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Posted by WAM NY Marketing Committee
Members or supporters sometimes ask us about how to get a job in the microfinance industry. Well, participating in WAM NY events is a good start! There are loads of face-to-face networking opportunities all year round.
Another way to become familiar with people in the industry is attending a dedicated job fair offered through the SEEP network. And this year, SEEP is donating one free pass to WAM NY supporters for their job fair in Washington DC. WAM NY will auction the free pass at our Oct 11 fundraiser night in NYC.
About SEEP
Seep is a global network of over 130 international practitioner microfinance organizations dedicated to combating poverty through promoting inclusive markets and financial systems. Their annual conference is a popular event in the industry.
The SEEP 2012 Conference, the premier global event in microfinance and enterprise development, is taking place November 4-8, in Arlington VA. The theme this year is Building Inclusive Markets: Impact through Financial and Enterprise Solutions. It will feature an exciting menu of high-level plenaries, twenty workshop sessions in five technical tracks, a career fair, and an amazing list of pre-conference trainings. Join, connect and engage with the over 500 participants representing 220+ organizations from over 70 countries!
Visit the website for more details and make sure to register before October 1st! You can also win a free registration by participating in a fun Facebook contest at www.facebook.com/theseepnetwork
Posted by Praveen Prasad, WAM NY Chair
"In the social business era, your network is a bottom-line business asset." - Kelly Hoey
Listed in Forbes as one of five women changing the world of VC/Entrepreneurship, Kelly Hoey is a founder of Women Innovate Mobile, the first accelerator program for women founded (or co-founded) startups focused on mobile technology or mobile applications. She sits on the advisory boards of three tech startups: Stone Creek Entertainment, Lion'esque Style and The Levo League.
A connection-make and business networking strategist, Kelly has helped clients (ranging from Fortune 500 to fashion to private equity to AmLaw 200) connect with and leverage their business networks. Kelly was the first president of global business networking group 85 Broads and worked directly with CEO/Founder, Janet Hanson on network strategy and membership engagement and growth. Prior to her entrepreneurial leap, Kelly was immersed in the legal world, initially as a corporate lawyer, then she focused on building out the alumni, professional development and women's initiatives at global law firm, White & Case. Kelly is a champion of women's empowerment and leadership and has been an advocate of increasing the numbers of women in leadership in the technology and business sector.
Kelly is a frequent speaker on building and maintaining professional networks, creating engaged communities and making strategic connections.
Featured in:
Inc., Forbes, HuffPost Live, LexBlog, Women 2.0, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Vator News, Grovo, News on Women, and FIR Interview.
Selected 2012 Speaking:
Posted by WAM NY Marketing Committee
Katherine Bierce recently won the $20 Amazon card drawing this summer by responding to our member survey! We asked Katherine a few questions to learn more about her...
About me:
Katharine works full-time at a boutique data analytics & management consulting firm in New York. In her free time, she enjoys running employee volunteering events, connecting social entrepreneurs to resources, and giving one-on-one advice to a variety of innovators on career development and business strategy.
Why I joined WAM NY:
I first heard about Women Advancing Microfinance when I was a student at the University of Chicago. I had an informational interview with someone at ACCION in Chicago and she suggested I attend a WAM event, which was at ShoreBank. I'm originally from the NYC area, so when I graduated college and started building my network in NYC after college, I knew I had to join the NY chapter of WAM!
My experience with WAM:
WAM events are always full of great people. New York can be a tough city, but the environment of WAM events is always very supportive.
November 2017
WAM NY Marketing Committee.


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My Listings
1121 MARSDEN Court in Burnaby: Simon Fraser Univer. House 1/2 Duplex for sale (Burnaby North) : MLS®# V762593
1121 MARSDEN Court Burnaby V5A 3K2 : Simon Fraser Univer.
Awesome Half-Duplex in a beautiful, quiet & prestigious Simon Fraser University neighbourhood. Just like a Vancouver Special with over 2,577 SqFt of spacious living. 3 Bedrooms Up and 2-bedroom Suite Down. Private backyard on cul-de-sac.Close to schools & transit.
Data was last updated December 11, 2019 at 04:00 AM (UTC)

subset: commoncrawl


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Diana (level 3+) | Therapist
Massage Modalities I am Experienced in: Deep tissue 3+, Trigger point, Swedish/Relaxation, Cupping, Himalayan Salt Stones, Reflexology, Aromatherapy.
Why I Became a Massage Therapist: I became a massage therapist in 1997. I have enjoyed what my 21 years experience has provided me. I was more interested in helping people feel well rather than sell them something they didn't really need or want.
Philosophy on Healing: Massage works to boost immune system functioning by reducing anxiety and stress, increase white blood cell count , decrease cortisone levels, and activate disease fighting cells. Overall massage decreases pain in muscles, nerves and inflammation. It increases blood flow to assist in the removal of toxins and increases oxygen and nutrients to the affected areas.
Places I have Lived: I was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. After college I moved to Seattle and lived there for 27 years. An empty nest brought me back home, to my roots in 2018!
Interesting Facts About Me: I love to snow ski, make art with molding clay, painting, water ski, body surfing, hiking, camping and most sports!


