text:
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Health And Welfare Public Relations

Potential drug candidate emerges as Llama antibodies found to neutralize COVID-19’s Spike Prote

Two nanobodies—small, stable immune cells similar to various antibodies and derived from llamas—have been found in tests to neutralize COVID-19 by blocking its interaction with the human receptor that it binds to.

The nanobodies block the attachment of the COVID-19 spike protein by targeting a region of the protein immediately adjacent to and slightly overlapping with the region of the cell where COVID-19 binds and enters. Both llama nanobodies were shown to neutralize live COVID-19, and showed particularly high potency and increased neutralization potential when combined with a human antibody. The findings were published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology paper.

The development of immunizations for coronaviruses is a well-established process. The virus possesses a protein which binds to a receptor on the exterior of the cells of an infected individual.

Like a boat docking at a wharf, the virus needs a place to ‘dock’ its spike protein, otherwise it cannot enter the cell. Therefore the first path for researchers and drug developers is to see how they can prevent the binding of the spike protein with the cell receptor.

“Although there is currently no ‘cure’ or vaccine for the disease,” writes James Naismith at the The Rosalind Franklin Institute, Didcot, UK, “passive immunotherapy by transfusing critically ill COVID-19 patients with serum from [recovered] COVID-19… individuals has been shown to improve clinical outcomes.”

“This would suggest that neutralization of the virus, even at a relatively late stage in the disease, may be a useful COVID-19 therapy.”

The two nanobodies—H11-H4 and H11-D4—can be “deployed to produce a highly neutralizing agent against an emerging viral threat in real time,” to provide “passive immunization of severely ill COVID-19 patients.” say the authors.

The research was funded by the Rosalind Franklin Institute, a medical research centre supported by the UK Government, which has filed a patent on the nanobodies.

Source: GNN

Related posts

Starbucks #GiveGood campaign gives back this holiday season

Viwe Tyolwana

Using technology to assist vulnerable Syrian refugees during COVID-19 lockdown

Viwe Tyolwana

Mentadent P Challenges You to join the Mission to Beat Tooth Decay

Viwe Tyolwana

Leave a Comment


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
The Value of Social Media

Social engineering conceptHow do you determine the value of social media? Well, the answer is different for everyone. What exactly is your goal? Why did you choose to use social media for marketing your brand, event, etc? You can’t put a value on something until to first determine your goals, because “having your own unique business goal to attach social media to is the only way to measure it“. Once you have defined your goals, you need a strategy for achieving your goal. With a goal and a strategy, you can then measure if you are on track to succeed.

Many charitable organizations find that the “real value is that it connects people to one another“. Whether connecting people helps to bring support or resources to the community, the goal might be to spread the word in order to bring more people together. For many brands, the goal is to increase sales. To increase sales, you have to be able to get your product or service in front of people and “data shows that social media users are having more conversations with people — online and off!” Therefore, you can measure how many people you are reaching through social media and how many of these people follow the sales cycle through to conversions. The actual “data related to customers’ identity, habits, and behaviors can be valued in terms of returns stemming from the improved ability to target marketing investments.”  Certainly you can track hard numbers by using analytics. Such “metrics like page views, engagement, and positive sentiment are easily correlated with top-line growth.”

Regardless of the goal, social media must be used properly in order to be successful for any brand, event or organization. It comes back to the basics of social media:

Forming R.E.A.L. Relationships

  • Reciprocal
  • Empathetic
  • Authentic
  • Long-lasting

Most importantly, listen to your audience. The best way to gauge if you are on track is to see what people are saying about you. You can’t just pull up the most powerful analytics tools to do all of the work for you. As the human in the social media equation, you must be present because “people tend to hate talking to bots.” They want to connect on a real, personal level. If your brand is doing its job to properly engage, much of the other “stuff” falls into place.

Questions to consider:

  1. Is it necessary to be able to measure social media in order to be successful?
  2. What is the best way measure the success of social media? Analytics, followers, likes, etc?

8 thoughts on “The Value of Social Media

  1. Hi Erin,
    I don’t think you need to measure social media in analytics in order to be successful. I think paying attention to engagement is incredibly important, and that is how I truly gain how successful a post is. I do think there is a use to analytics, for instance if I got a lot of clicks, but no comments or likes, it is good to know that, BUT if I got no comments or likes, I didn’t do a good job! I plan on using a combination of tracking analytics, and really focusing on engagement. I would love to hit a point where I receive so much engagement I have a hard time responding to everything, but I am very far away from that. In the meantime, I do look at followers and see if I am gaining or losing, and I do look to see if I get likes and comments. Great post!

