text:
Looking for a great day hike near Yellowknife? The Ranney Hill Hike is one of the most popular short hikes near the city.
Accessible by driving up the Vee Lake Road, this natural hiking trail (2.5 km) is a popular afternoon adventure. To reach the Ranney Hill-Martin Lake Trail, drive 6.6 km from Yellowknife along the IngrahamTrail, and turn left onto the Vee Lake Road. The trailhead is 500 m from the parking lot along Vee Lake Road on the right shoulder.
When you reach the steep pink granite dome of Ranney Hill, climb 200 m to the top for a 360º panorama of the entire Yellowknife area. Back at the base of the hill, head west to Martin Lake, a quiet place to relax and enjoy nature.
Note: This hike is unmarked. There are no signs at the trailhead or along the trail.


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NOMOS Glashütte presents duo: simple and elegant two-hand models with a prime caliber from Glashütte—watches for women that make wonderful gifts
Tangente, Orion, Ludwig, Tetra are the four classics that NOMOS Glashütte started with more than a quarter of a century ago. Now, there are new versions of these watches designed to embody the Bauhaus movement. Conceived for more delicate wrists, these models measure 33 millimeters in diameter (Tetra side length: 27 millimeters).
But this time they feature only two hands—hence "duo." After all, sometimes it's better to keep things simple. It goes without saying that these hand-wound watches contain a fine Glashütte caliber, meaning they are highly precise. Inside, Alpha.2 is at work: an adaptation of NOMOS' most manufactured caliber.
The case of the four new watches is made of stainless steel, the dials are white silverplated, as with other NOMOS classics. This silver case is complemented by golden hands, which makes this watch an ideal companion to jewelry. The mocha-brown typography is almost black, but softer, and the beige velour leather strap is also more delicate than the classic Shell Cordovan. A personalized engraving on the stainless steel back is the finishing touch—available on request.
Removing the complication of the small seconds also means a reduction in price: Tangente, Ludwig, Tetra and Orion duo will make perfect presents, and are wonderful small pleasures from Glashütte.
Available from April in selected retailers.
Should you require additional information, images, or interviews, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Anna Jasper
NOMOS Glashütte
PR department
+49 35053 404-480

