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South African Journal of Occupational Therapy
On-line version ISSN 2310-3833
Print version ISSN 0038-2337
S. Afr. j. occup. ther. vol.45 n.2 Pretoria Aug. 2015
Occupational therapy hand assessment practices: Cause for concern?
Susan de KlerkI; Helen BuchananII; Blanche PretoriusIII
IB OT (SU), DHT (UP), M OT (SU); Lecturer, Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University
IIB Sc OT (UCT), M Sc OT (UCT), PhD OT (UCT); Senior Lecturer, Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Health and Rehab Sciences, University of Cape Town
IIIDip OT (UP), PGDTE (UP), PGD PME (SU) BAHons (UNISA), MEd (SU); Part Time Lecturer, Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University
INTRODUCTION: Assessment is critical for measuring improvement, or lack thereof, and demonstrating the outcome of intervention. In response to the lack of research in this area, this study aimed to determine the assessment practices of occupational therapists working with clients with hand conditions
METHODS: A quantitative cross sectional survey design was used. A convenience sample of occupational therapists was recruited from five provinces. Respondents completed a questionnaire developed for the study that comprised demographic information, assessments used, frequency of use and factors influencing assessment choice. Data were analysed with Statistica version 11
RESULTS: Eighty-one respondents (n=114) completed questionnaires representing a 71% response rate. Goniometry (84.0%), manual muscle testing (76.5%) and testing for flexor tendon function (76.3%) were used most frequently. The most common reasons for not using assessments were lack of availability and unfamiliarity
CONCLUSION: It is of concern that the assessment practices of participants in this study focussed primarily on the assessment of body function and structure with few therapists using activity and participation measures. This could seriously limit the evidence needed to verify the outcomes achieved through occupational therapy intervention in the treatment of hand conditions.
Key words: hand assessment, occupational therapy, body structure and function, activity, participation
Assessment is an integral part of the occupational therapy process and a necessity for evidence based practice1. Without appropriate measurement, therapists cannot provide evidence for interventions offered. Information obtained through standardised assessment provides reliable data that can assist therapists in justifying occupational therapy services2. Dunn3 suggested two primary reasons for using assessment in practice. Firstly, assessment provides evidence of the difficulties a client is experiencing in order to plan effective intervention. Secondly, appropriate assessment enables client-cen-teredness through involving the individual in making decisions about the most suitable intervention. Therapists need to use appropriate and relevant assessments and document them clearly so that client progress can be monitored to ensure they are receiving the best possible intervention. Occupational therapy assessments may be non-standardised (or informal) or standardised; each being used for different reasons. An assessment tool is standardised if validity, reliability, sensitivity and clinical utility have been established4. In practice situations in which standardised assessments are inappropriate or not available, informal (non-standardised) assessments, such as skilled observations or interviews, may be used3. Dunn3 advocated measuring the outcome of therapy in order to "know the end result and how [the intervention] went"3:24. The impact of services can therefore be determined if outcome measures are routinely used. Outcome measures are in effect standardised assessments that are able to identify changes that occur as a result of the intervention 5.
Failing to use appropriate assessment tools in daily practice has far-reaching implications. In environments that are increasingly driven by legislation, such as those in which occupational therapists practice in South Africa, there is an increased mandate to produce evidence of the interventions provided5. If therapists do not assess, they will not be able to produce evidence of the effects of the interventions offered which poses a threat to funding of services. This claim is supported in the Western Cape Department of Health Healthcare 2030 plan6 that states that there will be an increased move towards outcome based intervention with priority being given to interventions aimed at desirable outcomes. At the time of conducting this study, no research to determine the assessment practices of occupational therapists working with hand conditions within South Africa had been published. Assessment practices are understood to encompass the type of assessment used, the frequency of use and the reasons for non-use within a particular area of practice. This study therefore set out to provide an updated account of these practices by South African occupational therapists working with clients with hand conditions.
A client-centred approach should be applied in assessment to obtain a "careful understanding" of the individual before starting occupational therapy intervention7:253. This type of approach is more likely to ensure that the client is engaged in the occupational therapy process which will encourage greater client cooperation8. In a client-centred approach, the client and therapist work together to establish the occupational performance problems and to set goals for the required intervention. Assessment has to take place for this to be possible. Standardised assessment provides quantitative information, useful for tracking the client's progress and demonstrating the outcome of therapy1. However, research studies have shown that standardised assessments are often not used routinely in practice. In a rheumatology study conducted in the United Kingdom the authors found that standardised assessments were hardly used by occupational therapists (n = 114), with 14% using them to identify difficulties in activities of daily living (ADLs) and 8% to evaluate the effect of interventions addressing ADL9. Reasons for non-use were 'lack of knowledge about availability' and 'lack of appropriate training'9.
Extensive research into assessment practices has been done in Australia, Ireland, England, the United States of America and Canada4,9-17. These studies investigated general assessment use, and included health care workers in addition to occupational therapists. All the studies concluded that there was a lack of familiarity and limited use of appropriate assessment tools. In addition, although participants acknowledged the importance of standardised assessments, they continued to rely on subjective assessments.
What should be assessed?
The introduction of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)18 changed the way in which assessments are approached19. As the ICF provides a framework for understanding the impact of the health condition on functioning and disability, it is no longer acceptable to focus purely on health outcomes following surgical, medical or therapeutic interventions. In MacDermid's19 opinion, hand therapists typically focus on changes in physical impairments - the body function and body structure components of the ICF framework - as the primary measures of outcome. Strong arguments have been made for assessment information that reflects clients' abilities to perform their occupations in addition to symptoms (body function and structure)20. Inclusion of such tests enables decisions to be made about interventions that address activity and participation, and allows therapists to track client progress and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention provided20. However, this is not necessarily applied in research or practice. For example, a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCT's) of interventions for hand injuries showed that few studies used instruments measuring both activity and participation21. A more recent systematic review of hand assessments identified 15 tools that assess activity and participation but most had poor clinimetric properties, including validity, reliability and responsiveness22. Tools need to have good clinimetric properties in order to be able to evaluate change and, in some instances, to predict outcomes of therapy20. To investigate whether additional information on hand assessment tools had been published since Schoneveld et al's22 systematic review, the first author conducted a literature search to identify upper limb assessment tools for use with injuries to a nerve or tendon, and for upper limb fractures. Such tools are in demand in South Africa as muscle, bone and peripheral nerves are among the most prominent structures injured and/or affected in hand conditions. Twenty-one articles19,20,22-40 reporting 11 tools were identified. The tools were framed within the ICF (see Table I).
Selection criteria for assessment tools
It is critical that assessment tools with strong clinimetric properties are used so that the assessment findings can be used to evaluate the outcome of therapy services. This requires therapists to evaluate the properties of a tool to reach a decision about its suitability for the context and purpose. Law1 developed an algorithm to aid therapists in evaluating specific assessment tools. This process involves firstly establishing its clinical utility, then determining whether it is standardised or not, and lastly, evaluating the purpose of the tool. Jerosch-Herold49 similarly advocated for considering pragmatic factors, including the portability of the test, its cost, acceptability and ease of use, as well as the clinimetric properties of validity, reliability and responsiveness. She devised a structured checklist to assist researchers and clinicians in evaluating the clinimetric properties required in a robust outcome measure in order to choose the most appropriate tool49.
This literature review has shown that while suitable tools for hand assessment are available, their usage by occupational therapists in developed countries is low. As no research about hand assessment practices in developing contexts was found, the objectives of this study were to identify the hand assessment tools used by South African occupational therapists, their frequency of use, and reasons for non-use.
Study design
A quantitative cross sectional survey design was employed.
Population and sampling
The population targeted all occupational therapists in South Africa involved in treating people with hand injuries between March and May 2013. As there was no comprehensive list of these therapists available, membership information was obtained from the South African Society of Hand Therapists (SASHT) and the Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa (OTASA). The SASHT had 131 occupational therapist members from five provinces in 2012 and the OTASA had a list of 243 therapists who indicated hand therapy as a specialisation in 20 1 350,51. There was some duplication as SASHT members may also have been OTASA members. In addition, there were also likely to be therapists practising within this field who were not members of either association. As a result, there was uncertainty as to the exact number in the population. Convenience sampling was therefore used to recruit as many therapists as possible. To be included, respondents had to be qualified occupational therapists, registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, and working with hand conditions at the time of the study. Therapists attending continuing professional development (CPD) courses (mostly related to the field of hand therapy) were approached and presented with the questionnaire at the CPD opportunity. Students enrolled in post graduate studies specialising in hand conditions from the University of Pretoria were also approached with the consent of the course convenor (n=114).
Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire developed for the study. The questionnaire comprised three sections similar to the questionnaire used by Stapleton and McBrearty in their investigation of standardised assessments in a sample of Irish occupational therapistsl7. The first section of the questionnaire contained demographic information so that a demographic profile of the respondents could be established. The second section contained a list of 44 assessment tools. Respondents indicated the frequency of using these tools on a five-point Likert scale, along with possible reasons for not using these tools frequently. The third section explored the possible factors impacting the frequency of using the measurement tool. The questionnaire included closed questions as they require less time to complete, are easy to analyse and provide specific information52. The researcher did however provide an option which enabled respondents to specify or add 'other' in sections two and three. The 'other' option, with space to add text, allowed respondents to add information on additional measurement tools (section two) or factors (section three) not included in the final questionnaire. In doing this, bias was reduced and content validity increased as respondents could add information that was relevant to them. The list of assessment tools was compiled from information in the literature review, feedback from the pilot testing of the questionnaire, and personal experience in the field of hand therapy.
Pilot testing
The questionnaire was piloted to check face validity and content validity. Three occupational therapists from different practice settings participated. Two respondents had more than 20 years of hand therapy experience in private and government practice settings, and one had more than 15 years' experience in upper limb assessment as part of work evaluations in private practice. Respondents completed the questionnaire after which telephonic interviews were conducted with two of the respondents and a face-to-face interview with one. Feedback from the pilot test was used to make minor amendments to the wording in the questionnaire. For example, names of specific tests (Landmark Test, Volumeter and Figure-of-8 Measurement) were added to the section on oedema measurement 53,54.
Data were collected over a three month period from March to May 2013. To recruit as many respondents over this period as possible, questionnaires were distributed to:
♦♦♦ Occupational therapists attending CPD courses presented by the SASHT in the Western Cape and Gauteng (these were the only two provinces where courses were held during the data collection period);
♦♦♦ Occupational therapists enrolled for the Postgraduate Diploma in Hand Therapy at the University of Pretoria;
♦♦♦ Attendees of a course offered by the Occupational Therapy in Occupational Health special interest group in Cape Town to include therapists assessing the hand as part of work assessment practices.
♦♦♦ SASHT members in three provinces where SASHT courses were not offered during the period of data collection (KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape) were invited to participate and asked to distribute the questionnaire to colleagues treating clients with upper limb conditions in private practice and government settings.
Questionnaires were accompanied by an information leaflet and consent form. The signed consent form was returned with the completed questionnaire.
Data management and analysis
Data were entered into Microsoft Excel and checked for accuracy. Analyses were performed in Statistica (ver 11 - 2013), with the assistance of a statistician. As there were some cells with few responses, categories in section two of the questionnaire were collapsed from five to three for the purpose of analysis. The new categories were 'not used at all' (unchanged), 'used infrequently' ('seldom' and 'sometimes' combined) and 'used frequently' ('frequently' and 'very frequently' combined). As continuous data were not normally distributed, medians and ranges were calculated. Frequencies and proportions were calculated for categorical variables.
