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conflict of interest
When someone has completed a scientific project, it is customary to publish it ['unpublished science is no science', someone once told me many years ago]. To do so, he needs to write it up and submit it to a scientific journal. The editor of this journal will then submit it to a process called 'peer review'.
What does 'peer review' entail? Well, it means that 2-3 experts are asked to critically assess the paper in question, make suggestions as to how it can be improved and submit a recommendation as to whether or not the article deserves to be published.
Peer review has many pitfalls but, so far, nobody has come up with a solution that is convincingly better. Many scientists are under pressure to publish ['publish or perish'], and therefore some people resort to cheating. A most spectacular case of fraudulent peer review has been reported recently in this press release:
SAGE statement on Journal of Vibration and Control
London, UK (08 July 2014) – SAGE announces the retraction of 60 articles implicated in a peer review and citation ring at the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC). The full extent of the peer review ring has been uncovered following a 14 month SAGE-led investigation, and centres on the strongly suspected misconduct of Peter Chen, formerly of National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan (NPUE) and possibly other authors at this institution.
In 2013 the then Editor-in-Chief of JVC, Professor Ali H. Nayfeh,and SAGE became aware of a potential peer review ring involving assumed and fabricated identities used to manipulate the online submission system SAGE Track powered by ScholarOne Manuscripts™. Immediate action was taken to prevent JVC from being exploited further, and a complex investigation throughout 2013 and 2014 was undertaken with the full cooperation of Professor Nayfeh and subsequently NPUE.
In total 60 articles have been retracted from JVC after evidence led to at least one author or reviewer being implicated in the peer review ring. Now that the investigation is complete, and the authors have been notified of the findings, we are in a position to make this statement.
While investigating the JVC papers submitted and reviewed by Peter Chen, it was discovered that the author had created various aliases on SAGE Track, providing different email addresses to set up more than one account. Consequently, SAGE scrutinised further the co-authors of and reviewers selected for Peter Chen's papers, these names appeared to form part of a peer review ring. The investigation also revealed that on at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he had created.
Unbelievable? Perhaps, but sadly it is true; some scientists seem to be criminally ingenious when it comes to getting their dodgy articles into peer-reviewed journals.
And what does this have to do with ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE, you may well ask. The Journal of Vibration and Control is not even medical and certainly would never consider publishing articles on alternative medicine. Such papers go to one of the many [I estimate more that 1000] journals that cover either alternative medicine in general or any of the modalities that fall under this wide umbrella. Most of these journals, of course, pride themselves with being peer-reviewed – and, at least nominally, that is correct.
I have been on the editorial board of most of the more important journals in alternative medicine, and I cannot help thinking that their peer review process is not all that dissimilar from the fraudulent scheme set up by Peter Chen and disclosed above. What happens in alternative medicine is roughly as follows:
- a researcher submits a paper for publication,
- the editor sends it out for peer review,
- the peer reviewers are either those suggested by the original author or members of the editorial board of the journal,
- in either case, the reviewers are more than likely to be uncritical and recommend publication,
- in the end, peer review turns out to be a farcical window dressing exercise with no consequence,
- thus even very poor research and pseudo-research are being published abundantly.
The editorial boards of journals of alternative medicine tend to be devoid of experts who are critical about the subject at hand. If you think that I am exaggerating, have a look at the editorial board members of 'HOMEOPATHY' (or any other journal of alternative medicine) and tell me who might qualify as a critic of homeopathy. When the editor, Peter Fisher, recently fired me from his board because he felt I had tarnished the image of homeopathy, this panel lost the only person who understood the subject matter and, at the same time, was critical about it (the fact that the website still lists me as an editorial board member is merely a reflection of how slow things are in the world of homeopathy: Fisher fired me more than a year ago).
The point I am trying to make is simple: peer review is never a perfect method but when it is set up to be deliberately uncritical, it cannot possibly fulfil its function to prevent the publication of dodgy research. In this case, the quality of the science will be inadequate and generate false-positive messages that mislead the public.
Times are hard, also in the strange world of chiropractic, I guess. What is therefore more understandable than the attempt of chiropractors to earn a bit of money from people who want to lose weight? If just some of the millions of obese individuals could be fooled into believing that chiropractic is the solution for their problem, chiropractors across the world could be laughing all the way to the bank.
But how does one get to this point? Easy: one only needs to produce some evidence suggesting that chiropractic care is effective in reducing body weight. An extreme option is the advice by one chiropractor to take 10 drops of a homeopathic human chorionic gonadotropin product under the tongue 5 times daily. But, for many chiropractors, this might be one step too far. It would be preferable to show that their hallmark therapy, spinal adjustment, leads to weight loss.
With this in mind, a team of chiropractors performed a retrospective file analysis of patient files attending their 13-week weight loss program. The program consisted of "chiropractic adjustments/spinal manipulative therapy augmented with diet/nutritional intervention, exercise and one-on-one counselling."
Sixteen of 30 people enrolled completed the program. At its conclusion, statistically and clinically significant changes were noted in weight and BMI measures based on pre-treatment (average weight = 190.46 lbs. and BMI = 30.94 kg/m(2)) and comparative measurements (average weight = 174.94 lbs. and BMI = 28.50 kg/m(2)).
According to the authors of this paper, "this provides supporting evidence on the effectiveness of a multi-modal approach to weight loss implemented in a chiropractic clinic."
They do not say so, but we all know it, of course: one could just as well combine knitting or crossword puzzles with diet/nutritional intervention, exercise and one-on-one counselling to create a multi-modal program for weight loss showing that knitting or crossword puzzles are effective.
With this paper, chiropractors are not far from their aim of being able to mislead the public by claiming that CHIROPRACTIC CARE IS A NATURAL, SAFE, DRUG-FREE AND EFFECTIVE OPTION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF OBESITY.
Am I exaggerating? No, of course not. There must be thousands of chiropractors who have already jumped on the 'weight loss band-waggon'. If you don't believe me, go on the Internet and have a look for yourself. One of the worst sites I have seen might be 'DOCTORS GOLDMINE' (yes, most chiropractors call themselves 'doctor these days!) where a chiropractor promises his colleagues up to $100 000 per month extra income, if they subscribe to his wonderful weight-loss scheme.
It would be nice to be able to believe those who insist that these money-grabbing chiropractors are but a few rotten apples in a vast basket of honest practitioners. But I have problems with this argument – there seem to be far too many rotten apples and virtually no activity or even ambition to get rid of them.
Dr. Oz, famous through his TV show promoting all types of quackery, recently testified before a US Senate subcommittee hearing on protecting consumers from false and deceptive advertising of weight loss products. This event turned out to be less than flattering for Dr Oz. One journalist commented that he "might as well be a cowardly lion — sent home with his tail between his legs after being accused at a congressional hearing of lying on his show about weight-loss claims."
"I don't get why you need to say this stuff, because you know it's not true," said Senator Claire McCaskill, who led the commerce subcommittee hearing. "The scientific community is almost monolithically against you in terms of the efficacy of the products you called 'miracles,' " the Democratic senator from Missouri told Oz. "It's a major problem when people are spending more and more money and they're gaining more and more weight," said Senator Amy Klobuchar."Either you don't talk about these things at all, or you're going to have to be more specific because right now . . . this is not working."
A source close to Dr Oz said he was perplexed: "We were invited down to Washington to testify at a hearing about scams and instead it became all about how much we hate your show." Oz himself testified that he "heard the message…I do personally believe in the items that I talk about."
"I intensively study them. I have given my family these products. . . . If you can lose a pound a week more than you would have lost by using them, it jump-starts you and gets you going. I think it makes sense." "I'm surprised you're defending this," McCaskill replied. "It's something that gives people false hope. I don't see why you need to go there."
Another journalist commented that the Senators repeatedly placed him on the defense over his weight loss products: "I know you know how much power you have. I know you know that. You are very powerful and [with] power comes a great deal of responsibility," Senator Claire McCaskill , who led the Senate's consumer protection hearing titled "Protecting Consumers from False and Deceptive Advertising of Weight-Loss Products…You are being made an example of today because of the power you have in this space…We didn't call this hearing to beat up on you but we did call this hearing to talk about a real crisis in consumer protection. You can either be part of the police here or you can be part of the problem."
Oz insisted he was no huckster but admitted the products promoted on his show don't always have "the scientific muster" to present their benefits as "fact…I actually do personally believe in the items that I talk about in the show. I passionately studied them. I recognize that oftentimes they don't have the scientific muster to present as fact but nevertheless I would give my audience the advice I give my family all the time. And I have given my family these products," he said.
Dr Oz also said that some alternative treatments, such as prayer, cannot be tested scientifically. "I don't think this ought to be a referendum on the use of alternative medical therapies. Because if that's the case, listen, I've been criticized for having folks coming on my show talking about the power of prayer," he said. "I can't prove that prayer helps people survive an illness."
No, Dr Oz! I know you are mistaken! I have done the research – both on alternative slimming aids and on spiritual healing. The results quite clearly show that these methods are not more effective than a placebo.