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Background: Past research has consistently identified children with experience of out-of-home care (OHC) as a high-risk group for premature mortality. While many have argued that educational success is a key factor in reducing these individuals' excessive death risks, the empirical evidence has hitherto been limited. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the potentially mitigating role of educational success for the association between OHC experience and premature mortality.
Methods: Drawing on a Stockholm cohort born in 1953 (n=15,117), we analysed the associations between placement in OHC (ages 0-12), school performance (ages 13, 16, and 19), and premature all-cause mortality (ages 20-56) by means of Cox and Laplace regression analysis.
Results: The Cox regression models confirmed the increased risk of premature mortality among individuals with OHC experience. Unadjusted Laplace regression models showed that these children died more than a decade, based on median survival time, before their majority population peers. However, among individuals who performed well at school, i.e. scored above-average marks at age 16 (grade 9) and age 19 (grade 12), respectively, the risks of premature mortality did not significantly differ between the two groups.
Conclusion: Educational success seems to mitigate the increased risks of premature death among children with experience of OHC.
To study the links between parental alcohol-related disorders and offspring school performance and, specifically, whether associations vary by gender of parent or child and whether associations are mediated by other adverse psychosocial circumstances commonly appearing together with parental alcohol problems, such as parental mental health problems or criminal behaviour.
Register study in a national cohort.
740 618 individuals born in Sweden in 1990-1996.
Parental hospital admissions for alcohol-related disorders and school performance in their offspring, in the final year of compulsory school at age 15-16, was analysed in relation to sociodemographic confounders and psychosocial covariates, using linear and logistic regressions.
Both mothers' and fathers' alcohol-related hospital admissions were associated with lower z-scores of grades and national mathematic tests scores. After adjustment for parental education and sociodemographic confounders, beta-coefficients of z-scores of grades were -0.42 (95% CI -0.45, -0.39) and -0.42 (95 % CI -0.43,-0.40), and beta-coefficients of mathematic tests scores were -0.36 (95% CI -0.39, -0.33) and -0.31 (95% CI -0.33, -0.29), for mothers' and fathers' alcohol-related disorders, respectively. Adjusted ORs for not being eligible for secondary school were 1.99 (95% CI 1.84-2.15) and 2.04 (95% CI 1.95-2.15) for mothers' and fathers' alcohol-related disorders, respectively. Adjusting the analyses for psychosocial factors in the family almost eradicated the statistical effects of parental alcohol-related disorders on offspring school performance to beta-coefficients of 0.03 to -0.10 and ORs of 0.89 to 1.15. The effect of a mother's alcohol-related hospital admission on school performance was stronger in girls than in boys, whereas no gender differences were seen for a father's alcohol-related hospital admission.
In Sweden, alcohol-related disorders in both mothers and fathers are associated with lower school performance in their children at age 15-16, with most of the statistical effects being attributed to psychosocial circumstances of the family, such as parental psychiatric disorders, drug use, and criminality and receipt of social or child welfare interventions.
We used Swedish national registers to analyse dental health care among young adults with childhood experience of out-of-home care (OHC), in Cox regression analyses. All 1.7 million Swedish residents born in 1980-1994 were included, of whom 4% had been in OHC. The population was followed up in the Dental Health Register from age 20 to 29, during the period 2009-2014. We found that persons with short or long OHC experience made emergency dental care visits more often than their majority-population peers: 17-23% versus 9-10%, (adjusted Hazard ratios [HR:s] 1.60-2.02); they more often had tooth extractions, 9-12% versus 3% (HR:s 2.33-3.03); but less regularly visited a dentist for planned check-ups, 61-77% versus 80-87% (HR:s 0.76-0.78). Since dental health in young adulthood reflects dental health and dental care in childhood, the findings of this study call for improved preventive dental health care for children in OHC.
We used data from Swedish national registers for ten entire birth year cohorts (1972–1981) to examine psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood for youth that left long term foster care after age 17, comparing them with majority population peers, national adoptees and peers who had received in-home interventions before age 13. The population was followed in the registers from age 16 to 2005. Data were analyzed in Cox regression models.
Youth who left long term foster care had six-to eleven fold sex and birth year adjusted excess risks for suicide attempts, substance abuse and serious criminality from age 20, and for public welfare dependency at age 25. Overrisks were considerably lower for the in-home intervention group and the national adoptees. Adjusting results for poor school performance in the final year in primary school (ages 15–16) reduced overrisks by 38–52% for care leavers from long term foster care.
Irrespective of issues of causality, poor school performance seems to be a major risk factor for future psychosocial problems among youth who age out of long term foster care. The results suggest that promoting foster children's school performance should be given high priority by agencies.
Child welfare clients represent a high-risk group for delinquency and adult criminality, but also for future suicidal behavior. We examine associations between delinquency and suicidal behavior in a national child welfare population. This register-based cohort study is based on data for all Swedish former child welfare clients born between 1972 and 1981 that experienced interventions before their adolescent years. We followed 27,228 individuals from age 20 years until 31 December 2006. Juvenile delinquency was defined as being convicted of at least one crime between age 15 and 19. The risk of suicidal behavior was calculated as incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Fifteen percent of the women and 40 % of the men had at least one conviction between the age 15 and 19. The adjusted risk of suicidal behavior among women with five or more convictions was 3.5 (95 % CI 2.0-6.2); corresponding IRR for men was 3.9 (95 % CI 3.1-4.9). Child welfare experience-specifically of out-of-home care-in combination with delinquency is a potent risk factor for suicidal behavior among young adults. However, we cannot exclude that some of this association is an epiphenomenon of uncontrolled confounders, such as impulsivity or severity of psychiatric disease. Despite this caveat, results should be disseminated to practitioners in the health and correction services.
Background As the suicide rates in young adults do not show a clear decline, it is important to elucidate possible risk factors. Juvenile delinquency has been pointed out as a possible risk behaviour. Methods This register-based cohort study comprises the birth cohorts between 1972 and 1981 in Sweden. We followed 992 881 individuals from the age of 20 years until 31 December 2006, generating 10 210 566 person-years and 1482 suicides. Juvenile delinquency was defined as being convicted of a crime between the ages of 15 and 19 years. Estimates of risk of suicide were calculated as incidence rate ratio (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using Poisson regression analysis with adjustment for potential confounding by their own and their parents' mental illness or substance abuse, parental education, single parenthood, social assistance, adoption and foster care. Results Among females, 5.9%, and among males, 17.9%, had at least one conviction between the ages 15 and 19 years. In the fully adjusted model, females with one conviction had a suicide risk of 1.7 times higher (95% CI 1.2-2.4), the corresponding IRR for men was 2.0 (95% CI 1.7-2.4) and 5.7 (95% CI 2.5-13.1) and 6.6 (95% CI 5.2-8.3), for women and men with five or more convictions. The effect of severe delinquency on suicide was independent of parental educational level. Conclusions This study supports the hypothesis that individuals with delinquent behaviour in late adolescence have an increased risk of suicide as young adults. Regardless of causality issues, repeated juvenile offenders should be regarded by professionals in health, social and correctional services who come into contact with this group as a high-risk group for suicide.
Research has shown that childhood stress increases the risk of poor mental health later in life. We examined the effect of childhood stressors on psychological distress and self-reported depression in young adulthood. Data were obtained from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the national Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a survey of US families that incorporates data from parents and their children. In 2005 and 2007, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics was supplemented with two waves of Transition into Adulthood (TA) data drawn from a national sample of young adults, 18-23 years old. This study included data from participants in the CDS and the TA (n = 2128), children aged 4-13 at baseline. Data on current psychological distress was used as an outcome variable in logistic regressions, calculated as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Latent Class Analyses were used to identify clusters based on the different childhood stressors. Associations were observed between cumulative exposure to childhood stressors and both psychological distress and self-reported depression. Individuals being exposed to three or more stressors had the highest risk (crude OR for psychological distress: 2.49 (95% Cl: 1.16-5.33), crude OR for self-reported depression: 2.07 (95% CI: 1.15-3.71). However, a large part was explained by adolescent depressive symptoms. Findings support the long-term negative impact of cumulative exposure to childhood stress on psychological distress. The important role of adolescent depression in this association also needs to be taken into consideration in future studies.
Childhood adversity (CA) is a risk indicator for psychiatric morbidity. Although CA has been linked to violent offending, limited research has considered adolescent psychiatric disorder as a mediating factor. The current study examined whether adolescent psychiatric disorder mediates the association between CA and violent offending.
We used a cohort of 476 103 individuals born in 1984–1988 in Sweden. Register-based CAs included parental death, substance abuse and psychiatric disorder, parental criminal offending, parental separation, public assistance, child welfare intervention and residential instability. Adolescent psychiatric disorder was defined as being treated with a psychiatric diagnosis prior to age 20. Estimates of risk of violent offending after age 20 were calculated as incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Mediation was tested with the bootstrap method.
Exposure to CA was positively associated with violent offending, especially when accumulated. Individuals exposed to 4+ CAs who were also treated for psychiatric disorder had a 12-fold elevated risk for violent offending (adjusted IRR 12.2, 95% CI 10.6–14.0). Corresponding IRR among 4+ CA youth with no psychiatric disorder was 5.1 (95% CI 4.5–5.6). Psychiatric disorder mediated the association between CA and violent offending.
CA is associated with elevated risk for violent offending in early adulthood, and the association is partly mediated by adolescent psychiatric disorder. Individuals exposed to cumulative CA who also develop adolescent psychopathology should be regarded as a high-risk group for violent offending, by professionals in social and health services that come into contact with this group.
Childhood adversity (CA) is associated with increased risks of psychiatric disorder in young adulthood, but details in this association are less known. We aimed to explore the association of a range of CA indicators with psychiatric disorder in young adulthood, and the impact of age at exposure, disorder type and accumulation of indicators. We capitalized on Sweden's extensive and high-quality registers and analyzed a cohort of all Swedes (N = 107,704) born in Stockholm County 1987-1991. Adversities included familial death, parental substance misuse and psychiatric disorder, parental criminality, parental separation, public assistance recipiency and residential instability. Age at exposure was categorized as: 0-6.9 years (infancy and early childhood), 7-11.9 years (middle childhood), and 12-14 years (early adolescence). Psychiatric disorders after age 15 were defined from ICD codes through registers. Risks were calculated as Hazard Ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results showed that exposure to at least one CA was associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorder (HR 1.4, 95% CI: 1.3-1.4). Risks were increased for mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders and ADHD but not for eating disorders. The risk varied with type of disorder but was similar for all exposure periods. Individuals with multiple (3+) CAs had a two-fold risk of psychiatric disorder (HR 2.0, 95% CI: 1.9-2.1). In conclusion, our findings support the long-term negative impact of CA on mental health, regardless of developmental period of exposure. Given that experience of CA is common, efforts should be put to alleviate the burden of childhood adversities for children, particularly among the most disadvantaged.
Background Exposure to childhood household dysfunction increases the risk of psychiatric morbidity. Although school performance also has been linked with psychiatric morbidity, limited research has considered school performance as a mediating factor. To address this gap in the literature, the current register study examined whether school performance mediates the association between childhood household dysfunction (experienced between birth and age 14 years) and psychiatric care utilisation in young adulthood.
Methods We used a Swedish cohort of 96 399 individuals born during 1987–1991. Indicators of childhood household dysfunction were familial death, parental substance abuse and psychiatric morbidity, parental somatic disease, parental criminality, parental separation/single-parent household, public assistance recipiency and residential instability. Final school grades from the 9th year of compulsory school were used to create five categories. Estimates of risk of psychiatric care utilisation (measured as inpatient, outpatient and primary care) after the age of 18 years were calculated as HRs with 95% CIs. Mediation was tested with the bootstrap approach.
Results Cumulative exposure to childhood household dysfunction was positively associated with psychiatric care utilisation. Specifically, individuals exposed to three or more indicators with incomplete school grades had the highest risk (HR=3.7 (95% CI 3.3 to 4.1) after adjusting for demographics), compared to individuals exposed to no indicators with highest grades. School performance was found to mediate the relationship.
Conclusions Our findings suggest that future efforts to prevent or mitigate the negative effects of childhood household dysfunction on psychiatric morbidity may benefit from integration of strategies that improve school performance among vulnerable youth.
Stressful childhood experiences have negative long-term health consequences. The present study examines the association between adverse childhood experiences, socioeconomic position, and risk of psychotropic medication in young adulthood.
This register-based cohort study comprises the birth cohorts between 1985 and 1988 in Sweden. We followed 362 663 individuals for use of psychotropic medication from January 2006 until December 2008. Adverse childhood experiences were severe criminality among parents, parental alcohol or drug abuse, social assistance recipiency, parental separation or single household, child welfare intervention before the age of 12, mentally ill or suicidal parents, familial death, and number of changes in place of residency. Estimates of risk of psychotropic medication were calculated as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using logistic regression analysis.
Adverse childhood experiences were associated with increased risks of psychotropic medication. The OR for more than three adverse childhood experiences and risk of psychotropic medication was for women 2.4 (95% CI 2.3–2.5) and for men 3.1 (95% CI 2.9–3.2). The risk of psychotropic medication increased with a higher rate of adverse childhood experiences, a relationship similar in all socioeconomic groups.
Accumulation of adverse childhood experiences increases the risk of psychotropic medication in young adults. Parental educational level is of less importance when adjusting for adverse childhood experiences. The higher risk for future mental health problems among children from lower socioeconomic groups, compared to peers from more advantaged backgrounds, seems to be linked to a higher rate of exposure to adverse childhood experiences.
Background: Few studies have examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and disability pension (DP). The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between different ACEs, cumulative ACEs, and DP, and the mediating role of school performance. Methods: We used a Swedish cohort of 522 880 individuals born between 1973 and 1978. ACEs included parental death, parental substance abuse and psychiatric disorder, substantial parental criminality, household public assistance, parental DP and child welfare intervention. Estimates of risk of DP in 2008 were calculated as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 2.3% (3.0% females, 1.7% males) received DP in 2008. All studied ACEs increased the odds for DP, particularly child welfare intervention and household public assistance. Cumulative ACEs increased the odds of DP in a graded manner. Females exposed to 4+ ACEs had a 4-fold odds (OR: 4.0, 95% CI 3.5-4.5) and males a 7-fold odds (OR: 7.1, 95% CI: 6.2-8.1). School performance mediated the ACEs-DP association. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that ACEs is associated with increased odds of DP, particularly when accumulated. The effects of ACEs should be taken into account when considering the determinants of DP, and when identifying high-risk populations.
Objective: Although the relationship between childhood adversity (CA) and depression is widely accepted, there is little information on what proportion of depression is attributable to CA. Method: We used a Swedish cohort of 478,141 individuals born in 1984-1988 in Sweden. Register-based CA indicators included parental death, parental substance abuse and psychiatric morbidity, parental criminality, parental separation, public assistance recipiency, child welfare intervention, and residential instability. Estimates of risk of depression, measured as retrieval of prescribed antidepressants and/or psychiatric care with a clinical diagnosis of depression, between 2006 and 2012 were calculated as Hazard Ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), using a Cox regression analysis. Results: All CAs predicted depression in early adulthood. Furthermore, the predictive association between the CA indicators and depression was graded, with highest HRs observed for 4+ CAs (HR: 3.05 (95% CI 2.83-3.29)) for a clinical diagnosis for depression and HR: 1.32 (95% CI 1.25-1.41) for antidepressant medication after adjustments were made for important confounding factors. Of the studied CAs, child welfare intervention entailed highest HR for depression. Conclusion: Regardless of causality issues, children and youth with a history of multiple CA should be regarded as a high-risk group for depression by professionals in social, and health service's that come into contact with this group.
Background: Aiming to support effective social intervention strategies targeting high-risk groups for teenage motherhood, this study examined to what extent the elevated crude risks of teenage childbirth among child welfare groups were attributable to the uneven distribution of adverse individual and family background factors. Methods: Comprehensive longitudinal register data for more than 700 000 Swedish females born 1973–1989 (including around 29 000 child welfare clients) were analysed by means of binary logistic regression. The Karlson/Holm/Breen-method was used to decompose each confounding factor's relative contribution to the difference between crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs). Results: Elevated crude risks for teenage childbirth are to a large extent attributable to selection on observables. Girls' school failure was the most potent confounder, accounting for 28–35% of the difference between crude and adjusted ORs. Conclusion: As in majority populations, girls' school failure was a strong risk factor for teenage childbirth among former child welfare children. At least among pre-adolescents, promoting school performance among children in the child welfare system seems to be a viable intervention path.
Little is known about developmental outcomes in midlife of persons who were placed in out-of-home care (OHC) in childhood. Utilizing longitudinal Swedish data from a cohort of more than 14,000 individuals who we can follow from birth (1953) to the age of 55 (2008), this study examines midlife trajectories of social, economic, and health-related disadvantages with a specific focus on the complexity, timing, and duration of disadvantage in individuals with and without childhood experience of OHC. Roughly half of the OHC alumni did not have disadvantaged outcomes in midlife. However, experience of OHC was associated with a two-fold risk for various forms of permanent disadvantage, net of confounding factors. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
This study contributes to the literature on preventing social exclusion, here indicated by collecting disability pension in adulthood, by asking whether the pattern and strength of childhood related risk factors is the same for high-risk child welfare clients, as for their peers in the majority population. Longitudinal register data on > 500,000 Swedes, including around 18,000 former child welfare clients, were analyzed by means of linear probability models and calculations of population attributable fractions. Systematic comparisons of effect sizes suggest that the differences in pattern were marginal, but there were significant differences in strength. Overall, poor educational achievement and low educational attainment were the two most prominent risk factors across all groups, also when prevalence was taken into account. In the majority population, the hypothetical reduction of collecting disability pension was on the scale of 20% if either of the two risk factors could be eliminated. Among child welfare alumni, however, the hypothetical reduction was even larger, nearly 30% on average. Prevention strategies targeting poor school performance and low educational attainment may thus substantially reduce the prevalence of disability pension among adults with a history of child welfare involvement.
I denna rapport undersöks om insatsens varaktighet och ansamlingar av ogynnsamma omständigheter under uppväxten har ett samband med hur det går på längre sikt för de barn där insatsen kontaktfamilj eller kontaktperson inleddes under småbarnsåren och/eller förpuberteten. Analyserna omfattar alla de barn födda i Sverige 1973-1990 där insatsen påbörjades när de var 2-5 år (n=6 693) och/eller när de var 10-13 år (n=6 389).
Med hjälp av avancerade regressionsanalyser ser vi att sammansättningen av bakgrundsproblem inte verkar ha något tydligt specifikt samband med hur det går i framtiden. Det är antalet problem som verkar betyda något. I den yngre gruppen verkar barnen med flest problemfaktorer i hembakgrunden ha dragit nytta av längre insatstid. Där är det med andra ord möjligt att en långvarig tillgång till en kompenserande vuxenmiljö utanför den egna familjen kan ha påverkat de mest utsatta barnens utveckling på sikt. För barn med färre problemfaktorer fanns det ingen sådant samband, snarare tendenser till det omvända. Det verkar med andra ord som om en långvarig insats för de yngre barnen fungerar bättre för de 'svåraste fallen'.
För de äldre barnen ser vi svaga tendenser till ett motsatt mönster. De med lägst antal problemfaktorer är de som verkar ha fått svag nytta av lång insatstid. Här är det viktigt att vara medveten om att vi bara har tillgång data som tyder problem i hemmet, inte hos barnet själv (t.ex. förekomsten av beteendeproblem). Det verkar med andra ord som om insatsen var för svag för de mest utsatta barnen. Den äldre gruppen hade generellt mer tecken på problem i barndomen (t.ex. höga förekomster av psykisk ohälsa hos föräldrarna) än den yngre gruppen barn. Den äldre gruppen barn verkar också ha klarat sig betydligt sämre i tonåren och i ung vuxen ålder.
Eftersom våra sambandsanalyser inte har någon jämförelsegrupp av barn som inte fått någon insats (alla som ingår i analysen har fått mer eller mindre av insatsen) är det viktigt att påpeka att vi med det här sättet att analysera inte kan säga något om insatsen är effektiv eller inte. De mönster vi alltjämt har funnit ska därför tolkas som 'tendenser till dämpad försämring' över tid. Det finns dock ingenting som tyder på att socialtjänsten bör vara restriktiv med att ge yngre barn från utsatta familjer en kontaktfamiljsinsats under lång tid. För de äldre barnen finns det dessvärre inga resultat som är tillräckligt handfasta för att tjäna som underlag för rekommendationer.
