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USDA check of safety data used for pork-processing line speed rule inadequate, OIG concludes
Washington — The U.S. Department of Agriculture "did not take adequate steps to determine whether the worker safety data it used … were reliable" when proposing a controversial rule that removes line speeds in pork-processing plants and transfers certain inspection responsibilities to plant workers, the USDA Office of Inspector General concludes in a report released June 25.
USDA published the proposed rule in the Feb. 1, 2018, Federal Register. Under the final rule – published in the Oct. 1 Federal Register and effective Dec. 2 – FSIS established an optional New Swine Slaughter Inspection System that revokes the current maximum line speed of 1,106 hogs per hour at participating processing plants.
Additionally, the rule requires all plants to establish written sanitary dressing plans and develop process control for intestinal pathogens that may trigger foodborne illnesses. USDA retains full charge of carcass inspections and animal preslaughter examinations while maintaining "the ability to slow or stop the (processing) line, as needed."
In June 2019, multiple media outlets obtained a letter confirming the USDA OIG's intent to investigate the effectiveness and integrity of the procedures USDA used to develop its proposal.
Responding to concerns posed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong sent a letter addressed to Durbin and 15 fellow members of Congress outlining OIG's intended objective to determine whether FSIS:
- Complied with public transparency requirements under Executive Order 13563.
- Adhered to USDA Data Quality Guidelines in developing the proposed rule.
- Reached a reasonable determination about the reliability of the OSHA injury data to develop the proposed rule.
- Consulted with OSHA and NIOSH about the impact of the proposed regulation on workplace safety and health.
- Made information about its preliminary analysis on worker safety clearly accessible to the public during the comment period.
"This report confirms my concerns: that FSIS was not forthcoming about its worker safety analysis and used questionable data in developing a dangerous change to meat plant operations," Durbin told Safety+Health. "Sacrificing worker safety for industry profits is unacceptable, and FSIS has earned the doubt and scrutiny it received through this report. I'm glad the OIG has recommended that FSIS update its rulemaking procedures and improve communication with the public."
In its report, OIG recommends USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service "update its internal procedures for the rulemaking process, determine the impact of the omissions from the proposed rule, and communicate to the public the actual review period and known limitations" of the OSHA data for large plants with different allowed line speeds that FSIS used in its worker safety analysis.
In response to a draft of the final report, FSIS Administrator Paul Kiecker wrote: "FSIS believes that the report's findings and recommendations are derived from the misapplication of E.O. 13563 and the USDA Information Quality Activities Guidelines to an analysis in the NSIS proposal, as well as from a distorted emphasis placed by the auditors on minor errors made in the proposal text."
Asked for comment on the final report, an FSIS spokesperson echoed Kiecker's position, telling S+H the errors made in the presentation of the analysis already were corrected, while the preliminary worker safety analysis "was neither prepared nor published in support of the proposal."
Adam Pulver, an attorney for the watchdog group Public Citizen – which in October joined a coalition of labor unions in suing USDA over the final rule, issued a statement June 24.
"The inspector general confirmed what worker and consumer advocates have been stating for more than a year: In its rush to deregulate, the USDA failed to meaningfully consider the impacts of eliminating line speed maximums for swine slaughter facilities on workers," the statement reads.
The proposal cited analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that, when compared with traditional plants, establishments operating under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Inspection Models Project – a 1990s pilot program (known as HIMP) that allowed lines to run faster than current limits – "demonstrated that they are capable of consistently producing safe, wholesome and unadulterated pork products."
In December 2018, Debbie Berkowitz, director of workplace health and safety programs at the National Employment Law Project, issued a statement questioning the validity of the analysis after obtaining a copy through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In a separate release that month, NELP highlighted a review by two experts from Texas State University showing that USDA compared injury rates from traditional plants with those from five HIMP plants, each of which were self-nominated for the program, and thus likely differed from traditional plants in areas such as age, maintenance, OSHA inspection experience and worker training.
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We're pleased to announce the launch of a completely rewritten and redesigned Help Center customer experience.
The redesign includes the following enhancements:
Intuitive Documentation Organization
The Samsara Help Center has been reorganized with an intuitive flow and organization that is consistent with core Samsara features and functionality. The accordion-style categories collapse and expand to help you zero in on the content that interests you.
Targeted Search Facets
The Help Center Search now provides search facets that you can use to search within specific feature categories such as Driver Safety, Telematics, and Site Visibility. The search facets help you narrow your search queries so you can quickly find topics.
Quick Access to Related Resources
To quickly access additional resources, the Help Center now provides new resource tiles beneath the Help Center content. These tiles enable you to easily access developer resources, product release notes, and the Samsara Academy. To help you stay informed on new features and product news, you can also find a curated list of featured articles that includes popular staff picks.
New Product Guides
Content across our Fleet and Sites documentation library has also been rewritten and validated to ensure you have access to the most up-to-date content. Much of this content is also translated into Spanish, French, and German. In addition, the Samsara Driver App User Guide is also available from the Help Center in both PDF and HTML format.
Happy Reading!
Your Samsara TechDocs Team

subset: commoncrawl


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BORRA exists to give local off-road cycling enthusiasts a voice for open,
respectful communication with all stakeholders involved in sustainable growth
of an outstanding trail network centred on Mt Coot-tha.
web: borra.org
email: email@example.com
Who is Borra?
We believe that Brisbane has a unique opportunity to become a major winter MTB tourism destination hub for the the South East QLD area – complete with it's own nationally significant trail network, based on the existing network of informal trails. By building to an agreed trail master plan with real investment, unauthorised trail building will cease to be the only way supply balances demand. Investment means more trails…we've got big plans… come join us!.