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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This is a repeating event20 june 2023 18:0011 july 2023 18:00
Kawartha Golf Club - CanadaKawartha Golf and Country Club, 777 Clonsilla Ave, P.O. Box 475love.golf coaching packagetue27jun18:00tue19:0018:00 - 19:00
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We are very excited to be launching our first love.golf coaching package at Kawartha Golf Club, starting on Tuesday 9th May with love.golf coach, Shana Kelly. This coaching package, taking place through
Event Details
We are very excited to be launching our first love.golf coaching package at Kawartha Golf Club, starting on Tuesday 9th May with love.golf coach, Shana Kelly.
This coaching package, taking place through May, June and July is the perfect opportunity to try something new alongside like-minded women and ideal for anyone looking to give golf a try for the first time, or perhaps wanting to get back to playing after a break.
From your very first session you'll see why love.golf is different to what you might expect. Yes, you'll spend time on the range practicing new skills but in true love.golf style Shana will also be taking you out onto the golf course at the earliest opportunity! But please don't worry if that's sounds intimidating – we guarantee it's the best bit, you'll absolutely love it and Shana will be with you all of the way 🙂
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Join with a group of friends, colleagues or just come along by yourself – all very welcome and no previous experience necessary – just click the 'REGISTER AN INTEREST' button above to connect with Shana, ask any questions and get booked up.
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text:
Blinding is a cornerstone of therapeutic evaluation because lack of blinding can bias treatment effect estimates. An inventory of the blinding methods would help trialists conduct high-quality clinical trials and readers appraise the quality of results of published trials. We aimed to systematically classify and describe methods to establish and maintain blinding of patients and health care providers and methods to obtain blinding of outcome assessors in randomized controlled trials of pharmacologic treatments.
Methods and Findings
We undertook a systematic review of all reports of randomized controlled trials assessing pharmacologic treatments with blinding published in 2004 in high impact-factor journals from Medline and the Cochrane Methodology Register. We used a standardized data collection form to extract data. The blinding methods were classified according to whether they primarily (1) established blinding of patients or health care providers, (2) maintained the blinding of patients or health care providers, and (3) obtained blinding of assessors of the main outcomes. We identified 819 articles, with 472 (58%) describing the method of blinding. Methods to establish blinding of patients and/or health care providers concerned mainly treatments provided in identical form, specific methods to mask some characteristics of the treatments (e.g., added flavor or opaque coverage), or use of double dummy procedures or simulation of an injection. Methods to avoid unblinding of patients and/or health care providers involved use of active placebo, centralized assessment of side effects, patients informed only in part about the potential side effects of each treatment, centralized adapted dosage, or provision of sham results of complementary investigations. The methods reported for blinding outcome assessors mainly relied on a centralized assessment of complementary investigations, clinical examination (i.e., use of video, audiotape, or photography), or adjudication of clinical events.
Citation: Boutron I, Estellat C, Guittet L, Dechartres A, Sackett DL, Hróbjartsson A, et al. (2006) Methods of Blinding in Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials Assessing Pharmacologic Treatments: A Systematic Review. PLoS Med 3(10): e425. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030425
Academic Editor: Patrick Vallance, GlaxoSmithKline, United Kingdom
Received: February 6, 2006; Accepted: August 16, 2006; Published: October 31, 2006
Copyright: © 2006 Boutron et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this study.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Abbreviations: CONSORT, Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials; RCT, randomized controlled trial
Editors' Summary
In evidence-based medicine, good-quality randomized controlled trials are generally considered to be the most reliable source of information about the effects of different treatments, such as drugs. In a randomized trial, patients are assigned to receive one treatment or another by the play of chance. This technique helps makes sure that the two groups of patients receiving the different treatments are equivalent at the start of the trial. Proper randomization also prevents doctors from controlling or affecting which treatment patients get, which could distort the results. An additional tool that is also used to make trials more precise is "blinding." Blinding involves taking steps to prevent patients, doctors, or other people involved in the trial (e.g., those people recording measurements) from finding out which patients got what treatment. Properly done, blinding should make sure the results of a trial are more accurate. This is because in an unblinded study, participants may respond better if they know they have received a promising new treatment (or worse if they only got placebo or an old drug); doctors may "want" a particular treatment to do better in the trial, and unthinking bias could creep into their measurements or actions; the same applies for practitioners and researchers who record patients' outcomes in the trial. However, blinding is not a simple, single step; the people carrying out the trial often have to set up a variety of different procedures that depend on the type of trial that is being done.
Why Was This Study Done?
The researchers here wanted to thoroughly examine different methods that have been used to achieve blinding in randomized trials of drug treatments, and to describe and classify them. They hoped that a better understanding of the different blinding methods would help people doing trials to design better trials in the future, and also help readers to interpret the quality of trials that had been done.
What Did the Researchers Do and Find?
This group of researchers conducted what is called a "systematic review." They systematically searched the published medical literature to find all randomized, blinded drug trials published in 2004 in a number of different "high-impact" journals (journals whose articles are often mentioned in other articles). Then, the researchers classified information from the published trial reports. The researchers ended up with 819 trial reports, and nearly 60% of them described how blinding was done. Their classification of blinding was divided up into three main areas. First, they detailed methods used to hide which drugs are given to particular patients, such as preparing identically appearing treatments; using strong flavors to mask taste; matching the colors of pills; using saline injections and so on. Second, they described a number of methods that could be used to reduce the risk of unblinding (of doctors or patients), such as using an "active placebo" (a sugar pill that mimics some of the expected side effects of the drug treatment). Finally, they defined methods for blinded measurement of outcomes (such as using a central committee to collect data).
What Do These Findings Mean?
The researchers' classification will help people to work out how different techniques can be used to achieve, and keep, blinding in a trial. This will assist others to understand whether any particular trial was likely to have been blinded properly, and therefore work out whether the results are reliable. The researchers also suggest that, generally, blinding methods are not described in enough detail in published scientific papers, and recommend that guidelines for describing results of randomized trials be improved.
Additional Information.
Please access these Web sites via the online version of this summary at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030425.
- James Lind Library has been created to help patients and researchers understand fair tests of treatments in health care by illustrating how fair tests have developed over the centuries
- ClinicalTrials.gov, a trial registry created by the US National Institutes of Health, has an introduction to understanding clinical trials
- National Electronic Library for Health introduction to controlled clinical trials
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are widely recognized as the criterion standard for unbiased assessment of the effect of different pharmacologic treatments. Blinding is used in combination with randomization to limit the occurrence of conscious and unconscious bias in the conduct of clinical trials (performance bias) and interpretation of outcomes (ascertainment bias). Blinding is not well understood. For example, it has been demonstrated that the terms single and double blind frequently used by researchers and widely accepted by readers as a key marker of validity of an RCT lack consistency in use and interpretation [1–3]. In clinical trials, blinding in RCTs refers to keeping study participants, health care providers, and those assessing outcomes unaware of the assigned intervention. Empirical evidence suggests that lack of blinding involves inflated treatment effect estimates [2,4–6]. In fact, blinded patients may report symptoms differently from unblinded patients or have different thresholds for leaving a trial or seeking additional treatment outside a trial. Similarly, lack of blinding of health care providers can result in systematic differences in care provided apart from the intervention being evaluated (performance bias). Furthermore, lack of blinding of outcome assessors can result in systematic differences in outcome assessment (ascertainment bias) [7,8]. Blinding is particularly important when outcome measures involve some subjectivity, such as assessment of pain or cause of death. Blinding is probably less important for more objective outcomes such as death, because the risk of ascertainment bias is limited. An example of ascertainment bias was seen in a multiple sclerosis trial in which assessment by unblinded neurologists demonstrated an apparent treatment benefit, whereas that by blinded neurologists did not [9].
Blinding of patients and health care providers can be difficult to establish at the start of a trial and to maintain during a trial. For example, unblinding may occur during the trial for patients and health care providers because of specific side effects or specific requirements such as dosage modification [10,11]. Furthermore, obtaining blinded outcome assessment in clinical trials is difficult, for example, if patients are not blinded and could reveal their treatment to the outcome assessor. Whether these problems are overcome depend in part on the quality and creativity of the blinding methods.
To our knowledge, a detailed description of blinding methods has never been published. Thus, we aimed to describe and classify methods used for blinding in RCTs assessing pharmacologic treatment. This classification should help in the dissemination of these methods for trialists who perform RCTs and also the assessment of the quality of results of clinical trials for readers.
We systematically summarized and categorized the method of blinding patients, health care providers, and outcome assessors in RCTs of pharmacologic treatment published in 2004 in high impact-factor journals.
Search Strategy and Selection of Reports
We identified reports of all RCTs published in 2004 in high impact-factor journals (three highest impact factors for each subject category of the Journal Citation Reports 2003 [12], such as cardiac and cardiovascular system, respiratory system or rheumatology, and ten of the highest-impact general medical journals) and indexed in Medline by searching PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed) using the terms "double-blind method" [MESH term] OR "single-blind method" [MESH term] limited to RCTs. This search strategy might have missed some articles describing a blinded method; however, our aim was not to be exhaustive but to provide a description of blinding methods and to propose a useful classification.
One of us (IB) assessed retrieved reports by screening the titles and abstracts to identify the relevant studies. We included reports only if the study design was identified as an RCT assessing pharmacologic treatments and published as a full-text article. We excluded nonrandomized trials, pharmacokinetic studies, follow-up trials, diagnostic assessment, pathophysiologic studies, and ancillary studies from an RCT for subgroup analysis, cost-effectiveness trials, meta-analyses, and trials assessing nonpharmacologic treatments. After obtaining the full text, we selected reports only if they reported that there was blinding of at least one of the following: patients, health care providers, or outcome assessors.
We furthermore searched for reports on blinding indexed in the Cochrane Methodology Register (http://www.cochrane.org/access_data/cmr/accessDB_cmr.asp) using the term "blind." We included reports if, in the title or abstract, authors reported the use of a specific method of blinding or a specific placebo. We gathered additional relevant trials by searching references of relevant selected reports or those known by members of our team or experts in this field.
Data Extraction
The research team compiled a standardized data collection form. Before data extraction, as a planned calibration exercise, four members of the team (IB, CE, LG, and AD) independently evaluated a separate set of ten reports. At a meeting, the group reviewed evaluations and resolved any disagreements by consensus. We randomly allocated the selected articles to each reviewer, who independently completed the data extraction for one-quarter of the articles selected. Reviewers assessed the title, abstract, methods, and results sections.
We obtained data on the description of the experimental treatment (oral drug, intramuscular, intravenous, intra-articular treatment, or other) and the control treatment (placebo, active control treatment, or usual care). Reviewers also identified and classified the primary outcome according to specific criteria used previously [13] as (1) a patient-reported outcome, whereby the patient is the outcome assessor (e.g., pain, disability, quality of life); (2) physician-driven data that suppose a contact between patients and outcome assessors (e.g., range of motion); (3) complementary investigations that do not suppose a contact between patients and outcome assessors (e.g., international normalization ratios within the target range, angiographic restenosis); or (4) a clinical event determined by the interaction between patients and care providers (e.g., death, myocardial infarction, stroke, dialysis, or blood transfusion). Reviewers extracted the reported blinding status for patients, health care providers, and outcome assessors and checked whether the methods of blinding were described and how. For this purpose, reviewers checked for the reporting of a method to establish blinding for patients and/or health care providers—that is, methods to provide indistinguishable treatments in each arm such as use of matching placebo, bottle covered with an opaque bag, or use of a double dummy. Reviewers also checked for the reporting of a procedure to avoid unblinding of patients and/or care providers because of side effects or specific requirements such as dosage modifications. Finally, we recorded the description of specific methods of blinded outcome assessments such as patients being informed not to tell the outcome assessors what treatment they received or centralized assessment of complementary investigations.
We used a simple system to classify the blinding methods according to (1) who was blinded (patient, health care providers, or outcome assessors) and (2) a distinction between establishing and maintaining blinding. Thus, we classified blinding methods according to whether they primarily (1) established blinding of patients or health care providers (through the mode of administration and the physical characteristics of the treatments), (2) maintained the blinding of patients or health care provider (through the risk of unblinding by specific adverse effects or specific requirements such as dosage modifications), or (3) obtained the blinding of assessors (through the category of main outcome, i.e., patient-reported outcome, physician-driven data, complementary investigations, and clinical events).
Articles Selected
We retrieved 1,040 articles by electronic search and excluded 211 reports on the basis of the title and abstract and 42 articles after obtaining the full text. Finally, we selected 32 articles by personal searching and use of references. Thus, we assessed a total of 819 articles (Figure 1).
Characteristics of the Included Articles
Table 1 details the characteristics of the included articles. The selected articles assessed mainly treatments in the field of cardiology (123/819 [15%]), endocrinology, nutrition and dietetics (88/819 [11%]); musculoskeletal system (80/819 [10%]); anesthesiology, pain, and critical care (78/819 [9%]); and the respiratory system (63/819 [8%]). The experimental treatments concerned mainly oral drugs and topical treatments (508/819 [62%]) and injections such as intravenous, intramuscular, or intra-articular treatment (178/819 [22%]). A total of 613 reports (75%) described a placebo control treatment in at least one arm of the trial, and 196 (32% of the placebo-controlled trials) the content of the placebo (e.g., sugar, saline solution).
Characteristics of the Articles Selected for Assessing Blinding in RCTs
The main outcomes reported were patient-reported outcomes (114/819 [14%]), physician-driven data (203/819 [25%]), complementary investigations (207/819 [25%]), clinical events (157/819 [19%]), and multiple outcomes (119/819 [15%]). The main outcome was unclear in 18 articles (2%).
A total of 576 reports (71%) clearly reported blinding for patients, 276 (34%) health care providers, and 405 (50%) outcome assessors. Success of blinding was described in 35 reports (5%).
Method of Blinding
More than half of the reports (472 [58%]) described the method of blinding, but 236 (29%) gave no detail and 111 (13%) some data on blinding (i.e., reporting that treatments were similar or the use of double dummies with no description of the method). The methods of blinding identified varied in complexity.
Methods to Establish Blinding of Patients or Health Care Providers
A total of 336 reports (41%) described methods to establish blinding of patients or health care providers (Figure 2). The authors reported use of a centralized preparation of similar capsules, tablets, or embedded treatments in hard gelatin capsules (193/336 [57%]), similar syringes (37/336 [11%]), or similar bottles (38/336 [11%]). Use of a double dummy procedure was described in 79 articles (23%). Other methods consisted of a sham intervention performed by an unblinded health care provider who was not actively involved in the care of patients and had no other contact with patients or other caregivers and outcome assessors (17/336 [5%]). To mask the specific taste of the active treatments, in ten articles researchers used a specific flavor such as peppermint or sugar to coat treatments. For treatments administered by care providers, authors reported use of a centralized preparation of opaque coverage to adequately conceal intravenous treatments with different appearances (14/336 [4%]). Appendix 1 in Protocol S1 gives examples of these methods.
Methods of blinding of patients or health care providers (i.e., to provide indistinguishable treatments) were determined for published reports of RCTs of pharmacologic treatment.
Methods to Avoid Unblinding of Patients or Health Care Providers
Very few studies overall (28/819 [3%]) reported methods to avoid unblinding. Figure 3 presents these methods, which concern only treatments necessitating dosage adaptation or those with frequent and/or specific side effects. These methods relied on use of a centralized adapted dosage or provision of sham results of complementary investigations for treatments necessitating dosage adaptation.
Methods to avoid unblinding of patients or health care providers (i.e., to avoid unblinding during the trials because of specific side effects or specific requirements such as dosage modification) were determined in published reports of RCTs of pharmacologic treatment.
Methods to avoid unblinding because of side effects relied mainly on centralized assessment of side effects, partial information to patients about side effects, use of active placebo or systematic prevention of adverse effects in both arms. Appendix 2 in Protocol S1 gives examples of methods to avoid unblinding of patients or health care providers.
Methods of Blinded Assessment
These methods depend on the main outcomes and are particularly useful when blinding cannot be established and maintained by the methods described previously. A total of 112 articles (14%) described these methods, which relied mainly on a centralized assessment of the main outcome (Figure 4). Appendix 3 in Protocol S1 gives examples of these methods. Blinding of outcome assessors will presumably be achieved if neither patients nor those involved in the trial have any means to discover which arm a patient is in, for example because the placebo and active drugs are indistinguishable and allocation is via a central randomization service. Specific measures to blind outcome assessors may thus be required mainly when the nature of the trial is such that complete blinding during the earlier stages is not feasible. However, in this sample, 96 reports (86%) over the 112 reports in which specific measures to blind the outcome assessor were reported concern trials in which patients were reported as blinded or in which double blinding or triple blinding was reported. These results suppose that although blinding was performed at an earlier stage, trialists nevertheless decided to perform a specific method of blinding the outcome assessor.
This study assessed the reporting of the methods of blinding in RCTs of pharmacologic treatment and provides a description and classification of methods of blinding patients, health care providers, and outcome assessors based on a large cohort of RCTs. We identified 819 reports with about 60% describing the method of blinding. Our classification identified three main methods of blinding: (1) methods to provide identical treatments in both arm, (2) methods to avoid unblinding during the trial, and (3) methods of blinded outcome assessment.
Although blinding is essential to avoid bias, the reporting of blinding is generally quite poor [5] and reviews of trials that test the success of blinding methods indicate that a high proportion of trials are unblinded [14,15]. Lack of reporting of blinding [5,14–16] is probably linked in part to the lack of awareness of existing methods of blinding. To improve the performance and reporting of the method of blinding, we established an inventory of blinding methods of patients, health care providers, and main outcome assessors and classified them mainly on the basis of what seemed reasonable after having read through the various methods. Although other ways of classifying could be considered, we decided to focus on the mode of administration of the treatments, the risk of unblinding, and the primary outcomes, as these are more practical and logical criteria for researchers when planning trials.
Our classification emphasizes that blinding outcome assessors depends mainly on the primary outcome. In most situations, blinding outcome assessors should therefore be possible with a centralized assessment of complementary investigation, physician-mediated data, and clinical events (Figure 4). For example, for the assessment of gastroscopy, endoscopic procedures could be completely recorded using a VHS recorder and evaluated under blinded conditions [17]. In a trial comparing the use of two analgesic treatments during a vaccination procedure of children, the procedure was videotaped. A mirror was mounted on the wall behind the examining table so that the observer could film the infant's reaction both face on and from the mirror image. A trained observer, who was unaware of the treatment assignment, scored the pain of vaccination from the videotapes using the Modified Behavioral Pain Scale [18]. These methods are probably more successful than the method of informing patients not to tell outcome assessors the treatment they received. In fact, a study comparing conservative treatment (splinting) with surgery in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome involved an attempt to blind the outcome assessor by encouraging the patients not to reveal their treatment and by masking the surgical scar. Despite these efforts, the assessor correctly guessed the treatment performed [19]. Finally, for patient-reported outcomes for which the patient is the outcome assessor, if no methods can overcome the difficulties in establishing and maintaining blinding, no methods should be used so as to avoid ascertainment bias by a blinded outcome assessment.
This systematic review also highlights some creative methods of blinding that are frequently used in specific areas and could overcome some barriers to blinding. For example, in a trial comparing ximelagatran and warfarin for the prevention of venous thromboembolism, to avoid unblinding an anticoagulation management center relayed real or sham values to health care providers [20]. In a trial comparing the efficacy of infliximab versus placebo for psoriatic arthritis, to offer active medication to patients randomized to receive placebo, patients with less than 10% improvement from baseline entered early escape and received infliximab at weeks 16, 18, and 22. To maintain blinding, patients randomized to receive infliximab who had less than 10% improvement received additional placebo infusions at weeks 16, 18, and 22 [21]. Some reports have proposed use of active placebo. Active placebos are designed and used to mimic some of the side effects of the intervention to further secure blinding [22–26]. For example, in a trial to investigate the immunologic response of three doses of cat hair compared to placebo, researchers added caramelized sugar and histamine to the placebo and to the two lowest doses of cat extract to simulate the local reaction of the most concentrated extract [27].
However, some of these methods might be debatable from an ethical point of view. For example, use of active placebo is ethically debatable, and researchers should consider the balance between the expected harm linked to the placebo and the expected benefit of administering an active placebo [26]. Further, some ethics committees might reject a study involving blinding patients to some hypotheses such as not informing them about side effects of medication. However, this method might be acceptable if patients are informed about all the possible side effects but not informed of specific side effects of the treatment administered.
The classification and dissemination of these methods to researchers could overcome some barriers of blinding. Consequently, this classification (Figures 2–4) and the detailed examples of reporting (Protocol S1) should be helpful to researchers in planning trials as well as to readers and reviewers in appraising the feasibility of blinding in published reports of clinical trials.
Finally, our results also concludes that only 58% of the reports provided some details of the methods used to blind patients, health care providers, and outcome assessors. These results are consistent with those of Ferguson et al. [16], who showed that matching of the characteristics of placebo to the intervention was reported in 53% of trials. These results might be explained in part by the insufficient coverage of blinding in the Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statements. In fact, empirical evidence has demonstrated that lack of blinding and allocation concealment could bias the results [4,6,28]. To take into account these issues, three items of the CONSORT statements are dedicated to the description of the randomization procedure, whereas only one item is dedicated to the blinding issue [29]. The CONSORT statements mainly focus on reporting who is blinded [2] and less on the reporting of details on the method of blinding, whereas this information is essential to appraise the success of blinding. In fact, some evidence suggests that although participants are reported as blinded, the success of blinding might be questionable [11]. For instance, in a study assessing zinc treatment for the common cold, the blinding procedure failed, because the taste and aftertaste of zinc was distinctive [11,30]. Nevertheless tools used to assess the quality of trials included in meta-analyses and systematic reviews mainly focus on the reporting of the blinding status for each participant [31–33], and rarely on the description of the blinding methods and the adequacy of the blinding method [34]. Therefore, we must strengthen the reporting guidelines related to blinding issues, emphasizing adequate reporting of the method of blinding.
In this study, we assessed reports of RCTs published in high impact-factor journals from 2004. Consequently, we focused only on a specific panel of RCTs and on the reporting of these trials, not the trials themselves [29,35]. For example, we could not provide data on the methods of blinding data collectors, because these data were poorly reported, and we were unable to consistently identify data collectors in the selected articles. In addition, if the method of blinding was detailed in another article, we did not check for the description of the method. Thus, some methods of blinding might have been missed. However, the high number of contemporary trials included implies that we described a substantial number of blinding methods and also highlighted creative methods of blinding. Furthermore, these results are evolving, and readers are invited to inform us of other methods of blinding not captured in this survey. Finally, we did not focus on other key trial participants, such as data analysts. However, there is no reason that data analysts could not be blinded, and therefore the identification and dissemination of specific methods of blinding data analysts is probably not necessary.
In conclusion, this study highlights two important issues. First, our detailed description and classification of several ways to establish and maintain blinding helps ensure a blinded outcome assessment in RCTs. These methods should be disseminated to researchers to overcome some of the barriers to blinding in clinical trials. Second, we confirmed the insufficient reporting of the methods of blinding and the need to increase the requirement related to blinding issues in the CONSORT statements.
Supporting Information
Protocol S1. Appendices
Three appendices are provided. Appendix 1 reports examples of the methods used to establish blinding in the selected published reports of randomized controlled trials. Appendix 2 focuses on the examples of the methods to avoid unblinding in randomized controlled trials. Appendix 3 provides examples of the methods to blind outcome assessors.
Author Contributions
IB, DLS, AH, and PR designed the study. IB analyzed the data. IB, CE, LG, LG, AD, DLS, AH, and PR contributed to writing the paper. IB, CE, LG, and AD collected data or did experiments for the study.
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- 18. O'Brien L, Taddio A, Ipp M, Goldbach M, Koren G (2004) Topical 4% amethocaine gel reduces the pain of subcutaneous measles-mumps-rubella vaccination. Pediatrics 114: e720–e724.
- 19. Gerritsen AA, de Vet HC, Scholten RJ, Bertelsmann FW, de Krom MC, et al. (2002) Splinting vs surgery in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 288: 1245–1251.
- 20. Francis CW, Berkowitz SD, Comp PC, Lieberman JR, Ginsberg JS, et al. (2003) Comparison of ximelagatran with warfarin for the prevention of venous thromboembolism after total knee replacement. N Engl J Med 349: 1703–1712.
- 21. Antoni C, Krueger GG, de Vlam K, Birbara C, Beutler A, et al. (2005) Infliximab improves signs and symptoms of psoriatic arthritis: Results of the IMPACT 2 trial. Ann Rheum Dis 52: 1227–1236.
- 22. Flaten MA, Simonsen T, Zahlsen K, Aamo T, Sager G, et al. (2004) Stimulant and relaxant drugs combined with stimulant and relaxant information: A study of active placebo. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 176: 426–434.
- 23. Wu CL, Tella P, Staats PS, Vaslav R, Kazim DA, et al. (2002) Analgesic effects of intravenous lidocaine and morphine on postamputation pain: A randomized double-blind, active placebo-controlled, crossover trial. Anesthesiology 96: 841–848.
- 24. Dellemijn PL, Vanneste JA (1997) Randomised double-blind active-placebo-controlled crossover trial of intravenous fentanyl in neuropathic pain. Lancet 349: 753–758.
- 25. Shaw RW (1978) Randomized controlled trial of Syn-Ergel and an active placebo in the treatment of heartburn of pregnancy. J Int Med Res 6: 147–151.
- 26. Edward SJ, Stevens AJ, Braunholtz DA, Lilford RJ, Swift T (2005) The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: A comparison of inert and active placebo controls. World J Surg 29: 610–614.
- 27. Nanda A, O'Connor M, Anand M, Dreskin S C, Zhang L, et al. (2004) Dose dependence and time course of the immunologic response to administration of standardized cat allergen extract. J Allergy Clin Immunol 114: 1339–1344.
- 28. Moher D, Pham B, Jones A, Cook DJ, Jadad AR, et al. (1998) Does quality of reports of randomised trials affect estimates of intervention efficacy reported in meta-analyses? Lancet 352: 609–613.
- 29. Altman DG, Schulz KF, Moher D, Egger M, Davidoff F, et al. (2001) The revised CONSORT statement for reporting randomized trials: Explanation and elaboration. Ann Intern Med 134: 663–694.
- 30. Prasad AS, Fitzgerald JT, Bao B, Beck FW, Chandrasekar PH (2000) Duration of symptoms and plasma cytokine levels in patients with the common cold treated with zinc acetate. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Ann Intern Med 133: 245–252.
- 31. Jadad AR, Moore RA, Carroll D, Jenkinson C, Reynolds DJ, et al. (1996) Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: Is blinding necessary? Control Clin Trials 17: 1–12.
- 32. Verhagen AP, de Vet HC, de Bie RA, Boers M, van den Brandt PA (2001) The art of quality assessment of RCTs included in systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol 54: 651–654.
- 33. Verhagen AP, de Vet HC, de Bie RA, Kessels AG, Boers M, et al. (1998) The Delphi list: A criteria list for quality assessment of randomized clinical trials for conducting systematic reviews developed by Delphi consensus. J Clin Epidemiol 51: 1235–1241.
- 34. Boutron I, Moher D, Tugwell P, Giraudeau B, Poiraudeau S, et al. (2005) A checklist to evaluate a report of a nonpharmacological trial (CLEAR NPT) was developed using consensus. J Clin Epidemiol 58: 1233–1240.
- 35. Pildal J, Chan AW, Hrobjartsson A, Forfang E, Altman DG, et al. (2005) Comparison of descriptions of allocation concealment in trial protocols and the published reports: Cohort study. BMJ 330: 1049.