In the early 1920s, a French physician thought he had discovered the virus that caused the Spanish flu. It oscillated under his microscope, and he thus called it oscillococcus. Not only did it cause the flu, in the opinion of his discoverer, but it was also responsible for a whole host of other diseases, including cancer. In fact, the virus does not exist, or at least nobody ever confirmed it existed, but that fact did not stop our good doctor to make a homeopathic remedy from it which he thought would cure all these diseases. His remedy, Oscillococcinum, is made from the liver and heart of a duck because the imaginative inventor believed that the fictitious virus was present in these organs of this animal.
To understand all this fully, one needs to know that the duck organs are so highly diluted that no molecule of the duck is present in the remedy. It is sold in the C200 potency. This means that one part of organ extract is diluted 1: 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (a note to Boiron's legal team: I had a hell of a time getting all these zeros right; in case, I got it wrong after all, it is an honest error – please do not sue me for it!). The dilution is so extreme that it amounts to a single molecule per a multitude of universes.
Given these facts it seems unlikely that the remedy has any effects on human health which go beyond those of a placebo. Let's see what the current Cochrane review says about its effectiveness: There is insufficient good evidence to enable robust conclusions to be made about Oscillococcinum(®) in the prevention or treatment of influenza and influenza-like illness. Our findings do not rule out the possibility that Oscillococcinum(®) could have a clinically useful treatment effect but, given the low quality of the eligible studies, the evidence is not compelling. There was no evidence of clinically important harms due to Oscillococcinum(®).
Considering that the first author of this review works for the British Homeopathic Association and the senior author is the homeopath of the Queen, this seems a pretty clear statement, don't you think?
Regardless of the scientific evidence, Oscillococcinum made of 'Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum', as it is officially called, became a homeopathic best-seller. In the US alone Boiron, the manufacturer, is said to sell US$ 15 m per year of this product. Not only that, in France, where the remedy is a popular medicine sold in virtually all pharmacies and often recommended as soon as you walk into a pharmacy, it is hard to find anyone who does not swear by the 'potentized' duck or is willing to discuss its merits critically.
The amazing duck, it seems, has turned into a 'holy cow'.
If we search on 'Medline' for 'complementary alternative medicine' (CAM), we currently get about 13000 hits. A little graph on the side of the page demonstrates that, during the last 4 years, the number of articles on this subject has grown exponentially.
Surely, this must be very good news: such intense research activity will soon tell us exactly which alternative treatments work for which conditions and which don't.
I beg to differ. Let me explain why.
The same 'Medline' search informs us that the majority of the recent articles were published in an open access journal called 'Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine' (eCAM). For example, of the 80 most recent articles listed in Medline (on 26/5/2014), 53 came from that journal. The publication frequency of eCAM and its increase in recent years beggars belief: in 2011, they published just over 500 articles which is already a high number, but, in 2012, the figure had risen to >800, and in 2013 it was >1300 (the equivalent 2013 figure for the BMJ/BMJ Open by comparison is 4, and that for another alt med journal, e.g. Forsch Komplement, is 10)
How do they do it? How can eCAM be so dominant in publishing alt med research? The trick seems to be fairly simple.
Let's assume you are an alt med researcher and you have an article that you would like to see published. Once you submit it to eCAM, your paper is sent to one of the ~150 members of the editorial board. These people are almost all strong proponents of alternative medicine; critics are a true rarity in this group. At this stage, you are able to suggest the peer reviewers for your submission (all who ever accepted this task are listed on the website; they amount to several thousand!), and it seems that, with the vast majority of submissions, the authors' suggestions are being followed.
It goes without saying that most researchers suggest colleagues for peer reviewing who are not going to reject their work (the motto seems to be "if you pass my paper, I will pass yours). Therefore even faily flimsy bits of research pass this peer review process and get quickly published online in eCAM.
This process explains a lot, I think: 1) the extraordinarily high number of articles published 2) why currently more than 50% of all alt med research originate from eCAM 3) why so much of it is utter rubbish.
Even the mere titles of some of the articles might demonstrate my point. A few examples have to suffice:
- Color distribution differences in the tongue in sleep disorder
- Wen-dan decoction improves negative emotions in sleep-deprived rats by regulating orexin-a and leptin expression.
- Yiqi Huoxue Recipe Improves Heart Function through Inhibiting Apoptosis Related to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Myocardial Infarction Model of Rats.
- Protective Effects of Bu-Shen-Huo-Xue Formula against 5/6 Nephrectomy-Induced Chronic Renal Failure in Rats
- Effects and Mechanisms of Complementary and Alternative Medicine during the Reproductive Process
- Evidence-based medicinal plants for modern chronic diseases
- Transforming Pain into Beauty: On Art, Healing, and Care for the Spirit
This system of uncritical peer review and fast online publication seems to suit many of the people involved in this process: the journal's owners are laughing all the way to the bank; there is a publication charge of US$ 2000 per article, and, in 2013, the income of eCAM must therefore have been well over US$2 000 000. The researchers are equally delighted; they get even their flimsiest papers published (remember: 'publish or perish'!). And the evangelic believers in alternative medicine are pleased because they can now claim that their field is highly research-active and that there is plenty of evidence to support the use of this or that therapy.
But there are others who are not served well by eCAM habit of publishing irrelevant, low quality articles:
- professionals who would like to advance health care and want to see reliable evidence as to which treatments work and which don't,
- the public who, in one way or another, pay for all this and might assume that published research tends to be relevant and reliable,
- the patients who have given their time to researchers in the hope that their gift will improve health care,
- ill individuals who hope that alternative treatments might relieve their suffering,
- politicians who rely on research to be reliable in order to arrive at the right decisions.
Come to think of it, the vast majority of people should be less than enchanted with eCAM and similar journals.
Boiron is the world's biggest producer of homeopathic remedies. It also is a firm that is relatively active in research into homeopathy. Here is one of their investigations which I find most remarkable.
This study was designed to describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients recommended allopathic and/or homeopathic medicines for influenza-like illness (ILI) or ear nose and throat ENT disorders by pharmacists in France and to investigate the effectiveness of these treatments.
The introduction of the article includes interesting information; it informs us that, although homeopathy is more popular in Europe than in the Unites States, sales of homeopathic medicines in the United States grew by more than 1,000% in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to grow. In parallel, the number of physicians specializing in homeopathy doubled between 1980 and 1982. In 2003, sales of homeopathic medicines in the United States were estimated to be between $300 and $450 million, with an average growth rate of approximately 8% per year. Homeopathic drugs are among the top 10 nonprescription products sold in the category of analgesics to treat coughs, colds, and flu. The sale of homeopathic medicines in the United States is controlled by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and regulations issued by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Homeopathic medicines in the United States are subject to well-controlled regulatory processes that closely resemble those used for allopathic medicines. FDA regulations for the sale of homeopathic medicines in the United States state that they can only be sold without prescription if they are for self-limiting conditions such as the common cold…
Am I mistaken, or does that paragraph read a bit like a text written by the marketing team of Boiron wanting to establish their products in the US?
Anyway, the methodology and results of the study are described in the abstract as follows:
A prospective, observational, multicenter study was carried out in randomly selected pharmacies across the 8 IDREM medical regions of France. Pharmacies that agreed to participate recruited male or female patients who responded to the following inclusion criteria: age ≥ 12 years presenting with the first symptoms of an ILI or ENT disorder that were present for less than 36 hours prior to the pharmacy visit. All medicines recorded in the study were recommended by the pharmacists. The following data were recorded at inclusion and after 3 days of treatment: the intensity of 13 symptoms, global symptom score, and disease impact on daily activities and sleep. Two groups of patients were compared: those recommended allopathic medicine only (AT group) and those recommended homeopathic medicine with or without allopathic medicine (HAT group). The number and severity of symptoms, change in global symptom score, and disease impact on daily activities and sleep were compared in the 2 treatment groups after 3 days of treatment. Independent predictors of recommendations for homeopathic medicine were identified by multi- factorial logistic regression analysis.
A total of 242 pharmacies out of 4,809 (5.0%) contacted agreed to participate in the study, and 133 (2.8%) included at least 1 patient; 573 patients were analyzed (mean age: 42.5 ± 16.2 years; 61.9% female). Of these, 428 received allopathic medicines only (74.7%; AT group), and 145 (25.3%) received homeopathic medicines (HAT group) alone (9/145, 1.6%) or associated with allopathy (136/145, 23.7%). At inclusion, HAT patients were significantly younger (39.6 ± 14.8 vs. 43.4 ± 16.1 years; P less than 0.05), had a higher mean number of symptoms (5.2 ± 2.5 vs. 4.4 ± 2.5; P less than 0.01), and more severe symptoms (mean global symptom score: 24.3 ± 5.5 vs. 22.3 ± 5.8; P = 0.0019) than AT patients. After 3 days, the improvement in symptoms and disease impact on daily activities and sleep was comparable in both groups of patients.
From these findings, the authors draw the following conclusions: Patients recommended homeopathic medicine by pharmacists were younger and had more severe symptoms than those recommended allopathic medicine. After 3 days of treatment, clinical improvement was comparable in both treatment groups. Pharmacists have an important role to play in the effective management of ILI and ENT disorders.
And, to make perfectly clear what all this is about, the first sentence of the 'discussion' puts it to the point by stating that homeopathic medicine, with or without allopathic medicine, appears to be effective at alleviating the symptoms of ILI or ENT disorders.