    1. Thank you Amanda! I agree that you should be able to gauge your success by following the conversations. That’s really the best method. Analytics just help you hone in on certain areas to help you improve your strategy or refine how you reach your audience.

  2. I think it’s important to know “why” you are using social media, not necessarily how to measure it. The No. 1 thing all businesses should do is set a goal for social media. The last thing you’d want to do is put resources into something that doesn’t have a goal. Once you have a goal, measuring it’s success can be easier.

    My organization uses analytics to measure overall engagement on all our main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest). But today we were discussing more specific goals for next year. For instance, determining some key topics to post about and then measuring how those posts compares to other generic posts.

    Great post!

    1. Laura, the goal is definitely the first step. You’re lucky to be able to work in this field while studying it. I’m sure you get so much more out it as you see how it is all applied at work on a daily basis. Thank you for sharing!

  3. Nice post, Erin! I think measuring analytics is important, because it helps you determine what resonates with your audience. And you definitely would want to know if you’re losing lots of followers so you can tweak your strategy. However, I’m with you and Amanda in saying that engagement should be the number one priority. If you’re doing that right, the followers and clicks and whatnot should follow.

    1. Thank you Julie! I agree that it should help you tweak your strategy if you find that you aren’t connecting with your audience as you would have wanted to.

  4. It’s important to measure your social media efforts in order to see what types of messaging is and isn’t reaching your target audience. In order for social media to be successful, it has to resonate with your followers and encourage them to share, comment on and like your content. The more engaging your social media content is, the larger reach it will have.

    1. This is all true. Although your goal may differ from the goal of another brand, these key ingredients must be in place to succeed.

Leave a Reply to Lauren Roberts Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-34
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-111.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Missa em latim tradicional: estrada para o futuro do catolicismo!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Traditional Latin Mass Welcomed by Catholics

The magazine-format newspaper, The Economist, on Dec 15th 2012 published an article entitled  “A traditionalist avant-garde: It’s trendy to be a traditionalist in the Catholic church”.

“The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, started in 1965, now has over 5,000 members. The weekly number of Latin masses is up from 26 in 2007 to 157 now. In America it is up from 60 in 1991 to 420. At Brompton Oratory, a hotspot of London traditionalism, 440 flock to the main Sunday Latin mass. That is twice the figure for the main English one. Women sport mantillas (lace headscarves). Men wear tweeds.

“But it is not a fogeys’ hangout: the congregation is young and international. Like evangelical Christianity, traditional Catholicism is attracting people who were not even born when the Second Vatican Council tried to rejuvenate the church. Traditionalist groups have members in 34 countries, including Hong Kong, South Africa and Belarus. Juventutem, a movement for young Catholics who like the old ways, boasts scores of activists in a dozen countries. Traditionalists use blogs, websites and social media to spread the word—and to highlight recalcitrant liberal dioceses and church administrators, who have long seen the Latinists as a self-indulgent, anachronistic and affected minority. In Colombia 500 people wanting a traditional mass had to use a community hall (they later found a church).”

For a chart of the Traditional Latin Mass’s growth, see https://onepeterfive.com/

In a 2008 survey by the CARA Institute of Georgetown University, 45% of practising Catholics in the USA would attend the Traditional Latin Mass if they had the possibility. (cara.georgetown.edu/NewsandPress/PressReleases/pr082409.pdf)

By contrast with a survey conducted in the 1980s the number of those opposed to the ancient form of the Mass had dropped from 35% to 12%.

In England and Wales, according to a 2010 poll (http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/ ) 43 per cent of practising Catholics would attend the traditional Latin Mass every week if it were offered in their parish.

“John Medlin, general manager of the Latin Mass Society, said: ‘Broadly speaking these results are the same across Europe. They indicate that among Catholics who take interest in their faith, although there is great ignorance, once people are made aware of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum there is a willingness for people in large numbers to accept the Extraordinary Form’.”

Though figures on attendance at Latin Masses are not available, there is evidence interest is growing. The International Una Voce Federation, lay groups associated with the Latin Mass, said member organizations are growing in all parts of the world.

