time, form, and manner prescribed. This push-out statement requirement and filing is separate from any other statements required to be filed with the IRS and furnished to the partners for the taxable year, including any Schedules K-1, Partner's Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc. The partnership must furnish separate statements for each reviewed year at issue and cannot combine multiple reviewed years (if any) and reflect the total of such adjustments by the issuance of a single statement. d. Time For Issuance of Push-Out Election Statements to Partners. Push-out election statements must be sent by the partnership representative (or its agent) to reviewed year partners no later than 60 days after the date the partnership adjustments are finally determined and reflected in the FPA. More specifically, the partnership adjustments are finally determined upon the later of the expiration of the time to file a petition under §6234 or, if a petition is filed under § 6234, the date when the court's decision becomes final. Accordingly, if an FPA is mailed on June 30, 2020, and no petition is filed by the partnership, the partnership adjustments set out in the FPA are finally determined on September 28, 2020 (at the conclusion of the 90-day petition period under section 6234). Again, reviewed year partners cannot file inconsistently with any statements furnished by the partnership with respect to the “push-out” assessment amount allocable to the review year partner. Special procedural rules apply with respect to “errors” in the computation of the push-out statements. See Prop. Reg. §301.6226-2(d). The proposed regulations contain examples of the notification of the “push-out” rule. e. Contents of Push-Out Statements to Reviewed Year Partners. The proposed regulations set forth information required to be included to the reviewed year partners. Such information includes: (i) the reviewed year partner's share of items originally reported to the partner (taking into account any adjustments made under §6227); (ii) the reviewed year partner's share of the partnership adjustments and any penalties, additions to tax, or additional amounts; (iii) modifications attributable to the reviewed year partner; (iv) the reviewed year partner's share of any amounts attributable to adjustments to the partnership's tax attributes in any intervening year (per Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3) resulting from the partnership adjustments allocable to the partner; (v) the reviewed year partner's safe harbor amount and interest safe harbor amount (if applicable), as determined in accordance with proposed § 301.6226-2(g); (vi) the date the statement is furnished to the partner; (vii) the partnership taxable year to which the adjustments relate; and (viii) any other information required by the forms, instructions, or other guidance prescribed by the IRS. See Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2(e). f. More On Push-Out Elections and The Required Reporting For The Reviewed Partner's Share of Adjustments and Other Amounts. Per Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2(f), a reviewed year partner's share of adjustments required to be taken into account must be reported to the reviewed year partner in the same manner as originally reported on the return filed by the partnership for the reviewed year. If the adjusted item was not reflected in the partnership's reviewed year return, the adjustment must be reported in accordance with the rules that apply with respect to partnership allocations, including under the partnership agreement. However, if the adjustments, as finally determined, are allocated to a specific partner or in a specific manner, the partner's share of the adjustment must follow how the adjustment is allocated in that final determination. So we have some complexity here. See Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2(f)(1). In all cases, adjustments taken into account on any amended returns or closing agreements that are approved during the modification process per Prop. Reg. § 301.6225-2(d)(2) and that are disregarded in determining the imputed underpayment are ignored for purposes of determining the reviewed year partners' share of the adjustments. However, these modifications are listed separately on the statements provided to the reviewed year partners. With respect to modifications that are ignored for purposes of reporting the adjustments to the reviewed year partners, any reviewed year partner that previously took into account the same adjustment will not be taxed a second time with respect to that adjustment. An example is set forth in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(g). g. Additions to Tax Attributable to a Push-Out Election. Penalties, additions to tax, or additional amounts are reported to the reviewed year partners in the same proportion as each partner's share of the adjustments to which the penalties relate, unless the penalty, addition to tax, or additional amount is specifically allocated to a specific partner(s) or in a specific manner by a final court decision or in the FPA, if no petition is filed. Where a penalty is determined with respect to a specific item or items, such penalty is reported to the reviewed year partners in the same manner as the adjustments to that specific item or items, unless otherwise provided in the FPA or a final court decision. Where a penalty, addition to tax, or additional amount does not relate to a specific adjustment, each reviewed year partner's share of the penalty, addition to tax, or additional amount is determined in accordance with how such items would have been allocated under rules that apply with respect to partnership allocations, including under the partnership agreement, unless it is allocated to a specific partner in a specific manner in a final determination of the adjustments, in which case it is allocated in accordance with the final determination. h. Computation of Tax Resulting From Push-Out Election: Taking The Adjustments Into Account. Pursuant to Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3, a reviewed year partner furnished a push-out statement is required to pay any additional chapter 1 tax (additional current year tax) for the partner's taxable year which includes the date the statement was furnished to the partner in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2 (the reporting year) which is determined taking into account the adjustments reflected in the statement. The additional reporting year tax is either the aggregate of the adjustment amounts, as determined in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(b), or, if an election is made under proposed § Prop. Reg. §301.6226-3(c), the so-called “safe harbor” amount. Additions to tax in the form of penalties and interest are also required to be assessed and paid. Prop. Reg. §301.6226-3(d). The aggregate of the adjustment amounts is the aggregate of the correction amounts determined under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(b) to-wit: (i) one with respect to the partner's taxable year which includes the reviewed year of the partnership (first affected year); and (ii) a second correction amount for the partner's taxable years after the first affected year and before the reporting year (intervening years). These correction amounts cannot be less than zero, and any amount below zero after applying the rules in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(b) does not reduce any correction amount, any tax in the reporting year, or any other amount. The rules in this area are complex and must be fully understood. This will occur with respect to allocating and reducing interim year net operating losses of the reviewed year partner or other tax attributes. i. Election to Pay the Safe Harbor Amount. Under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(c), a partner furnished a push-out election statement may elect to pay the safe harbor amount (or the interest safe harbor amount, in the case of certain individuals) shown on the statement in lieu of the additional reporting year tax. This safe-harbor election is made on the partner's return for the reporting year. If a partner is furnished multiple statements per Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2, the partner may elect to pay the safe harbor amount with respect to some or all of the statements. For instance, if the IRS examined two partnership taxable years in the same administrative proceeding, and a push-out election under § 6226 was made by the partnership with respect to all imputed underpayments for both years, the partnership would be required to furnish separate partners and to calculate separate safe harbor amounts for each year. A reviewed year partner could elect to pay the safe harbor amount for one taxable year, but not the other taxable year. If a partner elects to pay the safe harbor amount, the partner must report the safe harbor amount on the partner's timely-filed return (excluding extensions) for the partner's reporting year. If the partner fails to do so, the partner may not utilize the safe harbor amount, but instead must compute the additional reporting year tax under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(b) as if no election under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(c) had been made. Applicable computation rules to compute the safe harbor amount and interest safe harbor amount are contained in the regulations. See Prop. Reg. §301.6226-2(g). j. Binding Nature of Push-Out Election. The election under §6226 which is within the sole authority of the partnership representative, which does not have to be a partner, and may even be appointed by the IRS, is a partnership election which is binding on the partners. §6223(b). While reviewed year partners can avoid the computation under §6226(b) by filing an amended return (or entering into a closing agreement) and paying the tax and interest due in accordance with §6225(c)(2) during the modification phase of the audit, not all partners are willing or able to amend their returns for the relevant year. Therefore, partners are granted the option to pay a simplified safe harbor amount in lieu of computing the correction amounts described per Prop. Reg. §301.6226-3(b) and a simplified interest safe harbor amount for certain individuals in lieu of computing the interest on the safe harbor amount under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(d)(2). Any reviewed year partner may elect to pay the safe harbor amount, including reviewed year partners that are partnership-partners or S corporation partners. k. Liability for Interest Under Push-Out Election. Reviewed year partners are further liable for interest on any correction amount for the first affected year and any intervening years See Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(d)(1). If a partner elects to pay the safe harbor amount, a reviewed year partner that is an individual may also elect to pay the interest safe harbor amount. For all other partners and individuals that do not elect the safe harbor amount, interest applies under Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(d)(2). Interest on the correction amounts and the safe harbor amount is determined at the partner level. The interest rate is the underpayment rate per §6621(a)(1) except that when determining that rate, five percentage points are used instead of three percentage points, with the result that the underpayment rate for purposes of §6226 is the federal short-term rate plus five percentage points. A reviewed year partner is liable for interest on any correction amount from the first affected year and any intervening years from the due date of the return (without extension) for the applicable tax year (that is, the year to which the additional tax is attributable) until the correction amount is paid. For purposes of calculating interest, the safe harbor amount and any penalties, additions to tax, or additional amounts are attributable to adjustments taken into account for the first affected year. l. Qualified Investment Entities (QIEs): Regulated Investment Companies (RICs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The proposed regulations under the push-out election rules are coordinated with the deficiency dividend procedures under §860 for partners that are RICs and REITs. In general, §860 allows RICs and REITs to be relieved from the payment of a deficiency in (or to receive a credit or refund of) certain taxes including, among certain others, taxes imposed by §§852(b)(1) and (3), 857(b)(1) or (3), and, where the entity flunks the distribution requirements of §852(a)(1)(A) or §857(a)(1), as applicable, the corporate income tax. Details of this part of the regulations are not covered in this post. See Prop. Regs. §§301.6226-2(h), -3(b)(4). m. Foreign partners and Certain U.S. Partners. The proposed regulations reserve the issuance of rules applicable to push-out statements made to foreign partners, including foreign entities, or certain domestic partners. In general, certain amounts received by a partnership that are allocable to a foreign partner may be subject to withholding under chapter 3 of subtitle A of the Code (chapter 3), and certain amounts allocable to a foreign or domestic partner may be subject to withholding under chapter 4 of subtitle A of the Code (chapter 4). To the extent that amounts are withheld by the partnership or other withholding agent under chapter 3 or 4, and remitted to the IRS, such amounts are creditable by the foreign partner or domestic partner to offset the chapter 1 tax that the partner otherwise would owe in the absence of the withholding. The purpose of chapter 3 withholding is to ensure compliance by foreign persons with respect to income subject to tax under chapter 1, by requiring the partnership (or other withholding agent) to withhold and remit the tax that would normally be paid by the foreign person on payments or income allocated to the foreign person. The purpose of chapter 4 (FACTA) withholding is to ensure that information reporting about U.S. persons that use certain offshore financial accounts or passive foreign entities is available to the IRS to enhance tax compliance. The withholding imposed under chapter 4 may be imposed on certain foreign financial institutions, account holders of a financial account, or passive non-financial foreign entities with substantial U.S. owners, to incentivize the information required under chapter 4 to be reported and available to the IRS. Additional comments on this area of the proposed regulations are being sought by the Treasury and the Service. In particular, comments are requested on: (i) how the partnership should satisfy its reporting obligations under chapters 3 and 4 in the reporting year with respect to income allocable to a foreign partner or domestic partner; (ii) whether the partnership should be required to obtain new documentation from partners to support a lower withholding rate or whether the partnership should be able to rely on documentation obtained with respect to the reviewed year; and (iii) how the rules under chapters 3 and 4 should apply when a statement described in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2 includes additional income allocable to a foreign partner that is an intermediary or flow-through entity. 3. Treatment of Pass-through Partners: Multiple Tiered Partnership Rules. In response to comments made pursuant to IRS Notice 2016-23 issued last year requesting guidance on a number of subjects under the BBA partnership audit rules, there were suggestions made that a pass-through partner who receives a statement described in Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2 should be able to flow through the adjustments to its owners instead of paying tax on the adjustments at the first tier. Under this approach, the adjustments would flow through the tiers until a partner that is not a pass-through partner receives the adjustment. The proposed regulations reserve on this issue. Per §6226(a)(2), where a partnership makes a "push-out” election instead of making payment of the imputed underpayment, the partnership is required to furnish statements to "each partner of the partnership for the reviewed year." Under §6226(b), a reviewed year partner's tax imposed by chapter 1 for the reporting year is increased by the aggregate of the correction amounts for the first affected year and any intervening years. Section 7701(a)(2) defines "partner" as a member in a partnership (that is, a direct partner). Therefore, §6226(b) requires the partnership's direct partners from the reviewed year to take into account the adjustments. Neither §7701(a)(2) nor §6226 distinguish direct partners that are themselves pass-through entities, and direct partners that are not pass-through entities, such as individuals and C corporations. a. In General. As previously noted, a partnership making a push-out election must do so no later than 45 days after the FPA is mailed to the partnership, and the partnership must furnish and file statements reflecting the reviewed year partners' shares of the adjustments. Then, §6226(b) provides that each direct partner's chapter 1 tax for the taxable year including the date the statement is furnished (reporting year) is increased by an amount that represents the tax that should have been paid by the partner if in the reviewed year the items adjusted were correctly reported on the partnership's return and taken into account by the direct partner. b. Bluebook Explanation to the BBA. In the case of a partnership that is itself a partner, the General Explanation of Tax Legislation Enacted for 2015 (Bluebook) explained that the partnership-partner "pays the tax attributable to adjustments with respect to the [first affected year] and the intervening years, calculated as if it were an individual . . . for the taxable year . . . ." JCS-1-16 at 70. To account for the fact that partnerships are not liable for chapter 1 tax, the Bluebook provides that, "a partnership that receives a statement from the audited partnership is treated similarly to an individual who receives a statement from the audited partnership." Id. (omitting footnote providing "[s]ection 703, which states that 'the taxable income of a partnership shall be computed in the same manner as in the case of an individual . . . .'"). In consideration of the fact that direct partnership-partners must pay the tax, the Bluebook further states that the audited partnership, the partnership receiving the statement under section 6226, and that partnership's partners "may have entered into indemnification agreements under the partnership agreement with respect to the risk of tax liability of reviewed year partners being borne economically by partners in the year that includes the date of the statement. Because the payment of tax by a partnership under the centralized system is nondeductible, payments under an indemnification or similar agreement with respect to the tax are nondeductible." c. Technical Corrections to the BBA Announced. In December 2016, both the House and the Senate introduced bipartisan technical corrections that would resolve this issue by providing that a partner that is a partnership or S corporation may elect to either pay an imputed underpayment under rules similar to section 6225 or flow the adjustments through the tiers. See Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2016 (H.R. 6439, 114th Cong. (2016)); Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2016 (“TCA”) (S. 3506, 114th Cong. (2016)). As a result, the proposed regulations reserve this issue. See Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-2(e). 1. Moving Up the Tiers Permitted For Push-Out Elections. The TCA would allow a partnership or S corporation to flow adjustments through the tiers presents significant administrative concerns. The Treasury and Service note that this reform may cause much administrative complexities, challenges and inefficiencies. 2. Multiple Tiers and Tax Collection Problems. Another significant concern stated in the Preamble as to the TCA’s allowance of multiple tiered push-out elections is the collection of tax. Indeed, it is noted that the BBA presents a bifurcated process where the tax is determined and later assessed and collected through a self-reporting process by the partners. The process of flowing adjustments to the reviewed year partners occurs after the audit/litigation is concluded. The assessment process under BBA, whereby the partners are required to calculate the tax, interest and penalties and report them on their next filed return, presents a challenge because of the passage of time. Even compliant taxpayers, who receive statements in the middle of the tax year may not understand their significance, and may not know exactly how to utilize this information. This would necessitate additional compliance resources by the IRS to check the adjustment year reporting to verify that the adjustments were indeed correctly reported by every tier and by all direct and indirect partners. 3. Associated Costs. The costs involved in administering these processes will limit the overall number of audits that can be undertaken, which in turn will limit the IRS's ability to meaningfully address tax noncompliance for this segment of taxpayers, as well as limit the overall revenue collection from these entities, including, for example, as partners die, dissolve, become insolvent, or are not able to be located due to the passage of time. 4. Application to Direct Partner That is An Estate, Trust or Foreign Entity. The Treasury is concerned with the adoption of the TCA in instances where a direct partner in the partnership that is an estate or trust, or a foreign entity, such as a foreign trust or foreign corporation that may not be liable for U.S. federal income tax with respect to one or more adjustments, but an owner of the direct partner is, or could be, liable for tax with respect to such amount. For instance, if a direct partner in the audited partnership is a controlled foreign corporation, the foreign corporation as a direct partner may not have a U.S. tax liability with respect to a given adjustment; however, the adjustment may impact the tax liability of its U.S. shareholder(s). The tax effects on the U.S. shareholder(s) may arise in the first affected year, an intervening year, or some subsequent year, depending on the specific facts and circumstances. 4. Push-Out Rules Continued: Adjustments to Tax Basis, Capital Accounts, Partnership Asset Basis, etc. Section 6226(b)(3) requires that any tax attribute which would have been affected if the partnership adjustments were taken into account for the reviewed year, be appropriately adjusted for the amount by which the tax imposed under chapter 1 would increase for any intervening year. As with §6225, however, §6226 does not expressly state that tax attributes affected by reason of a partnership adjustment should be adjusted for all purposes, and not just for purposes of taking the adjustments into account to calculate the additional reporting year tax, and that the adjustments to tax those attributes should continue to have effect after the adjustment year. The Preamble states that it is appropriate to adjust the adjustment year partners' outside bases and capital accounts and a partnership's basis and book value in property when one of those tax attributes is affected by reason of a partnership adjustment. But a different approach may be needed for push-out elections. The purpose of the partnership adjustments is to create a new, accurate starting point for later taxable years; therefore, it is required to adjust the adjustment year partners' outside bases and capital accounts despite the fact that it is the reviewed year partners who pay additional tax under section 6226. Providing mechanical rules to govern the adjustments to adjustment year partners' outside bases and capital accounts and a partnership's basis and book value in property raise a myriad of technical issues on which the Treasury Department and the IRS request comments. This is certainly going to be a controversial aspect of the rule-making. a. Procedure for Filing Administrative Adjustment Request. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) sets out the general rules for filing an administrative adjustment request (AAR). Per §6227(a), Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) provides that a partnership may file an AAR with respect to one or more items of income, gain, loss, deduction, or credit of the partnership and any partner's distributive share thereof for any partnership taxable year. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) requires a partnership to determine whether the adjustments requested in the AAR result in an imputed underpayment for the reviewed year. If the requested adjustments result in an imputed underpayment, Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) provides that the partnership takes the adjustments into account under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(b), which requires the partnership to pay the imputed underpayment unless the partnership makes an election under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(c), in which case the reviewed year partners take the adjustments into account in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3, which provides rules similar to section 6226. Under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a), if the adjustments do not result in an imputed underpayment, the reviewed year partners must take the adjustments into account. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3. b. Partnership Representative Makes the Call. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) confirms that only a partnership may file an AAR and that a partner may not file an AAR unless the partner is doing so in his or her capacity as partnership representative for the partnership. Additionally, in certain cases, a partner that is itself a partnership subject to subchapter C of chapter 63 (that is, the partnership has not elected out of the centralized partnership regime under §6221(b)) may file an AAR in response to the filing of an AAR by the partnership of which it is a partner. See Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3(c) for the rules regarding certain partnership-partners filing AARs. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(a) clarifies that a partnership may not file an AAR solely to provide the partnership an opportunity to change a designation of the partnership representative. c. Partnership Return Filing Required. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(b) provides that an AAR may only be filed by a partnership for a partnership taxable year for which a partnership return has been filed. In general, a partnership may not file an AAR with respect to a partnership taxable year more than three years after the later of the date the partnership return for such partnership taxable year was filed or the last day for filing such partnership return determined without regard to extensions. In addition, the proposed regulations provide that an AAR may not be filed with respect to a partnership taxable year after a notice of administrative proceeding with respect to such taxable year has been mailed by the IRS under § 6231. d. Coordination with Foreign Tax Credits. The proposed regulations reserve provision with respect to rules on integrating the AAR rules with §905(c) when the AAR includes an adjustment to the amount of creditable foreign tax incurred by the partnership. e. AAR Procedural Filing Requirements. See Prop. Reg. §301.6227-1(c)(1). A valid AAR must include the information set forth in the regulations including the adjustments requested and grounds for making the changes. When mailed the partnership must notify each reviewed year partner by forwarding a copy of the AAR filed with the IRS. See Prop. Regs. §§301.6227-1(c), -1(d), -1(e)(2). In filing the AAR, the partnership and all partners are bound by the actions taken. Prop. Reg. §301.6227-1(f) provides, that a partner's share of the adjustments requested in an AAR are binding on the partner. Under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(f), a partner must treat the adjustments on the partner's return consistently with how the adjustments are treated on the statement that the partnership files with the IRS. See Prop. Reg. § 301.6222-1(c)(2) (regarding items the treatment of which a partner is bound to under §6223). The IRS may, within the period provided under §6235, conduct a proceeding with respect to the partnership for the taxable year to which the AAR relates and adjust items subject to subchapter C of chapter 63, including the items adjusted in the AAR. In the case of an AAR, the Service may make adjustments with respect to the partnership taxable year to which the AAR pertains within three years from the date the AAR is filed. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1(g) provides the IRS may re-determine adjustments requested in an AAR, including modifications applied by the partnership to the imputed underpayment. If the partnership adjustments determined by the IRS increase any imputed underpayment, the additional amount is assessed in the same manner and subject to the same restrictions as any other imputed underpayment. f. AAR Adjustment Requests Resulting In An Imputed Underpayment. i. Partnership Pays the Imputed Underpayment. Per Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(b)(1) when adjustments requested in an AAR result in an imputed underpayment, the partnership must pay the imputed underpayment (as reduced by modifications meeting the requirements of proposed § 301.6227-2(a)(2)(ii)) at the time the partnership files the AAR, unless the partnership makes the election under proposed § 301.6227-2(c) to have its reviewed year partners take such adjustments into account. The partnership's payment of the imputed underpayment is treated as a nondeductible expenditure under section 705(a)(2)(B) in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6241-4. See Prop. Reg. §301.6227-2(b)(7)(penalties and interest on imputed underpayment resulting from AAR). See §6233(a)(3). Interest on an imputed underpayment is determined under chapter 67 for the period beginning on the date after the due date of the partnership return for the reviewed year (determined without regard to extension) and ending on the earlier of the date payment of the imputed underpayment is made with the AAR, or the due date of the partnership return for the adjustment year. §6233(a)(3). ii. Election to Have the Reviewed Year Partners Take the Adjustments into Account. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(c) allows a partner to elect to effectively push-out the adjustments requested in an AAR that result in an imputed underpayment in lieu of the partnership paying that imputed underpayment. In such event, the partnership is no longer required to pay the imputed underpayment resulting from the adjustments requested in the AAR. Rather, each reviewed year partner must take into account its share of such adjustments. Prop. Reg. §301.6227-3. g. Adjustments Requested in AAR Not Resulting In Imputed Underpayment. In such event, the reviewed year partners must take into account their shares of such adjustments in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(d) provides that in that situation the partnership must furnish statements to the reviewed year partners and file a copy of those statements with the IRS in accordance with Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-1. h. AARs and Review Year Partner Adjustments/Liability. Reviewed year partners take adjustments requested in an AAR filed by the partnership into account in two circumstances: (1) the adjustments requested in the AAR result in an imputed underpayment and the partnership elects under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-2(c) to have its reviewed year partners take the adjustments into account, or (2) the adjustments requested in the AAR do not result in an imputed underpayment per Prop. Reg. §301.6227-2(d). See Prop.Reg. §301.6227-3. Under Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3(b), the reviewed year partner must pay any amount of tax, penalties, additions to tax, additional amounts, and interest that results from taking into account such adjustments in accordance with Prop.Reg. § 301.6226-3, except that, the rules under proposed § 301.6226-3(c) (allowing the reviewed year partner to elect to pay a safe harbor amount), Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(d)(2) (regarding interest on the safe harbor amount), and Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-3(d)(4) (regarding the increased rate of interest) do not apply. Other special rules apply. i. Refund Attributable to AAR Final Adjustments. Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3(b)(2) allows the reviewed year partner to claim a refund where the partnership incorrectly allocated items from the partnership in the reviewed year and provides that when a partner (other than a pass-through partner) takes into account adjustments requested in an AAR, and those adjustments result in a decrease in tax, the partner may use that decrease to reduce the partner's chapter 1 tax for the taxable year which includes the date the statement was furnished to the partner (reporting year), and may make a claim for refund of any overpayment that results. The reduction is treated in a manner similar to a refundable credit under §6401(b). See also Prop. Reg. § 301.6227-3(b)(3) provide examples to illustrate the operation of these rules. The Treasury Department and the IRS intend in future guidance to cross reference Prop. Reg. § 301.6226-4 for rules regarding adjustments to partners' outside bases and capital accounts and a partnership's basis and book value in property when reviewed year partners take adjustments requested in an AAR filed by the partnership into account. Ok, let’s stop here! There’s more to the proposed regulations unfortunately as they do suffer from being long-winded and complex. As detailed and complex as they are, the challenge for the Treasury and that of the Service in issuing these proposed regulations was difficult, i.e., trying to fill in all the gaps and spaces that arguably a rather poorly thought out piece of tax legislation provided. The regulations gallantly try to rescue a statute that is not imposes a partnership level assessment of prior years’ partners’ taxes but muddies the water further by announcing procedures, sub-procedures, a new lexicon of terms, and the draconian imposition of a partnership representative, meet the new “tax czar”, who can bind all partners, both direct and indirect, in any partnership audit or other proceeding. The challenge that the Treasury and IRS face in issuing regulations in such instances is imposing and daunting. The proposed regulations will ultimately only be understandable to a few. Most will trod through them when and as necessity requires, but it is a formidable bog that must be traversed. There are many traps for the unwary. It is, in this writer’s sole opinion, an area that is worthy of rethinking and possible repealing. The former rules were far from perfect, but the new centralized partnership audit rules clearly miss their intended mark. So, when you combine the three posts on this development together and try to understand the new rules and interpreted by the proposed regulations as a whole, it is easy to recognize that something went amuck when this new law was enacted. Partnerships subject to income tax for taxes not paid in prior years by their partners? Really? That’s what Congress wanted obviously, it passed the law and was signed into law by President Obama. But there’s one or two exit doors available to prevent partnerships from paying the taxes of partners, most notably the partners from prior years’ returns who may not be partners in the year the partnership gets audited let alone the audit is completed through litigation perhaps. Well, exit door number one, is to elect out of the mess each year provided the partners are qualified and the partnership representative makes a timely election-out. Yes, that’s true but not always, especially if your partnership has a grantor trust or trust as a partner. In other words you may have one or more non-qualified partners, even if your partnership has only 2 members let alone the required less than 100. There’s the second door to exist from the mess of having the partnership pay partners’ taxes and that is the push-out election. Well, a well-done and timely filed push-out election saves the partnership from liability but wreaks havoc on the reviewed year partners to have to accept the partnership representative’s settlement of tax issues that might have otherwise been challenged. The multiple adjustment rules, payment safe harbors, interim tax attribute adjustments, interest adjustments, etc. make leaving through the second exist a complex enterprise. When the “tax czar”, i.e., the partnership representative, decides to settle out with the IRS and push-out the additional tax, penalties and interest to the partners for the reviewed year it is binding on such review year partners. Clients will undoubtedly ask, “are you kidding, I have no recourse to challenge?”. Each of us will have to explain to our client that it has to right to participate in the audit, appeal or trial with respect to an IRS audit of the partnership seeking to impose additional taxes for prior years’ partnership returns. Each of us will have the privilege of further explaining to our clients that there is indeed no right to participate or even be informed of what’s going on. Well, why wasn’t the partnership agreement filled with detailed procedures and notice requirements to be imposed on the partnership representative? The simple truth that makes this new legislation regrettable is no partner, regardless of his percentage interest in the partnership has any right to participate. You are bound by the partnership representative, always. That’s not fair let alone being good tax policy. It is not going to be well received at the grass roots level. Perhaps one could support this legislation only for large funds and funds of funds where the participating members have on a very small capital interest in the deal, say 1% or even 5.1%. Yes, perhaps this is OK. But we already had in place an electing partnership rule for large partnerships. Didn’t someone think to tell the Congress of §771 thru §779. Ah, but only a very few made that election, we need a new machine the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service said to collect much more from these large funds of funds, hedge funds, large partnerships, etc. So, these three posts describe in some detail the myriad of rules under the proposed regulations which are going to have to be understood by tax professionals, business lawyers, even estate planners. These advisors will have to explain what may otherwise be unexplainable to their clients. Partnership agreements must be entirely revamped to accommodate these rules. The government doesn’t want to spend much time auditing, it just wants to collect tax. Any problems with the statute and regulations that work unfairness at the partner level are to be resolved under the partnership agreement. That is what the government wanted in the new law and Congress obliged just with two resolutions and the President’s stroke of his pen. Still, the new partnership centralized audit rules is not good tax policy. It arguably subverts the general understanding of why persons enter into a partnership to conduct business or investment activity. The expectation has always been that each partner would be allocated and ultimately receive its share of profits (and bear the economic burden of its share of loss) and further agree to pay federal income tax but only on its share of partnership profit. But not now. No, beginning in 2018 the partnership will pay the tax for prior years’ underpayments in tax attributable to partnership audit adjustments, plus penalties and interest. No, the partnership will pay the tax unless the partnership representative decides otherwise. In such instances newly admitted partners will indirectly bear the unpaid taxes of prior years’ partners who get off from paying tax on one or more corrected items as a result of an audit. If the legislation is not repealed, and right now it does not appear that many are entertaining that thought, then a whole new world of complexity will shower all over our tax-thinking heads beginning next year. Perhaps there’s more time to learn the hundreds of new rules and their applications since audits under the “new rules” will await another year or two to get under way. I would welcome comments on your thoughts of the new BBA. Please feel free to disagree. For more in-depth treatment of the subject see, in general, August, “The New Partnership Audit Rules: Guidance Needed”, J. Corp. Tax’n (Jan/Feb 2017); August “The Case for Repealing the TEFRA Partnership Audit Rules”, Practical Tax Lawyer(February, 2017); August, “Repeal of the TEFRA Entity Level Audit Rules”, Journal of Tax Practice & Procedure, (August/September 2016); August and Cuff, “The TEFRA Partnership Audit Rules Repeal: Partnership and Partner Impacts”, ALI-CLE Video Webcast (7/17/2016); August, “The Good The Bad, and Possibly the Ugly in the New Audit Rules: Congress Rescues the IRS From Its Inability to Audit Large Partnerships”, Business Entities (WG&L) (May/June 2016); August, “Entity-Level Audit Rules Continue to Pose challenges for Partners”, Parts 1 and 2, Business Entities (WG&L) (Nov./Dec. 2014) (July/Aug. 2015). Section 1101, Pub. L. No. 114-74, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Section 1101 repeals the current rules governing partnership audits with a new centralized partnership audit regime that, in general, assesses and collects tax at the partnership level. On the new audit provisions generally, see New York State Bar Association, Tax Section, Report No. 1347, “Report on the Partnership Audit Rules of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” (May 25, 2016). Part One, "IRS And Treasury Issues Needed Guidance On Centralized Partnership Audits: Proposed Regulations Issued" Part Two, "IRS And Treasury Issues Needed Guidance On Centralized Partnership Audits: Proposed Regulations Issued"

2019-04-24T08:18:33Z

https://www.kflaw.com/irs_and_treasury_issue_proposed_regulations_on_centralized_partnership_audits_part3

2016-06-15 Assigned to DEALERTRACK, INC. reassignment DEALERTRACK, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: KENNEDY, WILLIAM R., GIGLIA, CHARLES J. The present invention is an integrated electronic credit application, contracting and securitization system and method. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises the following integrated components: a Credit Application Module, an eContracting Module and an eDocument Storage Module. Together the components enable “paper-less” commercial transactions. This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Application No. 60/491,621, filed Jul. 31, 2003, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth at length herein. The present invention (also referred to as DealerTrack™, or the DealerTrack™ system/method/product) generally relates to credit application processing and more specifically to an integrated electronic credit application, contracting and securitization system, process, apparatus and article of manufacture, particularly suitable for the automotive industry. At least a portion of the disclosure of this document may contain material, which is subject to copyright/trademark protection. The copyright/trademark owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright/trademark rights whatsoever. The FIGS. 1-59 herein depict exemplary embodiments of the present invention constructed in accordance with the teachings expressed herein. Aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the accompanying description with reference to the drawing figures. What follows are one or more embodiments of the present invention. It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that those embodiments provided herein are illustrative only and not limiting, having been presented by way of example only. All the features disclosed in this description may be replaced by alternative features serving the same purpose, and equivalents or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Therefore, numerous other embodiments of the modifications thereof are contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention as defined herein and equivalents thereto. Use of absolute terms, such as “will not,” “will,” “shall,” “shall not,” “must,” and “must not,” are not meant to limit the present invention as the embodiments disclosed herein are merely exemplary. The present invention is an integrated electronic credit application, contracting and securitization system, process, apparatus and article of manufacture, suitable for the automotive industry. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises the following integrated components: a Credit Application Module, an eContracting Module and an eDocument Storage Module. The Credit Application Module is “a centralized credit application entry and routing system which accepts applications from, for example, automotive dealerships, electronically and selectively forwards them to funding sources, including funding sources having computerized credit application systems.” Exemplary embodiments of the Credit Application Module are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,403, which is incorporated herein by reference. Selected information acquired and generated by the Credit Application Module, including for example, customer information, lending/funding decision, etc., is then used as input to the eContracting Module. The eContracting Module is an electronic contracting and same day funding system which electronically transmits contract information to financing sources. Details of exemplary embodiments of the eContracting Module are provided in the section entitled: “eContracting Functional Requirements”. The eDocument Storage Module “implements digital encryption for the electronic transmission, storage and retrieval of authenticated documents and that enables the establishment of the identity of the originator of an electronic document and of the integrity of the information contained in such a document. Together these provide irrevocable proof of authenticity of the document. The system and method of the present invention provides for “paper-less” commercial transactions. After an eContract is created and signed it is deposited, along with any other ancillary documents/information, into a “Vault” and an authoritative copy of the eContract is designated. An “Ownership Record” is created listing the dealer and/or the financing source as the owner/control party. Details of exemplary embodiments of the eDocument Storage Module are provided in the section entitled: “Securitization Vault, Functional Requirements”. Additional details of exemplary embodiments of the eDocument Storage Module are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,615,268, 5,748,738, 6,237,096 and 6,367,013, Publication Nos. 2001/00002485 and 2002/0184217, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. Exemplary operational flows of the overall system and method in accordance with the present invention are shown by FIGS. 34-39 entitled “Master eContracting Flow Chart”. Additional aspects, features and advantages of the present invention is provided in the section entitled: “Electronic Contracting and Securitization for the Automotive Finance Industry, Overview” supplanted with FIGS. 40-59. An eContract data entry screen prefilled with customer, vehicle and financial data from lender approved or counter-offered retail applications. The Data Entry Screen will be prefilled with available data from a pending application. The Data Entry Screen will be prefilled with available data from a pulled Credit Bureau in the Spot Delivery process. The Data Entry Screen will not be pre-filled if the dealer accesses the screen from the “Submit Application/eContract” submenu in the Spot Delivery process. An electronic version of standardized retail installment contracts approved by the lender and completely filled out with the applicable contract data. In those states that require a Spanish language version of the Retail Installment contract, DealerTrack will provide this onsite within Docs & Forms and onscreen within the eContracting function. The contract PDF will contain a DealerTrack created reference number in the footer of the document which will tie into the reference number used on the Signature Pad LCD screen verbiage. A bar-coded fax cover sheet itemizing ancillary documentation to be faxed to the lender for matching purposes. The bar-code will be created using the lender APS #. The bar-code criteria will be sent to the lender within the XML data stream when the signed eContract is sent for funding review. The fax cover sheet will be separate from the eContract PDF for printing purposes. Signature pads and related software to obtain eSignatures. Their dealers with verified contract data including a lender calculated APR, Monthly Payment, Total of Payments, and Finance Charge (applicable if the lender participates in data verification). DealerTrack with bar code criteria (APS #) at the time of application submittal that will be used on the DealerTrack fax cover sheet to match the imaged eContract residing on the lenders imaging system to dealer faxed ancillary documentation. Required ancillary documentation requirements, including stipulations, for the fax cover sheet at the time of Credit Approval or Counter-offer. The ability to confirm contract data prior to receipt of the signed retail installment eContract (applicable if the lender participates in data verification and the dealer has not elected to spot deliver the customer). A signature bound PDF version of the completed retail installment eContract to be saved in the lenders imaging system. The ability to match dealer faxed ancillary documentation with the eContract residing on the lenders imaging system by referencing the bar-coded fax cover sheet. 2. Spot Phase I—Pending Applications. 3. Spot Phase II—Credit Bureau Summary/Detail. Dealers will access the eContract Data Entry screen via an Approved or Counter-offered Application Status Detail screen. The Application Status Detail screen will present the dealer with the option to “Begin eContract Data Entry” (FIG. 1). The button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”) will be removed once an eContract Data Entry screen has been saved or submitted to any eContract participating lender for verification (if applicable) or a paper contract is in house. In place of these buttons will be a notice indicating that there is an existing eContract in progress; “The eContracting process for this customer has already begun. Select ‘Continue’ to access this deal”. DealerTrack will provide the dealer with a link that will take the dealer to the appropriate eContract location relating to that deal. “Begin eContract Data Entry”, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear if the dealer chooses to cancel the eContracting process. “Begin eContracting Data Entry” will only be available until the credit approval expires (Lender to send indicator of expiration). Note: Lenders will have the ability to indicate if a customer is not eligible for eContracting, DealerTrack will display the following message in place of the “Begin eContract Data Entry”; “This credit approval/counter-offer is not eligible for the eContracting process. Please follow (lender's name) standard paper process to contract this deal” (FIG. 2). Begin eContract Data Entry: DealerTrack will present the dealer with the eContract Data Entry screen prefilled with available application data. 2. Phase II—Using DealerTrack's credit bureau functionality. 3. Phase II—From Submit An Application/eContract screen. Dealers will access the eContract Data Entry screen via a Pending (FIG. 3) or Approved/Counter-offered (FIG. 4) Application Status Detail screen. The Pending Application Status Detail screen will present the dealer with the option to “Spot This Vehicle”, and the Approved/Counter-offered Application Status Detail screen will present the dealer with option II “Bypass Verification”. The button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”) will be removed once an eContract Data Entry screen has been saved or submitted to any eContract participating lender for verification (if applicable) or a contract for that customer is in any contract status, eContracting or paper. In place of these buttons will be a notice indicating that there is an existing eContract in progress; “The eContracting process for this customer has already begun. Select ‘Continue’ to access this deal. “DealerTrack will provide the dealer with a link that will take the dealer to the appropriate eContract location relating to that deal. “Begin eContract Data Entry”, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear if the dealer chooses to cancel the eContracting process. Spot This Vehicle: DealerTrack will present the dealer with the eContract Data Entry screen prefilled with available application data. Bypass Verification: DealerTrack will present the dealer with the eContract Data Entry screen prefilled with available application data. Dealers will access the Submit An Application/eContract screen from the Credit Bureau Summary (FIG. 5) or Credit Bureau Detail screens. Once the selection has been made, the dealer will be presented with the Submit Appli-cation/eContract screen. Note that the button “Prefill Application/eContract” will only appear for those dealers enrolled in eContracting and users who have Spot permission. Equifax: Will prefill the Application/eContract Data Entry screen with Equifax data if “Prefill Application/eContract” button selected. Experian: Will prefill the Application/eContract Data Entry screen with Experian data if “Prefill Application/eContract” button selected. TransUnion: Will prefill the Application/eContract Data Entry screen with TransUnion data if “Prefill Application/eContract” button selected. Update Application/eContract with customer data only: Will prefill the Application/eContract Data Entry screen with customer data only if “Prefill Application/eContract” button selected. Prefill Application/eContract: Will present the dealer with the Submit Application/eContract screen (FIG. 6). Dealers will access the eContract Data Entry screen via the Submit Application/eContract submenu (FIG. 6). This option will only appear for those dealers active in eContracting and users that have Spot Delivery permission. The Submit Application/eContract screen will give the dealer the ability to provide vehicle, product, trade-in, and deal type data. Note: this screen is also accessed from a pulled Credit Bureau where the dealer has selected the “Prefill Application/eContract” button. Select a Vehicle Type: Will enable DealerTrack to present the Dealer with the required Contract Data Entry screen. Select a Product Type: Will enable DealerTrack to present the dealer with the required Contract Data Entry screen. Lease—not currently available. DealerTrack will present the dealer with a pop-up indicating “eContracting is not currently available for Lease products”. Balloon—not currently available. DealerTrack will present the dealer with a pop-up indicating “eContracting is not currently available for Balloon products”. Trade-in: Will enable DealerTrack to present the dealer with the required Contract Data Entry screen. Request Application or eContract: Will enable DealerTrack to present the dealer with the required Application or Contract Data Entry screen. Application—Will bring the dealer to the Application Data Entry screen. eContract—Will bring the dealer to the eContract Data Entry screen. Individual: DealerTrack will present an Application or Contract Data Entry screen applicable to an individual. Joint: DealerTrack will present an Application or Contract Data Entry screen applicable to a buyer and co-buyer. Business: DealerTrack will present an Application or Contract Data Entry screen applicable to a business. Business with Co-Applicant: DealerTrack will present an Application or Contract Data Entry screen applicable to a business with co-applicant. DealerTrack will present the eContract Data Entry screen. The appropriate contract data fields will be displayed. Available data from the Approved, Counter-offered or Pending application (if applicable) will prefill the appropriate data fields. Note: If the dealer has accessed the Data Entry screen from a pulled Credit Bureau, the applicable data will be prefilled. If the dealer is accessing the Data Entry Screen without any previous data being obtained (Submit Application/eContract) the screen will be empty of data. DealerTrack will place the cursor at the first required data entry field in which data has not yet been obtained. The dealer will complete the remaining required data entry fields along with any customer requested options using the tab function or clicking in the appropriate field. If the lender participates in data verification, the dealer will click “Submit to Lender for Verification” (FIG. 7). If the lender does not participate in data verification or the dealer has elected to use Spot Delivery functionality, the dealer will click “Continue” (FIG. 11d ). Save the data and return to the contract status screen. When the dealer reenters the deal via the Contract Status Detail screen, he will be returned to the eContracting Data Entry screen via the button “Continue eContract”. The eContract Data Entry screen will retain the saved data. Cancel—Pop-up box: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer accepts, return to the Application Status screen. Begin eContract Data Entry functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. DealerTrack will message the lender advising that the dealer wishes to cancel the eContracting process. Reset the data to the most current approved, counter-offered or data entered (Spot Delivery) application information. DealerTrack will scan the data for “web edit” errors. “Web edits” or “Standard Edits” reside on the DealerTrack system and will alert the dealer to specific errors identified by the system. In the case of an individual or business loan with a personal guarantor the answer will be defaulted to “Yes” and all other options will be locked. Will require the Buyer to sign the Co-Signor Notice. Will require the Co-Buyer to sign the Co-Signor Notice. Confirmations that all required data entry fields have been completed. The First Payment Date is between 19-51 days of the Note Date. MSRP will be required on new vehicles. GAP will be hard-coded in the second “For” field. “(Lender Name)—Paid in Financing” (if applicable)—Will require the dealer to complete a GAP Waiver Form. The dealer will be required to enter the purchase amount of GAP in the Financing Information section. Provider (Lender Name—if applicable) and cost will prefill in “Provider” and “Cost” fields within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section. The “Term” field of the GAP within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section will pre-fill with the term of the contract. It will be editable to the dealer. “(Lender Name)—Paid in Cash” Will require the dealer the complete a GAP Waiver form. The purchase amount in the Financing Information section will be locked. Provider (Lender Name—if applicable) will prefill in the “Provider” field within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section. The “Term” field will prefill with the term of the contract. It will be editable to the dealer. The dealer will be required to complete the “Cost” field of the GAP within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section. The dealer will be required to complete the “Provider” field and DealerTrack will prefill the “Term” field with the term of the contract within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section. This field will be editable to the dealer. The dealer will be required to enter the “Provider” and “Cost” fields of the GAP within the Warranty/Credit Insurance section. DealerTrack will prefill the “Term” field with the term of the contract. This field will be editable to the dealer. Negative Equity will be reflected in the 4th To/For field in the financing section. The dealer will be required to enter the lenders name in the “To” field. “For” will prefill with “Prior Lease/Loan Balance” calculated by DealerTrack. The amount will prefill with the negative equity amount figured in the “Trade-in” section of “Vehicle Information”. This will require the dealer to enter the amount of the origination fee. This will require the dealer to enter the amount of the origination fee. DealerTrack will subtract this amount from the Total Amount Financed. DealerTrack will display the Approved Amount from an Approved or Countered Credit Application on the data entry screen for the dealer to review. DealerTrack will return the dealer to the eContract Data Entry screen. DealerTrack will present the errors on the eContract Data Entry screen for dealer correction. “Submit to Lender for Verification” if lender participates in verification. “Continue” if the lender does not participate in data verification or the dealer has elected to use Spot Delivery functionality. Once passed DealerTrack web edits, the status reflected in Contract Status will be “eDTVerified” (FIG. 10). Bypass—This Lender Does Not Support Contract Data Verification. A lender will not verify this contract data prior to you obtaining customer signatures. Press ‘Continue’ to proceed”. Spot—“You have elected to Spot Deliver this deal. A lender will not verify this contract data prior to you obtaining customer signatures. Press ‘Continue’ to proceed”. (Note: Not applicable for Bypass Verification or Spot Delivery Processes). The dealer will not have the ability to change the eContract data until an eError or eLender Verified response has been received. DealerTrack will notify the dealer of submission via a change in contract status (eSubmitted). The lender will message DealerTrack informing of receipt. Should there be an error in transmission, DealerTrack will alert the dealer via a change in Contract Status (eSubmit Error). DealerTrack will provide an 800# for the dealer to contact for assistance. DealerTrack will alert the dealer of the successful submission via a change is Contract Status, eReceived (FIG. 8). DealerTrack will submit the data to the lender's system for verification. The lender will scan the data for errors based upon backend system “lender edits”. “Lender edits” are created by the lender, reside on the lenders backend system and will identify specific errors. Example: Amount financed outside program parameters. Lender will forward DealerTrack a listing of errors. DealerTrack will alert the dealer of errors via a change in contract status (eError). The dealer will enter the eContract Data Entry screen via the Contract Status Detail screen by clicking “Continue eContract” button. DealerTrack will present the itemized errors and lender comments on the eContract Data Entry screen for dealer correction. Dealer will make corrections and click “Submit to Lender for Verification”. OPTIONAL: If the lenders backend processing system finds errors, the lender has the option to reroute the deal to their credit or funding analyst for review. Lender will forward DealerTrack a message indicating the deal is under review along with reasons for review. DealerTrack will alert the dealer that the deal is under review via a change in the contract status (eReview) and display reasons for review to the dealer (FIG. 9). The credit or funding analyst has the option to send comments itemizing the errors to the dealer. The lender will send DealerTrack a message indicating an error in contract data. DealerTrack will alert the dealer of change in status via a change in contract status (eError). The dealer will enter the Contract Data Entry Screen to view the error(s) identified by the lender. The dealer can make corrections and resubmit to the lender for verification, or cancel the eContracting process. The credit or funding analyst has the option to send comments to the dealer. DealerTrack will alert the dealer of change in status via a change in contract status (eLender Verified). Once the information is verified via the lenders backend processing system the lender will forward the lender calculated APR, Monthly Payment, and Finance Charge along with the bar-code criteria (sent at the time of application approval/counter-offer) to be referenced on the fax cover sheet. Dealer Track will alert the dealer of change in status via a change in the contract status, eLender Verified (FIG. 10). Save—Saves the dealer entered data and returns the dealer to the Contract Status screen. Dealer may reenter the deal via the Contract Status screen link indicating a status of eSaved. Cancel—Pop-up box: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer accepts, return to the Application Status Detail screen. Begin eContract Data Entry Screen functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. DealerTrack will message the lender advising that the dealer wishes to cancel the eContracting process. Reset—Will reset the data to the most current approved application information. Submit to Lender for Verification—Submit info to lender. Return dealer to Contract Status screen. Link: Wilson, Vincent—Will take the dealer to the Contract Status Detail Screen. Link: Banks, John—Will take the dealer to the Contract Status Detail screen in the Spot Delivery Process. The dealer will be able to generate the eContract from this point. Wilson, Vincent—Will take the dealer to the Contract Status Detail screen in the Data Verification Process. The dealer will be able to generate the eContract from this point. Cancel—Pop-up box: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer accepts, return to the Application Status Detail screen. Begin eContract Data Entry Screen functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. Dealer-Track will message the lender advising that the dealer wishes to cancel the eContracting process. Reset—Will reset the data to the available customer/collateral data if accessed from a pulled credit bureau or pending application. If accessed through Submit an Application/eContract, and no data is avail-able, this will clear the screen. Continue—Submit the contract data to DealerTrack to pass through web-edits. Return dealer to the contract status screen. A print event must be detected prior to the dealer having the ability to capture signatures. DealerTrack provides a forced-print that will print the review copy of the contract for the customer(s) (excluding the fax cover sheet). The printed copies will contain a watermark indicating “Copy” on each page. DealerTrack will delete all eContracting data, and indicate an eCancelled status on the Contract Status Detail Page to the dealer. A message will appear within the Contract Status Details page indicating; “The eLender Verified/eDT Verified (whichever is applicable) status for this customer has expired. Please select ‘Continue’ to return to the Data Entry Screen”. CA—Must be printed front/back of legal size paper in color. MI—Must be printed in color. The dealer will select “Print Review Copy” and Dealer dealer with the unsigned, data merged, eContract PDF cover sheet) in a separate browser window. The Silanis “Forced Print” will send the print request to the printer for printing. In addition, “Print Review Copy” will constitute a hand-off from DealerTrack server to the ApproveIT Web Server (AWS). The dealer will have the ability to Modify or Cancel the eContracting process using the functional buttons (“Modify” and “Cancel”) provided within the AWS Overview Page. Constitutes the handoff to ApproveIT Web Server (AWS). The Silanis “Forced Print” will send the print request to the dealers' default printer for printing. Printed copies will include a “Copy” water-mark on all pages. “Cancel”—Pop-up box indicating: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return dealer to the Application Status screen. “Begin eContract Data Entry” functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. DealerTrack will message the lender advising that the dealer wishes to cancel the eContracting process. If the dealer clicks “No” then return the dealer to the current page. “Modify”—If lender participates in data verification, pop-up box indicating; “Data will have to be resubmitted to Lender for verification Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return the dealer to the Data Entry screen retaining dealer entered/Lender approved data. PDF version of eContract, and fax cover sheet (if applicable) will be deleted. If the dealer clicks “No” then return the dealer to the current page. If lender does not participate in data verification or dealer has elected to spot deliver the vehicle, pop-up box indicating; “Do you wish to Modify Contract Data? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return the dealer to the Data Entry Screen retaining dealer-entered data. PDF version of eContract, and fax cover sheet (if applicable) will be deleted. If the dealer clicks “No” then return dealer to the current page. “Back to Contract Summary”—Return the dealer to the Contract Summary page. Once the dealer has printed the review copy of the contract, the contract-viewing window will close and the AWS Overview Page will be displayed (FIG. 13). This page will contain next step instructions for the dealer, indicate status' of signature capture, and provide the dealer with Cancel and Modify functionality as well as allowing the dealer to print additional Review Copies or return to the DealerTrack Contract Details page. Once the review copy of the contract has been printed, the contract-viewing window will close. The AWS Overview Page will be displayed. The dealer will review the next step instructions. Step 1 will default to Complete as print event has occurred. Step 2 will indicate a status of Incomplete as no signatures have been captured. The dealer will select “Obtain Signatures”. AWS will present the dealer with the Signature Capture page. The dealer will have additional options to Cancel or Modify the eContract. In addition, the dealer may obtain another review copy of the contract by selecting “View & Print Review Copy” or return to the Contract Detail page by selecting “Back to Contract Details”. “Obtain Signatures”—Brings the dealer to the Signature Page. “Cancel”13 Pop-up box indicating: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return dealer to the Application Status screen. “Begin eContract Data Entry” functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. DealerTrack will message the lender advising that the dealer wishes to cancel the eContracting process. If the dealer clicks “No” then return the dealer to the current page. “View & Print Review Copy”—Opens the PDF file in a separate browser and allows the dealer to print additional review copies of the contract. NOTE: This action does not bring up the print dialogue box. Printing will occur using the standard Adobe print functionality. “Back to Contract Details”—Returns the dealer to the Contract Status Detail page. DealerTrack will provide the dealer with a signature page to capture the required signatures. DealerTrack will identify the signature fields requiring signatures based upon previous information obtained (Buyer, Co-Buyer, Dealer, Warranty, Accident/Health, GAP). Signature fields will be organized into blocks of Buyer, Co-Buyer (if applicable), and Dealer. Each signature field will contain verbiage relevant to the contractual requirements. This text will also appear within the LCD screen of the Signature Pad for the customer to review. Note: If a date is required for the signature, the AWS will note the date of the signature capture to be captured on the Contract PDF. Once the dealer selects “Obtain Signatures” DealerTrack will provide the dealer with an HTML Signature Page outlining all signatures required for the Buyer, Co-Buyer (if applicable), and Dealer. The Signature Page will include on screen descriptions for each required signature field for the dealer to refer the customer to the appropriate field on the printed review copy (FIG. 14). The descriptions will also appear within the LCD screen of the signature pad referring the customer to the appropriate field on the printed review copy. Both the on-screen and LCD descriptions will reference the DealerTrack created reference number that will match that on the printed review copy of the contract (within the footer of each page) and the customers approval or counter-offer. The signer will have the ability to recapture signatures as many times as desired before securing to the eContract, however, once secured, the signature cannot be deleted. The dealer will click on each signature field and capture the appropriate signature. The dealer will repeat this process until all customer signatures have been captured. The Dealer will have the ability to save a partially signed eContract once each signature section has been completed (Buyer Section, Co-Buyer Section—if applicable). If there is a Co-Buyer and either the full Buyer, or Co-Buyer sections have been saved, the ePartially signed status is good for 5 days from the Note Date (until ALL CUSTOMER signatures are obtained). See page 28, Saving Signatures, for further explanation. The dealer will have the ability to Print a signed customer's copy of the eContract once all customer signatures have been obtained. The dealer will not be able to submit the eContract to the lender until the dealers signature has been obtained (see page 30, Partially Signed Contracts, for further explanation). All signatures obtained within the HTML eSignature Page are uploaded to DealerTrack where they are securely bound to the eContract to generate the signature bound original. Return the dealer to the Contract Status Detail screen indicating a status of eSigned. Dynamic—Only available after a complete block of signatures has been captured (e.g. all the Buyers signatures boxes have been signed, 2 of 2). Will bind the available signatures and date fields (if applicable) to the PDF. Return the dealer to the Overview Page. “Back to Contract Details”—Returns the dealer to the Contract Status Detail page. Pop-up will appear if signatures captured, but not saved (FIG. 15). “OK”—Return the dealer to the Contract Detail page. Do not save/bind signatures and dates. The dealer will have the ability to save blocks of captured signatures without submitting to the lender. Saved signatures will be indicated on both the AWS Overview page and the Contract Status Detail page itemizing additional signatures required. If no signatures have been obtained, and the dealer has exited the AWS Overview page or Signature Capture page (without saving), the forced review print will not be required from Contract Status Details, and the dealer will return to the AWS Overview page by selecting “Continue” from the Contract Status Details page (FIG. 16). Contract Signatures Required—No signatures obtained. Buyer Signatures Required—Co-Buyer (if applicable) and/or Dealer have signed. Co-Buyer Signatures Required (if applicable)—Buyer and Dealer have signed. Dealer Signature(s) Required—Buyer and Co-Buyer (if applicable) have signed. Buyer and Co-Buyer (if applicable) Signatures Required—Dealer has signed. Buyer and Dealer Signatures Required—Co-Buyer has signed. Co-Buyer and Dealer Signatures Required. Buyer has signed. Only applicable if deal has a Co-Buyer. “Continue”—Brings the dealer to the AWS “Overview Page”. “Print Review Copy”—Will open the Review copy of the PDF in a separate browser. The dealer can print copies using Adobe print functionality. This function will be available to the dealer until ALL customer signatures (Buyer and Co-Buyer—if applicable) have been captured. It will then be replaced by “View and Print Copy” functionality. Printed copy will contain the watermark “Copy” on each page. The dealer will have the ability to present the Buyer, and Co-Buyer (if applicable) a printed copy of the contract containing ALL customer signatures without the dealers' signature. If the dealer chooses to use this option, the dealer will be responsible for mailing a fully signed contract containing the dealers' signature once available. This option will only be available if ALL customer signatures have been obtained. Once ALL Customer signatures have been obtained (Buyer and Co-Buyer—if applicable), the dealer will select “Save” on the Signature Page. The dealer will be presented with the AWS Overview Page indicating Buyer signatures as Complete and Co-Buyer signatures as Complete (if applicable). Note: Additional instructions to print a customer copy without dealer signature will appear in the AWS overview page to the left (FIG. 17). The dealer will follow the instructions and select “Back to Contract Details”. The Contract Status Details page will require the dealer to select “Refresh” which will allow the AWS system to update the contract PDF with the obtained eSignatures (FIG. 18). Enhancement: The ‘Refresh’ button will be replaced by a ‘Processing’. This will be available along with the Spot delivery process and coding. Once AWS has completed processing the signatures, the dealer will select “View & Print Copy” (FIG. 19) which will open the eContract PDF in a separate browser. The dealer will use the Print functionality provided within Adobe Acrobat and print copies for the Buyer, and Co-Buyer (if applicable). Once the dealer has completed printing copies, the dealer will close the viewing window. “Obtain Signatures”—opens the Signature Page. “Back to Contract Details”—will return the dealer to the Contract Status Detail Page indicating additional instructions to print a Partially signed contract for the Buyer, and Co-Buyer (if applicable). “Refresh”—will refresh the page. Once the AWS has completed processing and binding the available signatures to the contract the dealer will be returned to the Contract Status Detail screen reflecting a status of ePartially Signed (see below). NOTE: Enhancement; The ‘Refresh’ button will be replaced by a ‘Processing’ screen. This will be available along with the Spot delivery process and coding. “Comments to Funding Analyst”—Will allow the dealer to send comments to the analyst. Print Review Copy”—Will allow the dealer to print another version of the contract WITHOUT signatures. “Back to Contract Summary”—Will return the user to the Contract Summary screen. “View and Print Copy”—Opens the contract containing ALL customer signatures in a separate browser for the dealer to print and provide to the Buyer and Co-Buyer (if applicable). “Continue”—Brings the dealer back to the overview page, indicating that the dealer's signatures are required. Once ALL signatures have been obtained, including the dealers', the dealer will print a copy for the customer(s) and dealer records and submit the contract to the lender for funding. The dealer will review the printed Fax Cover Sheet, obtain all ancillary documentation, and fax to the lender. Once ALL required signatures, including the dealers', have been obtained via the Signature Page, the dealer will select “Continue” (FIG. 20). The Dealer will be returned to the Contract Status Detail screen indicating a required “Refresh” button (FIG. 21). Enhancement: a ‘Processing’ screen will replace the ‘Refresh’ button. This will be available along with the Spot delivery process and coding. The eContract PDF and fax cover sheet will be presented to the dealer in a separate browser window and a Print Dialogue box will appear. The fax cover sheet will be a separate Document merged with the Contract PDF. The dealer will select the number of copies to print and destination. The fully signed, flattened copy of the eContract will be forwarded to the lender's imaging system referencing the APS #. The dealer will be returned to the Contract Status screen with the status indicating “eContract Submitted”. Once the eContract (Co-Signor Notice and Gap Waiver Form if applicable) has been successfully submitted to the lender the dealer will be notified via a change in Contract Status (eContract Received). Should an error in submission occur, the dealer will be notified via a change in Contract Status (eContract Submit Error). DealerTrack will provide an 800# for the dealer to call for assistance. NOTE: The dealer will have the option to print additional copies of the contract by selecting “Print Signed Copies” on the Contract Status Detail screen. The dealer will review the Bar-Coded Fax Cover Sheet, obtain all required ancillary documentation and fax to the lender. Lender's fax server will forward the documentation to the lender imaging system referencing the bar code and match to the eContract. The Buyer will review all ancillary documentation and if all documents have been received, the lender will send DealerTrack an indicator stating the lender's acceptance of the eContract PDF and ancillary documentation. Once the lender's decision to purchase the contract package has been received, DealerTrack will forward the Original contract PDF to the lender. If all ancillary documentation is not received, the lender will notify DealerTrack. The Lender can send comments to the dealer itemizing the missing documentation through DealerTrack. DealerTrack will display to the dealer a change in Contract Status (ePending Docs). DealerTrack will display the missing documentation comments within the Contract Status Detail Screen. The dealer will obtain the missing documentation and fax to the lender along with the Fax Cover Sheet. Should the dealer require an additional copy of the fax cover sheet or contract, this can be obtained on the DealerTrack site for 7 days after initial submittal. Should the Lender review the contract package and find that the contract package will not be accepted, the lender will forward an indicator stating the lender's decision to not purchase this deal. Once received by DealerTrack, a status of “eRejected” will be displayed to the dealer. The dealer will have the ability to “Select Lender(s)” from the eContract Select lenders screen. Please see page 44 regarding Submitting eContract to Other Lender. Dynamic. This is button will replace the “Save” button only after ALL signatures, including the dealers', have been obtained. The signatures will be bound to the contract PDF. The dealer will be returned to the Contract Status Detail page. “Print Review Copy”—Will allow the dealer to print another version of the contract WITHOUT signatures. Opens the contract containing ALL signatures in a separate browser for the dealer to print for the Buyer, Co-Buyer (if applicable) and Dealer records. Printed copies will contain a watermark “Copy” on all pages. DealerTrack will submit the flattened eContract PDF to the lender. Dealer will be brought to the Contract Summary page indicating a status of “eContract Submitted” and message to appear indicating eContract is being submitted to the lender. “Print Signed Copy”—Presents the dealer with the fully signed PDF in a separate browser to view and print as needed. Once ALL signatures have been obtained, including the dealers', the dealer will print a copy for the customer(s) and dealer records and submit the contract to the lender for funding ONLY UPON RECEIPT of a Credit Approval or Counter-offer from the lender. The dealer will review the printed Fax Cover Sheet, obtain all ancillary documentation, and fax to the lender. DealerTrack will present the dealer with a page indicating “Processing” while the signature binding is taking place. The eContract PDF will be presented to the dealer in a separate browser window and a Print Dialogue box will appear. Once completed, the dealer will close the viewing window, and the Contract Status Detail page will be open. DealerTrack will restrict the dealer from submitting the contract for funding until a credit decision has been made. If a Credit Application has been previously sent to an eContract participating lender, the dealer will have the option to “Select Lenders” (FIG. 23, step 2). The dealer will be presented with the eContract Select Lenders screen (FIG. 25) which will indicate the status of submitted applications to eContract participating lenders. The dealer will have the option of selecting an eContract participating lender that has approved the customer's credit to submit the contract to by using the Radio Button function. The dealer will be required to select “Compare Application & Contract” (FIG. 26) which will open the Compare Application & Contract screen. The Compare Application & Contract screen will be segmented to show the chosen lenders approved data and compare it to the completed eContract data. A Blue Background in the differing field will indicate any differences between the data to the dealer. The comparison requirement will allow the dealer to make sure the completed contract is within the selected lenders program criteria. The selected lenders Fax Cover sheet will be printed for the dealer. NOTE: Lenders will be required to supply all stipulations required at the time of application approval or counter-offer to ensure the dealer has all required documentation listed. The fully signed, flattened copy of the eContract will be forwarded to the lender along with the contract data XML for the lender to review. The dealer will be returned to the Contract Status screen with the status indicating “eContract Submitted”. Once the eContract (Co-Signor Notice and Gap Waiver Form if applicable) has been successfully submitted to the lender, the dealer will be notified via a change in Contract Status (eContract Received). NOTE: The dealer will have the option to print additional copies of the contract by selecting “Print Signed Copy” on the Contract Status Detail screen. If all ancillary documentation is not received, the lender will notify DealerTrack. The Buyer can send comments to the dealer itemizing the missing documentation through DealerTrack. Should the dealer require an additional copy of the fax cover sheet, it will be obtained on the DealerTrack site for 7 days after initial submittal. Should the Buyer review the contract package and find that the contract package will not be accepted, the lender will forward an indicator stating the lender's decision. The dealer will have the ability to “Submit eContract to Additional Lender”. Please see page 22 regarding Submitting eContract to Other Lender. If a Credit Application has not been submitted to an eContract participating lender, the user will be required to “Prefill Application” (FIG. 24). Once selected, DealerTrack will present the user with the Application Data Entry screen pre-filled with all available contract data. The Prefilled contract data will be non-editable to the dealer. The dealer will complete the remaining required fields in the Application Data Entry screen and follow the Submit an Application procedure. The dealer will have the option of checking Contract Status Detail/Select Lenders for application status or accessing Application Status. The dealer will have the ability to “Print Fax Cover” sheet and “Submit for Funding” in both locations. Step 1 “Print Signed Copy”—Will open the signed PDF version of the contract in Adobe for the dealer to print the desired number of copies. Step 2 “Select Lenders”—this button will only be active after Print Final Copies has been selected. Once selected, the dealer will be presented with the eContract Select Lenders screen. “Cancel”—Pop-up box indicating: “Canceling will delete all eContract information and return you to Application Status. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return dealer to the Application Status screen. “Begin eContract Data Entry” functional button, along with all other functional buttons (“Comments to Credit Analyst”, “Add Co-Applicant”, “Submit to Other Lenders”), will reappear in the Application Status Detail screen. If the dealer clicks “No” then return the dealer to the current page. “Modify”—Pop-up box indicating; “Do you wish to Modify Contract Data? Yes/No”. If the dealer clicks “Yes” then return the dealer to the Data Entry Screen retaining dealer-entered data. PDF version of eContract, and fax cover sheet (if applicable) will be deleted. If the dealer clicks “No” then return dealer to the current page. The dealer will have the option to “Select Lenders” if a prior Credit Approval or Counter-offer has been received from an eContract Participating lender and the dealer has decided to Spot Deliver the vehicle. If no credit application has been submitted to a lender, the dealer will be given the opportunity to submit a credit application prefilled with contractual data to the lenders of their choice. This same screen is utilized if the dealer decides to “Submit the Contract to Another Lender” (eRejected scenario). The Select Lenders page will require the dealer to Compare the Application & Contract or Submit Application to Other Lenders. The dealer will have the option to Submit the eContract to Other Lender if the first lender of choice has decided not to purchase the contract. This functionality will allow the dealer to submit the eContract to another eContracting participating lender who has approved the customers' credit. If the dealer has not submitted the customers' credit application to the next eContracting participating lender or his choice, DealerTrack will provide the dealer with an option to submit the customers' credit application to other lenders. Once an Approval has been received, the dealer will have the ability to submit the contract to that lender for review. In the Spot Delivery process, upon receipt of a Credit Approval from an eContract participating lender, DealerTrack will present the dealer with the option to “Select Lender(s)”. The dealer will click “Select Lender(s)” and DealerTrack will present the eContract Select Lender screen. eContract Participating Lenders who have approved this customers' credit will be listed. Any lender who has rejected the contract package or turn-downed the customers' application will be displayed, but will show as unable to submit. The dealer will be able to select ONE lender from this list to submit the contract package to. Upon selecting this lender, the dealer will select “Compare Application & Contract” which will open the Compare Application & Contract screen. The Compare Application & Contract data screen will display the Approved/Counter-offered application data and the Contract data side-by-side for the dealer to review. Any differences between the approved/counter-offered application will be highlighted to the dealer by displaying the differing field in with a blue background. Once the dealer has completed comparing the data, the will select “Print Fax Cover & Submit for Funding”. The DealerTrack created Fax Coversheet, complete with all lender stipulations and itemized ancillary documentation, will open in a separate window. The dealer will print the fax cover sheet and close the window. The flattened version of the eContract will be sent to the lender for funding review purposes. Please refer to page 34 for additional information regarding the funding process. Once selected, DealerTrack will present the deal with the Application Select Lender page. The dealer will select the lenders which they wish to submit this application to. The dealer will check Application Status for approval, counter-offer or turn-down from the lender. If an eContracting lender approves the application, the dealer will access the Contract Status Detail for this customer and select “Select Lender(s)”. DealerTrack will present the eContract Select Lender(s) screen and reflect this lender in the “eContract Participating Lenders who have approved this customers' credit” section. Please see page 43 for additional information regarding the Select Lenders page. “Prefill Application”—DealerTrack will prefill the Application Data Entry screen with all available contract data (credit bureau data if applicable). Note: The dealer will only be able to select ONE lender from this list. Each eContracting participating lender who has approved the customer's credit will appear in this sec-tion. The lender who did not approve the customer's credit or rejected the contract package will be crossed out and the dealer will be unable to select that lender. The Non-Eligible lenders will be listed below indicating a reason for ineligibility. Will open the Compare Application & Contract screen. DealerTrack will present the dealer with the Application Select Lenders page. “Back to Contract Status Details”—Return the dealer to the Contract Status Detail for this customer. The dealer will be required to review the approved/counter-offered application data to the completed eContract to ensure it meets all lenders program perimeters. Any differences between the application and contract data will be indicated to the dealer by displaying a blue background in the differing field. Will allow the dealer to send comments directly to the lenders analyst (if available with the lender). The fax cover sheet will open in a separate window for dealer printing purposes. The flattened version of the eContract will be sent to the lender for funding review purposes. The dealer will be returned to the Contract Status Detail page indicating a status of eContract Submitted. 3. DT completed supporting documentation identified by fields completed on the data entry screen. 4. Stipulations/comments supplied by the lender. Lenders will be required to supply ALL stipulations upfront at the time of application approval/counter-offer. This section will be completed using the lenders freeform text from stipulations and comments. The fax cover sheet will contain a bar code created using the lenders unique application identifier. This bar code will appear both on the top and bottom of the sheet to allow the fax server to identify the bar-code regardless of way faxed by dealer (top up/down). Saved Contract data will be saved until the Credit Approval has become inactive. An eSigned Contract will be good for 19 days from the Note Date. eLender Verified and DTVerified statuses will be good for 5 days from the note date. Booked/Funded Contract data will be saved in Contract Status for 60 days. The PDF version of eContract, fax cover sheet and Co-Signor Notice (if applicable) will be available for 7 days. *Note: The lender will be required to code their respective indicators to the generic translations supplied. eSubmitted/eReceived/eReview Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to go back to the Contract Status screen via a “Back to Contract Summary” link. The dealer will not have access to the Contract Data Entry screen after submitting to the lender for verification until an eError or eLender Verified status is received. eSaved Contract Status Detail screen will allow to the dealer to enter the eContract Data Entry screen retaining dealer-entered data via the button “Continue eContract Data Entry”. eError Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to enter the Contract Data Entry Screen displaying the error. Will allow the dealer to print review copies (forced print) and access to the AWS Overview page which will guide the dealer through signature capture, print of final copies, and submittal of final documentation. ePartially Signed Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to reenter the Silanis Overview Page to obtain the remaining signatures via the button “Continue”. If the vehicle has been spot delivered and the credit application for the customer has been Declined or Counter-offered, the dealer WILL NOT have the opportunity to submit the contract for funding. Please refer to the section “Submitting the eContract to Other Lender”. eContract Submitted/eContract Received/ePending Docs—Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to view lender comments indicating missing ancillary documentation, return back to Contract Status via a “Back to Contract Summary” link or view the eContract PDF via the “Generate Final eContract” button. eBooked/eFunded Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to return back to Contract Status via a “Back to Contract Summary” link or view the eContract PDF via the “Generate Final eContract” button. eSubmit Error/eContract Submit Error—Will present the dealer with the Contract Status Detail screen including the 800# for DealerTrack Customer Service. eCancel—Will present the dealer with the Contract Status Detail screen along with comments from the lender. DealerTrack will present the dealer with a button to “Return to Application Status”. If the dealer chooses to “Return to Application Status”, DealerTrack will remove the customer from Contract Status and return the dealer to Application Status. Application Status will reflect a counteroffer or turndown status on the customer. The dealer will be required to rehash the deal with the lender and receive an approval or counter-offer in order to begin the eContract process again. eRejected Contract Status Detail screen will allow the dealer to “Select Lender(s)”. Should an Approved or Counter-offered application become inactive prior to achieving the Contract Status of eDocs Received, the customer and relating data will be removed from Contract Status. DealerTrack will save the Contract and Fax Cover Sheet for seven days after submittal to the lender. The dealer will have the ability to access the PDF files and print additional copies. The Contract PDF and Fax Cover Sheet will be separate, but can be printed at the same time. The Securitization Vault product provides member dealers, member lenders and special access users with access to the DealerTrack hosted vault. The vault is designed to allow users access to the electronic contracts that they either originated or purchased. Dealer users will only have access to the vault for viewing and printing of copies of the electronic contracts they have originated. Lender users will have the same functionality but will also have administrative rights over the electronic contracts they have purchased. The vault will be housed on the DealerTrack servers and will be administered using the current User Administration function within DealerTrack. Additional permissions will be added to the existing permissions and will be governed by the DIO and LIO of the respective dealership and lender. The vault will store all electronic contracts for a period equaling, the life of the account plus seven years. Electronic contracts will be added to the vault real time and real time access is also required. Permissions for dealer users versus lender users will vary. The Vault access will be found under the existing Administration tab with a new link to the “Securitization Vault” page. The permission level of the user will determine what functionality they get to see. (See FIG. 28). Dealer users will have the ability to view a copy of any electronic contract they have originated. The on screen display will present a “copy” watermark on the screen. Dealer users will also be capable of printing such copy and each printed version will also have a “copy” watermark. Lender users will, in addition to the viewing and printing of copies, be able to perform administrative functions. They will be able to export contracts to various media, including cd, tape and paper. They will be able to view the “original” contract stored in the vault (will present a “View of Original” watermark). Lender users will be capable of converting an electronic original to a paper original using the patented “paper out” approach as designed by eOriginal. All activities within the vault will be logged in the DT system and any ownership changes will be included in the Registry. The registry is also housed on the DealerTrack system and acts as the audit trail of ownership for each contract. Lender users will have access to view the Registry in addition to the contract. Copy: Opens Adobe and brings up the fully executed pdf file for the dealer to view and print. Both the on screen version and the printed version have a “copy” watermark. Submit Request to Export: Submits the request to DealerTrack to export the contracts to paper. Lender users will have permissions that will allow them to view a copy, view an original, view the registry and export contracts to cd, tape and paper. Users will be able to print out copies and the respective copies will be water-marked accordingly. If the user selects a contract or contracts to be exported, DealerTrack will display a pop up dialogue box to ensure that the user is aware that they are exporting the contracts and that the electronic version will be destroyed. Upon confirmation of the export dialogue box, DealerTrack will provide the user with a confirmation screen indicating who exported the contracts, which contracts were exported, to what media and the date and time of the export. Copy: Opens Adobe and brings up the fully executed pdf file for the dealer to view. All viewed copies display a “copy” watermark. User can print a copy from Adobe. All printed copies display a “copy” watermark. Original: Opens Adobe and brings up the “original” fully executed pdf file for the dealer to view. All viewed originals display a “view of original” watermark both on screen and in the printed version. Registry: DealerTrack presents a formatted page listing the registry information for the user to view and/or print. Export: sends a message to DealerTrack indicating which contracts (and media type) the lender wants Dealer-Track to export. DealerTrack's eContracting solution marks the next step in the transformation of the traditional automobile financing process. The solution allows dealers and financers to complete the entire contracting process electronically. Unlike the traditional paper-based finance process, which typically takes days or weeks from start to finish, DealerTrack's eContracting solution transfers data from the credit application to an online contract form, which is validated against a financer's system to ensure accuracy. Once validated, dealers use electronic signature pads to capture participants' signatures, and then electronically submit eContracts to financers. The solution enables a dealer to receive same-day funding upon the financer's acceptance of all ancillary documentation. The DealerTrack eContracting solution provides benefits to both dealers and financers. data errors checks as the dealer enters data. by a credit analyst verified prior to submission to financer. to dealers contracts and improves response time. volume financers on the system. more information than paper process. waiting time for callbacks on funding status. documents is no longer required. In order to participate in the DealerTrack platform, a dealer must do business with at least one financer who participates electronically on the DealerTrack platform. Once enrolled on the DealerTrack platform, a dealer may subscribe to the DealerTrack eContracting solution. An authorized user within the dealership is required to complete the subscription process. DealerTrack automatically assigns eContracting permissions to a Dealer Information Owner (DIO). The DIO is an authorized user who has the ability to add, delete and modify user access to the DealerTrack platform. The DIO can utilize the Product Subscription functionality to obtain detailed information about the eContracting solution and enroll online. The dealer's subscription is processed and the electronic signature pad(s) are ordered on behalf of the dealership. Upon receipt of the signature pad and supporting software, the dealer completes the self-installation. DealerTrack's eContracting solution provides a dealer with the capability to complete the application/contract process completely online. The solution allows a dealer to enter contract specific data by incorporating the application data, as well as the approval/counteroffer data as determined by the financer. The DealerTrack software application performs generic edit checks to ensure that all required data is entered prior to submitting to a financer for review. The data is submitted to the financer via a DealerTrack-defined eXtensible Markup Language (XML)1 message, which updates the financer's origination system. The financer validates that the contract data matches its decision parameters. 1, HTML. XML enables servers attached to the web to communicate structured exchanges of data to each other. eContract Creation and Signature Capture. DealerTrack merges the validated data with the state-specific eContract. Prior to signing, the system requires that the eContract, with its integrated disclosures, be printed and presented to the customer for review. Upon satisfactory review of the eContract, the dealer obtains the customer(s) signatures using an electronic signature pad. The signatures are captured, stored and bound to the contract in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF)2. The eContract, including the embedded graphic signatures, is displayed to the dealer and printed for the customer. An eContract cannot be submitted to a financer until all signatures have been captured. 2 Portable Document Format—is the file format for documents viewed and created by Adobe's Acrobat Reader, Capture, Distiller, Exchange and the Acrobat Amber Plug-in for Netscape Navigator. Financer Review and Funding. Once all signatures are captured, the dealer submits the contract and its associated data to the financer for review. The financer updates its origination system and reviews the eContract. The dealer faxes all ancillary documents required to fund the deal. Upon successful review of the eContract and ancillary documentation, the financer books the eContract and notifies the dealer that the contract is authorized for funding. Transfer of Control and Ownership Record3 3 Ownership record—is the historical trail of ownership changes. The ownership record is created when a fully executed eContract is stored in the DealerTrack eVault. It tracks all transfers of ownership as well as other transactions such as terminations, export to financer (vault), export to financer (send), payoffs and charge-offs. DealerTrack's system automatically updates the ownership record to reflect the transfer of control from the dealer to the financer. The ownership record reflects all transfers of control until the eContract is removed from the DealerTrack system. The financer has two options for storing purchased contracts during the transaction lifecycle. eContracts can be stored in the DealerTrack-hosted vault (DealerTrack eVault™) in a financer's exclusive segment. Alternatively, purchased contracts may be transferred directly to the financer's system using a vault-to-vault transfer. In addition to the user interface, a financer is able to manage eContracts through an interactive programming interface between their respective servicing system and DealerTrack. All contract management is communicated to DealerTrack via messaging and an Application Programming Interface4 (API). 4 Application Programming Interface—is a set of definitions of the ways in which one application can communicate with another. The automobile finance industry has long relied on paper documents to memorialize agreements, both with the consumer and the parties to the financing. The laws regulating automobile financing have historically required that retail installment sales contracts be in writing to be enforceable. In addition, the contracts had to be signed. As the use of electronic commerce and the drive to eliminate paper documentation has spread, state and federal lawmakers have reviewed and rethought these requirements. Both state and federal law now accommodate the use of electronic records and signatures in retail installment sales contracts. In 1999, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) promulgated UETA. UETA establishes a set of uniform rules for electronic equivalents of writings and signatures in most business transactions, including consumer automobile financing. To date, UETA has been adopted in some form in 40 states plus the District of Columbia. In 2000 the president signed E-SIGN. It adopts most, of the significant rules of UETA and uses those rules to create a federal “baseline” for acceptance of electronic records and signatures under federal law, and under state law in states that have not adopted UETA. NCCUSL also completed work on Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in 1999. Revised Article 9 governs transactions where a security interest is taken in personal property, such as an automobile. Revised Article 9, now adopted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, authorizes the use of electronic records and signatures to create enforceable security agreements. This is important because retail installment sales contracts usually contain a security agreement as part of the contract, granting a security interest in the automobile to secure payment of the contract. Revised Article 9 also creates special rules for perfecting an ownership interest in an electronic retail installment sales contract. These special rules are necessary because the old rules assumed that the contract was on paper, and gave a person who had physical possession of the paper important rights. Physical delivery of the original retail installment sales contract to the transferee was almost absolute proof of the transferee's right to enforce the underlying payment obligation. The transferee possessing the paper did not have to worry that a third party, such as another financer, would claim to own an interest in the contract or a right to enforce the underlying obligation. It is not possible to give an individual person physical “possession” of an electronic record in the manner of a paper record. So, in order to make an electronic retail installment sales contract commercially acceptable, it was necessary to create new rules in Revised Article 9 that give the purchaser of the eContract the same rights given to the purchaser of a paper contract through the use of “control” of the eContract rather than physical possession of it. A purchaser of the eContract can have all the same special rights as the purchaser of a paper contract as long as certain special requirements are met for creating and storing an “authoritative copy” of the eContract and keeping track of transfers of ownership. An “electronic signature” under UETA and E-SIGN is an “electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.” A digitized hand-written signature is included within this definition. Revised Article 9 uses a different definition, but also recognizes a digitized handwritten signature as a method for signing an electronic security agreement. Control can only be transferred with the approval of the person already in control. DealerTrack's eContracting solution takes advantage of these new laws and facilitates the creation, management, execution, and transfer of ownership of electronic retail installment sales contracts. The standardized electronic retail installment sales contracts used by participating financers include the customer's agreement to use electronic records and signatures to create the contract. This satisfies the requirement that the customer agree to the use of electronic records and signatures. The customer's handwritten signature is captured on an electronic signature pad and added to the electronic record as a graphic. This procedure complies with the requirements under the new laws for creation of an electronic signature. A paper copy of the completed, signed eContract is printed out at the time of signing for the dealer to deliver to the customer. This satisfies the requirement that the customer receives a copy of the eContract to keep. DealerTrack's document management system provides controls to address the special requirements that must be met for transfers of ownership. In particular, the DealerTrack eContracting solution keeps the eContract secure from unauthorized changes, and provides a secure method for tracking transfers of ownership interests in the eContract. Once all the signatures are captured, the signatures are securely bound to the eContract using signature capture/binding software, which results in creation of the “authoritative copy” required by Revised Article 9. The authoritative copy of each fully executed eContract is stored in the DealerTrack eVault. The ownership record entry created within the vault structure initially lists the dealer as the owner of the contract. The eContracts and signatures are authenticated by the eOriginal eCoreTM Business Suite software and placed into the DealerTrack eVault with an additional digital signature to further secure the document. The system ensures that the authoritative copy is not tampered with in any way and tracks all revisions and modifications to the eContract as such within the ownership record. Upon a transfer of ownership of the authoritative copy of the eContract, the transferee is listed as the owner of the eContract with full ownership rights and the ability to grant permissions regarding the eContract. This process meets the requirements of Revised Article 9 for “control” of the eContract. E-SIGN and some states adopting UETA have created special rules for delivering disclosures and notices to customers electronically. However, these rules only apply if the disclosures are delivered in electronic form. DealerTrack's eContracting solution provides the dealer with paper copies of the disclosures to give to the customer, both before and after the eContract is signed. The customer gets exactly the same disclosures and notices as before, in exactly the same format: paper. The automotive finance industry is taking a leadership role in the evolution of electronic documents and digital signature technology. The mortgage industry has laid a foundation for electronic contracting and securitization for the automotive finance industry. A tremendous amount of due diligence has been completed regarding the E-SIGN laws and the acceptability/enforceability of electronic documents and digital signatures. Although there has been a significant amount of effort by the mortgage industry participants, they have yet to push the industry to utilize electronic documentation from pilot mode into production. The automotive finance industry is forging ahead to full production mode for eContracting and securitization. Through partnerships with major dealer management systems, DealerTrack will support electronic ancillary documents that enable a truly paperless process between the dealer and financer. The addition of other types of electronic chattel paper, such as balloon payment and lease contracts, will further increase dealer and financer efficiencies. Lastly, the industry may decide to pursue a broader goal of creating a national registry, whereby financers, investors and third parties conduct transactions utilizing a common registry. Users can access the national registry to view ownership of contracts and to initiate/confirm the transfer (buy/sell) of ownership among parties within the network. DealerTrack's involvement in industry standards definition and open standards-based architecture make it confident that the DealerTrack eVault and ownership record for eContracts are transferable and acceptable within a national registry. DealerTrack has the capability to integrate with various third parties, e.g. investors, buyers, sellers, auditors. Potentially, DealerTrack envisions that its eContracting solution could provide the basis for the national registry. DealerTrack's eContracting solution provides the automotive finance industry with the ability to create enforceable electronic retail installment sales contracts. As part of the solution, DealerTrack uses standardized retail installment sales contracts created and maintained by Hudson Cook, LLP to ensure compliance with federal and state laws. The eContracting process significantly reduces funding turnaround time and shipping costs for dealers, while at the same time provides significant productivity gains for financers. The DealerTrack eVault provides participants with a secure storage environment that permits eContracts to be securitized in accordance with UETA, E-SIGN, and Revised Article 9. The system provides self-service administration and robust management of contract portfolios, both through programmable interfaces and an easy-to-use web-based application. DealerTrack is transforming the automotive finance industry from a paper intensive environment to a more efficient electronic process. DealerTrack is committed to actively participate with all interested parties to ensure the benefits of this transition are fully realized by all industry participants, e.g. dealers, financers, investors. DealerTrack's eContracting solution provides the only mechanism available today for participants to perform fully electronic retail installment sales contract transactions. DealerTrack has taken the initiative to develop an eContracting solution that facilitates compliance by a financer with the applicable requirements of UETA, E-SIGN and Revised Article 9. This section describes the process for creating, signing, transferring and storing eContracts. FIG. 40 indicates the eContracting process from application submission to the funding of the eContract. The sections below describe the eContracting process, system functionality and system rules. Upon request, DealerTrack can provide additional functional detail regarding the processes described below. This section describes the eContracting process from application submission to storage of the eContract within the DealerTrack eVault. DealerTrack's credit application product is widely used throughout the automotive finance industry, currently processing over 1.5 million applications per month. Even if a dealer does not submit a credit application through the DealerTrack platform, it can still utilize the DealerTrack eContracting solution if the financer transmits the credit application and decision to the dealer via DealerTrack. The DealerTrack platform provides a dealer with a standard credit application form to collect customer, financial and collateral information. FIG. 41 illustrates a portion of the form used to collect the required information. Once the information has been collected, it is packaged using the DealerTrack-defined XML data format and transmitted to the financer's system for a credit decision. If the credit decision returned (FIG. 42) by the financer is either an “approved” or “counter-offer,” then the dealer can proceed with the Standard process for eContracting. Similarly, if the credit decision is “pending” the dealer can utilize the Spot/Bypass process for eContracting. A “pending” credit decision occurs most commonly when the credit application requires review by a credit analyst. To begin the eContracting process, the dealer accesses the contract data entry form from the application status detail screen (FIG. 43). DealerTrack has created a set of state-specific standard contract data entry forms (FIG. 44) that are designed to capture all necessary information to create the eContract. All application and approval data is pre-populated into the contract data entry form. In the Spot/Bypass process only the application data is pre-populated. The remaining fields are to be completed by the dealer. The DealerTrack platform prevents the dealer from preparing multiple contracts for the same customer. In the event a contract is modified or cancelled, the system automatically returns the dealer to the appropriate eContracting starting point. For previously approved or counter-offered applications, the dealer submits the eContract data to the financer for verification. The eContract data is packaged in the DealerTrack XML messaging format and transferred through DealerTrack to the selected financer's application processing system. After submission, the solution disables the dealer's ability to change contract data while awaiting the financer's response. The communication that occurs between DealerTrack and the financer is real-time and is presented to the dealer in the form of status changes on the “Contract Status” screen. As the financer processes the eContract data, it transmits any error messages identified for the dealer to address and resubmit. The system has the flexibility to accommodate multiple backend processes by the financer to support the verification of contract data entered by the dealer. Should any errors be identified, the financer notifies the dealer through DealerTrack. Once corrected, the dealer can resubmit the contract data for verification. If no errors are found, but the terms of the eContract are not within the parameters of the approval or the financer's tolerances for booking the eContract are exceeded, the financer can reroute the deal to a credit or funding analyst for review. The financer updates the status within DealerTrack along with specific reasons, and the system is automatically updated to reflect the current status. If the contract data is verified, the financer transmits to DealerTrack the Annual Percentage Rate (APR), Monthly Payment, and Finance Charge along with the required documentation to be referenced on a bar-coded fax cover sheet. The system merges the eContract data and the financer-supplied data into the state-specific eContract template and displays it to the dealer for viewing and printing. At this point, the dealer is required to provide a paper copy to the customer for review prior to obtaining electronic signatures. The next step in the process is a “forced” printing of a paper review copy (FIG. 45) for the customer to address any state and federal disclosure requirements. The forced print copy is presented to the customer in exactly the same manner as is currently performed in a paper environment. The printed copy indicates “Copy” as a watermark on each page, and the signature sections are blacked out to prevent the customer from applying a wet signature. The eContracting process is paused until the forced print is complete. After printing the review copy, DealerTrack displays an overview page (FIG. 46) that contains instructions for the dealer and indicates the status of the eContracting process. The dealer is also provided the opportunity to “Cancel” or “Modify” the eContract, if requested by the customer. Modification requires the dealer to resubmit data to the financer for verification and also requires another forced print. DealerTrack's eContracting solution provides the dealer with a screen to capture the required signatures (FIG. 47). The screen displays the required signature blocks for the buyer, co-buyer (if applicable), and dealer based on any products selected during the eContract creation process, e.g. warranty, credit life, accident and health insurance and GAP insurance. Each signature block contains language describing the associated contractual requirement. As the dealer guides the customer through the signature capture process, the dealer selects each signature block from the screen and the corresponding language automatically appears on the electronic signature pad. This process assures that the customer is presented the required language, is aware of the required signatures, and has notice of each signature's purpose. If there is a date requirement on the eContract for the signature, the system uses the date that the signature was bound to the eContract. The signer has the ability to recapture signatures as many times as desired before securing to the eContract; however, once secured, the signature cannot be deleted from the eContract. The system requires the dealer to select each signature block and obtain the appropriate signature(s) individually. The dealer repeats this process until all customer and dealer signatures are obtained. Signatures cannot be cut-and-pasted across signature blocks. The system does not allow the dealer to submit the contract to a financer for funding review until all signatures are obtained (FIG. 48). Once all signatures are obtained, the dealer is capable of submitting the contract to a financer. The system permits individual participants to sign eContracts at different times, so long as all signatures for that participant are obtained. Partially signed eContracts are only stored for five days from the date the first signature is obtained by the dealer. If the eContract is not fully executed within the five days, the signatures are no longer retained and the dealer must get the customer to re-sign the eContract. Once the first signature is obtained, the eContract cannot be altered without invalidating the signature(s). The system provides the dealer with the option to print a copy of the customer-executed eContract for the customer. Once all the signatures are obtained, the system begins the electronic binding process. Leveraging industry standard digital signature, encryption and hashing algorithms, the system generates an “approval token,” that includes audit information and other related signer data. Once generated, the token is digitally signed, encrypted and programmatically embedded into the eContract—thereby creating a perpetual, unbreakable bond between the signer and financer. Once embedding has taken place, the electronic signatures and related audit trail cannot be deleted or removed from the eContract. Regardless of whether the document is transmitted or archived, the electronic signatures remain part of the authoritative copy. The system inserts signatures into the eContract without corrupting or altering the usability of the file. If the document content is modified following signing, the signatures within the eContract are visibly invalidated. Authenticity of the document content, related approvals and audit trail can be verified at any time. Once the signatures have been embedded into the eContract, the system automatically submits the eContract to the DealerTrack eVault. The submission is initiated by creating a session, referred to as the security context, with the eVault on behalf of a dealer agent account. The dealer agent account comprises a single user and an associated digital certificate. The session security context enables the vault to verify the dealer's right to submit the eContract. When the eVault is presented with an eContract, the system initiates a series of steps that result in a persistent authoritative copy. FIG. 49 depicts the process used by the vault to create the closed, trusted environment necessary for storing eContracts. As mentioned earlier, the vault uses the user session security context to determine the user's rights in the eVault. Dealers are provided the ability to submit new eContracts to the system for storage and initiate transfer to financers. Financer's rights include the ability to assume control of eContracts from a dealer, view an eContract, request a paper copy, or request an export. DealerTrack's eContracting solution manages these rights through the administration tools described in section on access security. Once the user's ability to access the eVault has been validated, the system verifies the digital certificate of the dealer agent used to bind the holographic signatures to the PDF contract. This is accomplished through a real-time connection to the certificate authority5 (CA), using the online certificate status protocol (OCSP). The system is capable of verifying digital certificates from multiple CA's. However, DealerTrack recommends that a financer obtain RSA Keon certificates from a preferred provider. 5 Certificate Authority (CA)—is a trusted third-party organization or company that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private key pairs. After the system establishes that the dealer agent certificate is valid, it must ensure the integrity of the eContract. This is done by using the public key in the signed eContract to generate a new hash6 of the document for comparison purposes. If the eContract has been altered at all, even a single character change, the hash comparison results in a failure and the eContract is returned to the system exception handling process. 6 Hash—is the result obtained by subjecting a set of data to an algorithm for purposes of checking the data at the time the algorithm is applied. Once the system verifies the dealer's ability to submit the eContract, the digital certificate and the integrity of the eContract, it is ready to store the eContract in the eVault. The eVault has also been assigned a digital certificate, which is used to seal the eContract prior to storage in the eVault. The eVault utilizes a trusted time source to generate a date/time stamp that is embedded in the vault-signed eContract. This enables the eVault to clearly identify the time at which control of the eContract is assumed. The time-stamped and sealed authoritative copy is stored in the eVault, whereby it is placed in a database table. The eVault continues to monitor the integrity of the eContract over time, using a series of background processes that run automatically on a defined schedule. Access to the authoritative copy is limited by the permissions defined in the system. The eVault ensures that the financer requests to view the authoritative copy contain the appropriate watermark overlays. The system also enables a dealer to view copies of their eContracts for a limited period of time. Access to dealer unassigned eContracts is controlled by the eVault permissions. Each financer maintains strict access control over all eContracts contained its exclusive segment of the eVault. The permissions defined by the DealerTrack administration system are used to limit access to the eContracts, as well as ensure the integrity of the documents over time. In this way, a complete transactional history of the transfers of control is maintained for the term of the eContract plus seven years. The ownership record is transferable and may be transmitted with the eContract if the transferee has the requisite software. The ownership record is only accessible to authorized users of the owning organization through the DealerTrack system. FIG. 50 contains a description of the information currently captured in the ownership record. The audit log captures many data fields relevant to the event, such as the digital signature/certificate information of the transferor and transferee, user identification information and a date and time stamp. Access to the audit log is a separate permission within the user administration function and is administered by the financer. The audit log permission can be assigned to users within the financer's organization or to a third party, e.g. an outside accounting firm, as designated by the financer. Once a fully-executed copy of the eContract has been created, the DealerTrack system generates a second “forced” print of the fully-executed copy of the eContract and a deal-specific bar-coded fax cover sheet (FIG. 51). The bar-coded fax cover sheet includes the bar code, customer information, financer reference number and documentation required to fund the deal. The bar code is used by the financer's imaging system to associate the ancillary documentation to the eContract record. The second forced print enables the dealer to satisfy any applicable state law requirement that the executed agreement be delivered to the customer. At the financer's option, the contract data is packaged in the DealerTrack XML format and transmitted to the financer (FIG. 52) along with a non-authoritative or flattened7 copy of the eContract. The dealer reviews the fax cover sheet (bar-coded), obtains all ancillary documents, and faxes those documents to the financer. The financer's fax server may forward the documentation to their imaging system, referencing the bar code to match it to the previously submitted eContract. 7 Flattened—a non-authoritative copy of the PDF eContract, with appropriate watermark overlays. In the case where a dealer is utilizing the Spot/Bypass process, the DealerTrack system still forces a second printout of the eContract for the customer. Following the second forced print, the dealer is able submit the eContract to financers who have responded with an approval or counter-offer credit decision (FIG. 53). Upon entering the financer selection screen (FIG. 54), the dealer is limited to submission to a single financer. The dealer is required to compare the credit application data to the eContract data to determine if the eContract is within the financer's decision parameters. The user interface identifies the fields in the contract that do not match the decision parameters (FIG. 55). If within bounds, the dealer submits the eContract to the financer in the same manner as the Standard process described above. Upon receipt of the eContract and ancillary documents, the financer initiates the documentation review process. The financer transmits to the dealer via the DealerTrack system, toe result of the review process, e.g. booked, pending does, etc. When necessary, the financer has the ability to send comments to the dealer itemizing the missing documentation. At any period during the funding process and for thirty days following the initial submission, the dealer and financer can each request additional print copies of the fax cover sheet and non-authoritative eContract. As required, all printed copies of the eContract contain the appropriate watermark overlay. In either the Standard or Spot/Bypass process, when the financer rejects the deal the dealer is provided with the ability to select another financer to submit for funding. DealerTrack requests a financer to provide the dealer with priority service, e.g. same day funding, when all eContract and ancillary documents are received within the financer-specified timeframe. This feature assures the dealer that a financer reviews the contract and ancillary documen-tation in order to fund the dealer the same day. When utilizing the eVault, the financer is allocated an exclusive segment to store their eContracts. The ownership record is automatically transferred during the transfer of control event. In the case of a financer secured storage solution, the eContract is exported from the eVault and transmitted to the financer. This process offers the flexibility of including or excluding the ownership record with the eContract package. In either scenario, a multi-step protocol is used to facilitate the transfer of control. This process begins with the dealer initiating the transfer, the financer confirming receipt and the dealer acknowledging the confirmation of receipt. It is important to note that only the organization with control can initiate the transfer of an eContract to another party. Every transfer of control is entered into the ownership record for the eContract. The eVault manages documents within a container transaction that includes the documents, ownership record, and user access rights. The buyer initiates the process by requesting the transfer of control. The first transfer of an eContract is from the dealer to the financer. The transfer is initiated after the financer has reviewed and accepted the contract from the dealer. Once the financer acknowledgment has been received, the system creates an escrow account for the transfer. This also causes the documents contained in the dealer's transaction to be frozen. The escrow transaction operates as a temporary, neutral holding container for the documents and the final record of transfer (FROT)8. The dealer agent digitally signs the FROT. 8 Final Record of Transfer—The FROT is an XML document that contains information about the dealer, financer, documents involved in the transfer and their associated ownership records. The financer system initiates the creation of the financer-owned transaction. Both parties then confirm the transfer, and the documents are transitioned from the escrow transaction to the financer's new transaction. The dealer-signed FROT is also placed in the financer's transaction. The escrow transaction is then destroyed, and the system leaves a non-authoritative copy of the eContract in the dealer transaction. The system also places a financer-signed version of the FROT in the dealer transaction. Financers with the desire to provide their own secured storage solution continue to utilize the standard transfer of control mechanisms within the eVault. Once control of the eContract has successfully transitioned to the financer, the system packages the eContract for a vault-to-vault transfer to the financer-hosted facility. Each of the options provides the financer with a unique manner in which to interact with the eVault, and different benefits. The direct communication link enables a financer to extend their existing servicing system capabilities to manage eContracts by interfacing with the vault using the DealerTrack-defined XML messaging interface. This allows financer personnel to continue to use their existing systems with minimal interruption. Direct connection enables rapid integration with minimal impact to the financer' s systems. Regardless of which option the financer chooses to interact with the system, access is limited to only those eContracts stored in its exclusive segment. Once an eContract has been transferred from the dealer to the financer, the financer is provided with the ability to securitize the eContract into the secondary market. The system provides a financer with the ability to pool, or bundle, eContracts for securitization to affiliate organizations or third parties. The financer submits a pool request to the system from their servicing system or through the online web-based interface. The request to transfer the eContracts to the pool is processed by the system. The request consists of a collection of financer loan identifiers, which are maintained by DealerTrack in a cross-reference field on their eContracts. The system creates a new pool that contains all the eContracts identified in the request and initiates a transfer of control on behalf of the financer to the appropriately identified buyer. The buyer, who is typically a special purpose vehicle set up by the sponsoring financer, is identified as the new owner in the ownership record and each subsequent transfer of control is also reflected in the ownership record. There is no limit to the number of transfers that are tracked in the ownership record. In order to facilitate the transfer process, an authorized financer user has the capability to create affiliate organizations within the eVault. These affiliates are issued their own digital certificate, which the ownership record uses in the transfer process. The sale to a third party is reflected in the ownership record and the third party has the ability to access those eContracts via direct communication or the online web-based interface. The export process, which enables the transfer of eContacts electronically or to paper, is available to both dealers and financers. DealerTrack completes the process on behalf of the dealer or financer. By requesting the export, the requester is granting DealerTrack with the agency authority to perform the export. DealerTrack ensures that the eContract has been exported successfully prior to destroying the authoritative copy. The exported eContract is mailed to the requestor, with a required acknowledgment receipt. The system is designed to export the authoritative copy while maintaining its authenticity, regardless of the media to which it is being exported. DealerTrack stores a non-authoritative copy of the exported eContract for backup purposes and destroys the authoritative copy upon confirmation that the eContract has been successfully exported. In addition, DealerTrack updates the ownership record to reflect that the export process has taken place and captures the name and user id of the individual who initiated the export. Spot Delivery9—the ability to enter eContract data and create the eContract PDF file 9 Spot Delivery—is the Spot/Bypass process defined earlier that allows a dealer to generate and execute an eContract without prior credit approval from a financer. FIG. 58 depicts the screen for assigning and managing a dealer's user permissions. FIG. 59 depicts the screen for assigning and managing a financer's user permissions. The DealerTrack architecture is fully scalable and designed for high availability and reliability. An N-tier10 logical design is utilized for maximum flexibility. The infrastructure is externally hosted and consists of a production site on the East Coast and disaster recovery site on the West Coast. The production site is fully redundant with no single point of failure. 10 N-tier—is an application that is distributed into separate software layers (e.g. presentation, business logic and database). Intel and Unix servers comprise the DealerTrack processing platform. Servers have Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks—Level 511 (RAID-5) storage arrays and multiple processors, and are clustered for maximum availability. 11 Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks (RAID)—is a collection of drives, which collaboratively act as a single storage system. The RAID can tolerate the failure of a drive without losing data and can operate independently of each other. DealerTrack uses a pair of hardware load balancers configured for automatic fail-over to distribute transaction traffic across its web server farm. The load balancers also perform secure sockets layer (SSL)12 encryption and decryption using hardware acceleration. Web/application servers can be rotated in and out of service while the site is operating without affecting user sessions. 12 Secure sockets layer (SSL)—is a transaction security standard that provides data encryption, server authentication, and message integrity. SSL is generally used on sites that want to keep information private. The software architecture consists of separate layers for presentation, application processing, and database processing, allowing for maximum flexibility, extensibility, scalability, and ease of development. Object-oriented component development with a separate Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)13 presentation layer is used in the web/application tier to support extensibility and performance. Asynchronous processing and message queuing are used throughout the middle tier to enhance scalability and reliability. Stored procedures and transactions with automatic rollback are used in the database to maximize performance and data integrity. 13 Hypertext markup language (HTML)—the encoding language used by Internet browsers to display text, images and links. DealerTrack personnel provide “managed services” for networking, hardware and software monitoring and maintenance. Both data centers have been independently audited and a SAS #7014 report is available. 14 SAS #70—is an auditing standard designed to enable an independent auditor to evaluate and issue an opinion on a service organization's controls. The audit report (i.e. the service auditor's report) contains the auditor's opinion, a description of the controls placed in operation, and description of the auditor's tests of operating effectiveness. DealerTrack is implemented in a layered firewall environment. All communications to and from the Internet are encrypted with 128-bit SSL. DealerTrack employs an intrusion detection system (IDS) operating both externally to the site (outside the firewall), as well as, internally on all Ethernet segments. Firewalls and IDS are both managed and monitored 24/7, 365 days a year, by an independent security management company. DealerTrack utilizes a commercial software solution for securely managing user access to all applications. All incoming traffic must be authenticated before it is authorized to be passed on to the application. Once a user has been authorized, access control to specific functions within the site is performed by the application. DealerTrack has a highly granular access control system, which includes the granting and revocation of user permissions to functions on the site. A financer is granted security administration privileges to manage their users and access to their information. The security administrator can create/modify/delete users and assign specific privileges to individuals in order to match job responsibilities. DealerTrack maintains and monitors logs of all activity on the site. DealerTrack has obtained certification from TruSecure Corporation, a leading industry security certification body. This certification program entails a comprehensive evaluation of DealerTrack's security program. The evaluation includes extensive testing of the website's perimeter defenses. As a result of this process, recommendations are made and implemented. The certification program requires continual monitoring and adherence to critical security policies and practices. (a) Database Backup—The database environment consists of a two-node server cluster and two fiber attached storage arrays. Each storage array is attached to both nodes of the cluster. The arrays are configured for RAID-5 and the data is mirrored across arrays. This configuration protects against data loss in the event that a disk or even the entire storage array is lost. Database backup occurs on a nightly basis. A copy of the database is exported and transmitted over a secured virtual private network (VPN)15 to the disaster recovery site where it is imported into a secured database instance. 15 Virtual Private Network (VPN)—is a network that is constructed by using the public Internet as the medium for transporting data. A VPN uses encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that the data traveling across the network is kept private and secure. (b) Database Backup (Scheduled for June, 2003)—DealerTrack is upgrading the current disk storage environment to a Storage Area Network (SAN)16. This new storage solution is highly resilient and as in today's environment the storage array uses RAID-5 for data protection. To improve disaster recovery capability, DealerTrack is implementing the real-time replication of data from the production site to the disaster recovery site in conjunction with this project. In addition, a nightly procedure is executed to back up the database to tape. The data is encrypted before being written to tape. A bonded courier then transports the backup tapes to a secured offsite facility for storage. 16 Storage Area Network (SAN)—is a high-speed special-purpose sub-network that interconnects different kinds of data storage devices with associated data servers. (c) Database Recovery (DR)—In the unlikely event that data is lost, a point-in-time recovery methodology is used to restore the data. Point-in-lime recovery restores data to a point prior to the loss or corruption by recovering the data from activity log files. If the data is unrecoverable using this method, a copy can be recreated from the DR database or, as a last resort, from a backup tape. 5. Partner Integration—Integration with financers is currently performed using XML encoded messages. DealerTrack is a member of both STAR and AFSA and is committed to supporting published standards as they evolve in the automotive finance industry. XML messages may be sent over a number of transports such as: HTTPS Post, Microsoft Message Queuing, IBM MQSeries and TCP/IP (Sockets). Having now described exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing is illustrative only and not limiting, having been presented by way of example only. All the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same purpose, and equivalents or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Therefore, numerous other embodiments of the modifications thereof are contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereto. For example, the techniques described herein may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of the two. The techniques may be implemented in computer programs executing on programmable computers that each include a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device and one or more output devices. Program code is applied to data entered using the input device to perform the functions described and to generate output information. The output information is applied to one or more output devices. Each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system, however, the programs can be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Each such computer program is preferably stored on a storage medium or device (e.g., CD-ROM, hard disk or magnetic diskette) that is readable by a general or special purpose programmable computer for configuring and operating the computer when the storage medium or device is read by the computer to perform the procedures described in this document. The system may also be considered to be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium, configured with a computer program, where the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner. For illustrative purposes the present invention is embodied in the system/apparatus configuration, method of operation and product or computer-readable medium, such as carrier waves, floppy disks, conventional hard disks, CD-ROMS, Flash ROMS, nonvolatile ROM, RAM and any other equivalent computer memory device. It will be appreciated that the system, apparatus, method of operation and product may vary as to the details of its configuration and operation without departing from the basic concepts disclosed herein. wherein the approval token comprises audit information and other data related to the applicant. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said server for providing an electronic contract provides on said at least one application input and display device an electronic contract form having at least one first data field containing at least a portion of said credit application information and at least one second data field for entry of electronic contract information by said applicant. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said server for providing an electronic contract stores in a storage medium at least a partially completed electronic contract. 4. The system of claim 2, wherein said server for providing an electronic contract forwards at least said electronic contract information to said selected funding source for verification purposes and receives a funding source verification message from said selected funding source. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein said server for providing an electronic contract prevents access by said applicant to said electronic contract information until receipt of said funding source verification message. 6. The system of claim 2, wherein said server for providing an electronic contract receives an electronic signature of at least said applicant for said electronic contract. 7. The system of claim 1, wherein said hosted vault for storing, retrieving, and maintaining the integrity of said electronic contract receives and stores said electronic contract in a second storage medium for a predefined period of time. 8. The system of claim 7, wherein said hosted vault for storing, retrieving, and maintaining the integrity of said electronic contract retrieves said stored electronic contract from said second storage medium and displays said stored electronic contract having an “original” or “copy” designation on said at least one application input and display device. 9. The system of claim 7, wherein said hosted vault for storing, retrieving, and maintaining the integrity of said electronic contract maintains in said second storage medium user permissions data of at least one authorized user. 10. The system of claim 7, further comprising a registry and wherein said hosted vault for storing, retrieving, and maintaining the integrity of said electronic contract stores electronic contract ownership information in said registry. 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing on said at least one remote application input and display device an electronic contract form having at least one first data field containing at least a portion of said credit application information and at least one second data field for entry of electronic contract information by said applicant. 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising forwarding at least said electronic contract information to said selected funding source for verification purposes and receiving a funding source verification message from said selected funding source. 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising preventing access to said electronic contract information by said applicant until receipt of said funding source verification message. 15. The method of claim 11, further comprising capturing an electronic signature of at least said applicant for said electronic contract using an electronic signature device. 16. The method of claim 11, further comprising selectively forwarding said electronic contract information to another of said one or more funding sources for funding. 17. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving and storing in a second storage medium said electronic contract for a predefined period of time. 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising monitoring access to said electronic contract stored in said storage medium. 19. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing and storing electronic contract ownership information in a registry. 21. The program storage device of claim 20, wherein the method steps further comprise providing on at least one application entry and display device an electronic contract form having at least one first data field containing at least a portion of said application information and at least one second data field for entry of electronic contract information by said applicant. 22. The program storage device of claim 20, wherein the method steps further comprise forwarding at least said electronic contract information to said selected funding source for verification purposes and receiving a funding source verification message from said selected funding source. 23. The program storage device of claim 22, further comprising preventing access to said electronic contract information by said applicant until receipt of said funding source verification message. 24. The program storage device of claim 20, wherein the method steps further comprise providing for at least one authorized user of said system and maintaining in said second storage medium user permissions data of said at least one authorized user. 25. The program storage device of claim 20, wherein the method steps further comprise capturing an electronic signature of at least said applicant of said electronic contract using an electronic signature device. 26. The program storage device of claim 20, wherein the method steps further comprise receiving and storing in a second storage medium said electronic contract for a predefined period of time. 27. The program storage device of claim 26, wherein the method steps further comprise the steps of retrieving said stored electronic contract from said second storage medium and displaying said stored electronic contract having an “original” or “copy” designation on said at least one application entry and display device.

2019-04-24T00:11:52Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160343076A1/en

I know you believe that the Bible you hold in your hand is the Word of God. I know you have that confidence. And there’s a reason you have that confidence, and it’s not because of me, although I am the one that the Lord has brought to teach you. And there are many other elders and teachers who have also influenced you. But there is an even more significant reason why you believe the Bible than any human ministry, and that reason is because when the Lord saved you, when the Lord saved you, when you were regenerated. When you were born again, when you were delivered from erred truth and darkness to light, you were given confidence in the Word of God as a heavenly gift. When the Holy Spirit came to dwell in your heart, He not only shed love abroad – love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. He not only deposited within you all heavenly blessings, all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, He not only granted you all that pertains to life and godliness, but He gave you confidence in the Word of God. You believe the Bible for the same reason that you believe the gospel. You believe the Bible for the same reason that you put your faith in Jesus Christ because God did a sovereign miracle in your mind and in your heart, and you were drawn to the truth, and you were enabled to believe, and you put your trust not only in the person of Christ, but the gospel of Christ and the source of that gospel, the living Word of God. In that sense, you don’t need me to convince you by some mechanisms of the veracity of Scripture. You have that confidence in your heart. That is to say we understand everything that God has delivered and prepared for those that love Him. We understand the Scripture. We understand the gospel. We understand Christ. The reason we understand that is not because we’re wiser than anybody else, but by the power of God working in us, awakening our dead hearts, opening our blind eyes. We’re very different. He ends that chapter by saying this: “We have the mind of Christ.” We think the way Christ thinks. How can that happen? That is a divine miracle. From the day that you were regenerated and born again, you were given by the Holy Spirit a confidence in the Word of God. That confidence has grown, and flourished, and developed, and become stronger and richer, as you have exposed your mind and your heart to the teaching of the Word of God. It was there to start with, but it has flourished, and it flourishes in an environment where the Word of God dominates your life. I go back in my own life to a time when I was a very young boy and I was not very intellectual. I was much more athletic than I was intellectual by far. But from the day that the Lord awakened my dead heart and gave me life in Christ, I had a clear conviction that the Bible was true, that the Bible was true. In the long years since then of studying the Word of God, that clear conviction is a stronger conviction than it has ever been. The Word of God has stood every possible test of scrutiny that I could apply to it at the level of every word, and every verse, and every line; year, after year, after year, after year; book after book; commentary after commentary; all through the study of the study Bible and writing all the notes. It has merely been an affirmation of what the Spirit of God gave me, a conviction about the truthfulness of the Word of God that has stood every test. I’ve read the Bible consistently. I’ve read the critics who attacked the Bible. I’ve read everything the cults have to throw at the Bible. Nothing had diminished my confidence in Scripture. Everything I have done in my life from the time that I first awakened to the truth, everything in my life has been directed at understanding the Bible. And I can honestly say to you that all the years of studying, the Bible has not been so much to preach as to know. It meets a hunger in my heart. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to preach it, and share it, and proclaim it. That’s a great blessing and great joy to me. But what drives me is my love for the truth, my trust in the truth. No critics have been able to topple that trust. No cults have been able to topple that trust: No attacks on Scriptures; no calling things into question; no debates that I’ve have with people in private, in public, in the media. Nothing has been able to diminish my confidence in the Word of God. And when somebody says to me, “Well, I don’t believe the Bible,” my sort of initial reaction is to say, “Wow, you must have studied it for decades to come to that conclusion. You must have literally poured over every aspect of Scripture. You must have chased down every truth and compared scripture with scripture to come to such a massive conclusion against the grain of what millions of people believe.” And you watch people go, “Well, not really.” “Oh, you just don’t believe it ignorantly.” There’s no virtue in that. When it comes to discerning the truth of God, popular opinion plays no role, critical theory plays no role, human insight plays no role, human experience plays no role, pseudo-scholarship plays no role. Even tradition in and of itself plays no role. All I want to know is, “What does the Bible say?” and the meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture. You can have a Bible, but if you don’t know the meaning, you don’t have the message. The revelation has to be understood accurately. You have the mind of Christ. You can think the way God thinks; you can think the way Christ thinks. The more I study the Bible, the more unshakable is the conviction that it is the living, inerrant, authoritative Word of God. We could never know God if He didn’t speak. John even goes so far as to say, “Christ is the light that lights every man that comes into the world.” There’s a path to God through reason and through morality, through human judgment. Through common sense thinking, there’s a path back to God. Atheists are the fools the Bible says. You have to be a fool to believe this came from nothing. That is the most foolish concept in existence. Why is anybody an atheist? Not because of any intellectual reason. That’s intellectual suicide. Why is anybody an atheist? Because they don’t want a judge. They don’t want a lawgiver. They don’t want anyone out there to whom they are responsible to live morally and who would make them face consequences if they don’t. There’s no such thing as an intellectual atheist, there are only immoral atheists who want to get God out of their world so they can live any way they like. So we can know enough about God humanly to know something of His power, something of His massive nature. And by the way, the longer people are on earth and the more we advance scientifically, the bigger God becomes. You go back a few hundred years and they were still counting the stars, and somebody decided there were 1,024. There aren’t. They’re countless; incalculable. So the longer man lives and the more scientifically advanced he becomes, the more it becomes clearer that God is far bigger than anything we can even imagine. And He’s powerful; and He’s characterized by design, and order, and consistency. And He’s also moral; and we understand love and hate, and justice and injustice, and right and wrong. But that’s only enough to condemn us; Romans 1, “So that we are without excuse; without excuse.” If we want enough to save us, not just condemn us, we need this book. We have to have this book. Paul said to the philosophers of Mars Hill, “You know enough to know that you live and move in the realm of God. You don’t know who that is. He is the Creator of everything. But what you need to know is that God is now commanding all of you to repent and turn in faith to the One whom He has raised from the dead. Your only hope is not in some broad knowledge that God exists, some broad knowledge of His nature and His morality. Your only hope of escaping judgment is a specific knowledge about His Son, and His death and resurrection, and the gospel.” For that, you have to have Scripture; you have to have Scripture. Psalm 19 talks about, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament shows His handiwork.” And the psalmist goes on to talk about how night and day demonstrate essentially what Romans 1 and Acts 17 are saying: “God is there. He’s a great Creator.” And then he turns in the middle of that Psalm – we’re going to look at that Psalm the Sunday before Shepherds’ Conference – and he says, “The law of the Lord; the law of the Lord,” and he turns from creation, general revelation, to specific revelation in the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord is the Scripture, 66 books, promising and proclaiming the one who is to come who comes in the New Testament, and His story is complete. There’s no other salvation, no other way of salvation. People cannot get to heaven without Scripture, without the Bible. So understand this: Satan’s greatest attack in history from the beginning has been on Scripture, on God’s Word, God’s revelation, even though Old Testament writers claim that what they wrote was the very word of God, and they make that claim over 3,800 times in the Old Testament. Even though New Testament writers quote the Old Testament as God’s Word over 300 times and refer to the Old Testament 1,000 times; even though New Testament writers claim that they are writing the Word of God; even though Jesus claimed that both the old and the new were Scripture, Satan continues to blast away at the Bible. This is an old, old effort on his part. Let’s go back to see where it all began back in the third chapter of Genesis; the third chapter of Genesis. This is essentially the issue that crashed the human race. Adam and Eve, of course, have fellowship with God. They have been created in the Paradise of God. Chapter 2 ends that they were man and wife, and naked and not ashamed. God had placed them in a perfect setting and they even communed with God in the cool of the day. Satan’s strategy here is progressively very deceptive. It appears initially as sort of an innocuous question: “Indeed, has God said, has Elohim said”? That’s the first question in the Bible; the first question in the history of the human race; the first question ever. There has never been a dilemma; there’s never been a query; there’s never been confusion; there’s never been a question. And the question is designed to start Eve on the path to doubting the Word of God. This is the essence of Satan’s enterprise. It could be translated another way. He said to the woman, “So God has said, has He?” But that’s not innocuous. For the first time, the most deadly spiritual force has covertly been smuggled into the world. And what is that deadly force? The assumption that what God has said is subject to human judgment. Press the issue of prohibition. Make the woman feel like God is needlessly putting restrictions on her. This is a setup for the main assault. “You have a right to sit in judgment on God’s Word because God’s Word contains unnecessary prohibitions. God is cramping your freedom.” That’s the implication. “God’s Word can be, should be questioned. It should be judged because it appears to be restrictive, doesn’t it? It appears to be narrow; it appears to be limiting. And if that’s the case, then something’s wrong with God. Something’s really wrong if He wants to restrain your free will, your pleasure, your joy, your satisfaction, your fulfillment. Is God wanting to take away your free choices? Is God wanting to put limits on you and remove rights? Why would He do that? Is He uncaring; is he cruel? Can you really trust Him?” Subtly, Satan suggests that he is more devoted to Eve’s freedom than God is, okay. Are you hearing contemporary views of the Bible in this whole discussion? I mean this is how people come to the Scripture today. “What kind of God would be against all these things that we freely want to do?” So Satan has set in her mind the idea that the one prohibition is evidence of some kind of divine character flaw, casting suspicion on God’s goodness. And if there’s any suspicion about God’s goodness, if God for some strange reason wants to limit your freedom, there must be a flaw in His character and you ought to find that flaw. Not quite ready to cave in yet. Eve responds weakly in verse 2: “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees in the Garden we may eat.’” Oh, now she’s hooked. She should have defended God. She knew God. She knew God was true, and pure, and good, and righteous. She knew the perfections of God that had been revealed to her sinless mind. She had a clear command. If nothing else, she should have been suspicious of a talking snake. So she says, “From the fruit of the trees of the Garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the Garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” God didn’t say that. God didn’t say you can’t touch it. That’s not back in verse 16 or 17. Instead of an emphatic defense of the character of God, the goodness of God, her reply is a partial answer to Satan. And here is the entrance of sin. As soon as one does not completely and wholeheartedly and unreservedly trust in the Word of God as true and the source of our highest good, sin has a foothold in the human heart. And then she adds, “Or touch it.” And that means she is now showing personal distain for the prohibition and she’s adding to it. The process is very effective. She accepts the unnecessary restriction as a fact and embellishes it. Now she’s bought into this unnecessary restriction. God’s Word now has been judged by her unacceptable. “The serpent said to the woman,” in verse 4, “You surely will not die. God’s a liar. You won’t die. God lies.” She opened the door to that by believing for a moment that God was unnecessarily restrictive, and therefore not good, crowding her life and choices, freedoms. God is unnecessarily restrictive because of some flaw in His character. Well, verse 5, Satan says, “God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you’ll be like God knowing good and evil.” This is just unbelievable. How can you move so fast? How could Satan move her mind this fast? “He lies,” God does, “He lies to you. He tell you you’re going to die when you’re not. He tries to restrict your freedoms when He has no legitimate reason for doing it. And the reason He lies is because He knows that if you eat that you’re going to be like Him and He hates rivals. God is selfish, self-centered, proud. The truth is do what you want. Eat that fruit and you’ll be like God. You’ll be as free as God, as unrestricted as God.” So the father of lies brought down the entire human race on the premise that God’s Word could not be trusted as revealed – tampered with, added to, and then called an outright lie. If you follow the Scripture from there, it is the revelation of the history of Satan’s constant attacks on the Word of God through an endless array of false prophets, false teachers, liars, false apostles, deceivers, all the way from Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation. The attack has always been there. The battle for biblical truth is always raged. The battle for the Bible has gone on through the whole of human history. In spite of everything done to defend the truth of Scripture, to defend the character of God as revealed in Scripture, we have to fight the battle over again. It’s fought, and it’s fought, and it’s fought, and it’s fought every generation. Every believer, all of us in our relationships with unbelievers, find ourselves fighting for the integrity, authority, inerrancy, inspiration, and truthfulness of Scripture. Where do the attacks come from? Well, they come from Satan who is a liar and a murderer. The truth of the matter was she did die. Adam did die. The whole human race was cursed with death. It was so much worse than she would ever have imagined. Any of us who are in ministry find ourselves on the one hand teaching the Word of God like we do to you, and on the backside of our lives we fight for the truth in just about every imaginable setting. Attacks against the Bible come from critics who call themselves scholars who attack the veracity of Scripture. They come from cults who twist and pervert Scripture and supersede Scripture with other books authored by men and devils. Attacks on the Bible come from charismatics who equate their visions, dreams, experiences with the Bible. Attacks come from cultural compromisers who think that we don’t need to pay attention to the Bible; we need to pay attention to the culture if we’re going to win them. And in a post-modern world, people don’t like absolute truth. And in a post-modern world, we need to be pragmatic and give them what they want; hence, we’re watching, for example, the evangelical church cave in to homosexual marriage. There are well-established churches with familiar names that you know that now have homosexual couples on their church staff. The Bible is attacked not only by the critics, the cults, the charismatic, the culture of compromisers, it’s attacked by the capricious, the flippant. Many preachers, and certainly lots of people who just go across the surface of the Bible, popping across the surface, sucking up whatever appeals to them and turning it into some little sermonette for Christianettes, and never bury themselves in the depth and richness and continuity of this divine book. There are even carnal attacks on the Bible where men’s will trumps God. One of the latest attacks on the Bible – and we’ve dealt with many of them – was on its sufficiency. I wrote a book some years ago called Our Sufficiency in Christ because the sufficiency of the Bible was under attack by psychologists. And then there came the sort of emerging movement, which is still around in some forms, and it attacks the Bible by saying the Bible is ambiguous. There was so much written on this that we can’t really understand the Bible; we can’t know what it means; it’s beyond us. If you don’t think they were serious about that, then ask why they murdered William Tyndale. What did William Tyndale do; what was his crime? He translated the Bible into English so people could read it, and the whole system saw it as a threat. The church alone was to interpret the Scripture. The church alone was its legitimate interpreter. In evangelicalism, no one would say that. They would say, “Well, we can’t know what it means, so let’s not take it too seriously since it’s an old book. We don’t really know what it means.” That’s the new spirituality. We kind of feel what it means, kind of have an intuitive sense of what it means, but we don’t really know what it means. The Roman Catholic church said that the Bible is unclear, impossible to interpret; absolutely impossible. And on the 40th anniversary of Vatican II in honor of Verbum Dei, a group of Catholic leaders issuing an edict saying that not all of the Bible is true. Oh. They’ll tell us, by the way, which is. And I would remind you that when you take the truth out of a system, you put in symbols; and the more symbols, the less truth. Symbols are effective and useful only in direct proportion to the obscurity of doctrine. You come in here you don’t see symbols, you get sound doctrine. Where there’s no sound doctrine, you need symbols. People need to wear funny clothes and wave things, parade around. There’s a lot of evangelicals who think the doctrine is divisive, doctrine is arrogant saying you know what you believe is a kind of intolerance. One man that I used to preach with when I was young said, “Certitude is idolatrous. I’ve given up certitude.” Really? “If there’s a foundation in Christian theology, he writes, “it’s not found in Scripture. Theology must be a humble, human attempt to hear God, never about rational approaches to texts.” What? Whatever that means. Another writer says, “Clarity is overrated. Shock and ambiguity often stimulate more than clarity.” Shock and ambiguity? Another writer: “The gospel is not a matter of certainties.” Another writer: “I’m too humble to say I know what the Bible means by what it says.” This gives some measure of license to people who wouldn’t say that, but they feel they can play with the Scripture in a cavalier way. As I was saying a minute ago, “Not penetrate its context down deep into the Scripture.” Scripture is not ambiguous. “These things I write unto you that your joy may be full. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” This is revelation, not obfuscation. And by the way, the sinner is responsible for Scripture. The ignorance, the blindness of sinners dead in their trespasses is not compounded by God giving an obscure revelation. This is not allegory, this is not myth, this is not Kabbalah, this is not Gnosticism, this isn’t mysticism. You say, “Well, why would people even come up with that?” Because they don’t like what it says. Back to John 7:7, “The world hates me because I testify that its deeds are evil.” The people that reject the Bible reject the Bible because they don’t like what it says about their sin. Scripture is plain. Scripture is clear. Scripture is lucid. In fact, even to come into the kingdom you have to become like a what? Like a child. The Old Testament Scripture was so clear that you remember in the book of Acts when we began how immediately after the coming of the Holy Spirit, even before the Holy Spirit came after the resurrection, after the Road to Emmaus, all the apostles understood the Old Testament when Jesus explained it to them. Certainly, the Old Testament Scripture is made clear by the New Testament; that’s what makes it clear. But it is clear now that we have the New Testament. We went through that, didn’t we, in our series Finding Christ in the Old Testament? You can’t find Him there unless you know what He looks like. So you start in the New Testament. You get a perfect picture of Jesus Christ. Take that perfect picture into the Old Testament and you’ll find Him everywhere He appears. And by the way, most of the New Testament epistles were not written to church leaders, they were written to congregations, and congregations of people who were baby Christians. First Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God at Corinth.” Galatians 1:2, “To the churches of Galatia.” Philippians 1:1, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.” Paul assumes they’re going to understand the New Testament, and these are Gentiles. And he even throws in quotes after quotes of the Old Testament. He writes the book of Romans loaded with quotes from the Old Testament and illustrations from the life of Abraham. Colossians: “The instruction is when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea.” All those letters passed to Gentile congregations and they understood, and they understood not only what they were reading which was New Testament, but what was drawn out of the Old Testament. Paul even says, “The things that happened in the Old Testament happened as examples unto us on whom the end of the age has come.” Gentile Christians, with no Old Testament background, could understand both the new and the old. These attacks fall to the ground. None are successful. They can all be withstood. I wanted to begin tonight with just kind of surveying that for you a little bit. Then I want to turn – and I’ll do that now for a few minutes – to the affirmation side of this. God has sworn in the Bible that He has spoken the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The Bible alone is the true Word of God. All other – listen – all other supposed revelations, all other supposed revelations from God, I don’t care what they are, from the Quran, to the writings of the cult leaders, to the false prophets, the religious gurus, frauds, are not the Word of God. There’s only one book. God has spoken in one book, the Bible. Does that sound simple enough? Just one book. Sixty-six books make up one book. If it isn’t from one of those sixty-six books, it is not the Word of God. There may be things in other books that are right and accurate representations of the Word of God, or commentary on the Word of God, or reiteration of the Word of God. But only this book is the Word of God, and only what agrees with this book is then in agreement with the Word of God. God wrote one book, two sections, with over 40 writers put together in a period of about 1,500 years; and the Holy Spirit protected it, brought it all together into this one book called the Bible. It is the sole divine authority from God. In it, God has spoken and said everything He intends to say. It is then the singular duty and responsibility of man to hear what is said in this book. Yes, he can know there is God because his reason tells him that when he looks at creation. He can know that God is a moral God, that God has a sense of right and wrong because that’s in his own heart, the law written in his heart. He has a conscience that accuses or excuses him. God is not far from him, but He’s too far for salvation, He’s just not too far for judgment. If you are a Christian you believe the Bible unless someone has tampered with that in a destructive fashion; and there are many who do that. In John 8:47 we read this: “He who is of God hears the words of God. He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them,” Jesus says to the Jewish leaders. “For this reason, you do not hear them because you’re not of God.” If you’re not a believer in God, if you don’t belong to God, of course you don’t hear Scripture. The natural man understands not these things. They’re foolishness to him. But if you’re of God, you hear the words of God. That’s why I started the way I started tonight to just start what we have to start with a presuppositional confidence in the Bible. And what is our precept position? That it is true; that it is true. I didn’t come to believe in the truth of the Bible because of my intellect, because I studied evidentialism, because I studied rational things. Those things support the Bible. I believe what I believe about the Bible because there is a massive presuppositional reality, and that is God has awakened my blind eyes and given life to my dead heart. You know, one of the interesting things today is I see efforts to eliminate heresy, and you say, “Wow, that’s great.” Yeah, there are lots of efforts to eliminate heresy, to eliminate doctrinal error, to eliminate wrong interpretations. And by the way, I go back again: The meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture; and if you don’t get the meaning right, you don’t have the revelation. But there are a lot of efforts to eliminate heresy. And there’s been some success in eliminating heresy. But the strange twist is this: The contemporary effort to eliminate heresy is not to eliminate it by overpowering it by the truth, but rather to eliminate the idea of heresy as if it didn’t exist, as if you could believe anything you wanted, as if you could make any verse mean what you wanted it to mean. In a post-modern world that hates absolute truth in a pragmatic orientation in so many churches that doesn’t want to offend anybody, we’ve got to get rid of the things that offend. So essentially we eliminate heresy by eliminating truth, and if there’s no absolute truth that there can’t be any deviation. Turn on your Christian TV and listen to the drivel that comes across there where people interpret Scripture any way they want. There’s a movement to eradicate heresy and truth at the same time. It’s really tragic. So all of this is part of the corruption that Satan sent into motion when he first caused Eve to think she had a right to question what God said. And whether the Bible is attacked by rationalism, liberalism, pluralism, mysticism, pragmatism, inclusivism, political correctness, tolerance or any other thing, the Bible is still true. It is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is what it claims. Let me close by giving you some of its claims. Psalm 111:7, “All His precepts are sure.” Romans 7:12, “God’s Word is holy, righteous, and good.” And Jesus said in John 10:35, “Scripture cannot be broken.” That was a fascinating text. Remember when we went through John 10 where Jesus takes one word out of an obscure psalm, the word “gods,” that one little word, and builds an argument for His deity on that one word in an obscure psalm? And He reaches back, pulls that one little word out to defend His own deity, and then He says, “Scripture cannot be broken.” That is to say, “You can’t even go into that psalm and pull out one word.” What is the word “broken” in the Greek? It’s lu which means “released” or “loosed” or “dismissed.” You can’t dismiss a word. I talked to the seminary guys on Tuesday about Jesus’ statement to the Sadducees when they were arguing about the resurrection, and he quoted from Exodus 3 and he said this: “I am the God of Abraham, I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob.” And Jesus said He is not the God of the dead, He is the God of the living. What is that about? All three of them were already dead when in Exodus 3 God said that. He was saying, “I am the God of Abraham; I am the God of Isaac; I am the God of Jacob,” which means, “I am their God and they worship Me,” which means they’re alive, which was proving the resurrection to the Sadducees who didn’t believe in a resurrection from the tense of the verb. He didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” but, “I am.” Whether you’re talking about one word “gods” in a psalm that’s obscure or one tense in Exodus, Scripture can’t be broken. It cannot be broken. In total, that’s what we call it, “infallible; without error.” And then go down to the parts: “It is inerrant in every word.” Every word is true. Every word is free from error, falsehood, mistake, inaccuracy. Every word safeguards the truth. The Bible is nothing but the truth. To make sure we don’t overlook the importance of God’s truthfulness, three times the Scripture says, “God cannot lie,” Numbers, Titus, and Hebrews. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, “Do not think that I am come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I haven’t come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell the truth: Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.” Talk about a jot and a tittle which is like crossing a T and dotting an I; not even those things can be tampered with. It is true. The New Testament writers believed the Old Testament was true and they called it Scripture over and over again. I’m not going to take time to go through all of that. Paul calls Moses’ writings – in 1 Timothy 5 he calls Moses’ writings Scripture, and then he calls Luke’s gospel Scripture. He quotes the Scripture, one from Deuteronomy and one from Luke. In 2 Peter 3, Peter calls Paul’s writings Scripture. In Jude 17 and 18, Jude calls Peter’s writing Scripture. John calls his writings Scripture: “To the letters to the churches, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” And to the very end of the book of Revelation, John is still declaring that what he is writing is absolutely Scripture. The apostle Paul says that what the gospel writers wrote was Scripture. Peter says what Paul wrote was Scripture. Jude says what Peter wrote was Scripture. John says what he wrote is Scripture. This is the internal testimony. I want to close with one final perspective. What did Jesus think about it? Jesus said, John 10:35, “Scripture can’t be broken.” You can’t pull one word out. You can’t loosen one word. As I just told you, you used a word from an obscure psalm and a tense of a verb from Exodus; one, to prove His deity; two, to prove the resurrection. In Matthew 26:24, He looked at His cross and said, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him.” And a few verses later, He told Peter He didn’t need the protection of his sword, for if He wished, He could call down thousands of angels for assistance. “But how then,” He said, Matthew 26:54, “would Scripture be fulfilled?” His view of Scripture was that it was all about Him and He had to fulfill every detail. He saw Judas prophesied in the Old Testament. When He was on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. In Matthew 27, we see Him on the cross, and that’s where He says, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” He takes it out of Psalm 22. John 19 has Him say, “I thirst.” That also comes out of Psalm 22. Jesus believed in every word of the Old Testament. He corroborated the great truths of the Old Testament. He corroborated the creation of Adam and Eve. He corroborated the story of Jonah. He said in Matthew 19:4, “Have you not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.’” Jesus believed in Adam and Eve; He believed in the Genesis creation account. So choose one to sum up the testimony of Jesus. We have to accept one of three possibilities. First is, there are no errors in the Scripture as Jesus taught; or second, there are errors, but He didn’t know about them; or third, there are errors and He did know about them, but He lied. You’ve only got one option: There are no errors. If you believe in the deity of Christ, you must believe in the inspiration, infallibility, inerrancy of Scripture. And that’s enough for tonight. Let’s pray. According to Psalm 138, verse 2, Lord, You have exalted Your Word equal to Your name. We come together to exalt You. We come together to worship You, and honor You, and lift You up. And we cannot do that faithfully without lifting up Your Word. And so we have endeavored to do that even tonight. What can we say, Lord? Thank You. Thank You for saving us, giving us life, and giving us confidence in this Word, which confidence we had at the time of our salvation. And so we were driven to Scripture even though we knew so little; and the more we feast on its truths, the more our confidence is strengthened. Thank You that Your Word stands triumphantly through every test. Thank You, Lord, for years and years and years of examination of this glorious, heavenly book: Yes, poured through human authors, but who were inspired by the Holy Spirit so that the message was superintended and guarded, and every word came from You. We thank You for the miracle of inspiration that brought the revelation to us. And then we thank You for the work of the Holy Spirit in illumination to help us understand it. This is our greatest treasure, and in it we find our greatest pleasure, our greatest protection, our greatest reward. May we, as the psalmist said, meditate on it; meditate on it all the time. And as we read in Joshua, as the book of the law doesn’t depart from our minds and our lips, it will make our way prosperous, spiritually prosperous, and we will have a kind of supernatural success. Thank You for this treasure. We ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen.