International research has consistently reported that children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have poor outcomes in young adulthood. Yet, little is known about their outcomes in midlife. Using prospective data from a cohort of more than 14,000 Swedes born in 1953, of which nearly 9% have been placed in OHC, this study examines whether there is developmental continuity or discontinuity of disadvantage reaching into middle age in OHC children, compared to same-aged peers. Outcome profiles, here conceptualized as combinations of adverse outcomes related to education, economic hardship, unemployment, and mental health problems, were assessed in 1992–2008 (ages 39–55). Results indicate that having had experience of OHC was associated with 2-fold elevated odds of ending up in the most disadvantaged outcome profile, controlling for observed confounding factors. These findings suggest that experience of OHC is a strong marker for disadvantaged outcomes also in midlife.
Objectives: To estimate the impacts of Sweden's Contact Family/Person Program (CFPP) for older children on participants' long-term outcomes related to mental health problems, illicit drug use, public welfare receipt, placement in out-of-home care, educational achievement, and offending. Method: We analyzed longitudinal register data on more than 1,000,000 individuals born between 1973 and 1984, including 6,386 individuals who entered CFPP at 10–13 years of age, with a follow-up until 2008. The program impact was estimated by means of propensity score matching. Results: Outcomes for those who had received the intervention were not better than that for matched peers who did not receive the intervention. Conclusions: The results did not find support for CFPP effectiveness in reducing risks of compromised long-term development in older children.
Objectives: To assess the long-term impacts of Sweden's Contact Family Program (CFP) for children on participants' future outcome profiles, here conceptualized as combinations of outcomes related to mental health problems, public welfare receipt, illicit drug use, placement in out-of-home care, educational achievement, and offending. Methods: We analyzed longitudinal register data on more than 950,000 children born 1980-90, including 6693 children who entered CFP at 2-5 years of age, with a follow-up until 2008. Children's outcome profiles were identified by latent class analysis. The average program impact was estimated by means of propensity score matching. Results: Long-term outcomes for those who had received the intervention were not better than for matched peers who did not receive the intervention. Simulation-based sensitivity analyses indicate that some of our estimated negative treatment effects may be affected by unobserved factors related to program participation and outcomes. However, both selection and outcome effects must be extremely strong in order to generate notable positive effects of CFP participation. Conclusions: The results did not find support for CFP effectiveness in reducing risks of compromised long-term development in children. Since the intervention reaches a high-risk group of children and is popular among users, volunteer families and professionals, the program should be reinforced with knowledge-based components that target known risk factors for child welfare recipients.
This study contributes to the literature on preventing teenage childbirths by asking whether the pattern and strength of risk factors is the same for high-risk child welfare clients, as for their peers in the majority population. Longitudinal register data on more than 700,000 Swedish females, including around 29,000 child welfare clients, were analyzed by means of linear probability models and calculations of population attributable fractions. Comparisons of effect sizes suggest that the differences in pattern were marginal, but there were notable differences in strength. The girls' school failure was the most prominent risk factor across all groups, also when prevalence was taken into account. In the majority population, the hypothetical reduction of teenage childbirths is on the scale of 30% if this risk factor could be eliminated. In the child welfare subgroups, however, the hypothetical improvement was even larger, around 40%. Reducing the high rate of school failure could thus yield a profound reduction in teenage childbirths in child welfare subgroups, where the incidence of teenage childbirth is substantially higher compared to other peers.
Research has shown that children in foster care are a high-risk group for adverse economic, social and health related outcomes in young adulthood. Children's poor school performance has been identified as a major risk factor for these poor later life outcomes. Aiming to support the design of effective intervention strategies, this study examines the hypothesized causal effect of foster children's poor school performance on subsequent psychosocial problems, here conceptualized as economic hardship, illicit drug use, and mental health problems, in young adulthood. Using the potential outcomes approach, longitudinal register data on more than 7500 Swedish foster children born 1973–1978 were analyzed by means of doubly robust treatment-effect estimators. The results show that poor school performance has a negative impact on later psychosocial problems net of observed background attributes and potential selection on unobservables, suggesting that the estimated effects allow for causal interpretations. Promotion of school performance may thus be a viable intervention path for policymakers and practitioners interested in improving foster children's overall life chances.
The educational underachievement of children in out-of-home care has been known for decades. In this scoping review, we compiled and analyzed – with a narrative approach – evaluated interventions that aimed to improve foster children's school achievements. Despite a comprehensive searching strategy, only eleven relevant studies were found, indicating that little has been done in intervention research to improve educational outcomes for children in public care. Nine out of the eleven interventions reported some positive results. Literacy was improved in most studies, while evaluated attempts to enhance numeracy skills yielded mixed results. Positive results came from a range of different interventions, e.g. tutoring projects and structured individualized support. We conclude that most focused interventions seem to improve foster children's poor academic achievements, but tutoring projects have so far the best empirical support from evaluations with rigorous designs. Also there's a definite need for more intervention research.
We used data from several national registers for fifteen entire cohorts (n > 1.5 million) of Swedish children and youth to examine the influence of parental socio-economic background on the risk of entry into out-of-home care. Logistic regression models were used to analyse the statistical impact of twelve background variables, including parental psycho-social risk markers. The results confirm and expand findings from a classic study by Bebbington and Miles, published in 1989. After controlling for other background variables, including parent hospitalizations for attempted suicide, psychiatric disorders or addiction problems, children of single mothers had three to four-fold higher odds of entering care than children from two-parent households. Low maternal education and receipt of social assistance were strongly associated with higher odds for care entries. Aggregations of socio-economic risk factors increased dramatically the risk of entering care. Among pre-school children with mothers who had received basic education only, were unemployed and received social assistance during three consecutive years, one in seven was placed in care before their seventh birthday. Among same-age children from two-parent families whose mothers were educated to post-secondary level, were employed and had not received social assistance for three consecutive years in the middle of the observation period, fewer than one in 2,000 entered care.
National register data were used in a longitudinal design to test two competing hy-potheses regarding links between cumulative exposure to childhood adversities andlater adverse outcomes, conceptualised as economic hardship in early adulthood,among more than 11,000 Swedish youths who had received the same in-home childwelfare intervention at ages two to five or at ages ten to thirteen. The cumulative-disadvantage perspective argues that the accumulation of childhood adversitiesincrease the likelihood of negative outcomes later in life. In contrast, thedisadvantage-saturation perspective suggests that the accumulation of childhood ad-versities is less consequential for initially disadvantaged individuals. Results from logis-tic regression analyses showed a pronounced positive association between theaccumulation of childhood adversities and economic hardship (measured as extensivemeans-tested social assistance recipiency) in early adulthood. After adjustments forsocio-economic confounders, the analyses showed that youth exposed to four or morechildhood adversities during childhood had two- to four-fold elevated odds of receiv-ing extensive social assistance compared to peers who had received the same inter-vention, but had no indications of exposure to childhood adversities. The results lendsupport to the relevance of accumulated childhood adversities for understandinglong-term outcomes in child welfare populations.
The aim of this paper is to estimate the cumulative effect of childhood household dysfunction (CHD) on alcohol related illness and death later in life and to test the interaction between CHD and socioeconomic background. The study utilised Swedish national registers including data of a Swedish national cohort born 1973-82 (n = 872 912), which was followed from age 18 to 29-40 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for alcohol related illness or death in young adulthood. The CHD measure consisted of seven indicators: parental alcohol/drug misuse, mental health problems, criminality, death, divorce, social assistance, and child welfare interventions. Childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) was indicated by parental occupational status. Outcomes were alcohol related inpatient hospital care, specialised outpatient care or deaths. Using the highest socioeconomic group without CHD experience as a reference, those in the same socioeconomic group with one indicator of CHD had HRs of 2.1 [95% CI: 1.7-2.5], two CHD indicators 5.6 [4.4-7.1], three or more indicators 9.4 [7.1-12.4] for retrieving inpatient care. Socioeconomic disadvantage further increased the risks-those with low socioeconomic background and three CHD indicators or more had a HR of 12.5 [10.9-14.3]. Testing for interaction suggests that the combined HRs deviates from additivity [Synergy index: 1.6, 95% CI: 1.4-1.9]. The results for outpatient care were similar, but not as pronounced. In conclusion, this Swedish national cohort study shows that childhood household dysfunction is strongly and cumulatively associated to alcohol related illness later in life and that it interacts with socioeconomic disadvantage.
Aim To investigate whether socio-economic status (SES) in childhood and school failure at 15 years of age predict illicit drug abuse in youth and young adulthood. Design setting and participantsRegister study in a Swedish national cohort born 1973-88 (n=1405763), followed from age 16 to 20-35 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for any indication of drug abuse. Measurements Our outcomes were hospital admissions, death and criminality associated with illicit drug abuse. Data on socio-demographics, school grades and parental psychosocial problems were collected from censuses (1985 and 1990) and national registers. School failure was defined as having mean school grades from the final year in primary school lower than -1standard deviation and/or no grades in core subjects. Findings School failure was a strong predictor of illicit drug abuse with an HR of 5.87 (95% CI: 5.76-5.99) after adjustment for age and sex. Childhood SES was associated with illicit drug abuse later in life in a stepwise manner. The lowest stratum had a HR of 2.28 (95% CI: 2.20-2.37) compared with the highest stratum as the reference, when adjusted for other socio-demographic variables. In the fully adjusted model, the effect of SES was greatly attenuated to an HR of 1.23 (95% CI: 1.19-1.28) in the lowest SES category, while the effect of school failure remained high with an HR of 4.22 (95% CI: 4.13-4.31). Conclusions School failure and childhood socio-economic status predict illicit drug abuse independently in youth and young adults in Sweden.
Background Alcohol misuse is an important global health determinant and a major contributor to health inequalities. We aimed to investigate the association between school performance and alcohol-related disorders in early adulthood in a longitudinal register-based national cohort study. Methods We followed a register-based national cohort of Swedish citizens born 1973-1984 (N = 948 440) from compulsory school graduation at age 15-16 to 2009. We divided the population into five groups: high school marks (> mean+1 SD); high average (between mean and mean - 1 SD); low average (between mean and mean - 1 SD); low (< mean - 1SD); and missing. Cox proportional hazard models were used to investigate the relation between school marks at time of graduation and hospital care for alcohol-related disorders in early adulthood. Results There was a steep gradient in the risk of alcohol-related disorders related to school performance. In comparison with peers in the top category of school marks, students with low marks had adjusted hazard ratios of 8.02 [95% confidence interval (CI) 7.20 to 8.91], low average 3.02 (2.72 to 3.35) and high average 1.55 (1.39 to 1.73). The risk associated with low school marks was stronger in the male population and in the group from high socioeconomic background. Conclusions The study demonstrated a strong graded relation between low school performance and alcohol-related disorders in young adulthood. School performance should be taken into account when developing prevention programmes/policies targeting alcohol misuse among teenagers and young adults, especially if the aim is to reach high-risk groups.
This study examined health-related quality of life of youth in secure residential care employing a gender perspective. The KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire was administered to 91 youths (46 boys and 45 girls) aged 13-17, admitted to four secure residential units in southern Sweden, in connection with a medical examination. Results were compared with a national Swedish survey from 2009 of 86,000 youths aged 15-16years old. In age-adjusted analyses, youth in secure residential care units reported lower levels of wellbeing for all but one KIDSCREEN measure, compared with the national survey, with moderate to large differences in effect size. In the residential care sample, female gender was associated will lower psychological wellbeing, poorer parental relations and less school satisfaction, while male gender was associated with lower self-perception and peer relations.
Prior research has reported a positive impact of adoption on developmental outcomes for children with experience of foster care. To inform decisions about permanent care arrangements, we used Swedish national population registers to create a sibling population consisting of 194 children born 1973–1982 who had been in out-of-home care (OHC) at least 5 years before adolescence but were never adopted (50% boys) and their 177 maternal birth siblings who also had been in OHC at least 5 years before their teens but were adopted before adolescence (52.5% boys). We constructed 14 outcome variables spanning social, educational, and health outcomes in adult age with information from Swedish national registers. Based on multilevel logistic random effects and fixed effects regression models (supplemented with a sensitivity analysis assessing the potential impact of unobserved confounding), results showed that adopted siblings tended to have considerably better outcomes in adult age in educational achievement, income, criminality, disability, and suicidality. Outcomes related to mental health and substance abuse were more similar, but differences pointed in the same direction. Implications for child welfare policy and practice are discussed.
AimFor decades, non-Nordic countries have consistently reported high rates of somatic health problems among children placed in care by the authorities. This study examined the unmet health and dental care needs of Swedish children in foster and residential care. MethodsThe health of 120 consecutive children aged 0-17 years, who had recently been placed in foster or residential care in one Swedish region, was assessed by an experienced paediatrician using patient records, their medical history and a physical examination. ResultsFollowing the assessments, 51% of the subjects received at least one referral to a specialist or to primary care, either for a previously undetected medical condition or for a follow-up of a previously detected condition noted in their patient records. The study showed that 40% of the girls and 33% of boys were overweight and completed vaccination rates were only 86% for children up to the age of six and 68% for 7- to 17-year-olds. Half of the 7- to 17-year-olds had untreated dental decay. ConclusionOur study revealed a large unmet need for health and dental care interventions among children placed in foster care and residential care and a systematic strategy is required to address those needs.
OBJECTIVES: Adverse early-life experience may affect preterm delivery later in life through priming of stress response. We aim to investigate the links between out-of-home care (OHC) experience in childhood, as a proxy of severe adversities, on subsequent risk of preterm delivery. METHODS: A register-based national cohort of all women born in Sweden between 1973 and 1977 (N = 175 821) was crosslinked with information on these women's subsequent deliveries as recorded in the Swedish medical birth register. During 1986-2012, 343 828 livebirths of these women were identified. The associations between women's OHC experience and her risk of preterm delivery were analyzed through logistic regression models, adjusting for women's own preterm birth, intrauterine growth, and childhood socioeconomic situation. RESULTS: Compared with women that never entered OHC, women with OHC experience up to and after age 10 were both associated with increased risks of preterm delivery (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.23 [95% confidence interval 1.08-1.40] and aOR = 1.29 [1.13-1.48], respectively). Women who experienced OHC before or at 10 years of age had increased risk of both spontaneous and medically indicated preterm delivery (aOR = 1.19 [1.03-1.38] and aOR = 1.27 [1.02-1.59], respectively). Women who experienced OHC after age 10 had a more pronounced risk of medically indicated preterm delivery (aOR = 1.76 [1.44-2.16]) than for spontaneous preterm delivery (aOR = 1.08 [0.92-1.27]). CONCLUSIONS: Women who were placed in OHC in childhood had increased risk of preterm delivery independent from their own perinatal history. Stress response, as 1 consequence of early life adversities, may take its toll on women's reproductive health and their offspring, calling for integrative efforts in preventing early life adversity.
Aim: Decades of research confirm that children and adolescents in out‐of‐home care (foster family, residential care) have much greater health care needs than their peers. A systematic literature review was conducted to evaluate organisational health care models for this vulnerable group.
Methods: A systematic literature search was undertaken of the following data‐bases: Academic Search Elite, CENTRAL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cinahl, DARE, ERIC, HTA, PsycInfo, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PubMed, SocIndex. Randomised and non‐randomised controlled trials were to be included. Two pairs of reviewers independently assessed abstracts of the identified published papers. Abstracts meeting the inclusion criteria were ordered in full text. Each article was reviewed independently, by pairs of reviewers. A joint assessment was made based on the inclusion criteria and relevance. Cases of disagreement were resolved by consensus discussion.
Results: No study with low or medium risk of bias was identified.
Conclusion: In the absence of studies of acceptable quality, it is not possible to assess the impact of organisational models intended to ensure adequate health and dental care for children and adolescents in out‐of‐home care. Therefore, well‐designed follow‐up studies should be conducted following the implementation of such models.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Primary disabilities in children prenatally exposed to alcohol have a major impact on their daily life. It is suggested that these issues persist into adulthood, but few studies have addressed the outcome in adults with prenatal exposure, especially those with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The aim of this follow-up study was to investigate outcome variables, such as education, employment, health, and criminal acts, in 79 adults diagnosed with FAS. METHODS: We carried out a national register-based study of 79 adults with an FAS diagnosis, at a mean age of 32. Education, social adjustment, and mental health outcomes were analyzed and compared with 3160 comparison individuals matched on age, gender, and place of birth. RESULTS: The FAS group was much more likely to have received special education (25% vs 2%), be unemployed (51% vs 15%), and receive a disability pension (31% vs 3%) than the comparisons, but the levels of criminal offenses were similar. The FAS group had higher hospital admission rates for alcohol abuse (9% vs 2%) and psychiatric disorders (33% vs 5%) and was more likely to be prescribed psychotropic drugs (57% vs 27%). CONCLUSIONS: Swedish children with FAS have quite diverse psychosocial outcomes in adulthood, considerably worse than for majority population peers. Potential risk and protective factors within the FAS group deserve study to enable development of effective interventions.
Previous studies have shown that parental death influences health and mortality in bereaved offspring. To date, few studies have examined whether exposure to parental bereavement in childhood is associated with suicidality later in life. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether parental death during childhood influences self-inflicted injuries/poisoning in young adulthood. A national cohort born during 1973–1982 (N = 871,402) was followed prospectively in the National Patient Discharge Register from age 18 to 31–40 years. Cox regression analyses of proportional hazards, with adjustment for socio-demographic confounders and parental psychosocial covariates, were used to test hypotheses regarding parental loss and hospital admission due to self-inflicted injuries/poisoning. Parental deaths were divided into deaths caused by (1) external causes/substance abuse and (2) natural causes. Persons who had lost a parent to an external cause/substance abuse-related death had the highest risk of being admitted to a hospital for a self-inflicted injury/poisoning; HRs 2.03 (1.67–2.46) for maternal death and 2.03 (1.84–2.25) for paternal death, after adjustment for socio-demographic confounders and risk factors among surviving parents. Risks were also increased for parental death due to natural causes, but at a lower level: 1.19 (1.01–1.39) and 1.28 (1.15–1.43), respectively. Losing a father before school age was associated with a higher risk of hospital admission for a self-inflicted injury/poisoning than was loss at an older age for both genders. Maternal loss before school age was associated with a higher risk only for men, particularly maternal death by natural causes (p < 0.01).
Eva Tideman , Bo Vinnerljung , Kristin Hintze and Anna Aldenius Isaksson report on the results of a Swedish project aimed at improving foster children's school achievements. Standardised psychological and pedagogical instruments were used for assessing each individual foster child's potential, her or his educational service needs, and for tailoring the individualised educational and psychological support that was provided for two years. After this period, the 25 children included in the project were re-tested with the same instruments. Post-intervention test results were compared to preintervention scores for assessing outcomes. Results showed significant gains in IQ (as measured by WISC-III), reading and spelling skills, but weaker, non-significant improvements in maths skills.
Forskning visar att hur barn lyckas i skolan är den enskilt viktigaste faktorn för hur det går senare i livet. Vi vet också att familjehemsplacerade barn får sämre betyg än sina jämnåriga och underpresterar i förhållande till sina förutsättningar. Att ge barn i samhällsvård systematiskt stöd i skolarbetet är därför nödvändigt om vi vill förbättra deras framtidsutsikter. SkolFam är ett exempel på en framgångsrik modell som prövats i Sverige under flera år och som uppvisat goda resultat.
I den här rapporten redovisas resultaten från ett utvecklingsprojekt i sju kommuner där familjehemsplacerade barn lästränats med hjälp av Paired Reading (parläsning). Paired Reading är en strukturerad metod som tränar läsförmågan hos barn genom att en vuxen (i det här projektet familjehemsföräldern) läser tillsammans med barnet regelbundet under fyra månader. Läsförmåga som är av största betydelse för att undvika skolmisslyckanden.Projektet har genomförts i samarbete mellan de sju kommunerna (Linköping, Västerås, Jönköping, Värnamo, Nässjö, Huddinge, Sundbyberg ), Stiftelsen Allmänna Barnhuset samt forskare vid Institutionen för socialt arbete, Stockholms universitet och Institutionen för psykologi vid Lunds universitet. Forskarna (rapportförfattarna) har ansvarat för och genomfört utvärderingen av projektet som har finansierats genom anslag från Stiftelsen Allmänna Barnhuset och Socialstyrelsen samt med medel från de deltagande kommunerna.