Oh really?
As I have heard it said that Boiron seems to have the nasty habit of threatening their critics with legal action, I ought to be quite cautious in my assessment of this 'masterpiece of promotion'. Yet a few comments must surely be permitted.
'To describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients recommended allopathic and/or homeopathic medicines' is not what I personally find an interesting subject of research, nor is it anything that will affect health care meaningfully, I think. Yet 'to investigate the effectiveness of these treatments' is certainly interesting and important. I will therefore focus on this second aim of the study.
Hold on, was this really a 'study'? On closer inspection, it seemed much more like a survey. People who felt that they were suffering from ILI and ENT disorders and thus went to a pharmacy to buy something for their problem were offered either homeopathic or conventional medicines. Those who accepted either of the recommendations were asked to fill out some self-assessment forms and received a phone call three days later to check their symptoms. 94% of all patients in the homeopathy group took homeopathic medicine in combination with 'allopathic' medicine (it is interesting, perhaps even telling, that this term used by the authors was invented by Hahnemann as an insult to conventional medicine!). There was no examination by a doctor to verify what condition the survey-participants were truly suffering from, and there was no verification that the information provided during the follow-up telephone call was in any way real. The most frequently recommended homeopathic medicine was Anas barbariae 200C (Oscillococcinum) which is Boiron's famous homeopathically diluted (about one molecule per universe, I guess) duck-liver heavily promoted in France against colds and similar conditions.
As it turns out, those survey-participants who accepted the homeopathic recommendation were significantly younger than those who accepted the recommendation for a conventional treatment (many surveys confirm that younger people are more prone to trying alternative medicine than older ones). It stands to reason, that the younger (and therefore fitter) patients were in better general health and therefore might recover quicker than the older ones. But, in fact, they did not!
Could this be due to the homeopathic remedies actually delaying recovery? Of course not! Who would be silly enough to claim that homeopathy could have this (or any other) effect? According to the authors, it is due to the fact that this group 'had more severe symptoms than those recommended allopathic medicine'. But, as I said, we have to take their word for it; there is no independent verification of this. It would, of course, be quite ridiculous to postulate that those survey-participants accepting homeopathy were also a little more introspective or concerned about their own health (perhaps even more gullible) and thus claimed more severe symptoms!
And what about the authors' conclusion that clinical improvement was comparable in both treatment groups? Well, this is more than a little problematic, in my view: first, we have no independent verification of the 'improvement' in either group. Second, we don't know that the conventional treatments actually worked, and it could well be that both approaches were similarly ineffective, and that the observed outcomes are merely a reflection of the natural history of the condition. And third, one might expect the homeopathic (younger) group to do not similarly well but slightly better, simply because the natural history of the illness would tend to be more benign in younger people.
Before I finish,I should make a brief comment about the authors' courageous statement that homeopathic medicine, with or without allopathic medicine, appears to be effective at alleviating the symptoms of ILI or ENT disorders. I think, for the reasons I already provided, this is extremely doubtful. In my view, more critical scientists would have phrased the conclusions differently:
But perhaps this would be asking a little too much of the authors; after all, at the end of the article, we find this telling footnote: Laboratoires Boiron provided financial support for the study. Cognet-Dementhon, Thevenard, Duru, and Allaert received consulting fees from Laboratoires Boiron for this study. Danno and Bordet are employees of Laboratoires Boiron.
The question whether infant colic can be effectively treated with manipulative therapies might seem rather trivial – after all, this is a benign condition which the infant quickly grows out of. However, the issue becomes a little more tricky, if we consider that it was one of the 6 paediatric illnesses which were at the centre of the famous libel case of the BCA against my friend and co-author Simon Singh. At the time, Simon had claimed that there was 'not a jot of evidence' for claiming that chiropractic was an effective treatment of infant colic, and my systematic review of the evidence strongly supported his statement. The BCA eventually lost their libel case and with it the reputation of chiropractic. Now a new article on this intriguing topic has become available; do we have to reverse our judgements?
The aim of this new systematic review was to evaluate the efficacy or effectiveness of manipulative therapies for infantile colic. Six RCTs of chiropractic, osteopathy or cranial osteopathy alone or in conjunction with other interventions were included with a total of 325 infants. Of the 6 included studies, 5 were "suggestive of a beneficial effect" and one found no evidence of benefit. Combining all the RCTs suggested that manipulative therapies had a significant effect. The average crying time was reduced by an average of 72 minutes per day. This effect was sustained for studies with a low risk of selection bias and attrition bias. When analysing only those studies with a low risk of performance bias (i.e. parental blinding) the improvement in daily crying hours was no longer statistically significant.
The quality of the studies was variable. There was a generally low risk of selection bias but a high risk of performance bias. Only one of the studies recorded adverse events and none were encountered.
From these data, the authors drew the following conclusion: Parents of infants receiving manipulative therapies reported fewer hours crying per day than parents whose infants did not and this difference was statistically significant. Most studies had a high risk of performance bias due to the fact that the assessors (parents) were not blind to who had received the intervention. When combining only those trials with a low risk of such performance bias the results did not reach statistical significance.
Does that mean that chiropractic does work for infant colic? No, it does not!
The first thing to point out is that the new systematic review included not just RCTs of chiropractic but also osteopathy and cranio-sacral therapy.
The second important issue is that the effects disappear, once performance bias is being accounted for which clearly shows that the result is false positive.
The third relevant fact is that the majority of the RCTs were of poor quality. The methodologically best studies were negative.
And the fourth thing to note is that only one study mentioned adverse effects, which means that the other 5 trials were in breach of one of rather elementary research ethics.
What makes all of this even more fascinating is the fact that the senior author of the new publication, George Lewith, is the very expert who advised the BCA in their libel case against Simon Singh. He seems so fond of his work that he even decided to re-publish it using even more misleading language than before. It is, of course, far from me to suggest that his review was an attempt to white-wash the issue of chiropractic 'bogus' claims. However, based on the available evidence, I would have formulated conclusions which are more than just a little different from his; something like this perhaps:
The current best evidence suggests that the small effects that emerge when we pool the data from mostly unreliable studies are due to bias and therefore not real. This systematic review therefore fails to show that manipulative therapies are effective. It furthermore points to a serious breach of research ethics by the majority of researchers in this field.
Imagine an area of therapeutics where 100% of all findings of hypothesis-testing research is positive, i.e. comes to the conclusion that the treatment in question is effective. Theoretically, this could mean that the therapy is a miracle cure which is useful for every single condition in every single setting. But sadly, there are no miracle cures. Therefore something must be badly and worryingly amiss with the research in an area that generates 100% positive results.
Acupuncture is such an area; we and others have shown that Chinese trials of acupuncture hardly ever produce a negative finding. In other words, one does not need to read the paper, one already knows that it is positive – even more extreme: one does not need to conduct the study, one already knows the result before the research has started. But you might not believe my research nor that of others. We might be chauvinist bastards who want to discredit Chinese science. In this case, you might perhaps believe Chinese researchers.
In this systematic review, all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture published in Chinese journals were identified by a team of Chinese scientists. A total of 840 RCTs were found, including 727 RCTs comparing acupuncture with conventional treatment, 51 RCTs with no treatment controls, and 62 RCTs with sham-acupuncture controls. Among theses 840 RCTs, 838 studies (99.8%) reported positive results from primary outcomes and two trials (0.2%) reported negative results. The percentages of RCTs concealment of the information on withdraws or sample size calculations were 43.7%, 5.9%, 4.9%, 9.9%, and 1.7% respectively.
The authors concluded that publication bias might be major issue in RCTs on acupuncture published in Chinese journals reported, which is related to high risk of bias. We suggest that all trials should be prospectively registered in international trial registry in future.
I applaud the authors' courageous efforts to conduct this analysis, but I do not agree with their conclusion. The question why all Chinese acupuncture trials are positive has puzzled me since many years, and I have quizzed numerous Chinese colleagues why this might be so. The answer I received was uniformly that it would be very offensive for Chinese researchers to conceive a study that does not confirm the views held by their peers. In other words, acupuncture research in China is conducted to confirm the prior assumption that this treatment is effective. It seems obvious that this is an abuse of science which must cause confusion.
Whatever the reasons for the phenomenon, and we can only speculate about them, the fact has been independently confirmed several times and is now quite undeniable: acupuncture trials from China – and these constitute the majority of the evidence-base in this area – cannot be trusted. The only way to adequately deal with this problem that I can think of is to discard them outright.
Today, there are several dozens of journals publishing articles on alternative medicine. 'The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine' is one of the best known, and it has one of the highest impact factors of them all. The current issue holds a few 'gems' which might be worthy of a comment or two. Here I have selected three articles reporting clinical studies, and I reproduce their abstracts (almost) in full (in italics) and add my comments (for clarity in bold). All the articles are available electronically, and I have provided the links for those who want to investigate beyond the abstracts.