Permission to conduct the research was obtained through the Health Research Ethics Committee of Stellenbosch University (ethics reference number: SI3/02/029). Confidentiality and anonymity were maintained throughout the research process. The researcher kept the information in a secure place to which no other person had access. A code was assigned to each participant on the questionnaire to ensure that respondents' names were not on the questionnaire.
Of ll4 therapists who were approached to participate, 8l completed and returned questionnaires, representing a response rate of 71%. All questionnaires were included in the analysis and missing data are reported per question. Missing data ranged between 0 and ll for each question. Although there were missing data in each section of the questionnaire, all questionnaires were included in the analysis. Frequencies were calculated for each assessment included in the questionnaire, irrespective of the number of responses for that particular assessment.
Demographic and practice profile
Respondents' demographic characteristics are shown in Table II. The median for experience in the field of hand therapy was 2.5 years. Most participants worked in private practice settings (60.5%) and qualified at Stellenbosch University (28.4%). Few had post graduate qualifications (Diploma or Master's degree) in hand therapy (l8.5%). Respondents represented five provinces within South Africa.
The specific diagnoses treated regularly or areas of day-to-day practice are shown in Figure 1. The diagnoses that were seen most commonly were nerve injuries (90.1%), fractures (88.8%) and tendon injuries (85.1%).
Choice of assessments and frequency of use
Assessment tools were categorised into two groups based on whether they measured 'body function and structure' (Figure II) or 'activity and participation' (Figure III). Decisions about categorising each tool were based on published articles that investigated hand assessment tools framed within the ICF19,20,22,55-57. The most popular assessment tools for assessing aspects of body function and structure (Figure II) were goniometr41(84.0%), manual muscle testing24(76.5%) and testing for flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) and superficialis (FDS) function 58(76.3%).
For activity and participation, a relatively high percentage of respondents used the Disability of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH)45questionnaire infrequently (40.0%) or not at all (36.3%). (see Figure III).
Sixteen of the measures of activity and participation were not used at all by 50 or more respondents (see Figure III). The highest percentage of non-use included the Hand Assessment Tool (HAT)59(95.0%), Jebsen - Taylor Test of Hand Function44 (92.4%), Short Form-12 Physical Score60(98.6%) and Short Form-3646(97.2%).
Reasons for non-use
Reasons for not using assessments are presented in Table III on page 47. The most common reasons for non-use were lack of availability in the practice area and lack of familiarity with the assessment tool. The 'not applicable' responses indicate the number of respondents who used the assessment tool frequently and therefore did not have to provide a reason for non-use. Although respondents could provide more than one reason for non-use, no-one did.
The first objective of this study was to identify the frequency of use of hand assessment tools by occupational therapists. In order to address this objective it is important to consider the conditions that were seen most frequently as specific assessments are indicated for particular conditions. Most time was spent treating nerve injuries (90.1%), fractures (88.8%) and tendon injuries (85.1%). It was therefore expected that aspects of body function and structure as well as activity and participation would be assessed as indicated in the literature. According to MacDermid23, therapists working with clients with tendon or nerve injury should report outcomes related to activity and participation in addition to range of motion and muscle strength. Assessment of range of motion (goniometry) and strength (manual muscle testing and/or dynamometry) were used frequently by respondents in this study. However, additional assessment, such as the Michigan Hand Questionnaire67, DASH45or Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function test44, is required to quantify the functional implications of these conditions20,22,23,29,30. The findings from this study, however, showed that assessments addressing activity and participation were used infrequently or not at all.
It would be expected that assessing clients with nerve injury would require measurement tools to assess range of motion, strength, sensibility (namely Semmes Weinstein monofilaments and/or traditional threshold tests) and tactile discrimination (for example, two-point discrimination, Shape Texture Identification Test (STI Test), Moberg Pick Up Test, Nine Hole Peg Test)19,23,2932. However, the respondents in this study used these assessments infrequently or not at all. It is also clear from the literature that sensibility assessment should be graded as recovery progresses and should include threshold testing as well as functional performance tests31,32. However, assessment of light touch was used frequently (71.3%) in this study. The test for light touch is a sensation threshold test that is used early in the assessment of clients with peripheral nerve injuries68. As the nerve recovers and sensation improves in the predicted pattern of recovery, additional testing is required68.
In the present study, threshold tests (which are measures of body function and structure) were used frequently, but tests measuring activity and participation, particularly functional sensation testing such as the Moberg Pick Up Test33,34and the Nine Hole Peg Test43, were used either infrequently or not at all31,32. This was surprising considering that the Moberg Pick Up Test33,34can be constructed easily and is relevant in a variety of contexts32.
The Tests for FDS (76.3%) and FDP function58(76.3%), Test for intrinsic tightness69(68.4%), and Dynamometry42(63.0%) were also used frequently by the study respondents. As these tests are indicated for use with tendon injuries to assess body function and structure, either to make or confirm a diagnosis or track patient progress, it was expected that respondents would use these tests frequently23,70. It is however concerning that additional testing such as the Michigan Hand Questionnaire67that was found responsive to report on activity and participation outcomes in tendon injuries, were used infrequently or not at all22,23.
Measurement of the effects of an upper limb fracture should include a combination of assessments of body function and structure (range of motion and strength) and activity and participation (using self-report questionnaires such as the DASH45or Short Form-3646)37,40. Some respondents used the DASH45with some frequency, but other measures of activity and participation indicated for this diagnostic group, such as the Short Form-3646, was used infrequently or not at all.
Although the assessment tools that were used frequently in this study are supported by the literature with regard to the diagnostic groupings seen by the respondents in their clinical practice, the lack of tools measuring activity and participation is not in line with recommendations in the literature and is therefore a cause for concern20,22,23,56,57. These recommendations have been supported by Law1 who stated that the additional tests are needed to evaluate the impact on occupational performance8,23. The researcher expected to find frequent use of additional tests such as the DASH45, The Michigan Hand Questionnaire67 or the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test44in conjunction with measurements of range of motion or muscle strength; however this was not the case.
The second objective of this study was to identify the reasons for non or infrequent use of assessment tools. The four tools that were least used or not used at all were assessments of activity and participation, namely the Hand Assessment tool (HAT)59, Jebsen - Taylor Test of Hand Function44, SF-12 Physical Score60and Short Form-3646. Other tests of activity and participation that were not used at all were the Smith Hand Function Evaluation47(68.1%), the Sollerman Test of Hand Function35(89.0%), the Nine Hole Peg Test43(78.9%) and the Moberg Pick Up Test33,34(85.7%). The study showed that although these tests have standardised procedures, they were not used frequently by the study respondents mostly due to lack of familiarity or unavailability. This supports the findings of similar studies conducted abroad12,16,17. The current research did not consider therapists' attitudes towards using appropriate assessment tools for hand conditions. Therefore non-use is not necessarily a reflection of their assessment practices but may indicate problems with the availability of these tools in clinical practice, or training offered in the use of these tools at undergraduate or postgraduate level. As these aspects were not investigated in this study, further conclusions cannot be drawn.
It is however a cause for concern that most respondents primarily used tests of body function and structure. Discriminative measurement tools were used frequently for nerve injuries, tendon injuries and fractures of the upper limb; these are also used by hand surgeons and other health professionals which suggest possible duplication in the assessments conducted with clients. The lack of emphasis on assessments of activity and participation by occupational therapists, is worrying considering that this is a fundamental goal of occupational therapy2,7,8.
Strengths and limitations
The use of convenience sampling may have skewed the results as respondents were mostly therapists attending continued professional development workshops or enrolled for a postgraduate diploma in hand therapy, and may have been more unlikely to be familiar with the assessment tools in the questionnaire. Therapists who did not attend these workshops may have been more experienced in the field of hand therapy and/or with the assessment tools in question which would have yielded different results. The convenience nature of the sample suggests that the results cannot be generalised to the population of occupational therapists treating hand conditions in South Africa. Furthermore, the representativeness of this sample is uncertain as many of the respondents had very little hand therapy experience, qualified from one university, were largely from private practice settings and represented only five provinces. Therefore caution should be exercised in generalising the results to all South African occupational therapists working in this field.
This study set out to identify the assessments used in everyday practice by occupational therapists working with clients with hand injuries according to the domains of the ICF. Of the 44 measurement tools included in the questionnaire, those reporting body function and structure were used most frequently. Respondents were not using assessments of activity and participation in their daily practice supporting previous international studies that showed that standardised assessments of activity and participation are not used in routine practice. The implications for these findings within the South African context are far-reaching in that occupational therapists should be gathering evidence for the interventions provided in all practice settings. This evidence should encompass the effect of intervention on activity and participation of hand injured clients. Therefore, therapists must make use of standardised assessments that can provide information on activity and participation in order to gather evidence about the outcomes of interventions. The study findings suggests that further opportunities should be created within CPD programmes and postgraduate education to strengthen occupational therapy hand assessment practices. More emphasis should be placed on educating undergraduate students in the use of standardised assessments particularly those measuring activity and participation. Further research should address therapists' attitudes regarding the use of appropriate tools, and identify appropriate tools for measuring aspects of activity and participation in the South African context.
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55. Kjeken I, Dagfinrud H, Slatkowsky-Christensen B, Mowinckel P, Uhlig T, Kvien TK, et al. Activity limitations and participation restrictions in women with hand osteoarthritis: patients' descriptions and associations between dimensions of functioning. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2005 Nov; 64(11): 1633-1638. [ Links ]
56. Valdes K, MacDermid J, Algar L, Connors B, Cyr L, Dickmann S, et al. Hand Therapists use of Patient Report Outcome (PRO) in Practice: A Survey Study. Journal of Hand Therapy. 2014 doi: 10.1016/j.jht.2014.07.001. [ Links ]
57. MacDermid JC. Patient-Reported Outcomes: State-of-the-Art Hand Surgery and Future Applications. Hand Clinic, 2014 30(3): 293-304. [ Links ]
58. Strickland JW, Glogovac S. Digital function following flexor tendon repair in zone II: a comparison of immobilization and controlled passive motion techniques. Journal of Hand Surgery, 1980; 5(6): 537-543. [ Links ]
59. Naidu SH, Panchik D, Chinchilli VM. Development and validation of the hand assessment tool. Journal of Hand Therapy, 2009; 22(3): 250-257. [ Links ]
60. Ware JE, Kosinski M, Keller SD. SF-12: How to score the SF-12 physical and mental health summary scales. Health Institute: New England Medical Center, 1995. [ Links ]
61. Bryden P, Roy E. A new method of administering the Grooved Pegboard Test: performance as a function of handedness and sex. Brain Cognition, 2005; 58(3): 258-268. [ Links ]
62. Heyde GC. MODAPTS plus. Heyde Dynamics Pty. by arrangement with the Australian Association for Predetermined Time Standards & Research; 1983. [ Links ]
63. Tiffin J, Asher EJ. The Purdue Pegboard: norms and studies of reliability and validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1948; 32(3): 234. [ Links ]
64. Schult M, Söderback I, Jacobs K. Swedish use and validation of Valpar work samples for patients with musculoskeletal neck and shoulder pain. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, 1995; 5(3): 223-233. [ Links ]
65. Law M, Baptiste S, McColl M, Opzoomer A, Polatajko H, Pollock N. The Canadian occupational performance measure: an outcome measure for occupational therapy. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 1990; 57(2): 82-87. [ Links ]
66. Collin C, Wade D, Davies S, Horne V The Barthel ADL Index: a reliability study. Disability & Rehabilitation, 1988; 10(2): 61-63. [ Links ]
67. Chung KC, Pillsbury MS, Walters MR, Hayward RA. Reliability and validity testing of the Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire. Journal of Hand Surgery, 1998; 23(4): 575-587. [ Links ]
68. Stanley BG, Tribuzi SM. Concepts in hand rehabilitation. Ist ed. Philadelphia: F A.Davis Company; 1992. [ Links ]
69. Brandsma JW, Schreuders TA, Birke JA, Piefer A, Oostendorp R. Manual muscle strength testing: intraobserver and interobserver reliabilities for the intrinsic muscles of the hand. Journal of Hand therapy, 1995; 8(3): 185-190. [ Links ]
70. Marx RG, Bombardier C, Wright JG. What do we know about the reliability and validity of physical examination tests used to examine the upper extremity? Journal of Hand Surgery, 1999; 24(1): 185-193. [ Links ]
Susan de Klerk
Division of Occupational Therapy
Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
Stellenbosch University