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Motor Vehicle Fatality, Brentwood, Arrest Update
On Saturday, June 17, 2017 at approximately 12:23 a.m., the Brentwood Police Department was notified of a motor vehicle collision on Middle Road in the area of 66 Middle Road in Brentwood. Due to the seriousness of the crash they requested the assistance of the New Hampshire State Police-Troop A. Troopers along with Fire and Rescue personnel responded to the scene to assist and found one vehicle, identified as an Audi A4, off the south side of the roadway on the front lawn of 66 Middle Road. A male subject was trapped inside the vehicle and was determined to be the operator identified as, Seth Winkle, age 21, of Exeter, New Hampshire who had sustained serious injuries in the collision and was transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, NH. Another occupant determined to be the rear passenger was also transported to Portsmouth Hospital non-life threatening injuries. He was identified as Austin Look, age 20 of Exeter, New Hampshire. The front passenger identified as Jasmine Marston, age 22 of Newmarket, New Hampshire sustained fatal injuries as a result of the collision and was pronounced deceased on the scene.
Based upon the initial on-scene investigation, it appears that the Audi was traveling eastbound on Middle Road when it lost control, struck a large tree, and rolled over.
At the request of the initial responding units, the New Hampshire State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction, (C.A.R.) Unit responded to the scene. The Collision Analysis and Reconstruction, (C.A.R.) Unit was assisted on scene by members of the New Hampshire State Police-Troop A, the Brentwood Police Department, the Brentwood Fire and Rescue Department, as well as The Office of the State Medical Examiner. Due to the collision, Middle Road in this area was closed for approximately 4 hours.
At this time it appears that speed may have been factors in this crash, however all aspects remain under investigation. Anyone that may have further information related to this collision, or who witnessed this collsion are encouraged to contact Trooper First Class Thomas Conlon at 603-223-8614 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
On Saturday, October 14, 2017 after a lengthy investigation the operator of the Audi A4, Seth Winkle of Exeter, New Hamsphire was arrested and charged with Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide and Felony Aggravated Driving while Intoxicated. He was released on $10,000 PR bail and ordered appear in the Brentwood Circuit Court on December 6, 2017 at 8:00 am.
Seth Winkle DOB: 01/31/1996