A USA TODAY article of Mar 12, 2015  “Latin Mass resurgent 50 years after Vatican II” also notes the comeback of the ancient Mass. See  (https://www.usatoday.com

The journalist attributed the resurgence to Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum of 2007.

“Interested Catholics now realize it’s not some peculiar thing tucked away in an embarrassed corner,” said Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society based in the United Kingdom. “Once they’re in the door, the Mass speaks for itself.”

“I think people are drawn to the Mass’ beauty and depth and its internal coherence,” said James Bogle, president of the international Una Voce Federation which has grown considerably since 2007.”

Traditional Latin Mass Popular especially among Youth

“There is a movement among young Catholics to know, discover and preserve their Catholic heritage, and the traditional Latin Mass fits in with that,” said Joseph Kramer, a Rome-based priest and longtime advocate of the Latin Mass [in the same USA Today article quoted above]. “I think they are drawn to the liturgical richness of the past.”

A youth movement, Fœderatio Internationalis Juventutem, was founded in 2006 by individuals from 16 countries: Russia, Germany, Australia, Italy, China, Ireland, Brazil, Great-Britain, France, USA, Hungary, Switzerland, Kenya, Spain, The Netherlands and Austria. The first American chapter of Juventutem began in Michigan in 2012, and since then 11 additional chapters have been formed in the United States. http://juventutem.org/

Where the Traditional Mass flourishes, vocations thrive

Rorate Caeli blog, while analyzing the situation of priestly vocations in France (https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com ) noted the following:

“- as a result that the numbers of “ordinary” [i.e. the Novus Ordo vernacular Mass] seminatians collapses and that those of the “extraordinary” [i.e. Traditional Latin Mass] ones remain stable, the proportion continues to increasingly grow in favor of the “extraordinary” ones (a little over 16% [of the total] compared to a little less than 84%);

“- however, in absolute numbers, there is stability, after constant growth in the preceding years (the French candidates for the priesthood for the Tridentine rite were 120 in 2005, 130 in 2007, 136 in 2008, 140 in 2009, 144 in 2010, 140 in 2011) – which is proportional to the very slow growth in the number of “extraordinary” celebrations;

“- … over 15% of this country´s seminarians are “generated” by at most 5% of all practicing Catholics – those who have access to the Traditional liturgy every Sunday. … Let us repeat it: over 15% of this country’s seminarians are “engendered” by less than 5% of practicing Catholics. This exceptional vocational breeding ground (which is exceptional not in itself, but relatively to a situation of collapse) could be considerably more relevant if a number of conditions were present.

“There is no space to examine them here, but they may be summarized thus: the “supply” of Traditional celebrations must correspond to the “demand” for it. Because if there are no more than 5% of practicing [Catholics] live their faith according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, at least one third of the faithful wish they were able to have the traditional liturgy in their parishes, the results of our surveys regularly indicate.”


text:
Developer Reference

Application Assembling

Use the necessary original FFTW ( header files without any modifications. Use the created wrapper library and the
Intel® MKL
library instead of the FFTW library.

Product and Performance Information

Intel's compilers may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include SSE2, SSE3, and SSSE3 instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. Certain optimizations not specific to Intel microarchitecture are reserved for Intel microprocessors. Please refer to the applicable product User and Reference Guides for more information regarding the specific instruction sets covered by this notice.

Notice revision #20110804


text:
What is the characteristic of the observed solar climate signal?

Observations from ground and space are key to improve our knowledge on how the Sun is influencing the Earth's climate. Solar irradiance and particle flux measurements are mandatory for constraining the external solar forcing. Atmospheric observations provide a benchmark for assessing the representation of solar influence in atmospheric models. However, important experimental uncertainties in the quantification of solar forcing drivers, as well as limitations in the extraction of the solar climate signal from atmospheric and oceanic observational records remain. SOLARIS-HEPPA aims at concentrating efforts to optimize the exploitation of solar irradiance, particle, and climate observations in a coordinated manner and to provide their link to modeling activities.

What is the mechanism for solar influence on climate?