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Hey Guys – you may have seen the new inFAMOUS 2 cover on gameinformer.com.
I'm very excited to officially announce that Cole MacGrath will be returning exclusively to the PS3. This issue will give the very first details of the game and how Sucker Punch has improved every aspect of it. You'll learn about the new city, new powers and new gameplay. It should be hitting news stands in the next week.
Look for more inFAMOUS 2 news at E3.

subset: commoncrawl


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void *sqlite3_wal_hook( sqlite3*, int(*)(void *,sqlite3*,const char*,int), void* );
The sqlite3_wal_hook() function is used to register a callback that is invoked each time data is committed to a database in wal mode.
The callback is invoked by SQLite after the commit has taken place and the associated write-lock on the database released, so the implementation may read, write or checkpoint the database as required.
The first parameter passed to the callback function when it is invoked is a copy of the third parameter passed to sqlite3_wal_hook() when registering the callback. The second is a copy of the database handle. The third parameter is the name of the database that was written to - either "main" or the name of an ATTACH-ed database. The fourth parameter is the number of pages currently in the write-ahead log file, including those that were just committed.
The callback function should normally return SQLITE_OK. If an error code is returned, that error will propagate back up through the SQLite code base to cause the statement that provoked the callback to report an error, though the commit will have still occurred. If the callback returns SQLITE_ROW or SQLITE_DONE, or if it returns a value that does not correspond to any valid SQLite error code, the results are undefined.
A single database handle may have at most a single write-ahead log callback registered at one time. Calling sqlite3_wal_hook() replaces any previously registered write-ahead log callback. The return value is a copy of the third parameter from the previous call, if any, or 0. Note that the sqlite3_wal_autocheckpoint() interface and the wal_autocheckpoint pragma both invoke sqlite3_wal_hook() and will overwrite any prior sqlite3_wal_hook() settings.