2019-04-23T16:43:19Z

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-468/the-essentials-of-handling-gods-word-part-1

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Its legs and arms are attached to its body with springs giving it a bobbing motion and making this wonderful garden ornament the perfect addition to any garden, patio or conservatory. This garden frog is attached to a stick making it easy to place it in a plant pot or straight into the ground. This lovely bobbing frog would also make a cracking addition indoors in larger plant pots. This cute metal frog is coloured green completed with large eyes and a wide mouth. This fantastic garden frog on a stick stands at approximately 48cm long including the metal stick. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Bobbing Metal Frog on Stick. This stunning lantern is made of metal with a lot of attention to detail, coloured beige and finished with a butterfly design on each side. This wonderful candle holder fits a tea light candle and comes with a hanger making it ideal to be hung anywhere in the home, in the garden, conservatory and patio or even indoors placed on the windowsill or mantelpiece. Sit back and relax while the candle flickers inside this wonderful lantern creating a lovely atmosphere. This decorative beige lantern candle holder would make the perfect housewarming gift idea and would make a cracking addition to an existing lantern collection. This metal lantern measures (including the hanger) H15cm x W6cm. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Butterfly Candle Holder Lantern Beige. This stunning lantern is made of metal with a lot of attention to detail, coloured pastel pink and finished with a butterfly design on each side. This wonderful candle holder fits a tea light candle and comes with a hanger making it ideal to be hung anywhere in the home, in the garden, conservatory and patio or even indoors placed on the windowsill or mantelpiece. Sit back and relax while the candle flickers inside this wonderful lantern creating a lovely atmosphere. This decorative pink lantern candle holder would make the perfect housewarming gift idea and would make a cracking addition to an existing lantern collection. This metal lantern measures (including the hanger) H15cm x W6cm. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Butterfly Candle Holder Lantern Pink Pastel. Cajeput (or cajuput) essential oil is believed to offer some relief against stomach troubles and skin diseases, it is held in high regard in the East being used locally for various ailments such as headaches, colds, rheumatism, and various skin diseases. The name comes from the Malaysian word 'kayu-puti' which when translated means 'white wood'. Cajeput can be found in blends for acne or psoriasis and can help cool the body but is a wonderful oil to use in a burner and has been known to and may offer help with coughs, colds, sinus problems, asthma and other breathing difficulties. Cajeput's therapeutic properties include analgesic, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, decongestant, expectorant, insecticide, carminative, and stimulant. Aroma: medicinal yet sweet. Note: can irritate sensitive skin. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Cajeput Essential Oil (Melaleuca leucodendron). Cedarwood essential oil is soothing and harmonising; it is one of the oldest aromatics known, used by Egyptians and valued with a very long history, cedarwood is used in the treatment of oily or itchy skin and for acne and scalp problems. It may also be helpful for easing cystitis and other urinary problems. Blend with citronella for a powerful insect repellent. The therapeutic properties of cedarwood oil include antiseptic, antispasmodic, tonic, astringent, diuretic, expectorant, insecticide, sedative and fungicide. Aroma: long lasting woody scent. Note: do not use if pregnant. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Cedarwood Essential Oil (Cedrus virginiana). This fantastic candle in a tin is a great way to neutralise unwanted odours when cooking, leaving your home smelling fresh and clean. This fantastic candle is made with extracts of clear basil, oriental patchouli and floral geranium. This candle is perfect to take with you when you travel for example if you stay in a caravan. This chef's candle has a fantastic 25 hour burn time and comes in a metal tin measuring 4cm tall and 6.5cm in diameter. Price’s candles have been around for 170 years and have a long and close association with the Royal Family. Today it holds a Royal Warrant for Her Majesty which means that Price’s supply candles for many Royal State occasions. They claim that candles are not just sources of natural light but are aesthetic, fragranced and highly designed objects in their own right. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Chef’s Eliminates Odours Candle by Price’s. This decorative Shabby Plaque is made of light wood with a black wire hanger and finished with a red tartan bow for the vintage look. This plaque is decorated with black branches, a bird, a bird house and letters that read ‘Chocolate is the answer, who cares what the questions is?’. This humorous hanging plaque would make the perfect addition to any home placed in the kitchen, hallway or living room hung on the wall or a door. This jovial wall plaque would make the ideal gift idea for a chocolate-lover or would make a cracking addition to a bigger hamper. This funky Shabby Plaque measures approximately L25cm x W10cm. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Chocolate is the answer… Shabby Plaque. Price’s candles have been around for 170 years and have a long and close association with the Royal Family. Today it holds a Royal Warrant for Her Majesty which means that Price’s supply candles for many Royal State occasions. They claim that candles are not just sources of natural light but are aesthetic, fragranced and highly designed objects in their own right. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Cinnamon Candle rum by Price’s 25hr. Cinnamon is a warming essential oil used for all colds, flu and fevers. It is also thought to help with digestion problems, poor circulation and breathing problems as well as being a powerful antiseptic. In an oil burner cinnamon essential oil is reputed to be very uplifting, fighting exhaustion and feelings of depression and gives a clean fresh aroma to a room. Add to a bath or massage oil to fight infectious diseases, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting and all coughs, colds or chills. The therapeutic properties of cinnamon oil include analgesic, antiseptic, antibiotic, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, astringent, carminative, insecticide and stimulant. Aroma: fresh and clean. Note: can irritate the skin, use with care and in small amounts, wash hands after use. Do not use if pregnant. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Cinnamon Essential Oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum). Citronella essential oil is native to southeast Asia. It is grown commercially in Sri Lanka, India, Burma, and Indonesia. The leaves have been used for their fragrance and medicinal value for centuries. Citronella essential oil is said to be the best, known natural insect repellent and is used in sprays, soaps, candles and wipes etc. Use outdoors in summer in a burner or as an air freshener, deodorant and for tired, sweaty feet. Besides being effective as an insect repellent Citronella essential oil has been used for easing rheumatism, colds, headaches, lower back pain, migraines, fevers, pain, sprains, muscular aches, intestinal parasites, digestive problems, menstrual problems, depression, as a household germicide/antiseptic, for repelling cats, to ease excessive perspiration, and to increase mental alertness. The therapeutic properties of citronella essential oil include antiseptic, bactericidal, deodorant, insecticide, parasitic, tonic and stimulant. Aroma: a powerful lemony scent. Note: do not use if pregnant. May irritate sensitive skin. © Please do not copy text. Avena product description – Citronella Essential Oil (Cymbopogon nardus).

2019-04-26T11:04:50Z

https://www.avena.co.uk/any-3-for-999-multi-buy/

Please feel free to peruse our beginner’s guide to UK Airsoft – this is a complete overview of our guide, if you are wanting to forward to someone a particular section, individual pages of the guide are available. Airsoft skirmishing, often referred to as simply ‘airsoft’, is a live combat simulation in which two or more teams are pitched against each other in a game of fitness, skill, determination, tactics, psychology and wits. Players battle with each other with replica firearms which fire small, light plastic pellets at high speed (usually firing around 15 BBs per second and up to 350 feet per second muzzle velocity). The realistic playing area, mission, equipment and clothing all add to the intensity and suspension of disbelief; in an airsoft game you can get a genuine sense of a real battlefield. If you have ever wanted to play out the excitement of a war movie or computer game for real then this is your chance! Airsoft is excellent fun but it also builds confidence, fitness, teamwork, introduces you to new friends and most importantly gets you out of the house. Airsoft is the perfect answer for the modern British lifestyle; it allows you the rare opportunity to release pent up energy, escape the pressures of everyday life for a few hours and gain a sense of community. These positive ideals of discipline, physical exercise and team spirit far outweigh any concerns over simulating real firearms. This guide has been written by the players that run United Kingdom Airsoft Players Union, so all of the information in this guide has been gleaned from decades of first hand experience. It has been written to help new British players get involved in the airsoft hobby. The survival of any sport or pastime is dependent on the continual induction of new enthusiasts. Most players know this and are more than happy to welcome and advise beginners. The British airsoft scene is bigger than it has ever been, but with anti-gun sentiment in the media, convoluted laws and a public which is wary of anything firearm related, new players can find it is difficult to get into the hobby. Much information in this guide will be of use to new players from outside the UK, but please bear in mind that the emphasis is on helping people get into the British skirmish scene. Surprisingly, airsoft is a relatively cheap hobby to get involved in, especially when compared to other outdoor activities. Enough ammunition for a full days play (about 3000 BB’s) will cost £8-£12, and a very effective airsoft replica (a Chinese ‘clone’ AEG) can be bought for £150. It usually costs £20-£30 for admission to a day game. To rent a replica and face protection usually costs another £20. For such a fantastic full day out this is a very favourable cost. All you need to turn up with is some dark or military-style clothing and we recommend being study boots with ankle protection as well as gloves. When you get into the hobby you could easily find yourself spending thousands each year on posh replicas and kit, but this is personal preference; in reality skill will always win the day and this high end equipment only gives you a marginal advantage over someone who has spent the bare minimum. The core of airsoft is honesty. When you are ‘dead’ you count as having been killed or incapacitated so that you may no longer participate in the battle until ‘re-spawned’ or ‘tagged in’. You must shout “HIT!”, raise your arms and return to the respawn point, where more often than not you will be able to rejoin the game after a period of time, meaning new players needn’t worry about being killed early in the game and spending the day sat around like you often do in paintball. Sometimes you must stay ‘dead’ on the spot until healed by a ‘medic’. Other times you will have to wait for the next game to play again. Respawn points (where you rejoin the game from after being hit) and medics can also be combined with allocating the player a limited number of ‘lives’. All rules are at the discretion of the game organiser and you’ll come across many variants and combinations, which keeps the games different and interesting. The most common way of being ‘killed’ is when a BB fired from another person’s airsoft replica strikes your body. It does not count if it rebounds off of another surface, but a direct shot always counts. Whether it hits you hard or soft, or hits kit or limbs or armour, it’s all the same, you are dead. Another way of being ‘killed’ is by pyrotechnics such as booby traps, simulated artillery or more commonly, grenades. Airsoft grenades are usually thrown devices which detonate a blank cartridge or are small single use pyrotechnics produced for airsoft, which you purchase on site for about £2.50 each. If you are within a set radius of an explosive when it detonates, you are out. You will be informed of the radius by the marshals before the game begins, but is usually 3 meters. In a building, a grenade will usually count as eliminating all of the people in a room regardless of distance or cover. Smoke grenades are available, when ignited these produce a cloud of smoke which you can use to cover yourself from enemy sight. One of the first things people want to know about airsoft is how much it hurts. The amount of pain you receive from a hit is totally dependent on your distance to the firer and where the BB hits you. If hit on exposed skin at close range it won’t penetrate your skin but it can draw blood, leave a red mark or really sting! At longer ranges you can be hard pressed to even tell you have been hit so must become aware of what a light hit sounds and feels like. Most of the time a hit to a vulnerable area feels like getting whacked on the skin by a rubber band; quite a sharp pain that can make you jump, but fades almost instantly, certainly a hit which you are still aware of a minute later is unusual. Unlike paintball, airsoft will not leave huge sore bruises. You will find that having to “take the initiative” and charge into an enemy position in the face of potentially painful return fire is what makes airsoft feel a thousand times more real than playing a computer game! It’s not unheard of for people to suffer broken bones or impact injuries from falls but this is only to be expected in a high intensity game played over sometimes arduous terrain. Injuries are far less common than in mountain biking or football, for example. Airsoft game organisers do make every effort to mitigate risk, as such injuries are rare but when it comes down to it airsoft is an arduous outdoors sport that favours tough people! A good standard of fitness in airsoft will certainly help you to win games. There are many people who are concerned that they might be too unfit to play airsoft, but this is not the case. If you are struggling to keep up then you can always decide to hang back and defend a static position, or in the worst case scenario you can drop out of play for as long as you want to and take a breather in the safe zone. Plenty of unfit people come to games and of course they are improving their health every time they do so, even more so if they push themselves, so poor personal fitness isn’t something which should discourage you from coming along. Airsoft games are limited only by the game organiser’s imagination. They can range from live action role-play, weeklong continual games, science fiction games, fighting off zombie hordes, to bank robberies, historic re-enactments, full simulation of modern operations and everything in between. UK sites commonly play 40 minute games with a set objective to hold or retrieve and a start/respawn point for each team. As it happens the UK has some of the highest standard of airsoft sites in the world – lucky you! Even in the US and Hong Kong, where they have very well founded airsoft communities, they consider British airsoft games to be some of the best. So when you turn up at a UK site you can never really know what the game organiser, and the enemy team, has in store for you! Organised game areas are almost unlimited in their scope and terrain. Traditional ‘woodland’ sites are usually based in a private wooded area in the countryside, with a few temporary structures and objectives to fight over. Woodland sites can become muddy and sometimes involve arduous terrain, but offer great opportunities to blend into your surroundings and use field craft skills to outmanoeuvre and engage the enemy. You will also find ‘urban’ sites, which may be based in old warehouses, office blocks, hospitals, military camps, power stations or even nuclear bunkers. These require a different style of play, and some special equipment such as torches can be of great help. Most games will be typically held on a Sunday from 9am to 4pm. Games will very rarely be cancelled because the weather, so in this country you must always be ready to play in the rain and cold! There are over 150 skirmish sites in the UK, and this number is always increasing. Sites will either be operated by a team of local airsoft enthusiasts or a franchise that owns multiple sites and/or shops. Sites can be found throughout England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and on the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and Guernsey. There are sites available in nearly every European country, if you wanted to play abroad. Well run sites have public and employers liability insurance, toilets, water replenishment points, dedicated experienced marshals, a covered safe zone and first aid facilities. It is legal to organise your own game on privately owned land that is away from the public, but there are many laws and risks which have to be considered. UKAPU recommends that you play at organised sites, especially when you are new to the hobby and unaware of all the issues. If you were to make a mistake in organising your own game, which resulted in an injury or criminal charges, or offence to local people, then it could easily be picked up by the media and hurt the whole hobby. There are many dedicated airsoft retailers in the UK, some focus on on-line sales and others have physical shops. They may also also sell surplus, airsoft specific, after market or reproduction military gear. Have a look on the member benefits tab on this website for a list of great retailers who will provide UKAPU members with discounts and offers. The United Kingdom Airsoft Retailers Association (UKARA) is a body which represents airsoft retailers. They administer a database which you can be registered on once you have become a skirmish site member. UKARA retailers can then check this database when you want to buy a RIF (a Realistic Imitation Firearm), which upholds their legal obligation to ensure that they only sell RIFs to airsoft skirmishers. It is also common for UK players to purchase airsoft equipment from big shops in Hong Kong. Players often casually affiliate themselves with their local site and also form teams who play and fight together. Teams can be vary from being well drilled and with coordinated uniform to just a group of friends who go to games. Players are represented by our organisation, the United Kingdom Airsoft Players Union (UKAPU). We stand up for players rights and allow their views to be taken into account. The media, government and public can be surprisingly hostile to airsoft and many people want to see airsoft banned for spurious reasons. UKAPU can and does successfully work to counteract this negativity, but we are only strong when we have lots of members, which is why we ask that you join us when you start playing. Since you’re here, reading an article on the UKAPU website, why don’t you consider joining once you find your feet? Another important part of the UK airsoft community is the web. There are half a dozen large web forums, some popular news sites, Reddit and Facebook communities. The large amount of traffic on these web forums can be deceiving; in actual fact the large majority of airsoft players don’t use them. Even so, they are a great way to find out about the hobby and research equipment before purchasing. Please view UKAPU’s links page for a concise list of great web links. The honour based and high tech game of airsoft unsurprisingly came from Japan. In the 70’s they started using 6mm automatic airsoft replicas powered by external gas bottles as an alternative to paintball. The hobby’s popularity increased in Japan throughout the 80’s and several manufacturers started producing skirmishing equipment. In the early 90’s Tokyo Marui produced an automatic electric gun (AEG) that ran on radio control car batteries, the convenience and effectiveness of which opened the doors for airsoft to spread globally. The Hong Kong airsoft scene is one of the largest outside Japan and most airsoft trading around the world is done through the many HK warehouses and distributors. In the early 00’s other manufacturers began to copy Tokyo Marui’s AEG design. This, plus advances in computer design and production techniques, has allowed Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese manufacturers to turn out a bewildering array of airsoft replicas to suit all budgets. If you can think of a real gun, there is probably an airsoft version or conversion kit available to replicate it. Airsoft had been played somewhat under the radar in the UK since the early 80’s, but in the mid 90’s lots of organised sites were created, the profile of airsoft increased and since then the hobby has grown at an exponential rate, despite hostile legislation. Chances are you are very keen to buy an airsoft replica (if you have not done so already). In 2007 a bill was enacted called the violent crime reduction act, or VCRA. Before this act you could walk into a shop and buy an airsoft replica. Now things are a little more complicated but RIF’s (Realistic Imitation Firearms) are still available to almost everyone, if they get involved in airsoft. A few sections of the VCRA focus on banning the sale and purchase (but not ownership) of RIFs, a category which includes realistically coloured airsoft replicas. After the airsoft community won the long battle against the government and because the abuse of replica firearms was nothing to do with replicas sold to airsoft skirmishers, the government allowed airsoft skirmishers and a few other groups a ‘specific defence’ against the act which allowed us to continue buying RIF’s. So if you are a skirmisher, you are allowed to buy airsoft replicas without restriction. You can get them from retailers in the UK, import them from overseas and buy them from to fellow skirmishers. There are a number of interpretations as to what a skirmisher is. The most commonly accepted and safe method of becoming one is to attend 3 games at the same site over a time period of more than 2 months (so all 3 games can’t be within 2 months). Once you have done this, you may become a member of that skirmish site. To register on the UKARA database you must do the above at a UKARA registered site. You can send an application form off to a UKARA retailer once it has been stamped by your site and you will then be placed on the database. You can then purchase airsoft replicas from any UKARA retailer as they can instantly check that you are a site member by logging in to the database. UKARA registration is absolutely not mandatory for those wishing to buy RIF’s, but it there is no cost to add your details to their database (not to be confused with the membership fees which are charged by your site, if any). Just remember, site membership is the only thing that counts legally speaking, UKARA registration is meaningless in law. Buying your first airsoft replica from a specialist UK airsoft shop is a good idea as they can help you pick the right replica and you are legally entitled to a refund if it is faulty and breaks within the first few games. Many shops will sort new players out with a starter package of magazines, batteries, a charger and a mask so be sure to ask them if they will do you a special deal. If not, shop around (remember to have a look at the list of shops which provide UKAPU member discounts and offers)! Skirmishers can import airsoft replicas from overseas shops, but you must be able to prove that you are an airsoft skirmisher. UK Border Agency are able to check the UKARA database but if you are not registered with UKARA then Border Agency will often check directly with the owner of the site of which you are a member. Second hand airsoft replicas can often be bought from web forums and at sites. These are, more often than not, in good condition and can be bought for a significant reduction from the new price. Again, the seller can ask a shop to check the UKARA database, but the verification which the seller will accept is entirely their decision. The seller could face criminal charges if they sold the RIF to a non skirmisher. Verifying entitlement to the specific defence is something which must be taken seriously. Many excellent second hand replicas can be found on the web forums listed on our links page. Buying a replica at a playing site is easier than doing it over the internet as the seller can see you playing a game and can see that you are buying it to use in a game, so they don’t won’t require further verification. Keeping a diary of games you have attended, signed by the game organiser, may help to prove that you are a skirmisher. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have your own paper record to refer to. A ‘skirmish diary’ is also a nice record to keep. If you are not yet a skirmisher then you are able to purchase ‘IFs’, which is an imitation firearm. IFs are regular airsoft replicas, but with the bodies painted in a bright colour or with a transparent body. These are often called two-tones. Once you are officially regarded as a skirmisher, you are allowed to paint them a realistic colour, or replace external parts with those which look more realistic. As you only have to attend 3 games, during which time you can make an informed decision about which replica you want, it is a much better idea to put off buying an airsoft replica until you are allowed to buy a RIF. If you are under 18 you cannot legally purchase a RIF or IF, no exceptions. You can however, at any age, legally be given a RIF as a gift by an adult who is entitled to the specific defence. You can also be gifted an IF by an adult who is not entitled to the specific defence, hence the trend for younger players using IF’s gifted to them by non skirmishing parents, to avoid having to hire a replica until they turn 18. Under 18’s are allowed to ‘manufacture’ RIFs once they are entitled to the defence, that means to say that they themselves can paint their two tone black once they have become a skirmisher (many sites have junior membership schemes). Being a member of the Police or armed forces changes nothing as regards the VCRA if you will be purchasing them for private use at skirmishes. Firearms licence holders are also no more entitled than anyone else. The exception is if they are being purchased by a law enforcement organisation for training purposes. UKAPU members are encouraged to send an email to one of the addresses on our contact page if they are still unsure of how to comply with the VCRA. In England, Wales and Scotland, with the commencement of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the Firearms Act 1968 has been amended to define maximum power levels that Airsoft replicas are allowed to have. Exceeding any of these limits could ultimately result in a prison sentence, depending on what has been exceeded. In Northern Ireland, there is no specific exception for Airsoft – in this locality the maximum is 1J (as in Japan, Italy), although it is the intention of UKAPU and other organisations to resume lobbying/campaigning for a 1.3J/2.5J once the Stormont crisis has been resolved. Most importantly to us skirmishers, it is an offence to brandish a replica firearm in a public place, or leave it in a place where it may be seen by the public. This still applies if the general shape of the replica can be deduced through its packaging, which is a very good reason to buy a gun case (also this will protect it in transit). You can use the original box that your replica came in, but these are bulky and of course have a picture of a gun on the outside which must be obscured. When transporting an airsoft replica you must have a valid reason to have it in public (even when it is fully covered). Taking it to a game, or to a shop to fix it are examples of valid reasons. You should carry the contact number for the airsoft game manager so, if you are stopped, the police officer can verify that you are on your way to a game. Showing a replica in public will cause alarm and will help the people who want to ban our hobby. Needless to say it is a criminal offence to fire an airsoft replica at a non consenting person, or at an animal. You will also more than likely be banned from sites and ostracised from be a source of mockery for the community. It is not illegal to display your airsoft replicas in your house, but if they can be seen through a window it could lead to you being reported to the police by a worried passer by, or you house being burgled and your equipment stolen. If you have a run in with the Police which involves airsoft replicas it is quite possible that they will be ignorant of airsoft related law. Sadly, poorly conceived new laws are introduced by politicians at a fast rate and often officers are not adequately trained on how to implement them. It is however extremely rare that skirmishers draw the attention of the Police through legitimate activities. When police officers do get involved they are highly likely to be amicable and fair if you are cooperative and polite in return. If you do find yourself unfairly persecuted, which does happen, get in touch with UKAPU. We can’t always find time to help non members, but we always have our members backs. All of the above laws apply to IFs (two tones) as well. They may look like toys but they are not toys in the eyes of the law. If you would like to learn more about said legislation, please feel free to have a look at our Legislation FAQ, or if you would like to see formal definitions of the laws that cover Airsoft in the UK, please refer to our collection of legal documentation. There are 4 main types of airsoft replica available, known as spring, electric, gas and high pressure air. The vast majority of airsoft replicas are loaded with ammunition via magazines, in the same manner as real guns. Most modern airsoft replicas have the power system mounted internally so there are no wires or pipes connecting you to the replica and hindering your movement. The most basic are spring powered replicas. They use a hand operated mechanism to pull a piston against spring pressure and lock it back, whilst loading a BB into the hop unit. The trigger releases the lock and allows the spring to push the piston through a cylinder, rapidly expelling the air inside the cylinder through the hop unit and accelerating the BB down the barrel. This category includes cheap single shot pistols like the two tones you will see in hobby shops, but also include skirmishable weapons, such as shotguns and sniper rifles. Spring shotguns are a viable alternative to an AEG, they can be effective and fun to use but require a higher skill level than automatic replicas. Sniper rifles are the most common spring weapons found at skirmishes. These may fire BB’s to the same or greater range than a regular airsoft replica, depending on many factors, but the main reason to use them is that they can fire with greater accuracy than other airsoft replicas. It is advisable to forget about sniper rifles until you are able to use an AEG well. Most new players harbour a fantasy of being an elite sniper, but new players will fail miserably if they try and learn how to use a bolt action weapon before they have the skill to use an assault rifle in airsoft. The most common replica found at skirmishes is the AEG, automatic electric gun. These are powered by a rechargeable RC car/plane type battery. They operate in the same manner as a spring powered replica, except that the piston is pulled back by a set of gears driven by an electric motor. As such the only input required from the player to unleash fully automatic fire is a pull of the trigger. They all have safety catches and most are capable of firing in fully automatic and semi automatic modes. Some can fire bursts of 3 or more rounds. They are simple to use and cheap to run, requiring you to simply recharge the battery at the end of the game day. Most are very reliable and low maintenance. These factors make AEGs by far the most popular type of airsoft skirmish replica. Nearly every well known assault rifle or sub machine gun in the world has an AEG counterpart available. Typical AEG’s have a range of about 40 feet and fire 15-20 BB’s per second. Electric pistols also exist and function in the same fashion, but they are relatively low powered. Gas weapons store compressed propellant gasses and use a series of valves to release the gas into the hop unit. The BB is then propelled up the barrel as the gas expands. The gas is often contained in the magazine so that a fresh charge is placed into the replica at the same time as the BB reload. Gas weapons do not function well outside of British summertime as the gas will be at lower temperature (and thereby pressure) than was expected by the airsoft designers in East Asia. Gas weapons can also suffer from leakage in the magazine seals and require regular cleaning to function properly. Gas enthusiasts assert that the increased realism of the gas weapons function and its instant trigger response make up for these shortfalls. The most common type of gas weapon is the gas blowback (GBB) pistol. These appear to function like a real pistol, the top slide moves sharply back when the trigger is pulled and you feel a certain amount of recoil. You will also see GBB rifles, which are less practical, more expensive and generally less reliable than AEG’s but offer an enjoyable firing experience. You also find 40mm ‘grenade launchers’, often mounted under an AEG, which fire 24-1000 BB’s (dependant on size) in one shot from each grenade shell. These are only really effective in close quarters but the weight of fire will certainly intimidate your opponent! Gas sniper rifles, non blowback (NBB) gas pistols and gas shotguns are also available but are less common. The different propellent gasses available are commonly divided into 134a (lower power), green gas (higher power, increased strain on replica) and red/black gas (even higher power). Gas can be bought from shops or at the playing site. Different replicas are designed to use different power gasses. Some players use propane (normal camping stove gas) by using a special airsoft adapter on the can. Any good airsoft replica is fitted with hop up. This clever mechanism is a chamber which forces an adjustable amount of backspin onto a BB when fired. When hop is correctly adjusted the BB will fly in a straight line for a long distance until it loses momentum and drops to the ground very quickly, rather than dropping in a constant arc over distance. Unlike a paintball marker you do not need to aim up and lob your shots onto your target, you can shoot straight and use the weapon sights (or even use a telescopic scope) to make accurate shots. Airsoft replicas can be fitted with standard or mid capacity magazines, which feed 60-150 bb’s, (dependant on mag size), via a spring, like a real magazine. They are loaded by putting BB’s in the top of them with a loading tool. Mag capacity is often proportional to mag external size, so a larger calibre weapon like a 7.62 G3 has an airsoft mag that holds more than a small calibre 9mm MP5 mag. Some players prefer mags which hold the same number of BB’s as the real thing, known as real cap mags. Gas weapons use standard type mags but have a reduced capacity as some of the space in the mag is occupied by the gas reservoir. The most popular mags for AEG’s are high capacity magazines, which hold a reservoir of 200-600 BB’s and feed them via clockwork style mechanism. ‘Hi-cap’ magazines are loaded by pouring BB’s into the opening at the top and require the player to wind the clockwork spring via a wheel on the bottom. Closely related to Hi-caps are drum or box magazines, which are often found on support weapons. These utilise the same mechanism as hi-caps but have a bigger reservoir of 2000-6000 BB’s. Some of these magazines wind the feed spring by an electric motor. The stock or fore grip of an AEG usually contains the battery. The physical size of the cells in your battery usually determines how much charge it is rated to hold and thereby how many times it will fire your replica before it runs out. Charge capacity is measured in milliampere hours (mAh). The number of cells determines the force that the replica can extract from that battery at a given time and thereby determines rate of fire and trigger response (measured in volts). NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) are the ‘standard’ batteries which require a basic charger and are very safe to use. The disadvantage is that the large NiMH batteries are bulky and require a large space inside the AEG to store them (such as inside a solid stock). Small NiMH batteries overcome the size issue but do not last for long so you will find the battery will run out after 1000 rounds or so and you have to swap it mid game. AEG’s are usually designed to run on 8.4 volt NiMH batteries. Lithium battery types (Li-Po, Li-ion, Li-Fe etc.) have combined the size of mini battery with a capacity of a large battery. Lithium batteries are somewhat volatile; if they are incorrectly charged or shorted out or punctured they will rapidly ‘balloon’, discharging noxious gasses and enough heat to start fires and melt plastics. As long as you are careful when handling the battery, plus you buy a quality battery and a quality charger with a cell balancer, you are unlikely to experience any problems. Lithium batteries will be permanently damaged if you run them till empty. You can fit an alarm in your replica which lets you know when your battery has dropped to critical capacity. As well as volts and milliampere hours a li-po battery has a C rating, the high C rating cells have a greater ability to satisfy rapid peak power demands. Do not make the mistake of thinking that AEG range is affected by battery or motor power, only rate of fire and trigger response is affected. The spring moves the piston forward at the same distance at the same speed and is not related to the force supplied by the motor. Some AEGs use a ‘proprietary’ battery, which is to say that the shape of the battery must be tailored to the space available in that particular replica. Most skirmish quality ammo (BBs) is similar but you must always use skirmish quality ammo that can be bought from airsoft sites and shops. Sometime you can find cheap ammo in supermarkets and high street shops, but you should never use this as it will almost certainly jam in the barrel of a good quality replica, and can cause damage as a result. Some brands of skirmish quality ammo will still give erratic flight paths and some brands do not feed from magazines very well, but if you ask your fellow players you will soon find out which good brands are available and cheap at the moment (it changes year by year). You can always buy ammo on site but will be more expensive than if you buy it in bulk from a shop. Never ever reuse ammo that has been fired already; even if it looks undamaged it will have internal cracks and is likely to break apart in your replica when you try and fire it. Different weights of ammo are available but stick with 0.20g or 0.25g BBs; heavier ammo doesn’t really help you when using stock replicas at UK power limits. Airsoft BBs are available in anything from 0.12g to 0.50g. 6mm is the industry standard but a handful of 8mm replicas exist. AEG’s are almost always 6mm but may be advertised with 7mm and 8mm gearboxes. This is the size of the gear axle bearings and not the ammunition used. Most airsoft replicas can be fitted with internal upgrades which may enhance the durability, rate of fire or range. Players will absolutely not need upgrades to be competitive and they can be hard to fit. In addition a new replica will be reliable for a long time if you do not mess with the internal parts, so for those two reasons we recommend that you forget about upgrades until you have been playing for a while. You don’t need a replica right away and won’t be able to buy one right away either. We suggest you go to a site, rent a replica, ask people if you can look at theirs (they will often be keen to show off their shiny toys!) and make a decision based on first hand information. That said, you are probably browsing websites for your first purchase already! Guns are cool and playing soldier is fun, you want to own a replica firearm ASAP and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you have a little patience you will be able to get an awesome replica as opposed to rushing in and having to buy one painted up like a child’s toy! Most importantly, you must enjoy the look and feel of your chosen replica! Most assault rifles and SMGs fit into the above requirements, such as AK47, G36, MP5, SCAR, bullpup rifles (rifles with the magazine behind the pistol grip) and M4. The quality of each brand can range from near perfect replicas to rough knock offs, and there are far too many brands to talk about here. If you can only afford a Chinese clone such as JG, D-boys or CYMA then that’s not a problem as more often than not they look good and the gearboxes are very durable. Be sure that any replica you purchase is under the legal limits for airsoft replicas in the jurisdiction you’re in, we recommend getting it chronographed at the shop when you buy it. If you’ve bought an airsoft replica, you are going to be keen to get it out of the box and loaded up so you can shoot up some coke cans in the garden! The vast majority of airsoft replica injuries occur in the home (as the editor of this guide will testify), not on airsoft sites, and that includes the loss of an eye on a few occasions. You can virtually eliminate this risk by setting simple rules and never making exceptions. Never insert the magazine and release the safety until you are completely ready to fire at a target. Never leave your replica loaded and unattended. Don’t ever point or fire your replica at someone who is not wearing protective equipment, even if you think it is unloaded. When firing in your back garden, be aware of overlooking neighbours who may be alarmed by seeing your replica. The shooter and observers should all wear eye protection in case of rebounding BBs (shooting against a draped towel will reduce mess and rebounds). Be aware that BBs may damage things like furniture, plants, plaster and glass. A few BBs often stay in the replica after removal of the magazine; it must be fired a few times in a safe direction after removal of the magazine, to clear them out. Never under any circumstances look down the barrel of the replica or hold the end of the muzzle when pulling the trigger. Pay particular attention to weapon safety when repairing and testing your replica as it is very easy to lose track of the safety condition after a jam or breakage. Do not trust anyone with your replica when it is loaded if they have never been taught how to handle a firearm. The idea is that in the home you should treat an airsoft replica like a real firearm. The core concept of firearms safety is to always treat a replica as if it it is loaded and ready to fire. Stupid accidents will happen to all players who become too casual with airsoft safety. Also, always fire your AEG on semi-auto with no magazine fitted before putting it away. This resets the firing mechanism and will help prevent your spring being weakened over time. Your primary concern, the first item you should buy, is a face mask. Mesh goggles consist of a steel mesh which stops the BB and the only vision impairment is that the mesh makes the environment appear slightly darker. Lens masks and shooting glasses have a clear plastic viewing lens which allows greater visibility but tend to fog up during physical exertion. Thermal lenses and fan units in your goggles can reduce fogging. Not all eye protection you find in the world is BB proof so purchase eye protection rated for shooting, airsoft or paintball. Some ballistic glasses on some people’s faces will leave a gap which could let BBs in to your eye area so goggles may be preferable. As you are probably aware, incorrect/dangerous use of an airsoft replica will easily cause catastrophic damage to eyes, but what most people don’t realise is that they will also shoot out your teeth with ease. For this reason, and to prevent unsightly hit marks on your face, you should wear a full face mask. These sometimes have goggles with integrated solid lower face protection, or you can purchase a lower face mask (often mesh) which straps to your face to compliment your goggles. You can wear a scarf or soft mask over your lower face but this may still not slow a BB enough to save your teeth. It is fashionable to wear eye protection with no lower face protection as it looks more authentic, however if you play like this for long enough then the risk of losing teeth becomes much higher and shattered teeth are not an uncommon sight at skirmishes, even though it is easy to prevent and can be extremely painful. Also remember that you are provided with only one set of eyes – so make your safety purchases very carefully. It is advisable to pick up a pair of army issue assault boots, perhaps from a surplus store. Soldiers who use them daily criticise them for being uncomfortable, but you will probably be using them once a month so they will be entirely tolerable. Once broken in they will give you great traction and ankle protection and will last for years if cleaned and stored correctly. After market (non military issue) boots in the same price range as assault boots will barely last a year before they fall apart. Boots are worth the investment to keep your feet dry, warm, increase you grip and protect your ankles. Trainers are a poor choice, especially in woodland games; they ruin your camouflage, look stupid and significantly increase the chance that you will sprain or break you ankle (painfully sprained ankles are the most common injury in airsoft). It is the same as buying a mask; if you buy a gun before you buy boots then you have made a big mistake. For you first few games a dark coloured hoodie and some old jeans will be sufficient, but the big attraction of airsoft for many people is dressing up in cool kit and generally looking like a badass. You can obtain the equipment and uniform of practically any army in the world, past or present, if you are willing to pay for it. You can even have your kit custom made. There are always sheep-like uniform trends which come and go but you are not obliged to wear anything in particular unless you go to an unusual scenario day where you have to represent a particular fighting force. You may be tempted to get a full set of uniform and kit before your first game but you may then find that your local site or you play style doesn’t fit what you had in mind, so it is much more sensible to get something cheap from an army surplus store and upscale your gear later on. The best stuff you can get in the UK is British DPM. It is cheap, hard wearing, good camouflage and comfortable. The market is flooded with excellent quality DPM due to the introduction of MTP to the British armed forces a few years ago. You should start by getting a shirt or jacket and a pair of trousers. If you are not buying a set of load carrying equipment (LCE) look for a jacket with pockets that you can put your spare ammo and magazines into. Assault vest: Covers your entire torso like a regular vest, maximising area available for pouches. Plate carrier: So named because they are designed to hold armour plates in the real world, these usually wrap around your waist and sides like a big chest rig with an additional small panel higher on your chest. In the last decade ‘Molle’ has become a firm favourite system for real and airsoft LCE. It takes the form of vests and carriers with no pouches; instead they are covered with horizontal loops of material at set spaces to which you attach special pouches. Pouches of every conceivable size and shape are available, these have matching loops and vertical strip of material which is woven through the pouch and vest loops. The end result is that you can constantly re-configure your entire LCE for personal preference or endlessly alter it to suit each game or weapon system. It is a good idea to purchase LCE in a solid colour such as black, brown or green. When you buy jacket/trousers in a new camo pattern you may then need to replace your LCE too, if you have bought LCE in a specific camouflage pattern. All players, especially new ones, should also be wary of wearing all enclosing or thick skinned LCE such as assault vests as it is very difficult to feel hits through them. You must learn to tell when you have been hit from sounds and other signs, not so easy if you don’t yet know what it’s like to be hit! Wearing a pair of gloves is a good idea as it hurts when you get shot on the hand, cheap ones will suffice in the short term so long as you can still safely handle your airsoft replica. A hat or head wrap is advisable as headshots can hurt. Headgear will also improve your camouflage, but it is not mandatory. Be conscious of how a hat may interface with your goggles. When you start playing more seriously you may want to buy a waterproof ‘Gore-Tex’ jacket and a warm clothing layer, in case you get caught out in the rain or have to wait for game start in the cold. You will shrug off most of the effects of cold and damp when you exert energy in game, but if you really get caught out and become uncomfortable then you will find that your performance drops dramatically. Worst of all, you might cease to enjoy the game. First, find an airsoft site to go to. There are many excellent directories out there, including the one provided by Airsoft Nation. Next, book yourself in, usually by emailing the game organiser from their website. It is highly recommended that you drag a friend or two along to split fuel costs (you might get lucky and your friend might get into airsoft as well). Don’t worry about bringing a big group of people like you often have to with paintball, in airsoft you will always team up with other players on site. If your group doesn’t have access to a car, then unfortunately it may be difficult to play airsoft long term as airsoft sites are usually in the middle of nowhere. So it’s a Sunday morning, and you are off to your first game. This is the most important step you can take. So many people just never get as far as going to a game. There are thousands of people who waffle endlessly about how they are going to play airsoft, but lack the enthusiasm to go to a game! Once you get there you will want to go again and again, but the thought of getting up early on a Sunday and spending £40 on a day out can stop many people coming, even if they have booked in. If you sacrifice one otherwise wasted Sunday and commit less cash than a night out, you will quickly find yourself part of an enriching, rewarding hobby where you will meet (and shoot) some great people and have some memorable adventures! Bring a bottle of water and some lunch if food isn’t provided. You will certainly need to drink water throughout the day even if it’s cold out. Try and turn up before 9am. Game briefings usually commence at 10am, so this gives you an hour to chat with the local players, and if you’ve requested a “hire gun” – be issued with your replica for the day, load up and fire a few times on the range. At around 10am, the head marshal will brief everyone for the day. It is very important that you pay attention to this brief, as they may mention game and safety rules that are unique to that site. Safety briefing and first game setup should take no longer than half an hour. Usually you will have an hour break for lunch, food is sometimes provided. Depending on how hard games have been the staff will usually call it a day between 4pm and 5pm. The players are usually tired by this point and beginning to pack up anyway! At a minority of sites you will stay away from the safe area all day, or more often not return to it till lunch. Ask one of the Marshall if this is will be the case, if it is then you will have to take all of your stuff with you. At a few small sites you will may be returning to the safe area after every game. Never load your replica in the safe zone, and always wear goggles when in the playing area. Marshals will direct you and you must always obey their commands. If in doubt, have your goggles on and replica unloaded. When testing an unloaded AEG to see if the battery is working always cover the muzzle by poking it into your boot or your kit. We will refrain from explaining in great detail the rules most sites employ, but the one thing to bear in mind is to not shout “Man down!” whenever you have been eliminated in a game. “Man down” is an emergency call almost always reserved for when a player has become injured during a skirmish, and requires medical attention by the on-site first aider. When this is called, you will often hear a shout for “ceasefire” which will require you to make your replicas safe. You must follow the direction of the marshals when it comes to safety. To take the next step into airsoft skirmishing please take a look at the links on our website and look at joining UKAPU. We can’t continue to support and encourage new players without players supporting us. All of us at UKAPU are out there fighting for airsoft players rights. If you have any comments on this guide please do not hesitate to let us know. Any positive comments will happily be accepted and any negative comments will be begrudgingly accepted and we’ll try to figure out how to take those comments on board. Although many people will display an interest in airsoft, very few of them actually have the confidence and motivation to turn up to a game. We at UKAPU hope you take the plunge and attend an airsoft game one day – and who knows, maybe you’ll stay, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll become a rather valued member of our amazing community. Originally by Matt Furey-King and painfully curated by David Weston and the rest of the UKAPU committee, with images from UKAPU members past and present (including the curator and his friends), Graham and Darwin from Airsoft Nation, Snoopys Snaps and Airsoft Addict. We hope you have not fallen asleep too many times.

2019-04-19T15:05:52Z

https://www.ukapu.org.uk/resources/guide-to-airsoft/

President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Photo via White House. For three decades, North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear arsenal has been the predominant U.S. foreign policy concern on the Korean Peninsula, threatening both regional stability and the global nonproliferation regime. Although multiple countries have a major stake in the issue, the U.S. has been both the most important interlocutor in attempts to resolve it diplomatically and the leader in global efforts to pressure and isolate North Korea. Efforts to address North Korea’s nuclear weapons program through various combinations of diplomacy and pressure have at times slowed or temporarily halted Pyongyang’s progress, but have failed to roll it back or to fundamentally change the dynamics of conflict on the Peninsula. As North Korea has dramatically accelerated the pace of progress in building its nuclear program in recent years, and as the Trump administration has alternately leveled threats of military action and engaged in high-profile summitry with Kim Jong-un, this issue has risen to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. The current round of U.S. diplomatic engagement with North Korea may hold enormous consequences for the future of the Korean Peninsula, perhaps leading to the denouement of this long saga – or, despite the high stakes, perhaps simply to another round of all sides “muddling through” with no ultimate resolution in sight. The Trump administration has framed negotiations with North Korea in stark binary terms – either leading to North Korea’s denuclearization and prosperity, or to a more intensified confrontation and conflict – but few experts expect North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal any time soon. This Issue Brief will review the history of U.S. nuclear negotiations with North Korea, taking a close look at past efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It will also examine the persistent questions and themes surrounding how the U.S. has approached the issue of negotiating with Pyongyang, and how foreign analysts have perceived the motivations behind North Korea’s nuclear program. Military threats, particularly joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea and threats (spoken or implicit) of U.S. use of nuclear weapons in a conflict. Additionally, many analysts assume that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula is a key North Korean objective, reflecting the country’s long-standing rhetoric and propaganda. However, at key points in diplomatic negotiations – the first high-level U.S.-DPRK talks in 1992, the 2000 inter-Korean summit, and as renewed engagement with South Korea and the U.S. began in 2018 – North Korea’s leaders privately indicated their willingness to accept a long-term U.S. military presence on the Peninsula. North Korea as an Isolated State: One line of analysis interprets the motivations behind North Korea’s nuclear program and many of its adversarial actions and negotiating tactics as springing from a deep sense of insecurity and nationalist pride, amidst a world of unreliable allies and of perceived antagonists in Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington who seek the regime’s dissolution. This combination of insecurity, nationalism, and commitment to continued rule by the Kim family drives North Korea’s domestic political system, as well as its approach to foreign relations. North Korea as a Hyper-Realist State: An alternative hypothesis posits that North Korea’s leaders view military power – not alliances or embeddedness in the international order – as the only meaningful guarantee of security, and nuclear weapons as the ultimate currency of power. In past nuclear negotiations, Pyongyang may have made tactical concessions to ward off pressure, gain temporary benefits, and divide its adversaries; however, North Korea has ultimately relied on strategic deception to gradually build up its nuclear capabilities. The North Korean regime sees its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against foreign military intervention, and is determined to avoid the kind of example set by Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in a U.S.-supported uprising eight years after surrendering his country’s nascent nuclear program. With these different general perspectives as rough baselines for interpreting the motivations behind North Korea’s behavior and its nuclear program, over nearly three decades of on-and-off nuclear negotiations have consistently produced some of the same themes and strategic questions about the direction U.S. policy should take. Nonetheless, each U.S. administration for the past thirty years has maintained the stated goal of achieving the denuclearization of North Korea through diplomatic means and has tried to varying degrees to engage in talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear program. The potential human cost of a full-scale military conflict with North Korea – where projections of casualties range in the hundreds of thousands, or in the millions if nuclear weapons are involved – has cast a heavy shadow over the option of using military force to destroy the country’s nuclear infrastructure. Policies aimed at regime change through non-military means would have to accept the risks of instigating the collapse of a nuclear-armed state, and to reckon with the difficult fact – as the famine of the 1990s demonstrated – that the North Korean regime is willing to impose a high level of pain on its population to stay in power. Recognition or de facto acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear-armed status, on the other hand, would represent an embarrassing retreat from decades of U.S. policy and a blow to the global nonproliferation regime, without any guarantee that it would lead to a more peaceful or stable Korean Peninsula. Within the context of negotiations, a consistent challenge has been coordinating the U.S. position on North Korea policy with that of other key regional actors. Although China has opposed North Korea’s nuclear buildup and voted in favor of multiple UN sanctions resolutions, Beijing has generally prioritized stability on the Korean Peninsula over denuclearization, and – particularly before 2017 – did little to enforce sanctions. South Korea’s approach to North Korea has fluctuated as pro-engagement progressives and more hawkish conservatives have alternated in power, and the policy preferences of Seoul and Washington have been out of sync at several crucial periods. The direction of Japanese policy toward North Korea has generally been more consistent with that of the U.S., but Tokyo’s focus on addressing the decades-old abduction of its nationals by North Korea has sometimes conflicted with Washington’s prioritization of nuclear matters. Russia has had less of a direct stake in the politics of the Korean Peninsula than other parties, but has sought to keep a seat at the table and has threatened at times to play a spoiler role in international efforts to pressure North Korea over its nuclear program. Tied to the management of these relationships has been the question of whether nuclear negotiations with North Korea should be a bilateral U.S.-DPRK affair, or a multilateral one. Another major consistent question of U.S. diplomatic strategy has been identifying the right combination of pressure and inducements to get Pyongyang to the table on acceptable terms, and to bargain for nuclear concessions once talks have begun.10 A related issue has been how each side would sequence their respective actions to get to the end goal of a denuclearized and peaceful Korean Peninsula, given their mutual mistrust and the long list of measures (some reversible, some not) necessary to achieve this goal. The dynamics of phased negotiations, coupled with a tendency for the two sides to agree to vaguely-worded joint statements rather than finely-detailed agreements, have repeatedly provided the U.S. and North Korea the opportunity to accuse the other – rightly or wrongly, as the case may be – of failing to live up to their obligations. North Korea’s interest in nuclear technology began decades before the country’s nuclear program rose to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda in the 1990s. North Korea’s early nuclear activities in the 1950s and 60s were focused on building a corps of trained nuclear experts and developing the foundations of a national nuclear infrastructure with assistance from abroad, primarily from the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung began to lay the groundwork for the country’s indigenous development of a nuclear weapons program, and in 1979 North Korea began construction of a 5 MWe experimental nuclear reactor at Yongbyon – a Magnox-type reactor that could operate on natural uranium and produce spent fuel for reprocessing into weapons-grade plutonium. In 1985, as North Korea neared completion of the 5 MWe reactor, it signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty under Soviet (and indirectly, American) pressure. However, after acceding to the NPT Pyongyang did not follow up by signing a requisite nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Instead, North Korea linked its willingness to submit to IAEA inspections to the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea, where they had been deployed since 1958. By the late 1980s, North Korea began operations at a radiochemical laboratory capable of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons, and started construction of two larger gas-graphite reactors. Increasingly concerned about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the U.S. quietly began to open up diplomatic communication channels with Pyongyang, breaking with decades of minimal direct contact between the two nations.12 Concurrently, South Korea pursued a policy of Nordpolitik aimed at rapprochement with the North and its traditional allies. In 1991, the U.S. announced the withdrawal of its nuclear weapons from South Korea, reflecting both a retrenchment of its global nuclear posture and an effort to persuade North Korea to accept international inspections of its nuclear sites. Separately, the U.S. and South Korea announced the cancellation of the annual “Team Spirit” joint military exercises, which Pyongyang had vociferously opposed for years. These two actions met North Korea’s stated requirements for allowing IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities and opened the door to negotiations. In December 1991, the two Koreas signed a “Basic Agreement” pledging the two sides to reconciliation and cooperation, followed shortly by a Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, under which North and South agreed not to “test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons.” North and South Korea also pledged not to possess nuclear reprocessing or uranium enrichment facilities. While the two Koreas were negotiating this agreement, the U.S. and North Korea convened a high-level diplomatic meeting in New York, leading to North Korea’s decision to permit IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities. The bilateral inspection mechanism envisioned by the inter-Korean Joint Declaration did not get off the ground, marking the start of a pattern of Pyongyang insisting that Washington be its main interlocutor on nuclear matters. However, North Korea soon submitted a nuclear material declaration to the IAEA and allowed inspections of certain agreed-upon sites. As IAEA inspectors scrutinized these declared nuclear activities, they detected discrepancies suggesting that from 1989 to 1991 North Korea may have covertly produced enough plutonium to build one or two nuclear weapons. When the IAEA requested the “special inspection” of suspect facilities in early 1993, North Korea – surprised by the scope of the organization’s forensic capabilities and the unprecedented nature of the inspection request – refused the request and announced its intention to withdraw from the NPT.13 This led to further bilateral talks with the U.S., and the adoption of a joint statement in which the two countries pledged to support a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, respect one another’s sovereignty, and refrain from the use or threat of force; as part of this agreement, North Korea also “suspended” its NPT withdrawal. Subsequent IAEA efforts to inspect the suspected reprocessing facility stalled, however, and North Korea’s removal of spent fuel rods from its 5 MWe reactor for possible reprocessing to extract plutonium took the crisis to an apex. Facing the prospect of a brazen nuclear breakout, U.S. policymakers began considering pursuing tough international sanctions or a military response – an option that the Clinton administration recognized could lead to a devastating conflict on the Peninsula. The Agreed Framework alleviated the immediate sense of crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear program. The agreement froze nuclear activities at Yongbyon and led to the de facto abandonment of North Korea’s two other nascent nuclear reactors. (The CIA had estimated that, upon completion, these reactors would be capable of generating enough plutonium to produce dozens of nuclear weapons every year.)15 In the years after the U.S. and North Korea signed the agreement, the two sides made some progress in working-level bilateral talks on implementation details and on confidence building measures such as cooperation to recover the remains of Korean War-era U.S. service members from North Korea. With North Korea’s economic collapse leading to devastating famine by the mid-1990s, the U.S. also emerged as the largest donor for humanitarian assistance to the country. However, U.S. relations with North Korea remained highly uneasy during this period, and implementation of the Agreed Framework was often fraught with uncertainty. The U.S. Congress, skeptical of the agreement’s merits, was reluctant to fund the heavy fuel oil shipments promised by it, leading to delays in delivery. Construction of the LWRs in North Korea also proceeded slowly, due to the unique and complex nature of the project.16 Additionally, the U.S. and North Korea made little progress toward normalizing diplomatic or economic relations, and did not establish interests sections in each other’s capitals as outlined by the Agreed Framework.17 Four Party Talks aimed at negotiating a peace treaty to replace the 1953 Armistice Agreement, held between the U.S., China, and the two Koreas from 1997-1999, deadlocked without an agreement. Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula also continued in the years after the Agreed Framework was signed. In December 1994, North Korea shot down a U.S. helicopter that had strayed into North Korean airspace; in 1996, a North Korean submarine ran aground in South Korean territory during a reconnaissance mission, leading to a massive manhunt; and in August 1998 North Korea attempted to launch a satellite into orbit using a Taepodong-1 rocket, marking Pyongyang’s first use of long-range missile technology. Additionally, by 1998 U.S. intelligence agencies began picking up indications of a nascent North Korean effort to acquire uranium enrichment technology, which would potentially provide Pyongyang with an alternative path to the bomb. As the “Perry Process” between the U.S. and North Korea commenced, Washington and Pyongyang began an intensified process of official engagement. Although the Clinton administration did not confront Pyongyang over the uranium enrichment issue – given a lack of actionable evidence and the apparently limited scale of Pyongyang’s activities at this time – it focused on gaining access to an underground military site at Kumchang-ri, where the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency believed North Korea was constructing a covert nuclear facility. In March 1999, a State Department team reached an agreement to visit this site, concluding that operations there did not violate the Agreed Framework.19 Several months later, during negotiations on its ballistic missile program, Pyongyang agreed to a missile test moratorium in exchange for Washington partially lifting economic sanctions. The final months of the Clinton administration saw a burst of high-level diplomacy, as well as a warming of inter-Korean relations following the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000. In October 2000 a high-ranking North Korean official, Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, visited Washington, leading to a Joint Communique on efforts to improve U.S.-DPRK relations.20 Shortly thereafter, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Nonetheless, an envisioned follow-up visit by President Clinton to Pyongyang did not materialize, owing to ongoing disagreements over the final terms of a missile deal and a political crisis in Washington following that November’s disputed election. The incoming George W. Bush administration had deep internal divisions about its policy toward North Korea and the wisdom of engaging in diplomacy with Pyongyang.21 Although implementation of the Agreed Framework continued as the Bush administration took office, missile talks with North Korea were suspended, and the new administration sent mixed signals about its willingness to negotiate with Pyongyang – an approach at odds with the engagement policies then being pursued by Seoul and (to a lesser extent) Tokyo. An internal policy review on North Korea, released in June 2001, called for a “bold approach” strategy addressing a comprehensive set of security, economic, and political issues; however, there was little immediate follow-up to begin implementing this strategy. The administration’s approach to foreign policy hardened after 9/11; during his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush labeled North Korea as part of an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran. Shortly thereafter, a leak of the administration’s classified Nuclear Posture Review revealed that North Korea was one of seven countries identified as possible nuclear targets in a military contingency; Pyongyang condemned this development as a violation of previous U.S. security assurances. After two years of little diplomatic progress – during which North Korea reprocessed enough spent fuel to produce plutonium for at least half a dozen simple nuclear weapons – on September 19, 2005 the Six Parties announced a Joint Statement on denuclearization. The statement committed North Korea to abandoning its nuclear programs and returning to the NPT in exchange for food and energy assistance from the other Six Party members. It also outlined the parameters of future negotiations, including the normalization of North Korean relations with the United States, Japan and South Korea, and papered over Pyongyang’s demands for the provision of light-water reactors by stating that the topic would be discussed “at an appropriate time.”27 However, this agreement proved to be stillborn. Shortly before the talks had concluded, the U.S. Treasury Department had designated a Macau-based bank, Banco Delta Asia (BDA), as a “primary money laundering concern” due to its financial facilitation of North Korean illicit activities, leading the Macau government to freeze approximately $25 million in North Korean assets in the bank. After signing on to the Joint Statement, North Korea raised objections related to both this action and to the LWR issue, leading to another deadlock at the negotiating table. As diplomatic efforts hit a standstill, the U.S. followed up on the Treasury Department action with a campaign to pressure overseas financial institutions to avoid doing business with North Korea, and in July 2006 North Korea ended its missile test moratorium with the launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile. Several months later, Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test, bringing a renewed sense of urgency to the nuclear crisis. The UN Security Council responded by condemning the test and adopting its first Chapter VII sanctions resolution targeted at North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Amidst this worsening situation, the Bush administration decided to intensify its diplomatic efforts, with a short-term focus on halting the threat posed by North Korea’s ongoing plutonium production. Initial steps in this direction gained some traction, with the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia more aligned in their approaches toward North Korea than they had previously been. In February 2007, the resumed Six Party Talks produced an agreement on initial actions toward denuclearization. As first steps, North Korea would halt operations at its Yongbyon facility, while other members of the Six Party Talks would provide North Korea with heavy fuel oil and form new working groups to discuss the implementation of various aspects the September 19 Joint Statement. As part of a side arrangement, the U.S. also agreed to facilitate the return of the frozen BDA funds to North Korea. Amidst internal battles within the Bush administration about how to respond, the U.S decided to move forward with negotiations to disable the plutonium production facilities at Yongbyon, while linking North Korea’s delisting as a state sponsor of terror to its willingness to accept a verification regime (which would presumably account for its enrichment program).31 As Pyongyang submitted its declaration, President Bush terminated the application of sanctions on North Korea implemented under the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act, while concurrently reinstating many of these sanctions under a different legal authority.32 Soon afterwards, North Korea demolished the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor, providing a visible signal of the facility’s disablement. As the Bush administration’s second term drew to an end, its diplomacy with North Korea began to unravel over the issue of verification. In October 2008, with Pyongyang threatening to walk away from talks, U.S. and North Korean negotiators reached a verbal agreement outlining a verification protocol, leading Washington to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in order to keep talks moving forward.33 However, North Korea rejected subsequent efforts in the Six Party Talks to commit to a written verification regime under terms acceptable to the U.S. and its allies. Early the following year, with a new administration in office in Washington, North Korea attempted to launch a satellite using a multi-stage rocket, prompting a statement of condemnation from the UN Security Council. Pyongyang subsequently expelled international monitors from its Yongbyon nuclear complex, declared that it would no longer be bound by its previous agreements, and conducted a second nuclear test, spelling the end for the Six Party Talks. President Barack Obama entered office with a publicly- and privately-expressed willingness to engage with Pyongyang. At the same time, Obama was determined – as he reportedly told his national security team shortly after taking office – to “break the cycle of provocation, extortion, and reward.”34 Facing the collapse of the Six Party Talks at the start of its tenure and repeated crises involving North Korea thereafter, the Obama administration engaged only episodically in talks with Pyongyang, and held mostly to a policy of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2009 called “strategic patience.”35 This policy centered on a stated aversion to “rewarding bad behavior” on the part of North Korea, coupled with a conditional willingness to return to high-level talks if North Korea showed a serious commitment to negotiate an end to its nuclear program. It also entailed the gradual escalation of economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang in response to provocations. In the months after its second nuclear test, Pyongyang gave mixed signals about its willingness to return to dialogue, showing a stated desire to improve relations with the U.S. but not necessarily to abandon its nuclear arsenal. In August 2009, North Korea secured a visit by Bill Clinton to Pyongyang in return for a promise to release two detained American journalists, during which Clinton and Kim Jong Il held a long (though unofficial) meeting on addressing the barriers to improved U.S.-DPRK relations. Stephen Bosworth, the State Department’s Special Representative for North Korea Policy, followed up with a December 2009 visit to discuss the possible resumption of the Six Party Talks. Shortly after the agreement was rolled out, North Korea announced its intention to launch a satellite into orbit, claiming that “the launch of the working satellite is an issue fundamentally different from that of a long-range missile” and therefore was not a violation of the deal.40 Washington and the UN Security Council disagreed. Despite the U.S. reportedly sending envoys to Pyongyang on a secret mission to dissuade North Korea from following through with its plan, the launch was carried out a few days before the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birthday. The launch failed to put a satellite into orbit, and led the U.S. to cancel the planned nutritional assistance package. A month later, the DPRK revised its constitution to declare itself a “nuclear power and an invincible military power” – demonstrating a deepening public commitment to its nuclear program under the country’s new leader, Kim Jong Un.41 North Korea conducted a more successful follow-up satellite launch in December 2012, followed once again by UN Security Council condemnation, another North Korean nuclear test, and new U.S. and international sanctions. Shortly before Donald Trump entered the White House, President Obama reportedly warned him that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs would be the most urgent challenge Trump would confront.55 Trump did not have a particularly strong focus on the Korean Peninsula on the campaign trail, despite raising headlines for suggesting that Japan and South Korea should develop their own nuclear weapons and claiming that the two countries did not pay enough of the costs of hosting U.S. troops. After the election, however, Kim Jong Un announced his intention to test launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), prompting Trump to tweet that a North Korean nuclear-armed ICBM capability “won’t happen!”56 This set the tone for Trump’s first year in office, as his administration pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” and North Korea conducted a series of long-range missile tests. North Korea responded to these remarks with its own escalation of rhetoric and threats. After Trump’s “fire and fury” remark, the Korean People’s Army’s Strategic Force threatened to fire an array of long-range missiles at the surrounding waters of the U.S. territory of Guam.61 In response to the UN speech, Kim Jong Un gave an unusual public address threatening to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” The DPRK Foreign Minister warned that his country might conduct an atmospheric thermonuclear test over the Pacific Ocean, presumably after launching the warhead from a ballistic missile.62 North Korea did not follow through with these specific threats, but it did conduct what appeared to be its first thermonuclear test and a test of the Hwasong-15 ICBM, which appeared capable of reaching the entire continental United States. The road from the Panmunjom summit to Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un was short but filled with twists and turns nonetheless. In May, Secretary of State Pompeo made a return visit to Pyongyang, winning the release of three Americans who had been detained by North Korea. A few weeks later, North Korea invited an international group of journalists – but not technical experts – to witness the demolition of its nuclear test site. With the Trump administration insisting that “maximum pressure” would continue until North Korea achieved complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization, National Security Advisor John Bolton urged North Korea to follow the “Libya model” in denuclearization talks.72 Pyongyang rebuked Bolton for his reference to what it considered a model for surrender and regime change; this prompted a round of escalating rhetoric from Washington and Pyongyang that culminated in a open letter from Trump to Kim announcing the cancellation of their planned summit. Another hastily-convened meeting between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom, followed by a visit by North Korean regime heavyweight Kim Yong Chol to New York and Washington, put plans for the meeting back on track, with U.S. and North Korean officials scrambling to work out the agenda and details for a June 12 meeting in Singapore. Trump has blamed China for North Korea’s obstinacy in nuclear talks, saying China was not “helping with the process of denuclearisation as they once were,” and tying faltering nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang to rising trade tensions with Beijing.80 Although there is no public evidence that North Korean obstinacy in talks has been directly encouraged by Beijing, Chinese relations with North Korea did begin to thaw in the spring of 2018, with Kim Jong Un meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping three times from March through June. Anecdotal reports have suggested that Chinese enforcement of sanctions against North Korea has become more lax in the wake of these meetings. Russian relations with North Korea have also begun to improve in the wake of Pyongyang’s diplomatic offensive. The deadlock between the U.S. and North Korea over the first steps toward denuclearization and a peace regime also contrasts with warming inter-Korean ties, and has led to renewed concerns about cracks in the U.S.-ROK alliance emerging. In September 2018, Moon Jae-in travelled to Pyongyang, meeting with Kim Jong Un for the third time and pledging enhanced inter-Korean cooperation. However, the broad scope of UN sanctions on North Korea has meant that nearly any form of inter-Korean economic engagement would require approval from the Security Council – and hence from the U.S., which continues to place a high priority on keeping the international sanctions regime intact in the absence of concrete North Korean movement toward denuclearization. Though the stakes are now higher and the leadership dynamics much different, U.S. policymakers attempting to address North Korea’s nuclear program are now faced with some of the same complex issues of diplomatic strategy and tactics that have made past rounds of negotiations so difficult. These include coordinating Washington’s position with those of allies and partners in the region despite their disparate interests and policy preferences; identifying the right combination of pressure and incentives to induce positive action from Pyongyang; and sequencing a complex negotiating process amidst intense mutual distrust. These challenges have been magnified, however, by the mismanaged expectations and chaotic process that have thus far characterized much of the Trump administration’s approach to diplomacy with North Korea. Nevertheless, though policy choices made in Washington, Seoul, or Beijing will shape the environment for negotiations, how North Korea proceeds will ultimately be a result of decisions made in Pyongyang. How far Kim Jong Un is willing to go in making concessions on his nuclear program – and at what price, and for what greater strategic purpose – will remain the central questions as talks continue. 1. “Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula Is DPRK's Invariable Stand,” KCNA, September 29, 2013. 3. See Andrei Lankov, The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia (Oxford University Press, 2013). 5. See “North Korea Inside Out: The Case for Economic Engagement,” Report of an Independent Task Force Convened by the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, December 2009; Chung-in Moon, The Sunshine Policy: In Defense of Engagement as a Path to Peace in Korea (Yonsei University Press, 2012). 6. See Suzanne Scholte, Testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, “Protecting North Korean Refugees,” 115th Congress, First Session, December 12, 2017. 7. Courtney Kube, Ken Dilanian and Carol E. Lee, “CIA Report Says North Korea Won’t Denuclearize, but Might Open a Burger Joint,” NBC News, May 30, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/cia-report-says-north-korea-won-t-denuclearize-might-open-n878201; Rick Gladstone, “North Korea Giving Up Nuclear Arms ‘a Lost Cause,’ Official Says,” New York Times, October 25, 2016. 8. See Joshua Stanton, Sung-yoon Lee, and Bruce Klingner, “Getting Tough on North Korea,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2017. 10. On the difficulties of this issue, see Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements, and the Case of North Korea (Stanford University Press, 2017). 11. For overviews of this period, see Don Oberdorfer and Robert Carlin, The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History, Third Ed. (Basic Books, 2014), pp. 194-238; Joel S. Wit, Daniel B. Poneman, and Robert L. Gallucci, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2005); Leon V. Sigal, Disarming Stranger: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea (Princeton University Press, 1998); Robert Carlin and John W. Lewis, Negotiating with North Korea: 1992-2007 (Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, 2008); and Marion V. Creekmore Jr., A Moment of Crisis: Jimmy Carter, the Power of a Peacemaker, and North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions (PublicAffairs, 2006). 12. After 1953, the U.S. and North Korea communicated almost exclusively through the Military Armistice Commission established by the Armistice Agreement. Under the “modest initiative” begun by the Reagan administration in 1988, the U.S. opened up a channel in Beijing for diplomatic correspondence with North Korea, and eased some restrictions on person-to-person engagement between Americans and North Koreans. 13. Pyongyang also cited the resumption of Team Spirit military exercises in 1993 as a reason for its withdrawal from the NPT. These military exercises were suspended again from 1994-1996 before being cancelled and replaced with smaller-scale exercises. 14. “Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” October 21, 1994, https://www.armscontrol.org/documents/af. 16. Nonetheless, the U.S. ultimately delivered $400 million in energy assistance to North Korea from 1995 to 2002. See Manyin and Nikitin, “Foreign Assistance to North Korea,” Congressional Research Service, April 2, 2014, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40095.pdf. On the multinational effort to finance and construct the LWR project in North Korea, see Charles Kartman, Robert Carlin, and Joel Wit, A History of KEDO, 1994-2006 (Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, June 2012). 19. James P. Rubin, “Report on the U.S. Visit to the Site at Kumchang-ni, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” U.S. Department of State, June 25, 1999, https://1997-2001.state.gov/briefings/statements/1999/ps990625a.html. These findings were confirmed after a second inspection a year later. 21. For overviews of the Six Party Talks and Bush administration policies toward North, see Mike Chinoy, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009); Yoichi Funabashi, The Peninsula Question: A Chronicle of the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2007); Victor Cha, The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (HarperCollins, 2012); and Charles L. Pritchard, Failed Diplomacy: The Tragic Story of How North Korea Got the Bomb (Brookings Institution Press, 2007). 22. Funabashi, The Peninsula Question, pp. 93-134. 23. To some members of the Bush administration, these events provided the impetus to follow through with their longstanding preference for abandoning the Agreed Framework. As John Bolton, then the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, wrote in his memoirs, intelligence revelations about North Korean procurement for an enrichment program provided “the hammer I had been looking for to shatter the Agreed Framework.” John Bolton, Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Beyond (Threshold Editions, 2008), 106. 24. See, for example, “KCNA on DPRK's nuclear deterrent force,” KCNA, June 9, 2003. 25. The multilateral approach also stood in contrast to North Korea’s strong preference for holding bilateral talks with the U.S. on its nuclear program and its portrayal of the nuclear crisis as solely a U.S.-DPRK issue. 30. In addition to previous evidence of North Korea’s enrichment program, tests of documents from Yongbyon submitted as part of the declaration indicated the presence of highly enriched uranium. See Glenn Kessler, “New Data Found on North Korea’s Nuclear Capacity,” Washington Post, June 21, 2008. 32. George W. Bush, “Continuing Certain Restrictions With Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals,” Executive Order 13466, June 26, 2008. 34. Quoted in Jeffrey Bader, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy (Brookings Institution Press, 2012), p. 31. On the administration’s initial private outreach to North Korea, see Amb. Stephen Bosworth, “Remarks at the Korea Society Annual Dinner,” June 9, 2009. 35. Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Remarks with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic After Their Meeting,” December 10, 2009, https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2009a/12/133416.htm. In later years, the Obama administration tried (largely unsuccessfully) to back away from the strategic patience label. 37. An investigative group convened by the ROK Ministry of National Defense concluded two months after the incident that North Korea was responsible for the sinking – a claim Pyongyang vehemently denied. Some South Koreans have expressed skepticism about its findings. 39. Victoria Nuland, “U.S.-DPRK Bilateral Discussions,” February 29, 2012, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/02/184869.htm; see also “DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Result of DPRK-U.S. Talks,” KCNA, February 29, 2012. The Obama administration claimed, somewhat implausibly, that the nutritional assistance to North Korea was not a direct quid pro quo in return for a freeze. 40. “DPRK’s Satellite Launch not Contradictory to DPRK-U.S. Agreement: KCNA,” KCNA, March 19, 2012. 42. See “Timeline of Threat Escalations on the Korean Peninsula, December 2012 to May 2013,” NCNK Issue Brief, http://www.ncnk.org/resources/publications/Korea_threat_timeline_spring2013.pdf. 43. “Report on Plenary Meeting of WPK Central Committee,” KCNA, March 31, 2013. 44. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” UN General Assembly document A/HRC/25/63, February 7, 2014; Amb. Ja Song Nam, “Letter dated 20 December 2014 from the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council,” UN Security Council document S/2014/930. 45. “Update on Sony Investigation,” FBI National Press Office, December 19, 2014, https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-sony-investigation. North Korea has also been accused of orchestrating incidents including the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank, and the release of “WannaCry” ransomware. 47. “DPRK Proposes Official Talks with U.S.,” KCNA, June 16, 2013. 51. From 2009 to 2014, total reported North Korean trade with China jumped by over 250 percent, from approximately $2.7 billion to $6.9 billion annually. Data available at www.northkoreaintheworld.org. 53. UN Security Council Resolution 2270, adopted March 2, 2016. A vaguely-worded exemption in this resolution for transactions “exclusively for livelihood purposes” meant that North Korean coal sales to China continued largely unabated for the remainder of the year, but the resolution nonetheless set a precedent for the imposition of wide-ranging sanctions on North Korean commercial activities. 54. This designation was announced, in an apparent coincidence, on the same day that North Korea issued a new call for the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” – see “DPRK Government Denounces U.S., S. Korea’s Sophism about “Denuclearization of North,” KCNA, July 7, 2016. On cutting off contact with the U.S., see “DPRK Government Sends Message to U.S. Government,” KCNA, July 11, 2016. 55. David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles,” The New York Times, March 4, 2017. 59. Noah Bierman, “Trump Warns North Korea of ‘Fire and Fury’,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2017. 61. “U.S. Should Be Prudent under Present Acute Situation: Spokesman for KPA Strategic Force,” KCNA, August 9, 2017. 65. Joby Warrick, Ellen Nakashima, and Anna Fifield, “North Korea now making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say,” Washington Post, August 8, 2017. 66. “Kim Jong Un Makes New Year Address,” KCNA, January 1, 2018. 67. Mark Landler, “Spies, Not Diplomats, Take Lead Role in Planning Trump’s North Korea Meeting,” March 16, 2018. 69. “Third Plenary Meeting of Seventh C.C., WPK Held in Presence of Kim Jong Un,” KCNA, April 21, 2018. 71. Anna Fifield, “South Korean President Says North Isn’t Insisting on American Troop Withdrawal,” Washington Post, April 19, 2018. 77. “FM Spokesman on DPRK-U.S. High-level Talks,” KCNA, July 8, 2018. 79. Julie Bykowicz and Farnaz Fassihi, “Trump Says He and Kim Jong Un ‘Fell in Love’,” Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2018.

2019-04-19T12:51:25Z

https://ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/history-u.s.-dprk-relations

Abstract: Echocardiography plays a central role in the characterization of the mitral valve (MV) morphology and functi-on. In the past decade, the development of three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) has revolutionized valvular imaging, becoming the technique of choice for an accurate evaluation of the MV anatomy and pathophysiology. Transthoracic and transoesophageal 3DE represent complementary imaging techniques to assess the complex MV apparatus in the beating heart, to plan interventions, to monitor transcatheter procedures (e.g. MitraClip, mitral valve balloon valvuloplasty, and paravalvular leak closure) and to assess the results of surgical repair. The aim of this article is to review the contribution of 3DE in evaluating the anatomy and function of the MV apparatus in a variety of MV diseases, highlighting the current clinical applications of this essential echocardiography technique. Rezumat: Ecocardiografia a ocupat dintotdeauna un rol central în caracterizarea morfologiei şi funcţiei valvei mitrale (VM). În ultimul deceniu, dezvoltarea ecocardiografiei tridimensionale (3D) a revoluţionat imagistica valvulară, devenind modalitatea preferată pentru evaluarea cu acurateţe a anatomiei VM, indiferent de patologia evaluată. Ecocardiografi a tran-storacică şi transesofagiană 3D reprezintă instrumente imagistice complementare utile pentru evaluarea funcţiei complexe a aparatului valvular mitral, precum şi în planificarea managementului terapeutic. Acest articol îşi propune să prezinte rolul adiţional al ecocardiografiei 3D pentru evaluarea diverselor patologii ale VM, subliniind aplicaţiile clinice actuale şi avantajele acesteia în raport cu ecocardiografia convenţională. Cuvinte cheie: valvă mitrală, ecografie tridimensională, morfologie, regurgitare mitrală, stenoză mitrală. The echocardiographic assessment of the mitral valve (MV) provides valuable insights into the aetiology and severity of the MV disease, which makes it essential to plan interventions, to guide and monitor transca-theter procedures, and to assess the results of surgi-cal repair1. However, the MV is a complex three-di-mensional structure that requires multiple views and complex mental reconstruction processes to fi gure out its anatomy using conventional two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE). Conversely, by using three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE), we can assess the non-planar mitral annulus (MA) and mitral leafl ets, the complex subvalvular apparatus and their anatomi-cal relationships with the surrounding structures, by virtually “dissecting” the beating heart using different cut planes1. Although cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has a higher spatial resolution than echocardiography, with the important advantage of non-invasiveness, its cli-nical use is limited due to increased acquisition time, costs, limited availability and lack of portability at the bedside or in the catheterization and operative roo-ms2. Multi-detector computed tomography, though used for MA anatomical assessment and spatial relati-onship to plan transcatheter interventions, has major limitations related to the inferior temporal resoluti-on, radiation exposure, use of iodinated contrast, the impossibility of real-time imaging, flow assessment or regurgitation severity grading3. Accordingly, 3DE has emerged as the reference standard technique to assess MV morphology and function into clinical practice. This review will address the applications of 3DE, providing an update on its current role for the diagno-sis and clinical management of patients with various MV pathologies. The normal function of the MV requires the structural integrity of all the components of MV apparatus, whi-ch includes: leaflets, MA, chordae tendineae, papillary muscles (PMs), left ventricle (LV) and left atrium (LA), as well as their coordinated functional relationships during the cardiac cycle4. A previous study show-ed that 3DE gives additional information to 2DE MV morphological assessment in 36% of patients5. Normal MV leaflets are thin and highly mobile struc-tures, only partially visualized using tomographic tech-niques. 2DE allows the visualization of the MV leaflets only from the ventricular perspective. Conversely, 3DE allows the visualization of the whole anterior and posterior leaflets of the MV in the same cut plane, whi-ch can be rotated to display the MV either from the ventricular or the atrial (also called surgical) perspec-tive (Figure 1). As a consequence, the echocardiogra-pher does not need to imagine the actual anatomy of the MV from a limited number of tomographic views, but he/she is able to see an anatomically sound image of the MV in the beating heart. All derived views make it possible to obtain a detailed anatomical description of the MV (i.e. presence of calcifications, clefts, prolap-ses, attached masses, etc.)6, and allow an easier pre-, intra- and post-procedural assessment compared with conventional 2DE imaging. Moreover, the „surgical view” of the MV by 3DE facilitates the communication between imaging expert, interventionalist and surge-on. Finally, real-time 3DE gives the unique advantage of a detailed functional assessment of the MV, which is essential to guide valvular interventional procedures. Using dedicated software, the 3D geometry of mitral leafl ets and MA can be easily reconstructed and quan-tified (Figure 2)7. Figure 1. Transthoracic three-dimensional echocardiography assessment of mitral valve anatomy.The mitral valve can be seen from either the atrial (surgi-cal view, panel A) or the ventricular perspective (panel B). The volume rendering display technique allows anatomically sound images and complete visualisa-tion of the leaflets and surrounding structures. Figure 2. Transesophageal three-dimensional surface rendering display of the mitral valve. This display modality is obtained by semiautomated mapping of the leafl et surface and annulus contour in order to provide a quantitative analysis of the mitral valve annulus and leafl ets using dedicated software packages. The subvalvular apparatus, which includes the PMs and their chordae tendineae, is best appreciated using mul-tiple longitudinal cut planes, allowing an optimal view of the PMs origin and of the chordal insertions on both PMs and MV leaflets. Chordal thickening, elongation or rupture are easily visualized using 3DE volume rendering display1. The MA is a pliable, non-planar, saddle-shaped struc-ture that interconnects the MV leafl ets with the LA and LV walls. The anterior part of MA is the most ele-vated point of the saddle, while the posterior part in-cludes the lowest points of the saddle (near the medial and lateral commissures) and the posterior “horn”8. When viewed in cross-section, MA is D-shaped, with the straight border adjacent to the aortic valve9. The MA is also a highly dynamic structure, during the car-diac cycle: its area reaches a nadir in early systole, conversely its tenting height reaches its maximum at mitral valve closure10,11. Conventional 2DE diameters (i.e. anteroposterior and inter-commissural) are not suitable to provide reliable information about the complex 3D shape and function of the MA. Using commercially available dedicated software packages applied to 3DE data sets, a comprehensive assessment of the MA geometry and function is possible at the bedside for clinical purposes12,13 . These measurements have important implications in selecting the optimal strategy for patients requiring MV surgical or interven-tional treatment. Complementary to conventional 2DE and Doppler pa-rameters, the use of 3D colour flow Doppler imaging may improve the quantification of MV regurgitation and help to guide transcatheter procedures by precisely identifying the origin of abnormal intracardiac flows14-16. 3DE quantification has allowed to increase the dia-gnostic accuracy and reproducibility of the MR seve-rity by integrating new parameters in its systematic approach. Planimetry of the vena contracta area and measurement of 3D effective regurgitant orifice area allow the evaluation of the functional and anatomical regurgitant orifice area, respectively (Figure 7)17-19. Both parameters are devoid of any geometrical as sumption about the shape of the orifice and have been particularly useful in patients with eccentric regurgi-tant jets. Effective regurgitant orifice area and regurgi-tant volumes obtained from 3DE proximal isovelocity area were also reported to signifi cantly increase the accuracy of MR severity quantification, but the method is available on a single echocardiography system20-22. Recently, updated American Society of Echocardiogra-phy guidelines on valvular regurgitations recommend the routine use of 3DE imaging for a comprehensive assessment of MR23. 3DE proved to be more accurate than conventional 2DE to assess the LV and LA geometry and functi-on24-27. In patients undergoing MV surgery, 3DE end-systolic LV volume was an independent predictor of postoperative LV dysfunction28. 3DE end-systolic LV volume provided additive prognostic value on top of M-mode end-systolic diameter and 2DE LV end-systo-lic volume. Finally, 3DE LA minimal volume is emerging as a predictor of adverse outcome in asymptoma-tic patients with severe organic MR29. Management of mitral stenosis (MS) patients relies on an accurate measurement of the mitral orifice area and a comprehensive assessment of MV complex ana-tomy (extent of leaflet thickening, commissural fusi-on, calcification, degenerative changes of subvalvular apparatus, etc.). Doppler-based methods for MV area assessment are heavily influenced by flow dependen-ce, cardiac rhythm and rate, associated regurgitation, as well as the angle of insonation4. Planimetric MV area by 2DE frequently overestimates the actual residual orifice area, since there is no landmark to confirm that the parasternal short-axis 2DE view of the MV is obtained exactly at the level of the smallest MV area and oriented perpendicular to the MV opening axis30. 3DE has overcome these limitations by allowing to position the crop plane at the tips of the stenotic MV leaflets and its orientation to obtain an anatomically correct cross-section of the stenotic MV orifice (Figu-re 3)31. MV area planimetry by 3DE showed a strong correlation with the invasive area measurement (using Gorlin formula)32 and represents the current gold-standard method for assessing MS severity by echo-cardiography6,32. Echocardiographic assessment of the MV is also essential to guide the type of intervention (percutaneous versus surgical) through validated risk scores33,34. Percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty is the method of choice for patients with favourable MV anatomy or when open-heart surgery is contrain-dicated, with 3DE having a crucial role in guiding the procedure — device selection, balloon positioning, and inflation — and assessment of procedural success — MV area quantification by planimetry, extent of commissural opening, leafl et mobility, residual MR — (Figure 4)35. Additionally, 3DE TEE procedure guiding has the advantage of reduced exposure to radiation (particularly important in young patients or pregnant women with rheumatic MV disease)36. Figure 3. Transthoracic three-dimensional quantitation of rheumatic mitral stenosis severity. The cut plane of the three-dimensional dataset (green dotted line) is perpendicular to the opening direction of the mitral valve orifice, at the tip of mitral leaflets level, allowing an accurate planimetry of the smallest residual opening orifice. Figure 4. Mitral valve stenosis before and during balloon valvuloplasty. Transesophageal three-dimensional volume rendering visualization of the rheumatic mitral stenosis. The visualisation of the valve from the ventricular perspective (Panel A) allows to appreciate the leaflet morphology, the extent of fusion commissures and the area of the residual opening orifice. The same ventricular perspective can be used during the percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty to monitor the procedure (Panel B). The accurate description of the MV anatomy is critical before any treatment decision (surgical versus inter-ventional, and repair versus replacement surgery) in patients with organic MR. Soon after the description of MV prolapse (MVP) by conventional echocardiogra-phy, degenerative MV disease prevalence was highly overestimated mostly due to the saddle-shape geo-metry of the MA and the false appearance of leafl ets billowing using M-mode and 2DE37,38. By demonstra-ting the complex shape of the MA, 3DE has led to the reconsideration of the MVP definition as the leaflet displacement above the higher points of the MA39. Using the en face view of the MV from the atrial per-spective, the echocardiographer can easily evaluate both MV leaflets and identify precisely the prolapsing scallops bulging into the LA. 3DE is particularly useful in cases of complex MVP, such as commissural lesions or multi-scallop prolapses (Figure 5)40. More than 10 years ago, the accuracy of 3D TTE and TEE in diagno-sing MVP was described to be 95% and 97%, respectively41, but with the latest development of the 3DE technology, nowadays it might be even higher. 3DE has been proved to be useful in both surgical plan-ning and predicting MV repair outcome42,43. Systematic quantification of leafl ets length, total surface area, and billowing volume is necessary to identify patients at risk for systolic anterior motion after MV repair44. Figure 5. Three-dimensional volume rendering from the left atrial perspective (surgical view) of different forms of organic mitral valve disease. Barlow disease with associated posterior mitral leafl et cleft (Panel A); Barlow disease with P2 flail and chordal rupture (Panels B and C); papillary muscle rupture, bulging into the left atrium during systole, in a patient with fibroelastic deficiency (Panels D and E); medial commissural prolapse (Panel F). Functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) is defined as mitral regurgitation in the presence of a structurally nor-mal MV, developing as the consequence of regional/ global LV dysfunction or LA dilatation, as in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation. Disregarding the aetiology, complex modifi cations occur at the level of the MA: dilatation, flattening and reduced dynamics12,13,45. In patients with LV enlargement, apical tethering of MV leaflets secondary to PM displacement and reduced trans-mitral pressure seems to be the main mecha-nism of FMR. The extent of MV distortion can be carefully assessed using 3DE by quantifying the geometry and function of the MA, the leafl et areas and tethering angles, tenting volume and maximal tethering area, as well as direct visualization of the MV subvalvular appa-ratus anatomy (Figure 6). Although 2DE has a good sensitivity in diagnosing MV vegetations due to its high temporal and spatial reso-lution, the limited number of views is often insufficient to understand the complexity of the lesion (size, origin, the involvement of other structures etc.) and their functional impact. 3D TEE is the preferred technique in patients with clinical suspicion of MV endocarditis to exclude or confirm the diagnosis and to identify complications (Figure 8). Figure 6. Functional mitral regurgitation. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the mitral annulus tenting area, volume, anterior and posterior mitral leaflets angles (Panel A) and automatic quantification of the tenting volume (Panel B). Figure 7. Three-dimensional colour flow data set showing the origin of mitral regurgitation jet. Multiple slicing of the proximal part of the jet (dotted lines) allows the identification of the smallest vena contracta area planimetry. Two different cases, with different orifice shapes and sizes, are illustrated. (A) and (B). 3DE (particularly 3D TEE) is pivotal to assess MV prosthesis normal function (Figure 9) and to evaluate for potential complications: endocarditis, thrombosis, dehiscence, paravalvular leaks, etc. (Figure 10 and 11). Localisation, size, and mobility of the prosthetic masses are essential information in evaluating the risk of embolization and the proper management strategy. Prosthetic dehiscence or paravalvular leaks are accu-rately assessed using 3D colour Doppler imaging and 360° rotation around the prosthetic ring, providing critical information for management decision. Congenital abnormalities of the MV include both stenotic and regurgitant lesions (Figure 12) and the advantages of the 3DE in defining the anatomy of defects and quantifying their haemodynamic implications are similar as described before. The wide range of options to post-process the 3D dataset (cropping, rotation etc.), the multiple displaying modalities (vo-lume rendering, tomographic multi-slices), as well as the unique perception of depth offered by 3DE are pivotal in the process of understanding the complexity of congenital abnormalities46,47. A recent study addres-sing the prevalence of MV cleft in a population with significant MR, using 3DE, has shown a 3.3% of isola-ted MV cleft in this population48, a considerably higher percentage compared with previous results based on 2DE (0.07% for isolated posterior mitral leaflet cleft and unknown for isolated anterior mitral left cleft), these results being representative for the increased accuracy of 3DE compared to 2DE in evaluating complex MV diseases49. Figure 8. Anterior mitral leaflet perforation (arrow) complicating native aortic valve endocarditis. Transthoracic three-dimensional volume rendering (Panel A) and intra-operative (Panel B) views. Figure 9. Three-dimensional transesophageal volume rendering of a me-chanical prosthesis visualised from the surgical view for morphological and functional characterization. For the past decade, several percutaneous transca-theter procedures addressing MV pathologies have emerged as alternatives to traditional surgical therapy in high-risk patients. Newer interventional therapies for MV disease – as edge-to-edge repair, annuloplasty, chordal implantation or transcatheter mitral valve re-placement (TMVR) – rely on real-time visualization of the MV in the beating heart using echocardiographic guidance as the leaflet are not visible at fluoroscopy and MV diseases are often associated to limited de-generative calcification50. Delivery catheters, devices, and target structures can be visualized in one single view using 3D TEE, optimizing the transseptal punctu-re, the steering of the catheters towards the MV and proper positioning of the device in relation to MV ana-tomy51. TEE visualization of the MV during interventi-ons can guide the prosthesis to reach its final position, assess the success of repair, and allow quantification of the residual regurgitation. Intraprocedural guidance of MV repair with Mitra-Clip system is primarily based on 2DE and 3DE, with limited utility of fluoroscopy52. 3DE TEE plays a leading role in all the procedural steps for MitraClip implanta-tion: transseptal puncture, device positioning, proper leaflet grasping and post-deployment evaluation of the results (residual MV orifice area and MR reduction, difficult to assess given the double – or even triple – MV orifice and the subsequent multiple regurgitation jets) and possible complications (iatrogenic interatrial defect)53. Artificial chordal implantation is another option for patients with degenerative MV disease and TEE 3DE plays a major role in patient selection, identifying the site of implantation (site of prolapse), the number of chords needed, as well as the appropriate chordal length. During the procedure, TEE is useful in checking the LV site of puncture, excluding subvalvular appa-ratus entrapment by the delivery catheters, ensuring adequate grasping of the desired scallop(s) and adap-tation of neochordae length according to the real-time evaluation of the MR severity36. With regard to TMVR, 3D TEE is of major impor-tance for pre-procedural anatomical assessment of the MA and to identify the landmarks used for val-ve deployment (trigons, aorto-mitral continuity etc.), for characterization of the landing zone – essential in selecting the most appropriate device based on their specific characteristics –, for intraprocedural guidance, confirmation of proper device position, MV prosthesis functional assessment and procedure-related compli-cations3,51,54. For valve-in-valve TMVR, 3D TEE has an additional role in assessing the presence of inter-de-vice regurgitation (between the transcatheter device and surgical bioprosthesis), with guidance for further balloon post-dilatation in case that multiple jets are evident around the circumference of the newly implanted valve53. MV paravalvular leak is associated with increased morbidity and reoperation has increased mortality risk, making transcatheter closure a good option in patients with significant regurgitant volume or hae-molysis (Figure 13)55. 3D TEE is the preferred imaging modality for pre-procedural evaluation of the orifice shape and size (planimetric area), for peri-procedural guidance – including the use for additional devices –, post-procedural evaluation of the results and follow-up56. Newly developed technologies that synchronize multimodality imaging – fusion imaging – may incre-ase diagnostic accuracy and procedural precision in transcatheter MV repair and replacement5. Of parti-cular importance is echocardiographic and fluorosco-pic imaging fusion (i.e. EchoNavigator system, Philips Healthcare), which facilitates procedural guiding in MV repair by providing depth perception and demon-strating the relationship between devices and surro-unding structures – 2DE and 3DE images superimpo-sed on fluoroscopic projection – as well as visualizing the regurgitant jet on the fluoroscopic silhouette and allowing the selection of the ideal device position57,58. Moreover, fusion imaging has the potential to enhance the safety of the procedures and to reduce the fluoroscopy and procedure times52. Figure 10. Mitral prosthesis masses. Three-dimensional volume transesophageal volume rendering from the surgical (panelA) and ventricular (Panels B and C) views of a mitral bioprosthesis with signs of degeneration (calcifications, green arrows) and a thrombotic mass (red arrow, between 7 and 10 o’clock). Figure 11. Mitral periprosthetic regurgitation. Three-dimensional transesophageal volume rendering (Panel A) and colour flow acquisition (Panel B) show-ing anterolateral periprosthetic regurgitation (between 10-12 o’clock). Multi-slice display to allow planimetric quantitation of the regurgitant orifi ce (Panel C). Figure 12. Congenital mitral valve diseases. Two-dimensional short axis view (Panel A) and three-dimensional transthoracic volume rendering of an ante-rior mitral leaflet cleft from the ventricular perspective (Panel B) in a patient with an incomplete atrio-ventricular canal. Surgical view of the mitral valve showing posterior mitral leaflet cleft, between P2 and P3 scallops (Panel C). Three-dimensional transthoracic volume rendering from the ventricular side showing a double orifice mitral valve – yellow arrows – (Panel D). Transthoracic three-dimensional volume rendering from the ventricular view (Panel E) allowing an accurate identification of the anatomy and localisation of the accessory tissue (red arrow). Two-dimensional transversal cut plane obtained from a transthoracic three-dimensional data set using an intermediary plane between the levels of the aortic valve and the mitral valve to visualise accessory mitral valve tissue (Panel F). Figure 13. Transesophageal three-dimensional surgical view of the mitral biological prosthesis after perivalvular leak closure showing the final (pos-terolateral) position of the plug. Traditionally, 3DE was subject to artefacts related to inaccurate gain settings, the inability of the patient to hold respiration and the presence of arrhythmias. Moreover, high-quality transthoracic 3D data sets are greatly dependent on a good acoustic window and the experience of the echocardiographer. 3D TEE images are easier to obtain, real-time acquisitions being often suffi cient for an accurate diagnosis due to the redu-ced 3D volume acquisition and high spatial resolution. However, the new 3D technology allowing single-beat acquisitions at high frame-rate has overcome most of the previous limitations, and the automated software packages for MV geometry assessment requiring only minimal manual intervention have made 3DE easier to learn and more reproducible. Another limitation of 3DE is the lack of tissue cha-racterization. Since the different colors of the images are coding the depth of the structure from the trans-ducer and not the tissue characteristics, differentia-ting intracardiac masses (calcifications, tumor versus thrombus or endocarditis versus thrombus) is chal-lenging by 3DE only. Moreover, due to the lower spa-tial resolution, small structures (such as vegetations) appear larger in 3DE than in 2DE images, a limitation that can be overcome by displaying 3D datasets as lon-gitudinal or transversal 2D slices. 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Communicability in schizophrenic patients and its relationship to current psycholinguistic theory. In A. P. Van Teslaar & S. Rosenberg (Eds.) Studies in language and language behavior. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Research on Language & Language Behavior, February, 1969, Pp. 299 313. Salzinger, K., Portnoy, S., Pisoni, D. B., & Feldman, R. S. The immediacy hypothesis and response produced stimuli in schizophrenic speech. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1970, 76, 258 264. Catford, J. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Auditory versus articulatory instruction in the teaching of exotic sounds. Modern Language Journal, 1970, 54, 477 481. Schane, S.A. & Pisoni, D.B. Psycholinguistic evidence for a hierarchy of syllable structure. In Studies in Language and Language Behavior, Progress Report Phase VI, July 31, 1970, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Research on Language & Language Behavior, Pp. 1 10. Pollack, I. & Pisoni, D. B. On the comparison between identification and discrimination tests in speech perception. Psychonomic Science, 1971, 24, 299 300. Pisoni, D. B. On the nature of categorical perception of speech sounds. New Haven: Haskins Laboratories Supplement to Status Report on Speech Research. SR 27, November, 1971, pp. 101. Studdert Kennedy, M., Shankweiler, D., & Pisoni, D. B. Auditory and phonetic processes in speech perception: Evidence from a dichotic study. Cognitive Psychology, 1972, 3, 455 466. Pisoni, D. B. Perceptual processing time for consonants and vowels. Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research, SR 31/32, 1972, 83 92. Turvey, M.T., Pisoni, D.B., & Croog, J. F. A right ear advantage in the retention of words presented monaurally. Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research, SR 31/32, 1972, 67 74. Pisoni, D. B. Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels. Perception & Psychophysics, 1973, 13, 253 260. Pisoni, D. B. & Tash, J. Test questions for human information processing: An introduction to psychology, by P. Lindsay & D. A. Norman. New York: Academic Press, 1973, pp. 82. Shiffrin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B. and Casteneda Mendez, K. Is attention shared between the ears? Cognitive Psychology, 1974, 6, 190 215. Pisoni, D. B. & Tash, J. Reaction times to comparisons within and across phonetic categories. Perception & Psychophysics, 1974, 15, 285 290. Pisoni, D. B. & Lazarus, J. H. Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1974, 55, 328 333. Sawusch, J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. On the identification of place and voicing features in synthetic stop consonants. Journal of Phonetics, 1974, 2, 181 194. Pisoni, D. B. & McNabb, S. D. Dichotic interactions and phonetic feature processing. Brain & Language, 1974, 1, 351 362. Pisoni, D.B. Auditory short-term memory and vowel perception. Memory & Cognition, 1975, 3, 7-18. Pisoni, D. B. Review of “Acoustic Cues for Constituent Structure” by Robert Scholes. Linguistics, 1975, 146, 104 106. Pisoni, D. B. Contemporary issues in speech perception. In F. Restle, R. M. Shiffrin, N. J. Castellan, H. Lindman, & D. B. Pisoni (Eds.) Cognitive Theory: Volume I. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1975, Pp. 1 4. Pisoni, D. B. Dichotic listening and processing phonetic features. In F. Restle, R. M. Shiffrin, N. J. Castellan, H. Lindman, & D. B. Pisoni (Eds.) Cognitive Theory: Volume I. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1975, Pp. 79 102. Pisoni, D. B. Information processing and speech perception. In G. Fant (Ed.) Speech Communication: Volume 3. New York: John Wiley, 1975, Pp. 331 337. Pisoni, D. B. & Sawusch, J. R. Some stages of processing in speech perception. In A. Cohen & S. Nooteboom (Eds.) Structure and process in speech perception. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 1975, Pp. 16 34. Pisoni, D. B. & Tash, J. Auditory property detectors and processing place features in stop consonants. Perception & Psychophysics, 1975, 18, 401 408. Pisoni, D. B. Review of “The Psychology of Language” by J. A. Fodor, T. G. Bever and M. F. Garrett. Language, 1976 52, 682 689. Pisoni, D. B. Mechanisms of auditory discrimination and coding of linguistic information. In J. V. Irwin (Ed.) The Second Auditory Processing and Learning Disabilities Symposium. Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1976, Pp. 73 119. Sawusch, J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. Response organization in selective adaptation to speech sounds. Perception & Psychophysics, 1976, 20, 413 418. Pisoni, D. B. Identification and discrimination of the relative onset of two component tones: Implications for voicing perception in stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1977, 61, 1352 1361. Liberman, A. M. & Pisoni, D. B. Evidence for a special speech perception subsystem in the human. In T. H. Bullock (Ed.) Recognition of Complex Acoustic Signals. Berlin: Dahlem Konferenzen, 1977. Pp. 59 76. Pisoni, D. B. Speech Perception. In W. K. Estes (Ed.) Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes: Volume 6. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1978, Pp. 167 233. Cutting, J. E. & Pisoni, D. B. An information processing approach to speech perception. In J. F. Kavanagh & W. Strange (Eds.) Implications of Basic Speech and Language Research to the School and Clinic. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1978, Pp. 38 72. Sawusch, J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. Simple and contingent adaptation effects in speech perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 1978, 23, 125 131. Pisoni, D. B. On the perception of speech sounds as biologically significant signals. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution, 1979, 16, 330 350. Pisoni, D. B. Review of “Speech Recognition” by R. Reddy. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1979, 65, 867 869. Pisoni. D. B. Perception of speech vs. nonspeech: Evidence for different modes of processing. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Copenhagen, August, 1979. Copenhagen: Institute of Phonetics, University of Copenhagen, 1979, Pp. 433 437. Grunke, M. E. & Pisoni, D. B. Perceptual learning of mirror image acoustic patterns. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Copenhagen, August, 1979. Copenhagen: Institute of Phonetics, University of Copenhagen, 1979, Pp. 461 467. Bell Berti, F., Raphael, L., Pisoni, D. B. & Sawusch, J. R. Some relations between articulation and perception. Phonetica, 1979, 36, 373 383. Pisoni, D. B., Carrell, T. D. & Simnick, S. S. Does a listener need to recover the dynamic vocal tract gestures of a talker to recognize his vowels? In J. J. Wolf and D. H. Klatt (Eds.) Speech Communication Papers Presented at the 97th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. New York: Acoustical Society of America, 1979, Pp. 19 23. Aslin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B., Hennessy, B. L. & Perey, A. J. Identification and discrimination of a new linguistic contrast. In J. J. Wolf and D. H. Klatt (Eds.) Speech Communication Papers Presented at the 97th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. New York: Acoustical Society of America, 1979, Pp. 439 442. Aslin, R. N. & Pisoni, D. B. Some developmental processes in speech perception. In G. Yeni Komshian, J. F. Kavanagh, & C. A. Ferguson (Eds.) Child Phonology: Perception and Production, New York: Academic Press, 1980, Pp. 67 96. Pisoni, D. B. Adaptation of the relative onset time of two component tones. Perception & Psychophysics, 1980, 28, 337 346. Jusczyk, P. W., Pisoni, D. B., Walley, A. & Murray, J. Discrimination of relative onset time of two component tones by infants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1980, 67, 262 270. Aslin, R. N. & Pisoni, D. B. Effects of early linguistic experience on speech discrimination by infants: A critique of Eilers, Gavin and Wilson (1979). Child Development, 1980, 51, 107 112. Gruenenfelder, T. M. & Pisoni, D. B. Fundamental frequency as a cue to postvocalic consonantal voicing: Some data from perception and production. Perception & Psychophysics, 1980, 28, 514 520. Pisoni, D. B. Summary of Symposium No. 8: Perception of Speech versus Nonspeech. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Copenhagen, August, 1979. Copenhagen: Institute of Phonetics, University of Copenhagen, 1980. Pp. 312 320. Pisoni, D. B. Variability of vowel formant frequencies and the Quantal Theory of Speech: A first report. Phonetica, 1980, 37, 285 305. Pisoni, D. B. & Hunnicutt, S. Perceptual evaluation of MITalk: The MIT unrestricted text to speech system. 1980 IEEE International Conference Record on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, April, 1980. Pp. 572 575. Bernstein, J. & Pisoni, D. B. Unlimited text to speech device: Description and evaluation of a micro-processor based system. 1980 IEEE International Conference Record on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, April, 1980. Pp. 576 579. Carrell, T. D., Smith, L. B. & Pisoni, D. B. Some perceptual dependencies in speeded classification of vowel color and pitch. Perception & Psychophysics, 1981, 29, 1 10. Remez, R. E., Rubin, P. E., Pisoni, D. B. & Carrell, T. D. Speech perception without traditional speech cues. Science, 1981, 212, 947 950. Walley, A. C., Pisoni, D. B. & Aslin, R. N. The role of early experience in the development of speech perception. In R. N. Aslin, J. Alberts and M. R. Petersen (Eds.), The Development of Perception: Psychobiological Perspectives. New York: Academic Press, 1981. Pp. 219 255. Blank, M. A., Pisoni, D. B. & McClaskey, C. Effects of target monitoring on comprehension of fluent speech. Perception & Psychophysics, 1981, 29, 383 388. Aslin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B., Hennessy, B. L. & Perey, A. J. Discrimination of voice onset time by human infants: New findings and implications for the effects of early experience. Child Development, 1981, 52, 1135 1145. Pisoni, D. B. Some current theoretical issues in speech perception. Cognition, l981, 10, 249 259. Pisoni, D. B., Aslin, R. N., Perey, A. J. & Hennessy, B. L. Some effects of laboratory training on identification and discrimination of voicing contrasts in stop consonants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1982, 8, 297 314. Grunke, M. E. & Pisoni, D.B. Some experiments on perceptual learning of mirror image acoustic patterns. Perception & Psychophysics, 1982, 31, 210 218. Brunner, H. & Pisoni, D.B. Some effects of perceptual load on spoken text comprehension. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1982, 21, 186 195. Walley, A. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Review of J. Morton & J. Marshall (Ed.), “Psycholinguistics.” Journal of Communication Disorders, 1982, 15, 63 73. Pisoni, D. B. Perception of speech: The human listener as a cognitive interface. Speech Technology, 1982, 1, 10 23. Pisoni, D. B. Perceptual evaluation of voice response systems: Intelligibility, recognition and understanding. Proceedings of the Workshop on Standardization for Speech I/O Technology. Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, 1982, 183 192. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Perceptual and cognitive constraints on the use of voice response systems. In L. Lerman (Ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Voice Data Entry Systems. Sunnyvale: Lockheed, 1982, Pp. 1 18. Pisoni, D. B. Speech Technology: The Evolution of Computers that Speak…and Listen. Bloomington: Indiana University Office of Research & Graduate Development, 1982, Pp. 38. Pisoni, D. B. Lexical access. In A. S. House (Ed.), Project SCAMP 1981: Acoustic Phonetics and Speech Modeling. Princeton, NJ: Institute for Defense Analyses, Communications Research Division, 1982. Pisoni, D. B. In defense of segmental representations in speech processing. In A. S. House (Ed.), Project SCAMP 1981: Acoustic Phonetics and Speech Modeling. Princeton, NJ: Institute for Defense Analyses, Communications Research Division, 1982. McClaskey, C. L., Pisoni, D. B. and Carrell, T. D. Effects of transfer of training on identification of a new linguistic contrast. Perception & Psychophysics, 1983, 34, 323 330. Sinnott, J. M., Pisoni, D. B. & Aslin, R. N. Pure tone thresholds in the human infant and adult. Infant Behavior and Development, 1983, 6, 3 17. Pisoni, D. B., Carrell, T. D. & Gans, S. J. Perception of the duration of rapid spectrum changes: Evidence for context effects with speech and nonspeech signals. Perception & Psychophysics, 1983, 34, 314 322. Aslin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B. & Jusczyk, P. W. Auditory development and speech perception in infancy. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Carmichael’s Manual of Child Psychology, 4th Edition, Volume II: Infancy and the Biology of Development, M. M. Haith and J. J. Campos (Vol. II Editors). New York: Wiley and Sons, 1983. Pp. 573 687. Luce, P. A., Feustel, T. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Capacity demands in short term memory for synthetic and natural word lists. Human Factors, 1983, 25, 17 32. Remez, R. E., Rubin, P. E. & Pisoni, D. B. Coding of the speech spectrum in three time varying sinusoids. In C. W. Parkins & S. W. Anderson (Eds.), Cochlear Prosthesis: An International Symposium. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 405, 1983. Pp. 485 489. Kewley Port, D., Pisoni, D. B. & Studdert Kennedy, M. Perception of static and dynamic acoustic cues to place of articulation in initial stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1983, 73, 1779 1793. Greene, B. G., Craig, J. C., Wilson, A. M., Pisoni, D. B. & Rhodes, R. P. Vibrotactile identification of vowel spectra. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1983, 73, 1766 1778. Greene, B. G., Craig, J. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Vibrotactile communication of information about consonants: Vowels mask consonants. Perception & Psychophysics, 1983, 33, 507 515. Jusczyk, P. W., Pisoni, D. B., Reed, M., Fernald, A. & Myers, M. Infants’ discrimination of the duration of a rapid spectrum change in nonspeech signals. Science, 1983, 222, 175 177. Pisoni, D. B., Nusbaum, H. C., Luce, P. A. & Schwab, E. C. Perceptual evaluation of synthetic speech: Some considerations of the user/system interface. Proceedings of the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, April 1983. Pp. 535 538. Nusbaum, H.C., Schwab, E. C. & Pisoni, D.B. Perceptual evaluation of synthetic speech: Some constraints on the use of voice response systems. Proceedings of the 3rd Voice Data Entry Systems Applications Conference. Sunnyvale, CA: Lockheed, 1983. Kewley Port, D. & Pisoni, D. B. Identification and discrimination of rise time: Is it categorical or noncategorical? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1984, 75, 1168 1176. Walley, A. C., Pisoni, D. B. & Aslin, R. N. Infant discrimination of two and five formant voiced stop consonants differing in place of articulation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1984, 75, 581 589. Greene, B. G., Pisoni, D. B. & Carrell, T. D. Recognition of speech spectrograms. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1984, 76, 32 43. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Perceptual evaluation of synthetic speech generated by rule. In Proceedings of the 4th Voice Data Entry Systems Application Conference, September, 1984. Salasoo, A. & Pisoni, D. B. Sources of knowledge in spoken word identification. Journal of Memory and Language, 1985, 24, 210 231. Pisoni, D. B. Speech perception: Some new directions in research and theory. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1985, 78, 381 388. Pisoni, D. B., Nusbaum, H. C., Luce, P. A. & Slowiaczek, L. M. Speech perception, word recognition and the structure of the lexicon. Speech Communication, 1985, 4, 75 95. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Some constraints on the perception of synthetic speech. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 1985, 17, 235 242. Pisoni, D. B., Bernacki, R. H., Nusbaum, H. C. & Yuchtman, M. Some acoustic phonetic correlates of speech produced in noise. In Proceedings of 1985 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Pp. 1581 1584. Pisoni, D. B., Nusbaum, H. C. & Greene, B. G. Perceptual evaluation of synthetic speech generated by rule. Proceedings of the IEEE, 1985, 73, 1665 1676. Pisoni, D. B., Greene, B. G. & Nusbaum, H. C. Some human factors issues in the perception of synthetic speech. Proceedings of Speech Tech-85, New York, April, 1985. Pp. 57 61. Greenspan, S. L., Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Perception of synthetic speech: Effects of training and attention. In Proceedings of the 5th Voice Data Entry Systems Applications Conference, September, 1985. Schwab, E. C., Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Some effects of training on the perception of synthetic speech. Human Factors, 1985, 27, 395 408. Pisoni, D. B. Contextual variability and the problem of acoustic phonetic invariance in speech. In J. Perkell and D. H. Klatt (Eds.), Invariance and Variability in Speech Processes. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986, Pp. 154 161. Greene, B.G., Logan, J.S. & Pisoni, D.B. Perception of synthetic speech produced automatically by rule: Results from eight text to speech systems. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 1986, 18, 100 107. Pisoni, D. B. & Luce, P. A. Speech perception: Research, theory and the principal issues. In E. C. Schwab and H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), Pattern Recognition by Humans and Machines: Speech Perception. Volume 1. New York: Academic Press, 1986, pp. 1 50. Pisoni, D. B., Yuchtman, M. & Hathaway, S. N. Effects of alcohol on the acoustic phonetic properties of speech. In Alcohol, Accidents and Injuries. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1986, pp. 131 150. Slowiaczek, L. M. & Pisoni, D. B. Effects of phonological similarity on priming in auditory lexical decision. Memory & Cognition, 1986, 14, 230 237. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Human factors issues for the next generation of speech recognition systems. Proceedings of Speech Tech -86. New York: Media Dimensions, 1986, pp. 140 144. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. The role of structural constraints in auditory word recognition. In P. Mermelstein, M. Lenning, and D. O’Shaughnessy, (Eds.), Montreal Symposium on Speech Recognition. Montreal: Canadian Acoustical Society, 1986, pp. 57 61. Pisoni, D. B. A brief overview of speech synthesis and recognition technologies. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, Vol. 2. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society, 1986, pp. 1326 1330. Pisoni, D. B. & Nusbaum, H. C. Developing methods for assessing the performance of speech synthesis and recognition systems. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, Vol. 2. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society, 1986, pp. 1344 1348. Pisoni, D. B. Some measures of intelligibility and comprehension. In J. Allen, D. H. Klatt and S. Hunnicutt From Text to Speech: The MITalk System. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 151 171. Pisoni, D. B. & Luce, P. A. Acoustic phonetic representations in the mental lexicon. Cognition, 1987, 25, 21 52. Luce, P.A. & Pisoni, D.B. Speech perception: New directions in research, theory and application. In H. Winitz (Ed.) Human Communication and Its Disorders. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987, pp. 1 87. Slowiaczek, L. M., Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Phonological priming in auditory word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1987, 13, 64 75. Pisoni, D. B. & Luce, P. A. Trading relations, acoustic cue integration, and context effects in speech perception. In M. E. H. Schouten (Ed.), The Psychophysics of Speech Perception. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987. Pp. 155 172. Pisoni, D. B. Auditory perception of complex sounds: Comparisons of speech vs. nonspeech signals. In W. A. Yost and C. S. Watson (Eds.), Auditory Processing of Complex Sounds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987. Pp. 247 256. Slowiaczek, L. M. & Pisoni, D. B. Speech perception. In McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, Volume 17, 4th Edition. NY: McGraw Hill, 1987. Pp. 228 231. Gumas, C., Hogan, D., Oshika, B., & Pisoni, D.B. Evaluation of voice communications systems. Proceedings of the American Voice Input Output Society. Sunnyvale, CA: Lockheed, 1987. Nusbaum, H. C. & Pisoni, D. B. Testing the performance of isolated utterance speech recognition devices. Computer Speech and Language, 1987, 2, 87 108. Pisoni, D. B., Manous, L. 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Effects of noise on speech production: Acoustic and perceptual analyses. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1988, 84, 917 928. Pisoni, D. B. Review of “Speech and Speaker Recognition: by M. R. Schroeder. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1988, 84, 457 458. Mullennix, J.W., Pisoni, D.B. & Martin, C.S. Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1989, 85, 365 378. Mullennix, J.W. & Pisoni, D.B. Speech perception: Analysis of biologically significant signals. In R.J. Dooling and S.H. Hulse (Eds.), The Comparative Psychology of Complex Acoustic Perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1989. Pp. 97 128. Logan, J.S., Greene, B.G. & Pisoni, D.B. Segmental intelligibility of synthetic speech produced by ten text to speech systems. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1989, 86, 566 581. Martin, C.S., Mullennix, J.W., Pisoni, D.B. & Summers, W.V. 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Complex Working Memory Span in Cochlear Implanted and Normal Hearing Teenagers. Otology & Neurotology, 34(3), 396-401. Holt, R. F., Beer, J., Kronenberger, W. G., & Pisoni, D. B. (2013). Developmental Effects of Family Environment on Outcomes in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients. Otology & Neurotology, 34(3), 388-395. PMID: 23151776. PMCID: PMC3594395. Casserly, E. D., & Pisoni, D. B. (2013). Nonword Repetition as a Predictor of Long-Term Speech and Language Skills in Children With Cochlear Implants. Otology & Neurotology, 34(3), 460-470. PMID: 23442565. Kronenberger, W.G., Pisoni, D.B., Harris, M., Caffrey, H., Xu, H., & Miyamoto, R. (2013). Profiles of Verbal Working Memory Growth Predict Speech and Language Development in Children with Cochlear Implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(3), 805-825. PMID: 23275401. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0356). Kronenberger, W.G., Pisoni, D.B., Henning, S.C., & Colson, B.G. (2013). Executive Functioning Skills in Long-Term Users of Cochlear Implants: A Case Control Study. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 38(8), 902-914. PMID: 23699747. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jst034. Felty, R.A., Buchwald, A., Gruenenfelder, T.M., & Pisoni, D.B. (2013). Misperceptions of Spoken Words: Data From a Representative Sample of American English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 134(1): 572-585. Tamati, T.N., Gilbert, J.L. & Pisoni, D.B. (2013). Some Factors Underlying Individual Differences in Speech Recognition on PRESTO: A First Report. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 24:616-634. Ruffin, C.V., Kronenberger, W.G., Pisoni, D.B., Colson, B.G., & Henning, S.C. (2013). Long-Term Speech and Language Outcomes in Prelingually Deaf Children, Adolescents and Young Adults Who Received Cochlear Implants in Childhood. Audiology and Neurotology. 18(5): 289-296. Smalt, C. J., Gonzalez-Castillo, J., Talavage, T. M., Svirsky, M. A. & Pisoni, D. B. (2013) Neural correlates of adaptation in freely-moving normal hearing subjects under cochlear implant acoustic simulations. NeuroImage. 15(82): 500-509. O’Donoghue, G.M. & Pisoni, D.B. (2014) Auditory and Linguistic Outcomes in Pediatric Cochlear Implantation. In S.B. Waltzman (Eds.). Cochlear Implants 3rd Ed. (pp. 158 – 166). New York, NY: Theme. Conway, C.M., Deocampo, J. A., Walk, A.M., Anaya, E.M., & Pisoni, D.B. (2014). Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants Do Not Appear t Use Sentence Context to Help Recognize Spoken Words. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 57: 2174-2190. Kronenberger, W. G., Beer, J., Castellanos, I., Pisoni, D. B. & Miyamoto, R.T. (2014). Neurocognitive Risk in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants. JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, 140(7): 608-615. Castellanos, I., Kronenberger, W. G., Beer, J., Henning, S. C., Colson, B. G., & Pisoni, D. B. (2014). Preschool speech intelligibility and vocabulary skills predict long-term speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation in early childhood. Cochlear Implants International, 15(4), 200-210. PMID: 23998347. PMCID: PMC3852164. Conway, C.M., Gremp, M.A., Walk, A.D., Bauernschmidt, A. & Pisoni, D.B. (2014). Can We Enhance Domain-General Learning Abilities to Improve Language Function? In P. Rebuschat & Enhance Domain-General Learning Abilities to Improve Language Function? In P. Rebuschat & J.N.Williams (Eds.). Statistical Learning and Language Acquisition. (pp. 305-336). Berlin, German: DE GRUYTER. Pisoni, D.B. (2014). Rapid Phonological Coding and Working Memory Dynamics in Children with Cochlear Implants: Cognitive Foundations of Spoken Language Processing. In Farris-Trimble, A. & Barlow, J. (Eds.). Perspectives on Phonological Theory and Acquisition: Papers in Honor of Daniel A. Dinnsen. (pp. 91-112). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Beer, J., Kronenberger, W., Castellanos, I., Colson, B. G., Henning, S. C., & Pisoni, D. (2014). Executive functioning skills in preschool-age children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. 57(4): 1521-1534. Kronenberger, W.G., Colson, B.G., Henning, S.C., & Pisoni, D.B. (2014). Executive functioning and speech-language skills following long-term use of cochlear implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 19(4): 456-470. Beer, J., Peters, K., & Pisoni, D. (2014). Language development in deaf children with cochlear implants. In P. Brooks & V. Kempe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language Development. (pp. 312 -314). Los Angeles: Sage. Tamati, T. N. & Pisoni (2014). Non-native Listeners’ Recognition of High-Variability Speech Using PRESTO. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 25: 869-892. Bailey, R L., Potter, R. F., Lang, A., Pisoni, D. (2015). Modulating Executive Functioning: Trait Motivational Reactivity and Resting HRV. Cognition and Emotion. Jan. 29(1):138-45. Casserly, E.D. & Pisoni, D.B. (In Press). Effects of Real-Time Acoustic Signal Transformation on Speech Production: A First Report. In S.Gepshtein & L.T. Maloney (Eds.) In Handbook of Computational Perceptual Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. Montag, J., AuBuchon, A. M., Pisoni, D. B. & Kronenberger, W. G. (In Press) Speech Intelligibility in Early-Implanted Deaf Children After Long-Term Cochlear Implant Use. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Kronenberger, W. G. & Pisoni, D. B (In Press). Working memory training in deaf children with cochlear implants. In K. Kirk & N. Young (Eds.) Cochlear Implants in Children: Learning and the Brain. New York: Springer. Casserly, E. D. & Pisoni, D. B. (In Press). Auditory Learning Using a Portable Real-Time Vocoder: Preliminary Findings. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research. Castellanos, I., Kronenberger, W. G., Beer, J., Colson, B. G., Henning, S. C., Ditmars, A., Pisoni, D. B. (In Press). Concept Formation Skills in Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. AuBuchon, A. M., Pisoni, D. B. & Kronenberger, W. G. (In Press). Perceptual Encoding Speed and Verbal Rehearsal Processes in Prelingually Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Some New Findings on Long-term Outcomes. In K. Kirk & N. Young (Eds.) Cochlear Implants in Children: Learning and the Brain. AuBouchon, A.M., Pisoni, D.B., & Kronenberger, W.G. (In press). Elementary Cognitive Processes Underlying Verbal Working Memory in Prelingually Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants. In N. Young & K. I. Kirk (Eds.), Cochlear implants in children: Learning and the brain. New York: Springer. Kronenberger, W. G., Colson, B. G., Henning, S. C. & Pisoni, D. B. (In Press). Executive Functioning and Speech-Language Skills Following Pediatric Cochlear Implantation: Finding on LTO. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. Pisoni, D. B. (In Press) Speech Perception: Research, Theory and Clinical Application. In H. Cairns and E. Fernandez (Eds.) Handbook of Psycholinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell. Pisoni, D. B., (Under Revision). Some New Developments in Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition: Theoretical and Clinical Implications. In G. Hickok & S. Small (Eds.). Neurobiology of Language. New York: Elsevier. Radicke, J.L., Levi, S.V., Loebach, J.L. & Pisoni, D.B. (Submitted). Audiovisual phonological fusion. Anaya, E. M., Pisoni, D., Kronenberger, W. (Submitted 2013.) Effects of Long-term Musical Experience on Visual-Spatial Sequence Learning and Memory. Memory & Cognition. Anaya, E. M., Pisoni, D., Kronenberger, W. (Submitted 2013.) Effects of Long-term Musical Experience on Auditory and Visual Perceptual Abilities Under Degraded Conditions. Cognition. Anaya, E. M., Pisoni, D., Kronenberger, W. (Submitted 2013.) Auditory and Visual Executive Functions in Experienced Musicians. Music Perception. Smith, G. N. L., Conway, C. M., Bauernschmidt, A., Pisoni, D.B. (Submitted). Improving the Ability to Learn Structure in Time: Adaptive Training of Structured Sequence Processing and Language. PLOS One. Kronenberger, W. G., Castellanos, I., Beer, J., Pisoni, D. B. (Under Revision). Questionnaire-Based Assessment of Executive Functioning in Pediatric Psychology: Part 1. Case Studies. Journal of Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology. Rammell, C. S., Pisoni, D. B., Van Lancker Sidtis, D. (Under Revision). Perception of Formulaic and Novel Expressions Under Acoustic Degradation: Evidence for a Unitary Memory Trace. Faulkner, K. & Pisoni, D. B. (ReSubmitted Jan 2015). List Equivalency of PRESTO for the Evaluation of Speech Recognition. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. Castellanos, I., Pisoni, D. B., Kronenberger, W. G. & Beer, J. (Submitted Jan 2015). Neurocognitive Function in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Early Development and Long-Term Outcomes. In M. Marschark (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Language: Research, Policy, and Practice. Oxford University Press. Principal Investigator . . . . PHS NIMH Research Grant (MH 24027) “The Speech Mode and Categorical Perception” November 1, 1973 October 31, 1976. Total Direct Costs: $64,000. Principal Investigator . . . . PHS NINCDS Research Grant (NS 12179) “Auditory and Phonetic Processes in Speech Perception” June 1, 1975 May 31, 1979. Total Direct Costs: $206,746. Principal Investigator . . . . PHS NIMH Research Grant (MH 24027) “Perceptual Analysis of Speech Sounds” April 1, 1978 March 31, 1982. Total Direct Costs: $269,192. Co principal Investigator (with R. N. Aslin) . . . PHS NICHD Research Grant (HD 11915) “Perception of Speech and Nonspeech Sounds in Infants” April 1, 1978 March 31, 1981. Total Direct Costs: $128,353. Program Director . . . PHS NIH NINCDS Post doctoral Training Grant (NS 07134) “Training in Speech, Hearing, and Sensory Communication” July 1, 1979 June 30, 1984. Total Direct Costs: $137,539. Principal Investigator . . . PHS NINCDS Research Grant (NS 12179) “Speech Perception, Analysis and Synthesis” December 1, 1980 November 30, 1983. Total Direct Costs: $287,086. Principal Investigator . . . NSF Research Grant “Analysis and Interpretation of Speech Spectrograms” March 1, 1981 February 28, 1982. Total Direct Costs: $18,242. Co Principal Investigator (with R. N. Aslin) . . . PHS NICHD Research Grant (HD 11915) “Perception of Speech and Nonspeech Sounds in Infants” July 1, 1981 June 30, 1983. Total Direct Costs: $97,961. Principal Investigator . . . Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Systems Command AFAMRL 82 25 “Perception of Synthetic Speech by Human Observers” October 1, 1982 December 31, 1985. Total Costs: $167,806. Principal Investigator . . . NSF Research Grant “Analysis and Interpretation of Speech Spectrograms” August 1, 1983 July 31, 1986. Total Costs: $140,000. Principal Investigator . . . DoD Air Force Office of Scientific Research, University Research Instrumentation Program “Instrumentation for a Real time Multi user Speech Processing Facility” June 1, 1983 May 31, 1984. Total Costs: $301,088. Principal Investigator . . . PHS NINCDS Research Grant (NS 12179) “Speech Perception, Analysis and Synthesis” December 1, 1983 February 29, 1988. Total Direct Costs: $687,022. Program Director . . . PHS NIH NINCDS Post doctoral Training Grant (NS 07l34) “Training in Speech, Hearing, and Sensory Communication” July 1, 1984 September 24, 1989. Total Direct Costs: $528,388. Principal Investigator . . . IBM Corp. Contract No. 435114 “Performance of Speech Recognizers.” July 1, 1984 April 30, 1986. Total Costs: $130,000. Principal Investigator . . . Digital Equipment Corp. External Research Grant Program, Agreement No. 136 “Perceptual Evaluation of Synthetic Speech Generated by Text to Speech Systems.” June 14, 1984 December 31, 1985. Total Equipment Credits: $100,000. Principal Investigator . . . General Motors Research Labs “A Preliminary Study to Investigate the Assessment of Blood Alcohol Level Through Acoustic Phonetic Analyses of Speech.” July 1, 1984 February 28, 1986. Total Costs: $30,000. Principal Investigator . . . Air Force Aerospace Medical Research Labs “Acoustic Phonetic Analyses of Speech Produced in Noise.” July 1, 1985 December 31, 1985. Total Costs: $48,862. Principal Investigator . . . Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory Contract (86 C 0549) “Speech Perception and Production in Severe Environments.” July 1, 1986 June 30, 1990. Total Costs: $459,893. Principal Investigator . . . NSF Research Grant (IRI 8617847) “Perception of Synthetic Speech Generated by Rule.” February 1, 1987 January 31, 1991. Total Costs: $293,912. Program Director . . . PHS NIDCD Training Grant (DC 00012) “Training in Speech, Hearing, and Sensory Communication.” September 25, 1989 June 30, 1994. Total Direct Costs: $447,586. Co-Investigator . . . PHS NIA Research Grant (AG 08293) “Speech Recognition by the Hearing-Impaired Elderly.” PI= L. Humes, Speech & Hearing Sciences. May 1, 1990 – April 30, 1995. Total Direct Costs: $507,000. Co-Investigator . . . PHS NIAAA (AA07611-06 )”Center on Genetic Determinants of Alcohol Ingestants.” PI= T.K. Li, I.U. Medical Center, December 1, 1992 – November 30, 1997. Total Direct Costs: $5,856,680. Program Director . . . PHS NIDCD Training Grant (T32 DC-00012) “Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication.” July 1, 1994 – June 30, 1999. Total Direct Costs: $1,457,250. Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD Research Grant (DC 00111) “Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition.” December 1, 1994 November 30, 1999. Total Direct Costs: $2,686,274. Co-Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD Research Grant “Comparison of Sensory Aids in Deaf Children.” PI= R.T. Miyamoto, I.U. Medical Center, April 1, 1995 – March 31, 2000. Total Direct Costs: $2,539,226. Principal Investigator . . . Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation Grant “Effects of Alcohol on Speech Production.” June 1, 1995 – May 31, 1998. Total Direct Costs: $75,000. Co-Investigator . . . Indiana University Strategic Direction Initiatives “Linguistic, Cognitive, and Sensory Factors Underlying the Clinical Effectiveness of Pediatric Cochlear Implants.” July 1, 1998 – June 30, 2000. Total Direct Costs: $321,742. Program Director . . . PHS NIDCD Training Grant (T32 DC-00012) “Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication.” July 1, 1999 – June 30, 2004. Total Direct Costs: $1,898,088. Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD Research Grant (DC 00111) “Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition.” December 1, 1999 November 30, 2005. Total Direct Costs: $1,858,931. *Program Director . . . PHS NIDCD Training Grant (T32 DC-00012) “Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication.” July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2009. Total Direct Costs: $2,970,896. *Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD Research Grant (DC 00111) “Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition.” April 1, 2006 – March 31, 2011. Total Direct Costs: $2,086,687. *Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD R55 Research Grant (DC-00958) “Neurocognitive Processes in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants.” August 1, 2008 – July 31, 2010. Total Direct Costs:$100,000. Co-Investigator…PHS NIDCD Research Grant (DC-00064) “Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition by Children with Cochlear Implants.” Principal Investigator R.T. Miyamoto, February 1, 2006 – January 31, 2009. Total Direct Costs: $1,071,956. *Program Director . . . PHS NIDCD Training Grant (T32 DC-00012) “Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication.” July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2014. Total Direct Costs: $3,296,475. *Principal Investigator . . . PHS NIDCD R01 Research Grant (DC-009581)“Neurocognitive Processes in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants.” December 1, 2009 – November 30, 2014. Total Direct Costs: $2,421,678.