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There are times when we face an unfair situation. We have experienced an injustice. When this happens, we have three avenues of reaction available. Our first response may be to overlook the event. We can become the victim. Our response could be to strike back at the person who was unjust to us. We can seek revenge. The third response is to turn it over to God. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked His Father for some other path to follow instead of the path to the cross. Jesus stayed in the garden, awaiting His arrest because love motivated Him to stay. He showed love in spite of injustice. That was the path Jesus chose. That is the path we must choose. We must walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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This course provides a framework for students to complete a feature length screenplay within specific parameters provided by the instructor in ten weeks plus an additional treatment that would compliment their existing portfolio. Modeled after the techniques and deadlines of professional writing assignments, students learn how to meet the expectations of studio executives and producers without sacrificing their unique voice. PREREQUISITE(S): None
This course is repeatable.


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May 25, 2010 - 9 years ago
By Supply Post
Peter Price, Area Sales Manager for Ammann Canada, has announced that Parker Pacific Equipment is the newest addition to the growing network of Ammann distributors in the country.
Parker Pacific Equipment will represent the full line of Ammann compaction equipment through its 13 branch dealerships in British Columbia and one branch in the Yukon. "Parker Pacific is the perfect dealer for us in BC", says Peter Price. "They blanket the Province and deliver service coverage into each region."
The Ammann line includes light and heavy compaction lines for plate compactors, vibrating rollers, double drum asphalt machines and 30-ton rubber-tired rollers. Partnering with quality equipment manufacturers and completely covering its market with an extensive network of branch locations has been a winning strategy for Parker Pacific.
According to Dave Douglas, General Manager of Parker Pacific Equipment, "It's hard to travel anywhere in BC without coming within 200 km of a Parker Pacific outlet. With Ammann, we add a quality product line that fits well into the fleets of our construction and infrastructure customers."


