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Identifying Stakeholders' Responsibilities for Closing Achievement Gaps: Stakeholder Actions
Discussion Guide 4
Many factors contribute to achievement gaps. Some are within the purview of NEA members individually, and collectively, to influence. Others are not and fall to other stakeholders.
This final quide in a series on closing achievement gaps, is designed for NEA members and others to use to identify stakeholders who share responsibility for closing local achievement gaps. Each of these stakeholders should be involved in, and accountable for, implementing programs and strategies that will close achievement gaps. Several stakeholders -- and a summary of actions each might take to close achievement gaps -- are listed below. Take a moment to review this information before moving to the discussion questions that follow.
Selected Stakeholder Actions that Will Help Close Achievement Gaps
1. Teachers
- Use effective instructional strategies.
- Maintain high standards for all students by providing a rigorous curriculum.
- Understand and capitalize on students' diverse cultures.
- Examine their expectations, beliefs, and practices through the equity lens.
- Serve as "first responders" in identifying students who need additional instructional support.
- Participate in professional development programs that provide them with strategies for working with students and their families who are not achieving success.
2. Teacher Unions
- Collaborate with districts in organizing and funding instructional support programs for students who are not achieving.
- Identify strategies to improve achievement.
- Share information among the membership about effective practices.
- Offer induction and professional development to attract and retain qualified teachers.
3. Education Support Professionals
- Serve as links to families and the community.
- Provide instructional support to students.
- Serve as mentors for students.
4. District and School Leaders
- Create a professional learning community to programs that will close achievement gaps.
- Support teaching and learning through consistent priorities and actions.
- Share responsibility for improving district and school operations.
5. Students
- Take personal responsibility for their learning.
- Engage with teacher(s), classmates, and others in the school and community.
- Participate, as needed, in supplemental learning programs and opportunities.
6. Families
- Provide a home environment that supports learning.
- Share schools' and teachers' high expectations for students.
- Communicate with teachers and other school personnel.
- Participate in school decisionmaking.
7. National, State, and Local Policymakers
- Enact policies that support educators' efforts.
- Provide adequate resources to close achievement gaps.
8. Business and Community Leaders
- Maintain active partnerships with schools.
- Provide resources and opportunities that enrich school programs.
- Create a local economy that provides employment, affordable housing, human and social services, and other investments that increase families' standard of living.
Discussion Questions
- By the list above, you can see that closing achievement gaps takes the concerted efforts of many stakeholders. Do you agree with the teachers' responsibilities? Would you like to add other responsibilities?
- If any of the stakeholders have not been part of our discussions, how can we include them in the future?
- What is the role of the local teacher association? That is, what can and should teachers and education support professionals do collectively to close local achievement gaps.
Related Content
» Identifying Achievement Gaps in Your School, District, and Community - Discussion Guide 1.
» Identifying Factors that Contribute to Achievement Gaps - Discussion Guide 2.
» Identifying Stakeholders' Responsibilities for Closing Achievement Gaps: District and School Based Strategies - Discussion Guide 3.


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02 December 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
The scandal is said to have driven the company's Chinese sales to slide 61 percent in the three months
Singapore: After facing a storm of controversy in China, Sir (Dr) Andrew Witty, CEO, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) visited the country accompanying UK Prime Minister Mr David Cameron on his trade mission. Sir Andrew led a delegation of more than 100 business people, academics and support staff as part of promoting their country to the business leaders and politicians in China.
Even as the company continues to face intense investigation in China following the bribery, corruption and sexual favors scandal that broke out earlier this year, Dr Witty is said to be planning a meeting with a small number of GSK's 7,000 staff in China. The scandal is said to have driven the company's Chinese sales to slide 61 percent in the three months, until end of September. Further, the UK Prime Minister is said to be planning to raise the situation with Chinese leaders as part of his four-day trip.
The others reported to be accompanying Mr Cameron on the visit are Mr Xavier Rolet, head of the London Stock Exchange; Mr Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk; Mr Richard Solomons, chief executive of Intercontinental Hotels; Mr Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered, and Ms Karen Wong, HSBC's China country manager.
The visit is said to broadly aim at helping UK lay the ground for a multi-billion-dollar free trade deal between Beijing and the European Union. Mr Cameron has said that he wanted his country to play an important role in China's expansion.
On his visit, he wrote in Caixin, a Chinese weekly news magazine, that, "China's transformation is one of the defining facts of our lifetime. There is a genuine choice for every country over how to respond. They can choose to see China's rise as a threat or an opportunity. Britain's answer is clear. We want to see China succeed."

subset: commoncrawl


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Free Helpline 0800 435 455
If you are experiencing bereavement, we can help. The loss of a loved one may cause deep and painful grief. After the funeral, as life continues, the understanding and patience of friends may soon be exhausted. For a bereaved person, the loneliness that follows can be hard to bear.


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The mother of the Boston bombing suspects continues to insist that her sons are innocent, while the media responds by portraying Zubeidat Tsarnaeva as a terrorist herself after reports that Russian authorities intercepted phone calls during which she "vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son."
"It's all lies and hypocrisy," Tsarnaeva told The Associated Press in Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."
The AP report notes that in recent years Tsarnaeva, "began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims," implying that wearing an item of clothing and being skeptical of the official narrative behind 9/11 is itself a likely indication of terrorism.
It has also emerged that Tsarnaeva herself was put on a terrorist watch list after the Russian government suspected her of militancy in 2011.
Several members of the alleged bombers' family have claimed that the two brothers are just patsies, including the aunt of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who claims that the footage which emerged of police arresting a naked uninjured man was her nephew, contradicting the official narrative that Tsarnaev was critically injured in a shootout.
Source: http://www.infowars.com/mother-of-bomb-suspects-its-all-lies/


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I'm going to try my best to post weekly/bi-weekly links to articles I come across. I forget that not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter, and that's where I post most of the things I come across.
Anti-Racism and Anti- Oppression Work In Midwifery – Letter To Midwifery Today: Real Talk About Midwifery and Racial Oppression.
This powerful letter was collaboratively drafted by 97 BirthWorkers from around the globe.
While the article is gone from the Midwifery Today site, the discussion it has engendered is too important to disappear without a trace. It is important to us that your readers understand why the comparison between the anti-slavery struggle and the midwifery movement is wrong and profoundly hurtful. Even more than this, however, we hope to show that the struggle to provide a full range of birthing options must address our history of racial oppression if we really want to change birth in this country.
ChildBirth Connection Transforming Maternity Care – Urge Women To Question Elective Deliveries.
Don't schedule elective, non-medically indicated inductions of labor or cesarean deliveries before 39 weeks 0 days gestational age.
MomsRising Blog – Breastfeeding: Obesity, Diabetes and Asthma Prevention.
Breastfeeding decreases the risks for obesity, diabetes and asthma. As a nephrology social worker, I see firsthand the consequences of obesity that can lead to diabetes and ultimately chronic kidney disease.
Healthy Black Women – Podcast on Why Black Women Should Care About Medicaid and It's Expansion.
Twitter – #BlkBFing Twitter Chat Highlights.
Every Mother Counts via Jennie Joseph – Black History Month: Midwifery Matters.
As a Black midwife, newly arrived in 1989, I had no understanding of the history or legacy of midwifery in the USA, let alone the foundational role that African-American midwives played in the provision of maternity care for both Black and White women from slavery on upwards.