2019-04-25T18:32:59Z

http://www.iu.edu/~srlweb/people/david-pisoni/

Abstracts for each day are listed by poster number at the foot of the page: click on the title to jump to the abstract. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. Father Judge High School, Philadelphia, PA. Freire Charter School, Philadelphia, PA. Hammonton High School, Hammonton, NJ. Exploring Nanotechnology with Electrospinning: Design, experiment, and discover! 7 M.E. Noguez A., G. Salas B., J. Ramírez V. 33 G. Salas B., J. Ramírez V., M.E. Noguez A. Poster 1: Exploring Nanotechnology with Electrospinning: Design, experiment, and discover! 1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. 2 Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. 3 Father Judge High School, Philadelphia, PA. 4 Freire Charter School, Philadelphia, PA. 5 Hammonton High School, Hammonton, NJ. Nanotechnology is a challenging concept to teach. The length scales involved are difficult to visualize, the products are invisible to the human eye and in most cases the fabrication and characterization of nano-scale materials are prohibitively expensive. Moreover, the inaccessibility of nanotechnology in the classroom reduces the student’s experience to factual recall of a list of properties and advantages of materials at the nanometer scale or watching demonstrations. Electrospinning is a nanofabrication technique that is not only simple, but inexpensive. The physics, chemistry, and engineering principals used in electrospinning are scalable so that lesson plans can be designed for high school students and undergraduates. In this project, the students built K’NEX electrospinning stations, and identified the process variables and material’s properties that control the resulting fiber diameters and product yield. They wrote a short proposal positing their hypothesis and a detailed experimental plan to optimize the fiber diameters and yield using their electrospinning station. The students implemented their experiment, trouble shot equipment failures, and collected their nanofibers. Their nanofibers were imaged using an SEM and the students analyzed the fiber diameter distributions with ImageJ software and a statistical package in Excel. The electrospinning activity was completed in three high schools and an undergraduate polymers processing laboratory. The high school students were all able to complete the activity an attitude assessments indicated an overall increase in interest in majoring in engineering, with a particular bump in 11 grade females. All students demonstrated an increase in understanding the concepts of nanotechnology and were able to defend their design choices. Exciting hands on laboratory experiences that not only implement the fundamental principles of nanotechnology, but encourage actual work patterns and discourse of practicing STEM professionals will energize the students and encourage creative problem solving. Materials science and engineering (MSE) education is central to interdisciplinary approaches to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation in the 21st century. To facilitate connections between research and education, faculty and students need ready access to innovative teaching resources that easily integrate into existing undergraduate curricula. This submission will discuss efforts to connect and leverage individual endeavors by the Materials Digital Library Pathway (MatDL) and the Education Division of Granta Design in order to enhance access, exchange, and growth of high quality educational resources for the education community and related areas. MatDL (http://matdl.org), as part of the National STEM Distributed Learning effort, supports the integration of materials research and education with a targeted audience of undergraduates and above as well as collaboration with other cognate disciplines. The Education Division of Granta Design (http://teaching.grantadesign.com) develops and co-ordinates resources to support materials related teaching across Engineering, Design and Science disciplines at over 800 universities and colleges worldwide. Individually, MatDL and Granta support open access and broad dissemination of learning resources. This submission will discuss beginning steps to work jointly, following practices and standards adopted by the engineering and teaching communities, to offer convenient public access to shareable learning resources for MSE faculty and students. Promoting educational resources through this coordinated approach has the potential to substantially broaden the audience of users and contributors, both by pooling educational resources available in the community and by helping train future MSE scientists. Florida Tech features the first nanotech program with multiple three-credit labs, as most students learn nanotechnology in "hands-on" mode. New Nanotech Lab II and Materials Characterization Lab courses have been pilot-tested to complement existing Nanotechnology and Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering lecture courses and a freshman Nanotechnology Lab I course. The Nanotech Lab II course adds SEM, TEM, STM, and AFM characterization of nanomaterials made using both literature and new syntheses. Students synthesized CdS and CdSe quantum dots used in biomedical imaging, made phosphorescent europia-doped yttria and saw how its phosphorescence was related to heat treatment conditions. They also made metallic, zeolitic, and Mo carbide nanoparticle catalysts, and polymer/silica structural nanocomposites. Nanoelectronics industry experiments included the use of photolithographic processes to make microfluidic channels used in lab-on-a-chip biodiagnostic screening devices, the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and Ni nanowires, and even synthesis and testing of polymer/carbon nanocomposite sensing elements in an electronic nose. Students tracked the growth of ammonium hydrogen phosphate and zeolitic clay crystals, the growth and misfolding of proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease, and the destruction of bone from excessive acid concentrations associated with gouty arthritis. Materials Characterization Laboratory addresses the need to get students from rookie to independent status quickly without significant cost or downtime. This class was composed of lectures, hands-on demonstrations, online testing prior to using the equipment, mentoring under a graduate student, and passing a hands-on practical test. Students found development of troubleshooting flowcharts for STM and AFM particularly helpful. Establishing a grading system that emphasizes independence is sufficient to get the students to progress. Crash courses are effective means to get students past the intimidation barrier. Students effectively teach each other, when such teaching helps them get an A. Finally, having students do as much as possible early in the semester is the best approach. Looking back across the history of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, there have been nearly continuous calls for curriculum innovation and improvement. In the past 20 years, however, many of these calls have intensified and focused on the incorporation of interdisciplinary, problem-based, “real-world” learning in one form or another. These range from more general reports like those coming from the Boyer Commission in the mid 1990’s, to specific work that led to the restructuring of the ABET accreditation process through EC2000. More recently, publications by the National Academy of Engineering such as “The Engineer of 2020” and “Educating the Engineer of 2020” have reenergized the call for innovation in STEM curricula. Philadelphia University is a small, private university with a long tradition of professional technical education and an emerging focus on innovation and interdisciplinary education. The newly formed College of Design, Engineering and Commerce is the home to a revolutionary, trans-disciplinary curriculum that retains the core learning of the three disciplines within the college (design, engineering, and business) while forging new collaborations between the disciplines. As a model for professional university education in the 21st century, Philadelphia University is focused on providing graduates with the skills necessary to be leaders in their professions at every level of their careers. By bringing these three disciplines together, the new College will push students to think beyond the boundaries of existing disciplines and focus on market-driven innovation through teamwork, collaboration and connections with industry partners. Students will gain expertise in their disciplines and a fluency in the trans-disciplinary ways of the 21st-century work world on a much larger scale than what has been seen in higher education to date. The new College is a forward-thinking and timely concept because it combines the best aspects of the three disciplines at its core to focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. This is happening exactly at a time when innovation is universally recognized as a critical element in global economic recovery, as well as in solving today's complex, world-scale human problems. This presentation will review the most recent calls for STEM curricular change and present the exciting new response from Philadelphia University, the College of Design, Engineering and Commerce. The presentation will focus on the efforts to synergistically combine targeted curricular changes with a focus on content-specific teaching pedagogy and a new academic management structure. The presentation will conclude with a specific example of incorporating CES EduPack software into a new trans-disciplinary “Material Selection and Design” course that will be part of the college core curriculum in the new college. The course is specifically designed for sophomore level engineers, designers (ranging from industrial design to graphic design to fashion design), business majors and architects. M.E. Noguez A., G. Salas B., J. Ramírez V. In order to motivate students on their own learning, development and knowledge (skills, attitudes, etc.), some attractive alloys have started to be used in phase transformations lectures. If alloy is enough attractive, then this will allow the students to be curious and dreamers and make a compromise with themselves. This is a goal seek for the teaching-learning experience. The work done with one of the alloys is presented here. Gold-Platinum alloys made by pre-Hispanic people between 400 BC and 500 AD in South America (present Colombia and Ecuador) capture the attention of the students to motivate the thinking about the possible variations in making the alloys by solid state diffusion, because Platinum melts at 1759°C, unreachable temperature on those times. These was used to let them think on temperatures, sizes of native Gold and Platinum flakes and process times, according to diffusivity data and three engineering models used by metallurgists nowadays. In the classroom, the students calculate the time to get an homogeneous 85Au-15Pt alloy at different temperatures using the three models. For interpreting the obtained results, they must analyze the models, learning about them by themselves. Besides they identify their own skills which allow them to construct the needed competencies. Further, the students get involved in History and Archaeology when they learn about the different alloys made by the pre-Hispanic people. Experimental results obtained by some students in their term project are also presented and compared with the theoretical calculations made in the classroom. Some observations of the students are also presented. A better understanding of diffusion models, the pre-Hispanic cultures and of the students themselves is gained. Attractive alloys are well received by students as a motivation for learning, so their use will be increased in the classroom work. Forty-five years have passed since NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science former National Research Institute for Metals, NRIM) started to collect creep and fatigue strength data for domestic metallic materials in a neutral setting. The data are published as a structural material data sheets annually. NIMS has been published kinds of fifty-nine creep data sheet, and fatigue data sheet has been published for one hundred–nine kinds of various test conditions, including the welded joints. These data sheets have now become the world's biggest and reliable source of published data on the creep and fatigue strength of structural materials. These structural materials data sheets are publicly available on the Internet as one of the NIMS materials databases MatNavi as well as printed matter. NIMS and Granta Design have collaborated on the materials search system of matdata.net on since 2005. Currently, NIMS creep and fatigue data are being built into the Granta MI and CES Systems. An overwhelming body of educational research has shown that students learn more when classes are taught with active, collaborative, or problem-based learning approaches. Students also learn more and are more motivated to learn when presented with inductive-style learning activities rather than deductive ones. For our introductory materials science course at Bucknell University, the author has incorporated these ideas into the course through the use of a half-semester long problem-based design using collaborative teams and active learning techniques. This poster will present the way this project has been introduced and implemented as well as recommendations for future improvements to the implementation based on student feedback. Civil engineers play a critical role in planning and designing the built environment. They wield enormous influence over the use of earth’s natural resources because the construction industry uses by far the largest fraction of the earth’s natural material resources (USGS 1998). Therefore, designers of civil engineering projects can effectively contribute towards sustainability through more effective use of new and recycled materials. Civil engineering students can benefit immensely from course curricula that provide awareness on sustainability implications of using various materials available at their disposal. These implications include material supply, recycling potential and ecological impacts. The current practice of specifying construction materials for civil engineering projects is primarily driven by the status-quo and existing pricing mechanisms. It does not come naturally to most societies to think in terms of the long-term impacts of their decisions. With the increasing emphasis placed on sustainability and the preservation of biodiversity, civil engineers must take a closer look at potential benefits to society from sustainable design and construction practices. The US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has included knowledge of sustainability in its general program evaluation criteria [ABET 2000]. In addition, the second edition of the ASCE Body of Knowledge (BOK) for the 21st Century recommends the incorporation of sustainability concepts in design courses and to allow students to develop specialized knowledge and skills beyond traditional civil engineering-related subject areas. It is a formidable challenge to develop effective course content on sustainable engineering design and to deliver that knowledge to students by highlighting the long-term implications of their actions. This poster presents some reflections of the author based on experience from developing and teaching a course titled “Material Systems for Sustainable Design” within a civil engineering curriculum. The overarching objectives of this course are to provide students with knowledge on sustainability principles, to create an awareness of the tools available to assess sustainable material selection decisions, and to identify improvements needed to existing tools. Introducing materials selection to sophomore students is a particularly difficult task, as oftentimes their knowledge on Structures or Mechanics of Materials is fairly limited, if existing at all. The authors have started a sophomore course restructure on Engineering Materials with a flavor of materials selection and a limited knowledge on mechanics of materials, just enough to introduce strategies for materials selection to be developed further in other downstream design-oriented courses. This approach has been used onwards from the fall semester of 2009. The Engineering Materials course is the second core course on Materials related topics—the first being a freshman course on Materials Science—in a three year Mechanical Engineering degree at Instituto Superior Tecnico, the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. Whilst the Materials Science course, at the freshman level, uses a traditional bottom-up approach starting with the atoms and ending up in materials’ properties, this new course assumes a design-led approach, closing the cycle of what would be called a basic materials education for mechanical engineers. In both cases the students are lacking in background depth on basic sciences which is a serious limitation going forwards. Other courses will then follow, some of them being elective on Mechanical Behaviour of Materials and Composite Materials, as examples. The Engineering Materials course also has a laboratory component in which different materials are tested under tension and impact, and hardness is measured on metals and plastics’ standard coupons. The authors generally found that this design-led approach, together with materials testing in the lab helped in strengthening the students’ perception of strength, stiffness and hardness to name just a few. Also, the visual nature of most of the resources used has helped in retaining the students in class for the best part of the semester, and gave them a good overall perspective of the positioning of each family of materials. As part of a recently awarded NASA-CIPAIR grant, we are integrating new undergraduate materials curriculum into core undergraduate courses, which are required for our applied physics major and a new computer engineering major. This is a cooperative effort between NASA-Dryden, College of the Desert and California State University, San Bernardino. Recent advances in both nanotechnology and first principles (ab initu) computational techniques have convolved to present exciting possibilities in materials science and engineering. The dream of designing materials with desired properties, or combinations of properties from the atom up, and then testing these theories on physical systems, is becoming a reality. Also, materials are critical to most NASA programs and missions. One new course is being created and six courses will be revised to expand materials science and engineering content in the curriculum. The fact that this is a new course in a new major at CSUSB provides a unique opportunity to rethink how this course should be taught, without the legacy issues that sometimes hinders curriculum development. Furthermore, these curriculum changes address the need to incorporate quantum physics into courses taken by engineering students. One of the more challenging aspects of teaching beginning design is the integration of technical subjects into foundation design studios. In upper division studios, design build projects or comprehensive design projects address this, but projects in lower divisions have traditionally focused primarily on design principles at the expense of materials and fabrication processes. How can these issues be addressed in the early years of a architecture student’s development? How can we instill a sense of materiality and craft in an environment where digital processes are so nuanced and invisible? How can we develop student awareness of formal, spatial, tactile and experiential aspects of architecture as products of material and fabrication processes? At CalPoly State University, we’ve begun to address these questions by introducing Formative Material Studies into second-year design studios. Related to larger design projects, these studies are conducted parallel to lectures, presentations and readings designed to frame conversations about the conceptual, theoretical, aesthetic, philosophical, perfomative, and technical issues affecting architecture in the contemporary world. The studies are designed to promote a fundamental understanding of the issues identified by Toshiko Mori above, namely materiality, tactility and fabrication processes. The focus is placed on traditional materials and processes (joining and binding wood, folding paper, weaving reed, casting plaster, etc.) with the understanding that these studies will lead to greater speculation in subsequent design projects or design courses. Our belief is that it is important to make the relationship between material and fabrication, between form and process very apparent before students move to digital studies and fabrication methods where the these relationships become less visible. The five projects presented here are excerpted from a series of second-year design studios. In addition to linking materials with processes, the exercises are intended to reinforce larger themes in second year studios such as lessons from everyday life, topography and site, single-space form and multi-space form. The undergraduate second-year Materials and Methods course in the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette embraces artist and educator Josef Albers pedagogical approach of learning by doing which suggests that students learn best when they teach themselves through iterative hands on work. Each year students are engaged in individual explorations of making in three separate acts: concrete, steel and timber; resulting in the production of an architectural artifact. Focused experiments are guided by critiques to ensure the development of ideas and tectonic understanding. Successive investigations demonstrate increasing material sensitivity, innovation and sophistication in the translation of students' ideas from concept to construction. The initial act is the “marking, shaping and preparing of ground by means of an earthwork”; a concrete casting. This project is introduced as a finite act of making. However, once the stereotomy artifact is produced the second project, steel, is introduced and students learn that they must resolve the relationship, in steel, between their stereotomy artifact and a timber post. The “irreducible importance of the joint” in the assembly of these three materials in a meaningful manner becomes the emphasis of the second act of making. In the final act of making students must make yet another joint detail in timber. The final moment of revelation comes when student realize that the architectural artifact that they have constructed has paralleled the development of their post and beam studio project and that the Materials and Methods artifact could be a full scale detail of a moment in their studio project. The value of this pedagogical approach is that it allows students to conceive each architectural element, foundation, fastener and post and beam, as a generative detail. The production of each element creates opportunities for innovation and invention for the resolution of the successive element. Results and Discussion: The database was first released in January 2011. So far more than 160 academics have downloaded the database for evaluation. The level of depth as well as the breadth of the database will be reviewed based on feedback during the next development cycle, currently scheduled for July - December 2012. Some universities have already agreed to contribute to the database in the field of Nano-materials. The benefit to such contributing institutions and their partners will be raised awareness of their developments amongst a wider academic audience through full acknowledgement in the database. With this poster, we share results from two workshops with students at the University of Technology Sydney, showing how textiles’ lighting and spatial possibilities can be explored by making three-dimensional architectural models by hand. The students experimented with two tools for three-dimensional sketching consisting of model making materials. This approach is supported by earlier work exploring small-scale textile membranes in similar workshops. The first workshop introduced 14 architectural students to two specific textiles for building skins and made them create models of such skins. The second workshop introduced 11 spatial design students to three principles defined by Boutrup and Riisberg about textiles and daylight. The modeling was then more restricted than the first workshop, including only a cardboard ‘room’, a scenario, three pieces of translucent textile and restrictions as to what to do with these materials. The restrictions were gradually loosened. Subsequently, the students’ supervisor, a registered architect with 10 years of experience, was interviewed. In the first workshop, three material strategies were indentified: the materials were either used to materialize, to illustrate or to develop a concept. The tool’s openness seemed to be a limitation, resulting in a somewhat shallow exploration of textiles’ effect on daylight regulation. Contrasting the first workshop’s openness, the restrictions in the second workshop resulted in better and more solutions showing a deeper exploration of textiles’ possibilities for daylight regulation. The interviewed architect argued that the tools would be suitable in professional practice where they could be used early in the design process, as a way of literally sketching with textiles to expand one’s material repertoire. We argue that this type of tangible modeling makes it more likely that textiles will be used in the final design and contributes to bridging the gap between model and final building. Sustainability, particularly in disciplines such as architecture, is our preeminent calling. In the face of staggering evidence, our responsibility to address global concerns is no longer a question. Today, sustainability in architecture has become increasingly synonymous with technology-driven building techniques - from ‘smart’ skins and responsive systems to complex new building assemblies. While these advances are commendable, we often fail to see that which lies directly before us. for the Roth Trailhead—our inaugural design/build project—students were taught how to identify potential soils based on particle size analysis, how to test for compressive strength capacity, which types of amendments are best suited to which soils, and best practices for detailing that respect the unique character of the material. Through testing, students discovered relationships between soil particle distribution and compressive strength as well as the effects of different amendments such as Portland cement, lime, fly ash, and bottom ash to base soils. These results will have immediate application in the design and construction of the Roth Trailhead. The greater significance of this educational model, however, is to instill in students the integral relationship between materials and detailing. The Morgan State University undergraduate program in architecture has initiated a new series of courses in “technology”. As part of this sequence, I offered a course in Historic Preservation Materials and Technology. The course was offered for the first time last Spring (2011) with no budget or real resources. My objectives for the course included exposing students to the causes for the deterioration of historic building materials, recommended methods of abatement as well as preservation, and documenting observations of deteriorating conditions in a historic structure. The course was divided into four sections, each focusing on different building construction materials. Within each section, it examined the historic development of that material and occasionally engaged students in a ‘hands-on’ field experience involving its construction, restoration, or preservation. This approach was intended to provide the student with both the necessary academic foundation of understanding as well as a pragmatic and practical understanding of the material. This learning was to be facilitated by a collaborative relationship between the school and restoration experts. The collaborations did not materialize and I had to get creative with that part of the instruction. Regarding the sites for the laboratory, I was able to partner with the Carroll Museums, Inc. which managed two historic properties, the Carroll Mansion and the Shot Tower in Baltimore. Both buildings are experiencing extensive deterioration. The students learned to document by photography and narrative the signs of deterioration. They also made presentations to the Executive Director. I propose to present a poster of the student’s work. My primary resources for instruction were the literature and YouTube! I was able to substitute the practical demonstrations by preservation professionals with the videos that were prepared by practitioners. The students responded remarkably well to that media. Engineering materials designed with an environmentally conscious perspective are of vital importance in the construction industry. The construction and operation of buildings is one of the greatest consumers of energy and natural resources worldwide and the production of the materials used in these buildings has considerable energy and resource demand. In addition to these environmental impacts, the life-cycle of traditional building materials is linear: materials are produced, transported, used, and then disposed. This linear life-cycle leads to significant accumulation of construction and demolition waste in landfills. Most engineering programs do not teach engineering principles that consider both mechanical properties and environmental impacts concurrently. The Closing the Material Loop teaching module is targeted at students who are in their senior year of high school or in their undergraduate career and is designed to act as an introduction to the importance of engineering "greener" materials. The module introduces concepts from three elements of green material engineering: (1) material life-cycles, including discussion of current material life cycles and their associated waste and energy streams; (2) materials that have the potential for closed-loop life-cycles; and (3) life-cycle assessment, including a short introduction to conducting a life cycle assessment with a focus on quantitative analysis of material case studies. How material properties play a role in material selection and life-cycle analysis are also presented. These topics are covered at a rudimentary level to encourage awareness of environmental impact in material design. This short teaching module, which has been successfully implemented in one day teaching events at Stanford University, can be taught by engineering and non-engineering educators as a way of instilling the importance of environmental awareness in material design for young students. CES EduPack is a tool that was developed specifically to support teaching of Materials related topics in higher education. It serves both a science-led approach and a design-led approach. More than 800 universities worldwide now use it to support their teaching on Materials and also on Sustainability. There are a number of teaching resources available from our website that accompany the software: 200+ supporting materials that include PowerPoint lectures, worked examples, exercises and white papers. These resources can be used freely by the academics as they see fit to support their teaching. Due to our growing commitment in Spanish speaking countries, Granta has helped create a community of scholars that is currently developing teaching resources specifically for Spanish speaking university curricula. The present poster presents the work done so far and future perspectives. Architects working within the realm of the new--either in terms of form or material--realize concepts through research, experimentation and collaboration. Last spring, while teaching at Syracuse University in New York, I taught a course collaboration between architecture students and ceramics students that sought to encourage innovative material explorations by combining techniques borrowed from each of the disciplines: digital fabrication, which is now a mainstay of cutting edge architectural design, and hand-crafted slip-cast molds, which have been used in ceramics processes for hundreds of years. This was a challenging, but highly rewarding pedagogical experience. Students with specialized skills learned how processes could be combined to design and create formally advanced tile multiples. The architecture students used extremely precise computer numerically controlled milling technologies to make molds for plaster casts, which were made to facilitate the production of tile multiples. The collaboration was an innovative learning experience for a number of reasons. Technological innovations have only recently begun to affect the craft disciplines, so the ceramics students were aware of the potentials, but had not explored the technologies in their education. Similarly, the architecture students learned about the history of the use of ceramics in architecture and the tremendous potential of the durable, sustainable material in contemporary practice. Some of the designs could have been more progressive from a formal standpoint, and so this cross-disciplinary collaboration has incredible potential not only for learning, but to push the fields of architecture and ceramics. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the collaborative ceramics investigations is the potential to harness the filtration properties of ceramic material in architectural applications--a prospect that has not been fully explored. Traditionally in architecture, ceramic has been utilized for its durability and water-shedding properties, but has not been explored as a water and air filter on an architectural scale. I hope that in the next iteration of the ceramics-architecture course collaboration that the students’ research will focus on the performative aspects of the material. Performative in that it affected light, air, heat, water, sound, or other phenomena in a controllably variable manner. Spatial in that it enclosed space both within itself and around itself at multiple scales. an Assembly that used modules, units, or sub-assemblies that aggregated into a larger whole. a System, understood as a repeatable process of design, manufacturing, and assembly as much as a singular object. Each of the six teams began by exploring the limitations and affordances of a single material—concrete, fiberglass, plywood, redwood, resin, and rubber—and understanding how it interfaced with different tools and processes of manufacturing and assembly. This occurred largely through a hands-on, iterative development process. Parametric design software (Grasshopper) and computer-numerical-controlled manufacturing equipment (laser cutters and threeaxis CNC routers) were taught as powerful means of conducting controlled experiments in the relation between tools, materials, and processes, but were often used in concert with more traditional tools and processes. The course culminated in a successful exhibition of each PSAS, where students’ sensitivity to balancing craft, economy, and performance was evident. The term “paper architect” is a (usually pejorative) term referring to designers who never build, instead opting to explore speculative or utopian visions through drawing. Architectural education reinforces this de-materialization of paper: architectural models typically use paper to represent almost any material except itself. By examining the materiality of paper more closely, can we develop a material sensitivity and ingenuity that can extend to other scales and materials? An architecture course focusing on the integration of digital technology and material processes used a two-week “digital origami” exercise to introduce foundational concepts and skill sets. The objectives of this exercise were to understand the interrelations between material, geometry, form, and structure; to learn to use parametric design software (Grasshopper) and digital manufacturing equipment (the laser cutter); and to develop the ability to think parametrically (using a rules-and-relations-based process). Students began by hand-folding common folding patterns, using recursive abstract patterns to create structural and sculptural surfaces. Next, students began to modify these patterns or invent their own, learning parametric design software as a tool for creating varied and customizable patterns. These patterns were laser-cut from paper board, which was folded into form. These first manufactured forms were largely unsuccessful: the limitations of the material did not permit many of the desires of the designer via software, and required students to re-evaluate their design through an iterative process that oscillated between digital and physical modes of working. Through this process, students developed a pattern that exploited material properties and manufacturing processes to create a folded surface that could be beautiful, structural, and efficiently manufactured. This materials-based approach to digital design processes extended to subsequent coursework involving large-scale assemblies with varied materials, with the hope that a new generation of “paper architects” will proactively engage material and construction. G. Salas B., J. Ramírez V., M.E. Noguez A. It is possible to find different approaches that the authors use in introductory literature of materials courses, as a base to lead students in materials field. It is important to choose a pertinent base because this allows students to engage in the area, to relate previous concepts with the new ones –promoting the construction of new knowledge-, and to get a general view of different materials. Some universities offer at least one first level chemistry course, so students have a chemical background when entering into the materials ones. This is specially the case in the metallurgical engineering BS curricula at our School of Chemistry. The authors of this work do not know any book of materials science and engineering that use periodic table as a base. The focus in market labor has evolved from productivity to knowledge. Therefore, the professional competencies now needed are non structured and flexible, which have to be promoted in school. This work describes the procedure follow by students to discover how the periodic table can be used as a tool in materials world. The objective is to order advanced or traditional materials establishing relationships between the elements of their compounds or substances, and the groups of the periodic table and not only show the information. The result is new drawings of the periodic table; some of them will be presented. The main goal is to search in students a higher level of knowledge, attitudes, abilities, skills and talents which form competencies. It is well known that many materials inside buildings contribute to poor indoor air quality. Virtually all plastics, composite building materials such as particleboard, and many coatings and finishes release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde and toluene. Many of these VOCs have been linked to respiratory ailments, nervous—system degradation, and even cancer. This is a MATERIAL—based problem. Architects may specify so—called green products in lieu of traditional finishes, but the reach of the architect to reduce the introduction of toxins into an environment is limited. Furnishings, office equipment, and even many office supplies such as markers and rubber bands will be present in the office environment for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is not enough for designers to simply limit the introduction of harmful materials to a space, but they should also be providing materials that remediate toxins long-term. In the context of a graduate seminar, the problem of indoor air quality and the responsibility of the architect was posed. Research covered a wide range of existing or developing technologies including enzymes anchored into paint with carbon nanotubes as a method of destroying harmful bacteria1, filtration and digestion of airborne toxins by plant—based microbes2, and of course the usual industrial hygiene methods of filtration using adsorption materials, gravitational separators, and air scrubbers3. While this survey of existing technologies proved useful, an additional material solution was posited. There are many materials that are naturally antibacterial, antifungal, and decay resistant. Many of these materials have been used in historically in architectural applications such as cedar wood. The proposal is to further study these materials (cedar, black walnut, eucalyptus, activated carbon, and zeolite) for their inherent properties that lead to the anti— toxin behavior. In the case of the woods, there have been a number of identified compounds that are thought to lead to the material behavior, such as cedrines4. In the case of the adsorption materials, the behavior can be attributed to the materials fundamental structure. This poster not only gives an overview of the research, but asks the question: Can these properties by harnessed or mimicked in architecturally applicable materials to actually improve indoor air quality? The hope of this poster is that a connection to other researchers in this field can be made and that this topic can be further pursued. Wolverton, B.C. How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office, Penguin, 1996. Vincent, J.H. Aerosol Science for Industrial Hygienists. Elsevier Science Incorporated, 1995. Johnston, W.H. et all, Antimicrobial activity of some Pacific Northwest woods against anaerobic bacterial and yeast, Phytotherapy Research, Vol. 15/7, 2001.

2019-04-20T22:14:23Z

http://materials-education.com/2012/na/posters.htm

Acadian Genealogy Homepage; Three Acadian expulsions from Nova Scotia! Home of Acadian, Cajun and French-Canadian Family Surnames, Genealogy CDS, Family Crests and Historical Information resources, since 1991. Linking the future to the past........... one name at a time! Since the Acadians who lived in the Cape Sable region, which comprised before their Expulsion the counties of Shelburne and Yarmouth, were not sent into exile in 1755 with those of Port Royal and of Grand Pré, some people are under the impression that they were never expelled. The fact is that there were three Expulsions in the Cape Sable region, one in 1756, one in 1758, and one in 1759. It is a fact, though, that these Acadians were not molested in 1755. A certain number of Acadians from Port Royal and the Minas region, having heard that these Acadians had been left alone, came down through the forest to take refuge in what they thought might be a safe haven. But they were wrong. In reality, Lieutenant Governor Lawrence did not know at first that there were Acadians in this region. But on April 9, 1756, he wrote to Preble, commanding officer of a batallion from New England who had come to give a helping hand to Lawrence in his plan to expel the Acadians, telling him that he had learned that there were still some Acadians in southern Nova Scotia. He was asking him to take them to Boston, after burning and destroying all their buildings and confiscating all their belongings and domestic animals. Preble left Halifax, accompanied by several vessels. He arrived at Port La Tour in the evening of April 21. As the Acadian establishments were on the other side of the Baccaro Peninsula, all along Barrington Bay and Barrington Passage--Villagedale, Barrington, Sherose Island, Doctor's Cove, Shag Harbour--he had to cross the peninsula to get to them. April 24, on board The Vulture, he writes to Lawrence, telling him that, after a tiresome voyage, he arrived at Port La Tour on the 21st and disembarked 167 soldiers. At night, they crossed the peninsula on foot and surprised the Acadians in their bed. They set fire to 44 buildings. Then they walked the prisoners to the several vessels which were awaiting them at "Baccaro Passage." They were 72 in all. The vessels arrived in Boston between April 28th and April 30th. Lawrence had entrusted Preble with a letter for Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, telling him that if he did not want to accept these Acadians, to send them to North Carolina. But Shirley thought that he could not accept more French Neutrals, as they were called, than those that were already in his territory. So a vessel was hired to take these Cape Sable Acadians to North Carolina. The captain of this transport was to deliver a letter to the Governor of North Carolina telling him that, if he did not want to accept them, to tell the captain of the vessel what to do with them. The vessel was supposed to leave on May 11. All that time, since their arrival, these Acadians had lived on the vesssel or on the wharf. After they were embarked in the vessel which was to take them to North Carolina, they heard the captain giving orders to cast off and learned only then of their destination. Right there and then, "a Great Dessension" rose among the Acadians, who forced their way on the wharf with their luggage. They said they would rather die on the wharf of Boston than go to North Carolina. At the same time, they sent a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts and his Council, telling them that to send them to North Carolina was to condemn them to death, as there, they would not be able to do what they were accustomed to do for a living, that is fishing. In Massachusetts, they would be able to work for their living. May 14, Thomas Hancock, who had been appointed to furnish with supplies the British troops in Nova Scotia, intervened in their favor, asking the Governor and his council to allow them to stay fourteen more days at his own expense. If after that time it was to be decided that they should go, he, himself, would hire a vessel and would see to it that their demand would be fulfilled. May 27, Thomas Hancock told the Governor and his Council that he was ready to hire a vessel to take those Acadians to North Carolina, while giving a sad picture to their state, even pleading to let them stay in Massachusetts. A committee was appointed to study this matter. They gave their answer the very next day, May 28; they proposed that they should be placed all along the coast, between Plymouth and Gloucester. This was met with the approval of the Governor and his Council. This is one of the rare occasions when the Government showed itself sympathetic to the Acadians. I want to note, though, that it is a fact that the Acadians had little to complain with regard to the Government of Massachusetts, except for the orders that oftentimes was given to separate from one another the members of the same family. But, with regard to the people under whose supervision the were placed, too often it was another story. Thanks to the Massachusetts Archives, which contain about two thousand documents relating to the Acadians in exile in that State, we can follow very accurately the places where each and everyone was during their stay in Massachusetts, their way of life, their demands, their frustrations, their sufferings, their sicknesses, and we know who were those who could not make it and departed for a better world. They were to stay in Massachusetts, some till 1766, others till 1775, at the eve of the American Revolution. In a subsequent article, I will let you know how the ancestors of today's Acadians of Yarmouth County made their return. Although the raid of 1758 in the Cape Sable region, which lead to the second Expulsion, brought into exile less Acadians than the two others, that of 1756 and that of 1759, nevertheless it was of the three the most devastating, the most widespread, the one which also lasted the longest, when from the middle of September to the end of October it brought destruction from Pubnico to Chegoggin, plundering all that could be destroyed and reducing to ashes all that could be burned. After the Acadians living in what is now Shelburne County had been taken into exile in 1756, Lawrence learned that there were still other Acadians in what is now Yarmouth County. In fact, they were established in Upper East Pubnico, along the Argyle River, including Robert's Island, in Chebogue and in Chegoggin. This raid was under the direction of Major Roger Morris, captain of the 35th regiment of the British forces in North America, who was acting under the command of Colonel Monckton, Lieutenant- Governor of Nova Scotia. Morris left Halifax on September 11 for Cape Sable, with 325 soldiers. His Fleet consisted of two men-of-war, to which were joined on their way a transport ship and a pilot ship. They came to anchor at the mouth of the Argyle River in the evening of the 15th. Right away, Captain Gorham left with 40 to 50 rangers to explore the region. He came back the next morning, having found fields of potatoes and of tobacco, but no trace of the Acadians. They proceeded towards Frost Corner, where they found other fields which had been worked very recently. Next day, the 17th, Captain Watmough took through the woods towards Pubnico. Having noticed an agglomeration of houses on the east side of the harbour, he came right back to tell Morris about it. Morris, after destroying the gardens where he was, left Frost Corner, and at noon, September 20th he anchored his Fleet smack in the middle of Pubnico Harbour. Immediately after disembarking, they started to follow the trail that they had found of the Acadians, leading to Pubnico Head and about five miles further in the woods, till they lost their trace. Not being able to find the Acadians, Morris sent a hundred men on the west side of the harbour where they had spotted two houses on the elevation where is located the Old Cemetery. They burned those houses and ravaged the gardens adjoining them. This was taking place of Friday, the 22nd. Next day, they proceeded to pillage the village in East Pubnico and to ransack all the buildings, including the Church, the priest's rectory and the Manor House of the d'Entremont family, all being located north of Hipson's Brook, also all the other houses, barns and sheds. After devastating all the cultivated gardens, Morris embarked most of his men, leaving to Gorham the task to set everything of fire. By 11 o'clock that morning, all had been consumed. Morris would have liked to depart right away, but a gale of hurricane force retarded his departure till the following Saturday, Sept. 30, when he headed for Schooner Passage and Chebogue Point. Right away Gorham was sent to explore the Acadian settlement at Chebogue. The next day, which was a Sunday, he reported to Morris what he had seen, and left the same day for more explorations, taking enough provisions for four days. He was accompanied by 20 rangers, who were joined on Monday by 72 more. Wednesday, Oct.4, Gorham came back and gave to Morris the following account: Nine houses with chimneys were burned, plus one Mass House, nine barns and sheds and six haystacks; were taken or destroyed twelve sheep, about fifty bushels of potatoes and turnips. He added that they had found human and animal traces up the river, which were still fresh. This being done, Morris kept on with his Fleet and entered Yarmouth harbour. This was Sunday, Oct. 8. Gorham, with two whale-boats kept on sailing up the river till he arrived at the Acadian settlement of Chegoggin, that he discovered by chance. That Sunday afternoon, he surprised Father Desenclaves in church with his congregation, consisting of nine families, comprising 61 persons in all. The church stood on top of a beautiful knoll, west of the river, facing the site of the old gold-crusher which used to be on the other side of the road. A mother with six children joined them, making a total of 69 persons. Gorham learned from father Desenclaves that there were still 21 Acadian families and six Indian families up the Tusket River. After confiscating all the arms that he could find, Gorham locked the chapel with all the Acadians in it. He sent immediately a message to Morris, asking for help. It took about all week to pick up the vegetables from the field and gather the domestic animals. In the meantime, Father Desenclaves, to avoid the wrath of the oppressors, felt that he had to reveal where stood "The Tusket Village," as it is called in documents, which was located about 15 miles in the interior, north of and at the head of Lake Vaughan, somewhat downstream at the small bridge which spans Reynard's Falls. This is where Father Desenclaves himself resided. They took him with them by boat. After searching all around and not finding the Acadians, they razed everything, leaving but ashes and dust. It was not before the 28th which was a Sunday, that the embarkation took place, but it was only for the women and their children, because their husbands and their sons had been kept by Morris to help him "finish the job" at their settlement. A detachment was to stay to ravage all that was "acadian" in the region. It was reported that several "uncommonly large fires" could be seen from Annapolis on November 17, supposedly to have been "occasioned by parties from Cape Sable detachment, who were burning settlements and clearing the country." Tuesday, Oct, 31, the Fleet left Yarmouth Harbour with its cargo of 68 Acadians, with Father Desenclaves. They were confined in Halifax till the beginning of the following year, when they were sent to France, where those who had survived arrived February 16. We saw in last week's sketch that Father Desenclave had told Captain Gorham that there were 21 Acadian families up the Tusket River, whom Gorham was not able to apprehend. He told Major Morris that there were 130 Acadians in all. We do not know if we're [sic for were] included in this number, the Acadians from the settlement of Pubnico, of Argyle and of Chebogue. If so, it was surely not all of them, if we judge by the number of Acadians who were of this third Expulsion. Gorham, in October, 1758, had sent an Acadian with a letter addressed to those who were hiding in the woods, whom he summoned to give themselves up. On their part, they sent him a letter, telling him that they had written to the Governor of Massachusetts to see to it that they would be able to stay on their lands or at least to accept them in his territory. We have a copy of this letter of the Acadians, which is in English. It is dated from "Cape Sables, September 15th, 1758", and addressed "To His Excellency Thomas Pownall, esq. and Honourable Council in Boston". Here are a few excerpts... "If it might please your Excellency and worthy Council to settle us here in this land where we now live we shall ever hold our bounded duty to love and honour you with our last Breath, and ... we are heartily willing to do whatever you require ... also willing to support and maintain the War against the King of France ... We are in all about 40 families which consist of about 150 souls ... We beg that if we may no longer stay here that we may be received into New England to live as the other Neutral French do for we had all rather die here than go to any French Dominions to live." It is signed Joseph Landrey. The previous Winter had been exceptionally long and severe. These Acadians were not able to face again such a Winter in the woods; that is why they were ready to do anything to avoid another harsh Winter, anything except to fall into the claws of Lawrence, who was regarded by the Acadians as a heartless tyrant. The letter was given to Mark Haskell, a merchant who was dealing with the Acadians of Cape Sable. He was to convey it to the Governor of Massachusetts. No doubt that the letter had been written by Haskell himself, as he says: "The foregoing is what I received from the mouths of Joseph Landrey and Charles Dantermong, two of the principal men of Cape Sables." Pownall was very sympathetic to the plea of the Acadians. He would have wanted to send someone right away to get them. But his Council was of another opinion. Their argument was that these Acadians were "enemies of the Crown." In reality, having lived for 45 years under British rule, they were British citizens of Nova Scotia. But since they had pledged to stay neutral in case of war (notwithstanding what is said in this letter) and being of French extraction, they were considered to be more partisans of France than English subjects. Moreover, England and France were at war since May 17, 1756, the Seven Year War. Thus Massachusetts could not give shelter to these "enemies." As a consequence to these deliberations, the Council found the Good Samaritan Mark Haskell guilty of dealing with the enemy. He was thrown in prison for his good deed. Pownall, on his part, had only one thing to do, send the Acadian letter to Lawrence, which he did, although reluctantly. January 2nd, 1759, he writes: "For the case of the poor people of Cape Sables it seems very distressful and worthy any relief can be afforded them. If Policy could acquiesce in any measure for their relief, Humanity loudly calls for it." All that time, the Acadians were to spend an atrocious Winter in the woods, when some of them were to die of hunger, of cold and even of grief. Receiving no answer to their plea, they became desperate, so much so that, notwithstanding how much they dread to give themselves up to Lawrence, they sent at the beginning of Spring a few of their companions to Halifax with the offer to put themselves in the hands of the British authorities. Lawrence, realizing that there was no escape for them, was not in a hurry to go to get them. It was only at the beginning of Summer that he asked Major Erasmus Philips, who was in Annapolis, to take those "Lands ruffians, turned pirates" to Halifax. The task of picking them up was entrusted to Captain Gorham, the same one that we saw last week who apprehended most of the Acadians who were sent into exile in France in the Fall of 1759. He arrived in Halifax with them on June 29th; they were 152 in all. They were placed on George Island, in Halifax Harbour, where there were already six Acadian prisoners from the St. John River. Here, where they were to stay till November, they had much to suffer, sleeping "under the stars", most of them not having anything to cover themselves, their clothes having been taken away from them. Eight died on the island; there was one birth. They were scheduled to be shipped to England November 3rd. They had already boarded the "Mary the Fourth", when, that same evening, rose one of the worst storms ever to hit the coast of Nova Scotia. The departure was postponed till the 10th. They arrived in England seven weeks later, on December 29th. Finally, they disembarked in Cherbourg, France, on January 14 (1760). Four had died during the crossing. We still have eight letters, originals, written between this date and 1775 from Cherbourg by members of the d'Entremont family to their very close relatives who returned to Pubnico. Even a hundred years ago, some people from Pubnico were still corresponding with descendants in France of these exiled Acadians. At the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, there have been two escapes from two forts located each side of the Missaguash River, which makes the boundary between nova Scotia and New Brunswick. One was from Fort Lawrence, located in Nova Scotia, on route 104 or the Trans Canada Highway, four kilometers west of the limit of the town of Amherst. The other was from Fort Beausejour (which was called later Fort Cumberland), in New Brunswick, just south of the Trans Canada Highway, two kilometers from the border. The escape from Fort Lawrence took place during the night between the 1st and 2nd of October, 1755, while that from Fort Beausejour took place during the night between the 26th and the 27th of February, 1756. The account of the escape from Fort Lawrence comes mainly from one of the grandsons of one of the prisoners, who heard it from his grandfather. July 23 1755, Charles Lawrence, governor of Nova Scotia, sent secretly a message to all the military posts in the Province that it had been decided to do away with the Acadians by embarking them in vessels and sending them abroad, mainly on the coast of what is now the United States. A couple of weeks later, all the men living in the vicinity of Amherst were summoned to gather at Fort Beausejour, to discuss matters relating to the Oath of Allegiance to the Sovereign of England. On the 11 of August, 250 Acadians arrived at the fort, all men, and were immediately incarcerated. As they were too numerous to be held in one fort, the majority were sent the same day to Fort Lawrence. The following weeks, other Acadians were apprehended, and it kept on up to the month of October. This is, in fact, what we read in Dr. John Thomas' diary, which he kept at the time. On August 11, he writes: "Colonel Muncton got 250 of the inhabitants into Fort Cumberland and confined them Major Bourn with 150 men guarding the greater part of them to Fort Lawrence where they are confined." After much debate, the wives and relatives of the captives were allowed in groups to visit them, now and then. In doing so, they were able to conceal different objects which they thought would be useful to the prisoners. Tradition tells us that some brought women clothes so that some of the prisoners, under a feminine disguise, would be able to walk out of prison with them. And sure enough, some were able to deceive the guards and make their escape. But it happened that one of these escapees was limping. The guard who had let the women in, recalling that none of the women who had gone in were limping, became suspicious; the trickery was easily discovered. From then on, nobody was allowed to visit the prisoners. If the officers of the fort were frustrated for having been duped by this strategem, they were to be much more baffled by what was to take place a short time later. One morning, one of the guards making his rounds, went down to the cellar where the prisoners were kept, and what was his surprise when he found the cellar completely empty. How could all those prisoners, 86 of them, escape without being noticed by the sentry? It was, for a while, a complete mystery. Finally, a hole was discovered in the ground which ran under the walls of the fort. It was figured that the prisoners were there hiding in it. The officers sent one of their men in the hole to investigate. He entered the hole with great difficulty, as it was narrow. He could only go a few feet, when he felt that he was caught, no doubt still wearing his heavy uniform surrounded and squeezed by dirt. The story goes that, even though those who stood by did what they could to pull him out, he suffocated and died. What really happened is this. A woman or several of them, while visiting their husbands, hid small instruments, like knives and spoons, in the loaves of bread that they were bringing them. With these small rudimental "implements," the prisoners started to dig a hole in the ground. They kept on unceasingly, no doubt day and night, each taking his turn, being notified by others when the guard was approaching to make his rounds, till finally after weeks, no doubt, they reached the ground outside the walls of the fort. The dirt that they dug out was concealed under their beds. When all the work had been completed, they chose a very stormy night to make their escape; it was the night between the 1st and 2nd of October. Dr. John Thomas wrote in his diary October First: "Stormy dark night eighty six French prisoners dugg under ye wall att Foart Lawrence and got clear undiscovered by ye Centry..." The smaller ones of the crowd went first through the tunnel, each of them rubbing off some of the dirt and making the passage a little larger. It must have taken most of the night for everyone to get out. According to tradition, the last one to leave the cellar or prison was an Acadian named Réné Richard. He told the story to his grandson, Joseph L. LeBlanc, of Memramcook, many times. This story, that I read in Placide Gaudet's papers, the eminent Acadian genealogist, Gaudet got it directly from this grandson. No doubt that these poor Acadians ran to hide themselves in the woods. But finally, they were to be caught again; some even, in despair, rendered themselves to the English authorities, so not to die of hunger or freeze to death. We have the names of most of these prisoners and we know where they settled after the Expulsion, most of them in New Brunswick. Click here for details of the escape of 80 Acadians, from Fort Beausejour. We know that at the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, many of them took to the woods. Some were caught in their flight; others succeeded in reaching "Canada" (Québec). Among the accounts that have come down to us, there is one which tells us of the flight through the forest of some ten families of Belliveaus, Gaudets, Bourques, etc., who, after struggling a whole year in the woods, finally reached the St. Lawrence River. We owe this account to an old Belliveau grandmother who, many years after, related to her grandchildren this flight, with many details. Around the end of the summer, 1755, when they learned that they were to be embarked on ships and sent to some far away places, these families took to the woods. It could be that, after spending a harsh winter they decided to try to reach Québec. They figured that by following the Indians, they would be able to do so. But the Indians did not venture far from the coast. Moreover, the Indians, while the men were out hunting for food, were somewhat impertinent towards the Acadian families. That is when they separated from them and tried their luck through the forest without their guidance. Among them were old people, pregnant women, small children and even babies, without counting those who were cripple. Women carried their younger children on their shoulders, men carrried the luggage, cleared the way from shrubs and thickets, explored the premises, avoided swamps, did some hunting and fishing, and, as the sun went down, prepared the encampment for the night. The march was very slow. Many times they had to build, with an axe and knives, a rudimental emergency raft to cross the many rivers that they met. Hunting was done with bow and arrow, becuase they did not have any firearms; they set traps also. They managed to fashion hooks for their fishing lines. They fed on all kinds of wild animals that they would catch, beavers, partridges, fish, etc. In summer, they ate also herbs and berries. In the morning and in the evening, when the birds announced the dawn of day or when the evening twilight started to overshadow the surroundings, all knelt for the morning or evening prayers, commending themselves to Almighty God for a peaceful night or for a safe journey during the day ahead. It is a miracle that they were able to journey on, after weeks and weeks, surrounded by perils at all times, without real harmful occurences, although they were pressed continuously by poignant anxieties. It seems that they had undertaken their journey late in spring or early in summer. In October, not having yet reached the St. Lawrence River, they started to worry, wondering if they would have to spend another winter in the forest. The days were getting shorter, and finally the snow started to fall. What were they to do? Encouraged by those who were stronger, more ambitious, more resolute, they kept on, taking a day at a time, and that until close to the end of October. Finally, "three days before All Saints' Day" (October 29) they arrived at Cacouna, just below Rivière-du-Loup, about more dead than alive, but grateful for having reached at last wide open spaces, and civilization. They were to winter here. In the spring they were again on the move, when they started to row up the river, towards Montreal. Finally they reached St. Gregoire, fifteen miles south-east of Monteal. They might have heard that there were already there some Acadians of the Dispersion, maybe some of their relatives. Mrs. Belliveau, from whom we hold this story was not in the group who had made this journey, but she had gotten all the details of the flight from her neighbours, at St. Gregoire, whom she had herself joined after having been sent into exile in one of the southern colonies, along the Atlantic coast, where she lost her husband. After some time, she was able to reach Boston and join another caravan who also journeyed towards Montreal. Luckily enough, she found here some of the husband's relatives. Some years later, her children and grandchilden whom she had not seen for a long time, joined her. They are the ones who jotted down her account for posterity. She "died in their midst" of a ripe old age. Friday, September 5, 1755, the Acadians were taken into custody by the British under Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow. Saturday - September 6, 1755 The LEOPARD - Captain Thomas Church arrives at Minas Basin. Friday - September 19, 1755 - 230 prisoners had embarked and 300 or more returned from Halifax and were placed aboard ships. The whole population of Minas, about 2,000 (excluding Cobequit and Piziquid) was under armed force of 363 men. The wives and mothers of the captives were allowed to go aboard the ships to bring food. Saturday - October 11, 1755 - The transports were made ready and during the months of October and November, in the midst of mass hysteria and Francophobia that followed the defeat of Braddock and the prejudicial reporting of the Maryland Gazette, and when the excitement was on the increase and the minds of the peolple of Maryland were occupied with these real or imaginary dangers, that were supposed to be so near at hand, the sailing of the ships of the expulsion began the operation of expelling some 913 Acadians to Maryland. Monday - October 13, 1755 - The sailing orders for the Leopold were givin to Captain Thomas Church by John Winslow. The same orders were given to Captain Milbury of the Elizabeth. "I am at this moment embarking the people on board two sloops: the "Three Friends" and the "Dolphin" and had I vessels they should all go on board tomorrow. The third Sloop you said you would send me has not yet arrived. I earnestly entreat you to send her with all dispatch. The season advances and the weather is bad, as for Davis, he is gone away without my knowledge by which means I can do nothing. I am afraid the Governor will think us dilatory. My people are all ready and if you think I may venture to put the inhabitants on board "Davis" I will do it. Even then, with the three sloops and his scooner they will be stowed in bulk." Thursday - October 16, 1755 - Captain Murray further states: "Two days later, on October 16, 1755, the other transport "Ranger" arrived (in Pisiquid). Note: The above dates will have to be checked out. Earlier reports have the ships being loaded on October 27, 1755 and embarking on October 28, 1755. Monday - October 27, 1755 - 493 Acadians from the parishes of St. Famille and L'Assomption in Pisiguit - and 420 Acadians from the parishes of St. Charles in Grand Pre and Riviere-Aux-Canards and St. Joseph in Grand Pre (for a total of 913 Acadians) boarded six ships, with orders that two persons per ton burden were to be placed on the transports, and sailed for Maryland. Among them were the Ranger, (90 tons burden, Francis Peirey, master) with about 323 (or 263), 83 over her compliment aboard, and the Dolphin (87 tons burden, Zebad Farman, master) with 227 (or 230), 56 over her compliment aboard. These two ships embarked from Pisiguit, under the direction of Captain Alexander Murray. The embarkation began on Wednesday October 8, 1755 and continued until Tuesday the 28th of October, 1755. In order to hasten the undertaking, the ships were overloaded and to make room for even more, the Acadians were forced to leave practically all of their goods on shore, where they were found still lying on the shore by the English settlers who came six years later. The livestock throughout the Minas, which were estimated at over 118,000, were left to roam aimlessly in the fields, but were later dispersed amongst the New England settlers, who had been referred to earlier as "proper British subjects". Many other homes and structures were burned later, leaving no trace of the 75 years of Acadian occupation in the area. On Tuesday December 9, 1755 the inhabitants of Port Royal and the remaining 900 from Grand Pre were deported. Saturday - December 13, 1755 - In Grand Pre, there were some Adacians deported on the scooner DOVE and about 200 on the Brigantine SWALLOW. Saturday December 20 - 120 Acadians were deported on the scooner RACEHORSE and 112 on the scooner Ranger, for a total of 732 that were embarked on the wintry nights of December, 1755 from Grand Pre. Virginia refused to accept the 1,150 Acadians that were sent to them, so they were sent to England. Thursday April 23, 1756 "An Act to impower the Justices of the several County Courts to make provisions for the late inhabitants of Nova Scotia, and for regulating their conduct". The Acadians had regarded themselves as prisoners of war and were entitled to be supported as such, but the authorities would not accept this because it would be their responsibility to care for them. With this Act, except for those unable to because of infirmity, to be supported by themselves and labor for their own support, or be compelled to do so and, the children of those who were unable to support their children, were bonded out to those who could or would support them. Likewise the orphans were also bounded out. The Acadians were also ordered to render an exact list of their men, boys and girls and were not allowed to wander more than ten miles from their abode, or out of the county where they resided without a pass from the Priovincial or County Magistrate describing the person, residence and time and place of destination. Thursday May 14, 1756 - In Acadia, Lawrence set up a bounty of 30 pounds sterling for each male scalp over 16, and 25 for younger males or women and children. Although this was ostensibly limited to Indians, in practice, the English paid the bounties without inquiring into the race of the original owners of the scalps. Wednesday May 27, 1756 - The Acadians were quartered virtually as prisoners, not to leave town without a written permit of the selectmen under penalty of five days in prison or ten lashes. they depended on the cold hand of the public for food clothes and lodging and were given some provisions. (27 May 1756, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland -[Baltimore, 1930] 24: 542 ff. - also Sollers "The Acadians (French Neutrals) Transported to Maryland" - Maryland Historical Magazine 3 (1907): 18.

2019-04-19T09:27:41Z

https://www.acadian.org/expulsions.html

We develop our product selections while listening to customers. We ensure responsibility in the supply chain. We are accountable for the safety and quality of products. The social responsibility of the production of own direct imports from high-risk countries has been assured. A total of 157 of Kesko’s suppliers' factories or plantations underwent full amfori BSCI audits. In addition, 146 suppliers’ factories or plantations underwent amfori BSCI follow-up audits. At the beginning of 2018, Kesko’s suppliers in high-risk countries had a total of 423 valid social responsibility audits. Two responsibility trainings were arranged for the ICA Global Sourcing (IGS) suppliers: 24 suppliers took part in the Hangzhou training in China and 23 suppliers in the Delhi training in India. As part of our cooperation with Plan International Finland, three amfori BSCI supplier trainings were arranged in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 25 suppliers from the Thai fishing industry took part in the trainings. Continuing our human rights assessment we conducted a review of working conditions in the supply chain of grapes in collaboration with the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK). 210 BSCI full audits and 60 BSCI re-audits were conducted in the factories and farms of Kesko’s suppliers in high-risk countries. At the beginning of 2017, Kesko’s suppliers in high-risk countries had a total of 386 valid social responsibility audits. The social responsibility of the production of Kesko’s grocery trade's own direct imports from high-risk countries was 100% assured. Kesko Onninen Purchasing Office (KOPO) started operations in Shanghai, China. Kesko’s grocery trade and ICA Global Sourcing launched a sourcing cooperation in the home and speciality trade. As part of the human rights assessment, we conducted a human rights survey at factories in high-risk countries in cooperation with the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK). The country-specific reports by SASK provided valuable information for the development of our operations. We forwarded the information received to BSCI in order to develop the audit procedure. Kesko's suppliers in high-risk countries had 200 factories or farms within the scope of the BSCI process. 107 BSCI full audits and 80 BSCI re-audits were conducted in the factories and farms of suppliers in high-risk countries. The social responsibility of the production of Kesko's grocery trade's own direct imports from high-risk countries was 100% assured. We continued our work related to the human rights impact assessment. We published the manufacturing plants of private label and own import clothes, accessories, shoes and bags operating in high-risk countries on our website. We assure the responsibility of the ingredients (Tier 2) of private label Pirkka and K-Menu food products. The responsibility of ingredients used in 150 new Pirkka and K-Menu food products was assessed using our own risk analysis tool. Based on the risk analysis, 20 products contained ingredients which require further investigation in terms of the social responsibility of the producer. Our analysis of ingredients in our own brand products received recognition at the annual meeting of amfori (previously Foreign Trade Association, FTA). Thanks to the risk analysis, Kesko was elected among the top three finalists of the FTA member of the year award. We continued work in order to assure the responsibility of ingredients in the own-brand grocery products. We conducted ingredient risk assessments on 160 new Pirkka or K-Menu food products. Among these, 29 products contained ingredients which require further investigation in terms of responsibility. Using the risk assessment tool, we started the process of assuring the responsibility of the ingredients of Pirkka and K-Menu products. We established the origin of the ingredients of 1,923 own-brand grocery products. Among these, 233 contained ingredients which require further investigation concerning the responsibility of the ingredient manufacturer based on the risk assessment. We identify and take account of water risks in our supply chain. Our water risk assessment work continued and we aim to use the results to plan actions. The water risk assessment is in progress and the aim is to use the results to plan actions. We initiated a water risk assessment for our own brand products in order to identify the water basins most affected by water scarcity and contamination issues in our supply chain. The target is to conclude the water risk assessment in 2016. Fish and shellfish: The selections of Kesko’s grocery trade and K-food stores do not include species on the red list of the WWF’s fish guide. Kesko’s grocery trade and K-food stores promote green list species in their selections. When making decisions concerning selections, we favour sustainable stocks of fish and MSC and ASC certified suppliers. K Group's fish and shellfish policy has been in effect since 2008. The retail selection of Kesko’s grocery trade included 196 MSC-certified fish products, of which 41 were Pirkka products and 1 K-Menu product. Our selections had 7 ASC-certified products, of which 4 were Pirkka products. Kespro’s HoReCa selection had a total of 304 MSC-certified products, of which 30 were Menu products. Kespro's selection had 10 ASC-certified products, of which 2 were Menu products. The retail selection of Kesko’s grocery trade included 178 MSC-certified fish products, of which 37 were Pirkka products. Kespro was granted MSC and ASC traceability certificates. All stages of Kespro’s fish and shellfish supply chain have been audited, and Kespro and its certified customer restaurants can use the MSC and ASC ecolabelling in their marketing. Kespro’s HoReCa selections included nearly 300 MSC- and ASC-certified products, and the number continues to grow. Kespro's Menu range had more than 25 MSC-certified products and 2 ASC-certified ones. The Pirkka range included 41 MSC-certified fish products. Palm oil: By 2020, all palm oil in our own brand groceries will be responsibly produced (CSPO). Some 82% of the palm oil in Kespro’s Menu food products sold in 2017 was sustainably produced (CSPO), of which 0.2% was Identity Preserved, 74.3% Segregated, 20.7% Mass Balance, and 4.9% RSPO credits. Some 43% of the palm oil in Pirkka and K-Menu food products sold in 2017 was sustainably produced (CSPO), of which 19% was Segregated, 79% Mass Balance, and 2% RSPO credits. Approximately 34% of the palm oil in our own brand groceries (Pirkka, K-Menu and Kespro’s Menu) was certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Approximately 20% of the palm oil in the Pirkka food products was certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Soy: By 2020, all soy used in the production chain of our own brand products will be responsibly produced, and be either RTRS or ProTerra certified. The policy concerns ingredients of soy origin in grocery trade’s own brand food products and soy fodder used in the production of products of animal origin. We reviewed the share of responsibly produced soy in our own brand food products and their supply chain. The soy used in our own brand food products (Pirkka, K-Menu and Kespro’s Menu) sold in 2017 and their supply chain was not yet responsibly produced. We were a founding member in the Finnish soy commitment group, which started operations in February 2016. The members of the Finnish soy commitment group pledge to ensure that by 2020 all the soy used in the production chain of their private label products will be responsibly produced, and be either RTRS or ProTerra certified. The commitment covers both the Finnish production chain and sourcing from other countries. We joined the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) and thereby committed to promote responsibility in the production chain of soy on a long-term and target-oriented basis. The objective was added in 2016. Timber and paper: By 2025, there will be only sustainable origin timber and paper products in Kesko's product range. Timber and paper products will be FSC or PEFC certified or made of recycled materials. In the grocery trade, the policy applies to our own brand products. In 2013, Kesko’s building and technical trade was awarded the PEFC certificate, which covers sawn pine and spruce timber and processed timber as well as the wholesale distribution of MDF boards in Finland (percentage-based method). The average PEFC certification percentage in 2017 was 89.7% for pine and 85.5% for spruce. Of the timber and paper products in the grocery trade’s Pirkka and K-Menu ranges, 54% contained sustainable raw material. In Kespro’s Menu range, 14% of timber and paper products contained sustainable raw material. The average PEFC certification percentage was 91.2% for pine and 84.6% for spruce. We are investigating the opportunities to expand the timber policy to cover the entire Group. The PEFC certification percentage is announced monthly at Kesko's web pages. Plastic: We promote the recycling and reuse of plastics. We create operating models that prevent plastics from ending up in the environment. We seek alternatives to plastic as a packaging material. By means of consumer communications, we will increase the sales share of alternative shopping bags (cotton bags, reusable bags and jute bags) and cardboard boxes to 10% by 2025. We look for solutions to replace PVC as a material. We removed environmentally harmful microbeads from all our own brand cosmetic products. During 2018, microplastics will be removed from all our own brand detergents. The Pirkka ESSI circular economy bags were introduced to K-food stores' shopping bag selections at the start of 2017. The bags are made of over 90% recycled materials, around half of which is plastic packaging separately collected from households. By the end of 2017, small thin plastic bags were only available at checkouts by request for e.g. flowers. We reduced the consumption of small plastic bags by 20% in 2017. We successfully piloted the new wood fibre-based EcoFishBox produced by Stora Enso in K-food stores. Since 2017, K Group gift cards have been made from PVC-free materials. In Onninen Express stores in Finland, regular customers have been handed shopping baskets that the customers can use to carry products to their construction site and bring back the next time the visit the store. We published our plastics policy in October 2016 and pledged to implement measures aiming at reducing the use of plastic bags. Plastic bags have been subject to a charge in the K Group's grocery stores as well as building and home improvement stores, and, at the beginning of 207, they became subject to a charge in the agricultural and machinery stores as well as in furniture stores. By the end of 2017, thin small plastic bags will no longer be available at the checkout. Our selections offer alternatives to plastic bags; reusable bags, cotton bags, jute bags as well as paper bags and bags made of recycled plastic. The share of paper bags in the sales of all different shopping bags was approximately 1.5% and that of reusable bags was approximately 1.5%. In spring 2017, we included the Pirkka ESSI circular economy bags made by Amerplast Oy in our selections. They are manufactured from plastic packaging waste recycled by households through the Rinki eco-points. We will discontinue the use of microplastics in our private label cosmetics brand products in 2017. The packaging of our private label cosmetics does not contain PVC. We will discontinue using PVC as the material for Kesko’s gift cards in 2017. We will work to eliminate PVC from the material of the K-Plussa card in 2017. More reusable bag alternatives were added to the grocery store selections: a new Vallila design, a Summer Day bag, and a Red Nose Day bag. The Pirkka range had 37 Pirkka Fairtrade products, 116 Pirkka Organic products, 41 Pirkka MSC-certified fish products, 35 UTZ-certified products, 76 Nordic Swan label products, 137 products with the Key Flag symbol, 88 Seed leaf label products, 220 Hyvää Suomesta (Produce of Finland) products, and 5 products with the Finnish allergy label (Allergiatunnus). Kespro’s Menu range had 4 Fairtrade products, 5 organic products, 30 MSC-certified products, 2 ASC-certified products, 15 products with the Nordic Swan ecolabel, 10 UTZ-certified products, 21 products with the Key Flag symbol, 4 Hyvää Suomesta (Produce of Finland) products and 23 Seed leaf label products. In the building and technical trade, the Cello range had 411 Key Flag products, 30 Nordic Swan label products, 35 M1 label products, and 116 products with the Finnish allergy label (Allergiatunnus). The Pirkka range included 36 Pirkka Fairtrade products, 118 Pirkka Organic products, 37 Pirkka MSC-certified fish products, 32 Pirkka UTZ-certified products and 65 Nordic Swan label products. All Pirkka and K-Menu coffees are Fairtrade or UTZ-certified. The Pirkka range includes 15 Fairtrade or UTZ-certified chocolate and baking chocolate products. In 2017, all Pirkka range chocolates will be Fairtrade or UTZ-certified. Kespro’s Menu range included 7 Fairtrade products, 5 organic products, 25 MSC-certified products, 2 ASC-certified products, 13 products with the Nordic Swan ecolabel, and 5 UTZ-certified products. All interior and exterior paints in the K-Rauta's Cello range carry the Nordic Swan ecolabel. 62 Cello products carried the M1 label and 105 Cello products had the Allergy Label. 15 products in the PROF range carried the M1 label. The Pirkka range included 40 Pirkka Fairtrade products, 134 Pirkka Organic products, 41 Pirkka MSC-certified fish products, and 17 Pirkka UTZ-certified products. The product safety of K Group’s selections has been verified. The Product Research Unit's laboratory monitors the product safety and quality of the own brand products and own imports in the grocery trade. All of our food product operations have a self-control plan in place. The Product Research laboratory analysed 7,350 product samples and conducted 15,076 analyses. In total, 522 suppliers of Kesko’s own brands of food products have international audit certifications that assure product safety. The number of own audits was 59. The Product Research laboratory analysed 7,770 product samples and conducted 17,176 analyses. The product safety of 503 suppliers was verified by means of a certified auditing procedure. The number of own audits was 58. The Product Research laboratory analysed 8,037 product samples and conducted 20,396 analyses. Seven audits were performed. In 2017, direct purchases by Kesko's Finnish companies from suppliers in high-risk areas totalled €106 million (2016: €85 million) and accounted for 1.2% (2016: 1%) of Kesko's total purchases. Direct imports from high-risk countries accounted for approximately 13.9% (2016: 11.9%) of Kesko's total imports into Finland. The most significant high-risk countries of import for Kesko’s Finnish companies are presented in the map below. No statistics are available on direct imports from high-risk countries in Kesko's other operating countries. High-risk countries typically produce clothing and home textiles, shoes and other leather goods, furniture, interior decoration items, tools, sports equipment, toys, agricultural products (such as coffee, tea, cocoa, fruit, vegetables, wines) and canned fish, fruit and vegetables. Kesko annually publishes on its website a list of factories that operate in high-risk countries manufacturing Kesko’s own-brand clothing and shoes to be directly imported by Kesko. The list is updated once a year, most recently on 31 August 2017. Kesko is a member of amfori, a leading global association dedicated to promoting open and sustainable trade. Kesko takes part in amfori BSCI and recommends the use of amfori BSCI audits in the assessment of social responsibility of suppliers in high-risk countries. Kesko also accepts other assessment systems of social responsibility if their criteria correspond to those of amfori BSCI auditing and if the audit is conducted by an independent party. As part of the sourcing cooperation between Kesko’s grocery trade and ICA Global Sourcing, Kesko also accepts the ICA Social Audit. In that case, however, suppliers are required to adopt a third-party auditing approved by Kesko after a maximum of two ICA audits. The social responsibility auditing systems accepted by Kesko are listed in the section Monitoring and control systems. Some of Kesko’s suppliers are themselves amfori members and thus promote amfori BSCI audits in their own supply chains. Kesko’s principle in high-risk countries is to collaborate only with suppliers that are already included in the scope of social responsibility audits or that start the process when the cooperation begins. Kesko’s grocery trade requires all of its suppliers in high-risk countries to have been audited. It will not enter into collaboration with new suppliers unless they have passed an acceptable audit. In 2017, a total of 157 (2016: 210) of Kesko’s suppliers' factories or plantations underwent full amfori BSCI audits. In addition, 146 (2016: 60) suppliers’ factories or plantations underwent amfori BSCI follow-up audits. The results of the 2017 amfori BSCI audits of Kesko’s suppliers’ factories and farms are shown below. The majority of the deficiencies occurred in management practices, observance of working time regulations, and matters related to occupational health and safety. Corrective actions and monitoring are included in the audit process. In accordance with the amfori BSCI operating model, a full audit is conducted at factories every two years to assess every sub-area of the auditing protocol. If a factory receives an audit result of C, D or E, a follow-up audit within 12 months must be arranged to assess the deficiencies identified in the full audit and the corrective measures implemented to address them. Kesko does not terminate cooperation with a supplier that undertakes to resolve the grievances specified in the audit report. In 2017, Kesko decided to terminate cooperation with six factories due to ambiguities related to social responsibility. A consensus could not be reached with the factories regarding necessary corrective actions. Kesko's grocery trade has an extensive collaboration agreement with Fairtrade Finland. The K-food trade chain concepts and K-retailers determine the selections of Fairtrade products at store level. In 2017, Kesko's grocery trade selections included 300 (2016: 367) Fairtrade products, of which 37 (2016: 36) were Pirkka products and 4 (2016: 7) were Kespro's Menu products. In 2017, the products sold by Kesko's grocery trade generated Fairtrade premiums for social development projects amounting to €719,225 (2016: €649,459). In 2017, the products generating the largest Fairtrade premiums were Fairtrade flowers (€271,672), coffee (€224,537) and fruit (€142,975). According to Faitrade statistics, the Fairtrade coffees sold by Kesko grocery trade in 2017 employed approximately 800 small-scale coffee farmers on Fairtrade's terms. Kesko and Plan International Finland, an organisation promoting children’s rights, cooperate to improve the responsibility of the Thai fishing industry and the position of migrant workers. The collaboration has been agreed for the period of 2015-2018, and it is part of a larger project funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the American Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation in Thailand and Cambodia. The project aims to improve the working conditions of Cambodian migrant workers, as well as education and protection for their children in Thailand. The collaboration with Plan also improves the transparency of the supply chain of Kesko’s fish products. As part of the project, two learning centres were established for children of migrant workers in the Rayong and Trat provinces in 2015. The learning centres provide the children with the skills they need to attend public schools in Thailand and support them in continuing their studies. In 2017, 50 girls and 38 boys aged between 4 and 17 were registered at the learning centres. The project helped 40 girls and 60 boys move onto public schools in Thailand. Between 2015 and 2017, a total of 944 children have registered at the learning centres and 212 children have moved onto public schools. Amfori BSCI training for suppliers continued in 2017: there were two general training sessions and one advanced-level training in Bangkok. A total of 25 suppliers from the Thai fishing industry took part in the trainings. The general training covered the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct, UN and ILO human rights and labour conventions, and the Thailand national labour protection legislation. The advanced training gave the suppliers tools for their own promotion and supervision of social issues. Supplier training will continue in 2018. Read more about our collaboration with Plan. Kesko and the Swedish ICA have worked together on sourcing via ICA Global Sourcing (IGS) in Asia since 2016. The cooperation concentrates on the sourcing of home and speciality goods sold at K-food stores. Assuring the social responsibility of suppliers’ factories and securing product quality form a central part of the purchasing process. IGS has offices in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India. The local IGS corporate responsibility team is, together with Kesko, in charge of assuring the social responsibility of factories. In 2017, responsibility training was arranged for IGS suppliers in Hangzhou, China and Delhi, India. The training covered Kesko’s social responsibility requirements for suppliers, the factory auditing process, and requirements related to product quality and safety. Questions from the suppliers concerning responsibility were also addressed. 24 suppliers took part in the Hangzhou training and 23 suppliers in the Delhi training. Representatives of IGS and Kesko’s responsibility unit were also present. Read more about our cooperation with IGS. Kesko’s objective is to identify the entire supply chain of products and to assure the social responsibility of their ingredients. The work to analyse the origins of the ingredients of Pirkka and K-Menu food products and related risk analysis began in 2015 and continued in 2017. The responsibility of ingredients used in 150 new Pirkka and K-Menu food products was assessed in 2017 using our own risk analysis tool. Based on the risk analysis, 20 products contained ingredients which require further investigation in terms of the social responsibility of the producer. Between 2015 and 2017, a risk analysis has been conducted on the ingredients of 2,233 own brand food products. In summer 2017, Kesko’s risk analysis of ingredients in its own brand products received recognition at the annual meeting of amfori (previously Foreign Trade Association, FTA). Thanks to the risk analysis, Kesko was elected among the top three finalists of the FTA member of the year award. The study of the ingredients of own brand food products will continue in 2018. Based on the results, we intend to decide upon ingredient-specific follow-up measures to promote the sustainability of the supply chains of Pirkka and K-Menu products. The activities of the Product Research Unit of Kesko’s grocery trade include assessing the impacts of products on health and safety. Manufacturers of Kesko’s own brand food products must have international certifications that assure product safety. The standards approved by Kesko’s grocery trade include: BRC, IFS, FSSC 22000 and GlobalGAP. In 2017, the total number of certified suppliers was 581 (561 in 2016). This number also includes old audits conducted according to Kesko’s grocery trade’s own audit guidelines. A total of 7,350 product samples were analysed (7,770 in 2016). Most of them were related to the product development of own brands. A total of 2,395 own control samples were analysed (2016: 2,387). When developing own brand products, Kesko’s grocery trade pays special attention, in line with its strategy, to the health aspects of the products. As proposed in The EC White Paper on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity-related Health Issues, sugar, saturated fat and salt were reduced in more than 150 Pirkka products during the period 2007–2013. The health aspects of new Pirkka products are taken into account at the product development stage. The National Nutrition Council of Finland published its nutrition commitment operating model in June 2017. The nutrition commitment is the Finnish contribution to the EU Roadmap for Action on Food Product Improvement framework’s reformulation programme. By 2020, at least 400 K-food stores will have dedicated ‘veggie shelves’ for vegetable protein products. In 2017, some 250 K-food stores had a veggie shelf. We will organise at least 250 vegetable-related campaigns at K-food stores each year (2018–2020). In 2017, K-food store chains organised 240 vegetable campaigns. We will add at least 50 new fruit or vegetable products to our selections by 2020. In 2017, we added 55 new fruit and vegetable products to our selections. In 2016 and 2017, a study on the likelihood of food fraud was conducted and a fraud control plan was prepared (Vulnerability Assessment and Critical Control Points, VACCP). 77 threats of fraud were identified. Six of them were assessed to be critical control points, which are analytically monitored by fraud control on a regular basis, in addition to normal product and supplier assurances. In 2017, there were 140 product recalls in Kesko’s grocery trade (99 in 2016). Of these, 33 were Kesko’s grocery trade’s own brand products (26 in 2016). In the other cases, Product Research assisted the manufacturers in recalls. There were 4 public recalls involving a potential health hazard resulting from product flaws or defects in Kesko’s grocery trade’s own brand products in 2017 (2 in 2016). K-Rauta had two (1 in 2016) and Onninen three (4 in 2016) recalls in 2017. Konekesko had one public recall in 2017 (0 in 2016), which constituted the only public recall for the building and technical trade division that year. In 2017, there were no legal proceedings or fines related to product health or safety. The name and location of the manufacturer are indicated on all Finnish Pirkka products and on all K-Menu products. Foreign Pirkka products carry the name of the country of manufacture. Country of origin is indicated on all own brand products of K-Citymarket and Kesko’s building and technical trade. The country of origin of meat is disclosed in accordance with regulation (EU) No 1337/2013. As ingredients, meat and dairy are labelled in accordance with the national decree MMM 218/2017. In addition to statutory package labelling, voluntary labelling can be added to inform the consumer of matters related to corporate responsibility. Such labelling may include organic labels and ecolabelling, as well as labelling indicating social responsibility. The own brand products of Kesko’s grocery trade bear material symbols on their packaging. These symbols help and guide consumers to recycle packaging materials. Chemicals that are hazardous to the environment have warning labelling in accordance with the CLP regulation. In September 2015, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uncovered engine software that adjusted nitrogen oxides in Volkswagen Group’s type EA 189 cars with 1.2 litre, 1.6 litre and 2.0 litre diesel engines. As far as the brands represented by VV-Auto are concerned, the number of such cars in Finland was identified at 53,000. The case applies to all of the brands imported by VV-Auto: Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The recalls and repairs of Volkswagen, Audi and SEAT 2.0, 1.6 and 1.2 litre EA 189 diesel cars (SEAT service campaign) proceeded at the planned schedule in Finland in 2017. By the end of the year, a software update was available for all of the approximately 53,000 cars, and some 47,000 cars (88.4%) had been fully updated. After the corrective measures, the cars meet the requirements of the EU5 emissions standard. The corrective measures do not affect the car's fuel consumption, engine power, CO2 emissions, driving behaviour or acoustics. On the product labelling of its own brand products and imports, Kesko complies with EU and Finnish legislation. In 2017, there were 39 product recalls resulting from defective product labelling (24 in 2016), of which 9 (7 in 2016) were Kesko’s own brand products. Responsible purchasing is guided by Kesko's purchasing principles. The principles are based on national labour protection legislation and corresponding conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which are applied when national legislation does not correspond to the same level. In its operations, Kesko pays special attention to human rights issues and working conditions in its supply chain and, in monitoring these, primarily focuses on suppliers in high-risk countries. In accordance with the amfori BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative), high-risk countries are countries and areas where there is a risk of human rights and workers' rights violations. The classification is based on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators. Kesko and K Group stores are responsible to the products' end-users for ensuring that the products comply with all the requirements of Finnish and EU legislation, are safe for users and meet quality and other promises. Kesko's product labelling and marketing communications comply with legislative requirements and the recommendations of authorities. Kesko and K Group stores want to support customers in making sustainable choices and offer a wide selection of products with responsibility criteria. Kesko's policy on chemicals applies to home textiles, clothing, leather goods, shoes and upholstered furniture. Based on EU and Finnish legislation, it lists the chemicals which are prohibited or the quantity of which is restricted in the products supplied to Kesko. In addition, for substances of very high concern, Kesko sets restrictions that are stricter than those set in legislation. Kesko’s plastics policy promotes recycling and the reuse of plastics. The objective of the operating model is to prevent plastics from ending up in bodies of water and elsewhere in the natural environment. Various product group-specific responsibility policies and statements, such as the palm oil policy, the fish and shellfish statement, the timber and paper policy, and the stand on the sandblasting of jeans, have been prepared to support purchasing operations. * Conditional approval. A maximum of two IGS audits are approved after which the supplier must adopt amfori BSCI audit or some other approved audit conducted by an independent party. Supplier agreements require that suppliers and service provides comply with the principles of the K Code of Conduct and the BSCI Code of Conduct. Kesko's grocery trade requires that the manufacturers and producers of its own-brand products have an international food safety certification. Kesko’s grocery trade approves the following audit procedures: BRC, IFS, ISO/FSSC 22000, SQF1000/2000 and GlobalGAP, IP basic certification for vegetables, or IP-Sigill. The Product Research Unit's laboratory monitors the quality of products sold by K-food stores and K-Citymarket hypermarkets. It is a testing laboratory T251 which has been accredited by the FINAS accreditation services and approved to comply with the SFS-EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard. The assessment of a store's responsible operations comprises the store's annual self-assessment, the criteria defined in the store's quality system and a responsibility audit performed by an external party on a specified sample. The auditor reports the results to the store and to Kesko. Responsible choices are communicated to customers in stores according to the K-responsibility concept within-store communications, such as shelf labelling and product labelling. The selection and marketing policies of organic, eco-labelled and Fairtrade certified products are included in K-food stores' chain concepts. The K responsibility concept is in use in K-food stores and K-Rauta stores. In 2016, Kesko joined the amfori BSCI Sustainable Wine Programme programme. The programme focuses on improving the social responsibility and environmental responsibility of wine production and its goal is to increase transparency and traceability in wine production. In 2016, Kesko became a member of the Centre for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility (CCR CSR) based in China. The objective of CCR CSR is to prevent and reduce child labour, improve the status of young workers at factories, and make the daily life of migrant worker parents easier. Kesko participates in the Virtual Working Group of the organisation.

2019-04-25T10:39:49Z

https://annualreport2017.kesko.fi/sustainability/responsibility-programme/responsible-purchasing-and-sustainable-selections/

Thaksin Shinawatra seized power in 2001 and then was exiled from Thailand after the military coup d’etat in September 2006. He himself is still the focal point of serious political conflict taking place in contemporary Thailand. He has always been attacked by anti-Thaksin groups on account of the following reasons: extreme power concentration, the political style of Thaksinocracy, nepotism, corruption, and populism in favor of rural people. However, very few scholars have focused on his political and social reforms which aimed at modernizing the Kingdom of Thailand in order to reorganize the country into a strong state. This article seeks to clarify the characteristics of the Thaksin government as a “destructive creator” of existing power structure and traditional bureaucracy. The article offers a brief discussion of Thaksin’s populist policies such as village funds, 30 baht medical services, and one tambon one product (OTOP) project, and then explores the background of, the process behind, and the policy results of two major reforms undertaken by the Thaksin government in the public sector (bureaucracy) and the budget system. These reforms appear to have transformed Thailand from a traditional bureaucratic polity into a modern state in conjunction with an emerging middle-income country in the global capitalism. But Thaksin’s ambitious reforms ultimately collapsed because they were too radical and too speedy for all the people, including royalists, the military, government officers, as well as conservatives. Likewise, the mass media of Thailand criticized Thaksin’s management of the state on the grounds that he had provoked a serious national crisis owing to the concentration of power, prevalence of nepotism, wide-ranging corruption, and destruction of democracy under his watch (Nariphon 2006; Wichai 2006). However, viewing the military coup simply as the result of a conflict between the movement of democratization and Thaksin’s dictatorship, and a product of popular protest against a corrupt government does not offer an adequate understanding of why the coup happened as well as an insightful analysis of fundamental problems facing contemporary Thailand under the strong pressures of globalization and economic liberalization (Suehiro 2009). After the 2006 coup, Thailand has suffered continuous political instability due to the conflict between the pro-Thaksin group or red shirts group and the anti-Thaksin group or yellow shirts group. For the past six years from 2007 to 2012, analyses of Thai politics and society have significantly deepened. Those who focused on the sharp conflict between the red shirts group and the yellow shirts group began to turn their attention to more fundamental problems rooted in Thai society, namely, the widening gap in income and assets among the people (not poverty problems), and the basic conflict between the mass people (lower-income class) and the traditional ruling elites (royalists, military, bureaucrats, and capitalists) (Montesano et al. 2012). However, these arguments fail to provide explanation of the real cause of the military coup in 2006. More importantly, they fail to provide a comprehensive explanation of the impact of Thaksin’s reforms on Thai politics and society. Given this situation, we still need to explain the real cause of the military coup as well as the total picture of reforms undertaken by Thaksin. We should not overlook the fact that Thaksin was Janus-faced in his style of state management: he presented himself as an ambitious populist3) as well as an active state reformist. These two faces exactly correspond to two world-wide movements during the 1990s: the political movement for democratization and the economic movement for glob­alization and liberalization. As Tamada cogently pointed out, the 1997 Constitution was a direct product of the democratization movement after the May 1992 bloody incident, or Phrusapa Thamin, in Thailand. Ironically, the 1997 Constitution also created a “strong prime minister” like Thaksin Shinawatra through changes in general election system, new regulations on the activities of political parties, increased authority of prime minister, and elimination of parliament members from cabinet members (Tamada 2005; Tamada and Funatsu 2008). It was the enhanced executive power of Thaksin that enabled him to implement his populist policies, and in turn contributed to his great popularity among the people. On this account, many scholars including anti-Thaksin group and mass media have frequently analyzed Thaksin’s management of the state by focusing on his populist-oriented policies such as village funds, people’s banks, one tambon (village) one product movement or OTOP, and 30-baht universal health services (Worawan 2003).4) But these projects are only one part of his overall policy objectives, and populist-oriented policies have reduced importance in his reform efforts after February 2005, when a ruling party of Thai Rak Thai or TRT won 377 out of the total 500 seats in the House of Representatives in the general election. Thaksin’s second face, that of a state reformist, revealed itself in 2005. Indeed, he attempted to remake the Kingdom of Thailand into a modernized state that would survive the world-wide waves of globalization, economic liberalization, and IT revolution. In his eyes, old-fashioned management of the state would isolate Thailand from global capitalism. An economically advanced country needs to reform its institutions, practices, and social values in line with the new international circumstances, just as a modern corporation needs to reform its management in keeping with the times (Pran 2004, Vol. 1; ­Suehiro 2009, Ch. 5). Such assumptions are apparent in his Kingdom of Thailand Modernization Framework or the KTMF. KTMF was addressed to foreign and domestic investors who were present at the prime minister’s residence in December 2005, and provided detailed information on the Mega Projects amounting to 1,800 billion baht (Shukan Tai Keizai, January 30, 2006). Interestingly, Thaksin also used other key words such as knowledge, technology, management, and finance to explain the KTMF. The major obstacles to the KTMF, in Thaksin’s view, are the old-fashioned public sector and the conservative culture of government officials (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 300–301).5) Consequently, his reforms were naturally directed at the public sector (Thai-style bureaucracy) and the budget system under the control of the bureaucracy. He aimed to fill the gap between the economic status of Thailand as a middle-income country and her poor-performing institutions which had failed to ride the new wave of international movements. This article aims to clarify the changes in Thai bureaucracy and technocracy under the Thaksin government (between February 2001 and September 2006) in particular the effort to transform Thai bureaucracy into Thaksinocracy (Thaksinathipatai) rather than democracy (Prachathipatai) by answering the following questions: what were the major characteristics of Thaksin’s style of state management or Thaksinomics (section II)? how has Thaksin changed the mechanism of decision-making in order to reform the Kingdom of Thailand (section III)? what kind of socio-economic policies were introduced (section IV)? how did Thaksin view the traditional bureaucracy and how did he reform the public sector (section V)? how did he change the budget system to promote his strategic agenda (section VI)? and finally, what were the results of his drastic reforms (section VII)? Through these arguments and the follow-up of the political turmoil after the 2006 coup, I explore the essence of Thaksinomics and Thaksinocracy rather than provide mere criticism of his arbitrary use of state power. Originally, “Thaksinomics” is a term employed by the mass media and scholars to criticize Thaksin Shinawatra’s political style. But after 2003, Thaksin himself also began to employ this term in his speeches to express his own political thought as well as his strategy of “dual-track policies” (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 26–38). Based on my observations, Thaksinomics consists of three major elements: 1) a corporate approach to management of the state; 2) a strategic approach to reform of public services as encoded by the slogan, “vision, mission, and goal”; and 3) a dual approach to revitalize Thai economy and society, or so-called “dual-track policies” (nayobai khuap-khu). His idea seems to have percolated from his own experience as the top leader who controlled the Shin Group, the largest business empire of the telecommunications industry in Thailand.7) He also borrowed his idea from the arguments of Somkid Jatusripitak, a professor of National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), as laid out in his remarkable papers on “Thailand Company” as well as “A Leader in the Future” (Somkid 2001, 76–80; Wirat 2001). Thanks to these ideas, Somkid served as one of the key members of the TRT executive committee, and was later appointed Finance Minister when Thaksin set up his first government in February 2001. Second, Thaksin ordered all the government agencies including public schools and hospitals to clarify their own “vision, mission, goal” (wisaithat, na-thi, paomai) in reference to their tasks for the people. He requested this clarification at each level of government agencies from ministerial level through departmental and divisional levels, and finally to the individual level. At the same time, they are all subject to performance evaluation by both internal bodies and third-party team in reference to the initial targets of each group. Analogous to a company management, strategy and competition were deemed by Thaksin as essential instruments for improving public services, and therefore he claimed a strategic approach rather than experience-based practices. Third, he introduced the new agenda of dual-track policies, which aimed at pro­moting a grass-roots economy (setthakit rak-ya) in rural areas on the one hand, and enhancing international competitiveness among big firms in urban area on the other.8) What is unique about Thaksin’s policies is that the main purpose for promoting the grass-roots economy is not to reduce poverty in rural areas (the traditional style politics of clemency and charity), but to give chances or opportunities for rural people to ­create their own business and employment (a new style politics in the era of the global capitalism). In this context, Thaksin promoted “community business” (thurakit chumchon) through programs of village funds, people’s bank, and OTOP movement, which adopted an approach to tackling poverty that was quite different from that adopted by previous governments. Promotion of the grass-roots economy also aimed to court votes in rural areas in favor of TRT in the next election (February 2005). This is the precise reason why Thaksin emphasized populist-oriented policies in his first government between 2001 and 2004. The above three elements combine with each other to characterize the Thaksinomics. However, Thaksin’s political style was attacked by mass media and academic circles for leading to “policy corruption” (Pasuk and Baker 2004), “prime ministerialization” ­(Bhidhaya 2004), “Thaksinocracy” (Thaksinathipatai) against democracy (Rungsan 2005), “Thaksinization of Thailand” (McCargo and Ukrist 2005), “Thaksin regime” (rabop ­Thaksin) (Nariphon 2006), and new nepotism or revival of family politics. Three aspects of these criticisms are worth noting. Secondly, many scholars also criticized the increasing concentration of power under his term as well as his dictatorial behavior. For example, Rungsan Thanaphonphan argued that while a CEO in a company was usually supervised and monitored by both the board of directors and shareholders, Thaksin did not brook any criticism from the outside. Accordingly, he was not a CEO of state in a real sense, but a one-man-show type of taoke (owner-operator) of the state (Rungsan 2005, 168–175). Finally, they criticized Thaksin’s politics for reviving nepotism. As a matter of fact, Thaksin appointed a lot of family members to key posts: his younger sister Yaowaret became chairperson of the National Women Association; another younger sister Yaopa was the clique leader of TRT; Somchai Wongsawat, Yaopa’s husband, was appointed permanent secretary of Justice and the prime minister (September–December 2008); and Priaopan Damapong, his wife’s elder brother, was given the number-two position at the National Police Office.9) Thaksin also appointed two cousins (Chaiyasit and Uthai) to the key posts of Army Commander-in-Chief and the permanent secretary of Defense, respectively (Athiwat 2003; Tamada 2005). It is fair to say that such nepotism in personnel management contributed to fueling anti-Thaksin sentiments among the military group as well as among the middle classes in the Bangkok Metropolitan area. Two characteristics distinguish the Thaksin government’s management of macro-economy compared with previous governments. First, Thaksin attempted to reduce public external debt and its ratio to nominal GDP, and obtain budget resources from the national revenue, profits of state enterprises, profits from privatization of state enterprises, and private investments. In spite of the fact that the NESDB projected public debt ratio against nominal GDP as 60% and over in the Ninth Five-Year Plan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) requested recipient countries to meet 55% as the maximum standard, Thailand had successfully reduced this figure to less than 50% by 2003. When Thaksin operated his own private business (Shin Corp.), he preferred direct corporate finance based on issuance of stocks and corporate bonds to indirect corporate finance based on banking loans. In exact accordance with the strategy of corporate finance, Thaksin insisted on applying the principle of non-borrowing or stand-alone approach to the financial and fiscal management of a state. Additional revenue came from an increase in collection of corporate taxes, value added taxes, and excise taxes owing to economic recovery during the term of the ­Thaksin government. Along with the increase in tax revenues, an equally important development was the computerization of the state revenue collection system, which not only helped speed up tax collection procedures but also minimized unintentional failure in tax collection in the fields of excise taxes and value-added taxes. Additional revenues were separated from the ordinary proceeding of budget allocation and were eventually placed under the direct control of the cabinet, in other words the prime minister. Such free-hand revenue naturally became significant fiscal sources for the Thaksin government to promote money-consuming populist-oriented policies. I will return to this problem in section VI of this article. As Warr and Bhanupong have already argued, there are four core economic agencies in Thailand: the National Economic and Social Development Board or NESDB, which is the government’s main economic planning agency; the Fiscal Policy Office or FPO of the Ministry of Finance for the management of public finance; the Bureau of the Budget or BOB of the Prime Minister Office for the estimation of state revenue; and the Bank of Thailand or BOT for financial arrangement (Warr and Bhanupong 1996, 69–70; see Fig. 1 in Suehiro 2005, 17). These four core agencies have played a preeminent role in the process of national budget allocation since the 1960s, and have been fully responsible for the stable development of the macro-economy. The NESDB principally screens the bottom-up investment plans of each ministry and department in reference to the targets of the Five-Year Plans, while the BOB investigates revenue aspects. The FPO proposes the possible government expenditure, consistent with the monetary policy of the BOT. The four core agencies have traditionally cooperated with each other through their personal networks under the leadership of the distinguished governor of the BOT, Dr. Puey Ungpakorn, and have maintained their policy independence from the political influences of military forces ­(Suehiro 2005, 22–28). When Thailand experienced long-term economic recession in the early 1980s, the interrelationship among the four core agencies changed. Since the Prem Tinsulanond government applied for standby credit from the IMF and structural adjustment loans (SALs) from the World Bank between 1981 and 1983, the NESDB and the FPO began to play more important roles in managing and monitoring public external debt from these international organizations (Muscat 1994, Ch. 5). In addition to the expanded role of the two agencies, the Prem government also established three important institutions to implement macro-economic policies. These three are the National Public Debt Com­mittee chaired by the finance minister; the Economic Ministers Meetings, which exclusively discussed economic matters before the regular cabinet meeting; and the Joint Public and Private Sector Consultative Committees (JPPCCs, or Kho.Ro.Oo.) to argue jointly current economic problems (Anek 1992, Ch. 4; Suehiro 2005, 32–35). At the same time, the NESDB was expected to serve as a coordinating organ for these national committees in addition to its original task of planning the Five-Year Plan. When Chatichai Choonhavan (Chart Thai Party) won the 1988 election, he established the first political party-based coalition government in Thailand. But he hardly changed the existing policy-making system. It is true that the Finance Minister was not appointed any more from qualified persons of the Ministry of Finance, but was picked from the ruling political party. And the Finance Minister sometimes intervened in both fiscal policies of the FPO and monetary policies of the BOT (Suehiro 2005, 37–39; Apichat 2002). But there was no noticeable change in the process of policy-making. Technocrats at the four core agencies could still continue to manage macro-economy as long as they did not touch on the sensitive business interests of political party leaders and royalist members. The currency crisis of 1997, however, changed the roles of the four core agencies. The major developments in economic policy-making under the second Chuan government (1997–2000) may be summarized as follows. First of all, since the government decided to request standby credits from the IMF and SALs from the World Bank to overcome the crisis, the two international financial organizations came to play a decisive role in formulating the economic reforms of ­Thailand. Second, the Finance Minister, Tarrin Nimmanhaeminda, was given supreme power to control the financial sector and to negotiate with international financial organizations as well as Japanese government agencies.13) Tarrin was the key person of the Democrat Party, which was the ruling party of coalition government, and was former president of the Siam Commercial Bank. Third, the policy role of the FPO was diminished, in comparison with its role in the era of the Prem government. The Public External Debt Section was separated from the FPO to independently handle the growing loans from the IMF, the World Bank, and Japanese government. Along with this organizational restructuring and transfer of ­several sections, the number of FPO staff was cut from 250 to 150 by 1999. Instead, the Economic Ministers Meetings began to play more important roles. The meetings which were held every Monday ahead of the Tuesday cabinet meeting eventually made the final decisions on economic matters (Suehiro 2005, 44). Fourth, the Chuan government increased the number of the Deputy Minister (Phu chuai rattamontri-wa) from 8 to 24 persons in addition to 4 Deputy Prime Ministers and 13 ministers in order to invite influential political party members into the coalition govern­ment.14) The posts of the Deputy Ministers in several ministries such as the Ministry of Transport and Communications were very attractive for party leaders seeking political rents. In brief, the major players in economic policy-making diversified into four groups: 1) international financial organizations (IMF and the World Bank); 2) economic technocrats in the NESDB and the Ministry of Finance; 3) particular political party leaders in the positions of the finance minister, industry minister, and the deputy ministers in economic affairs; and 4) participants in the public hearings. Each group was inclined to seek its own interest without mutual cooperation and policy consistency. Such fragmentation of decision-making became the object of Thaksin’s criticisms, which targeted the structural weakness of the Thai public sector. The Thaksin government appeared to have aimed at completely changing the traditional policy-making system, despite the carryover of human resources from the Chatichai governments.16) The new institutional elements may be summarized as follows. First, Thaksin abolished the regular meetings of the Economic Ministers on Monday, and replaced them with the meetings of the Strategy Committee17) to argue national urgent matters. The Committee reportedly consisted of Thaksin himself and leading figures from the Army, the National Police Office, and business circle, but there is no precise information on its membership. Second, he set up the five Screening Committees (later increased to seven ones) at the first cabinet meeting on March 6, 2001, and appointed five Deputy Prime Ministers as chairpersons of each committee to examine particular policy issues. Important policy proposals from responsible ministries including the NESDB were first submitted to these committees, and then discussed before final decisions were reached at the cabinet ­meetings. Third, he abolished the public hearings, and replaced them with the practice of direct dialogue with the people through his own speeches at the government-sponsored radio (FM 92.5) every Saturday from 8:00 to 8:30 pm. Between April 28, 2001 and August 19, 2006, his radio speeches continued to convey his political thought along with explanations of decisions of cabinet meetings.18) Thaksin appears to have put more importance on such type of direct dialogue with the people rather than on time-consuming discussion in the House of Representatives. Institutional reform in policy-making system contributed to the strong leadership of the prime minister. This movement is clearly evident in Table 2, which compares the distribution of cases of policy submissions to the cabinet meetings in two periods of the Chuan government and the Thaksin government. Computing the average frequency of policy submissions to the cabinet meeting per month, we see that the Thaksin government tackled more cases (100.8 cases against 95.3 cases). And the role of the Prime Minister Office increased in the Thaksin government (19.1% against 17.6%). But the differences in these figures are not so impressive. Rather we should note the differences in major agencies responsible for submitting policies inside the Prime Minister Office. As Table 2 clearly shows, three groups or agencies of the Deputy Prime Ministers who chaired the Screening Committees, the Prime Minister Secretary Office, and the Cabinet Secretary Office became to play more significant roles in submitting policies. Looking at the increasing percentage of the NESDB (from 1.3% to 2.6%) in Table 2, some may argue in favor of the revival of the four core agencies. In actuality, however, Thaksin frequently ordered the NESDB to formulate new policies in strict accordance with the state strategies, as well as the ordinary task of planning the Five-Year Plan, which resulted in an increase in the number of cases of policy submissions from the NESDB. Ironically, increasing cases reflect the diminished role of the NESDB. Ministry of Finance also reduced its role in exchange of increasing role of the Deputy Prime ­Ministers. Fig. 1 shows the whole structure of the policy-making under the Thaksin government. Fig. 1 suggests the increasing concentration of power in the hands of the prime minister alongside the exclusion of bureaucratic influence from the decision-making ­process. Thaksin apparently aimed to replace the Thai bureaucratic polity with a prime minister-led politics or Thaksinocracy. Sources: Interview research by the author in Bangkok from 2001 to 2005. As discussed in section II, Thaksin adopted dual-track policies, which consist of promotion of the grass-roots economy in rural areas (the first track) and the enhancement of national competitiveness of big capitalists in urban areas (the second track). After establishing a new government, he favored the first track over the second one. This is in part because economic recovery from the Asian crisis became an urgent task for the country and in part because the first track was more essential for Thaksin and TRT to attract the support of the people. For these reasons, Thaksin announced nine urgent economic and social programs in his policy speech at the Diet on February 27, 2001. These nine programs include: 1) three years’ moratorium on farmers’ debt; 2) provision of village funds; 3) establishment of people’s banks; 4) establishment of new government-sponsored SMEs banks; 5) introduction of universal health services (known as “30-baht medical services”); 6) solution of non-performing loans through the Thai Asset Management Corporation (TAMC); 7) privatization of state enterprises; 8) eradication of drugs; and 9) anti-corruption campaign (Samnak Lekhathikan Khana Rattamontri 2002, 91–95). In addition to policies 1) to 5), Thaksin also introduced two well-known programs of OTOP and a “Ban Ua-arthon” project which provided lower-income households with cheaper housing facilities. Seven of the policies were originally part of the TRT campaign promises in the general election and became core projects of the first track or the promotion of the grass-roots economy. In July 2001, the Thaksin government announced the “mid-term economic policies 2001–2006” to the public. Before the cabinet meeting, NESDB and the Fiscal Policy Office prepared their original plan which was principally based on the Ninth Five-Year Plan (2001–2005). But this plan did not fully reflect Thaksin’s policy speech in February. Glancing at the original plan, Thaksin got angry and immediately ordered the NESDB to revise it in accordance with his policy speech. Consequently, the revised agenda was submitted to a cabinet meeting in July, which included all the programs in both prime minister’s policy speech and the TRT campaign promise.21) In Thaksin’s view, the NESDB ought to follow the state strategy addressed by the prime minister rather than the targets of the Five-Year Plan set by the former government. This incident symbolically highlights the declining autonomy of the NESDB in policy-making. Table 3 summarizes the major programs in the first-track policies. All the programs started within 2001 and total expenditure amounted to 300 billion baht, or the equivalent of 30% of total budget allocation in FY2002. As the table shows, each program achieved a visible outcome, which contributed to the huge popularity of the first Thaksin government. On the other hand, the enormous amount of expenditure for these populist-­oriented policies provoked severe criticism from the mass media on the grounds that these programs were undertaken without ordinary budget allocation (off-budget system). In section VI, I will return to the important question of how the Thaksin government financed these policies under the existing budget system. Unlike the IRP which focused on the improvement of efficiency and productivity of manufacturing sector through the development of supporting industries (Japanese ideas), NCP imported key concepts such as innovation and industrial clustering based on the policy advice of Porter as well as textbooks in the American business schools (Porter 2003). The complete text of NCP was submitted by the NESDB and approved by the cabinet meeting in October 2003. Although NESDB was officially designated the responsible agency of NCP, the actual people in charge were Porter and the SASIN which was the most influential business school in Thailand. NESDB could no longer take initiative as a primary planner, and merely served as a coordinator for planning. After the general election in February 2005, the second Thaksin government explicitly shifted its policy priority from the first track in favor of the people to the second track in favor of domestic and foreign investors. Since TRT had won 75% of seats in the House of Representatives, Thaksin did not need to pay special attention to the masses as he had to do before. For instance, in May 2005, the Ministry of Finance announced “Mega Projects” with a total cost of 1,800 billion baht and appealed to foreign investors to invest in attractive mass transportation projects in Bangkok Metropolitan area. In the same period, Thaksin also ordered the NESDB to formulate the 10th Five-Year Plan (October 2006–September 2011), which emphasized profit-making agriculture on the basis of ­bio-technology and provincial cluster development plans based on the CEO ­Governors. Unlike the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the new plan accorded less importance to traditional policy objectives such as poverty reduction in rural areas (World Bank 2001).23) From the middle of 2005 onward, Thaksin also accelerated the privatization of state enterprises to attract more foreign capital to the local stock market. All the programs were integrated into state strategies to modernize the Kingdom of Thailand (KTMF) (Suehiro 2008). From Thaksin’s viewpoint, there are two major obstacles to KTMF’s ambitious strategy aimed at transforming Thailand into a modern state. One is the traditional bureaucracy, including government officers’ culture, and the other is the existing budget system under the strict control of line ministries. Consequently, he focused his political targets on the two major fields of the public sector and the budget system. The first obstacle to Thaksin’s reform is the old-fashioned bureaucracy. According to his observation, Thai bureaucracy has too many agencies and there is no organic linkage in activity between organizations. Thai public services are too slow despite global capitalism’s “economy of speed.”24) He also severely criticized the traditional bureaucracy because it lacked efficiency in delivering public services, had no strategy in policy-­making, and lacked competition in the work place. Rather it merely encouraged bonding among its members and a conservative attitude against any criticism coming from the outside. On September 11, 2002, Thaksin addressed the issue of “Reform of a country, reform of the public sector” in the prime minister’s residence. In this speech, he disclosed the fact that he ordered the Prime Minister Office to disband around 300 out of 600 national committees, and revealed his plan to reorganize existing government agencies into more networking-based and agenda-based organizations (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 291–308). More important, he emphasized in the same speech the necessity of reforming traditional bureaucratic culture and government officers’ consciousness. He claimed: “Most important task for us is to reform the old culture of work together into a new one at the levels of government officers, the relationship between public sector and a country, and the relationship between public sector and the people. We need a new culture of work together. We cannot make the excuse that we have poor performance because our system is out-of-date. The era is always changing and it requests us a reform” (ibid., 300–301, underscoring by the author). On this account, he severely condemned the out-of-date system (rabop la-samai) and called for the introduction of modern public services on the basis of advanced tech­nology (e-Government), agenda-based organizations, explicit visions (wisaithat), well-organized strategy, and competition among government officers. Based on such views, he launched the reform of traditional bureaucracy by setting up the Public Sector Develop­ment Commission (PSDC) in October 2002 (Nakharin 2008). Before examining the activity of the PSDC, let me briefly review the structure of government officials and the mechanism of personnel management in the public sector in order to help the reader to understand the real cause behind the Thaksin’s reform. Fig. 2 shows the category of public personnel and the distribution of civil servants and employees by the category. Figures on the basis of my own research in 1996 are out of date for the current situation. However, there are no comparable figures and the present system principally follows the same category. Therefore, I employ the 1996 survey to depict the structure of Thai bureaucracy (Suehiro 2006). Source: Interview research by the author at the Ko.Pho in Bangkok, April 1996. Public personnel (2,586,000 persons) consists of five major categories: political ­officials (776 persons); permanent officials (1,169,000 persons); departmental employees (695,000 persons); local officials (421,000 persons); and staff and employees of 23 state enterprises (300,000 persons). Among them, permanent officials belong to a category of government officials in a broader sense. Permanent officials are further classified into seven sub-categories including police officers and prosecutors. Among them, three groups belong to a category of government officials in a narrower sense. They include 530, 000 teachers at public schools under the auspice of the Teacher Council, 380,000 civil servants in central public agencies under the auspice of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and 49,000 professors and lecturers under the auspice of the University Official Commission. Here, I focus on the second group of civil servants under the CSC. All the civil servants are recruited through standard examinations adopted by the CSC and otherwise through particular examinations conducted by several high-ranked ministries (Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs). After entering public agencies, they are all ranked in the P (position) and C (classification) table according to their final educational qualifications. For instance, a person with educational level of high school or vocational school is ranked as C1, while a new graduate from a university is ranked as C3-2. A Ph.D. holder starts his/her career at C5-4. The PC table is completely linked to the salary table, and every person is automatically promoted by at least one rank each year. What is unique to Thailand is that the government principally does not employ mid-career persons from the private sector. Those who desire to enter into the public agency must start their careers in the same way as fresh students in accordance with educational qualification. On the other hand, all the civil servants are guaranteed employment until the retirement age or 60 years old (since 1953), and they can equally enjoy the right to receive government pension, medical health insurance, and other fringe benefits. In this sense, personnel management of government officials has been basically designed as a closed organization on the basis of service years. Apart from the cases of director generals of the Department of Customs, secretary generals of the NESDB and governors of the Bank of Thailand (BOT), most of civil servants enter a particular department and are promoted to higher posts in the same department. For director generals of the Department of Customs until the 1970s, several persons were recruited from the National Police Office (Krom Sulakakorn 1994, 11–31), while both governors of the BOT and secretary generals of the NESDB until the end of the 1980s were appointed from among the elites of the Ministry of Finance (Suehiro 2005, 58–59). Except for these cases, we see very few cases of personal transfer across different ministries, and even across different departments. Personnel changes across at departments are basically confined to persons who will be promoted to the posts of director general, superintendent, and the permanent secretary.26) In addition to the strict rule of internally-promotion, three other principles seem to characterize personnel management in higher ranked posts of Thai bureaucracy. First, a permanent secretary is expected to have occupied the highest posts of important departments in each ministry. These posts include the Department of ­Comptroller General, the Department of Customs and the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) for the Ministry of Finance; the Department of Foreign Trade and/or the Department of Internal Trade for the Ministry of Commerce; the Department of Medical Services and/or the Department of Health for the Ministry of Public Health; and the Department of Industrial Economics and/or the Department of Industrial Promotion for the Ministry of Industry. Second, the tenure of director general and permanent secretary is neither regulated by law nor determined by an implicit consensus, as is the case in Japan. Tenure is frequently determined by the will of superiors such as the permanent secretary and the ability of candidate. Consequently, the period of tenure varies very widely between one month and 10 years. From the 1990s onward, however, tenure seems to converge into two or three years, and the person is customarily appointed on October 1, and resigns on September 30, in accordance with the Thai fiscal year. Third, prior to the 1970s, there was frequent evidence of a “fast track system.” If a candidate had a good family background (royal or aristocrats family members), high educational qualification outside of Thailand, and prominent performance, he/she could obtain higher post faster than others. It was not difficult to find permanent secretaries in their mere 40s. Since the mid-1980s, however, the age of appointment to the post of permanent secretary began to concentrate in the range of 57 to 59 years old, or 1 to 3 years before retirement. This fact implies that the promotion to the post of permanent secretary has been standardized in a hierarchical structure. These characteristics have contributed to creating the stable structure of Thai bureaucracy. As I mentioned above, civil servants with lower ranks are automatically promoted according to their years of service, while an elite class with higher ranks is promoted on the basis of performance evaluation and good human relationship inside a particular organization. These rules naturally produce characteristics specific to the Thai bureaucracy, notably an inward-looking and conservative culture that is impervious to criticism from the outside. This is precisely the point that Thaksin attacked in the ­process of his public sector reform. Who Were Promoted to Permanent Secretaries? To test and confirm the rule of determining the promotion system, let me employ two case studies of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Interior (MOI) as examples. Table 5 summarizes the career path of each person who occupied the permanent secretary (PS) of the MOF between 1975 and 2005. Major facts derived from the table together with my research on PS’s educational qualification are as follows. 1) The majority of these PSMOF was holders of Ph.D. or Master Degree (Economics), and was educated in prestigious universities in the United States and Europe such as Michigan University (Amnuay), University of Illinois (Panas), University of London (Suparat), and Cambridge University (Jatumongkol). 2) Except for Aran (1993–95) who was transferred from the Ministry of Commerce, all the persons were promoted internally within the MOF. 3) For the cases of Amnuay (1975–77) and Panas (1982–92), PSMOF were promoted with the ages of 46 and 50, and the tenure of Panas covered 10 years. However, since the period of Bandit (1992–93), a “fast track system” was replaced by a more standardized system in which the PS was appointed to the post three to four years before retirement, and his tenure was confined to two to three years. 4) Before being appointed to the post of PSMOF, most of people had stints as director generals in at least three different mainstream departments of Comptroller ­General, Customs, and FPO. In recent years, main departments have shifted to the Department of Revenue and the Department of Excise due to the increasing authority in revenue estimates. A comparison of the cases of PSMOF and PSMOI reveals both similarities and ­differences in their promotion systems (see Table 6). 1) Concerning educational background, based on my research, all the people of PSMOI were educated in local (not foreign) prestigious universities such as ­Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University. And all the persons were further educated in the National College of Defense. 2) Most of these PSMOI were promoted step by step from district chiefs (nai amphoe) to governors of multiple provinces to director generals of mainstream departments such as the Department of Government (Krom Kan Pok-khrong) and the Department of Local Government. The career path for PSMOI seems to be more institutionalized than in the case of the Ministry of Finance. 3) Except for Chanasak (1997–2002), the tenures of all the persons were short (one to two years). Furthermore, appointment to PSMOI was conducted in accordance with regular personnel changes starting in October of each year. The cases of PSMOI suggest that personnel promotion of the high ranked officials has been completely dominated by the explicit rule of the line ministry. Even Interior Minister must follow this rule in personnel management. Since October 2002, the Thaksin government embarked on ambitious reform of the public sector in three different directions. These reforms include: 1) reorganization of government agencies on the basis of the agenda; 2) changes in personnel management on the basis of meritocracy rather than seniority system; and 3) improvement of public services according to the documented four year plan in each agency. Concerning the reorganization of the public sector, Thaksin ordered the restructuring of 14 ministries (plus the Prime Minister Office or PMO) with 125 departments into 19 ministries (plus PMO) with 156 departments.27) Contrary to the original plan of downsizing public organizations, Thaksin was forced to increase the number of government agencies. This is in part because he had to deal with the potential dissatisfaction of government officials by increasing the number of posts (departments), and in part because he planned to reconstruct government organization more strategically by allocating a particular agency for a particular agenda. For instance, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environments (MSTE: four departments and five offices) was reorganized into the Ministry of Science and Technology (one department and three offices). At the same time, the Department of Energy Promotion belonging to the former MSTE was transferred to a new ministry (the Ministry of Energy), while two agencies of the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion and the Office of Environmental Policy were integrated into another new ministry (the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment). Each agency was attached to an existing or new ministry according to its own agenda, while a lot of departments and offices were set up to undertake new state strategies such as the Department of Development of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine in the Ministry of Public Health, the Department of Intellectual Property in the Ministry of Commerce, and the Office of Welfare Promotion, Protection and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups in the new Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Concerning personnel management, Thaksin introduced a new system or promotion based on the principle of meritocracy. He empowered not the Permanent Secretary but the Minister to directly appoint director generals, and made it possible to transfer able persons across at different ministries, or to appoint younger persons regardless of the traditional order of P (position) and C (classification) system. Thus, in September 2004, Jakramon Pasukwanich, who was the former secretary general of the NESDB, was transferred to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Industry, while Ampol Kittiampol, a director general in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, was newly appointed to serve as secretary general of the NESDB. Naris Chaiyasut who was the former rector of the Thammasat University, was appointed director general of Fiscal Policy Office over possible candidates from inside the Ministry of Finance. At the level of director general, a lot of persons were selected by their abilities or their connections with TRT. Such system of promotion undoubtedly had a great impact on traditional order and familial relationship in each office, and in turn stoked strong resistance among government officials (Nakharin 2008). Finally, the Thaksin government set up the Office of Public Sector Development Com­mission (OPSDC) by appointing Vishnu Krua-ngam as its chairman on October 3, 2002.28) Major members include Bowornsak Uwanno, Chai-anan Samudavanija, and Orapin Sopchokchai, who had worked for the reform of public sector in the Chatichai government (1988–91) (OPSDC 2005a, 8–9). In May 2003, the cabinet meeting decided to approve an action plan submitted by the OPSDC which aimed to reduce by 30–50% the steps or the time needed for particular public service in each agency. The OPSDC document reported that the Department of Land Transport successfully reduced the time of issuing payment certification for automobile taxes from 30 minutes to 7 minutes, while the National Police Office reduced the time of arranging the formalities for going abroad from 15 days to 7 days (ibid., 12–13). In 2005, OPSDC accelerated the reform of public services on the basis of the “Action Plan of Public Services Development 2005–2008” under the second Thaksin government (2005–08). This action plan requested each agency to define the target, strategy, cooperation with other agencies, concrete plan to improve the efficiency of public services, and budget needed in the four-year plan (OPSDC 2005b; Samnakngan Ngop-praman 2006). The Action Plan of 2005–2008 had a substantial impact on both working style of government officials (overtime work etc.) and the existing system of budget allocation under the control of line ministries. Accordingly, let me move to another reform of the Thaksin government, namely, reform of the budget system. Another obstacle to Thaksin’s state reforms is the existing budget system in which most of the budget has been put under the direct control of responsible ministries ­according to their functions. In other words, responsible (line) ministries at first submit project proposals in conjunction with the targets set by a Five-Year Plan, while the four core agencies of the NESDB, FPO, BOT, and the Bureau of the Budget (BOB) consult with each other to decide on the budget allocation for each bottom-up project. For instance, in the Chuan government, 93.5 billion out of the total of 910 billion baht in FY 2001 were allocated to projects of local development, which include the “Development of Potentiality in Rural and Community People Program” (67.5 billion baht). It is reported that eight ministries and two government agencies were responsible for these projects, and necessary funds were delivered to each project through line ministry (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY2001, 94–95). Such budget allocation typically shows the traditional style politics of clemency and charity targeting the rural poor people. In addition, the procedures of budget allocation must follow the 1959 Act of the Budget. This act was formulated by Puey Ungpakorn (Governor of BOT and Director of BOB in that day) and his associates in order to strictly separate central budget between investment expenditures based on economic planning and ordinary expenditures including personnel expenses (Suehiro 2005). In 1982, the Prem government changed Puey’s policy (British style) to the Planning Programming Budget System (American style) or PPBS for the sake of improving the consistency and the effectiveness of budget planning (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY1982). Introduction of the PPBS was a part of policy conditionality required of the Thai government by the World Bank in exchange of its structural adjustment loans (SALs). Twenty years later, Thaksin ordered the BOB to replace the PPBS by a new policy of Strategic Performance Based Budget System or the SPBBS (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 324–325). The new budget policy shifted the procedure of budget allocation from the bottom-up approach from line ministries to the top-down approach from the prime minister and the ruling party. Following the policy of the SPBBS, the BOB announced three major principles in budget planning: 1) putting priority on fiscal support of promoting the autonomy of local governments; 2) replacing function-based budget allocation by agenda-based one; and 3) introducing a four-year budget plan (FY2005–2008) for each agency in correspondence to the tenure of the second Thaksin government.30) All public agencies were forced to follow these principles, and to demonstrate definitely the necessity of each particular project with reference to state strategies addressed by the prime minister. Such policies are completely interconnected with the shift of policy-making system from a Five-Year Plan to state strategies as mentioned in section III. Table 7 traces the budget allocation by functions, in the period of between FY1991 and FY2011, including the period of Thaksin government (from FY2002 to FY 2006). According to the policy of the BOB, functions of budget allocation are classified into four major categories: 1) general administration or general government services (general public services, defense matters, public order, and security); 2) community and social services (education, public health, social security, housing, religions, etc.); 3) economic services (energy, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, communications, etc.); and 4) mis­cellaneous and unclassified items (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY2006, 62–65). Looking at the table, we can easily find remarkable changes in the period of the Thaksin government. First of all, the category of “national defense” showed a rapid decline in terms of percentage of allocation, which decreased from 16.0% in FY1991 through 8.9% in FY2000 to merely 6.3% in FY2006. Since the size of the total budget has increased by threefold in the corresponding period, the Ministry of Defense could maintain the same level in terms of actual value (see Fig. 3 in later). But it is apparent that the issue of national defense has been less important for the Thaksin government. In fact, he frequently addressed in his speeches that “the cold war regime collapsed and the era of competition for military expansion ended as well. We (Thailand) were facing a new era of economic competition in the world capitalism” (Shukan Tai Keizai, January 30, 2006). Such perception has naturally angered the military group, and became one of the leading causes behind the coup against Thaksin in September 2006. On the other hand, Table 8 summarizes the distribution of budget expenditures from the viewpoint of responsible institutions. Institutions are basically classified into six groups: central funds; ministries (19 ministries and the PMO in FY2006); independent public agencies (13 agencies); independent bodies under the 1997 Constitution (8 bodies); state enterprises (22 enterprises); and revolving funds (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY2006, 75–86). The most prominent changes in budget allocation in the Thaksin government are the decline of ministries and increase of the central fund in terms of their percentages. Percentage of ministries had usually accounted for 84 to 87% of the total budget allocation until the FY1998. In FY1999, the National Police Office was separated from the Ministry of Interior, and was transferred to the status of independent public agency. Its budget or 38.1 billion baht accounted for 4.6% of the total amount in FY1999. If the National Police Office were included into ministries, line ministries continue to account for 84.9%, not 80.3% in the table.33) However, in the period of Thaksin government, the percentage of ministries dramatically decreased from 80.3% in FY1999 to 62.8% in FY2004 and 65.9% in FY2006. In contrast, central fund increased its percentage from 9.3% to 22.8% and 18.8% in corresponding fiscal years. The central fund or ngop klang is originally designed as a special fund to meet extra expenditures such as natural disasters, royal tours, additional payments for government employees, and special funds for early retirement of government officials. In addition to these items, two other categories took up sizable chunks of the central fund before the Thaksin government. These two include expenditures on government pensions and projects of emergency local development. Indeed, expenditures on government pensions accounted for as much as 40% of the total central fund in the Chuan government due to increasing number of government officials who reached retirement age. On the other hand, a project of “emergency local development” was frequently used as political instruments for each coalition government to attract supports from the rural people (Jarat 1995). Importantly, additional revenues continuously flowed into the state budget during each fiscal year under the Thaksin government (see section II of this article) and these additional revenues were transferred not to line ministries but to the central fund by order of the prime minister. Likewise, expenditures on the 30-baht medical services were delivered not to the Ministry of Public Health, but to another independent fund or “revolving funds.”35) By employing such techniques, Thaksin could promote his dual-track policies without any repercussions from ministries as well as economic technocrats. Mass media frequently attacked such management of budget allocation as an “off-budget system” or an arbitrary exploitation of state revenue. But this criticism misses the point because Thaksin’s technique does not violate any of the rules of the existing budget system.36) Nevertheless, increasing proportions of the central fund and revolving funds are not normal from the standpoint of maintaining sound management of national budget. Accordingly, in 2005, Thaksin ordered the BOB to set up ad hoc committee to reconsider and revise the 1959 Act of the Budget in favor of agenda-based budget system.37) But before a new budget could be enacted, Thaksin was ousted from political power by the military coup in September 2006. As mentioned in the first section of this article, Thaksin had a Janus-faced public image as populist and state reformist. As a populist, he launched a variety of policies in favor of the masses. In fact, according to the pole survey by ABAC, these policies attracted a great deal of support from the people: 84% for OTOP, 81% for the 30-baht medical services, and 79% for village funds scheme in contrast to 39% for anti-corruption campaign and 35% for restructuring of state enterprises (Tamada 2005, 182–183). Enormous popularity coupled with power concentration has resulted in a “strong prime minister.” Finally, a strong prime minister, intentionally or unintentionally, suggests another chief of state (Pramuk), and therefore a strong competitor to the king. Immediately after the great victory of TRT in 2005 general election, the Nation Weekly Magazine carried a special issue headlined “The Second Thaksin Government: Next is the Presidency?” (Nation Weekly Magazine 2005). In the context of Thailand, the presidential system is an alternative political form against the monarchy system. Therefore, Thaksin’s great victory in the general election was interpreted by a royalist-military group as a potential and serious menace to the monarchy system. At the same time, Thaksin’s reform of the budget system at the expense of defense matters has always irritated a military group. In addition, he directly intervened in the top personnel manage­ment of the military by appointing his cousin in 2003. These activities finally resulted in the counter-balancing activity of a royalist-military coup to oust Thaksin from the power in 2006 (Wasana 2008). On the other hand, Thaksin is an active state reformist. He promoted various reforms to modernize the Kingdom of Thailand: changes in the initiatives of policy ­making from technocrats to prime minister and TRT; changes in the principle of macro-economic management from a Five-Year Plan to a state strategy; changes in fiscal base of national projects from public debt to own state revenue; changes in the budget system from the function-based budget allocation to the agenda-based one; and changes in ­public sector from traditional bureaucracy to more efficient modern agencies. More importantly, his reforms also aimed to change the traditional culture of Thai bureaucracy and social values of the Thai people since he wished to develop Thailand into an advanced country under global capitalism. But his style of conducting reforms was too speedy and too radical for the Thai people. In addition, after the landslide victory of TRT in 2005 general election, Thaksin began to place more priority on the second track of his dual-track policies such as the NCP, the Mega Projects, and modernization of local stock market, which hardly delivered direct benefits to most people. Consequently, the people were disappointed with the second Thaksin government policies. Rather they tend to look at Thaksin’s efforts as reforms for his own interest rather than for the people. At this conjuncture, mass media disclosed that Thaksin had sold all the stocks of his family holding in Shin Corporation (telecommunications) to a Singaporean firm in exchange of 73.3 billion baht in cash (January 23, 2006). The Thai mass media immediately attacked his trade of stocks as an “unfair” move because Thaksin and his family did not pay any taxes for their earnings. At the same time, mass media also condemned Thaksin as a traitor to a country because he neglected a national interest (local investors) when he decided to sell his stocks. This incident became the catalyst for the anti-Thaksin movement among the people, especially among the middle-class in the Bangkok Metropolitan area, and it developed into the formation of the People’s Alliance for Democracy or PAD (so-called yellow shirts group) in February 2006 (Nariphon 2006; Pasuk and Baker 2009; Suehiro 2009, Ch. 6). Thaksin’s reform of the public sector also caused to provoke resistance among civil servants. Strategic Plan of the OPSDC was designed with Western key concepts imported from the outside of Thailand. But these concepts were unfamiliar to lower ranked officers who work at public service points. Furthermore, his reforms were inclined to destroy the traditional rules and comfortable culture of Thai bureaucracy such as seniority system and quasi-familial relationship. Civil servants were tired of meeting the strict guidelines imposed by the OPSDC. For these reasons, both the masses and the civil servants temporarily welcomed or accepted the military coup to end the Thaksin regime despite its apparent annulment of the gains of the democratization movement during the 1990s. Likewise, the new government restored the authority of the NESDB. The NESDB now neglected Thaksin-initiated state strategies and revised the 10th Five-Year Plan in accordance with the king’s philosophy of “sufficiency economy” (setthakit phophiang). Its action plan in July 2007 focused on social stability and public calm rather than economic development and modernization of a country. Along with the revival of bureaucracy, the government also restored traditional rule of budget allocation or function-based budget system in favor of line ministries, and quickly increased budge for defense matters (See Fig. 3). Source: Made by the author on the basis of Thailand’s Budget in Brief (BOB, each edition). Budget allocation for defense matters dramatically increased by 35% from 85 billion baht (6.3% of the total) in FY2006 to 115 billion baht (7.3%) in FY2007, while the central fund decreased by 20% from 243 billion baht (17.9%) to 194 billion baht (12.4%) in corresponding years (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY2007). In FY2008 and FY2009, the budget allocation for defense matters continued to increase to 143 billion baht (increase by 24% as compared to the previous fiscal year) and to 168 billion baht (increase by 18%), respectively (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief FY2008 and FY2009). These figures suggest the restoration of the military group’s status to the level before the Thaksin government (See also Table 7). All the moves above demonstrate the effort at resetting the situation of Thailand to the point just before the advent of the Thaksin regime or the effort to completely destroy Thaksinocracy. In the eyes of the new government, Thaksin is a virus that has invaded the computer of Thai society. Therefore, they had to quarantine the virus first and then reset both politics and society to “normal.” The final step of this reset is a court decision to order the dissolution of TRT and the cease of eligibility of 111 TRT executive members for election in next five years. This court decision of May 2007 signals the end of ­Thaksinocracy and the foreclosure of the possibility of Thaksin’s return to the political scene. However, this resetting work could not eliminate the influence of Thaksin from Thai politics. This is because the new government after the general election under the 2007 Constitution was transformed from an anti-Thaksin group into a pro-Thaksin group, namely, People’s Power Party (PPP). PPP was led by Samak Sundaravej who openly announced that he was willing to serve as the agent of Thaksin Shinawatra. But Samak was ousted from the premiership in September 2008, and Somchai Wongsawat, who succeeded Samak and Thaksin’s younger brother-in-law, was also forced to resign in December according to the orders of the Constitution Court. Finally, Abhisit Vejjajiva of Democrat Party was appointed the 27th prime minister in December 2008 as a result of political bargaining among Democrat Party, military group, royalist members, and anti-Thaksin groups. Such a political bargaining without democratic procedures created another political conflict between an anti-Thaksin group (a yellow shirts group or PAD and ruling parties) and a pro-Thaksin group (a red shirts group or the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship [UDD] and opposition parties) at the end of 2008.38) In 2010, anti-­government movement led by UDD has quickly grown up into big rallies due in part to the financial support from Thaksin outside Thailand and in part to the economic recession originated in a global financial crisis in 2008. Finally political conflict between UDD and the government (the military) developed into a blood-shed incident in May 2010 (Montesano et al. 2012). Generally speaking, it is known that the income gap in terms of the gini index tends to expand when a certain country is moving from a lower-income country into a middle-income country. This hypothesis, or a Kuznet’s reverse U-shape curve, is precisely adaptable to the case of Thailand. Indeed, the gini index of Thailand increased from 0.43 in 1980 to 0.50 in 1987, and further to 0.54 in 1992 (UNDP 2007, 23).41) It is apparent that income distribution has deteriorated during the economic boom. Crucially, Thaksin is the first prime minister to actually tackle the problems of Thailand as a middle-income country. His state reforms primarily aimed to narrow the gap between economic status of Thailand as a middle-income country and old-fashioned government agencies to handle economic problems. He focused on inequality of opportunity (few business chances in rural areas) rather than inequality of result (poverty in rural areas). Contrary to previous governments, which put priority on poverty reduction, Thaksin emphasized the necessity of creating business chances and community businesses in rural area (village funds, people’s bank, OTOP). Intentionally or unintentionally, his new approach seems to have politically awakened the rural people. They are now focusing their attention on their disadvantaged economic status and the inadequate policies adopted by the traditional ruling elites, and further afield on the state regime itself. If this hypothesis is true, then any government will have to face the necessity and challenge of solving the various problems facing contemporary Thailand as a middle-income country, problems such as upgrading of industrial structure, resolving income and/or assets disparity in urban and rural areas through creation of jobs and businesses opportunities, fundamental reforms of tax system including individual income tax, property tax, and inheritance tax (phasi moradok), construction of social security system, especially a national pension scheme, and, finally, improvement of public services. In August 2011, Yingluck Shinawatra, the youngest sister of Thaksin, became the 28th prime minister in Thailand after the victory of her political party (Pheu Thai Party) in the 2011 general election.42) Does this political incident provide a new opportunity for ­Thaksin to return to political arena and create the incentive for a new government to revive uncompleted Thaksin’s reforms in Thailand? My answer is a negative one. ­Thaksin himself is not a creative destroyer of Thai state anymore. Now he turns into a pure and simple destroyer for Thai society. New government led by Yingluck also has neither intention nor ability of promoting constructive state reforms because they must depend heavily on both populist policies and revived bureaucracy. Nevertheless, state reforms attempted by Thaksin during his administration are still needed as long as Thailand wishes to maintain or improve its economic status and develop into a more advanced country in the future. 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Bangkok: World Bank Office Bangkok. 1) Text is quoted from a provisional English translation by Pasuk and Baker (2007). 2) According to the survey of the Assumption Business Administration College or ABAC in October 2006, 71% of the people were in favor of the Surayud Julanonda temporary government. However, slow-paced response to rural people’s problems eroded popular support for the new government and support, which quickly dropped to 35% in February 2007. See Pasuk and Baker (2009) and Suehiro (2009, Ch. 6). 3) “An ambitious populist” here implies another king as great father of a country, who provides support to all the people with great mercy. Nidhi analyzes the presence of Thaksin as a competitor to the king in the context of Thai political culture of the patrimonial state (Nidhi 2006). 4) For more detailed study on backgrounds and the progress of 30-baht universal health services in reference to the reformist groups in the Ministry of Public Health, see Kawamori (2009). 5) Concerning the collection of speeches of Thaksin, a lot of books are available. Among them, three volume books edited by Pran Phisit-setthakan (2004) are the best ones, which consist of Vol. 1 (Thaksinomics and a CEO Country), Vol. 2 (Thaksin and Social Policies), and Vol. 3 (Thaksin as a Leader in Asia and the World). 6) Thaksin himself defined the CEO system as a system of moderator, or rabop chaophap (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 294–295) or a system of integrator of organizations, or phu-wa buranakarn (ibid., Vol. 2, 223–233). 7) For a detailed account of the development of Thaksin’s business activities, see Sorakon (1993), Suehiro (1995; 2006, Ch. 4), Athiwat (2003), and Pasuk and Baker (2004, Ch. 2). 8) The objectives of dual-track policies were explained by Thaksin himself in his speech in Manila, the Philippines, on September 8, 2003 (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 26–38). 9) In August 2011, Yingluck Shinawatra, the youngest sister of Thaksin, was appointed a prime minister owing to a victory of pro-Thaksin political party in a general election of July 2011. 10) Increase of private consumption can be attributed partially to rapid growth of consumer’s credit (mini bubble economy) in the period of the Thaksin administration. Indeed, outstanding consumer’s credit doubled, from 72.5 billion baht in the end of 2002 to 143.5 billion baht at the end of 2005 (Bank of Thailand website). 11) Additional state revenue amounted to 48 billion baht in FY 2002, 146 billion baht in FY 2003, and 89 billion baht in FY 2004, respectively. Original estimated revenue in each year was around 1,000 billion baht, and then surplus accounted for 5% to 15% of the total (See Table 7 of this article). 12) For more information on the decision-making process of economic policies in Thailand, see Muscat (1994), Warr and Bhanupong (1996), Suehiro and Higashi (2000, Ch. 1), and Suehiro (2005). 13) After the currency crisis, Japanese government provided a huge amount of credits through the Miyazawa Plan and extra yen credits between 1998 and 1999 (Suehiro 2009, 64–65). 14) The total number of cabinet members accounted for 26 to 44 persons between 1973 and 1990, while deputy ministers accounted for 12 to 21 persons in corresponding period. The Anant government in 1992 reduced its members to 26 persons and 8 persons respectively due to the nature of temporary government after the May bloody incidents in 1992. 15) Author’s interview with Patcharee Siroros in Bangkok, February 1999. 16) Such key persons in the Thaksin government include Pansak Vinyaratn (prime minister’s advisor), Vishnu Krua-ngam (chairman of the Public Sector Development Commission), and Kittidej Sutsukorn (advisor to the Industry Minister), who came from policy advisory team of the Chatichai government (Nakharin 2008). 17) The full name of the committee is the Committee on Strategies and Tactics to Solve National Urgent Problems. 18) All of Thaksin’s speeches at the radio broadcasting until 2003 are edited and included in Supawan (2003). This style of direct dialogue with the people was adopted by the Samak government and the Abhisit government (on TV). 19) Interview conducted by the author with the TRT’s executive committee members in Bangkok, March 2001. 20) These business groups changed their strategies in favor of the Thaksin government in July 2006, and shifted their political donations to the Democrat Party. 21) Author’s interview with the NESDB staffs in Bangkok, August 2001. This plan is officially named a “Strategies for Improvement of Quality of Economic Growth and Sustainable National Economic Development 2001–2006,” which consists of two parts and 28 items. 22) For a comparative study on the objectives, the process of policy-making, and the institutional framework between the IRP and the NCP, see Suehiro (2010). 23) In October of 2005, March and June of 2006, the NESDB submitted again and again revised drafts to the cabinet meeting because there was a sharp conflict between the Thaksin’s own ideas based on his state strategy and the NESDB’s original proposals based on the philosophy of “sufficiency economy” (setthakit phophiang) propounded by the king. For an account for the ideas behind the “sufficiency economy,” see UNDP (2007) and Suehiro (2009, Ch. 4). 24) Thaksin preferred to use the term “the economy of speed” rather than “the economy of scale,” because he liked very much the book, Business at the Speed of Thought, by Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 177; Vol. 2, 338). 25) Position and classification (P.C.) system for government officers was officially abolished by the Thaksin government before the 2006 military coup. 26) These fact findings and description on the rule of personnel management are based on the author’s survey on 750 persons in director generals and permanent secretaries in major ministries. This work was conducted in cooperation with Ukrist Pathmanand of Chulalongkorn University in 2004 and 2005. 27) For more detail information on reorganization of the government agencies, see two royal degrees concerning “Reforms of Ministries and Departments” on October 2, 2002 (in Thai), which are included into the Racha-kitchanubeksa (Royal Thai Government Gazette), Vol. 119, Part 99 Ko. (pp. 14–34) and Part 102 Ko. (pp. 66–85). 28) For more on Vishnu’s idea of administrative reforms, see Vishnu (2002). 29) Author’s interview with Nakharin Maektrairat, the Dean of Faculty of Political Science of Thammasat University in June 2006, in Tokyo. Concerning the implementation of “Strategic Plan for Public Sector Development,” Thaksin himself explicitly underlined its necessity in his speech of September 21, 2003 with the title of “Development of the Quality of Our Country under the CEO Regime” (Pran 2004, Vol. 1, 73–87). 30) Interviews conducted by the author at the Research and Planning Division of the BOB in August 2006, in Bangkok. 31) An idea of nation-wide pension scheme was abolished later due to the budget constraints. For an overview of social security system in Thailand, see Niwat (2004). 32) After the 2006 coup, the percentages of economic services have further decreased due to political needs of increasing general administration and health services. 33) In the process of reorganizing the government sector in October 2002, Thaksin changed again the status of the National Police Office into an independent body under the direct control of the prime minister. So, it is not adequate to integrate the budge of the National Police Office into line ­ministries. 34) After the end of the Thaksin government, the budget allocation for the central fund reincreased from 198 billion baht in FY2007 to 266 billion baht in FY2011. This recovery should be attributed to rapid increase of government subsidies for pensions and health insurance schemes for government officials. 35) Budget allocation of “30-baht medical services” amounted to 22 billion baht for FY2002, 27 billion baht for FY2003, 30 billion baht for FY2004, 36 billion baht for FY2005, and 40 billion baht for FY2006, respectively. After the 2006 coup, the Surayud government decided to reorganize the 30-baht medical services into a free medical services. As its result, budget allocation for health services in “revolving funds” jumped to 75 billion baht in FY2007 and finally increased to 101 billion baht in FY2011 (BOB, Thailand’s Budget in Brief, each edition). 36) For the case of village funds (77.5 billion baht), the Thaksin government appropriated a total of 60.5 billion baht from FY2002 to FY2006 in the Central Fund for the particular purpose of debt repayment (see Table 9). This implies that even if the majority of village funds resulted in non-performing loans (the worst scenario), the state could still recoup these debts. 37) Contrary to Thaksin’s expectation, the ad hoc committee addressed the basic idea of emphasizing the fiscal autonomy of local governments rather than agenda-based budget system, and was reluctant to revise the 1959 Act of the Budget in line with Thaksin’s idea. Interviews conducted by the author with the staffs of the BOB and Nakharin Maektrairat, a member of the ad hoc committee, in August 2006, in Bangkok. 38) For accounts of the political turmoil in Thailand since 2006, see Funston (2009), Pasuk and Baker (2009), Suehiro (2009), and Montesano et al. (2012). 39) “Ammathayathipatai” usually means a bureaucracy. Since 2009, however, it seems to have implied a political regime under the feudal system (Sakdina system) of Thailand in which common people (phrai) were forced to be subordinate to the king and high-ranked bureaucrats (ammat). Red-shirts group used the term “wirachon” as their key identical concept (Hero of a country, the key concept for the first democratization movement during the 1970s) in 2008 and 2009, but changed it to a “phrai” from the year of 2010. 40) In 2010, the World Bank announced that Thailand became a member of middle-income country (a country of per capita GNP from USD3,706 to 11,456). This implies that Thailand successfully upgraded her economic status from a developing country to a semi-advanced country. 41) Gini index of Thailand have slightly decreased from 0.43 in 2000 through 0.43 in 2006 to 0.39 in 2010. Economic inequality, therefore, has not been improved during the 2000s in comparison to rapid decline of poverty population in the same period (Suehiro 2014, Ch.8). 42) Prime Minister Yingluck lost her post by the order of the Constitutional Court on May 7, 2014, and the royalist-military group conducted the military coup d’etat again on May 22.