STUDY No 1
The first 'pilot study' was aimed to demonstrate the potential of auricular acupuncture (AAT) for insomnia in maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) patients and to prepare for a future randomized controlled trial.
Eligible patients were enrolled into this descriptive pilot study and received AAT designed to manage insomnia for 4 weeks. Questionnaires that used the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were completed at baseline, after a 4-week intervention, and 1 month after completion of treatment. Sleep quality and other clinical characteristics, including sleeping pills taken, were statistically compared between different time points.
A total of 22 patients were selected as eligible participants and completed the treatment and questionnaires. The mean global PSQI score was significantly decreased after AAT intervention (p<0.05). Participants reported improved sleep quality (p<0.01), shorter sleep latency (p<0.05), less sleep disturbance (p<0.01), and less daytime dysfunction (p=0.01). They also exhibited less dependency on sleep medications, indicated by the reduction in weekly estazolam consumption from 6.98±4.44 pills to 4.23±2.66 pills (p<0.01). However, these improvements were not preserved 1 month after treatment.
Conclusions: In this single-center pilot study, complementary AAT for MHD patients with severe insomnia was feasible and well tolerated and showed encouraging results for sleep quality.
My comments:
In alternative medicine research, it has become far too common (almost generally accepted) to call a flimsy trial a 'pilot study'. The authors give their game away by stating that, by conducting this trial, they want to 'demonstrate the potential of AAT'. This is not a legitimate aim of research; science is for TESTING hypotheses, not for PROVING them!
The results of this trial show that patients experienced improvements after receiving AAT which, however, did not last. As there was no placebo control group, the most likely explanation for these outcomes would be that AAT generated a short-lasting placebo effect.
A sample size of 22 is, of course, far to small to allow any conclusions about the safety of the intervention. Despite these obvious facts, the authors seem convinced that AAT is both safe and effective.
STUDY No 2
The aim of the second study was to compare the therapeutic effect of Yamamoto new scalp acupuncture (YNSA), a recently developed microcupuncture system, with traditional acupuncture (TCA) for the prophylaxis and treatment of migraine headache.
In a randomized clinical trial, 80 patients with migraine headache were assigned to receive YNSA or TCA. A pain visual analogue scale (VAS) and migraine therapy assessment questionnaire (MTAQ) were completed before treatment, after 6 and 18 sections of treatment, and 1 month after completion of therapy.
All the recruited patients completed the study. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. Frequency and severity of migraine attacks, nausea, the need for rescue treatment, and work absence rate decreased similarly in both groups. Recovery from headache and ability to continue daily activities 2 hours after medical treatment showed similar improvement in both groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Classic acupuncture and YNSA are similarly effective in the prophylaxis and treatment of migraine headache and may be considered as alternatives to pharmacotherapy.
My comments:
This is what is technically called an 'equivalence trial', i.e. a study that compares an experimental treatment (YNSA) to one that is (assumed to be) effective. To demonstrate equivalence, such trials need to have large sample sizes, and this study is woefully underpowered. As it stands, the results show nothing meaningful at all; if anything, they suggest that both interventions were similarly useless.
STUDY No 3
The third study determined whether injection with hypertonic dextrose and morrhuate sodium (prolotherapy) using a pragmatic, clinically determined injection schedule for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) results in improved knee pain, function, and stiffness compared to baseline status.
The participants were 38 adults who had at least 3 months of symptomatic KOA and who were in the control groups of a prior prolotherapy randomized controlled trial (RCT) (Prior-Control), were ineligible for the RCT (Prior-Ineligible), or were eligible but declined the RCT (Prior-Declined).
The injection sessions at occurred at 1, 5, and 9 weeks with as-needed treatment at weeks 13 and 17. Extra-articular injections of 15% dextrose and 5% morrhuate sodium were done at peri-articular tendon and ligament insertions. A single intra-articular injection of 6 mL 25% dextrose was performed through an inferomedial approach.
The primary outcome measure was the validated Western Ontario McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). The secondary outcome measure was the Knee Pain Scale and postprocedure opioid medication use and participant satisfaction.
The Prior-Declined group reported the most severe baseline WOMAC score (p=0.02). Compared to baseline status, participants in the Prior-Control group reported a score change of 12.4±3.5 points (19.5%, p=0.002). Prior-Decline and Prior-Ineligible groups improved by 19.4±7.0 (42.9%, p=0.05) and 17.8±3.9 (28.4%, p=0.008) points, respectively; 55.6% of Prior-Control, 75% of Prior-Decline, and 50% of Prior-Ineligible participants reported score improvement in excess of the 12-point minimal clinical important difference on the WOMAC measure. Postprocedure opioid medication resulted in rapid diminution of prolotherapy injection pain. Satisfaction was high and there were no adverse events.
Conclusions: Prolotherapy using dextrose and morrhuate sodium injections for participants with mild-to-severe KOA resulted in safe, significant, sustained improvement of WOMAC-based knee pain, function, and stiffness scores compared to baseline status.
My Comments:
This study had nothing that one might call a proper control group: all the three groups mentioned were treated with the experimental treatment. No attempt was made to control for even the most obvious biases: the observed effects could have been due to placebo or any other non-specific effects. The authors conclusions imply a causal relationship between the treatment and the outcome which is wrong. The notion that the experimental treatment is 'safe' is based on just 38 patients and therefore not reasonable.
All of this might seem rather trivial, and my comments could be viewed as a deliberate and vicious attempt to discredit one of the most respected journals of alternative medicine. Yet, considering that articles of this nature are more the rule than the exception in alternative medicine, I do think that this flagrant lack of scientific rigour is a relevant issue and has important implications.
As long as research in this area continues to be deeply flawed, as long as reviewers turn a blind eye to (or are not smart enough to detect) even the most obvious mistakes, as long as journal editors accept any rubbish in order to fill their pages, there is a great danger that we are being continuously being mislead about the supposed therapeutic value of alternative therapies.
Many who read this blog will, of course, have the capacity to think critically and might therefore not fall into the trap of accepting the conclusions of fatally flawed research. But many other people, including politicians, journalists and consumers, might not have the necessary appraisal skills and will thus not be able to tell that such studies can serve only one purpose: to popularise bogus treatments and thereby render health care less effective and more dangerous. Enthusiasts of alternative medicine are usually fully convinced that such studies amount to evidence and ram this pseudo-information down the throat of health care decision makers – the effects of such lobbying on public health can be disastrous.
And there is another downside to the publication of such dismal drivel: assuming (as I do) that not all of alternative medicine is completely useless, such embarrassingly poor research will inevitably have detrimental effects on the discipline of alternative medicine. After being exposed to a seemingly endless stream of pseudo-research, critics will eventually give up taking any of it seriously and might claim that none of it is worth the bother. In other words, those who conduct, accept or publish such nonsensical papers are not only endangering medical progress in general, they are also harming the very cause they try so desperately hard to advance.
An article in the 'Huffpost Healthy Living' recently discussed "the top three things that surprise people about acupuncture". On closer inspection, they turn out to be the top three untruths about acupuncture. Here is (in italics and slightly abbreviated) what the article said.
Acupuncture is not just for pain
…It's true that acupuncture can work wonders on pain conditions…However, acupuncture can alleviate a wide variety of ailments that have nothing to do with physical pain. Whether you have digestive issues, gynecological conditions, emotional concerns such as anxiety and depression, asthma, seasonal allergies, you name it, acupuncture can help address your symptoms.
Acupuncturists go to school for a long time
People tend to be unaware of the extent to which acupuncturists train to become licensed in their profession. Many assume becoming an acupuncturist is similar to becoming a massage therapist or Reiki practitioner or yoga instructor… At minimum, a licensed acupuncturist in the United States has been to three years of graduate school. Four years is more common. They hold master's degrees. Some acupuncturists with doctorates have studied at the graduate level for five-plus years. Upon graduating from an accredited school, all acupuncturists must pass multiple board exams to become licensed in their state. In addition to the academic and state requirements for practicing acupuncture, many acupuncturists seek hands-on training and mentorship in the form of apprenticeships and continuing education seminars.
Acupuncture is relaxing
Acupuncture needles are surprisingly thin. They do not bear any resemblance to needles that are used for injections or to draw blood… In most cases, the insertion of acupuncture needles does not hurt…Once the needles are in, they start working their magic, which is where the relaxation part comes in. Acupuncture helps shift your body out of sympathetic mode (fight or flight) and into parasympathetic mode (rest and digest). It mellows out the nervous system, decreases muscular tension, and helps quiet internal chatter…
1) There is not a single condition for which the evidence is truly compelling demonstrating that acupuncture is more than a placebo. Certainly there is no good evidence that acupuncture works for digestive issues, gynecological conditions, emotional concerns such as anxiety and depression, asthma or seasonal allergies.
2) In most countries, anyone can call themselves an acupuncturist, regardless of background or training.
3) The relaxing element of an acupuncture session is foremost the fact that patients lie down and have to keep still for 20 minutes or so. The insertion of needles does cause mild pain in many patients, and the claim about parasympathetic mode is mostly phantasy.
I despair about the nonsense that is published about alternative medicine on a daily basis – not because I have an axe to grind, but because it misleads patients into making wrong therapeutic decisions.