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Wednesday, 11 January 2012 10:32 AM
Global regulators may expand the definition of a too-big-to-fail financial firm, signing up domestic lenders, clearing houses and insurers to capital rules designed for the world's biggest banks.
The "framework should be in place for domestically systemically important banks by the end of the year," Mark Carney, chairman of the Financial Stability Board, said yesterday after a meeting of the group in Basel, Switzerland.
Deutsche Bank AG, BNP Paribas SA and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were among 29 banks subject to the so-called capital surcharge on globally systemic financial institutions drawn up by the FSB in November. Banks will have to boost reserves by 1 to 2.5 percentage points above minimum levels agreed on by international regulators.
"The world contains a whole slew of institutions like that which are not systemic on a global level but are on a national level," Simon Gleeson, regulatory lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP, said in a telephone interview. "The institution most interesting in this regard is Erste Bank," he said. "The more you look at it the more you think it's systemically important to Hungary."
Michael Mauritz, a spokesman for Erste Group Bank AG, based in Vienna, Austria, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Carney said that the FSB was considering putting in place tougher rules for so-called shadow banks whose failure could harm the global financial system. This work was less advanced than rules for systemic insurers, he said, adding that requirements would vary for different types of institutions.
'Vulnerabilities' Remain
"Despite the important steps that have been taken over the last couple of years, we are all aware that, in the short term, vulnerabilities remain," Carney said.
Shadow banks include money-market mutual funds, special investment vehicles, credit hedge funds, securities lenders and government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The European Central Bank warned last year that shadow- banks require more scrutiny from regulators on the risks they pose to the financial system, while Michel Barnier, the European Union's financial services commissioner, said that he will "go as fast as we can" in considering possible rules for them.
The FSB will review its work on shadow banks by March, the board said yesterday in a statement issued following its meeting.
Global regulators will also work on rules to ensure the robustness of clearing houses, the FSB said in the statement. Regulators should be able to take decisions by June on the "appropriate form" of central clearers dealing with derivatives, it said.
Bankers' Pay
The FSB will also set up a group to examine cross-border disputes over rules governing banker pay, Carney said, acknowledging an "enduring mistrust" between banks over how lenders set their pay.
Regulators will together "address specific level playing field concerns" raised by their respective banks, the board said.
"This will be another tough year for the FSB," Richard Reid, research director for the International Centre for Financial Regulation, said in an e-mail. "Although much of the regulatory agenda has been put in place, there remains a huge amount of work to be done on implementation."
Carney said that the board may not replace former Swiss National Bank Governor and FSB Deputy Chairman Philipp Hildebrand, following his resignation this week over a currency trade made by his wife.
The decision will be taken "in the fullness of time and in consultation with G20," he said.
European Capital
European regulators have demanded the regions' banks raise 114.7 billion euros ($146.6 billion) in new capital as part of measures designed to boost their resilience during the euro area's sovereign-debt crisis.
German banks need to raise an additional 13.1 billion euros, Italian banks 15.4 billion euros, and Spanish lenders 26.2 billion euros in core tier 1 capital, the European Banking Authority in London said in December.
The capital shortfalls include 15.3 billion euros for Spain's Banco Santander SA and 7.97 billion euros for Italy's UniCredit SpA. Lenders in the region have until the end of June to raise the money.
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Most people, when they think "New Jersey," think of traffic on the turnpike, the ups and downs of the football Giants and Jets, salt water taffy on beach boardwalks, and casino action in Atlantic City.
What doesn't get associated with New Jersey is the notion of an idyllic lakeside getaway in the splendor of nature. Yet springfed Lake Hopatcong, tucked in the state's northwest corner an hour's drive from Manhattan, has long been a haven for fishing, boating, and all-around relaxing. Movie stars and Wall Streeters made its hotels and bungalows a summer haven in the Roaring Twenties.
The hotels are now defunct, as highways and cheap air travel made other destinations attractive, but bungalows continued to be built. One of them—an unheated, two-bedroom, one bathroom, six-hundred square foot frame structure on a deadend street near the water—belongs to Debbie Cianfrone, fiancée of Bergenfield, New Jersey landscape contractor Pieter van Westervelt. Van Westervelt operates Premium Landscape Services.
Until 2011, van Westervelt and Cianfrone would sit on the patio and look at a mostly barren yard. Measuring 80' x 75' with an eastern exposure, it sloped down for eight boring feet from a concrete retaining wall to a dead-end street.
"There were a couple of small maple trees, some scrubby bushes, whatever plants could take hold there—and that was it," van Westervelt recalls. "The only interesting feature on the property was a classic wooden gazebo."
Van Westervelt, who has been in the landscape business for years, finally decided that it was time to take a busman's holiday and make the yard as beautiful as the lakeshore… and do it with a focus on sustainability, minimum care, and harmony with the natural environment.
By any measure, van Westervelt reached his goal. In 2011, the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association awarded the project its prestigious Award of excellence in Residential Design/Build for Sustainable Landscapes.
There are certain advantages to doing a project on your girlfriend's property. Some designers use elaborate design software to create and then present their plans to their customers. Others make full-color drawings, with everything to scale. For this project, all the client required was a simple sketch on a sheet of notebook paper.
"Of course," van Westervelt said, "if I messed it up, I'd hear it from her for the rest of my life."
He sketched out his grand vision: a tranquil pond of harvested rainwater that could be used for irrigation, a babbling waterfall that slid down past the gazebo. Water-conserving, low-maintenance native trees and plants, and a reworking of the slope to make it visually more interesting.
His guiding principle was to extend the natural environment onto the property. "The goal was to make the parcel look as natural as possible. An ornamental garden would have just looked silly," van Westervelt declares.
The project was green from the beginning. Rather than use spray paint to mark ground and rocks during the planning stages, van Westervelt planted flags, since flags are both more sustainable and more visual. "It's easier to step back and imagine the property as a whole when flags are placed where your major features will be. You don't have to turn over painted rocks, either."
The actual work started with the terrain. The subsoil was a mixture of sand, clay, and what's affectionately called "New York limestone" – a mix of sedimentary and fossil rock of all shapes and sizes, including some massive boulders. Van Westervelt leveled the land near the bungalow so he could both extend the entertainment patio and install his rainwater harvesting system, which he calls the lower pond. Then, he terraced the gentle slope, both to make it visually more interesting and so it could support the native species he wanted to plant. At the southwest end of the property, near the gazebo, he prepped the slope for the waterfall and small upper pond he planned to construct. Then he dug out the lower pond.
Not a shovelful of dirt, nor a pebble, was carted away off-site. "That was part of our sustainable plan," the contractor reports. His crew did the work with a Bobcat 341 excavator and smaller Bobcat equipment; 32 tons of earth and rock were moved in the course of the project. "We discovered old flagstones up by the retaining wall, and used them as part of the terracing, and in the steps up to the gazebo."
With the ground "canvas" prepared, he could move on to the "painting" itself.
Since water is so integral to the lake environment, van Westervelt wanted to include it in the design. Fortunately, he has special expertise in the area, having created more than 150 ponds and waterfalls for his customers over the past decade alone.
He recalls his decision-making process for deciding on the pond's size. "We thought about our watering needs, and what other purposes we might have for captured rainwater. We knew we'd be planting low-maintenance trees and plants, with modest water requirements. But there's also a vegetable garden, and we wanted to use the pond to irrigate that as well. The rooftop from which rainwater would be gathered isn't all that big. We settled on a 1000-gallon pond, using Aquascape's RainXchange system to harvest the rainwater."
To make the pond look natural, van Westervelt left the edges irregular, submerged a tree stump near one end, and chose low-care aquatic plants like lizard tail, parrot's feather, tropical cannas, and floating hyacinths.
The pond opened the door to one sustainable water-use wrinkle that always gets attention. Van Westervelt took the bungalow toilet off the potable water grid. "We use pond water to flush the toilet," he reports. "I installed a one-inch line from the pond to the house, and attached it to a booster pump that's always primed. The next thing I want to do is feed our graywater from the sink and shower—we'll go to biodegradable soaps—into a separate pond."
Next was the waterfall. Both aesthetically and aurally pleasing—van Westervelt loves the sound of the running water—the falls were constructed from rocks and boulders found onsite. At the base of the falls is the upper koi pond. There's an under-the-rocks cove, hidden by boulders and tree roots, so the fish can hide if raccoons get too close or hawks circle overhead. The falls are powered by a 10,000-gallon/hour pump; a three-inch line carries water from the upper pond to the top of the falls. A small stream carries overflow from the upper pond to the rainwater pond.
With water and irrigation in place, van Westervelt turned his attention to planting.
For privacy, he planted a row of seven-foot-high Norway spruces near the retaining wall; he expects them to grow at a foot a year. Along the north side boundary, in front of several forsythia bushes, they installed seven cherry laurels. They can grow to 15 feet high, are shade tolerant, and provide ideal nesting and resting space for the property's abundant bird life. Between the cherry laurels are Montauk daisies, black-eyed Susans, and echinacea.
Moving across the property toward the south, van Westervelt planted a triple stalk clump of white birches, and a large Hinoki cypress. Along the south edge, between the gazebo and the property line, you'll now find dogwood trees, along with fast-growing Nellie Stevens holly. On the gazebo itself, van Westervelt is circling the railing with Clematis vines, while climbing hydrangeas will grow up and over the gazebo itself.
Groundcover is largely blue rug juniper.
The bungalow isn't much," van Westervelt admits. "But it's a wonderful getaway. The project took nine days, with a 10-person crew. Our materials cost was $42,000. Now, the yard is as beautiful as the lakeside."
Eco-green. Sustainable. Beautiful. Van Westervelt's award-winning project might not change public perceptions of New Jersey, but it sure changes perception from the bungalow patio. That should be good enough for anyone.