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This is a new sample library for Korg Kronos and provides Vibraphone, Marimba, several chromatic instruments like Glasses, Bowls, Toy Piano, Steeldrum, Kalimba and many more.
Typical sound character elements are a strong attack, a fading decay and harmonics often with 5th or even unusual interval.
Find out more and listen to the Audio demo track here


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Florida Bites
We ended up not having time to drive over to the beach while I was in Florida. Nor did we go to Disney World. As we were riding the airport shuttle today, on our way out, a recorded announcement said, "Chances are, you didn't see and do everything there is to do while you were here…" My co-worker and I had to laugh. Yeah, we didn't see or do very much at all except work. However, we stayed at a very nice resort, and the convention was at yet another nice resort, so there were a few photo ops.
I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and "had" to wait at the airport a couple hours before going to the condo. As you can see, waiting at the airport was a real hardship for me. I staked out one of the benches by this gorgeous fountain and read through several of the Psalms while I was waiting. It was a unique place to have devotions. I needed some alone time that time, so that served the need nicely.
Late that evening, after we had loaded and unloaded some of the convention supplies and taken care of grocery shopping for the weekend, one of my co-workers, Sherry, and I explored the resort a little bit. We were tickled to discover that the smoking area was called the Cigar Deck. So pretentious! No one was smoking cigars (or anything else), and it was actually a very nice deck overlooking the lake.
Another thing that cracked us up was the Sensory Garden, which was a nicely landscaped, short garden path. Sherry struck a yoga pose long enough for me to take a picture. I'm not sure she got the full sensory effect in that length of time, but we aren't real sure what that was supposed to be anyway.
The convention was busy. We worked long hours and talked to lots of people.
It was held at the Gaylord Palms resort, which has alligators in the atrium. They weren't in the wild, and they weren't very big, but still, it was cool to see them. There were turtles in with them.
On Saturday evening my cousin, Kerry, who lives there, came over to see me. We went out for a quick dinner. It was fun to see her again. It had been several years. We were too busy talking and catching up to think about taking pictures.
And that was the extent of my adventure in Florida this past weekend. I've been to Florida twice now, and have yet to see the Atlantic Ocean.
Someday we'll go back for a vacation. At least, it's on my bucket list.
One Comment
Sheila DelCharco
You'll have to come stay with me Karla! It's ridiculous that you've been to Florida twice now and not to have seen the ocean! We'll make it happen!


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Date of Award
Degree Type
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education
College of Education and Human Services
First Advisor
Schultheiss, Donna
Subject Headings
Counseling Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Social Psychology, Womens Studies
Muslim women's sense of self is at stake due to prevailing stigma and oppression toward Muslims. Employment and workplace have emerged as primary settings for encounters of negative bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Muslim immigrant women face multiple disadvantages on the basis of their various intersecting identities. The purpose of this study was to explore identity and career experiences of first generation immigrant Muslim women in American society, particularly in work and career settings. Informed by relational approaches to career development and social identity perspective, and grounded on the constructivist paradigm, a phenomenological qualitative analysis using consensual qualitative research (CQR) was conducted. Participants included 15 Muslim immigrant women with diverse ethnic backgrounds, residing in two Midwestern cities. Twelve domains emerged: Descriptive features of the self/identity, dynamic features of the self/identity, education and career experience, immigration and cross-cultural experience, stigma and oppression experience, emotional experience, family relational experience, social relational experience, home-country and home-culture experience, worldview, life challenges, and future orientation. Results suggest that Muslim immigrant women dynamically craft their selves and construct their experience in contexts defined by instability, pressure, and tension. Employment emerged as a primary context of difficult encounters, indicated by barriers of occupational mobility, social exclusion, unfair hiring outcomes, and discrimination on the basis of diverse identity markers. Contributions to the literature and implications for theory, research, and clinical work were discussed.
Recommended Citation
Khamush, Basak Kacar, "Identity and Career Experiences of Muslim Immigrant Women: The United States Context" (2017). ETD Archive. 961.