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New York, NY (PRWEB) November 05, 2012
On November 5, 2012, collection company Rapid Recovery Solution offered a comment following a recent Neon Tommy article about how collection agencies will be supervised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
According to the Neon Tommy article, "Debt collection agencies will be placed under the federal supervision of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) beginning Jan. 2." The article states that the CFPB plans to supervise larger firms to make sure they are treating consumers in a fair manner.
According to CFPB Director, Richard Cordray, "We want all companies to realize that the better business choice is to follow the law - not break it." According to the article, this new federal bureau was created under the "2012 Dodd-Frank law which overseas consumer financial products like mortgages, loans, and credit cards."
John Monderine, CEO of collection company Rapid Recovery Solution offered his comments on the plan to supervise the large firms. "Finally somebody is stepping in to police these large companies that think they can treat people like dirt and get away with it. Smaller compliant companies now can compete with the big boys thanks to these efforts," said Monderine.
Founded in 2006, RRS collection company is headquartered at the highest point of beautiful Long Island. Rapid Recovery Collection Agency is committed to recovering your funds. We believe that every debtor has the ability to pay if motivated correctly. We DO NOT alienate the debtors; we attempt to align with them and offer a number of ways to resolve not only your debt but also all their debts.

subset: commoncrawl


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USF Home > College of Arts and Sciences > Chemistry Department
Abdul Malik
Office: SCA 426
Phone: 813/974-9688
Lab: SCA 415,440
Fax: 813/974-3203
Email: malik (at) usf.edu
M.S., Peoples' Friendship University, Moscow, Russia, 1980
Ph.D., Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 1985
Dr. Malik's research activities are focused on separations chemistry.
His research group is engaged in developing advanced technology for high-performance differential migration micro separation techniques in analytical chemistry.
The ultimate goal of his research is to equip analytical chemistry with powerful separation tools for high resolution chromatographic and electrophoretic analysis and characterization of complex,
multi-component material systems of biomedical, environmental, and industrial interests.
Present emphasis is on developing:
novel column technology, new physico-chemical principles for analytical separations, effective strategies for miniaturization of separation systems, surface deactivation chemistry for small
diameter capillaries, methods for in situ creation of tailor-made surfaces and monolithic separation beds for micro columns, and advanced material systems and technologies for analytical
separations and sample preparations.
Dr. Malik's current research emphasis is on advanced technology for high-performance microseparation columns and solventless microextraction devices.
Recent research efforts involving sol-gel chemistry have resulted in the development of high-resolution open tubular and monolithic columns for capillary gas chromatography (GC),
capillary zone electrophoresis (CE), capillary electrochromatography (CEC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and related separation techniques.
The sol-gel approach has also led to the development of thick coatings of high thermal and solvent stability for solid-phase microextraction (SPME).
Development of capillary microextraction (CME) devices with in situ created sol-gel coatings and monolithic beds, and their hyphenation with high-resolution separation techniques using
sol-gel columns are other areas of emphasis in Dr. Malik's current research program.
Recently Dr. Malik has initiated a new direction in column technology research: sol-gel chemistry-based advanced column technology for micro separation techniques.
This novel approach to column technology allows for the creation of tailor-made surfaces and monolithic separation beds to achieve wide range of selectivity and solute migration characteristics.
The new technology can be effectively applied to the interior of small-diameter capillaries to in situ create surface-bonded stationary phase coatings and monolithic beds for a wide range of
analytical separation techniques including GC, HPLC, SFC, CZE, and CEC. It can also be applied to create organic-inorganic hybrid coatings on the outer surface of solid-phase microextraction
fibers for sample preparation.
Recent achievements by Dr. Malik's research group in this new area have found wide recognition both nationally and internationally, as is evidenced by the number of his invited lectures on
the subject at the national and international scientific forums on analytical separations.
One of Dr. Malik's publications titled Sol-gel Column Technology for High Resolution Gas Chromatography has made the front cover of Analytical Chemistry (Vol. 69, No. 22, pp. 4566-4576, 1997).
A scanning electron micrograph from one of Dr. Malik's publications on sol-gel monolithic column technology (Anal. Chem. 2000, 72, 4090-4099)
has made the front cover of the popular Analytical Chemistry Textbook by Daniel C. Harris (6th Edition, 2002).
Chengliang Jiang, Le Meng, Erica Turner
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So you've decided to start a video blog, great. Now as you know, ninety nine percent of video blogs are absolutely awful. The one percent that aren't bad tend to grab a whole lot of viewers. So, how do you get into that top one percent? Well, besides great content, a good sense of humour or interesting commentary, it all starts with presentation and production value.
"Production value? I'm just pointing a webcam at myself!" yes, that's true, but nevertheless, production value counts, and production value starts with your vlogging room. Here's how to get it all set up.
Set Design for your video blogging room
If we're talking about a vlog, set design isn't nearly as complicated as when you're filming a movie, but it's still something to consider. What sort of vlog are you doing? You can just set up in your bedroom and call it a day, but if you take a moment to dress the room up in a way that reflects your blog's content, viewers will appreciate the extra effort to lend the room some atmosphere.
You may want to take a moment each week to make sure you're keeping the room nice and neat. They say that the camera adds ten pounds, well it also makes a room look ten times as messy as it actually is. Unless you're doing a vlog from the perspective of a slob, keep it tidy or expect a bunch of comments making fun of you for dropping your laundry on the bed.
Sound Control
You should choose a room where you can get some peace and quiet, such as your bedroom or your office or the garage. Now, vlogging in Florida, vlogging in the summer is tough, because the best way to get crisp, clean sound is to turn off the air conditioner. The AC just makes too much noise. Make sure the TV is off and, if you can hear it, unplug the fridge when filming. I good microphone is one of the most important aspects of great video. Look into getting a simple lavalier or lapel mic that you can pin to your collar.
With a window near by you can usually get away without adding additional lighting is already there, but if you want take your production quality to the next level, invest in a lighting kit. You'll certainly need this if you are going to be filming on cloudy days or in the evening. Just be sure that people can clearly see your face while you're speaking into the camera.
You may want to do a few test shots to be sure you're not overdoing it. It's fun to play with lighting, but if you want the focus to stay on what you're discussing in your video blog, then you'll want to keep the lighting simple and prioritize clarity of image over giving the room a brooding atmosphere for no real reason.
Selecting Video Equipment: Going Pro vs. Staying Amateur
If you're just doing the vlog for fun, then you'll probably be improvising from the start, using whatever camera and equipment you have handy. Over time, though, you may want to step up your game with some more professional grade and prosumer grade equipment.
If you want to start out with professional grade equipment, well, it's going to be pretty expensive. Setting up an at home studio can cost up to two grand just to buy the bare essentials. If you're vlogging for an employer or a client, that's one thing, that's an investment, and you probably have a corporate account to draw from in budgeting your studio, but if you're doing it for yourself, for fun, then wait until you have some viewers coming in regularly, figure out how to monetize your vlog with affiliate marketing or banner ads, and then use the revenue from the vlog to upgrade your home studio.
Visit Ms. Ileane's Gear Shop on Amazon
Webcam and Tripod
You should invest in a quality webcam and the Logitech C920 is the logical choice. A good tripod can come in handy to especially if you want to record with your iPhone or Android mobile phone. Watch this video and discover the Best Webcam and Mic to Get Started!
Get Out of The Room
Now and then, viewers will appreciate it if you take them outside of your home studio. It can really switch up the look of your vlog and make things more interesting. When leaving your studio, just bear in mind that you don't have as much control over everywhere as you do over your studio, so keep a few tips in mind when it comes to shooting in the wild.
First of all, be wary of light levels. Learn how to use your camera's exposure settings so that your footage doesn't wind up looking too dark or over exposed. Shooting outside with natural light is generally a great way to ensure that you get full light coverage.
Secondly, if you can't control the noise levels outside, you can always dub it later with a voice over, it doesn't all have to be live.
And finally: have fun. If video blogging gets boring for you, then what's the point? Just improvise, play around with editing software and have fun with it.


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I can't thank you enough, the sculpture looks amazing!! My wife cried when she saw it. It's perfect! We can't say enough about the way our sculpture came out. Leo was frequently seen lounging in his bed, and the sculpture of the bed, his pillow, his expression, right down to his snagle tooth, is perfect.We have the sculpture in our living room on a shelf, and I find it is so comforting to look up and see him. A wonderful job and extremely quick delivery!
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Secure Shopping with
Milk chocolate bar with almonds and raisins. Crunchy, smooth, chewy and smooth all at once. Tastes especially good outside – or with a glass of red (for the grown-ups).
|0.2 kg
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Verriez Executive Search
Successful executive search and recruitment doesn't just happen; it takes time, dedication, research, creativity, an appreciation of both client and candidate requirements, plus an in-depth knowledge of national and international talent acquisition.
This is precisely why Verriez has been the 'go-to' retained executive search company for Ontario, Canada and international businesses for almost 30 years.
Every executive position or senior level role you need to fill has unique requirements for skills, experience, and leadership qualities. So at Verriez, we take a custom-made approach to achieve a successful fit of exceptional candidate to exciting executive role.
At Verriez, we help national and international businesses acquire the exceptional talent they need, and progressing candidates in their executive careers.
Founded in 1985 in SouthWestern Ontario by Paul Verriez, our company's success in acquiring top management talent for challenging leadership positions has been built on long-term relationships established over thirty years. Our clients now call on Verriez to source exceptional candidates from all parts of Canada and the USA, to fill positions both in Canada and internationally.
Hunt Scanlon Newswire Briefings
7 Characteristics of a Great Recruiter
According to a report by talent consultant Kevin Sheridan, 86 percent of executive search firms feel they are doing a good job recruiting, yet only 60 percent of candidates report having a positive experience during the recruiting process with them. Mr. Sheridan is an internationally-recognized keynote speaker, a New York Times best-selling author and a sought-after voice
Verriez Executive Search Expands
Verriez Executive Search has expanded its staff with the addition of Brent Verriez as vice president. He brings over 11 years of experience in finance and accounting. "Having successfully run a retained search practice since 1985 specializing in CFOs and other senior level financial officer positions, it became increasingly apparent that I needed to formulate an


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What this organization is doing for these families is simply amazing and we want to help them continue providing even more families with this service
Columbus, OH (PRWEB) April 17, 2015
With a new community program in the Columbus area, Erlanger Agency has teamed up with The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio and announced a new charity campaign to raise funds to provide a "home away from home" for families with seriously ill children. For decades, the Ronald McDonald House has been making children happier and healthier by keeping families together and giving them a place to rest and refresh. Being able to stay near the hospital allows the parents to better communicate with their child's medical team and keep up with complicated treatment plans. The families can also enjoy home-cooked meals and playrooms for their kids. Erlanger Agency is starting this campaign to raise monetary donations as well as snack donations so guests at the local Ronald McDonald House can "grab and go", especially for breakfast. Donations to the organization can now be made through the campaign's page at http://www.erlangeragency.com/The-Ronald-McDonald-House-of-Charities_7_community_cause.
Utilizing its own resources and seeking the help of its own network of customers and business partners, Erlanger Agency marches on to ensure customers, friends, family and neighbors are always in good hands. The agency just recently launched the master charity program of which the current campaign is part of, electing every 60 days a new individual, organization or family in need to receive support.
"The Ronald McDonald House believes that the best prescription is the support of family and I agree with them. There is nothing ill children will want more, while being in the hospital, than having their mother or father by their bedside. What this organization is doing for these families is simply amazing and we want to help them continue providing even more families with this service," said Bob Erlanger, the Agency's principal.
The agency will promote the current campaign over the course of the next 45 days, through its social media channels, email and text message communications, as well as through a monthly magazine, delivered to thousands of households in Ohio, where the agency currently operates. Our Hometown magazine reserves a full page to feature the campaign and details of the cause. The electronic Flipbook version of the current issue can be accessed here: http://www.erlangeragency.com/Our-Hometown-Magazine_46
To join Erlanger Agency in supporting The Ronald McDonald House, donors are encouraged to visit http://www.erlangeragency.com/The-Ronald-McDonald-House-of-Charities_7_community_cause,
and also share the page with friends and family. Contributors may be acknowledged for their donations through the agency's monthly magazine.
Once the current campaign is over, Erlanger Agency will continue to work closely with The Ronald McDonald House and other nonprofit organizations in the area, to make sure resources are directed to capable hands that can help better the local community, one family or person at a time. Information regarding past and current campaigns supported by the Agency can be found at http://www.erlangeragency.com/community-cause. More information about Erlanger Agency and The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio at http://www.erlangeragency.com
and http://www.rmhc-centralohio.org/
About Erlanger Agency
As a Personal Financial Representative in Columbus, OH, Bob Erlanger knows many local families. His knowledge and understanding of the people in his community help him provide customers with an outstanding level of service. Bob and his team look forward to helping families protect the things that are important –family, home, car and more. To contact an expert at Erlanger Agency, call (614) 451-6600 or (614) 349-4499


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Karthik KS
Jr. Board
Karthik is a member of the Prime Finance group at Barclays with focus on Fixed Income asset class. Prior to his move to New York, he worked at Barclays in Mumbai, India. Karthik started his career in financial consulting, analyzing mortgage securities and modeling risk on bond portfolios.
Karthik is an engineer by education and holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. In his free time, he can be found at one of New York's many art house movie theaters or cheering for his favorite football team – Chelsea F.C. He is a history buff and has travelled in four continents and across the world from New Zealand to California.