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http://mmajunkie.com Steve Cantwell (7-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has another fight if he can keep it.
Sources close to the negotiations today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the light heavyweight is expected to meet Cyrille Diabate (16-7-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) at UFC on Versus 3. ESPN.com first reported the booking.
UFC on Versus 3 takes place March 3.
It's expected to take place at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., though the promotion has yet to make official the event or location. Versus airs the evening's main card.
Cantwell vs. Diabate, though, is expected to be part of the event's preliminary card.
Cantwell has had a difficult time getting into the octagon as of late. The former WEC light-heavyweight champion was due to meet Stanislav Nedkov in October at UFC 120 but was forced to withdraw only 48 hours prior to the event with a knee injury suffered in the practice room.
It was supposed to be Cantwell's first fight back after the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to issue him medical clearance for a fight against Vladimir Matyushenko at UFC 108. He spent five months on the bench as the commission reviewed his denial, which centered around the medical paperwork he submitted for the January bout. In May the commission gave him the all-clear for a fight license.
Cantwell was heavily rumored for a bout with Ricardo Romero in July at UFC 116, but the bout did not materialize. He hasn't fought since September 2009, when he lost a unanimous decision to former WEC champ Brian Stann in a rubber match of two previous meetings in which they swapped wins. His skid started one fight prior when he was outpointed by Luis Cane at UFC 97.
So it's easy to surmise that if Cantwell doesn't make this fight, he may find himself on the unemployment line.
Diabate is not safe either following a submission loss to Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 120. The setback snapped a six-fight win streak capped by an impressive knockout win over Cane in the striker's octagon debut at UFC 114.
For more on UFC on Versus 3, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
(Pictured: Steve Cantwell)


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If you're like most people, you probably spend a good amount of money on things like laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, and other consumables. Saving money on them doesn't have to be just about finding a sale or switching brands—odds are you're just using too much. Let's take a look at how much most people actually use, versus how much is needed to get the job done.
Let's face it, you're not going to save a boatload of money here by paying closer attention to how much toothpaste you use, or how much shampoo you squeeze into your hands. Don't expect to finance your next car with the savings here, but do expect a few dollars off your grocery bill—and over time, those dollars add up. Besides, nothing wrong with making your consumables last that much longer if at all possible.
We've discussed that it usually doesn't matter what type of toothpaste you buy, but you may actually be using entirely too much. If your toothbrush resembles a commercial, or the picture on the box, before you brush, you're probably using too much. Dentists will tell you that a pea-sized dollop of toothpaste is enough for most adults, and half as much in children. In short, if your toothbrush looks like the image above, it's far too much.
This isn't just about saving money and not wasting toothpaste though. Too much toothpaste can actually cause more harm than good, not to mention make it more difficult to actually brush for the recommended two minutes around all of the foam in your mouth.
Laundry Detergent
It's a bit of a long standing fact that most of us use entirely too much laundry detergent. This article in the Wall Street Journal cites a repair technician:
"Nobody thinks they use too much soap," said Vernon Schmidt, who has been a repairman for almost 35 years and is the author of a self-published book, "Appliance Handbook for Women: Simple Enough Even a Man Can Understand." But apparently most of us are in denial.
Washing machines and dishwashers are made to use far less water now than older models and, therefore, need less soap. And detergents have also become increasingly concentrated. So a little goes a long way.
"Most people use 10 to 15 times the amount of soap they need, and they're pouring money down the drain," Mr. Schmidt said
A full capful is way more than most loads of laundry really need, and while you could buy single use laundry capsules or packets, you wind up paying more for the convenience. We've even mentioned that you could get away with half the usual amount, and it'll do the job just fine. Detergent manufacturers note that the fill line isn't always legible (they say that making sure the cap fits on the bottle tightly without leaking is their priority), but if you're still filling up to the top of the cap for every load, you're probably using way too much. Find the fill-line in your cap, and if you can't find it, use about a quarter-to-half cap, depending on the size and general dirtiness of the load you're washing.
Dishwasher Detergent
Dishwasher detergent is in the same boat as laundry detergent, except that in this case, using too much can actually seriously damage your dishwasher. A quick way to tell if you've been using too much (or, if you're a renter and you've inherited a dishwasher from someone who used too much) is to check for soap deposits and buildup on the inside of the dishwasher door, near the detergent tray.
Most of us just fill up the detergent tray and close it, and we don't think much about how much we actually use, but even on heavy wash settings, our dishes probably only need a fraction of the full detergent tray. You should also take into account how hard or soft your water is, but using too much detergent can crust up the inside of the dishwasher, making it less effective overall, and can be harder on your dishes. It's far more important to properly load your dishwasher and keep it clean than to use a ton of detergent.
You might think it's not possible to use "too much" of something that goes into your mouth, gets swished around, and then gets spit down the drain, but it is. If you take the cap off of your mouthwash and blindly fill it up to the top before tossing it back, you're probably using way too much. Most commercial mouthwashes suggest using only about 20-30ml (2/3-1 fluid ounce, or 4-6 teaspoons) at once. It's more than enough to get the job done, and your mouth shouldn't be completely full of mouthwash anyway—the act of swishing it around inside your mouth is part of what makes it effective, so filling up your mouth diminishes its utility.
Of course, there's little harm in using more mouthwash than you really should (to a point, of course), but the money you'll save on those pricey bottles of mouthwash when you start using just enough and not too much will be worth the change. Alternatively, you can go with a mouthwash brand that has a self-filling cap and a fill line displayed prominently on the cap—they're often marketed to children, but more manufacturers are including them on all of their bottles.
These are just four household products that you—if you're like most people—are probably using entirely too much of. It's not your fault—often the containers we use are designed to obfuscate how much is actually required for the job, or the containers we use are too big for the task at hand. After all, the makers of most of these products can't make more money unless they either lure you from another brand, decrease their container sizes and make you buy more, or trick you into using more than you possibly need. All three are pillars of their marketing strategies. If you want to save some cash at the supermarket, keep an eye on how much of each it really takes to get the job done.
Photos by Morgan, imagedb.com (Shutterstock), Pixel Drip, Lee Jordan, and Counselman Collection.


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AED Donations
The Pulse3 Foundation (formerly Michigan CardioVascular Institute Foundation) provides automated external defibrillators (AED) to area schools, churches and nonprofit agencies with facilities where people gather in the Great Lakes Bay (Bay, Isabella, Midland and Saginaw counties) and the Thumb (Huron and Tuscola counties). The funding for this effort is provided by Shocks and Saves®, a charity hockey game organized in partnership with Mobile Medical Response and the Saginaw Spirit.
Does your organization have an AED on site? If not, we invite you to submit an application for consideration. Units are awarded annually in the spring. The application deadline is March 1 of each year. Click HERE to download a fillable PDF application form.
Please note, there are two types of on-going cost requirements to consider when applying for an AED unit:
Equipment - The batteries and the pads for the AED unit have an approximate 2-year shelf life and will need to be replaced when they expire. If the AED unit is used, you will need to replace the unit's battery and pads before it can be put back into service.
Training - You must have a minimum of one person within the facility who has completed a certified course in basic cardiopulmonary and resuscitation and AED use. Certifications must be renewed every other year. In addition, all staff and volunteers within the facility must be trained on the internal emergency procedures related to AED use.


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Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science – and the situation is getting worse. While German laboratories used some 2.41 million animals for scientific research in 2005, by 2009 this number had grown to 2.79 million. One third was destined for fundamental biology research, and the majority were used for researching diseases and developing medical compounds and devices. People demand medicines that are safe and therapies that are tolerable, but hardly anyone is happy to accept the need for animal testing. This is why scientists have spent years looking for methods that can replace them.
Now researchers have found an alternative: they hope to use novel nanosensors to reduce the number of experiments that are carried out on animals. "We are basically using a test tube to study the effects of chemicals and their potential risks. What we do is take living cells, which were isolated from human and animal tissue and grown in cell cultures, and expose them to the substance under investigation," explains Doctor Jennifer Schmidt. If a given concentration of the substance is poisonous to the cell, it will die. This change in "well-being" can be rendered visible by the sensor nanoparticles developed by Schmidt and her team.
Cells – the tiniest living things – that are healthy store energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). High levels of ATP are indicative of high levels of metabolic activity in cells. If a cell is severely damaged, it becomes less active, storing less energy and consequently producing less ATP. "Our nanosensors allow us to detect adenosine triphosphate and determine the state of health of cells. This makes it possible to assess the cell-damaging effects of medical compounds or chemicals," says Schmidt.
In order for the nanoparticles to register the ATP, researchers give them two fluorescent dyes: a green indicator dye that is sensitive to ATP, and a red reference dye that does not change colour. Next, the scientists introduce the particles to living cells and observe them under a fluorescence microscope. The degree to which the particles light up depends on the quantity of ATP present. The more yellow is visible in the overlay image, the more active are the cells. If their health were impaired, the overlay image would appear much redder. "We could in future use cancer cells to test the effectiveness of newly developed chemotherapy agents. If the nanosensors detect a low concentration of ATP in the cells, we'll know that the new treatment is either inhibiting tumour cell growth or even killing them," says Schmidt. "The most promising agents could then be studied further."
COMPAMED.de; Source: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft


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"Death steals everything, except our stories." That's a quote from poet Jim Harrison in In Search of Small Gods. I borrowed it to tell you a story of one group's effort to preserve the history of our industry. If you're one of the roughly 900,000 or so people who work in plastics, you've contributed to this history, and perhaps can help in the effort to maintain it.
In your attic or basement, maybe in your workshop or in a box in the back of a closet…if you've been in the industry a while, you've likely accumulated a lot of stuff. Maybe this stuff is in your company's storage room. Stuff like old SPE ANTEC papers, patents, maybe molded parts from breakthrough projects in which you or your firm were involved. Hey, maybe even back issues of Plastics Technology.
Come spring cleaning, if you or your organization is tempted to throw out that old stuff (although I'd understand if you wanted to cling to your Plastics Technology archives), don't toss it. Instead, please consider donating it to Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.
Working in conjunction with the Plastics Pioneers Association (PPA), the university has set up the Plastics Collection. It combines a "virtual museum" (check out plastics.syr.edu) that contains materials gleaned primarily from the old National Plastics Center (NPC) in Leominster, Mass., with a real place where, thanks to recent developments, you can go, grab a seat, and do some research the old-fashioned way. More on that in a moment.
The effort at Syracuse started in 2008, the year the National Plastics Center, which also housed the Plastics Hall of Fame, closed. Most of the Hall of Fame was moved to the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, but the artifacts that the Museum had collected over the years were in limbo.
An initiative to save that collection was initiated by the PPA and driven by Harry Greenwald, a serial entrepreneur in plastics who spent his career founding companies in molding, parts/shapes distribution, and other businesses. Greenwald and a handful of other PPA members came up with three options: create a brand-new museum, or a special exhibit at an existing museum, or a traveling museum. All were ruled out due to cost. So Greenwald approached Syracuse, and provided the initial funding to get the project off the ground.
What started as strictly an online virtual museum (funded in part by PPA member Dewey Rainville) evolved into carpets, chairs, tables, and shelves in late September 2013, due to the generosity of PPA member and Hall of Famer Glenn Beall and his wife Patsy. They provided the money for what is now called the Plastics Pioneers Reading Room.
Here's where you come in. Lots of material that Syracuse received from NPC was unusable, so at the moment the museum does not reflect the enormous contributions that plastics have made to industry and society. If you or your firm have some plastics collectibles, please visit plastics.syr.edu, click on the Make Your Impact logo on the bottom right of the home page, and fill out the form.
Why the obsession with history? In September's ribbon-cutting ceremony at Syracuse, the venerable Mr. Beall, who for decades has operated Glenn Beall Plastics Ltd. in Libertyville, Ill., weighed in: "Celluloid, the first man-made plastic, was discovered 145 years ago. In all of that time, there never was a permanent place to store and display the history of our industry. As a result, the industry's artifacts have been scattered and lost."
"In 2011, the industry employed 885,000 people, represented by over three dozen technical societies and trade associations," Beall continued. "None of these associations has the word 'history' in its name. As far as is known, none include preserving the history of the plastics industry in their goals…with the exception of the PPA. The poet Jim Harrison wrote, 'Death steals everything except our stories.'"
So check the nooks and crannies of your home or business. Dust off thosse old boxes and look inside for informative artifacts. And log on to plastics.syr.edu and become part of history.


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*Subject to availability
16 miles south of Playa del Carmen 22 miles north of Tulum
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52 miles south of Cancun
The 1½-mile white-sand beach along crystalline turquoise waters and spectacular coral reef is an unparalleled exhibition of the Caribbean paradise that will dazzle your senses.
6 restaurants (all with Ocean view)
Two (2) Buffet Restaurants
Three (3) specialty restaurants
Brazilian "Rodizio"
French "Le Brasserie"
Caribbean Food "Calypso"
One (1) Grill Restaurant.
Five (5) Bars
Two (2) Lobby Bars
One (1) Bar at the Theater
One (1) Bar at "Le Brasserie"
One (1) swim up Bar
Multipurpose room / theater
Meeting room and 3 breakouts (3,766 sq ft total)
Ocean front club house
Game room
Cigar Lounge Premier Club (fee)
Kids Club and Maxi Club
Convention Center and additional breakouts (24,570 sq ft of meeting space) and Business Center
Gift shops ($)
Shopping arcade ($)
Two (2) swimming pools with whirlpool and children's area
One (1) children's pool with water games
Two (2) open-air theaters which are the perfect scenery for spectacular night shows accompanied by a live orchestra
Full Spa ($)
The entire hotel group provides beautiful pathways appropriate for jogging or long walks.
The resort features the following accommodations:
All suites feature either ocean front, pool, or garden views and include a fully stocked minibar, 32" TV, internet connection, alarm clock with iPod dock, coffeemaker, air-conditioning, iron and ironing board, digital in-room safe, rainfall showers, hair dryer, make-up mirror, bathrobes and slippers.
Seven (7) lit tennis courts for night play (rackets and balls are provided)
Fitness center
18-hole mini golf
4-hole Pitch & Putt
Beach and pool aqua-aerobics
Beach volleyball water polo darts
Table tennis
18- & 9-hole golf courses located at Playa del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras. (fee)
*Reservations may apply, minimum skills are required
Guests staying at the hotel have full access to all facilities at the hotel group including all restaurants & bars and unlimited range of daily and nightly activities.
Use of sun-beds, hammocks and beach towels.
One free diving lesson in the pool per week
Kids Club
Currency exchange
24-hour room service *
Box Lunch *
Internet, fax & copies in the business center
Baby-sitting services *
Laundry *
Nintendo games *
Pay-Per-View movies *
Telephone calls *
Beauty salon *
Massages *
24-hour medical service *
Travel agency & car rental *
Horseback riding and ATV tours *
Motorized water sports (Jet-ski, Banana boats, Water Ski) plus diving center and shop.*
Who says you have to tag along with mom and dad all day? Not at the Barcelo Maya Palace! Kids have the freedom to enjoy vacation on their terms. The Barcy Kids' Club, for children under 12, offers fun, supervised activities as well as an outrageous indoor playground.
Teenagers have their own space for hanging out with new friends, playing the latest video games, or shooting pool. At night, they can cut loose - as much as teenagers are apt to do - in their own under-18 dance club.
When you're ready to reconvene for some quality time, grab the kids and check out the mini golf course, splash around with the little ones in the castles, slides and waterfalls of the Barcy Water Park.
By day adults can relax in a tropical resort atmosphere and enjoy the variety of gourmet a la carte restaurants, a 24-hour sports bar, shopping, and much more.
Things really heat up after the sun goes down as you make your way to the nightly Vegas-inspired shows, or enjoy a cocktail in one of the chic and secluded lounges or dance the night away at the club that features a live DJ, video screens, dancers and a VIP area.
When you're ready to slow things down a bit, why not book a day of relaxation at U Spa? The couples massage cabanas invite you to linger and unwind log after your treatment has ended. For those preferring to work up a sweat, the state-of-the art-cardio equipment and resistance machines in the Barceló gym allow you to maintain your fitness routine while on vacation.
Welcome drink
Breakfast, lunch and dinner at "Mirador" and "La Hacienda" Buffet Restaurants.
á la carte dinner at the specialty restaurants:
Brazilian "Rodizzio"*
French "Le Brasserie"*
Caribbean Food "Calypso" *
Lunch, snacks and beverages available at beach restaurant and wet bars.
Domestic beverages (soft drinks, beers, house wine, liquors, cocktails and coffee)
Coffee-maker in room including water, coffee & tea
In-room minibar restocked daily with bottled water, soft drinks and beer
In-room safe
Alarm clock
Iron & ironing board and hairdryer
Use of sun-beds, beach towels and hammocks
Day and night entertainment
Free entrance to discotheque including domestic beverages
Kids Club (kids between 4 to 12 years old)
Mini-golf (18 holes) / Pitch and Putt (4 holes) – equipment included
Gym, Jacuzzi, Steam and Sauna rooms ($)
7 lit tennis courts (rackets and balls are provided)
Snorkeling (one hour free equipment use per day)
Windsurfing (standard boards only) **
Sailing (standard boats only) **
Diving (1 lesson free per week in swimming pool)
Catamaran **
Aquatic bikes
Aqua-aerobics in pool
Water polo
Beach Volleyball
Table Tennis
Big-piece chess
Billiards table
Taxes and gratuities
*Reservations are required and are subject to availability. Restrictions apply: For a 7 nights stay – guests are given 4 á la carte dinner coupons, for a 4 to 6 night stay – guests are given 2 á la carte dinner coupons, for a 3 nights stay guests are given 1 á la carte dinner coupon. Restaurant Dress Code: semi-formal (long pants, collar shirt and shoes are required).
** Reservations may apply, minimum skills required.
The Barcelo Maya Palace has the true "Wow" Factor
Truly appreciate you thinking of us! We had a blast at the Barcelo Maya Palace Resort. (Weather . . rained a few times and almost had bad weather during the vow renewal ceremony for our 25th wedding anniversary, but it all came together!:)
The wedding was extremely organized and the wedding coordinator did a great job, just as you assured me:) Amazing someone can walk into her office, and be able to plan a full blown wedding within an hour . . . crazy!
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Thanks as always,
Greenville, Texas
Contact Information
email: [email protected] Toll-free: 1-877-380-4132 Quote Complimentary Newsletter Book your Vacation Package
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Home → Funny Stuff → Thanksgiving Fun Pages – 2012
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When going on holiday, Clarion's VT1010E makes even the longest trips enjoyable. This multi-format media player with high-definition screen brings the big screen to your backseat passengers...A 10-inch screen for maximum viewing comfortThe VT1010E provides optimum visibility thanks to its 26 cm screen. The high resolution display (800 x 480 pixels) will place you at the heart of the action! Time flies whilst sitting comfortably in your car...CD, DVD, MP3, DivX… everything is playableFancy looking at your holiday snaps on the way home? Or maybe listen to some music or watch a DVD? No need to bring your laptop - you can play all your digital content on the VT1010E! Equipped with an SD/MMC card reader, USB port and disk drive, the VT1010E supports more than 10 audio/visual formats. By being attached to the ceiling, the VT1010E is also unobtrusive.
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What do the changes to FPN member accounts mean for you?
- If you are a Bronze or Silver Member with no commercial interests: absolutely nothing.
- If you are a Gold Member with no commercial interests: absolutely nothing, with 1 small exception. You cannot post unlimited numbers of listings in Classifeds anymore, but you wouldn't anyway.
- If you are a Gold Member with commercial (or other) interests: you no longer can advertise in high volumes or at high value without a Premium account.
- Premium accounts come at a price, at 3 different levels, with 3 different sets of extra options, providing the possibility to advertise your business or services right here on FPN in a variety of ways. The latter was not possible before.
Who can purchase a Premium Account?
Silver and Gold Members only. These accounts are upgradable as well, from one to the other. Do note that purchasing a Premium account is a commitment for a full year and that there is no refund option.
Why these changes?
We need funding to keep FPN running, and hopefully growing. FPN is run by volunteers, but there are certain costs which cannot be avoided, such as hosting, licensing, support and accounting costs.
In order to find out more, please read any of the relevant News items, click on the links in the Side Bar, or in the bar at the top of each page.
Kind regards,
The FPN Admin Team