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The following is a list of starship classes employed by the Federation.
|Table of Contents: 0-9 • A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z
Background information
Because of the strong connotations with the real world United States Navy, the producers of Star Trek: The Original Series had imbued Starfleet with, (The Making of Star Trek; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed, pp. 28-29; see also in this respect: Aircraft carrier) it came hardly as a surprise that the US Navy ship class naming convention was also followed for the vessels of Starfleet. This convention has it that a class is named after the first, or lead, vessel authorized by US Congress, which is not necessarily the one first laid down, launched, completed or commissioned (formally taken into service), and after which the British Royal Navy for example name their ship classes. While not canon, it can serve as a potential real world rationale why there are Constitution-class vessels with lower registry numbers than the lead vessel USS Constitution. Nonetheless, in his influential "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" article, Star Trek alumnus Greg Jein has postulated an alternative theory for the discrepancy, albeit equally non-canon.
Additionally, while it is highly unlikely that all alien races follow the same naming convention as Starfleet does – even on present-day real world Earth, the US Navy convention is far from being universal – there is a real world counterpart for this as well. The defense organization NATO uses a variant of the US/British class naming convention for ship types of their adversaries, particularly those of the former Soviet Union, who themselves classified their vessels according to project number.


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Dripping faucet in Tucson?
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In Tucson many older homes and offices need faucet replacement. And, some new homes are being equipped with low-quality faucets, which usually means they'll need faucet replacement in the near future.
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If you have a leaky faucet, or there's a water leak, you should call Mr. B's Plumbing. We'll respond quickly and make sure the leak is fixed.
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Philadelphia 76ers player K.J. McDaniels has been the biggest surprise of the loaded 2014 NBA Draft.
The Sixers picked him 32nd overall, but he has outplayed almost everyone taken in the first round. He's ranked third among rookies in points per game, behind only Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins. He's fifth among rookies in PER — an advanced metric that measures a player's efficiency and total impact on the game.
On a Philly team that has been one of the worst in NBA history (on purpose), he has been a bright spot.
The Sixers are in complete tanking mode, but McDaniels is the type of young player they would be wise to hang on to for the future.
The problem is that McDaniels has one of the more unusual contract situations in the NBA. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo reported before the season that the Sixers offered McDaniels a four-year deal, with the first two years guaranteed and the last two years non-guaranteed. If McDaniels had signed that deal, he would have made more than $1 million no matter what, but he also wouldn't have been able to enter free agency until 2018. The Sixers have offered this same deal to other second-rounders, Woj reports, and the players typically take it.
McDaniels didn't take it.
Instead, he signed a one-year deal at the league minimum of $507,336 with $0 in guaranteed money. It's the cheapest contract he could have possibly signed under NBA rules. Right now his pay ranks 387th in the 401-player NBA.
It was a huge gamble. The Sixers could have cut McDaniels in training camp, and he wouldn't have earned a dime. But if he has a monster rookie year, he'll become a free agent next summer and make way more money than the team originally offered him.
Grantland's Zach Lowe says McDaniels will cash in if he keeps playing well:
They can make McDaniels a restricted free agent with a one-year, $1.2 million qualifying offer — guaranteeing themselves the right to match any offer McDaniels receives from another team. If McDaniels blows up, the Sixers can match such an offer or just re-sign him into their cap space. If he doesn't, McDaniels could just sign that $1.2 million qualifying offer and enter restricted free agency again a year later.
This is a negotiating loss for Philly, and a win for players who want control of their futures. More second-rounders picked in the 30s should at least think about this route, though it can be scary, especially for players with urgent financial needs.
Right now it looks as if this gamble is going to pay off. The Sixers have the cap room to keep McDaniels, but it'll most likely be at a higher number than they expected.


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One of the coolest new features of Lightroom is the dehaze slider, a button that seemingly magically strips away "haze" (mist, fog, smog, etc.) and reveals what it was obscuring.
However, it's not magic. In fact, the methods for dehazing a photo are often fairly simple (but clever). In this post, we'll see how dehazing works by going through through a method described in this research paper: html, pdf. In doing so, we'll cover the following topics:
- What is haze?
- How do we teach a computer to tell which parts of photo are hazy?
- How do we remove haze from the photo?
What is haze?
We see objects from the light reflected off them:
But that's not all we see. Some of this light will get absorbed or scattered by the air that it is passing through. In addition, ambient light will bounce of these air particles and be reflected back to your camera.
Most of the time this is not a big problem. However, if the air is full of additional particles such as water droplets (fog) or soot particles (smog), then visibility will decrease. This occurs because the haze stops the light from the original object, and replaces it with additional reflected light.
Dehazing a photo requires a couple of steps:
- Figure out how hazy each pixel is.
- Figure out the colour of the light reflected by haze.
- Remove the haze colour from each pixel in proportion to how hazy that pixel is.
Light reflected due to haze has a particular colour: the colour of the ambient light that is reflecting. This colour should be fairly constant over the whole picture, so if we can calculate it, we can just remove that constant value from every pixel.
Determining how hazy each pixel is causes a bit more of a headache. The method I describe here uses a clever technique called the "dark channel".
The dark channel – i.e. a map of haze
What is the dark channel? The inventors of the method have a succinct description:
The dark channel … is based on the statistics of haze-free outdoor images. We find that, in most of the local regions which do not cover the sky, it is very often that some pixels (called "dark pixels") have very low intensity in at least one color (rgb) channel… Therefore, these dark pixels can directly provide accurate estimation of the haze's transmission.
Let's break this down and see how we go from a photo to a dark channel.
Each pixel in the original image will have red, green, and blue colour values associated with it. In an 8-bit picture, like most JPGs, these will vary between 0 and 255. Each of these is a called a colour channel. High values mean more intensity in that colour.
In normal pictures with no haze, most small regions of the picture will have a low value for one of these colours, due to shadows, naturally dark objects, or colourful things (with a low value in another colour). However, the ambient light reflected by haze will have fairly high values in all three colours.
To calculate the dark channel, we take every pixel in the image and look at the region surrounding it (i.e. a square of 15×15 pixels centred on the pixel of interest). We calculate the minimum intensity colour at each pixel in the square, and then we find which of these is the lowest in the whole square. This is the dark channel value for the original pixel. In other words we pick the lowest colour value of all the colours in all the surrounding pixels.
You will note that we have gone from a colour photo composed of three colour channels to an image with just one channel. This will be a black-and-white (technically "greyscale") image.
Here's what the dark channel looks like for David LaCivita's landscape:
Just as predicted, the haze free foreground has very low dark channel values in each 15×15 square, whereas the hazy region has much lighter values.
Calculating the atmospheric light
Now that we know which pixels are hazy, we want to know the colour of the light that is being reflected by these pixels. This is called the atmospheric (or ambient) light.
The RGB values of the atmospheric light are basically the RGB values of the haziest pixels. This is where the haze is opaque, so all the colour is from reflected atmospheric light (rather than from the objects behind the haze).
Unfortunately we can't just take the brightest pixel in the original image as the ambient light, because the brightest pixel might be from something in the foreground (e.g. a washed out reflection).
The authors of the paper point out a clever way to get the ambient light using the dark channel.
- The lightest regions of the dark channel correspond to the haziest part of the original image.
- If we select the brightest 0.1% of the dark channel we will get the haziest pixels.
- Switching back to the original RGB values of these same pixels, we can take the brightest as the atmospheric light.
Transmission: how much light gets through the haze
The final thing we need is the transmission. This is an estimate of how much of the light from the original object is making it through the haze at each pixel.
The calculation of this is a little technical (for the mathematically minded, it is explained in the paper linked above). Essentially it will look opposite to the dark channel picture (i.e. hazy parts of the image have lower transmission values):
Poof…and the haze is gone
With an estimate of the transmission and the atmospheric/ambient light we can recover the original image. Again, this step involves some maths, but essentially the atmospheric light is subtracted from each pixel in proportion to the transmission at that pixel. The results (from my fairly basic Python implementation):
You will note that there are some imperfections.
For example the picture has a blocky/streaky texture most noticeable in the halo around the foreground. This is due to the 15×15 pixel areas we used to estimate the dark channel (you can see the same blockiness in the darkchannel and transmission pictures). We can get around this by smoothing out the transmission map (the authors of the paper use a method called soft matting).
These are the basics of how dehazing works. In a future post I will dig into the details more thoroughly.
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Police: Man drives car into Mesa canal, no injuries
Go inside the ancient canals and take a video tour of the modern-day Grand Canal.
A man is in police custody after driving his car into a Mesa canal Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The incident happened near Power and Warner roads.
The man safely removed himself from the vehicle after it entered the canal and no injuries were reported, said Detective Nikolas Rasheta, Mesa police spokesman.
Rasheta said initial information suggested the man was the car's sole passenger and impairment appears to be a factor.
The man was taken to a nearby police station for a DUI investigation, Rasheta added.
- MCSO: 2 dead after car veers off road, lands in Buckeye canal
- Senior rescued from watery SUV after driving into Paradise Valley canal
- Driver thrown into canal from car after Avondale crash, Sheriff's Office says
Read or Share this story: https://azc.cc/2MmjqfO