Mechanisms for solar influence on climate can generally be divided into radiatively driven and particle driven components. Variations of the total solar irradiance (TSI) give raise for the „bottom-up“ mechanism, involving atmosphere-ocean coupling and introducing a positive feedback and enhancement of circulation patterns and precipitation in the tropics. The “top-down” stratospheric UV (SSI) mechanism transfers the solar signal from the stratosphere down to the surface by a chain of indirect circulation effects which are induced by variations of stratospheric ozone and related heating. Although the nature of radiatiatively driven mechanisms are qualitatively well understood, uncertainties remain particularly with respect to the characterization of regional responses at the surface. The particle driven component is further divided into Energetic Particle Precipitation (EPP) and Cosmic Ray (CR) effects. EPP affects primarily the chemical compostion (e.g., NOy and O3) of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Vertical coupling is reponsible for the transfer of this signal to the lower atmosphere and further down to the surface - a mechanism which is still not fully understood. CRs are the main source of ionization in the troposphere, but the connection between ionization and cloud production and therefore convection remains to be demonstrated. SOLARIS-HEPPA aims at combining all mechanisms in order to understand their relative importance and achieve a complete picture for solar influence on climate, in particular its importance for decadal scale and regional climate predictions.

How do the different natural and anthropogenic forcings interact?

The solar forcing does interact with a number of natural and anthropogenic forcings such as volcanic eruptions, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, or intrinsic atmospheric variations such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Quasi-Biennual Oscillation (QBO). SOLARIS-HEPPA aims at improving our understanding of these interactions with particular emphasis on their role on solar variability in a changing climate.


text:
Your browser is no longer supported

For the best possible experience using our website we recommend you upgrade to a newer version or another browser.

Your browser is not accepting cookies. This means means you will have to log in each time you visit the site.
For the best experience of, please enable cookies.

By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your settings at any time.
Learn more

Organisation develops an app to support clinicians to screen patients for dementia-related cognitive impairment, enhancing assessment accuracy and reducing process time

HSJ Awards 2018/ Innovation in Mental HealthHSJ Awards 2018/ Using Technology to Improve Efficiency
Winner- Using Technology to Improve Efficiency

    • Increase in demand for dementia assessment led to significant pressure/waiting times within NHS memory clinics
    • 78% of assessments of cognition using the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) tool were significantly error prone due to human error
    • Support none-specialist staff to reliably assess cognitive impairment
    • Develop a system that is independent of location or internet connection at the point of patient contact

    • Developed ACEmobile- a free iPad app to guide clinicians when assessing dementia-related cognitive impairment
    • Developed a website offering video training, frequently asked questions section and a proposal template for data governance teams to review the app
    • App functions offline, providing a forced sync mode every 10 assessments to ensure data safety
    • Provided cloud-based storage, local storage and team sharing modes

    • Resulted in over 1,100 clinical sites registering as users, with more than 20 new registers per month
    • 85-93% more accurate assessment of cognition by none-specialist staff than the specialist clinician using the non-digital tool
    • Reduced the assessment time by an average of 20%
    • Resulted in app being adopted into the protocols of large-scale projects
    • Collected near 5,000 clinical assessments

Prompt dementia assessment is a national priority, for the government, NHS and people with fears that they are in decline. Historically, this task has fallen to NHS memory clinics – where the increase in demand led to significant pressure and waiting times.

Dementia assessment has spread, as a role, to include many nonespecialist clinical staff including junior nurses, GPs and psychiatric nurses as services strive to meet demand.

A core component of this assessment is a cognitive assessment, one of the primary markers of dementia onset alongside a relevant history and observed change in functioning.

Beyond the clinical need is a very public drive to improve research in this area – with early identification of those with dementia being needed to support clinical trials.

The collection of data and support of such trials is an added demand on services – with success in this area being hampered by the demand and the primary task of diagnosing patients.

We (two NHS Clinical Psychologists) sought to identify the rate of error in NHS memory clinics, when assessing dementia-related cognitive impairment – to reduce any observed error with a digital tool alongside improving efficiency via technology, and to support the national endeavour to improve research in this area of obvious need.

Clinical Resourcing: to support the ability of none-specialist staff in being able to reliably assess cognitive impairment in those with suspected / re-assessed dementia, thus reducing the need to rely on specialist staff who are less available and more costly.

Time efficiency: to support the reduction in time and resource required to deliver a robust assessment of cognition and to return this to both paper and digital records, where appropriate.

Financial: to provide a tool that would have no license cost requirement for clinical teams – being a FREE tool.

Accuracy / Reliability: to improve the ability of all staff assessing patients to undertake a psychometric assessment of performance, with no psychometric experience or knowledge.