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I get a fair amount of hate mail. It comes with the territory and part of me enjoys actually reading and responding to it. But there isn't really hate mail quite like Alabama hate mail.
The first salvo came with a throwaway joke about the 2008 PapaJohn's.com Bowl, objectively the worst bowl of all time. (No one denies this.) I took a backhanded swipe at the city of Birmingham, they took some swipes back, I (childishly) responded in kind. All in the name of good fun and quality pizza. But as time went on, I noticed a trend. Of all the emails I got from people who missed the point—and there were a lot—the ones about stories from Alabama seemed to miss it by the widest margin.
What many readers don't get is that I enjoy arguing about sports and almost never take it personally. Debate is what makes the games interesting. I don't care if people call me names or don't realize that I'm a white guy. I don't even care if they think I'm stupid. But what infuriates me to no end, is people who think I'm stupid because they completely misunderstood what I wrote. I will go to great, unreasonable lengths to convince these people that they are the ones in the wrong. Unfortunately, these are the people that are hardest to reach.
Last year I wrote a post about the Tennessee Volunteers hostess program and threw in a couple of lines about U of A that were neither accusatory or slanderous. Yet I got an email from the actual Director of Graduate Admissions—a Ph.D.!—calling me a liar and demanding that I prove to him a fact that I had not asserted. When I pointed out that I was not specifically talking about Alabama when I said that some hostess groups were attached to school admissions offices, making his point of contention meaningless, his response was, "I really don't have time to deal with you." But he started it! Gah!!
Shortly thereafter, I began a correspondence with an individual named Stacey that I feel perfectly encapsulates everything I find maddening about readers, complainers, Alabama and the internet. It's not the angriest email I've ever received, or the most insulting, but it contains all the rhetorical tricks that most flummox me—misrepresentation of ideas; calling someone a liar for something they didn't say; inability to follow linear argument; insults, followed by mocking someone for their anger over being insulted; references to relatives in law enforcement; declaring attempts to defend oneself as "being defensive"; and then calling someone a "lady" because they got upset. I fell for every one of them.
I am not at all proud of my behavior here, but some people just inadvertently know how to make me insane. Just like when a driver who nearly causes an accident honks their horn and speeds away believing they're the ones who have somehow been wronged, I will never know if Stacey eventually realized her error or was simply fucking with me the entire time. In any case, I reprint the entire exchange to prove a maxim I've long held dear, yet too often ignored: "Never argue with a fool, because bystanders might not be able to tell you apart."
* * * * *
From Stacey G.
Subject: Wrong!
Coming from a long line of Alabama graduates and being proudly enrolled in the graduate school myself, I am well-schooled in the history of the University. Your post about "Bear's Angels" is not only untrue, but irresponsible. Do your homework.
Dash to Stacey:
Ok, so school me. What part is not true? (Or irresponsible?) I cited more than one independent reference to Bear's Angels, so are you saying they didn't exist?
Stacey to Dash:
That is comical. What credible reference did you cite? Yes, irresponsible is the EXACT word to describe your post. Alleging that at UA, female hostesses are "attached to the school's admissions office, but operated in a shady netherworld"? You school me in how that is credible or accurate reporting.
Dash to Stacey:
Look, I know the word "Alabama" appeared elsewhere in that paragraph, but if you read it again you might notice the punctuation mark known as a period that signals the end of one thought and the beginning of another. In the sentence you just selectively and incompletely quoted, I actually used a different set of nouns, adjectives and qualifiers (groups [plural], usually, often?) none of which are synonyms for the "University of Alabama." I never claimed that UA's recruiting groups were part of the admissions office, which ironically would have made them less suspect as an organization.
You are now the second person affiliated with Alabama who has expressed confusion about this point and that really has me concerned. Now if you have any real factual errors to discuss and not simply imagined slights, I would be happy to discuss those with you further.
P.S. However, you are absolutely right that Sports Illustrated is not a credible journalistic reference.
Wow, Dash, you are arrogant and condescending, but then again, you grew up in Michigan, so you have successfully lived down to expectations. While I realize you like to poke fun at the South, and admittedly we are easy sources for material, I am well aware of grammar and punctuation.
Plenty of schools have Belles, Ambassadors, Hostesses, etc. However, UT sends their girls to prospective athletes' high school games and hometowns to woo them. As a former Division I athlete, I know recruitment regulations and how many contacts or visits are allowed. The violation is the location, frequency, and timing of the contact if the NCAA deems the girls official representatives of the University.
[This] is libel. You imply that Alabama's Admissions Office pimps out young women. You patronizingly said my interpretation of your writing "concerns" you; your loose semantics should concern you. It is not an "imagined slight."
Dearest Stacey,
I guess they don't teach libel at Alabama either. I implied no such thing and your reading of this is pure fantasy.
How do you still not get that the third sentence has nothing to do with the first two? Should I break it down for you? "Groups" — plural, meaning other groups at other schools that may or may not be the ones previously mentioned. "Often" — meaning not "always or "every." At no point did I even hint that Alabama's recruiting group was affiliated with the school admissions office and I never accused (implied or otherwise) anyone at the school of any wrongdoing. The sentence that you're so worked up over is not even about Alabama and I'm not suggesting that anyone, at any school, is a pimp. If fact, had you managed to get past this particular paragraph, I specifically stated later in the piece that these girls are not under orders from anyone and that the Alabama group doesn't even exist anymore. This isn't semantics, it's basic reading comprehension.
You, on the other hand, know for a fact that the UT's girls were operating under orders from the school. THAT would be libel, were I stupid enough to print it. But unlike you, I try not to make accusations that I can't back up.
And yes, I am condescending and arrogant, but only to people to call me a liar without actually pointing out any of my lies. I eagerly await your newest trumped up charge (sexism? bribery? halitosis?) against me.
Nice retort. "The lady doth protest too much methinks" You being the lady.
I've pointed out your inaccuracies, and yet you attempt to insult me instead of answering me. I've read your entire piece. I've never called you a liar. Resorting to personal attacks and insults does not reflect upon my intelligence but the lack of yours and the lack of your ability to simply be able to back up what you write.
With a dad and brother who are FBI agents as well as a brother who is an attorney, I know exactly what constitutes libel. I claimed no "facts" about UT. Check your own reading comprehension. I told you the alleged violation and why UT is being investigated.
This is actually my fault. I can't ask you to do your homework when I didn't do mine before writing you. Had I been aware that your credibility rating is a mere 51%, I would not have taken your piece seriously. It seems a better use of your time would be to actually do your job and research your topics instead of trying to get in a pissing match.
Good luck,
Angry Guy:
Oh Stacey....
You have still failed to point out a single statement I've made that is factually inaccurate. Everything that you've accused me of being wrong about so far are things that I didn't actually say (Or imply, suggest, hint, nudge or wink at.) You inferred them, through a willful misreading of my words. The irony is that I thought Alabama actually came out quite favorably in piece, but then I don't get insanely defensive whenever someone mentions my alma mater.
However, I would like to take a moment to point out a few more of your inaccuracies. (Remember, you started this pissing match and while I'm flattered that you think otherwise, my time is not that valuable.)
Stacey: "I've never called you a liar."
Stacey's first email: "Your post about "Bear's Angels" is not only untrue." Saying things that are untrue, makes one a liar doesn't it?
Stacey: "Resorting to personal attacks and insults does not reflect upon my intelligence but the lack of yours."
Stacey's previous paragraph: "You being the lady." Previous email: "You grew up in Michigan, so you have successfully lived down to expectations." Okay, that one was a whole state, so maybe that doesn't count as "personal."
Stacey: "I claimed no "facts"
Stacey's last email: "However, UT sends their girls to prospective athletes' high school games and hometowns to woo them." No qualifiers (alleged? might? maybe? possibly?) makes this a statement of fact.
Stacey: "Had I been aware that your credibility rating is a mere 51%"
My last blogger credibility score was 54%, thank you very much. (Made up statistic courtesy of Internet Credibility Clearinghouse, Oct. 2009.) Now who's not doing their research?
You tickle me.
I don't think you are in a position to accuse anyone of being insanely defensive. Look how much time you've spent on one complaint. I'm amused and flattered you took time to attempt a point by point run down of my emails. Futile, but still flattering. I'm telling you, though, you are wasting precious time — 54% (sorry, you're correct — I must have looked at a diff't poll than you — there is more than one, you do know that, right? And regardless, gosh, 54 is so different from 51) is not something to be proud of. Would you trust a doctor who was accurate only 54% of the time? Would you use birth control that works only 54% of the time? Your garrulous nonsense is Palin-ish and irrelevant. Run along now and copy and paste more articles from Sports Illustrated.
Happy Holidays, Dash — say, are your parents Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl?
Defeated Blogger:
Dearest Stace (no Y, because I think we're reached that level in our relationship):
"Futile" is definitely the word to describe any attempt to reason with you.
P.S. It has just now occurred to me that Stacey is probably a dude. That information might have helped me.