text:
Quick Efficient Reliable
30 days service guarantee
Professional plumber
Genuine parts and service rate
Howrah | Delhi | Kolkata | Asansol | Bengaluru | Gurgaon | Pune | Ghaziabad | Faridabad | Patna | Noida | Mumbai | Thane | Navi Mumbai | Allahabad | Jaipur | Jodpur | Udaipur | Ajmer | Gaya | Chennai | Ahmedabad | Surat | Vadodara | Hyderabad | Chandigarh | Coimbatore | Ernakulam | Vizag | Vijaywada | Maysor | Indore | Bhopal | Kanpur | Nashik | Nagpur | Agra | Varanasi | Lucknow | Raipur | Ranchi | Amritsar | Ludhiana |Gwalior | Bhubaneswar | Cuttack
It happens quietly and swiftly when you find plumbing or any leakage issue. It takes a few hours for this minor issue to take the shape of the problem. That can hamper the daily routine of a house. This makes you compromise with your schedule and invest time in finding a reliable plumber. Even if you finally find one, you will be concerned with the reasonable rate and the plumber's expertise.
Team Domov, has worked out for you. We have designed a network of best professionals for all your plumbing services requirement. All you have to do is to make a phone call or book your appointment through our website. We will assign the best plumber for your plumbing related issue. Keeping our customer's satisfaction our priority we make sure to deliver to you hassle-free and efficient plumbing services at a reasonable rate.
The first question is, who is the best plumber near me? And when we call a local plumber we are never certain about his expertise in the job. Yet the urgency of our schedule lures us to give the job to the local plumber. As a result, we remain skeptical about how well the plumber will do the given job and he is charging us a reasonable rate for the job.
But, when you call a professional all of these queries will be eliminated. And you will receive the best plumbing services that are not only hassle-free but quick, efficient and reliable.
Domov Services promises to provide you with the best professional for your plumbing work. These professionals are highly experienced and certified by us. The plumber will be equipped with all the tools that could be needed for plumbing work. On-time service delivery, transparent prices, service warranty and highly experienced professional makes Domov Services the best in class plumbing services provider in your city. Our customer-centric approach, competence and high levels of professional integrity make us your ideal choice for all plumbing related works.
Repair and fixes– From repairing a dripping tap to fixing pressure of the pipeline. All minor to major plumbing services will be handled by our expert plumber. Book a plumber repair service now!
Installation– Fitting a tap, a shower, a skin, a toilet or a water tank. You need not worry, we have got you covered. Our experts can take care of all your plumbing installation services requirements. We provide you with the best plumbers near you at a reasonable rate.
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Plumber for a day– This includes 8 hours of plumbing services.
You can hire us in two easy steps, by booking through our website or by just calling or texting us on Whatsapp.
A confirmation call from Team Domov.
The final call from assigned plumber to discuss the services in detail.
Timely visit with the best equipment.
Pay via Cash or Paytm.


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If you or a previous property owner has left a bothersome stump around, you don't have to waste your time or your back digging it out. Smart Tree Service's stump grinding services in Banks, OR are available to take care of the problem. No matter how large the stump, we can handle it. Call or contact us today to arrange for a free estimate.
A stump grinder utilizes a large rotating blade to chew away a stump to well below the ground level. By working back and forth over the surface of the stump for 15 minutes-2 hours (depending on the size of the grinder and the stump) and backfilling the area with dirt, you won't even know there was a stump there. The remaining root structure is left to decompose over time. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with Smart Tree Service company.
In some cases (based on issues of access for our equipment or customer wishes), it will be necessary to dig out a stump rather than to grind it down. This will usually involve some combination of hand tools and heavy equipment. After this, the stump is cut up and disposed of per our agreement with the homeowner.
How do you know you need removal rather than stump grinding? It may be a personal preference on your part, you may intend to plant a garden or another large tree in the space where the tree was and can't have roots getting in the way, or there may be another reason that we will explain when we are providing a quote. In most cases, stump grinding will be perfectly fine, but honestly it's probably not a question you should spend too much time thinking about – let us do that for you (it's part of the deal). Let's talk about our stump tree removal services!
Read below for some of the questions many of our clients have regarding banks stump grinding services.
In the majority of cases, it is faster and cheaper to grind a stump down than to remove it completely. In grinding, the stump is taken down below ground level so you won't know it's there. Now, if you need to plant a garden where your stump used to be, then removal may be your only way forward.
Unless you are planning to dig deeply into the ground where a stump used to be, then no, it is not bad to leave a stump in the ground. Grinding the stump ensures that it is invisible underneath the surface, and can decompose without anyone knowing.
Yes, you can. It will take a day or two of monitoring and may still require some digging to get oxygen to the roots, but if you use a flammable substance like diesel or kerosene (avoid gasoline) and keep the fire going, then you will be able to break down the mass of the stump with fire and remove the ashes. Be sure to have lots of water on hand, or a charged fire extinguisher. For large stumps or those who want the job done quickly, stump grinding is a great alternative.
Some stumps can send up new tree sprouts from their base after they have been cut. Removal or grinding will in most cases prevent this regrowth.
Anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the size of the stump, its hardness, and the equipment available.
Grinding a stump is a time-effective way to take care of stumps of all sizes, provided that properly-sized equipment can be brought into the space. There really is no limit to the maximum size of a stump that can be ground.
Much of the time, tree roots left over from a ground stump won't cause a problem. Issues may arise, however, if
There are two major instances in which stump grinding would not be the method of choice. The first is where appropriate stump grinding equipment cannot be brought to the site. The second is where grinding will not remove enough of the stump deeply enough for the future plans for the site. In our experience, both of these situations are rare.