2019-04-22T22:15:29Z

https://englishkyoto-seas.org/2014/08/vol-3-no-2-suehiro-akira/

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"Carl Cohen's ‘kind’arguments FOR animal rights and AGAINST human rights." Journal of applied philosophy 21.1 (2004): 43-59. "Tom Regan on ‘Kind’ Arguments Against Animal Rights and For Human Rights," in The Moral Rights of Animals, ed. Engel and Comstock (Lexington, 2016). Tom Regan argues that human beings and some non-human animals have moral rights because they are “subjects of lives,” that is, roughly, conscious, sentient beings with an experiential welfare. A prominent critic, Carl Cohen, objects: he argues that only moral agents have rights and so animals, since they are not moral agents, lack rights. An objection to Cohen’s argument is that his theory of rights seems to imply that human beings who are not moral agents have no moral rights, but since these human beings have rights, his theory of rights is false, and so he fails to show that animals lack rights. Cohen responds that this objection fails because human beings who are not moral agents nevertheless are the “kind” of beings who are moral agents and so have rights, but animals are not that “kind” of being and so lack rights. Regan argues that Cohen’s “kind” arguments fail: they fail to explain why human beings who are not moral agents have rights and they fail to show that animals lack rights. Since Cohen’s “kind” arguments are influential, I review and critique Regan’s objections. I offer suggestions for stronger responses to arguments like Cohen’s. Tom Regan famously argues that some non-human animals have moral rights that make it prima facie wrong to eat, wear, or experiment on them or use them for other purposes that seriously harm them. Regan’s moral hypothesis is that beings who are “subjects of lives,” that is, roughly, conscious, sentient beings with experiential welfares, have a basic moral right to respectful treatment which supports, at least, moral rights to life and bodily integrity. Regan’s hypothesis concerning the basis of moral rights is supported, first, by its justifying the common view that a wide range of human beings have moral rights and, second, by its plausible explanation why human beings have rights or what makes them have rights: human beings have rights because they are conscious, sentient, psychologically unified beings whose lives can go better and worse for them, from their own point of view. This is true whether the individual human being is a genius or is mentally challenged, autonomous or dependent, accomplished or not. For human beings who have psychologies such that they can be harmed, that is, made worse off from their own point of view, basic moral rights make inflicting such harms prima facie morally wrong. Regan’s simple genius is to observe that many animals also have psychologies that make them subjects of lives and so the best explanation why human beings have rights applies to many animals: since human beings have moral rights because they are subjects of lives, then so do any animals who are subjects of lives. Thus, mammals and birds, perhaps vertebrates generally (and perhaps some invertebrates, if science reveals their mindedness) have basic moral rights. That is, unless there is good reason to believe otherwise. Is there? One way to object to Regan’s case for animal rights is to argue that nobody, including any human beings, has moral rights. This objection is not popular insofar as most people confidently believe, with good reason, that human beings have basic moral rights. Another way is to argue that no animals have psychologies that make them subjects of lives. This strategy, however, goes against the scientific current that supports belief that many animals have cognitive, emotional and social lives that are more sophisticated than anyone expected. This leaves the strategy of arguing that Regan’s theory of rights is mistaken. This objection is not that Regan is mistaken in thinking that human beings have rights, but that Regan does not correctly identify what it is about human beings that makes them have rights: human beings have rights but not because they are subjects of lives: human beings have rights because of some other property or properties they have, which animals do not have and so, although human beings have rights, animals do not. Carl Cohen has repeatedly developed this objection to Regan’s arguments. Cohen appears to accept what might be called a moral-agency-based theory of rights: human beings have moral rights because they are moral agents, that is, they are able to think in moral terms, use moral concepts, make moral evaluations, and choose to act for moral reasons. Moral-agency-based theories of rights are variants on what might be called rationality-based theories of rights, since a sophisticated kind of rationality, which animals lack, is required for moral agency. Cohen argues that animals do not, indeed cannot, have rights because they are not moral agents. Cohen insists however, that non-rational human beings – babies, severely mentally and/or emotionally challenged individuals, the senile, and other non-rational human beings – nevertheless have moral rights on his theory, despite their lack of moral agency. Call this the “right kind” premise. Combined with the claim that all human beings and no animals live lives that are “essentially moral,” we have an argument that we can call the “kind argument” for the conclusions that all animals lack rights and all human beings have rights. Since these claims can be separated, we might see these as two “kind” arguments, one for human rights and another against animal rights. Regan argues that these “kind” arguments fail: they fail to show that animals lack moral rights and they fail to show why human beings have rights because the “right kind premise,” shared by both arguments, is faulty. Here I review Regan’s responses to these “kind” arguments, beginning with simpler objections and later discussing his most philosophically rich objections. Since these “kind” arguments are influential, it is important that these arguments be evaluated rigorously. I offer suggestions for where Regan’s responses can be strengthened. These observations help us understand the why we might think that human beings, or their lives, are “essentially moral”: this is, arguably, a defining capacity for what it is to be a human being or live a “human life.” This interpretation would support a common thought that a human baby, and even a seriously mentally disabled baby, is the kind of being that is an “essentially moral” being but that a pig is not an “essentially moral” kind of being, and neither is any other animal. To put it another way, this interpretation of what it is to be an “essentially moral” being supports thinking that a correct answer to the question, “What kind of beings live lives that are essentially moral?” is ‘human beings’ and that an answer ‘chickens,’ or any other animals, would be incorrect. This interpretation supports Cohen’s premises that all human beings, even those who are not moral agents, are this kind of being and that no animals are, which are essential to his kind arguments about animal and human rights. While Regan later challenges this way of understanding Cohen’s claim, arguing that it is false that all human beings are “essentially moral,” or have essentially moral lives, the first objection I discuss accepts this as true about human beings. Individuals have rights if they are the kind of being whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral. This premise would leave open the question of whether beings that are not “essentially moral’ beings might have rights. But this isn’t Cohen’s premise, which offers sufficient and necessary conditions for having rights. So, Cohen’s conclusion does follow from his premises, logically (which, of course, does not mean that his argument is sound or any of his premises or his conclusion true). This objection misfires. A second objection Regan has to Cohen’s “right kind” argument for human rights is directed at Cohen’s premise that all human beings are the (or a) kind of being whose lives are “essentially moral.” Regan argues that Cohen fails to show this, and so fails to demonstrate that non-rational, non-moral-agent human beings have rights. Regan argues that, in making the claim that all human beings are the kind of beings are moral agents, Cohen commits something like the fallacy of division, which is to falsely attribute properties of groups or collections to each of the members of those groups: e.g., even though some car weighs a ton, it does not follow that each part of that car weighs a ton, even though a sports team can accomplish some task, it doesn’t follow that each player alone can accomplish that task. Regan argues, analogously, that even if human beings, as a group or class, are “essentially moral,” it does not follow that each individual human being is “essentially moral.” He gives the example of anencephalic infants, babies with a brain stem but no brain, as human beings that are clearly not essentially moral, since they are unable to be conscious, given their condition. Regan says that if we consider these human beings “essentially moral,” we might as well also say that they have “intellectual curiosity, aesthetic preference and long-term plans about their futures.” Since all these claims would be false, Regan concludes that it is false that these infants also are essentially moral. Since Cohen’s defense of the rights of non-rational human beings who are not moral agents defends on the claim that they are “essentially moral,” Regan argues that Cohen’s defense fails. Thus, this objection does not seem to refute Cohen’s claims that human beings are a “kind” of being that is essentially moral and that animals are not that kind of being. To do this, and to be in a position to potentially refute Cohen’s “right-kind” premise, we need to look more carefully at the nature of kinds. Regan’s next objection sets us up to do just that. V. Third Objection: False Implications for Rational Moral Agent Extraterrestrials? In the essay “Mapping Human Rights” in Defending Animal Rights, Regan explicitly argues that the “right-kind” premise is false (pp. 79-80). His argument involves a thought experiment: imagine that there is a small groups of extraterrestrials (“E.T. and his friends”) who clearly are rational moral agents. They too have the cognitive and moral capacities that Cohen claims that human beings have, “essentially.” But, these extraterrestrials are “genetic aberrations” and so being a rational moral agent is neither essential nor even typical of their species, their kind, Regan claims. 1. If the “right kind” premise is true and so “individuals have rights, if and only if, they are the kind of being whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral,” then these extraterrestrials do not have moral rights. 2. But these extraterrestrials do have moral rights. 3. Therefore, it is not the case that “individuals have rights, if and only if, they are the kind of being whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral,” and so the “right-kind” premise is false. Premise 2 seems true since these extraterrestrials are just like human beings, in their rational-emotive-moral capacities, except they are not biologically human. Denying premise 2 would be extreme speciesism. Regan thinks that 1 is true because, since these extraterrestrials are genetic aberrations, their “kind” is not essentially moral. Since E.T. and his friends have rights even though they are not of an essentially moral kind the “right kind” premise is false: the premise claims that a necessary condition for having rights is being the “right kind,” but that is not so, as the case shows. This objection succeeds only if the right “kind” is determined solely by the species that the individual is a member of. But why think that? The notion of a “kind,” intuitively, is flexible enough to allow that E.T. is of a kind of being, or is a kind of being, that is a moral agent, since he is a moral agent. We might say that, in terms of his species, he is not of a “kind” that’s a rational moral agent, since that’s not typical or normal for his species, but that he is of the “kind” moral agent nevertheless. After all, if we asked which “kind” or “kinds” of beings are moral agents, E.T. and his friends should be on the list. Why not? Cohen provides no reason to deny this. If E.T. is of the, or a, “right kind,” however, Regan’s argument does not show that the right kind premise is false: the case could even be taken as evidence in favor of the “right kind” premise. Individuals have rights, if and only if, they are of a species whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral. A premise like this presumes that general properties can be had by a species: insofar as claims like “humans are bipedal” and “Homo sapiens is a bipedal species” make sense, a premise like this is, at least, coherent. But Regan’s E.T. case seems to shows that this premise is false, insofar as it claims a necessary condition for rights: E.T. has rights even if he is not of a species that is “essentially moral.” So, if this were Cohen’s intended premise, it is false. Individuals have rights if they are of a species whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral. But this premise, offering a sufficient condition for rights, leaves open the possibility for moral rights for beings not of essentially moral species: it doesn’t imply that animals lack rights. This was explained above, in section III concerning Regan’s first objection. To return to Regan’s argument above, it is sound only if E.T. is not of the “right kind,” and the right kind is set by species. Regan seems to assume that, at least for purposes of interpreting Cohen, the right kind is species, but there is no reason to assume this, and there are reasons to deny this, insofar as rational human beings and E.T. are of a same kind, such as “moral agent.” The E.T. case shows that the “right-kind-as-set-by-species-premise” is false, but perhaps Cohen would agree with that, since E.T. is a rational moral agent. To try to show that the “right kind” premise is false, and/or argue that it is false that all human beings are of the “right kind” and not animals are of the “right kind,” we must think more even more deeply about kinds and what reasons might be given in favor of the “right kind” premise and the premises that humans are, and animals are not, the right kind. The final relevant discussion from Regan, at least that I could find, is from his 1999 “Putting People in Their Place,” in his Defending Animal Rights. Although he does not directly address “kind” arguments, he discusses a view that “persons,” i.e., rational and autonomous beings, have rights because they are rational and autonomous, and only persons have rights. This view, of course, has dim moral implications for animals as well as human beings who are not persons according to this definition, e.g., babies and severely mentally challenged individuals. Advocates of this view sometimes respond by claiming that these human beings have rights because of their potential to be rational and autonomous, or because (concerning many babies) they will become rational and autonomous. This is very close to saying that they are of the “right kind,” since, as we saw above in Regan’s interpretation of Cohen, Regan explains how non-rational human beings might be said to be of the kind “moral agent” by referencing their potential for agency and, in many cases, their future agency. Regan has two responses to the view that human non-persons have rights in virtue of their potential or their actual future rationality. His second response (which does not address “kind”-related claims) is to observe that some severely disabled human beings will not become rational, autonomous moral agents and even lack the potential to do so: a doctor might truthfully say of a severely disabled baby that he or she will never become rational, lacks the potential for rationality, cannot become rational, that rationality is not a possibility and so on. If actual, potential or future rationality is needed for rights, then these human beings lack rights. Regan responds, however, that children like these, insofar as they can be the “subject of a life that fares well or ill for them,” have basic moral rights. He concludes that potential or future rationality is not logically necessary for having rights. Regan’s initial objection to the view that potential or future rationality is sufficient for rights, however, is more interesting. He observes that this premise, as well as a broader “kind” premise that might encompass human beings who are subjects of lives but lack the potential for moral agency (the subject of Regan’s previous objection), seems to imply that human embryos and fetuses have moral rights. As biologically human organisms or beings, they have the potential to be moral agents, many of them will become moral agents, and it seems to make sense to say that they are the “kind” of being that is a moral agent: we might say a human embryo is that “kind” of being, but a squirrel embryo is not. If having this potential, or being of this “kind,” is sufficient for having moral rights, then embryos and fetuses would seem to have rights, and embryo research and abortion would seem to be prima facie wrong. Although there are complicating factors, the same could perhaps be argued about human euthanasia or physician assisted suicide, even if voluntary or non-voluntary (i.e., not involuntary), since the dying person is the “kind” of being who is a moral agent and so has rights. Regan’s response here is to observe that many, perhaps most, people who try to grant non-rational human beings rights by appealing to their potential and/or “kind” “characteristically wish to disassociate themselves from the view that routinely permitting elective abortion is wrong.” So, Regan observes an inconsistency: people who argue that individual beings who are the “kind” of beings who are moral agents have moral rights often don’t realize that fetuses are this “kind” of being also, and these people often believe that fetuses do not have rights. “Kind” arguments are often developed in the contexts of trying to evade the pro-animal implications of a moral hypothesis like Regan’s “subject of a life” theory of rights. But the “kind” premise, often developed to avoid the conclusion that animals have rights, seems to have the implication that abortion is wrong, which many advocates of the “kind” premise don’t believe. Regan does not reveal his views on fetal rights and the morality of abortion: he only observes that the “kind” premise seems to have implications for abortion that many of its advocates don’t accept. It is understandable that Regan would want to avoid making any claims about the morality of abortion: it’s a distraction from the animal issues and his views on abortion, whatever they may be, could be taken (rightfully or wrongfully) as evidence against his arguments about animals. But to successfully argue that the “kind premise” is false, not merely inconsistent (or at least in possible tension) with many people’s views about abortion, Regan may have to evaluate “kind” premises in terms of their implications for other moral issues. This may require addressing abortion and some other controversial moral issues, beyond animal rights. This can be done in more and less controversial ways, however. The more controversial way would be to argue that embryos and early fetuses, as well as near- certainly permanently comatose (or similar) individuals, lack rights. Regan could argue that the latter lack conscious experience and any realistic potential for its return, and so cannot be harmed by death, and so they lack the right to life (since the right to life is to protect against the harm of death); and embryos and fetuses have not had conscious experience yet, and so cannot be made worse off, and thus have no need for rights to protect them from death, which would not (yet) harm them. Since the “kind premise” falsely implies that these human beings, i.e., biologically human organisms, have rights, but they don’t, the premise is false. This strategy would require that Regan close the question of whether being a subject of a life (or at least conscious and sentient) is not just sufficient, but also necessary, for having rights. This strategy, of course, does require stating a conclusion on these other moral issues. For those who accept these “liberal” conclusions on these issues, however, their understanding this objection to the “kind” argument may give them reason to be more receptive to arguments for animal rights. A less controversial strategy would be to argue either that there is no good reason to believe that the “kind premise” is true or, perhaps, to argue that it is false. This can be done, fortunately, without taking a position on the morality of abortion or euthanasia. This would be to argue that, e.g., even if abortion is wrong, the “kind” premise supplies a poor reason to believe that: it is a premise of a bad argument for the conclusion that abortion is wrong. Showing that the “kind” premise fails concerning other bioethical issues can be important to showing how it fails for moral arguments about animals. Individuals have rights if they are the kind of being whose lives will be, have been or remain essentially moral or have the potential for that. (2) Human non-moral agents are the same “kind” of being as human moral agents. (3) Human non-moral agents have rights because of what “kind” they are, the same “kind” of being that the moral agents are. (4) For every Non rational human, if N is the same “kind” of being as Moral agents, and M has the property of Agency, and property A result in Rights, then each N has R. (5) For every Non rational human, if N is the same “kind” of being as M, and M has the property of A, and property A result in R, then each N has R. four-limbed, bipedal, able to see, able to walk, able to tell jokes, able to do basic math, able to be responsible, able to be autonomous, (recalling Regan’s observations) have “intellectual curiosity, aesthetic preference and long-term plans about their futures,” and much else that is true of their – i.e., our – kind, including capacities for evil and criminal wrongdoing. Many of these other truths about our kind M, however, imply other properties A and R, but non-rational human beings clearly lack A or R. For examples, even though non-rational human beings are the “kind” of being that is autonomous and self-directing, it would be wrong to let non-rational human beings make all the decisions about their own lives that we allow adults to make: they lack those rights. And although non-rational human beings are the “kind” of beings that can walk and see, and being able to walk and see results in other abilities (and some rights too), non-rational human beings who cannot walk or see lack those other abilities and rights. In these cases, and many more, we either deem irrelevant these human beings being the same “kind” as moral agents, since it would be deeply wrong to treat them as moral agents are treated. What’s relevant to how they are treated is that they are as individuals or that they are also of another “kind,” namely something like Regan’s “subjects of lives” (we can either say that they are of the kind “subjects of lives,” or simply that they are subjects of lives: the former addition of “kind” seems to ad nothing to the explanation). If it is said that these human beings deserve respect because they are subjects of lives and they are the kind “moral agent,” it is unclear what this latter condition adds. These examples show that, in general, being of an M kind does not always result in any related A or R properties: (5), as a generalization, then, is false. Other examples could surely be developed to confirm that being of a particular “kind” does not, in general, result in having more particular properties or capacities or even rights that result from being of that kind. This supports thinking that, at least, there is no good reason to believe (4). Accepting (4) is analogous to believing that potential persons have the rights of actual persons (because they are potential persons), even though potential doctors, judges, presidents, parents, spouses and on and on lack the rights of actual doctors, presidents, and so on. Since potential never results in rights in any other cases, there is no reason to believe it does in the case of personhood. Since, as a matter of bold conjecture, (5) is false with any other M, A and R kinds and properties, there is no good reason believe that (4), as a more particular version of the premise, is true. It could be true, just as it could be true that potential personhood results in the rights of actual persons, but unless and until any good reasons are given to believe this (and none have been given), premises like this should not be believed: perhaps they should be even judged as false. Someone might just insist that (4) is true, but unless he or she has any good reasons to offer in support of this insistence, we shouldn’t agree. What this all shows is that “kind arguments” for the rights of non-moral agents human beings fail at their major premise: even though all human beings, or human organisms, can be described as the “kind” of beings who or that are moral agents, there is no good reason to believe that each individual human being has the moral properties, such as moral rights, that result from being that “kind.” These arguments fail whether these biologically human beings or organisms are born or unborn, with genuine potential for moral agency or not (due to damage or an impending death). People who believe that abortion and/or euthanasia are wrong can accept this: Regan need not challenge these conclusions. However, to rationally retain these conclusions, they would need to be held on the basis of reasons other than a “kind” argument. Their seeing that “kind arguments” provide an inadequate defense for rights for vulnerable, non-moral-agent human beings can help them see that “kind arguments” provide no good reason to believe that animals lack rights. Cohen’s “kind arguments” are influential insofar as they are version of what is often called “The Argument from Marginal Cases,” that is, most simply, the claim that since human beings with mental and emotional lives similar to many animals’ mental and emotional lives have moral rights, so do many animals. · What “kind” of beings are human beings who are rational moral agents? · What “kind” of beings are human beings who are not rational or moral agents? · What “kind” of beings are non-human animals? · What exactly is a “kind”? · How many “kinds” are each individuals? · Are humans and animals of different “kinds”? · Are rational humans and non-rational humans of some different “kinds”? · Are different animals of some of the same, and some different, “kinds”? · Are humans and animals some of the same “kinds”? · What kinds are morally relevant, or most morally relevant? · When, how, and why exactly, do individuals of one kind gain properties of other individuals who are of the same kind, yet are very different? “You say that humans who are moral agents and humans who are not moral agents are the same “kind” of being, namely “moral agents.” Some humans are moral agents and have rights because they are moral agents. Since human beings who are not moral agents are of the same “kind,” that is, since they are of the same “kind” species, these non-moral-agent human beings have rights. Correct? Identifying what, if anything, has gone wrong with this “kind argument” for animal rights requires careful and well-reasoned answers to the bulleted questions above. Rigorously pursuing these questions, standing on Tom Regan’s “philosophical shoulders,” so to speak, is what must be done if we are to either confirm Regan’s theory that our being “subjects of lives” is what’s most relevant to our moral kind, or to rationally refute his view, with intellectual and moral integrity. Only time will tell, but I hope, and I believe with good reason, that this paper will contribute to the former end, surely a kinder conclusion, for humans and, especially, for animals. See, among other writings, Carl Cohen’s contribution to his and Regan’s The Animal Rights Debate (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001 and his “The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research,” New England Journal of Medicine 315: 865-870, October 2, 1986. Scott Wilson mentions Cohen in his “The Species-Norm Account of Moral Status,” Between the Species: An Electronic Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals, 5 (2005) but does not discuss Cohen’s arguments because, according to Wilson, Cohen “does not offer any argument for the claim that the moral status of a being depends on what is normal for her species [Wilson’s interpretation of Cohen’s relevant “kind”]; rather, he merely asserts that this is so” (p. 29, note 11). The Animal Rights Debate, p. 277; Animal Rights, Human Wrongs, p.111. Animal Rights, Human Wrongs, p. 110. This is the only objection to the “kind” argument in Animal Rights, Human Wrongs. It is also found in The Animal Rights Debate. Animal Rights, Human Wrongs, p. 111, emphasis mine; The Animal Rights Debate, pp. 277-278. The Animal Rights Debate, pp. 278-279. Regan’s paper was presented in 1997. This example is similar to Jeff McMahan’s “superchimp” example, developed in his much discussed 1996 article “Cognitive Disability, Misfortune and Justice,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 25, No, 1, 3-35. Neil Levy offers a premise like this in his “Cohen and Kinds: a Response to Nathan Nobis,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 21.2 (2004): 213-217. He suggests that species membership is the only morally relevant “kind” for rights, that is, that an individual has rights if, and only if, that individual is of the species that has, e.g., moral agency as a defining capacity. Below I argue that such a principle is false, if embryos and early, pre-conscious fetuses lack rights and some biologically alive, but non-conscious, individuals in end of life cases lack rights such as a right to life: basically, not all properties had by humans from being of a “kind” of being are had by all individual human beings. If we, human beings, and E.T. here can be considered the same “kind,” then it seems that we, human beings, and many animals (or all animals) can be considered the same “kind” also: e.g., the kinds “subjects of lives,” or “conscious, sentient beings,” “living beings,” “things found on Earth,” “existing things,” and on and an, all of which are “natural kinds,” as opposed to arbitrary, “unnatural” groupings: e.g., things that fit in a breadbox or are light blue. I discuss the relevance of this below. “Putting People in Their Place,” in Defending Animal Rights, p. 98. Peter Markie claims that the relevant “potential” for these non-rational humans (who lack the medical potential to become rational moral agents) is defined by the “defining characteristics of [a species’] fully developed members” (p. 41): so, in response to the physician who truthfully claims a disabled infant has no potential for rationality, Markie apparently might think that this fact is less relevant to what should be done here than facts about what normal, developed members of the species are like. Mackie claims that these human being’s “potential” ought to be respected and so treated as if they have rights (but animals, since they lack this potential, need not be treated as if they have rights). Concerning fetuses, he denies the relevance of their potential by claiming, without argument, that only “subjects” (i.e., conscious beings) have rights (p. 45). It is highly unclear, at least to me, what reasons, if any, Markie gives for any of his views here, however: he seems to repeatedly insist that non-rational humans ought to be treated as if they had rights, but his support of this claim is not clear. See his “Respect for people and animals.” The Journal of Value Inquiry 38.1 (2004): 33-47. Francis Beckwith develops an argument against abortion appealing to a premise like this in his Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. I respond in my “Abortion, Metaphysics and Morality: A Review of Francis Beckwith’s Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 36.3 (2011): 261-273. Robert George and Christopher Tollefsen offer similar arguments in their Embryo: A Defense of Human Life. Random House Digital, Inc., 2008. I offer an (unpublished) critical review of that book off my webpage. A complication results from thinking that moral rights are prima facie, or impose prima facie obligations, and are so overrideable in special cases. One could thereby maintain that embryos, fetuses and/or the permanently comatose actually have rights, e.g., the right to life, but that their rights are overridden or defeated by the circumstances and special features of the case, and so the prima facie obligation to not harm or kill is no longer in force. Alternatively, and more plausibly, one could believe that these individuals simply do not have rights: they have yet to gain the properties that result in their having rights or they have lost these properties. In Body and Soul: Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics (Intervarsity Press, 2000), J.P. Moreland and Scott Rae develop a position similar to what was mentioned above, as well as Beckwith’s (and Cohen’s), and apply it to euthanasia, as well as abortion and number of other issues. They argue that PVS patients, who are irreversibly unconscious, are persons with all the moral rights of persons due to their “essential nature” (p. 335). Nevertheless, they claim it can be permissible to let such persons with rights die when treatment is futile. However, they reject arguments that it’s permissible to let such patients die because they are no longer persons and/or have lost the properties that result in their having moral rights. Whether arguments like Beckwith’s, Moreland’s and Rae’s could be developed to reinforce arguments like Cohen’s, and vice versa, is a topic worthy of attention. Thomson, Judith Jarvis. “A Defense of Abortion.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1.1 (1971): 47-66. I develop this view in my response to Beckwith, cited above. For a similar premise, see an article by Matthew Liao, originally titled, “Virtually All Human Beings as Rightholders: The Species-Norm Account,” published as “The Basis of Human Moral Status,” Journal of Moral Philosophy, Volume 7, Issue 2, pages 159 – 179. Liao offers a “species-norm” theory of rights, that if something has the genetic or physical basis for moral agency (assuming there is such a thing or things), then that something has basic moral rights. Liao’s “aim is to set out this account clearly rather than to defend it” (abstract), so he does not really argue in its favor; my reply to this view is that in no other case does merely having the genetic or physical basis for doing or being Y does that result in that someone the rights of someone who really does or has Y, and so Liao’s proposal is ad hoc. For another reply, see Christopher Grau, “Moral Status, Speciesism, and Liao's Genetic Account,” Journal of Moral Philosophy 7 (2010): 387-396. For Liao’s response to Grau, see “The Genetic Account of Moral Status: A Defense,” Journal of Moral Philosophy 9(2) 2012: 265-277. Regan, The Animal Rights Debate, pp. 278-279. I am grateful to Dan Hooley for discussion of these issues. Someone might insist that having rights is an “essential property” of our “kind.” In David Boonin’s A Defense of Abortion (Cambridge, 2002) he discusses what he calls “essential property arguments” in favor of fetal rights (pp. 49-55). He observes that “there are many rights that we believe we possess at some stages in our lives and not at others” (p. 55) and so merely being of the same “kind” is insufficient reason to believe that human beings always have some particular moral properties or they are essential to human organisms. Daniel Dombrowski, Babies and Beasts: The Argument from Marginal Cases (University of Illinois, 1997). Arguments in this section are related to earlier arguments I developed in my “Carl Cohen's ‘Kind’ Arguments For Animal Rights and Against Human Rights,” Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 43-59, 2004. Further discussion will be found in my “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda: Modal Moral Arguments,” with Devon Belcher, in progress.

2019-04-25T02:02:43Z

https://www.nathannobis.com/2017/03/carl-cohens-kindarguments-for-animal.html

The eleventh book of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency confronts Mma Precious Ramotswe with three variations on the theme of an unhappy woman. One is a lady who wants proof that her husband is cheating on her, even though he isn't. Another is the domineering aunt of Mr. Phuti Radiphuti, fiance of assistant detective Mma Grace Makutsi, who refuses to let Mma Makutsi see him while he recovers from an accident that cost him part of one leg. Then there is Mma Makutsi's nemesis, Violet Sepotho, whose latest scheme may cost a well-meaning man his house, unless Mma Ramotswe can come up with a legal way around an iron-clad contract. While the solution to one of these problems depends on the pushiness of orphan-farm matron Mma Sylvia Potokwane, it is the soft-hearted kindness of Mma Ramotswe that prevails in most circumstances. Mma Makutsi has an opportunity to appreciate the amazing gentleness of that lady as she sympathizes with the nastiest people, simply because they are unhappy. The biggest case for the agency, however, is a matter of a very happy woman - an American lady who has recently become late, to borrow a whimsical phrase familiar from the earlier books in this Botswana-based series. Author McCall Smith, himself a native of Africa, finally gets around to explaining why this euphemism for death is used: it has a way of making one feel still connected to people who have passed away. The late American lady felt connected to a tour guide on an African safari, and now the executor of his will wants Mma Ramotswe's help finding that guide, so he can receive a gift of $3,000. Mma Ramotswe's kindness makes her the right person for this happy mission, though it means a long and perilous journey into a remote part of Botswana, accompanied by her trusty assistant. Mma Makutsi, who often hears her shoes talking to her, was glad to come along on her first-ever business trip because it involved the purchase of a new pair of boots; but the chances of meeting a lion, or a panther, or a crocodile, or a hippo, leave her scared stiff while the boss tries to work out which tour guide deserves to inherit $3,000. Recognizing a good man proves to be easier than determining which one is the right man - but kindness, as always, finds a way. The series continues to make me happy with its gentle wit, its descriptive exploration of previously unvisited scenery, and its unmocking portrayal of lovable characters who enjoy a somewhat simpler and more graceful life in this age of hurry and rudeness. There is an innocence about them that makes one feel protective of them, even though they have already borne experiences many of us are spared. It is a good series to read if you want to see a bigger world and to feel the concerns you live with are small indeed. Next in the sequence is The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party. The fourth book in the Isabel Dalhousie series finds the 40-something Edinburgh-based philosopher bringing up a bonnie baby named Charlie, struggling to patch up her relationship with niece Cat after getting romantically involved with Cat's ex-boyfriend Jamie, responding to a palace coup on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Ethics, and solving a mystery involving something a bit off about some art works by a deceased Scottish painter that recently went on sale. More than some of the previous books in this series (sometimes described as "novels" rather than "mysteries"), this book really has a mystery in it, one with an unusually satisfying payoff for a mystery author who has trained his fans to accept and appreciate something other than a conventional whodunit. It also has some instances of Isabel behaving in ways that make one uncomfortable - not altogether admirable, heroine-type behavior, this go-round. She admits at the end, for example, that she turns out to have done the right thing - but until she saw the outcome, she wasn't sure it was so. The incidents in this book play up the conflict for Isabel between serving her interest and doing what is right, between her moral duty to help and a tendency to interfere. And sometimes her judgment isn't quite sound. The book leaves a lingering sense of ambiguity about how well its issues are settled. Amid the squirming and wrestling with ethical puzzles, which one ought to expect in a book about a moral philosopher, there are pages of beautiful description of parts of Scotland the series hasn't visited before. These include the Isle of Jura, right up to the remote house where George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, and a remote part of Perthshire too. The reader gazes through the lens of McCall Smith's compressed lyricism at one of the most dangerous stretches of water around the British Isles, and into the home lives of families that harbor secrets, guilt, and grudges. His prose opens a portal onto peaceful country scenes with mountain and ocean views and freshly scented air abuzz with insects, as well as the snug atmosphere of high-culture Edinburgh, a haunt of painters, writers, lawyers, and musicians; people who have housekeepers and private chefs, or who drop in on a delicatessen for focaccia with olives. I suspect visiting this book's Scotland might be a journey of the imagination even for some people living in Scotland. But it is very soothing to the senses after a long day of ordinary work in an ordinary, small American town. It is like a touch of a rare herb giving a special savor to a mundane dish. In its low-key, rarely exciting way it both stimulates and relaxes, rewards the imagination and provides cultural and ethical food for thought. Next in the series is The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday, a.k.a. The Comfort of Saturdays. The full title of this number is "Joshua Hymn: For a Devout Heart." The tune I had in mind for it is O GOTT, DU FROMMER GOTT from Braunschweig, 1648. This particular "heroes of the faith"-type hymn is mainly drawn from one place in the Book of Joshua, his speech to the children of Israel in Joshua 24. I thought it was due for a little rescuing from the "Choose whom you will serve!" type of ditty that calls on the listener to make a decision for Christ. I can't help noticing, reading the text, that the only "choice" Joshua offers the children of Israel is to follow the false gods of Babylon and Canaan. In contrast to that, he actually tells them, "You cannot serve the Lord!" To us has been extended! All good thereby we get. Made safe from sin and hell. True God and our own choice. In the third of what are now ten or eleven "Isabel Dalhousie novels," the Edinburgh-based editor of The Journal of Applied Ethics, takes an interest in an engaged couple from Texas visiting Scotland over the summer. She suspects Angie is after Tom's money first, and after Jamie, Isabel's good-looking young male friend, second; she is surprised to learn, later on, that Tom is attracted to her, Isabel. But after once again tottering on the line between performing her moral duty to a neighbor and nosing into other people's business, she must wonder whether her hasty judgment was part cause of a near-tragedy. Meanwhile, Isabel's search for a flat to buy for her housekeeper Grace leads to a misunderstanding about her relationship to Jamie - the scorned ex-boyfriend of her niece Cat, on whom Isabel has long had a crush of her own. But their friendship suddenly flowers into a romance that she has long desired. She spends a lot of time worrying about how people will perceive their affair, since she is the older by 14 years; but everyone seems okay with it except, with surprising vehemence, Cat. This installment has a lot of interesting developments for the series' recurring characters, including one at the end that comes as a real surprise. But the chief source of pleasure in reading it is to be around Isabel, with her quirky trains of thought, her meditations on proper behavior, her eye for the beauties of Scottish scenery, her ear for good Scottish poetry, her memory of the sordid details of Scottish history, and her nose for trouble. She feels a kinship toward the fox in her garden; she has a fondness for the shy young man who works in Cat's delicatessen; she has an old heartache in her past, and a new appreciation of her "sainted American mother's" flawed humanity; and she has, at last, the ability to overcome her cautious streak and do something spontaneous. McCall Smith, also the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and numerous other books, jams a lot of Scotland into this one book, and each book in this series. It goes on in The Careful Use of Compliments. I mentioned in my review of David Almond's excellent book Kit's Wilderness that the silver Michael L. Printz Honor Book medal is probably a better sale driver than the gold Printz Award itself, since I for one love many runners-up for that young adult fiction award, but almost never touch the winners. Well, this book, Skellig, is one of those lucky runners-up, and that silver medal is proudly embossed on its cover, at least in its American editions. But perhaps more importantly, it went for the gold in the Carnegie Medal race of 1998 - that's the highest award for children's literature in the U.K. Even more notably, it was named among the "70th Anniversary Top Ten" of that award in 2007. So it stands in some very classy company. Maybe they left that bit off the American covers just because the Printz Award is American. But I find it neat to think of this book in the company of Mary Norton's The Borrowers, Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden, and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights (American Title: The Golden Compass). Folks familiar with Kit's Wilderness may notice some shared themes between these two books, such as the image of a baby sister being held close to a teenaged brother's heart, and a preoccupation with aspects of the theory of evolution. Both books are examples of the young-adult strain of magical realism: stories that combine real-world settings and characters with strange phenomena, such as ghosts, fictional characters appearing in reality, and psychic communication. In this book, a middle-school student named Michael is having trouble dealing with his family's move into a fixer-upper house in a strange new neighborhood, where he is now a bus ride away from his school and his football (soccer) friends; at the same time, his baby sister's serious illness puts a strain on the whole family. In a rebellious mood, he ignores his parents' warning to stay out of the rickety garage, which could collapse any moment. There, behind an abandoned chest of drawers, he discovers an extraordinary creature who eventually (Page 87 in my edition) admits that his name is Skellig. Who or what Skellig is, Michael and Mina, the home-schooled girl down the street, can only guess. They only know they must keep him secret. They must move him to a safer place. And they must try to help him get better. Skellig seems to have given up on life, slouching in the darkness, eating spiders and mice, while suffering arthritis pain and general weakness. He's a funny fellow, though. He coughs up pellets of compacted fur and bone after eating small creatures, rather like the digestive byproducts of an owl. He is lighter than he looks, perhaps due to having hollow bones. Also, he has beautiful, white, feathery wings. He could, Michael realizes, be the very thing his unnamed baby sister needs as she faces a critical heart operation. And she could be just what Skellig needs too. Rich in emotion, full of family love, laced with quotations from William Blake and meaningful glances from a blackbird and a cat named Whisper, scented with the aroma of Chinese takeaway, and decorated with the art works of a couple of surprisingly talented kids - one of whom is also a killer footballer - this book deserves every carat of its Carnegie gold and may, if I may be excused for supposing it, have been robbed of the first-ever Printz award. It's a novel in which the unchallenged acceptance of the theory of evolution exists side-by-side with an equally unapologetic belief in angels. It is full of unexplained strangeness, touches of impulsive fun, interesting side characters, and a lean, sinewy grace that drives the dramatic momentum. It doesn't end a word late, and arrives at the finish line with plenty of the reader's attention to spare. And it now has a prequel, titled My Name Is Mina. With this book, British author David Almond won the second-ever Michael L. Printz Award in 2001 from the Young Adult Library Services Association in the U.S., a year after being a runner-up for the same award with Skellig. Both books have been on my shelf of "award-winning fiction for young readers" for several years, like airplanes circling over O'Hare Airport, waiting for clearance to land. Their chance finally came during a weekend of sickness when I had nothing to do but lie on my back and wait for the next dose of medicine. I was happy to discover that this book wasn't about a lone boy's struggle to survive in a desolate wilderness, a type of story that I can only bear to read so often. And in spite of being a title on the winners' list of an award whose other winners hold no interest for me, I realized quickly that I had fallen into the grip of a great story - the kind that is usually robbed of glory when the boring book awards are announced. For example, while this is my first time reading a Printz award winner, several of my favorite books are among its honorable mentions, including The Ropemaker by the late and lamented Peter Dickinson, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, I Am the Messenger and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson, and The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. I hate to hand it to the YALSA, but their silver "honor" medal is probably more of a selling point than their gold "award" one. This book may help sweeten my expectations of those top award winners. So, Kit's Wilderness is very good for an award-winning book, and it's also not about a kid eating berries in the woods. Actually there is a subplot about a kid scratching a meager living out of the ground, sort of a story-within-a-story, but by the time that starts up, you're already hooked on a teen-friendly example of the up-and-coming genre known as magical realism. In adult fiction terms, that's the school of literature pioneered by Gabriel "Love in the Time of Cholera" García Márquez. In kid terms, it's a story set in a convincingly real English town, full of convincingly real characters (kids as well as grown-ups) with convincingly real problems; yet without taking away any of that, it's all shot through with paranormal weirdness and, well, magic. Kit Watson, aged 13, is the new boy in Stoneygate, but his family goes way back in the town's history. Another Kit Watson, aged 13, died in a coal mine disaster about a hundred years ago, and present-day Kit's newly widowed grandpa still tells stories about working in those mines. Another present-day kid whose namesake, also aged 13, is listed on the mine disaster memorial is John Askew, a burly, surly type who has some pretty dark ideas. Imagine a loner who goes everywhere with a vicious dog at his heels, who gathers a clique of misfits around him to play a disturbing game called Death. Kit gets pulled into it, partly by a fascination with the repellant yet magnetic Askew, partly to chase a cute girl named Allie. But things get out of control for young Askew and he ends up first expelled from school, then running away. Kit, meanwhile, is increasingly distracted by visions of ghostly children, spirits of those buried deep in the coal tunnels. Besides this, he has to deal with his grandpa's decline into dementia, and a story he is writing for school that becomes so real to him, its characters spill out into reality. The weirdness builds with an urgency of purpose, until it seems the only way to save John, Grandpa, and an ice-age hero named Lek is to save them all at once. And for Kit, that means descending into a terrifying, ancient darkness. This is a very strange book. It is a strangely wonderful book. It is a wonderfully dark book. It is a darkly beautiful book. It is in that rare and treasured category of books that made me laugh and sob, repeatedly. It is a book whose layered complexity could have come across as tortured and artificial, but that instead manages to convey a powerful natural unity through images, phrases, and ideas that cycle round and round, building up to cyclone force. It is such a strong book that I actually took a break from reading it to ransack my book collection until I made sure I also had Skellig - which I then read the same evening. And I now want to read more by David Almond, whose titles include The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon and The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas. These stories happened to me last week. My mother would love them. You know you're going to have a nasty experience when the plumber's advice over the phone begins, "First, put down some towels." On the occasion of a persistently blocked toilet a few nights ago, my local plumber went on to say, "Then ride that plunger like it's a pogo-stick." As he predicted, the contents of the toilet went everywhere. I mean everywhere. Poop, toilet paper, water, and mostly an indistinguishable melange of the three - everywhere. I didn't put down enough towels. I could not have. It was a hideous experience. The cleanup took ages. I ended up throwing out the shirt I was wearing and about six of my older bath towels, including the two that have been serving as beds for my cats, after mopping up the gross stuff with them. Then I mopped the floor with Pine Sol. Then I Swiffer Wet mopped it. Then I Swiffer Dry mopped it. I also showered and changed clothes. Somewhere in this horror, the truly crowning calamity happened. The bath rug, that I had first rolled out of the way during the early stages of my plumbing ordeal and later draped over the side of the tub, had to be transferred to the shower curtain rod to keep it out of the way - and as I did so, something dripped out of it and hit me in the face. In my open mouth and eyes, to boot. I have no idea what that liquid was. I hope it was just water that splashed out of the mop bucket when I filled it in the tub. Luckily, I'm on antibiotics now (for an unrelated condition). I've been sick for an entire week now. I came down with symptoms last Saturday night. Church was canceled Sunday due to icy road conditions, so I stayed in bed through most of the day. I had a demanding work week, never making it home earlier than 8:30 p.m. between Monday and Wednesday and an hour later than that at least one night. I wasn't getting well. In fact, I had a couple really rough nights when, for a while at least, the effort of breathing became so great that I thought I might have pneumonia. I packed my overnight bag one night and was going to the office to use the internet to help me decide which hospital to go to, but the cold air made me feel a little better, so I decided to go to Walmart instead and buy some over-the-counter stuff. You know: Theraflu, Vaporub, that kind of thing. The Versailles Walmart looked dark and abandoned. I didn't think it was open, so I drove to the somewhat larger village of Eldon, a good 18 miles away - only to learn that its Walmart was definitely closed at that time of night. I tried a convenience store on the way home, but they didn't have what I wanted either. I ended up going home with nothing to show for my trip but a full tank of gas. I felt really stupid the next day when my boss told me the Versailles Walmart is open 24 hours a day. I took Thursday off to lie in bed and try to heal - with Theraflu, Vaporub, and the rest this time - but I was still ill on Friday. So my boss and co-workers ganged up on me and sent me to the doctor. Now, I've never visited a doctor since I moved out to these parts. I had to choose a primary care physician when I signed up for health insurance, but I had never visited her. When I called her office Friday, her receptionist said she was too busy to see new patients. So I had to go to Urgent Care in Eldon. The doc there tested me for the flu, but the test was negative. She saw some redness in my mouth, though, and heard some congestion in my lungs. So she decided I have bronchitis - it's always bronchitis! - and sent a script for an inhaler (albuterol), a steroid (prednisone), and an antibiotic (azithromicin) to the Walmart pharmacy in Versailles. When I got there, the pharmacist who helped me noted my insurance wouldn't cover the inhaler I was prescribed. She then said something about how "the one that your insurance does cover, we don't have in stock," before adding that the steroid would be no problem. In a classic case of miscommunication, I thought she was telling me the antibiotic wasn't in stock, so all I would be able to get was the steroid - and that was the one I cared least about. So I said forget it, and went back to work empty-handed. My co-workers prevailed on me to have the Urgent Care clinic send my antibiotic script to a different pharmacy, where I picked it up and started at least that course of meds. After work I went to Walmart a second time, just to see how much it would cost me to get the other two drugs - but the inhaler was going to cost me $60 out of pocket, so I decided again not to bother. Then came that time of night when breathing became so difficult that I wasn't sure I was going to survive without the meds the doctor ordered for me. So I went to Walmart a third time and told them I was going for it. This time a different pharmacist dealt with me, and she cleared up the miscommunication that happened earlier. What the other girl meant by that remark about "the one that your insurance does cover," was that an alternate brand of inhaler existed that my insurance would have paid for - but it was on factory back-order. The pharmacist I spoke to later told me it was too late to call the insurance company now, but if they did call to tell them they had this brand of inhaler, the company would cover it; but since they didn't have it, the company would probably say, "Our database shows they have this inhaler in stock in Oshkosh. You should drive there to pick it up." Oshkosh, by the way, is more than 500 miles away. I told the pharmacist, "It's as if they think breathing is an elective procedure." She laughed. I would have joined her, but at that point I was so out of breath that I had to lean against the counter to stay upright. I was actually light-headed. So I took that $60 inhaler home (along with a steroid that, I kid you not, cost me $2 and change), pulled it out of the package and gave it a shake. And because no Robbie story is complete without a final twist, the bottle containing this life-saving, $60-out-of-pocket drug flew out of the dispenser and landed on the floor. Don't look at me like that. I've never done an inhaler before. It was my first time, and I didn't know how to hold it. It took me several light-headed minutes to figure out how to put the bottle back in the holder, remove the lid over the mouthpiece, and give myself the first dose of what I can already tell is worth every penny. I'm so glad that bottle didn't break! This is the sad story of a couple of troubled New York City high school sophomores who befriend a lonely old man and end up feeling responsible for his death. To say they "befriended" him may seem a bit of a stretch, since it starts as a telephone prank and develops into a small-time scam. But as their home lives become increasingly unhealthy, they find themselves really enjoying their time with Mr. Pignati, affectionately known as the Pigman. He awakens a spark of compassion in them, and though they never quite get over trying to take advantage of him, their bad motives are soon mixed with care and concern. John and Lorraine, the hero teens, push their fun with Mr. Pignati a little too far, and he has a heart attack. While they're waiting for him to come home, they decide to throw a party at his house that ends with predictably painful results. The tragic end of their friendship with the Pigman leaves the kids thinking dark thoughts about the meaning of life. Told by John and Lorraine in alternating chapters, the story pulls no punches about the kids' crummy home lives, the dangerous company they keep, their character flaws, and the sudden opening of a romantic possibility between them. At times cruelly sad, often hilarious, this book's strong point is its convincing depiction of the characters' unique personalities. They come to life on the page, and live on in your heart. This 1968 teen novel was the first of many by a prolific pioneer in fiction aimed at high-school-age readers, who also happened to be a Pulitzer-Prize-winning playright (for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds). Zinman, who lived 1936-2003, also wrote novels and plays with such titles as Attack of the Killer Fishfingers; The 100% Laugh Riot; Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball; The Undertaker's Gone Bananas; Harry and Hortense at Hormone High; The Amazing and Death-Defying Diary of Eugene Dingman; A Begonia for Miss Applebaum; And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little; and Every Seventeen Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy! There was also a sequel to this book, The Pigman's Legacy. These are only a few of his works, many of which explore serious issues about the challenges of growing up - besides such thrill-driven creature features as Loch, Reef of Death and Raptor. Plus, close to the end of his life, Zinman also wrote the twelve-book P.C. Hawke series about a couple of teenage sleuths, including The Gourmet Zombie and The Houdini Whodunit. I think anyone wanting to make a serious study of young adult fiction will be interested in Zinman's body of work. Book 10 of 16 of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency casts Mma Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only private eye, in the unaccustomed role of a football (or soccer) detective. A certain Mr. Molofololo (accent on the "o"), owner of the Kalahari Swoopers, insists there must be a traitor on his team, causing it to lose games that it should win. Mma Ramotswe and her prickly associate Mma Makutsi get to work, interviewing the players and exposing jealous rivalries, suspicious debts, possible vision problems, and other motives making every member of the team almost equally likely to be the traitor. But of course, the solution comes out of the mouth of Mma Ramotswe's foster son Puso, who is wild about the game. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is worried about losing her fiance, Mr. Phuti Radiphuti, to the seductive charms of her arch-rival from the Botswana Secretarial College. Violet Sepotho, already a confirmed husband-stealer, takes a job at Phuti's furniture store and shows a surprising talent for selling beds. While Mma Makutsi writhes in anxiety, the agency gets a visit from another Mma Sepotho - who, surprisingly, is unrelated - asking for help with her own dilemma: She has two husbands, who are unaware of her two-timing. Now the weekday husband wants to invite the weekend husband over for dinner - and she is supposed to serve as hostess while also appearing as the guest's wife. Solutions to Mma Ramotswe's cases are often anticlimactic and down-to-earth. She is devoted to a manual of private detection by a certain Clovis Andersen, and usually thinks he is never wrong; but at times, she figures out ways of doing things that she knows Clovis Andersen would not approve. She understands how to get valuable information out of children. She has learned the best way to find out about something is to ask a direct question. And she applies the attitude every day that what her career is about is helping people. This makes her series of adventures an unusually gentle, compassionate saga of low-key mysteries, enlivened by whimsical incidents like the foiling of Violet Sepotho's plan, and held together by minor plot arcs like Mma Ramotswe's touching quest to reunite with her faithful, old, tiny white van. The next book in the series is The Double Comfort Safari Club. This longish hymn was about the only productive thing I did yesterday, when I was taking a sick day off work. The full title is "Moses Hymn: Strength in Weakness." Not all the frailty depicted in this hymn is that of Moses, but it is still a rather odd example of the "heroes of the faith" type of hymn, focusing as it does on failure and weakness. The point, of course, is to glorify God. The tune, VOM HIMMEL KAM DER ENGEL SCHAR, dates from Gotha, 1715. Your captive people freed at length. You made him God in Pharaoh’s eyes. Their freedom was of You alone. They once again Your name forgot. Behold, how weakness pairs with pow’r! They made and praised a calf of gold. Their grumbling tried his patience frail. Still less of fear before Your might. Yet Jacob’s sons resisted You. You brought them to the promised land. Preserved a line that never failed. But gazed on it and died content? To what pollutes our deeds and hearts? Twixt trusty cup and fickle lip? And lived to speak Your word of grace? For every sinner to atone? But he whose arm on Aaron leans? And of the wonders You have done? Help us Your worthy praise prolong! This past weekend I was miserably ill. I pretty much spent every hour that I could spare from necessary errands in bed. Nevertheless, I got up long enough to write the following two hymns, bringing me still closer to my target of 200 "useful hymns." This "heroes of the faith" hymn only hits a few highlights of the career of the father of all the Hebrews, handed down in the book of Genesis. It is really focused on one key point: justification by faith. The tune is the 16th-century German chorale DURCH ADAMS FALL. When Your strong purpose claimed him! Was yet in faith persisting. Your strength, in mercy rooted! Again, the focus of this "hero of the faith" hymn is only one of many stories Genesis tells us about Jacob, also known as Israel. It is precisely this story that I hope will make Jacob a useful example for today's Christians. It goes to the tune ACH WIE NICHTIG, sourced to Gotha, 1715; though I'm afraid the structure of the tune doesn't quite gel with the rhyme scheme of the text. Oh, well! Till dawn’s rays the sky were dappling. Till he had from You a blessing. Lay on us Your mark of blessing! Give us faith to grasp our Savior! Hear our troubled, anxious prayer! Taste Your blood, our sins forgiving! With the saved in mighty number! His Word to John while he on Patmos stood. Whose visage shone; His voice like waters roared. His word to men. “Write this for Me,” He bade. I know your patient zeal for what is right. Therefore repent; return to your first love! That stands amid God’s Paradise above! They who despise your woes, blaspheme indeed. For some of you will stand the devil’s test. With those the second death can never harm! You kept My faith before the throne of hell. Your name engraved in diamond, hard and pure! Your works and service I cannot ignore. Repent, before I punish her abuse! Endure, and I will send the morning star! Who walk with me, unsoiled in their belief. Shore up that which remains! Repent and fast! Remember what you heard of me at last! Watch, lest I come upon you as a thief! Behold, a door that none can close to you! For faithfully your trial you withstood. Hold fast, that none may take away your crown! Anoint your eyes with salve, that you may see! Behold, I knock; bar not the door to Me! Help us endure in hope this hour of pain! That we may suffer all, a crown to gain! With Book 9 of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, I have just crossed the center line of what is currently a 16-book series featuring Botswana's only lady detective, her bespectacled assistant, her mechanic husband, and the rest of a cast of endearingly flawed recurring characters. The agency's main case at the time of this installment is a search for a woman's family. She only learned at her mother's deathbed that she was adopted as a small child. She has no surviving family on her adoptive parents' side, and she doesn't know who her people are on her biological parents' side. Being without any relatives of any kind is strange in Botswana, where everyone seems to be related to everyone else in some degree. The lonely client asks Mma Precious Ramotswe to find her a family, but what Mma Ramotswe finds is not what they planned. Meantime, her husband, the kindly Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, takes their foster-daughter, sweet-tempered but wheelchair-bound Motholeli, to Johannesburg in search of a miracle cure. Although Mma Ramotswe disapproves of this quest and the cruel hope it represents, she finds herself joining it in a moving, personal way. As the rainy season closes in, Mma Ramotswe's assistant, Mma Grace Makutsi, makes a foolish mistake with the expensive bed her fiance bought her, and is tempted to let a lie come between them. And then there's the matter of a series of anonymous, threatening letters, almost leading Mma Ramotswe to do something terrible. The solution to this mystery, at least, relies on Mma Ramotswe's secret weapon: kindness - though it comes only after a rambunctiously silly chase scene through the aisles of a grocery store. By now, part of the appeal of this series lies in the comforting sense of being in familiar surroundings. Yet at the same time, it teaches western readers to appreciate distinctive aspects of a culture very different from ours - one in which owning cattle is the ultimate security, in which calling "Ko, Ko" is an essential point of courtesy before entering a home or an office, and in which a certain disease casts an ever-present shadow, though it seems to be considered indelicate to call it by its name. I can call Book 10 by name, however, because I am already reading it: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. If you haven't read The Iron Trial, the first book in the Magisterium series, beware of spoilers ahead. Don't worry, I'll talk amongst myself while you click away. So, this is Book 2 of a five-book series featuring a school of magic different in many ways from Harry Potter's Hogwarts. For one thing, the Magisterium is in the U.S. Instead of in a castle, it is located underground. Its magic draws on control of the five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and chaos, which comes from the void out of which all things were made; and to some extent, this means the control of elementals, strange creatures that will consume any mage who gets too close to them. It boasts the authors of City of Bones and Tithe, so there is no surprise that it has a bold streak of darkness running through it. Coast clear? All right, here's the spoiler for those who skipped past Book 1. The main character, Callum Hunt, is also a bit like Harry Potter. He grew up in a home that was opposed to magic, but that didn't stop him from getting into a school of magic. And while he was an infant - practically at the moment of his birth, in fact - a deadly attack by an evil magician left a permanent mark on him. His mother died in the attack... but here the resemblance ends. For she died not trying to save him, but using the last of her strength to scratch a message into the floor of an ice cave warning his late-to-arrive father: "Kill the child." Call has grown up maimed, with one leg shorter and weaker than the other, because of his dying mother's feeble attempt to do him in. The reason for this unnatural behavior? Like Voldemort, the Enemy of Death - a wizard who did horrible things in search of a way to escape death - transferred a bit of his soul to the boy who lived. No, that isn't right. Actually, he transferred his soul, period. In his first year at the Magisterium, Call learned that he actually is the Enemy of Death, also known as Constantine Madden. The soul that truly belonged to little baby Call was pushed out to make way for Constantine's evil soul. Even though he doesn't remember being anybody but Alistair Hunt's mischievous, slightly crippled son, Call now knows he is the very dark lord who taught his father to hate magic. And now, during his first summer home from school, the 13-year-old realizes Alistair has suspected this all along. When he finds evidence that his dad is planning a dark ritual that could kill him, Call runs away with his chaos-ridden wolf Havoc. He runs away to spend the rest of the summer with his friends, Tamara and Aaron; but he can't bring himself to share his dark secret even with them. He finally has a best friend, and Aaron turns out to be the Makar - the chaos mage everyone has been waiting for, their best hope against the Enemy of Death, who is expected to break his 12-year truce with the mage Assembly at any time and resume his fiendish war. How can Call explain to Aaron that he, Call, is the Enemy himself? Keeping this awful secret becomes even more of a dance when someone steals the Alkahest, a rare magical artifact that, in the Enemy's hands, could spell the doom of the Makar. Being the Enemy, Call knows he will never use it against Aaron. But nobody else knows that. So how else can he explain that he thinks his dad stole the Alkahest? And how can he and his friends stop his dad from giving it to the bad guys - because there still are bad guys, you know? Not only do the trio of Aaron, Call, and Tamara have to run away from school, but they must take with them their most obnoxious classmate to keep him from telling on them. Meanwhile, the mages from the Assembly are sending deadly elementals after them and doing everything in their power to stop the kids, while a scene of stomach-upsetting evil awaits them at the end of their quest. So, basically, this is a Harry Potter-type story in which the hero is painfully aware, almost from the beginning, of what an evil mark he is marked with. It is one where the kids are on the run with the intensity of Harry & Co.'s flight from the snatchers, already in Book 2 instead of in the climactic last book. It is a series where so much has already happened, two-fifths of the way in, that one trembles to imagine what could come next. It is full of a young teen's self-questioning, anxiously checking himself to see where he stands on the "Evil Overlord" spectrum. But it is also deeply, richly fun, with a curly thread of goofy humor, a brisk pace, clever dialogue, surprising twists, and scenes full of original imagery that will impress itself on the reader's imagination. I hear Book 3 will be titled The Bronze Key, when it arrives in August 2016. I actually had a whole day off from work today, and I'm still getting used to the loneliness since my parents moved out of state and I'm in my own digs again, so although it was a beautiful day outside I spent swaths of it writing hymns. Here are the results, pushing me closer to my 200-hymn goal. With faithful words to say! To do their best today! Your throne until that Day! And so, Lord Christ, Your will be done! Our spirit’s Rest and Stay! For this hymn, I went back to my own tune HOLY BODY, which I wrote in 2014 for my hymn on the fifth commandment, "You shall not murder." Two as one in loving grace. On the bond You set in place! May hold up his heart and arm! Temper cool and bosom warm! Second selves through active grace! May new love the old erase! Bless their conflict with release! Let Your healing love have lease! And we rise, one cherished kin! For this hymn I chose the 15th-century Bohemian tune SÆLIR ERU TRÚADIR, which I associate with Hallgrimur Petursson's Icelandic Passion hymn, "And then the Savior turned," a segment on Peter's denial of Jesus from a most impressive sequence of sacred poems. It was a tough meter to work with, though! I was tempted to call this "Terrorism Hymn," but I didn't want to seem to be promoting terrorism. I originally set this hymn to my own tune HEALING, which I wrote in 2011 to go with this hymn for an occasion of grief; but I didn't feel that it quite worked. So I asked my friend Robert Mayes to try writing an original tune for it, and he came up with this eloquently simple number, titled COURAGE. I like how its forward pulse suggests the momentum of unfolding events. We shall not die, but live. In dens of fear with nerve! Hurled by the prince of hell! Our eyes to Christ, His Son! With all the sons of light! Here is another hymn that I planned to submit to one my hymn-composing friends for a brand-new, original tune. I had Isaiah 53 open before me as I wrote it. The designation "despised and rejected" describes three parties in this poem: first, Christ Himself; second, the faithful; and third, those whom Christ bids His church to serve in love. And yes, I know I got the rhyme scheme flipped around in stanza 3. I consciously decided to do that, partly out of necessity and partly because I thought it might be a clever way to signify the exchange aspect of the gospel. EDIT: The first of four fellow hymn-tune composers to fulfill his commission, the Rev. Robert Mayes sent me the tune AFFLICTION for this hymn. I like it! An arch and bitter foe! And for that purpose sent. We bear the world’s contempt. This is one of those hymns from the "Heroes of the Faith" section of my hymn-book, but unlike some of the others, it doesn't recite the deeds of the biblical character. It simply uses him as an illustration of the concept of faithful youth, which should be a major theme in the church's prayer in every generation, not only because we want our kids to be saved but also because the next generation will need faithful leaders of its own. The women named in stanza 3 are Timothy's grandmother and mother, held up by Paul in 2 Timothy 1 as witnesses of the sincere faith in which Timothy, his spiritual son, was brought up from childhood. Again, although I have written a tune that will fit these lyrics, I do not want to re-use it for what would be the third time; so I am floating it among my hymn-composing brethren (and sistren) to see what original tunes they can cook up. EDIT: Here is Joeline Mayes' original tune for this hymn, titled YOUTH. Thanks, Mrs. Mayes! And for you with tears have prayed! Is your faith’s foundation laid! Lean on Christ, the Word of God! His forgiveness sets you right. Of God’s mercies broad and deep. Days remaining till His Day. Only that they know the truth! On sound words Your lambs to feed! Here is another hymn I am farming out to my hymn-writing friends to supply it an original tune. I wrote it with one of my own tunes in mind, but I've already over-used that tune, so an infusion of fresh melody is in order. Plus, I think something is needed to lighten up the tone of the planned hymn-book a bit... but just a bit. EDIT: Composer Robert S. Potterton III furnished a lovely original tune titled DUNCANNON for this hymn. While he also took the trouble of harmonizing it, immediately on hearing it I wrote two different keyboard arrangements for it. I hope he takes that as a compliment! To grasp by faith the kingdom not yet seen! Yet lest our bones grow dry, lift up our eyes! To taste that healing draft, a cheerful heart! That it may be complete, let it be heard! In what You bid us drink, let gladness shine! Let us as well Your Easter triumph share! We might with joy draw near our heav’nly home! Shortly after his birth, Callum Hunt was the sole survivor of a massacre in a magical war. His father, arriving too late to witness the carnage, found him badly injured in an ice cave near the body of his mother, whose dying act was to scratch the words "DESTROY THE CHILD" in the ice. From that gruesome beginning, Call grows up being taught to hate the world of magic by a father who blames magicians for the loss of his wife. When the time comes for him to take the entrance exam to the Magisterium, the underground school of magic where his parents met, Call is convinced his only option is to throw the test. But even though he tries to fail it, he gets accepted as one of three apprentices to Master Rufus, the senior mage who trained his father. His next hope is to get thrown out of the school, but against his father's dire warnings and in spite of Rufus' tough approach to teaching, he is soon caught up in a feeling of belonging like none he has ever felt before. His fellow apprentices include Tamara, a legacy student who has a hard time living down her family's past mistakes; Aaron, an extremely powerful young mage who has never known a family of his own; Jasper, a snotty rich kid cut out of the Draco Malfoy mold; Celia, a pretty girl who seems attracted to bad boys; and Drew, who seems slow to accept the fact that the Magisterium isn't a pony school. Call is a fun main character, full of mischief and prone to hilarious pratfalls. When he isn't making trouble, he shows promise of being an important wizard in the fight against evil someday. But then again, somebody at the school is up to no good, and just when a new champion is revealed in the war against the enemy who massacred Call's mother - an enemy who believed to be biding his time during the long years of a truce, gathering forces for another attack - Call learns a terrible truth about his own truth in all this, a truth that may affect which side of the line between good and evil he comes down on. By this time, readers will care enough about Call and his friends to be on pins and needles as the five-book Magisterium series moves on to Book 2, The Copper Gauntlet. This series is a collaboration between two New England based teen fantasy authors - one known for the Spiderwick Chronicles and such Modern Faerie Tales as Tithe, the other for the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series. If the series lives up to the promise shown by this book, it may be their biggest success.

2019-04-20T17:12:42Z

http://afortmadeofbooks.blogspot.com/2016/02/

Episode 25: Jim Stoppani on Daily Full-Body Training, Fasting, And More. Dr. Jim Stoppani brings plenty of energy—and plenty of gummy bears—to the recording studio. He's been espousing the virtues of full-body, near-daily workouts in recent months, and says it could just be the best training technique out there—if you do it right. He also goes deep into the science and practice of intermittent fasting, which allows him to stay lean and energetic well into his fifties! How he's able to stay lean without "cardio" Nick Collias: Nick here. Just wanted to tell you about a sweet new workout on Bodybuilding.com. Now, you may have done timed sets in the past like squats for 30 seconds straight instead of five or 12 reps per set. And if you have, you know that it's uniquely intense but it's also just a really different training experience. Plenty of people find that they can do more reps, more total work, when they're not being told when to stop. So, how about this? You just set the timer for four minutes and see what you can do. That's the idea behind Jim Stoppani's Four Minute Muscle Protocol. Just go to: Bodybuilding.com/FourMinuteMuscle to learn more and see the full body workout. Welcome to The Bodybuilding.com Podcast, everyone. This week we're nearly hair-free. Nick: I'm Nick Collias. I'm an editor for Bodybuilding.com, as is our co-host, Heather Eastman. Nick: Over there across the table we have none other than Dr. Jim Stoppani. He's the owner of JYM Supplement Science, a researcher, author, the man behind Shortcut to Size, Shortcut to Shred, Shortcut to Strength. You've been an author a whole bunch of different places, written many, many articles for Bodybuilding.com, as well. Great to have you here. Nick: More recently, Jim has been doing something pretty unique for the site, even though these aren't necessarily the same sort of workouts that people who follow our site are always accustomed to doing. They're full body workouts. Something I hear you talking about a lot these days and I want to chat with you about that and kind of put it in context of where this fits in the progression of you as a lifter and a researcher. Jim: Yeah, it's an interesting progression. I've been training since I was seven years old maybe even younger. I've literally been training all my life. My father built quite an impressive home gym. Jim: Yeah, I wanted to hang out with my dad. He had the Muscle & Fitness magazines, back then it was Muscle Builder, not even Muscle & Fitness. I would read the magazines and learn about what exercises hit different muscle groups. Then I started learning about muscle fibers and I thought, "Wow, there's a whole science about how to make muscles bigger and stronger." Nick: What were the first sorts of plans that you followed when you said, "All right that's it, I'm going to go and I'm going to lift some weights?" Jim: I followed like the Joe Weider, the Arnold Schwarzenegger workouts. I would follow the diets and muscle ... I would cook, make my own meals instead of my mom's meals because I wanted to get a certain amount of protein and a certain type of carbs. I've been doing that for quite a while and the nice thing is, it's not only have I been doing it in the gym, but I've also been studying it in the lab, consecutively, at the same time. What it's allowed me to do is, prior to being known as the guy behind the Shortcut series, and "Encyclopedia of Muscle and Strength" book and the science editor, I was researching what was happening in the lab and trying to connect what's going on at the level of the gene and how to apply that to results in the gym. I studied with people like Dr. Bill Kraemer who's well known for hormone production, testosterone, growth hormone following exercise. We used to study what we call endocrine function, meaning hormone is released like testosterone from the testicles or growth hormone from the pituitary gland, travels to the muscle, and the anabolic hormone instigates muscle growth. We soon realized that we don’t have to rely on things from the blood, the muscle itself is making changes that are changing muscle size, muscle strength, so there's local factors going on. That's when I started realizing that it's not about these systemic changes, but there's more local things going on in the muscle fiber. I got interested in gene regulation and so ended up doing a post doc after University of Connecticut School of Medicine where I was studying gene regulation and metabolism and exercise, what happens when you fast to metabolic genes. Speaking of fasting, I was actually studying fasting in 2000 and I know that we'll be talking more about that in a minute. What always stuck with me was the activity of genes and how critical that was for all the changes that occur because that's what makes the proteins. When we think of protein, we think of protein being the building blocks of muscle. Well proteins actually are functional. There's functional proteins in the body like hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the blood. It's a functional protein. Insulin is a protein, it's a functional protein. It's not a building block for muscle, it's literally a molecule that has a function in the body. That's a protein. We need proteins and those proteins are regulated by the genes. It started occurring to me that the way to really get results, whether it's fat loss, muscle growth or strength, it's to keep activating those genes because they're driving all the messaging. I started looking into more frequent training and started realizing, going from ... Most people will get once a week training. Like Shortcut to Size, I even train once a week. You hit chest one day and then you don't hit it again till the next week. That's a recovery-based training where you go in there, you annihilate a muscle and then you give it seven days. Well here we're not going in and annihilating muscle, all we're doing is going in and instigating gene activity, but every day we're turning it on. Instead of going in once a week and turning on those genes and then you get gene activity that rises, then it falls, then you wait seven days, then it rises, you're hitting it again while gene activity is already up before it's dropped back down. What I'm trying to create is like a staircase, a fact where instead of letting it drop, if we hit it again, can that activity be enhanced even further than the initial response because you're hitting it again before it's down. We don't really know that, but based on some of the results I'm seeing ... Theory is great. Being a real bench lab scientist, I understand theory is good, but theory doesn't mean much. You can debate whether you do cardio before or after, or cardio on a separate day. Shortcut to Shred what do I show you? Do cardio right in the middle of your workout. Jim: Right there, right in the middle. Before or after, no, how about during? Think people, all this theory doesn't mean anything if it doesn't produce results. How can you tell me that, "you shouldn't be doing cardio around weight workouts," when I can show you how many thousands of people who have lost weight, broken their PRs and gained muscle while they were doing cardio during their workout. That's nice, you have a theory about when you should do cardio, Mr. Expert, but here's thousands and thousands of people seeing real results. If you think doing cardio during the workout is stupid, how can you explain the results? The results are really all that matters and so what I started finding was that doing more frequent training, daily training, is really the key to keeping the activity of metabolic genes up so that you burn body fat. For example, I just did a photo shoot where I'm about 4% body fat. I had four surgeries done through February and March on my knee, one knee. I haven't done any cardio since January. All I do is full body training with zero cardio and I'm 4% body fat because I'm keeping my genes activated all day. I'm burning fat and carbs like a machine. Nick: That was one question I had, is yeah, you can talk about thousands of people having the results, but we're talking about you, too, an advanced lifter because one of the great knocks that you hear against full body training is, "That's phase one stuff." Jim: It really is. What's really interesting is that we typically recommend it for beginners. The reason we do that is because the beginner's adaptation to weight training, the first few months is mainly neurological. It's all learning how to fire nerves, that's how they get stronger. You really don't start building muscle until a month or two ... It's really about neurological changes, so frequency matters. You wanna do the bench press three times a week, not once a week. Jim: Get the best results and make it realistic. I'm not a food Nazi. I love to eat. I love to drink. I like to enjoy myself. What's the point of being healthy and active if you can't enjoy food, you can't enjoy yourself and have a good time? Nick: Your latest workouts reflect that, too. They're almost like you recommend categories. It's not like, "No, you have to do this movement." It says, "Pick from the list. Do what you can." Jim: Yeah, exactly. There's no excuses. That's the thing, everybody ... What I try to show people is, it's really not that hard. You know what I mean? It's really not that hard to be more active and eat smarter. It really isn't. What I try to do is take the science, but then don't complicate it and talk about PPAR and activity, this gene and talking over everybody's heads in the science but, how do we then take that information and make it make sense to a 16-year-old kid, who can then go and say, "Oh, that means ..." Or someone who dropped out of high school and is 35 and doesn't have the highest IQ. Can they understand how to follow my program and can they learn from it? I don't want to just give them a fish, I want to teach them how to fish. That's the whole point. Well, here yeah, you can follow this as I tell you to and get awesome results, but if you listen to why I have you doing this, you can then take that and create your own workout when you go to the gym and there isn't a leg press. You'll be able to go, "Hey, I'll just do this." That's sort of the message I try to teach people. You don't have to food prep. You could go to any restaurant you want and order ... Trust me, you can go to McDonald's and find something to eat. That will be on any diet, whether it's paleo, your intermittent fasting ... Any diet you can go to almost any restaurant this day and age and make a food choice that will allow you to stay within that range. It's just making smart choices. My goal is to just simplify it for people, make it easier. Really, that's what the JYM line is. I was telling people, "Buy creatine, put this much in. Buy beta-alanine, put this much in. Buy branched-chains, put this much in-" Nick: I remember, we had one. "Jim Stoppani Tells You How To Make Your Own Pre-Workout." That was a huge article. Jim: Here, now you can have it all. You don't have to buy them all. It's simplified and makes it easier. That's really the goal because it's my goal. Nothing makes me happier than going into a Starbucks and seeing them sell salami and cheese in a prepackaged ... Like, "They're finally getting ... People are finally getting the protein." Jim: Or the eggs, "I can go and buy hard-boiled egg. Oh my God, at a 7 Eleven? What do you mean? I don't have to stick to the Slim Jim? I can actually get an egg or a yogurt or a string cheese?" I love that. That convenience factor, that ... It used to be convenience for the average Joe. Now we're getting more convenience for people who want to live better and live healthy. Jim: That's the thing. There's research that shows it enhances fat loss. I'm living proof. Like I said, I had to stop doing cardio and I'm leaner than I've ever been. I'm in the best shape, except for my right leg, the fact that I can't do certain things yet, but I'm literally in my best physical shape now during recovery just because I stuck with the whole body training. Nick: That was gonna be one of my questions was, what cardio works best if somebody thinks ... They can't get out of that cardio mindset. Jim: You can still use my cardio acceleration. You can do that in between sets. You can do tabatas after or in between exercises. Again, think outside the box, add it when you want. It's really not that hard. Nick: Looking at some of the workouts you've been putting up recently, they look like they would have serious cardiovascular demands inside the workouts. Heather: Yeah, so he's staying in aerobic the entire time. Jim: It's an intense workout. Jim: Yeah, you're going for four minutes straight. Heather: I haven't tried it yet but that looks brutal. Jim: ... but it's not like what you think of. It's like cardio acceleration, where you're like, do swings, do step ups, run in place. It doesn't have to be cardio to have cardio benefits, what we typically think of cardio. The best cardiovascular benefits are from high, intense interval training, not from long distance running. Jim: Exactly, that's what it is. What do you do? High intensity exercise, followed by rest. High intensity exercise, followed by rest. That's high intensity interval training. Jim: That's what weight training is. Heather: I feel like I'm getting a cardio workout right now. Jim: Weight training is essentially ... I love that meme, they have the old school boxer guy and he goes, "What do you mean cardio?" It's like, "Cardio, you mean lift weights faster?" Seriously? I know it's a funny meme, but that's really true. Yeah, you can use weights as your cardio. Kettlebell swings are a perfect example. Nick: I'm glad that we always bring it back to the kettlebell if we can. Heather: Yes, Nick and his kettlebells. Can we delve into intermittent fasting? We had a really … we touched on it. Jim, I'll let you go ahead and tell us what you're doing and how you got into it. Jim: Yeah, but I've only started doing it myself because my main concern was muscle mass with the fasting. Jim: For example, I don't think I know one professional bodybuilder who uses intermittent fasting. When you consider these guys have to maintain, regardless of what they're using to maintain that muscle mass. To maintain that muscle mass, their eating pattern ... There's no way they could maintain it. Nick: Right, it's force feeding more than it's intermittent fasting. Jim: When you look at it from that standpoint, anybody who's interested in muscle is like, "I don't want to go ... I'm gonna wake up in the middle of the night and eat." Nick: Shake by the bed, that's the classic. Jim: I recommend casein protein before bed so that you have a trickling effect of amino acids so you're essentially not fasting. We've been talking about how to stay in a fed state almost, for anabolic reasons. That's really why I avoided doing it personally. I knew the benefits for fat loss. What the benefits are in the lab is what we've shown, is that most people think when you starve, your metabolism slows down. It does, but that's with long term, where you're not refeeding or you're dropping carbs long term. Calories or carbs for a long period. If you're starving yourself for long, yes, your metabolism is gonna stall. If you are fasting and feeding, what happens is, during the fasting period, your body produces more of these uncoupling proteins. What uncoupling proteins are is, they basically poke holes in the mitochondria. The mitochondria are our energy factories in muscle cells. It's where fat and carbs get turned into ATP. That's what makes energy. These uncoupling proteins literally poke holes, and the mitochondria changes concentration gradient, so you produce less energy, more heat. It's like a car engine. It produces heat and work. The more work it puts out and the less heat, the more efficient it is. Nick: Starting at like ... What are we talking about? Like eight hours? Jim: Yeah, but what we do find acutely is that the meal that you follow the fast with is important. When the fast was followed with a high protein meal, the production of those uncoupling proteins had another bump after the fasting. When it was a high carb meal, the uncoupling proteins were blunted, but they were still maintain higher than someone who's not intermittent fasting. Nick: That's why you eat all these bears? Jim: The way I do it is, I typically eat at 4 o’clock… and then I train in my feeding window. That way I have more energy. I can recover better so better performance, better recovery during your feeding window. At four o'clock, my first meal is Pro JYM. I have a protein shake. That's it. And then I train. So I train with just protein and Pre JYM. I don't have carbs till after the workout's over, which is a good hour or so. On the days where in might train, let's say I train at 10:00 P.M. and I break my fast at 4, I'll still have just a protein shake or it'll be eggs and salad or fat. They'll be no carbs. Nick: And it's no calories the rest of the time or is it just drastically-reduced calories? Jim: Prior to four o'clock, no calories. Jim: No, none whatsoever. You can drink fluid, water. I typically go with black coffee or unsweetened tea. Once in a while I might have a Coke Zero or Diet Dew, but I don't like to do the artificial sweetener because one of my concerns is that fasting is really a state of the brain, not just in body. You're literally tricking your body that you're fasting. Well, there's ways to trick your body that you're fed. Leucine, for example. The molecule leucine, the receptor that attaches to it ... you ever heard of mTOR? Jim: They're truly not fasting because they're telling their brain, "You're in a fed state." Now, they're fasting in the fact that they're not really consuming many calories so they're still getting benefits, but they'll get better benefits if you avoid the leucine. One of my theories with the artificial sweeteners is ... There's some data that shows, when the tongue tastes that sweetener, those receptors tell the brain, "Hey, sugar." It tricks the brain. That's what artificial sweeteners do. In some cases, it's been shown to enhance insulin release, more so in animals than ... but, I'm still concerned that that sweet taste is telling the brain, "Hey, we're getting sugar," even though you're not. The last thing you want to do is trick your brain into thinking it's in a fed state accidentally by sipping a sweet, diet ... Even though it's no calories, that sweetness might signal the brain, "Hey, we've got plenty of sugar, meaning we don't have to use ketone bodies any longer. We can switch over, start increasing glycolysis. Let's change up the fuel sources that we're using." Jim: Yeah, and what's interesting is that at the beginning you go like, "Oh, I can't think. I'm so lethargic." Then about two weeks after you're like, "Oh my God." Sometimes four o'clock rolls around, I have to force myself to eat. Jim: Well, not even that I forget. I don't want to eat because when I eat, I feel lethargic. There's a lot of times that four o'clock rolls around where I have to force myself to literally eat. That's why sometimes I like just the protein shakes, because it gives me something I feel, but it's not like ... It's weird how you get used to it, because I travel and I speak a lot. It might be like I'll have to give an 8:00 A.M. opening talk somewhere. I used to think, "Oh, I'll have breakfast just so I'll have carbs and I'm sharper when I'm on stage ..." Jim: ... And then I'm like, "I feel like crap. Why did I do that?" You know what I mean? Once you're used to it, if you actually feel better ... It's kind of funny, I was ... I can't remember who it was, but somebody was telling me, they were like ... I had my guy, it was post workout. They weren't even ... It was like a cameraman or something, "Can I just have some gummy bears? My blood sugar, I'm getting really shaky." And I'm like ... Alcoholics get shaky, too, when they don't have alcohol. You know how they fix the shakiness? They drink more alcohol. The problem isn't that you need carbs, the problem is, you're eating too many carbs and that you cannot go long enough without them. Your body should be able to go a long time without feeling shaky. If it can't do that, it's due to your diet. Cut down on the carbs. You're so reliant on carbs that you cannot even go two hours. Are you kidding me? Without a meal? That's not normal. Nick: We're just ritualizing our behaviors, too. Jim: Exactly. He was just like, "Oh my god, it's been two hours. I need some gummy bears. I feel like crap." No, that's the last thing you need. Heather: We were talking about that earlier where intermittent fasting of all the things I've ever tried, and I'm sure you've experienced this with your clients. It's one thing that can actually eliminate that dependency, that addiction. Whatever you want to call it. Jim: Research show actually it enhances insulin sensitivity. The research on intermittent fasting is ... The health … I'm talking about the health benefits. Insulin sensitivity, better immune function. It fights jet lag. Did you know it fights jet lag? Heather: I wish I'd known that two years ago. Jim: Mountain Time. If you traveled, let's say ... Well, let's say you're in LA, it's Pacific Time and you traveled to New York, which is Eastern Time. Now, when the clock is claiming it's six o'clock and it's starting to get dark, your body is saying, "Hang on, why's it getting dark now? We've got three more hours." Then the next day it does and eventually your body finally goes, "Oh okay. I'm three hours faster," and catches up. Takes about a week or so, right? Another cue we use is feeding cues because we're animals of habit. If you typically eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in reasonably … same time, those are cues that you use throughout your day. When you fast, you erase that food cue. It's almost like erasing the light cue if you could, if you could do that which you really can’t. It erases the food cue if you fast for at least 16 hours. Then, if you have your first meal at the normal time, like LA, 4:00 P.M. When I'm in New York, I fast for at least 16 hours and I don't eat till 4:00 P.M. New York time. I eat that Pro JYM shake, my body goes, "Four o'clock. It's four o'clock." It's an extra little cue that fast forwards your body's adjustment to the new time zone. Nick: It sounds like you are a seven days a week faster. Do you think that that is the best approach for somebody to follow? Because there are 5-2, there's every other day. Jim: Yeah, I really don't eat that ... Probably only like 3,000 calories. Heather: That's what I did. Jim: You want to do those consecutive days. You want to do two full days, and ... There's a couple. You can do where you only do 600 calories. I prefer a full ... To get the true health benefits like the immune boost and the help with the jet lag and the insulin sensitivity, you want to do a full fast. You need to fast, you know what I mean? Fast. It's two days, 24 hours and then the other five days you're pretty much loose to what you can eat. You have no time restrictions. Obviously you don't want to be eating pizzas all day, but you can be a little looser on those days because of those two days that you gave it your all where you literally ate nothing. Your reward is, "Now on these other five days of the week, I can eat any time I want, and within reason, pretty much what I want." Jim: I've done that, too. I don't like that so much because I like the regular 16-8 fasting. I just think it's better to have that repetition versus two days and then full eating whatever you want. Nick: One of the first guests that I had on the podcast was this great researcher named Dom D'Agostino who's done a bunch of work about fasting. I remember asking him, "Because you fast, do you think that makes you drink more coffee?" He kind of thought about it and he said ... He drinks a ton of coffee. He laid it out very calmly, but it sounded like this guy drinks like six pots of coffee a day. Heather: What's wrong with that? Nick: You're a caffeine guy. Jim: I'm a caffeine guy. I own it. I wouldn't say it increased. Jim: Like I said, the reason I never wanted to do intermittent fasting was because I was worried about the muscle mass loss. Now what's interesting is, there's new research showing that if you take a lean individual, and this is just using BIA ... Sorry, BMI. Jim: That's how we measure water. Sorry but, we're doing a study on, when I manipulate my water levels ... Sorry. It's a testing method but, BMI, Body Mass Index. They looked at lean, overweight, and obese and fed them a high protein meal. The lean guys, protein synthesis was through the roof compared to both the overweight and the obese, meaning the leaner you are, the more anabolic you might be. So, the old strategy of bulking up and getting fat might actually be working against your muscle mass gains. Staying lean might keep you more anabolic. To test that theory what I've been doing is literally using intermittent fasting to get my body fat down to as low as I can, and then see how my muscle mass responds. So far, I've actually been gaining, small amounts because I'm 49 and natural and pretty much at the peak. It's to like I'm gonna gain an inch on my arms, but if I gain a quarter inch or an eighth of an inch, that's a big deal for me, especially at this ... That's pure muscle. Jim: I am literally gaining, now that my ... I'm sort of done trying to drop body fat to some degree. Now what I'm doing is just maintaining it around 4%. What it does is, it allows me to play with my protein and the amount of calories while still staying lean. I'm finding I have no trouble whatsoever with muscle mass. But muscle mass is not my goal. It's really not my true goal anymore at this age. I'm always trying to obviously get my arms big. Now it's more about building more ... It's more bodybuilding. Adding more middle delt, adding more ... Those sorts of changing. Jim: Yeah, which is still gaining muscle, but it's not like gaining huge amounts of muscle. Jim: Yeah. What I do find is that, with the intermittent fasting, with the daily training, you're getting the best of both worlds. Fat loss, muscle gain, health. Heather: You've got it in fifth gear and you can just kind of cruise along. Nick: If somebody's curious about intermittent fasting, what should that keep in mind when they're starting this in terms of how to time their workouts? Should they try to get lean first or should they do this to get lean? Heather: You're 4% Jim. I don't know if you can go much further. Jim: ... but for most people, you probably could be leaner. You know what I mean? Most people's goal ... Most people probably aren't 6% body fat. Most people can always be a little leaner. Now my recommendation is more, "What's the point of having muscle if you cannot really see it?" Unless you're an athlete. If you're a powerlifter, a strongman, an athlete that's fine, but if you really want ... If you're just lifting to look better, why would you want to cover muscle with body fat? Nick: Right, and having gone to a couple of powerlifting meets here to watch my friend or watch them streaming online, a lot more powerlifters are showing up looking crazy ripped these days to. That guy used to be a little bit more of a rarity, but now they're a lot more of those sort of guys. Like Chinese Olympic weightlifters, they're crazy lean a lot of them. Heather: I feel like the dirty bulk has gone out of vogue a little bit. People are not ... They're actually trying to bulk, kind of what you're talking about without gaining a whole lot of extra body fat because really, what's the point? You're gonna stress all your systems trying to do that. Jim: Exactly, and it's never good to be yo-yo dieting. What happens, you store a lot of toxins in your fat, and so every time you diet and lose body fat, you release those toxins into your blood stream. Heather: And that's why you feel like crap when you diet. Jim: Yeah, no seriously. When you're losing fat, you're releasing those toxins like styrene from styrofoam, which gets stored in fat cells. There's a lot of toxins that get stored in the fat cells. If you just stay lean ... You just get lean and stay lean. Jim: Always gaining, losing … The worst thing you can do is the yo-yo diet, even if it's bodybuilding style. It's not healthy. I'm working out with a lot of athletes who have to lose weight. I'm convincing them to live at their fighting weight. Then you know what happens, then you actually get stronger because once your body adapts to that weight, it's no longer a stress to maintain it. The only reason you get weaker when you lose weight is because it's a massive stress on the body to lose all that body weight. Once the body has adapted to the body weight and it's easy to maintain, that's your normal homeostasis now. You're working against yourself by living at 220, and then dropping down to 198 for your fight. Jim: Yeah, and then you wonder why you're so weak during the fight, whereas if you lived at 198, your body would be adapted and you'd walk in there at your strongest form. Nick: Do you find the people who are approaching intermittent fasting from a fat loss perspective because they want to change their body composition, maybe they are overweight. Do you find that's a less stressful approach for them ultimately in terms of the stress on their body? Jim: Yeah, because like you said, it's so easy to do. It's yes or no. It's far easier to follow because the rules are a lot simpler. It's not like, "Well, I can have my carbs now," or, "Wait, is it time to ... Wait I'm not supposed to ..." Jim: Yeah, this is like, yes or no. "Can I eat? No." Jim: It does, because, like I said, when you're waiting in a Starbucks line, you don't do that sort of mental math with your diet. Jim: Yeah, "If I just had one cake pop, let's see. That's how many calories? How many carbs? If I don't have rice with my dinner, and then ..." You don't have to do any of that. It's just like, "No." Nick: Right. Before we started recording you put it really well. It's what you eat versus when you eat. What sort of person are you? Jim: Yeah, with intermittent fasting, you can't eat when you want. You can't, but you can pretty much eat what you want. Or, you can eat when you want, but you cannot eat what you want. Those are the two main diet strategies. Jim: The first meal does matter. For someone who's more ... If you really ... As long as you do the 16 and eight, as long as you stick to those rules ... Again, I wouldn't worry for the average person. However, if you really truly want to maximize your results, then I would suggest sticking with a high protein, low carb meal as your first meal and then maybe an hour or so after, start including carbs. Jim: It's best to train in a fed state. It's always best to train in a ... Especially if you're interested in muscle mass and performance. If you're just an average person who just wants to maximize fat loss, it doesn't matter when you train. If you want to maximize your performance and the results you get, train when you're fed. Jim: Yeah, well, do you really want to talk about fasted cardio? What the research shows on fasted cardio is pretty debatable because what we used to think is that you burn more fat during the exercise fasted. It's true, you do, but what happens the rest of the day? That's what nobody looked at. We were all telling people, "Fasted cardio is the best way because you burn more fat." That makes sense, however, it doesn't lead to better fat loss in the long run. So why is that? Well, we started looking at what's going on the rest of the day. The more fat you burn during your workout, the less fat you burn the rest of the day. The less fat you burn during your workout, the more fat you burn the rest of the day. Do you work out more, or do you have the rest of the day more? How much time is your workout and how much time is the rest of the day? So you want to be maximizing fat burning during the rest of the day, not during the workout. What does that? High intensity interval training. What does high intensity interval training burn? Carbs, all carbs during the workout, but, the rest of the day you're burning fat like a mad man. That's how it works. Fasted cardio, what we used to think is a snapshot. We had a snapshot of what's going on acutely and then we make projections. "Oh, well that means you're gonna lose more fat because you burnt more during the workout." Yes, if you also burnt more the rest of the day, but guess what, you don't burn more the rest of the day because you burned more during the workout. Jim: I don't recommend fasted cardio for the average ... If you're like me at 4% and you're like, "You know what, I just have this one spot that I'm trying to get," fasted cardio might work for you then, because that's when you're really trying to get rid of every little bit of fat. If you're at 12% body fat, it's not gonna make a difference if you do your cardio fasted or if you did your cardio after McDonald's. Literally it doesn't. Nick: We're talking about somebody who's fasted versus somebody who's doing intermittent fasting as well. It seems like once you are actually too ... You've adapted to that intermittent fasting protocol, maybe do you have a little bit more laxity there like, "I could certainly train fasted if I wanted to and-" Jim: I work out. I stay active all day, all day. That's one of my other messages, is, "What is a workout?" We've become so sedentary that things that we normally do all day, walking, lifting, moving, picking things up, we have to condense into an hour because we sit on our butts all day. That's not how ... We don't exercise. We're not made to sit around and then go, "I'm gonna run like hell for an hour then I'm gonna sit down the rest of the day." Even the research on television watching shows that even if you lift an hour or you work out an hour a day, if you sit for ... Don't quote me on the actual hours, more than three hours a week in front of the television, the benefits of the workout are pretty much gone. Jim: You cannot be sitting all day. We're not made to be sedentary. I'm active all day, even when I'm fasted. I might go for a hike in the middle of the day fasted. I'm not gonna go to the gym and train a full ... I might if that's the only time I can. If I know this is my only block of, I'll train fasted if I have to. It's not ideal, but again, it's not ... When you're fasted and you're used to intermittent fasting and you exercise, it's not like, "Oh my god, it's so ..." It's normal. Nick: I remember Dom D'Agostino, he set the record for the most weight lifted in an hour and he was seven days fasted at the time when he did it. All he did was squats for an hour straight. There's a video of it online. It's terrifying, but he's a freak, too. Jim: And I do videos. I'll do videos on my social media, parking the last spot. Taking the stairs, don't use the escalator or elevator. Jim: Without a doubt, because that's the type of activity that's most important. Staying active all day. It's just finding the ways to stay active. In addition to your … Sure, you’re still gonna do your workout, but in addition to the workout, you still need to stay active. Nick: That is one knock that people have against full body training, is they say, "If I have to go full body workout, I'm gonna be so crushed I can't do anything else. I'm only gonna do triceps and chest today because that was I can still play with my kids later." Something like that. Jim: The other thing that I preach about it was I call my 30/60 rule. It goes on with that data from television watching. What it shows is, if you sit for more than 30 minutes, I'm getting back to gene regulation. Genes that are involved in burning fat turn off. Genes that enhance fat storage get turned on. Genes that help prevent metabolic disorders get altered if you're sitting for too long. Nick: That's a great rule. Heather: That's a great rule. Nick: There's something really important in what you're saying there, too, because people talk about genetics casually as if it's a death sentence, always like, "Blame it on genetics. I'm cursed," or, "You're blessed because of genetics," but you're saying you actually have a lot of control over yourself and your genetics. Jim: Epigenetics are critical. What epigenetics basically are is things that we do. The food choices that we make. Environmental factors all affect our genes that we then pass on. It's not just genes that have been passed along. Those genes get changed along the way based on our environment, things we eat, things that we get exposed to. That changes the genes that we then pass on to our children. Staying active, eating a good diet can actually enhance the health of your offspring. Nick Collias: It's a good message to end on. Well, thanks so much Jim Stoppani for coming to talk to us.