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The annual Run for Habitat 5K held on the first Saturday every June is a fundraiser for Berthoud Habitat Humanity.
Registration forms for the race are available at our ReStore, 157 Mountain Avenue, Berthoud.
Online Registration is available at this link.
About the event:
The run/walk event is staged to begin and end at our scenic Fickel Park, centrally located in Berthoud, Colorado, with the run/walk taking place through neighboring residential streets, guided by signage along the route, along with race Marshals. There is a watering station at the start, finish, and midway through the race route. The route allows runners to see our Habitat partner family's homes and those under construction on N. 4th Street.
The children's Free 1K will be held prior to the 5K and will give children the opportunity to participate in the festivities. The children's race starts at about 8:00 am.
While there are competitive racers running – because this is a Certified USATF 5K distance with computer timing – parents are welcome to bring strollers for little ones to enjoy the 5K walk on a generally mild June morning. You are welcome to bring your four-legged friends (on a leash of course).
All proceeds from this event will go toward Berthoud Habitat's work to build homes in our community serving families in need.
Following the race, medals are awarded for the overall top Male and Female finisher, along with Male and Female athletes who place first, second and third in the following 9 age categories:
10 and under; 11 – 14 years old; 15 – 19 years old; 20 – 29 years old; 30 – 39 years old; 40 – 49 years old; 50 – 59 years old; 60 – 69 years old; And 70+ years old
Awards are also presented for the Children's 1K Race, with ribbons presented to the first, second and third place finisher. All children will receive recognition for participation in the Children's race.
Event details and schedule:
On-street parking is available near Fickel Park and on nearby residential side streets.
6:45 am – 7:45 am – Arrival of registrants. Pick up Packets, Race Day Registrations available ($5 increase from Pre-Race Day Registrations per individual) Ongoing until race starts.
Race participants may pick up their race packets at Fickel Park the morning of the race. We DO NOT have pre-race day packet pick up. This packet includes your numbered race bib, safety pins and race t-shirt.
There will be water (donated by Eldorado Natural Spring Water) and snacks for racers pre- and post-race in Fickel Park.
8:00 am FREE Children's 1K
About 8:15 am Start of the 5K Race, dependent on the number of children participating in the 1K.
There are some mild elevation changes throughout the course, but for the most part the course is flat, staged through residential neighborhoods, with signage and volunteers to help along the way. This is a safe route for families with children who may want to participate in the 5K walk. There will be race maps available on race day that outline the course through the neighborhood. We have volunteer race marshals staged along the race route course as well, for any questions participants may have.
We generally have good weather on this race day, but come prepared for anything. While the morning may be cool, given it's early June, by the end of the race it could be quite warm, so layering for the race may be helpful.
There is a water station staged in Fickel Park for the beginning of the race, at the midway point of the race, by the Habitat partner family homes on N. 4th Street, and at the end of the race when runners and walkers cross the finish line by Fickel Park.
Signed Waivers are Required for all participants.