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As Islam takes on a more visible public profile in Turkey, academia is becoming a battleground over the theory of evolution. Scholars who espouse creationist ideas are becoming more assertive in challenging Darwinism.
The recent push by those who see a divine role in human evolution has alarmed Darwin's adherents. In May, hundreds of academics and students angrily protested against what was billed as Turkey's first academic conference on creationist ideas, held at Istanbul's Marmara University.
"Bringing the scientific theory of evolution together with creationism undermines the foundations of science," asserted Alaeddin Şenel, a retired professor of anthropology, in remarks to protestors outside the May 16-17 symposium. "Creationism is not supported by scientific data and doesn't have any place in education at any level."
The two-day conference on intelligent design was titled, "Why Does Science Deny Inter-Species Evolution?" It brought together over a dozen academics from across the country who used the occasion to challenge some of Darwin's core concepts, in particular the theory of natural selection, which explains how apes developed into humans.
Many of the speakers highlighted what they claim are numerous deficiencies in the theory of evolution, supposed deficiencies that they say leave the door open to religious beliefs when teaching science. "The molecules and everything cannot randomly come together. … This theory disturbs me so much!" said geneticist Ibrahim Pirim of Izmir's Katip Celebi University, one of the keynote speakers at the conference. "These are not random things; a creator had to put all these things in order."
One Darwin defender characterized conference participants as stuck in the Dark Ages. "You cannot teach genetics, you cannot teach biology without evolution because there are no other laws," said Kerem Cankocak, an assistance professor of physics at Istanbul Technical University. "It's the same problem if we teach that the world is not turning, but the sun is turning around the earth."
A university student club organized the symposium, but, tellingly, Marmara University rector Hamza Kandur and Turkey's administrative authority for higher education, YOK, supported the event.
Critics believe that Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots, was the real organizational force behind the meeting. Earlier this year, in defense of provisions for classes on the Islamic prophet Mohammed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that "all children will be brought up as good Muslims."
Defenders of evolution have long complained that, during its decade-long rule, the (AKP) government has increasingly downplayed evolution theories in textbooks at the expense of creationist explanations. Officially, teachers are supposed to teach both concepts, but they are given great latitude in their classrooms.
The national Education and Science Workers' Union (Egitim Sen ) claims that some of its 125,000 teacher-members now face pressure from religious parents, school administrators and Turkey's Ministry of Education not to teach evolution. The union is warning that instruction of evolution theories is now under threat.
"The reason for having this symposium in a university is an attempt on their part to create a perception that being against evolution is supported and acknowledged by universities and the scientific world," charged Suat Bozkurt, director of Egitim Sen's Istanbul branch.
The ministry downplayed such claims, saying that Turkish public schools explore all ideas.
Cankocak, the physics professor, disputed official assertions, countering that many incoming university students are unfamiliar with evolutionary concepts. "My students did not learn evolution in high schools, so, therefore, in my university 90 out of 100 [students] don't believe or don't know evolution," he complained. "But it's worse in other universities."
Cankocak, who is also a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, argued that government support for creationism began after the 1980 military coup d'état, when Turkey's ruling generals vigorously encouraged Islamic beliefs as a counterweight to left-wing political ideas that enjoyed a wide following in Turkey at the time. Along with purging many teachers for liberal or leftist political sympathies, the policy introduced creationism into school textbooks and compulsory religious education.
Despite the frustrations among Turkey's academic community, many of the students who attended the creationist symposium welcomed it. "Our lecturers say everything starts with evolution, but there are many things you can't prove with evolution theory," asserted 20-year-old Fatma, a female medical student dressed according to Islamic tradition. "This symposium helps us to talk about it, and open us to other ideas."
"We can't just accept evolution opinions just because it's our lecturers' political views," added medical student Ayse Gül, another young conference attendee.
Assistant Professor Cankocak maintained that the face-off over evolution reflected a larger problem. "You cannot run a country without science," Cankocak said. "This [the AKP's stance on evolution] is the Middle Ages, and it's getting worse and worse."
Dorian Jones is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
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Trail sign can be interpreted in multiple ways. Post this sign next to your trail map or trailhead.
Standard: 01 Because regulatory, warning, and guide signs have a higher priority, acknowledgment signs shall only be installed where adequate spacing is available between the acknowledgment sign and other higher priority signs. Acknowledgment signs shall not be installed in a position where they would obscure the road users' view of other traffic control devices. 02 Acknowledgment signs shall not be installed at any of the following locations: On the front or back of, adjacent to, or around any other traffic control device, including traffic signs, highway traffic signals, and changeable message signs; On the front or back of, adjacent to, or around the supports or structures of other traffic control devices, or bridge piers; or At key decision points where a road user's attention is more appropriately focused on other traffic control devices, roadway geometry, or traffic conditions, including exit and entrance ramps, intersections, grade crossings, toll plazas, temporary traffic control zones, and areas of limited sight distance.


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Can you believe I am posting here? And, I am posting while most others are taking a break from blogging. I have been waiting forever to have a little time to post, sew, craft and it seems like after Christmas is my time.
I had jewelry orders up until Christmas Eve (although I promised to be finished the week before), so my time was not my own. It's a blessing - the business. I just miss the sewing and blogging and wood crafts, etc.
So, here is a quick and easy gift to give to friends and neighbors. I actually bought the soap last year at Target at the after Christmas sale and kept it up in my closet all year. My husband thought I was a little crazy (he should be used to my ideas by now), but it was awesome to pull them out, add tags, and deliver all in the matter of a few hours.
I hope that next year I will be making something, but as for this year, this soap came to my rescue.


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Now, those of you that know me (Shawn), know that I am not one for school. I am not against learning, I just dread the thought of sitting in a classroom bored out of my mind and my mind wandering. (I guess I do that anyways.)
You see, through high school all I wanted to do was my time and get out. I was bored. I did just enough to get A's, B's or C's and move on. I really didn't try in most of my classes with exception to Spanish or a couple of others. Needless to say, I didn't go to college (or collage as one highly educated person I know of writes.) I filled out the paperwork for a junior college, but couldn't get myself to turn them in.
Anyways, back to the subject – language school. We have been kicking around ideas on learning the language, which is Spanish for the Dominican Republic. We have thought about just moving there and hiring someone there to teach us, or for one of us to take some sort of classes there. We heard of other missionaries going to a language school in Costa Rica and in Mexico. So right now we are looking deeper into going, possibly the whole family, to language school.
Our friends, the Tunnicliffes, are heading down to Guadalajara this week and if they have the time will be checking out this particular school for themselves, which we just found out after already looking into it. Well, I just thought that was interesting.


text:
Short Privacy Policy
(let's be reasonable adults)
At www.keithfarrell.net, we believe that personal information should remain confidential, should only be collected for appropriate purposes, and should be processed only for these purposes and nothing else. We will behave ourselves with your data, and you should feel safe and confident that we will not abuse it. We are ethical people.
Whenever you give us your personal details for the purpose of communication, attendance, or a financial transaction, then you give us your consent to store and process this data for the appropriate purpose and also to meet our legal obligations.
And, because the law demands it of us, what follows is our in-depth privacy policy to satisfy the GDPR. It uses a lot of words to say what we have just summarised here.
Longer Privacy Policy
(all the small print)
This privacy policy sets out what personal information we collect during the course of business.
DPA: Data Protection Act 1998
GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation (2018)
We: www.keithfarrell.net, the website operated by Keith Farrell.
Collecting, storing, and processing your information
Payment details
We take payments in cash, any any digital payment will be taken through PayPal or another secure third-party processor. If you give us your card details to make a payment over the phone, then we will put the details straight into the secure third-party processor, and will not retain any paper or digital copies of these details.
Payment details would typically include your name and email address, and your card details only if you wish to pay over the telephone; the details we will store for our records as per our legal obligations for our annual accounting records.
The information we collect
For our legal obligations for providing annual accounts to HMRC, we must record the fact that any payments have occurred, along with the value of the payment and the method by which it was made; we do not store any payment details such as card numbers, we simply record that a payment of this value was made by this person in this fashion on this date for this reason.
We collect information about attendance at our sessions and events. For our insurance (and as per our health and safety policy) we must maintain a register of who has attended (or is in the process of attending) which sessions. We may pass on this information to our insurers in the event of a claim or investigation.
We collect information about purchases through our shop. We must be able to give or send the purchased items to the individual who made the purchase, and therefore we must collect the necessary details to enable this (name, delivery address, contact information). We may pass on this information to a courier or other delivery service in order to send your order to you.
We collect contact details about anyone who has expressed interest in our shop, our activities, or in any other fashion about our company. If you email us through the website, for example, then we will keep a note of your details, so that we can contact you at a later date with relevant information or updates.
Social media, apps, and third party services
If you contact us or make a transaction through a social media service or any other third party service, then we are only responsible for processing and storing your personal data that is provided to us by that service. You should refer to the privacy policy for that service for information about how they will treat your personal data.
We may collect information through a mobile app, desktop or laptop application, or any other piece of software, for the purpose of being able to respond to your communication or delivering the goods or services you request of us. Any third party software should have its own privacy policy, to which you should refer for further information about using that service.
Using the information we collect
We use the information that we collect to be able to deliver the goods and services that you purchase, to fulfil our end of these transactions. We also use your details to be able to respond to your enquiries and to be able to keep you up to date with news and information about what we are doing.
Storing the information we collect
We collect information securely through the website, although we may use paper forms from time to time. Any information collected on paper will be destroyed as soon as the information is digitised.
Any information we collect will be stored in our secure cloud services (typically Google Drive and/or Dropbox), to which only relevant employees in our company will have access.
Memberships: we will store your data for the duration of your membership with us, and for 7 years afterwards, at which point the data will be destroyed.
Transactions: we will store your data for 7 years, as per our legal obligations, at which point the data will be destroyed.
By attending any of our sessions, you give your consent to be filmed or have your photograph taken. Furthermore, you give your consent for us to use these items of media for any reasonable purpose, including advertising our organisation or promoting our activities or objectives. The photographer will retain the copyright of the media as per UK copyright law and will also have your consent to use any of the media he or she records, for any reasonable purpose.
If you would like to have a photo or video of you removed from any of our online or print media, please inform us in writing, and we will do our best to facilitate your wish.
Accessing and updating your information
At any time, you may contact us to find out what information we hold about you. If your information is incorrect, you have the right to update it and make it correct. At any time, you may invoke your right to be forgotten, in which case we will remove any personal details we hold for you, other than details to do with financial transactions as mandated by law and attendance at sessions as mandated by our insurance provider.
You may access and update your personal details, and have them removed, free of charge; we are not allowed to levy a fee for reasonable request, although we are allowed to levy a fee for requests that are unreasonable, excessive, and/or repetitive.
Sharing your information
Quite simply, we will not share your information with any third party unrelated to the transaction of goods or service that you make with us, unless demanded to do so by a British court of law, or unless you give us your permission to share your personal information with another person or company.
Cookies on our website
Our website uses cookies so that you can utilise the shop part of our website. Our website also collects simple data about visits so that we know how many times a particular page has been visited; it may also collect information about where your IP address is located in the world, so that we have know very vaguely where our visitors are coming from; however, at no time do we access your computer (quite simply, we can't do that, nor do we have any interest in doing so).
If you would like to avoid having cookies for our website in your browser, please use your browser's privacy settings to achieve this, but also please be aware that it may make it impossible for you to use parts of our website (such as our shop).
Your consent
By providing your personal information, you consent to our collection, processing, and storage of this information as per this privacy policy.
You also give your consent to any collection, processing, and storage of data for circumstances not covered by this privacy policy if you approach us in a fashion that we cannot expect at the time of writing or with a request or transaction proposal what cannot be predicted at the time of writing – in other words, if you want to talk to us, or if you want us to do a thing for you, then we need to be able to talk to you or to do the thing for you accordingly, with your permission.