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hello all...i'm recently new to android and image processing..
i have a project that related with image processing and color detection.
the first thing that i want to know is how to crop an image based on it's color, the image was captured by my camera and then crop it.
for example i capture leaf color chart image and i just want to process the color chart but because i capture with phone camera so there are some part or background that i don't need to process..
what the best algorithm that i may used and how can i implement it in android ?
thanks all for your responds and sorry for my bad english...


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Drug-induced Xerostomia. Evaluation of Malic Acid 1%, Salivary Mucins and Buffering Capacity
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01652001
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : July 27, 2012
Results First Posted : April 5, 2016
Last Update Posted : April 5, 2016
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of a topical sialogogue spray containing 1% malic acid on patients affected by xerostomia caused by drugs.
This research took the form of a double-blind, randomized clinical trial at Faculty of Dentistry of University of Granada (Spain). Participants with antidepressant-induced and antihypertensive-induce xerostomia were divided into two groups: for the first 'intervention group' a topical sialogogue spray (1% malic acid) was applied, while for the second 'control group', a placebo spray was applied; for both groups the sprays were applied on demand during two weeks. The Dry Mouth Questionnaire (DMQ) was used to evaluate xerostomia levels before and after product/placebo application. Unstimulated and stimulated salivary flows rates, before and after application, were measured.
|Condition or disease
|Xerostomia Depression Hypertension
|Drug: Malic Acid Other: Placebo
|Phase 2 Phase 3
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|185 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Parallel Assignment
|Double (Participant, Investigator)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Effectiveness of Malic Acid 1% in Patients With Xerostomia Induced by Drugs. Determination of Salivary Mucins and Buffering Capacity
|Study Start Date :
|January 2011
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|January 2014
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|January 2014
Experimental: Malic Acid 1%
Intervention group subjects was the delivery to the patients of a topical sialogogue, containing 1% malic acid, xylitol 10% and fluoride 0.05%(Xeros Dentaid Spray©, Dentaid, Barcelona, Spain).
Spray was transferred by foreign personnel into identical opaque flasks(without any brand name)labeled A.
Drug: Malic Acid
Oral spray for application into the oral cavity
Other Names:
Placebo Comparator: Control
Control group was given a placebo with opaque flask(without any brand name)labeled B and with the same presentation and composition than Experimental group (excepting 1% malic acid).
Other: Placebo
Oral spray for application into the oral cavity
Other Name: Flask labeled B
- Dry Mouth Questionnaire (DMQ) [ Time Frame: 2 weeks ]
Dry Mouth Questionnaire (DMQ) was used in order to obtain subjective information about the severity of xerostomia before and after treatment with malic acid/placebo.
Every participant answered an initial questionnaire (DMQ 1) about the symptoms related to oral dryness, before receiving a spray (1% malic acid or placebo). After two weeks of applications, patients had to answer DMQ 1 again as well as an additional questionnaire (DMQ 2) about the efficacy of the sprays. Increased DMQ scores indicate improvement of xerostomia. DMQ 1 was used to assess the initial severity of oral dryness and in particular its impact on oral function: problems when chewing, swallowing, speaking and general impact on daily life.
DMQ 1 used a 0-to-4 rating scale where 0 = "very dry" and 4 = "not dry at all." After two weeks of treatment, DMQ 1 was repeated and it was included DMQ 2.
At the end values of DMQ 1 and DMQ 2 were summed
- Sialometries [ Time Frame: 2 weeks ]
Unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow rates were assessed in all patients. The unstimulated salivary flow rate was obtained by the spit method every 30 seconds for 15 minutes. Saliva was collected in 20 mL plastic containers, which were pre-weighted.
Stimulated whole saliva was obtained by chewing a 1 g piece of paraffin wax for six minutes. Saliva collected during the first minute was discarded, and then collected into the container every 30 seconds.
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 80 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Xerostomia
- Drug consumption
- Antidepressant and antihypertensive agents
Exclusion Criteria:
- Systemic diseases
- Head and neck radiotherapy
- Intake of drugs with high xerostomizing capacity
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01652001
|Dental School
|Granada, Spain, 18071
|Principal Investigator:
|Gerardo Gómez-Moreno, Professor
|Universidad de Granada
|Responsible Party:
|Gerardo Gomez Moreno, Professor, Universidad de Granada
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
PI10/00932 ( Other Grant/Funding Number: Instituto de Salud Carlos III )
|First Posted:
|July 27, 2012 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|April 5, 2016
|Last Update Posted:
|April 5, 2016
|Last Verified:
|April 2016
|Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
|Plan to Share IPD:
Antidepressant agents
Antihypertensive agents
Salivary Gland Diseases
Mouth Diseases
Stomatognathic Diseases


text:
Ah, at last we had arrived in the Sunshine State and our first stop {ok technically the second stop — the first stop was at the Destin Outlets obviously} was off to AJ's to catch the sunset while enjoying some yummy vacation style cocktails while watching the Destin Fishing Rodeo! With a city tag line "World's Luckiest Fishing Village" you bet those fisherman brought in some good competition catches!
The next day, we decided to catch the ferry to Shell Island near Panama City and soak in the isolated, sandy island and our first touch at the sugary sand!
Look at that water – looks refreshing huh? Makes you just want to bury your feet in the sand and tread further into the waves. That is until you see one of theeeeese guys!
JELLYFISH! The Gulf Coast is covered in jellyfish. Um, yeah you bet we were staying out of that water!
And instead we will get back to admiring this yummy sand. You ready for a little Wikipedia fact? Turns out the sand comes from the Appalachian Mountains, and is made of finely ground quartz crystal giving the appearance of sugar. Basically, it is truly remarkable and I wish I could curl my toes up and walk in that sand just about everyday.
We couldn't leave Destin without a quick stop to Donut Hole, a local bakery and cafe. While everything looked so delicious we settled on a few omelets, eggs, and left with a couple of donuts for the road!
We had a great trip visiting my sister and it was a great way to extend our summer all the way into October! We can't wait to go back!