This is a key objective, with the reliability of assessment being central to a positive patient experience – as this is a terminal illness that requires accurate assessment. Flexible working: develop a system that is independent of location or internet connection at the point of patient contact, this being required to meet the Community base of many dementia assessment teams.

Research efficiency: effortlessly collect assessment data, for research, where consent was provided – removing any additional need for clinician / patient time to participate in dementia research.

We completed a large NHS audit which evidenced that 78% of assessments of cognition using the primary tool (ACE-III) were significantly error prone due to human error.

This was across a broad team of ‘specialists’. In 2014, we delivered ACEmobile (for clinicians) to the UK and Australia for FREE. This is an iPad App that took 2 years of R&D to develop – utilising the approach used by clinical trials methods and software usability research to design a digital tool that guides all clinicians through a robust assessment and both lifts the quality of assessment significantly but also introduces a raft of efficiency bonuses.

This App remains available, at no cost to the NHS or other health services. The project faced many obstacles, not least that we did not have experience in this area. We learned how to build and lead a development team, run usability research, lead engagement focus groups and all of the governance requirements to release.

In learning to deliver this project -one of the leads, Dr Newman, went on to deliver in other areas and is now an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow and lead for eHealth Innovations in the medical school and a number of NHS Trusts. We have had continuous positive feedback.

Teams frequently communicate that they are amazed this tool is free and we are often asked how much a year on year license would cost. The answer, it’s free.

ACEmobile is free (yes, we say this a lot). It is marketed via conferences, specialist press and through clinical networks. In fact, some of the evidence supporting its use was actively held back from public media for risk of sensationalist use.

The underlying tool (ACE-III) is already very well-known and so the market is well established. To support teams we developed a website that offers video training, a frequently asked questions section and a proposal template for their own data governance teams to review the App.

We know of many teams that now use this tool – beyond dementia, including head injury rehab, occupational health teams etc. This is in accord with the general use of ACE, which is the primary screening tool in dementia but also used in many other cognitive impairment assessment clinics.

Any successes are disseminated through specialist publications direct to clinical teams or via presentations to charity boards / research conferences. There are now over 1,100 clinical sites registered as users with 20+ new registrants per month. We regularly receive very positive feedback and have seen the App adopted into the protocols of large-scale projects such as the ongoing UCL 1946 cohort study (5,3562 participants).

We evidenced in a peer-reviewed study, using usability methodology, that none-specialist junior clinical staff could complete an assessment of cognition, as required in a dementia assessment, at a standard that is 85- 93% more accurate than the audited ‘average’ specialist clinician using the none-digital tool in specialist services (attached).

ACEmobile was shown to reduce the assessment time by an average of 20%. However, this does not include the additional time savings of the App providing multiple reporting methods (digital and paper).

Remains FREE, 4 years later. This is a zero cost - high return for health services that likely reduces costs for teams. ACEmobile supports offline use and provides both cloud-based storage, local storage and team sharing modes.

The App fully functions offline, providing a forced sync mode every 10 assessments to ensure data safety. It is therefore usable in all contexts. We have now (with consent) collected near 5,000 clinical assessments to support a raft of ongoing projects. This is effortless for the clinicians and patients as a means of engaging in dementia research.

The App is developed by a medical school and an NHS Trust, in partnership with an Australian research centre (holding the IP to the paper version of ACE). All of these parties actively supported the project with staff time, legal support, tech support and a positive agreement to host a free clinical tool.

The App is designed for clinicians and so clinician involvement was key. We ran repeated engagement studies, including 2 usability studies that utilised 100 clinician volunteers to use the App in early development stages and support our re-design. This underlies the key to the App’s design being so effective at reducing error.

The experience is almost totally unchanged for the patient, as this tool is to change clinician behaviour – not patient experience. We have received responses from numerous PPI panels we presented to – including charities and specialist conference workshops. Again, these steps underly the acceptability and value of the project.

Key individuals


text:
Your browser is no longer supported

For the best possible experience using our website we recommend you upgrade to a newer version or another browser.

Your browser is not accepting cookies. This means means you will have to log in each time you visit the site.
For the best experience of, please enable cookies.