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Afghanistan War Logs: IED Attacks Map
The Guardian newspaper have created another informative Google Map from the WikiLeaks War Logs from Afghanistan. The Guardian's IED Attacks Map shows the location of 16,000 improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan over 5 years. The improvised explosive device (IED) is the Taliban's weapon of choice.
The map includes an animated timeline. If you press play at the bottom of the map you can watch the data being animated on the map from 2004 to 2009. It is even possible to view what data you wish to view on the map whilst it is being animated. The map includes markers for civilians, coalition troops, Afghan troops and others. You can select to view any combination of the map markers.
On Sunday The Guardian released the Afghanistan: The War Logs Map. The map geotags a selection of 300 of the key intelligence reports from the War Logs.


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Our extensive range of window treatments is meticulously crafted to merge form with function, ensuring that every living room not only looks great but feels inviting and comfortable. From bold colors to calming neutrals, draperies, curtain panels and accessories let you create gorgeous style that elevates a room instantly.
Whether you're looking to enhance your home's decor with sheer curtains or to control a room's light with blackout curtains, all draperies from Budget Blinds of Babylon provide a stunning array of options. With a focus on quality, our shades and draperies offer unparalleled control over light, allowing you to set the perfect style for any occasion. Explore our world of drapery and other window treatment options and prepare to be inspired.


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Pixar's trusty "Cars 3" didn't necessarily roar to the top of the box office charts, but it did just enough to bump "Wonder Woman" into second place. This was the lowest opening weekend for the franchise, but with a lack of major competition until "Despicable Me 3," it should do well for a couple of weeks.
"Wonder Woman" fell to second place in its third weekend in theaters, but it's still doing the heavy lifting for the otherwise lackluster summer box office.
While many worn-out franchises and franchise hopefuls continue to struggle to find a significant North American audience, smaller films such as the Tupac biopic "All Eyez on Me" and the shark thriller "47 Meters Down" were able to break through the clutter and make a splash this weekend.
As expected, the third installment in Disney and Pixar's $1 billion "Cars" franchise easily took the top spot, but its estimated $53.5 million in earnings told a more complicated tale.
"Cars 3" had the worst opening in the series' history – "Cars" opened to $60.1 million and "Cars 2" to $66.1 million – and it was one of the lowest debut totals for the Pixar brand.
It was also a disappointment compared with the top films over this weekend in 2015 and 2016, noted comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
A year ago, Pixar's "Finding Dory" debuted with $135.1 million. In 2015, Jurassic World" raked in $106.6 million in its second weekend.
"That kind of tells you the state of the industry," Dergarabedian said.
The G-rated "Cars 3" got an "A" CinemaScore and generally positive reviews, but it will have to contend with "Despicable Me 3" which opens in two weeks.
"Wonder Woman" was knocked down to second place with $40.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $274.6 million, while holdover "The Mummy" slid to fourth place in weekend two with $13.9 million.
"It's been a challenging summer. I always say it comes down to product. Are the movies grabbing people?" Dergarabedian said. "Before 'Wonder Woman' we were about 9 percent behind last summer. We're now at about even, but the industry would like to see better than even."
Amid the doldrums, lower-profile films were able to make a mark. The longtime-coming Tupac biopic "All Eyez on Me" earned $27.1 million to take third place on the charts.
Despite largely negative reviews, audiences gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore. Lionsgate's Codeblack division marketed the pic, which cost Morgan Creek Productions around $40 million to produce. It opened to coincide with what would have been the late rapper's 46th birthday on June 16.
"It's always nice to exceed expectations," said David Spitz, the president of theatrical distribution for Lionsgate.
The Mandy Moore shark thriller "47 Meters Down" also exceeded low expectations, earning $11.5 million for a fifth place start. A "C" CinemaScore, however, could mean the pic is dead in the water going forward.
The raunchy R-rated comedy "Rough Night" is also facing some rough waters ahead with its ghastly "C+" CinemaScore. The film, about a bachelorette party weekend gone wrong, starring Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, and Jillian Bell, took in a paltry $8.1 million against a $20 million production budget.
"Rough Night" opened in seventh place, behind "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," which brought in $8.5 million. The fifth "Pirates" film has earned $150.1 million domestically and $500 million internationally.
Next week, another fifth installment – "Transformers: The Last Knight" – opens. Dergarabedian expects it follow suit with most of the summer's franchises and earn the bulk of its money abroad.
"Sometimes the bigger and better box office stories are not at No. 1," Dergarabedian said. "'All Eyez on Me' and '47 Meters Down' are the kind of movies people are looking for. It bodes well for 'Baby Driver' and 'Atomic Blonde.'"
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Cars 3," $53.5 million ($21.3 million international).
2."Wonder Woman," $40.8 million ($39.5 million international).
3."All Eyez on Me," $27.1 million ($3.1 million international).
4."The Mummy," $13.9 million ($53 million international).
5."47 Meters Down," $11.5 million.
6."Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," $8.5 million ($18.8 million international).
7."Rough Night," $8.1 million ($4.2 million international).
8."Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie," $7.4 million ($1.2 million international).
9."Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," $5 million ($1.2 million international).
10."It Comes At Night," $2.6 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
- "The Mummy," $53 million.
- "Wonder Woman," $39.5 million.
- "Alien: Covenant," $30.5 million.
- "Cars 3," $21.3 million.
- "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," $18.8 million.
- "Baywatch," $13.2 million.
- "Despicable Me 3," $10 million.
- "Rough Night," $4.2 million.
- "A Day," $4 million.
- "Dangal," $3.1 million.


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The Last Explainer Video You Will Ever Need on Cyberbullying
Below is another great video from my favorite explainer, This one addresses cyberbullying and he does a great job encouraging students to be upstanders and to call out bullies.
Application in the Classroom
Show this to your students and ask what the video leaves out. Have your students create a "CommonCraft"-like video of their own. It's pretty easy and they can (should) do it in groups.Real World Application
Have them posted online where others can benefit from their message.
Use Social Media for Good, Not Evil
Next, promote your students' blogs via Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Don't be shy about asking your social media connections to take a look and leave a constructive comment or two. of how I did this with my students a few years back (topic: weather). If those videos don't load try this .Try it and let me know how it goes in the comments below.