text:
J. D. Heyes
Natural News
November 21, 2012
When he was elected to his first term in 2008, Barack Obama promised the most open, transparent administration in U.S. history.
"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government," he said in a memo to the heads of his Executive Branch agencies.
That was then.
Since that empty promise, there have been a number of occasions where this president and prominent members of his administration have reneged on that pledge. Not all of them are as outrageous as the botched "Fast and Furious" operation or as the Benghazi disaster and the fiasco with disgraced CIA chief David Petraeus, but they are powerful nonetheless because each of them have contributed to an administration that is delivering to the American people the exact opposite of what it swore an oath to deliver.
Gee, just how widespread is this behavior?
One of the latest, but certainly not the greatest, Obama officials to abuse the public's trust is Lisa Jackson, the head of the meddlesome Environmental Protection Agency. A House committee is investigating whether she used an email alias in an attempt to hide correspondence from open-government requests and her agency's own watchdog, something GOP lawmakers on the panel say might well be illegal, The Washington Times reported.
The House Science Committee has asked Jackson to release to the panel all information related to an email account in the name of "Richard Windsor," one of the aliases identified by a researcher who is looking into EPA operations.
The panel has also requested that the White House's lawyer, as well as the EPA's inspector general, look into the matter as well, and then report back by month's end. The committee says the secret email accounts "could have been used to keep key information from official watchdogs as well as the public," the paper said.
Naturally, the EPA refused to comment on the matter.
The researcher who uncovered the alias "Windsor" email, Christopher Horner, has been locked in repeated battles with the administration over its global warming initiatives. Earlier this year, he and colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute sued in an attempt to secure the release of emails from "secondary" accounts from the agency, citing a memo saying the practice actually began under the leadership of then-EPA Director Carol Browner, during the Clinton regime.
(J.D. note: Makes you wonder how many more federal agencies do this sort of thing, doesn't it?)
Horner uncovered the secret email accounts while researching a book, "The Liberal War on Transparency," which was published last month. He said after the book came out, a pair of former EPA officials told him about the "Richard Windsor" email, saying it was "one of the alternate email addresses she used."
Horner said he also discovered some EPA employees who were setting up private Gmail (Google email) accounts using their first and last names, along with the word "EPA" as a standard format.
"They've been moving government over to private email," Horner told the Times. "In the book, I reveal private servers the White House had universities and pressure groups set up so they can conduct discussions."
Private email for public business is illegal, but are they accountable?
Such accounts, and more importantly the reason for such accounts, appears to be a blatant violation of federal open records laws, which are designed to make information available to the public now, and to posterity at the National Archives. The rules prohibit using private emails to try to get around open-records laws.
But several news reports have revealed a number of instances recently where the White House and its various departments and agencies have used private email to do business. That includes the Department of Energy, where Jonathan Silver, the agency's loan officer, "explicitly directed others to keep loan guarantee communications secret by not linking public and private email accounts, and sent emails detailing official government business using his private email account," the Science Committee said.
When government no longer feels accountable to the public, the public gets unaccountable government. That seems like such a simple concept, but based on the results of the recent elections – where, after more than $2.5 billion in campaign spending, control of the House, Senate and White House remained unchanged – it's a concept too many Americans obviously seem willing to accept.
Is it any wonder they don't care to listen to us anymore?
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


text:
Due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding COVID-19, some of the remedies identified in recall press releases may not be available at this time. Consumers should check with recalling firms for further details.
It is important to remember that CPSC and recalling firms urge consumers not to use recalled products.
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text:
Freelica, $0.00, new trans, new life
Freelica, $0.00, new trans, new life
|Oct 2, 2017 - 11:55 AM
Joined Feb 2, '07
From Berlin, WI
Currently Offline
Reputation: 18 (100%)
When life hands you lemon, you make lemonade.
but what happens when life hands you a '96 5 speed celica ST, aka Freelica???
so, this thing just kinda almost literally fell into my hands. Thursday night my uncle hits me up on facepage and was like, "hey, i got this sitting in my yard, you interested?"
I'm like "swching! yea!" (but i didn't say the swching part)
so details are it was my cousin's car, they were driving heard a big noise? in the general engine bay/engine area and then it died. got it towed to my uncle's and it sat for 3 years. possibly spun bearings but we'll see once i dig into it some more.
Friday comes around, I'm like ok cool another celica would be nice to have to work on but I'm still kinda broke so i'll let it simmer for now. then my cousin was like, "eh yo, if nobody's interested, I'm junking it today!"
so I hit her up and was all like, "ey ho, i'm interested yo, how much ya want for it?"
she was like "free fiddy!" and I'm like free fiddy?, she's like yeah free dollars and fiddy. you just gotta tow it out and it's yours.
so she left the title with my uncle but forgot the key so that will be mailed to me.
so for the price of towing, i got me a freelica.
onto pick chars.
the pix my uncle sent me:
of course, first thing i do when it got dropped off was line up my green celi with it for a photoshoot. lol
then proceeded to clean the crap out of it.
seats are trashed. had various smells of old pets and smoke.
seems to have taken a slight hit here. tail light's cracked and pushed in a bit...
came with a half torn apart system? lol
doors are typical of a midwest car. but seems to be the only bad rust i see on the body so far.
rear quarters looks surprisingly ok. this is the worst of it.
gave it a quick wash to see what's left of the paint. hood's been spray canned and they didn't bother to mask anything so i had to spend some time scraping black overspray from the headlights and windshield....
she looks good from 30 maybe 20 ft.
dash cleaned up REALLY well. aside from the torn leather steering wheel (i have my stock one and a 3post to replace) and shifter, everything looks in relatively good shape.
I believe I should have an extra door panel to replace this if needed. there's dimples everywhere.
seats, I'll most likely trash. aside from having various stains and rips. the ever present smell of cigarettes just doesn't cut it for me and I still have my tan seats from my green one when I did the 7th gen interior swap.
overall, it only takes a bit of loving to make it able to sit next to my green one. they're both pretty happy I'd say
This post has been edited by cheela: Aug 27, 2019 - 12:03 PM
*1997 Celica ST - 3SGE Greytop BEAMS
*1977 Celica RA29 - Classic Cruiser
*2005 Matrix AWD - Wifey's car aka Trix the Racoon Killer
|Oct 14, 2017 - 7:44 PM
Joined May 10, '10
From Norton, MA
Currently Offline
Reputation: 37 (100%)
You need some speaker grills? Cause I have a few sets of speaker grills laying around. At least I think I still have them...
so, I got the key today. thought i'd entertain myself and try starting it to see whats wrong. used a jumpstarter. connected to the battery, turn the key...... VROOM....???? what? I thought they said the engine gave out? a puff of smoke under the car and I can tell the flex pipe is busted so I try to put it in gear to move the car. 1st gear nothing, 2nd gear, nothing, 3rd, 4th, 5th, reverse... nothing... so i guess it wasn't spun bearings. looks like somebody toasted the clutch.
so it looks like i'll be do a clutch job instead or engine swap. I know most of you are booing me right now because you wanted an engine swap. but if this works out, I can have this black one as a daily driver and then focus on swapping my green one.
I would check the axles first. Just to rule them out. You just never know.
|Lo-Fi Version
|Time is now: September 27th, 2020 - 4:08 PM


text: By ALEXANDER O'RIORDAN Last night Sepp Blatter resigned after 17 years in the position as president of football's global governing body, FIFA. The resignation was to be expected since American criminal investigators last week indicted a host of FIFA executives on charges related to corruption and wire fraud. Notably, these charges allege that South Africa paid over a R100 million ($10 million) …Read More »


text:
MENOMINEE, Mich. (AP) - A western Upper Peninsula man is jailed after authorities found several explosive devices in a Menominee apartment building.
Menominee County prosecutor Dan Hass tells (http://bit.ly/14YNfen ) the Eagle-Herald of Marinette, Wis., that the 51-year-old man could be charged Saturday and arraigned as early as Monday.
At least five devices were found by police Friday afternoon after a search of the man's apartment. Neighbors in the 8-unit building were notified, but an evacuation was not ordered.
A bomb squad was called in late Friday night.
Police were notified Thursday of threats apparently made to the man's wife.