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What does war do to water and how can we respond?
Violence, displacement, damaged infrastructure – the threats conflict poses to water access are multifaceted and severe, particularly in regions already bearing the brunt of temperature increases and extreme weather events worsened by climate change. Patrick Youssef is the regional director for Africa of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Ahead of Geneva Solutions' event on water security on 21 September, on the occasion of World Peace Day, he discusses some of the challenges he's witnessed in the region, the ICRC's response, and whether water can help build peace in communities wracked by war.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Geneva Solutions: How has water access been impacted by armed conflict in Africa?
Patrick Youssef: When we have major violence or a war, the first thing we see is communities become quite disintegrated. Some people remain there with probably nothing and very low incomes, others move within the country, and a third category moves outside of the country as refugees. These numbers are growing in volume in Africa as a result of war and conflict, and this displacement is adding enormous pressure on infrastructure and weighing on communities that already have scarce resources.
Take Maiduguri in north-eastern Nigeria, where we have over five million displaced people within a city that can only provide for one million or even less. Or take a small town I visited last week in the north of Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the population has increased from 50,000 to 112,000 following the volcano eruption near Goma in May. The town has only so much water, food and natural resources to offer.
We've broken the record with 55 million internally displaced people in 2021, and we see that the numbers are only increasing. In places like Tigray and throughout Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso, we have a problem with getting water resources to those who need it. On top of the displacement, we see a lack of investment in the infrastructure, which means a large number of people are just not getting access to water. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 400 million people have difficulties accessing fresh, clean water.
When war or violence takes over large swathes of land, be it under non-state armed groups or government authorities, those who really need water lose access. In Africa, the three main economic communities – herders, farmers and fishers – have the land they use to grow their crops, for fishing, or transhumance [moving livestock from one grazing ground to another in a seasonal cycle] taken over. In the Sahel, for example, people are not only changing course but are also trying to adapt their transient activities, often extending them as the land they have access to changes. That will also have a social price for families, communities and traditions. So we can see that even the social fabric is being affected by the lack of clean water resources in these areas.
What are some of the repercussions?
PY: There's one element that often goes unnoticed, and that's the direct link between a lack of water access and protection issues for the most vulnerable categories of populations, for example, women and children. They are typically the ones tasked with fetching water, and they are forced to go into dangerous spaces where they are sometimes subjected to rape or sexual violence. That is probably because they don't have access within their own communities and are forced to travel long and dangerous distances just to get water. In September 2021, there are still people who walk up to 10 km to get two barrels of water.
GS: Have you witnessed conflict caused or driven by water?
We know that water does not directly cause armed conflicts – or at least we don't have enough critical mass of cases. But armed conflict does weaken traditional justice in communities, leaving an absence of mediation measures between communities. Usually, traditional leaders mediate between communities that have difficulties equally distributing water resources according to people's needs. The breakdown of this further fuels local tensions and instability, which contributes to further violence and dynamics of violence that are often unfortunately irreversible.
And again, because of the massive displacement in countries such as the DRC and Burkina Faso, pressure is mounting on communities, some of which are rejecting displaced people, leading to local violence and irreversible grievances. You can imagine the huge impact on social cohesion within a community that lived together peacefully for hundreds of years and is now being faced with scarce water resources.
GS: Is climate change making things worse?
PY: Climate hazards and environmental degradation adds another layer of complexity to water access because of the scarcity caused by rising temperatures. The places where we see this the most are the Sahel, the Sahara region because of the desertification, and the Horn of Africa, where the massive locust infestation has deeply affected every aspect of agriculture. That is another huge concern because these impacts only exacerbate existing fragilities and difficulties for people.
There isn't a direct link of casualty, but with the environment degrading more and more, some of the cattle that people used to live off are disappearing or are unable to sustain the harsh weather conditions. In some areas in Africa, tensions between farmers and herders are probably generating more wounds and deaths than actual armed conflicts, but they go unnoticed because they're within communities. In Burkina Faso and Mali, there have been staggering numbers of people killed in this way.
GS: And conversely, how can water help build peace?
PY: Water is a human right and has to be afforded whether we're fighting or not fighting, in conflict and in peace. It's not conditional. But I think water can be a tool of peace if it has the space to cater for the needs of not only the population but also its future. And having a sustainable future goes with protecting the environment and having enough water and resources. The simple protection of water resources and access to basic social services can only help social cohesion in the communities that are shattered by war.
GS: How does the ICRC intervene to safeguard access to water in conflict settings?
PY: First and foremost by being there, by acting, by being a witness. On the structural side, the ICRC is always very busy every day on building and rehabilitating and treating the root causes of crises. We operate in emergencies, in water trucking to internally displaced camps or many other places. We also work with local authorities, namely water directorates, to train them so that they can take care of their own structures.
Working with water infrastructure means we have to think very long-term, which is now becoming part of our DNA at the ICRC. It's moving from simply repairing a hand pump to acknowledging that, because of the protracted nature of crises today, with an average war lasting between 25 to 30 years, we have to think about how we can enhance access to basic services such as water long-term. Some examples include projects on the water network in Goma in the DRC, which was recently affected by the volcano eruption, or a similar upcoming project in Gao in the north of Mali.
GS: We have international humanitarian law to protect water during conflict – is it sufficient?
PY: I wouldn't ask you if you think water is a human right – it's so obvious. But it's not obvious in conflict settings. It's one of those aspects of life that people start underestimating. We have international humanitarian law that applies in situations of armed conflict and indeed prohibits attacks against objects of civil use like water infrastructure, sanitation stations, water treatment plants and so on. But unfortunately, these are often the first targets. It seems like today, weakening the environment around armed groups is becoming a priority for their opponents, meaning they attack hospitals, they attack water resources, they attack civilians. They may eventually attack an armed force on the other side, but, as I've witnessed in the DRC, whenever there is a major attack people start to flee because they know they will be targeted.
So on the legal side of things, we have more than enough, but it's about the implementation. That's why we put so much emphasis on policy and advocacy, on working with local and regional organisations and states. We try to amplify our voice. But at the end of the day, nothing beats going face to face with weapon bearers. Talking to everyone on the ground is part of our mandate. We put our finger where it hurts, but try to change the behaviour of these armed actors, so proximity with them and the communities is essential.
GS: Do we need new tools to protect water?
PY: On the policy side, we need to work with local actors to bring the organic assessments from those who live through the misery and don't consider our western-packed solutions as the only options.
New tools can also be developed in the framework of certain forums and think tanks – for example, next year's World Water Forum in Dakar, or the African Union Summit on Water. We also now have the resolution endorsed by the Security Council on the protection of water resources during conflict.
But in most of the international forums that we attend, water is not the headline. And I believe a colossal effort should be put in at a very senior level to improve the quality of water and water access.
This article was realised with the support of the city of Geneva as part of its media support program.