By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your settings at any time.
Learn more

Trust initiates a project for creative dispersion of communication between staff and patients, using bespoke visuals and signage for memory recall and improving staff morale

    • Difficulty in engaging staff through creative mediums amidst their daily work routine and increased process-driven pressures
    • Promote use of pictures, colours and visual presentations by staff, to improve communication with service users
    • Improve patient experience by using emotive displays of information in pictorial formats and shorten complex information

    • Initiated a project that uses art and drawing to disseminate effective healthcare communication
    • Established a sketch notes club comprising of bespoke visuals, teaching staff to integrate such skills
    • Implemented creative information maps with pictorial icons
    • Created children’s ward leaflet and a pressure ulcer awareness poster
    • Working on a no language booklet on reduced fetal movement and sudden infant death syndrome

    • 60% increase in confidence of staff being able to do their own sketch notes, with 100% course recommendation
    • Received a total footfall of over 150 people at the sketch notes session
    • Reduced 50% of patient complaints, improving their recognition of healthcare requirements/conditions
    • Improved staff memory of critical processes (admissions, pressure ulcers, falls, etc) and enhanced staff morale

Using creativity, your imagination and freedom to explore in the workplace can help generate fresh ideas, new streams of thinking and help you discover new things. In healthcare, it can be challenging to engage in creativity in the daily work routine, this could be due to pressures and a predominant focus on operational, process-driven and transactional approaches.

During our childhood, creativity fuels our imagination and possibilities, but as we grow older, competing demands and the pressurized environment can make it challenging to do this. My project was to start to use art, sketch notes and drawings more in healthcare. I want to bring creativity to the forefront and break down language barriers, communication methods and bring joy in work through visuals.

This set me on a personal mission to start to work with different staff groups to create bright, colourful, bespoke visuals. I then moved on to thinking “why don’t I teach others how to do it?” with this, I set up my own sketch notes club where I teach people the skills to do this. Sketchnotes are simple, colourful and creative information maps on a page teamed with drawings/icons to help make things memorable.

My aim is to transform the way we engage with each other as staff and service users through the use of pictures, colours and sketch notes. I strive to help unlock creativity with busy front line staff groups and create an end pictorial/sketch notes that can be used in their workplace to transform how we communicate. My goal is also to start to teach tips and techniques to other people to start to do their own.

They also unlock improvements through creative methods of drawing and engaging with their imagination. My goal is to have universal, simple, language friendly, memorable and emotive visuals used to communicate with service users who might find it difficult to relate to lengthy written complex information.

This can directly link to improving patient outcomes e.g. I am in the process of creating a “no language” booklet on reduced fetal movement to help women spot the signs sooner and respond, I have produced a “no language” booklet in conjunction with a Nurse about sudden infant death syndrome for patients. My goal is to also improve the patient experience by having welcoming, friendly and emotive displays of information in pictorial formats. Some examples are attached.

I have had over 150 people attend my sketch notes club sessions that were set up 4 months ago. Analysis of the evaluation sheets from the sessions has shown a 60% increase in confidence of staff being able to do their own sketch notes who thought they previously couldn’t. 100% of staff would recommend the course to others. Qualitative analysis of the feedback sheets has shown how staff felt this was a new way to unlock improvements, engage with service users and make crucial information more memorable for them in the workplace.

I have presented my mission of sketch notes and pictorials transforming healthcare to over 500 people across different organisations. I have had over 100+ sketch notes shared with me from a wide range of staff trying it for the first time.

I have had feedback from over 25 sketch notes/pictorials I drew specifically to communicate with patients/service users where the feedback has overall shown:

• A reduction in complaints (children’s’ ward leaflet)

• Increased recognition of healthcare requirements/condition (SIDs booklet, endpjparalysis, family journey)

• Improved patient experience (British red cross discharge services)

• Improved staff moral (small acts of kindness, joy in work, leadership)

• Improved staff memory of critical processes (admissions, pressure ulcers, falls, deteriorating patients, improvement)

I have enabled others to do what I do by setting up training courses on how to do sketchn otes. The purpose of the sessions is to practically take people through the creative process of doing sketch notes and show them anyone can do it! I have held workshops across 10 different organisations; I have had my slide pack requested and shared over 100 times. Some examples of organisations it has spread to are:

Royal Bournemouth Hospital, East London Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospital and Nottingham University Hospital.