text:
Lincoln's birthday month brings last chance for free field trips to
presidential museum this school year
Send a link to a friend
[January 09, 2013]
SPRINGFIELD -- The month of
February brings Abraham Lincoln's birthday, along with the final
chance for school groups to make free visits to the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Museum during the 2012-2013 school year.
All presidential museum field trips
are booked through the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau at
Group-Travel/Youth-Tours. Additional information is available by
calling the Convention and Visitors Bureau at 217- 789-2360. If the
weather becomes an issue on the day of a scheduled field trip,
organizers can simply call the presidential museum at 217-558-8939
to cancel.
Regular admission to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is
$12 for adults and $6 for children ages 5-15.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum uses a combination of
rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship to immerse visitors
in the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Students can see "ghosts"
come to life on stage, watch TV coverage of the 1860 presidential
election, roam through the Lincoln White House, experience booming
cannons in a Civil War battle and come face to face with priceless
original Lincoln artifacts.
The museum's "To Kill and To Heal" exhibit explains the weapons
of the Civil War, the damage they did and the extraordinary efforts
of doctors and nurses to save the injured. Another temporary exhibit
explores the life of Mexican President Benito Juarez, the man often
dubbed "the Mexican Lincoln."
[to top of second column]
The Emancipation Proclamation just turned 150 years old, and the
museum is displaying a rare copy of the proclamation until Jan. 23.
After that, Lincoln's famed stovepipe hat goes back on display.
While visiting the presidential museum, students can get up close
and personal with Illinois Civil War history through an exhibit
scavenger hunt in the adjacent presidential library, which is
presenting the Civil War exhibit "Boys in Blue." All teachers
visiting with school groups receive a free teacher packet to help
bring the museum experience back to their classrooms.
For more information about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum, visit
[Text from
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
file received from the
Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency]
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text:
'Tis the season for non-MMO players dipping their toes in the vast MMO waters; the guys at Man vs. Horse have done a bang up look at City of Heroes, EVE Online, and the ubiquitous WoW. It's always looking at veteran gamers coming to a new genre, and the series is a quick, funny, engaging read. It's also given me an idea of what MMOs I won't be trying:
At times it's staggeringly beautiful. You'll forgive the time it takes to travel between space stations as you watch the glowing nebulae glint off your ship's hull. It's impossibly slick. Eve's interface isn't slick at all. It's like falling down a waterfall of endless menus. Boxes of stuff will clutter up the screen as you play, and nothing is ever as simple as it should be. You'll buy something in a space station, but buying it doesn't actually give you the item, you have to open cargo hold, and then open your inventory and drag the item you've just bought into your ship. This is something we constantly forgot to do, which meant , once we had eventually figured out what was happening, that we had left a trail of forgotten ship upgrades in storage hangars in various space stations scattered across the galaxy. Much time was spent retrieving them. We upgraded our weapons to take on some tough space pirates, after much peering at tiny stat values trying to figure out what the difference was between a Laser Cannon and a Railgun, and whether or not our characters had the skill to use them or the money to buy them, we rolled into battle to find ourselves confused and really quite embarrassed when none of our weapons worked. My Laser Cannon had packed in because the energy grid on my ship couldn't handle the new hardware, and Dante hadn't bought any rockets for his rocket launcher. We warped the hell out of there to spend some more time menu-gazing at the nearest space station. All in all, it was a constantly frustrating experience with a near vertical difficulty curve.
The four-part series includes an entry for each game, plus a concluding section; go forth and conquer. MMO Showdown [Man vs. Horse via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]


text:
While we spoke with Castlevania producer Koji "IGA" Igarashi three days before his Game Developers Conference session, we scratched the surface of his forthcoming lecture when he talked a little about working within 2D games. Mainly, however, we were interested in asking a few questions about working with handhelds, and his thoughts on next-gen. We knew that we'd get the meat of his years of experience at his lecture on the final day of GDC, and as it turned out we got even more than we'd expected. Stepping up to the podium for his first-ever public game design lecture, "Light and Darkness of 2D Gaming," IGA did not hold back on discussing his experiences while working within the rapidly fading art form of 2D gaming.
"I really like 2D games," IGA said through his translator. "For Castlevania, there are benefits, but there are problems. It's a system of pluses and minuses." He then whisked through a 43-page PowerPoint presentation over the next hour, laying out those ups and downs. He started out with a chart explaining the four types of gameplay in action games. There's timing, in which the player uses onscreen information to predict his or her next move, distance, in which the player uses onscreen information to grasp a sense of location, positioning, where a player determines an advantageous place on the screen and maintains that place, and direction, where a player deals with which way he or she faces and moves. These, IGA explained, are the cornerstones of an action game.
With that, he detailed the inherent problems of working within a 3D realm. Contemporary games deal with the idea of a virtual three-dimensional space, in which objects are made to be the same size as real objects, and then they are projected onto a two-dimensional plane. In between that projection lies both the game's characteristics and presentation. But, consequentially, on a 2D display there's no depth perception creating a gap between the visuals and the actual game space.
To prove his point, he played some thirty seconds of footage from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. In the game, Leon Belmont crossed through an area of giant bladed pendulums. IGA explained that the player must differentiate lines in which the pendulums cut, which can be a problem when depth becomes visually confusing in the environment. It then becomes up to the player's perception of space, rather than the depth of field in that space, to cross an obstacle.
The same applies when fighting villains; a clip of Leon fighting vampire bats was then shown; IGA said that due to a problem with depth of field, the player has to rely on elements within the space, such as the shadows of the vampire bats, to battle them. In both 2D and 3D games, the player sees onscreen information, perceives space, and takes action. However, in 3D games, players must compensate for the lack of depth perception before understanding space. Therefore, according to Igarashi's theory, two-dimensional gaming is an easier introduction to depth perception for gamers.
2D, he said, allows for full use of each of the four elements of action gameplay, because the player can see and perceive depth of field and space more naturally than in 3D gaming. According to IGA, in 2D there are restrictions on the four elements, even if they can be used fully, because of gravity. Positioning and direction are fixed (a player can move on an X/Y axis, but that's it), while timing and distance could be combined to create more elaborate scenarios, usually in the realm of dodging and attacking. 3D games have a more ambiguous display of distance, whereas 2D games make distance very clear. The traditional gameplay is its attraction, he said.


text:
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- Hand Tooled Floral Embossed Western Antiqued Genuine Top Grain Highest Quality Leather Handmade Holster gun belt. In the style of the Lone Ranger metal studs on holster and belt. * PLEASE CHECK SIZE BY MEASURING WHERE YOU WILL BE WEARING THE GUN BELT WITH MEASURING TAPE. DO NOT USE PANT OR STANDARD BELT SIZE, SIZE IS BASED ON MIDDLE HOLE. TO AVOID EXTRA CHARGES /DELAYS. WE MEASURE ALL ITEMS BEFORE SHIPPING & WILL SEND THE CORRECT SIZE.*
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text:
I made this background using Tim Holtz distress ink, masking paper, and a blending tool. The sentiment is also one of Tim Holtz stamps.
So do you want to know how to play? Go to the Outlawz and join in. They have a different challenge for every day of the week. You can win prizes and make new friends. This is some of the friendliest ladies.
So this is the end project, I decided to round the corners at the last moment. I like it better that way. What do you think?
Thank you for visiting today. May God bless you. I love when you come to visit it blesses me greatly.


text:
As it stands, Mandarin is the language of government, commerce and pop songs in China. But not everyone is excited about learning it.
While the government insists Mandarin is necessary for social cohesion, some of China's ethnic minorities have pushed back. Tibetan students, for example, have protested plans to shift nearly all their classes into Mandarin — a policy they say represents a larger campaign by Beijing to dilute Tibetan culture and assert political control.
There have been protests in Cantonese-speaking parts of China, too. People there are worried their native dialect is being forced out of public places and into the home.
But the general trend points in the opposite direction. Despite protests and lagging investment in rural education, not to mention the prevalence of regional dialects, Mandarin usage is growing at a breakneck pace.
Just seven years ago, state media reported only about half of China's population spoke Mandarin, compared with about 70 percent today.
Government policy lags social desire
Steve Hansen and Kellen Parker are the founders of Phonemica, an Internet project that invites people to upload stories in dialects derived from old Chinese. They say China's staggering economic growth is playing a big role in Mandarin's expansion. Increasingly, Mandarin is the language of survival, and opportunity.
"I think, honestly, in many areas of China, government policy is lagging social desire," Hansen said.
China's unruly linguistic landscape is known for its groupings of wildly different dialects that go back hundreds of years, spread over a vast geography.
"The reason it's so diverse is because it's so huge. I mean, you have hundreds of millions of people," said Hansen. "Many of these people, for hundreds of years, they grow up in the same valley. They stay in the same valley. And what's interesting about China is a lot of them, up until now… have not moved around a lot."
No Mandarin leads to menial jobs
Now that's all changing, fast. Bullet trains crisscross the country. And migrant workers shuttle between home villages and factory floors hundreds of miles away.
On a recent morning in Shanghai, 60 kindergartners — the children of migrant workers from all over China — repeated phrases in Mandarin, while their teacher rewarded them with stickers.
School administrator Lai Zherong said many of the school's students don't speak Mandarin when they arrive. But they pick it up quickly. Without Mandarin, she said, they risk being slotted into menial jobs when they grow up, on construction sites or factory lines.
Beijing says about 400 million Chinese cannot speak the national language. But Parker, of Phonemica, says: don't blink.
"I think that number is going to be much, much smaller in 20 years," he said, then added: "I think it's going to be shockingly smaller in 20 years."