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Honda Malaysia announced that the popular BR-V has recorded impressive sales of close to 11,000 units within 6 months of its launch, exceeding its annual sales target of 10,000 units. The Full 7-Seater Crossover with the body of a 'SUV' and the space of a 'MPV' has enabled Honda Malaysia to penetrate into a new market as the BR-V offers ...Read More »
BMW Group Malaysia Officially Opens New BMW Group Regional Parts Distribution Centre in Malaysia
BMW Group Malaysia today opened the doors to its new Regional Parts Distribution Centre at the Free Industrial Zone of the Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru. Situated on over 775,000 square feet of land in the Free Industrial Zone and with an investment of over RM 130 million, the new BMW Group Regional Parts Distribution Centre is one of ...Read More »
Hyundai Santa Fe Conquers the Antarctic Driven by Great Grandson of Sir Ernest Shackleton
Hyundai Motor has made history when a near-standard 2.2-litre diesel Santa Fe became the first passenger vehicle to be driven across the continent of Antarctica from Union Camp to McMurdo and back again. The Santa Fe was driven by Patrick Bergel, the Great Grandson of legendary polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. The journey which took place in December 2016 was ...Read More »
The "Audi Sport" Edition of the Audi R8 Coupé
Silver, red and black are the colours of Audi Sport – and of the new special edition R8 Coupé model bearing its name. Along with specific components in the cockpit and body, the colours heighten the car's motorsport feeling. Audi is unveiling the exclusive, high-performance sports car for the first time, at the New York International Auto Show. The car ...Read More »
Second Generation Porsche Panamera Ready for Malaysia Luxury Market
Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) introduced the second-generation Panamera on 13th April 2017, a car that reconciles two contrasting characteristics more than ever before: the performance of a genuine sports car and the comfort of a luxury saloon. This second-generation Panamera is advancing to become a performance icon of the luxury class. In this transformation, Porsche has systematically improved the ...Read More »
Toyota Special Service Expansion for Front Passenger Airbag
Safety of customers is always Toyota's top priority. UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd (UMWT), distributor of Toyota vehicles in Malaysia today announced a Special Service Campaign (SSC) for the replacement of the inflator modules of the front passenger side airbag to certain number of Toyota vehicles sold in Malaysia. This SSC is an expansion of earlier campaigns by Toyota Motor ...Read More »
A Large International Demand for the Audi RS 3 LMS @ TCR Racing Series
The new Audi RS 3 LMS stands in front of its first motorsport season. The race car can compete in 14 series worldwide, including the TCR International Series and ADAC TCR Germany with its strong field. The title defender of the TCR International Series, Stefano Comini, will drive an Audi from 2017 on. Also in the ADAC TCR Germany, the ...Read More »
Honda Malaysia Celebrates Historical Double Achievements of 600,000th Unit Production and 100,000 Sales Unit
Honda Malaysia celebrated a historical milestone today with the production of the 600,000th unit in its local plant in Pegoh, Malacca. In the same event, Honda Malaysia also took delight in its 100,000 sales units achievement for the current financial year (1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017) despite the challenging market situation over the past year. These achievements mark ...Read More »