2019-04-19T11:14:50Z

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Final regulations under section 168 of the Code provide guidance on how to depreciate property for which the use changes in the hands of the same taxpayer. These regulations explain when a change in use occurs and how a taxpayer should determine depreciation in the year of the change in use, and in subsequent years. Final and temporary regulations under section 280F of the Code exclude vans and trucks that are qualified nonpersonal use vehicles (as defined in section 1.274-5T(k)) from the definition of “passenger automobile” for purposes of section 280F(a), including transition rules for property placed in service prior to July 7, 2003. Proposed regulations under section 1374 of the Code provide for an adjustment to the amount that may be subject to tax in certain cases in which an S corporation acquires assets from a C corporation in an acquisition to which section 1374(d)(8) applies. These regulations provide guidance to certain S corporations that acquire assets from a C corporation in a carryover basis transaction. Proposed regulations under section 864 of the Code relate to the application of the asset-use test to stock held by foreign insurance companies. The regulations provide that the exception to the asset-use test for stock does not apply in determining whether the income, gain, or loss from portfolio stock held by foreign insurance companies constitutes income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States. Charitable contributions and conservation easements. This notice informs taxpayers that the Service will, in appropriate cases, reduce or disallow deductions claimed by taxpayers under section 170 of the Code for transfers in connection with conservation easements. This notice also informs participants in these transactions that they may be subject to other adverse tax consequences, including penalties, excise taxes, and loss of tax-exempt status, as appropriate. Section 368(a)(1)(B). The Service is requesting public comments regarding Rev. Proc. 81-70, 1981-2 C.B. 729, which contains the guidelines for estimating the basis of stock acquired in a B reorganization. This notice advises taxpayers that the Service will challenge the meritless filing position of certain U.S. citizens who claim to be residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands and to have income from sources in the U.S. Virgin Islands or income effectively connected to the conduct of a trade or business in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Group or pooled trusts; participation; tax-exempt status, model language. This ruling provides that a governmental section 457(b) plan may invest in a second tier group or pooled trust as long as the criteria enumerated in the ruling are met. In addition, the ruling sets forth model language that may be adopted by existing group or pooled trusts so that they need not request determination letters merely to add a provision permitting participation by a governmental section 457(b) plan. Rev. Rul. 81-100 clarified and modified. This announcement is a public notice of the suspension of the federal tax exemption under section 501(p) of the Code of a certain organization that has been designated as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity or supporting terrorism. Contributions made to this organization during the period that the organization's tax-exempt status is suspended are not deductible for federal tax purposes. This document contains final and temporary regulations relating to the depreciation of property subject to section 168 of the Internal Revenue Code (MACRS property). Specifically, these regulations provide guidance on how to depreciate MACRS property for which the use changes in the hands of the same taxpayer. The regulations reflect changes to the law made by the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Effective Date: These regulations are effective June 17, 2004. Applicability Date: For dates of applicability, see §§1.168(i)-1(l)(2) and 1.168(i)-4(g). Sara Logan or Kathleen Reed, (202) 622-3110 (not a toll-free number). This document contains amendments to 26 CFR part 1. On July 21, 2003, the IRS and Treasury Department published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (REG-138499-02, 2003-37 I.R.B. 541 [68 FR 43047]), relating to a change in the use of MACRS property in the hands of the same taxpayer (change in the use) under section 168(i)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) and relating to a change in the use of assets in a general asset account under section 168(i)(4). On March 1, 2004, §§1.168(a)-1 and 1.168(b)-1 that were contained in this notice of proposed rulemaking were withdrawn (REG-138499-02, 2004-14 I.R.B. 704 [69 FR 9560]). No public hearing was requested or held. Written or electronic comments responding to the notice of proposed rulemaking were received. After consideration of all the comments, the proposed regulations are adopted as amended by this Treasury decision. The revisions are discussed below. The final regulations provide the rules for determining the annual depreciation allowance under section 168 for MACRS property as a result of a change in the use of such property. Changes in the use include a conversion of personal use property to a business or income-producing use, a conversion of MACRS property to personal use, or a change in the use of MACRS property that results in a different recovery period, depreciation method, or both. The final regulations retain the rules contained in the proposed regulations, providing that personal use property converted to business or income-producing use is treated as being placed in service by the taxpayer on the date of the conversion. Thus, the property is depreciated by using the applicable depreciation method, recovery period, and convention prescribed under section 168 for the property beginning in the taxable year the change in the use occurs (year of change). No comments were received suggesting changes to these rules. The final regulations, however, clarify that these rules do not apply when another section of the Code (or regulations under that section) prescribes the depreciation treatment for a change to business use. For example, if listed property (as defined in section 280F(d)(4)) is predominantly used by a taxpayer in a qualified business use in a taxable year, then in a subsequent taxable year is exclusively used by the taxpayer for personal purposes, and then in a later taxable year is predominantly used by the taxpayer in a qualified business use, section 280F(b)(2)(A) requires that the property be depreciated under the alternative depreciation system of section 168(g) in the later taxable year and subsequent taxable years. The final regulations retain the rule contained in the proposed regulations providing that a conversion of MACRS property from business or income-producing use to personal use is treated as a disposition of the property. Depreciation for the year of change is computed by taking into account the applicable convention. No gain, loss, or depreciation recapture is recognized upon the conversion. A commentator questioned whether recapture of excess depreciation under section 280F(b)(2) occurs upon a conversion of listed property from business use to only personal use. Upon this conversion, the listed property is not predominantly used in a qualified business use for that taxable year for purposes of section 280F(b) and, consequently, section 280F(b)(2) requires any excess depreciation (as defined in section 280F(b)(2)(B)) to be included in gross income for the taxable year in which the listed property is converted to personal use. Accordingly, the IRS and Treasury Department have included a cross-reference to section 280F(b)(2) in the final regulations. The final regulations provide rules for MACRS property if a change in the use of the property occurs after the property’s placed-in-service year but the property continues to be MACRS property in the hands of the taxpayer. The final regulations remain unchanged from the proposed regulations. Consequently, a change in the use of MACRS property generally occurs when the primary use of the MACRS property in the taxable year is different from its primary use in the immediately preceding taxable year. However, in determining whether a taxpayer begins or ceases to use MACRS property predominantly outside the United States, the predominant use, instead of the primary use, of the MACRS property governs. A commentator questioned how this predominant use test is applied to rolling stock (for example, locomotives, freight and passenger train cars) that is not described under section 168(g)(4)(B) and that is used within and without the United States. This question concerns how to trace the movement of this rolling stock to determine its physical location, which the IRS and Treasury Department believe is beyond the scope of these regulations. The final regulations retain the rules contained in the proposed regulations for determining the applicable depreciation method, recovery period, and convention used to determine the depreciation allowances for the MACRS property for the year of change and subsequent taxable years. Consequently, if a change in the use of MACRS property results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method (for example, MACRS property ceases to be used predominantly outside the United States), the adjusted depreciable basis of the MACRS property as of the beginning of the year of change is depreciated over the shorter recovery period and/or by the more accelerated depreciation method beginning with the year of change as though the MACRS property is placed in service by the taxpayer in the year of change. If a change in the use of MACRS property results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method (for example, MACRS property begins to be used predominantly outside the United States), the adjusted depreciable basis of the MACRS property as of the beginning of the year of change is depreciated over the longer recovery period and/or by the slower depreciation method beginning with the year of change as though the taxpayer originally placed the MACRS property in service with the longer recovery period and/or slower depreciation method. A commentator suggested that the depreciation allowances for all changes in the use of MACRS property resulting in a different recovery period and/or depreciation method be determined beginning with the year of change by treating the new depreciation method and/or recovery period as though they applied from the date the MACRS property was originally placed in service by the taxpayer. The commentator, in effect, is requesting that the rule contained in the proposed regulations for a change in the use of MACRS property that results in a longer recovery period and/or slower depreciation method also apply to a change in the use of MACRS property that results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method. The IRS and Treasury Department continue to believe that the rules contained in the proposed regulations are reasonable because the rules determine the depreciation allowance for any taxable year based on the primary use of the MACRS property by the taxpayer during that year. Further, for a change in the use of MACRS property that results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method, the taxpayer either may determine the depreciation allowances as though the MACRS property is placed-in-service by the taxpayer in the year of change or may elect to disregard the change in the use and determine the depreciation allowances as though the change in the use had not occurred. As a result, the final regulations do not require a recovery period that is longer than the recovery period applicable for the MACRS property in the taxable year immediately preceding the year of change. Accordingly, the commentator’s suggestion was not accepted. Another commentator requested that Example 4 in §1.168(i)-5(d)(6) be clarified by stating which optional depreciation tables the transaction coefficient factors are drawn from. The IRS and Treasury Department have adopted this suggestion. The final regulations retain the rules contained in the proposed regulations if a change in the use of MACRS property occurs during the taxable year the property is placed in service and the property continues to be MACRS property in the hands of the taxpayer. Accordingly, if the use of MACRS property changes during its placed-in-service year, the depreciation allowance generally is determined by the primary use of the property during that taxable year. However, in determining whether MACRS property is used within or outside the United States during the placed-in-service year, the predominant use, instead of the primary use, of the MACRS property governs. Further, in determining whether MACRS property is tax-exempt use property or imported property covered by an Executive order during the placed-in-service year, the use of the property at the end of the placed-in-service year governs. Moreover, MACRS property is tax-exempt bond financed property during the placed-in-service year if a tax-exempt bond for the MACRS property is issued during the placed-in-service year. Finally, the regulations amend the final regulations under section 168(i)(4) (T.D. 8566, 1994-2 C.B. 20 [59 FR 51369] (1994)) and the temporary regulations under section 168(i)(4) (T.D. 9115, 2004-14 I.R.B. 680 [69 FR 9529] (2004)) for property accounted for in a general asset account for which the use of the property changes, resulting in a different recovery period and/or depreciation method. These amendments are the same rules contained in the proposed regulations. These regulations are applicable for any change in the use of MACRS property in a taxable year ending on or after June 17, 2004. For any change in the use of MACRS property after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before June 17, 2004, the IRS will allow any reasonable method of depreciating the property under section 168 in the year of change and the subsequent taxable years that is consistently applied to the MACRS property for which the use changes in the hands of the same taxpayer. However, a taxpayer may choose, on a property-by-property basis, to apply the final regulations to a change in the use of MACRS property after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before June 17, 2004. In this case and consistent with Chief Counsel Notice 2004-007, Change in Litigating Position—Application of Section 446(e) to Changes in Computing Depreciation (CC-2004-007, January 28, 2004, at the IRS Internet site at www.irs.gov/foia), a change to the method of accounting for depreciation provided in the final regulations due to a change in the use of MACRS property in a taxable year ending on or after December 30, 2003, is a change in method of accounting and a change to the method of accounting for depreciation provided in the final regulations due to a change in the use of MACRS property after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before December 30, 2003, may be treated by the taxpayer as a change in method of accounting. It has been determined that this Treasury decision is not a significant regulatory action as defined in Executive Order 12866. Therefore, a regulatory assessment is not required. It also has been determined that section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 5) does not apply to these regulations and, because these regulations do not impose on small entities a collection of information requirement, the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6) does not apply to these regulations. Therefore, a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not required. Pursuant to section 7805(f) of the Code, the notice of proposed rulemaking was submitted to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration for comment on its impact on small business. §1.168(i)-0 Table of contents for the general asset account rules. (2) Change in use results in a different recovery period and/or depreciation method. (i) No effect on general asset account election. (ii) Asset is removed from the general asset account. (iii) New general asset account is established. a. Removing the language “and” from the end of paragraph (c)(2)(ii)(C). b. Removing the period “.” from the end of paragraph (c)(2)(ii)(D) and adding “; and” in its place. 3. Removing the language “the change in use occurs and” from the last sentence of paragraph (h)(1) and adding “the change in use occurs (the year of change) and” in its place. 5. Removing the language “(h)(1)” from paragraph (k)(1) and adding “(h)” in its place. (1) Unadjusted depreciable basis is the basis of an asset for purposes of section 1011 without regard to any adjustments described in section 1016(a)(2) and (3). This basis reflects the reduction in basis for the percentage of the taxpayer’s use of property for the taxable year other than in the taxpayer’s trade or business (or for the production of income), for any portion of the basis the taxpayer properly elects to treat as an expense under section 179, and for any adjustments to basis provided by other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and the regulations under the Internal Revenue Code (other than section 1016(a)(2) and (3)) (for example, a reduction in basis by the amount of the disabled access credit pursuant to section 44(d)(7)). For property subject to a lease, see section 167(c)(2). (E) Assets subject to paragraph (h)(2)(iii)(A) of this section (change in use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method) for which the depreciation allowance for the year of change (as defined in §1.168(i)-4(a)) is not determined by using an optional depreciation table must be grouped into a separate general asset account. (2) Change in use results in a different recovery period and/or depreciation method—(i) No effect on general asset account election. A change in the use described in §1.168(i)-4(d) (change in use results in a different recovery period and/or depreciation method) of an asset in a general asset account shall not cause or permit the revocation of the election made under this section. (ii) Asset is removed from the general asset account. Upon a change in the use described in §1.168(i)-4(d), the taxpayer must remove the asset from the general asset account as of the first day of the year of change and must make the adjustments to the general asset account described in paragraphs (e)(3)(iii)(C)(2) through (4) of this section. If, however, the result of the change in use is described in §1.168(i)-4(d)(3) (change in use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method) and the taxpayer elects to treat the asset as though the change in use had not occurred pursuant to §1.168(i)-4(d)(3)(ii), no adjustment is made to the general asset account upon the change in use. (iii) New general asset account is established—(A) Change in use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method. If the result of the change in use is described in §1.168(i)-4(d)(3) (change in use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method) and adjustments to the general asset account are made pursuant to paragraph (h)(2)(ii) of this section, the taxpayer must establish a new general asset account for the asset in the year of change in accordance with the rules in paragraph (c) of this section, except that the adjusted depreciable basis of the asset as of the first day of the year of change is included in the general asset account. For purposes of paragraph (c)(2) of this section, the applicable depreciation method, recovery period, and convention are determined under §1.168(i)-4(d)(3)(i). (B) Change in use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method. If the result of the change in use is described in §1.168(i)-4(d)(4) (change in use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method), the taxpayer must establish a separate general asset account for the asset in the year of change in accordance with the rules in paragraph (c) of this section, except that the unadjusted depreciable basis of the asset, and the greater of the depreciation of the asset allowed or allowable in accordance with section 1016(a)(2), as of the first day of the year of change are included in the newly established general asset account. Consequently, this general asset account as of the first day of the year of change will have a beginning balance for both the unadjusted depreciable basis and the depreciation reserve of the general asset account. For purposes of paragraph (c)(2) of this section, the applicable depreciation method, recovery period, and convention are determined under §1.168(i)-4(d)(4)(ii). (l) Effective dates—(1) [Reserved]. For further guidance, see §1.168(i)-1T(l)(1). (2) Exceptions—(i) In general—(A) Paragraph (b)(1) of this section applies on or after June 17, 2004. For the applicability of §1.168(i)-1(b)(1) before June 17, 2004, see §1.168(i)-1(b)(1) in effect prior to June 17, 2004 (§1.168(i)-1(b)(1) as contained in 26 CFR part 1 edition revised as of April 1, 2004). (B) Paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section apply to any change in the use of depreciable assets pursuant to §1.168(i)-4(d) in a taxable year ending on or after June 17, 2004. For any change in the use of depreciable assets as described in §1.168(i)-4(d) after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before June 17, 2004, the Internal Revenue Service will allow any reasonable method that is consistently applied to the taxpayer’s general asset accounts or the taxpayer may choose, on an asset-by-asset basis, to apply paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section. (ii) Change in method of accounting—(A) In general. If a taxpayer adopted a method of accounting for general asset account treatment due to a change in the use of depreciable assets pursuant to §1.168(i)-4(d) in a taxable year ending on or after December 30, 2003, and the method adopted is not in accordance with the method of accounting provided in paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section, a change to the method of accounting provided in paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section is a change in method of accounting to which the provisions of section 446(e) and the regulations under section 446(e) apply. However, if a taxpayer adopted a method of accounting for general asset account treatment due to a change in the use of depreciable assets pursuant to §1.168(i)-4(d) after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before December 30, 2003, and the method adopted is not in accordance with the method of accounting provided in paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section, the taxpayer may treat the change to the method of accounting provided in paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (h)(2) of this section as a change in method of accounting to which the provisions of section 446(e) and the regulations under section 446(e) apply. (B) Automatic consent to change method of accounting. A taxpayer changing its method of accounting in accordance with this paragraph (l)(2)(ii) must follow the applicable administrative procedures issued under §1.446-1(e)(3)(ii) for obtaining the Commissioner's automatic consent to a change in method of accounting (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 2002-9, 2002-1 C.B. 327, as modified by Rev. Proc. 2004-11, 2004-3 I.R.B. 311 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). Because this change does not change the adjusted depreciable basis of the asset, the method change is made on a cut-off basis and, therefore, no adjustment under section 481(a) is required or allowed. For purposes of Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method, the designated number for the automatic accounting method change authorized by this paragraph (l)(2)(ii) is “87.” If Form 3115 is revised or renumbered, any reference in this section to that form is treated as a reference to the revised or renumbered form. (3) [Reserved]. For further guidance, see §1.168(i)-1T(l)(3). 1. Revising paragraphs (c)(2)(ii)(E) and (l)(2). 2. Removing the language “(h)(1) (conversion to personal use)” from paragraphs (d)(2) and (i) and adding “(h) (changes in use)” in its place. 3. Removing the language “(h)(1)” from paragraph (j) and adding “(h)” in its place. §1.168(i)-1T General asset accounts (temporary). (E) [Reserved]. For further guidance, see §1.168(i)-1(c)(2)(ii)(E). (2) [Reserved]. For further guidance, see §1.168(i)-1(l)(2). (a) Scope. This section provides the rules for determining the depreciation allowance for MACRS property (as defined in §1.168(b)-1T(a)(2)) for which the use changes in the hands of the same taxpayer (change in the use). The allowance for depreciation under this section constitutes the amount of depreciation allowable under section 167(a) for the year of change and any subsequent taxable year. For purposes of this section, the year of change is the taxable year in which a change in the use occurs. (b) Conversion to business or income-producing use—(1) Depreciation deduction allowable. This paragraph (b) applies to property that is converted from personal use to use in a taxpayer’s trade or business, or for the production of income, during a taxable year. This conversion includes property that was previously used by the taxpayer for personal purposes, including real property (other than land) that is acquired before 1987 and converted from personal use to business or income-producing use after 1986, and depreciable property that was previously used by a tax-exempt entity before the entity changed to a taxable entity. Except as otherwise provided by the Internal Revenue Code or regulations under the Internal Revenue Code, upon a conversion to business or income-producing use, the depreciation allowance for the year of change and any subsequent taxable year is determined as though the property is placed in service by the taxpayer on the date on which the conversion occurs. Thus, except as otherwise provided by the Internal Revenue Code or regulations under the Internal Revenue Code, the taxpayer must use any applicable depreciation method, recovery period, and convention prescribed under section 168 for the property in the year of change, consistent with any election made under section 168 by the taxpayer for that year (see, for example, section 168(b)(5)). See §§1.168(k)-1T(f)(6)(iii) and 1.1400L(b)-1T(f)(6) for the additional first year depreciation deduction rules applicable to a conversion to business or income-producing use. The depreciable basis of the property for the year of change is the lesser of its fair market value or its adjusted depreciable basis (as defined in §1.168(b)-1T(a)(4)), as applicable, at the time of the conversion to business or income-producing use. Example. A, a calendar-year taxpayer, purchases a house in 1985 that she occupies as her principal residence. In February 2004, A ceases to occupy the house and converts it to residential rental property. At the time of the conversion to residential rental property, the house’s fair market value (excluding land) is $130,000 and adjusted depreciable basis attributable to the house (excluding land) is $150,000. Pursuant to this paragraph (b), A is considered to have placed in service residential rental property in February 2004 with a depreciable basis of $130,000. A depreciates the residential rental property under the general depreciation system by using the straight-line method, a 27.5-year recovery period, and the mid-month convention. Pursuant to §§1.168(k)-1T(f)(6)(iii)(B) or 1.1400L(b)-1T(f)(6), this property is not eligible for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k) or section 1400L(b). Thus, the depreciation allowance for the house for 2004 is $4,137, after taking into account the mid-month convention (($130,000 adjusted depreciable basis multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 3.636% (1/27.5)) multiplied by the mid-month convention fraction of 10.5/12). The amount of depreciation computed under section 168, however, may be limited under other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, such as, section 280A. (c) Conversion to personal use. The conversion of MACRS property from business or income-producing use to personal use during a taxable year is treated as a disposition of the property in that taxable year. The depreciation allowance for MACRS property for the year of change in which the property is treated as being disposed of is determined by first multiplying the adjusted depreciable basis of the property as of the first day of the year of change by the applicable depreciation rate for that taxable year (for further guidance, for example, see section 6 of Rev. Proc. 87-57, 1987-2 C. B. 687, 692 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). This amount is then multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of months (including fractions of months) the property is deemed to be placed in service during the year of change (taking into account the applicable convention) and the denominator of which is 12. No depreciation deduction is allowable for MACRS property placed in service and disposed of in the same taxable year. See §§1.168(k)-1T(f)(6)(ii) and 1.1400L(b)-1T(f)(6) for the additional first year depreciation deduction rules applicable to property placed in service and converted to personal use in the same taxable year. Upon the conversion to personal use, no gain, loss, or depreciation recapture under section 1245 or section 1250 is recognized. However, the provisions of section 1245 or section 1250 apply to any disposition of the converted property by the taxpayer at a later date. For listed property (as defined in section 280F(d)(4)), see section 280F(b)(2) for the recapture of excess depreciation upon the conversion to personal use. (iii) Begins or ceases to be tax-exempt use property (as defined in section 168(h)). (2) Determination of change in the use—(i) In general. Except as provided in paragraph (d)(2)(ii) of this section, a change in the use of MACRS property occurs when the primary use of the MACRS property in the taxable year is different from its primary use in the immediately preceding taxable year. The primary use of MACRS property may be determined in any reasonable manner that is consistently applied to the taxpayer’s MACRS property. (ii) Alternative depreciation system property—(A) Property used within or outside the United States. A change in the use of MACRS property occurs when a taxpayer begins or ceases to use MACRS property predominantly outside the United States during the taxable year. The determination of whether MACRS property is used predominantly outside the United States is made in accordance with the test in §1.48-1(g)(1)(i) for determining predominant use. (B) Tax-exempt bond financed property. A change in the use of MACRS property occurs when the property changes to tax-exempt bond financed property, as described in section 168(g)(1)(C) and (g)(5), during the taxable year. For purposes of this paragraph (d), MACRS property changes to tax-exempt bond financed property when a tax-exempt bond is first issued after the MACRS property is placed in service. MACRS property continues to be tax-exempt bond financed property in the hands of the taxpayer even if the tax-exempt bond (including any refunding issue) is no longer outstanding or is redeemed. (C) Other mandatory alternative depreciation system property. A change in the use of MACRS property occurs when the property changes to, or changes from, property described in section 168(g)(1)(B) (tax-exempt use property) or (D) (imported property covered by an Executive order) during the taxable year. (iii) Change in the use deemed to occur on first day of the year of change. If a change in the use of MACRS property occurs under this paragraph (d)(2), the depreciation allowance for that MACRS property for the year of change is determined as though the use of the MACRS property changed on the first day of the year of change. (3) Change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method—(i) Treated as placed in service in the year of change—(A) In general. If a change in the use results in the MACRS property changing to a shorter recovery period and/or a depreciation method that is more accelerated than the method used for the MACRS property before the change in the use, the depreciation allowances beginning in the year of change are determined as though the MACRS property is placed in service by the taxpayer in the year of change. (B) Computation of depreciation allowance. The depreciation allowances for the MACRS property for any 12-month taxable year beginning with the year of change are determined by multiplying the adjusted depreciable basis of the MACRS property as of the first day of each taxable year by the applicable depreciation rate for each taxable year. In determining the applicable depreciation rate for the year of change and subsequent taxable years, the taxpayer must use any applicable depreciation method and recovery period prescribed under section 168 for the MACRS property in the year of change, consistent with any election made under section 168 by the taxpayer for that year (see, for example, section 168(b)(5)). If there is a change in the use of MACRS property, the applicable convention that applies to the MACRS property is the same as the convention that applied before the change in the use of the MACRS property. However, the depreciation allowance for the year of change for the MACRS property is determined without applying the applicable convention, unless the MACRS property is disposed of during the year of change. See paragraph (d)(5) of this section for the rules relating to the computation of the depreciation allowance under the optional depreciation tables. If the year of change or any subsequent taxable year is less than 12 months, the depreciation allowance determined under this paragraph (d)(3)(i) must be adjusted for a short taxable year (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 89-15, 1989-1 C.B. 816 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). (C) Special rules. MACRS property affected by this paragraph (d)(3)(i) is not eligible in the year of change for the election provided under section 168(f)(1), 179, or 1400L(f), or for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided in section 168(k) or 1400L(b). See §§1.168(k)-1T(f)(6)(iv) and 1.1400L(b)-1T(f)(6) for other additional first year depreciation deduction rules applicable to a change in the use of MACRS property subsequent to its placed-in-service year. For purposes of determining whether the mid-quarter convention applies to other MACRS property placed in service during the year of change, the unadjusted depreciable basis (as defined in §1.168(b)-1T(a)(3)) or the adjusted depreciable basis of MACRS property affected by this paragraph (d)(3)(i) is not taken into account. (ii) Option to disregard the change in the use. In lieu of applying paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this section, the taxpayer may elect to determine the depreciation allowance as though the change in the use had not occurred. The taxpayer elects this option by claiming on the taxpayer’s timely filed (including extensions) Federal income tax return for the year of change the depreciation allowance for the property as though the change in the use had not occurred. See paragraph (g)(2) of this section for the manner for revoking this election. (4) Change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method—(i) Treated as originally placed in service with longer recovery period and/or slower depreciation method. If a change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a depreciation method for the MACRS property that is less accelerated than the method used for the MACRS property before the change in the use, the depreciation allowances beginning with the year of change are determined as though the MACRS property had been originally placed in service by the taxpayer with the longer recovery period and/or the slower depreciation method. MACRS property affected by this paragraph (d)(4) is not eligible in the year of change for the election provided under section 168(f)(1), 179, or 1400L(f), or for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided in section 168(k) or 1400L(b). See §§1.168(k)-1T(f)(6)(iv) and 1.1400L(b)-1T(f)(6) for other additional first year depreciation deduction rules applicable to a change in the use of MACRS property subsequent to its placed-in-service year. (2) The number of years remaining as of the beginning of each taxable year (taking into account the applicable convention) had the taxpayer used the longer recovery period in the placed-in-service year of the property if the applicable depreciation method is the straight line method (as determined under paragraph (d)(4)(ii)(A) of this section) unless the recovery period did not change as a result of the change in the use, in which case the applicable recovery period is the number of years remaining as of the beginning of each taxable year (taking into account the applicable convention) based on the recovery period that applied before the change in the use. (5) Using optional depreciation tables—(i) Taxpayer not bound by prior use of table. If a taxpayer used an optional depreciation table for the MACRS property before a change in the use, the taxpayer is not bound to use the appropriate new table for that MACRS property beginning in the year of change (for further guidance, for example, see section 8 of Rev. Proc. 87-57, 1987-2 C.B. 687, 693 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). If a taxpayer did not use an optional depreciation table for MACRS property before a change in the use and the change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method (as described in paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this section), the taxpayer may use the appropriate new table for that MACRS property beginning in the year of change. If a taxpayer chooses not to use the optional depreciation table, the depreciation allowances for the MACRS property beginning in the year of change are determined under paragraph (d)(3)(i) or (4) of this section, as applicable. (A) Change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method. If a change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method (as described in paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this section), the depreciation allowances for the MACRS property for any 12-month taxable year beginning with the year of change are determined by multiplying the adjusted depreciable basis of the MACRS property as of the first day of the year of change by the annual depreciation rate for each recovery year (expressed as a decimal equivalent) specified in the appropriate optional depreciation table. The appropriate optional depreciation table for the MACRS property is based on the depreciation system, depreciation method, recovery period, and convention applicable to the MACRS property in the year of change as determined under paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this section. The depreciation allowance for the year of change for the MACRS property is determined by taking into account the applicable convention (which is already factored into the optional depreciation tables). If the year of change or any subsequent taxable year is less than 12 months, the depreciation allowance determined under this paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(A) must be adjusted for a short taxable year (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 89-15, 1989-1 C.B. 816 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). (B) Change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method—(1) Determination of the appropriate optional depreciation table. If a change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method (as described in paragraph (d)(4)(i) of this section), the depreciation allowances for the MACRS property for any 12-month taxable year beginning with the year of change are determined by choosing the optional depreciation table that corresponds to the depreciation system, depreciation method, recovery period, and convention that would have applied to the MACRS property in the placed-in-service year had that property been originally placed in service by the taxpayer with the longer recovery period and/or the slower depreciation method. If there is a change in the use of MACRS property, the applicable convention that applies to the MACRS property is the same as the convention that applied before the change in the use of the MACRS property. If the year of change or any subsequent taxable year is less than 12 months, the depreciation allowance determined under this paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B) must be adjusted for a short taxable year (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 89-15, 1989-1 C.B. 816 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). (2) Computation of the depreciation allowance. The depreciation allowances for the MACRS property for any 12-month taxable year beginning with the year of change are computed by first determining the appropriate recovery year in the table identified under paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B)(1) of this section. The appropriate recovery year for the year of change is the year that corresponds to the year of change. For example, if the recovery year for the year of change would have been Year 4 in the table that applied before the change in the use of the MACRS property, then the recovery year for the year of change is Year 4 in the table identified under paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B)(1) of this section. Next, the annual depreciation rate (expressed as a decimal equivalent) for each recovery year is multiplied by a transaction coefficient. The transaction coefficient is the formula (1 / (1 - x)) where x equals the sum of the annual depreciation rates from the table identified under paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B)(1) of this section (expressed as a decimal equivalent) for the taxable years beginning with the placed-in-service year of the MACRS property through the taxable year immediately prior to the year of change. The product of the annual depreciation rate and the transaction coefficient is multiplied by the adjusted depreciable basis of the MACRS property as of the beginning of the year of change. Example 1. Change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method and optional depreciation table is not used—(i) X, a calendar-year corporation, places in service in 1999 equipment at a cost of $100,000 and uses this equipment from 1999 through 2003 primarily in its A business. X depreciates the equipment for 1999 through 2003 under the general depreciation system as 7-year property by using the 200-percent declining balance method (which switched to the straight-line method in 2003), a 7-year recovery period, and a half-year convention. Beginning in 2004, X primarily uses the equipment in its B business. As a result, the classification of the equipment under section 168(e) changes from 7-year property to 5-year property and the recovery period of the equipment under the general depreciation system changes from 7 years to 5 years. The depreciation method does not change. On January 1, 2004, the adjusted depreciable basis of the equipment is $22,311. X depreciates its 5-year recovery property placed in service in 2004 under the general depreciation system by using the 200-percent declining balance method and a 5-year recovery period. X does not use the optional depreciation tables. (ii) Under paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this section, X’s allowable depreciation deduction for the equipment for 2004 and subsequent taxable years is determined as though X placed the equipment in service in 2004 for use primarily in its B business. The depreciable basis of the equipment as of January 1, 2004, is $22,311 (the adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2004). Because X does not use the optional depreciation tables, the depreciation allowance for 2004 (the deemed placed-in-service year) for this equipment only is computed without taking into account the half-year convention. Pursuant to paragraph (d)(3)(i)(C) of this section, this equipment is not eligible for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k) or section 1400L(b). Thus, X’s allowable depreciation deduction for the equipment for 2004 is $8,924 ($22,311 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2004, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 40% (200/5)). X’s allowable depreciation deduction for the equipment for 2005 is $5,355 ($13,387 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2005, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 40% (200/5)). (iii) Alternatively, under paragraph (d)(3)(ii) of this section, X may elect to disregard the change in the use and, as a result, may continue to treat the equipment as though it is used primarily in its A business. If the election is made, X’s allowable depreciation deduction for the equipment for 2004 is $8,924 ($22,311 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2004, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 40% (1/2.5 years remaining at January 1, 2004)). X’s allowable depreciation deduction for the equipment for 2005 is $8,925 ($13,387 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2005, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 66.67% (1/1.5 years remaining at January 1, 2005)). Example 2. Change in the use results in a shorter recovery period and/or a more accelerated depreciation method and optional depreciation table is used—(i) Same facts as in Example 1, except that X used the optional depreciation tables for computing depreciation for 1999 through 2003. Pursuant to paragraph (d)(5) of this section, X chooses to continue to use the optional depreciation table for the equipment. X does not make the election provided in paragraph (d)(3)(ii) of this section to disregard the change in use. (ii) In accordance with paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(A) of this section, X must first identify the appropriate optional depreciation table for the equipment. This table is table 1 in Rev. Proc. 87-57 because the equipment will be depreciated in the year of change (2004) under the general depreciation system using the 200-percent declining balance method, a 5-year recovery period, and the half-year convention (which is the convention that applied to the equipment in 1999). Pursuant to paragraph (d)(3)(i)(C) of this section, this equipment is not eligible for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k) or section 1400L(b). For 2004, X multiplies its adjusted depreciable basis in the equipment as of January 1, 2004, of $22,311, by the annual depreciation rate in table 1 for recovery year 1 for a 5-year recovery period (.20), to determine the depreciation allowance of $4,462. For 2005, X multiplies its adjusted depreciable basis in the equipment as of January 1, 2004, of $22,311, by the annual depreciation rate in table 1 for recovery year 2 for a 5-year recovery period (.32), to determine the depreciation allowance of $7,140. Example 3. Change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method—(i) Y, a calendar-year corporation, places in service in January 2002, equipment at a cost of $100,000 and uses this equipment in 2002 and 2003 only within the United States. Y elects not to deduct the additional first year depreciation under section 168(k). Y depreciates the equipment for 2002 and 2003 under the general depreciation system by using the 200-percent declining balance method, a 5-year recovery period, and a half-year convention. Beginning in 2004, Y uses the equipment predominantly outside the United States. As a result of this change in the use, the equipment is subject to the alternative depreciation system beginning in 2004. Under the alternative depreciation system, the equipment is depreciated by using the straight line method and a 9-year recovery period. The adjusted depreciable basis of the equipment at January 1, 2004, is $48,000. (ii) Pursuant to paragraph (d)(4) of this section, Y’s allowable depreciation deduction for 2004 and subsequent taxable years is determined as though the equipment had been placed in service in January 2002, as property used predominantly outside the United States. Further, pursuant to paragraph (d)(4)(i) of this section, the equipment is not eligible in 2004 for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k) or section 1400L(b). In determining the applicable depreciation rate for 2004, the applicable depreciation method is the straight line method and the applicable recovery period is 7.5 years, which is the number of years remaining at January 1, 2004, for property placed in service in 2002 with a 9-year recovery period (taking into account the half-year convention). Thus, the depreciation allowance for 2004 is $6,398 ($48,000 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2004, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 13.33% (1/7.5 years)). The depreciation allowance for 2005 is $6,398 ($41,602 adjusted depreciable basis at January 1, 2005, multiplied by the applicable depreciation rate of 15.38% (1/6.5 years remaining at January 1, 2005)). Example 4. Change in the use results in a longer recovery period and/or a slower depreciation method and optional depreciation table is used—(i) Same facts as in Example 3, except that Y used the optional depreciation tables for computing depreciation in 2002 and 2003. Pursuant to paragraph (d)(5) of this section, Y chooses to continue to use the optional depreciation table for the equipment. Further, pursuant to paragraph (d)(4)(i) of this section, the equipment is not eligible in 2004 for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k) or section 1400L(b). (ii) In accordance with paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B) of this section, Y must first determine the appropriate optional depreciation table for the equipment pursuant to paragraph (d)(5)(ii)(B)(1) of this section. This table is table 8 in Rev. Proc. 87-57, which corresponds to the alternative depreciation system, the straight line method, a 9-year recovery period, and the half-year convention (because Y depreciated 5-year property in 2002 using a half-year convention). Next, Y must determine the appropriate recovery year in table 8. Because the year of change is 2004, the depreciation allowance for the equipment for 2004 is determined using recovery year 3 of table 8. For 2004, Y multiplies its adjusted depreciable basis in the equipment as of January 1, 2004, of $48,000, by the product of the annual depreciation rate in table 8 for recovery year 3 for a 9-year recovery period (.1111) and the transaction coefficient of 1.200 [1/(1-(.0556 (table 8 for recovery year 1 for a 9-year recovery period) +.1111 (table 8 for recovery year 2 for a 9-year recovery period)))], to determine the depreciation allowance of $6,399. For 2005, Y multiplies its adjusted depreciable basis in the equipment as of January 1, 2004, of $48,000, by the product of the annual depreciation rate in table 8 for recovery year 4 for a 9-year recovery period (.1111) and the transaction coefficient (1.200), to determine the depreciation allowance of $6,399. (e) Change in the use of MACRS property during the placed-in-service year—(1) In general. Except as provided in paragraph (e)(2) of this section, if a change in the use of MACRS property occurs during the placed-in-service year and the property continues to be MACRS property owned by the same taxpayer, the depreciation allowance for that property for the placed-in-service year is determined by its primary use during that year. The primary use of MACRS property may be determined in any reasonable manner that is consistently applied to the taxpayer’s MACRS property. For purposes of this paragraph (e), the determination of whether the mid-quarter convention applies to any MACRS property placed in service during the year of change is made in accordance with §1.168(d)-1. (2) Alternative depreciation system property—(i) Property used within and outside the United States. The depreciation allowance for the placed-in-service year for MACRS property that is used within and outside the United States is determined by its predominant use during that year. The determination of whether MACRS property is used predominantly outside the United States during the placed-in-service year shall be made in accordance with the test in §1.48-1(g)(1)(i) for determining predominant use. (ii) Tax-exempt bond financed property. The depreciation allowance for the placed-in-service year for MACRS property that changes to tax-exempt bond financed property, as described in section 168(g)(1)(C) and (g)(5), during that taxable year is determined under the alternative depreciation system. For purposes of this paragraph (e), MACRS property changes to tax-exempt bond financed property when a tax-exempt bond is first issued after the MACRS property is placed in service. MACRS property continues to be tax-exempt bond financed property in the hands of the taxpayer even if the tax-exempt bond (including any refunding issue) is not outstanding at, or is redeemed by, the end of the placed-in-service year. (B) The general depreciation system if the MACRS property is not described in section 168(g)(1)(B) or (D) at the end of the placed-in-service year, unless other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code or regulations under the Internal Revenue Code require the depreciation allowance for that MACRS property to be determined under the alternative depreciation system (for example, section 168(g)(7)). Example 1. (i) Z, a utility and calendar-year corporation, acquires and places in service on January 1, 2004, equipment at a cost of $100,000. Z uses this equipment in its combustion turbine production plant for 4 months and then uses the equipment in its steam production plant for the remainder of 2004. Z’s combustion turbine production plant assets are classified as 15-year property and are depreciated by Z under the general depreciation system using a 15-year recovery period and the 150-percent declining balance method of depreciation. Z’s steam production plant assets are classified as 20-year property and are depreciated by Z under the general depreciation system using a 20-year recovery period and the 150-percent declining balance method of depreciation. Z uses the optional depreciation tables. The equipment is 50-percent bonus depreciation property for purposes of section 168(k). (ii) Pursuant to this paragraph (e), Z must determine depreciation based on the primary use of the equipment during the placed-in-service year. Z has consistently determined the primary use of all of its MACRS properties by comparing the number of full months in the taxable year during which a MACRS property is used in one manner with the number of full months in that taxable year during which that MACRS property is used in another manner. Applying this approach, Z determines the depreciation allowance for the equipment for 2004 is based on the equipment being classified as 20-year property because the equipment was used by Z in its steam production plant for 8 months in 2004. If the half-year convention applies in 2004, the appropriate optional depreciation table is table 1 in Rev. Proc. 87-57, which is the table for MACRS property subject to the general depreciation system, the 150-percent declining balance method, a 20-year recovery period, and the half-year convention. Thus, the depreciation allowance for the equipment for 2004 is $51,875, which is the total of $50,000 for the 50-percent additional first year depreciation deduction allowable (the unadjusted depreciable basis of $100,000 multiplied by .50), plus $1,875 for the 2004 depreciation allowance on the remaining adjusted depreciable basis of $50,000 [(the unadjusted depreciable basis of $100,000 less the additional first year depreciation deduction of $50,000) multiplied by the annual depreciation rate of .0375 in table 1 for recovery year 1 for a 20-year recovery period]. Example 2. T, a calendar year corporation, places in service on January 1, 2004, several computers at a total cost of $100,000. T uses these computers within the United States for 3 months in 2004 and then moves and uses the computers outside the United States for the remainder of 2004. Pursuant to §1.48-1(g)(1)(i), the computers are considered as used predominantly outside the United States in 2004. As a result, for 2004, the computers are required to be depreciated under the alternative depreciation system of section 168(g) with a recovery period of 5 years pursuant to section 168(g)(3)(C). T uses the optional depreciation tables. If the half-year convention applies in 2004, the appropriate optional depreciation table is table 8 in Rev. Proc. 87-57, which is the table for MACRS property subject to the alternative depreciation system, the straight line method, a 5-year recovery period, and the half-year convention. Thus, the depreciation allowance for the computers for 2004 is $10,000, which is equal to the unadjusted depreciable basis of $100,000 multiplied by the annual depreciation rate of .10 in table 8 for recovery year 1 for a 5-year recovery period. Because the computers are required to be depreciated under the alternative depreciation system in their placed-in-service year, pursuant to section 168(k)(2)(C)(i) and §1.168(k)-1T(b)(2)(ii), the computers are not eligible for the additional first year depreciation deduction provided by section 168(k). (f) No change in accounting method. A change in computing the depreciation allowance in the year of change for property subject to this section is not a change in method of accounting under section 446(e). See §1.446-1T(e)(2)(ii)(d)(3)(ii). (g) Effective dates—(1) In general. This section applies to any change in the use of MACRS property in a taxable year ending on or after June 17, 2004. For any change in the use of MACRS property after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before June 17, 2004, the Internal Revenue Service will allow any reasonable method of depreciating the property under section 168 in the year of change and the subsequent taxable years that is consistently applied to any property for which the use changes in the hands of the same taxpayer or the taxpayer may choose, on a property-by-property basis, to apply the provisions of this section. (2) Change in method of accounting—(i) In general. If a taxpayer adopted a method of accounting for depreciation due to a change in the use of MACRS property in a taxable year ending on or after December 30, 2003, and the method adopted is not in accordance with the method of accounting for depreciation provided in this section, a change to the method of accounting for depreciation provided in this section is a change in method of accounting to which the provisions of sections 446(e) and 481 and the regulations under sections 446(e) and 481 apply. Also, a revocation of the election provided in paragraph (d)(3)(ii) of this section to disregard a change in the use is a change in method of accounting to which the provisions of sections 446(e) and 481 and the regulations under sections 446(e) and 481 apply. However, if a taxpayer adopted a method of accounting for depreciation due to a change in the use of MACRS property after December 31, 1986, in a taxable year ending before December 30, 2003, and the method adopted is not in accordance with the method of accounting for depreciation provided in this section, the taxpayer may treat the change to the method of accounting for depreciation provided in this section as a change in method of accounting to which the provisions of sections 446(e) and 481 and the regulations under sections 446(e) and 481 apply. (ii) Automatic consent to change method of accounting. A taxpayer changing its method of accounting in accordance with this paragraph (g)(2) must follow the applicable administrative procedures issued under §1.446-1(e)(3)(ii) for obtaining the Commissioner’s automatic consent to a change in method of accounting (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 2002-9, 2002-1 C.B. 327, as modified by Rev. Proc. 2004-11, 2004-3 I.R.B. 311 (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)). Any change in method of accounting made under this paragraph (g)(2) must be made using an adjustment under section 481(a). For purposes of Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method, the designated number for the automatic accounting method change authorized by this paragraph (g)(2) is “88.” If Form 3115 is revised or renumbered, any reference in this section to that form is treated as a reference to the revised or renumbered form. The principal author of these regulations is Sara Logan, Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries). However, other personnel from the IRS and Treasury Department participated in their development. This document contains regulations relating to the definition of passenger automobile for purposes of the dollar limits on depreciation deductions for passenger automobiles. These regulations affect certain taxpayers that use vans and light trucks in their trade or business. Effective Date: These regulations are effective June 25, 2004. Applicability Dates: These regulations apply to property placed in service by a taxpayer on or after July 7, 2003. For regulations applicable to property placed in service before July 7, 2003, see §1.280F-6T as in effect prior to July 7, 2003 (§1.280F-6T as contained in 26 CFR part 1, revised as of April 1, 2003). Taxpayers may choose to apply §1.280F-6(c)(3)(iii) to property placed in service prior to July 7, 2003, and if necessary may either amend returns for open taxable years or file a Form 3115 in order to apply §1.280F-6(c)(3)(iii) to such property. Bernard P. Harvey, (202) 622-3110 (not a toll-free number). On July 7, 2003, the IRS published temporary regulations (T.D. 9069, 2003-37 I.R.B. 525) in the Federal Register (68 FR 40129) containing amendments to 26 CFR part 1 under section 280F of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code), including the addition of §1.280F-6T(c)(3)(iii). On the same date, the IRS published proposed regulations (REG-138495-02, 2003-37 I.R.B. 541) in the Federal Register (68 FR 40224) inviting comments under section 280F and inviting requests to hold a public hearing. Several comments were received, but no requests to hold a public hearing. After consideration of all the comments, the rules in T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations are made retroactive for taxpayers that choose to apply the rules to property placed in service before the proposed effective date and are adopted as final regulations. In addition, a conforming amendment is made to §1.280F-6T, and §1.280F-6T is redesignated as §1.280F-6. Section 280F(a) of the Code imposes annual dollar limits on the depreciation deduction allowable with respect to passenger automobiles. T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations provide that a truck or van is not subject to these limits if it is a qualified nonpersonal use vehicle as defined in §1.274-5T(k). This rule applies to vehicles placed in service on or after July 7, 2003. Commentators suggested that the rule announced by T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations be made available retroactively to owners of qualified nonpersonal use vehicles placed in service during the period beginning January 1, 2003, and ending July 6, 2003, and that taxpayers who have filed fiscal-year returns be allowed to amend those returns to claim additional deductions for such vehicles. Commentators have also requested that we give some measure of audit protection to taxpayers who placed qualified nonpersonal use vehicles in service prior to 2003 and depreciated the vehicles in a manner consistent with T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations. We have amended the effective date provision to allow taxpayers to use the exclusion for qualified nonpersonal use vehicles for vehicles placed in service prior to July 7, 2003, and to permit taxpayers either to amend tax returns for open taxable years, or to treat the change as a change in method of accounting by filing a Form 3115, “Application for Change in Accounting Method”. Comments received from the funeral services industry requested amendments to the definition of qualified nonpersonal use vehicles in the temporary regulations under section 274 to clarify that certain vehicles used in the funeral services industry are qualified nonpersonal use vehicles for purposes of the substantiation requirements under that section. We believe that such an amendment is beyond the scope of these regulations, which are specific to section 280F(a). Another commentator indicated that the relief afforded by T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations is too narrow, and requested that we amend the regulations to establish a use-based test that would exclude more trucks and vans from section 280F(a). The comment suggested a test that would exclude all trucks and vans for which the taxpayer could demonstrate a specific business need, and which are used for a valid business purpose. We believe that the proposed test is inherently subjective and would cause administrative difficulty of the type that the proposed regulations were designed to avoid. We continue to encourage suggestions for objective use-based tests that could serve as the basis for future guidance. We were asked by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (Advocacy) to perform a regulatory flexibility analysis because Advocacy believes that T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations constitute a legislative rule as defined in the Regulatory Flexibility Act. A Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) analysis must be performed for legislative rules having a significant impact on small business, but not for interpretive rules or for legislative rules with no significant impact on small businesses. It is the position of the IRS and Treasury that T.D. 9069 and the proposed regulations constitute an interpretive rule for which no regulatory flexibility analysis is necessary. In any event, the rule proposed in the regulations is in all cases beneficial to taxpayers and does not have a significant impact on small business for purposes of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. It has been determined that this Treasury decision is not a significant regulatory action as defined in Executive Order 12866. Therefore, a regulatory assessment is not required. It also has been determined that section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 5) does not apply to these regulations, and because the regulations do not impose a collection of information on small entities, the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6) does not apply. Pursuant to section 7805(f) of the Code, the notice of proposed rulemaking was submitted to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration for comment on its impact on small business. 1. The heading in the fifth column of the table of paragraph (b) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T” and adding “§1.280F-6” in its place. 2. The first sentence in paragraph (c)(1) is amended by removing “1.280F-6T” and adding “1.280F-6” in its place. 3. The first sentence in paragraph (c)(2) is amended by removing “1.280F-6T” and adding “1.280F-6” in its place. The first sentence in paragraph (i) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)” in its place. 1. The first sentence in paragraph (a) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(b)” and adding “§1.280F-6(b)” in its place. 2. The last sentence in paragraph (a) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)” in its place. 3. The first sentence in paragraph (b)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(1)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(1)” in its place. 4. The third sentence in paragraph (b)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)” in its place, and by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(2)(i)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(2)(i)” in its place. 5. The first sentence in paragraph (b)(2) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)” in its place. 6. The third sentence in paragraph (b)(2) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(1)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(1)” in its place. 7. The first sentence in paragraph (c)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(b)” and adding “§1.280F-6(b)” in its place, and by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(4)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(4)” in its place. 8. The first sentence in paragraph (c)(2) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(4)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(4)” in its place. 9. Paragraph (d)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(4)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(4)” in its place. The fifth sentence in paragraph (a)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(2)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(2)” in its place. The first sentence in paragraph (d)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)(i)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)(i)” in its place. 1. Paragraph (b)(1)(iv) is amended by removing “section 168(j)(5)(D)” and adding “section 168(i)(2)(B)” in its place. 2. Paragraph (f) is added. (f) Effective date—(1) In general. Except as provided in paragraph (f)(2) of this section, this section applies to property placed in service by a taxpayer on or after July 7, 2003. For regulations applicable to property placed in service before July 7, 2003, see §1.280F-6T as in effect prior to July 7, 2003 (§1.280F-6T as contained in 26 CFR part 1, revised as of April 1, 2003). (i) Except as provided in paragraphs (f)(2)(ii), (iii), and (iv) of this section, a pre-effective date vehicle will be treated as a passenger automobile to which section 280F(a) applies. (ii) A pre-effective date vehicle will be treated as property to which section 280F(a) does not apply if the taxpayer adopts that treatment in determining depreciation deductions on the taxpayer’s original return for the year in which the vehicle is placed in service. (iii) A pre-effective date vehicle will be treated, to the extent provided in this paragraph (f)(2)(iii), as property to which section 280F(a) does not apply if the taxpayer adopts that treatment on an amended Federal tax return in accordance with this paragraph (f)(2)(iii). This paragraph (f)(2)(iii) applies only if, on or before December 31, 2004, the taxpayer files, for all applicable taxable years, amended Federal tax returns (or qualified amended returns, if applicable (for further guidance, see Rev. Proc. 94-69, 1994-2 C.B. 804, and §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter)) treating the vehicle as property to which section 280F(a) does not apply. The applicable taxable years for this purpose are the taxable year in which the vehicle was placed in service by the taxpayer (or, if the period of limitation for assessment under section 6501 has expired for such year or any subsequent year (a closed year), the first taxable year following the most recent closed year) and all subsequent taxable years in which the vehicle was treated on the taxpayer’s return as property to which section 280F(a) applies. If the earliest applicable taxable year is not the year in which the vehicle was placed in service, the adjusted depreciable basis of the property as of the beginning of the first applicable taxable year is recovered over the remaining recovery period. If the remaining recovery period as of the beginning of the first applicable taxable year is less than 12 months, the entire adjusted depreciable basis of the property as of the beginning of the first applicable taxable year is recovered in that year. (iv) A pre-effective date vehicle will be treated, to the extent provided in this paragraph (f)(2)(iv), as property to which section 280F(a) does not apply if the taxpayer adopts that treatment on Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method, in accordance with this paragraph (f)(2)(iv). The taxpayer must follow the applicable administrative procedures issued under §1.446-1(e)(3)(ii) for obtaining the Commissioner’s automatic consent to a change in method of accounting (for further guidance, for example, see Rev. Proc. 2002-9, 2002-1 C.B. 327, and §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter). If the taxpayer files a Form 3115 treating the vehicle as property to which section 280F(a) does not apply, the taxpayer will be permitted to treat the change as a change in method of accounting under section 446(e) of the Internal Revenue Code and to take into account the section 481 adjustment resulting from the method change. For purposes of Form 3115, the designated number for the automatic accounting method change authorized for this paragraph (f)(2)(iv) is 89. 1. Paragraph (a)(2)(iii) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)(i)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)(i)” in its place. 2. The second sentence in paragraph (b)(1) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(1)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(1)” in its place. 3. Paragraph (b)(2)(i)(B) is amended by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(3)(i)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(3)(i)” in its place, and by removing “§1.280F-6T(d)(1)” and adding “§1.280F-6(d)(1)” in its place. The principal author of these regulations is Bernard P. Harvey, Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries). However, other personnel from the IRS and Treasury Department participated in their development. This revenue ruling extends the ability to participate in group trusts described in Rev. Rul. 81-100, 1981-1 C.B. 326, to eligible governmental plans under § 457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code and clarifies the ability of Roth individual retirement accounts described in § 408A and deemed individual retirement accounts described in § 408(q) to participate in these group trusts. In addition, this revenue ruling provides related model language for eligible governmental plans under § 457(b). Whether the assets of eligible governmental plan trusts described in § 457(b) may be pooled with the assets of a group trust described in Rev. Rul. 81-100, without affecting the tax status of the eligible governmental plan trust or the group trust (including its current participants). Section 501(a) provides, in part, that a trust described in § 401(a) is exempt from income tax. Section 401(a)(1) provides that a trust or trusts created or organized in the United States and forming a part of a stock bonus, pension, or profit-sharing plan of an employer for the exclusive benefit of its employees or their beneficiaries is qualified under § 401(a) if contributions are made to the trust or trusts by the applicable employer, or employees, or both for the purpose of distributing to such employees or their beneficiaries the corpus and income of the fund accumulated in accordance with such plan. Section 401(a)(2) provides, in part, that under each trust instrument it must be impossible, at any time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities with respect to employees and their beneficiaries under the plan and the trust or trusts, for any part of the corpus or income of the trust, to be used for or diverted to purposes other than for the exclusive benefit of the employees or their beneficiaries. Section 408A provides that, except as otherwise provided in § 408A, a Roth IRA is treated for purposes of the Code as an individual retirement plan, which includes an individual retirement account that meets the requirement of § 408. Consequently, a Roth IRA that is an individual retirement account is exempt from tax under § 408(e). Section 408(q) provides, in part, that if a qualified employer plan, as defined in § 408(q)(3)(A), elects to allow employees to make voluntary employee contributions to a separate account established under the plan and, under the terms of the qualified employer plan, the account meets the requirements of § 408 or 408A for an individual retirement account, then that account is treated as an individual retirement account (deemed individual retirement account), and not as a qualified employer plan. An individual retirement account described in § 408(q) is exempt from taxation under § 408(e). Section 457 provides that compensation deferred under an eligible deferred compensation plan of an eligible employer that is a State or political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof (an eligible governmental plan) and any income attributable to the amounts deferred, is includible in gross income only in the taxable year in which it is paid to the plan participant or beneficiary. Section 457(g)(1) requires an eligible governmental plan under § 457(b) to hold all assets and income of the plan in a trust for the exclusive benefit of participants and their beneficiaries. Section 457(g)(2) provides, in part, that a trust described in § 457(g)(1) is treated as an organization exempt from federal income tax under § 501(a). Section 457(g)(3) provides that custodial account and contracts described in § 401(f) are treated as trusts under rules similar to the rules under § 401(f). This revenue ruling extends the holding of Rev. Rul. 81-100 to eligible governmental plans described in § 457(b). Therefore, if the requirements below are satisfied, the funds from qualified plan trusts, individual retirement accounts (including a Roth individual retirement account described in § 408A and a deemed individual retirement account described in § 408(q)) that are tax-exempt under § 408(e), and eligible governmental plan trusts described in § 457(b) and § 457(g) may be pooled without adversely affecting the tax status of the group trust or the tax status of the separate trusts. The assets of eligible governmental plan trusts described in § 457(b) may be pooled with the assets of a group trust described in Rev. Rul. 81-100 without affecting the tax status of the eligible governmental plan trust or the group trust (including its current participants). Accordingly, under Rev. Rul. 81-100 and this revenue ruling, if the five criteria below are satisfied, a trust that is part of a qualified retirement plan, an individual retirement account (including a Roth individual retirement account described in § 408A and a deemed individual retirement account described in § 408(q)) that is exempt from taxation under § 408(e), or an eligible governmental plan under § 457(b) may pool its assets in a group trust without adversely affecting the tax status of any of the separate trusts or the group trust. For this purpose, a trust includes a custodial account that is treated as a trust under § 401(f), under § 408(h), or under § 457(g)(3). The group trust is adopted as a part of each adopting employer’s plan or each adopting individual retirement account. The group trust instrument expressly limits participation to pension, profit-sharing, and stock bonus trusts or custodial accounts qualifying under § 401(a) that are exempt under § 501(a); individual retirement accounts that are exempt under § 408(e); and eligible governmental plan trusts or custodial accounts under § 457(b) that are exempt under § 457(g) (adopting entities). The group trust instrument prohibits any part of its corpus or income that equitably belongs to any adopting entity from being used for or diverted to any purpose other than for the exclusive benefit of the employees (and the individual for whom an individual retirement account is maintained) and their beneficiaries who are entitled to benefits under such adopting entity. The group trust instrument prohibits assignment by an adopting entity of any part of its equity or interest in the group trust. The group trust is created or organized in the United States and is maintained at all times as a domestic trust in the United States. There are two model amendments set forth below. One is for those group trusts that have received favorable determination letters from the Service that the group trust satisfies Rev. Rul. 81-100. The other is for those trusts of eligible governmental plans under § 457(b) that have received a letter ruling from the Service (in each instance issued prior to July 12, 2004). A trustee entitled to rely on a favorable determination letter issued to it prior to July 12, 2004, regarding eligibility of its group trust under Rev. Rul. 81-100 will not lose its right to rely on its determination letter merely because it adopts Model Amendment 1 set forth above in this revenue ruling on a word-for-word basis (or adopts an amendment that is substantially similar in all material respects). The group trust sponsor may adopt Model Amendment 1 on a word-for-word basis (or adopt an amendment that is substantially similar in all material respects) and continue to rely on the previously issued determination letter regarding its group trust without filing another request with the Service for a new determination letter. Generally, the group trust instrument will provide that amendments to the group trust will automatically pass through to the trusts of qualified plans under § 401(a); individual retirement accounts that are exempt under § 408(e); and trusts of eligible governmental plans under § 457(b). However, a group trust that has received a favorable determination letter under Rev. Proc. 2004-6, 2004-1 I.R.B. 204, (or its predecessors) that does not contain such a pass-through provision may not adopt Model Amendment 1 and automatically continue to rely on its determination letter. In addition, further guidance will be issued to address the transition necessary to bring into compliance a group trust that has received a favorable determination letter under Rev. Proc. 2004-6, 2004-1 I.R.B. 204, (or its predecessors) that does not comply with this revenue ruling. An employer described in section 457(e)(1)(A) entitled to rely on a favorable private letter ruling issued to it prior to July 12, 2004, regarding the eligibility of its plan under § 457(b) will not lose its right to rely on its letter ruling merely because it adopts Model Amendment 2 set forth above on a word-for-word basis (or adopts an amendment that is substantially similar in all material respects). Such an employer may adopt Model Amendment 2 on a word-for-word basis (or adopt an amendment that is substantially similar in all material respects) and continue to rely on the previously issued letter ruling regarding its § 457(b) plan without filing another request with the Service for a new letter ruling. Rev. Rul. 81-100 is clarified and modified. The principal author of this revenue ruling is Dana A. Barry of the Employee Plans, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. For further information regarding this revenue ruling, please contact the Employee Plans’ taxpayer assistance telephone service at 1-877-829-5500 (a toll-free number) between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (a toll-free call). Ms. Barry may be reached at (202) 283-9888 (not a toll-free call). The Internal Revenue Service is aware that taxpayers who (1) transfer an easement on real property to a charitable organization, or (2) make payments to a charitable organization in connection with a purchase of real property from the charitable organization, may be improperly claiming charitable contribution deductions under § 170 of the Internal Revenue Code. The purpose of this notice is to advise participants in these transactions that, in appropriate cases, the Service intends to disallow such deductions and may impose penalties and excise taxes. Furthermore, the Service may, in appropriate cases, challenge the tax-exempt status of a charitable organization that participates in these transactions. In addition, this notice advises promoters and appraisers that the Service intends to review promotions of transactions involving these improper deductions, and that the promoters and appraisers may be subject to penalties. Section 170(a)(1) allows as a deduction, subject to certain limitations and restrictions, any charitable contribution (as defined in § 170(c)) that is made within the taxable year. Generally, to be deductible as a charitable contribution under § 170, a transfer to a charitable organization must be a gift of money or property without receipt or expectation of receipt of adequate consideration, made with charitable intent. See U.S. v. American Bar Endowment, 477 U.S. 105, 117-18 (1986); Hernandez v. Commissioner, 490 U.S. 680, 690 (1989); see also § 1.170A-1(h)(1) and (2) of the Income Tax Regulations. Section 170(f)(3) provides generally that no charitable contribution deduction is allowed for a transfer to a charitable organization of less than the taxpayer’s entire interest in property. Section 170(f)(3)(B)(iii) provides an exception to this rule in the case of a qualified conservation contribution. A qualified conservation contribution is a contribution of a qualified real property interest to a qualified organization exclusively for certain conservation purposes. Section 170(h)(1), (2), (3), and (4); § 1.170A-14(a). A qualified real property interest includes a restriction (granted in perpetuity) on the use that may be made of the real property. Section 170(h)(2)(C); see also § 1.170A-14(b)(2). For purposes of this notice, qualified real property interests described in § 170(h)(2)(C) are referred to as conservation easements. One of the permitted conservation purposes listed in § 170(h)(4) is the protection of a relatively natural habitat of fish, wildlife, or plants, or similar ecosystem. Section 170(h)(4)(A)(ii); see also § 1.170A-14(d)(1)(ii) and (3). Another of the permitted conservation purposes is the preservation of open space (“open space easement”), including farmland and forest land, for the scenic enjoyment of the general public or pursuant to a clearly delineated governmental conservation policy. However, if the public benefit of an open space easement is not significant, the charitable contribution deduction will be disallowed. See § 170(h)(4)(A)(iii); see also § 1.170A-14(d)(1)(iii) and (4)(iv), (v), and (vi). Section 170(h) and § 1.170A-14 contain many other requirements that must be satisfied for a contribution of a conservation easement to be allowed as a deduction. A charitable contribution is allowed as a deduction only if substantiated in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary. Section 170(a)(1) and (f)(8). Under § 170(f)(8), a taxpayer must substantiate its contributions of $250 or more by obtaining from the charitable organization a statement that includes (1) a description of any return benefit provided by the charitable organization, and (2) a good faith estimate of the benefit’s fair market value. See § 1.170A-13 for additional substantiation requirements. In appropriate cases, the Service will disallow deductions for conservation easement transfers if the taxpayer fails to comply with the substantiation requirements. The Service is considering changes to forms to facilitate compliance with and enforcement of the substantiation requirements. If all requirements of § 170 are satisfied and a deduction is allowed, the amount of the deduction may not exceed the fair market value of the contributed property (in this case, the contributed easement) on the date of the contribution (reduced by the fair market value of any consideration received by the taxpayer). See § 1.170A-1(c)(1), (h)(1) and (2). Fair market value is the price at which the contributed property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell, and each having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. Section 1.170A-1(c)(2). See § 1.170A-14(h)(3) and (4) for a discussion of valuation. If the donor (or a related person) reasonably can expect to receive financial or economic benefits greater than those that will inure to the general public as a result of the donation of a conservation easement, no deduction is allowable. Section 1.170A-14(h)(3)(i). If the donation of a conservation easement has no material effect on the value of real property, or enhances rather than reduces the value of real property, no deduction is allowable. Section 1.170A-14(h)(3)(ii). Some taxpayers are claiming inappropriate charitable contribution deductions under § 170 for cash payments or easement transfers to charitable organizations in connection with the taxpayers’ purchases of real property. In some of these questionable cases, the charitable organization purchases the property and places a conservation easement on the property. Then, the charitable organization sells the property subject to the easement to a buyer for a price that is substantially less than the price paid by the charitable organization for the property. As part of the sale, the buyer makes a second payment, designated as a “charitable contribution,” to the charitable organization. The total of the payments from the buyer to the charitable organization fully reimburses the charitable organization for the cost of the property. In appropriate cases, the Service will treat these transactions in accordance with their substance, rather than their form. Thus, the Service may treat the total of the buyer’s payments to the charitable organization as the purchase price paid by the buyer for the property. Taxpayers are advised that the Service intends to disallow all or part of any improper deductions and may impose penalties under § 6662. The Service intends to assess excise taxes under § 4958 against any disqualified person who receives an excess benefit from a conservation easement transaction, and against any organization manager who knowingly participates in the transaction. In appropriate cases, the Service may challenge the tax-exempt status of the organization, based on the organization’s operation for a substantial nonexempt purpose or impermissible private benefit. In addition, the Service intends to review promotions of transactions involving improper deductions for conservation easements. Promoters, appraisers, and other persons involved in these transactions may be subject to penalties under §§ 6700, 6701, and 6694. The principal author of this notice is Patricia M. Zweibel of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting). For further information regarding this notice, contact Ms. Zweibel at (202) 622-5020 (not a toll-free call). Section 368(a)(1)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code defines as a reorganization the acquisition by one corporation, in exchange solely for all or part of its voting stock (or in exchange solely for all or a part of the voting stock of a corporation which is in control of the acquiring corporation), of stock of another corporation if, immediately after the acquisition, the acquiring corporation has control of such other corporation (whether or not such acquiring corporation had control immediately before the acquisition) (a B reorganization). Section 362(b) generally provides that the basis of property acquired by a corporation in connection with a reorganization shall be the same as it would be in the hands of the transferor. Therefore, the acquiring corporation’s basis in the stock acquired in a B reorganization is determined by reference to the basis of the former shareholders in such stock. In Rev. Proc. 81-70, 1981-2 C.B. 729, the Internal Revenue Service set forth guidelines for estimating the basis of stock acquired by an acquiring corporation in a B reorganization. That revenue procedure permits the acquiring corporation in a B reorganization to apply certain statistical sampling techniques to determine its basis in the acquired stock. The guidelines reflect the recognition that the information needed by the acquiring corporation to establish the basis of the acquired corporation’s stock is in the possession of the former shareholders of the acquired corporation, who may not respond to basis inquiries. They also reflect the recognition that, in certain cases, it may be time consuming, burdensome and costly for the acquiring corporation to contact each former shareholder of the acquired corporation. The Service is concerned that changes in the marketplace since Rev. Proc. 81-70 was issued may have rendered compliance with its requirements for statistical sampling unduly burdensome or impossible and that, therefore, taxpayers are not complying with those requirements. For example, the Service understands that the way stock is held today may prevent or hinder access to the information necessary to determine the shareholder’s basis in such stock. A number of commentators have suggested that the Service revise Rev. Proc. 81-70. The Service requests comments regarding problems taxpayers are encountering in their effort to comply with the requirements of Rev. Proc. 81-70 and whether it should be modified. The Service particularly seeks comments from those who perform basis studies that are intended to comply with the requirements of Rev. Proc. 81-70, those engaged in providing services and information to the investment community (including those who maintain custodial information that may be used in such studies, such as broker/dealers, banks, and similar organizations), and other interested parties. In addition, from those that perform basis studies that are intended to comply with the requirements of Rev. Proc. 81-70, the following information is specifically requested: (i) descriptions of the sources of information, both historic and recent, available for use in performing basis studies; and (ii) descriptions of the methodologies utilized to determine the basis of stock held by persons that do not respond to requests for basis information. From record keepers, the following information is specifically requested: (i) descriptions of the kinds of information that are maintained that may be used to perform basis studies and of the sources of this information; (ii) statements describing the length of time that this information is generally maintained and available for use; and (iii) descriptions of confidentiality concerns, if any, that may impair or delay a response to a basis inquiry. Alternatively, comments may be submitted electronically via e-mail to the following address: [email protected]. Please include “Notice 2004-44” in the subject line. All comments will be available for public inspection and copying in their entirety. For information regarding estimates and sampling techniques, please contact Edward Cohen at (212) 719-6693 (not a toll-free call). For further information regarding this notice generally, please contact George Johnson or Reginald Mombrun at (202) 622-7930 (not a toll-free call). The Internal Revenue Service is aware that certain promoters are advising taxpayers to take highly questionable, and in most cases meritless, positions described below in order to avoid U.S. taxation and claim a tax benefit under the laws of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Promoters may also be advising taxpayers to take similar positions with respect to other U.S. possessions. This notice alerts taxpayers that the Service intends to challenge these positions in appropriate cases. The Service may impose civil penalties on taxpayers or persons who participated in the promotion or reporting of these positions. In addition to being subject to other penalties, any person who willfully attempts to evade or defeat tax by means of an arrangement such as the one described in this notice, or who willfully counsels or advises such evasion or defeat, may be guilty of a criminal offense under federal law. Section 934, which was enacted in 1960, provides that the USVI may reduce its territorial income tax only in certain limited cases. The USVI may not, however, reduce the tax liability of U.S. citizens or residents who are not bona fide residents of the USVI. In the case of U.S. citizens or residents who are bona fide residents of the USVI, it may reduce their tax liability only with respect to income from sources in the USVI or income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI. in no case should this [goal] be attained by granting windfall gains to taxpayers with respect to income derived from investments in corporations in the continental United States, or with respect to income in any other manner derived from sources outside of the Virgin Islands. S. Rep. No. 1767, 86th Cong., 2nd Sess. 4 (1960). Promoters typically approach a taxpayer (Taxpayer) living and working in the United States and advise Taxpayer to (i) purport to become a USVI resident by establishing certain contacts with the USVI, (ii) purport to terminate his or her existing employment relationship with his or her employer (Employer) and (iii) purport to become a partner of a Virgin Islands limited liability partnership (“V.I.LLP”) that is treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes. V.I.LLP then purports to enter into a contract with Employer to provide Employer with substantially the same services that were provided by Taxpayer prior to the creation of this arrangement. Typically, after entering into the arrangement, Taxpayer continues to provide substantially the same services for Employer that he or she provided before entering into the arrangement, but Taxpayer is nominally a partner of V.I.LLP instead of an employee of Employer. Under this arrangement, Employer makes payments to V.I.LLP for Taxpayer’s services and no longer treats the payments as wages paid to Taxpayer subject to the withholding and payment of employment taxes and reporting on Taxpayer’s Form W-2. V.I.LLP, in turn, makes payments to Taxpayer for his or her services to Employer. V.I.LLP typically treats these payments for tax accounting purposes either as guaranteed payments for services or as distributions of Taxpayer’s allocable share of partnership income. Under this arrangement, the promoter may be a general partner in V.I.LLP and may retain a percentage of the fees received from Employer. V.I.LLP either has or secures a reduction, up to 90 percent, in USVI income tax liability under the Economic Development Program (EDP) of the USVI. Taxpayer takes the position that the EDP benefits granted to V.I.LLP provide a corresponding reduction in the income tax liability that Taxpayer reports on his or her USVI income tax return with respect to guaranteed payments from the partnership or distributive shares of the partnership’s net income, or both. Taxpayer pays tax to the USVI in an amount approximately equal to 10% of the U.S. income tax liability that otherwise would be imposed on Taxpayer’s income from performing the services. Taxpayer claims that, for purposes of computing his or her U.S. income tax liability, gross income does not include guaranteed payments received from V.I.LLP or Taxpayer’s distributive share, if any, of the partnership’s net income, or both. —“You can continue to live and work in the United States and, nevertheless, be a bona fide resident of the USVI.” The concept of a “bona fide resident of the Virgin Islands” was an integral part of the predecessor to § 934(b), and as such, its meaning has been well established. See § 934(c) as enacted by P.L. 86-779, §4(a) (1960). When Congress enacted the current versions of §§ 932 and 934(b), it retained this concept, but noted that Treasury has the authority to modify its meaning when necessary to prevent abuse. See H.R. Rep. No. 99-426 (1985) and General Explanation of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, JCS-10-87 (1987) (“Similarly, where appropriate, the Secretary may treat an individual as not a bona fide resident of the Virgin Islands.”) The determination of whether an individual is a bona fide resident of the USVI turns on the facts and circumstances and, specifically, on an individual’s intentions with respect to the length and nature of his or her stay in the USVI. See § 1.934-1(c)(2) (generally applying the principles of §§ 1.871-2 through -5). Promoters typically represent that a taxpayer need not make major lifestyle changes in order to become a bona fide resident of the USVI, and may represent that the taxpayer need only spend a few weeks or less out of the year in the USVI to become a resident for income tax purposes. These representations, however, have no basis in the well-established meaning of the term “bona fide resident of the Virgin Islands.” Accordingly, a claim of USVI residency for income tax purposes may be considered without merit or fraudulent when the taxpayer continues to live and work in the United States. —“USVI source income includes income from services performed in the United States.” The principles that generally apply for determining gross and taxable income from sources within and without the United States (in particular, the rules of §§ 1.861-1 through 1.863-5) also generally apply in determining gross and taxable income from sources within and without a possession of the United States. See § 1.863-6 and Francisco v. Commissioner, 119 T.C. 317 (2002) aff’d, No. 03-1210 (D.C. Cir. June 18, 2004). With certain limited exceptions, compensation for labor or personal services performed in the United States is gross income from sources within the United States. See § 861(a)(3) and § 1.861-4(a)(1). The result does not change if the compensation is received in the form of a guaranteed payment from a partnership rather than in the form of a fee for services under an employment contract. See Miller v. Commissioner, 52 T.C. 752 (1969), acq. 1972-2 C.B. 2. Promoters typically claim that taxpayers are free to argue, under a variety of theories, that income from services performed in the United States constitutes income from USVI sources because “no rules exist under section 934” for determining whether income is from USVI sources. Based on the foregoing discussion, however, such arguments are without merit. —“For purposes of determining the source of income, USVI includes the United States.” Section 932 provides coordination rules for filing of returns for U.S. and USVI income taxes by bona fide residents of the USVI and U.S. citizens and residents who have income derived from sources within the USVI or income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI. To facilitate this coordination, § 932(c)(3) states that the USVI includes the United States for certain tax purposes. Section 932(c)(3) was modeled after § 935(c), which was enacted fourteen years earlier and which provides an equivalent rule with respect to Guam. For an illustration of the types of purposes for which these provisions apply, see § 1.935-1(c)(1)(ii). Notably, these provisions do not apply for purposes of determining the source of income. See H.R. Rep. No. 92-1479, 92d Cong., 2d Sess. 5 (Oct. 2, 1972) (“In determining the source of income for purposes of the special tax system provided in the bill (new code sec. 935), the principles contained in secs. 861-863 are to be applied without reference to sec. 935(c).”) Based on an incorrect reading of § 932(c)(3), promoters may claim that compensation for services performed in the United States is considered for tax purposes to be compensation for services performed in the USVI. This claim is without merit. Section 932 does not apply to determine the source of income on which the USVI tax liability of bona fide residents may be reduced under § 934(b)(1). Thus, § 932(c)(3) does not operate to transform compensation from the performance of personal services in the United States into income from sources in the USVI. —“Non-USVI source income can be treated as effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI even if, under equivalent circumstances, such income would not be considered effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States.” As noted above, § 934(b)(1) grants limited authority to the USVI to reduce the USVI tax liability with respect to income from USVI sources or income effectively connected with a trade or business within the USVI. The use of the term “effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business” in § 934 indicates that Congress generally intended for the rules under § 934 to follow the well-established rules that apply for purposes of determining the taxation of nonresidents, such as the definition of effectively connected income under § 864(c). Section 934(b)(4), however, provides Treasury with the authority to issue regulations providing an alternative definition of the term. The legislative history of § 934 makes clear that this grant of regulatory authority was for the purpose of preventing abuse, and that Congress anticipated that it would be used to provide further limitations on the type of income that would be treated as from USVI sources or as effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI. S. Rep. No. 99-313, at 484, 1986-3 C.B. (vol. 3) 484. Taxpayers have no legal basis for claiming that the scope of the term “income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business” is broader under § 934 than it is under § 864. In particular, taxpayers have no legal basis for disregarding the rules of § 864(c)(4), which generally limit the amount of foreign source income that is treated as effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business to certain, very narrow categories of income. Accordingly, with the exception of those narrow categories, and in the absence of regulations to the contrary, income, gain, or loss from sources without the USVI cannot be treated as effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI for purposes of § 934. For example, income from the performance of personal services without the USVI cannot under any circumstances be treated as effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI. Promoters typically interpret the phrase “effectively connected to the conduct of a trade or business within the USVI” broadly, and inconsistently with § 864(c)(4), in order to claim a tax reduction with respect to income from non-USVI sources. As indicated above, however, these interpretations have no merit. The IRS intends to challenge these positions and other similar claims that disregard the statutory and regulatory provisions concerning the limitations on the reduction of USVI income tax. Where taxpayers in order to make these claims enter into arrangements such as the one described in this notice, the Internal Revenue Service may disregard such arrangements on the grounds that they lack economic substance or that they have no purpose other than tax avoidance or evasion. The Service also may assert that the arrangement does not serve to terminate the employment relationship between a taxpayer and Employer for federal employment tax purposes, with the result that Employer remains liable for employment taxes and applicable penalties and interest. In addition to liability for tax due plus statutory interest, taxpayers that claim to have no requirement to file a federal income tax return or pay federal income tax liability based on the positions described herein may be subject to penalties including, but not limited to, the accuracy-related penalty under § 6662, failure to file or pay penalties under § 6651 and civil fraud penalties under § 6663. Further, persons who participate in the promoting or reporting of these positions may be subject to aiding and abetting penalties under § 6701. In addition to other penalties, any person who willfully attempts to evade or defeat tax by taking the positions described in this notice, or who willfully counsels or advises such evasion or defeat, may be guilty of a criminal offense under §§ 7201, 7203, 7206, or 7212(a) or other provisions of federal law. Promoters and others who assist taxpayers in taking these positions also may be enjoined from doing so under § 7408. The principal author of this notice is W. Edward Williams of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International). For further information regarding this notice, contact W. Edward Williams at (202) 622-3295 (not a toll-free call). This document contains proposed regulations under section 1374 that provide for an adjustment to the amount that may be subject to tax under section 1374 in certain cases in which an S corporation acquires assets from a C corporation in an acquisition to which section 1374(d)(8) applies. These proposed regulations provide guidance to certain S corporations that acquire assets from a C corporation in a carryover basis transaction. Written or electronic comments must be received by September 23, 2004. Send submissions to: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-131486-03), room 5203, Internal Revenue Service, PO Box 7604, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044. Submissions may be hand-delivered Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-131486-03), Courier’s Desk, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, or sent electronically, via the IRS Internet site at www.irs.gov/regs or via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov (IRS — REG-131486-03). The public hearing will be held in the IRS Auditorium, Internal Revenue Building, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Concerning the proposed regulations, Jennifer Sledge, (202) 622-7750; concerning submissions of comments, Treena Garrett, (202) 622-7180 (not toll-free numbers). Section 1374 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code) generally imposes a corporate level tax on the income or gain of an S corporation that formerly was a C corporation to the extent the income or gain is attributable to the period during which the corporation was a C corporation. Congress amended section 1374 to provide this rule as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which repealed the General Utilities doctrine. Under the General Utilities doctrine, a C corporation, in certain cases, could distribute appreciated assets to its shareholders, or sell appreciated assets and distribute the sale proceeds in connection with a complete liquidation to its shareholders, without recognizing gain. Section 1374 prevents a corporation from circumventing General Utilities repeal by converting to S corporation status before distributing its appreciated assets to its shareholders, or selling its appreciated assets and distributing the sale proceeds in connection with a complete liquidation to its shareholders. Specifically, section 1374 imposes a tax on an S corporation’s net recognized built-in gain attributable to assets that it held on the date it converted from a C corporation to an S corporation for the 10-year recognition period beginning on the first day the corporation is an S corporation. Under section 1374, the total amount subject to tax is limited to the S corporation’s net unrealized built-in gain (NUBIG), which is the “aggregate net built-in gain of the corporation at the time of conversion to S corporation status.” See H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 99-841, at II-203 (1986). Section 1374 also imposes a tax on an S corporation’s net recognized built-in gain attributable to assets that it acquired in a carryover basis transaction from a C corporation for the 10-year recognition period beginning on the day of the carryover basis transaction. The legislative history of section 1374 provides that each acquisition of assets from a C corporation is subject to a separate determination of the amount of net unrealized built-in gain and is subject to a separate 10-year recognition period. See H.R. Rep. No. 100-795, at 63 (1988). Sections 337(d) and 1374(e) authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations as necessary to carry out the purposes of General Utilities repeal generally and section 1374 specifically. The Treasury Department and the IRS have promulgated regulations consistent with these provisions. See, e.g., §§1.337(d)-4 through 1.337(d)-7, 1.1374-1 through 1.1374-10. Under §1.1374-3, an S corporation’s NUBIG generally is the amount of gain the S corporation would recognize on the conversion date if it sold all of its assets at fair market value to an unrelated party that assumed all of its liabilities on that date. Consistent with the legislative history of section 1374, section 1374(d)(8) and §1.1374-8 require a separate determination of the amount subject to tax under section 1374 for the pool of assets the S corporation held on the date it converted to C status and each pool of assets acquired in a carryover basis transaction from a C corporation. Under the current rules, therefore, if X, a C corporation, elects to be an S corporation when it owns all of the stock of Y, a C corporation, X’s NUBIG will reflect the built-in gain or built-in loss in the Y stock. That built-in gain or built-in loss may be duplicative of the built-in gain or built-in loss in Y’s assets. If Y later transfers its assets to X in a liquidation to which sections 332 and 337(a) apply, the built-in gain and built-in loss in Y’s assets may be reflected twice: once in the NUBIG attributable to the assets X owned on the date of its conversion (including the stock of Y) and a second time in the NUBIG attributable to Y’s former assets acquired by X in the liquidation of Y. A similar result would obtain if, on the date of its conversion to an S corporation, X owned less than 80 percent of the stock of Y and later acquired the assets of Y in a reorganization to which section 368(a) applies. These results are inconsistent with the fact that a liquidation to which sections 332 and 337(a) apply, and the acquisition of the assets of a corporation some or all of the stock of which is owned by the acquiring corporation in a reorganization under section 368(a), generally have the effect of eliminating the built-in gain or built-in loss in the redeemed or canceled stock of the liquidated or target corporation. In the course of developing these proposed regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS considered a number of approaches to address the issue raised by the situations described above. In particular, the Treasury Department and the IRS considered adopting an approach that would provide for a single determination of NUBIG for all of the assets of an S corporation and, thus, a single determination of the amount subject to tax under section 1374. While this approach may have produced results similar to those that would have been produced had the S corporation remained a C corporation and acquired the assets of another C corporation, it was rejected because such an approach appears to be inconsistent with the legislative history of section 1374, which seems to mandate a separate determination of tax for each pool of assets. See H.R. Rep. No. 100-795, at 63. Instead, these regulations adopt an approach that adjusts (increases or decreases) the NUBIG of the pool of assets that included the stock of the liquidated or acquired C corporation to reflect the extent to which the built-in gain or built-in loss inherent in the redeemed or canceled C corporation stock at the time the pool of assets became subject to the tax under section 1374 has been eliminated from the corporate tax system in the liquidation or reorganization. These proposed regulations provide that, if section 1374(d)(8) applies to an S corporation’s acquisition of assets, some or all of the stock of the C corporation from which such assets were acquired was taken into account in the computation of NUBIG for a pool of assets of the S corporation, and some or all of such stock is redeemed or canceled in such transaction, subject to certain limitations, the NUBIG of the pool of assets that included the C corporation stock redeemed or canceled in the transaction (other than stock with respect to which a loss under section 165 is claimed) is adjusted to eliminate any effect any built-in gain or built-in loss in the redeemed or canceled C corporation stock had on the initial computation of NUBIG for that pool of assets. For this purpose, stock that has an adjusted basis that is determined (in whole or in part) by reference to the adjusted basis of any other asset held by the S corporation as of the first day of the recognition period (i.e., stock described in section 1374(d)(6)) is treated as taken into account in the computation of the NUBIG for the pool of assets of the S corporation. Adjustments to NUBIG under these proposed regulations, however, are subject to two limitations. First, the NUBIG is only adjusted to reflect the amount of the built-in gain or built-in loss that was inherent in the redeemed or canceled stock at the time the pool of assets became subject to tax under section 1374 that has not resulted in recognized built-in gain or recognized built-in loss at any time during the recognition period, including on the date of the acquisition to which section 1374(d)(8) applies. For example, suppose that on the date X, a C corporation, converts to S corporation status, it owns the stock of Y, which has a basis of $0 and a value of $100. The gain inherent in the Y stock contributes $100 to X’s NUBIG. During the recognition period and prior to the liquidation of Y, Y distributes $20 to X in a distribution to which section 301(c)(3) applies. That amount is recognized built-in gain under section 1374(d)(3). If Y later distributes its assets to X in a distribution to which sections 332 and 337(a) apply, pursuant to these regulations, X must adjust its original NUBIG to reflect the elimination of the Y stock. X will reduce that NUBIG by $80, the original built-in gain in such stock ($100) minus the recognized built-in gain with respect to such stock during the recognition period ($20). Second, an adjustment cannot be made if it is duplicative of another adjustment to the NUBIG for a pool of assets. This rule is intended to prevent more than one adjustment to the NUBIG of a pool of assets for the same built-in gain or built-in loss stock. Any adjustment to NUBIG under these proposed rules will only affect computations of the amount subject to tax under section 1374 for taxable years that end on or after the date of the liquidation or reorganization. It will not affect computations of the amount subject to tax under section 1374 for taxable years that end before the date of the liquidation or reorganization. The Treasury Department and IRS request comments regarding whether the rule proposed in these regulations should be expanded to apply in other cases in which the stock basis that was taken into account in the computation of NUBIG is eliminated. This may occur, for example, where an S corporation owns stock of a C corporation on the date of its conversion to an S corporation and later distributes the stock of the C corporation in a distribution to which section 355 applies. In addition, the Treasury Department and IRS request comments concerning whether there are any situations other than those identified in these proposed regulations in which adjustments to NUBIG should be less than the built-in gain or the built-in loss in the redeemed or canceled stock as of the beginning of the recognition period. It has been determined that this notice of proposed rulemaking is not a significant regulatory action as defined in Executive Order 12866. Therefore, a regulatory assessment is not required. It also has been determined that section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 5) does not apply to these regulations and, because the regulations do not impose a collection of information on small entities, the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6) does not apply. Therefore, a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not required. Pursuant to section 7805(f) of the Code, these proposed regulations will be submitted to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration for comment on their impact on small business. Before these proposed regulations are adopted as final regulations, consideration will be given to any written comments (a signed original and eight (8) copies) or electronic comments that are submitted timely to the IRS. All comments will be made available for public inspection and copying. A public hearing may be scheduled. If a public hearing is scheduled, notice of the date, time, and place for the public hearing will be published in the Federal Register. §1.1374-3 Net unrealized built-in gain. (b) Adjustment to net unrealized built-in gain — (1) In general. If section 1374(d)(8) applies to an S corporation’s acquisition of assets, some or all of the stock of the corporation from which such assets were acquired was taken into account in the computation of the net unrealized built-in gain for a pool of assets of the S corporation, and some or all of such stock is redeemed or canceled in such transaction, then, subject to the limitations of paragraph (b)(2) of this section, such net unrealized built-gain is adjusted to eliminate any effect any built-in gain or built-in loss in the redeemed or canceled stock (other than stock with respect to which a loss under section 165 is claimed) had on the initial computation of net unrealized built-in gain for that pool of assets. For purposes of this paragraph, stock described in section 1374(d)(6) shall be treated as taken into account in the computation of the net unrealized built-in gain for a pool of assets of the S corporation. (2) Limitations on adjustment — (i) Recognized built-in gain or loss. Net unrealized built-in gain for a pool of assets of the S corporation is only adjusted under paragraph (b)(1) of this section to reflect built-in gain or built-in loss in the redeemed or canceled stock that has not resulted in recognized built-in gain or recognized built-in loss during the recognition period. (ii) Anti-duplication rule. Paragraph (b)(1) of this section shall not be applied to duplicate an adjustment to the net unrealized built-in gain for a pool of assets made pursuant to paragraph (b)(1) of this section. (3) Effect of adjustment. Any adjustment to the net unrealized built-in gain made pursuant to this paragraph (b) only affects computations of the amount subject to tax under section 1374 for taxable years that end on or after the date of the acquisition to which section 1374(d)(8) applies. (ii) The assets the S corporation acquired from a C corporation in a section 1374(d)(8) transaction. (B) Further, X must include a total of $60,000 in taxable income in 1996, 1997, and 1998 under section 481(a). Example 2. Adjustment to net unrealized built-in gain for built-in gain in eliminated C corporation stock. (i) X, a calendar year C corporation, elects to become an S corporation effective January 1, 2005. On that date, X’s assets (the first pool of assets) have a net unrealized built-in gain of $15,000. Among the assets in the first pool of assets is all of the outstanding stock of Y, a C corporation, with a fair market value of $33,000 and an adjusted basis of $18,000. On March 1, 2009, X sells an asset that it owned on January 1, 2005, and as a result has $10,000 of recognized built-in gain. X has had no other recognized built-in gain or built-in loss. X’s taxable income limitation for 2009 is $50,000. Effective June 1, 2009, X elects under section 1362 to treat Y as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub). The election is treated as a transfer of Y’s assets to X in a liquidation to which sections 332 and 337(a) apply. (ii) Under paragraph (b) of this section, the net unrealized built in-gain of the first pool of assets is adjusted to account for the elimination of the Y stock in the liquidation. The net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets, therefore, is decreased by $15,000, the amount by which the fair market value of the Y stock exceeded its adjusted basis as of January 1, 2005. Accordingly, for taxable years ending after June 1, 2009, the net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets is $0. (iii) Under §1.1374-2(a), X’s net recognized built-in gain for any taxable year equals the least of X’s pre-limitation amount, taxable income limitation, and net unrealized built-in gain limitation. In 2009, X’s pre-limitation amount is $10,000, X’s taxable income limitation is $50,000, and X’s net unrealized built-in gain limitation is $0. Because the net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets has been adjusted to $0, despite the $10,000 of recognized built-in gain in 2009, X has $0 net recognized built-in gain for the taxable year ending on December 31, 2009. Example 3. Adjustment to net unrealized built-in gain for built-in loss in eliminated C corporation stock. (i) X, a calendar year C corporation, elects to become an S corporation effective January 1, 2005. On that date, X’s assets (the first pool of assets) have a net unrealized built-in gain of negative $5,000. Among the assets in the first pool of assets is 10 percent of the outstanding stock of Y, a C corporation, with a fair market value of $18,000 and an adjusted basis of $33,000. On March 1, 2009, X sells an asset that it owned on January 1, 2005, resulting in $8,000 of recognized built-in gain. X has had no other recognized built-in gains or built-in losses. X’s taxable income limitation for 2009 is $50,000. On June 1, 2009, Y transfers its assets to X in a reorganization under section 368(a)(1)(C). (ii) Under paragraph (b) of this section, the net unrealized built in-gain of the first pool of assets is adjusted to account for the elimination of the Y stock in the reorganization. The net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets, therefore, is increased by $15,000, the amount by which the adjusted basis of the Y stock exceeded its fair market value as of January 1, 2005. Accordingly, for taxable years ending after June 1, 2009, the net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets is $10,000. (iii) Under §1.1374-2(a), X’s net recognized built-in gain for any taxable year equals the least of X’s pre-limitation amount, taxable income limitation, and net unrealized built-in gain limitation. In 2009, X’s pre-limitation amount is $8,000 and X’s taxable income limitation is $50,000. The net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets has been adjusted to $10,000, so X’s net unrealized built-in gain limitation is $10,000. X, therefore, has $8,000 net recognized built-in gain for the taxable year ending on December 31, 2009. X’s net unrealized built-in gain limitation for 2010 is $2,000. Example 4. Adjustment to net unrealized built-in gain in case of prior gain recognition. (i) X, a calendar year C corporation, elects to become an S corporation effective January 1, 2005. On that date, X’s assets (the first pool of assets) have a net unrealized built-in gain of $30,000. Among the assets in the first pool of assets is all of the outstanding stock of Y, a C corporation, with a fair market value of $45,000 and an adjusted basis of $10,000. Y has no current or accumulated earnings and profits. On April 1, 2007, Y distributes $18,000 to X, $8,000 of which is treated as gain to X from the sale or exchange of property under section 301(c)(3). That $8,000 is recognized built-in gain to X under section 1374(d)(3), and results in $8,000 of net recognized built-in gain to X for 2007. X’s net unrealized built-in gain limitation for 2008 is $22,000. On June 1, 2009, Y transfers its assets to X in a liquidation to which sections 332 and 337(a) apply. (ii) Under paragraph (b) of this section, the net unrealized built in-gain of the first pool of assets is adjusted to account for the elimination of the Y stock in the liquidation. The net unrealized built-in gain of that pool of assets, however, can only be adjusted to reflect the amount of built-in gain that was inherent in the Y stock on January 1, 2005, that has not resulted in recognized built-in gain during the recognition period. In this case, therefore, the net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets cannot be reduced by more than $27,000 ($35,000, the amount by which the fair market value of the Y stock exceeded its adjusted basis as of January 1, 2005, minus $8,000, the recognized built-in gain with respect to the stock during the recognition period). Accordingly, for taxable years ending after June 1, 2009, the net unrealized built-in gain of the first pool of assets is $3,000. The net unrealized built-in gain limitation for 2009 is $0. (a) In general. Sections 1.1374-1 through 1.1374-9, other than §1.1374-3(b) and (c) Examples 2 through 4, apply for taxable years ending on or after December 27, 1994, but only in cases where the S corporation’s return for the taxable year is filed pursuant to an S election or a section 1374(d)(8) transaction occurring on or after December 27, 1994. Section 1.1374-3(b) and (c) Examples 2 through 4 apply for taxable years beginning after the date these regulations are published as final regulations in the Federal Register. The principal author of these regulations is Marie Byrne of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate). Other personnel from Treasury and the IRS participated in their development. This document contains a proposed regulation relating to the determination of income of foreign insurance companies that is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States. The regulation provides that the exception to the asset-use test for stock shall not apply in determining whether the income, gain, or loss from portfolio stock held by foreign insurance companies constitutes effectively connected income. Written or electronic comments and requests for a public hearing must be received by September 23, 2004. Send submissions to: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-117307-04), room 5203, Internal Revenue Service, PO Box 7604, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044. Submissions may be hand-delivered Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-117307-04), Courier’s Desk, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, or sent electronically, via the IRS Internet site at www.irs.gov/regs or via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov (IRS and REG-117307-04). Concerning the regulations, Sheila Ramaswamy, at (202) 622-3870; concerning submissions and delivery of comments, Robin Jones, 202-622-7180 (not toll-free numbers). In 1992, the Treasury Department and the IRS published proposed regulations under section 864 providing that stock is not treated as an asset used in, or held for use in, the conduct of a trade or business in the United States. Proposed §1.864-4(c)(2)(ii)(C). The notice of proposed rulemaking solicited comments regarding the appropriate treatment of income from portfolio stock investments of insurance companies. The Treasury Department and the IRS published final regulations in 1996 which adopted the general rule in the proposed regulations that stock is not treated as an asset used in, or held for use in, the conduct of a U.S. trade or business. T.D. 8657, 1996-1 C.B. 153. The final regulations reserved on the treatment of stock held by a foreign insurance company. §1.864-4(c)(2)(iii)(b). This proposed regulation sets forth circumstances in which stock held by a foreign insurance company is not subject to the general rule in §1.864-4(c)(2)(iii)(a), which provides that stock is not an asset used in a U.S. trade or business. In the case of a foreign corporation engaged in a trade or business within the United States during the taxable year, section 864(c)(2) generally provides rules for determining whether certain fixed or determinable, annual or periodical income from sources within the United States or gain or loss from sources within the United States from sale or exchange of capital assets is income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States. Section 864(c)(2). In making this determination, the factors taken into account include whether (a) the income, gain or loss is derived from assets used in or held for use in the conduct of such trade or business (the asset-use test), or (b) the activities of such trade or business were a material factor in the realization of such income, gain or loss. Section 864(c)(2). Section 1.864-4(c)(2)(iii)(a) generally provides that stock of a corporation (whether domestic or foreign) is not an asset used in or held for use in the conduct of a trade or business in the United States except as provided in (c)(2)(iii)(b). Section 1.864-4(c)(2)(iii)(b) entitled “Stock Held by Foreign Insurance Companies” is reserved. Insurance companies hold investment assets, such as stocks and bonds, to fund their obligations to policyholders and to meet their surplus (capital) requirements. Thus, stock held in an investment portfolio may be an asset held for use in the trade or business of a foreign insurance company. By contrast, stock of a subsidiary generally is not held for the purpose of meeting an insurance company’s business needs. This proposed regulation provides that the general rule excluding stock from the asset-use test does not apply to stock held by a foreign insurance company unless such company owns directly, indirectly, or constructively 10 percent or more of the vote or value of the company’s stock. The 10-percent threshold is intended to distinguish portfolio stock held to fund policyholder obligations and surplus requirements from investments in a subsidiary. Comments are requested as to whether this 10-percent threshold provides an appropriate standard for determining whether stock is a portfolio investment for these purposes. This regulation is proposed to apply to taxable periods beginning on or after the date of publication of a Treasury decision adopting this rule as a final regulation in the Federal Register. Before these proposed regulations are adopted as final regulations, consideration will be given to any written (a signed original and eight (8) copies) or electronic comments that are submitted timely to the IRS. The IRS and Treasury Department request comments on the clarity of the proposed rules and how they can be made easier to understand. All comments will be available for public inspection and copying. A public hearing may be scheduled if requested in writing by any person that timely submits written comments. If a public hearing is scheduled, notice of the date, time, and place for a public hearing will be published in the Federal Register. §1.864-4 U.S. source income effectively connected with U.S. business. This announcement is a public notice of the suspension under section 501(p) of the Internal Revenue Code of the federal tax exemption of a certain organization that has been designated as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity or supporting terrorism. Contributions made to an organization during the period that the organization’s tax-exempt status is suspended are not deductible for federal tax purposes. The federal government has designated a number of organizations as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity or supporting terrorism under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and the United Nations Participation Act of 1945. Federal law prohibits most contributions to organizations that have been so designated. Section 501(p) of the Code was enacted as part of the Military Family Tax Relief Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-121), effective November 11, 2003. Section 501(p)(1) suspends the exemption from tax under section 501(a) of any organization described in section 501(p)(2). An organization is described in section 501(p)(2) if the organization is designated or otherwise individually identified (1) under certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a terrorist organization or foreign terrorist organization; (2) in or pursuant to an Executive Order which is related to terrorism and issued under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or section 5 of the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 for the purpose of imposing on such organization an economic or other sanction; or (3) in or pursuant to an Executive Order issued under the authority of any federal law, if the organization is designated or otherwise individually identified in or pursuant to the Executive Order as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity (as defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act) or supporting terrorism (as defined in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act) and the Executive Order refers to section 501(p)(2). 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Thus, for example, no charitable contribution deduction is allowed under section 170 (relating to the income tax), section 545(b)(2) (relating to undistributed personal holding company income), section 556(b)(2) (relating to undistributed foreign personal holding company income), section 642(c) (relating to charitable set asides), section 2055 (relating to the estate tax), section 2106(a)(2) (relating to the estate tax for nonresident aliens) and section 2522 (relating to the gift tax) for contributions made to the organization during the suspension period. Prior to the effective date of suspension of exemption under section 501(p), the organization listed below was designated under Executive Order 13224, entitled “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism.” Contributions made to this organization in violation of the Executive Order prior to this suspension are not tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code. The organization whose tax exemption has been suspended under section 501(p) and the effective date of such suspension is listed below. Contributions made to this organization during the period of suspension are not deductible for federal tax purposes. An organization whose exempt status has been suspended under section 501(p) does not file Form 990 and is required to file the appropriate Federal income tax returns for the taxable periods beginning on the date of the suspension. The organization must continue to file all other appropriate federal tax returns, including employment tax returns, and may also have to file federal unemployment tax returns. For additional information regarding the suspension of the federal tax exemption of an organization under section 501(p), contact Ward L. Thomas at (202) 283-8913 at the Internal Revenue Service.

2019-04-25T22:11:16Z

https://www.irs.gov/irb/2004-28_IRB

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disseminated protozoal infection transmitted by sandfly bites. The disease, affecting both children and adults, typically presents with fever, hepato-splenomegaly, and pancytopenia. Once established, the clinical course of untreated VL leads to death in a majority of patients, generally because of intercurrent infections. Although VL is endemic in more than 60 countries, nearly all of the 500, 000 new cases of symptomatic VL occur each year in the rural areas of just five countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Sudan. Anthroponotic VL occurs in east Africa and the Indian subcontinent. An epidemic appeared in western Upper Nile region of southern Sudan in 1984, causing 100, 000 deaths among a population just under 1 million. In the Indian subcontinent, where 50% of reported VL cases occur, many factors led to low compliance to the therapy, including a lack of resources and health education. Premature interruptions of the therapy led to emergence and progression of resistance to first-line drug. In contrast, in Latin America, China and the Mediterranean basin, VL is a zoonotic disease. In the mid-1980s the first cases of VL have been reported in southern Europe in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To date, Leishmania-HIV co-infection has been reported from 33 countries, with most of the cases located in southern Europe. In this region, 25-70% of adult patients with VL are co-infected with HIV and it is estimated that 1.5-9% of patients with AIDS will develop leishmaniasis. Although not recognised as an AIDS-defining criterion, VL constitutes an opportunistic disease in HIV-infected patients. Several studies have demonstrated that HIV/AIDS patients living in Leishmania-endemic areas are at a greater risk of developing VL and that dual infection accelerates the clinical course of HIV disease. Clinical presentations are often atypical, with unusual parasite localisations and frequent relapses. The introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) as a standard treatment for HIV has resulted in a significant decrease in the incidence of VL in HIV-infected individuals in southern Europe. Another cause for concern is the increase in the number of co-infection cases in eastern Africa, Brazil and Indian subcontinent, owing to the simultaneous spread and geographical overlap of both diseases as well as the periodic occurrence of epidemics of VL. Currently, however, accessibility and affordability of HAART in these areas remain limited. Today, treatment of VL constitutes a difficult challenge. The most recent complicating difficulties are co-infection with HIV and resistance to penta-valent antimonials. These problems join the long-standing list of obstacles that have undermined the measures to control VL: inadequate vector control, poverty and malnutrition, migration of non-immune refugees, insufficient diagnosis tools and unavailable or unaffordable drugs. Organic salts of pentavalent antimony have been the cornerstone of treatment for all forms of leishmaniasis for more than 60 years. Antimonials are thought to act by inhibiting the enzymes of glycolysis and other metabolic pathways. Two major pentavalent antimonials are currently used: Sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam®) and meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®). Sodium stibogluconate contains antimony 100 mg/ml and is primarily used in English-speaking countries. The closely related compound meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®) contains antimony 85 mg/ml and is primarily used in French-speaking areas. The drugs are given intravenously or intramuscularly (i.m.), and they are equal in efficacy when used in equivalent doses. The recommended regimen consists of once-daily injection of full-dose drug (20 mg/kg) for 30 days. While active elsewhere in India, antimonials are no longer useful in north eastern state of Bihar, where as many as 65% of the previously untreated patients fail to respond to or promptly relapse after therapy with antimonial compounds. Disadvantages of antimonials include the parenteral mode of administration, the long duration of therapy and the adverse reactions. Systemic toxicity normally relates to total dose administrated. Secondary effects (such as fatigue, bodyache, electro-cardiographic abnormalities, raised aminotransferase levels and chemical pancreatitis) are frequent, albeit usually reversible. Severe adverse events remain rare. However, sudden death due to arrhythmia has been reported in a patient receiving high doses for a prolonged period. Acute pancreatitis with a fatal evolution has been reported in HIV-infected patients. Cheaper generic formulations of sodium stibogluconate are available. They were recently compared in field conditions in east Africa and were found to be equally safe and as effective as their branded counterparts.,, However, the poor quality of some generic antimonials led to serious toxicity in some of the recipients in India. Efforts to develop lipid formulations of antimonials are on. A novel liposome-based meglumine antimoniate formulation appears to be promising as a pharmaceutical product for the treatment of VL. Aminosidine is an aminoglycosidic antibiotic identical to paromomycin sulfate and is administered once daily, usually by the intra-muscular route. Combined with antimonials, aminosidine (12-18mg/kg for 21 days) allows a reduction in the duration of the therapy and may be more efficient than antimonials alone in areas with high levels of antimonial resistance. Aminosidine also appears to be active in India when used alone. However, its potential for causing ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity needs further evaluation. At the beginning of the 1980s, non-randomised trials showed that a combination of antimonials and allopurinol (15 mg/day) was efficacious in treating VL.,,, Recently, a randomised trial in patients with antimonial-unresponsive VL, suggested that combined therapy with allopurinol plus pentamidine provided higher cure rate than with pentamidine alone. At the present, allopurinol is not used in monotherapy in India. The anti-fungal agent amphotericin B has long been recognised as a powerful leishmanicidal drug. It probably intercalates with the parasite episterol precursors of ergosterol. It owes its popularity as an effective agent for treatment of VL largely to the decline and fall of antimonials in India and the failure of pentamidine as satisfactory substitute in such cases. In India, 98% of long-term cure was obtained in both antimonial-unresponsive and previously untreated patients, with conventional amphotericin B desoxycholate (Fungizone®)., However, infusion-related side effects (fever, chills, bone pain) and renal toxicity of conventional amphotericin B are still major problems. Despite manufacturers recommendations against mixing, short-course treatment with amphotericin B-fat emulsion (five alternate-day infusions of 2 mg/kg) has been evaluated in an uncontrolled study in India. Definitive cure was reported in 93% of antimonial-unresponsive patients. Although debatable, this could represent a cost-effective treatment for patients with VL, including those with antimonial-unresponsive infection. First used in antimonial-resitant VL by Davidson et al in 1991, lipid formulations of amphotericin B have been proven to increase the efficacy and to limit the toxicity of conventional amphotericin B.,, These formulations allow administration of considerably higher daily doses and simultaneously appear to target infected tissue macrophages via enhanced phagocytic uptake. Three lipid formulations are available: Ambisome®, which is a formulation using spherical, unilamellar liposomes that are less than 100 nm in size; Amphocil®, which is a dispersion with cholesterol sulfate in 1:1 molar ratio; Abelcet®, which is a ribbon-like lipid structure using a phospholipid matrix. A five days long regimen consisting of daily infusion or a 10-day regimen consisting of infusions on days 1-5 and day 10 are considered to be remarkably active.,,, There are regional differences in responsiveness to the lipid formulations. In Mediterranean VL, Ambisome® 18-24 mg/kg total dose is efficient compared to Ambisome® 6-14 mg/kg in India.,, In HIV-co-infected patients and in recipients of organ transplants, higher dosages and prolonged treatment are needed.,, Recently, a comparative trial evaluated the efficacy of a single dose of liposomal amphotericin B (5mg/kg) versus once-daily infusion of 1 mg/kg for 5 days in Indian VL. Definive cure rates were not different between the groups (91% versus 93%), warranting further testing of the single-dose regimen. The first phase clinical trial of oral miltefosine was performed in patients with Kala-azar in India to evaluate safety, tolerance and efficacy. Oral doses of miltefosine were given to six groups of five Indian men (50 mg every second day to 250 mg/day for 28 days). Vomiting and diarrhoea were observed in 22 of 30 patients. Twenty-one patients were apparently cured by day 14. One patient developed severe diarrhoea and renal insufficiency and died on day 21. At the end of four weeks, 29 of 30 patients were apparently cured, and by 8 months, 18 of 19 patients treated daily appeared to be cured. Half of these patients had previously failed to show response to therapy with pentavalent antimony. The authors concluded that treatment with orally administered miltefosine at 100-150 mg/day for 4 weeks holds promise as an effective treatment of Indian VL, including antimonial-resistant VL. Other clinical trials seem to confirm the efficacy of the drug.,, Dosing 100 mg (2.5mg/kg/day) over days 21-28 days appeared efficient both in untreated VL and in antimony-resistant VL. More recently, an open-label randomised trial compared the efficacy of oral miltefosine (in the dose of 50 or 100 mg, approximately 2.5 mg per kilogram of body weight daily for 28 days) in 299 patients with that of intravenous amphotericin B (in the dose of 1 mg per kilogram every other day for a total of 15 injections) in 99 patients. At the end of treatment, the initial cure rate was 100% in both the groups. By 6 months after the completion of the treatment, 94% and 97% of patients in miltefosine and amphotericin B groups respectively, had not had a relapse and were classified as cured. The side effects of miltefosine were generally tolerable and compare favourably with those of all agents other than liposomal amphotericin B. Vomiting and diarrhoea are the most frequent side effects, occurring in about 40% and 20%, respectively. Approximately three quarters of the gastrointestinal events last one to two days per patient and occur once on each of these days. Miltefosine has toxic effects on reproductive capacity in female animals, and pregnancy should be strictly avoided while on the drug and for two months after completion of therapy. Numerous oral agents have been tested as stand-alone agents or as agents for combination therapy for treatment of VL. Most of them including ketoconazole, itraconazole, fluconazole, terbinafine and metronidazole have been discarded.,, Sitamaquine (WR6026), an 8 amino-quinoline, first reported in 1994, may constitute a promising oral drug. Sitamaquine (1 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks) when administrated to 8 patients provided a 50% cure rate. More recently, a phase 2 dose-escalating trial was performed in Brazil. Cure rates for patients treated for 28 days were 0% and 67% at 1 mg/kg/day and 2 mg/kg/day, respectively. Further studies are needed to determine the efficacy and toxicity profile of this agent. Interferon gamma is a potent macrophage activator with synergistic activity with antimonials in mice. Interferon gamma alone has limited efficacy in human VL. Adjunctive interferon gamma therapy may accelerate or improve the response to antimonial therapy in some difficult cases., However, this approach may offer, at best, a marginal benefit in settings with high level resistance to antimonial compounds and has been used sparingly since the advent of amphotericin B lipid formulations. The high cost of interferon gamma precludes its widespread use in the developing world. Many factors must be taken in account while choosing the most appropriate agent for the therapeutic management of VL. These include not only medical factors but also socio-economical and cultural factors. One should know about the endemicity of Leishmania strains, the immune and nutritional status of the population, level and pattern of parasite resistance to drugs and obviously the cost of the drugs. In African and Indian areas with L. donovani infection, VL is a hyperendemic disease with a high rate of transmission. Most of the areas where VL is rampant there is lack of basic sanitary infrastructure. , About half a million cases are reported annually, mostly in extremely poor and malnourished individuals. In many of these areas, HIV epidemic is shaping up and it is feared that Leishmania-HIV co-infection may explode in the future. The total cost of the treatment depends both on the price of the drug [Table - 1] and the cost of hospitalisation. The cost can be 14 times more expensive for a branded drug compared to a generic one. For the same drug, the price could vary depending on the distributor and the client (Bryceson, personal communication). Different local price scales may be offered and actual acquisition costs may be around 30 to 40% lower in certain circumstances. Hospitalisation costs also need to be taken into consideration while determining the cost of regimen. The exorbitantly high price of amphotericin B lipid formulations makes them inaccessible in developing countries. Although hospital costs can be appreciably reduced by short courses and especially by single-dose-regimens, the savings do not offset the cost of the drug in countries such as India, where hospital charges are low. Drug companies will have to cut prices for the potential benefits to be realised. Current best practices in the treatment of VL may be differentiated according to the different settings. 4. Aminosidine was considered an acceptable first-line drug, but dose and treatment duration were not defined. It was used alone or in combination with pentavalent antimonials at 12-16 mg/kg for 14-63 days. However, although acceptable, to our knowledge regimens 2 and 4 have are not commonly used in the treatment mediterranean VL. In 2001, the fourth WHO joint meeting on Leishmania-HIV co-infection held in Catania (Italy) examined the therapeutic options. The treatment of Leishmania-HIV co-infected patients remained controversial. The use of pentavalent antimonials or amphotericin B desoxycholate, although useful, has a significant toxicity and the therapy is of long duration. New Amphotericin B lipid formulation have a better tolerability and can be used as short-course treatment. However, there are no reports of large-scale studies involving use of lipid amphotericin B in these patients. HIV-infected patients, including those on HAART demonstrate relapse of VL after successful therapy. This is not a common occurrence and it is likely to occur at lower CD4 counts., In the absence of controlled study, there is no agreement about the indication and choice of secondary prophylaxis. The relapse-free period between patients treated with lipid amphotericin B (Abelcet® 3 mg/kg every 3 weeks) versus no treatment has been evaluated: after one year follow-up, 50% and 22% respectively, had no relapses. However, the figures were not statistically different (Laguna, data not published). Recipients of organ transplant constitute another group of immunocompromised individuals and this group may face the prospect of VL occurring as an opportunistic infection in them as well. It is possible that this group may have to tackle issues similar to those faced by patients with HIV-Leishmania co-infection. American VL due to Leishmania chagasi and Mediterranean VL due to Leishmania infantum do not differ from the parasitological and epidemiological points of view. The treatment practices are quite similar in both diseases. A multi-centre trial in India, Kenya and Brazil suggested that Ambisome® 2 mg/kg on days 1-10 constitutes an effective therapy for patients with Mediterranean VL. The first-line treatment remains antimonial pentavalent compounds with a minimum dose of 20 mg/kg/day for 28 days. Sub-optimal doses, incomplete treatment and sub-standard drugs may lead to clinical resistance. Until recently, amphotericin B desoxycholate was the only other available alternative drug in these areas. The availability of new oral anti-leishmanial drug, miltefosine could change the situation in near future and it may become a preferred first-line drug. Miltefosine is now registered in India. Lipid associated amphotericin B has an excellent safety and efficacy profile, but remains too expensive for most patients. Socio-economic and cultural conditions have a tremendous bearing not only on the prevalence of VL but also on the choice of therapeutic option. Taking into consideration the 1995 WHO recommendations, liposomal amphotericin B should be considered the preferred first line drug. This drug provides spectacular cure rates at an extremely rapid pace, especially in children, and is associated with low potential for toxicity. It constitutes a cost-effective regimen in comparison to antimonials, if one takes into account the hospitalisation costs. The recommendation could change once an effective orally administered agent becomes available. There is nor running away from the fact that several issues regarding treatment of VL in HIV-infected patients remain unresolved. These are related to the duration of therapy and exact indications for institution and stoppage of prophylactic regimens. Liposomal amphotericin B constitutes the first-line therapy, but we cannot recommend a precise duration of treatment. Secondary prophylaxis can probably be interrupted, when CD4 cell counts exceed 300 per mm., In HIV-infected people living in endemic areas and asymptomatic carriers of Leishmania, HAART probably prevents overt VL. In developing countries, the cost of lipid formulations of amphotericin B precludes their use. Miltefosine is an affordable drug, which appears as an effective and safe agent for use in regions with high level of antimonial resistance. Under these conditions, it may constitute the first-line therapy. However, due to the long half-life, sub-therapeutic levels of miltefosine may be encouraged for a few weeks after a 4-week course. It is feared that this characteristic might encourage the emergence of resistance in future. The risk of emergence of secondary resistance must be evaluated and the possible use of combination therapies needs to be explored to forestall it. In areas without antimonial resistance, antimonial compounds may remain the first-line choice. However, considering its striking advantages in terms of safety, ease of oral administration and affordability, miltefosine may soon become an alternative choice. The issue of treatment of VL in developing countries is no longer an issue limited to an individual patient. It is a public health problem considering the fact that inadequate and ineffective therapy is fraught with emergence of secondary resistance. The issue of controlling VL also goes beyond development of new effective drugs and therapies and implementation of vector control measures. The world has to face the problem of high costs of therapy squarely as control of VL cannot wait till the economic situation improves and social and cultural issues tackled. 1. Desjeux P. The increase in risk factors of leishmaniasis worldwide. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2001;95:239-43. 2. Seaman J, Mercer AJ, Sandorp E. The epidemic of visceral leishmaniasis of Upper Nile, Southern Sudan: course and impact from 1984 to 1994. Int J Epidemiol 1996;25:862-71. 3. WHO: Leishmania/HIV co-infection, South-western Europe 1990-1998. Geneva: World Health Organization; mimeographed document 2000 WHO/LEISH/2000.42. 4. WHO. Report of the consultative meeting on Leishmania/HIV coinfection, Rome, 6-7 Setember, 1994. Geneva: World Health Organization; mimeographed document 1995 WHO/LEISH/95.35/1995. 5. Rosenthal E, Marty P, Poizot-Martin, Reynes J, Pratlong F, Lafeuillade A et al. Visceral leishmaniasis and HIV-1 co-infection in Southern France. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1995;89:159-62. 6. Wolday D, Berhe N, Akuffo H, Britton S. Leishmania/HIV interaction: immunopathogenic mechanisms. Parasitol Today 1999;15:182-7. 7. Rosenthal E, Marty P, Del Giudice P, Pradier C, Ceppi C, Gastaut JA, et al. HIV and Leishmania coinfection: a review of 91 cases with focus on atypical locations of Leishmania. Clin Infect Dis 2000;31: 1093-5. 8. Rosenthal E, Tempesta S, Del Giudice P, Marty P, Pradier C, Le Fichoux Y. Declining incidence of visceral leishmaniasis in HIV-infected individuals in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. AIDS 2001;15:84-5. 9. Herwaldt BL, Berman JD. Recommendations for treating leishmaniasis with sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam) and review of pertinent clinical studies. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1992;46:296-306. 10. Berman JD. Chemotherapy for leishmaniasis: biochemical mechanisms, clinical efficacy, and future strategies. Rev Infec Dis 1988;10:560-86. 11. Sundar S, More DK, Singh MK, Singh VP, Sharma S, Makharia A, et al. Failure of pentavalent antimony in visceral leishmaniasis in India: report from the center of indian epidemic. Clin Infect Dis 2000;31:1104-6. 12. Thakur CP. Sodium antimony gluconate, amphotericin, and myocardial damage. Lancet 1998;351:1928-9. 13. Santos J, Rivero A, Marquez M. Acute pancreatitis with a fatal evolution due to antimonials in patients with visceral leishmaniasis and HIV infection. An Med Interna 2000;7:562-3. 14. Veeken H, Ritmeijer K, Seaman J, Davidson R. Randomized comparison of branded sodium stibogluconate and generic sodium stibogluconate for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis under field conditions in Sudan. Trop Med Int Health 2000;5:312-7. 15. Ritmeijer K, Veeken H, Melaku Y, Leal G, Amsalu R, Seaman J, et al. Ethiopian visceral leishmaniasis: generic and propriarity sodium stibogluconate are equivalent; HIV co-infected patients have a poor outcome. Trans R Soc Med Hyg 2001;95:668-72. 16. Moore E, O’Flaherty D, Heuvelmans H, Seaman J, Veeken H, de Wit S, et al. Comparison of generic and propiarity sodium stibogluconate for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in Kenya. Bull World Health Organ 2001;79:388-93. 17. Sundar S, Sinha PR, Agrawal NK, Srivastava R, Rainey PM, Berman JD, et al. A cluster of cases of severe cardiotoxicity among kala-azar patients treated with a high-osmolarity lot of sodium antimony gluconate. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1998;59:139-43. 18. Frezard F, Michalick MS, Soares CF, Demicheli C. Novel methods for the encapsulation of meglumine antimoniate into liposomes. Braz J Med Biol Res 2000;33:841-6. 19. Mishra M, Biswas UK, Jha DN, Khan AB. Amphotericin versus pentamidine in antimony-unresponsive kala-azar. Lancet 1992;340:1256-7. 20. Das VN, Ranjan A, Sinha AN, Verma N, Lal CS, Gupta AK, et al. A randomized clinical trial of low dosage combination of pentamidine and allopurinol in the treatment of antimony unresponsive cases of visceral leishmaniasis. J Assoc Physicians India 2001;49:609-13. 21. Seaman J, Pryce D, Sondorp H, Wilkinson R, Bryceson ADM. Epidemic visceral leishmaniasis in Sudan: A randomized trial of aminosidine plus sodium stibogluconate versus sodium stibogluconate alone. J Infect Dis 1994;168:715-20. 22. Thakur CP, Kanyok TP, Pandey AK, Sinha GP, Messick C, Olliaro PA. prospective randomized, comparative, open-label trial of the safety and efficacy of paromomycin (aminosidine) plus sodium stibogluconate versus sodium stibogluconate alone for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2000;94:429-31. 23. Thakur CP, Kanyok TP, Pandey AK, Sinha GP, Messick C, Olliaro P. Treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with injectable paromomycin (aminosidine). An open-label randomized phase-II clinical study. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2000;94:432-3. 24. Murray HW. Clinical and experimental advances in treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2001;45:2185-97. 25. Kager PA, Rees PH, Wellde BT, Hockmeyer WT, Lyverly WH. Allopurinol in the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1981;75:556-9. 26. Chunge CN, Gachihi G, Muigai R. Visceral leishmaniasis unresponsive to antimonial drugs. III. Successful treatment using a combination of sodium stibogluconate plus allopurinol. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1985;79:715-8. 27. Jha TK. Evaluation of allopurinol in the treatment of kala-azar occurring in North Bihar, India. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1983;77:204-7. 28. Ragusa R, Di Cataldo A, Samperi P, Schiliro G. Treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with meglumine and allopurinol. Am J Dis Child 1993;147:611-2. 29. Thakur CP, Singh RK, Hassan SM, Kumar R, Narain S, Kumar A. Amphotericin B deoxycholate treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with newer modes of administration and precautions: a study of 938 cases. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1999;93:319-23. 30. Sundar S, Gupta LB, Rastogi V, Agrawall G, Murray HW. Short course, cost-effective treatment with Amphotericin B-fat emulsion cures visceral leishmaniasis. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2000;94:200-4. 31. Davidson RN, Croft SL, Scott A, Maini M, Moody AH, Bryceson ADM. Liposomal amphotericin B in drug-resistant visceral leishmaniasis. Lancet 1991;337:1061-2. 32. Davidson RN, Di Martino L, Gradoni L, Giacchino R, Gaeta GB, Pempinello R, et al. Short-course treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome). Clin Infect Dis 1996; 22:938-43. 33. Dietze R, Fagundes SMS, Brito EF, Milan EP, Feitosa TF, Suassuna FA, et al. Treatment of kala azar in Brazil with Amphocil (amphotericin B cholesterol dispersion) for 5 days. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1995; 89:309-11. 34. Sundar S, Murray HW. Cure of antimony-unresponsive Indian visceral leishmaniasis with amphotericin B lipid complex (ABLC). J Infect Dis 1996;173:762-6. 35. Sundar S, Agrawall G, Sinha PR, Horwith GS, Murray HW. Short course low-dose amphotericin B lipid complex therapy for visceral leishmaniasis unresponsive to antimony. Ann Intern Med 1997;127:133-7. 36. Thakur CP, Pandey AK, Sinha GP, Roy S, Behbehani K, Olliaro P. Comparison of three treatment regimens with liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome) for visceral leishmaniasis in India: a randomized dose-finding study. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1996;90:319-22. 37. Gradoni L. Chemotherapy of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis: advances and failures. Curr Opin Infect Dis 1996;9:435-8. 38. HerwaldtT BL. Leishmaniasis. Lancet 1999;354:1191-9. 39. Russo R, Nigro LC, Minniti S, Montineri A, Gradoni L, Caldeira L, et al. Visceral leishmaniasis in HIV infected patients: treatment with high dose liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome). J Infection 1996;32:133-7. 40. Torre-Cisneros J, Villanueva JL, Kindellan JM , Jurado R, Sanchez-Guijo P. Successful treatment of antimony resistant visceral leishmaniasis with liposomal amphotericin B in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus. Clin Infect Dis 1993;17:625-7. 41. Boletis JN, Pefanis A, Stathakis C, Helioti H, Kostakis A, Giamarellou H. Visceral leishmaniases in renal transplant recipients: successful treatment with liposomal amphotericin B (Ambisome). Clin Infect Dis 1999;28:1308-9. 42. Sundar S, Agrawall G, Rai M, Makharia MK, Murray HW. Treatment of Indian visceral leishmaniasis with single or daily infusions of low dose liposomal amphotericin B randomized trial. BMJ 2001;323:419-22. 43. Croft SL, Neal RA, Pendergast W, Chan JH. The activity of alkyl phosphorylcholines and related derivatives against Leishmania donovani. Biochem Pharmacol 1987;36:2633-6. 44. Kuhlencord A, Maniera T, Eibl H, Unger C. Hexadecylphosphocholine: oral treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in mice. 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Roles of endogenous gamma interferon and macrophage microbicidal mechanisms in host response to chemotherapy in experimental visceral leishmaniasis. Infect Immun 2000;68:288-93. 50. Murray HW. Suppression of posttreatment recurrence of experimental visceral leishmaniasis in T-cell-deficient mice by oral miltefosine. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2000;44:3235-6. 51. Sundar S, Rosenkaimer F, Makharia MK, Goyal AK, Mandal AK, Voss A, et al. Trial of oral miltefosine for visceral leishmaniasis. Lancet 1998;352:1821-3. 52. Sundar S, Gupta LB, Makharia MK, Singh MK, Voss A, Rosenkaimer F, et al. Oral treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with miltefosine. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1999;93:589-97. 53. Jha TK, Sundar S, Thakur TP. Miltefosine, an oral agent, for the treatment of Indian visceral leishmaniasis. N Engl J Med 1999;341:1795-800. 54. Sundar S, Makharia MK, More DK, Agrawal G, Voss A, Fischer C, et al. Short-course of oral miltefosine for treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. 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2019-04-21T14:53:08Z

http://www.jpgmonline.com/article.asp?issn=0022-3859;year=2003;volume=49;issue=1;spage=61;epage=8;aulast=Rosenthal

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) is the foremost strategy used for finding genes that control human diseases and agriculturally important traits, but it often reports false positives. In contrast, its complementary method, linkage analysis, provides direct genetic confirmation, but with limited resolution. A joint approach, using multiple linkage populations, dramatically improves resolution and statistical power. For example, this approach has been used to confirm that many complex traits, such as flowering time controlling adaptation in maize, are controlled by multiple genes with small effects. In addition, genotyping by sequencing (GBS) at low coverage not only produces genotyping errors, but also results in large datasets, making the use of high-throughput sequencing technologies computationally inefficient or unfeasible. In this study, we converted raw SNPs into effective recombination bins. The reduced bins not only retain the original information, but also correct sequencing errors from low-coverage genomic sequencing. To further increase the statistical power and resolution, we merged a new temperate maize nested association mapping (NAM) population derived in China (CN-NAM) with the existing maize NAM population developed in the US (US-NAM). Together, the two populations contain 36 families and 7,000 recombinant inbred lines (RILs). One million SNPs were generated for all the RILs with GBS at low coverage. We developed high-quality recombination maps for each NAM population to correct genotyping errors and improve the computational efficiency of the joint linkage analysis. The original one million SNPs were reduced to 4,932 and 5,296 recombination bins with average interval distances of 0.34 cM and 0.28 cM for CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively. The quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for flowering time (days to tasseling) indicated that the high-density, recombination bin map improved resolution of QTL mapping by 50 % compared with that using a medium-density map. We also demonstrated that combining the CN-NAM and US-NAM populations improves the power to detect QTL by 50 % compared to single NAM population mapping. Among the QTLs mapped by joint usage of the US-NAM and CN-NAM maps, 25 % of the QTLs overlapped with known flowering-time genes in maize. This study provides directions and resources for the research community, especially maize researchers, for future studies using the recombination bin strategy for joint linkage analysis. Available resources include efficient usage of low-coverage genomic sequencing, detailed positions for genes controlling maize flowering, and recombination bin maps and flowering- time data for both CN and US NAMs. Maize researchers even have the opportunity to grow both CN and US NAM populations to study the traits of their interest, as the seeds of both NAM populations are available from the seed repository in China and the US. Maize exhibits extremely high levels of genetic diversity and phenotypic variation [1, 2]. Numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), small insertions-deletions, and large structural variations substantially contribute to this genetic diversity [3–5]. Abundant genetic variation gives rise to great challenges for uncovering the genetic basis of quantitative phenotypic variation. Studies undertaken to understand the genetic architecture of complex traits and their variations in maize have generally been performed by linkage analysis and/or association mapping . Linkage analysis based on a bi-parental population only detects two alleles and has poor mapping resolution. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) often identifies spurious associations due to population structure and genetic relatedness . Joint linkage analysis, using multiple segregating populations, could overcome some of the inherent limitations associated with single population linkage analysis and genome-wide association mapping . To provide an effective genomic resource for joint linkage analysis in maize, US researchers created a nested association mapping (NAM) population. About 5,000 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were created by crossing 25 diverse inbred lines with a common parent, B73 . US-NAM has been effectively used with genetic, genomic, and systems biology tools to dissect the genetic architecture of agronomic traits in maize [9–16]. In addition, analyses with US-NAM have been quite accurate at surveying the magnitude of effects across diverse germplasm . One shortcoming of US-NAM, however, is its limited number of founder lines; a NAM population becomes more effective for GWAS when the allele is found in three or more founders . Additionally, because only one reference line was used in US-NAM, the genetic and phenotypic biases introduced into the population are unknown. To further improve our understanding of the genetic architecture of maize and improve the resolution of quantitative trait loci (QTLs), Chinese researchers independently developed a new NAM population (CN-NAM). About 2,000 RILs were created by crossing 11 diverse elite inbred lines with a common parent HUANGZAOSI (HZS). Parents of the CN-NAM population were selected from different heterotic groups that are widely used in Chinese maize breeding . Combining the CN-NAM and US-NAM populations can provide a larger genomic resource for dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits in maize. Furthermore, combining populations can enable higher power and higher resolution in genetic mapping through joint linkage analysis. Despite the availability of this new mapping method and the larger mapping population, marker density remains an important limiting factor for identifying genes controlling quantitative traits. This limitation is especially pronounced for fine mapping of QTLs. New sequencing technologies have facilitated cost-effective high-throughput SNP genotyping for natural and artificial mapping populations. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS), using methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes to reduce genome complexity while retaining good genome coverage of lower copy regions, has proven to be a highly efficient method in different species [20–25]. Yet, GBS-obtained data could be as large as millions of SNPs, a density that makes the construction of a composite genetic map almost impossible and negates the potential benefits of conducting joint linkage analysis in NAM populations. One strategy to address this issue is to construct a recombination bin map by identifying exact recombination breakpoints and dividing the chromosomal regions into small recombination bins. These small recombination bins can be regarded as an effective type of genetic marker . This construction method of sequencing-based high-density genetic maps could substantially reduce the amount of time and effort required for QTL mapping. For example, this method has been used for constructing bin maps of single bi-parental populations and QTL mapping of complex agricultural traits in rice and sorghum [27–29]. Therefore, we expected that recombination bin maps would have the potential to improve the statistical power of joint linkage analysis and reduce the computing time of QTL mapping in NAM populations. The objectives of this study were the following: (1) to construct high-resolution recombination bin maps of both the US-NAM and CN-NAM populations based on GBS data; (2) to evaluate the quality and accuracy of bin maps by joint linkage analysis of a flowering-related trait, days to tasseling; and (3) to conduct a combined analysis of different NAM populations. All RILs of the 36 families that comprised the two NAM populations were sequenced with GBS, resulting in a total of one (0.95) million SNPs. After removing monomorphic and MAF < 0.05 SNPs across all families from the raw GBS data, 238,945 and 294,962 SNPs were obtained for CN-NAM with 11 families and US-NAM with 25 families, respectively. Based on these SNPs, we identified outlier lines of two NAM populations. After removing the outliers, we obtained 1,696 and 4,623 high-quality RILs in the CN-NAM and US-NAM populations, respectively. We used these data for the following analyses. After removing low-quality SNPs, the number of high-quality SNPs ranged from 39,620 for the HUANGYESI3 family in CN-NAM to 109,104 for the CML228 family in US-NAM, with the corresponding mean SNP density ranging from about 1 SNP/63.1 kb to 1 SNP/22.9 kb, respectively. These SNPs were used to infer parental genotypes, and detect recombination breakpoints for all available RILs, as indicated by Fig. 1. The total number of breakpoints per individual family ranged from 3,552 for 160 RILs in the HUANGYESI3 family to 6,695 for 179 RILs in the CML228 family. The average number of breakpoints per individual RIL in each family ranged from 22.2 to 37.4 (Additional file 1: Table S1). After recombination breakpoint locations were determined, the genotype of each RIL was assigned. Bin maps were constructed for each family based on the identity with the parental genotypes. The number of recombination bins varied substantially among the 36 families. The total bin number per individual family ranged from 734 to 2,183. More than 50 % of the bins were less than 1,000 kb in physical length for all families in both CN-NAM and US-NAM (Fig. 2). The median physical length of bins within an individual family ranged from 402 kb for the Tzi8 family (US-NAM) to 852 kb for the HUANGYESI3 family (CN-NAM). Detailed bin information for the 36 families is provided in Additional file 2: Table S2. Genetic linkage maps were constructed for each family using bin genotypes. The genetic length of individual family maps ranged from 1,178.58 cM for the HUANGYESI3 family to 2,035.58 cM for the CML228 family. The average genetic distance between adjacent bins ranged from 0.77 cM for the CML333 family to 1.61 cM for the HUANGYESI3 family. Joint recombination bin maps were constructed using 5,435 and 5,692 bins (without missing data) from CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively (Additional file 3: Figure S1). The physical length of the bins ranged from 5.0 kb to 5.6 Mb (with an average of 378 kb) and from 5.0 kb to 9.2 Mb (with an average of 327 kb) in CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively. In total, 92 % of bins were less than 1 Mb in length in CN-NAM compared to 94 % in US-NAM. Subsequently, of the 5,435 CN-NAM bins, 2,706 with no segregation distortion were used to construct an initial framework genetic map. The remaining markers (bins) with segregation distortion were added to the framework map, and we ensured that no marker order or chromosome position conflicts were introduced. Finally, a total of 4,932 bins were selected to construct a composite genetic map of CN-NAM, resulting in a genetic distance of 1,700.44 cM in length, with an average genetic distance of about 0.34 cM between adjacent bins. Likewise, of the 5,692 US-NAM bins, 2,278 with no segregation distortion were used to construct a framework map. Eventually, 5,296 bins were selected for the composite genetic map of US-NAM, yielding a 1,456.68-cM genetic length, with an average genetic distance of about 0.28 cM between adjacent bins (Additional file 4: Table S3). The quality and accuracy of these maps for QTL mapping were evaluated by locating the known flowering-time genes for days to tasseling (DT). Detailed results can be found in Additional file 5: Table S4 and Additional file 6: Table S5. DT, one of the most obvious measures of reproductive growth in maize, is thought to involve male and female flowering-related genes . The broad-sense heritability for DT was 0.90 in CN-NAM and 0.89 in US-NAM. Therefore, we checked for the presence of known genes involved in the regulatory pathway of flowering time within the interval of DT-related QTLs in different genetic backgrounds (Additional file 7: Figure S2). For example, ZMM4, a maize MADS-box gene in the FUL1 family, promotes floral transition and inflorescence development in maize . In this study, four QTLs detected under different genetic backgrounds overlapped the ZMM4 gene, with a likelihood of odd (LOD) score ranging from 3 to 13, and explained 6.9 % to 34.9 % of the phenotypic variation. One of four QTLs had its LOD peak in bin 0231 in the M37W family, which encompassed a region of 780 kb in length and completely contained the ZMM4 locus. Within the limits of single-family mapping resolution, the ZMM4 overlapping DT QTLs found in different families is evidence that the individual family bin strategy can produce maps with high quality and accuracy. Further evidence came from mapping the ZCN8 gene. The flowering time ZCN8 may function as the florigen and integrates signals from both photoperiod and autonomous pathways in maize . We identified QTLs overlapping the ZCN8 region in four families. Among the four QTLs, the largest effect was detected in the HUANGYESI3 family, explaining 37 % of the phenotypic variation. Within the QI319 family, two major QTLs were detected on chromosomes 8 and 10 and completely overlapped the cloned ZCN8 and ZmCCT genes (Additional file 7: Figure S2). For QTL mapping of single NAM populations, a total of 18 and 29 QTLs were detected for DT in CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively (Additional file 6: Table S5). About 46 % and 32 % of the DT-related QTL alleles had a significant effect at P < 0.05 for CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively (Fig. 3); however, only 6.5 % (CN-NAM) and 1.7 % (US-NAM) had an additive effect on DT of about 1 day. About 17 % of the DT-related QTLs in CN-NAM and 28 % in US-NAM completely overlapped with the physical position of cloned genes controlling maize flowering time (Fig. 4a). Two well-studied maize flowering-time genes, ZCN8 and ZmCCT, were located in QTL regions for both NAM populations. A composite genetic map for the combined CN-US NAM population was constructed based on 6,238 recombination bins, with a genetic length of 1,455.48 cM and an average genetic distance of about 0.23 cM between adjacent bins (Additional file 8: Table S6). When QTL mapping was conducted for DT in the CN-US NAM population, 37 QTLs were detected, which was significantly more than the total QTL number identified in a single NAM population (Fig. 4a). A comparative analysis revealed that six QTLs were shared among all three populations (US-NAM, CN-NAM, and CN-US NAM). Seventeen QTLs were shared between CN-US NAM and US-NAM, and 11 QTLs were shared between CN-US NAM and CN-NAM (Fig. 4b). Eight of 15 unique QTLs in CN-US NAM could be found in the single-family QTL mapping for both NAM populations (Additional file 5: Table S4). The average QTL confidence intervals (CI) were 10.5 Mb and 9.3 Mb in CN-NAM and US-NAM, respectively. The average CI in CN-US NAM was 5.3 Mb; thus, combining populations improved the resolution by about 50 %. The QTL with the largest effect on DT had its LOD peak in the region that ranged from 123.810 Mb to 124.356 Mb on chromosome 8, while a gene ZCN8 was about 300 kb apart from the peak. The QTL with the second largest effect on DT had its LOD peak on chromosome 10, between 94.588 Mb and 94.964 Mb, while a strong candidate gene ZmCCT was about 340 kb apart from the peak. Therefore, joint analysis for the combined CN-US NAM population was effective and valuable for quantitative trait mapping. The US-NAM population has been phenotyped for days to anthesis (DA) and days to silking (DS) in six environments in the US, and a medium-density composite genetic map was constructed using 1,106 SNPs . Using the high-density composite genetic map of 5,296 bins, we reanalyzed DA and DS using the same phenotype data and mapping method. The number of QTLs and the total phenotypic variation explained by all QTLs were consistent with the results obtained using the medium-density map (Fig. 5). However, with the high-density map, the QTL CI varied from 1.0 to 6.4 cM and 0.4 to 7.8 cM, for DA and DS, respectively, with an average CI of 2.86 cM in both traits; whereas, using the medium-density map, the average QTL CI values were 5.58 and 6.03 cM for DA and DS, respectively. Two major QTLs controlling flowering time, vgt1 and ZmCCT, had the most significant effects in US-NAM. The vgt1 locus could be narrowed down from a 5-Mb region on the medium-density map to a 1.9-Mb region on the high-density map. ZmCCT was located in a 12.4-Mb region on the medium-density map, but could be narrowed to a 6.3-Mb region using the high-density map. These results suggest that recombination bin maps could be effectively used in fine mapping of genes/QTLs that control traits of interest. GBS is an efficient and economical method, especially for genotyping RIL populations in which regions of extended linkage disequilibrium (LD) are common. We used the GBS method to genotype the US-NAM and CN-NAM populations and construct the genetic recombination maps for each family within the populations. Compared with genetic maps constructed using array-based SNP genotyping for the same populations [9, 33], marker numbers significantly increased, reducing the average marker interval. We found substantial biological variation in genetic map lengths per family within the two NAM populations. The largest genetic map lengths in the 36 families were likely impacted by residual heterozygosity in the parents. In contrast, the smallest genetic map lengths were in families having large identity by descent (IBD) regions with a recurrent parent, for example, the K12 and HUANGYESI3 families. The marker density of the composite genetic maps for CN-US NAM was also four times higher than that published for US-NAM. The composite genetic map length in US-NAM was shorter than in CN-NAM, which may have resulted from the higher genotype calling error rate in CN-NAM due to higher residual heterozygosity. We noticed that the number of bins generated from our study is slightly different from that of the previous study by Giraud et al. . In addition to the different populations used, other causes might include different types of genetic markers and the methods used for the analyses. As the GBS markers in our study have a higher missing rate and genotyping error potentially, we are on the conservative side for calling bins. The benefit is the effective reduction of genetic markers for joint linkage analysis by using stepwise regression. First, we filtered out SNPs with low quality by using permutations involving resampling of windows of SNPs followed by Bayesian inference . Then consecutive SNPs with the same genotype across all RILs were lumped into blocks, and a recombination breakpoint was assumed at the transition between two different homozygous genotype blocks. The genotypic maps of the RILs were aligned and split into recombination bins . Finally, after obtaining a skeleton recombination bin map, we further reduced the number of bins by merging bins less than 5 kb apart. Consequently, our results do not suggest any reduction of false double recombinant in our analyses. The quality and accuracy of the genetic maps in this study were confirmed by QTL mapping of flowering-time-related traits. The co-location of major QTLs and cloned genes controlling flowering time in maize provided evidence that high-resolution genetic maps are possible using the bin mapping strategy. QTL mapping of CN-NAM and US-NAM identified 18 and 29 significant DT-related QTLs, respectively. Of these identified QTLs, 17 % of the CN-NAM ones and 28 % of those in US-NAM overlapped with previously cloned flowering-related genes in maize. These results illustrate the potential power and reliability of bin-based, composite genetic map construction. Hence, we strongly suggest that this method could become an efficient, accurate, and low-cost approach for primary or fine QTL mapping in maize, and other species. The US-NAM analysis of maize flowering-time traits argued for numerous small-effect QTLs with additive effects . We wondered if this conclusion was the product of the way the parents were selected or was indicative of more general phenomena. To directly evaluate this question, we contrasted the US-NAM analysis with a parallel analysis of CN-NAM. The common parents of the two NAM populations were chosen based on a similar strategy. Both HZS in China and B73 in the US are very important and widely deployed elite inbred lines in each country’s history of maize breeding. Diverse parents of the two NAM populations were derived from different germplasm sets. Previously, numerous small-effect QTLs were identified for flowering time in US-NAM, phenotyped for flowering time in six different US environments . Likewise, flowering time evaluation of US-NAM, collected from different Chinese environments, showed no evidence for any single large-effect QTL. Although we found a higher percentage of significant QTL alleles with additive DT effect in CN-NAM (46 %) compared to US-NAM (32 %), no large additive effect was evident. Therefore, CN-NAM results supported the earlier US-NAM finding that flowering-time traits of NAM populations were controlled by numerous small-effect QTLs with additive effects. Additionally, we found a higher percentage of alleles with additive DT effects of about 1 day in CN-NAM (6.5 %) compared to US-NAM (1.7 %). This result may be due to the bigger difference in flowering times between the common parent and diverse parents in CN-NAM compared to those in US-NAM. The power to detect QTL with a high-density map did not improve compared to that using a medium-density map. This is in agreement with results from Stange et al. showing that high-density maps could not improve QTL detection power in experimental and simulation data with marker densities of 1, 2, and 5 cM. Factors influencing the statistical power of QTL mapping include mapping population size, marker density, QTL effect size, and significance level in declaring the existence of QTL. Previous studies suggested that the power of QTL detection was little affected by an increase in marker density beyond 10 cM, irrespective of population size and size of QTL effects [37, 38]. In our study, the medium-density map had a marker density of 1.30 cM. Hence, higher marker densities provide no advantage on the increase of the QTL detection power. However, we did find a considerable improvement in mapping resolution using a high-density map compared to a medium-density map. For example, the average lengths of confidence intervals for DA- and DS-related QTLs were narrowed by 60 % and 47 %, respectively, using the high-density map. This is consistent with results reported by Stange et al. , where the QTL confidence interval lengths decreased with an increase of marker density regardless of population size and QTL effect size. High-density maps are beneficial for narrowing LOD peaks of QTLs and improving the precision of QTL localization, since they could increase the probability that a marker is tightly linked to a QTL. In our study, this improved resolution could be beneficial for fine mapping of QTLs and for marker-assisted breeding. The two NAM populations with high-density marker maps can be used to map QTLs for other quantitative traits, improving the power and resolution of QTL mapping. The QTL results detected in these two NAM populations can be mutually verified and QTL regions can be further narrowed by determining overlaps with QTLs detected in other maize NAM populations. Accumulation of results by expanding the use of this methodology in other NAM populations can provide an excellent platform for the dissection of the genetic architecture of complex agronomic traits in maize. In this study, we estimated the confidence intervals of QTLs by using a 2-LOD drop-off method, which is widely used to investigate the QTL mapping resolution [34, 39, 40]. Although there is potential bias caused by stepwise regression, the chances have not been found that the bias would switch the order for comparing different procedures or methods. This suggests that our conclusion is very likely true in comparing the mapping resolutions by using a single NAM population or joint NAM populations. The high density of molecular markers is one important limiting factor for generating high-resolution genetic maps. With ongoing advances in next-generation sequencing, marker density will continue to increase. However, ultra-high density markers will provide additional challenges for constructing genetic maps and conducting joint linkage analyses. Choosing representative SNPs from raw data is one way to produce a genetic map, but other important SNP information may be lost. Construction of bin maps uses all marker information to accurately evaluate the location of recombination breakpoints. Especially in NAM populations, we illustrated that this bin map method effectively reduced the computing time of QTL mapping without reducing mapping resolution. This paper reports that the combination of CN and US NAM populations was fruitful for detecting the genetic architecture of complex traits in maize. Thus, this method has the potential to pave the way toward fine mapping of complex traits. Two additional NAM populations have been created within the European CornFed project . In the future, the combination of more NAM populations with broader genetic diversity can benefit the systematic investigation of genetic architectures of complex traits in maize. In particular, NAM populations established based on European germplasm may be a good choice for integration with temperate maize. In contrast, NAM populations based on tropical and sub-tropical germplasm may be valuable for investigating important traits such as adaptation and abiotic stress tolerance. In this study, high-density and high-quality composite genetic recombination maps, based on genomic sequencing data, were generated for two NAM maize populations, US-NAM and CN-NAM. Using these maps, we were able to replicate the identification of previously known genes that affect flowering time in maize and improve the resolution of QTL mapping. The combined analysis of different NAM populations could improve the power and resolution of QTL detection compared to single NAM population mapping. This paper presents the necessary bin maps and computational methods for the maize scientific community to use these populations in their own research. The nested association mapping population from China (CN-NAM) is composed of about 2,000 RILs derived from crosses between the common parent HUANGZAOSI (HZS) with each of 11 diverse inbred lines: K12, YE478, ZHENG58, HUOBAI, QI319, WEIFENG322, LV28, HUANGYESI3, DUO229, PA405, and MO17. These are elite inbred lines and represent members of several popular heterotic groups used in Chinese maize breeding. HZS is an elite foundation parent in China, with wide adaptability, high combining ability, moderate growth period, and resistance to northern leaf blight and dwarf mosaic virus . HZS has at least 70 derived lines and 80 hybrids. The K12 and HUANGYESI3 inbred lines were the derived lines of HZS . HZS was crossed as the male parent to the other 11 inbred lines, and then an average of 180 RIL lines per family were derived through single seed descent (SSD) to the F7 generation. These RIL lines are free for public research purposes . The US-NAM population, described in detail by McMullen et al. , consists of about 5,000 RILs derived from crossing B73 with 25 diverse inbred lines. For the CN-NAM and US-NAM populations, a total of 7,698 RILs, including 758 repeatedly sequenced lines, were genotyped using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) method . A detailed protocol is described on the website given in Ref. . US-NAM GBS data have been posted on the Panzea website . CN-NAM GBS data are available from and . Outliers were defined as containing non-parental alleles or retaining excess heterozygosity. Outliers were identified using unimputed GBS data of the NAM populations via the software TASSLE4.0 . After filtering SNP sites (taxa coverage >10 %, minor allele frequency (MAF) >0.01, and site coverage >20 %), a neighbor-joining tree of every chromosome was made to spot the contaminated lines. If a line was not included in the corresponding family, the line was considered a contaminant. Lines with excess heterozygosity were identified for each family after filtering the data (site coverage >66 % and MAF >0.25). A line with a heterozygosity ratio >10 % was treated as an excess heterozygosity outlier. SNP sites with MAF <0.05 and within the same tag (64 bp) based on the unimputed GBS data were filtered out for each family. The draft parental genotypes were inferred from the low-coverage SNP datasets of each RIL family using a maximum parsimonious inference of recombination (MPR) method applied in an R package MPR . Then, parental genotypes were refined after removing low-quality SNPs by resampling and using the Bayesian inference method included in the MPR package. The genotype assignment of each RIL was performed using a hidden Markov model (HMM) approach, with heterozygote set to missing according to the method described by Xie et al. . Consecutive SNP sites with the same genotype were lumped into blocks, and a breakpoint was assumed at the transition between two different genotype blocks. Blocks with lengths less than 1,500 kb and with a number of sequenced SNPs fewer than five were masked as missing data to avoid false double recombination. Markers co-segregating in two contiguous blocks were combined into a recombination bin . After merging a bin smaller than 5 kb to the next bin, a skeleton bin map of RIL population was obtained. Genotypes of bins for regions at the transitions between two different genotype blocks were set to missing data and imputed using the R/qtl package . The genetic maps for individual CN-NAM and US-NAM families were constructed from bins serving as genetic markers using the R/qtl package function est.map with the Haldane mapping method . After inferring parental genotypes and obtaining high-quality SNPs for each family, markers polymorphic in more than two families in the CN-NAM population and four families in the US-NAM population were chosen to build composite genetic maps. Markers were encoded by designating the common parent allele as “1”, the other 36 parent alleles as “0”, and heterozygous loci as missing data “NA”. Markers monomorphic in a particular family were also converted to missing data “NA”. Joint recombination bin maps were generated by combining consecutive SNP sites with the same genotype into bins and merging bins smaller than 5 kb to the next bin using MPR (R package). After obtaining recombination bins, two composite genetic maps were constructed by using bins as markers in the JoinMap 4.0 software . Markers were assigned into linkage groups at an independence test LOD score of 10. Due to the large number of markers in the two NAM populations, we used the maximum likelihood mapping algorithm to order loci. The Haldane mapping function was used to convert recombination frequencies to cM. For each linkage group in the two NAM populations, a framework reference map containing markers not exhibiting segregation distortion was constructed. Markers which significantly (P < 0.05) deviated from the expected 1:1 ratio in a chi-square test were defined as exhibiting segregation distortion. After the order and chromosome position of these markers were determined, the remaining markers with segregation distortion were added to the reference map. Any markers that showed inconsistent physical position in the RefGen_v2 with themselves were excluded from further mapping. The final selected map exhibited the most agreement in marker order with the framework map. The 1972 CN-NAM lines were evaluated phenotypically in two years (2009 and 2010) and in three locations, i.e., Xinxiang in Henan province (35.19°N, 113.53°E), Beijing (39.48°N, 116.28°E), and Urumqi in Xinjiang province (43.47°N, 87.39°E). These locations represented three main maize growing regions in China. Each year/location combination was considered as an environment, generating a total of six environments. The CN-NAM population was summer sown in Henan and spring sown in Beijing and Xinjiang. Within each environment, trials included 11 separate sets (11 CN-NAM families), and each set contained all lines of one family and its two parents. For each set, all lines were randomly assigned within each replication with a one-row plot. Two replications of each set were planted adjacently. Each row included 11 plants and was 3 m long and 0.6 m apart. A set of 4,396 US-NAM lines were grown at five different environments in 2010 and 2011, i.e., Sanya in Hainan province (18.15°N, 109.30°E) in the winter of 2010, Xinxiang in Henan province (35.19°N, 113.53°E) in the summer of 2011, Beijing (39.48°N, 116.28°E) in the spring of 2011, Tianjin (39.10°N, 117.10°E) in the spring of 2011, and Chongqing (29.35°N, 106.33°E) in the spring of 2011. All trials were arranged in an augmented incomplete block design and consisted of one replication of US-NAM RILs and check entries . For each location, lines were grouped by family with augmented incomplete blocks within each family. Each incomplete block comprised 50 RILs and one check: B73. Experimental units consisted of single-row plots of 11 plants. Each plot was 3 m in length with 0.6 m between rows. Days to tasseling (DT) data were collected for the CN-NAM and US-NAM populations and measured as the number of days from planting to tassel emergence for half the plants within a row or plot. The DT datasets for both NAM populations are available in Additional file 9: Table S7 and Additional file 10: Table S8. The broad-sense heritability for DT across the environments in different NAM populations was calculated on a mean basis by PROC GLM in SAS v9.2. The best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) value of DT across environments was obtained for each line of CN-NAM and US-NAM with the MIXED procedure in SAS (SAS Institute Inc.). Subsequently, the BLUP value for both NAM populations was used for QTL mapping. The method of inclusive composite interval mapping (ICIM) was used to detect the additive QTL for each of the 36 families by using the QTL ICI Mapping software Ver 3.2 . In ICIM, the P values for entering variables (PIN) and removing variables (POUT) were set at 0.001 and 0.002, and the scanning step was set 1.0 cM. The LOD threshold was determined by a 1,000-permutation test. Joint QTL mapping for a single NAM population or the two NAM populations together was conducted by using the stepwise regression model described by Buckler et al. . We employed PROC GLMSelect in SAS v9.2 to conduct this analysis. In the stepwise regression model for a single NAM, the BLUP of days to tasseling (DT) was used as the response variable. The family main effects and 4,932 bin markers in CN-NAM or 5,296 bin markers in US-NAM were fitted as the explanatory variables. The family main effects were always included in the stepwise regression model. Then, marker effects nested within families were chosen to enter or leave the model with a threshold of the P value. The threshold was determined by permutation tests (1,000 times) for a corresponding type I error rate of 5 % . For CN-NAM and US-NAM, the P values corresponding to a 5 % type I error were both approximately 0.0001. In the stepwise regression model for both NAM populations, the BLUP of DT was used as the response variable. The family main effects, reference (B73 and HZS) effects, and 6,238 bin markers were the explanatory variables. The family effects and reference effects were fit first in the model. Then, marker effects nested within families were selected to enter or stay in the model based on the same procedure described above. In this situation, the P value threshold is P = 0.0005 for a corresponding type I error of 5 %. For each QTL selected from the stepwise regression model, the adjacent markers, four from each side, were tested to derive the LOD score, one at a time, with all the QTLs as covariates. For each QTL position identified, confidence intervals were constructed by a 2-LOD drop-off method. Allelic effects of markers within a family were estimated from the final optimized QTL model. Significances of allele effects were determined with a t-test on the differences between their founder means and the reference (B73 or HZS) allele effect at a significance level of P = 0.05. This work was partly supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2011DFA30450, 2011CB100100), the National Natural Science Foundation (91335206, U1138304), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201303007), CAAS (Innovation Program), the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov) under the Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) (grant numbers DBI-0820619 and IOS-1238014), and the Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) project (ID:IOS-0965342), as well as by the USDA-ARS (www.usda.gov). We are grateful to Dr. Weibo Xie of Huazhong Agricultural University for providing excellent advice on the construction of recombination bin maps, to Prof. Jiankang Wang and Dr. Huihui Li of the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences for QTL mapping, and to Prof. Chenwu Xu of Yangzhou University and Prof. Yuanming Zhang of Nanjing Agricultural University for advice on the QTL confidence interval. We are also grateful to Dr. Linda R. Klein for copyediting the manuscript. CL analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. YoL participated in the study design and analyzed the data. PJB contributed with new analysis tools and data. XW participated in the data collection. YShi, YSong, and DZ provided phenotypic information. ER-M provided the gene density data. ESB, ZZ, YuL, and TW conceived of the study, managed the project design and coordination, collected data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Chinese Crop Germplasm Resources Information System. http://www.cgris.net/maize/data/. Accessed 23 Sep 2015. Buckler Lab for Maize Genetics and Diversity. http://www.maizegenetics.net/Table/Genotyping-By-Sequencing. Accessed 4 May 2011. Panzea Database. http://www.panzea.org. Accessed 12 Sep 2005. Wang J, Li H, Zhang L, Li C, Meng L. QTL iciMapping software.2012. http://www.isbreeding.net. Accessed 10 Apr 2012.