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Domaine de Sengresse is a XVIIth Century Maison de Maitre offering luxury accommodation in a relatively undiscovered corner of South Western France. The main house offers four Chambre dhote rooms while across the courtyard, The Little House offers a fifth and /or gîte accommodation.
Set in a park and garden of about three hectares, Sengresse is set in the heart of the Landes countryside only minutes from the River Adour, yet only 1 hour from Biarritz and Pau or 1 ½ from Bordeaux.
Sengresse is an ideal base for enjoying the peace and tranquillity of the area whether walking, cycling or just sitting under the trees in the summer or by a roaring fire in winter.
Press about Sengresse:
LIVING FRANCE April 2017 edition
MARIANNE August 8, 2014 edition
CAMPAGNE DECORATION July 2013 edition
FIGARO MAGAZINE April 4, 2009 edition


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Centre News
Centre College announces tenure and promotions
April 18, 2013 By Amy Clark Wise, Assistant Director of Communications for Public Relations and Marketing
Jeffrey Heath
John Kinkade '95
John Perry '00
Rick Axtell
Alex McAllister
The Centre College Board of Trustees met on campus April 11-12, 2013, for its annual spring meeting, during which tenure and promotions were approved.
The following faculty members were awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor: Dr. Allison Connolly, assistant professor of French; Dr. Jeffrey Heath, assistant professor of mathematics; Dr. John Kinkade, assistant professor of English; and Dr. John Perry, assistant professor of economics.
Connolly joined Centre's faculty in 2007 as assistant professor of French. In 2009 she received the Kirk Teaching Award, which has honored excellent teachers at Centre since 1996, and in 2011 Connolly was named a Centre Scholar, an honor that recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarly work, and contributions to the College community. Before coming to Centre, Connolly was a teaching fellow and course coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she taught English at L'Universite de Montpellier III. Connolly holds a B.A. from Hollins University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Heath joined Centre's faculty in 2007 as assistant professor of mathematics. He was named a Centre Scholar in 2011. Heath graduated from Georgetown College with a B.S. in mathematics. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics and scientific computation at the University of Maryland, where he served as a teaching fellow in the mathematics department.
Kinkade joined Centre's faculty in 2006 as an assistant professor of English. In 2010, he was named a Centre Scholar. Prior to joining Centre's faculty, he taught at the Texas Military Institute, the University of Texas at Austin, and in the Naples, Fla., community schools. Kinkade holds a B.A. from Centre College (1995), and he earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English literature at the University of Texas at Austin.
Perry joined Centre's faculty in 2007 as assistant professor of economics, and he was named a Centre Scholar in 2010. He is an applied microeconomist with an active research agenda whose primary areas of expertise are labor and health economics. Before coming to Centre, Perry was staff economist for the Legislative Research Commission of the Kentucky General Assembly. He holds an economics degree from Centre (2000) and earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics at the University of Kentucky.
The following faculty members were promoted to full professor: Dr. Alex McAllister, associate professor of mathematics, and Dr. Rick Axtell, Paul L. Cantrell, associate professor of religion.
McAllister joined the Centre College faculty in 1999 as assistant professor of mathematics. In 2009, he received the Kirk Teaching Award, and he has been honored as a Centre Scholar both in 2005 and in 2010. He has prior teaching experience as a visiting assistant professor at Dartmouth College and a graduate instructor at the University of Notre Dame. McAllister was also a research assistant at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
McAllister's scholarly interests include computability theory, and mathematical logic and foundations. His articles have been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. He holds a B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa and Pi Mu Epsilon.
Axtell is the College chaplain and Paul L. Cantrell Associate Professor of Religion. He initially taught at Centre during 1992-93 and returned to the College in 1995. In 2008, Axtell was named a Centre Scholar.
Concerned about issues of hunger and homelessness, Axtell has studied hunger, sustainable development and/or liberation theology in Bangladesh, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico and Nicaragua, and he has studied homelessness and homeless shelters in major American cities. Axtell has also studied religion and violence in Latin America, most recently with a human rights delegation to Colombia.
Axtell holds a B.A. degree from Mississippi College. He earned M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he has completed other advanced studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail email@example.com with your feedback.
Centre College, founded in 1819, is a nationally ranked liberal arts college in Danville, Ky. Centre hosted its second Vice Presidential Debate on 10.11.12, and remains the smallest college in the smallest town ever to host a general election debate. For more, click here.