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An American doctor treating the horrific injuries suffered by Syrian civilians has warned that the closure of a vital highway has put 300,000 people at risk of death and starvation.
Dr. Samer Attar, a Chicago-based orthopedic surgeon who volunteered to help local medics in the embattled city of Aleppo, said last weekend's severing of the Castello Road has already caused shortages of food and medicine.
"People are running out of fresh fruit and meat. Hospitals and their staff are exhausted," he told NBC News from southeastern Turkey, where he returned after a two-week stint in a makeshift underground hospital.
The entire city "is going to be bombed and starved to death … unless the international community acts," he said.
PHOTOS: Aleppo Left Hungry and Damaged After Series of Airstrikes
The bomb-cratered and wreck-strewn two-lane highway was the last humanitarian supply line into eastern Aleppo. It was cut off last Sunday.
The northern city — Syria's largest, and the country's commercial hub until the start of the war — is a major battleground in the conflict. Its capture would be a strategic prize for President Bashar al-Assad.
Fighting there has escalated after U.N.-brokered peace talks and a cease-fire unraveled earlier this year.
"The situation now is much worse," Attar said. "The Castello Road was permanently cut due to heavy Syrian government aerial bombardment and ground sniper fire. Before, it had been risky, but now it is impassable ... a death sentence."
He said government forces "shot and bombed anything that moved on the road," describing Aleppo as "besieged."
Attar said: "No one allowed in or out — no fuel, no medicines, no food."
Attar, an assistant professor at Northwestern University's School of Medicine, was working in an underground hospital run by local doctors but supported by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).
"On a daily basis, sometimes twice daily, I witnessed civilians horrifically and brutally injured from rockets, barrel bombs, and cluster bombs," Attar said. "Homes, schools, and markets were hit. You would hear about dozens killed, scores more injured. It's devastating and overwhelming to witness."
Related: Three Syrian Hospitals Bombed in Just Three Hours
He added: "In spite of these conditions, Syrian doctors and nurses have been living this way for years and refuse to abandon their posts out of a sense of duty and obligation to help the local population. It is a highly remarkable group of people, to say the least."
Earlier this week, Assad likened himself to a doctor in an exclusive interview with NBC News. The Syrian president denied accusations he was a brutal dictator despite the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in his fight to cling to power.
"If a doctor cuts off a limb to save a life, you don't say he's a brutal doctor. He's doing his job," Assad said.
Attar has made multiple visits to Syria, and recently gave a heartbreaking account of what he described as "the hell of Syria's field hospitals" to the New England Journal of Medicine.
He told NBC News that the international community needed to act to prevent a worsening crisis in Aleppo.
"There are innocent people dying on all sides of the front lines in Syria but allowing the Syrian government to systematically bombard and starve hundreds of thousands of people is not the answer," Attar said.


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"The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959" featuring the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet
Trumpeter, composer and band leader Miles Davis was one of the most innovative and influential figures in jazz. On Saturday, the Krannert Center in Urbana will present "The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959," featuring the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet. I'll talk with Mr. Akinmusire on the Tuesday edition of "Live and Local," and we'll preview Thursday's concert by the Illinois State University Symphony Orchestra.


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- This double-shoulder and armpit bag provide you with double protection, freeing your hands, and zero pressure, making you feel more relaxed on the road.
- Retro style, highlight your unique taste. The best choice for mobile phones and wallets!
Main Features
✅Safety and anti-theft: The holster-style bag hidden under the armpit can prevent the mobile wallet from being stolen. With 2 pockets, you can store personal belongings, such as mobile phones, keys, pens, passports, etc.
✅High-quality materials: Soft PU leather, waterproof, wear-resistant, compact and lightweight, and easy to carry. The sturdy and durable design makes your wallet not easy to loosen and avoid falling off.
✅Use scene: Suitable for outdoor sports, travel, hiking, mountaineering, hunting, camping, cycling, running, etc.
✅Flexible and adjustable: Adjustable retractable buckle, suitable for people of different heights, both men and women, can be easily adjusted to the ideal length, easy to wear.
✅Perfect match with any clothing: Simple to match, it can be worn on the outside of a T-shirt, or on the inside or outside of a jacket or suit.
|Product Weight
|Product Size
(L x W x H)
|Package Contents
|PU leather
- Due to manual measurements, please allow slight measurement deviations.
- Due to the different display and lighting effects, the actual color of the item may be slightly different from the color displayed on the picture.


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By Cyrus Kamada
In reading some of the responses to criticism of the recent appointment of Mark Muir by the city council majority, you may have noticed that an essential theme was, "hey, we live in a democracy — the majority rules — stop whining and get over it." This made me think — what are the rights of the minority anyway?Certainly, no one would argue that the minority will should prevail. On the other hand, our democracy has gone to great lengths to ensure that majority rule is tempered. For example, each state is represented by two senators, regardless of population. Other examples abound, such as the electoral college, the filibuster, and the judicial confirmation process. Why did our founding fathers go to such lengths to ensure that majority rule was limited?To get some perspective on the issue, here are the opinions of a few influential contributors to American political thought.
"Unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny." — Ayn Rand
"We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down." — William F. Buckley Jr.
"There is nothing sacrosanct about the majority; the lynch mob, too, is the majority in its own domain." — Murray Rothbard
"When I see that the right and the means of absolute command are conferred on a people or upon a king, upon an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or a republic, I recognize the germ of tyranny." — Alexis De Tocqueville
"The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime; abuses its strength, and, by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society." —Thomas Jefferson
The one principle that resonates with me is that the majority must not be allowed to subvert the minority aspiration to one day become the majority. To do so, as Jefferson observed, is to act on the "law of the strongest," which ultimately undermines the foundations of society. In practical terms, what does this mean for Encinitas?
Essentially, the only reason there is now a 4-1 majority on the city council is because previously, there was a 3-2 majority. The question of course arises, "what did you expect them to do, appoint an enemy?" No, but I did expect them to consider the existing makeup of the council, as determined previously by a democratic vote of the people.
Suppose that, God forbid, for whatever reason, Teresa Barth was no longer able to serve on the council. Would it be legitimate for the city council to appoint yet another crony, and thereby have a unanimous 5-0 majority? What would prevent that?
The appointment of Muir and the ensuing lockout of protestors from the council meeting room, the monopolization of the mayoral rotation process by the council majority, the decision to ban Maggie Houlihan's image from publicly displayed art, and the stacking of the ERAC committee to review the General Plan with real estate interests, are all part of a systematic exercise of the "law of the strongest."
In particular, the appointment of Muir and the monopolization of the mayoral rotation process create a non-level playing field, making it more difficult for the minority to be seen and heard, and therefore to realize their aspiration of one day becoming the majority.
Those who feel that this is an appropriate outcome should consider that one reason the "law of the strongest" undermines the foundations of society is that it encourages a dog-eat-dog mentality, and thereby degrades the public character.
End of whine.
Cyrus Kamada is an Encinitas resident.