2019-04-21T23:06:53Z

https://0-bmcbiol-biomedcentral-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/articles/10.1186/s12915-015-0187-4

Evolution of animal morphology, physiology and behaviour is shaped by the selective pressures to which they are subject. Some selective pressures act to increase the benefits accrued whilst others act to reduce the costs incurred, affecting the cost/benefit ratio. Selective pressures therefore produce a trade-off between costs and benefits that ultimately influences the fitness of the whole organism. The nervous system has a unique position as the interface between morphology, physiology and behaviour; the final output of the nervous system is the behaviour of the animal, which is a product of both its morphology and physiology. The nervous system is under selective pressure to generate adaptive behaviour, but at the same time is subject to costs related to the amount of energy that it consumes. Characterising this trade-off between costs and benefits is essential to understanding the evolution of nervous systems, including our own. Within the nervous system, sensory systems are the most amenable to analysing costs and benefits, not only because their function can be more readily defined than that of many central brain regions and their benefits quantified in terms of their performance, but also because recent studies of sensory systems have begun to directly assess their energetic costs. Our review focuses on the visual system in particular, although the principles we discuss are equally applicable throughout the nervous system. Examples are taken from a wide range of sensory modalities in both vertebrates and invertebrates. We aim to place the studies we review into an evolutionary framework. We combine experimentally determined measures of energy consumption from whole retinas of rabbits and flies with intracellular measurements of energy consumption from single fly photoreceptors and recently constructed energy budgets for neural processing in rats to assess the contributions of various components to neuronal energy consumption. Taken together, these studies emphasize the high costs of maintaining neurons at rest and whilst signalling. A substantial proportion of neuronal energy consumption is related to the movements of ions across the neuronal cell membrane through ion channels, though other processes such as vesicle loading and transmitter recycling also consume energy. Many of the energetic costs within neurons are linked to 3Na+/2K+ ATPase activity, which consumes energy to pump Na+ and K+ ions across the cell membrane and is essential for the maintenance of the resting potential and its restoration following signalling. Furthermore, recent studies in fly photoreceptors show that energetic costs can be related, via basic biophysical relationships, to their function. These findings emphasize that neurons are subject to a law of diminishing returns that severely penalizes excess functional capacity with increased energetic costs. The high energetic costs associated with neural tissue favour energy efficient coding and wiring schemes, which have been found in numerous sensory systems. We discuss the role of these efficient schemes in reducing the costs of information processing. Assessing evidence from a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate examples, we show that reducing energy expenditure can account for many of the morphological features of sensory systems and has played a key role in their evolution. The evolution of the accessory structures (e.g. lenses in the eye), peripheral receptors and regions of the central nervous system that together form sensory systems is often viewed solely in terms of the benefits they provide to an animal, i.e. information about the animal's internal and external environments. Sensory systems differ widely in their complexity and size, from clusters of G-protein coupled receptors for chemosensation in bacteria (Maddock and Shapiro, 1993) to the olfactory and gustatory systems of insects and vertebrates (for reviews, see Laurent, 2002; Shepherd et al., 2004), and from single receptors innervating insect mechanosensory hairs (e.g. French and Sanders, 1981), whose activity is processed locally (e.g. Burrows and Newland, 1993; Burrows and Newland, 1994), to vertebrate somatosensory systems (e.g. Penfield and Boldrey, 1937; Nelson et al., 1980). Extracting germane information from internal and external environments requires sensory receptors (with their accessory structures) to sample these environments and central circuits to analyse and interpret the incoming information. In the case of the very simplest organisms, the entire machinery for sensing the environment and acting upon it is found within the same cell, whereas at their most elaborate, for example the mammalian visual system, peripheral sensory structures may consist of millions of neurons, with even greater numbers of neurons involved in processing the information they obtain within the central nervous system. Irrespective of its size and complexity, however, the more reliable the information a sensory system can extract from the environment, the more accurate the decision making and motor control it facilitates. Several studies have now shown that there are high energetic costs incurred by neural tissue, including that of sensory systems, both whilst processing information and at rest (Ames et al., 1992; Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Lennie, 2003; Niven et al., 2003a; Nawroth et al., 2007; Niven et al., 2007). There are also likely to be considerable energetic costs associated with the development and carriage of nervous systems. Thus, nervous systems are subject to two conflicting selective pressures: the need to minimise energy consumption and also to generate adaptive behaviour under fluctuating environmental conditions. More specifically, in sensory systems there will be a trade-off between the energetic cost of a sensory structure encoding a particular sensory modality and the amount of reliable, germane information obtained. Selective pressures to reduce energy consumption and improve behavioural performance can affect all levels of organization within an individual, from sub-cellular structures and single cells to brain regions and entire brains. Equally, these selective pressures can affect any life history stage. For example, a large visual system with high acuity may allow more accurate assessment of potential mates facilitating better mate choice, but at an energetic cost that may reduce individual fecundity. This emphasizes that information obtained by sensory systems must affect behaviour in a way that is beneficial to the individual or it will be selected against. Furthermore, these behaviours must ultimately be realized as increased fitness if they are to be selected (e.g. Krebs and Davies, 1993). Thus, understanding how energy acts as a selective pressure on the evolution of sensory systems requires assessment not only of the relationship between energy and performance at the cellular and sub-cellular levels but also at the levels of sense organs, brain regions, entire brains and the entire organism. Although information about a particular sensory modality may be obtained by specific peripheral sense organs and processed, at least initially, by discrete brain regions, it is essential to consider the benefits and the costs, not only in the context of the specific neural circuits involved but also in the context of the whole organism. To determine the impact of energy as a selective pressure on the evolution of the nervous system it is important to know both how and when energy is expended within specific sensory systems or whole nervous systems, and what proportion of energy is consumed by these processes, relative to the energy budget of the whole organism. Sensory processing consumes a proportion of the total energy consumption of the nervous system and, therefore, is limited both by an animal's total energy budget and the distribution of energy costs throughout the nervous system. An animal's total energy consumption can be measured using its metabolic rate, of which there are several available measures (for reviews, see Hammond and Diamond, 1997; White and Seymour, 2003; Savage et al., 2004; Weibel et al., 2004; Nagy, 2005; Suarez and Darveau, 2005; Weibel and Hoppeler, 2005). An important consideration is which of these measures is most relevant to understanding the limitations on the energy available for sensory processing. Basal metabolic rates (BMRs) have been measured in vertebrates, as have resting metabolic rates (RMRs) in invertebrates (see Lovegrove, 2000; White and Seymour, 2003; Bokma, 2004; Savage et al., 2004; Niven and Scharlemann, 2005; Chown et al., 2007). They are composed of the energy requirements of various housekeeping functions such as protein synthesis, membrane turnover and maintenance of membrane potentials in a range of tissues and organs as well as oxygen transport and, in endotherms, the maintenance of body temperature. The peripheral and central nervous systems represent a significant component of the BMR or RMR in many animals. For example, in humans (Homo sapiens), although the brain is just 2% of the body mass it consumes approximately 20% of the BMR (Clarke and Sokoloff, 1999). Likewise, in blowflies (Calliphora vicina), the retina alone is estimated to consume approximately 8% of the resting metabolic rate (Howard et al., 1987). The high proportional energy consumption of neural tissue suggests that it may have a significant effect upon the overall BMR or RMR of an animal, but this is not supported by the empirical data; although in mammals the scaling exponent of absolute brain size and BMR with body mass is similar (Martin, 1981; Mink et al., 1981), plotting the deviation in brain size versus the deviation in BMR from their predicted scaling relationships with body mass reveals no correlation (McNab and Eisenberg, 1989) (but see Isler and van Schaik, 2006a) (Fig. 1). This would be expected if the energy consumption of neural tissue can be traded off against the energy consumption of other `expensive tissues' such as kidney or gut. Indeed, trade-offs between brain and gut have been suggested to play an important role in the evolution of human and primate brain size (Aiello and Wheeler, 1995). Animals do not necessarily spend large amounts of time at their BMR, however, and the field metabolic rate (FMR) (for a review, see Nagy, 2005), which is a measure of an animal's energy consumption when it is freely moving through its natural environment, is likely to be a more relevant measure to understanding the effects of energy on the evolution of the brain and sensory systems. As far as we are aware, no direct comparison of FMR and brain size is available, although the blood flow to, and oxygen uptake of, the brain has been measured in some mammals, including humans, during exercise. In humans, periods of exercise, when the skeletal muscles consume large amounts of oxygen, cause a reduction in the blood supply to most of the organs that contribute to the BMR such as the kidneys or liver; however, the blood supply to the brain remains relatively constant (Ide and Secher, 2000). For example, when cycling there is no change in global blood flow to the brain (Madsen et al., 1993). However, voluntary movements, such as hand movements, do evoke increased local blood flow to cortical areas that receive sensory inputs as well as motor areas involved in execution (Raichle et al., 1976; Orgogozo and Larsen, 1979). This suggests that global blood flow to the brain is relatively constant, despite changes in regional blood flow. The relative constancy of global brain blood flow during behaviour is reinforced by data from Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii), which whilst undertaking simulated dives, substantially reduce the blood flow to the heart, liver and pancreas and partially reduce the blood flow to the lungs and the retina, but not to the cortex or cerebellum (Fig. 2) (Zapol et al., 1979). This makes sense because during hunting sensory systems must continue to monitor the environment and the brain must continue to make decisions and execute motor patterns. The need for a constant supply of oxygen to the brain to maintain function is emphasized by the consequences of an interruption to the blood supply to the mammalian brain: a decrease in blood flow below critical levels can cause a 90% drop in ATP within 5 min (Erecinska and Silver, 2001). Thus, even short interruptions to the supply of oxygenated blood may lead to severe long-term functional consequences including swelling, lysis and ischemic cell death (for a review, see Lipton, 1999). The effects of a reduction in the amount of oxygen received by the brain can be observed in humans under hypoxic conditions, such as at high altitudes, where blood oxygen levels drop and both sensory and motor functions are severely impaired (Hornbein, 2001). To prevent such oxygen depletion the nervous systems of both vertebrates and insects are supplied with oxygen through dense networks of capillaries or tracheoles (Fig. 3), respectively. The neurons of some vertebrates such as the western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), the common frog (Rana temporaria) and the crucian carp (Cyprinus carpio) have evolved to tolerate hypoxic or anoxic conditions (for reviews, see Lutz, 1992; Boutilier, 2001; Nilsson, 2001; Bickler and Donohoe, 2002). However, in both C. picta and R. temporaria, neural function is compromised under these conditions. However, neurons within the crucian carp brain remain active in anoxic conditions and continue to sense their environment and generate behaviour (Nilsson, 2001). Many invertebrates have remarkable tolerance under hypoxic or anoxic conditions, possibly due to their low metabolic rates in comparison to vertebrates (e.g. Niven and Scharlemann, 2005; Chown et al., 2007). However, there is little information about the effects of hypoxic/anoxic conditions upon invertebrate neurons, sensory systems or behaviour. Nevertheless, data from vertebrates clearly suggest that the sustained supply of oxygen to sensory systems and the brain has important implications for their evolution because nervous systems are a constant energy sink, consuming energy irrespective of whether they are at rest or active. The absence of a correlation between brain size and basal metabolic rate (BMR) in mammals. A plot of the percentage deviation from predicted brain size versus percentage deviation from predicted BMR in mammals reveals no correlation. This suggests that investment in the brain may be traded for other energetically cost tissues. Adapted from Striedter (Striedter, 2005); data from McNab and Eisenberg (McNab and Eisenberg, 1989). Changes in the blood flow to major organs, the brain and retina in Weddell seals during diving. The normal blood flow (pale blue) and the blood flow during diving (dark blue) to the pancreas and liver, heart, lungs, retina, cerebellum and cortex. There is a substantial reduction in blood flow to the pancreas, liver and heart but not to the lungs, retina, cerebellum and cortex. Adapted from Schmidt-Nielsen (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1998); data from Zapol et al. (Zapol et al., 1979). Tracheoles supply oxygen to neural tissue in insects. A schematic of the right optic lobe of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) viewed from the posterior surface showing the posterior trachea. This shows the dense ramifications of tracheoles necessary for oxygen supply within insect brains. Adapted from Burrows (Burrows, 1980). There are numerous physiological processes within neural circuits that contribute to the overall costs of neural tissue: transduction, electrical signal transmission within the neuron and synaptic transmission (Fig. 4). For neurons that possess chemical synapses, these costs include the maintenance of concentration gradients for ions including Na+, K+, Ca2+, H+, Cl– and HCO3– and potential differences across the cell membrane, the synthesis of neurotransmitter molecules, the loading of neurotransmitter molecules into vesicles, the docking of neurotransmitter vesicles at the pre-synaptic membrane and the breakdown or reuptake of neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft. In addition, there are costs associated with the synthesis of macromolecules such as proteins and fatty acids. The basic currency of energy within cells is the phosphate–phosphate bond of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecule (for a review, see Alexander, 1999). In neurons, the energy released in breaking this bond is harnessed by the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase, which exudes 3Na+ ions and admits 2K+ ions for each molecule of ATP that is converted to ADP, for the maintenance of the membrane potential (Skou, 1957; Post et al., 1972; Glynn, 1993). Numerous symporters and antiporters are coupled to the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase, linking the movements of ions such as Ca2+, Cl– and HCO3– to the energy consumed by the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase (Fig. 4). The potential and concentration gradients that drive the movements of ions through ion channels are also dependent upon the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase. Additionally, the V-ATPase, which transports one H+ ion across the membrane for each molecule of ATP converted to ADP, is critically important to neurons (Harvey, 1992; Moriyana et al., 1992). The V-ATPase pumps H+ ions into the lumen of synaptic vesicles, creating a concentration gradient and potential difference between the lumen and the surrounding cytoplasm that is used to drive the uptake of neurotransmitter molecules (Fig. 4). A schematic diagram of a glutamatergic synapse showing many of the major sources of energy consumption. Movements of ions across the neuronal cell membrane account for a large proportion of the energy consumed. During transmission of the action potential along the axon, Na+ and K+ ions move through voltage-gated ion channels due to concentration gradients and potential differences across the membrane. When the action potential reaches a synapse, voltage-gated Ca2+ channels open, to admit Ca2+ ions and trigger the release of vesicles containing glutamate molecules. These glutamate molecules then bind to ligand-gated ion channels, which open admitting Na+ molecules that depolarize the post-synaptic neuron. Glutamate in the synaptic cleft is transported into the presynaptic neuron or nearby glial cells by a glutamate co-transporter. Within the pre-synaptic neuron, glutamate molecules are transported into the synaptic vesicles by a glutamate/H+ anti-porter. Almost all of these processes require the activity of two pumps, the 3Na+/2K+ pump and the H+ V-ATPase. Electrical models of single fly photoreceptors based upon intracellular measurements of their input resistance and membrane potential have been used to estimate the total energy consumption of the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase within single neurons (Laughlin et al., 1998; Niven et al., 2003a; Niven et al., 2007). Comparison of the estimated ATP consumption from Calliphora vicina photoreceptors with estimates of the total costs derived from whole retina oxygen consumption measurements are remarkably similar (Laughlin et al., 1998; Pangrsic et al., 2005; Niven et al., 2007). This suggests that, at least within photoreceptors, movements of ions across the neuronal cell membrane, which are driven by concentration gradients and potential differences maintained by the activity of the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase, are the major energy cost. Both electrical models of individual photoreceptors and oxygen measurements from whole retinas suggest that the energy consumption of neural tissue at rest is extremely high, e.g. rabbit (Ames et al., 1992), fly (Laughlin et al., 1998; Niven et al., 2003a; Niven et al., 2007; Pangrsic et al., 2005). This high cost, even in the absence of any signalling, is due to the activity of the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase, which is necessary for the maintenance of the resting potential (Niven et al., 2007). Comparison of signalling and resting costs in photoreceptors suggests that they are related, the resting costs being approximately 25% of the cost at the highest light levels (Fig. 5). Resting costs and signalling costs are probably related in all neurons (both spiking and non-spiking), although the precise relationship is likely to be different depending on the specific neural type. Recently, three energy budgets have been produced that attempt to divide the total energy consumption of neural tissue into its constituent components (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Lennie, 2003; Nawroth et al., 2007). For example, Attwell and Laughlin (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001) divide the energy consumption of a single action potential in rat grey matter into the voltage-gated currents producing the action potential, pre-synaptic Ca2+ entry at the synapse, the recycling of glutamate released into the synaptic cleft and loading of vesicles, vesicle endo- and exocytosis and the activation of post-synaptic receptors (NMDA, non-NMDA and mGluR) (Fig. 6A). The costs calculated for a single component are then multiplied by the total number of these components within the nervous system to give the total energy consumption. These energy budgets emphasize the high costs of maintaining the membrane potential at rest as well as the extremely high costs of action potential conduction. Indeed, within an active olfactory glomerulus the energetic costs were dominated by the demands of action potential transmission within the afferent olfactory neurons and their synaptic outputs, despite postsynaptic dendrites comprising at least half the total glomerular volume (Nawroth et al., 2007) (Fig. 6B). Other functions of neurons such as the loading of vesicles with glutamate and its recycling following release into the synaptic cleft constitute a relatively small proportion of these energy budgets (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Nawroth et al., 2007). Resting and maximum energy consumption of photoreceptors scales with their performance. Comparison of four homologous fly R1–6 photoreceptors from (smallest to largest): Drosophila melanogaster, D. virilis, Calliphora vicina and Sarcophaga carnaria. The largest photoreceptors are capable of transmitting more information but expend more energy at rest (squares; solid line) and whilst signalling (circles; broken line) than the smaller photoreceptors. This shows that neural performance is related to energy consumption at rest and whilst signalling. Adapted from Niven et al. (Niven et al., 2007). Energy budgets break down the energetic costs of neural processing into its constituent components. (A) The energy consumption of the various neuronal components that contribute to the energy consumption of a single action potential (AP) and the events at a glutamateric synapse triggered by it in rat cortex. The AP itself consumes more than 50% of the total energy consumed. Other processes that also consume energy include the activation of NMDA, non-NMDA and metabotropic glutamate post-synaptic receptors, the recycling of glutamate and the entry of presynaptic Ca2+ ions that trigger vesicle release. Many of these processes can be linked to the activity of the sodium–potassium exchanger. (B) The energy consumption of various neural components within a rat olfactory glomerulus with one sniff per second as a function of odour concentration. The contributions of different components change with increasing odour concentration. The resting potential is the dominant cost at low odour concentrations but axonal action potentials, the activation of post-synaptic receptors and dendritic back-propagating action potentials consume substantial amounts of energy at higher concentrations. Adapted from Attwell and Laughlin (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001) and Nawroth et al. (Nawroth et al., 2007). These studies emphasize that the movements of ions across the neuronal cell membrane at rest and whilst signalling are a major cost in both spiking and non-spiking neurons. The costs themselves are likely to differ between cell types depending on the input resistance at rest, the precise combinations and densities of ion channels in the membrane, the total membrane area, the number of output synapses and type of neurotransmitter they release. Whilst oxygen consumption and blood flow measurements, electrical circuit models and energy budgets can explain the mechanistic causes of the high energetic costs associated with single neurons, sensory processing regions or grey matter; they do not in themselves explain why such costs exist. To understand why specific components within the nervous system cost particular amounts of energy we need to understand the function of these components. Two particularly important factors that affect the energetic cost of neural information processing are noise and response speed, which determine the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and bandwidth, respectively (Laughlin, 2001; Niven et al., 2007). Noise in sensory systems is both intrinsic and extrinsic (for review, see Faisal et al., 2008). Extrinsic noise is derived from the sensory stimuli themselves, which because they are either quantum-mechanical or molecular in nature do not perfectly convey information about the environment (Hecht et al., 1942; Barlow et al., 1971; Berg and Purcell, 1977; Baylor et al., 1979; Lillywhite and Laughlin, 1979; Aho et al., 1988). Intrinsic noise occurs at all stages of sensory processing, including the transduction of the sensory stimulus into an electrical signal, the transmission of electrical signals within neurons and synaptic transmission of signals between neurons (Barlow, 1956; Katz and Miledi, 1970; Lillywhite and Laughlin, 1979; Aho et al., 1988; Mainen and Sejnowski, 1995; Berry et al., 1997; de Ruyter van Steveninck et al., 1997). One potential way to improve the SNR of single neurons is to increase their numbers of receptor molecules and ion channels (Weckström and Laughlin, 1995; Laughlin, 1996; Niven et al., 2003b; Vähäsöyrinki et al., 2006; Niven et al., 2007). However, each additional receptor that is activated or ion channel that is opened consumes energy. Likewise, an improved SNR could be conveyed to postsynaptic neurons by releasing greater numbers of synaptic vesicles but each additional vesicle will consume more energy. At the circuit level, noise reduction can be produced by averaging the outputs of sensory receptors or neurons in space, time, or both. In the peripheral nervous system, averaging the signals from neighbouring receptors may eliminate noise to some extent if the noise in these receptors is uncorrelated. However, spatial averaging reduces the resolution with which the sensory receptors sample the environment, requiring an increase in receptor density to restore the resolution. Thus, averaging increases the energetic costs of sensory processing because greater numbers of neurons are required. A trade-off between energy efficiency and information coding in insect photoreceptors. The information rates (bits s–1) versus the energy efficiency of information transmission (ATP molecules bit–1×106) of photoreceptors from four fly species (smallest to largest): Drosophila melanogaster, D. virilis, Calliphora vicina and Sarcophaga carnaria. Larger photoreceptors can transmit higher rates of information but are less energy efficient. Adapted from Niven et al. (Niven et al., 2007). Increasing the number of receptors and ion channels in a neuron not only affects its SNR but also its bandwidth. In particular, increasing the density of ion channels will decrease the input resistance and the membrane time constant. However, greater densities of receptors and ion channels allow a greater flow of ions across the neuronal cell membrane during signalling that require the 3Na+/2K+ ATPase to restore them after signalling. The bandwidth and SNR both contribute to the information rate. Recent comparative studies have explained the links between fly photoreceptor energy consumption and information rates through their bandwidth and SNR (Niven et al., 2007). In both small and large photoreceptors the cost of a unit of information (bit) drops as more is encoded (Fig. 7). This is due to the resting costs, which are divided by the amount of information encoded. Nevertheless, smaller photoreceptors are more efficient than their larger counterparts despite having lower information rates because their energetic costs are substantially lower (Niven et al., 2007). Given the finite energy budgets of animals, the high energetic demands of sensory systems and the need for animals to generate adaptive behaviour, energy efficient solutions to the challenges faced by sensory systems should be strongly selected for during evolution. Energy efficiency, which leads to an increase in the ratio between the information encoded and the energy expended by sensory systems, can occur due to adaptations in their morphology, physiology, or both. Numerous examples of energy efficient strategies exist at all levels of neural organization, from the combinations of ion channels within single neurons (Niven et al., 2003a) and their size (Niven et al., 2007) to the coding of information within populations of neurons (Levy and Baxter, 1996; Baddeley et al., 1997; Vinje and Gallant, 2000; Perez-Orive et al., 2002; Hromádka et al., 2008) and computational maps (Chklovskii and Koulakov, 2004). The efficiency with which single neurons code information is critically dependent upon the biophysical properties of their membranes, such as the total surface area or the combinations of ion channels that they express, because the movement of ions across the membrane is the major energetic cost of neurons (Laughlin et al., 1998; Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Niven et al., 2007). Numerous features of neurons such as their conduction velocity, time constants and space constants are dependent upon the combinations and densities of ion channels within the membrane (Hille, 2001). The most obvious impact of ion channels upon the energy efficiency of single neurons is the generation of action potentials by voltage-gated sodium channels. A high density of voltage-gated sodium channels can support the production of action potentials, which are used to code information digitally. However, some neurons lack voltage-gated sodium channels (or a sufficient density of voltage-gated sodium channels) and code information as graded changes in membrane potential. These non-spiking neurons are found in the peripheral visual, auditory and vestibular systems of vertebrates (e.g. photoreceptors, bipolar cells and hair cells) and throughout the visual and mechanosensory systems of insects and crustaceans (e.g. photoreceptors, motion detector neurons, local non-spiking interneurons) (Tomita, 1965; Ripley et al., 1968; Autrum et al., 1970; Werblin and Dowling, 1969; Hagins et al., 1970; Harris et al., 1970; Kaneko, 1970; Burrows and Siegler, 1976; Yau et al., 1977). These neurons all transmit information to post-synaptic neurons as graded or analogue signals. Simulations of large monopolar cells in the fly retina suggest that transmission of analogue information (graded potentials) is at least as costly per unit of information (measured in bits) as digital transmission (action potentials) but far more information can be transmitted per second using analogue coding (Laughlin et al., 1998). This suggests that many more spiking neurons are required to transmit a given amount of information per second. In this case, even if the cost per bit of information were the same with both coding schemes, digital coding would incur greater overall energy consumption because when no information is coded the resting potentials of a larger number of spiking neurons must be maintained. Thus, analogue coding is a more efficient solution to transmitting a given amount of information within a limited amount of time. However, graded potentials degrade over long distances and so there is a reduction in the reliability of the analogue signals being transmitted. Digital coding using action potentials also has the benefit of being able to threshold out synaptic noise, which may accumulate in networks due to synaptic transmission (Sarpeshkar, 1998; Laughlin et al., 2000). This reduction in reliability means that the relative energy efficiency of analogue versus digital coding drops as the distance information is to be transmitted increases. The greater efficiency of analogue coding over short distances and digital coding over longer distances suggests that the nervous system should use a mixture of the two schemes. Such hybrid coding schemes are indeed observed in neural circuits, which combine graded potentials (including postsynaptic potentials) and action potentials. Indeed, a theoretical prediction of the optimal mixture of analogue and digital coding in electronic devices closely resembles that observed in cortical neurons (Sarpeshkar, 1998). Ion channels alter the relationship between energy consumption and information coding. Drosophila melanogaster photoreceptors from Shaker mutant flies, which lack functional Shaker K+ channels (red), have an increased energetic cost at rest and whilst signalling when compared to wild-type photoreceptors (black). Adapted from Niven et al. (Niven et al., 2003a). As well as influencing whether neurons code information as graded or action potentials, ion channels can also alter energy efficiency through their density and their activation/inactivation properties. For example, in Drosophila melanogaster photoreceptors, a considerable proportion of Shaker voltage-gated K+ channels are activated at the steady-state resting potential, reducing the current-to-voltage gain (Niven et al., 2003b). Photoreceptors exposed to bright lights depolarize, inactivating the Shaker voltage-gated K+ channels and increasing the current-to-voltage gain and improving the spread of the signal across the voltage range. The Shaker conductance incurs an energetic cost at rest, but not at more depolarized potentials when it is inactivated (Niven et al., 2003a; Niven et al., 2003b). In Drosophila mutant photoreceptors that lack the Shaker conductance, it is replaced with a leak conductance that restores the current-to-voltage gain at rest but it does not inactivate at more depolarized potentials (Niven et al., 2003b). This leak conductance incurs an energetic cost both at rest and at more depolarized potentials. Thus, photoreceptors experience a twofold cost associated with the loss of the Shaker channel, a drop in their information rate and an increase in their energy expenditure (Niven et al., 2003a; Niven et al., 2003b) (Fig. 8). More generally, altering the precise types of voltage-gated ion channels and their densities within a neuron will alter the relationship between energy consumption and information processing. Voltage-gated ion channels may increase the energy efficiency of information coding in neurons by altering the relationship between resting costs and signalling costs. For example, voltage-gated ion channels that activate at high voltages do not incur an energetic cost at rest. In spiking neurons, increasing the threshold potential would significantly reduce energy consumption because fewer action potentials would be initiated, although this will alter the information transmitted. The properties of other classes of ion channels and metabotropic receptors may also alter the energy efficiency of information transmission in sensory receptors or at synapses. For example, several different receptor types, including AMPA, Kainate, NMDA and metabotropic glutamate receptors, are found on the post-synaptic membrane of glutamatergic synapses, which are found throughout vertebrate sensory systems. The AMPA receptors have evolved to activate and deactivate on millisecond timescales in response to glutamate, whereas NMDA and metabotropic glutamate receptors operate on longer timescales (Attwell and Gibb, 2005). It has been shown that energy consumption limits neuronal time constants and the millisecond timescale of AMPA receptors (Attwell and Gibb, 2005). It is suggested that the properties of the NMDA and metabotropic glutamate receptors are linked to their role as coincidence detectors and their involvement with synaptic plasticity. Altering the precise combination of AMPA, Kainate, NMDA and metabotropic glutamate receptors will alter the energetic cost of that particular synapse. Energy efficiency can also be achieved by matching the filter properties of neuronal components to the signals they process (Laughlin, 1994; Laughlin, 2001; Niven et al., 2007). For example, insect photoreceptors have a region of photosensitive membrane, the rhabdom, and photoinsensitive membrane that filters the light-induced current generated by the rhabdom. The filter properties of the photoinsensitive membrane are determined by the combination and density of ion channels expressed by the photoreceptor (Vallet et al., 1992; Laughlin and Weckström, 1993; Laughlin, 1994; Weckström and Laughlin, 1995; Laughlin, 1996; Juusola et al., 2003; Niven et al., 2003b; Niven et al., 2004; Vähäsöyrinki et al., 2006). An ability to process information at frequencies beyond those necessary for the generation of adaptive behaviour (having excess bandwidth in the photosensitive filter) will be severely penalized by increased energetic costs over the entire signalling range and at rest (Niven et al., 2007). Indeed, the filter properties of the photoinsensitive membrane would be expected to be reduced to the absolute minimum necessary for maintaining function. Similarly, it has been suggested that the timescale of activation and deactivation of AMPA receptors at glutamatergic synapses is matched to the membrane time constants of neurons and, hence, their signalling speed (Attwell and Gibb, 2005). Strategies to improve the energy efficiency of neural coding are not restricted to single neurons but can also occur within populations of neurons (Levy and Baxter, 1996; Vinje and Gallant, 2000; Balasubramanian et al., 2001; Willmore and Tolhurst, 2001; De Polavieja, 2002; Perez-Orive et al., 2002; Schreiber et al., 2002; Olshausen and Field, 2004; Hromádka et al., 2008). Energy efficiency within neural populations is still constrained by the properties of individual neurons, such as the relationship between the energetic cost of maintaining a neuron at rest and whilst signalling. This relationship is particularly important for sparse coding, an energy efficient coding strategy in which a small proportion of the neurons in a population represent information (for a review, see Olshausen and Field, 2004). The optimum proportion of neurons within a population is dependent upon the relationship between resting costs and signalling costs. High signalling costs and low resting costs will favour extremely sparse representations of information, so called `grandmother neuron' codes in which a single event is associated with the activity of a single neuron (Attneave, 1954; Barlow, 1969), whereas higher fixed costs favour denser neural codes in which a greater number of neurons within a population are active (Levy and Baxter, 1996; Attwell and Laughlin, 2001) (Fig. 9). Studies in both vertebrates and invertebrates have shown that neural codes at higher levels of sensory systems, such as the primary visual cortex of primates, may be sparse (e.g. Vinje and Gallant, 2000; Perez-Orive et al., 2002; Hromádka et al., 2008). Reducing energy consumption with distributed coding in spiking neurons. The energy requirements for encoding 1 of 100 conditions initially decrease but subsequently increase as the number of active neurons increases (for cells signalling with spike rates below 60 Hz). As the spike rate increases the region of the parameter space in which distributed coding is advantageous becomes smaller. Adapted from Attwell and Laughlin (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001). Energy efficiency can also be achieved by the placement of components within nervous systems/sensory systems to minimize energetic costs by `saving wire' (Cherniak, 1994; Cherniak, 1995). For example, the placement of brain regions with high interconnectivity adjacent to one another will reduce the total length of axons. This will reduce the amount of axonal membrane and the distance over which action potentials are transmitted. The placement of neural components at several levels of organization, from visual cortical areas to single neurons, has been shown to closely match the minimized wire length. For example, the interconnectivity of neurons within the cortex appears to minimize wiring volume (Chklovskii, 2004). Although energy efficient coding strategies and component placements occur in many sensory systems, constraints also exist that prevent energy savings. Noise is a constraint both upon energy efficient coding and the minimization of wiring costs within the nervous system (Balasubramanian et al., 2001; De Polavieja, 2002; Faisal et al., 2005). For example, an optimum energy efficient code that maximizes the information coded by a given number of spikes (the Boltzmann distribution) predicts that neural spike rates should follow an exponential distribution. Populations of neurons encoding natural stimuli adhere to this prediction at high spike rates but not at low spike rates, which are used less often than predicted, because they are less reliable (Baddeley et al., 1997; Balasubramanian et al., 2001; Balasubramanian and Berry, 2002; De Polavieja, 2002). Functional constraints, such as timing or the positions of peripheral nerves, may also prevent the nervous system adopting energy efficient strategies (Chen et al., 2006; Kaiser and Hilgetag, 2006; Niven et al., 2008). These constraints limit the extent to which selective pressures on the nervous system to reduce energetic costs can affect the coding of information and the placement of components. A complementary strategy to directly reducing the cost of processing information is to reduce the amount of predictable or redundant information within sensory systems (Atteneave, 1954; Barlow, 1961; Srinivasan et al., 1982). The most obvious source of predictable sensory information is the sensory feedback generated by motor activity. For example, limb movements can produce predictable mechanosensory feedback; however, it is the deviation from the expected sensory feedback that is essential for maintaining limb control and stability (Gossard et al., 1990; Gossard et al., 1991; Wolf and Burrows, 1995). An efference copy of the expected movements can be used to selectively gate-out the predictable sensory feedback and allow only the novel sensory feedback to be processed (Sillar and Skorupski, 1986; Bell and Grant, 1989; Gossard et al., 1990; Gossard et al., 1991; Wolf and Burrows, 1995; Li et al., 2002; Poulet and Hedwig, 2006). By reducing the number of predictable signals being processed, the overall energetic cost is reduced but not the total amount of information. For example, within the visual system, redundant information can arise because adjacent photoreceptors sample neighbouring points on natural scenes that are highly correlated (Atteneave, 1954; Barlow, 1961; Srinivasan et al., 1982). Again, eliminating redundant signals reduces the overall energetic cost but not the total information. Is there a relationship between size, performance and energy consumption? Many animals possess enlarged or elaborated sensory systems for the acquisition of a specific sensory modality. The elaboration of sensory structures is often correlated with behavioural and/or ecological specialization and improved performance in particular behavioural tasks. For example, the insectivores show considerable behavioural and ecological diversity and have sensory specializations in both the peripheral sense organs and cortical regions (for a review, see Catania, 2005). The East African hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) possesses large eyes and ears as well as whiskers and microvibrissae that suggest they are generalists, not relying wholly on one specific sensory modality. This is reflected in the organization of their cortex, which contains large prominent auditory, somatosensory and visual areas (Fig. 10A). In contrast moles, and in particular the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata), are specialized for a subterranean lifestyle with reduced eyes and a highly modified nose that contains 22 tactile appendages and a relatively enlarged cortical somatosensory representation (Fig. 10B). Ant species with more visual behaviour, likewise, show an enlargement of the optic lobes and mushroom body lip – brain regions associated with visual processing and possibly visual memory, respectively (Gronenberg and Hölldobler, 1999). There is often an implicit assumption that relatively larger structures within sensory systems are associated with an increase in information processing and, consequently, improved behavioural performance. Relatively larger sensory structures may have greater numbers of neurons, neurons with a greater volume, or both. It also seems likely that relatively larger sensory structures will incur a greater absolute energetic cost. However, for most sensory systems, these relationships remain assumptions without empirical support. These relationships between information processing and energy consumption have been assessed in the fly retina (Niven et al., 2007). Comparison of different sized photoreceptors showed that the largest had substantially higher information rates than the smallest but also incurred substantially higher energetic costs, both at rest and whilst signalling (Fig. 7). Thus, information processing in the largest photoreceptors was less energy efficient than in their smaller counterparts. The largest photoreceptors were from flies with the greatest number of photoreceptors suggesting that, in this case, the largest retina had both the highest total energy consumption and processed the greatest quantity of information. A reduction in the size of visual cortical regions and an expansion in cortical regions associated with mechanosensory processing are associated with subterranean living. (A) The African hedgehog Atelerix albiventris lives above ground and has well developed visual (V) and auditory processing. (B) The star-nosed mole Condylura cristata is subterranean and has reduced visual (V) representation and an enlarged somatosensory representation. Adapted from Catania (Catania, 2005). See text for details. Although similar relationships can be envisaged for other peripheral sensory structures, the relationship between information processing, energy consumption and the size of higher centres remains unclear. The efficacy of energy-efficient coding schemes can change with size (e.g. graded versus action potentials, sparse coding), making direct comparisons difficult. Thus, direct quantification of the energetic costs, performance and size of a particular sensory system is essential for understanding the cost–benefit trade-offs that have influenced its evolution. This is particularly important in comparisons of phylogenetically distant species, among which it is not reasonable to assume that a specific volume of neural tissue consumes similar amounts of energy. For example, elasmobranchs have a larger relative brain size when compared to teleost fish of the same body mass (Nilsson et al., 2000) (Fig. 11A). Early studies assumed that elasmobranch brains consumed considerably more energy than those of teleosts with similar body mass. However, measurements from elasmobranch and teleost neural tissue have shown that they have very different specific rates of energy consumption but that overall their brains consume similar amounts of energy (Fig. 11B,C). If the trade-off between the performance of sensory systems and their energetic costs has influenced their evolution, then under conditions in which the need to maintain performance in a particular sensory system is reduced, the sensory system itself should be reduced. Many animals living in environments in which information from a particular sensory modality is no longer useful, and is therefore under reduced selective pressure, do indeed show marked reductions in the size of structures associated with that modality. For example, the peripheral and central components of the visual systems of animals that live in caves or subterranean environments are often reduced or absent. Populations of the Mexican cave fish (Astyanax mexicanus) isolated in caves without light have undergone convergent eye loss at least three times within the last 1 million years, whereas populations that have lived continuously on the surface have retained their eyes (Fig. 12A) (Strecker et al., 2004; Wilkens, 2007; Borowsky, 2008; Niven, 2008a). Likewise, fish that live permanently in caves have relatively smaller visual processing regions in their brain compared to those that are found both in caves and on the surface (Fig. 12B) (Poulson and White, 1969). Blind mole rats (Spalax ehrenbergi) also show a marked reduction in eye size, the remaining structures being maintained subcutaneously for circadian rhythm generation (David-Gray et al., 1998). Like the star-nosed mole, blind mole rats have a reduced thalmocortical visual system and an expanded somatosensory representation associated with a subterranean lifestyle. In some cases, reductions in the volume of sensory processing regions can occur within individuals following the transition to a new environment. For example, virgin female ants (Messor pergandei or Pogonomyrmex rugosus) make mating flights before removing their wings and excavating a subterranean nest to found a new colony. Brain regions specifically associated with visual processing such as the medulla are reduced in volume in these mature mated ant queens relative to virgin female ants (Julian and Gronenberg, 2002). The reductions of specific sensory structures and their associated brain regions also occur in animals living on islands (see Niven, 2005; Niven, 2007; Niven, 2008b). For example, a fossil bovid, Myotragus balearicus, found on two Mediterranean islands, has a reduced orbit and endocast volume relative to bovids found on the mainland (Kohler and Moya-Sola, 2004) suggesting a reduction in visual processing due to a reduced need for vigilance in the absence of mainland predators on these islands (Kohler and Moya-Sola, 2004; Niven, 2005). Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) bred under laboratory conditions do not require vision to locate food or mates reducing the selection pressure on the visual system (Fig. 13). These flies show an overall reduction in compound eye size and facet size that is related to their time in captivity (Tan et al., 2005). The relative size of brains and brain regions is not a direct indicator of energy consumption. (A) The average brain mass of elasmobranch fishes (E, blue) weighing between 175 and 1250 g and teleost fishes (T, red) weighing between 222 and 1170 g. (B) The specific activity of the Na+/K+ ATPase (μmol min–1 g–1). (C) The total brain Na+/K+ ATPase activity (μmol min–1). Data from Nilsson et al. (Nilsson et al., 2000). Reduction of the retina and central regions of the visual system in cave fish. (A) Eye loss in cave populations of Astyanax mexicanus that have been isolated for approximately 1 million years. The photograph shows one eyeless cave fish (foreground) and two fish from closely related surface-dwelling populations. (B) Reduction in the relative size of the brain regions associated with visual processing in fish species living permanently in caves. (i) Amblyopsis spelaea, a fish species living exclusively in caves. (ii) Chologaster agassizi, a fish species occasionally found in caves but also in surface environments. Adapted from Poulson and White (Poulson and White, 1969). Photograph by R. Borowsky, reproduced with permission. Length of time in culture causes a reduction in eye size in Drosophila melanogaster. Changes in absolute eye size with the number of years in culture. Blue indicates measurements from male flies and red indicates measurements from female flies. Error bars indicate one standard deviation. Adapted from Tan et al. (Tan et al., 2005). As we discussed above, however, neural tissue is energetically expensive both to use and to maintain (Ames et al., 1992; Nilsson, 1996; Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Lennie, 2003; Niven et al., 2003a; Nawroth et al., 2007; Niven et al., 2007). Thus, in the case of subterranean vertebrates and invertebrates, maintaining the retina and central visual processing regions would incur considerable energetic costs, even in the dark. This suggests that the reduction of peripheral and central visual structures is indeed due, at least in part, to their high energetic costs. The high energetic costs of maintaining and using neural structures should influence the evolution of both central and peripheral structures irrespective of the particular sensory modality. Indeed, these high energetic demands should favour the reduction of peripheral and central structures associated with a particular sensory modality to a functional minimum (Niven et al., 2007). However, the strength of the selective pressure for reduced energetic costs of sensory systems will depend critically upon the precise environmental circumstances in which a specific animal finds itself (Niven, 2005; Niven, 2007; Niven, 2008a; Niven, 2008b). For example, animals living in caves or on islands are often extremely energy limited, increasing the need for energy saving by reducing sensory structures to a functional minimum. The limited energy budgets of animals coupled with the high energetic costs of the brain have led to the suggestion that the additional energy invested in the development, maintenance and use accompanying an expansion in brain size is traded off against a reduction in the size of another energetically expensive tissue. Aiello and Wheeler proposed that during primate evolution the expansion of the brain relative to body mass was accompanied by a relative reduction in gut size: the expensive-tissue hypothesis (Aiello and Wheeler, 1995). A similar correlation has also been found in teleost fish (Kaufman et al., 2003). However, more recent tests of this theory in birds and bats have failed to find strong support for a trade-off between brain size and gut size (Jones and MacLarnon, 2004; Isler and van Schaik, 2006b). For example, in birds pectoral muscle mass is negatively correlated with brain size, suggesting a trade-off, whilst reproductive costs are positively correlated (Isler and van Schaik, 2006b). One possibility suggested is that species with larger brains are better able to provision their offspring (Isler and van Schaik, 2006b). A further implication of the expensive-tissue hypothesis is that a reduction in brain size relative to body could accompany increased energy usage by another tissue/organ. For example, some ant queens use their energy stores to produce the initial workers within their colony. The provisioning of eggs requires large amounts of energy and queens use additional energy gained from the breakdown of flight muscles and possibly from visual processing structures for reproduction (Hölldobler and Wilson, 1990; Julian and Gronenberg, 2002). Trade-offs may also occur between sensory systems, the increase in the volume of peripheral sense organs or central sensory processing regions in one modality being accompanied by a reduction in another sensory modality. For example, as mentioned above, both the star-nosed mole and the blind mole rat have reduced a thalmocortical visual system and an expanded somatosensory representation (Cooper et al., 1993; Catania, 2005). Numerous examples of enhanced somatosensory systems in animals with reduced visual systems also occur in both vertebrates and invertebrates that inhabit cave systems. These trade-offs between different sensory modalities may be important because they may not affect the total energetic cost of sensory processing within the brain substantially and, therefore, do not necessarily affect energetic demands. However, the expansion or reduction of peripheral or central sensory processing structures may be limited by the extent to which regions within the brain can evolve independently (mosaic evolution) (Finlay and Darlington, 1995; Barton and Harvey, 2000; Striedter, 2005). Within the mammalian cortex, however, substantial developmental plasticity can occur with sensory processing regions being co-opted for different sensory modalities depending on experience, including trauma (for a review, see Krubitzer and Kaas, 2006). Such plasticity between different sensory modalities within the cortex may be particularly important because it facilitates rapid adaptation to novel environmental circumstances without substantially affecting the total energetic cost of sensory processing within the brain. Energy consumption affects all aspects of animal life from cellular metabolism and muscle contraction to growth and foraging (Alexander, 1999). Yet despite early studies on energy metabolism in neural tissue (e.g. Kety, 1957), the impact of energy consumption upon the evolution of nervous systems has only recently begun to be generally appreciated (Laughlin, 2001). Recent studies have made substantial advances in relating the energy consumption of neural tissue to neural function. Together these studies show that there are high energetic costs associated with the nervous system both at rest and whilst neurons are signalling (Laughlin et al., 1998; Attwell and Laughlin, 2001; Niven et al., 2007). Crucially for the evolution of the nervous system, and in particular sensory systems, these costs are incurred even during activity. Thus, animals pay an energetic cost associated with nervous system irrespective of the demands of other tissues such as skeletal muscle. Evidence from fly photoreceptors suggests that the energetic costs incurred by neurons at rest are linked to their energetic costs whilst signalling by basic biophysical relationships (Niven et al., 2007). Thus neural function, and therefore the production of adaptive behaviour, is linked to neural energy consumption. Excess signal processing capacity in sensory systems is severely penalized by increased energetic costs producing a Law of Diminishing Returns. The precise relationship between energy consumption and signalling is likely to depend on the specific neuronal type; these relationships can be adjusted by the specific combinations of ion channels, and possibly synaptic inputs, within the neuronal cell membrane. Numerous strategies for reducing the costs incurred by the sensory systems have been found in both insect and vertebrate sensory systems (e.g. Vinje and Gallant, 2000; Perez-Orive et al., 2002; Niven et al., 2003a; Niven et al., 2003b; Hromádka et al., 2008). These strategies aim to reduce the energetic costs within sensory systems by filtering out predictable inputs to sensory systems, reducing the amount of redundant information that is encoded and representing this information more efficiently. Energy limitations appear to have affected the evolution of sensory systems, causing trade-offs between sensory systems encoding different modalities. The effects of energy limitation appear to be especially obvious in animals living in on islands or in caves, which tend to be energy-limited environments (Kohler and Moya-Sola, 2004; Niven, 2007; Borowsky, 2008; Niven, 2008a; Niven, 2008b). For these animals, reductions or complete losses of visual structures are relatively common and appear to confirm the penalty for excess capacity found at the level of single neurons. The acquisition of sensory information for many modalities, including vision, requires muscular movements that are largely ignored by most analyses of energy consumption within sensory systems. For example, eye and/or head movements are essential in both mammals and insects for obtaining certain types of visual information, such as parallax. Active senses such echolocation in bats and electrosensation in fish also depend on motor activity to generate the initial signal. The energetic costs associated with this muscle activity may be substantial and will further increase our estimates of the costs of sensory systems. We would like to thank John Douglass, Biswa Sengupta and Bill Wcislo for comments. This study was supported by the Royal Society (J.E.N.), the BBSRC (S.B.L.) and the Frank Levinson Family Foundation to the STRI Laboratory of Behavior and Evolutionary Neurobiology (J.E.N.). Aho, A. C., Donner, K., Hyden, C., Larsen, L. O. and Reuter, T. (1988). 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2019-04-19T06:44:02Z

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/211/11/1792

Archaeological investigations in and about Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County's El Paso Mountains have unveiled a series of lithic procurement sites, the nature of which is primarily designed to support other off-site prehistoric communities. The rise and fall of these support sites coincide with the peak production of Coso obsidian. The nearest contemporary community for postulated interaction would likely represent the Koehn Lake village complex (CA-KER-875). A reexamination of the Sutton model developed for Koehn Lake, along with other sites in the region, leads to a new interpretation of local complexity, connectivity, and interdependence potentially aligned with the Coso economic system, whereby major villages potentially served in an interlinked fashion to facilitate the widespread dispersal of the valuable Coso volcanic glass. The ambitious goal of this inquiry is to initiate the concept of the interconnectedness of site function within a portion of the western Mojave Desert when viewing a series of regional prehistoric sites that are contemporaneous to the peak period of Coso obsidian quarrying and distribution. The ensuing discussion of the Coso Obsidian Economic Exchange System rests mostly upon a reexamination of the works conducted by others, whereby I hope to stimulate new perspectives of thought and approach. For purposes of definition, references to the Coso Obsidian Economic Exchange System are equivalent to the "Coso Hot Springs Exchange System" of Ericson (1981:119-122) and Hughes and True (1985:326, 334), as well as the "Sugarloaf production and exchange system" of Allen (1986:10). In addition, Allen (1986:1) referred to the Coso trade as an "egalitarian economic system." Discussing more general California obsidian trade, Bouey and Basgall (1984:135) referred to "areas of economic articulation." Such areas provide cultural connections and ties that are worthy of investigation. The examination of the possible cooperation of communities holds certain potentials for elucidating the interlinked, complex relationships and possible interdependent functions of a suite of archaeological complexes, which in this instance stretched from the southeastern Sierra through the Antelope Valley in California's western Mojave Desert. Such research also holds promise for identifying era- specific archaeological complexes within a regional framework or perspective. The ensuing discussion focuses primarily upon the Late Gypsum/ Newberry through the Rose Spring/Haiwee periods of peak Coso obsidian production and distribution, which potentially interconnect the Rose, China Lake, Fremont, and Antelope valleys of the western Mojave. Per the work of Gilreath and Hildebrandt (1997) and many others, this period of pronounced economic and cultural florescence has been shown to have met its demise with the close of the Rose Spring/Haiwee period, perhaps associated in some fashion with the series of progressive droughts now referred to as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (see Stine 1994 and others). For 20 years, my place of employment within this region was Red Rock Canyon State Park, a landscape that beckons travelers to pause from their journeys amidst spires and cathedrals of stone. These canyonlands never fail to astonish — yielding unending discoveries in the realms of the biotic, the paleontological, and the archaeological. Pursuant to a large expansion of the park in 1994, State Park staff began documenting extensive prehistoric chert and chalcedony quarries (Faull 2000; Faull and Sampson 2004; Sampson 2003). These extensive quarries and secondary reduction sites display temporal affinity with the rise and fall of the Coso obsidian quarries and economic system (Faull and Sampson 2004). These sites were purely supportive of other off-site communities or activities, and were not self-sufficient. Thus it became apparent that the quarries were connected within a larger regional cultural system. But who quarried the stone, and where was its destination? The closest contemporaneous community would be the primarily Rose Spring-era village complex at nearby Koehn Dry Lake to the south. The Koehn Lake village (KER-875) was excavated by Dr. Mark Sutton and has become one of the premier cornerstones of Dr. Sutton's proposed western Mojave Desert model (Sutton 1986, 1988a, 1990, 1991, 1996; Sutton and Everson 1992; Sutton and Hansen 1986). Thanks are due to Dr. Sutton for his effort to refine Mojave Desert archaeology by proposing testable models of the prehistoric past. Sutton noted that the primarily Rose Spring-era Koehn Lake village site rests principally above a shoreline associated with ancient Koehn Dry Lake (Sutton 1986:8, 1988a, 1990, 1991, 1996; Sutton and Hansen 1986:3-7). The village abuts aeolian dunes once crested by a sizeable mesquite community (Sutton 1986:2, 7, 1990:3), now decimated by agricultural drawdown of the local water table (Pampeyan et al. 1988). During excavations, Sutton encountered a collapsed circular, semi-subterranean juniper structure, as well as frequent juniper remains (Sutton 1990:3, 1991:179; Sutton and Hansen 1986:2). In addition, Sutton later excavated a prehistoric juniper structure found at the Honda Test Track site (KER-2211) located 3 km west of the Koehn Lake village (Sutton 1990:5, 1991:139,180). As Sutton (1991:179) noted, the closest modern juniper communities lie 15 to 30 km distant in the southern Sierra Nevada. The discovery of the ancient Koehn Lake shoreline combined with the juniper frequency on-site underscores Sutton's postulated Western Mojave model, whereby he proposes a mesic regime sufficient to support a lake stand and to lower the juniper community to the shoreline of ancient Koehn Lake (Sutton 1991:179, 1996:238, 243; Sutton and Everson 1992:62; Sutton and Hansen 1986). Such a model bears certain attractive features, which help to explain the local cultural florescence of the late Gypsum through middle Rose Spring periods. In addition, Sutton proposes that the desiccation of the lake stand at 1000 B.P. led to the eventual abandonment of the Koehn Lake site (Sutton 1991:178181, 1996:232; Sutton and Everson 1992:62-63). To date, no paleoenvironmental studies have been conducted upon Koehn Lake proper to confirm or deny the model. Therefore, proxy data must suffice for analysis. To the north, Searles Lake near Trona does bear evidence of a shallow, highly saline, fluctuating Holocene lake stand (Smith 1979:95, 96, 109). Two-thirds of the way up through a Holocene mud overburden, a radiocarbon date of 3520 B.P. has been documented (Stuiver and Smith 1979:69, 73). This lake stand appears associated with the known pluvials of roughly 4000 and 2000 B.P. (see Smith 1979:109, Figure 41). The upper deposits at present cannot yet be correlated to match the postulated Rose Spring era Koehn lake stand. Farther to the north, Stine (1995:9) has concluded "that Owens Lake was exceptionally low, and perhaps non-existent during extended portions of the Haiwee [Rose Spring] time." Stine (1995:4, 9) cites the work of McGuire (1994) who documented archaeological remains at INY-3541, which range in age from roughly A.D. 135 to 933 and reside on a moderately low beach line of Owens Lake. This beach line lies at 1,093.2 m, roughly 3.4 m below the historical high stand of Owens Lake (Stine 1995:9). The data from McGuire (1994), as well as from Stine (1995), do appear convincing that a lower-than-normal, rather than higher-than-normal, stand for Owens Lake existed during much of the late Gypsum and Rose Spring periods, contrasting with the postulated model for Koehn Dry Lake. At present, the closest correlative pattern to that proposed for Koehn Lake appears to be distantly removed at Lower Pahranagat Lake northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. At this location a pattern of summer- shifted rainfall apparently produced and maintained a shallow lake during the Rose Spring era, where previous to and following this period marsh habitat had predominated (Wigand and Rhode 2002:341). More direct proxy data appear available to analyze the postulated down-slope shift of the juniper community into the vicinity of Koehn Lake. In nearby Red Rock Canyon four archaeological sites have now been excavated which bear in part strata of either Gypsum or more commonly Rose Spring era assemblages: KER-147 (Robinson 1981), KER-246 (Harvey and Gardner 2003), KER-250 (McGuire et al. 1982), and KER-5043 (Gardner 1998). Despite their presence up-slope and up- canyon from Koehn Lake, no juniper remains have been discovered at these sites. Gardner (1998:123, 139) specifically notes such an absence in her thesis, which investigated portions of the Sutton model. Elsewhere, Peter Wigand (2003), working at the Airport Playa site to the north in the Coso Mountains, reports pursuant to both packrat midden and pollen studies a continuity of plant communities over the past 2,600 years. While ratios of plant species vary within the composition, the community members themselves remain constant (Wigand 2003). Rhode and Lancaster (1996:17-24), working south of Koehn Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, report an identical situation involving fluctuating species ratios but consistency of plant communities status over the last 5,600 years. To the east of Koehn Lake, research at Fort Irwin confirms an identical scenario of general plant community consistency during the later Holocene over the last 3,500 years (Basgall and Hall 1992:5; Koehler and Anderson 1993). In the absence of proxy data supporting a dramatic down-slope shift in the juniper community, perhaps other scenarios might account for the presence of juniper at Koehn Lake; the most logical counter- conclusion being that invested energy transported juniper to the site. Why would a community invest such an effort to establish outposts at both Koehn Lake and at KER-2211, 3 km to the west? What other qualities about these sites would motivate such an effort? Expending such extreme energy speaks to some form of strategic importance for the location of these communities. Following Gilreath and Hildebrandt's (1997) seminal work on the Coso Volcanic Field — and the earlier documentation of Coso obsidian distribution by other regional researchers (Ericson 1981; Ericson and Glascock 2004:780-781, 783, Figure 1; Ericson and Singer 1971; Ericson et al. 1989; Hughes and True 1985; Koerper et al. 1986; Meighan 1978), insufficient attention has been expended examining the logical inter- connective footprint of the Coso Economic Exchange System, which delivered high-quality obsidian to much of the southern California coast. Numerous researchers have hinted at or suggested that a connective trade corridor, possibly involving Coso obsidian, functioned within the western Mojave through the Antelope Valley (Ericson and Meighan 1984:147; Koerper et al. 1986:57; Robinson 1977; Sutton 1980:221, 1981:124, 1988a:76-78, 1988b:25, 1989:109; Warren 1988:4647). Along these lines, Sutton (1989:101, 107-109) has discussed the Mojave Desert patterning of Coso obsidian in a post-A.D. 1000, Late Period or Protohistoric temporal context. The focus of this inquiry mostly predates that context. Other possible Coso trade corridors might involve the southern San Joaquin Valley, although few targeted studies have yet occurred. This potential inter-connective economic corridor warrants further investigation in tandem with the Mojave Desert economic system. Perhaps in a larger context the presence of the Koehn Lake village could be viewed as integral or sustaining to the economic system of Coso obsidian exchange through the western Mojave Desert. As such, let us briefly examine the regional pattern of village establishment within a potential Coso context. The earliest dated village within the Antelope Valley is that of Lovejoy Springs (LAN-192). At this site, a group inhumation dated at 2720 B.P. included a Coso obsidian Elko point and one youth draped in over 3,000 beads (Love 1992, 1996:106; Sutton 1988a:52; Toney 1968:810). Thus, the inception of village establishment within the Antelope Valley already displays connection between the coast, trade in beads, and Coso obsidian from the north. Looking elsewhere in the Antelope Valley, a second significant village complex west of Rosamond (KER-303) has yielded an excavated residential structure (probably made of juniper) dated to 2370 B.P. and 2140 B.P., subtended by nearly 1 m of midden (Sutton 1988a:39-40, 62; Sutton and Robinson 1982). Elsewhere at the site, a radiocarbon date of 2200 B.P. was obtained from a charcoal sample at a depth of 2.5 m (Sutton 1988a:39). Coso obsidian is known from the site, and burials at the site, which currently lack sufficient temporal constraints, do display copious unanalyzed shell beads (Sutton 1988a:42, 43, 56). Changing focus to the extreme northern vicinities of the potential Coso System, the village establishment at Rose Spring (INY-372) appears to be roughly marked by a youth inhumation from Locus 1, which can be roughly dated at between 2400 to 2500 B.P. (Lanning 1963:243, 268, 281; Yohe 1992:146). This youth inhumation possesses 1,000 Haliotis ring beads along with an obsidian Elko corner-notched point (Lanning 1963:243, 260-261, 263, 320). At Locus 3 the base of the rich occupational midden has been radiocarbon dated at 2240 B.P. (Yohe 1992:94). At Locus 1 a similar date of 2200 B.P. was recovered from the 152-163 cm level of Trench 1 (Yohe 1992:140, Table 5), near the base of the rich midden defining Lanning's (1963:242) original Stratum 2. Again, possible village establishment appears to coincide with connectivity to the coast in terms of exchange or trade in shell beads and ornaments. Are the occurrences noted coincidental, or could village establishment contain an element of connectivity to trade? Future targeted investigations appear warranted. Could village placement be strategic to controlling the trade in Coso obsidian? Sutton has previously illustrated how trade might have linked certain early villages in the Antelope and Fremont valleys as potential "gateway communities" developed in response to trade, as per the Hirth (1978) model, while sometimes identifying obsidian as the trade product (Sutton 1981:124, 1988a:77-78, 1988b:24, 25). Many of these villages, located near reliable water, could easily serve as strategic trade partners for Coso obsidian exchange. These Antelope Valley villages remain well positioned to serve another potential intermediate link in Coso distribution near Castaic Lake, LAN-324, where obsidian lithic artifacts and bifaces were present (Ericson 1981:Appendix 2, personal communication 2004; Ericson and Glascock 2004:781; Ericson and Singer 1971). Farther south, trade through the Cajon Pass remains less clearly defined. The strategic presence of the culturally distinct village of Oro Grande (SBR-72) above Cajon Pass (see Warren and Crabtree 1986:191), with its near-absence of obsidian and Rose Spring points in the latter Rose Spring era (Rector et al. 1983:35, 37, 47), would appear to discourage hypotheses involving Coso trade. However, the presence of shell beads at Oro Grande (Rector et al. 1983:68-87) bespeaks a coastal connection and the presence of modest quantities of Coso obsidian in Crowder Canyon, SBR-113, SBR-421, and SBR-713, near Cajon Pass (Basgall and True 1985:5.16-5.18, 7.10; Bouey 1985:J2; de Barros 1997:5-93; White 1973:Table 4) may complicate this scenario, unless Coso obsidian moved inland from the coast similar to the scenario suggested for San Diego County (Hughes and True 1985:333). In addition, minor amounts of Coso obsidian have also been documented for the early to mid Gypsum period Siphon Site (SBR-6580) in the Summit Valley 14 km east of Crowder Canyon (Sutton et al. 1993:53). To the north, with additional Eastern Sierra sources of obsidian as potential competitors, one could view the early establishment of the Rose Spring village as strategically positioned or situated to assist with the control of access and trade through the southern Owens and Rose valleys. The later establishment of two large Rose Spring/Haiwee era villages north of the Rose Spring proper, at INY-3806/H on the western shore of Owens Lake at the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and at INY3812 in the north end of the Rose Valley (Delacorte 1994:5-6; Delacorte and McGuire 1993:178, 252), combined with the establishment of the Coso Junction Ranch village (INY-2284) southwest of the Rose Spring site (Allen 1986; Gumerman 1985; Whitley et al. 1988), could potentially further strengthen control over access through time. In addition, a third sizable Rose Spring period occupation at INY-1428, also located west of Owens Lake, adds even greater presence during this critical temporal period (Gilreath and Holanda 2000:121). Returning to the Koehn Lake village, with a calibrated radiocarbon date suggesting establishment around 1700 B.P. (Sutton 1996:235, 238), perhaps part of this site's invested energy involved the strategic value of further controlling trade and access from realms to the south. The discussed florescence of Coso quarrying during the late Gypsum and Rose Spring periods can also be viewed as a period of increasing cultural specialization (cf. Ericson 1984). Shifting from a perspective of potential specialized village establishment, examination of specialized quarry sites can follow. Gilreath and Hildebrandt (1997:178-179) have documented the increasing specialization of quarry selection within the Coso Volcanic Field during the Gypsum/Newberry and Rose Spring/Haiwee periods (see also Whitley et al. 1988:5), as well as the use of secondary bifacial reduction sites (see also Allen 1986:35). The cryptocrystalline quarries of Red Rock Canyon State Park display a similar evolved focus and association with secondary reduction loci (Faull and Sampson 2004). Add to this the Antelope Valley rhyolite quarries (Glennan 1970, 1971; Sutton 1982) and a greater regional picture of the quarry complex emerges. Within the localized El Paso Mountain to Fremont Valley region 94 percent of the recovered Rose Spring projectile points are fashioned from Coso obsidian. This ratio of preferred material use tends to contrast sharply with other eras within the local assemblage. However, despite this observed preference for obsidian point production during the Rose Spring period, the Red Rock cryptocrystalline quarries expand in tandem with the Coso model, indicating a reduced but specialized spectrum of use for cryptocrystalline materials within the tool kit of the El Paso to Fremont Valley segment of the Coso Economic System. In- depth analyses of local sites, such as the Koehn Lake village to the south and the Freeman Spring site (KER-6106) to the north, may offer greater insights into this more restricted, specialized use of cryptocrystalline rock within the Rose Spring tool kit. The introduction of the bow and arrow during the period of Coso obsidian florescence has generated much debate as to the impact of such technology on both large mammal populations and lithic technology trajectories (Allen 1986; Ericson 1982; Grant et al. 1968:58; Yohe 1992, 1998; Yohe and Sutton 2000). Focusing first upon lithic technology trajectories, secondary bifacial reduction of tradable obsidian and other overlapping products of the Coso trade system could account in part for the difficulty researchers have experienced in discerning the introduction of the bow and arrow within lithic artifact assemblages. In addition, some Antelope Valley researchers assert that local lithic trajectories suggest that Rose Spring points may have been traded into the valley as completed products (Earle 2004:12; see also the lack of debitage in Sutton 1988a:76). On the margins of the Fremont Valley at KER-1998, Sutton and Everson (1992:57) note that obsidian appeared mostly as small-sized pressure flakes, suggesting that obsidian "was being brought to the site as artifacts in generally completed form." Examining sites, such as Coso Junction Ranch and others, for the possible specialized production of tradable points might be another line of valuable inquiry (see the Phase B change in the ratio of biface thinning versus secondary reduction reported by Allen 1986:32-33, 37, 40; see also Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1997:168). Whether or not the introduction of the bow and arrow decimated large mammal populations within this region, the archaeological record for this segment of the western Mojave is unequivocal about the intensification of focused food resources. The Rose Spring/Haiwee era witnessed both an expansion of pinyon processing (Bettinger 1975, 1976, 1980, 1989; Garfinkel and Cook 1979, 1980) and an accelerated fetish with the consumption of lagomorphs and a series of small animals (Delacorte 1994:8-10; Yohe and Sutton 2000:5), particularly hares. Lepus procurement sees the establishment of massive specialized collection and processing sites, such as those at Freeman Spring near Walker Pass (Williams 2004), and at the Bickel site in the El Paso Mountains, KER-250 (McGuire et al. 1982). Intensive Lepus processing is known from the village sites of Rose Spring, Koehn Lake, and KER2211 (Sutton 1990:5, 1991:180; Yohe 1994; Yohe and Goodman 1991; Yohe and Sutton 2000:3). Gumerman (1985:28) documented that rabbit processing intensified during the progression of the Rose Spring period at the Coso Junction Ranch site (see also Whitley et al. 1988:6, 8). Kranz (1963:288) stated for the Rose Spring site that it was "tempting to conclude that rabbit brains were eaten, including the relatively soft cranial bones." Ethnographically, rabbit brains have been reported as a delicacy (Christenson 1990:368). However, it should be noted that at the Bickel site in the El Paso Mountains, Lepus heads and certain parts of the extremities were removed from lagomorphs before apparent transportation off-site to the place or point of actual consumption or use (Basgall 1982:137-138). A suite of other small mammals and other animals were also widely to locally exploited by Rose Spring era populations (cf. Delacorte 1994 and others). Broadening the perspective, the Anasazi of the Southwest reportedly display a similar intensified utilization of small game, particularly lagomorphs and mice, before their profound decline, around the peak of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (Diamond 2005:150). Perhaps a scenario somewhat similar to the Anasazi occurred in portions of the western Mojave — where initial success and population expansion possibly became increasingly difficult to support or sustain, in light of potential over-predation or increasing resource failure associated with progressing drought and aridity (cf. Ericson and Meighan 1984:150; Whitley et al. 1988:8; Yohe and Sutton 2000:1, 4). In conclusion, from north to south, village establishment within the discussed corridor of the western Mojave Desert appears to initiate with relative concurrence during the Gypsum period, with each site displaying connectivity to both coastal and Coso resources. Over time, a series of late Gypsum through Rose Spring period, potentially interdependent sites appear to arise, possibly aligned to support the fruition of the Coso Obsidian Economic Exchange System. By approximately 1100 B.P., the Antelope Valley is well positioned to participate in the emergence of the new trade system with the Southwest, which transitions into the Late Prehistoric or Marana period (Davis 1961:4, Map 1; Heizer 1946:191; Sample 1950:4-5; Warren and Crabtree 1986:193). The Antelope Valley displays village continuity across the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and the terminal Rose Spring (Campbell 2004:8, personal communication 2005; David D. Earle, personal communication 2004; see also the data of Robinson 1977; Sutton 1988a), which marks the demise of the long-standing Coso Economic System farther to the north. By contrast, the Fremont, China Lake, and Rose valleys to the north experience the dramatic cessation of major quarrying at Coso and the resultant disseminating trade system (Ericson and Meighan 1984:149; Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1997:iii, 179, 183; Hughes and True 1985:333, 334; Meighan 1978:160; Koerper et al. 1986:53). In tandem, the major quarrying and secondary reduction loci located within Red Rock Canyon State Park in the El Paso Mountains cease function (Faull and Sampson 2004). Village abandonment occurs at a suite of sites, which includes the Koehn Lake village (Sutton 1990, 1991, 1996), the Coso Junction Ranch village (Allen 1986:2-3; Gumerman 1985; Sutton 1996:239; Whitley et al. 1988:5, 8; see also Yohe and Sutton 2000:3), the INY-1428 occupation site (Gilreath and Holanda 2000), the INY-3806/H village, and the INY-3812 village (Delacorte 1994; Delacorte and McGuire 1993). A significant decrease in activity is simultaneously recorded for the Rose Spring site (Lanning 1963; Whitley et al. 1988:5; Yohe 1992). Finally, the large, highly specialized rabbit procurement sites at Freeman Spring (Williams 2004) and at the Bickel site (McGuire et al. 1982) similarly demise. In short, the system of villages and associated specialized sites, which apparently rise in concordance with the observed expansion of the Coso quarrying complex, appear to display a concurrence in their temporal cessation. In the absence of cooperative trade and possibly in light of prolonged, intensifying drought combined with local over- predation, the discussed desert-based villages of the northwest Mojave Desert appear to dissolve, never to be reassembled in the Fremont through Rose Valleys in any similar fashion. It is not asserted with certainty that the Coso Obsidian Economic Exchange System involved precisely all the elements contended herein. Rather, this working hypothesis and its associated observations are intended to elevate a new dialogue to incite inquisition into the possible interrelationship and function of sites stretching along a known western Mojave Desert trade corridor. If significant interconnectedness existed in the form of a regionalized trade economy, "optimal foraging theories" and "resource intensification models" will not adequately define past realities unless they account for such specialized energies. Likewise, models that attempt to define change in lithic technologies or trajectories will likely suffer similar frustrations unless the overlapping complexities of regional trade production are factored into analysis. I hope that this dialogue will prove productive towards a new linkage of regional prehistoric archaeology in the western Mojave Desert of California. The author expresses his appreciation, gratitude, and respect to all the prior researchers from whom this work arises, acknowledging the heavy borrowing that encompasses such an attempted synthesis. A special appreciation is directed to Dr. Mark Sutton for his contributions and continued willingness to share information and ideas. In addition, I express profound gratitude to those countless researchers who have kindly shared their wisdom, provided references, and tolerated a plethora of questions. Such individuals include, but are not limited to, Dr. David Earle, Dr. Robert Yohe, II, Alan Garfinkel, Dr. Mark Allen, Michael Sampson, Dr. Jonathon Ericson, Mark Campbell, Barbara Tejada, Chris White, Victoria Harvey, and Jill Gardner. Allen, Mark W. (1986): The Effects of Bow and Arrow Technology on Lithic Production and Exchange Systems: A Test Case Using Debitage Analysis. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles. E. 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2019-04-19T18:22:20Z

https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/markfaull2006.htm

Airservices is Australia's air navigation service provider - we provide air traffic control, aviation rescue and fire fighting and air navigation services. I, Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d), as Chair of Airservices Australia, present the Airservices Australia 2018–19 Corporate Plan, which covers the periods of 2018–19 to 2022–23, as required under section 35(1) (b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and Section 13 of the Air Services Act 1995. I am pleased to present the Airservices 2018–19 Corporate Plan. This Plan has particular significance for me as it is my last as Chair of Airservices Australia. It provides a blueprint to be passed on to the next generation of leaders as they support our customers to navigate an exciting future. This year’s Plan outlines how Airservices is building on the strong foundations laid in recent years, to evolve how we support our customers and industry to meet both current and future needs, in a rapidly changing aviation environment. The factors influencing air space management over the next five years have never been so diverse, complex or exciting. Aviation has always been an industry that thrives on innovation, but the coalescence of technological advancements, globalisation and increased customer expectations is providing an unprecedented context in which we must continue to deliver safety and service excellence. Building on the significant work done internally on our business fundamentals in 2017–18—with a new operating model, matched with updated organisational values (championing customer centricity and innovation) and a return to a sustainable financial position, we are both optimistic and focused on preparing for this future. In February 2018, we were pleased to make a significant advance into this rapidly changing environment, with the signing of the OneSKY contract to deliver the most advanced air traffic control system in the world. This milestone is significant—many years in the making, in collaboration with the Department of Defence, it signals the achievement of civil military air traffic harmonisation in our region. This is the most important development in the safe management of Australia’s skies since the dawn of Australian aviation. Work is well underway, with the benefits being delivered progressively over the roll-out period. OneSKY is our most important platform from which to deliver value to our customers, and this Plan speaks to how we will achieve that now that OneSKY is a reality. As always, customer needs are prime, and customer centricity is embedded in both the Airservices’ values and operating model. Customer-centricity will continue to drive decision making in both the Service Excellence pillar (delivering with excellence what we do now) and Service Innovation pillar (new ways to deliver, and new service areas to add value) of our 2018–19 Corporate Plan. While firmly focused on the delivery of OneSKY for our customers and partners, we are also preparing for the future context in which it will be delivered. That means working with industry to understand the changes we are all facing. It means bringing an expert voice to regulatory and policy considerations, and sharing information and expertise to enhance understanding, foster and grow civil aviation and provide the opportunity for further innovation. These elements are captured in the Industry Leadership pillar of our strategy. Of course, the basis from which we will achieve these ambitions is the organisation – the people, culture and processes that facilitate the outcomes we exist to deliver. We need to continue to build a culture founded on the pride and sense of responsibility that we all have in the important work we do, and engage our people within an agile and technology-enabled organisation, ready to navigate future change. As we are funded by the industry, we remain ever cognisant of our duty to provide value, through valued services, efficiently delivered. We are pleased that our prices have been held unchanged for three years, reflecting the value delivered from our internal efficiency improvements. This Plan demonstrates our commitment to continue to deliver that value, and look to innovate and improve, all at no additional cost to industry—clear evidence of our commitment and capability to achieve continuous improvement through a customer value lens. This year you may notice that we are expanding the frame of reference of our Corporate Plan so that it presents a more comprehensive picture of the full range of activity Airservices undertakes, not just a view of in-train initiatives and projects. I am proud of the depth and breadth of what this organisation has achieved, and delivers on a day to day basis. Our vision for the future is laid out in the following pages. I have been privileged to lead as Chair of this great organisation for the last six years. I wish my colleagues on the Board, and every individual at Airservices, all the best as they work to deliver on this plan and fulfil the ongoing potential of Airservices to add real value to aviation in Australia, our region, and beyond. Our purpose is to provide safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible air navigation and aviation rescue fire fighting services that are valued by the aviation industry and community on behalf of our owner, the Australian Government. We operate in accordance with the requirements of the Air Services Act 1995 (the Act) and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and in response to the Government’s Statement of Expectations (Appendix A) issued as a notice of strategic direction to the Board of Airservices Australia under Section 17 of the Act. A key legislative obligation under the Air Services Act 1995 is to foster and promote civil aviation. In fulfilling this obligation in an ever changing operating environment, our service delivery must not become an operational or economic impediment to the growth of the aviation industry. With the operating environment for global Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) changing at such a rapid pace, we closely monitor emerging trends and developments so that we can continue to discharge our responsibilities to keep air travel safe, and support our customers with efficient services. Our industry continues to grow—by 2030, Australia’s capital cities will support 235 million travellers each year. The biggest growth is from China (5.6% growth per year), the rest of Asia (3.5%) and North America (4%). By 2035, over 130 million passengers from China and over 105 million passengers from North America are expected to travel to Oceania every year. These forecasts are supported by trends we have observed in our key market segments over the past 12 months. Specifically, there has been an increase in the number of flights we manage in our emerging markets of North Asia and the Americas, and our traditional Middle Eastern market. Further, Australia’s capital cities will support 2.3 times more passenger movements from 98.3 million passengers in 2009 to 235 million by 2029. This will be supported by nearly twice the amount of aircraft movements from 1.09 million in 2009 to 1.7 million in 2029. The global drone market is also expanding rapidly. From 150,000 drones globally in 2016; by 2031 there are expected to be 24 million drones in the skies. This growth will be accompanied by an increase in economic activity, with drone spending estimated to be over US$3.1 billion in Australia alone between now and 2021. As the global aviation market continues to change, Airservices must evolve in order to continue to deliver on our purpose and vision. Early in 2018, we signed the OneSKY contract to deliver the most advanced air traffic management system in the world. We need to both deliver OneSKY and actively prepare for the future context in which it will be delivered. This year’s Corporate Plan explores some of the emerging factors that are shaping both what and how we deliver to customers, so that as we plan for the next five years (and the decades beyond that), we remain as relevant, efficient and valued as possible. Looking ahead—What is happening in the aviation industry? Rapid disruption is occurring—our skies will start to look different between now and 2023, the five year period covered by this Plan. Technology is reshaping how we perform our important roles in air traffic control and aviation rescue and fire fighting. The risk profile is changing. There will be more complexity, more connectivity and more tools at our disposal to deliver innovative and valuable outcomes. The key themes for our industry (and their implications for ANSPs like Airservices) over the next decade, for which we must prepare now, are detailed in this section. As the magnitude of air travel continues to increase, airspace will need to be harmonised across flight information regions to improve efficiency. Air navigation services will be required to be delivered based on operational needs, rather than constraints of national boundaries. These changing circumstances will require enhanced cooperation between States and key industry players. Providing support for airport infrastructure projects to release incremental capacity and manage the increase in traffic, which is currently causing capacity constraints, will continue to be required to manage the environmental and other impacts of an increasingly congested airspace. Over the next decade, traditional (including ultra-long haul) and non-traditional vehicles will operate alongside each other, increasing the congestion and complexity of airspace. Vehicles are expected to occupy both regulated and unregulated airspace (including above 65 000 feet and below 400 feet). New models of air traffic are likely to emerge, including models that include the principle of a sharing economy. There is a growing requirement to integrate controlled and uncontrolled airspace to ensure safe air traffic operation within increasingly congested skies. ANSPs must work effectively with regulatory bodies to balance aviation industry growth and safety. This will require ANSPs to proactively form a forward-looking view on policy and regulatory change which accommodates anticipated growth, maintains safety, and ensures resilience and security. As data is able to be more readily captured, it will form an increasing critical role to support operational efficiency and effectiveness. Information management, and the insights it captures, will form core value propositions to businesses. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Technology (VT) have the potential to significantly increase operating efficiency. Leveraging new technology will create opportunities to improve overall performance, productivity and safety, as well as opening up potential for more innovation. Integrating these technologies with existing capability will increase system complexity and requires a measured transition between old and new systems to achieve intended benefits. New entrants are bringing unique propositions and business models (e.g. telcos and their communications networks) to the global aviation market. Incumbents are looking to expand along the value chain (e.g. manufacturers working with other players to co-develop self-navigating technology). Strategic partnerships will become critical for ANSP success. Industry players will race to provide end to end customer experiences by vertically integrating travel. Organisations will need data, and the business insights it provides, to create hyper-personalised services for customers. What does this mean for Airservices? We need to proactively assess and adapt to these changes to ensure we continue to provide safe, secure, efficient and environmentally friendly services to the aviation industry. For our traditional, regulated services this means actively supporting our customers to increase capacity during all phases of flight to enable them to continue to optimise and enhance the customer experience. OneSKY, Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM), and Long Range Air Traffic Flow Management (LR-ATFM) are key to achieving this outcome. An emerging area of focus will be to evolve our information services, and build relationships with strategic partners across the value chain. The growth of new, non-traditional vehicles will also bring specific challenges in how they should be managed and safely integrated with existing traditional operations. Over the life of this Plan, we will work closely with regulators, our customers, government and non-traditional operators to ensure this important new segment of the aviation industry is supported to grow, safely. Building on our strong foundations laid in 2016–17, our focus in 2018–19 and beyond looks to the future of our industry. Detailed in our Strategic Pillars and Initiatives, we are focused on what our customers value and expect, our operating environment, and the challenges and opportunities of technology and trends in aviation and air safety globally. During 2017–18 with planned investments in OneSKY and new technologies such as Airport Collaborative Decision Making and Digital Aerodrome Services progressing, our organisation is now evolving its focus from internal efficiency to industry contribution. We are now well placed to deliver value through service excellence and innovation for our customers, to help them to navigate the challenges and opportunities of technology and respond to trends in aviation and air safety globally. With a new customer-centric operating model in place, we reflected on our core principles and, with the input of our people, updated our organisational values to reflect the more agile, relationship-based and customer centric cultural aspiration that had motivated and guided such momentous change in our business. 1. Our primary effort is invested in delivering Service Excellence to our customers. This means doing what we do now, well; to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers. It means always working to enhance the safety, agility and efficiency with which we deliver our core air navigation and aviation rescue fire fighting services. 2. We actively consider and invest in Service Innovation. This means exploring ways to enhance our existing service offering (in the near term) and exploring new potential service offerings in emerging segments of the aviation industry in the longer term. 3. We demonstrate Industry Leadership by proactively shaping and influencing policy that supports the aviation industry to grow safely. This includes contributing on industry-wide issues such as airspace and environmental management. 4. We build Organisational Agility so that we operate effectively and efficiently. Engaging and developing our people in an environment and culture in which both core business and future innovation can thrive. Service Excellence is how we meet and exceed the expectations of our customers by delivering our current services to a standard of excellence. As aviation traffic grows, it is imperative that we maintain our focus on safety and quality delivery of our Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFFS) services while continuously improving efficiency and effectiveness. Service excellence encompasses all aspects of continuous improvement across every part of our business, cognisant of our environmental obligations and rewarding the trust placed in us by the communities and the Government. OneSKY remains a critical priority and will see us realise our goal of harmonising civil military air traffic management. The program of work for the coming year will focus on finalising the system design review for the core CMATS capability, and commencing work on support facilities (including Air Traffic Service Centres) and enabling capabilities (such as the roll out of new voice communications systems in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane). We are undertaking a range of investments over the life of this plan to ensure that we support industry expansion and infrastructure investment across Australia. Activities under this initiative will see us deliver essential communications, navigation and surveillance facilities to allow new runways to meet regulatory requirements and increase airport capacity. Digital tower technology will deliver better safety and operational outcomes through more flexible and efficient service offerings at emerging aerodromes. We have a responsibility to protect the environment from the effects of aircraft operations. In accordance with our Minister’s Statement of Expectations, we produce an annual environmental work plan and this year we are focussed on improving how we engage with communities in relation to aircraft noise, including the assessments and analysis on which our engagement is based. We continue to implement new services to support safe traffic growth. Preparatory work for Proserpine ARFF services will be completed in the coming year, with services planned for commencement from 2019 onwards. All of the initiatives described under this pillar contribute to our performance outcomes of ‘safe and secure’, ‘valued and accountable’ and ‘efficient and commercial’. The success of these initiatives will be measured on the completion of the specified deliverables within the next 12 months and our successful progression of each program of work in the subsequent years. Beyond our existing services, Service Innovation requires that we proactively innovate and deliver new service offerings to bring value to customers in both existing and emerging sectors of our industry. The pace of change in aviation requires that we enhance our ability to build and deploy new services and information capabilities, for both traditional and new airspace users. Through this innovation, we will make a further contribution to growing the aviation industry, beyond the safety outcomes we currently deliver. In the near term, service innovation will focus on activities that will enhance the traditional ATM offering (e.g. LR-ATFM and A-CDM) to deliver new value and release incremental capacity at airports. In the longer term, this may expand to encompass identifying and exploring new service requirements in emerging segments of the aviation industry or opportunities to add value in new areas of the aviation value chain. We will look to further integrate within the industry, to maximise the benefits of interconnectedness and to work in new ways across the aviation ecosystem, anticipating and able to meet customers changing needs. A-CDM is a cross-industry initiative with the potential to realise major savings to the aviation industry over the next decade. Building on the operating and governance work we completed last year, this year will see the initial implementation of the A-CDM system (with Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth all targeted for this year). This year we shift from developing a concept of operations for LR-ATFM to commencing implementation. LR-ATFM shifts some or all of the required airborne delay for long range flights from the arrival phase of the flight to the enroute phase, resulting in less fuel burn and improved predictability of arrival flows into our major airports. In the out-years of this plan, Airservices will also invest in building on the capability delivered by A-CDM and LR-ATFM to further improve network management. This will include continued focus on minimising off-route constraints, improving the flexible use of airspace and implementing a collaborative connective forecasting capability. Implementation of our information strategy will see us invest in a standardised enterprise solution (including a workbench of tools, platform, support and processes), supporting data management, business intelligence and analytics, data warehousing, and data lake components and tools. This capability will provide the necessary integration, real-time data provisioning, self-service, and security capabilities to support System Wide Information Management (SWIM). All of the initiatives described under this pillar contribute to our performance outcomes of ‘efficient and commercial’ and ‘innovative’. Our investment in this space is focused directly on ensuring that we proactively build the capabilities required to provide our customers with the operational flexibility they need to be successful and with services they value as the industry changes and grows. The success of these initiatives will be measured on the completion of the above deliverables within the next 12 months and our successful progression of each program of work in the subsequent years. One of our key legislative obligations under the Air Services Act 1995 is to foster and promote civil aviation. It’s why we place critical importance on not being an economic or operational impediment to industry growth (evidenced by the value we have returned to customers in recent times with no change in funding requirements). Our role in fostering and promoting civil aviation challenges us as an industry leader, to continually look for ways to be more proactive across the entire aviation ecosystem. This leadership will be exemplified by proactivity; anticipating changes rather than responding, and bringing together stakeholders from across our industry to navigate through inevitably complex issues. This collaboration will support industry growth, as together we create an environment in which the aviation industry thrives. Throughout, we will ensure representation of all layers of our industry—airlines, regional operators and general aviation users—and the communities and citizens who we ultimately protect. This pillar continues our established role in managing and evolving Australia’s airspace to balance competing demands of growth, technical change, consumer expectations and environmental consideration. It reflects the requirement for us to shape policy and collaborate with industry stakeholders to foster safe and secure industry growth in the future. We fulfil our role in the management of Australian airspace in accordance with the Government’s Australian Airspace Policy Statement, which requires us to, among other considerations, consider the safety of air navigation, the current and future needs of the aviation industry, and take advantage of technologies wherever practicable. In 2018–19 we will work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to standardise the services provided in both Class A and Class E airspace across Australia, increasing consistency for airspace users. We will also commence the trial of lowering the base of Class E airspace, which was initiated in 2017–18. This trial will be carefully managed to protect the safety of air navigation, while leveraging new technology to increase airspace accessibility. All of the initiatives described under this pillar contribute to our performance outcomes of ‘valued and accountable’, ‘efficient and commercial’ and ‘innovative’. Our aim is to bring the disparate requirements and priorities of our entire stakeholder group together to provide a leadership role across the entireecosystem. We need to ensure that we continue to set the internal conditions for service delivery and future innovation to thrive. This means continuing to develop a culture which is customer centric and commercially focused, with processes and systems in place to support our people to achieve long term objectives from both a Service Excellence and Service Innovation perspective. It also requires ongoing investment in enabling digital capability to ensure that as our operating model and ways of working continue to evolve to take advantage of new opportunities in new areas, our technology evolves in parallel. Our People Strategy recognises the need for fundamental shifts in our workforce capability and composition over the long-term. The Workforce Transformation Roadmap will identify and prioritise key talent segments that will be subject to transformation, identify milestones and functional accountability for clearly articulating future requirements, shifting capability through recruitment, development and certification and addressing factors that impact attraction, selection and retention of priority talent. We will enter digital workflow services into operation over the first 12 months of this plan. This capability will provide the tools, processes, methodologies and personnel required to provide an integrated and automated workflow creation service (and includes the integration of key data sources and retention compliance requirements for decisions and records). Our Cyber Security program will deliver an effective and efficient Cyber Resilience Management System (CRMS) to complement our existing Risk Management and Safety Management systems. It will promote and develop a Security Culture in Airservices’ personnel and align us with the principles of the Australian Government’s Information Security Manual and Protective Security Policy Framework standards. By updating system configuration standards and processes to ensure ongoing resilience, and implement essential security tools and capabilities to ensure we proactively protect our information management assets. Our organisational capacity and capability underpins our success across all of our performance outcomes. An agile, fit for purpose organisation is a pre-requisite for successful achievement of our service, innovation and industry initiatives. Our success beneath this pillar will be measured on the completion of the above deliverables within the next 12 months. Our strategic performance outcomes support, inform and drive our decision making. They will ensure that we continue to work towards being recognised as an industry leader and a valued service provider. Our overall approach to measuring performance reflects our commitment to achieving these outcomes. We monitor and manage our performance via a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) as outlined in Table 1. These nine KPIs are balanced against the broad criteria of safety, financial stewardship, operational efficiency, industry outcomes, and organisational capacity in order to present a holistic view of our how we are delivering on our purpose, vision and strategic priorities over time. Maintaining our already strong record around significant safety occurrences and our lost time frequency injury rate clearly demonstrates the degree to which we are achieving our safety and security outcomes. Similarly, strong industry advocacy, achievement of Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) and Return On Assets (ROA) targets, and reductions in airborne delay and total cost per Instrument Flight Rules flight hour, demonstrate directly the degree to which we are providing valuable, accountable, efficient and commercial services to our customers. Innovation is an area where measuring performance is challenging as it is a forward-looking ambition. However in the near term our innovations around A-CDM and LR-ATFM will translate to measurable improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness with which we deliver core services. As we innovate to introduce new services and capabilities into our organisation in the second half of the five years covered by this plan, additional KPIs which more directly track the impact of our innovation will be introduced. The level of engagement and diversity our workforce represents is critical for Airservices to achieve its business objectives and is a prerequisite for success against all of our other performance goals. This five-year financial plan supports our strategy and funds key investment and services improvement programs to enhance safety and deliver value to industry. It builds on the financial performance achieved over previous years and reflects our continued focus on driving business improvements to support long term growth across the Australian aviation industry. With no price increase forecast over the planning period, it enables real price reductions of 17 per cent since the last price increase in July 2015. The plan funds our forward capital investment program, which remains focused on customer service improvements, supporting airport infrastructure projects to increase capacity while enhancing safety and business resilience. The delivery of the OneSKY program and our investment to support major airport development plans is included in accordance with the current investment delivery schedules. The five-year operating projections and performance measures are shown in Table 2. The plan reflects the latest economic outlook and airways traffic projections. We set our prices in consultation with our customers for core airways services under Long Term Pricing Agreements. Under the provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 any increase in prices must be notified to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for its review. We established the current pricing agreement in October 2011. It has continued to allow us to recover all reasonably incurred costs (including a return on capital employed) relating to the delivery of our services and it has provided ongoing price certainty for our customers. Today, our prices are the same as they were in July 2015. Reflecting a more efficient operating cost base delivered through our Accelerate Program, this plan maintains weighted average prices at existing rates, delivering our customers real price decreases of 17 per cent since July 2015 while providing improved service value through to 2023. Return on Assets and Net Profit After Tax are forecast at an average of 6 per cent and $66 million per year respectively. These returns are in line with price regulatory benchmark rates. Revenues over the period are projected to grow in line with traffic with no planned increases in weighted average prices. The outlook for traffic growth continues to be driven by the performance of international aviation sector on the back of the ongoing expansion of the Asian market. However, some slowing in this sector is expected, with potential short term market volatility over the planning horizon. Following consecutive years of contraction across domestic services, some signs of improvement are emerging. Expenses are forecast to grow between two to three per cent per annum over the next five years. The plan factors in the delivery of new services and improvement programs, including the expansion of air traffic control and aviation rescue and fire fighting services to support new regional east coast locations and parallel runways operations. Allowances have also been made for Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) site testing work. In line with our strategy the business continues to invest in technology and data to provide information services for the future. The financial plan caters for the investment in services and systems that ensure the delivery of new secure information services. With a once in a generation change to the new Civil Military Air Traffic Management System, the plan incorporates transition and capability readiness activities, and overlapping support for old and new systems which is required as part of the implementation of the new system scheduled from 2020–21 onwards. The five-year capital investment projections are provided in Table 3. This investment profile incorporates the funding required to deliver on our strategy across the planning years with total investment levels estimated at $1.2 billion over five years. Providing significant benefits to the customer through maintaining our safety performance, reducing fuel burn for airlines and providing dynamic information for better managing impacts of delay in a growing traffic environment are the key themes of our investment plan. OneSKY activities and associated enabling projects remain the central focus of the program accounting for $724 million, or 59 per cent, of the total expenditure. The remainder of the program will support the delivery of airport new runway developments, establish two new regional services and continue the expansion of surveillance services to improve safety and support industry growth. To improve the efficiency of the air traffic management network the program will continue to invest in information technology. Dividend levels over the first two years of the plan have been reduced to be reinvested into the business whilst capital expenditure funding requirements remain high as we deliver OneSKY, introduce new services and support major airport infrastructure projects. From 2020–21 dividends are forecast to be paid out at a rate of 30 per cent of after tax profits returning an average of $20 million in dividends each year. Through sustained levels of profitability, dividend planning and management of capital expenditure funding, gearing is projected to remain within target levels and average 42 per cent over the term of the plan. We are committed to developing and promoting a culture of active risk management supported by robust and transparent governance oversight. Our Board Risk Appetite Statement promotes risk-based decision making driven by a sound understanding of our risk environment. This assists us to meet our obligations under Section 16 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and commitment to better practice risk management in accordance with the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy. We perform an integral role in the Australian aviation industry and operate in an inherently complex environment. Our external risk considerations include our regulators, emerging technologies, changes to the domestic and international economic environment, and our role in the broader commercial aviation industry. We have a wide range of risks associated with our operational activities. Responding to these diverse risks requires us to ensure the integrity of our safety and environment management systems and service delivery to maintain long term sustainability. We continuously improve our operating systems, embrace innovation and engage with technology to remain responsive to changes. Business risks: including ATM and ARFF service delivery, business continuity, as well as compliance with Work Health and Safety (WHS), environment and financial obligations. We are committed to, and actively apply, a continuous improvement approach towards risk management that aligns with best practice principles and is consistent with the International Standard ISO 31000:2018 Risk management – Guidelines. and decision-making processes through a clear articulation of risk tolerance and the level of risk that we are willing to accept as an organisation. Through the implementation of our Risk Management Standard, as a part of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Framework, we proactively identify and treat risks to within acceptable tolerances in our operations and operating environment. Operational Level – application of risk assessment and management techniques to meet operational framework and management system objectives. The Enterprise Risk Report, supported by Business Group Risk Reports, are reviewed by the Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Team on a quarterly basis. A quarterly GRC Report containing contemporary enterprise risk information is also presented to the Board Audit and Risk Committee (BARC) for review and oversight. Effective reporting and oversight assists our leaders in making strategic decisions to address major threats and seize opportunities in an open and transparent way. In addition, we apply the three lines of defence model to provide assurance that our key controls are effective in managing risk. Assurance activities are layered across the three lines of defence and embedded into our processes. These assurance activities provide the leadership team, the BARC and our stakeholders with a high level of comfort that risks are being managed, compliance obligations being met and corporate objectives are being achieved. Overview This instrument is known as the Statement of Expectations for the Board of Airservices Australia for the period 22 May 2017 to 30 June 2019. This instrument commences on 22 May 2017 and expires at the end of 30 June 2019 as if it had been repealed by another instrument. This instrument repeals the previous Statement of Expectations for the Board of Airservices Australia for the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2015 and the Statement of Expectations for the Board of Airservices Australia for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2017. This instrument puts in place a new Statement of Expectations (SOE) which serves as a notice to the Board of Airservices Australia (Airservices) under section 17 of the Air Services Act 1995 (the Act). The new SOE outlines in a formal and public way, the Government’s expectations concerning the operations and performance of Airservices. The Airservices Board’s Statement of Intent as outlined in this section responds to each element of the Statement of Expectations* (22 May 2017 to 30 June 2019) and states our formal commitment to meeting our Minister’s expectations. In addition, this Corporate Plan supports our Statement of Intent in response to the Statement of Expectations. Governance Airservices should perform its functions in accordance with the Act, which requires that Airservices must regard the safety of air navigation as the most important consideration. Airservices shall also perform its functions in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) as well as other relevant legislation. Airservices should maintain high standards of professionalism, service, probity, reporting, accountability and transparency, consistent with the provisions of the PGPA Act and have a code of conduct and values consistent with excellence in the public sector. Airservices will continue to perform its functions of providing safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible services that are valued by the aviation industry on behalf of our owner, the Australian Government. In performing these functions, we will continue to adhere to our values and code of conduct, which assist us to maintain high standards of professionalism, customer service, probity, reporting, accountability and transparency. I expect that the Board and the Chief Executive Officer will work together to enable Airservices to operate as a world leading Air Traffic Control and Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting Service (ARFFS) provider, backed by the requisite facilities and skilled workforce. I also expect the Board to ensure Airservices has the necessary resources and capabilities in place to effectively assist in the delivery of the key aviation initiatives outlined below. The Board will make decisions consistent with its responsibilities under the Air Services Act 1995 relating to the objectives, strategies and policies to be followed by Airservices, ensuring that we perform our functions in a proper, efficient and effective manner. The Board will continue to work closely with the Chief Executive Officer to ensure that Airservices has the resources and capabilities needed to deliver world class aviation services to its customers and the community. Our 2015–2035 Workforce Strategy will ensure that we continue to invest in our workforce capability to provide an appropriately skilled workforce to deliver on our service objectives. a. Complete the safe and effective implementation of its recent organisational change program, known as the Accelerate Program (noting the Program is scheduled for completion on 30 June 2017) and undertake a post implementation review of the Program by 30 December 2017; Airservices will complete of the Accelerate Program by 30 June 2017. A post implementation review will be completed by 30 December 2017. A harmonised Civil Military Air Traffic Management System, delivered via the OneSKY program, remains a critical priority for Airservices and we will continue to work closely with the Department of Defence. Airservices will continue to work very closely with CASA in relation to its role as safety regulator for civil air operations in Australia, including on key initiatives such as the OneSKY program. We will do this by proactively engaging CASA through well-established mechanisms and sharing information in an open and transparent manner. As part of Airservices ongoing focus to improve the provision of safe and innovative services for industry, we will actively focus on identifying and supporting opportunities to enhance the level of safety and efficiency of controlled airspace in Australia, engaging with industry and working collaboratively with Government agencies through the Aviation Policy Group and other forums. We will take advantage of new technologies such as ADS-B and identify opportunities to increase the use of Class E airspace in Australia. e. Work with the Department and CASA in the implementation of the agreed recommendations arising out of the ARFFS regulatory policy review; Airservices supports proposed changes for the provision of ARFFS that shifts the current prescriptive regulatory framework to a more risk- and outcomes- based approach. Airservices is actively supporting the Department as it progresses this work and will continue to do so, so that it can harness the service delivery and efficiency benefits that the reforms will enable. f. Work with the Department and CASA in modernising airspace protection policy; Airservices will continue to contribute to and support initiatives that reduce risk to aircraft operations. We will work cooperatively with the Department, CASA, other Government agencies and industry to consider and implement proposals contained in the Department’s Airspace Protection Paper which seeks to modernise airspace protection regulation and identify non-regulatory measures to enhance the safety of aircraft operations. Effectively managing noise complaints through the Noise Complaints Information Service (NCIS). The NCIS provides valuable information services to the community and the ANO. We will continue to appropriately resource the NCIS to ensure that it provides this service to a high standard. Airservices is committed to the 1997 Ministerial Direction relating to the Sydney Long Term Operating Plan to the maximum extent practicable to ensure the safe and efficient operation of Sydney Airport. Airservices will continue to implement our national PFAS management program, including site investigations, in response to Airservices and other organisations’ historical use of aviation fire fighting foams containing these chemicals. Airservices will also continue to work closely with Government agencies in developing a whole-of-government approach to managing PFAS. Airservices will continue to produce and report against an annual environmental work plan which outlines initiatives to manage and monitor the environmental effects of aircraft operations. Airservices will continue to focus on delivering new and improved air traffic services, including performance-based navigation, to improve capacity and efficiency while also improving environmental outcomes. h. Continue to support the Government’s safety and capability building initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and the Memorandum of Understanding, regarding the management of Australia’s International Civil Aviation Organization responsibilities. Airservices will continue to support the Australian Government’s safety initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region to improve safety outcomes, primarily through working with air navigation service providers in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to build their capability to manage greater air traffic. This includes progressing sustainable programs that deliver safe, harmonised and integrated outcomes that are aligned with their neighbouring states, including Australia. Airservices works closely with the Department and CASA to ensure that we are executing Australia’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) responsibilities. a. Undertake effective and ongoing engagement with the community, industry and Government on the development and implementation of significant changes by Airservices to air traffic and ARFFS; Acknowledging that our most important consideration is always the safety of air navigation, Airservices will continue to effectively consult with the community, industry and the Government throughout the development and implementation of any significant changes to our service provision. b. Engage constructively in processes where it can provide information, assistance or advice for policy formulation, implementation and regulation undertaken by Government agencies, both within and outside my portfolio; Airservices will continue to provide information, assistance or advice to other Government agencies, including in the performance of their regulatory and policy functions. • safety outcomes by ensuring aviation safety requirements are recognised in land use planning decisions. Airservices will also continue to engage and consult with concerned community groups through airport-led planning coordination and consultation forums and Airservices technical noise working groups. d. Keep the Secretary of the Department and me fully informed of Airservices’ actions in relation to the requirements stated in this SOE, and promptly advise about any events or issues that may impact on the operations of Airservices, including the provision of timely quarterly reports of progress against the Corporate Plan and advice on the Accelerate Program and the OneSKY project; and The Airservices Board and the Chief Executive Officer will continue to keep the Department and the Minister fully informed in relation to these expectations through regular reporting, including quarterly reports of progress against the Corporate Plan. e. Work closely with the Department, including the Western Sydney Unit, and other Government agencies, including the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, CASA and Defence to deliver integrated and comprehensive safety advice to the Government, the aviation industry and the community. Airservices will continue to support other Government agencies in the performance of their regulatory and policy functions through the provision of timely information, assistance or advice.

2019-04-20T12:48:17Z

http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/publications/corporate-publications/strategic-planning/2018-19-corporate-plan/

There are 23 pet friendly assisted living facilities in FOLSOM, California. Call (877) 311-8349. These senior living facilities in FOLSOM allow various pets, such as dogs, cats and others. Costs and pet policies vary in each of the 23 facilities. Brookdale Folsom provides pet friendly assisted living care in Folsom, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 130 pet owners at a time. With a location at 780 Harrington Way, in the 95630 area code inside Sacramento county, Brookdale Folsom provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Brookdale Folsom includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility accepts both Medicaid and Medicare. American River Home Care Iii offers pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. American River Home Care Iii recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. American River Home Care Iii can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Folsom, CA and surrounding areas. American River Home Care Iii is located at 249 Cimmaron Circle, 95630 and provides care to older adults who need memory care. When looking for an assisted living facility in Folsom, California that allows pets, consider American River Home Care. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living apartments and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347002403. American River Home Care provides senior living not only to Folsom older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a cat or a dog and also need help with daily living, Sunny Hill Home Care Ii can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Folsom, California. Sunny Hill Home Care Ii has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Elderly pet owners can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Sunny Hill Home Care Ii. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Sunny Hill Home Care Ii. Elim Oaks can accommodate 6 seniors who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 124 Raeanne Lane, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Folsom, CA older cat owners. Elim Oaks has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 255 Cimmaron Circle, inside 95630 zip code area in Sacramento county, American River Home Care Ii provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Folsom, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. American River Home Care Ii can house up to 6 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Folsom residents. Located at 1801 East Natoma Street, Folsom, California, 95630, Empire Ranch Alzheimer's Special Care Center can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Empire Ranch Alzheimer's Special Care Center can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 66 Folsom residents at once. Empire Ranch Alzheimer's Special Care Center recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347004552. Seniors looking for senior living communities in Folsom, California that accept pets will find Bu-won Care Home, located at 1035 Elsworth Way inside 95630 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Bu-won Care Home is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Bu-won Care Home is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347002811 license number for Bu-won Care Home. Located at 148 Stoney Hill Drive in Sacramento county, Folsom Care enables pet owners in Folsom, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Folsom Care is possible for up to 5 Folsom older adults. Folsom Care has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347003207. Older people with pets who require assisted living in Folsom, California can take advantage of Folsom Comfort Care, situated at 336 Sprig Circle. Folsom Comfort Care provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Folsom Comfort Care is capable of caring for up to 6 senior citizen pet owners from 95630 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Folsom Comfort Care has an active license to offer assisted living in Folsom, California License number: 347003468. Folsom Senior Retreat provides pet friendly assisted living care in Folsom, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 9814 Blue Lake Dr. , in the 95630 area code inside Sacramento county, Folsom Senior Retreat provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Folsom Senior Retreat includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility accepts both Medicaid and Medicare. Woodview Care Home specializes in providing pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Woodview Care Home recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Woodview Care Home can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Folsom, CA and surrounding areas. Woodview Care Home is located at 120 Woodview Drive, 95630 and provides care to seniors with Alzheimer's disease. When looking for an assisted living facility in Folsom, California that allows pets, consider Goldin Care 1. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living apartments and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347001254. Goldin Care 1 provides senior living not only to Folsom older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a cat or a dog and also need help with daily living, Love And Divine Home Care can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Folsom, California. Love And Divine Home Care has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Senior citizens with pets can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Love And Divine Home Care. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Love And Divine Home Care. Pine Grove Residential Home Care For The Elderly can accommodate 6 baby boomers who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 7213 Pine Grove Way, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Folsom, CA older dog owners. Pine Grove Residential Home Care For The Elderly has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 328 Crow Canyon Dr, inside 95630 zip code area in Sacramento county, A. r. c. Manor Of Folsom provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Folsom, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. A. r. c. Manor Of Folsom can house up to 6 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Folsom residents. Located at 1574 Creekside Drive, Folsom, California, 95630, Oakmont Of Folsom can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Oakmont Of Folsom can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 88 Folsom residents at once. Oakmont Of Folsom recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347005427. Senior citizens looking for senior living communities in Folsom, California that accept pets will find Compassionate Senior Care, located at 993 Glennfinnian Way inside 95630 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Compassionate Senior Care is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Compassionate Senior Care is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347003984 license number for Compassionate Senior Care. Located at 216 Willow Creek Dr in Sacramento county, Willow Creek Manor enables pet owners in Folsom, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Willow Creek Manor is possible for up to 6 Folsom older adults. Willow Creek Manor has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347004061. Older people with pets who require assisted living in Folsom, California can take advantage of Willow Creek Home Care, situated at 809 Willow Creek Drive. Willow Creek Home Care provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Willow Creek Home Care is capable of caring for up to 6 senior citizen pet owners from 95630 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Willow Creek Home Care has an active license to offer assisted living in Folsom, California License number: 347000909. Arcely J. Pua Home Care provides pet friendly assisted living care in Folsom, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 914 Densmore Way, in the 95630 area code inside Sacramento county, Arcely J. Pua Home Care provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Arcely J. Pua Home Care includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility accepts Medicare and Medicaid. Compassionate Senior Care Ii offers pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Compassionate Senior Care Ii recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Compassionate Senior Care Ii can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Folsom, CA and surrounding areas. Compassionate Senior Care Ii is located at 801 Morton Way, 95630 and helps Alzheimer's patients. When looking for an assisted living facility in Folsom, California that allows pets, consider Adina Home Care. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living units and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347002721. Adina Home Care provides senior living not only to Folsom older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a pet and also need help with daily living, Best Life Home Care can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Citrus Heights, California. Best Life Home Care has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Senior cat owners can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Best Life Home Care. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Best Life Home Care. E & E can accommodate 6 seniors who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 8045 Mesa Oak Way, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Citrus Heights, CA older dog owners. E & E has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 8644 Banff Vista Drive, inside 95624 zip code area in Sacramento county, Palm Valley Care Home Vi provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Elk Grove, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. Palm Valley Care Home Vi can house up to 6 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Elk Grove residents. Located at 7315 Sunset Avenue, Fair Oaks, California, 95628, Better Living Rcfe can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Better Living Rcfe can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 6 Fair Oaks residents at once. Better Living Rcfe recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347003907. Senior citizens looking for senior living communities in Elk Grove, California that accept pets will find Faundo's Guest Home, located at 10125 Lavelli Way inside 95757 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Faundo's Guest Home is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Faundo's Guest Home is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347003974 license number for Faundo's Guest Home. Located at 14 Ararat Ct in Sacramento county, Haven Court Manor enables pet owners in Sacramento, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Haven Court Manor is possible for up to 6 Sacramento older adults. Haven Court Manor has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347005679. Older people with pets who require assisted living in Sacramento, California can take advantage of Greenhaven Estates, situated at 7548 Greenhaven Drive. Greenhaven Estates provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Greenhaven Estates is capable of caring for up to 105 senior citizen pet owners from 95831 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Greenhaven Estates has an active license to offer assisted living in Sacramento, California License number: 347005239. Serenity Care Home provides pet friendly assisted living care in Antelope, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 7953 Ivy Hill Way, in the 95843 area code inside Sacramento county, Serenity Care Home provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Serenity Care Home includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility accepts Medicare and Medicaid. Century Care Home specializes in providing pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Century Care Home recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Century Care Home can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Fair Oaks, CA and surrounding areas. Century Care Home is located at 5725 Century Way, 95628 and helps Alzheimer's patients. When looking for an assisted living facility in Fair Oaks, California that allows pets, consider La Field Home Care. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living apartments and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347003137. La Field Home Care provides senior living not only to Fair Oaks older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a cat or a dog and also need help with daily living, Care A Lot can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Citrus Heights, California. Care A Lot has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Seniors who own pets can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Care A Lot. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Care A Lot. Young At Heart Rcfe No. 4 can accommodate 6 retirees who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 9012 Colombard Way, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Sacramento, CA older pet owners. Young At Heart Rcfe No. 4 has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 2100 Butano Drive, inside 95825 zip code area in Sacramento county, Country Club Manor provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Sacramento, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. Country Club Manor can house up to 112 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Sacramento residents. Located at 9559 Lazy Saddle Way, Elk Grove, California, 95624, Jones Care can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Jones Care can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 6 Elk Grove residents at once. Jones Care recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347003287. Seniors looking for senior living communities in Carmichael, California that accept pets will find Elderly Inn I, located at 5206 Robertson Avenue inside 95608 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Elderly Inn I is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Elderly Inn I is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347001289 license number for Elderly Inn I. Located at 8830 Jerida Lane in Sacramento county, Jerida Lane Residential Care enables pet owners in Fair Oaks, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Jerida Lane Residential Care is possible for up to 6 Fair Oaks older adults. Jerida Lane Residential Care has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347003312. Seniors with dogs who require assisted living in Sacramento, California can take advantage of Chateau At River's Edge, situated at 641 Feature Drive. Chateau At River's Edge provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Chateau At River's Edge is capable of caring for up to 143 senior citizen pet owners from 95825 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Chateau At River's Edge has an active license to offer assisted living in Sacramento, California License number: 342700039. Golden Years Care Home I provides pet friendly assisted living care in Elk Grove, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 8516 Foxberry Court, in the 95624 area code inside Sacramento county, Golden Years Care Home I provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Golden Years Care Home I includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility allows Medicare and Medicaid. Elderly Inn Iii offers pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Elderly Inn Iii recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Elderly Inn Iii can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Citrus Heights, CA and surrounding areas. Elderly Inn Iii is located at 8361 Canyon Oak Drive, 95610 and provides care to seniors with dementia. When looking for an assisted living facility in Elk Grove, California that allows pets, consider Diamond Oak Guest Home Ii. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 5 assisted living units and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347003503. Diamond Oak Guest Home Ii provides senior living not only to Elk Grove older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a pet and also need help with daily living, Tina's Home Care can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in North Highlands, California. Tina's Home Care has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Elderly pet owners can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Tina's Home Care. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Tina's Home Care. Sunshine Homecare can accommodate 6 senior citizens who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 6905 Le Havre Way, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Citrus Heights, CA older cat owners. Sunshine Homecare has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 10598 Lambrusca Drive, inside 95670 zip code area in Sacramento county, Gentle Hands Care Home provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Rancho Cordova, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. Gentle Hands Care Home can house up to 3 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Rancho Cordova residents. Located at 7595 Linden Avenue, Citrus Heights, California, 95610, Country Oaks Manor can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Country Oaks Manor can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 6 Citrus Heights residents at once. Country Oaks Manor recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347002045. Seniors looking for senior living communities in Elk Grove, California that accept pets will find Camelot Care Home # 2, located at 9237 Crosscourt Way inside 95624 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Camelot Care Home # 2 is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Camelot Care Home # 2 is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347001383 license number for Camelot Care Home # 2. Located at 7622 Country Park Drive in Sacramento county, Golden Valley Home Care For Elderly enables pet owners in Sacramento, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Golden Valley Home Care For Elderly is possible for up to 6 Sacramento older adults. Golden Valley Home Care For Elderly has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347001886. Seniors with cats who require assisted living in Elk Grove, California can take advantage of Care Group At Heathman Way, situated at 9473 Heathman Way. Care Group At Heathman Way provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Care Group At Heathman Way is capable of caring for up to 6 senior citizen pet owners from 95624 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Care Group At Heathman Way has an active license to offer assisted living in Elk Grove, California License number: 347005521. Comforts Of Home Riverside provides pet friendly assisted living care in Sacramento, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 6765 Riverside Blvd, in the 95831 area code inside Sacramento county, Comforts Of Home Riverside provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Comforts Of Home Riverside includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility allows both Medicaid and Medicare. A Garden Of Paradise Care Home specializes in providing pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. A Garden Of Paradise Care Home recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. A Garden Of Paradise Care Home can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Citrus Heights, CA and surrounding areas. A Garden Of Paradise Care Home is located at 7789 Spencer Lane, 95610 and provides care to seniors with Alzheimer's disease. When looking for an assisted living facility in Citrus Heights, California that allows pets, consider Tina's Elderly Care. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living apartments and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347004320. Tina's Elderly Care provides senior living not only to Citrus Heights older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a pet and also need help with daily living, Brookdale Greenhaven can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Sacramento, California. Brookdale Greenhaven has a maximum capacity of 48 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Elderly pet owners can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Brookdale Greenhaven. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Brookdale Greenhaven. Miralex Elderly Care Home can accommodate 4 seniors who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 8376 Dandelion Drive, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Elk Grove, CA older dog owners. Miralex Elderly Care Home has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 3339 Glenmoor Drive, inside 95827 zip code area in Sacramento county, Golden Dove Rcfe provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Sacramento, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. Golden Dove Rcfe can house up to 6 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Sacramento residents. Located at 7030 Spicer Drive, Fair Oaks, California, 95628, Compassionate Care Home can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Compassionate Care Home can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 6 Fair Oaks residents at once. Compassionate Care Home recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347000691. Senior citizens looking for senior living communities in Orangevale, California that accept pets will find I Love You Mom, located at 6809 Mellodora Drive inside 95662 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. I Love You Mom is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. I Love You Mom is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347005735 license number for I Love You Mom. Located at 2651 Armstrong Dr. in Sacramento county, Golden Moments Care Home enables pet owners in Sacramento, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Golden Moments Care Home is possible for up to 6 Sacramento older adults. Golden Moments Care Home has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347004362. Seniors with cats who require assisted living in Sacramento, California can take advantage of G. m. Rojo Guest Home, situated at 5637 White Fir Way. G. m. Rojo Guest Home provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. G. m. Rojo Guest Home is capable of caring for up to 6 senior citizen pet owners from 95841 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. G. m. Rojo Guest Home has an active license to offer assisted living in Sacramento, California License number: 340317187. St. Christopher Manor Ii provides pet friendly assisted living care in Sacramento, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 3 pet owners at a time. With a location at 5110 Whittier Avenue, in the 95820 area code inside Sacramento county, St. Christopher Manor Ii provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. St. Christopher Manor Ii includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility allows both Medicaid and Medicare. Alexander's Residence For Seniors specializes in providing pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Alexander's Residence For Seniors recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Alexander's Residence For Seniors can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Elk Grove, CA and surrounding areas. Alexander's Residence For Seniors is located at 6813 Elvora Way, 95757 and supports older adults who need memory care. When looking for an assisted living facility in Citrus Heights, California that allows pets, consider Sunrise Senior Care. This pet friendly assisted living facility is an excellent luxurious senior care option. It has a total of 6 assisted living units and includes services such as pet care, walking trails and staff available 24/7. Its license number is 347005061. Sunrise Senior Care provides senior living not only to Citrus Heights older adults, but also to all Sacramento county pet owners as well. If you have a pet and also need help with daily living, Elite Home Care can help you or your loved one to find the assistance and personal care you need in Rancho Cordova, California. Elite Home Care has a maximum capacity of 6 older adults who want to live with their pets and includes amenities such as on-site café, transportation services and apartment cleaning. Seniors with dogs can enjoy the companionship of their pet at Elite Home Care. There are pet related rules that senior pet owners are expected to follow when staying at Elite Home Care. Only Love Elderly Care Home can accommodate 6 retirees who have a pet and offers services such as monthly doctor visits, regular health checkups and an on-site nurse. This pet-friendly personal care facility is located at 4901 Melvin Drive, and it is fully equipped to provide assisted living to Carmichael, CA older cat owners. Only Love Elderly Care Home has certain pet related rules and restrictions in place. Situated at 8135 Robert Creek Ct, inside 95610 zip code area in Sacramento county, Robert Creek Villa Iii provides pet friendly assisted senior living to Citrus Heights, CA cat and dog owners and includes services such as group outings, scheduled picnics with residents and families and numerous entertainment options. Robert Creek Villa Iii can house up to 6 older adult pet owners at a time and provides multiple pet amenities and services to Citrus Heights residents. Located at 3620 Winona Way, North Highlands, California, 95660, Green Field Haven can help any Sacramento county pet owner who requires senior living assistance and includes services such as Internet, help with laundry, communal kitchen and more. Green Field Haven can provide pet friendly assisted living to no more than 6 North Highlands residents at once. Green Field Haven recognizes the positive effect of pets on lives of senior citizens and welcomes pets. Certain pet related rules and restrictions apply. It is licensed by California with license number 347003494. Seniors looking for senior living communities in Carmichael, California that accept pets will find Bright Future Ii, located at 6821 Lincoln Avenue inside 95608 zip code as a wonderful choice for all of their personal and pet care needs. Bright Future Ii is pet friendly, so Sacramento county seniors can continue to enjoy the companionship of their pets while getting all the senior care services they need, such as round-the-clock caregiving, help with moving around and more. Bright Future Ii is able to care for up to 6 older adults and allows seniors to stay with cats or dogs under certain pet-related rules. California records indicate 347004513 license number for Bright Future Ii. Located at 7241 Canelo Hills Drive in Sacramento county, Sun Oak Assisted Living enables pet owners in Citrus Heights, CA as well as those who live in surrounding areas to receive assisted living care. This pet friendly senior living facility includes amenities such as medication set-up and reminders, a wellness center and emergency pendants. Living with a pet at Sun Oak Assisted Living is possible for up to 78 Citrus Heights older adults. Sun Oak Assisted Living has an official license to provide senior living accommodations for Sacramento, CA seniors who are dog and cat owners, with license # 347004948. Seniors with dogs who require assisted living in Sacramento, California can take advantage of Ashford Home, situated at 1205 Grand River Drive. Ashford Home provides amenities such as on-site hair salons and grooming, daily fitness activities and gourmet dining. Seniors with cats, dogs and other pets are welcome at this facility. Certain pet related rules mentioned in the pet policy apply. Ashford Home is capable of caring for up to 6 senior citizen pet owners from 95831 zip code in Sacramento county and nearby areas. Ashford Home has an active license to offer assisted living in Sacramento, California License number: 347005699. Oak Garden Senior Residence provides pet friendly assisted living care in Carmichael, California. The senior living facility can provide accommodation to a maximum of 6 pet owners at a time. With a location at 6707 Sun Down Court, in the 95608 area code inside Sacramento county, Oak Garden Senior Residence provides assistance and support not only to older adults, but to their pets as well. Oak Garden Senior Residence includes assisted living services such as help with taking a bath, getting dressed and individual care plans. This senior care facility accepts both Medicaid and Medicare. Dana's Home Care specializes in providing pet friendly assisted living in Sacramento county, California. Up to 6 seniors can take advantage of its services and choose from multiple assisted apartment layouts. Dana's Home Care recognizes the importance of pets in seniors’ lives. Although cats, dogs and other pets are welcome, there are some pet related rules and restrictions. Dana's Home Care can provide aid with bathing, dressing and incontinence care to any pet owner senior citizen in Carmichael, CA and surrounding areas. Dana's Home Care is located at 4021 Fairwood Way, 95608 and supports Alzheimer's patients. 23 Pet Friendly Assisted Living Facilities in FOLSOM, CA. List of 23 best pet friendly senior living options in FOLSOM for 2019 that allow dogs, cats and other pets.

2019-04-21T06:43:34Z

https://www.petfriendlyseniorliving.com/assisted-living/california/folsom.html

Altered proteome profiles have been reported in both postmortem brain tissues and body fluids of subjects with Alzheimer disease (AD), but their broad relationships with AD pathology, amyloid pathology, and tau-related neurodegeneration have not yet been fully explored. Using a robust automated MS-based proteomic biomarker discovery workflow, we measured cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteomes to explore their association with well-established markers of core AD pathology. Cross-sectional analysis was performed on CSF collected from 120 older community-dwelling adults with normal (n = 48) or impaired cognition (n = 72). LC-MS quantified hundreds of proteins in the CSF. CSF concentrations of β-amyloid 1–42 (Aβ1–42), tau, and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (P-tau181) were determined with immunoassays. First, we explored proteins relevant to biomarker-defined AD. Then, correlation analysis of CSF proteins with CSF markers of amyloid pathology, neuronal injury, and tau hyperphosphorylation (i.e., Aβ1–42, tau, P-tau181) was performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. We quantified 790 proteins in CSF samples with MS. Four CSF proteins showed an association with CSF Aβ1–42 levels (p value ≤ 0.05 with correlation coefficient (R) ≥ 0.38). We identified 50 additional CSF proteins associated with CSF tau and 46 proteins associated with CSF P-tau181 (p value ≤ 0.05 with R ≥ 0.37). The majority of those proteins that showed such associations were brain-enriched proteins. Gene Ontology annotation revealed an enrichment for synaptic proteins and proteins originating from reelin-producing cells and the myelin sheath. We used an MS-based proteomic workflow to profile the CSF proteome in relation to cerebral AD pathology. We report strong evidence of previously reported CSF proteins and several novel CSF proteins specifically associated with amyloid pathology or neuronal injury and tau hyperphosphorylation. Proteome alterations have been identified in a multitude of pathologies, such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and brain diseases . Several circulating protein markers of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer disease (AD), have been reported , but the ones with consistent findings or of current clinical utility are very few . AD is the most common form of dementia, and there is still an urgent need for the definition of early detection markers as well as for a better understanding of its pathogenesis. In the latter perspective, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) represents a key biofluid to decipher altered protein levels and pathways in diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) using large-scale proteomic technologies, such as MS-based platforms. Because of the proximity of CSF to the brain and the presence of proteins in CSF specific to the brain [4, 5], the CSF proteome can reflect the biochemical and metabolic changes in the CNS. In particular, despite the definitive confirmation of the diagnosis of AD being possible today only at brain autopsy, specific CSF peptides and proteins (i.e., β-amyloid 1–42 [Aβ1–42], total tau, and hyperphosphorylated tau [P-tau]) linked to the main hallmarks of AD pathology, such as amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, can complement clinical examination for the diagnosis of AD [6, 7]. There is now strong evidence that suggests the development of AD pathology begins years to decades prior to the onset of the first clinical signs. Thus, on one hand, elderly persons with normal cognition may already have cerebral AD pathology and be at the preclinical stage of the disease ; on the other hand, subjects with cognitive deficits may present with cognitive impairment suggesting AD but not primarily or only partially related to AD pathology. New research criteria consider AD as a biological continuum across the clinical spectrum from asymptomatic stage to advanced dementia and emphasize the utility of biomarkers of AD pathology for an accurate diagnosis, in particular at the preclinical and prodromal disease stages [8–10]. In this respect, endophenotype approaches have been proposed as innovative ways to better address AD stages using proxy measures such as the concentrations of the aforementioned CSF markers of core AD pathology . Several studies have characterized the CSF proteome with MS but mainly using sample pools and/or a limited number of samples [12–14]. Because of technical constraints such as limited sample throughput , studies in larger clinical cohorts using MS-based proteomics are indeed limited [16–21]. In recent years, our group and other groups [23, 24] have demonstrated that MS-based proteomics enables protein biomarker discovery in large numbers of human clinical samples, providing increased statistical power and result robustness [21, 22, 25]. Although most of these studies were performed with plasma or serum samples , the analysis of the CSF proteome and its alteration using MS-based proteomics in larger cohorts has been mostly unexplored. Our aim in this study was to investigate the CSF proteome in relation to the core elements of CSF-defined AD pathology in older adults (n = 120) with normal and impaired cognition using MS-based shotgun proteomics (Fig. 1). We evaluated whether the CSF proteome could relate to AD pathology, defined as the combined presence of both amyloid pathology and tau pathology. We then explored more deeply the relationships of the quantified proteins in CSF with well-established biomarkers of amyloid pathology, neuronal injury, and tau hyperphosphorylation (i.e., Aβ1–42, tau, and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 [P-tau181], respectively). One hundred twenty community-dwelling participants were included in this study, of whom 48 were cognitively healthy volunteers and 72 had mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 63) or mild dementia of AD type (n = 9) . Diagnosis of MCI or dementia was based on neuropsychological and clinical evaluation and made by a consensus conference of psychiatrists and/or neurologists as well as neuropsychologists prior to inclusion in the study. The participants with cognitive impairment were recruited from among outpatients who were referred to the Memory Clinics, Departments of Psychiatry, and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospitals of Lausanne, Switzerland. They had no major psychiatric disorders or substance abuse or severe or unstable physical illness that might contribute to cognitive impairment, had a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score > 0, and met the clinical diagnostic criteria for MCI or AD mild dementia according to the recommendations of the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association . In the current study, nine subjects met criteria for probable AD dementia. Because there is a clinical continuum between MCI and mild dementia, and because the participants with cognitive impairment were patients from memory clinics recruited in the same way regardless of MCI or mild dementia classification, these subjects were grouped and labeled as cognitively impaired with CDR > 0 (Table 1). The control subjects were recruited through journal announcements or word of mouth and had no history, symptoms, or signs of relevant psychiatric or neurologic disease and no cognitive impairment (CDR = 0). All participants underwent a comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological evaluation, structural brain imaging, and venous and lumbar punctures . Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomographic scans were used to exclude cerebral pathologies possibly interfering with cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests were used to assess cognitive performance in the domains of memory , language, and visuoconstructive functions. The Mini Mental State Examination was used to assess participants’ global cognitive performance. Depression and anxiety were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale . The psychosocial and functional assessments included activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire, and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly , and these were completed by family members of the participants. All tests and scales are validated and widely used in the field. Lumbar punctures were performed between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. after overnight fasting. A standardized technique with a 22-gauge “atraumatic” spinal needle and a sitting or lying position was applied . A volume of 10–12 ml of CSF was collected in polypropylene tubes. Routine cell count and protein quantification were performed. The remaining CSF was frozen in aliquots (500 μl) no later than 1 hour after collection and stored at − 80 °C without thawing until experiment and assay. CSF samples were prepared using a highly automated shotgun proteomic workflow as previously described and isobaric tags for relative quantification of proteins. Reversed-phase LC-MS/MS was performed with a hybrid linear ion trap-Orbitrap Elite and an UltiMate 3000 RSLCnano System (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) as recently described . Protein identification was performed against the human UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot database (08/12/2014 release). All details are provided in Additional file 1: Supplementary Methods. The measurements were performed using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits and TaqMan assays as described in Additional file 1: Supplementary Methods. A pathological AD CSF biomarker profile was defined as CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio > 0.0779 (i.e., “high” ratio for positive CSF profile of AD pathology), based on clinical study site data and in line with previous work (i.e., 0.08) . The cutoff optimized the Youden index of the ROC curve for the prediction of CDR categories (CDR = 0 versus CDR > 0) as previously reported , where the cutoff for CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio was further confirmed to be a highly significant predictor of cognitive decline. Six CSF samples were removed because of aberrant values, leaving CSF proteomic data available for 114 subjects (exclusion of those 6 subjects did not induce bias on the overall population characteristics) (see Additional file 1: Table S1)). In total, 790 CSF proteins were quantified. For exploration of CSF proteins relevant to AD pathology (see below), proteins with > 5% missingness were excluded, leaving 541 CSF proteins. The remaining missing data (5% or less per protein) were imputed by randomly drawing a value between the observed range of biomarker values. Log2 of the protein ratio fold changes were scaled to mean zero and SD of 1 prior to statistical analyses. Calculation and statistics were performed with the R version 3.3.2 statistical software (http://www.r-project.org/). where positive CSF profile of AD is defined by categorizing the CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio into two groups: P-tau181/Aβ1–42 > 0.0779 for AD CSF biomarker profile (or “high”) and P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ≤ 0.0779 for non-AD CSF biomarker profile (or “low”). p Values were corrected for multiple testing using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. Box plots were produced for the significant hits presenting false discovery rate (FDR) ≤ 5%. A tenfold cross-validation process was performed for each LASSO analysis using the glmnet package , which allows estimating the confidence interval of the misclassification error for each value of the regularization parameter λ. The LASSO analyses were repeated 100 times (1000 times for the reference models). The model that minimized the upper limit of the cross-validated misclassification error confidence interval across the 100 runs with less than 20 features (when possible) was selected. The results were formally tested for significance against the reference model using accuracy with a McNemar test. The group differences for the CSF proteins selected in the best models were graphically illustrated in box plots and assessed using t test statistics. In addition, Kruskal-Wallis test statistics produced comparable results (see Additional file 1: Tables S2 and S3). Because the tests were applied only to the proteins selected with LASSO, p values obtained from these analyses were not corrected for multiple testing. Correlation analysis was performed on protein fold changes of all 790 quantified proteins using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. In addition, Spearman’s correlation analyses produced comparable results (see Additional file 1: Tables S4–S6). Several bioinformatics tools and resources were used for analysis and protein annotation (i.e., Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery [DAVID] 6.8 , UniProt tissue annotation database , Gene Ontology database , Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes [KEGG] database , tissue atlas , and Venny [http://bioinfogp.cnb.csic.es/tools/venny/]). Demographics and clinical characteristics of the patient cohort are detailed in Table 1. The cognitively impaired subjects (CDR > 0) were older and less educated and had a higher prevalence of APOE ε4 genotype than the cognitively intact group (CDR = 0). In cognitive impairment, CSF Aβ1–42 was lower, whereas CSF tau, CSF P-tau181, and CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 were all higher. MS-based proteomic analyses were performed in the CSF of the 120 individuals (Fig. 1). In total, we measured 790 proteins in CSF. Of those, 541 proteins presented < 5% missing values in 114 subjects (see the Methods section above). The following classification analyses of the CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratios were aimed at separating 39 patients with high-expression AD CSF biomarker profiles (i.e., P-tau181/Aβ1–42 > 0.0779) from 75 low-expression profile subjects in the complete analysis set, regardless of the clinical diagnosis. Then, the analyses were performed on the subset of cognitively impaired patients, where 38 and 28 subjects had high and low expression of AD CSF biomarker profiles, respectively. First, we explored whether the CSF proteome presents specific alterations in AD, endophenotypically defined a priori as a CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio > 0.0779 (see the Methods section above). In the whole sample, group comparisons (i.e., “high” when P-tau181/Aβ1–42 > 0.0779 and “low” when P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ≤ 0.0779) revealed 22 CSF proteins with significant differences between AD versus non-AD CSF biomarker profiles after correction for multiple testing using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure at FDR ≤ 5% (Fig. 2a and Additional file 1: Table S7). Similarly, in the subset of cognitively impaired subjects (see the Methods section above), group comparisons provided ten CSF proteins with significant differences (Fig. 2b and Additional file 1: Table S8). All of these 10 proteins were already present among the 22 proteins (Fig. 2) previously identified in the whole sample. As a second exploratory approach and ability assessment of the CSF proteome to identify AD, we used LASSO logistic regression to build mathematical models able to classify AD pathology, again defined a priori as a CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio > 0.0779 (see the Methods section above). In the whole sample, the benchmark reference model for classification of CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42 included age and presence of the APOE ε4 allele. Its prediction accuracy was 78.3% (as compared with the accuracy of a majority class prediction of 65.8%). CSF protein biomarkers were indeed able to improve the classification of AD CSF biomarker profile with respect to the reference model. The best model accuracy was 100% (McNemar p value 3.35 × 10− 7). It included 26 CSF proteins (from the 541 provided as input) in addition of age and presence of the APOE ε4 allele. Only seven selected CSF proteins displayed significant group comparison differences, i.e., 14-3-3 protein ζ/δ (1433Z) (p = 1.69 × 10− 3), SPARC-related modular calcium-binding protein 1 (SMOC1) (p = 5.26 × 10− 5), KICSTOR complex protein SZT2 (SZT2) (p = 5.47 × 10− 4), fatty acid-binding protein, heart (FABPH) (p = 8.70 × 10− 4), chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CH3L1) (p = 1.23 × 10− 3), neuromodulin (NEUM) (p = 3.40 × 10− 3), and keratin, type I cytoskeletal 10 (p = 0.025) (Additional file 1: Figure S1a). Many of these CSF proteins were correlated with each other (Additional file 1: Figure S2). Six of the seven proteins (i.e., 1433Z, SMOC1, SZT2, FABPH, CH3L1, and NEUM) were reported in the exploratory group comparisons (Fig. 2a). In the subset of cognitively impaired subjects (see the Methods section above), the benchmark reference model to classify AD CSF biomarker profile included age, gender, years of education, and presence of APOE ε4 allele, with a prediction accuracy of 77.8% (majority class prediction of 57.6%). In cognitive impairment, inclusion of CSF protein biomarkers again improved significantly the prediction accuracy to 100% (McNemar p value of 0.0003). In total, 18 CSF proteins (from the 541 provided as input) were included in this best model in addition to gender and presence of the APOE ε4 allele. Among those proteins, four displayed significant differences between the groups: 1433Z (p = 4.04 × 10− 5), SMOC1 (p = 5.49 × 10− 5), γ-synuclein (p = 1.19× 10− 3), and macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (p = 0.013) (Additional file 1: Figure S1b). Again, several correlations were observed between the CSF proteins retained in the model (Additional file 1: Figure S3), suggesting that models with fewer variables may still provide high classification performance. Two of the four proteins (i.e., 1433Z and SMOC1) were reported in the exploratory group comparisons (Fig. 2b). The perfect performance to classify the participants with AD pathology indicated that the reported models were very possibly overfitting the data. Next, we separately and more specifically studied the associations of all 790 quantified CSF proteins (no minimal missing value criteria applied) with CSF markers of core AD pathology (i.e., Aβ1–42, tau, and P-tau181). Four proteins—cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1, correlation coefficient [R] = 0.3929), neuroendocrine convertase 2 (NEC2, R = 0.3818), neuronal pentraxin-2 (NPTX2, R = 0.3868), and somatostatin (SMS, R = 0.4188)—showed an association with CSF Aβ1–42, which was significant (p value ≤0.05) after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (Fig. 3a). We found 50 CSF proteins correlated with CSF tau (Fig. 3b) and 46 associated with CSF P-tau181 (Fig. 3c) in a significant manner after Bonferroni correction, of which 41 were in common (Fig. 3d). The five strongest correlations with CSF tau were CSF neurogranin (NEUG), sodium/potassium-transporting ATPase subunit α-2 (AT1A2), brain acid soluble protein 1 (BASP1), 1433Z, and NEUM. The five strongest correlations with CSF P-tau181 were CSF AT1A2, disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 10 (ADA10), NG,NG-dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1 (DDAH1), NEUG, and SMOC1. In particular, CSF NEUG and NEUM , two synaptic proteins, were positively correlated with CSF tau (R = 0.6721 and 0.5287, respectively) and P-tau181 (R = 0.5074 and 0.4741, respectively) (Additional file 1: Figure S4). All the observed associations are summarized in the chord diagram of Additional file 1: Figure S5. With the exception of ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family member 2, which negatively correlated with tau, all reported correlations were positive. Of the 59 proteins displaying correlations in those analyses (Fig. 3d), most are expressed in the brain, in particular in the fetal brain cortex and Cajal-Retzius cells (Fig. 4a). Moreover, and based on the tissue-based map of the human proteome , seven proteins (i.e., SLIT and NTRK-like protein 1, NEUM, NEUG, cell adhesion molecule 2, lymphocyte antigen 6H [LY6H], transgelin-3 [TAGL3], and protein lifeguard) are brain-enriched (i.e., having at least fivefold higher mRNA levels in the brain as compared with all other tissues) and a total of 22 proteins have elevated gene expression in the brain (i.e., in addition to the seven above, AT1A2, immunoglobulin superfamily containing leucine-rich repeat protein 2 [ISLR2], sodium/potassium-transporting ATPase subunit α-3 [AT1A3], BASP1, CH3L1, CNR1, ephrin type-B receptor 6 [EPHB6], NPTX2, paralemmin-1, NEC2, proline-rich transmembrane protein 2, SMOC1, VPS10 domain-containing receptor SorCS1, SMS, and V-set and transmembrane domain-containing protein 2A). In Fig. 4b, we identified the myelin sheath as an enriched cellular component. Of the 59 CSF proteins correlating with Aβ1–42, tau, and/or P-tau181, 9 proteins pertain to the myelin sheath: TAGL3, malate dehydrogenase, cytoplasmic (MDHC), heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein (HSP7C), AT1A2, phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1), superoxide dismutase [Cu-Zn] (SODC), AT1A3, pyruvate kinase PKM (KPYM), and L-lactate dehydrogenase B chain (LDHB). Those nine proteins were associated with tau and/or P-tau181. Pathway enrichment analysis using the KEGG database did not yield any significant results (data not shown). In the present study, we used MS-based shotgun proteomics to measure the CSF proteomes of 120 older adults and investigate broad CSF protein relationships with core AD pathology. Overall, human CSF proteome coverage was composed of 790 proteins. Four CSF proteins were associated with CSF Aβ1–42 levels, 50 proteins with CSF tau, and 46 proteins with CSF P-tau181 levels. The CSF proteins related to Aβ1–42 were different from those associated with tau or P-tau181. To explore the relevance of the CSF proteome to AD pathology, we applied an approach that was unbiased by the clinical diagnosis and defined endophenotypically the disease as the presence of “core” AD pathology (i.e., the combined presence of cerebral amyloid and tau pathology). Unbiased classification based on markers of cerebral amyloid and tau pathology and neuronal injury has been proposed for use across the clinical stages . We first used two exploratory approaches to evaluate and select CSF proteins that were able to stratify subjects according to levels of CSF P-tau181/Aβ1–42. Using LASSO logistic regression, we observed that CSF proteins could significantly increase the classification accuracy of non-AD versus AD CSF biomarker profiles as compared with models based only on clinical parameters and the presence of the APOE ε4 allele. Nonetheless, those statistical models relying on CSF proteins might be overfitted and should be interpreted with caution; class imbalance also affected their strict performance. Overall, with both exploratory analyses, we identified specific CSF proteome alterations that are related to AD pathology and may provide novel mechanistic insights. Assessing the whole sample and the subgroup of subjects with cognitive impairment, we could decipher the strong contribution of some CSF proteins, such as SMOC1 and 1433Z (Fig. 2 and Additional file 1: Figure S1). On the basis of this performance, we specifically investigated associations of CSF proteins with individual most validated biomarkers of amyloid pathology, neuronal injury, and tau hyperphosphorylation (i.e., Aβ1–42, tau, and P-tau181, respectively) to elaborate further on the involved mechanisms. Most of the correlations of CSF proteins were with CSF tau and P-tau181 (Fig. 3d), suggesting the CSF proteome alterations to be more representative of tau pathology than amyloid pathology. Four CSF proteins not related to tau and P-tau181 were associated with CSF Aβ1–42 levels, overall indicating distinct proteome alterations related to either amyloid pathology or tau-related neurodegeneration. The majority of these proteins were brain-enriched proteins, including synaptic proteins, and proteins involved in reelin-producing cells and the myelin sheath. Comparison of the proteins found with different levels in AD versus non-AD CSF biomarker profiles and in the models able to classify CSF-defined AD pathology with those associated with CSF Aβ1–42, tau, and P-tau181 in Venn diagrams (Additional file 1: Figures S6 and S7, respectively) revealed mixed overlaps. Interestingly, the 22 proteins with different levels in AD versus non-AD CSF biomarker profiles (Fig. 2a) were all associated with CSF tau; a large majority were associated with CSF P-tau181; but none were associated with CSF Aβ1–42 (Additional file 1: Figure S6). Nevertheless, beyond those 22 proteins, 37 proteins, still representing the majority of CSF proteins associated with CSF Aβ1–42, tau, and P-tau181, were not evidenced as having a relationship to AD, suggesting they might represent more general makers of amyloid pathology, neuronal injury, and tau hyperphosphorylation. The CSF proteins CNR1, NEC2, NPTX2, and SMS were associated with CSF Aβ1–42 in our study (Fig. 3a). CNR1 and the endocannabinoid system were previously identified as potential targets for treatment of neurological disorders and AD in particular [50, 51]. In line with our results, higher NPTX2, a proinflammatory protein involved in synaptic plasticity, was previously associated with higher CSF Aβ1–42 in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study . NEC2, also known as prohormone convertase 2, is essential to the processing of pro-islet amyloid polypeptide . Its role in the processing of hormones and in particular of neuropeptide precursors in the human cortex has been established, but the link with SMS deficiency in AD, for instance, was not confirmed . Relevant to our observations, neuropeptide SMS is known to be decreased in the CSF of patients with AD and to regulate Aβ1–42 via proteolytic degradation . Together, these findings indicate amyloid-related changes in the CSF proteome that may be particularly relevant for early cerebral AD pathology as well as for disease-modifying interventions targeting amyloid and starting at preclinical disease stages. We found that CSF Aβ1–42, tau, and P-tau181 were mainly associated with CSF proteins enriched in brain tissue (Fig. 4a), and this despite the important proportion (about 80%) of proteins in CSF originating from blood . In particular, some are expressed in the fetal brain cortex. We observed positive correlations between CSF tau and/or P-tau181 with 13 CSF proteins (i.e., calmodulin, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase A [ALDOA], DDAH1, HSP7C, KPYM, LDHB, MDHC, PGAM1, phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein 1 [PEBP1], stathmin, TAGL3, thioredoxin, and 1433Z) known also to be present in reelin-producing Cajal-Retzius cells. In early AD, a massive decline of the number of Cajal-Retzius cells was previously described , suggesting a link between their loss, reduction of reelin, impairment of synaptic plasticity, amyloid plaque deposition, and neurofibrillary tangle formation . Interestingly, we also revealed the involvement of nine CSF proteins (i.e., AT1A2, AT1A3, HSP7C, KPYM, LDHB, MDHC, PGAM1, SODC, and TAGL3), again positively correlating with CSF tau and/or P-tau181, being specifically part of the myelin sheath. Although amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles likely induce neuronal and synaptic loss, myelin alteration may also participate in the development of AD dementia. Myelin content changes in the white matter measured with MRI have been linked to CSF AD biomarkers (i.e., lower concentrations of Aβ1–42 and higher concentrations of tau and P-tau181), but mainly in association with amyloid pathology . Our results, including associations of AT1A2 and KPYM with both tau and P-tau181, may suggest an underestimated connection between tau-related neurodegeneration and (de)myelination. These specific alterations provide new insights into the disease pathology and deserve further exploration. Several single relationships between CSF proteins and Aβ1–42, tau, and/or P-tau181 levels in our study (Fig. 3) have previously been reported. A first example is the synaptic protein NEUG, which was previously proposed as a novel candidate CSF biomarker for AD and prodromal AD; high CSF NEUG was shown to predict future cognitive decline and to be more specific for AD than tau . In addition, CSF NEUG was reported to be increased in AD and positively correlated with CSF tau and P-tau . In line with our observations, positive associations were identified with NEUM for both tau and P-tau in CSF . BASP1, like NEUM, is a presynaptic membrane protein participating in axon guidance, neurodegeneration, and synaptic plasticity and was found to be significantly downregulated in AD versus control brain samples . Our findings of significant association of CSF BASP1 with both CSF tau and P-tau warrant further investigations. Mutations in the ADAM10 gene, which encodes the major α-secretase responsible for cleaving APP, have previously been identified in families with late-onset AD . In our study, protein ADA10, which is encoded by ADAM10, was only significantly associated with CSF P-tau181. To the best of our knowledge, such an association between those CSF proteins has not been observed before . Further and broader cross-validation of our findings can be made by comparing them with those of a recent study investigating CSF proteins associated with CSF AD biomarkers in 58 cognitively healthy men using an aptamer-based technology (i.e., SOMAscan; SomaLogic, Boulder, CO, USA) . Of the 59 CSF proteins associated with CSF biomarkers of core AD pathology that we report, 28 were also measured with the SOMAscan in that prior study; of those, 22 proteins (i.e., 78.6% overlap) were correlated with CSF Aβ1–42, tau, and/or P-tau , confirming part of our observations in an independent cohort and using a different technology. Those proteins are ALDOA, dynein light chain 2, cytoplasmic, polyubiquitin B, ISLR2, EPHB6, MDHC, SH3 domain-binding glutamic acid-rich-like protein, PEBP1, NPTX2, chromogranin A, cytochrome c, SMS, 1433Z, LDHB, SMOC1, 14–3-3 protein β/α, spondin-1, FABPH, transmembrane emp24 domain-containing protein 4, PGAM1, cytokine-like protein 1, and HSP7C. Altogether, our shotgun MS-based proteomic approach was confirmed to provide relevant findings and to be complementary to alternative proteomic technologies. In this perspective, the identification of novel and strongly significant associations of CSF proteins with CSF biomarkers of AD core pathology in our study is of specific interest. In particular, proteins AT1A2 and KPYM implicated in energy production, as well as 1433Z, DDAH1, and SMOC1, showing some of the strongest associations with tau and/or P-tau181 in addition to NEUG and NEUM, could appear relevant. Our results in a relatively large group of subjects including both participants with cognitive impairment and healthy volunteers are therefore encouraging. Sample fractionation would have allowed deeper proteome coverage but with a throughput incompatible with the analysis of 120 clinical samples in a reasonable time frame. The proteins we have identified would deserve additional research. Using an MS-based proteomic workflow, we have quantified a number of CSF proteins in 120 older adults with normal cognition and with cognitive impairment. We report strong evidence of known and new CSF proteins related to amyloid pathology, neuronal injury, and tau hyperphosphorylation. Although we confirmed several previous findings of CSF proteins related to AD pathology, our work reveals a large number of additional CSF proteome alterations involving in particular reelin-producing cells and the myelin sheath. We thank Barbara Moullet and Domilė Tautvydaitė for their assistance with and contributions to data acquisition. This study was supported by grants from the Swiss National Research Foundation (to JP) (SNF 320030_141179) and funding from the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences. LD was responsible for study conception and design, acquisition of data, supervision of data acquisition, analysis of data, interpretation of the analysis, and writing of the manuscript. ANG was responsible for acquisition of data and critical revision of the manuscript. JW was responsible for study conception and design, the statistical analysis plan, statistical analysis, drafting of the statistical analysis section, and critical revision of the manuscript. OC was responsible for statistical analysis and critical revision of the manuscript. JC was responsible for acquisition of data and critical revision of the manuscript. AO was responsible for acquisition of data and critical revision of the manuscript. HH was responsible for supervision of data acquisition and critical revision of the manuscript. MK was responsible for supervision of data acquisition and critical revision of the manuscript. EM was responsible for the statistical analysis plan and critical revision of the manuscript. IS was responsible for interpretation of the analysis and critical revision of the manuscript. GLB was responsible for study conception and design, the statistical analysis plan, critical revision of the manuscript, and overall study supervision. JP was responsible for study conception and design, interpretation of the analysis, critical revision of the manuscript, and overall study supervision. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. The institutional ethics committee of the University Hospitals of Lausanne approved the clinical protocol (no. 171/2013), and all participants or their legally authorized representatives signed written informed consent forms. LD, ANG, OC, JC, MK, EM, and IS are employees of Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences. JW is an employee and shareholder of Precision for Medicine and received consultation honoraria from Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences. AO and HH report no competing interests. GLB is an employee of Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, an unpaid scientific advisor of the H2020 EU-funded project PROPAG-AGEING whose aim is to identify new molecular signatures for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, and receives research support related to cognitive decline from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. JP received consultation honoraria from Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences.