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Are your eyes sore at the end of the day?
Do you notice your vision becoming blurry more often than not?
Do you have trouble falling asleep?
Does it feel like your alarm clock goes off sooner than you want it to?
Does it take you a while to find your energy in the morning?
Do you experience mood swings?
All of the above are symptoms of what is called consumption of processed light. Yes, it is not a typo. I did not mean to write processed food, even though processed light is the result of a similar pattern — only the source of the processed light is the sun, as opposed to the plant and animal kingdom, the source of our processed food.
So what is processed light?
Processed light is the isolated blue frequency of light that is emitted by our energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs and LED lights, our electronic devices and television sets.
The blue light frequency is not bad for us. It is our chronic exposure to the isolated blue light frequency that is the problem. The blue light frequency throws off our mitochondria, our body's time keepers, so that they cannot tell if it is day or if it is night.
One of the many negative results of this is that the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone gets compromised. When the production of melatonin gets compromised, we miss out on all healing benefits of sleep. In fact the National Institute of Health has done significant amount of research on the role of melatonin disruption to various cancers.
All of the above may sound really dark! 🙁 However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂
There are several things we can do to avoid the chronic exposure to blue light frequency:
Getting outside for at least 20 minutes a day, during daylight, without sunglasses and absorbing the full spectrum of sun rays, including the red and infrared frequencies.
Wearing blue light blocking sunglasses indoors and at night. We believe they look stylish. 🙂 You can find them on Amazon at this link.
Lighting up candles at night, instead of the regular lights. Regular fire does not disrupt the production of melatonin. Candle gazing is a form of the old Ayurvedic therapeutic technique called trāṭaka. You can find soy based unscented candles here.
Keeping himalayan salt lamps around the house, so you don't have to turn the regular light on should you need to get up in the middle of the night. They can be found here.
Install blue light blocking apps on your electronic devices, or better yet, avoid using them a couple of hours before bed time.
And last but not least, go camping and stare at the campfire! Your mitochondria will thank you!
Processed light is just like processed food, not the way Mother Nature did intend it for us.
However, there is an even worse enemy to our health out there. And that is processed information.
So, please, please, please, do your own research, always considering the source, before giving in to any processed foods or processed light. Thank you for sticking with us and reading all the way. – Tim and Vie
To learn more about the magnificent science of ayurveda take our Online or In Person 300-hr Yoga & Ayurveda Teacher Training
And if you liked this, please hit the like button, share, and subscribe if you haven't already. 🙂 Until next time much, much love from both of us! Na'maste kala! Which in Greek means: May we all be well! – Tim and Vie
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- Tracy
My 30 Day Social Media Cleanse
There is no denying that the last few months have been difficult. I think everyone, to varying degrees, has dealt with some form of Covid-related stress. Between the looming election, the dismal economic outlook and the general sense of aggression and frustration, I began to feel a great deal of sadness on more days than I care to admit. In light of this, I decided to do a 30 day "media cleanse": no news, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other related social media. I shut it all down and took a giant step back. The results were rather surprising. The very first thing I noticed (and I mean within fifteen minutes of deleting the apps from my phone) is that I now have the attention span of a flea. It seems I have completely lost my ability to wait, or at least wait well. Whether it's standing in line at the grocery store or even putting a movie on pause so the dog can go out, I immediately reach for my phone to fill up that space with something. Somewhere along the way, I have conditioned myself to be distracted at all times. It's ridiculous. Once that ability was taken away, I honestly found myself at a loss, wondering what to do with those few minutes of quiet. I have had to re-learn the art of simply waiting; observing the world around me, listening to my own thoughts and – gasp – even engaging with other people. It was quite the reality check. The second thing I noticed is, my reading abilities have been sorely affected by my habitual practice of skimming articles and scrolling through news feeds. I went to the bookstore and picked out a novel that piqued my interest and I swear, it took me three tries to get through the first chapter. This was alarming because I love to read and as a writer, I would like others to read my work, as well. It's hard to do that when you can no longer process anything longer than a simple paragraph. It was disconcerting to realize that my reading comprehension has suffered and if nothing else comes from this experiment, I have reaffirmed my commitment to reading actual books. As the days went by, I found myself reaching out to people more often…as in calling them. On the phone. Friends I hadn't talked to in months, my sisters, my Dad. Once I couldn't keep up through social media, I actually had to call them if I wanted to know how they were doing. It was so much fun! Sadly, some of the people I talked to only thought I was calling because something was wrong. That really hurt my heart; to realize they thought they were only hearing my voice because something bad had happened. I can – and will – do better. Social media, and media in general, is a double-edged sword for me. I enjoy seeing my friends and family and get to share in their lives just a bit, even if it's only through pictures. I also use social media as a way to promote my work, so I can hardly be hypocritical about it. And let's face it, sometimes a bit of distraction from the craziness of the world around us is a good thing. The problem seems to lie in how often I am using it and what I am using it for. It never ceases to amaze me how much time I can lose simply be scrolling through Facebook. Hours upon hours wasted in a single week. And when media reports, political debates and traumatic stories start to keep me up at night, that's a sure sign I need more balance in my life. I now allow myself one hour a day for any sort of electronic media. I check my local news, the weather and then call it good. I am back on Facebook and Instagram, but now closely monitor the time spent on these sites. I use technology to hold me accountable for my one hour allotment and it notifies me if I exceed my limit, which is extremely helpful. I have made a new habit of not taking my phone in with me to restaurants, choosing instead to enjoy the company of the person I'm with. I've dedicated myself to making memories instead of posts, which has been a breath of fresh air. Social media has its place, but it shouldn't take the place of living the good life I've been blessed with. That is my takeaway from the last 30 days, for whatever its worth. Know you are loved.