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China slams Japanese's remarks on Diaoyu Islands
BEIJING - The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed "grave concern" over Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga's remarks on the Diaoyu Islands, stressing that China will not tolerate actions that violate its territorial sovereignty.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular press briefing that China is firm in its resolution and determination on safeguarding the sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.
If the Japanese side deliberately provoke, it must bear the consequences, the spokesman warned.
Relations between the two countries soured following the Japanese government's unilateral move to "nationalize" part of the Diaoyu Islands in September 2012.
According to a Kyodo news agency report, the Japanese official said that Japan has the option of stationing civil servants on the uninhabited islands.
Hong urged the Japanese side to face up to history and reality, take concrete actions to correct its error and stop all provocative actions that undermine China's sovereignty so as to eliminate obstacles for improving bilateral relations.
A seven-ship fleet from the China Coast Guard patrolled the territorial waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday morning, the State Oceanic Administration said. It marked the 59th Diaoyu Islands patrol by Chinese law-enforcement vessels since September 2012.
Hong said that it is normal official activity of Chinese official vessels to patrol the waters.
While resolutely safeguarding its sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands, China still seeks a peaceful settlement of disputes through dialogue and consultation, the spokesman added.
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- Pudong sets the pace for high-tech growth
- Cybersecurity threat could cause damage 'beyond imagination'
- Worldwide manhunt nets 50th fugitive
Registration Number: 130349


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Revolut has claimed Unicorn status. The UK based digital challenger bank has raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion making it one of the fastest UK Fintechs to top the billion dollar mark ever. Launched in 2015, Revolut will next expand in the United States and challenge the dominion of august corporate entities such as Citi and Bank of America.
Nik Storonsky, Founder & CEO at Revolut said their focus since the beginning was to do everything completely the opposite of traditional banks;
"We build world class tech that puts people back in control of their finances, we speak to our customers like humans and we're never afraid to challenge old thinking in order to innovate. To have DST Global on board is an incredible endorsement of our business strategy as we begin to expand Revolut around the world. Banking has historically avoided disruptions by technology, but that is all about to change on a big scale."
This most recent funding round was lead by Hong Kong based DST Global. The Series C funding saw both new and existing investors participate including Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital. To date, Revolut has raised $340 million since the company launched three years ago including the multiple crowdfunding offerings that started on Crowdcube and most recently raised on Seedrs.
Revolut reports it is now processing $1.8 billion through the platform each month, while signing up between 6,000 and 8,000 new customers every day. Total customers now stand at around 2 million across Europe and Revolut has an ambitious goal of topping 100 million customers in the next five years – thus making it one of the largest banks in the world.
Revolut has espoused a mission to convince people to ditch their traditional brick and mortar banks – along with the excessive fees and poor service. This message has resonated with a sophisticated, global group of users as traditional banking declines. In the last few months alone, Revolut has launched features that allow customers to instantly buy and sell cryptocurrencies as well as a savings feature that lets customers round up their daily transactions and save their spare change in a digital Vault.
Starting with the United States, Revolut will next push into Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia – all during this year. Revolut also expects to increase their workforce from 350 to around 800 employees by the end of the year, with a focus on attracting world class engineers and designers.
Investor Tom Stafford, Managing Partner at DST Global, said the Revolut is developing tech that reduces both the complexity of banking services and the cost for consumers and businesses;
"We are delighted to support Nik and the Revolut team as they continue to innovate, roll out new services and expand geographically."


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The human ear
Ears are a pair of intricate miniaturised organs. This is so because the various parts of the ear are packed into a very small space. Ears bring about the sensation of hearing. What is visible outside is simply a flap of tissue on the side of the head. This is the outer ear and helps gather sound.
The hearing process consists of the sound vibrations being converted to signals that can be carried to the brains. Here they get interpreted and the sound being heard becomes meaningful. This entire process is carried out in stages by very intricate inner ear parts that are not visible to us. The whole process is truly fascinating.
First of all because the inner ear parts are so delicate, there has to be a mechanism to protect them. Next, there has to be a mechanism to convert the vibrations that travel through air, or water or our bones and muscles into signals that can be sent to the brain for processing. Hence each part of the inner ear has a very specific task assigned to it.
Initiator of the hearing process
Sound amplification
Sound detection


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|Click on photo for more details
Card 4 ~
|Click on photo for more details
Oh, this is beautiful!ReplyDelete
This is such a lovely card, Helen!
Thanks for sharing it in the Coffee Loving Card Makers Spring Blog Hop. Have a blessed week.
Karen Letchworth
P.S. For another fun challenge, I warmly invite you to play along with us at Word Art Wednesday. Always Anything Goes/Family Friendly and we offer fabulous prizes. Our current sponsor is ($25) to Simon Says Stamp. I hope you will join the fun!
Beautiful colors on your lovely card. :-)ReplyDelete
Oh, this is awesome, love those cups!ReplyDelete
You sure did put your 2016 win to EXCELLENT USE!!!! Love the SPRING colors, so LOVELY!!!ReplyDelete
So beautiful, love it!ReplyDelete
Such a PRETTY card and your coloring is so lovely!ReplyDelete
Fantastic card Helen! Love the scene you created~ReplyDelete
Love your sweet cups and that flower is the perfect touch.ReplyDelete
this is so great!ReplyDelete
LOve the sweet trio of cups and your pretty pastels coloring!!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous trio of cups and I love those pretty colors.ReplyDelete
Great card, love the colors of the coffee cups, perfect for Spring!ReplyDelete
Very pretty!!!ReplyDelete
Lovely color combo of cups on your very pretty card, Helen.ReplyDelete


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45. Consider producing every hyperlink the last the main statement "I want to… ". Don't just have a hyperlink that says "the level of privacy policy", but rather "read the privacy policy". Do you have it… the shopper wishes to "Read the Privacy Policy".
46. Don't employ too clever names to your shopping cart like "widget basket" or "widget box". Call it up "My buying cart" or "My shopping basket".
forty seven. Don't make the shopper state select an alternative when you can find only 1 "option". If the merchandise only also comes in red, Do not make the consumer select the "red" radio key or choose "red" from the drop down. Find the site to accomplish automatically.
48. Present clear purchasing instructions within an empty shopping cart. Don't simply just say "your shopping cart is normally empty".
49. Supply a "special sale" or "special clearance" section. This will draw in the budget-conscious shoppers.
50. The most crucial rule – you must represent a lot of trust and credibility to instill consumer confidence and get them to spend your money. Make sure you do.


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How exciting, I get to actually announce the Thursday winners punctually, not way into the afternoon. I'd like to thank M2 Convert for graciously donating copies of its popular file conversion tool. It makes converting files to iPod (there are also versions for Zune, PSP, Zen and Smartphones).
Anyway, winners! Ten more for ya. They should be coming faster now. Here they are:
Thanks for participating everyone. You should have emails in your boxes already.
And don't forget, we've still got 70 more copies to give away. So if you want to win, just keep on commenting and be sure to plug your email address into the form.
Plus one lucky commenter this week will win the grand prize, a brand new Samsung Blackjack. We're giving that away at about 5PM EST, so be sure to comment as much as physically possible between now-and-then. Good luck.