2019-04-23T19:57:40Z

https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-018-0397-4

(1) This transmits revised IRM 8.19.13, Docketed and Department of Justice Cases. (1) Revised IRM 8.19.13.1.1 to incorporate Interim Guidance AP-08-0415-0002, Mandatory Appeals TEFRA Team (ATT) Referrals, to provide guidance on use of ATT services. IRM 8.19.13 dated October 31, 2013 is superseded. Incorporated Interim Guidance Memorandum AP-08-0415-0002, Mandatory Appeals TEFRA Team (ATT) Referrals, which was issued April 7, 2015 , into this IRM.. All guidance in this section of the IRM concerning the Campus TEFRA Functions (CTFs) is for cases controlled on the Partnership Control System (PCS). The CTFs only work with key cases and partners controlled by PCS. All references in this IRM to appeals officers (AO) applies equally to appeals team case leaders (ATCL) and any actions required by appeals team managers (ATM) are performed by appeals team case leaders as to their own cases. Appeals employees must follow the work request procedures to request ATT assistance. Use of the ATT is mandatory for agreement package, closing package, and FPAA preparation. Follow the work request procedures in IRM 8.19.1.1.1, Appeals TEFRA Team (ATT). Also see detailed procedures for using the ATT on their ATT SharePoint site. A link to the site is found on the Appeals TEFRA website. An adjustment of partnership items with respect to an Administrative Adjustment Request (AAR). Only the TMP on behalf of the partnership can file such a petition (IRC 6228). See IRM 8.19.7 for procedures to follow in AAR cases. Generally, receipt, assignment, and consideration of docketed cases will be the same as those for non-docketed cases. IRM 8.19.10. The Tax Court Rules for actions filed with the Tax Court in TEFRA cases require special notifications to the court, the TMP, and unagreed parties. Carefully coordinate the processing of settlement documents with the associate area counsel attorney, as set out in IRM 8.19.13.2.9, IRM 8.19.13.2.10, and IRM 8.19.13.2.11. Refer to IRM 8.19.10 and IRM 8.20 for procedures for the receipt of TEFRA partnership cases by APS and other Appeals employees responsible for processing duties. These procedures include instructions for ACDS processing of docketed cases and notifying the key case CTF. Procedures for mailing closing packages and closing docketed cases are contained later in IRM 8.19.13. The AO should request work from the TCS by preparing Form 3608 (Request for Tax Computation Specialist (TCS) Service). Counsel attorneys can also use a Form 3608, or they may use Form 1734, or a memorandum with an attachment detailing the settlement amounts, e.g. Counsel Settlement Memorandum or Decision Document. The request for audit work should specify whether Tax Court Rule 248(a) or 248(b) is being used. If Tax Court Rule 248(c) will apply, the AO will follow the guidelines in IRM 8.19.13.2.11. For cases settled using Tax Court Rule 248(a), the TMP signs a stipulated decision to bind all partners in the key case to a settlement. No agreement forms are prepared or mailed to any partners. All of the participating partners do not object to the granting of the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision. As agreement forms are only needed from the participating partners, because the case is docketed, and because there are time frames that must be followed under the Tax Court Rules, it is recommended that Appeals mail the agreement forms to the participating partners. Refer to the "Definitions" section below for more information on who is a participating partner. When Tax Court Rule 248(b) is being used, as Appeals will be mailing the agreement forms to the participating partners, the agreement forms and the transmittal letters will have to be prepared by Appeals. The request for audit work should specify whether the TCS should prepare them. In this situation, dialogue will be required between the ATM of both the AO and the TCS as to specifically what the TCS will prepare. The AO should identify any special circumstances on the Form 3608, including parent-subsidiary relationships. The AO is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the agreement forms and the transmittal letters. The request for audit work should clearly identify if there are any penalties or affected items. An exception is when the case is a no-change, in which case Form 4605–A and Form 886–Z are not prepared. See IRM 8.19.10.4.9 and IRM 8.19.11.13 for more information on no-change cases. If Tax Court Rule 248(b) is being used, the TCS will prepare the Schedule of Adjustments page of Form 870-PT(AD) or Form 870-LT(AD). See IRM 8.19.11.6.1, IRM 8.19.11.6.2, and IRM 8.19.11.6.3, respectively, for guidance in preparing Form 4605–A, Form 886–Z, and the Schedule of Adjustments page (if applicable for Tax Court Rule 248(b) cases). The TCS will also begin preparing the closing package to the CTF (including the Form 3210) if other documents are also being prepared. See IRM 8.19.13.2.4. If no other documents are being prepared, the AO is responsible for preparing the closing package and the Form 3210. Depending upon local procedures, the TCS will compute the revised dollar value for the key case using Exhibit 8.19.10–1. If Tax Court Rule 248(b) is being used, Appeals should be mailing the agreement forms to the participating partners. The TCS may be asked to prepare the agreement forms and the transmittal letters to the participating partners. For more information, refer to the dialogue needed under "Request for Audit Work" in IRM 8.19.13.2.2. A TEFRA closing package is a group of documents that is prepared and assembled after a TEFRA partnership case is resolved. The closing package is mailed to the key case CTF to associate with the tax returns of the partners in the TEFRA partnership in order that the tax resulting from their share of the adjustments made to the TEFRA partnership return are computed and assessed in a timely manner. If the ATT is used, the package will be electronically transmitted using the secure server. The examiner is required to link a TEFRA partnership case on PCS when the case is still in process 60 days after the case goes into status 12. If the case is not controlled on PCS, the CTF cannot be used to mail the agreement forms as the CTFs only work with cases that are controlled on PCS. The agreement forms would have to be mailed by Appeals. The TCS will begin preparing the closing package to the CTF (including the Form 3210) if other documents are also being prepared. If no other documents are being prepared, the AO is responsible for preparing the closing package and the Form 3210. If at the time that the TCS begins preparing the closing package and the Form 3210, some of the documents have not as yet been prepared by the AO (for example, the ACM or Form 5402), the AO will complete the preparation of the closing package. Form 3210 may be generated using APGolf by going to the TEFRA category and selecting "3210 - Closing Package." Once the form is saved as a WORD document, it should be edited to remove any information that does not apply and to add any additional information. The AO is responsible for reviewing the closing package and is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the documents. For cases resolved using Tax Court Rule 248(a) (by either Appeals or Counsel), refer to Exhibit 8.19.13-1 for a sample Form 3210 that lists the documents needed for the closing package. For cases resolved using Tax Court Rule 248(b) (by either Appeals or Counsel), when the AO has secured agreement forms from the participating partners, refer to Exhibit 8.19.11–11 for a sample Form 3210 that lists the documents needed for the closing package. The “Remarks” section should note that the case is docketed and include the docket number. For cases resolved using Tax Court Rule 248(b) (by either Appeals or Counsel), to reflect the entered decision that binds the partners other than the participating partners, refer to Exhibit 8.19.13-1 for a sample Form 3210 that lists the documents needed for the closing package. The ATT will use Form 14298 and electronically transmit the packages for cases that are tried in the Tax Court or are settled by Associate Area Counsel, for cases that are tried in the Tax Court and are then appealed, for cases that are tried in the Tax Court and there is a final decision by the Appellate Court or the Supreme Court, and for Department of Justice cases. An IRC 6404(g) key case comment should be included on the Form 3210 in the "Necessary Actions" section. See IRM 8.19.1.7 and IRM 8.17.6.9. For example, if the earliest notice that was issued was a 60-day letter that was dated March 15, 2006, enter "60-day letter" and "March 15, 2006." There may be more than one notice for the same return and more than one IRC 6404(g) notice date. The AO, secretary, clerk, or APS (as determined locally) will make photocopies of the documents to be included in the completed closing package. Ensuring all documents listed on the Form 3210 are attached. Sending the completed package to the CTF by controlled mail. The Tax Court adopted special rules to conclude partnership proceedings when the parties to the action have entered into a settlement agreement or consistent agreement. The importance of the rules is underscored by the fact that the Tax Court considers it likely that a substantial majority of partnership actions will be settled by the parties prior to trial. The Tax Court Rules include comprehensive procedures for settlement agreements, service of papers, duties of the TMP, definitions, and other areas relating to partnership actions. The Tax Court’s Rules of Practice and Procedure are found on their website. Tax Matters Partner: Per Tax Court Rule 240(b)(4), the person who is the tax matters partner under IRC 6231(a)(7) and who under these rules is responsible for keeping each partner fully informed of the partnership action. Party to the Action: Per Tax Court Rule 247, each person who was a partner at any time during the partnership taxable year provided that partner has an interest in the outcome of the action and whose partnership items haven’t been converted to nonpartnership items. The TMP is treated as a party to every partnership action whether or not the TMP has an interest in the proceeding. The TMP is still a party to the action even if the TMP executed a settlement agreement converting his partnership items to nonpartnership items. Participating Partners: Under Tax Court Rule 247, the partner(s) who filed the petition and other partners who filed a notice of election to intervene or a notice of election to participate. The TMP, by filing a notice of election to intervene, becomes a participating partner. Intervenor: Under Tax Court Rule 245(a), the TMP may file a notice of election to intervene within 90 days from the date that the petition filed by another partner was served on the Commissioner by the court’s clerk. This election establishes the TMP as a participating partner. Tax Court Rule 248 establishes comprehensive procedures for settlement agreements. Those procedures are affected by the mandatory service requirements of Tax Court Rule 246 and the TMP’s responsibility to keep each partner informed. The Tax Court rules are effective as of October 3, 2008. Amendments to the Tax Court rules state their effective date. Exhibit 8.19.13-2 shows documents and signatures required for the specific provisions of Tax Court Rule 248. Within 75 days of the trial date, the associate area counsel attorney or AO will withdraw any outstanding settlement offers. Therefore, only consistent settlements may be processed during the 60 days following acceptance of the last agreement form. All agreement forms received from partners must be coordinated with the associate area counsel attorney before they are signed on behalf of the IRS. The AO is responsible for keeping the attorney apprised of any settlement offers received. Under Tax Court Rule 248(c), Associate Area Counsel is responsible for notifying the Tax Court if any agreement forms are signed. Also, certain documents must be served on the TMP within 7 days of agreement forms being signed for the commissioner. See IRM 8.19.13.2.11. The procedures outlined below apply to the AO, associate area counsel attorney, or to both jointly, depending upon the circumstances of the case. The specific responsibilities for preparing certain documents such as correspondence to partners and the TMP and decision documents may vary depending upon local office policy and whether or not the ATT is used. In addition, responsibilities may vary depending upon whether Appeals or Counsel has jurisdiction. However, follow the procedures established in this text carefully due to the strict time constraints placed on the Service and the TMP for the notification requirements. When the TMP signs a stipulated decision to bind all partners in the key case to a settlement, follow Rule 248(a). The TMP may or may not be a participating partner. The TMP will sign a stipulation which will certify that no party objects to entry of the decision. This stipulation effectively binds all parties to the settlement and closes the case fully agreed. If the TMP agrees to bind all parties to the settlement, the AO will notify Associate Area Counsel that a stipulated decision must be prepared. When the stipulated decision documents are received from Associate Area Counsel, the AO will prepare a Form 5402 and submit the case (including the stipulated decision documents) to the ATM for approval before the decision is mailed to the TMP. The AO will retain the Form 3210 and the closing package as these are not being mailed to the CTF at this time. A customized Form 5402 for TEFRA cases is generated in APGolf by virtue of the TEFRA type code on ACDS. After the ATM approves the settlement, the AO will use Letter 1220 to send the stipulated decision to the TMP for signature. The TMP is required to sign the stipulation; the signature of the TMP’s counsel is not acceptable by itself, but may be added in addition to the TMP's signature. If the TMP is a corporation, an officer of the corporation must sign the stipulation. The AO will prepare Letter 1645 and leave an undated copy in the file so that it can be dated and mailed by local APS when the case is sent to Counsel for entry of the decision. When the decision is signed and returned by the TMP, the AO will close the case to local APS. APS will follow the procedures in IRM 8.20, including sending the administrative file to Counsel, if applicable, in order to have the decision entered. APS will date and mail Letter 1645 when the case is sent to Counsel for entry of the decision. After the decision is entered, Counsel will return the case to Appeals for closing along with a copy of the entered decision and any special instructions. APS will give the file (which will include a copy of the Form 3210 and closing package that was previously prepared by the TCS or AO) to the AO. See Exhibit 8.19.13-1 for a sample Form 3210. The documents needed for the closing package are listed on the Form 3210. The date the decision becomes final (90 days after the Tax Court has entered the decision unless an appeal is filed) will control for purposes of determining the one-year statute date. The AO will enter the one-year statute date on the Form 3210. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the decision became final. If the decision was entered by the Tax Court on August 31, 2009, the one-year statute date should be computed as follows: August 31, 2009 + 90 days = November 29, 2009 + 1 year = November 29, 2010 - 1 day = November 28, 2010. If Counsel sends the administrative file to Appeals before the decision has become final, the AO will not close the case to APS until the decision has become final unless instructions from the counsel attorney provide otherwise. The AO should ensure that any instructions to the key case CTF for issuing affected item reports or affected item notice of deficiency are included on the Form 3210. The AO will ensure that all documents listed on the Form 3210 are included in the closing package. The AO is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the Form 3210, including the one-year statute date. The file will then be returned to APS. APS will ensure that the documents listed on the Form 3210 are included in the closing package. APS will mail the closing package to the key case CTF within 5 workdays after receipt of the file from the AO using the Form 3210 prepared by the TCS or AO. Instructions for monitoring the return of the Form 3210 by APS may be found in IRM 8.19.13.2.4. The examiner is required to link a TEFRA partnership case on PCS. If the case is not linked on PCS, the closing package is not mailed to the key case CTF as the CTFs only work with cases that are controlled on PCS. The closing package will still have to be associated with the partners' returns and AIMS may be used to identify the location of the partners' returns. See IRM 8.19.13.2.16 for instructions for closing docketed cases. When notified that the TMP agrees to bind all parties to a settlement, the attorney will prepare a stipulated decision. The stipulation will be executed by the TMP who certifies that no party objects to the entry of decision. After the TMP signs the stipulation it will be filed with the court. As soon as Associate Area Counsel receives a copy of the entered decision, the attorney will immediately send a copy to the AO. Counsel will return the administrative file to local APS for closing along with a copy of the final decision and any special instructions. Local APS will send the administrative file to Laguna Niguel APS. Under Tax Court Rule 247, a participating partner is the partner who filed the petition and other partners who filed a notice of election to intervene or a notice of election to participate. Notification that no participating partner objects to the settlement. When the AO obtains signed agreement forms from all participating partners, consult Associate Area Counsel. The rule states that Associate Area Counsel must serve certain documents on the TMP within 3 days of filing a motion for entry of the decision. Therefore, the AO and associate area counsel attorney must carefully coordinate the agreement forms received from participating partners. Many docketed cases have only one participating partner so this rule will apply when that partner agrees. Rule 248(b) will apply when all participating partners agree with the settlement. To ensure the applicability of Rule 248(b) before filing this type of motion, generally the AO should secure a signed agreement form from each participating partner to substantiate his/her agreement. The AO will prepare Letter 1645 and leave an undated copy in the file so that it can be dated and mailed by APS when the case is sent to Counsel for entry of the decision. The AO or TCS will prepare the agreement forms and transmittal letters. For more information, refer to the dialogue needed under “Request for Audit Work” in IRM 8.19.13.2.2. Use IDRS in order to identify the current addresses of the participating partners. For partners that filed a joint return, the agreement form should include the names of both spouses and both need to sign the agreement form in order for both spouses to be considered agreed (see IRM 8.19.11.4.1 for more information on joint returns). For partners that filed a consolidated return, see IRM 8.19.11.4.2. Photocopy the Schedule of Adjustments page and attach it to each agreement form that is prepared using APGolf. Two copies of the agreement form will be mailed to each partner. Prepare a transmittal letter for each partner using APGolf. Letter 2606 is used to mail Form 870-PT(AD). Letter 2607 is used to mail Form 870-LT(AD). If Form 870-LT(AD) is used, only part 1 needs to be signed by the participating partners in order to resolve the Tax Court action. Any affected items requiring a partner level determination will then need to have an affected item notice of deficiency issued to the partner upon the conclusion of the partnership proceeding. The AO will prepare a Form 5402 and submit the case (including the partner agreement forms and transmittal letters) to the ATM for approval before the agreement forms are mailed to the participating partners. The AO will retain the closing package as it is not being mailed to the CTF at this time. After the settlement is approved by the ATM, the file (including the participating partner agreement forms and transmittal letters) will be given to APS. APS will mail the transmittal letter and two copies of the agreement form to each participating partner. Copies will be made and included in the administrative file. The administrative file will be returned to the AO. The AO will retain the administrative file and monitor the return of the agreement forms by the participating partners. If all participating partners do not agree to the settlement, the case cannot be closed using Tax Court Rule 248(b). When the agreement forms are received in the Appeals Office they will be receipt date stamped (on the reverse side) and forwarded to the AO. The receipt date stamp will generally differ from the date of execution by the Service. The date of execution by the Service starts the running of the one-year statute date under IRC 6229(f). If a partner signed and returned only one copy of the agreement form, a copy should be made after it is date stamped. The AO will collect the agreement forms and prepare them for processing. They should be submitted to the ATM for signing and mailing to the CTF. The AO will review the agreement forms to ensure that the Schedule of Adjustments page shows the proper amounts, that the appropriate signatures are included, and that the closing package is complete and correct. The AO is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the closing package, including the Form 3210. If a joint return was filed, both husband and wife should sign the agreement form, even if only one spouse had an interest in the partnership. The AO will identify the participating partners that signed agreement forms on the Form 886-Z that was previously prepared by the TCS. Write "Agreed" and the date that the partner signed the agreement in red next to the partner's name. See IRM 8.19.11.9.2 and Exhibit 8.19.11-10. For partnership tax years ending after August 5, 1997, if a penalty is agreed, write "Agreed" in the Penalty Status column next to the penalty percentage. If an affected item other than a penalty is agreed, write "Agreed" in the Affected Item Status column next to the affected item. If a penalty or affected item is unresolved, write "Open" in the applicable column next to the penalty percentage or the affected item. See IRM 8.19.11.9.2 and Exhibit 8.19.11-10. In this exhibit, partners Daisy and Lilac agreed to both the partnership items and affected items (including penalties) and signed both parts of Form 870-LT(AD); partner Rose only agreed to the partnership items and penalties and signed only Part I of Form 870–LT(AD). The Form 3210 will have to instruct the CTF to issue an affected item notice of deficiency to partner Rose for affected items other than penalties. The AO should ensure that any special instructions for the key case CTF are included on the Form 3210. After entering the information on the Form 886–Z, the AO will give the case (including the participating partner agreement forms and the closing package) to the ATM. The AO will ensure that all documents listed on the Form 3210 are included with the closing package. The ATM will sign the participating partner agreement forms within 5 workdays after receiving the case from the AO. The ATM will enter the one-year statute date on the Form 3210. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the ATM signed the agreement form. If the ATM signs the agreement forms on August 31, 2009, the one-year statute date should be computed as follows: August 31, 2009 + 1 year = August 31, 2010 - 1 day = August 30, 2010. All Appeals agreement forms must be signed on behalf of the commissioner by an authorized person per Delegation Order 4-19 (IRM 1.2.43.17). Appeals Team Case Leaders are authorized to sign agreement forms for their respective cases. After the agreement forms are signed and the one-year statute date is entered on the Form 3210, the ATM will forward the agreement forms closing package to APS. The file will be returned to the AO as the case cannot be closed until a decision is entered which becomes final. APS will ensure that the documents listed on the Form 3210 are included in the closing package. APS will mail the agreement forms closing package to the key case CTF within 5 workdays after the forms are signed for the commissioner, using the Form 3210 prepared by the TCS or AO. Instructions for monitoring the return of the Form 3210 by APS may be found in IRM 8.19.13.2.4. The closing package for the agreement forms that are signed by the participating partners must be mailed to the CTF as the one-year statute date to assess for the participating partners is governed by IRC 6229(f) and not when the final Tax Court decision is entered using Tax Court Rule 248(b). After the participating partner agreement forms have been signed by the ATM, the AO will notify Associate Area Counsel. The attorney will file a motion for entry of the decision and serve documents on the TMP, as shown in IRM 8.19.13.2.10.4. Associate Area Counsel will advise the AO if any other party objects to entry of the decision. If any objection is filed and the court grants that partner’s motion, the AO will forward the case to Associate Area Counsel for trial. If no other party objects or if the court denies the objecting party’s motion, the court will enter the decision. The AO and APS will follow the instructions shown in IRM 8.19.13.2.9.2 beginning with subsection (2), except that Letter 1220 is not used since the stipulated decision is not sent to the TMP for signature. The Form 3210 will instruct the CTF to process the partners who didn’t sign agreement forms under the final court decision. See Exhibit 8.19.13-1 for a sample Form 3210. If any partner (including a participating partner) signs an agreement form, under Tax Court Rule 248(b), the one-year statute date begins on the date a delegated official executes the agreement for the commissioner. If a partner is bound by an entered decision submitted under Rule 248(b), the one-year statute date begins on the date the decision becomes final. The attorney will prepare a decision document and file a motion for entry of the decision after being notified that all participating partners have signed agreement forms and that they have been signed on behalf of the commissioner. Within 3 days of receipt of the certificate, the TMP will serve copies of the documents in paragraph (2) above on all other parties. If any of the other parties object to the granting of the entry of the decision, that party must file a motion to participate or to intervene within 60 days after the motion was filed by the commissioner. If any partner does file such motion, and that motion is granted by the court, the attorney will advise the AO that the action will continue. If no motion is filed within the 60 days or if the court denies an objecting party’s motion, the attorney will send a copy of the entered decision to the AO. The AO will proceed with closing the case. If the case is tried or Counsel settles it, Counsel will send the file to local APS for closing along with a copy of the entered decision and any special instructions. Local APS will forward the file to Laguna Niguel APS. These Tax Court procedures are used when one or more participating partners settle but the docketed case has at least one unagreed participating partner. Rule 248(c)(1) requires the IRS to notify the court when a participating partner enters into a settlement agreement or consistent settlement before the court proceeding is completed. Rule 248(c) applies only when Rule 248(a) and Rule 248(b) are not applicable. If all participating partners have settled, Rule 248(c)(1) and Rule 248(c)(2) are not applicable. This procedure doesn’t end the partnership proceeding. Rule 248(c)(2) provides the mechanism (explained below) by which all parties to the action are informed of a settlement so that they can request consistent settlement. The request for consistent settlement must be made no later than the 60th day after the day on which the settlement was entered into. Rule 248(c)(2) does not apply when a consistent settlement is entered into. Under Tax Court Rule 247, a party to the action is each person who was a partner at any time during the partnership taxable year provided that partner has an interest in the outcome of the action and whose partnership items haven’t been converted to nonpartnership items. If any partner, including a participating partner, signs an agreement, and the agreement (other than a consistent settlement) is accepted, a statement notifying the TMP of the settlement must be served on the TMP within 7 days of acceptance. Within 7 days of receipt, the TMP must serve this statement on all parties to the action who have not settled. Rule 248(c)(2) is followed when one or more participating partners have not agreed to a settlement. However, at some point during the processing of a case, all participating partners may agree. If this occurs, follow Rule 248(b). When all participating partners agree to a settlement, Rule 248(b) will apply and the AO will follow procedures at IRM 8.19.13.2.10. However, if one or more does not agree, Rule 248(c)(2) will be followed. Notify associate area counsel attorney when some, but not all, of the participating partners have agreed to a settlement. Do not have the agreement forms signed on behalf of the commissioner immediately. Hold them until Associate Area Counsel has been consulted. Associate Area Counsel will file a notice of settlement or consistent settlement with the court stating the names of the participating partners who agreed. The participating partners’ signatures are not required on the notice filed with the court. A letter and envelope to the TMP. A statement listing the partners who have signed the agreements, including the date of the agreement and the year or years to which it relates. A copy of Rule 248. A copy of the Schedule of Adjustments page that shows the adjustments agreed to. Only send the Schedule of Adjustments page, not the entire agreement form. Revealing partner level information may violate disclosure rules. The letter and statement are mailed to the TMP by certified mail within 7 days of the day the ATM signs the agreements forms. The TMP then has 7 days to mail the statement to all parties to the action. The mailing to the TMP is critical since Rule 248(c)(2) affords all parties to the action the opportunity of entering into a consistent settlement based on a settlement agreement entered into by any partner, whether a participating partner or not. Because the case is docketed, and because there are time frames that must be followed under the Tax Court Rules, it is recommended that Appeals mail any agreement forms to the partners that wish to enter into a consistent settlement. Follow the guidelines under Tax Court Rule 248(b) in IRM 8.19.13.2.10 for securing and processing the agreement forms. For 60 days after an agreement is signed for the commissioner, parties to the action may request a consistent settlement. Under Treas. Reg. 301.6224(c)-3(c) a partner desiring consistent settlement terms will submit a written statement to the office that entered into the settlement. After the 60 days expire, an agreement could be executed if the settlement terms are still considered appropriate. However, after the 60 day period expires the partner no longer has a right to request consistent settlement, and the choice to accept an agreement after the 60 day period will depend upon the facts of the case and must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Acceptance of a request after the 60 day period may start a new 60 day period for all other partners. See IRM 8.19.10.4.8.1 for consistent settlement procedures. After the 60-day period ends, the AO will forward the case to Associate Area Counsel for appropriate action. The associate area counsel attorney will prepare and file a notice of settlement agreement or notice of consistent settlement with the court when some, but not all, participating partners sign agreement forms. All agreement forms received at the key case CTF or Appeals Office will be sent by the AO to the associate area counsel attorney before acceptance. The agreement forms should generally be batched every 30 days and submitted to Appeals for signature. The associate area counsel attorney will prepare a settlement package for cases in Counsel jurisdiction to submit to the ATM for signing of the agreement forms. In addition, the associate area counsel attorney will prepare and file with the court a notice of settlement or consistent settlement as the case may be. A statement listing the partners who signed the agreements, including the date of the agreement and the year or years to which it relates. A copy of the Schedule of Adjustments that shows the adjustments agreed to. Copies of the agreement forms will not be sent to the TMP. The associate area counsel attorney will send the completed settlement package to Appeals for review and mailing by the AO to the TMP. If agreement forms are received from all participating partners, follow Rule 248(b). The AO will prepare the administrative file for forwarding to Associate Area Counsel when a settlement cannot be reached. The AO will prepare and leave an undated copy of Letter 971 to notify the TMP that the case is being transferred for trial preparation. Local APS will date and mail the Letter 971 before sending the case to Associate Area Counsel. The AO will submit the administrative file to the ATM for forwarding to Counsel. The associate area counsel attorney may request that Appeals assist in securing and processing settlement agreements while the case is in docketed status. This may include preparation of the Form 4605-A and Form 886-Z from the TCS, update of the one-year statute date, and processing instructions to the CTFs. Since the delegation order does not give Associate Area Counsel the authority to accept settlement agreements, Appeals may be asked to execute them. For cases that are either tried or settled by Counsel, after the decision is entered Counsel will return the case to Appeals for closing along with a copy of the entered decision, the counsel settlement memorandum (if applicable) and any special instructions. The cases should be sent to Laguna Niguel APS. The Appeals TEFRA Team (ATT) will assist, if necessary, in preparing the cases for closing. Update the statute on ACDS to reflect the one-year statute date. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the decision became final. Return the case to the ATT to prepare and electronically transmit a closing package to the CTF using the secure server. Form 14298, Appeals TEFRA Electronic Notice Package Check Sheet, is the cover sheet the ATT uses to electronically transmit documents to the CTF. When the decision is final, the one-year assessment period begins. For cases dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, there may or may not be assessments needed on the partners, depending on why the case was dismissed. As such, a closing package may not be required at this time. Any questions as to what actions are needed as to the partners should be directed to the counsel attorney. If other documents are needed (for example, Form 4605-A and Form 886-Z), the ATT AO will submit a Request for Audit Work as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.2. It is not necessary to prepare a new Form 5402. The Form 5402 that was previously prepared is sufficient. The TCS will prepare the documents requested as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.3 and begin preparing the closing package as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.4. If no other documents are being prepared, the ATT AO is responsible for preparing the closing package and the Form 14298 . Tried docketed TEFRA key cases are resolved under the rules of practice of the United States Tax Court. Tax Court Rule 155 states that Rule 155 computations determine deficiency, liability or overpayment amounts. Since there is only a determination of partnership level items and no determination of deficiency, liability or overpayment in TEFRA cases, the TCS will prepare a Rule 155 type computation, which will include the Summary Page showing the adjustment to the TEFRA partnership. See Exhibit 8.19.13-4. The ATT AO will enter the one-year statute date on the Form 14298. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the decision became final (see Example in (2)a) above). If Counsel sends the administrative file to Appeals before the decision has become final, the ATT will not close the case to Laguna Niguel APS until the decision has become final unless instructions from the counsel attorney provide otherwise. The ATT AO should ensure that any instructions to the key case CTF for issuing affected item reports or affected item notice of deficiency are included on the Form 14298. The ATT AO will ensure that all required documents are included in the closing package. The ATT is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the Form 14298, including the one-year statute date. The ATT AO will electronically transmit the closing package to the CTF using the secure server. After the CTF acknowledges receipt of the package, the ATT AO will return the file to Laguna Niguel APS. If a partner or the government appeals the decision of the Tax Court, Associate Area Counsel will return the case to Appeals for interim processing. Counsel will prepare Form 9724 (memorandum from Chief Counsel) with instructions for processing the case. The cases should be sent to Laguna Niguel APS. The ATT will assist, if necessary, in preparing the cases for closing. Update ACDS with ACTION: APPEALED and TODATE. Update the remarks section of ACDS. If other documents are needed (for example, revised Form 4605-A and Form 886-Z), the ATT AO will submit a Request for Audit Work as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.2. If the Tax Court decision sustains the petitioner’s position, no assessment should be made on an appeal of that decision. However, if the appellate court reverses the Tax Court decision, and the petitioner appeals the results of the appellate court, assessments should be made on the parties to the action in accordance with the decision of the appellate court. The assessment may have to await the entry of a revised decision by the Tax Court. If a bond is posted, the Tax Court will determine the amount based on its estimate of the aggregate liability of the parties to the action (IRC 7485). Counsel, Appeals and the CTF should cooperate in a timely manner to provide the information needed by the court to determine the bond. If a bond is not posted, the Form 14298 will request that the CTF assess the partnership items in accordance with the Tax Court decision. Since the Tax Court decision is not final, the one-year assessment period has not begun. Although the one-year assessment period has not begun, the ATT AO will enter a one-year statute date on the Form 14298. In computing the one-year statute date, one year will be added to the date that the appeal was filed. If the appeal was filed on August 31, 2009, the one-year statute date should be computed as follows: August 31, 2009 +1 year = August 31, 2010. If there are affected items, the Form 14298 should provide that these should not be assessed at this time, except for penalties for partnership tax years ending after August 5, 1997. The ATT AO will ensure that all required documents are included in the closing package. The ATT AO is ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the Form 14298, including the one-year statute date. The ATT AO will electronically transmit the closing package to the CTF using the secure server. After the CTF acknowledges receipt of the package, the ATT AO will return the file to Laguna Niguel APS. Laguna Niguel APS will return the file to Associate Area Counsel unless the Form 9724 provides other instructions for where the file should be sent. The case should not be closed from either AIMS or from ACDS at this time. When an appeal from a Tax Court decision is final, the Department of Justice will return the case to Appeals through Counsel to notify the CTF to complete processing of the partnership items of the partners and to process the penalties and affected items. The cases should be sent to Laguna Niguel APS. The Appeals TEFRA Team (ATT) will assist, if necessary, in preparing the cases for closing. If other documents are needed (for example, Form 4605-A and Form 886-Z), the ATT will submit a Request for Audit Work as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.2. The TCS will prepare the documents requested as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.3 and begin preparing the closing package as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.4. If no other documents are being prepared, the ATT is responsible for preparing the closing package and the Form 14298 . The ATT AO will enter the one-year statute date on the Form 14298. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the decision became final (see Example above). If Counsel sends the administrative file to Appeals before the decision has become final, the ATT will not close the case to APS until the decision has become final unless instructions from the counsel attorney provide otherwise. The ATT should ensure that any instructions to the key case CTF for issuing affected item reports or affected item notice of deficiency are included on the Form 3210. All TEFRA key cases must be closed through Laguna Niguel APS. The AO should follow these closing procedures only if the AO did not use the ATT and TEFRA AO team member in working the case. If the AO used the ATT and TEFRA AO team member, then follow the procedures posted to the ATT sharepoint site. A link to the sharepoint site is found on the Appeals TEFRA website. Local APS ships the administrative file to Laguna Niguel APS. ACDS database for AO and AIMS remain open (not closed or transferred). The ATT performs a procedural review and will forward the administrative file to Laguna Niguel APS. RevsdTax--Enter revised tax from Form 5402 (also enter PropdTax if not previously entered); if the Form 5402 does not contain the revised tax, have the ATT compute the amount using Exhibit 8.19.10–1. The revised tax is not actually assessed against the partnership and should not be entered on Form 5403. See IRM 8.20.7 for instructions in completing Form 5403; in addition, enter "TEFRA Key Case Closing" in the Special Handling section. After the key case CTF has input the one-year statute date on PCS for all direct partners and has released the AIMS “H” freeze, APS may close the case from AIMS unless it has a PICF Code of 4 or 5. The case should not be sent to the key case CTF unless it has a PICF Code of 4 or 5. Prepare Form 5403 following partial procedures. In item A, Special Handling Instructions, write "TEFRA Linkage – After Partial Closing, Forward to CTF." Update the AIMS database to status 34. Update the PBC to 295 (for the Brookhaven CTF) or 398 (for the Ogden CTF). Forward the administrative file via Form 3210, to the appropriate CTF. Ensure that a copy of the input Form 5403 is attached to the face of the return. The CTF will place the file in suspense awaiting the outcome of the TEFRA examination. The procedures for attorneys to notify the appropriate CTF of a partner-level settlement agreement, or a decision or dismissal in a U.S. District Court or the Court of Federal Claims TEFRA partnership case are found in IRS Chief Counsel Notice 2011–011. When a decision is final for a case for which an FPAA was issued by Appeals and which was petitioned to a U. S. District Court or the U. S. Court of Federal Claims (or a case appealed from these courts), the Department of Justice may return the case to Appeals through Counsel if assistance is needed to complete the processing of the partnership items of the partners and to process the penalties and affected items. The cases should be sent to Laguna Niguel APS. The ATT will assist, if necessary, in preparing the cases for closing. Create a new workunit on ACDS using the information from the previously closed workunit. If the decision was entered by the U. S. Court of Federal Claims on August 31, 2009, the one-year statute date should be computed as follows: August 31, 2009 + 60 days = October 30, 2009 + 1 year = October 30, 2010 - 1 day = October 29, 2010. The TCS will prepare the documents requested as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.3 and begin preparing the closing package as provided in IRM 8.19.13.2.4. If no other documents are being prepared, the ATT AO is responsible for preparing the closing package and the Form 14298. The ATT will enter the one-year statute date on the Form 14298. In computing the one-year statute date, one day should be subtracted from the date that is one year from when the decision became final (see Example above). The case should not be on AIMS as AIMS should have been closed once the petition was filed in accordance with the procedures in IRM 8.19.12.13.3. Accordingly, if the file is returned by the Department of Justice, it can simply be closed to Files. If the case is not on AIMS, then it can be closed to files. This exhibit summarizes Tax Court Rules 248(a), 248(b) and 248(c) and includes the documents and signatures that are required. Rule 248(a): The TMP agrees to bind all parties.A stipulated decision consenting to entry of decision (decision and stipulation in same document) are filed with the court. The signatures of the TMP (not his counsel) and counsel for commissioner are required.Participating partners and all other parties are bound by the TMP's signature.Footnote: It is unlikely that this option will be used frequently. The TMP may, but need not, be a participating partner.Rule 248(b): All participating partners must agree to the settlement or not object.Footnote: Request a signed Form 870-P(AD) or Form 870-PT(AD) (depending on the tax year at issue) to verify participating partners do not object. Local counsel files a motion for entry of the decision with the proposed form of the decision. There are no signatures on the decision.Within three days of filing, local counsel will serve on the TMP a certificate showing the date that the motion was filed.Within three days of receipt, the TMP will serve copies of the proposed decision, the commissioner's motion, the commissioner's certificate, and a copy of Rule 248 on all other parties.Within 60 days of the commissioner's motion, an objection may be filed by the TMP (if not a participating partner) as a motion to intervene; the TMP's signature is required on the motion.Within 60 days of the commissioner's motion, an objection may be filed all other parties as a motion to participate; the parties' signatures are required on the motion.If there is no objection filed, no documents or signatures are needed and the court enters the decision. Page 2 of the exhibit summarizes Tax Court Rule 248(c) and includes the documents and signatures that are required.Rule 248(c): A participating partner agrees to the settlement. A notice that a settlement of agreement or a consistent agreement has been secured is filed with the court. It requires the signature of local counsel.If a participating partner or non-participating partner agrees to the settlement, a Form 870-P(AD) or Form 870-PT(AD) must be signed by the partner and the commissioner.Within 7 days of the acceptance of the settlement, the commissioner serves a statement on the TMP that includes: the identity of the party or parties, the tax year(s), the terms of the settlement, and the date that the settlement was entered into.Within 7 days of receipt, the TMP will serve a copy of the statement on all parties who have not settled.All parties who have not accepted the settlement may request consistent agreement within 60 days of the settlement. If any parties agree, a Form 870-P(AD) or Form 870-PT(AD) is signed marked Consistent Agreement. The agreement is signed by the party that agrees and on behalf of the commissioner. This is page two. It is a list of the partners who signed settlement agreements.STATEMENT OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS PROVIDED UNDER TAX COURT RULE 248(c)(2)Partnership: Daffodil PartnershipDocket No: 12345-XXDate Accepted: July 15, 2008Name of PartyName of PartyTaxable YearDate Settlement Offered & Terms *1. Thomas Geranium2004June 4, 20082. Nancy Dianthus2004June 4, 20083. Eric Salvia2004June 4, 20084. Mary Phlox2004June 4, 2008*Schedule of adjustments attached which sets out the terms of each agreement. Since the allocation of items among the partners is not at issue, the allocation is not shown. This is page three. It is the schedule of adjustments page of the settlement agreement. The following fields are completed:Name of Partnership: Daffodil PartnershipEIN: D2-0123456Tax Year Ended: 12/31/2004Details of Adjustments to Ordinary Income:(1) Depreciation Expense $90,000.00It is determined the partnership overvalued its depreciable basis for its energy property by $900,000.00. The correct basis is $100,000.00 and not $1,000,000.00 reported on the 2004 Form 1065. The partnership depreciation expense has been recomputed as shown in Exhibit A.(2) Management Fee $25,000.00(3) Amortization Expense ($5,000.00)It is determined the partnership may not deduct management fees reported of $25,000.00. The fee was paid to organize the partnership and may not be deducted as a trade or business expense. Pursuant to the partnership election, the fee may be amortized over 60 months beginning January 1, 2004. Total Adjustments to Ordinary Income: $110,000.00Other Adjustments:A. (4) Basis of Energy PropertyAdjustment $ 900,000.00As Reported 1,000,000.00Corrected $ 100,000.00In the remarks section at the bottom, the text states:4. It is determined that the partnership's basis in energy property is $100,000.00 rather than $1,000,000.00.Accordingly, the basis in energy property is reduced by $900,000.00. 5. Negligence penalty will be assessed.Partner level defenses to the negligence penalty may be raised in a refund forum after the penalty is assessed and paid. This is page four of the exhibit. It is page one of Rule 248. Settlement Agreements, from the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.Rule 248. Settlement Agreements(a) Consent by the Tax Matters Partner to Entry of Decision: A stipulation consenting to entry of decision executed by the tax matters partner and filed with the Court shall bind all parties. The signature of the tax matters partner constitutes a certificate by the tax matters partner that no party objects to entry of decision. See Rule 251.(b) Settlement or Consistent Agreements Entered Into by All Participating Partners or No Objection by Participating Partners: (1) After the expiration of the time within which to file a notice of election to intervene or to participate under Rule 245(a) or (b), the Commissioner shall move for entry of decision, and shall submit a proposed form of decision with such motion, if— (A) all of the participating partners have entered into a settlement agreement or consistent agreement with the Commissioner, or all of such partners do not object to the granting of the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision, and (B) the tax matters partner (if a participating partner) agrees to the proposed decision in the case but does not certify that no party objects to the granting of the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision. (2) Within 3 days from the date on which the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision is filed with the Court, the Commissioner shall serve on the tax matters partner a certificate showing the date on which the Commissioner’s motion was filed with the Court. (3) Within 3 days after receiving the Commissioner’s certificate, the tax matters partner shall serve on all other parties to the action other than the participating partners, a copy of the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision, a copy of the proposed decision, a copy of the Commissioner’s certificate showing the date on which the Commissioner’s motion was filed with the Court, and a copy of this Rule. (4) If any party objects to the granting of the Commissioner’s motion for entry of decision, then that party shall, within 60 days from the date on which the Commissioner’s motion was filed with the Court, file a motion for leave to file a notice of election to intervene or to participate, accompanied by a separate notice of election to intervene or a separate notice of election to participate, as the case may be. If no such motion is filed with the Court within such period, or if the Court should deny such motion, then the Court may enter the proposed decision as its decision in the partnership action. See Code Sections 6226(f) and 6228(a)(5). See also Rule 245, relating to intervention and participation, and Rule 251, relating to decisions. This is the page five of the exhibit. It is page two of Rule 248. Settlement Agreements.(c) Other Settlement and Consistent Agreements: If a settlement agreement or consistent agreement is not within the scope of paragraph (b) of this Rule, then-- (1) in the case of a participating partner, the Commissioner shall promptly file with the Court a notice of settlement agreement or notice of consistent agreement, whichever may be appropriate, that identifies the participating partner or partners who have entered into the settlement agreement or consistent agreement; and (2) in the case of any partner who enters into a settlement agreement, the Commissioner shall, within 7 days after the settlement agreement is executed by both the partner and the Commissioner, serve on the tax matters partner a statement which sets forth-- (A) the identity of the party or parties to the settlement agreement and the date of the agreement; (B) the year or years to which the settlement agreement relates; and (C) the terms of settlement as to each partnership item and the allocation of such items among the partners. Within 7 days after receiving the statement required by this subparagraph, the tax matters partner shall serve on all parties to the action a copy of the statement. This exhibit is a sample Rule 155 Type Computations Statement for TEFRA partnerships. The cover sheet has the symbols AP:A:AP:MF at the top left of the page and is addressed to:In re: Begonia Partnership, First Kale Street, Anyplace, US XX001, Docket No. ________The text is titled Adjustments to Partnership Items and includes the following information:Taxable Year Ending December 31, 2004Ordinary, distributable net, or taxable income as reported:$(150,000.00)Adjustments to income: Depreciation$50,000.00Corrected ordinary, distributable net or taxable income:$(100,000.00)Other adjustments: Qualifying basis of energy property(1) Adjustment$(1,300,000.00)(2) As reported$2,300,000.00(3) Corrected$1,000,000.00The adjustments to partnership items as shown above are set forth in the attached pages ___________ to ___________, inclusive.Note to Tax Computation Specialist: The attached pages should include a Form 4605-A (unless the case is a no change), and supporting schedules (if necessary).

2019-04-19T06:44:53Z

https://www.irs.gov/irm/part8/irm_08-019-013

Meditation is an ancient practice that is known to improve the spiritual, mental, and physical well-being of a person. Today it is also considered the highest form of relaxation. In fact tens of millions of people are known to practice this activity worldwide. Meditation is also known to have numerous health benefits. It is being used to treat mental issues and other problems related to the body. In this course we dive into the world of meditation and demystify the sometimes shrouded information and illuminate it for the inquisitive mind. In Meditation we are clearly able to see the changing circumstances of our lives. Meditation gives rise to harmony of the Mind, Body and Spirit. Throughout this course we will be exploring the different styles of Meditation and how to put those styles into practice, to promote healing, self-exploration and empowerment. This course is unique in its structure and designed for self-paced online learning. Support is available both personally via skype or telephone if needed. This course has no religious connotation – Meditation is beyond religious form. We are not born religious, religion is something we are taught within our family, cultural or school circle. Saying this all religious traditions have within them an approach to meditation. We must be able to differentiate from a specific aim or goal connected to a religious form and realise that Meditation is about ‘being’ as opposed to being a formal practice based on a system of belief. It follows that the meditative awareness which is inherent at birth is not subject to or dependent on any particular religious form or practice. At the end of this course you will be able to give one on one Guided Meditations to your clients needing extra support. You will be confident and competent to run Group Sessions, run weekend clinics for Corporate or Wellbeing Groups. You will have advanced with your own Meditation practice and ready to lead others. You will have gained the tools and knowledge you will need to be effective in your new teaching role. as I have written several meditations and created one for my healing business as an opt-in for my site. I thoroughly enjoyed this course. It touched on so many topics of interest while giving me an opportunity to open up to areas that I hadn’t considered. I highly recommend this course to anyone who may be interested. The feedback for each assignment came back quickly and always encouraging and positive. Thank you Julie and Natura for this amazing course! Thank you for your kind words, it is always my pleasure to have students complete their courses and move into practising the modality that they have studied. I look forward to hearing how your practice is progressing. I’ve just started asking our students to post to this page, so would be great ? To your continued success enjoy the journey. The course is impressively comprehensive and well structured. As a long term meditator, I found the course to be a very useful revision. I was also very pleased that it provided plenty of new and useful material. Brilliant for aspiring meditation teachers. Highly recommended. Thank you for your comments, obviously at Natura we love to have feedback from our students. At Natura, we will be shortly releasing our Holistic Healers Association, which has been designed to assist practitioners like yourself in business, we will be supplying you with ready make materials for all forms of advertising and marketing, practical business advice and implementation. We are dedicated to ensuring that our students find success and abundance, and I look forward to working further with you. I thoroughly enjoyed everything I learned from this course. This has absolutely everything and more! I would recommend this to anyone looking to further their knowledge or starting a business with Meditation. Thank you for your comments, we are always looking for feedback of our students experience during our courses. It has been my pleasure to have you with Natura and look forward to having you continue your learning with us. I really enjoyed this class. The information was thorough and greatly enhanced the information I already had based on my experiences with meditation. I highly recommend this class and feel this is a certificate that I can be proud of. Thank you for having taken this course with us and it has been my pleasure to take this journey with you. Thanks for a great course to learn more information about Meditation and teaching Meditation. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you I appreciate your comments it has been my pleasure to have your study with Natura and looking forward to continuing our work together. Excellent Course, relevant and interesting. Thank you for your lovely comments and I am delighted to hear that you have enjoyed your course. On our journey, all will happen when we decide the moment is right, and I am confident that for you when you are ready that you absolutely be confident to step into a Meditation Teachers Role. I have not received your assignments for this course, and wonder if you are just not yet ready to submit them, as you have filled in the course review, I will re-set the course for you and when you are ready please feel free to do the assignments so am I able to issue you a Meditation Teachers Certificate. This course ‘found me’ at precisely at the perfect moment and has provided an inspirational and fairly pivotal turning point for me and the development of my skill-set and practice. The course is extremely well thought through and laid out in a very systematic way, using very approachable, easy to assimilate language. I have enjoyed every minute, especially the ones that have required me to do some real soul searching! I would recommend this to anyone who has been meditating for a while and wants to learn how to teach others and guide them through their own meditation journey! I was wondering if I might ask you to post this on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc i have just started incorporating Natura Institute on the page and it would be amazing to have some students like and post to the page. Excellent material. Very useful Audios for guided meditations. I had excellent feedback- constructive, motivating and anytime I had a question ( no matter how small or silly), Julie was always there to help & guide. I’m currently starting to put Natura Institute work on our page and so asking our wonderful students to assist me. I really learned a lot from this online course. The instructors were very helpful and they are there when you have any questions. Julie has always been great with answering the emails on a timely matter. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for your lovely comments, it has been my absolute pleasure to take this journey with you. I give this class a 5 * rating as I thought the material presented was very informative. Not only did I learn more that just the standard meditation techniques, I learned the background behind this amazing modality. This class was very well organized and Julie from Natura was very pleasant when answering/grading your assignments. I am very excited to add this meditation technique with my other spiritual modalities and I am grateful for finding this training institute. I loved every minute of this course. Julie’s feedback after each assignment was invaluable, with each module written beautifully, easy to read and understand and packed full of information. It was a great experience, thank you. I wonder if i could impose on you to share your review on my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I am just in the process of combining Natura Institute on this page and so asking my wonderful students to post their reviews. I learned so much in this course. It covers everything I needed to know. Highly recommend! I look forward to receiving your assignments. This is a very comprehensive course. It covers everything including different types of meditation and mindfulness through to setting up your business and creating your business plan. I have learnt so much from Julie – which has also enhanced my own meditation practice. I would highly recommend this to anybody wanting to move into this field or if you have a genuine interest in meditation and want indepth knowledge, this course is a must do. Thank you so much for your kind words, it has been my absolute pleasure to have you with Natura and to get to know your thoughts, ideas and inspirations for this work. I thank you for taking the time to do this. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course-the chapters were broken down clearly and concisely which was useful for learning. Having the ability to take the course over a year’s time was very helpful as I work full time and managing my schedule can be challenging. The material presented was easy to follow and the assignments in line with the course material presented. I highly recommend this course! It has been my pleasure to have you studying with us at Natura and thank you for your lovely words, I’m always thrilled that students have been able to complete the work in their own time, which is always as it should be. A thorough course that is also inspiring and easy to navigate! This course was even more than I had anticipated – from setting up your fist class, types of meditation, through to setting up your business successfully. Highly recommend! I am delighted you enjoyed the course, and were able to take some new skills and experiences away from it with you. It has been my absolute pleasure to have taken this journey with you, and I look forward to continuing to keep in touch with you. Now, I’m wondering if I could impose on a little of your time and ask that you post your review to my facebook page, I’ve started incorporating the institute along with our life centre. http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc and like all businesses I need to embrace social media! I will re-set your course back to a continue course status, so you will have on going access to the course material for review, and at any time there are updates to the course (which we do on a regular bases) you will also have access to those. I very much enjoyed this course. I am delighted you enjoyed the course. I will be in touch shortly to re-set your course and issue your certification. Had a wonderful time learning about teaching meditation, the course brought up quit a few topics that I hadn’t thought about. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking of teaching meditation. I am truly delighted that you have enjoyed your time with Natura. I would like to impose on a little of your time and ask if you could post this review to our facebook page which I am now incorporating Natura Institute into. http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I thank you for your time in doing so. The Meditation Teachers Course beginning with the history of meditation to basic core information, examples of guided meditations to problem solving & so much more has provided me with the confidence to begin a formal meditation teaching business whether it’s a one on class or a larger class setting, I feel ready , confident, & excited to begin thanks to the knowledge, support & confidence I have gained through this quality program. Thank You ! Thank you for your kind words, it has been my absolute pleasure to go through this study course with you. I enjoyed this course. I thought that the course discussions/lessons were interesting. The course covered a wide range of topics that are beneficial to a meditation teacher. Meditation scripts and recordings made the course easy to follow along. The assignments were thought provoking and feedback is always positive and supportive. Thank you for your lovely comments regarding the course, I’m delighted that you have enjoyed your time with Natura and I look forward to hearing of your successes. I have attached your certificate – Congratulations! It was my absolute pleasure to have you study with me at Natura. I thank you for your time and consideration in doing so. Thank you for your lovely review, I’m delighted that you have enjoyed the course and I’m excited to see where this takes you from here. Now, as one business owner to another I am wondering if I could ask a favour. I have been joining Natura Institute into my Natura facebook page its http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc and I would so appreciate you posting your review to this page for me. If you’re a person who is can embrace a video (short on phone) a short 30 second review on video would be great. I would appreciate your time and effort on either score. I will be re-setting your course for you and doing your certificate shortly, this way you will have further access to your course for referrance and all updates to this course will also be able to you. Thank you for providing this meditation teacher’s course. I enjoyed the ability to complete it at my own pace. The assignments and class content were enjoyable and informative. My only suggestion for improvement would be a unit on ways to select class content or creating a short or long term curriculum. Thank you for your comments and I am glad you enjoyed the course. With your current business and your already established practice it has taken you no time to complete this course. I honour your time and your participation, it has been my pleasure to have you with us at Natura. Great course! So much great information! Such great meditations and a wonderful resource! Thank you for your kind comments and i’m delighted you enjoyed the course. It has been my pleasure to have you study with me at Natura and I look forward to hearing all about your future successes. Now i am wondering if icould I ask you to please go onto my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc and do a review for me, we’re enjoying having our 5 star reviews as we’ve now added the institute onto this page and it’s wonderful having our institute students engaging with us here also. I appreciate your time and thank you. Thank you i will organise to do your course evaluation later today. amazing experience with fantastic meditation recordings and scripts.an awesome combination of practical advice and awareness of personal spiritual growth and aspirations.a perfect sacred space to empower the student and potential clients.full of gratitude and smiles for the course creators and their attention to detail.so excited to get started,,namaste. Thank you for your lovely comments and i look forward to receiving your assignments. I would love you to add your lovely review to our other 5 star reviews on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I thank you for your time in doing so. It has been my pleasure to have you study with me at Natura and I look forward to hearing of your successes. I would love for you to join the other students who have put their 5 star reviews on my facebook page if you would be so kind, my page is http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I thank you for your time in doing so. What an amazing journey, this course is well written and very motivating. I would highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to proceed in this area of expertise. Please refer to my Email. This course was outstanding! With in depth course material to help you not only understand all aspects of meditation but offering business guidance as well. It also adds a lot for personal growth and reflection on the material. I am so happy I came across this program and am looking forward to implementing all of this material as I start my own meditation business. Thank you so much for making this course for those of us who would like to be certified in this area. I would highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a proper education on teaching meditation courses. Really well structured course designed with everything you need to begin teaching meditation. I particularly like the fact students can be introduced to the full spectrum of techniques allowing them to students to fine the style that resonates most with them. It also covers meditation for children and young adults. I look forward to having you study with me again, and if Mindfulness is something that you would like to offer with your other skills I will be releasing my Mindfulness Practitioners course in the next couple of months, so look out for it in our newsletters. Fantastic course with superb structure and excellent support. Thank you for your lovely words – please refer to my email. This has been a great course!! Very complex material that takes you slowly from beginner to teacher level at your own pace. Finishing the course I really feel well prepared to hold meditation classes on my own. The meditations are great and the variety of learning material covers all the possible encounters you may have as a meditation instructor. I feel that taking this course I did myself a great favor for the future. “This has been a great course!! Very complex material that takes you slowly from beginner to teacher level at your own pace. Finishing the course I really feel well prepared to hold meditation classes on my own. Very informative, Learned how to deal with a lot of things through this course. Looking forward to starting my Meditation Business. It has been my absolute pleasure to have you study with me at Natura. I wonder if I could impose and ask a favour of you also, If you feel so guided could i ask that you put a review onto my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I love having our students 5 star reviews on our page and I would greatly appreciate your time to do so. I have highly enjoyed taking this course! The amount of knowledge I have gained was unexpected. I would have never believed I could have learned so much in an on-line course. Julie is excellent in her feedback and has given me more than enough knowledge to begin my new career as a Meditation Instructor. Thank you! Please find attached your certificate – Congratulations. It has been my pleasure to have your study with me at Natura, and I look forward to you continuing your path with us. I have now re-set your course to continue, so you can continue to have access to your course material and any updates that are done to the course as well. If I have not asked your before could I ask you now to put your 5 star review with my other students on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would appreciate your time in doing so. To save you looking for your review I have copied it hear for you.. I look forward always to hearing how students are going with the practice, so do keep in touch, love and light to you on your journey of sharing your gifts with the world. Thoroughly enjoyed this course. Very informative and learnt so much more than I expected to. Great feedback from teacher, a well researched and interesting course. Highly recommended. Please refer to my email for your certificate. Thank you so much for your kind words. I will be resetting our course for you also. The meditation teachers course provides good background knowledge that helps the aspiring meditation teacher to review and understand the subject of meditation on a mental level. Assignments help to discuss and understand the subject on a deeper more personal level. This is a great combination. Thank you for your comments on your review. I have attached your Meditation Teachers Certificate – Congratulations! It has been my pleasure to have you study with me at Natura Institute and I hope you continue to stay in touch with us. Could I now impose on you for a favour – could I ask you to post your review to my facebook page, like all business people I have to address my social media. I would love to have your 5 star review with those of my other students. http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I thank you and appreciate your time in doing so. I had experience with meditation before taking this course but it was well worth it!! I learnt so much about different types of meditation, the scientific explanation of how it benefits me, and how to properly set up my own meditation business. I’m so excited to take what I’e learned from this course and apply it in my own wellness business! I would definitely recommend it! Thank you for your kind words and I am delighted that you have enjoyed your course. I will send through your certificate for you. This course offers a great opportunity for self-development and to have the right tools to help others. The support provided with the exercises, and the examples given in the modules are really helpful and inspiring. I love the accessibility of the structure and the availability of the instructors. I’m grateful to all those involved in making this course such an awesome experience! Thank you for the lovely comments and it’s been my pleasure going through your assignments with you. Very happy with this course! The course covered all aspects of teaching a meditation class, including setting a business plan. I would recommend this course to my friends because it is a very detailed and complete course…nothing seems to be left out. I think being able to study at home is a big plus. Thank you for your kind words, I’m delighted that you have enjoyed and benefited from your course, it’s been my pleasure taking this journey with you. This is a very comprehensive course that provides essential information not just on different types of meditations, but also how to run classes, outlines, scripts, audios, and starting up your business. The feedback received has been invaluable. I liked online formats so I can go at my own pace. I would recommend this course to anyone who asks! Fabulous that you have now completed your Teacher of Meditation Course. I have attached your certificate (in my email) for you and wish to say it has been my pleasure taking a journey with you. I look forward to having you study with us in the future should that be on your path. I thank you for your kind words in the review and if I could impose would you mind putting your 5 star review of this course with our other students on our facebook page its http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I appreciate your time in doing so. A very thorough course that includes a lot of important subject matter to understand from philosophical to biological! I enjoyed the communications that I had with Julie… she is very engaged and always had important commentary on the homework assignments. I would definitely recommend this course particularly for those who have some experience with meditation and want to go deeper. Thank you for your kind words please refer to my email for your certification. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class. It was a lot of information to learn which left me feeling very prepared to becoming a meditation teacher. It offered far more detailed lessons than I expected and was well worth the cost of the course. I also took the Mindfulness Course and found that to be a great compliment to this as well. Thank you again for you kind words and please refer to my email for you Meditation Teachers Certificate. Free to discover inner beauty. This course was a great way to get my feet wet with different types of meditation. It really helped me Center myself before I work with my students, and has integrated my artistic outlet with the spiritual. Thanks Julie! Thank you for your kind words in your review. I really enjoyed the certified meditation teachers course so much . It has a very rich content, it introduces various tools and information in details and are explained in an easy way for anyone to grasp. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to become a certified meditation teacher. This course will enrich and empower you and will open your eyes to many aspects that will make you a skillful Mediration Teacher. Thank you for your kind words in your review of my course material and that you have enjoyed your course. I have learned a lot in this meditation teacher course and I enjoyed every part of it. It opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities that I can incorporate into my trauma coaching business. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about meditation and incorporate it into their holistic business. The one thing that bothered me though was that the content of this course contained many typos and grammatical errors. I would expect a course in this price range to be professionally edited. I am pleased you have enjoyed your course and found new ways in which you can incorporate Meditation along with your Trauma Coaching Business. I am always delighted to think that through our portal Natura is able to reach many that on a one on one basis we cannot hope to do. We receive so many lovely reviews and I’m delighted to add yours to those (as well as your comments regarding my spelling and grammar – your quite right and I’ve had my editor re-check my work (however as Holistic Practitioners and Enlightened Souls who are Mindfully awareness – you would see this as a judgement would you not?) I’ll overlook it !! It’s been my absolute pleasure to have you study with me at Natura and I have attached your certificate as a Teacher of Meditation – Congratulations (this is in my email). I very much look forward to hearing how your business progresses for you. With the many people we have counselled who have experienced trauma, the Mindfulness program is very helpful and enlightening for them – I hope you may consider that for your business also. The course was very insightful on the different types of meditation. I like how it is flexible depending on the student’s time. It takes a lot of discipline and dedication to finish an online course and I just love how Julie personally replies on the assignments and any questions that I have during the course. I will definitely be looking into taking other courses too in the future. I have attached your certificate in my email to you. Eileen, could I ask you now to put your 5 star review with my other students on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would appreciate your time in doing so. To save you looking for your review I have copied it here for you.. The Meditation Teachers Course is a great way to attain the information necessary to begin teaching meditation classes. I already have degrees in Education and am a Reiki Master/Teacher, but I found much of value in the course, both about meditation in general, and in how to deliver the meditation classes to students. Highly recommended. I have attached your certificate in my email – Congratulations. I have put Charles on your certificate if you would like me to do you one with Anthony please let me know I would be happy to do so. Anthony, could I impose and ask you to put your 5 star review with my other students on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would appreciate your time in doing so. To save you looking for your review I have copied it here for you.. The course is very complete with valuable information clear and structure. I have been using the meditations given in the course to guide my students into relaxations a the end of a yoga class. This course is a fantastic complement for a yoga instructor willing to expand the knowledge into the nature of the mind. Julie is also very responsive to my emails and answer all my questions. Thank you so much for your lovely comments, if i have not already asked you to could i impose and ask you to post your 5 star review along with my other students onto my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would so appreciate your time in doing so. This course was AMAZING. Very comprehensive and has given me everything I need to add mediation to my wellness center practice. I am so very grateful for Julie and her training program. What a blessing this course has been. I have attached your certificate for you (It’s in my email) – Congratulations! and wish to say it has been my pleasure taking this journey with you. I look forward to having you study with us in the future should that be on your path. I thank you for your kind words of review and if I could impose would you mind putting your 5 star review of this course with our other students on our facebook page its http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I appreciate your time in doing so. Here’s the review just in case it saves you looking for it. Wishing you joyful abundance for 2019! This course is well thought through with the modules, documentation and the assignments. They cover background as way of introduction and then expands the knowledge in practical and simple format that is easy to understand. I found the information relevant and provides an appropriate amount of depth for me to use and need as an instructor. I would highly recommend the course to anybody looking to do an accredited meditation teacher course. I have attached your certificate for you – Congratulations! and wish to say it has been my pleasure taking this journey with you. I look forward to having you study with us in the future should that be on your path. Thank you for your lovely review and I am delighted you have enjoyed your course with us, it has been my absolute pleasure to serve you. I have attached your certificate in the email i have sent. Now, could I impose on you Susan to put your 5 star review with our other students on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would very much appreciate your time in doing so. Here’s your review to save you looking for it. I have re-set your course to continue, so that you have access to the course material and to any updates as they are done to this course. This course was one of the best I have taken. The material was not only laid out well but easy to understand. I’ve learned so much and will be carrying over so much in my business. Julie has been invaluable and I am so grateful! Thank you for your lovely review and I am delighted you have enjoyed your course with us, it has been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Your certificate is attached in my email to you – Congratulations! I absolutely loved this course!!!! I was able to take lessons during my own time. I was so engrossed in the material that I would binge some of the courses!!! All day long at times!!!! I would then go back and review the lessons again which I plan to do over and over again!!! The feedback from Julie on my assignments was constructive and encouraging. Taking this course has inspired me to delve more into my own meditation practice. I am meditating more often and on a more regular basis. This is the best result yet of this course. I plan to add the modality of Meditation to my Part-Time Complementary Business. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to deepen their meditation practice and or who wants to create a business. I found that taking this course is enabling me to walk the talk. I feel confident to recommend meditation to my family, friends and clients! Thank you for your lovely review and I am delighted you have enjoyed your course with us, it has been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Your certificate is attached (In my email to you) – Congratulations! I have re-set your course to continue, so that you have access to the course material and to any updates as they are done to this course. May Love and Light guide your journey from here. I loved learning the different types of meditation. I had participated in a variety of guided meditation but this was totally different. The course really brought things into perspective for me and allowed me to grow and expand emotionally, mentally and spiritually. There are in depth meditations with explanations of how to use them, why they work and things to watch for with your students. I really recommend this to anyone who is thinking of doing meditation business. If you are a yoga instructor, holistic healer, energy worker etc this course will open up another avenue for your business. Grateful I came upon this course. Love Julie and how she interacts with me during the course assignments. Thank you for your lovely review and I am delighted you have enjoyed your course with us, it has been my absolute pleasure to serve you. Your certificate is attached – Congratulations! I have taken meditation for several years and wanted to share this modality with others because it has changed me life. I loved this course!!! I own my own business and sometimes there is not enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be done much less take a course. This course was thorough and I could do it on my own time and even go back to reread/study different chapters. I love the samples that they gave of the different meditations also. I want to give a big thank you to Julie also. She was amazing with her responses and insights to the assignments I handed in. I am actually going to print out those emails to add to my notes to review later as needed. I have just seen you have done your review and I thank you sincerely for your kind words. I have taken meditation for several years and wanted to share this modality with others because it has changed my life. I loved this course!!! I own my own business and sometimes there is not enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be done much less take a course. This course was thorough and I could do it on my own time and even go back to reread/study different chapters. I love the samples that they gave of the different meditations also. I want to give a big thank you to Julie also. She was amazing with her responses and insights to the assignments I handed in. I am actually going to print out those emails to add to my notes to review later as needed. Again Kara it has been my pleasure to take this journey with you, you have an amazing skill set and should it be your path and purpose I will look forward to having you study with Natura at any time with the future. What an amazing journey to helping myself and learning about myself so I can help others in the same fashion! I feel honored to have taken this course. Thank you for your review and I’m delighted you enjoyed your course with us. I have not received any of the assignments from you throughout the course. I do know that sometimes we do not wish to do the assignments and are happy just to have a certificate of participation in the course. I always like to check before issuing this, in case you would like to do the assignments to receive your Teachers Certificate. This class covers every base! There is so much here! From guided meditation recordings and scripts to business planning. There’s information on the history of meditation, the science behind it and different techniques. There are checklists and plans for running classes, strategies to find the right group and venue. There’s even great recommendations for dealing with the inevitable difficult students. Every assignment was met with personalized feedback and advice. I couldn’t be happier with the course. Thanks Juile!! Thank you for your kind words and I’m delighted you have enjoyed your course with me. I have attached your certificate for you (its in my email) and wish to say it has been my pleasure taking this journey with you. I look forward to having you study with us in the future should that be on your path. I thoroughly enjoyed this course. I learned so much about the various types of meditation, how to teach them, how to deal with various personality types and emotional issues, the special approach required for children and much more. There were also practical modules on how to set up a meditation room and how to start my own business. I highly recommend this course. Thank you so much for your kind words I’m always delighted to hear that students have enjoyed their course with Natura and gained valuable information to move forward to teaching this amazing modality. If I have not already asked would you be so kind as to put your 5 star review along with my other students on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would appreciate your time in doing so. The meditation training has been very insightful and thoughtful. I have learned much about myself, first and foremost, from this program. I have been reminded that even as someone who facilitates healing, I am also on a journey of healing in this world. I am connected to everyone and everyone is connected to me. The meditation training has given me confidence and clarity as well as wisdom and information about meditation, my body and the world. I would recommend this course to anyone who is willing to be open to breath, peace, calm and expansion of the self. It is always a pleasure to have had a student such as yourself that has put the time and effort into submitting assignments and invested the time to prepare to teach this amazing modality. I wish you much success in adding this to your current business and look forward to hearing how that implementation goes. I have meditated for years. This course has enlightened me to some responses and has filled in the gaps that I did not totally understand. I enjoyed the meditations and the logical progression of the material. Julie is fantastic. Her patience and clear concise answers to questions has been beneficial to me. I was wondering if Natura has Cd’s with just the background music so I can do the talk over script. I would be interested in possibly purchasing it. I look forward to other courses in the future. Thank you for your lovely comments, as I said in my email it has been my pleasure to be with you throughout this course. I don’t have a CD with background music, but perhaps you might like to visit https://audiojungle.net/ here you can pick music you may like to use and the royalty fee’s are very reasonable. I look forward to you taking other courses with us should this be on your path and purpose. I really enjoyed this course – thank you. It was well written, informative and educational. I’m looking forward to starting my journey as a Meditation Teacher soon! Excellent course! It was an experience not only on Meditation itself but my own inner exploration and development. Very good chapter on business start up and development too. I am on my way! Thank you Julie Jenkins for this online study! I has been an amazing road! Thank you for your kind words, I assure you the pleasure was mine, I have very much enjoyed this journey with you. I have taken other meditation courses before that always fell short. This course taught me so much more and really challenged me to think about why I want to be a Meditaiton teacher and what forms of meditation I want to teach. This course no only teaches you about meditation but prepares you for opening your own studio and how to do so successfully. Thank you for your kind words, and i’m truly delighted that you have gotten much from our course. We love to hear that our students are ready to go out and embrace being a teacher of meditation on completion. If I could impose on your may I ask that you add your 5 star review to our other students on our facebookpage http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I thank you for your time in doing so it is very much appreciated. I will now go about reviewing your assignments and issuing your certification. The Meditation Teachers Course is a great course for the beginner and the veteran meditator alike. I was able to take the time needed to really spend time with my assignments. This was perfect for my busy lifestyle. My instructor was very present throughout the course and I truly value her wisdom and inspiration. Great course! Love and Light Julie! Thank you! What a great course with lots of information and depth. An absolute must for anyone who wants to deepen or actually want to work as a meditation teacher. This course gives you all the information and tools to get started for yourself for now or in the future. Thank you for your lovely words. I wanted to touch base on a couple of things. 1/ I have not received assignments from you for this course, now not all students want to do the assignments its absolutely optional. I am able to issue you with a certificate of participation for having completed the course. 2/ Could I impose and ask that you put your review on my facebook page with my other students 5 star reviews. http://www.facebook.com/naturahlc I would appreciate your time in doing so. I absolutely loved and recommend this course to everyone who is interested in a beautiful enlightening life journey. I learned so much about myself and how my breath aids in making better life decisions which ultimately enriches all of my relationships. I’m very excited to now have the knowledge and skills to teach others how to find their inner peace and wisdom so they too can be enriched with a happy life and enlightened journey. Thank you so much for your lovely words, I’m delighted you have enjoyed your course with us. I have sent you an email with your certificate. This is my third course through Natura and each course has delivered above my expectations. Julie is always attentive to inquiries and offers valuable feedback on assignments. I have grown so much through these courses and look forward to sharing the knowledge with my students. I have sent your certification within my email to you. This course and its content was a great experience. The support and feedback from Julie Jenkins was appreciated and warmly welcomed. Some of her observations are invaluable and will always stay with me. Thank you so much for your kind words, i have sent your certification via email.

2019-04-23T16:47:02Z

https://www.naturainstitute.com.au/course/natura-meditation-course-2/

2011-10-28 Application filed by 애플 인크. filed Critical 애플 인크. 본 발명은 무선 장치의 전자 식별 정보의 프로그래밍을 인에이블하는 방법 및 장치에 관한 것이다. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus that enables a programming of the electronic identity of the wireless device. 일 실시예에서, 이전에 구입되었거나 사용되었던 무선 장치가 셀룰러 네트워크에 의해 활성화된다. In one embodiment, the wireless device that has been used or previously purchased is activated by the cellular network. 무선 장치는 액세스 모듈을 이용하여 셀룰러 네트워크에 접속하여 운영 체제 컴포넌트들 및/또는 액세스 제어 클라이언트 컴포넌트들을 다운로드한다. The wireless device with the access modules to connect to the cellular network and downloading of operating system components and / or access control client component. 본 발명의 방법 및 장치는 eSIM(Electronic Subscriber Identity Module) 데이터를 포함하는 다양한 컴포넌트들, 즉 OS 컴포넌트들의 업데이트, 추가 및 대체를 가능하게 한다. The method and apparatus enables a wide range of components, i.e. updating of OS components, further and alternative containing (Electronic Subscriber Identity Module) eSIM data. 본 발명의 예시적인 일 구현예에서는 디바이스와 셀룰러 네트워크 간의 신뢰된 키 교환을 이용하여 보안을 유지한다. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention to ensure security by using the trust key exchange between the device and the cellular network. 본 출원은, 2010년 10월 28일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION COMPONENTS OVER A WIRELESS NETWORK"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/407,862호의 우선권을 주장하는, 2011년 5월 19일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION COMPONENTS OVER A WIRELESS NETWORK"인 미국 특허 출원 제13/111,801호의 우선권을 주장하며, 이들 각각은 그 전체가 참조로서 여기에 포함된다. This application, which application is entitled & assert "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION COMPONENTS OVER A WIRELESS NETWORK" US Patent Application No. 61/407 862 priority call on October 28, the date 2010, May 2011 It filed 19, and claiming the title of the invention "METHODS aND APPARATUS fOR DELIVERING ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION COMPONENTS OVER a WIRELESS NETWORK" U.S. Patent Application No. 13/111 801 the priority call, and each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. 본 출원은 또한, 공동 소유되고 공동 계류중인 출원들로서, 2009년 1월 13일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "POSTPONED CARRIER CONFIGURATION"인 미국 특허출원 제12/353,227호, 2010년 11월 22일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "WIRELESS NETWORK AUTHENTICATION APPARATUS AND METHODS"인 미국 특허출원 제12/952,082, 2010년 11월 22일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVISIONING SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY DATA IN A WIRELESS NETWORK"인 미국 특허출원 제12/952,089호, 2010년 12월28일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "VIRTUAL SUNSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM"인 미국 특허출원 제12/980,232호, 2011년 4월 1일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "ACCESS DATA PROVISIONING SERVICE"인 미국 특허출원 제13/078,811호, 2011년 4월 4일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR MULTIPLE ACCESS CONTROL ENTITIES"인 미국 특허출원 13/079,619호, 2011 The present application also filed as pending, co-owned and co-pending, filed on January 13, 2009 the date and a title of the invention "POSTPONED CARRIER CONFIGURATION" U.S. Patent Application No. 12/353 227 call, in November 2010, 22 day and the title of the invention of "WIRELESS NETWORK AUTHENTICATION APPARATUS aND METHODS" U.S. Patent Application No. 12/952 082, filed on November, 2010 22 date and entitled & "APPARATUS aND METHOD fOR PROVISIONING SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY DATA iN a WIRELESS NETWORK" US Patent Application No. 12 / 952,089 calls, this application is the title of the invention to December 28 date 2010 "VIRTUAL SUNSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM" US patent application is filed 12 / 980,232 Issue, April 1, 2011 date of invention is the designation "ACCESS DATA PROVISIONING SERVICE" U.S. Patent Application No. 13/078 811 No., filed on April 04, 2011, and entitled & Inn "MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS fOR MULTIPLE ACCESS CONTROL ENTITIES" U.S. Patent Application 13/079 619 Ho, 2011 4월 5일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND EXECUTION OF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS"인 미국 특허출원 제13/080,521호, 2011년 4월 5일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "SIMULACRUM OF PHYSICAL SECURITY DEVICE AND METHODS"인 미국 특허출원 제13/080,533호, 2011년 4월 5일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES"인 미국 특허출원 제13/080,558호, 2011년 4월 25일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR STORING ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES"인 미국 특허출원 제13/093,722호, 2011년 4월 27일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION OF UNIQUE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES"인 미국 특허출원 제13/095,716호; April 05 This application is the title of the invention to date "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND EXECUTION OF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS" U.S. Patent Application No. 13/080 521 No., filed on April 05, 2011, and entitled & "SIMULACRUM OF PHYSICAL SECURITY DEVICE aND METHODS "U.S. Patent Application No. 13/080 533 Ho, April 2011 and filed on May date entitled &" APPARATUS aND METHODS fOR CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION oF ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES "U.S. Patent Application No. 13/080 558 No., this filed April 25, 2011, and entitled & "APPARATUS aND METHODS fOR STORING ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES" the US Patent Application name of claim being filed on 13/093 722 Ho, April 2011 27, invention " SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION oF UNIQUE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES "U.S. Patent Application No. 13/095 716 call; 및 2010년 10월 28일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESS CONTROL CLIENT ASSISTED ROAMING"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/407,858호, 2010년 11월 3일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESS DATA RECOVERY FROM A MALFUNCTIONING DEVICE"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/409,891호, 2010년 11월 12일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR RECORDATION OF DEVICE HISTORY ACROSS MULTIPLE SOFTWARE EMULATION"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/413,317호, 2011년 4월 26일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "ELECTRONIC ACCESS CLIENT DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS AND METHODS"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/479,319호, 2011년 4월 29일자로 출원되고 발명의 명칭이 "COMPACT FORM FACTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CARD"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/481,114호, 2011년 5월 6일자로 출원된 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES FOR ACCESS CONTROL CLIE And is filed on October 28, the date 2010, and the title of the invention "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESS CONTROL CLIENT ASSISTED ROAMING" The US Patent Application Name of claim being filed on 61/407 858 Ho, November 2010, February 3 invention " METHODS aND APPARATUS fOR ACCESS DATA RECOVERY FROM a MALFUNCTIONING DEVICE "US Patent Application No. 61/409 891 call, is filed in November 2010 dated and the title of the invention" APPARATUS aND METHODS fOR RECORDATION oF DEVICE HISTORY ACROSS MULTIPLE SOFTWARE EMULATION " U.S. Patent Application No. 61/413 317 call, is filed on April 26, 2011, and entitled & "ELECTRONIC ACCESS CLIENT DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS aND METHODS" US Patent Application No. 61/479 319 Ho, April 2011, 29, Application and entitled & a "COMPACT FORM FACTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CARD" US Patent Application No. 61/481 114 call, the name of the invention, filed on May 6, 2011, "METHODS aND APPARATUS fOR PROVIDING MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES fOR ACCESS CONTROL CLIE NTS"인 미국 가특허출원 제61/483,582호와 관련되며, 이들 출원은 그 전체가 참조로서 여기에 포함된다. NTS "the United States and is related to Patent Application Serial No. 61 / No. 483 582, these applications are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 본 발명은 일반적으로, 예를 들어 디바이스들이 셀룰러 네트워크를 이용하여 통신하는 시스템과 같은 무선 시스템에 관한 것이다. The present invention is generally, for example, devices for radio systems such as the system for communicating with a cellular network. 특히, 일 예시적인 양태에서, 본 발명은 셀룰러 네트워크를 통해 셀룰러 디바이스에 전자 식별 컴포넌트들을 전달하기 위한 방법 및 장치에 관한 것이다. In particular, in one exemplary embodiment, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for delivering electronic identification component to the cellular device via a cellular network. 대부분의 종래 기술의 무선 라디오 통신 시스템에서는 보안 통신을 위해 액세스 제어가 요구된다. In most of the prior art of a wireless radio communication system, an access control is required for secure communication. 일례로, 한가지 간단한 액세스 제어 방식은 (i) 통신하는 당사자의 아이덴티티를 검증하는 것, 및 (ii) 검증된 아이덴티티에 상응하는 액세스 레벨을 부여하는 것을 포함할 수 있다. For example, one simple access control method is to verify the identity of the parties to communicate (i), and (ii) may include granting access level corresponding to the verified identity. 예시적인 셀룰러 시스템의 문맥 내에서, 액세스 제어는 물리적인 카드 폼 팩터 UICC(Universal Integrated Circuit Card) 내에 물리적으로 내장되는 SIM(Subscriber Identity Module)이라고 지칭되는 액세스 제어 클라이언트에 의해 관리된다. In the context of an exemplary cellular system, access control is managed by the access control client is referred to as a (Subscriber Identity Module) to be incorporated physically in the SIM card, the physical form factor UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card). 동작 동안, SIM 카드는 셀룰러 네트워크의 가입자를 인증한다. During operation, SIM card authenticates the subscriber of the cellular network. 성공적인 인증 후에, 가입자는 셀룰러 네트워크로의 액세스가 허용된다. After successful authentication, the subscriber is allowed access to a cellular network. 각각의 SIM 카드는 단일의 사용자 계정과 관련되며, 사용자 계정 데이터는 SIM 카드 상에 영구적으로 저장된다. Each SIM card is associated with a single user account, user account data are permanently stored on the SIM card. 사용자가 기존의 계정에서 새로운 계정으로 서비스를 변경하기를 원한다면, 사용자는 (예를 들어, SIM 카드 슬롯에서 기존의 SIM 카드를 물리적으로 제거하고 새로운 SIM 카드를 삽입함으로써) 기존의 SIM 카드를 새로운 SIM 카드로 교체해야 한다. User wants to change the service to the new account in an existing account, the user (e. G., Physically removing the old SIM card from the SIM card slot, and by inserting a new SIM card), the new SIM existing SIM card It should be replaced with a card. 요컨대, 사용자 계정은 SIM 카드와 연계되는 것이며 이동 디바이스 자체와 연계되는 것이 아니다. In short, your account will be associated with the SIM card, not associated with the mobile device itself. 결과적으로, 추가의 계정을 추가하는 것은 새로운 SIM 카드를 이용하는 것을 필요로 한다. As a result, adding additional accounts will need to use the new SIM card. 예를 들어, 가입자가 새로운 서비스 지역으로 여행할 때, 가입자는 종종, 고가의 로밍 요금을 지불하는 것 또는 새로운 SIM 카드를 구매하는 것 사이에서 선택해야만 한다. For example, when a subscriber travels to a new service area, the subscriber often must choose between buying a paying expensive roaming charges or a new SIM card. 마찬가지로, (예를 들어, 업무와 개인 용도를 위한 전화를 공유하는 것과 같은) 청구 계좌들 사이에서 변경을 행하는 사용자에게 있어서, 사용자는 SIM 카드들 사이에서 지속적으로 교환하여야만 한다. Similarly, for the user performing a change between the charge (e. G., Such as those that share the phone for business and personal uses) the account, the user It should be continuously exchanged between the SIM card. 몇몇 디바이스들은 복수의 카드 리셉터클(receptacle)을 제공하여 복수의 SIM 카드들이 이용가능하게 함으로써 이러한 문제를 해결하려고 시도하였다. Some devices have attempted to solve this problem by enabling multiple SIM cards are used to provide a plurality of card receptacle (receptacle). 그러나, 이들 "복수-카드" 해결책은 추가의 SIM 카드 리셉터클들이 상당한 공간을 차지하기 때문에 바람직하지 않으며, SIM 카드 계정들의 근원 불가변성을 해결하지 못한다. However, these "multi-card" solution is undesirable because of the additional SIM card receptacle to occupy considerable space and does not address the source of the non-modified SIM card account. 또한, 기존의 SIM 해결책은 물리적인 UICC 카드 매체에 "하드코딩된" 하나 이상의 SIM 소프트웨어 아이덴티티를 포함한다, 즉, 예를 들어, SIM 카드 어셈블리는 재프로그래밍될 수 없다. Also, existing SIM solutions include physical UICC card medium in the "hard-coded" at least one SIM software identity, that is, for example, SIM card assembly can not be reprogrammed. 모든 실용적인 의도 및 목적을 위해, 종래 기술의 SIM 카드는 분할 불가능하다, 즉, SIM 소프트웨어는 물리적인 UICC 카드 매체로부터 분리될 수 없다. For all practical intents and purposes, it is the SIM card of the prior art are not divided, that is, SIM software may not be separate from the physical UICC card medium. 따라서, 특정 동작들은 기존의 SIM 카드 프레임워크 내에서 수행될 수 없다. Therefore, certain operations can not be carried out within the existing framework of the SIM card. 예를 들어, SIM은 SIM 카드들 사이에서 이동될 수 없고, 수정, 폐지될 수 없고, 및/또는 서로 다른 네트워크 제공업자들에 대해 이용가능해질 수 없다. For example, SIM can not be moved between the SIM card, modification, can not be abolished, and / or can not be made available for different network providers. 따라서, 이하에서 보다 상세히 설명되는 바와 같이, 기존의 SIM 카드 해결책들은 셀룰러 기술들(및 다른 무선 기술들)의 복잡성을 진화시키기에는 점점 불충분해지고 있다. Thus, as will be described in more detail below, it has become increasingly insufficient existing SIM card can fit a solution to the complexity of the evolution in cellular technology (and other wireless technology). 따라서, 사용자 계정들을 획득(예를 들어, 구매)하고 관리하는 능력을 사용자에게 제공하기 위한 개선된 해결책이 필요하다. Thus, there is a need for an improved solution to provide the ability to obtain user account (for example, a purchase) and manage your users. 이러한 개선된 해결책은 이상적으로, 새로운 SIM 카드를 필요로 하지 않고 이전에 배치되거나 구매된 디바이스들에 새로운 또는 상이한 사용자 계정을 전달하는 것을 지원해야 한다. This improved solution ideally should support the previously placed without the need for a new SIM card, or pass a new or different user account on the device purchased. 본 발명은 그 중에서도, 액세스 제어 클라이언트들의 안전한 구입 및 전달을 위한 개선된 장치 및 방법을 제공함으로써 전술한 요구들을 만족시킨다. The present invention satisfies the aforementioned needs by providing an improved apparatus and method for secure purchase and delivery of these, Access Control clients. 본 발명의 제1 양태에서, 무선 네트워크를 통해 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 수신하는 방법이 개시된다. In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for receiving an access control client over a wireless network is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 본 방법은, 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하는 단계 - 인가된 데이터 세션은 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of: setting the applying a data session by the authorized data session having a first set of access rights; 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 선택하는 단계 - 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; Selecting a client access control - Access Control clients having a second set of access rights; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 수신하는 단계; Receiving at least one update package; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 액세스 제어 클라이언트 내에 어셈블링하는 단계; The method comprising assembling at least one update package in the Access Control clients; 및 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 실행하는 단계를 포함한다. And a step of executing an access control client. 본 발명의 제2 양태에서, 무선 네트워크를 통해 다바이스 운영 체제를 수정하는 방법이 개시된다. In a second aspect of the invention, a method of modifying the dabayiseu operating system over a wireless network is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 본 방법은 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하는 단계 - 인가된 데이터 세션은 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; In one embodiment, the method further comprising: setting the authorized data session authorized data session having a first set of access rights; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 수신하는 단계; Receiving at least one update package; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 운영 체제 컴포넌트 내에 어셈블링하는 단계를 포함하고, 운영 체제 컴포넌트는 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는 액세스 제어 클라이언트와의 동작을 위해 구성된다. Comprising the step of assembling at least one update package in the operating system components, operating system components are configured for operation of the client and the access control having the second set of access rights. 본 발명의 제3 양태에서, 네트워크를 통해 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 수신하는 방법이 개시된다. In a third aspect of the invention, a method for receiving an access control client over a network is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 본 방법은 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하는 단계 - 인가된 데이터 세션은 액세스 제어 클라이언트와 관련된 하나 이상의 패키지로의 액세스를 가능하게 하는 액세스 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; In one embodiment, the method further comprising: setting the authorized data session authorized data session having a first set of access rights to access which enables access to one or more packages associated with the access control client; 액세스 제어 클라이언트와 관련된 하나 이상의 패키지를 다운로드하는 단계 - 상기 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; Step of downloading one or more packages associated with the access control client, wherein the client access control has a second set of access rights; 다운로드된 하나 이상의 패키지에 적어도 부분적으로 기초하여 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 어셈블링하는 단계; Based at least in part on one or more packages, the method comprising: assembling the downloaded access control client; 및 어셈블링된 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 가지고 가입자 세션을 설정하는 단계를 포함한다. And it has assembled Access Control client and a step of setting the subscriber session. 일 변형예에서, 인가된 데이터 세션은 무선 네트워크와 수신자 디바이스 간의 상호 간의 검증을 포함한다. In one variant, and the authorized data session comprises a mutual verification between the wireless network and the receiver device. 예를 들어, 상호 간의 검증은 암호 키 프로토콜을 포함할 수 있다. For example, the mutual verification between may include a cryptographic key protocol. 그러한 일례에서, 암호 키 프로토콜은 하나 이상의 비대칭 RSA(Rivest Shamir and Adelman) 공용 키 및 개인 키에 기초한다. In such an example, the cryptographic key protocol is based on one or more asymmetric RSA (Rivest Shamir and Adelman) public key and a private key. 다른 변형예에서, 제2 액세스 권한 집합은 예를 들어, 음성 호출을 걸거나 받는 것, 네트워크에 액세스하는 것, 미디어 파일에 액세스하는 것과 같은 하나 이상의 소비자 서비스를 가능하게 한다. In another variation, the second set of access rights, for example, to make or receive voice calls, to access the network, enabling one or more consumer services, such as access to media files. 다르게, 제1 액세스 권한 집합은 소비자 서비스가 이용불가능하다. Alternatively, the first set of access rights is unavailable a consumer service. 본 발명의 제4 양태에서, 네트워크를 통한 디바이스 운영 체제를 수정하는 방법이 개시된다. In a fourth aspect of the present invention, a method for modifying the device operating system via a network it is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 본 방법은 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하는 단계; In one embodiment, the method further comprising: setting the applying a data session with a first set of access rights; 인가된 데이터 세션을 통해 업데이트 요구를 수신하는 단계; The method comprising: receiving an update request from an application data session; 응답적으로 적절한 업데이트 패키지를 생성하는 단계; Responsive to the step of generating the appropriate update package; 및 인가된 데이터 세션을 통해 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 전송하는 단계를 포함한다. And is applied through the data session includes the step of transmitting at least one update package. 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지는 액세스 제어 클라이언트와의 동작을 위해 구성되며, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는다. At least one update package is configured for the operation of the client and the access control, access control, the client has a second set of access rights. 일 변형예에서, 네트워크는 무선 네트워크이고, 인가된 데이터 세션은 무선 네트워크와 디바이스 간의 상호 간의 검증을 포함한다. In one variation, the network is a wireless network, the authorized data session comprises a mutual verification between the wireless network and the device. 제2 변형예에서, 제1 액세스 권한 집합은 실질적으로 업데이트 패키지들을 교환하는 것으로 제한된다. In the second modification, the first set of access rights will be limited to substantially the exchange of update packages. 다르게, 다른 변형예에서, 제2 액세스 권한 집합은 하나 이상의 가입자 세션을 가능하게 한다. Alternatively, in another variation, the second set of access rights enables the one or more subscriber session. 다른 대안으로서, 제1 액세스 권한 집합은 제2 액세스 권한 집합의 부분집합이다. Alternatively, the first set of access rights is a subset of the second set of access rights. 또 다른 대안에서, 제2 액세스 권한 집합은 하나 이상의 사용자 선택에 기초하여 선택된다. In yet another alternative, a second set of access rights is selected based on one or more user selected. 또한, 업데이트 요청은 하나 이상의 사용자 선택을 포함할 수 있다. In addition, the update request may include one or more user-selected. 하나 이상의 업데이트 옵션도 디바이스에 제시될 수 있다. One more update options can also be present in the device. 본 발명의 다른 양태에서, 무선 장치가 개시된다. In another aspect of the invention, a wireless device is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 무선 장치는 하나 이상의 무선 네트워크에 접속하도록 구성된 하나 이상의 무선 인터페이스; In one embodiment, the wireless device one or more wireless interface configured to connect to one or more wireless networks; 복수의 사용자 액세스 데이터 구성요소를 저장하도록 구성된 보안 구성요소 - 각각의 사용자 액세스 데이터 구성요소는 대응하는 네트워크와 관련됨 -; Security configured to store a plurality of user access data component elements, wherein each user access data components being associated with a corresponding network; 프로세서; Processor; 및 프로세서와 데이터 통신하는 저장 디바이스 - 저장 디바이스는 컴퓨터-실행가능 명령어들을 포함함 -를 포함한다. Include - a storage device and a processor in communication with the data-storing device is computer-including executable instructions. 일 변형예에서, 컴퓨터-실행가능 명령어들은 프로세서에 의해 실행될 때, 제1 액세스 권한 집합으로 제한된 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하고; In one variation, the computer-executable instructions, and, when executed by a processor, a first set of access rights set up a limited authorized data session; 인가된 데이터 세션을 통해 액세스 제어 클라이언트에 대한 업데이트를 요청하고; Through the authorized data session and requests an update on the access control client; 업데이트된 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 가지고 가입자 세션을 설정하도록 구성되며, 가입자 세션은 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는다. With the updated access control client is configured to establish a session, a subscriber, a subscriber session has a second set of access rights. 제2 변형예에서, 무선 디바이스는 이동 디바이스이고, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 eSIM(electronic Subscriber Identity Module)이다. In the second modified example, the wireless device is a mobile device, and access control client (electronic Subscriber Identity Module) eSIM. 본 발명의 또 다른 양태에서, 네트워크 장치가 개시된다. In another aspect of the invention, a network device is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 네트워크 장치는 하나 이상의 무선 디바이스와 통신하도록 구성된 하나 이상의 인터페이스; In one embodiment, the network device one or more interfaces configured to communicate with more than one wireless device; 프로세서; Processor; 및 프로세서와 데이터 통신하는 저장 디바이스를 포함하고, 저장 디바이스는 컴퓨터-실행가능 명령어들을 포함한다. And a storage device in communication with the data processor, the storage device is a computer-executable instructions comprise. 일 변형예에서, 컴퓨터-실행가능 명령어들은 프로세서에 의해 실행될 때, 하나 이상의 무선 디바이스 중 하나의 무선 디바이스와의 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하고 - 인가된 데이터 세션은 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 가짐 -; In one variation, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, set the authorized data session with the one of the one or more wireless devices of the wireless device, and - the authorized data session having a first set of access rights; 그 하나의 무선 디바이스로부터 업데이트 요청을 수신하고 응답적으로 적절한 업데이트 패키지를 생성하고; Receive an update request from the one of the wireless device and generates the appropriate update package to responsively and; 생성된 업데이트 패키지를 전송하도록 구성된다. It is configured to transmit an updated package produced. 생성된 업데이트 패키지는 액세스 제어 클라이언트와의 동작을 위해 구성되며, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 제2 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는다. Generating an update package is configured for the operation of the client and the access control, access control, the client has a second set of access rights. 본 발명의 또 다른 양태에서, 컴퓨터 판독가능 장치가 개시된다. In yet another aspect of the invention, the computer readable device is disclosed. 일 실시예에서, 장치는 적어도 하나의 컴퓨터 프로그램을 저장하도록 구성된 저장 매체를 포함한다. In one embodiment, the device comprises a storage medium configured to store at least one computer program. 일 변형예에서, 프로그램은 실행될 때, 제1 액세스 권한 집합을 갖는 인가된 데이터 세션을 설정하고; In one variant, the program, when executed, the first access is set for a data session with a set of permissions; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 수신하고; Receiving at least one update package; 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지를 운영 체제 컴포넌트 내에 어셈블링하는 명령어들을 포함한다. At least one update package includes instructions to assemble components within the operating system. 본 발명의 다른 특징들 및 장점들은, 본 기술분야에 통상의 지식을 가진 자가 이하에 제공되는 예시적인 실시예들의 상세한 설명 및 첨부 도면을 참조하면 쉽게 인지될 것이다. Other features of the invention and advantages, with reference to the normal detailed description and accompanying drawings of exemplary embodiments that are provided by the below with skill in the art will be recognized easily. 도 1은 SIM을 이용하는 종래 기술의 AKA(Authentication and Key Agreement) 프로시저를 도시하는 논리 래더도. 1 is a ladder logic diagram illustrating a prior art (Authentication and Key Agreement) procedure AKA technique using the SIM. 도 2는 본 발명의 다양한 양태에 따라 이동 디바이스 eSIM을 프로그래밍하기 위한 일 예시적인 실시예를 세부화한 논리 흐름도. Figure 2 is a logic flow diagram detailing an exemplary embodiment for programming a mobile device eSIM accordance with various aspects of the invention. 도 3은 본 발명의 다양한 양태에 따라 이동 디바이스 운영 체제를 프로그래밍하기 위한 일 예시적인 실시예를 세부화한 논리 흐름도. Figure 3 is an illustrative embodiment of a logic flow diagram detailing for programming a mobile device operating system in accordance with various aspects of the invention. 도 4는 본 발명에 따라 이동 디바이스의 컴포넌트들을 프로그래밍하기 위한 일반화된 방법의 일 실시예를 도시하는 논리 흐름도. Figure 4 is a logic flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a generalized method for programming a component of the mobile device in accordance with the present invention. 도 5는 본 발명의 방법을 구현하는 데에 유용한 예시적인 장치의 블럭도. Figure 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative apparatus useful to implement the method of the invention. 모든 도면의 저작권은 Apple Inc.에 귀속됨. All drawings copyright gwisokdoem on Apple Inc.. 도면에 대한 참조가 이루어지며, 도면 전반에 걸쳐 유사 참조번호는 유사 부분들을 지칭한다. A reference to the drawings consists, like reference numerals throughout the drawings refer to like parts throughout is. 일 양태에서, 본 발명은 네트워크를 통해 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 디바이스에 전달하기 위한 방법 및 장치를 제공한다. In one aspect, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for transmitting an access control client over the network to the device. 일 예시적인 실시예에서, 셀룰러 네트워크는 셀룰러 디바이스가 배치된 후에 eSIM을 셀룰러 디바이스에 안전하게 전달할 수 있다. In one exemplary embodiment, the cellular network can be transmitted securely to the Cellular eSIM device after the cellular devices disposed. 특히, 셀룰러 디바이스는 네트워크로의 접속을 위한 제한된 능력으로 프리-프로그래밍된다. In particular, the cellular device is free to a limited capability for connection to the network is programmed. 셀룰러 디바이스는 업데이트 포털에 접속하기 위한 몇몇 제한된 액세스 능력을 갖지만, 음성 호출을 하고 사용자 데이터를 수신 및 전송하는 등을 행하기 위한 기능을 충분히 갖춘 eSIM을 수신해야 한다. Cellular devices has to receive a eSIM with sufficient functions for performing, such as a limited number of access has the ability to access the portal to update, the voice call, and receive and transmit user data. 예를 들어, 사용자는 간단한 액세스 모듈을 가진 이동 디바이스(예를 들어, 셀룰러 폰)를 구매한다. For example, the user purchases the mobile device (e.g., cellular phone) having a short access module. 액세스 모듈은 셀룰러 네트워크에 접속하고 디바이스를 인증하고 사용자로 하여금 충분한 기능을 가진 eSIM을 구매 또는 검색할 수 있게 하도록 구성된다. Access module is connected to the cellular network to authenticate the device and is configured to be able to buy or search for enabling a user eSIM that has sufficient capabilities. 셀룰러 네트워크는 부트스트랩 OS에 의해 어셈블링되고 활성화되는 eSIM을 안전하게 전달한다. Cellular networks are securely deliver eSIM is assembled and activated by a bootstrap OS. 여기에서 더 상세히 설명되는 바와 같이, 본 발명의 일 예시적인 실시예는 (예를 들어, 운영 체제 및 액세스 제어 클라이언트 컴포넌트들을 포함하는) 액세스 제어 클라이언트와 관련된 컴포넌트들의 전달을 용이하게 할 수 있는 액세스 모듈 시스템을 개시한다. As this will be described in greater detail, one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the access module that is capable of facilitating the transfer of the components involved (e.g., operating system and access control, including a client component) and Access Control client It discloses a system. 올바르게 부호화되고/되거나 암호화된 적절히 전달된 패키지를 수신한 후에, 운영 체제는 컴포넌트들을 어셈블링 및 로드할 수 있다. After correctly coded and / or receives a properly encrypted transfer package, the operating system can be assembled and loaded components. 본 발명의 다양한 실시예에서, 운영 체제, 액세스 제어 클라이언트, 사용자 계정 데이터 등을 전달하는 데에 패키지들이 이용될 수 있다. In various embodiments of the invention, packages may be used to deliver the operating system, access control, client, user account data and the like. 일 양태에서, 본 발명은 또한, 무선 디바이스의 전체 라이프 사이클을 관리하기 위한 소프트웨어 기반 업데이트들을 고려한다. In one aspect, the present invention also contemplates a software-based updates for managing the entire lifecycle of a wireless device. 따라서, 제시된 방법론에 할당된 유연성은, 심지어 액세스 모듈 및/또는 운영 체제 컴포넌트들을 포함하는 무선 디바이스의 임의의 소프트웨어 구성요소의 대체 능력을 포함한다. Thus, the flexibility in allocation methodology set forth, even including alternate capability of the access module and / or any of the software components of the wireless device, including the operating system components. 예를 들어, 셀룰러 디바이스는 완전히 새로운 운영 체제를 수신하여 그것의 인증 알고리즘을 업데이트할 수 있다. For example, a cellular device can fully update its encryption algorithm to receive the new operating system. 개시된 발명에 대한 다른 다양하고 유용한 응용들은 보안 능력, 업데이팅 변경 제어, 새로운 기능 및 서비스의 사후-배치 프로비저닝을 진화시키는 것을 포함한다. And various other useful applications for the disclosed invention are post-security capabilities, updating change control, new features and services - involves the evolution batch provisioning. 본 발명의 예시적인 실시예들 및 양태들이 이제 상세히 설명된다. Exemplary embodiments and aspects of the invention will now be described in detail. 이들 실시예 및 양태는 주로 GSM, GPRS/EDGE 또는 UMTS 셀룰러 네트워크의 SIM(Subscriber Identity Module)의 문맥에서 논의되지만, 통상의 기술을 가진 자라면 본 발명이 그렇게 제한되는 것은 아니라는 점을 인지할 것이다. These embodiments and aspects mainly are discussed in the context of the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) of the GSM, GPRS / EDGE or UMTS cellular network, Those of ordinary skill will recognize that not according to the present invention so limited. 사실, 본 발명의 다양한 양태들은 액세스 제어 엔티티들 또는 클라이언트들의 안전한 수정, 저장 및 실행으로부터 이익을 얻을 수 있는 (셀룰러든지 아니면 다른 것이든지) 임의의 무선 네트워크에서 유용하다. In fact, the various aspects that are to benefit from the secure modification, storage and execution of the access control entity or client (either cellular or any other things) of the present invention is useful in any wireless network. 또한, 여기에서 "SIM(Subscriber Identity Module)이라는 용어가 사용되지만(예를 들어, eSIM), 이 용어가 반드시 (i) 그 자체로 가입자에 의한 사용(즉, 본 발명은 가입자 또는 비가입자에 의해 실시될 수 있음); (ii) 단일의 개인의 아이덴티티(즉, 본 발명은 가족과 같은 개인들의 그룹, 또는 기업과 같은 무형 또는 허구의 엔티티를 대신하여 실시될 수 있음); 또는 (iii) 임의의 유형의(tangible) "모듈" 장비 또는 하드웨어를 함축하거나 요구하는 것은 아니다. Further, here, "the term SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is used, but (e. G., ESIM), the term must be (i) used by the subscriber by itself (that is, the invention is by the subscriber or non-subscriber It can be carried out); (ii) a single personal identity (i.e., that the present invention may be practiced on behalf of the intangible or fictitious entity, such as a group of individuals, or companies of the same family); or (iii) any the type of the (tangible) "module" does not imply or require the equipment or hardware. 종래 기술의 UMTS 셀룰러 네트워크 문맥에서, 사용자 장비(UE)는 이동 디바이스 및 USIM을 포함한다. In the UMTS cellular network context of the prior art, the user equipment (UE) comprises a mobile device and USIM. USIM은 물리적인 UICC(Universal Integrated Circuit Card)로부터 저장 및 실행되는 논리적 소프트웨어 엔티티이다. USIM is a logical software entity that is stored and executed from the physical UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card). 가입자 정보와 같은 다양한 정보가 USIM에 저장될 뿐만 아니라, 무선 네트워크 서비스를 획득하기 위해 네트워크 운영자와의 인증을 위한 키 및 알고리즘이 사용된다. Various information is key and an algorithm for authentication with the network operator for, as well as to obtain the wireless network service to be stored in the USIM as the subscriber information is used. 일반적으로, UICC들은 가입자 배포 전에 USIM을 이용하여 프로그래밍되고, 프리 프로그래밍 또는 "개인 설정(personalization)"은 각각의 네트워크 오퍼레이터에 특정된다. Generally, UICC are programmed using a USIM subscriber before deployment, or pre-programmed "Personalization (personalization)" is specified for each network operator. 예를 들어, 배포 전에, USIM은 IMSI(International Mobile Subscriber Identify), 고유한 ICC-ID(Integrated Circuit Card Identifier) 및 특정한 인증키(K)와 연관된다. For example, prior to deployment, USIM is associated with (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier) ​​IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identify), unique ICC-ID and a specific authentication key (K). 네트워크 오퍼레이터는 네트워크의 AuC(Authentication Center) 내에 포함된 레지스트리에 그 연관을 저장한다. The network operator stores the association in a registry contained in the AuC (Authentication Center) of a network. 개인 설정 후에, UICC는 가입자들에게 배포될 수 있다. After the personalization, UICC can be distributed to subscribers. 이제부터 도 1을 참조하여, 전술한 종래 기술의 USIM을 이용한 하나의 예시적인 AKA(Authentication and Key Agreement) 프로시저(100)를 상세히 설명하도록 한다. Now refer to FIG. 1, to be described in detail one exemplary AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) procedure 100 using the USIM of the prior art described above. 표준 인증 프로시저들 동안에, UE(102)는 USIM(104)으로부터 IMSI(International Mobile Subscriber Identifier)를 획득한다. During the standard authentication procedure, UE (102) obtains (International Mobile Subscriber Identifier) ​​IMSI from the USIM (104). UE는 이를 네트워크 오퍼레이터의 SN(Serving Network; 106) 또는 방문한 코어 네트워크에 전달한다. The UE this SN of the network operator; and transmits the (Serving Network 106) or a visited core network. SN은 HN(Home Network)의 AuC(108)에게 인증 요청을 포워딩한다. The SN forwards the authentication request to the AuC (108) of a HN (Home Network). HN은 수신된 IMSI를 AuC의 레지스트리와 비교하고 적절한 K를 획득한다. HN compares the received IMSI and the registry of the AuC, and obtains the appropriate K. HN은 RAND(random number)를 생성하고, 이를 알고리즘을 이용하여 K로 서명하여 XRES(expected response)를 생성한다. HN generates a (random number) and RAND, a signed them into K using an algorithm generates the (expected response) XRES. HN은 다양한 알고리즘들을 이용하여 암호화 및 무결성 보호(integrity protection)에서 사용하기 위한 CK(Cipher Key) 및 IK(Integrity Key)뿐만 아니라 AUTN(Authentication Token)를 더 생성한다. HN further generates a (Authentication Token) AUTN as well as CK (Cipher Key) and IK (Integrity Key) for use in the encryption and integrity protection (integrity protection) using a variety of algorithms. HN은 RAND, XRES, CK 및 AUTN으로 이루어진 인증 벡터를 SN으로 전송한다. HN sends an authentication vector comprising RAND, XRES, CK and AUTN to the SN. SN은 인증 벡터를 일 회의 인증 프로세스에서만 사용하도록 저장한다. SN stores the authentication vector to use only one meeting the certification process. SN은 RAND 및 AUTN을 UE로 전달한다. SN forwards the RAND and AUTN to the UE. UE(102)가 RAND 및 AUTN을 수신하고 나면, USIM(104)은 수신된 AUTN이 유효한지 검증한다. After the UE (102) receiving the RAND and AUTN, and USIM (104) verifies whether the received AUTN is valid. 만약 유효하다면, UE는 수신된 RAND를 사용하여, 저장된 K 및 XRES를 생성한 동일한 알고리즘을 이용하여 그 자신의 응답(RES)을 계산한다. If it is valid, the UE using the received RAND, using the same algorithm that produced the stored XRES K and calculates its own response (RES). UE는 RES를 SN에게 다시 전달한다. The UE re-delivery to the RES SN. SN(106)은 XRES를 수신된 RES와 비교하고, 만약 이들이 매치되면, SN은 UE가 오퍼레이터의 무선 네트워크 서비스들을 사용하는 것을 인증한다. SN (106) compares the received RES to XRES and if they match, SN authenticates the UE to use the wireless network service operator. 본 발명의 예시적인 실시예의 컨텍스트에서는, 종래의 기술에서와 같이 물리적인 UICC를 사용하는 대신에, UICC는 UE의 보안 요소(예를 들어, 보안 마이크로프로세서 또는 저장 디바이스) 내에 포함되는, 예를 들어, 소프트웨어 애플리케이션과 같은 가상 또는 전자 엔터티(이하에서는, eUICC(Electronic Universal Integrated Circuit Card)로서 참조됨)로서 에뮬레이트된다. In an exemplary embodiment of the context of the present invention, for instead of using a physical UICC, as in the prior art, UICC is included in the secure element of the UE (e.g., security microprocessor or a storage device), for example, , virtual or electronic entity such as a software application is emulated as a (hereinafter, referred as eUICC (electronic Universal Integrated Circuit Card)). eUICC는 이하에서 eSIM(Electronic Subscriber Identity Modules)으로서 참조되는 복수의 USIM을 저장하고 관리할 수 있다. eUICC may hereinafter store and manage multiple USIM referenced as (Electronic Subscriber Identity Modules) eSIM. 각각의 eSIM은 통상적인 USIM과 동일한 데이터를 포함한다. ESIM each include the same data as conventional USIM. eUICC는 eSIM의 ICC-ID에 기초하여 eSIM을 선택한다. eUICC selects eSIM on the basis of the ICC-ID of eSIM. eUICC가 원하는 eSIM(들)을 선택하고 나면, UE는 인증 프로시저를 시작하여 eSIM의 대응하는 네트워크 오퍼레이터로부터 무선 네트워크 서비스들을 획득할 수 있다. After eUICC selects eSIM (s) desired, UE can start the authentication procedure to obtain wireless network service from the network operator corresponding to the eSIM. 도 2는 본 발명에 따른 eSIM 데이터를 보안 전송하는 하나의 예시적인 실시예(200)의 프로세스도이다. Figure 2 is a process diagram of one exemplary embodiment 200 for secure transport to eSIM data according to the present invention. 사용자는 로컬 캐리어에 대해 인증된 소매 엔터티(authorized retail entity)로부터 무선 디바이스를 구매하고, 무선 디아비스의 eUICC는 액세스 모듈에 의해 프리 로딩(pre-load)된다. The user purchases a wireless device from a retail entity (authorized retail entity) authentication for the local carrier and, eUICC wireless dia services are pre-loaded (pre-load) by the access module. 예를 들어, 신뢰된 통신들을 구축하기 위한 예시적인 장치들 및 방법들을 개시하고 본 명세서에서 이전에 참조로 포함된, 공유되고 동시 계류 중인 미국 특허 출원 번호 제13/080,521호(2011년 4월 5일에 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND EXECUTION OF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS"임)를 참조한다. For example, the disclosed exemplary apparatus and methods for establishing a trusted communication and incorporated by reference earlier herein, that is shared and co-pending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/080 521 No. (April 2011 5 and filed on one, reference is made to the title of the invention "METHODS aND APPARATUS fOR STORAGE aND EXECUTION oF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS" Im). 액세스 모듈의 제한된 기능은 로컬 캐리어 네트워크의 미리 정의된 데이터 포털과의 데이터 접속들을 구축하고, 업데이트 포털로부터 소프트웨어 패키지들을 다운로드하고, 수신된 패키지들을 어셈블한다. Limited functionality of the access module to build a data connection with a predefined data portal of the local carrier network and downloaded the software update package from the portal, and assembles the received package. 이들 패키지들은 운영 체제 컴포넌트들, 액세스 제어 클라이언트들, 사용자 계정 데이터 등을 전체적으로 또는 부분적으로 포함할 수 있다. These packages can include the operating system components, access control client, user account data, etc., in whole or in part. 이하의 예에서, 사용자는 새로운 eSIM을 자신의 디바이스에 전자적으로 다운로드하여, 임의의 물리적인 컴포넌트 소유 요청들을 제거한다. In the following example, the user may electronically download a new eSIM on his device, it eliminates any physical component of ownership request. eSIM이 사용자를 인증하고 난 후, 네트워크는 사용자에의 액세스를 허용하며, 네트워크 액세스는 휴대전화 호출들을 발신하고/수신하는 것, 인터넷을 브라우징하는 것, 네트워크를 통해 오디오 가상 컨텐츠에 액세스하는 것과 같은 최종 사용자 동작들을 허용한다. eSIM after I authenticate the user, the network allows access to the user network access to calling and / receive phone calls, to browse the Internet, such as access to audio virtual content over a network allowing the end-user action. 방법(200)의 단계(202)에서, 무선 디바이스는 이동 디바이스의 eUICC 보안 요소와 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털 간의 인증된 데이터 세션을 구축한다. In step 202 of method 200, the wireless device establishes a data session between the authentication eUICC security element with a local carrier update portal of a mobile device. 세션 인증은 eUICC 모듈 식별 데이터에 기초한다. Session authentication is based on eUICC module identification data. eUICC 모듈 식별 데이터는 eUICC에 특정한 기존의 키를 참조하지만, 본 명세서가 주어졌을 때 당업자들에 의해 인식되는 다수의 다른 접근 방식들 또한 사용될 수 있다. eUICC module identification data refers to an existing key specific to eUICC but the time where the context is given a number of different approaches will be appreciated by those skilled in the art method may also be used. 여기서 상세히 설명되는 바와 같이, eUICC는 하나의 변형에서 공용키/개인키 및 인증 기관(authenticating authority)(예를 들어, 그 담당자(Assignee))에 의한 인증서에 의해 "버닝"되거나 하드코딩된 액세스 모듈을 포함한다. As will be described in detail here, eUICC is in one variant a public key / private key and a certification authority (authenticating authority) (for example, the representative (Assignee)) "burned" by the certificate by, or hard-coded access module It includes. 공용키 및 보증 인증서(endorsement certificate)가 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털에 제공된다. The public key certificate and guarantee (endorsement certificate) is provided to the local carrier update portal. 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털은 보증 인증서를 검증한다(예를 들어, 인증서를 발행한 인증 기관에 의한 검증). The local carrier update portal validates the warranty certificate (for example, verification by a certification authority that issued the certificate). 보증 인증서가 유효하면, 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털은 벤더 인증서 및 세션키를 이동 디바이스로 전송하며, 여기서 벤더 인증서 및 세션키는 이동 디바이스의 공용키에 의해 더 암호화된다. If the warranty certificate is valid, the local carrier update portal transmits the vendor certificate and the session key to the mobile device, wherein the vendor certificate and the session key is further encrypted by the public key of the mobile device. 이에 응답하여, eUICC는 벤더의 공용키에 의해 벤더 인증서를 암호해독하고, 그 신뢰성을 검증한다. In response, the vendor eUICC decrypts the certificate by the public key of the vendor, and verify the reliability. 단, 벤더의 공용 서명키에 의하여 벤더의 인증서를 성공적으로 암호해독하는 것은 서명이 위조되지 않았다는 증거를 eUICC에게 제공하는 것임을 유의하도록 한다. However, it is signed by the public key of the vendor to successfully decrypted by the certificate of the vendor should be noted that the evidence provided by the signature was not forged to eUICC. 이동 디바이스는 벤더 인증서 및 세션키를 그 개인키에 의해 암호해독한다. The mobile device is decrypted by the vendor's certificate and the session key to the private key. 만약 벤더 인증서가 유효하면, 이동 디바이스는 세션키를 허용한다. If the vendor's certificate is valid, the mobile device allows the session key. 상술한 교환이 성공적으로 완료되는 것은 이동 디바이스 및 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털이 모두 합법적이고 이제는 공유된 세션키를 가지고 있다는 것을 보장한다. It is above exchange is successfully completed, both the mobile device and the local carrier update portal legally and to ensure that they have a shared session key now. 공유된 세션키는 이동 디바이스와 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털 간의 보안 세션을 행하는 데에 사용된다. Shared session key is used for performing a secure session between the mobile device and the local carrier update portal. 다시 도 2를 참조하면, 단계(204)에서, 사용자(또는 디바이스 관리 엔터티)에게 하나 이상의 업데이트 옵션이 제시된다. Referring back to Figure 2, in step 204, the user (or the device management entity) one or more updated options to be presented. 다양한 옵션들은 예를 들어, 이용가능한 데이터 계획들, 이용가능한 네트워크 캐리어 옵션들 등의 목록을 포함할 수 있다. Various options are, for example, may include a list of the available data plans, such as the available network carrier options. 단계(206)에서 사용자 선택을 수신하면, 하나 이상의 패키지가 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털에 의해 준비된다. Upon receiving a user selection at step 206, one or more packages are prepared by the local carrier update portal. 단계(208)에서, 패키지들은 이동 디바이스로 전송되고, 각각의 패키지는 세션키에 의해 암호화된다. In step 208, the package are transmitted to the mobile device, each package is encrypted using the session key. 하나 이상의 패키지는 예를 들어, eSIM을 포함할 수 있다. At least one package, for example, may include a eSIM. 다른 공통 패키지들은 SIM OS 또는 "공통 OS"에 필요한 추가의 피처(feature)들 또는 컴포넌트들을 포함할 수 있다. Other common package may include additional features or components (feature) needed for SIM OS or "common OS". 특히, 액세스 모듈이 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털과 보안 세션을 구축하기에 충분한 동안에는, SIM 동작에 필요한 다른 요소들을 제공하지 않는다. In particular, while the access module is sufficient to establish a local carrier update portal and a secure session, it does not provide other elements necessary for SIM operation. 예를 들어, 공통 OS는 파일 입력 및 출력, 파일 관리, 메모리 할당 등과 같은 서비스들을 제공한다. For example, the common OS provides services, such as file input and output, file management, and memory allocation. 공통 OS는 eUICC 소프트웨어와 결합하여 SIM 동작을 지원하기 위하여 종래 기술의 UICC에 의해 통상적으로 구현되는 서비스들을 에뮬레이트한다. Common OS emulates the services are implemented in a conventional UICC by the prior art to combine with eUICC software to support the SIM operation. 단계(210)에서, 보안 전송된 패키지들을 수신한 후, 부트스트랩 OS는 패키지들을 로딩하고 어셈블할 수 있다. In step 210, after receiving the secure transport of packages, the bootstrap OS may load the package and assembled. 일단 어셈블되고 나면, 부트스트랩 OS는 공통 OS를 실행시키고, 공통 OS는 적절한 eSIM을 로딩하고 실행시킨다. Once it is assembled, the bootstrap OS is executed and a common OS, a common OS, thereby loading the appropriate eSIM running. 단, 공통 OS는 패키지를 통해 전달되거나 또는 eUICC 내에 존재할 수 있음을 유의하도록 한다. However, the common OS should be noted that there may be present in the transfer through the package or eUICC. 게다가, 상이한 eSIM들이 상이한 공통 OS 서비스들을 요청할 수도 있음을 또한 유의하도록 한다. In addition, it also to be noted that the different eSIM may also request different services common OS. 부트스트랩 OS는 eSIM과 공통 OS가 호환가능함을 보장해야 한다. Bootstrap OS shall ensure that eSIM and common OS compatible. 호환가능성은 버전 식별자들, 신뢰된 엔터티 인증들 등에 의해 검증될 수 있다. Interchangeability can be verified by the version of the identifier, the trusted entity authentication. 예를 들어, 부트스트랩 OS는 eSIM이 현존하는 공통 OS와 사용하는 데에 허용될 수 있고 신뢰된 엔터티에 의해 서명되었다는 것을 검증할 수 있다. For example, the bootstrap OS may be acceptable for use in the common OS to eSIM the presence can be verified that the signature by a trusted entity. 예들 들어, 디바이스가 사용자에게 필요에 따라 새로운 계정 정보(예를 들어, 사용자 명, 계좌 번호, 비밀 번호 및/또는 PIN)를 프롬프트하는 것에 의해 추가적인 서비스들이 활성화된다(단계 212). For example, a new device account information necessary for users to additional services by the prompt (for example, user names, account numbers, passwords and / or PIN) is activated (step 212). 그 후, 업데이트된 이동 디바이스가 풀-피처드(full featured) eSIM을 활성화시켜서 음성 호출들을 하게 하고 사용자 데이터를 수신 및 전송하게 하는 등을 할 수 있다. Then, the updated mobile device a full-may be a voice call by activating the pitcher de (full featured) eSIM and to the like to receive and transmit user data. 다르게는, 휴대전화가 아닌 구현들에서, (예를 들어, WLAN 내에서의) 액세스 포인트 또는 게이트웨이 액세스, 브로드밴드 액세스 등과 같은 기능들이 상기한 방법론을 사용하여 인에이블될 수 있다. Alternatively, it may be enabled to implement in a non-mobile, using the above-described methods are the same as the function (e. G., Within the WLAN) access point or access gateway, the access speed. 무선 장치의 전체적인 수명 주기를 관리하기 위한 본 발명의 예시적인 실시예가 설명된다. An example illustrative embodiments of the present invention is described for managing the overall life cycle of a wireless device. 제시된 프로그래밍 방법론들은 보안 업데이트들 설치, OS 패치들 설치 및/또는 OS의 하나 이상의 양태의 완전한 대체를 지원한다. Programming methodologies are presented to support the installation of security updates, OS patches installed and / or complete substitution of one or more aspects of the OS. 한 예시적인 실시예에서, eUICC는 부트스트랩 OS 및 공통 OS를 추가로 포함한다. In an exemplary embodiment, eUICC further includes a bootstrap OS and the common OS. 간단한 부트스트랩 OS가 공통 OS, 및 그와 연관된 eSIM 및 패치들을 로딩하고 실행시킨다. The simple bootstrap OS then loading and executing eSIM patches and associated with a common OS, and the like. 운영 체제는 SIM 동작을 지원하는 데에 요구되지만, 사용자 액세스 제어 자체에 직접 관련되지는 않는다. The operating system, but required to support the SIM operation is not directly related to user access controls itself. 특히, 공통 OS는 파일 입력 및 출력, 파일 관리, 메모리 할당 등과 같은 범용화된 서비스들을 제공한다. In particular, the common OS provides the generalized service, such as file input and output, file management, and memory allocation. 극단적인 경우들에는, 휴대전화 또는 다른 장치가 완전히 새로운 부트스트랩 OS를 수신하고 어셈블하여 그 인증 알고리즘을 업데이트할 수 있다. In extreme cases, a mobile phone or other device for receiving and assembling a whole new bootstrap OS may update the authentication algorithm. 도 3은 본 발명의 실시예에 따른 운영 체제를 대체(또는 업데이트)하기 위한 예시적인 프로세스(300)를 도시한다. Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary process 300 for replacement (or update) the operating system in the embodiment; 부트스트랩 OS 업데이트를 요청하는 공통된 이유들로는 새로이 발견된 보안 구멍들, 인증 알고리즘들에 대한 개선들, 새로운 기능들 등이 있다. The common reasons include newly discovered security holes that requests a bootstrap OS update, the improved algorithm for authentication, there are new features and more. 일부 경우들에서는, 시기 적절한 보안 업데이트들을 권장하기 위하여, 캐리어들이 적정한 시간 내에 업데이트되지 않은 이동 장치들을 디스에이블시키도록 택할 수 있다. In some cases, you can choose to move the carriers as to disable non-update apparatus within a reasonable time, to encourage the timely security updates. 또한, 캐리어는 사용자가 업데이트하는 것을 권장하기 위하여 자동 관리 동작(proactive action)(예를 들어, 빈도가 증가하는 반복되는 리마인더들)을 취하거나, 또는 심지어 통지 시에, 계속된 서비스 액세스에 대해 업데이트가 완료되어야 하도록 장치를 구성할 수도 있다. Further, the carrier is self-managing behavior (proactive action) take (e.g., repeated reminder that the frequency increases), or even at the time of notification, updates for the continuing service access to encourage the user to update You can also configure the device to be completed. 또한, 어떤 실시예들에서는, 강제적인 업데이트들(즉, 사용자 동의 없이 수행되는 업데이트들)이 본 발명에 의해 고려된다. In some embodiments, the update of the forced (i.e., updating is performed without the user's agreement) are contemplated by the present invention. 운영 체제를 대체하거나 업데이트하는 다른 이유들로는 예를 들어, 소비자 기반 고려사항들, 예를 들어, 새로운 휴대전화 네트워크 서비스로의 이동, 제품 기능들의 업데이트, 새로운 휴대전화 계약의 구매 등이 있을 수 있다. The examples are other reasons to replace or update your operating system for example, can be a consumer-based considerations, for example, a new phone Go to network services, updating of product features, the new mobile phone purchase contracts. 단계(302)에서, 이동 장치는 eUICC에 특정한 기존의 키를 통해 보안 요소와 캐리어 업데이트 포털 간의 인증된 데이터 세션을 구축한다. In step 302, the mobile device through an existing key specific to eUICC establish an authenticated session between the security element and the data carrier update portal. 또한, 일부 환경들에서, 부트스트랩 OS에 대한 변경들은 예를 들어, 새로운 보안 기능 등을 인에이블시키기 위하여 공통 OS의 대응하는 부분들을 업데이트할 것을 요청할 것이다. Further, in some circumstances, changes to the bootstrap OS are, for example, to request the updating of the corresponding portion of the common OS, such as in order to enable the new security function. 따라서, 예시된 실시예의 단계(304)에서, 이동 장치는 (i) 부트스트랩 OS 부분만을 업데이트하거나, (ii) 공통 OS 부분을 업데이트하거나, 또는 (iii) 부트스트랩 OS 및 공통 OS를 업데이트할 수 있다. Thus, in the illustrated embodiment, step 304, the mobile device (i) a bootstrap OS only update portions, or (ii) the common update the OS part, or (iii) to update the bootstrap OS and the common OS have. 예를 들어, 이동 장치는 그 부트스트랩 OS를 업데이트함으로써 그 지원된 캐리어들의 리스트를 업데이트할 수 있다. For example, the mobile device may update a list of those supported by the carrier update the bootstrap OS. 마찬가지로, 이동 장치는 공통 OS 업데이트에 의해 보다 큰 eSIM 파일 구조들을 지원하기 위하여 그 내부 파일 구조를 업데이트할 수 있다. Likewise, a mobile device may update its internal file structure to support larger eSIM file structure by the common OS update. 또한, 이동 장치는 파일 구조에 대한 변경들을 더 포함하는 새로운 캐리어를 지원하기 위하여 재프로그래밍될 수 있다(부트스트랩 OS 및 공통 OS 모두가 업데이트됨). In addition, the mobile device may again be programmed to support the new carrier further contains a change to the file structure (the bootstrap OS and the common OS all updates). 부트스트랩 OS가 업데이트되면, 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털이 이동 장치의 부트스트랩 OS 프로파일 구성을 저장한다(단계 306). When the OS bootstrap has been updated, and the local carrier update portal stores the configuration of the OS bootstrap the mobile device profile (step 306). 부트스트랩 OS 프로파일은 네트워크 인증 구성, eSIM 관리 등을 포함하지만, 이에 제한되지 않는다. Bootstrap OS profile including network authentication, eSIM administration, but is not limited to this. 이 저장된 OS 프로파일은 나중에 공통 OS 업데이트 패키지를 구성하는 데에 사용될 수 있다(공통 OS 업데이트는 이동 장치의 구성에 특정될 수 있다). The OS stored in the profile may be used to configure the common OS update package later (common OS update may be specified in the configuration of the mobile device). 단계(308)에서, 부트스트랩 OS를 포함하는 업데이트 패키지는 후속하여 이동 장치로 다운로드되고 새로운 부트스트랩 OS로 어셈블된다. In step 308, the update package comprising the bootstrapping OS will subsequently be downloaded to the mobile device is assembled with a new bootstrap OS. 단계(310)에서, eUICC의 현존하는 부트스트랩 OS가 새로운 부트스트랩 OS에 의해 대체된다. In step 310, the presence of the OS bootstrap eUICC is replaced by a new bootstrap OS. 따라서, 공통 OS는 단계(312)들마다 다운로드될 수 있다. Therefore, the common OS can be downloaded, deulma step 312. 이동 장치, eUICC 또는 로컬 캐리어 네트워크의 특정 구현 요청사항들로 인해, 공통 OS 패키지는 단계(306)에서 이전에 저장된 OS 프로파일에 대응하여 커스터마이즈될 수 있다(단계(314)마다). A mobile device, or eUICC (per step 314) a local carrier network because of the particular implementation request, the common OS package can be customized corresponding to the OS profile previously stored at step 306. 풀-피처드 공통 OS가 이동 장치로 다운로드되고 새로운 공통 OS로 어셈블된다. Full-feature common DE OS is downloaded to the mobile device is assembled with a new common OS. 일부 경우들에서, 복수의 공통 OS는 예를 들어, 복수의 eSIM 등을 지원하도록 이동 장치 내에 저장될 수 있다. In some cases, a plurality of the common OS, for example, may be stored in the mobile device to support a plurality of eSIM like. 부트스트랩 OS는 eSIM들의 실행을 제어할 것이고, 이는 적절한 공통 OS의 선택을 포함할 수 있다. Bootstrap OS will control the execution of eSIM, which may include selection of an appropriate common OS. 일부 실시예들에서, 공통 OS 및/또는 그의 여러 컴포넌트들의 실행은 호환가능성에 의존하여 행해질 수 있다(예를 들어, 부트스트랩 OS는 공통 OS에, 공통 OS 컴포넌트는 공통 OS 컴포넌트에, 기타 등등). In some embodiments, the common OS and / or a run of the various components may be made depending on the potential compatible (e.g., the bootstrap OS is a common OS, a common OS components to the common OS components, and the like) . 이제부터 도 4를 참조하여, 휴대전화 네트워크를 통해 전자 식별 컴포넌트들을 전달하기 위한 일반화된 방법(400)의 일 실시예가 개시된다. Now refer to FIG. 4, it is disclosed one embodiment of a method 400 for transmitting the common electronic identification component via a mobile phone network. 프리 로딩된 제한된 기능 액세스 모듈을 갖는 이동 장치는 가입 계획 등의 일부로서 예를 들어, 세일, 프로모션에 의해 최종 사용자에게 배포된다. A mobile device having a pre-load a limited function access module is distributed, for example, to the end user by the sales, promotional, as part of a subscription plan. 액세스 모듈의 제한된 기능은 로컬 캐리어 네트워크와의 데이터 접속들을 구축하고, 캐리어 네트워크로부터 소프트웨어 패키지들을 다운로드하고, 수신된 패키지들을 어셈블하도록 구성된다. A limitation of the access module is configured to establish a data connection with a local carrier network, downloading software packages from the carrier network, and assembling the received package. 단계(402)에서, 이동 장치는 하나 이상의 허용가능한 캐리어 네트워크 상에서 업데이트 포털에 대한 접속을 구축한다. In step 402, the mobile device establishes a connection to a portal update on one or more acceptable carrier network. 업데이트 포털은 예를 들어, 캐리어 데이터 포털, 제3자 소프트웨어 벤더, 이동 장치 제조업자 등일 수 있다. Updating the portal, for example, data carrier portal, a third party software vendor, the mobile device may be a manufacturer. 전자 식별 컴포넌트들을 제공할 수 있는 여러 유형들의 네트워크 엔터티들은 미국 특허 출원 번호 제13/093,722호(2011년 4월 25에 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR STORING ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES"임) 및 제13/095,716호(2011년 4월 27일에 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION OF UNIQUE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES"임), 및 미국 가특허 출원 번호 제61/479,319호(2011년 4월 26일에 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "ELECTRONIC ACCESS CLIENT DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS AND METHODS"임) 및 제61/483,582호(2011년 5월 6일에 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES FOR ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS"임) 내에 개시되어 있으며, 상기한 출원들 각각은 본 명세서에서 전체적으로 참조로 포함된다. Network entities of different types that can provide electronic identification component are U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/093 722 number (and filed April 25, 2011, entitled & Lim "APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR STORING ELECTRONIC SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES") and 13/095 716 number (and filed April 27, 2011, the title of the invention "SYSTEM fOR DISTRIBUTION oF UNIQUE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULES" Im), and United States Patent Application Serial No. 61/479 319 No. (April, 2011 and filed on 26, the title of the invention "ELECTRONIC ACCESS CLIENT DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS aND METHODS" Im) and 61/483 582 number (and filed on May 06, 2011, the title of the invention "METHODS aND APPARATUS fOR PROVIDING MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES is disclosed in the ACCESS CONTROL FOR CLIENTS "Im), each of the aforementioned application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. 예를 들어, eUICC 기기 또는 eSIM 디포(depot)는 이동 장치들에 대하여 보안 접속들을 구축하여 현존하는 eSIM들을 교환하거나 수정할 수 있는 네트워크 구조들이다. For example, device or eUICC eSIM Depot (depot) are the network structure that can change or modify the existing eSIM to establish the secure connection with respect to the mobile device. 일부 실시예들에서, 프리 로딩된 제한된 기능 액세스 모듈은 복수의 우선적인(preferred) 캐리어에 대하여 스캔하도록 구성될 수 있다. In some embodiments, the pre-limited function access module loading may be configured to scan for a plurality of primary (preferred) carrier. 복수의 캐리어가 이용가능하면, 장치는 하나 이상의 캐리어 네트워크의 이용가능성을 판정하고, 이용가능한 캐리어들의 리스트로부터 선택을 행한다. When a plurality of carriers can be used, the apparatus determines the availability of more than one carrier network, and performs a selection from the list of available carriers. 일 실시예에서, 캐리어들의 리스트는 "우선적인" 캐리어들로 추가적으로 우선순위화되고, 우선적인 캐리어들은 예를 들어, 비지니스 고려사항들, 사용자 선호도들 등으로 인해 다른 캐리어들보다 우선순위화된다. In one embodiment, the list of carriers are screen further priorities in the "priority" carrier, preferred carriers are, for example, due to business considerations, the user preferences, and so on are prioritized over other carriers. 일부 실시예들에서는, 캐리어들의 리스트가 그래픽 사용자 인터페이스(GUI)를 통해 사용자에게 제시된다. In some embodiments, a list of the carrier and presented to the user through a graphical user interface (GUI). 일부 변형들에서, 캐리어는 이동 장치를 TSM(Trusted Service Manager) 포털에 연결한다. In some variations, the carrier is connected to the mobile device in (Trusted Service Manager) TSM portal. TSM은 이동 장치에 업데이트 패키지들을 전달하기 위하여 로컬 캐리어에 의해 인증되는 엔터티이다. TSM is the entity that is authorized by the local carrier in order to deliver the update package to the mobile device. 하나의 예시적인 실시예에서, 단계(402)는 장치가 작동하는 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 갖기 전에 인증된 데이터 세션을 요청한다. In one exemplary embodiment, step 402 and requests the data session authentication before they have access control to the client device is in operation. 구체적으로, 단계(402)는 장치가 유효한 eSIM을 활성화시키기 전에 수행된다. More specifically, step 402 is performed before activating the device eSIM valid. 이제부터, 본 명세서에서 이전에 포함된 공유되고 동시 계류 중인 미국 특허 출원 번호 제13/080,521호(2011년 4월 5일 출원되고, 발명의 명칭이 "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND EXECUTION OF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS"임)에 개시된 보안 전송 방식의 일 실예를 참조하도록 한다. Now, herein previously shared and co-pending US patent application serial number contained in Article 13 / 080,521 Issue (April, 2011 and filed five days, the title of the invention "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND EXECUTION OF ACCESS CONTROL CLIENTS "Im) refer to one of a secure transmission method silye disclosed. 당업자들은 이하의 방식이 다른 유사한 방식들에 의해 대체될 수 있음을 이해할 것이다. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the following manner can be replaced by other similar methods. 따라서, 예시적인 실시예에서, 이동 장치는 소프트웨어 엔터티, 예를 들어, eUICC의 물리적으로 보호된 보안 요소에 저장되는 암호화 공용키/개인키 쌍(예를 들어, RSA(Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) 알고리즘)에 의해 하드코딩된다. Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, the mobile device is a software entity, for example, to be stored in the secure element protect physically the eUICC encrypted public / private key pair (e.g., RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm, ) it is hard-coded by. 또한, eUICC의 신뢰성 및 개인키의 보안은 eUICC 키 쌍에 대한 "보증(endorsement)" 인증서를 발행한 신뢰된 엔터티에 의해 더욱 증명된다. In addition, the reliability and security of the private key of eUICC is further demonstrated by a trusted entity that issued the "guarantee (endorsement)" certificate for eUICC key pair. 신뢰된 엔터티의 한 예로는 예를 들어, 장치 제조업자, 네트워크 오퍼레이터 등일 수 있다. One example of a trusted entity, for example, may be a device manufacturer, network operator. 간단한 부연으로서, 공용키/개인키 쌍은 보안 개인키 및 공개된 공용키를 포함한다. A simple words, the public key / private key pair includes a private key and a public security public key. 공용키에 의해 암호화된 메시지는 적절한 개인키를 사용하여서만 암호해독될 수 있다. The messages encrypted by the public key can be decrypted only in the password using the appropriate private key. 암호화 및 암호해독에 사용된 키가 상이하면, 공용키/개인키 방식들은 "비대칭형"인 것으로 고려되며, 따라서 암호기 및 암호해독기는 동일한 키를 공유하지 않는다. If the key used for encryption and decryption different from each other, a public key / private key methods, and are considered to be the "asymmetric", thus encryptor and decryptor are not sharing the same key. 반대로, "대칭형" 키 방식들은 암호화 및 암호해독 모두에 동일한 키(또는 사소하게 변형된 키들)를 사용한다. In contrast, "symmetric" key schemes use the same key (or minor modifications to the keys) in both encryption and decryption. RSA(Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) 알고리즘은 관련된 기술들 내에서 통상적으로 사용되는 공용키/개인키 쌍 암호 기법 중 한 유형이지만, 본 발명은 RSA 알고리즘 또는 사실상의 비대칭형 기술들에 제한되지 않는 방식으로 됨을 인식할 것이다. Although RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm is one of the conventional public key / private key pair cryptography is used as in the related art type, in such a way the invention is not limited to the RSA algorithm or substantially asymmetric technique It will be recognized. 보증키(endorsement key) 쌍들은 비대칭형이기 때문에, 공용키들은 개인키들의 무결성을 훼손시키지 않고 배포될 수 있다. Since the warranty key (endorsement key) pairs are asymmetric, public key can be distributed without compromising the integrity of the private keys. 따라서, 보증키 및 인증서는 이전에 알려지지 않은 당사자들(예를 들어, 이동 장치 및 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털) 간의 통신을 보호하고 검증하는 데에 사용될 수 있다. Therefore, the guarantee certificate and keys may be used to secure communications between the parties are not known to previously (e.g., the mobile device and the local carrier update portal) and verified. 상술한 교환이 성공적으로 완료되는 것(예를 들어, 이동 장치 및 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털의 상호 검증)은 이동 장치 및 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털이 합법적이고 이제는 공유된 세션키를 가지고 있다는 것을 보장한다. The above will be exchanged successfully completed (for example, a mobile device and cross-validation of the local carrier update portal) ensures that the mobile device and the local carrier update portal legitimate and have a shared session key now. 공유된 세션키는 이동 장치와 로컬 캐리어 업데이트 포털 간의 보안 세션을 수행하는 데에 사용된다. A shared session key is used to perform a secure session between the mobile device and the local carrier update portal. 다시 도 4를 참조하면, 단계 404에서, 이동 장치는 하나 이상의 컴포넌트를 요청하거나, 또는 하나 이상의 컴포넌트를 다운로드하라고 지시받는다. Referring again to Figure 4, in step 404, the mobile device receives a request indicating to one or more components, or to download one or more components. 일 실시예에서, 여러 컴포넌트들은 필요한 다운로드 사이즈를 최소화하기 위하여 이동 장치로 프리 로딩될 수 있다. In one embodiment, multiple components may be pre-loaded onto the mobile device in order to minimize the size required to download. 예를 들어, 예시적인 일 실시예에서, (상이한 모든 OS 및 eSIM에 걸쳐 공통인 그것들의 컴포넌트들을 포함하는) 일반적으로 사용되는, 큰 사이즈의 부분들은 제조 중에 이동 디바이스에 프리 로드된다; For example, in an exemplary embodiment, the portion of the general, large size used (including those of common components throughout all of the different OS and eSIM) are pre-loaded in the mobile device during manufacturing; 프리로드된 부분은 다운로드될 필요가 없고 패키지 크기를 줄일 수 있다. The pre-loaded portion may not need to be downloaded to reduce the package size. 따라서, 이동 디바이스는 프리로드되었던 컴포넌트들을 다운로드 할 필요가 없다. Thus, the mobile device does not need to download them were pre-loaded components. 일 구체화 예에서, 업데이트 포탈은 업데이트 요청(예를 들면, eSIM 다운로드, 운영 체제 다운로드, 사용자 계정 데이터 다운로드 등), 사용자 계정 정보, 관련된 계획과 서비스, 및 식별 정보를 분석하고, 대응하여 적절한 업데이트 패키지를 생성한다. One in the shape example, updating the portal update request (for example, eSIM download, operating system download, user account data downloads, etc.), analyze the user's account information, related to plans and services, and identification information corresponding to the appropriate update packages the produce. 일부 변형에 있어서, 업데이트 요청은 업데이트 패키지를 생성하기 전에 인가되고 그리고/또는 검증된다. In some variations, the update request is approved, and / or testing prior to generating the update package. 단계 406에서, 업데이트 패키지가 준비된다. In step 406, it is ready for the update package. 일 실시예에서, 업데이트는 더 쉬운 전송을 위해 여러 패키지로 분할된다. In one embodiment, the update will be split into several packages for easier transport. 단계 408에서, 업데이트 패키지(들)은 목표에 무선으로 안전하게 전송된다. In step 408, the update package (s) are sent securely over the air to a target. 이러한 패키지들은, 전체적으로 또는 부분적으로, 운영 체제 컴포넌트들, 액세스 제어 클라이언트들, 사용자 계정 데이터 등을 포함할 수 있다. These packages may include, in whole or in part, the operating system components, access control client, the user account data. 예시적인 일 실시예에서, 이동 디바이스는 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 다운로드 및/또는 업데이트한다. In an exemplary embodiment, the mobile device has an access control client downloaded and / or updated. 일 변형에서, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 eSIM이다. In one variation, the access control client is eSIM. eSIM의 여러가지 타입은 SIM(Subscriber Identity Module), USIM(Universal Subscriber Identity Module), RUIM(Removable User Identity Module) 등을 에뮬레이트하도록 구성되어 있다. Different types of eSIM is configured to emulate the like (Subscriber Identity Module) SIM, (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) USIM, (Removable User Identity Module) RUIM. 일부 실시예에서, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는, 예를 들어 그 전체가 참조로서 포함되며, 제목이 "POSTPONED CARRIER CONFIGURATION" 이고 공동 소유, 공동 계류된 2009년 1월 13일에 출원된 미국 특허 출원번호 제12/353,227호 내에서 기술된 지연 방식(postponed scheme)을 통해 전송시에 결정될 수 있다. In some embodiments, the access control client, for example, that are entirely incorporated by reference, titled "POSTPONED CARRIER CONFIGURATION" and U.S. Patent Application Serial No., filed on January 13, commonly owned, co-pending 2009 12th through the delay scheme (scheme postponed) technology in the / 353 227 call can be determined at the time of transmission. 다른 실시예에서, 이동 디바이스는 운영 체제(OS) 또는 OS 컴포넌트들을 다운로드 및/또는 업데이트 한다. In another embodiment, the mobile device may download and / or update the operating system (OS), or OS components. 예를 들어, 이러한 운영 체제 컴포넌트들은 공용 또는 개인 키(key), 새로운 암호화 알고리즘, 보안 액세스를 위한 업데이트 절차, 새로운 디바이스 인증서, 하나 혹은 그 이상의 다른 신뢰된 공급 업체 인증서 등을 포함할 수 있다. For example, these operating system components may include public or private key (key), a new encryption algorithm, the update procedures for secure access, new devices certificate, one or more other certificates, such as a trusted supplier. 예를 들면, 통신하는 당사자의 아이덴티티를 검증하고, 그 검증된 아이덴티티에 상응하는 액세스 레벨을 승인하는 액세스 모듈은 검증의 방법에 대한 임의의 수의 변경들 및/또는 허가될 수 있는 액세스 레벨들을 가질 수 있다는 것을 알게 된다. For example, to verify the identity of the communicating parties, and approved by the corresponding access level to the verified identity access module can have any level of access that can be changed, and / or can be permitted of the of the method of verification It can be learned that. 또 다른 변형에서, 운영 체제 컴포넌트들은 액세스 제어 동작을 지원하도록 구성되지만, 액세스 제어와는 직접적으로 연관되지 않는다. In yet another variation, the operating system components include, but configured to support access control operations, and an access control is not directly related to. 예를 들면, 보통의 OS 서비스는 파일 입력 및 출력, 파일 관리, 메모리 할당 등을 포함한다. For example, the normal OS services include such as file input and output, file management, and memory allocation. 단계 408에서, 패키지(들)을 수신하고 인증할 때, 이동 디바이스는 컴포넌트들을 어셈블링하고 업데이트한다. In step 408, upon receiving the package (s) and the authentication, the mobile device is assembled, and update the components. 이 후, 이동 디바이스는 새로이 어셈블링되고 업데이트된 액세스 제어 클라이언트로 가입자 세션(subscriber session)을 구축할 수 있고, 이 가입자 세션은 조작자의 무선 네트워크 서비스의 사용을 가능하게 한다. Thereafter, the mobile device can establish a session, a subscriber (subscriber session) to the newly assembled and the updated access control client, a subscriber session enables the use of a wireless network service of the operator. 예를 들면, 업데이트된 이동 디바이스는 음성 호출을 행하고, 사용자 데이터 등을 수신하고 전송하기 위해 업데이트된 eSIM을 활성화할 수 있다. For example, the updated mobile device may enable the updated eSIM to receive a voice call is performed, user data or the like and sent. 이제 도 5를 참조하면, 본 발명의 방법을 구현하는데 유용한 예시적인 장치(500)가 도시되었다. Referring now to Figure 5, for implementing the method of the present invention is useful exemplary apparatus 500 is shown. 도 5의 예시적인 UE 장치는 디지털 신호 프로세서, 마이크로프로세서, 필드 프로그램가능한 게이트 어레이, 또는 하나 이상의 기판상에 탑재된 복수의 프로세싱 컴포넌트들과 같은 프로세서 서브시스템(processor subsystem)(502)을 가진 무선 디바이스이다. Exemplary UE device of FIG. 5 is a wireless device with a digital signal processor, a microprocessor, a field programmable gate array, or a processor subsystem (processor subsystem) (502), such as a plurality of processing components mounted on at least one substrate to be. 프로세싱 서브시스템은 또한 내부 캐쉬 메모리를 포함할 수 있다. The processing subsystem may also include an internal cache memory. 프로세싱 서브시스템은, 예를 들어 SRAM, 플래쉬 및 SDRAM 컴포넌트들을 포함할 수 있는 메모리를 포함하는 메모리 서브시스템(504)에 연결되어 있다. The processing subsystem may, for example, connected to a memory subsystem 504 that includes a memory, which may comprise SRAM, flash and SDRAM components. 메모리 서브시스템은 당 기술 분야에서 잘 알려진 것처럼 데이터 액세스를 용이하게 하도록, 하나 이상의 DMA 타입의 하드웨어를 구현할 수 있다. The memory subsystem may, implement one or more of hardware DMA type to facilitate access to the data as is well known in the field of the art. 메모리 서브시스템은 프로세서 서브시스템에 의해서 실행 가능한 컴퓨터 실행가능 명령어들을 포함한다. The memory subsystem includes a computer-executable instructions executable by the processor subsystem. 본 발명의 예시적인 일 실시예에서, 디바이스는 하나 이상의 무선 네트워크에 접속하도록 구성된 하나 이상의 무선 인터페이스(506)를 포함할 수 있다. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the device may include one or more wireless interface 506 configured to connect to one or more wireless networks. 다수의 무선 인터페이스는 적절한 안테나 및 모뎀 서브시스템을 장착함으로써 GSM, CDMA, UMTS, LTE/LTE-A, WiMAX, WLAN, Bluetooth 등과 같은 상이한 무선 기술들을 지원할 수 있다. A plurality of wireless interfaces may support different radio technologies such as GSM, CDMA, UMTS, LTE / LTE-A, WiMAX, WLAN, Bluetooth equipped by appropriate antenna and modem subsystem. 사용자 인터페이스 서브시스템(508)은 키패드, 터치 스크린(예를 들면, 멀티 터치 인터페이스), LCD 디스플레이, 백라이트, 스피커 및/또는 마이크로폰을 제한 없이 포함하는 잘 알려진 임의의 수의 I/O를 포함한다. The user interface subsystem 508 may include a keypad, a touch screen (e.g., a multi-touch interface), LCD display, back light, a speaker and / or a well-known arbitrary number of I / O, including the microphone, without limitation. 그러나, 어떤 애플리케이션에서는 이들 컴포넌트들 중의 하나 이상이 제거될 수 있다는 점이 인식된다. However, in some applications, it is appreciated that one or more can be removed in these components. 예를 들면, PCMCIA 카드 타입 클라이언트 실시예들은 (그 실시예들은 그것들이 물리적으로 및/또는 전기적으로 연결되는 호스트 디바이스의 사용자 인터페이스에 피기백 방식으로 장착될 수 있기 때문에) 사용자 인터페이스가 없을 수 있다. For example, exemplary PCMCIA card type client examples (the embodiments, since they can be piggy to physically and / or user interface of a host device that is electrically connected to mounting the back way) may not have a user interface. 도시된 실시예에서, 디바이스는 eUICC 애플리케이션을 포함하고 동작시키는 보안 요소(510)를 포함한다. In the illustrated embodiment, the device comprises a security element 510 to include eUICC application and operation. eUICC는 복수의 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 저장하고 액세스할 수 있고, 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 각각의 네트워크에 사용자를 인증하도록 구성된다. eUICC stores a plurality of Access Control client and it is possible to access, access control, the client is configured to authenticate a user for each network. 보안 요소는 프로세서 서브시스템의 요청시에 메모리 서브시스템에 의해 액세스가능하다. The secure element is accessible by the memory subsystem upon request from the processor subsystem. 또한 보안 요소는 소위 "보안 마이크로프로세서(secure microprocessor)" 혹은 보안 분야에서 잘 알려진 형태의 SM을 포함할 수 있다. Further the security element may include a so-called "secure microprocessor (secure microprocessor)" or a type well known in the SM field of security. 더욱이, eUICC의 다양한 구현들은 이동 디바이스와 포탈 사이에 보안 접속을 구축하도록 구성된 액세스 모듈을 포함한다. Further, various implementations of eUICC include an access module configured to establish a secure connection between the mobile device and the portal. 몇몇의 실시예들에서, eUICC는, 기존의 eSIM의 이득 없이, 더욱이 사용자의 장비가 배치된 이후에도, 포탈에 대한 보안 접속을 구축할 수 있다. In some embodiments of, eUICC is, without the benefit of existing eSIM, Furthermore, even after the user of the equipment are arranged, it is possible to establish a secure connection to a portal. 일 변형에서, 디바이스는 임의의 단일 eSIM(및 eSIM을 발행하는 MNO)과 관련된 대칭 키(symmetric key)와 분리된 별개의 비대칭 승인 키 쌍(asymmetric endorsement key pair)을 가진다. In one variation, the device has a symmetric key (symmetric key) with a distinct asymmetric signing key pairs separated (asymmetric endorsement key pair) associated with (MNO of issuing and eSIM) any single eSIM. 다시 도 5를 참조하면, 예시적인 일 실시예에서, 액세스 모듈은 하나 또는 그 이상의 액세스 제어 클라이언트들의 사용을 위해 컴포넌트들을 수신하고 저장하는 것이 가능하다. Referring again to Figure 5, in one exemplary embodiment, the access module is capable of receiving the components for the use of one or more Access Control client and stored. 하나의 예시적 실시예에서, 보안 요소는 연관된 승인 키를 가지고 있다. In one exemplary embodiment, the security element has an associated authorization keys. 이 승인 키는 이동 디바이스와 외부 업데이트 포탈 사이의 통신을 보호하고 검증하는데 사용된다. The authorization key is used to protect the communication between the mobile device and the outer portal update and verification. 그러한 일 변형에서, 승인 키는 비대칭 공용/개인 키 쌍의 개인 키이다. In one such modification, authorization key is a private key of an asymmetric public / private key pair. 반대쪽 공용 키는 개인 키의 무결성을 손상시킴이 없이 자유롭게 분배될 수 있다. Opposite the public key may be freely distributed the integrity of the private key without compromising. 이러한 일 변형에서, 디바이스에는 공용/개인 키가 할당된다. In one such variation, the device is assigned a public / private key. 그러한 또 다른 변형에서, 디바이스는 내부적으로 공용/개인 키 쌍을 생성한다. In such a further variation, the device internally generates a public / private key pair. 대안의 변형들에서, 승인 키는 대칭 키 알고리즘에 기초한다. In an alternative variation, the authorization key is based on a symmetric key algorithm. 승인 키는 승인 키의 무결성을 보장하기 위해 주의하여 분배되어야 한다. Approved the distribution key should be careful to ensure the integrity of the authorized key. 또한, 예시적인 실시예의 다양한 구현은 동작을 위한 적어도 하나의 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 선택하기 위해 추가 구성된 부트스트랩 운영체제를 포함한다. In addition, an exemplary embodiment of various embodiments comprises a bootstrap the operating system is configured to select the at least one additional access control for a client operation. 일 변형에서, 부트스트랩 운영체제는 실행 전에 액세스 제어 클라이언트의 무결성을 검증할 수 있다. In one variation, the bootstrap operating system can verify the integrity of the access control client before execution. 더욱이, 일 실시예에서, 부트스트랩 OS는 다수의 액세스 제어 클라이언트 중 적어도 하나를, 선택적으로 저장, 선택 및 실행하도록 구성된다. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the bootstrap OS is configured at least one of a plurality of access control client, so as to selectively store, selection and execution. 특히, 본 발명의 다양한 구현예들은 다수의 eSIM을 저장하고, 현재의 네트워크 캐리어와의 동작을 위해 eSIM을 선택적으로 활성화하도록 구성된다. In particular, various embodiments of the present invention are stored in a plurality of eSIM, and configured to selectively activate the eSIM for operation with a carrier current network. 셀룰러 디바이스에 전자 식별 컴포넌트들을 전달하기 위한 앞서 말한 방법들과 장치가 셀룰러 네트워크를 통해 도시되었지만, 다른 분배 방식들이 마찬가지로 대체될 수 있다는 것은, 당업자들에 의해, 쉽게 이해된다. The foregoing method for delivering electronic components identified in the cellular devices and devices that have been shown over the cellular network, it is understood that other distribution methods may be substituted similarly, are, readily understood by those skilled in the art. 예를 들면, 다른 변형에서, 전자 식별 컴포넌트들은 근거리 통신네트워크 혹은 개인 영역 통신네트워크를 통해 분배될 수 있다. For example, in another variation, the electronic identification components may be distributed via a local area network or a personal area network communications. 본 발명의 특정 양태가 방법의 단계들의 특정 시퀀스에 의하여 설명되었지만, 이런 설명들은 단지 본 발명의 광범위한 방법들을 예시하는 것이며, 특정한 애플리케이션에 의해 요구되는대로 수정될 수 있다는 것을 인지할 수 있다. Although a particular embodiment of the invention explained with reference to a particular sequence of steps of a method, these descriptions can be appreciated that only intended to illustrate the wide range of the method of the present invention, can be modified as required by the particular application. 특정 단계들은 특정 환경에서 불필요하게 또는 선택적으로 재현될 수 있다. Certain steps may be repeated as necessary to selectively or in a particular environment. 추가적으로, 특정 단계들 또는 기능성은 개시된 실시예들 또는 두개 이상의 치환된 단계의 성능 순서에 추가될 수 있다. Additionally, certain steps or functionality may be added to the disclosed embodiments, or the order of performance of two or more substituted stage. 그러한 모든 변형들은 본 명세서에 개시되고 청구되는 발명내에 포함되는 것으로 고려된다. All such modifications are considered to be included within the invention disclosed and claimed herein. 전술한 상세한 설명이 다양한 실시예들에 적용된 것과 같이 본 발명의 신규한 특징들을 보여주고, 설명하고, 알려주는 한편, 본 발명으로부터 벗어나지 않고, 이 분야의 숙련자들에 의해, 도시된 디바이스 또는 프로세스의 양식 및 세부사항들에 다양한 생략, 대체 및 변경을 행할 수 있음을 이해할 수 있을 것이다. It shows the novel features of the present invention as the foregoing description is applied to various embodiments, instructions, and informing the other hand, without departing from the invention, by those skilled in the art, the illustrated device or process in form and detail it will be appreciated that can perform various omissions, substitutions and changes. 전술한 설명은 본 발명의 수행에 대해 현시점에 고려되는 최선의 모드이다. The foregoing description is of the best mode contemplated at the present time for the practice of the invention. 이 설명은 절대 제한적인 것을 의미하는 것이 아니며, 오히려 본 발명의 일반적인 원칙의 예시로서 채택되어야 한다. This description is not intended to mean of the absolute limit, but rather should be taken as illustrative of the general principles of the invention. 본 발명의 범위는 청구항을 참조하여 결정되어야 한다. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims. 를 수행하도록 구성되는 적어도 하나의 프로세서를 포함하는 방법. The method including at least one processor configured to perform. 상기 인증된 데이터 세션은 상기 네트워크와 수신자 디바이스 간의 상호 검증을 포함하는 방법. The said authentication data session comprises a cross-validation between the network and the receiver device. 상기 상호 검증은 암호 키 프로토콜을 포함하는 방법. The cross-validation method including the cipher key protocol. 상기 암호 키 프로토콜은 하나 이상의 비대칭 RSA(Rivest Shamir and Adelman) 공용 및 개인 키들에 기초하는 방법. The encryption key protocol is one or more asymmetric RSA (Rivest Shamir and Adelman) method that is based on public and private keys. 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한은 하나 이상의 고객 서비스를 가능하게 하는 방법. A method that can be one or more customer service access rights of the second set. 상기 네트워크는 무선 네트워크를 포함하고, 상기 하나 이상의 고객 서비스는 음성 호출을 발신 또는 수신하는 것을 포함하는 방법. Wherein the network comprises in that it comprises a wireless network, the sending or receiving at least one customer service voice calls. 상기 하나 이상의 고객 서비스는 상기 네트워크에 액세스하는 것을 포함하는 방법. The one or more customer service method comprising accessing the network. 상기 하나 이상의 고객 서비스는 미디어 파일에 액세스하는 것을 포함하는 방법. Which comprises at least one customer service, access to the media files. 상기 제1 세트의 액세스 권한은 고객 서비스에 대해 이용가능하게 되어 있지 않은 방법. Access to the first set of methods is not made available for customer service. 상기 하나 이상의 업데이트 패키지는 액세스 제어 클라이언트와 동작하도록 구성되고, 상기 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 제2 세트의 액세스 권한을 갖는 방법. How to maintain access of said at least one update package is configured to operate and control client access, the Access Control client second set. 상기 네트워크는 무선 네트워크를 포함하고, 상기 인증된 데이터 세션은 상기 무선 네트워크와 상기 디바이스 간의 상호 검증을 포함하는 방법. It comprises a cross-validation between the wireless network and the device, wherein the network comprises a wireless network, wherein the authentication data is a session. 상기 제1 세트의 액세스 권한은 실질적으로 업데이트 패키지들을 교환하는 것에 제한되어 있는 방법. Access to the first set of method that is substantially limited to the exchange of the update package. 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한은 하나 이상의 가입자 세션을 인에이블하는 방법. Method that enables one or more subscriber access session in the second set. 상기 제1 세트의 액세스 권한은 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한의 서브세트인 방법. Access of the first set is a subset of the access method of the second set. 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한은 하나 이상의 사용자 선택에 기초하여 선택되는 방법. How the access rights of the second set is selected based on one or more user selected. 상기 업데이트 요청은 상기 하나 이상의 사용자 선택을 포함하는 방법. The update request comprising the at least one user selection. 하나 이상의 업데이트 옵션을 상기 디바이스에 제시하는 단계를 더 포함하는 방법. One or more optional update method further comprises the step of presenting to the device. 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한은 상기 무선 장치가 상기 가입자 세션을 통하여 상기 네트워크와 음성 및/또는 데이터 서비스를 수행하는 것을 허용하도록 구성되는, 무선 장치. Access to the second set of the wireless device, which is configured to allow performing the network and voice and / or data service to the wireless device through the access session. 상기 무선 장치는 이동 디바이스를 포함하며, 상기 액세스 제어 클라이언트는 eSIM(electronic Subscriber Identity Module)을 포함하는 무선 장치. Wireless devices that the wireless device comprises a mobile device, the access control client comprises an (electronic Subscriber Identity Module) eSIM. 상기 생성된 업데이트 패키지는 액세스 제어 클라이언트를 제2 세트의 액세스 권한으로 인에이블하도록 구성되고, 상기 제2 세트의 액세스 권한은 상기 하나 이상의 무선 디바이스 중 하나의 무선 디바이스가 가입자 세션을 시작하기 위하여 상기 액세스 제어 클라이언트와 연관된 네트워크에 인증하는 것을 허용하도록 구성되는, 네트워크 장치. The generated update package the access to and configure access control client to enable the access of the second set, starting the first one of the wireless device of the one or more wireless devices access to the second set of subscriber session It is configured to permit the authenticated to the network associated with a control client, a network device. WO2006032993A2 (en) 2004-09-23 2006-03-30 Axalto S.A System and method for communication with universal integrated circuit cards in mobile devices using internet protocols.