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In an appeal to the RIPE community Patrik Fälström, Technical Director and Head of Security at Netnod, and Stephen Farrell, Researcher at Trinity College Dublin and long time Security Area Director at the IETF, spoke out against the next wave of "not so secure encryption" proposals from the European Union. A recent Council of Ministers' paper from the Portugese Presidency underlines once more the need for access to end-to-end encrypted communication.
"It is not over", both Fältström and Farrell warned in their talks at the RIPE82 meeting on backdoor discussions, which according to Fältström are happening without technical experts.
The sky is not falling
Encryption has become a commodity, driven in recent years by Edward Snowden's revelations about illegal state mass snooping. "Encryption is our standard feature for kind of everything. It's not really an interesting set of product category any more". Of course, new crypto algorithms are being developed all the time, and a number of interesting challenges have remained, from fully-homomorphic encryption to secure cloud communications or ideas on how to allow hosts to authenticate when they do not have their own public IP address space (but instead use private IP addresses).
Despite agitated debates over users going dark by using more and more TLS or relying on the various developed DNS privacy mechanisms, so far the sky has not fallen, according to Farrell, "and I don't think it will".
Implementing Security and Privacy, BUT...
The European Commission has nevertheless been pushing for legal access to end-to-end encrypted communication. The Portugese Presidency published a paper on 12 May 2021 where it set out its next steps to develop a system for secure but accessible encryption under EU law.
"Serious organised crime and terrorist attacks are planned, executed and concealed online, illegal substances and products are marketed, and criminals are finding subtle ways to launder profits unhindered by physical borders. Fast developing technologies amplify the scale of the problem", the Presidency paper reads. It asks Member States to support the European Commission's preparations for a respective legislative proposal in 2022. Member States are asked to help identify options on how to move forwards on encryption.
This belief that encryption that is accessible via backdoors, frontdoors or vulnerabilities will still be secure leaves Fälström at a loss. Two recent technical proposals circulated by the EU presidency clearly illustrate the problem. One wants a hash of every communication sent from a device to a specific server for 'review', without the hash being end-to-end-encrypted. Another mechanism presented to Member States is that "everyone must have a secure enclave in the centre that is trusted, and inside the secure enclave you can access the unencrypted data even though it's end-to-end", Fältström reported, reiterating the general feeling of technical experts, who feel that such concepts defy the sheer laws of mathematics. Either you encrypt securely end-to-end, or you do not.
Fallout of EncroChat break-in
Nurturing the ideas of accessible end-to-end encryption has been the recent Encrochat affair, Fälström added. French and Dutch police used the mobile encryption provider Encochat's server to send out manipulated updates, thus gaining access to all 60000 Encrochat users's devices. Was that still a targeted operation or was it a general phishing expedition which is banned by Swedish law at least, Fälström wondered. In Sweden one defendant, who was sentenced based on EncroChat material, has been acquitted. According to the public prosecutor, 200 more cases will result in acquittals as well, because the material was inconclusive. While the prosecution does not want the cases to go up to higher courts for fear of a dismissal of the EncroChat material as mass surveillance, law enforcement still promotes the results in the case for legalizing a generalized chat surveillance.
As the issues around weakening encryption were both a technical and legal problem, a much more multi-stakeholder discussion is urgently needed, Fälström said at RIPE 82. "It is like forcing a round peg in a square hole, and just because that's what's happening right now, we must participate in that operation".
It is worth noting that the EU is not the only party to start considering legislation to address the round-peg-square-hole, some concerning proposals are also on the road in Mauritius, Brazil, Australia and other countries, Olaf Kolkman of the Internet Society warned. For more information see here.
This article is part of our RIPE 82 reporting and was written for CENTR by Monika Ermert. Monika has been working as an IT journalist for over 20 years. She has covered the evolving internet governance landscape, EU and worldwide attempts to regulate and the risks and fun of technology. She holds an M.A. in Chinese/Media Studies from the University of Tuebingen and lives and works in Munich, Germany.