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I don't really like suffering through television commercials when my favorite show is on, but I am always fascinated by those farmers standing waist-deep in a bog while plump little cranberries float around them.
That wet harvesting process is pretty cool to watch, and it makes those beautiful red berries even more unusual and fun to cook with.
Believe it or not, they actually don't just come in cans suspended in gelatin, and they're not only available at Thanksgiving. These bright, tart little jewels make a perfect addition to your meal any time of year, and this Cranberry Salad, affectionately called "pink fluff" by my family, is a festive favorite they request almost every holiday.
Cranberries are one of only three cultivated fruits native to the U.S., and about 60% of those are grown in Wisconsin.
They range in color from deep, rich red to dark pink and have tons of vitamins and antioxidants.
Native Americans in Wisconsin, the Algonquins, called these berries atoqua and used their juice as a dye for blankets and rugs and molded their pulp into poultices. They also liked to eat them raw, although, as you might suspect, they eventually decided these airy pink fruits could be eaten a little more frequently if they added sugar to them (maple, in their case).
That's definitely why you'll find cranberries either canned in a sweetened sauce or dried like raisins.
You've likely eaten that dried version in cranberry chicken salad and lots of cranberry green salads, usually sprinkled on top of fresh romaine or spinach along with some candied nuts and a little soft goat cheese.
There's also the popular broccoli cranberry salad with the little sweet "red raisins" that help encourage picky eaters to get in their serving of a not-so-popular vegetable.
This isn't a dried cranberry salad, though. It showcases the plump, juicy berries in their naturally tart state, complemented instead by other sweet ingredients – apples, pineapple, and fluffy marshmallows, floating in a thick but light, creamy, vanilla-infused dressing.
It's the perfect combo of sweet and tart and a unique and refreshing alternative to many of the cranberry salad recipes for Thanksgiving, especially those with the obligatory flavored gelatin products.
Don't get me wrong – I definitely use the stuff in lots of recipes and love a good cranberry salad with Jello, but many of those recipes use raspberry or cherry Jello which really masks the cranberry flavor.
There's also the characteristic congealed texture which a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with. Let's just say my Cranberry Salad will make you rethink your usual cranberry Jello salad offering.
We start with cranberries, of course, and I like to chop them in my food processor to avoid chasing the little devils across the cutting board with my knife. You can do the apples in the food processor too; just don't leave it running too long unless you want to have applesauce to work with.
Along with the rest of the fruit – crisp apples and juicy pineapple, the cranberries will sit overnight in the fridge with a little salt and sugar to pull the juices out of the fruit and thicken them into a light syrup.
The soft, squishy marshmallows, which bring some fun texture to the salad, start to soak up a bit of the red juice from the cranberries too. Bring on the pink!
The next day, you'll mix up the fluffy stuff to fold over the salad base. I'm basically making a sweetened whipped cream, with a touch of vanilla, but the addition of cream cheese makes it thicker and slightly acidic.
You might be tempted to substitute a whipped topping here, to save some time, but you won't enjoy this Cranberry Salad with Cool Whip as much. Now don't get me wrong, I love Cool Whip. In fact, I use it in The topping for my Cranberry Jello Salad and it works perfectly!
Trust me, though, making this Cranberry Salad with cream cheese and homemade whipped cream is worth the time. The Cranberry Salad dressing is really pretty fabulous, and it's a go-to dressing for just about any fruit salad . . . or a topping for apple pie . . . or crispy Sunday waffles . . . or just eating with a spoon.
Once you mix the salad with the dressing and toss in some toasted walnuts for extra crunch, my Cranberry Salad is ready for the table.
Normally you'd have to worry about the whipped cream losing some of its poofs, but thanks to the cream cheese, which helps stabilize it a bit, the whole thing will last in the fridge for two to three days.
This is an easy Cranberry Salad you can serve anytime you'd think about doing a fruit salad. We have it at Easter with ham, on Thanksgiving with turkey, and at Christmas with whatever the celebration table holds.
My "pink fluff" really is pretty on the table, a soft pink cloud with pieces of ruby-colored cranberries shining through. It's kind of a show stopper all on its own!
It definitely beats the same ol' tired cranberry sauce nobody touches at Thanksgiving, and I think you'll find it makes you appreciate all the wonderful flavors of these little crimson spheres.
Cranberry Salad Recipe
- 3 Cups Frozen Cranberries Thawed and Chopped
- 1 20 Ounce Can Crushed Pineapple, Drained
- 2 Cups Miniature Marshmallows
- 1 Apple Chopped
- 2/3 Cup Sugar
- 1/8 Teaspoon Salt
- 4 Ounces Cream Cheese at Room Temperature
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Cup Walnuts Chopped
- Make the Salad: Mix the first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl; Refrigerate overnight.
- Make the Dressing: In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Set aside.
- In a deep mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream until firm peaks form. Gently fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream until combined.
- Assemble: Fold the whipped cream mixture and walnuts into the chilled cranberry mixture. Serve.
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Recipe Notes For Cranberry Salad:
Fresh vs. Frozen – My recipe calls for frozen cranberries because I can find them all year long. If the season's right, though, you can certainly make a fresh Cranberry Salad and substitute the ones you'll find in the produce section at your supermarket. It saves the defrosting step too!
Nuts – I usually make this a cranberry walnut salad, but it's also really good with pecans. If you have the time, definitely toast whichever you use to help the flavor stand out in the fluffy pink cloud.
Apples – Any crisp apple will work in this recipe, though I suppose red- or pink-skinned apples will continue the color theme! If you're just not feeling the apples, you can also substitute about 1 c. of seedless red grapes, sliced in half. It removes some of the crunchy texture of the salad, but still tastes great!
Can't get enough of Cranberry…
- Cranberry Meatballs – Tender and flavorful meatballs smothered in a delicious cranberry orange sauce!
- Cranberry Bliss Cookies -A delicious cookie base, cream cheese frosting, lots of cranberries with white chocolate drizzle!
- Cranberry Bliss Bars-Starbucks Copycat –Perfectly glazed sweet bars the whole family will enjoy!
- Cranberry White Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies -A lovely combination of sweet and a bit tart all at the same time.
- Sugared Cranberries – Our recipe for Sugared Cranberries is tart, sweet an incredibly flavorful. A festive presentation, and terrific holiday treat.
- Cranberry Jello Salad – Our Cranberry Jello Salad Is Sweet And Tart With An Amazing Creamy Topping. This Perfect Holiday Treat Might Create A Stampede To The Table!
Reader Interactions
Will the chopped apple turn dark?


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May 06 2010
ISSNet Workshop 2010
The NSERC Internetworked Systems Security Network (ISSNet) annual workshop was held in Ottawa last week. Several members of our lab presented posters at the opening reception and poster session. Robert introduced theme 3 (human-oriented security), and talked about our lab's research. Max, Alain and Elizabeth gave short talks about ongoing research. The workshop was a great opportunity to hear about research and network with other ISSNet researchers and students.