2019-04-20T23:37:59Z

https://patents.google.com/patent/KR101347527B1/en

From Latin intuitio = act of contemplating, fr. intueri = to look at, contemplate, fr. in-+ tueri = to look at, look after (protection - tuitio ). intuition as as immediate (= not preceded by inference) knowledge of truth of a proposition. mystical or inexpressible intuitions (as Bergon's duration, Fichte's Transcendental Ego, the mystic's intuition of God). - faculty theory (two intuitive faculties: sensory and nonsensory intuition = our knowledge of the particular)(comp. Descartes's extreme rationalism only recognized the nonsensory faculty). - linguistic theory: process of acquiring knowledge is identical with the process of learning the conventions of one's language. The use of language is a necessary condition of the possession of any piece of knowledge. - behaviorist analysis: we acquire intuitive knowledge simply by reflecting upon our own linguistic behavior (psychological conditioning). - unconscious inference: nonintuitive, noninferential knowledge. The knower is not aware of having performed the appropriate inference. - intuitive acquaintance: a person is said to have intuitive acquaintance with a concept if he is able to understand a large range of propositions that employ a term signifying this concept and is unable to explain the significance of this term. - nonpropositional knowledge: Kant defined intuition as knowledge that is in immediate relation to objects (Critique of Pure Reason, A19-B34, A320-B377). By "immediate" he here meant "without the mediation of concepts". The knowledge gained in sense perception is expressed by judgments concerning the objects sensed but exists prior to the formation of these judgments. (see Russell: knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description). We have an intuition of a certain object O even though we do not know the truth of any proposition of the form "O is Q". Conceptual thought (or language) is inadequate to capture the essence of X (comp. Bergson). - intuition of the inexpressible: language is inadequate to express one's intuitive knowledge of reality. The problem of justification of private experience. (Thomists' intuition of Being, Bergson's intuition of duration). The medievals used "intuitive cognition" as we would use "sensory intuition" to refer to knowledge about objects present to the senses. The term was opposed to "abstractive cognition", which included memory and imagination. They also used "intuition" to refer to a vision of God. Descartes, Spinoza (Ethics II, Prop. 40, Note 2), and Locke used the term "intuition" as we would use "nonsensory intuition" - to refer to our noninferential knowledge of, for instance, mathematical axioms and analytic truths, and of the validity of valid inferences. Since Kant "intuition" has been nonpropositional perceptual knowledge of a particular and the propositional knowledge derived from this nonpropositional knowledge. nonrational(or suprarational) cognition: Schelling evolved an elaborate system in which intuition of a mystical or quasi-religious character was accorded a central place and was held to provide access to the ultimate nature of reality. "The nature of the Absolute itself, which as ideal is also immediately real, cannot be known through explanations, but only through intuition" (see Philsophie und Religion ). See Bergson's distinction between intellect and intuition. Generally a direct relation between the mind and some object, analogous to what common sense thinks is the relation between us and something we see unambiguously in a clear light. Bergson: contrast intuition as a means of knowing reality as it is in itself with intellect as a means by which we manipulate reality for purposes of action. What we are said to intuit may be objects not accessible to the senses (numbers, universals, God etc.), or truths. The emphasis is on the directness of the relation, free from any influence of the environment or interpretation. Kant: used intuition for our relation to sensible objects too, so far as this was considered as abstracted from anything contributed by the mind. Russell: Kant's use of intuition has something in common with Russell's acquaintance. Intuition of truths may take the form of knowledge which we cannot account for, simply because we are unconscious of the reasons which led us to it (the intuition attributed to women and bank managers). In the case of such "hunches" investigation will often uncover the reasons. More philosophically important are cases where, allegedly, there are no reasons to be uncovered, and no means of checking the truth of apparent intuitions, except by their coherence with further intuitions. Intuitions of this kind have been important especially in philosophy of mathematics (intuitionism) and ethics, and also in logic and metaphysics. b) that it is a response to subtle cues and relationships apprehended implicitly, unconsciously. The former borders on the unscientific and is not recommended, although it is certainly common enough in the nontechnical literature; the latter hints at a number of difficult but fascinating problems in the study of human behavior in the presence of complex situations. Jung: intuitive type = one of Jung's hypothesized personality types. Feeling and thinking were considered rational, sensing and intuiting irrational. All persons were assumed to possess all four functions, the typing was a reflection of which style dominated in the individual's overall makeup. Originally an alleged direct relation, analogous to visual seeing, between the mind and something abstract and so not accessible to the senses. What are intuited (which can be derivatively called 'intuitions') may be abstract objects, like numbers or properties, or certain truths regarded as not accessible to investigation through the senses or calculation; the mere short-circuiting of such processes in 'bank manager's intuition' would not count as intuition for philosophy. Kant talks of our intuiting space and time, in a way which is direct and entirely free from any mediation by the intellect - but this must be distinguished from an alleged pure reception of 'raw data' from the senses; the intuiting is presupposed by , and so cannot depend upon, sensory experience. Intuitions or alleged intuitions have been important in logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as in epistemology. Recently, however, the term 'intuition' has been used for pre-philosophical thoughts or feelings, e.g. on morality, which emerge in thought experiments and are then used philosophically. immediate knowledge of a nonpropositional object. ineffable objects, as in Bergson's account of the inexpressible awareness of duration, or in certain religious accounts of our awareness of God. (in ethics) The view that (at least some) moral judgments are known to be true by intuition. The view that there are several distinct moral duties, that cannot be reduced to one basic duty, in contrast, for example, to utilitarianism. While both views can be, and are, held separately, they often go together. that a (mathematical) statement is true only if there is a proof of it, and false only if a proof of its denial can be given. Brouwer's idealist inclinations led him to describe mathematics as investigation of the (ideal) mathematician's "mental constructions". The view is notable for its rejection of classical (or realist) logic, in particular the law of double negation, the law of excluded middle, and classical reductio. intuition: Anschauung ('intuition') is by origin a visual word, from anschauen ('to intuit, look, view') and schauen ('to see, view, look'). It often means a 'view' or 'conception' (hence Weltanschauung, 'world-view'). But it entered philosophical German with Eckhart for the Latin contemplatio, in the sense of the activity or result of contemplating something, especially the eternal and divine. Anschauung implies immediate, non-discursive contact with the object, and the total absorption of the subject in it. In later philosophy, Anschauung has two broad senses: first, intellectual contemplation, e.g. of Platonic Ideas (the Greek theoria, 'contemplation, speculation'); second, sensory impression or sensation. Kant argued that all human Anschauung is sensory (sinnlich): thought requires objects, and objects can be given only by intuitions. But the understanding with its concepts can only 'think' intuitions and objects, not provide them. They can be given only by objects' affecting our senses. Kant allowed the possibility of an intellektuelle Anschauung, which supplies an object without sensory assistance. But intellectual intuition, which amounts to creating an object simply by thinking of it, is, on Kant's view, reserved for God alone. Kant's attempt to confine Anschauung to the sensory was challenged from two directions. First, critics such as Hamann and Herder attacked his sharp separation of intuition and concepts. Goethe speaks of an 'intuition (Anschauen) of inner creative nature' which attains to the 'prototype' or the Idea (Intuitive Judgment, 1817). Such intuition apprehends a phenomenon as a whole together with the interrelations of its parts. It does not dispense with concepts, but it is contrasted with analytical conceptual thought. Second, Fichte argued that the philosopher becomes aware of the pure I by an act of intellectual intuition. Schelling adopted this idea, and when his Absolute ceased to be the I and became a neutral Identity, that too, he held, is grasped by intellectual intuition. Sensory intuition, on Hegel's view, involves the transformation of what is sensed (das Empfundene) into an external object (Enc. III §448A.). Art presents the absolute in the Form of sensory intuition, in contrast to Conception ( Vorstellung), the form of Religion and to Thought, the form of Philosophy. In early works, especially DFS, Hegel espoused Schelling's idea of a 'transcendental' intuition that unites opposites, such as Nature and Spirit. But later he criticized intellectual intuition, because it is immediate, and, unlike conceptual cognition, does not display the logical presuppositions and structure of the object. Intuition, even of Goethe's type, though it enables us to see things as a whole, rather than piecemeal, can only be a prelude to cognition (e.g. Enc. III §449A.). Nevertheless, Hegel's logic, since it is non-empirical thought about thoughts, somewhat resembles intellectual intuition in Kant's sense. Unlike Kant, Hegel has no qualms about assimilating man to God. intuition: Descartes' account of human knowledge is indebted to a long philosophical tradition which draws a comparison between mental cognition and ordinary ocular vision. The notion goes back as far as Plato (Republic [c. 380 BC], 514-8), and plays a prominent role in the writings of Plotinus (Enneads [c. AD 250], III, viii, 11 and V, iii, 17) and Augustine (De Trinitate [AD 400-16], XII, xv, 24). Augustine puts the matter as follows: 'The mind, when directed towards intelligible things in the natural order, according to the disposition of the creator, sees them in a certain incorporeal light which is sui generis, just as the physical eye sees nearby objects in corporeal light' (loc. cit.). This is the background which informs Descartes' use of the term 'intuition' (Latin intuitus) - the word being derived from the verb intueri, which in classical Latin means simply to look at or inspect. His claim is that the mind, when freed from interference from sensory stimuli, has the innate power to 'see', or directly apprehend, the truths which God has implanted within it. 'By intuition, I do not mean the fluctuating testimony of the senses, or the deceptive judgement of the imagination as it botches things together, but the conception of a clear and attentive mind which is so easy and distinct that there can be no room for doubt about what we are understanding. Alternatively, and this comes to the same thing, intuition is the conception of a clear and attentive mind which proceeds solely from the light of reason.... Thus everyone can mentally intuit that he exists, that he is thinking, that a triangle is bounded by just three sides and a sphere by a single surface, and the like' (AT X 368: CSM I 14). In the Regulae (Rules for the Direction of our Native Intelligence), from which this last quotation comes, intuition is put forward as the fundamental basis of all reliable knowledge; and although a finite mind will often be unable to 'see a whole series of interconnected truths at a single glance, the ideal remains that it should attempt to survey the series 'in a single and uninterrupted sweep of thought', so that the process of Deduction is reduced, as far as possible, to direct intuition. intuition: In the language of ideas which Locke uses to characterize knowledge, we are said to have intuitive knowledge when the mind perceives the relations of two ideas immediately, without the help of other ideas (Essay, 4.2.1; cf. 4.3.2). Another formulation has the ideas themselves disclosing their agreement or disagreement (4.1.9). It is truths that we acquire in this way. Intuitive knowledge is certain; the mind has no doubts about the truths (4.2.5). In a later passage, intuition, immediate viewing. is linked with self-evidence (4.18.5). None of these terms is, it may be felt, clear or self-evident. Descartes had also identified intuition and demonstration as two sources of knowledge. He explained his use of intuition in this way: 'By "intuition" I do not mean the fluctuating testimony of the senses or the deceptive judgment of the imagination as it botches things together, but the conception of a clear and attentive mind, which is so easy and distinct that there can be no room for doubt about what we are understanding' (Rules for the Direction of the Mind, rule 3). In his effort to explicate what he means by 'intuitive' knowledge, Locke employs a number of analogies. He also gives a variety of examples. He compares it to bright sunshine which 'forces it self immediately to be perceived' (4.2.1), unlike demonstrative knowledge which requires a series of steps and which Locke compares to reflections in a series of mirrors (4.2.6). The mind is compared with the eye. A properly working eye 'will at first glimpse, without Hesitation, perceive the Words printed n this Paper, different from the Colour of the Paper' (4.2.5). Similarly for the mind, 'it will perceive the Agreement or Disagreement of those ideas that produce intuitive Knowledge.' Thus, the mind perceives that white is not black; that a circle is not a triangle (4.2.1); that 'the Ideas of an obtuse, and an acute angled Triangle, both drawn from equal bases', are different (4.3.3); that certain numbers are equal or proportional (4.3.19); that the arc of a circle is less than the whole circle (4.17.14), that non-entity is incapable of producing anything (4.10.3). We also have an intuitive knowledge of our own existence (4.9.3). Another example is 'that the Idea we receive from an external Object is in our Minds' (4.2.14). Intuition [Anschauung]: In the Aristotelian tradition there was considerable perplexity concerning the relationship between Aristotle's account of intuitive and demonstrative knowledge in the Posterior Analytics and the account of intelligible and sensible perception (noesis and aisthesis) in De anima. In the Posterior Analytics Aristotle claims that the 'primary premises' of scientific knowledge are apprehended intuitively, and that intuition is the 'originative source of scientific knowledge' (Aristotle, 1941, 100b). Intuitive apprehension is thus immediate as opposed to the mediated, discursive knowledge of scientific demonstration. According to De anima, knowledge arises out of the abstraction of noeta from aistheta, but with the proviso that the sensible and intelligible elements thought separately do not exist separately, or in Aristotle's words, 'that the mind which is actively thinking is the objects which it thinks' (Aristotle, 1941, 431b, 18). The perplexity facing the tradition was whether to unite these two accounts of knowledge, and if so, in what way. Apart from denying any relationship between them, there were basically three available options. One was to emphasize the Platonic elements in Aristotle, and to identify immediate intuitive knowledge with the noeta; another was to identify intuitive knowledge with sense perception or aistheta; while a third was to postulate a group of objects occupying an intermediate position between noeta and aistheta (see Wolfson, 1962, Vol. II. p. 156). In formal terms, Kant's doctrine of intuition adumbrated in ID and developed in CPR may be situated within the terms of the third option, but emphasizing the paradoxical character of such intermediate objects. Prior to Kant, Descartes and Spinoza distinguished radically between intuitive and other forms of knowledge. Although Descartes makes great play in the Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1628) of 'paying no attention' to the 'way in which particular terms have of late been employed in the schools', his professedly 'new use of the term intuition.' departs little from the Aristotelian tradition. He distinguishes it from the 'testimony of the senses' and defines it as an Undoubting conception of an unclouded and attentive mind [which] springs from the light of reason alone' (Rule III). Unlike deductive knowledge it is immediate and simple, and is exemplified by the individual's 'intuition of the fact that they exist, and that they think'. Spinoza in Ethics (1677) followed Descartes in distinguishing between three forms of knowing: knowledge of opinion grounded in the senses and imagination (broadly Aristotle's aistheta), knowledge of reason grounded in common notions or concepts (noeta) and, finally, immediate, intuitive knowledge of the formal essence of the attributes of God and things in general (1985, pp. 475-8). Both Descartes and Spinoza lean towards a Platonic view of intuitive knowledge which prefers the immediate knowledge of the intelligible realm to the mediated knowledge of the senses. Locke in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding agreed that intuitive knowledge was not only immediate, but also 'the clearest and most certain that human frailty is capable of' (Locke, 1690, p. 272). Yet for him this knowledge is not derived from the intelligible noeta, as it was with Descartes and Spinoza, but from the objects of external perception: 'there can be nothing more certain than that the idea we receive from an external object is in our minds: this is intuitive knowledge' (p. 277). This knowledge is immediate, but oriented more towards aistheta than to noeta. Leibniz, in his critique of Locke in the New Essays on Human Understanding (completed 1705 but published in 1765), attempted to reconcile and Locke by proposing intuitive truths of both fact and reason (Leibniz, 1765, pp. 361-7), but his follower and popularizer Christian Wolff confined intuitive knowledge to the direct intuition of rational perfection. This view in its turn was criticized by the heretical Wolffian A.G. Baumgarten, who argued for the intuitive knowledge of rational perfection by way of sensible perception, a form of knowledge he christened 'aesthetic'. Kant's doctrine of intuition must be situated within the agenda established by Aristotle. He remained consistent with the Aristotelian tradition in respect of the direct, unmediated character of intuition, but established his own variant of it which refused the opposition of direct knowledge between the rationalists' noeta or the empiricists' aistheta. While Kant situates intuition at the level of sensibility or aisthesis in the 'Transcendental Aesthetic' of CPR (that is, below the understanding and the reason), he also accords it an a priori formal character, managing in this way to stress the immediate, sensible element in knowledge without being Lockean, and the a priori, formal element without being Cartesian. It was essential to establish this balance in order to satisfy one of the major conditions required 'for solution of the general problem of transcendental philosophy: how are synthetic a priori judgements possible?' (CPR B 73). Such judgements synthesize concepts with sensible intuitions which, while heterogeneous to them, nevertheless possess an a priori, intelligible character. Most of the elements of Kant's doctrine of intuition are present in (section) 10 of ID. He begins by claiming that 'There is (for man) no intuition of what belongs to the understanding . . . thinking is only possible for us by means of universal concepts in the abstract, not by means of a singular concept in the concrete'. Here he subscribes to the orthodox distinction between the immediate knowledge of intuition, and the mediated knowledge of the understanding. The human understanding can only function 'discursively by means of general concepts', but for Kant this does not exclude the possibility of other, differently constituted, understandings and intuitions. The ones which he considers in (section) 10 are intellectual and divine intuition, both of which return in CPR. Intellectual intuition consists in a direct, intellectual knowledge of things in themselves rather than as appearances in space and time (CPR B 307) while divine intuition is productive, producing the objects which it thinks rather than being passively affected by given objects in the manner of human intuition (ibid.). In the second sentence of (section) 10 Kant writes that 'all our intuition is bound to a certain principle of form, and it is only under- this form that anything can be apprehended by the mind immediately or as singular, and not merely conceived discursively by means of general concepts'. With this he converts intuition from an adjectival characteristic of knowledge into a faculty of knowledge. The faculty of intuition possesses a 'certain principle of form' through which the mind may directly apprehend the concrete singularity of things and not subsume them as instances of abstract and general concepts. In this sentence Kant presents the central paradox of his account of intuition: that it directly apprehends objects yet does so by means of formal principles. This quality of intuition recurs repeatedly in CPR where intuition is both the 'immediate relation' (sic) to objects and takes place 'only in so far as the object is given to us' (CPR A 20/B 34). In the third sentence of ID (section) 10 the formal principles of intuition are revealed as space and time, which are further specified as the conditions under which something can be an object of our senses'. Although in ID Kant lists the properties space and time possess as pure intuitions - they are 'singular', neither 'innate' nor 'acquired', both the conditions of sensations and excited into action by them - he does not venture a proof of why they are the conditions for the objects of our senses. This he supplies in CPR and P by means of the analytic and synthetic methods. In the 'Transcendental Aesthetic' of CPR Kant analyzes or breaks sensibility down into its elements. He proposes first to 'isolate sensibility, by taking away from it everything which the understanding thinks through its concepts' (CPR A22/B 36). This leaves nothing 'save empirical intuition' from which is separated 'everything which belongs to sensation, so that nothing may remain save pure intuition and the mere form of appearances'. These are then found to be 'the forms of sensible intuition' namely space and time. In P Kant argues synthetically from the forms of intuition to sense objects. He argues that intuitions of present things are not possible without a 'ground of relation between my representation and the object' ((section) 9) which 'precedes all the actual impressions through which I am affected by, objects'; without the a priori forms of intuition to relate the I and its objects, there would be no experience of objects (see also CPR B 132). In CPR Kant offers proofs for why only space and time qualify as forms of intuition. The one he seems to find most compelling holds that while all concepts except space and time presuppose 'something empirical', space and time are pure and a priori: space does not occupy space and time does not suffer alteration in time (CPR A 41/B 58). This argument also validates the transcendental status of space and time, namely that they arc conditions of spatio-temporal experience and cannot be abstracted from sensation or the nature of thinking substance. This accords with the view stated in ID (section) 1 that the forms of intuition provide 'the condition of sensitive cognition' and are prior to sensitive cognition and not derived from it. But this claim sits uneasily with the view that intuition is passive, that the 'matter of cognition' is given through the senses, and that intuition is 'only possible in so far as it is possible for something to affect our sense' (ibid.). Intuition here seems both to provide conditions for something to affect our sensibility, and to be conditioned by, something affecting it. The paradoxical character of intuition as both condition of and conditioned by objects of sense is used in ID to prevent nonn1ena being 'conceived by means of representations drawn from sensations'. It is further employed in CPR to underpin the critique of claims that space and time are more than the forms which structure our intuition. The latter development is already implied in the distinction between representation and sensation mentioned in ID (section) 10, which anticipates the crucial critical distinction between appearance and sensation in CPR. Appearances are divided into sensation, or 'matter of appearance', and the 'form of appearance', or space and time. The latter are in a state of potentiality, or in Kant's words 'lie ready for the sensations a priori in the mind' (CPR A 20/B 34), and are activated by sensation. In this way the notion of appearance makes it possible for the forms of intuition to be regarded as potentially prior to (but in actuality posterior to) sensation or the matter of intuition. A further complexity arises here, which is that the matter of intuition which is directly intuited cannot be considered as objects in themselves, but are already constituted as appearances, since it is axiomatic for Kant That the things we intuit are not in themselves what we intuit them as being' (CPR A 42/B 59). This is again paradoxical since it requires that we consider intuition both as direct knowledge of objects, namely 'the things we intuit', and as a mediated appearance or 'what we intuit them as being' (ibid.). When the perspective on intuition shifts from the relationship between intuition and objects of sense to that between intuition and understanding, an analogous set of paradoxes manifest themselves. It is vital for the critical project that the concepts of the understanding and the forms of intuition be generically distinguished. Intuition corresponds to the 'passive' or 'receptive' aspect of human experience and the understanding to the part played in it by the active, spontaneous synthesis of apperception. While the two must be rigorously distinguished from each other, they must also be related in synthetic a priori judgements. Kant noted this in the lapidary sentence 'Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind' (CPR A 51/B 75), from which he concluded that concepts must be made sensible and intuitions intelligible without either exchanging their proper function and domain. The results presented in the 'Transcendental Logic' of CPR show how the aistheta and the noeta of the tradition may be brought into relation without either being subordinated to the other. In this way the critical philosophy both respects the received Aristotelian distinction, while reconfiguring it in accordance with a doctrine of inuition which combines sensible and intelligible aspects. Eine Handlungsweise der Intelligenz und deren Produkt. Als Handlungsweise bezeichnet die Intuition eine Form der direkten Erkenntnis, die durch ihre Unmittelbarkeit und ihre Plötzlichkeit charakterisiert ist. Sie beruht auf einer spontanen innerlichen Organisation, auf einer Wahrnehmung oder auf einer Vorstellung. Die Intuition kann, als "Sympathie" zum Gegenstand (H. Bergson), begrifflose Erkenntnis sein, sie kann aber auch ein schnelles analytisches Begreifen eines Bezugssystems sein, dessen tatsächliche Analyse lange diskursive Entwicklungen erforden würde (E. Brunswik). Gegenstand der Intuition ist eine äusserliche (empirische) oder innerliche (metaph. Wesen) empfindbare Erscheing. In jedem Fall ist der Gegenstand in seiner Seinsweise dem Geiste gegenwärtig. Der Wert der Intuition besteht in ihrer Offensichtlichkeit (Evidenz). Intuition, lat. "Anschauung", von intueri "anschauen", 1. die Anschauung im Sinne unmittelbarer ganzheitlicher Sinneswahrnhehmung im Gegensatz zu einem wandernden Beobachten oder abstrahierenden Betrachten, 2. im Gegensatz zur Reflextion die Fähigkeit, ein Ganzes mit seinen Gliedern in einem Akt einsichtig zu erfassen, das Wesen eines Gegen-standes, das Wesentliche eines Sachverhaltes, die Struktur eines Zusammenhanges, die Idee einer Sache zu durchschauen und zu überschauen. Dazu intuitiv, durch unmittelbare Anschauung erkennbar oder erkannt; Gegensatz: diskursiv. Die Vieldeutigkeit des Begriffs spiegelt sich in der Bedeutungsgeschichte des Wortes widerÖ Es wird gebraucht für das geistige Schauen der Ideen bei Plato, bei Descartes für die Erkenntnis einsichtiger Wahrheiten ("die intuitive Erkenntnis is das einfache, über jeden Zweifel erhabene Begreifen, das allein dem Licht der Vernunft entspringt." Reg. III). Bei Locke heisst intuitive Erkenntnis die Einsichtigkeit der Axiome. Vielfach wird Intuition gleichbedeutend gebraucht mit "intellektueller Anschauung", z.B. bei Fichte und Schelling; nach Schopenhauer ist Intuition "lebendige Anschauung". In der neueren, bes. in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Psychologie wird die intuitive Erkenntnis der induktiv gewonnenen gegenübergestellt. Für Klages gehört die Intuition im Gegensatz zum Verstand auf die "Seelenseite", auch bei C.G.Jung wird sie vom Denken unterschieden. Eine grosse Rolle spielt sie in der Lebensphilosophie. Intuitionismus, die Lehre, die der Intuition, dem intuitiven Denken, den Vorrang gibt vor der Reflexion, dem diskursiven Denken; in der Ethik die Lehre von der ursprünglichen Gewissheit des Unterschieds von Gut und Böse in der Vorstellung oder im Gefühl; in der Mathematik die Theorie, nach der die mathematischen Gegenstände ideal, d.h. durch reine Konstruktion des menschlichen Verstandes entstanden sind, oder in neuerer Zeit die von Brouwer aufgestellte Forderung, nur die Existenzsätze gelten zu lassen, die durch wirklich ausführbare Konstruktionen zu beweisen sind. Die Benutzung des tertium non datur wird für unendliche Mengen nicht zugelassen und auch im Falle der Widerspruchsfreiheit als sinnlos abgelehnt. Der Intuitionismus entstand als Reaktion auf die Entdeckung der Paradoxien der axiomatischen Mengenlehre. a) die intuitive Erkenntnis steht im Gegensatz zur sog. diskursiven Erkenntnis, d.h. einer Erkenntnis, die durch Zwischenglieder, Schlussfolgerungen erreicht wird, während die intuitive Erkenntnis unmittelbar und direkt erfolgt. b) die intuitive Erkenntnis wird durch eine eigentümliche Anwesenheit des Erkannten charakterisiert; der Abstand zwischen Erkenntnis und Erkanntem ist in der Intuition überwunden. Einige Philosophen verstehen die Rede von solcher "Anwesenheit" in einem übertragenen, andere sogar in einem buchstäblichen Sinn. c) der intuitiven Erkenntnis wird zumeist ein besonderes Mass an Sicherheit zugesprochen (Evidenz). Abgesehen von diesen gemeinsamen Merkmalen werden Intuition innerhalb der einzelnen philos. Theorien sehr unterschiedliche Erklärungsleistungen aufgebürdet, so dass auch deren Stellung innerhalb der Theorien alles andere als einheitlich ist. 1. Intuition als sog. geistige Einsicht in das Wesen oder die Idee der Welt. Sie ist im Gegensatz zu Wahrnehmung und Verstand nicht an die sinnlich erfahrbaren Phänomene gebunden, die als mehr oder weniger zufällige Erscheinungsformen des Wesen (der Idee) gelten. Dieses Verständnis von Intuition findet sich vorallem im Platonismus. Es ist dort Teil der Lehre von den verschiedenen Erkenntnisstufen, die verschiedenen ontologischen Stufen entsprechen. Als höchste Erkenntnisform entspricht die Intuition ontologisch der Idee des Guten, dem Sein oder dem Einen. Der Neuplatoniker Plotin verdeutlicht die Intuition durch eine Analogie mit dem Sehen (sinnlichen Schauen): Wie beim Sehen ist in der Intuition das Erkannte anwesend. Allerdings handelt es sich nur um eine Analogie; denn während im Sehen der Unterschied zwischen der Erkenntnis und ihrem Gegenstand (Objekt) bestehen bleibt, wird in der Intuition dieser Unterschied gerade aufgehoben. Von der platonischen Tradition ist auch Spinozas Unterscheidung zwischen unbestimmter (vager), adäquater und intuitiver Erkenntnis beeinflusst. Dasselbe gilt für Schellings Begriff der intellektuellen Anschauung. 2. Intuition als Einsicht in das Unzusammenhängende und Einfache. Diese Bedeutung von Intuition verwendet Descartes in seiner erkenntnistheoretischen Methodik: Aufgabe der Wissenschaft ist das Analysieren eines Problems, so dass es in immer einfachere Teile zerlegt wird. Am Ende der Analyse stehen simple, selbsteinleuchtende Wahrheiten, die durch Intuition erkannt werden. Die menschliche Erkenntnis ist deswegen in solcher Intuition fundiert. Auch für Leibniz leistet die Intuition die Erkenntnis der ursprünglichen einfachen Begriffe oder einfachen Urteile, bzw. Wahrheiten, die für alle komplexen Begriffe und Urteile die Grundlage bilden. Locke zufolge beruht jede Erkenntnis auf einer Verknüpfung der sog. Ideen. Durch Intuition lassen sich nun die einfachsten Beziehungen zwischen diesen Ideen erkennen wie die von Identität und Verschiedenheit. Die Erkenntnis komplexer Ideen und der Verbindung zwischen ihnen erfordert dagegen diskursive Beweise. Entsprechend versteht Hume unter Intuition die unmittelbare Einsicht in einfache, rein logische und mathematische Axiome wie die Einsicht in die Gültigkeit des Kontradiktionsprinzips. 3. Intuition als Erfahrung des hier und jetzt Wahrgenommenen im Gegensatz zur Vernunft, die Abstraktionen benutzt. Diese Bedeutung der Intuition verwendet u.a. Schopenhauer in seiner Kritik am begrifflichen Denken. Gleichzeitig ist für ihn die direkte Einsicht, dass das Wesen des eigenen Ich und der Welt reiner Wille ist, Intuition. 4. Intuition als das in der Anschauung oder Erfahrung des direkt Gegebenen Anwesende. In diesem Sinn verwenden Husserl und andere Phänomenologen Intuition als erweiterten phänomenologischen Begriff; er ermöglicht es, von einer intuitiven Erkenntnis des Wesens oder von Wesensschau zu sprechen. 5. Intuition als Erfahrung (Einsicht in oder Erfassen) des Gegenstands (Objekt) in seiner Ganzheit - im Gegensatz zu den bloss auf diesen oder jenen Teil bezogenen Einzelerfahrungen und ihrer nachträglichen Zusammenfügung. Intuition als methodische Erfahrung des direkt oder unmittelbar Gegebenen in seiner Ganzheit - im Gegensatz zum abstrakten, diskursiven Denken (z.B. bei Bergson). Intuition als mehr oder weniger unbegründete Einfälle, die der Aufstellung wissenschaft. Hypothesen zugrunde liegen. Der Intuition in dieser Bedeutung, wie moderne Wissenschafts-theoretiker den Begriff verstehen, wird keine besondere Sicherheit zugeschrieben. D.J. Shallcross, D.A. Sisk: What is Intuition? There are some things that you just know that you know. We experience reality within our own minds; this phenomenon isn't new to humankind. In fact, our ancestors paid much more heed to the inner knowing that today we call intuition. This inner way of knowing, or intuition, is different from the knowledge gained through experience or from phenomena outside of ourselves. In the minds of ancient people, there was a clear-cut division between the external stimulus and the internal impression. That is, knowledge that came from inside ourselves was considered of equal importance to knowledge gained through outside sources. As Nel Noddings and Paul Shore (1984) report in Awakening the Inner Eye: Intuition in Education, visions or insights among ancient people were looked upon as functions of great importance. The seer or oracle was always a prominent member of the community. Intuitive insights or experiences were regarded as sources of knowledge, as messages from the gods, or as evidence of the seer's exceptional power. To the classical Greeks and Romans, both rational (analytical, logical reasoning) and intuitive knowledge were valid. In fact, intuition was believed to be special; it frequently superseded rational conclusions. Noddings and Shore (1984) suggest that the entire philosophical school of idealism flowing from Plato is based on the notion that intuition is a reliable source of knowledge. Idealism contends that only mental reasoning is knowable; therefore, reality is essentially spiritual or mental. Aristotle believed that thought consists of images. images have the power to evoke emotions that reveal inner knowing. He stated that intuitive reasoning graphs the first principles. He termed intuition a leap of understanding, a grasping of a larger concept unreachable by other intellectual means, yet fundamentally an intellectual process. Buddha taught that intuition, not reason, is the source of ultimate truth and wisdom. It follows then that, in Zen meditation, the discriminating conscious mind is quieted and the intuitive mind is liberated, as the meditator seeks truth and wisdom. In Eastern philosophy, intuition is considered a faculty of the mind which develops during the course of spiritual growth. In the Meditation Schools of China and Japan - "Ch'an" in China, "Zen" in Japan - emphasis is placed on candid searching. Competent instruction awakens into an experience and insight that defy explanation through rational speech. To the aspiring Buddhist monks, this awakening is a revelation of their inner truth and wisdom. For the Hindu, intuitive insights are achieved through meditation and disciplined control of the mind. Intuition usually illuminates universal cosmic issues, not concrete problems. Intuitive experience is linked closely with spirituality and aesthetics. One aim of Yoga, as practiced by the Hindu, is the systematic development of intuition. Intuition is considered a stable, reliable function of higher levels of consciousness from which a wide range of information is accessible. - see "little things in everyday life" Frances E. Vaughan (1979), in Awakening Intuition, provides an overview of intuition. She says that the broad range of intuitive human experience falls into four distinct levels of awareness: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Although these levels of experience often overlap, they are usually easy to categorize according to the level at which they are consciously perceived. Mystical experiences, for example, are intuitive experiences at the spiritual level; as such, they don't depend on sensory, emotional, or mental cues for their validity. Intuition at the physical level is associated with bodily sensations, at the emotional level with feelings, and at the mental level with images and ideas. Intuitive experiences at the physical level produce bodily sensations similar to the "jungle awareness" that alert primitive people to possible danger. This awareness is different from instinct, which is unconscious. Jungle awareness can be experienced in a city when certain situations cause you to shiver or to have a stomachache or a headache. Such bodily responses, or cues, reveal information concerning yourself and your environment. Vaughan suggests that tuning in to what the body is telling us can help us make decisions about the situations in which we find ourselves. If, for example, a specific situation consistently makes you tense, you can choose to avoid the situation or make appropriate changes to ease the tension. Paying attention to physical intuitive cues can make a significant difference in how you relate to your environment. Make a list of physical reactions that you have experienced, while driving, or at work, for instance. Are there some that occur over and over again in similar circumstances? Are such circumstances tension producing? If so, what changes might you make to ease these situations? On the emotional level, intuition becomes conscious through feelings. Vaughan describes the emotional level of intuition as being sensitive to other people's "vibes" (vibrations of energy), such as immediately liking or disliking someone or something with no apparent justification, or having an inexplicable and vague sense that you should be doing something. Jot down experiences where you felt sensitive to other people's vibrations of energy. If possible, check this out with the others involved as to whether or not they experienced the same thing. Intuitive cues on the emotional level often involve relations with other people and seem to take on an almost telepathic quality. Have you ever telephoned a friend or relative who was just about to call you? (One co-author frequently experiences this with her mother who lives a few hundred miles from her.) "Woman's intuition" (discussed later at length), is on the emotional level of intuitive awareness. Traditionally, society was tolerant of women openly expressing emotions but not of men doing the same. This allowed women more freedom to experience self-awareness. The mental level of intuitive awareness often becomes apparent through images, or through what might be called "inner vision." Because intuition on the mental level is associated with thinking (although all types of intuition are rooted in the mind), it is most often linked with problem-solving, mathematics and science (but not limited to those fields). Intuition on this level can be recognized when suddenly there is order where there had been chaos. This can occur in a flash or after long, arduous work. Western cultures tend to value the latter approach. First there occurs an exhaustive application of logic and reasoning, followed by a subsequent intuitive flash. This approach is associated with the discovery and invention involved in technological progress. Remember the times when you worked long and hard on something and the solution seemed to come to you "out of the blue?" We leap to correct answers before there are sufficient data, we intuit, we grasp, we jump to conclusions despite the lack of convincing evidence. That we are right more often than wrong is the miracle of human intellect. The rational part of research would, in fact, be useless if it were not complemented by the intuition that gives scientists new insights and makes them creative. Capra speaks of "spontaneous insight" as being analogous to "getting" a joke. We can take an intuitive leap; we can work long and hard with rational processes and then experience a solution in a flash of insight; or we can choose to "sit on it" (or sleep on it). Incubation con be a valuable asset to an intuitive process. Incubation gives the mind time to let a chaotic disarray fall into a pattern of order. Sid Parnes, a researcher and consultant in creative problem-solving, calls it "letting it happen." When we mistrust (intuition) or let it atrophy by persisting with exclusively rational-empirical thought patterns we end up tuning in with mono to a stereo world. The spiritual level of intuitive awareness is associated with mystical experience and, at this level, is "pure." According to Vaughan, "Pure, spiritual intuition Is distinguished from other forms by its independence from sensations, feelings, and thoughts." Spinoza, a noted philosopher defined spiritual intuition as the knowledge of God. Frances Vaughan relates, philosopher James Bergenthal equates this knowledge with man's experience of his own being and says that man knows Got through his deepest intuitions about his own nature. In yoga, spiritual intuition is known as soul guidance. It emerges spontaneously when the mind is quiet. Spiritual intuition is the basis from which all other forms of intuition are derived. Activating spiritual intuition means focusing on the transpersonal rather than on the personal realms of intuition. The personal and the transpersonal can b. considered as two modes of knowing or as two different levels CF consciousness. In Western thinking, the personal is the ordinary waking state of consciousness in which the world is perceived objects and events existing separately in time and space. The transpersonal means "beyond the personal." In transpersonal consciousness, the underlying oneness of the universe becomes apparent, and the ordinary confines of time and space are experientially transcended. Both of these realms of human function are available to us. Reason is the mode of knowing appropriate to the personal level. Intuition is the mode of knowing appropriate to the transpersonal level. We need to accept both, expanding our understanding and experiences of consciousness to include both. It is beneficial to examine another way of organizing how you might think about intuition. Phillip Goldberg (1983) categorizes six functional types of intuition: discovery and creativity, evaluation, operation, prediction, and illumination. Discovery Intuition is similar to discovery in its revealing nature; but where discovery reveals singular truths, facts, or verifiable information, the creative function of intuition generates alternatives, options or possibilities. Ideas generated may be factually right or wrong, but will be more or less appropriate to the situation. Similar to a brainstorming session, creative intuition produces a quantity of ideas from which the ideal solution can be selected, while discovery intuition reproduces the single answer sought in a more factual situation, such as, "what is the structure of the DNA model?" The single "right" answer comes in a flash of knowing. Evaluation intuition signals "yes" or "no" when one is confronted with choices. Goldberg (1983) distinguishes between rational analysis or intuition in making evaluations, using an example from Tom Duffy, a financial planner who states: " I might make contingency plans on the basis of a formal analysis of technical data, but the actual decision - to commit or hold off or abandon - is a question of timing, and for that I look to my feelings. " At times, logic may dictate a move in one direction, but intuition urges another. A friend of ours still keeps on his dresser the ticket for an airplane trip that "something inside" told him not to take, even though it was an important business trip. The plane crashed and all its passengers were killed. To stimulate your evaluation intuition, try this: Do a logical analysis of an upcoming event (The Super Bowl, Academy Awards). Based on your analysis, predict the outcome. Then, ignoring your rational decision, play your hunch on the outcome. Later, check out your results. Operation intuition acts like a sense of direction, steering us this way or that. Where evaluation intuition works when there is something to evaluate, operation intuition most often precedes anything specific, kind of nudging you toward or away from a situation. The situation may be potentially dangerous or perhaps a major positive turning point in your life. This type of intuition is sometimes referred to as a lucky accident, or being in the right place at the right time, or responding to a gut feeling without much information to go on, or coincidence. Think back on your recent experiences. Is there anything that you can attribute to a lucky accident? Prediction intuition allows us to predict what might happen in the future. We form hypotheses, we foresee future events, we forecast outcomes of situations. Predictions can be warning devices or positive feelings about future activities, or hunches that help us to organize or time these future events. For example, we might exercise extra caution in driving a car because prediction intuition may warn us of possible impending danger. Or we may feel pleasantly anticipatory toward attending an event, not knowing ahead of time that we will see someone there for whom we really care. Illumination intuition is similar to what Frances Vaughan (1979) calls the spiritual level of intuitive awareness. It has been called, in other places, according to Goldberg (1983), samadhi, satori, nirvana, cosmic consciousness, self-realization, or union with God. Understanding illumination intuition helps us understand all forms of intuition; cultivating it simultaneously cultivates the other functional types of intuition.

2019-04-21T20:36:28Z

https://hyponoesis.org/Glossary/Intuition/Intuition

The Illinois House defeated a concealed weapons proposal favored by gun rights advocates Thursday night, a rejection that could spur negotiations toward finding common ground with lawmakers who want more restrictions. The legislation represented a signature showdown in the critical gun debate that is in the spotlight this spring because a federal appeals court has set an early June deadline for Illinois to put in place a law allowing concealed weapons to be carried in public. The proposal debated Thursday would have allowed guns on mass transit buses and trains but not in taverns, schools, casinos, stadiums, child care facilities, universities and government buildings, including courthouses, police stations and the Capitol. Rep. Brandon Phelps, the legislature’s leading concealed carry advocate, challenged his colleagues to vote for what he viewed as reasonable parameters on where people could carry guns in public, who is allowed to carry, who decides whether a person is eligible and how much training should be required. Thursday’s outcome represented a setback for gun-rights advocates because the vote total in support actually was less than during two previous tries. In May 2011, an earlier version also needing 71 votes to pass the House failed by a 65-32 vote. And in February, during a test vote, another version drew a 67-48 roll call. Q: What else can you give? Q: What happens on June 9? Rep. Will Davis (D-Homewood) took that point a step farther, predicting the bill would worsen violent crime in the city and across the state. “I just think this is going way too far, way too far. And I hate to say it, but I think this will actually get worse in our state before it gets better,” he said. Nowhere has it been shown that violent crime increases after concealed carry laws are passed. I wish opponents would start arguing facts instead of emotion here. The liberals are guilty of doing precisely what they constantly accuse conservatives of doing on things like climate change. “Chicago’s not an island. It’s only an island because it’s been a terrible, crime-ridden, gang-banging city for so long,” said state Rep. David Reis, R-Willow Hill. The House rejected a measure that would have required the state’s pension systems to refrain from investing in gun-manufacturing companies. The bill failed 46-69. That’s pretty much where the gun votes are right now. Both sides have enough votes to block what the other side wants. So, either we’ll get a negotiated solution, or it’ll stalemate. It’s likely that the Democratic leaders will try to ram something through that neither side will love. We’ll see. From a pure politics perspective I wonder why the pro-gun folks want to pass anything. Aren’t they in the strongest position by simply not passing anything and running out the clock until 6/9? Of course, that is not a meaningful policy solution– but our legislators don’t seem to care much about that anyway (on either side of the aisle). Looks like Judge Posner will be writing our CCW law for us. Judge Posner doesn’t have to write any CCW law. All he needs to do is issue the order invalidating current IL UUW law. Judge Posner is one member of the appellate court. I don’t think he writes orders on his own. Just wait ‘em out Todd. >>>>> Aren’t they in the strongest position by simply not passing anything and running out the clock until 6/9? Except for 200+ home rule units of government with 100+ different way of regulating carry. If you could take a poll right now of the citizens of Watertown, Mass wonder if they would be okay with having a firearm to defend yourself and family. Before declaring a moral victory and beginning a celebratory dance, it still worth noting that the gun control crowd cannot muster a bare majority, once again. In terms of infringing the rights of law abiding citizens to carry arms, the gun control legislators have delayed the inevitable by perhaps eight weeks. The court decision is an important card for the ISRA and the NRA. Yesterday’s actions will have consequences in many representative districts outside of Chicago. They can, as can you. What kind of math are you using to come up with “bare” majority Esquire”? It appears that we are headed towards an injunction and FOID CC. I’m kinda surprised at yesterday’s vote results, especially after Rep. Phelps bill was amended to include more training, an increased fee, accommodations for Cook Sheriff Tom Dart, etc. As noted, these concessions didn’t get any additional votes. Perhaps the anti-gunners felt emboldened by the USSC denial of cert of the NY case. I can see both sides digging in their heels. Rep Phelps supporters because their concessions were dismissed, and the anti-CC legislators because of the USSC denial of cert. Should we start a countdown of the number of days to June 9? I’m not so worried about Chicagoans not having CCW since the judge specifically mentioned Chicagoans in his decision as being the ones who would need it. I’m not so sure about people in the rest of the state though, like in the quiet suburbs. but, in the end they can’t prevent this - they can’t kick it down the road. It must be hard to swallow. They still can wave their arms, gnash their teeth and jump up and down but it is important not to confuse activity with accomplishment. >>>>>In terms of infringing the rights of law abiding citizens to carry arms, the gun control legislators have delayed the inevitable by perhaps eight weeks. Well, no, in fact for most of Illinois they have sped it up. On June 9, because of inaction, we get Court-Carry. If the ILGA had passed HB997, it would get months to get all the ducks in a row to issue permits, then the gunners would have to sue to get them because Quinn won’t provide for enough staff at the ISP. And once permits are flowing, it would take a year to satisfy demand. But a June 9th nullification of the existing ordinance means instant carry for everyone. And of course, it would be a misdemeanor in Chicago and Oak Park by then, without holding the local may-issue permit. Antis seem determined to “allow constitutional carry”. “It’s likely that the Democratic leaders will try to ram something through that neither side will love.” I don’t see much middle ground for the leaders to try to ram through. Without preemption or shall issue, the pro gunners (rightly) aren’t going to vote for it. As for mass transit and trains, the only time I ride trains is if I go to Chicago and that is certainly the place I want to have a gun the most (And please don’t start snickering-as a country boy, I don’t like big cities, period). Bans on mass transit would be a defacto gun ban for those people who depend on it to go everywhere, including work, grocery shopping, medical needs, etc., and isn’t that what the court order is all about? I’m generally a believer that society is better off when negotiations are tough, I’ll be happy to see this bring everyone back to the table. We’re a unique state, I think we can find a solution that works for us. Also, today’s Trib headline specifically mentions that transit was included in the defeated cc bill. The Sun-Times is up in arms about it as is the rest o the Chi media. Polls show massively overwhelming support for the transit carry ban. I just don’t see it being allowed. Non-ISRA member- “Should we start a countdown of the number of days to June 9?” I don’t belong to ISRA, but its website has a count-down clock on its home page- (a second-by-second countdown). Just how many of those places do you think will be welcoming people with guns. Have you ever ridden Chicago public transit at rush hour? The idea of introducing firearms to a packed, tense, often angry environment — with usually a crazy or two providing “atmosphere” — is just bizarre. I ride Metra every day, and am a CCW advocate, but I am not convinced that allowing carry on trains is a good idea. Mostly because of the number of people packed into a train and they way they’re packed in, an accidental discharge could have enormous consequences. I haven’t managed to convince myself either way on this point. Rich: Oops, definitely know who his daughter is, but don’t pay attention to the rest of his family. The way you see it, it may be necessary to get a bill passed, and the NRA may eventually agree, but I still think that my argument against it on constitutional grounds is still valid. What constitutional grounds? Scalia introduced the concept of “sensitive places” and gave a laundry list of examples. This whole thing is a fascinating train wreck, I heard the modified and moderated version got even less votes than expected, so nothing is good enough. It looks like there was no point in Phelps trying so hard to write a middle of the road, Illinois-palatable CCW bill. He should have just brought a more extreme form and let it be amended back to where he tried to start 997 at. I think Todd’s prediction is essentially correct. Expect Posner and the other two to simply find the current law unenforceable. It will leave us with no law banning conceal carry. Springfield cannot agree on one, so locals might. Cook County will rush through a very restrictive bill. A federal judge will like stay enforcement pending hearing. The question will be the weight, if any, the District Court gives the denial of cert in NY. Will the judge look at it as S.Ct. as approval, or just as S.Ct saying “we’ve got better things to do?” It depends on the judge. But in any case, the judge will likely stay enforcement and it will go up. From there, it depends on the panel. Other areas might pass their own, but I doubt we will see it widespread. Outside of Cook County, I just don’t see banning any guns as a big issue. The words “gang-banging” and “tea-bagging” should not be in the political lexicon, but people love their sexual double entendres, so it would be hard to change. AND IT GOT 3 fewer votes than last time. Many N votes asked for specific additions… Yet someone whispered in their in and they still vote no. Not compromising in good faith. Why shoudl the NRA go back to the table? we were at the table modifying this bill time and time and time again only to have games played. Yes we only got 64 votes last night, the NY style May issue got what? 31? We’ll run out the clock. I’ll get legal defense together for FOID carry and 1983 law suits. State is broke anyway but it can give some gunner owners fat checks after they charge UUW after June 9th. Fine by me. You can only bend so much to the chicago reps and when they screw you after you put in the additions to get the vote how can you trust them again. Maybe a iGOLD event in downtown Chicago after the stay is lifted…. with FOID Carry. Could a brick have been put on the legislation to allow the AG an opportunity to appeal the 7th Circuit opinion to the USSC? By passing Phelps’ bill, would that not have made the issue moot? @word. I love how you assume masstransit has no guns on it now… Or how in other states there are mass transit systems that you can carry on… None of the bloodbath you and so many predicts occur. Sorry. I ride a train downtown to visit a client or a friend on a Saturday say and cant carry? nope. Screw that. I’ll carry. you also assume that everyplace downtown goes instant gun free zone… You may be surprised. Go up to Milwaukee, tell me how many signs you see.. maybe 5-10% of the places. Thank you for your vote yesterday on this time sensitive matter of CCW in Illinois. I look forward to open or concealed carry of my firearm on June 9. What anti gun folks don’t seem to want to listen to the fact that the Conceal and carry ban does not work. People are dying because of this failed law. The court recognized it does not work and you have no statistics to prove otherwise. If you do, please forward them to the AG because she obviously did not have them to support her case. I just don’t see why people are so afraid of trying something else when all the evidence shows the current law has failed. Can the legislators get any sillier? Or are they secret CC advocates looking for the most wide open system possible? Would excluding carry on CTA be enough to push 997 over the top? And Word, what Ron said - have you traveled much out of IL lately? I know that I have seen exactly two “no CCW” signs up in Cheddarstan since they passed CCW, and I can count the number of posted places I’ve seen in TX and IN on two hands. There is no such thing as an accidental discharge - guns do not “go off” by themselves. Someone has to pull the firearm’s trigger. And how is that going to occur when the firearm is carried in a holster concealed on the person? Negligent discharges occur when the person using the firarm, not merely carrying it concealed, fails to follow basic firearm safety and handling rules. Todd’s comments were extremely intelligent and Rich did an excellent job putting together the basics of what took place yesterday. I would second the truth of the comments or the possibility that currently there are likely people illegally packing guns on the CTA. But given the incrediable liability problems that would be faced by an individual even if they legally discharged a a permited gun on a rapid transit train I would not recommend packing in that situation. Honestly, somehow I am begining to think that many of the folks who want to have concealed carry weapons in urban situations have no significant assets they could lose in a litigation situation. Since the median net worth of Americans including their equity in homes is only around $77,000 they may not have a lot to lose. Patriot, are there people dying in your town as a result of this UUW statute? If not, stop pretending to know about issues troubling Chicago. I remember in your earlier posts you saying that you do not want to come to Chicago. Unless you’re here and understand day to day life here, please do not try to tell Chicagoans how to solve our own problems. Ive said this before - the whole concealed carry debate should not be about crime. I think the statistics show that concealed carry does not increase or decrease crime. This is an issue of what kind of society we want to live in - a society where we can freely carry guns or a society where there are limitations on guns. Based on this whole debate, ive come to the conclusion that the best solution is probably to let the locals decide what is right for them. If people who want guns do not feel comfortable coming to Chicago without guns, they can choose not to come. In the same line, if Chicagoans do not want to go to a portion of the state with guns, that is there choice as well. >>>>>But given the incrediable liability problems that would be faced by an individual even if they legally discharged a a permited gun on a rapid transit train I would not recommend packing in that situation. I would not recommend actually shooting in a crowded rapid transit train NOR ANYWHERE ELSE unless it was absolutely necessary. Then the liability be damned. >>>>>> Ok. Show me proof. I don’t think you’re accurately positing the issue. We currently have a situation where criminals (and gang members perhaps not yet convicted of anything) can freely carry and law abiding citizens may not carry under any circumstances. The issue we are faced with is how do we set up the necessary appropriate/responsible provisions on letting law abiding citizens also carry. We lost yesterday. 64 votes. We made changes to the bill in exchange for promised votes… increasing the training, limiting reciprocity, adding prohibited locations, upping the fees, etc. etc. Those promised votes didn’t materialize. The hard-core opponents could only muster what, 31 votes for their dream carry bill? We got 64 for a bill we weren’t at all happy with but could live with. And we got stiffed by about 8 reps. Guess who isn’t going to be inclined to bend any further? Nothing is good enough for some of these folks. Well, unlike dozens of times before, the clock is ticking in our favor. Let’s see how they appreciate utterly unregulated carry come June 9th. I’ll be carrying, but then again, I’ve got more hours of training than most cops and I paid for every bit of it. Most folks aren’t going to have all that training. But then again, folks in Indiana don’t need a lick of training to carry and they don’t seem to be appreciably smarter or more mature than Illinoisans. I think we’ll be okay after June 9th. But you better get used to seeing people with guns on their belts. John Bosh seems bitter. He probably should put the gun down. I can’t wait, it’s going to open up so many new opportunities for me to poke fun at the big tough guys that have to carry guns. @ Small Town Liberal - a good life plan is to avoid unnecessary provocations to, or conflicts with, people weilding superior force. I’m shocked at the notion that any law abiding citizen would use their firearm against me for teasing. I’m talking about the guys I grew up with, I’ve been ribbing them for years, they haven’t harmed me yet. But then again its Illinois. Good faith went out the window a long time ago. I think thats a good argument against concealed carry. So what are you saying? Some “law abiding” citizen is going to use “superior force” against STL for making fun of him? Shows the true flaws of human beings. Generally good people can make mistakes every now and then. When you throw firearms into the mix those mistakes can become big mistakes. Just a head’s up — you people claiming STL will get shot for teasing somebody are not exactly helping the cause. PM31, you just made a very strong case against concealed carry. Are you really that much of a wussy? By the way, PM31, you also reinforced every stereotype about the inferiority complex of men who want to carry concealed weapons. I should probably send your IP address to the state police to make sure you never get a permit. C’mon everyone, all meant in good fun. It’s Friday, let’s lighten up. Fred - Remarkably enough, 49 other states allow carry, and I’m sure there has not been any noticeable decline I’m “teasers” there. Maybe some woopins though. Just because you think you are right does not mean that “the other side” acquiesces. That’s the whole point of the process. You beat me in committee, I beat you on the floor, we retreat, reconsider, and (here is that pesky word) negotiate and try again. Have you ever run a roll call? People flip on and off through the whole process, for hundreds of reasons. Expect it, don’t be alarmed when it occurs, this is the big leagues. Please stop picking on my state. No one is stopping you from moving to Iowa or Indiana. I assume you are here because you like it here. It’ll never come to that. Cassidy’s bill lost. Phelps’ bill lost. Phelps’ needs 71, a bill based on Phelps with certain amendments allowing home rule to add additional restrictions only needs 60. When push comes to shove, there will be 60 votes for a CCW law. ISRA won’t be able to hold its votes to block half a loaf. Something is going to pass before the court’s deadline. Back to the table everybody. The sides are not that far apart, despite the rhetoric on both sides. Sorry. Maybe I am not a political animal or backstabbing j**bag that politicians are, but in my world that to me means you no longer take anything that person says as truth. Many chalk it up to “politics” and maybe it is. But maybe that is why we are so messed up. Eight’s a big number. Care to elaborate? Ron, I’ve been riding Chicago public transit twice a day, five days a week, for 25 years and have seen all manner of stuff. But I’ve never seen evidence of a gun. I’ve seen freakouts from men and women of all races and social status, though, believe me. What’s your life experience on the matter? That is what we were told for two days leading up to the vote. Why we gave more and more. Then this. Word is someone was walking around talking to some key votes saying “dont vote for this, we in the senate will do a different bill”. How can we continue to negotiate in good faith. we get nothing back (including votes) for all the capitulation on item after item. Why go back to the table when you do nothing but give? ??? Really??? miserable unemployment, unpaid bills, imploding retirement system etc.. If these is something major about it, it is a major malfunction. me to… I rode from Narpeville to downtown the same way for 7 years. You dont see evidence of a gun? i have had mine a few times… did you see it? Concealed carry is just that. you dont see it. I travel almost every week now. Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Denver, etc, etc,etc… do I ever see a gun on their streets? no do you hear of mass shootings on public transit there? errant rounds? No, but law abiding people still get to carry their weapon for that 30 minutes they are the train or bus then spend their day wherever it is. Just like “shootings over traffic accidents and parking spots” and “wild west blood in the streets” predictions. Mass transit stuff is another hissy fit but has no real basis in reality just unjustified fear. Shame on any legislators who gave their word to support the bill if certain concessions were included, got the concessions, and they still voted NO or Present. That’s called bargaining in bad faith. At least George Ryan used to keep his word. @ Small Town Liberal - with your friends, sure, you’d be fine (your original comment didn’t limit it so). To a stranger…it would offer the opportunity for things to spiral … and end badly (I had a former school chum killed in a road rage incident that began with someone being cut off merging lanes). And I was attempting (and apparently failing) at some light ribbing up above. I think 47th has it right. They’ll jam thru a bill with 60 votes. That incident, if it occurred as reported, is a negligent discharge causd by the person’s failure to follow firearm safety & handling rules. First, he should not have had it in a fanny pack, it should have been in a holster and secured with a thumb strap; second, it must have been a pretty old revolver if it discharged by being dropped on its hammer - such revolvers haven’t been manufactured for many years and the basic safety rule for those types of revolvers were to never have a round in the chamber under the hammer. So yes, I agree the person was an idiot, but the incident was not an “accident” as it was caused by his failure to follow gun safety & handling procedures - AKA negligence. Todd and the Phelps clan aren’t babes-in-the-woods. They know how to count and they know who’s in for the all-day job. Everybody likes a good bratwurst, but you don’t want to know how it got in the bun. What “compromises” have the gun control advocates offered to preclude unrestricted concealed carry base on Posner’s ruling? Certainly, the NRA came to the table to try to compromise and institute a reasonable bill, as they have for the past year, but apparently there is no compromising with the gun control advocates who just reneged on their negotiations with the NRA. Were I the NRA, I’d stand pat and let the gun control advocates come to me, soon they will fully realize the corner into which they have painted themselves. Were you being a law-abiding citizen when you were doing that? I never make the “Wild West” analogy unless it is to point out that the plots of some of the best Westerns ever made feature local controls on firearms. All the “OK Corral” movies (John Ford’s “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” best, “Tombstone”; next; “Unforgiven”; “Winchester ‘73″). When in recent history has there been real compromise on any issue in Springfield? More particularly, as Cincinnati notes, when have the pro-control people shown any willingness to compromise? I expect Chicago Dems would rather blame the big mean judges than take action to get a reasonable bill. There will not be a compromise. The court will lift the stay banning enforcement, Cook County will pass something on the New York model, and we will have more litigation. @ word… before it was called we were talking 72 or more votes. You tell me what happened. They wouldnt have brought it up if they had not made the adjustments and counted the votes. Where do you get “unrestricted concealed carry” in Posner’s appellate court opinion (not his “ruling”)? Where do you find even a suggestion of it in Heller or McDonald? I’m confused — what “proof” is in any of those links proving that if IL had a conceal carry law, that those murders would not have happened? The lawsuit challenged the current statute. The 7th Circuit found the statute unconstitutional, but then stayed the ruling giving IL time to come up with a statute that could pass scrutiny. If IL fails to do so, the easiest thing for the 7th Circuit to do would be to simply toss the statute. Potentially they could re-write it, but I just don’t see that happening. Just as a reminder — federal judges tend to like it when people do what the court tells them to do. They tend to get a bit annoyed when people fail to do so. So yeah, I could easily imagine the court just walking away leaving IL with no statute. Second Amendment litigation in federal courts has been very sleepy since the founding. Heller and McDonald changed that, for sure. The federal litigation is just getting started. The states used to be able to write their own ticket on guns. Since the NRA challenges, the genie is out of the bottle and the federal courts will call the tune from now on. Careful what you wish for, you might get it. Brandon knew hours before that he would lose that vote. Some rambling thoughts. . . . The AG could have announced an appeal at any time. She hasn’t. by my count she has till the 23rd of May to do something. If she were to appeal, I would bet the Court would grant a stay of the 180 day deadline. Also if she intended to file and asked for an extension of time to file with a stay I would expect it would be granted. Some wonder why we have pushed for a bill. The answer is simple. There needs to be certainty and clarity of the law for cops, prosecutors and citizens. Without it, I don’t think it does the state well. I would disagree with the headline writers. Was this a disappointment, sure. BIG loss no. As Rich put it in the Fax today, the Speaker weighed in. That is always hard to overcome once he takes a vested interest in passing or defeating a bill. Had his thumb not been on the scales I believe a different outcome. We didn’t want a vote this week. And proposed working on changes through next week while the House was out. But we were told otherwise, and told their would be a vote. The best legislative products don’t always get turned out in 24 hours or less. 47 your wrong on the preemption issue. We will hold the votes. We will not have a patchwork of carry laws from town to town. So Cook passes a non-carry ordinance via impossible may issue. The people on one side of Elgin are fine. The others are not. In the DuPage side of Hinsdale you’re ok walk across the street you’re not. There are more votes for preemption. Rich – I disagree as there will be no Machin/Toomey deal. It didn’t work for the the DC crowd and I don’t see it working here. So what’s next, having had a bit of time to think on. . . we made many concessions in Amendment 9. WE went in and essentially negotiated against ourselves. That’s over. We will now await others to bring their proposals to us for our review and approval or disapproval. They can be the ones to figure out language, they can be the ones to that and see if it meets our muster. Some of the things we agreed to, may now be off the table, if adding fees and training hours and taking certain things on good faith like course recognition, more implementation time, more time to process permits and more prohibited areas, didn’t gain votes, but had people stripped off. OK We tried. Now it is someone else’s turn. We don’t need to pass a bill. The state does. The ramifications of not doing so will be mixed. But I can imagine the rebuke from the federal bench for the thumbing of the legislative nose at the Court. Beyond that, I will hold down a bench in the rotunda and read Capfax blog from my Ipad. That is what I think is next. You know that for a fact? would love to know how he knew as that is not what is being broadcast. Well, yeah. He was asked in my presence hours before when he was calling his bill and he said why bother since it’s just gonna die anyway. I don’t post lies, dude. And I don’t care what you read or heard elsewhere. Things we do to keep people safe: lock down an entire city for hours. Things we won’t do: A 5 minute background check before you buy a gun. I have no illusions that most of Wisconsin, Texas and Indiana are different from the Loop. That’s okay — vive la difference. People go into the Loop to work and make money, not make a statement. You think they’re going to be packing at CME? CBOE? The banks? The private equity firms? The law firms? The office buildings? The train stations? People are too busy to deal with that distraction. Chicago ain’t Dallas or Houston, it’s more New York or London, when it comes to business environment. Furthermore, do you think you’re going to be able to go to the Fortune 500 campuses — McDonald’s, Motorola, Walgreen’s, Abbott, UL, Allstate — packing a gun? No way. They don’t want that stuff. It’s business, nothing personal. It could well be that the remedy would be to allow open carry subject to possible restrictions by all, or at least all home rule units of government. It could also be that the Attorney General could decide if an appeal is necessary and proper after such rulings. Decision from other federal districts are suggest that Illinois may be an outlier. If so, those demanding “shall issue” or nothing, could get nothing. –Things we do to keep people safe: lock down an entire city for hours. Anyone down on Big Government and paying their taxes right now? How about those “extravagant pensions” for public employees? Like the ones for those who go to work in the morning not knowing if they’ll live through the day? I thought that when McVeigh blew up all those bad public employees, and their children, there would be some shame for that attitude. You can’t shame the Tribbies and the Civic Committee. Accidental shooting or negligent discharge? Who is against public safety employees. There are other pieces of Big Government, and there is certainly room for debate on the proper role of Government. Not at all. Accident precludes negligence and is extremely rare. That’s interesting. I could probably give you 100 cases saying that negligence REQUIRES there to be an accident. A negligent act is the opposite of an intentional act. And those injunctions would be against enforcement of the UUW statute’s prohibition on carrying. Leaving Illinois without any enforceable prohibition on carrying. Negligence implies an act or failure to act by an individual. Accident is just that. Lighting fuse on firecracker in an unsafe situation: negligence. Firecracker spontaneously combusts absent any action or failure to act on the part of an individual: accident. Think of it this way: negligence = act of man. Accident = act of God. Do you have any authority for that claim? Because courts have found the opposite for a couple hundred years. It goes to the basic coverage under a CGL policy. For there to be coverage, there needs to be an accident. If there is an accident, there is negligence. In contrast, you have breach of contract claims or intentional act claims. Enough with the semantics argument, please. Move along. Skeeter, you’re probably more correct than I am - I’m refering back to fuzzy memories of basic liability concepts. We underwriters really don’t worry about this stuff in day to day risk selection. Big — I will disagree. It’s not up to the Court to write a law. It is up to them to enter and order that bars the State and its political subdivisions from enforcement of (a) (4), (a)(10) and 1.6 of the UUW/AGUUW statute. Those sections of the UUW law are unconstitutional. That’s the role of the Court. C’mon, man. The sad and nasty story line from the right-wing is that government employees are leaches. Like I said, I thought that should have been retired after McVeigh and OK City. Mass transit is a difficult venue to give up. Many Chicago residents without cars rely on it to get from point A to point B within the city. They need and have a right to carry at both points but how do they do that if they rely on transit? What you call, “Right-wing” people understand and support the role of first responders, intelligence, federal law enforcement, and the military. Big loss huh? Bigger than Anti-NRA forces? With 31 Yea votes for HB831? Let’s look at all the pieces on the table, shall we? 64 Yea votes for HB997, vs 31 for HB831. Last and only court case that counts going in favor of carry with an opinion written specifically to allow shall issue, preempting home rule. Nothing else is guaranteed at this point. You have the possibility of the AG filing cert. Hasn’t happened. You have the possibility of SCOTUS accepting it. Hasn’t happened. You have the possibility of SCOTUS reversing the 7th’s ruling. Hasn’t happened. Yeah, I’m cryin’ over here with our BIG LOSS.

2019-04-22T22:57:12Z

https://capitolfax.com/2013/04/19/big-nra-defeat-in-il-house/

Looking at the landscape to be explored in the New Year. Mastcam Left image of the "Rock Hall" drill hole, red Jura slab surrounded by sand-filled polygonal troughs. We are still very excited and happy that the final drill hole, "Rock Hall," on Vera Rubin Ridge was successful over the weekend. Now we get to analyze the drilled sample with rover instruments. Sol 2263: We have sample! At the end of last week, the team made the call to drill the rock "Rock Hall," and Curiosity had no problems drilling the target. Sols 2260-2262: Go for Drill on the red Jura! In our last plan, we carried out triage activities on the red Jura target, "Rock Hall," including APXS of the target to determine composition, and engineering tests to assess the stability of the rock and its hardness, both of which would affect our ability to drill. Sols 2258-2259: Is THIS the red Jura we are looking for? The drive around to the north side of "Rock Hall" in yesterday's plan was successful, placing us at a lower tilt and with room in the workspace to place all the piles of sample we drop on the surface (purposely!) in the aftermath of drilling. Even on Mars, where every second of Curiosity's sol is planned, things don't always go quite as expected. After a successful weekend of activities and driving, we were hopeful that we would wake up on Sol 2256 and be ready for contact science and drilling. This Navcam image shows the outcrop of red Jura rock that the rover will image during the weekend drive. Even though they looked promising from a few meters away, this morning's workspace images showed us that the red Jura rocks we had hoped to drill are too fractured to drill safely. Sol 2250-2251: Grey today, red tomorrow! On sol 2250 Curiosity finishes the observations on and around the Highfield drill hole and drives on to an area where red Jura is exposed. InSight's successful landing is surely the biggest news of the week. But Curiosity was busy too! This week, and more specifically in this plan, we wrapped up the Highfield drill site campaign. Curiosity woke up to Mr Rogers "Please would you be my neighbour" this morning to welcome InSight, and then got very busy at the Highfield drill site. Today Curiosity is preparing for the imminent arrival of a new visitor to Mars, just as many of us are preparing for the out-of-town visitors who'll be descending into our homes over the Thanksgiving holiday. Curiosity is planning a smorgasbord of science over the next few days as it awaits results from digesting the "Highfield" drill target material. It's the windy season on Mars, and Curiosity's activities this weekend include taking oodles of images at different times throughout the day to catch how the wind moves sand and dust around. It's SAM day for our Highfield drill target! Today we planned to deliver a sample of the ground up rock from our Highfield drill hole to the SAM instrument. Sols 2229-2230: Preparing for more SAMple! Following a successful weekend of science activities at the "Highfield" drill site, today we're planning Sols 2229-2230. As we enter this weekend thinking about football, raking leaves, and if you're like me, sleeping a bit more, Curiosity will be gearing up for three sols of hard work! Today was a good day on Mars. The science and engineering teams are making preparations to drill a patch of grey bedrock named "Highfield", which will be our latest attempt to characterize this unique rock unit on Vera Rubin Ridge. Sol 2223: Optimism for "Highfield" On Sol 2222, Curiosity drove ~10 m towards the "Lake Orcadie" location, in the hopes that we would be able to drill the gray Jura member here. Sol 2222: Déjà vu - Return to Lake Orcadie! Our attempts to drill grey rock on the "Vera Rubin Ridge" (VRR) continue. Sols 2219-2221: Curiosity goes bump! Curiosity had a good Halloween because it had resumed contact science. Today, Curiosity will have a targeted science block, drive, and then have an untargeted science block. Today was an exciting day for me as a member of the APXS team and filling the role of payload uplink lead, as Sol 2217 marked a return to contact science activities after our anomaly on Sol 2172. Today was the first day of planning with the full science team since Curiosity had an anomaly on sol 2172. The focus of today's three-sol plan is environmental monitoring. Sols 2211-2212: Getting Back into the Science Swing of Things! As Curiosity continues on her journey up Mount Sharp (the mound in the centre of Gale crater), rocks we encounter contain evidence for changing environmental conditions. Sol 2204: Curiosity science is baaaack! Contrary to the "frightening" title, the Curiosity team is excited that science operations are starting to resume! As Curiosity continues to mend, I've been looking forward to our next drill sample of gray rock. Sometimes planetary geology is like forensics. We are presented with a crime scene: Something broke down the original igneous rock, and made all those clays, veins and hematite nodules. Sols 2175-2176: Tell Us More, We Want to Help! Last night we learned that our drill attempt on "Inverness" was not successful, reaching only 4 mm into the rock. Sols 2170-2171: Go for Drill at Inverness! Drilling begins tomorrow (sol 2170) on what will hopefully be our 18thsuccessful drill hole in Gale crater! Sols 2168-2169: Starting the drill campaign at "Inverness" In the weekend plan Curiosity drove to an area that the team thought would be a good location for the next drill site on Vera Rubin Ridge. Sol 2165 - 2167: It always looks grayer on the other side! Curiosity's last plan didn't quite get our intrepid rover close enough to our next potential drill location in the gray bedrock that is visually distinct on this part of Vera Rubin Ridge. In our case, the Curiosity rover! The main focus of our 2-sol (sol - martian day) plan today is to bump (drive ~15 m) the rover into place for an attempt at drilling an interesting grey coloured patch of bedrock, identified from orbit within the Jura member of the Murray formation on the Vera Rubin Ridge, referred to as "Loch Eriboll." Curiosity's plan for the weekend is extra large - 4 sols and almost 3 gigabits of data! We planned 4 sols due to the Labor Day weekend, and the hefty data volume is courtesy of extra downlink from two special orbiters. Sols 2157-2158: I'll Take the Quela To Go, Please! Today in Gale Crater, Curiosity begins with a short (but sweet) science block that utilizes ChemCam, Mastcam, and Navcam to observe the Martian surface and atmosphere. We start off with a ChemCam LIBS raster of the target "Cairntoul," and then Mastcam mosaics of the same target, as well as "Monar Dam." Look closely, and you can see crescent shaped scratches from the brushes of the DRT on the pre-drilled surface of Stoer. Our second attempt at a dump was successful! The plan for Sol 2155 starts with a whole slew of Mastcam images to check out various components of the arm turret, plus a MAHLI observation of the dump pile. If all had gone according to plan over the weekend, we would see a nice pile of drill fines. Alas, a slight hiccup in the sample dump process meant that the "Stoer" sample was still in the drill and turret. The big question coming into today was whether to re-do the SAM analysis or not. With seventeen sampling holes and several test holes, you might imagine that Curiosity is creating a rather long and erratic golf course in Gale crater. After all, Alan Shepard shot a golf ball on the Moon. Sol 2148: Well I'll be DANed! Curiosity is probing the subsurface today with its Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument. Sol 2147: SAM EGA on the Stoer Sample! With the successful drilling of the Stoer target two weeks ago, Curiosity has been busy characterizing the surrounding terrain using its remote instrument package, performing contact science in the immediate vicinity to understand the composition and physical nature of the bedrock, and also performing power-intensive lab-quality analyses of the Stoer sample using its onboard analytical instruments. Unlike normal weekend plans for Curiosity that encompass three martian days, this plan only covers two. This "Soliday Sunday" isn't really a day off for the rover like it implies, but instead allows the planning schedule on Earth and Mars to get back in sync. The planning day began with an interesting result from the previous plan's ChemCam RMI analysis of a target that was referred to as "Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris" (PPFOD), and speculated to be a piece of spacecraft debris. In today's plan, Curiosity begins analysis of the long-awaited Pettegrove Point drill sample at the "Stoer" target, which was successfully collected last week. Sol 2138-2140: Success at Pettegrove Point! On our third attempt at drilling within the Pettegrove Point member on the Vera Rubin Ridge, we have success! Curiosity has successfully drilled, and generated a pile of drill tailings. After two sols of analyzing our intended drill site in the Pettegrove Point member, we began plans to drill the target "Stoer." Sol 2134-2135: Third time's a charm? After a weekend full of contact science, remote science, and driving, Curiosity arrived at her next drill site within the Pettegrove Point member. Our previous two drilling attempts within the Pettegrove Point member haven't been as successful as we'd have hoped; the rocks in this area are much harder than we're used to - all the more reason to acquire and analyze a drill sample. We're hopeful that our third drilling attempt does the trick! Curiosity is currently preparing to bump to her next drill site in the Pettegrove Point member, but not before gathering many observations at our current location. Sol 2129: Dude, where's my data? Curiosity is currently on her way to a potentially softer rock target to drill in the Pettegrove Point member of Vera Rubin Ridge. Today was a late slide sol, which means we had to wait until 11am PDT for the downlink to arrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get our downlink today from MRO. On Sol 2128, Curiosity will continue toward our third potential drill site within the Pettegrove Point member of Vera Rubin Ridge, where we are hoping to find slightly softer rocks. The day will begin with ChemCam observations of the target "Slioch," which was already analyzed by APXS, as well as the layered rock "Craignure Bay." Curiosity completed its drive successfully after the science team regrouped from the incomplete drill, which required a different than anticipated weekend plan. Our attempt at drilling the target "Ailsa Craig" was partly successful: the drill behaved exactly as it was supposed to, but unfortunately we weren't able to drill very deep. The rock here is just too hard! Since we didn't get a nice deep drill hole, the plan for the weekend is to do some final observations at this location and then move on another location to try again. Sols 2122-2123: Preparing to drill at "Ailsa Craig" Yesterday, the science team chose a new drill target, "Ailsa Craig," and we spent the day triaging the target with our contact science instruments, DRT, MAHLI, and APXS. Mars dealt us a winning hand today, yielding a sufficiently flat parking space after yesterday's short bump to allow us to proceed with our plan to drill in this part of the "Vera Rubin Ridge." Our weekend drive completed successfully and we have our next intended drill target attempt in the rover workspace. Curiosity made great progress yesterday across the "Vera Rubin Ridge" toward the site of our next drilling attempt at "Sgurr of Eigg". In this weekend plan, we will collect more data about the ridge materials around us, and the sky above us, before embarking on a ~12 m drive to Sgurr of Eigg. The Sol 2115 wheel imaging went well, and we received the images needed to plan a drive back to "Sgurr of Eigg," near the Sol 1999 rover position. The priorities for Sol 2115 are to image the rover's wheels and acquire the images needed to plan a drive back to the Sol 1999 location, where we might start another drilling campaign. After our attempt to drill the Voyageurs target did not reach sufficient depth due to the impressive hardness of the rock, the team is beginning to finish up its activities at this location before heading a bit further uphill to find a more suitable (i.e., softer) drill target. Unfortunately, we found out this morning that the "Voyageurs" drill target was a much harder rock than expected. While our drill plan executed perfectly, our bit stopped short of the full depth we need for sampling. Sols 2110-2112: Let the drill fest begin! Drilling on another planet is no easy feat, and each time we have the opportunity to do so on Mars feels pretty special. I first became involved with Curiosity shortly after starting my third year of graduate school in the fall of 2011. My graduate advisor was selected to join the mission as a Participating Scientist, and he enlisted me to help analyze orbital data over Mt. Sharp as part of that role. After being out of commission for over a year, Curiosity's drill is making not just a comeback, but a strong one, with imminent plans for a second drill hole within the span of 60 sols. The image above shows the Mastcam view as of Sol 2104, in which the nearby terrain is clearly visible, but nothing beyond the foreground, and the entire scene looks a murky red-brown color due to the dust storm. Sol 2104-06: Have we reached the peak? Our primary goal for today's planning was to continue to approach our next drill location on the Vera Rubin Ridge. While the rest of us are enjoying fireworks, BBQs, and spending time with friends and family, Curiosity will remain hard at work over this Fourth of July holiday. Curiosity is back on top of the Vera Rubin Ridge once more, having completed our drive over the weekend as we move toward our next drilling target in the "Pettegrove Point" geological member. Curiosity stopped its drive a bit earlier than anticipated. It so happens that the autonomous software onboard Curiosity designed to keep it driving safely kicked in and ended the drive short of the planned distance. After a steep drive Sol 2094, Curiosity is back over the crest of Vera Rubin Ridge and enjoying the view of flatter terrain ahead. Today's 2-sol plan kicked off with the good news that our power state exceeded predictions, so we were able to add in some extra science activities. Despite the global dust storm (more correctly known as a "planet encircling dust event") darkening the skies, our nuclear-powered rover continues to do good science. Over the past week or so, Curiosity has experienced increasingly dusty conditions in Gale crater. Unlike her older cousin Opportunity on the other side of the planet, Curiosity is not solar powered and, therefore, doesn't suffer from the same power issues resulting from the darkening skies that Opportunity does. The dust storm that is challenging Opportunity closed in on Gale Crater over the weekend with a substantial increase in dust levels. Curiosity pulled away from the "Duluth" site yesterday, but given the blocky nature of the "Blunts Point" member and the sand in between those blocks, she did not get far. The last time Curiosity drove anywhere was 30 martian days ago. A lot has happened in these past 30 sols. The investigation of the Duluth drill hole is going well, and is expected to continue on Sol 2082. Sol 2081: "Just a Bunch of Dirt" The final several sols of Curiosity's drill activities at "Duluth" are devoted mostly to imaging and to analysis of the pile of drill tailings that are dumped on the ground after the delivery to the instruments. On Earth we have multiple means of communication-cell phone, text messages, land line, e-mail, and good old snail mail. On Mars the rover basically has three-a UHF antenna that communicates with satellites orbiting Mars, a low-gain antenna (LGA) that does not need to be pointed but only handles a low data flow, and a high-gain antenna (HGA) that requires accurate knowledge of Earth's position to receive or send commands directly. Over the weekend, an error cropped up during a regular test of the high gain antenna actuators, leaving the antenna unavailable for uplink of today's plan, but otherwise healthy. Today we planned a weekend's worth of activities for Curiosity. For our weekend plan, we have two main priorities: perform another analysis with CheMin on our Duluth drill sample and continue our campaign of dust storm monitoring. Today, Sol 2075, was a fairly straightforward day of planning, as most of the plan will be devoted to carrying out a methane experiment with our SAM instrument to analyze an atmospheric sample. Today we received the happy news that the SAM instrument received enough sample to conduct its "evolved gas" analysis of the powdered rock from our "Duluth" drill hole! The focus of MSL operations continues to be on the analysis of the Duluth drill sample. We received confirmation that the "Duluth" drill sample was delivered to SAM this weekend, so we're ready to run our evolved gas analysis (EGA) tosol! Every single day that the Curiosity team gets to go into work and operate a one-ton rover on the surface of Mars is a good day. We're looking forward to analyzing some great drill samples from the "Duluth" rock target in Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument, CheMin. Sol 2067: 'Tis the Season to be Dusty. The previous plan included some tests of the sample delivery system, including delivery of a single portion to the closed cover of the SAM inlet. The imaging showed a small amount made it, but not as much as we'd hoped. Some of the Duluth drill sample was dropped into CheMin on Sol 2061, but not enough for a proper mineralogical analysis. So the top priority for today's plan is to again test the new drop-off procedure. After successfully drilling the "Duluth" target on Sol 2057 (as seen in the above Mastcam image), the science team is eager to find out what it's made of. As SOWG Chair today, it was exciting to plan the drop-off of material to CheMin and overnight CheMin analysis. Hopefully we'll get some good data about the mineralogy of this sample! This past weekend, Curiosity successfully drilled into the "Duluth" rock target, generating a beautiful pile of drill tailings! This weekend, Curiosity will attempt to sink the drill into the complexly-layered "Duluth" block. I was excited to learn earlier this week that my native city was chosen as the name of the latest drill site on Mars! The name was selected by geologists on the mission to recognize the Duluth Complex, one of the largest intrusions of gabbro on Earth, along the north shore of Lake Superior. Our sol 2054 plan was limited by a small morning downlink. Occasionally, the flight paths of the Mars orbiters over Gale Crater don't have favorable geometries for relays with Curiosity, and this means our data downlink passes are smaller than average. Today we received only 1.6 MB (Megabytes) of data at the start of our planning day. Sol 2053: Bump to "Duluth" A successful drive on Sol 2052 brought Curiosity within bumping distance of what will likely be our next intended drill target. The science team named this target "Duluth." Duluth is a beautifully exposed Murray formation block visible in the Navcam image above. From our current location, we have a really nice vantage point of both the top and sides of the Duluth block. Analyzing blocks that have this kind of 3-D expression gives us a great opportunity to assess the full architecture of the rock. Rather than driving almost 11 meters, Curiosity only drove about 1/2 meter before stopping. So, we found ourselves looking at images of previous wheel tracks and contact science targets rather than a new location. Curiosity is currently investigating the Blunts Point member of the Murray formation, and searching for a suitable location to drill in the near future. Today is the third and final day that I'm serving as SOWG Chair this week at JPL, and I was happy to see that the bump we originally planned for Sol 2046 completed successfully on Sol 2047, placing the rover in a good position for contact science on a couple of bright blocks in front of the rover. In Curiosity-speak, a "bump" is a short drive the rover performs to better position itself for a particular science investigation (often contact science with the rover's arm). Yestersol's plan intended to include such a bump to reach a suitable target for contact science, but unfortunately the drive did not execute. As Curiosity continues to descend the Vera Rubin Ridge and back into the Murray formation, the science team is doing their best to characterize, for a second time, all of the structural, chemical, and spectral variations originally seen as we climbed up the ridge. The drive planned on sol 2045 will take Curiosity off of Vera Rubin Ridge and back into the broken-up rocks that comprise the Blunt's Point member of the Murray formation. Curiosity continued her journey off of the "Vera Rubin Ridge," driving west along the ridge flank toward a passable route down to the bedrock north of the ridge. Her stop today may have been brief, but it was ehhhhhhxcellent. Our drive from Sol 2039 was successful, and the plan for sol 2040 is to continue driving to the west. Sol 2039: All eyes on "Red Cliff" Following some fantastic preliminary imaging from yestersol, today's plan (Sol 2039) is dedicated to additional imaging of "Red Cliff" before continuing to drive toward a location where we think we are likely to drill. We have a short science block to start the day, during which we'll use Mastcam to take some context imaging of our surroundings and upcoming terrain. A successful drive in the weekend plan set Curiosity up nicely for a full sol of contact and remote science. Curiosity continues to pick her way downhill off the "Vera Rubin Ridge" and onto the Murray formation rocks below. This weekend's plan only covers two sols, to give Earth planning time and Mars time a chance to realign so that the science team is not up in the middle of the night commanding the rover. Curiosity is continuing her march to the north and west, descending through the stratigraphic layers exposed in Vera Rubin Ridge and working her way back towards the unit known as the Blunts Point member, just below the ridge. Curiosity drove a little over 16 m to the west this weekend. The rover is currently skirting around the southern edge of a small, blocky impact crater on its way north off the Vera Rubin Ridge. This drive was remarkable because it marked a shift in Curiosity's strategic campaign: we have officially finished our initial reconnaissance of Vera Rubin Ridge, and we are beginning our journey down off the ridge, heading north into an area where we would like to test the rover's drill. This was a week of transition for Curiosity's environmental science team. The cloudy season on Mars has ended as we've seen a marked decrease in water ice cloud activity in our Navcam sky movies over the last several weeks and we're moving quickly into the dusty season on Mars. Over the weekend Curiosity completed a 13 meter drive from some interesting float rocks including some potential breccias to "Suilven Ripple", a sand ripple where it will characterize the grain sizes and ripple morphology. Today is a 2-sol plan with no drive. The Sol 2020 drive completed successfully, placing the vehicle in a good position for contact science on the Waternish conglomerate. The top science priority for this plan is to acquire all of the data needed to adequately characterize the rocks at the current location before driving away. For the past few sols Curiosity has been exploring a diverse assemblage of cobbles and boulders on Vera Rubin Ridge, trying to understand how this blocky deposit came to be, and what the variety of rock types can tell us about geologic processes in Gale crater. An eclectic mix of rock targets has kept our team's attention for another sol today. Like Harry Potter in Honeydukes or Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, Curiosity rolled up to the proverbial candy store today, wondering "where to begin?!" The variety of rock types in the workspace, the likes of which had not been seen for many hundreds of sols, made picking favorites a challenge. For much of the last year, Curiosity has been exploring fine-grained rocks along Vera Rubin Ridge, and investigating red and gray color variations. Recently, something else caught our eye: dark cobbles and boulders exposed in patches, as seen in the above Mastcam image. After a 38 meter drive Curiosity reached the location that the team has called Region 13 of Vera Rubin Ridge. After failing to pass SRAP (the process that makes sure the rover is safe to use its arm) on the previous sol, we finished up the set of observations possible at this location. After the weekend drive, the rover ended up in a spot that was a little too unstable to pass the Slip Risk Assessment Process (SRAP). That means that there is a slight chance that the rover's footing might shift if the robotic arm is extended, which is not ideal for the safety of our contact science instruments, so for the Sol 2011 plan we chose not to use the arm and instead focused on remote sensing. Yesterday Curiosity drove 35 m to the southeast, which set us up for some great contact science on the rim of a small impact crater. Sol 2007: "Today is a Shetland Day!" The science team today had a few tough decisions to make to balance time and power. Sol 2006: Three (Martian) Years on the Surface! As of ~9:00pm Pacific Daylight Time this evening, Curiosity will have made three revolutions around the Sun while exploring Gale crater. After completing a nearly 55m drive, Curiosity found itself sitting right in the middle of the strongest spectral detection of hematite identified along its path up Mt. Sharp. For Sol 2004, Curiosity threw it back to the 2004's sleeper hit Mean Girls when the rover said, "Stop trying to make 'drive' happen." The weekend drive stopped after just a few meters due to a high current warning from the right middle wheel. Curiosity is currently sitting in front of a steep outcrop that shows some interesting geologic relationships between rocks in the Vera Rubin Ridge. Today marks a milestone for Curiosity. Our trusty Martian rover has spent 2000 sols exploring Gale Crater helping to unravel the geologic history preserved in the rocks. Curiosity is but 1 sol away from a major mission milestone, but work always comes before celebrations. Today was a fairly quiet day of planning on Mars, the reason being that most of the MSL science team is currently attending the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Houston, Texas. As we drive east across the top of "Vera Rubin Ridge" - backwards no less! - we encountered another nice patch of bedrock in Curiosity's workspace today, motivating multiple observations before we hit the road once again. After a successful weekend plan, the team decided that for the sol 1991-1992 plan, we would trade a longer-distance drive in favor of some "touch and go" contact science. This ensures that we have a good record of the variations in chemistry and rock texture as we drive along the Vera Rubin Ridge. We found out this morning that in the Sol 1986 plan, ChemCam was marked as "sick" and did not run its sequences. Seasons make a big difference for Mars vistas. Tosol Mars is at solar longitude 139, meaning that it is halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox in the southern hemisphere where Curiosity resides. Sol 1985: How Hard is a Rock? Last week when the first Vera Rubin Ridge drill-hole attempts turned out to be too shallow at "Lake Orcadie", discussion in the team turned to the question of, "How hard is that rock? Vera Rubin Ridge is as hard as a rock! After two drilling attempts, Curiosity's drill was not able to dig into the bedrock sufficiently to collect a sample of rock at this location. All of the data returned for the second drill target, called "Lake Orcadie 2," support the decision to attempt to acquire sample at that location using feed-extended drilling. Today, Sol 1980, we're taking a break from drilling activities to continue with our remote science campaign at our current location. We have three science blocks in today's plan, which we've filled to the brim with a variety of observations. It is an exciting time for the Curiosity team. Although the drill was able to create a hole, Mars stubbornly refused to let the drill reach a depth where a rock sample could be collected and has driven Curiosity away from "Lake_Orcadie". The tactical planning schedule was delayed by 2 hours today so that we would have the latest data from Sol 1977 available for planning. When the data arrived, it quickly became clear that the feed-extended drilling did not complete as planned. After a successful drill preload test, Curiosity was primed to drill for the first time in about a year. Curiosity has returned to its primary mission of drilling rocks on Mars in an attempt to rescue critical science on the Vera Rubin Ridge from the clutches of vile mechanical failures. Sol 1973: Go for Drilling! Curiosity is officially go for drilling the "Lake Orcadie" target! After more than a year's wait for the drill to come back online, the rover planners and engineers are confident and ready to proceed with a test of a new drilling method in the coming days. Tosol we planned to finish up our suite of observations on the "Ogunquit Beach" sand sample that was off-loaded from the rover over the weekend. Over the weekend, Curiosity successfully off-loaded the sample she acquired previously, the "Ogunquit Beach" sand sample, in preparation for what the science team hopes is acquisition of a new *drilled* rock sample very soon. The DRT brushing of the potential drill target completed successfully, as did SAM's recent analysis of the Ogunquit Beach sample, and the rover is healthy and ready for more! We are planning 2 sols today to get a head start on the holiday weekend planning. We had several options today, including mobility and contact science with or without brushing, which made for an interesting day for me as SOWG Chair. For the last several months, the science, engineering and operations teams have only met three days a week to plan activities for Curiosity in order to give the engineers more time to focus on bringing the drill back online. Like yesterday, today's plan is a bit on the thin side, as the rover's power allotment will be primarily dedicated to activities associated with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and its preparation for a planned power-hungry experiment in tomorrow's plan. Over the weekend Curiosity drove ~52 m to the northeast to another patch of gray bedrock. The team is interested in characterizing the gray bedrock to determine if we might want to drill here. Today we planned for a weekend of activities at the same location we've been at all week. Recovering from the SAM fault proved more challenging than expected, so our planned drive to the patch of pale tan bedrock in the image above did not take place. We took advantage of the fact that we have been parked at this same site for several sols to acquire both new and less-common types of observations. Over the past several months we've made excellent progress up and along the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), taking stunning mosaics and using our instrument payload to examine the local geology. Today we planned for Sols 1957-1958, during which we will continue our VRR investigations and drive further along to our next area of interest. Unfortunately, SAM experienced a minor fault over the weekend, so we'll be delaying those activities - a preconditioning test for an upcoming geochronology experiment - to Wednesday's (Sol 1959) plan. Every February 2nd the people of the United States and Canada observe a quirky holiday called Groundhog Day. Sols 1952-1953: Another "touch and go" Along with many of my MSL colleagues, I'm attending our semi-annual science team meeting, enjoying the presentations and discussion of recent results and plans for the future. Going in to planning today, there was a concern that we would run up against constraints on power and complexity that might force us to eliminate some of the science we wanted to do. Curiosity diverted from our primary "Mount Sharp Ascent Route" a couple weeks ago as we continued to investigate the outcrops of bluish-toned rock that are scattered around this region of the Vera Rubin Ridge. Having spent 1943 sols on the surface of Mars, Curiosity is in its 6th Earth year on Mars, but it is in its 3rd Mars year of exploration. That means Curiosity has encountered this season of the year twice before. We're sorry, but we will not be posting updates to this blog during the government shutdown. Also, all public NASA activities and events are cancelled or postponed until further notice. We'll be back as soon as possible! Sorry for the inconvenience. The Sol 1939 drive went well, placing MSL next to the bright/dark transition seen at the right side of this image. Today's two-sol plan will wrap up activities at Vera Rubin Ridge location "e." When we assessed the downlink data this morning, we were excited to see that ChemCam did a great job with some very precise pointing in the previous plan. At location "e" we have been focused on understanding small-scale features, like the tiny crystals and veins seen in the above ChemCam RMI image. Today we're continuing our science activities at the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) location "e." It certainly seems that "e" should stand for "exciting," as we've collected quite a rich set of observations at this location, including extensive imaging and geochemical analyses. What's in a name? From its rather innocuous sounding informal site name, you might not guess that location "e" would generate such excitement in the science team. The first thing the science team on shift did was decide to stay at the current location rather than drive away. This was primarily driven by the large suite of excellent science targets available in the workspace. These targets continue to help constrain the geologic story of the Vera Rubin Ridge. Curiosity has made it to "Region e" of the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) campaign. This location is a slight depression with exposed fractured bedrock that appears more "blue" from orbit than the surrounding region. In addition, the orbital evidence and observations from the ground suggest that this location is similar to "Region 10" that we visited just last week. For the last several weeks, Curiosity has been hopping between areas of blue-ish toned rocks on the Vera Rubin Ridge and the results from these locations continue to become more compelling. Sols 1927-1928: Layers of fun! Today's image is a color version of part of the workspace image from the Sol 1925-1926 blog, which shows in greater detail the numerous layers and color variations that kept us at this spot for another round of science observations. There's no real rest for the rover. We planned sols 1921-1924 on December 22 and 29. Earlier, the team had planned a minimal set of activities for the rover to carry out over Sols 1913-1920, letting the science and engineering teams spend a bit of time away from work.

2019-04-26T08:07:15Z

https://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?y=2018