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The average man of Pakistan
There is a clear link between the development of the concept of "average man" and the European & Scandinavian welfare states:statistics.
By Anthony Williams
The average man (now called the average person) of Pakistan does not exist, it's a statistical concept given to us by the Belgian polymath, Lambert-Adolphe-Jacques Quetelet (1796-1874) and, though he may not have been the first to use the phrase "the average man [l'homme moyen]," he unquestionably deserves the credit for popularising the concept of the "average man". In Quetelet's mind, human averages had a certain moral mandate. By his logic, if everyone were optimally fed and lived under the same environmental conditions, they would be average. And this is what society should be striving for: the continual improvement of the average of the group. Karl Marx extrapolated this idea to wealth distribution and decided that money should be evenly distributed throughout the masses thereby making everyone as average as possible not just physiologically, but financially too. Making moral philosophy an integral part of public policy for economic development, and strengthening of the welfare state of Pakistan, seems to be the advise former economists of International Monetary Fund (IMF) are eager to give to Imran Khan, our Prime Minister. Dr. Omar Javed writes in his recent article titled "Social Democracy – The Middle Way for Pakistan" published in Global Village Space magazine (Dr. Moeed Pirzada, CEO) "The PTI government has indicated that it will reform the economy and institutions, in order to establish a welfare state; to do so, it draws inspiration from the state of Madinah, during the golden age of Islam. At the same time, it wishes to learn from the Scandinavian model of welfare, that PTI rightly believes practice the principles on which the state of Madinah was based on; justice, equity and virtue." There is a clear link between the development of the concept of "average man" and the European & Scandinavian welfare states and that link is the science of statistics, now fashionably called "Data Science". The purpose of this article is to highlight the progress of the Data Science in Pakistan in the identification of the average man and realisation of the welfare state for you, the reader.
First off, let's take an extreme example of the sad Zainab rape-murder case, where geofencing and data analysis helped the law enforcement agencies to caught the culprit within no time. The authorities used the call data records from the vicinity of all the previous crimes and identified people who were common to all the situations. The cellphone of the suspect in the Kasur child rape-murder case was detected in 4 out of 5 recent instances where the same DNA was identified. Police say the suspect, who was arrested from Pakpattan, is a resident of the same area where Zainab's house is located and lives very close to the victim's aunt's house. His appearance matches that of an individual who was seen with Zainab in CCTV footage recovered by the police. He was arrested as part of the investigation earlier but was let go, only to be arrested again after more evidence was collected. One case successfully solved, hundreds of such cases waiting to be solved. Who will solve them? Maybe the data science team from Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) that help solve Zainab's case, but that would be expecting too much. Another way would be for these data scientists to teach an army of students at the Information Technology University (ITU), Arfa Tower, Lahore and other Universities nation-wide. But is the ITU looking for the average man of Pakistan? Let's look at its latest degree offerings; MS Data Science (MSDS) + BS in Economics with Data Science (BS EDS) and see if they can help in the search for a welfare state for Pakistani people. Through MSDS degree, students will develop their real-world problem-solving skills using data science, which will differ from the typical classroom problems students are usually exposed to solve. At ITU, we believe in the solution of problems with high social impact. The curriculum will also take into consideration the needs of the industry including stakeholders in business, social media, education, health, and entertainment. The master program would prepare students to actively contribute to various related fields of data science, such as computer vision, big data analytics, scientometrics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and computer security.
The Science of Economics today is in a crisis. This is because mainstream economics, as it has been taught over the last century, has failed to adequately address so far some of the principal challenges faced by the human community at the global and national levels: recurrent economic crises, growing inequality, widespread violence and the environmental crisis that has placed our planet in peril. As Thomas Kuhn has pointed out, science progresses through paradigm changes. When new questions emerge, which the prevailing paradigm is unable to investigate, and then a new paradigm emerges. This is why the leading universities in the world are engaged in rethinking economics, crossing its conventional boundaries and bringing teachers and students together in the great endeavour of developing a new paradigm for the subject.
In this historic juncture, the aim of an undergraduate programme in Economics should be to combine rigorous training in mainstream economics with data science together with exposure to a wide range of fields in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Through such multidisciplinary training around hardcore economics, the students can be stimulated to form connections across subjects in addressing the central challenges that impact society, economy and polity. Students of economics can thereby participate in the exciting venture of transforming the economics paradigm and help build a better future for the human community.
The undergraduate programme in economics with data science (BS EDS) has been designed with this aim in view. Rigorous training is provided in economics through courses such as Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Mathematics, Econometrics, International Trade and Finance. Emerging fields in economics are also included in the programme. For example, the New Political Economy, Sustainable Development, the Evidence-BasedE design of Policy for Urban and Rural Development. A key dimension in the economics programme is Data Science which has two components: (i) Big Data Techniques and (ii) Machine Learning. This relatively new field is becoming increasingly important in the design of projects and policies. This corpus of courses in economics and data science is combined with courses in the fields of Philosophy, Politics and Literature. It is hoped that systematic training in economics and data science, combined with a broad understanding of Social Sciences and Humanities, will equip students to contribute to research and policy thinking. They will thus be able to participate in the process of developing a new paradigm in economics and building a better world. Amen.
Anthony Williams is CEO of TaxDosti – An AI enabled legal startup building Pakistan's smartest tax calculator. He can be reached at taxdosti.com.


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Search News
Optimal sanitation: Focus on the Americas at World Water Week 2019
August 26, 2019
The Inter-American Development Bank is coordinating the Focus on the Americas sessions during World Water Week in Sweden's capital, with a focus on adopting a new paradigm to close the gap in secure sanitation services in the region. STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Providing safe sanitation for all in Latin America requires not only significant investments, but a change of paradigm to be able to do more with less resources. Right now, only 22% to the population of Latin America and the Caribbean have access to those services.
Study analyzes challenges faced by Central America as it seeks sustainable development
July 19, 2019
A new publication uses analysis of trade, investment, migration, the financial sector, raw materials, and natural resources to propose policy options The Inter-American Development Bank and the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) of INCAE Business School have presented in San Jose, Costa Rica, a book entitled "The Future of Central America: Challenges for Sustainable Development", w
First quarter exports from Latin American and Caribbean fall: IDB report
June 18, 2019
The value of exports from Latin American and the Caribbean fell by 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. The decrease was caused by lower export volumes and falling commodity prices.
IDB-FEMSA Award to innovation on water & sanitation opens call for 2019
June 12, 2019
The IDB-FEMSA Awards to innovation on water and sanitation are reaching their tenth anniversary in 2019 and will be celebrating the occasion with a special edition that calls on those who have innovative solutions to compete for a special prize. First, second, and third place winners of the IDB-FEMSA Awards will receive $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 in cash, respectively. This year will also feature a special category called "All stars," where prior editions finalists will compete for a one-time cash prize of $15,000.
IDB launches Superheroes of Development contest to recognize executing agencies
March 04, 2019
In its second edition, the call for proposals will be open from March 4th to May 17th, 2019. The Superheroes of Development Award will recognize executing agencies of IDB-financed projects that have successfully addressed challenges during its implementation. The contest will identify eight finalists from across Latin America and the Caribbean who will travel to IDB's Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to present their solutions.
Quality expenditure and digitalization, priorities for Central America, Dominican Republic
February 15, 2019
The IDB brings regional Governors to its Washington, D.C. headquarters to consider policy options to speed up growth and reduce poverty The Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB), Central American Isthmus and the Dominican Republic held their 33rd Annual Meeting to discuss options to achieve higher growth rates and foster productive activities in the years to come. The region grew 3.8 percent in 2018, way above the 1.1 percent average for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole. In addition, it is expected to grow 4.2 percent in 2019.
Inter-American Development Bank Group to hold Annual Meeting in Chengdu, China
December 20, 2018
Online media registration is available for March 26-31 gathering of Latin American and Caribbean leaders Spotlight on small and mid-sized firms, green financing, sustainable infrastructure investing The Inter-American Development Bank Group will hold its Annual Meeting in Chengdu, China, on March 26-31.
Declining Export Competitiveness: Latin America Urgently Needs a Quality Leap
November 14, 2018
BUENOS AIRES—In the first quarter of 2018, the value of exports from Latin America and the Caribbean grew at a year-on-year rate of 9.7 percent in comparison with the same period in 2017, according to a new report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). However, this growth has come amid signs that the region is becoming less competitive amid rising economic risks and global trade tensions.
Artificial intelligence to boost Latin American and Caribbean economies: IDB study
August 29, 2018
Study also urges governments to anticipate consequences of artificial intelligence in labor markets BUENOS AIRES – Artificial intelligence can facilitate trade negotiations and add one additional percentage point of growth to Latin American and the Caribbean economies, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Green infrastructure for Latin America and the Caribbean: rich in water, yet thirsty
August 27, 2018
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is coordinating the Latin America and the Caribbean sessions during World Water Week in Sweden's capital, with a focus on the need to adopt nature-based solutions to address the current and future demand for water resources in the region. STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Latin America and the Caribbean needs to progress towards a wiser combination of green and traditional infrastructure to satisfy the water needs of the 21st century.