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Heron Timber performs operations for landowners needing quality thinning, clearcuts, or projects of greater intricacies needing more technical expertise. We are capable of doing work in areas of 5 acres and greater. Our business structure allows us to be able to complete all permitting, technical forestry management practices, harvest operations, merchandising, and post harvest care of your property.
Harvest Operations
Heron Timber performs all of its own logging operations. This includes all types of thinning's and clearcuts. Typically included in our logging operations is the permitting, marketing, cutting, yarding, processing, loading, hauling, and site cleanup. Keeping everything in house allows us to tailor each operation to the landowners needs. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.
Management Planning
Combining all of our skill sets and technical ability we can and will compile a management plan for your timberlands. Forests are on a much longer time frame than most people conceptualize with in today's society. Putting a plan together creates a living document that can be passed down from generation to generation that keeps the goals for that specific forest in mind and adapts to the changing ecosystem. In addition, creating a plan sets the landowner up for being part of organizations such as the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) which has a legacy of helping landowners stay on top of Best Management Practices (BMP's) and continuing a long term sustainable forest ecosystem for the benefit of all.
Many non-industrial tracts of land are not well established for modern day harvesting operations. Before a harvest can begin roads and landings need to be constructed. During the summer months our roadbuilding crew is out constructing roads for our future logging projects. Providing this task in house also alleviates additional tasks that a landowner would have to take on potentially by themselves or have others do for them. In addition to putting in roads for a harvest we can also take them out once completed if it is something the landowner would like done.
Firewood Sales
With our focus on environmental sustainability we take the non-merchantable product from our logging operations and process that material for consumer use. We have the following species of cured firewood,
Contact for prices.
Free delivery within 20 miles of Sheridan.
Rock Sales
Heron Timber has retail rock sales to help meet your landscaping needs. We currently have in stock 1/2" minus aggregate. This material works great for packing in post holes, creating walking paths and patios, or base for laying down brick hardscapes.
We have this material in stock in bulk form or 50lb bags.
Bagged: $3.00/bag plus delivery
Bulk: $36.00/yard delivered within 50 Cottage Grove
In 2011 I took a giant leap and left my career at Boise Cascade and started my own company at the age of 24. At this time the economy was still working its way out of the Great Recession and I knew starting a business was a huge risk. Despite the risk I saw a lot of opportunity to create a service for a group of people who were being overlooked by the industry and create a chance for me to do what I loved for a living.
We recently hired Heron Timber to do some tree thinning on our property and could not be more pleased. Matt and his crew were very professional and organized. He contacted all of our neighbors before he began logging operations to let them know, and our neighbors were very grateful of his consideration. They made the process very easy for us filing for permits, finding boundary lines and etc. They were also very efficient and knowledgable of their trade and did a very nice and clean job. He was so good our neighbors hired him right after our property was finished. I would definitely recommend Heron Timber to anyone.
Thank you,
Heron Timber operates in a 60 air mile radius from Sheridan Or. Despite that range, we will go further depending on the job. however, it is our goal to create a workplace in which our employees can be home most every night to be able to do what is important to them.
- Began business at the very end of 2011 when the economy was still in the recession.
- In 2013 earned a merit award from Oregon Department of Forestry for our good work in Eastern Oregon.
- In 2014 earned another merit award for our work along Hwy 101 on Gardiner Hill.
- In 2015 earned Eastern Oregon Operator of the Year award for our work in the town of Mosier.
- Since 2012 we have replanted 450,000 seedlings including inside of The Dalles watershed after the Government Flats fire.
- City of Mosier Restoration project after Ips beetle epidemic.
- ODOT Hwy 101 Gardiner Hill project.
- ODOT Hwy 245 Dooley Mountain post fire salvage logging.
- Performed the first ever commercial timber sale in the Gilcrest State Forest.
- Commercially thinned a timber stand to make way for the future Nisqually State Park in Eatonville Washington.
- Performed many "urban logging" contracts in the Hood River area during the Ips beetle outbreak.


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23 Jump Street Is Actually Happening
In many ways, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's 22 Jump Street is kind of an ode to just how dumb sequels are. Operating as a successful satire, the movie is almost entirely made up of meta commentary about how flawed the system of Hollywood sequels really is. And even if you missed all of that during the actual movie, the final sequence of the film is literally just a barrage of bad sequel ideas paraded one after the other. The movie seemed to take a very firm stance that it would be the end of the franchise... but apparently that message didn't get through to the people at Sony Pictures
Deadline's sources have learned that Rodney Rothman, one of the writers on 22 Jump Street, has been hired by Sony and Original Film to write a screenplay for 23 Jump Street. While Phil Lord and Chris Miller are not yet attached to the project as directors, they are apparently overseeing Rothman's work and look to serve as producers on the sequel alongside Neal Moritz, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. The production companies behind the developing feature are apparently keeping the door open for Lord and Miller to direct, but they have not yet committed to the gig.
The end of 22 Jump Street may have been making fun of the idea of more Jump Street movies - 22 more, to be exact - but when looking at the box office numbers it's not exactly hard to see why Sony wants to make a 23 Jump Street. Released this past June and opening with a strong $57 million debut, the movie went on to make $190 million at the domestic box office and $319 million worldwide. Even though the feature cost a bit more than its predecessor - reported $50 million vs. $42 million - the success can not be denied.
Rodney Rothman has a long history of writing credits, dating back to when he was the head writer for the Late Show with David Letterman back in the '90s, but he has only started to move into features in recent years. In 2013 he was one of the writers credited on the Robert De Niro/Sylvester Stallone boxing comedy Grudge Match, and he was listed alongside Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel and Jonah Hill as co-writers on 22 Jump Street.
As for Phil Lord and Chris Miller, whether or not they will come back as directors is an interesting question. They have been busy with television projects as of late, helping make the upcoming Last Man On Earth and currently developing a reboot of Greatest American Hero, but they have not yet committed to their next feature. It's also worth noting that the duo were considering not coming back for 22 Jump Street, but found that the script changed their mind. Could something similar happen here? We'll have more for you as the project develops.
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NJ native who calls LA home and lives in a Dreamatorium. A decade-plus CinemaBlend veteran who is endlessly enthusiastic about the career he's dreamt of since seventh grade.
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Renovation Essentials: Basic Small Bathroom Types
Regardless of how small your bathroom is, there are many practical solutions available that will maximize the space and functionality without knocking down walls. Here are the basics to consider when renovating smaller bathroom:
The Powder Room
Traditionally, a powder room consists of a toilet and sink. This generally tiny space is usually situated off of a main hallway and is often used by guests and the quick convenience of the homeowners. Simply, a powder room requires a comfortable toilet, an appropriately sized sink, and a mirror with decent lighting. An exhaust fan is also an important feature, as is soundproofing and a good quality lock on the door. A good remodel will take into consideration the comfort and privacy of one's guests.
The Three-Quarter Bath
A small three-quarter bath will consist of the toilet and sink, but will also have a generally very small stall shower. As with a powder room, a well-lit space with a good exhaust fan is very important. If you're remodeling, this is a great time to consider how the existing stall shower is situated and choices are available to optimize the amount of space. There are many pre-fabricated stall showers on the market that provide just the right balance of form and function. A rounded front shower with a sliding door provides more shower space on the inside with less of a footprint on the outside. Any kind of sliding door, or shower curtain, is preferable to a swing door, which takes up floor space.
Full Bath
A full scale remodel project in a full-sized bathroom can be quite an endeavor, no matter how small the actual space is. Often, this full-bath is shared by two or more people and has to serve many purposes from bathing to grooming to storage. A well-thought out vanity is key. If there is room, a double sink vanity with separate medicine chest mirrors will go a long way to preserve the harmony between the various users of the space. Even if the space is not big enough for a double sink, the vanity needs to be as big as possible. Pedestal sinks are lovely to look at and they certainly do expand the look of a small space. But, they are not at all practical when storage is such an important aspect of a full-bathroom. Every little inch of space is important, so when remodeling, consider that shower doors, closet doors and the main bathroom door all take up a lot of room and can impede the use of the space. Think about replacing swing shower doors with a slider or curtain, a closet door can be removed and a bathroom door might be converted into a pocket door if there is space, or even just re-hung to swing in the other direction, or into the hallway.
Looking for a Pro? Call us(866) 441-6648


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Multiple addresses maybe seperated by semicolons.
It's been a long time -- too long - but finally the Maggid is back!
Rabbi Paysach Krohn is today's successor of the great maggidim of Europe and Israel. Historically, the maggid was a talmid chacham, an orator, an observer of his society, and he would often travel from town to town and even country to country, speaking to communities. The best were charismatic, magnetic speakers, who could deliver an important, meaningful message in an appealing manner. People would enjoy the presentation, but that was the sugar coating for the inner message that inspire them to improve themselves.
That describes Rabbi Krohn perfectly. He is an enormously popular and sought-after speaker and lecturer. He has the uncanny ability to combine personal verve, warmth, and enthusiasm, as he uplifts audiences with an incredibly broad range of captivating and inspiring stories about famous and unknown people.
His appearances fill halls and arenas throughout the world. And that adds spice to this marvelous book, because wherever Rabbi Krohn goes - North America, Israel, Europe, Australia -- people tell him stories. In this captivating volume he presents us with the best of those countless stories, in his inimitable, infectious style.
But this American Maggid is much more than a storyteller. He hears a story and delves beneath its surface to perceives its lesson. What kernel of truth is buried in the narrative? How does it relate to us and what can it teach us? He mines everyday life for these eternal truths and shares them with us.
Yes - the Maggid is back and we readers are the winners. So let's read, think, smile, shed an occasional tear, and come away a happier, better people.
Gift Card will be sent To:
Your Electronic Gift Certificate From
and receive a free coupon for your first order!


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501-140 Carleton Street
Fredericton, N.B.
Language(s) spoken: English, French
Bar Admission(s): New Brunswick, 2010
Legal Assistant(s): Sheri Vessey
Katherine works with a number of insurance companies, providing coverage opinions and defending claims in such areas as bodily injury, property, life and disability, surety bonds and commercial liability. She also defends medical malpractice claims and professional discipline matters. She acts as counsel to small and medium-sized businesses, where she advises on employment and business related issues, and has specific experience in agricultural operations.