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A Q&A With MediSync Clinical Research
Recently, the Elligo team interviewed Jeff Repper, Vice President, and Claire Dean, Business Development Associate, from MediSync Clinical Research. MediSync is a leading site partner directly involved in conducting COVID-19 vaccine trials and understands firsthand how to break into them. Read more to learn about their business development strategy, managing enrollment logistics, and overcoming operational and administrative challenges.
What business development strategy did your team execute on in pursuit of conducting a COVID-19 vaccine study?
MediSync Clinical Research is a small network of sites with five sites across the country – in Texas, Mississippi, and Ohio, and our standard approach for business development is to ensure our pipeline is both robust and diverse. The diversity comes in two forms – one is in the therapeutic area and the other is with different sponsors, different CRO's, and different people that we work with. This was a good and helpful starting point for us, that we had contacts at a lot of different companies.
My advice is to look at your own rolodex, see who you know, and reach out early. We reached out to a lot of people, many that we didn't even know just to see if they were going to have a COVID-19 vaccine coming up. We wanted to touch base with them and just say 'Hey, how are you? Remember us?' and 'if this does happen we would love to be a part of it.' From there, we kept a close eye on press releases, once a press release hit saying that there were positive early phase results with plans to start another phase, we would come back to that person and re-engage. If you do not re-engage there is a good chance they will forget about you, and the fact that you were interested. When you do plan to re-engage make sure to be thoughtful with what you include, if you have metrics or data about your site, numbers on patient population, incidence rate, or any other important information make sure to include that as it is a valuable resource for them to have, and will be a large factor in how they choose their sites. But more importantly, it is very easy for that information to be sent up the chain of command, that data is going to speak for itself when the right person looks at it.
Something new and different that MediSync did, is we got an interest rate from our patient population. We chose one or two hundred patients from our groups and sent out pilot outreach to get a feel for if they would be interested in a COVID-19 vaccine trial if we were to get one. With this information, we would be able to go to a sponsor and say 60-70% of people that we talked to about this trial are interested with about 80 people on a waitlist that are ready to go if we were to contact them. This is showing the sponsor that we are already putting the work in, and that we are going to continue to put the work in with the ability to move things along at a fast pace.
Once you receive an answer from a sponsor, whether it is yes, we want you to be our site, or no, you're not a good fit for us, whatever the answer may be, it is never necessarily a final answer. It is possible for a site to lose studies after receiving a yes, to avoid this, you want to make sure you are staying engaged, continuing to understand what the sponsors expectations are, staying prepared to meet the ever changing expectations, but above all, communicating it back to your sponsor. You may know that you are well equipped to meet changing expectations, but if you do not inform the sponsor they are not going to know, which may result in being dropped from the study.
More importantly, if you do receive a 'no', it is not necessarily the final answer. MediSync has been told no quite a few times, and the way I look at it is there are two types of No's, and it comes down to a matter of which can be changed. First, find out why they said no, if it is due to something that can be changed, make a plan and communicate it back to the sponsor – equipment, staffing, recruitment plan, enrollment expectations, etc. If the reason is that what you are doing now isn't enough for them, make an internal plan, communicate it back to them, and explain how it will benefit them. This method has worked for us in the past, and for the sponsor to agree and end up taking us on as a site. The second form of no is something that cannot necessarily be changed, which can be a little bit trickier. If it is something like the size of the population or the incidence rate, is it possible for you to change their perspective on it? For example, if your patient size is rather small, but you have a really engaged PI or strong community ties, and you're able to engage that smaller population well, remind them of that. A site with a huge patient population that cannot engage them is not as good as a smaller site with great engagement rates that can secure the patients while also having a great retention rate.
Personally, one of our sites in Austin, TX, had an incidence rate that in general was shown to be going down, and the sponsor told us no due to this reason, so MediSync dug deeper into the data only to realize we were actually in a bubble of higher incidence rate within the city, we shared this with the sponsor who recognized that our data was correct. It is important to continue to share graphs and show the trend lines, and prove that your site is going to be able to get the cases needed. Overall, be timely, be thoughtful with your outreach, and know that answer isn't always the final answer."
— Claire Dean, Business Development Associate, MediSync Clinical Research
What business development strategy did your team execute on in pursuit of conducting a COVID-19 vaccine study?
All of our research sites are dedicated, the exam rooms, storage space, everything is all dedicated 100% to clinical research, and while we have vaccine and high-volume experience, nothing compares to this.
The first step we took was in March we started to reach out to our colleagues in the industry, and when the opportunity arose for qualification visits the initial response was no. We didn't give up, we pushed back, the expectation was that these studies were going to simultaneously conduct their early and pivotal studies at the same time, and originally the timeline was June, so we ended up having to lay off the majority of our staff because our productivity went from being able to support all of our site levels to being down over 90% within the first two weeks of the pandemic. It was an absolute catastrophic meltdown. After the initial 'no' we went back at the end of May with more data, we ended up getting a yes with a start date of June. We had to scramble and get everybody back.
The communication between MediSync and the sponsor became very 'we will help you with the stuff that you need' because prior to the pandemic we did not have requirements for PPE in the ways that we do now with N95s, full gowns, face shields, etc. We weren't sure where to source those items, and we knew that if anything, this was going to go fast. The study team had expected to have 30 clinical trial sites with 6,000 patients enrolled and they expected it within a week. We knew that in order to fill our obligation to the study team that we would have to be full staffed, work on the weekend, and have everything on board and ready. We went about the business of doing this and the study didn't happen for two months. It is important to understand your obligations are going to be up front. We had the benefit of experience to know what we think would be a reasonable timeline for how long visits are going to last, and those types of things. So we set up our calendar accordingly and we had a moratorium on paid time off. I would characterize it as the Super Bowl, this is our Super Bowl of clinical trials right now, that we have the opportunity to participate in something that could greatly impact how long and how severe this pandemic is and everybody rallied around that. We were able to staff our clients, bring in new additional staff as well as temporary staff. There is a requirement for same day data entry, which is usually uncommon in these types of circumstances, so we brought in vendor personnel to work in an unblinded capacity, and to also work on same day data entry in addition to the staff we had onsite.
We did practice runs with mock patients in an effort to calibrate our data collection tools. We would practice our study visits ahead of time to help confirm our timeline expectation. We would also re-tool our source documents from what we thought we needed to what we actually needed. We didn't have the opportunity to ease into this with trying it out with a couple of patients to learn from what does or doesn't work, we had to be ready to hit the ground running.
These studies are different from what we would typically see inside of the industry, by the time one of these studies finished enrollment we were on amendment 10 or 11. If you are not able to adapt to what is going on in the clinical trial then you are not going to be able to reach your enrollment figures, you're not going to be able to collect and report the data appropriately, and ultimately, not going to be successful in your trial. What I expect is that the success that happens in any of these vaccine programs will bode well for future business development efforts. You have one chance at this, if you don't do it well, and don't do it right, that's it.
— Jeff Repper, Vice President, MediSync Clinical Research
What are the biggest challenges associated with conducting a COVID-19 Vaccine study?
The single biggest challenge from my perspective as an administrator is all the variability and the changes that take place inside the study. For example we had six contract amendments, about 10 or 11 protocol amendments, changes to the clinic schedule – all the things that we would have to put into our CTMS in order to be able to manage this and bill it appropriately.
— Jeff Repper, Vice President, MediSync Clinical Research
Would you do anything differently when conducting a future COVID-19 trial?
From an operational standpoint, if you've done vaccine studies, these really aren't that different. My advice for those that don't have any vaccine experience is to definitely do the trial runs and get everything you need prepared ahead of time and make sure it works. One thing that I will say is something that we had never done or had experience with from a patient recruitment standpoint is to actually go on the news. I now have a standing interview with NPR in Austin now to give updates on this. This is our 11th year of having clinical trial sites with MediSync and to try and get a press release to stick before was almost impossible.
What we have worked to change now, is that we have an infrastructure on the back end of our patient facing websites to be able to better handle the influx of interest forms and phone calls, this is mostly due to the first time we went on the news in the Austin area our website had crashed as a result of the influx of interest and feedback. It wasn't something that we were prepared for at that time, so we made changes to the backend so that we would be able to handle more volume and to better capture the information needed from these people that are showing interest.
One of the things that I'm excited to do moving forward is lean into that publicity piece. We work with pharmaceutical companies to develop press releases, and we got the information to them that we could actually present to the media, and the response has been overwhelming. In every one of our markets we have been able to go on the news, highlight what we are doing, and answer any questions. If you do get an award, I would recommend talking to your sponsor or CRO to push for leaning into the media. They may say no at first, but they most likely will do it and the response is tremendous.
— Jeff Repper, Vice President, MediSync Clinical Research
What would be the best advice you could give to a site looking to be selected for a future COVID-19 vaccine study who may not have much (if any) vaccine experience? & What advice would you give that site for successful execution of the trial?
This goes back to a lot of what was mentioned earlier, but to be collaborative with the sponsor. There is often a perceived notion of a power dynamic, where the sponsor is higher than that of a site, but the reality of it, is that this is an ecosystem, the sponsors need the sites as much as the sites need the sponsors. We are in an unprecedented time where everyone is still trying to adapt, that's why my advice is to collaborate with the sponsor. Be honest with them, tell them what you need, work with them on the media, and on recruitment, get a trailer if you need a trailer. Just make sure to collaborate with them so that everyone is successful. When the sponsor sees you doing this, it sets you apart and they will want to work with you. Let the sponsor know what you need to become the closest to a perfect site you can be, it will go a lot farther than pretending you are already a perfect site that you are not going to live up to.
— Claire Dean, Business Development Associate, MediSync Clinical Research
Do your best to prepare so that when you do get your chance you can make the most of it and it will do well for your business moving forward.
— Jeff Repper, Vice President, MediSync Clinical Research
For more information on partnering with Elligo and increasing your lead generation and study opportunities, contact us today for a free estimate.