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Hickman & Lowder Weblog
What Seniors Can Learn from the Crash-and-Burn of Buzz Aldrin's Estate Plan
Wednesday, 27 June 2018 12:35
It's been all over the news lately – world famous hero and astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, actually had to sue two of his children and a former business manager to remove them from handling his finances. This is a sad crash-and-burn landing for an American hero. And the wreckage to his family continues – the dispute is ongoing in Florida courts. It could happen to anyone.
Read more: What Seniors Can Learn from the Crash-and-Burn of Buzz Aldrin's Estate Plan
Ohio Legislators Enhance Protections of Seniors and Adults With Disabilities
Monday, 16 April 2018 08:11
Laws protecting seniors and adults with disabilities in the state of Ohio will get a boost in September, when new rules that strengthen existing adult protective services statutes take effect.
The new provisions cover a wide range of situations, and are expected to help an increasing number of vulnerable adults. Some highlights of note:
Read more: Ohio Legislators Enhance Protections of Seniors and Adults With Disabilities
Tougher FINRA Rules: A New Tool to Fight Financial Exploitation of Seniors and Adults with Disabilities
Monday, 19 February 2018 09:18
The Securities and Exchange Commission has just enhanced the protection for seniors and adults with disabilities who may be subject to financial abuse. Earlier this month, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an independent regulator that protects investors and regulates financial brokers and dealers, released new rules intended to block unauthorized withdrawals and other disbursements from the accounts of vulnerable adults.
Read more: Tougher FINRA Rules: A New Tool to Fight Financial Exploitation of Seniors and Adults with Disabilities
List of Ohio Schools Investigated for Civil Rights Violations Now Available Online
Monday, 12 February 2018 15:44
Many of our clients who are unhappy with their school district ask us to recommend a "good" school district. This is a really tough question to answer because it really comes down to the type of disability the child has (some districts are better with Autism, others with anxiety) and the people--from administration to the child's intervention specialist or aide. As we all know, staff changes frequently and can't be the basis for something as big as a home purchase. However, there are some ways to investigate and compare districts,
Read more: List of Ohio Schools Investigated for Civil Rights Violations Now Available Online
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- I Think My Child Was Abused by School Staff - What Can I Do?
- A Favorable Ruling that Medicare Will Pay for a Needed Cancer Treatment
- Special Education Q & A
- Five Things to Consider When Selecting a Guardian for Your Child with Special Needs
- Estate Planning for Young Families
- 2017 Ohio School Report Cards Released
- In-home Care vs. Facility - You Decide
- Giving Up Custody to Save Your Child
- The Knowns and Unknowns of Medicaid Application
- Avoiding Guardianship Fights Over Your Adult Child with Disabilities
- Your Elder Years Strategy
- U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Helps Students with Special Needs
- New Special Education Procedural Safeguards
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- Embracing Death
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- New Law Makes Fight for Public Records Easier
- Ohio Special Ed Programming "Needs Assistance" Per US Department of Education…2nd Year in a Row
- School Refuses to Allow Service Dog: US Supreme Court Takes the Case
- Julie Billiart - Alternative Placement
- The Importance of Intensive Therapy and the Research Behind It
- Special Education Law Update
- The Importance of Exercise
- Cool Adaptive Clothing for Kids
- Notice to People on Waivers
- ESY Alternatives
- New Rules and Bad Decisions Make Medicaid Planning a Necessity
- Protecting People with Disabilities from Exploitation
- Beware Before You Sign – Avoiding the Trips and Traps of a Long Term Care Admission Agreement
- When is Modified Curriculum Appropriate and How Modified Should it Be?
- Divorce and Families with Special Needs
- Supreme Court of Ohio Decides: Home Titled in Revocable Trust is Not an Exempt Asset for Medicaid
- Genetics May Play a Role in CP, ASD
- Guardianship Update
- Lives of Two Ohio Children Saved by 2014 EpiPen Law
- FERPA Protections for Students
- Ohio Adult Guardianship Education Program
- Guardian Alert
- Probate Problems
- Legislators Introduce Bill Allowing ABLE Accounts for Ohio Residents!
- SSI Mobile Wage Reporting App
- Avoiding a Wasteful Land Sale Proceeding
- I've Signed My Healthcare Power of Attorney and Living Will: Now What?
- ABLE Act
- Sonja's Suggestions: Loneliness
- ABLE Act: Dream Come True, or Wake-up Call? Maybe Both.
- Sonja's Suggestions: Enjoy the Last Days of Summer
- My Community Meal
- Sonja's Suggestions: Planning for Your Pets
- EPSDT Program Update
- Dementia Self-Assessment
- Sonja's Suggestions: Caregiving
- Casey Kasem – What Did He Really Want??
- The Parental Right of an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)
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- Avoiding Foreclosure of a Reverse Mortgage
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- Movie Review: ALPHÉE OF THE STARS (2012)
- Sonja's Suggestions: Grocery Delivery
- The Perfect Marriage
- Accessing ABA Services Under Health Care Reform
- New Medicaid Program Begins
- Medicare and the Affordable Care Act: Separating Rumor from Reality
- Remedies Available to Persons Disenrolled from the Home Care Waiver
- Universal Design: A Guide to Becoming Master of the Universe!
- New Bullying Prevention Directives from OSERS
- Those Tiger Moms
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- Children with Disabilities Have a Right to FAPE During Teacher Strikes
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- Recognizing Excellence
- My Visit to the Cleveland Sight Center
- Transferring the Transition Waiver
- Be the Fuel … Or Be the Generator (It Doesn't Really Matter Which)
- November is National Family Caregivers Month
- My Experience at the Ohio SIBS Conference
- Special Needs Trusts: To Spend or Not to Spend?
- Are You a Person with a Disability?
- How to Keep from Navel-Gazing: The Value of Donating Your Time
- Issues for Unmarried Partners
- Olympics
- How to Create Meaning in Your Life
- Changes Ahead for "Dual Eligibles"
- Medicaid for Long-Term Nursing Home Care
- Choosing an Assisted Living Facility that is Right for Your Loved One
- A Mother's Day Tribute
- National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week
- 'Cookie-Cutter' Estate Plans
- What's Going on at Red Treehouse
- Power of Attorney
- Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
- Sensory-Friendly Films
- But...Hey! I Wash My Face First!
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Now that the red haze has receded and I took another look at the comments (I'm still miffed about the stereotype and dialogue) , I did find some wisdom in the words of one of the judges from the Gotcha contest. And I have begun the ordeal of ripping my first chapter apart and rewriting.
Yes, Virginia, I can take criticism. LOL I just have to step back a day or two and re-evaluate. All the judges said I had great storytelling abilities and the story was new and different. BUT - the pubbed judge said the beginning should start with her vision or alluding to the vision to make sense of her feelings later.
Anyway in my limited writing time the last few days (since I was gone for 6 days my dh thinks I should spend every moment he is home by his side) I am slowly dissecting, rearranging, and rewriting. With this change may actually come another chapter increasing my word lenght! Thank you Eli for showing me how to make one document of my manuscript, for that is what I am doing as I revise this story.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Second Glance
Posted by Paty Jager at 7:46 AM
1 comment:
- Elisabeth Naughton said...
Any time, babe. ;)
I'm glad you're able to see the positive in the comments you got back. It is so hard to look at our work objectively, esp. when the comments aren't what we want to hear.
Linda posted about this very topic over on Romance Worth Killing For today. (And yeah, I'm the big bad meanie she mentions in that post. LOL)
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Download a PDF of the fact sheet
In the spring semester of 2017, Tulane University administered a sexual misconduct campus climate survey. Tulane used the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative (ARC3) survey.
9,958 full-time students received an invitation to take the survey. 4,644 students at Tulane completed the survey, a response rate of 47%.
This was the university's second student survey on these topics. In 2014-15, Tulane administered the American College Health Association-National Collegiate Health Assessment (NCHA-II) and the Healthy Minds Study (HMS) surveys.
9,958 students were invited to participate in the survey. 4,644 students completed the survey, a 47% response rate.
• Undergraduate women, especially LGBQ+ women, reported the highest rates of sexual assault. Overall, 41% of undergraduate women reported experiencing sexual assault since enrolling at Tulane. Fifty-one percent of undergraduate LGBQ+ women and 39% of undergraduate heterosexual women reported sexual assault.
Overall, 18% of undergraduate men reported experiencing sexual assault. Forty-four percent of undergraduate GBQ+ men reported experiencing sexual assault, compared to 13% of undergraduate heterosexual men.
Collectively, graduate and undergraduate students of color reported lower rates of sexual assault than their white peers. Heterosexual women of color reported an 18% rate of sexual assault versus 35% for white heterosexual women. LGBQ+ women of color reported a rate of 38% and GBQ+ men of color reported 21% versus 46% for white LGBQ+ women and 42% for white GBQ+ men.
• Alcohol is often involved in perpetrating the sexual assault of Tulane undergraduates, with 74% of women and 87% of men who experienced sexual assault reporting they were incapacitated by alcohol at the time of assault.
• Graduate students experience higher rates of sexism, crude comments and sexual harassment by faculty and staff in the academic setting than their undergraduate colleagues. LGBQ+ graduate student women, reported the highest rates of sexism or sex discrimination by faculty or staff at 42%, followed by heterosexual women (29%), GBQ+ men (24%) and heterosexual men (19%) in graduate and professional programs.
• LGBQ+ undergraduate students reported the highest rates of dating violence: 38% for LGBQ+ undergraduate women and 32% for GBQ+ undergraduate men.
• Most undergraduate sexual misconduct victims feel that Tulane did or would provide them with needed support and valued them. Eighty-four percent of both undergraduate men and women said that Tulane did or would actively support them with formal or informal resources.
• Fewer than half of undergraduate women (42%) and a quarter of men (23%) who experienced sexual misconduct reported disclosing their experiences with anyone.
Only 42% of undergraduate women disclosed their incidents to anyone. Only 23% of undergraduate men disclosed their incidents to anyone. 84% of undergraduate sexual misconduct victims said Tulane did/would support them.
Working with experts among from our community and others across the country to apply national best practices in the prevention of sexual assault and harassment, Tulane will strive to become a leader in finding answers. This work will include evaluation of its efforts, and sharing insights with higher education colleagues.
Tulane will focus on the following:


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Design the future Optical Systems
Optiwave Corporation's suite of design and simulation software maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of our customer's optical networks, subsystems and components to help bring customer's vision to light.
>> Four-wave Mixing, Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS),
Self-Phase Modulation, Cross-Phase Modulation
>> Stimulated Raman Scattering, and full bi-directional capabilities.
>> MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimate),
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>> A robust library of multimode fiber models, including Parabolic-Index and Measured-Index profile.
>> The most advanced optical amplifier design library available.
>> Provides automatic parameter sweep and optimization
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Complimentary add-ons:
Optisystem Applications:
OptiBPM is a comprehensive CAD environment used for the design of complex optical waveguides. Perform guiding, coupling, switching, splitting, multiplexing, and demultiplexing of optical signals in photonic devices.
OptiBPM can improve design engineers' productivity, reduce risk, and lower overall costs related to design of waveguide solutions. OptiBPM's high-value functionality includes powerful integration capabilities with our award-winning optical communication system software, OptiSystem, and with Design Workshop's dw-2000, a mask layout physical design and verification software.
OptiGrating uses the Coupled Mode Theory to model the light and enable analysis and synthesis of gratings.A complex Grating is approximated by a sequence of uniform segments, and analyzed by connecting the segments with the well-known Transfer Matrix Method. This gives the designer the information needed to test and optimize grating designs. india
The optimal design of a given optical communication system depends directly on the choice of fiber parameters. OptiFiber uses numerical mode solvers and other models specialized to fibers for calculating dispersion, losses, birefringence, and PMD.Meshless Mode Solvers for LP and Vector Modes:Optical fibers may consist of an arbitrary number of concentric layers of lossless materials, and graded index fibers can be approximated using a sequence of constant index layers. OptiFiber 2.0 mode solvers find an exact solution based on matching boundary conditions at layer boundaries instead of relying on meshes to approximate the structure.These advanced mode solvers should be especially useful for multimode fiber calculations, where there are many modes in the spectrum.Another advantage of the meshless mode solver is the calculation of fields far from the fiber. Meshing introduces finite difference errors of a certain level, and fields weaker than the differencing error cannot be calculated. The meshless mode solvers, on the other hand, have the correct asymptotic behavior far from the fiber, and can calculate fields of magnitude 10-15 or less.This feature is in addition to the existing mode solvers in OptiFiber.
We offers introductory courses for all products. Trainers, who are expert engineers, focus on your goals and how you can best utilize Optiwave tools to achieve them. Our two day short courses allow for a 'hands on' approach on learning how to use Optiwave tools to their best capabilities.


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Spurs gunning for Elite title
Gleaner Writer
Manchester Spurs' head coach, Carlene Graham, expects her team to put up a strong challenge for this year's Berger Paints Elite Netball League title.
The Spurs recorded their second consecutive victory in the competition on Wednesday, with a 38-34 win over last year's beaten finalists St Catherine Racers.
National goal-shooter Shantel Slater led the way for the Spurs with 27 goals from 33 attempts. She received support from Nicole Dixon, who shot 11 goals from 19 attempts. The Spurs led 20-17 at half-time and 28-24 at the end of the third quarter.
Anna-Kay Griffiths and Ladonna Lamont scored 17 goals apiece in a losing cause for the Racers.
"I know that my players can go on to win this competition," said Graham. "We have Vangelee (Williams) who is very experienced and we also have Shantal Slater, who is our top shooter.
"We have a crop of players in the middle who are very fast and so I am confident that we can go all the way this season," Graham said.
The Spurs are now the only unbeaten team left in the competition and reflecting on her team's performance Graham said: "I thought the ladies did extremely well. They came out with their A game, they executed well and so we are giving God thanks for that."
Meanwhile, the St. James Sharpes picked up their first win of the season after overcoming a slow start to post a 30-25 victory over defending champions Kingston Humming Birds.
Deneen Taylor led the way for the Sharpes with 17 goals from 27 attempts. She received support from Jodi-Ann Ffrench, who shot 13 goals from 21 tries.
Monique Emery, nine from 12, Mellisha Josephs 11 from 15 and Thristina Harwood five from 11 were the scorers for the Humming Birds, who were suffering their second consecutive loss in the tournament.
In the day's other game, April Thompson netted 15 goals from 24 attempts to steer the unbeaten Clarendon Gaters to a 30-23 win over St Ann Orchids.
Shanice Beckford, 14 goals from 22 attempts, and Giselle Allison with nine from 19, were the top scorers for the St Ann team who are yet to taste victory this season.
Third round action takes place on April 12 with Sharpes facing Spurs, Gaters against Racers and Orchids opposing Humming Birds.