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Etsy feltie Machine Embroidery File
Here is an estimate on the sizes we offer in Etsy feltie Machine Embroidery File in multiple sizes some may be taller or wider depending on the design.
feltie-1.5-1.75" large (L)2.0-2.25" the "O" size -3" "x"size -3.90"
We at YTDesigns.com include all pictured options for your purchase.
An embroidery machine is necessary to use this product. It is wise to note this is NOT a pre-made tangible item.
Consequently, to utilize this design an embroidery machine as well as a way to transfer the design from your computer to machine will be necessary.
It is our pleasure to include the most common formats of this in your download: HUS, JEF, PES, VIP, XXX, DST,VP3. EXP.
Due to the digital nature of this we can not offer refunds.
All designs are copyright YT Designs for use by the purchaser.
Copying, trading, sharing or re- selling YT Designs files is strictly prohibited, however you are welcome to use the tangible items you complete from YT Designs in your own small business.
Another feature we include along with a single stitch out, is multiples-to-a-hoop with threads sorted in both 4×4 and 5×7 hoops, this makes it easy for you- the our customer to stitch multiples.
If you are cant find something please check out our Etsy store .
Furthermore, please feel free to send us a Private message on facebook the YTDesigns team, is more then happy to help if you have a special requests.
Finally-our goal that our customers enjoy the products we provide. If you are unsatisfied, contact an administrators. We will always do our best to make any adjustments and accommodate when we can. We appreciate your support of another small business. -Thank you! Lena


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beef and veal harissa meatballs
with tomato relish
- 600g beef mince
- 2 tablespoons harissa paste
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
- ½ cup (50g) store-bought dried breadcrumbs
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 500g truss cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup (60ml) balsamic glaze
- 1 cup (190g) quinoa, cooked, to serve
- mint and coriander (cilantro) leaves, to serve
- Place the beef, harissa, carrot, breadcrumbs, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix to combine. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on an oven tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add the meatballs and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the pan, set aside and keep warm.
- Wipe out the pan. Add the tomato, balsamic glaze, salt and pepper and cook for 6–8 minutes or until reduced and sticky. Divide the quinoa among plates, top with the meatballs, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve with tomato relish and herbs. Serves 4


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April 7, 2022
Warmest and Positive Easter Greetings 2022 to all our invaluable Customers!
On the pious occasion of Easter, we are more than happy to extend our warmest and positive easter greetings to our invaluable customers who have been quite loyal to us. Happy Easter and may you spend the day with all your loved ones.
About Groundfloor24
Groundfloor24 is a full-service agency related to the whole Building, Building Service and Real Estate Market. These includes among others Craftsmen, Building Service Provider, Construction Companies, Technical Building Outfitters, also Energy and Heating Companies, Property Developer, Planners, Architects, Engineers, Surveyors, Valuation Experts, Soil Appraisers, Experts for all damages relevant to buildings.


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This article, titled "SAVE THE WAVE" appeared in the August / September 1969 issue of the Corvette News.
Ever since Corvette No. 00001 first met Corvette No. 00002 on the road, their drivers saluted each other with waves. Today, unfortunately, this grand and glorious tradition is wavering.
There's one item of standard equipment that comes as a pleasant surprise to every new Corvette owner. It's an instant wave of recognition he or she recieves when he meets one of their ilks on the road. The first time it happens, they will be taken by surprise. He immediately thinks:
Soon, however, the new Vette owner anticipates, indeed even relishes, encountering other Vettes as he drives. During this period, he experiments with his waves, running the gamut from the gaping "yoo hoo" to the ultra cool "two finger flip." He perfects his timing, making sure he affects neither a too-early wave, nor the jaded "oh brother" too-late variety. Determined not to be one upped, he even developes a defense mechanism for non wavers, usually settling on the "Wave"? My hand was just on the way to scratch my head" approach. (This is especially useful when you're not driving your Vette, but you forget, and like a dummy, you wave anyway.)
Indeed, one of the most perplexing problems facing a would-be waver is what to do when driving next to a fellow Vette owner. Passing him going in opposite directions is one thing. Greetings are exchanged, and that's that. But what happens when you pull up next to a guy at a light, wave, nod, smile and then pull up to him at the next light, a block later? Wave again? Nod bashfully? Grin self-consciously? Ignore him? Or take the chicken's way out and turn down the next side street? If you're expecting an answer, you won't find it here. Sad to say, some questions don't have any.
Girl-type Corvette drivers also have a unique problem: to wave or not to wave. This miss or misses who borrows her man's Corvette for the first time is immediately faced with this quandary. Should she wave first and look overly friendly, or ignore the wave and look like a snob? Most ladies who drive their own Vettes prefer to suffer the latter rather than take a chance of being misread. For this reason, all girls are excused for occassionally failing to return a well-meaning wave. So are new owners who are still learning the ropes.
There is no excuse, however, for a guy who refuses to return the wave, not out of ignorance, but of arrogance or apathy. While this type of behavior is the exception to the rule, it seems a few owners of newer models refuse to recognize anything older than theirs, while some others simply won't wave, period. Boo on them. These ding-a-lings don't seem to realize that they are helping to squash a tradition that had its beginnings back when most of us were still driving tootsietoys.
So now you know the meaning behind "Save the Wave"
This is a reprint of an article, titled "SAVE THE WAVE" that appeared in the August / September 1969 issue of the Corvette News.


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Other Procurement Study
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Peru : Restoring the Multiple Pillars of Old Age Income Security
2004-01-26, World Bank
In this report, the components of a national retirement security system are categorized - as "pillars", or as "tiers" according to their objective. This is in marked contrast to other publications that categorize the branches of a pension system in accordance with who administers them (the public or private sector); how are benefits structured (final-salary defined benefit formula, or defined contributions); or, their financing mechanism (pay-as-you-go, or full funding). Thus, the term "first pillar" or "pillar one" refers to that part of a pension system intended to keep elderly out of poverty; "second pillar" or "pillar two" to that part intended to help individuals smooth consumption over their life-cycle, i.e., to prevent a dramatic fall in income at retirement time; and, "third pillar" or "pillar three" to the instruments, and institutions available on a voluntary basis for workers to increase their income in old age. This report intends to explore, and present policy options to extend formal protection against old age poverty risks, at a fiscally sustainable cost, and aims as well at restoring the multiple pillars of formal old age income security. The report reviews the current pillars of Peru's retirement security system, grown weak, and by and large, has failed to diversify the risks to old-age income. The public branch of the "second pillar" still threatens the Government's fiscal stance, and constrains management of the economy. The private branch is costly, risky and administered by a private oligopoly. The "third pillar" of voluntary savings, and insurance instruments is weak, costly, lacks transparency and fails to complement benefits from the mandatory pillars. The report takes a comprehensive approach in its analysis of Peru's retirement security institutions, and, is divided into five sections. Following this introduction, Section II presents the dimensions of Peru's vulnerability to poverty in old age, by examining the nature of the risks to income from ageing in Peru. The section continues with a look at how well Government administered and/or mandated pension plans are covering these risks. Section III provides the institutional background, reviews reforms to formal social security institutions in the 1990's, and the progress achieved, and, examines the serious problems remaining. Section lV presents an analysis of proposals for reforms to each branch of the retirement security system, while Section V concludes by presenting policy options - some straight forward measures, while others, deeper, more controversial reforms - consistent with meeting the stated objective of extending protection against poverty in old age, in a fiscally, sustainable manner.


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Providing Quality Legal Advice in Civil and Commercial Matters
The Law Office of The Rife Law Firm focuses on a wide range of business, commercial, construction, real estate, and personal legal matters. In all practice areas, we offer both litigation services and alternative dispute resolution methods such as arbitration and mediation. Our goal is to provide the bottom-line results that you expect with personal attention to your needs. We would welcome the opportunity to serve you.


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The Governor has now signed 680 bills into law since the beginning of the 2021 Regular Session.
On Tuesday, the House several bills including the following:
HB1793-This bill requires correctional or detention facilities to establish a policy to offer mammograms and physician consultations to female inmates of a certain age.
SB296-This bill states that photographs, video, or other information identifying a resident of a long-term care facility shall not be shared on a social media site without consent. The bill outlines specific exemptions such as documenting abuse or unintentionally showing a resident in a photo or video.
HB1789-This bill states that a federal employee may not make an arrest or conduct a search or seizure in this state without first notifying the county sheriff in which the arrest, search, or seizure will occur.
SB486-This bill states a person shall not enter or remain in an area within one hundred feet of the primary exterior entrance to a building where voting is taking place except for a person entering or leaving a building where voting is taking place for lawful purposes.
HB1866-This bill states that no county or State Board of Election Commissioners shall accept any funding, grants, or gifts from any source other than:
(1) A city or incorporated town.
(2) The governing authority of the county.
(3) The State of Arkansas.
(4) The United States Government.
The House will convene on Wednesday at 1 pm.