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The Aardvark Blog
Don't despair we will still be here, and bookshop.org is here now too!
Don't despair we will still be here, and bookshop.org is here now too!
Lockdown is coming and the goose is getting fat, but don't worry your favourite independent bookshop (yes I'm feeling boastful this morning) will still be here available to send out orders by post or to leave them in our drop off boxes outside.
Last time we heard from many of you and were able to send out books and cards to people all over the country and overseas. I am hoping that this time will be no different. We have some great new books waiting to go into stock over the next few weeks and we will be spending the time when we would normally be chatting with customers on new plans and projects. Don't think that Mr Aardvark has exhausted his fund of strange ideas.
Aardvark was one of the first independent booksellers to sign up to the UK version of bookshop.org (https://uk.Bookshop.org/ ) and one of our lists is featured on the front page (Hellooo Sunshine!). We have lots of other lists available on our bookshop page on the site and new combos are forming in my mind.
So, Nil Desperandum: Christmas and Aardvark will both be around to cheer every-one up, and in 2021 I have got some fantastic plans starting with our Easter Saturday Garden Car Boot sale (yes, its just a combination of our usual Easter Garden day and our new car boot but now is not yet the time for originality). Lots of socially distanced fun on Saturday 3rd April 2021!
Published by Aardvark Books Ltd on (modified )
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Everyday bookselling conversation


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Balsam Al-Dabbagh will graduate with a PhD in Information Systems, after dedicating four years to her research.
One of her supervisors, Dr Eusebio Scornavacca, says there have been huge advances in information communication technologies (ICTs) over the last 20 years, and the new workplace environment is defined by 'constant connectivity'.
And yet, according to Balsam, there was a "gap in knowledge around when, where and how people use ICTs and the effect they have on productivity".
Her study aims to fill this gap by investigating employees' use of ICTs such as smartphones, email and social media, and then exploring the relationship between employees' levels of self-discipline when using ICTs and their workplace productivity
After surveying 433 employees across New Zealand and from a range of industries, Balsam discovered the relationship between connectivity and productivity was affected by multiple factors.
The research shows people underestimate the time they spend on ICTs, and therefore don't realise the consequences.
"There are a range of factors that need to be considered: the nature of the work, whether the role is interdependent or independent, the culture of the organisation and the employee's individual experience, preferences and personal control."
Overall, her research showed two key lessons for employers.
Balsam found strict ICT self-discipline is optimal for maintaining high productivity for those in large organisations, which tend to expect employees to be readily available via ICTs, and also for those in highly interdependent roles who need to be connected with multiple people or work groups.
However, lenient ICT self-discipline is suited for employees of smaller organisations, which tend to have a more relaxed working culture, and also those in independent roles whose work seldom required interacting with others.
Already Balsam has presented her findings and recommendations to the Microsoft office in Singapore, Google in Sydney and leading ICT scholars at the University of Sydney.
Dr Scornavacca says Balsam's research "helps managers to design policies and strategies to maximise organisational productivity as well as employees to develop personal strategies to manage their own levels of connectivity".
Balsam believes that technology is a crucial tool for any organisation, but says it's important that employers and employees are aware of the consequences.
"We tend to underestimate the amount of time we spend on all these communication technologies and sometimes get carried away.
"The moral of the story is that employers need to be more aware of ICT connectivity in the workplace, and they need to promote the development of employee-tailored strategies on the use of ICTs."
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)