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Physical fitness not only has personal gain, but also benefit society and the state. Therefore sports activities are now increasingly received extensive attention.
Along with the increased activity of these sports, sports injuries also increased. It is unfortunate if only because of sports injuries are sports people difficult to improve or maintain achievement.
In fact, sports injuries if not handled quickly and properly may result in disruption or physical limitations, both in performing activities of daily living or doing sports activities are concerned. Thus if the injury and the recovery period, it would be nice if the therapy regularly in physical therapy NYC.
Even for athletes to this injury could mean quite a long break and might have to leave altogether hobby and profession.
ACL injury
Injury is the biggest bugbear for athletes, because if the injury is not handled properly can lead to a decrease in the performance of athletes, can even lead to the completion of the career of the athlete.
Many kinds of sports injuries, but injuries are a scourge most athletes are injured ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) for the ACL can not regenerate. When damage occurs, the body can not repair naturally.
He added that he had held a live arthroscopy surgery in the form of education and training, especially arthroscopy surgery on ACL injuries such as ACL reconstruction using a variety of existing systems for physicians, especially orthopedic specialists from all over Indonesia.
Thus, more and more doctors are able and adept at dealing with sports injuries.
Arthroscopy surgery is a minimally invasive surgery is surgery performed only by a small incision in the joint for inserting a camera and surgical instruments.
Arthroscopy surgery can be performed on the knee joint, hip joint, ankle joint, shoulder joint, elbow joint, or at the wrist joint.
Arthroscopy has advantages, including: small operation wound around 2-10 mm so that pain is much reduced due to surgery, injury due to surgery will be more easily disguised, the smaller the risk of infection and faster recovery.
In addition to directly perform ACL surgery, the doctors also describes how handling and post-surgery exercise, because after surgery, patients still have to pass through a period of healing that takes between 6-8 months to get back to sports activities.
During the healing period, the athlete can just concentrate on strengthening the network of ACL is still not perfect bound at the appropriate places. Athletes must undergo therapy to ACL already in the perfect position to serve restrain movement of the knee.


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mississippi basketball
Twitter-less Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy schedules nonconference game via … Twitter
Andy Kennedy is a boss. Kennedy, the Ole Miss basketball coach, has no Twitter account. And yet on Monday he was able to schedule a nonconference game against Illinois State...
Ole Miss basketball dismisses freshman Nate Morris after arrestMatt Jennings
Ole Miss basketball has reportedly dismissed freshman forward Nate Morris after his second arrest in two months. The Clarion-Ledger's Antonio Morales reports Morris, 19, was arrested Tuesday night on charges of speeding...
Ole Miss hoops lands commitment from SG Devontae ShulerHale McGranahan
Ole Miss picked up its second 2017 basketball commitment when 4-star shooting guard Devontae Shuler announced his decision on Monday night. Shuler committed to Ole Miss over offers from South Carolina and...
Former Ole Miss star Johnny Neumann finally finishes what he started at OxfordRoger Kuznia
Ole Miss' commencement ceremony made headlines Saturday for Tom Brokaw's slam of Alabama, but let's not overlook some other important portions of the proceedings. Former Rebels hoops star Johnny Neumann,...


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Plot Edit
Scientifically advanced wanderers from the destroyed planet Mysteroid request a patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women. After a demonstration of their destructive abilities from the help of their giant robot Moguera, mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist. Predictably, the earthlings choose to resist. The Mysterians have giant burrowing dome/bases that can come up out of the earth and deploy death rays that emanate from the dome's crown and can melt tanks and jeeps as if they were plastic.
Miraculously, the earthlings develop their own death-ray equipped, agile rocket-aircraft, which enable them to blow up the domes.
Kenji Sahara - Jōji Atsumi
Yumi Shirakawa - Etsuko Shiraishi
Momoko Kōchi - Hiroko Iwamoto
Akihiko Hirata - Ryōichi Shiraishi
Takashi Shimura - Dr. kenjirō Adachi
Susumu Fujita - General Morita
Hisaya Itō - Captain Seki
Yoshio Kosugi - Commander Sugimoto
Fuyuki Murakami - Dr. Nobu Kawanami
Tetsu Nakamura - Dr. Kōda
Yoshio Tsuchiya - Mysterian Leader
International distributionEdit
A November 1, 1957 report states that Southeast Asian distribution rights to The Mysterians were sold to Shaw & Sons of Hong Kong for the highest amount paid for a Japanese film to that time.[1] Rights to other parts of the world were sold for a record price for a Japanese film to Topaz Film Corp. in February of 1958.[2]
Lobby card for the 1959 US release of The Mysterians film were released to the U.S. in May of 1959. In July, The New York Times called the film, "an ear-splitting Japanese-made fantasy, photographed in runny color and dubbed English," and concluded with, "This Metro release is crammed with routine footage of death rays and scrambling civilians, not one of whom can act. Tomoyuki Tanaka produced the mess and Inoshiro Honda directed it. Peter Riethof and Carlos Montalban are responsible for the 'English version,' and may it spread no further linguistically."
- In Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla (1994) special effects director Koichi Kawakita redesigned the giant robot Mogera into an anti-Godzilla mecha for the later film, called "M.O.G.U.E.R.A..." (Mobile Operation Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aerotype).
- Ryuhei Kitamura's Godzilla: Final Wars features an anti-kaiju defense organization called the Earth Defense Force .
- Moguera's inclusion was a last minute idea as producer Tomoyuki Tanaka felt the film needed a kaiju.
- Moguera was originally conceptualized as a living breathing monster, however director Ishiro Honda reworked it into being a robot as a way to further demonstrate the technological power the Mysterians possessed.
- Moguera's original concept can still be seen in story board stills, which depicted him as a half mole half reptilian monster. Though the design was never used, some key details were later used in the monster Baragon for the film Frankenstein Vs. Baragon. Most notably was the monsters burrowing ability, heat ray, and a ridged back.


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Bermuda cleans up, Florida fears ease
Bermuda was assessing damages Saturday after Hurricane Fabian roared across the British territory with 120-mph winds.
BY SUSAN KIM | BALTIMORE | September 6, 2003
Bermuda was assessing damages Saturday after Hurricane Fabian roared across the British territory with 120-mph winds.
Four people were missing Saturday afternoon after their cars blew off a causeway near the airport, according to police reports.
In a public statement, Bermuda government spokesperson John Burchall said flooding and looting were both problems but could not elaborate on the extent of either.
Bermuda's four main police stations had roof damage, he reported.
The Salvation Army opened several shelters, and hundreds of people were still staying in them Saturday.
Some 25,000 homes were without power, and many roads were still impassable. About 65,000 people live in Bermuda.
In a prepared statement, Premier Alex Scott spoke about the importance of everyone working together.
"We are going to come together like we always do. The world will watch us and learn about real community," he said.
All newly built homes in Bermuda are built to codes that require them to withstand 110-mph winds, and most phone and power lines are underground.
The last hurricane of Fabian's size - Category 3 - to hit Bermuda was Hurricane Edna, which hit in 1953 with 115-mph winds.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Tropical Storm Henri weakened into a tropical depression, sparing the state some of the heavy rain that was forecast.
There were reports of street flooding, and disaster response leaders in that state also emphasized that many Floridians are still recovering from floods and tornadoes that occurred earlier this summer.
In Punta Gorda, city streets flooded but most water had receded by Saturday, according to reports from Charlotte County emergency management.
"The Salvation Army continues to monitor situations around the state as rivers and levies are reaching their threshold," said Kevin Smith, director of emergency disaster services for The Salvation Army's Florida division.
Meanwhile, next up on the tropical front...Tropical Storm Isabel, which Saturday sported 40-mph winds.
Related Topics:
Should we be listening to hurricanes?
Will storms change climate debate?
Mental health often overlooked
More links on Hurricanes
Find this article at:


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Week 13's photo
A building in near the Kyobo Tower in Gangnam district.
Week 12's photo
A metal artwork that I found in Suwon of the Hwaseong Fortess.
Week 11's photo
The massive screen on the side of Seoul Square.
Week 10's photo
A cosplayer dressed as Misa from "Death Note," a popular anime. Taken at the 102th Comic World anime convention.
Week 9's photo
The lanterns at Cheonggye Stream in Seoul.
Week 8's photo
Taken at the COEX Aquarium.
Week 7's photo
A model at the Seoul Int'l PHOTO & IMAGING Industry Show 2011
Week 6's photo
Yay! Coke!
Week 5's photo
The Seoul Summit statue right outside the COEX mall.
Week 4's photo
Taken on my way to the Palaces (Changgyeong and Changdeok) in Seoul.
Week 3's photo
Taken on the Changgyeong Palace's ground (near a beautiful pond). This Ancient palace is one of five in the city of Seoul.
Week 2's photo
Taken as I was leaving the Gangnam Station in Seoul.
Week 1's photo
Taken in Seoul from my hotel window. It is a rooftop where apparently that building keeps their trash. And the worn symbols are Korean.


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Rent an accomodation
AT096 Ramon de la Torre (HUTT-001758-21) (Babilònia)
House in 'Babilònia', one of the most quiet areas of Torredembarra, which is both close to the beach and the town centre. It has a stunning 1900 square meter garden with two porches, a large lawn area and several trees that provide a very valued shade for the Summer months. Inside, the house has a lounge and a dining room, a spacious and well equipped kitchen, two complete bathrooms (one with shower and the other one with bath) and four bedrooms, all of them with exits to the garden. There are 2 double bedrooms with double beds and 2 bedrooms with 3 single beds. The garden also has a swimming pool and it is roomy enough to park 5 cars.
Accommodation's distribution
Household, domestic appliances
Location of the accomodation
©2018 Finques La Torre. Tots els drets reservats.