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AUGUSTA — A century ago this spring, Maine Gov. Frederick Plaisted oversaw the destruction of a year-around fishing hamlet on Malaga Island, a 42-acre island in the New Meadows River, just off the Phippsburg shore. The island's 40 residents — white, black and mixed race — were ordered to leave the island, and to take their homes with them, else they would be burned. A fifth of the population was incarcerated on questionable grounds at the Maine School for the Feebleminded in New Gloucester, where most spent the rest of their lives. The island schoolhouse was dismantled and relocated to Louds Island in Muscongus Bay.
Leaving no stone unturned, state officials dug up the 17 bodies in the island cemetery, distributed them into five caskets and buried them at the School of the Feebleminded — now Pineland Farms — where they remain today.
Several islanders spent the rest of their lives in this state-run mental institution. One couple, Robert and Laura Darling Tripp, floated from place to place in a makeshift houseboat, but, unwelcomed, wound up moored to another scrap of an island. Malnourished, Laura fell sick during a gale; when her husband returned with help, he found the couple's two children clinging to her lifeless body. Many others suffered from the stigma of being associated with the island.
"After the island was cleared, people did not really want to talk about this incident, especially the descendants, because to raise your hand and say you were from Malaga supposedly meant you were feebleminded or had black blood in you or both," said Rob Rosenthal, whose 2009 radio documentary "Malaga: A Story Better Left Untold" helped draw attention to what is one of the most disgraceful official acts in our state's history. "Nobody wanted to declare that."
Now the Malaga story is being told, openly and thoughtfully, in the shadow of the State House dome, from under which the evictions were hatched. "Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives" opened Saturday at the Maine State Museum, with descendants and Gov. Paul LePage in attendance. The exhibit tells the story not just of the eviction, but of the community it destroyed. Malaga, the artifacts, documents and photographs on display make clear, was a fairly ordinary coastal settlement at the time of the eviction.
In the late 19th century, the islands of the midcoast were dotted with the homes of hermits, squatters and fishermen. Malaga's people lived like so many others, eking out an existence trapping lobsters, hooking cod, digging clams or laboring at boardinghouses and farms on the mainland. But the fact that many islanders were of at least partial African descent put the community afoul of the burgeoning eugenics movement, whose practitioners married racist assumptions with a social Darwinist policy agenda. And the island they occupied — and may well have had title to — was thought ripe for development as a summer colony.
"Racism is an undeniable linchpin to this story, but it is far from the only reason things happened the way it did," said Allen Breed, a North Carolina-based reporter for The Associated Press, who has been researching a book on Malaga for more than a decade, and said there were other mixed-race hamlets on Great Yarmouth and Hen islands that were left alone. "They were on a very visible, potentially valuable piece of real estate near the mouth of arguably the state's tourism crown jewel, Casco Bay."
Malaga's people were certainly poor. The island's soil is inappropriate for farming, and fishing, laboring or doing laundry and carpentry for mainlanders didn't pay well. Their homes were modest, and one family lived in a converted ship's cabin. Some relied on charity from the town to get through the winter, and in 1908 private donors stepped in to help build an island school. School ledgers have survived.
"The papers written by the students show their penmanship was perfect and their spelling was better than mine," said Lynda Wyman, a trustee at the Phippsburg Historical Society, which also will have a small Malaga exhibit this summer. "It absolutely shows that kids were educated, not illiterate or so-called feebleminded or any of those things."
Archaeological digs by University of Southern Maine researchers Nathan Hamilton and Robert Sanford show the islanders caught lobsters, shellfish, cod and even swordfish. Thousands of buttons near the home of the island's laundress attest to how much washing she took in from Phippsburg's boardinghouses.
They built their homes on piles of discarded clam, mussel and scallop shells because they could be made level and provided excellent drainage. In doing so, they inadvertently gave a valuable gift to 21st-century archeologists.
"The shell middens protected almost all the artifacts and household stuff they mixed into it, and we actually know who lived on each spot," Hamilton said. "To actually have a patch of ground where we know the name and age of the individuals associated with it, their race, their jobs and when they lived there — that's really interesting and unique."
The fish and shellfish remains have proven a boon to fisheries ecologists and geneticists seeking to reconstruct what area fisheries looked like in the late 19th and early 20th century. "I got into this research because I thought it would enhance the university's African-American collection," Hamilton said. "But when we got into this, I realized it was fantastic bioarchaeology."
But the shell middens offered no protection from Gov. Plaisted, who visited the obscure island with his entire executive council in July 1911. That December, the governor ordered the eviction of the community, and officials institutionalized eight residents, some for failing to identify a telephone (which none had likely seen) or for not knowing that William Howard Taft had succeeded Teddy Roosevelt as president. Those who remained were given payments for their homes and ordered to leave — with or without them — by the first of July, 1912.
Later that year, the cemetery was cleared and the island sold to a close friend and business partner of the chair of Plaisted's executive council, Dr. Gustavus C. Kilgore of Belfast, who played a central role in the creation of the governor's policies, including signing the commitment orders for those sent to New Gloucester.
Nobody has lived on the island since.
"It's heartbreaking to think about family members having gone through something like that that could have been avoided," said Charmagne Tripp of Hartford, Conn., a singer/songwriter whose grandfather Harold was one of the children on that houseboat when her great-grandmother Laura died a century ago. "When you think about the greed and how you can make people so insignificant for their own gains, that's a painful discovery."
Over the past decade, more and more people have been discovering the Malaga story. There were articles in Island Journal, Down East, and this newspaper. Gary D. Schmidt's children's book on the tragedy — "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" — won a Newbery Honor in 2005 and a lyric play based on it premiered in Minneapolis this March. Descendants spoke out in Rosenthal's documentary, which aired on WMPG and later on Maine and New Hampshire's public radio networks. Many descendants networked via Facebook and met in person. Others were discovering the story for the first time.
"My aunt would take me to visit my uncle in Maine, and it was one of the friendliest places I've ever been; everyone was so nice," said Akinlawon Tripp, Charmagne's brother, who also lives in the Hartford area. "You go through a series of emotions when you learn about all this that happened, that this fate came from a state that's known as 'Vacationland.' I mean, the North was supposed to be the free land — what the heck went on here?
"The way everyone from the island was played — I think of my granddad, the one who was on the boat with his mom, and he would go through all these tribulations in his life. It kind of made him the way he was. But what was most disturbing to me was the fact that they moved the graves. That took the cake for me."
But in 2010, the state finally expressed contrition. A joint resolution drafted by then Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, was passed unanimously at the State House and expressed "profound regret" for the numerated injustices of the incident. On a rainy day late that summer, then-Gov. John Baldacci joined a historic gathering of descendants on Malaga and delivered an apology to them for what his predecessor had done. "I thought it was very important that I go there as governor and try as much as possible to right a wrong that had been done many years ago," Baldacci said. "I don't think it was reflective of Maine's history, heritage and roots.
"I have to tell you, it was very emotional. I didn't foresee the impact of that just saying sorry would have for people."
"I remember that day when we were out on Malaga and the governor gave his apology, and everything was silent," said Marilyn Darling Voter of Windham, whose great-great-grandfather's sisters, nieces and nephews were among those evicted. "When he ended it, the aspen trees started quivering (in the wind) and the sun came out. And believe me, we all noticed it. It felt like something had broken in the other realm, like literally a cracking of the lies."
In the two years since, Rosenthal has perceived a change in the atmosphere around the story. "You could tell that a cloud had lifted, maybe not all the clouds, but most of them," he said. "Since then, I get the sense that people in the town of Phippsburg — descendants and otherwise — perhaps feel a little freer."
Last fall, Voter organized a family reunion of descendants of Malaga founder Benjamin Darling at the Phippsburg Congregational Church, which plays a role in "Lizzie Bright." More than 125 people reportedly attended, including the Tripps and family friends of some of those interred at Pineland. "People can embrace it now and say, yeah, my family came from Malaga, and I'm proud of it," she said. "We all stood and said, 'We're Darlings and we're proud.' "
The Maine State Museum exhibit — running through May 26, 2013 — will likely increase awareness of the Malaga story, which has often been told inaccurately, when it was mentioned at all. (Many accounts relied on early 20th-century newspaper stories by reporters accustomed to inventing or embellishing details.)
"We're trying to present the facts as we know them, and bust some of the myths," said curator Kate McBrien, who developed the exhibit.
Relatives of the Malaga evictees say having a high-profile exhibit at the state's official museum is cathartic, but there is another step Voter would still like to see. "Closure for me is to return the bodies to the island because my aunts died there believing their bones would become part of it," she said. "Removing the bodies was the difference between eviction and annihilation."
Colin Woodard is State and National Affairs Writer for The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.
CORRECTION: This story was update Sunday, May 20 to reflect that William Howard Taft succeeded President Theodore Roosevelt.
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