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Research Workshop and PhD courses in Turkey, Autumn 2015
Virtus Global Center for Corporate Governance together with the Partner institution – Yasar University (Izmir, Turkey) have launched a new project consisting of two events: International Workshop "Corporate Governance, Innovations and Financial Markets" and International Courses For PhD Students.
International Workshop "Corporate Governance, Innovations and Financial Markets" will cover a vast range of topics connected to the issues of corporate governance and finance. The event will take place in Izmir, Turkey, October 29, 2015. Call for abstracts is available in PDF here.
Deadline for abstract submission: August 25, 2015
Abstracts for the workshop should be submitted by the following e-mail: email@example.com and a copy to email@example.com
International courses for PhD students will be held on October 30th at the same venue. There are two courses in the program:
- Empirical methods of research in corporate governance
- Getting your research published in journals: exploring the recent world trends and disclosing the major formal and informal rules
Courses Program can be downloaded in PDF here.
Registration deadline – August 25, 2015
About Izmir: İzmir has almost 4,000 years of recorded urban history and possibly even longer as an advanced human settlement. Lying on an advantageous location at the head of a gulf running down in a deep indentation midway on the western Anatolian coast, the city has been one of the principal mercantile cities of the Mediterranean Sea for much of its history. Its port is Turkey's primary port for exports in terms of the freight handled and its free zone, a Turkish-U.S. joint-venture established in 1990, is the leader among the twenty in Turkey.
Please contact Dmitriy Govorun: dmitriy.govorun[at]virtusinterpress.org for further information.


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After installing WSSetup on workstation sometimes Sage 300 ERP (formerly known as Sage Accpac ERP) shows error message "You do not have a license to use this product!" even after you have a genuine license of Sage 300 ERP.
Reason 1: At the time of WSSETUP user might not have full access rights to access Sage directory where Sage 300 ERP was installed.
Solution: Provide full access rights to user OR login as Administrator and then install WSSETUP on Workstation.
Thus, to provide an access right to User navigate to Sage application folder where Sage 300 ERP is installed (its default path would be C:\Program Files\Sage), Right click on Sage folder and go to Sharing and Security options to provide access rights.
Reason 2: It may because of wrong share data directory selected at the time of WSSETUP installation.
Solution: Provide correct path of Sage 300 Application directory installed on the server.
Thus, for providing a correct path, re-run Sage 300 ERP workstation setup and select Repair option, then navigate to 'Sage 300 ERP Folders' and make sure the Program and Data path is rightly selected as that of the server application path.
Thus, by taking care of these small but important steps while installing/settings one can ignore above-mentioned error.
About us:
Greytrix is one stop solution provider for Sage ERP and Sage CRM needs. We provide complete end-to-end assistance for your technical consultations, product customizations, data migration, system integrations, third party add-on development and implementation expertise.
Greytrix have some unique solutions of Sage 300 ERP integration with Sage CRM, Salesforce.com and Magento Ecommerce. We offer 20+ add-ons for Sage 300 ERP. It also offers best-in-class Sage 300 ERP customization and development services to business partners, end users, and Sage PSG worldwide.
Greytrix helps in migrating to Sage 300 ERP from Sage Pro, Sage 50 US, Sage 50 CA, Sage 50 UK, Sage Business Works, Sage Business Vision, QuickBooks and MS Dynamics Great Plains.
For more information on troubleshooting the error on Sage 300 ERP, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com .We will be glad to assist you.


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Prerequisite for this event is a solid background in automation system engineering, including PLC configuration and programming, HMI configuration, and integration of these components into a system-centric solution.
This event introduces the primary hardware and software products from Siemens, including the TIA Portal engineering framework, SIMATIC S7-1200 and 1500 PLCs, STEP7 PLC engineering software, SIMATIC Comfort Panel HMIs, WinCC Comfort/Advanced HMI Engineering software, PLC Sim, TIA Selection Tool.
This event is virtual (no live hardware) PLC Sim integrated into the Totally Integrated Automation framework is used for completing the lab exercises.


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News Archive
UW surgical robot has star turn in futuristic flick 'Ender's Game'
Doctoral students go behind the scenes in New Orleans as device simulates brain surgery on lead character in sci-fi movie.
Michelle Ma
University of Washington doctoral student Hawkeye King walked upstairs to get coffee on an ordinary spring morning in 2012. Blake Hannaford, his adviser and a UW electrical engineering professor, was ahead of him in line.
"Did you hear about the Hollywood thing?" Hannaford asked.
King recalls saying, "No, but I'm in."