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5 Crabapple Ln, Foley
This is a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with flex room. This home offers a welcoming foyer leading to a spacious living room, which features a raised octagon ceiling. The spacious eat-in kitchen highlights a raised bar overlooking the living room, GE Appliances, and plenty of cabinet and counter top space. The master bath occupies the right side of the home and includes a full master bath. The designer master bath highlights an oversized soaking tub, separate shower with glass door and double vanity. More amenities to mention: 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty, Whole House Water System, 4-Sided Brick Construction, Keypad Entry on Front Door, and much more! Approx. date of completion Jan. 2020.
Residential Detached, Three Bedroom
Ceiling Fan(s), Double Pane Windows, Energy Effic Appliances, SEER 14, Thermal Doors, Ridge Vent
Automatic Garage Door, Carbon Monoxide Detector, Ceiling Fan(s), Covered Patio, Split Bedroom Plan, Termite Contract
Dishwasher, Microwave, Range-Electric
Central Electric, Central Electric (Cool), Heat Pump
Composition Shingle, Dimensional
The data relating to real estate for sale on this website comes from the Baldwin County Association Of REALTORS®. The information being provided is for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Listing information last updated on December 10th, 2019 at 6:45pm CST.


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Muthavarapu Venkateswara Rao [MVR] College of Engineering and Technology, Vijaywada will host a two day national level academic and cultural fest "Technotsav 2k16" at its campus at Paritala, Krishna District on 4 and 5 March, 2016. A poster regarding the event was released by the college Administrator Muthavarapu Ramakrishna.
Speaking on the ocassion he said that "Technotsav will provide a platform for the students to showcase their scientific and technical knowledge. To develop organizing skills, the college management will allot stalls to the students to market their products." he said.
Competitions at Technotsav include:
- Traditional and western dance
- Fashion show
- Short films
- Spot photography
- Painting
Head of Computer Department, Civil Department and other faculty members were present for the press meet.
Source: Sakunth, City Journalist - Vijaywada, CollegeDekho


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The ball mill grinding medium effectively removes the large and medium-sized forgings or the scale and rust of the steel during the operation. The density of the steel balls is about 7,700 kg per cubic meter (known as the square) when used. The volume is about 1000/7700 which is about 1.3 square.
The main characteristics of the grinding media of the ball mill are moderate to a certain extent. It has strong toughness and impact resistance during operation. It can be used repeatedly several times in a certain degree. The life of the whole product is long and the rebound is good. The adhesion is strong during the production, so that the cleaning speed can be fast, the sand consumption is low, the broken is not broken, the brightness of the workpiece is cleaned, the technical effect is good, and the cleanliness of the metal surface treated by the product can reach the international standard.
When the surface roughness of the grinding media of the ball mill reaches 25-100 um, the contact surface of the metal surface can be effectively increased, so that the adhesion of the coated surface can be well improved.


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Contact Us
Chayah Traphagan
Phone 317-577-5975 ext. 311
Email Loading Email...
Chayah graduated from IUPUI in May 2010 where she received a bachelor's degree with honors in Accounting, Finance and International Studies from the Kelley School of Business. Chayah joined Long & Associates in September 2018 with over 8 yeears of accounting experience with a focus in compliance, tax planning. During the off season, Chayah enjoys spendign time with her family, reading, camping and boating.


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Thursday, January 31, 2013
One-Point Perspective Spooky Landscapes
My example on light paper
My example on black paper
I know! My students were quick to point out that it wasn't October. But I have been doing quite a bit of animal themed projects lately and I was inspired by this wonderful One Point Perspective Lesson from SmART Class and this lesson by Shine Brite Zamorano inspired by this artwork . My students chose between black or light colored construction paper to set their mood. I used Natalie's incredibly helpful guidelines to help the children set up their landscape. Chalk pastel was used to set the atmosphere for sky, ground, roads, and shadows. Oil pastel was used for the trees. The trickiest part for the kids seemed to be making those first trees in the foreground Large and working down from there.It is a bit advance for younger children, but they did a great job! These were created by children 6-9. More to post!
7 comments:
- AnonymousJanuary 31, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Wow these are Great , Jenna missed a good one..ReplyDelete
Mary - These remind me a bit of the painting, "Scream" (only with trees)!! Kids did a great job of blending the pastels and making the road look shadowy.ReplyDelete
Mary, I love how they added the shadows of the trees to these!! Very cool!ReplyDelete
Mary these are great! I was thinking, what a fabulous idea and then I saw you worte that my project inspired you! LOL that made me smile! You come up with the greatest projects! I love the tree shadows too! My students still alsways ask to do the moonscape with fireflies you invented!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 2, 2013 at 1:34 AM
oops I was informed Jenna is in the process of completing , my family tells me nothing..lolReplyDelete
Beautiful results.ReplyDelete
Your students did a fantastic job.
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text: I feel so humble and thankful that the Swedish radio is playing my music. I've been dreaming about this since I was a kid. Thank you P3 for supporting me as a new indpendent artist. It means everything. AND ALL OF YOU WHO SUPPORT ME EVERYDAY by sending your love, posting and listening on spotify,. I love you!


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President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the Cabinet have regained some public approval, the latest poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed, with a bump of more than 7 percentage points.
It is the first time that their approval ratings have gone up since the administration took office in May last year.
The poll, released yesterday, found that 41.5 percent of respondents approved of Tsai, up from 33.8 percent last month, while the number of those who disapproved of her fell from 54.4 percent last month to 41.3 percent.
"The rebound in Tsai's approval rating is a surprising turn, and might be caused by an NT$800 billion [US$25.97 billion] infrastructure proposal, the Cabinet reshuffle and the pension reform drive," foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) told a news conference in Taipei.
The foundation's polls put Tsai's approval rating at 69.9 percent when she was inaugurated, but her numbers had been on a steady decline.
The Cabinet's approval rating was up by 6.4 percentage points to 33.6 percent compared with last month's poll, while its disapproval rating dropped by 8.6 percentage points to 52 percent.
Asked about the Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, 36.3 percent of respondents said the scale of the changes was appropriate, 18.7 percent said it was too small and 14.4 percent said it was too large, while 30.3 percent were undecided or indifferent.
However, asked if they could name Cabinet members, few respondents could name names.
Only 21 percent of respondents were able to name Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), but even so, he had the highest name recognition.
The names of Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) and Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) were recognized by 8.7 percent, 8.5 percent, 8.4 percent and 8.3 percent of respondents respectively. Fewer than 3 percent of respondents knew the names of the rest of the Cabinet.
That lack of recognition could offset the Cabinet's efforts to communicate government policies to the public, You said.
"Cabinet members have a ridiculously low level of public attention. It has to be [Premier] Lin Chuan's (林全) top priority to improve [the Cabinet's image] if he wants to hold another Cabinet 'workshop,'" You said.
Asked about pension reform efforts, 40.9 percent of respondents thought the government's plan to phase out the 18 percent preferential savings rate for retired public-sector employees over six years was a suitable amount of time, while 32.4 percent thought it was too slow and 14.3 percent said it was too fast, You said.
Those numbers suggest that a public consensus on the matter has yet to be formed, he said.
However, 38.6 percent of respondents said the proposal to lower the income replacement ratio for retired public employees from 75 percent to 60 percent in 16 years was too slow, 34.9 percent said it was well-paced and 10.4 percent said it was too fast.
The poll found that opinion was nearly evenly split when it came to faith in the ability of Tsai's government to carry out pension reforms: 47 percent of the respondents said yes and 46.2 percent said no.
Asked about the new labor laws, more than half of respondents, or 54.9 percent, did not support the five-day workweek policy with one regular day off and one flexible "rest day," while 35.8 percent backed it.