I had no funding, no allocated time and no extra support when I started this mission of mine. It has been wonderful to see it grow over the past year and see so many people, departments and hospitals engage with it. I think the positive movement, creativity and kindness en-wrapped in it helped it naturally spread.

A sketchnote/pictorial can help you focus on key points and make information memorable – which is really valuable in pressured healthcare. It can help you use your imagination through brainstorming and free thinking to completely shift approaches. It can bring some colour, fun and motivation that you just might need on some challenging days.

The courses I offer as well as providing bespoke pictorials/sketch notes has led to improving value.

I created a patient journey and access pictorial into the Integrated Care Hub at Bradford Hospital. It saw an increase in the use of the service from approx. 2 referrals from A&E to over 81 referrals over a 2 month period. This helped reduce unnecessary hospital admissions

An example of improved patient experience was on the Children’s ward at Bradford Hospital. There were lots of complaints (approx. 60%) related to not knowing where things were on the ward, where to go and how Parents could use services. The creation of a children’s ward leaflet in collaboration with the Nurses and Doctors on the ward led to a 50% reduction in complaints relating to some of the issues listed above in the following 2 months where I monitored it.

An example of improved quality is the creation of a pressure ulcer awareness poster I created for the Tissue Viability Nurses at Bradford Hospital. This helped remind staff of what to do to help prevent pressure ulcers. It is used on many wards and has contributed to the reduction in pressure ulcers and increased staff knowledge.

I started off with this idea alone and it would not have grown to the scale it has without the support of key stakeholders who helped shape its journey.

The Chief Nurse at Bradford Hospital championed my vision, shared my work and encouraged the use of it. The Medical Director who wasn’t sure about what the impact of it could be has fully embraced the concept and helped set up avenues for me to showcase it. The Associate Medical Director for Quality has used this to help improve radiology services and how we communicate to service users. External mentors

and supporters have been Brian Dolan, creator of #endpjparalysis, Emergency Care Intensive Support Team and East London Foundation Trust. My Mum who was recently diagnosed with cancer is my patient inspiration for providing universal language friendly information. She does not speak English, she proofs my work and helps guide me.

It was not an easy journey as creativity and artwork is not at the forefront of healthcare. My passion, enthusiasm and energy helped me engage with people. I recently won an award in my hospital for “personal impact” which recognised my contribution in healthcare/patient safety through the use of creativity


text:
Is your loved one struggling? How would you know?

The world has changed for us all over the past few months and no one really understands what their new normal is anymore. It’s quite possible that your frequent visits to your loved ones homes have been reduced to doorstep drop offs and daily phone calls.

So how would you know if they are struggling right now? Below are some early warning signs that we know can suggest a senior isn’t doing too well. In our current climate, it’s hard to know if your parent is eating OK or managing their medications. Do your best with phone calls to try and probe a little as to what they’re up to, or if you’re able to video call, ask them to show you around if that’s possible. If you are still visiting, with precautions, bear in mind the following which could be a sign that they’re failing to cope.

1- Housework is neglected: It could be obvious such as newspapers stacked in the living room or it could be less obvious such as dirty bathrooms and unchanged sheets. Neglecting housework could be a sign of physical decline and mental decline. It can become unhygienic quickly and increase the risk of illness.

2- Personal hygiene is neglected: Things such as wearing the same clothing for several days, infrequent bathing, not shaving and not brushing teeth. These can all be warning signs for cognitive decline or depression.

3- Medication mismanagement: Things to observe would be blister packs with random days used and others unopened or full blister packs or pill bottles, or sometimes tablets on the floor. Managing medication can be difficult especially when taking several medications, several times a day. If you are noticing your aging parent is not able to manage the medication on their own this can be extremely dangerous.

4- Unused upper or lower levels: If your mom or dad is living in a multi-level house, check if the upstairs and downstairs are being used. Another sign to look out for, is a slept on the couch or chair. If they are using any type of assisted device such as a walker or cane, ask them how they use the stairs. Not being able to use the stairs safely can be a major fall risk, especially if they live alone.

5- Have not left the house in a long time: Right now, this is not being encouraged, so it’s tricky to use this as an example, but social isolation is common in older adults and can result in other health conditions and a rapid health decline. Making sure you’re keeping in touch, as frequently as you can, can be of huge benefit. Out of the Covid-19 restrictions, checking to see when they were last in touch with friends, or went to a social program; went for a walk, went to church etc can give you some indication as to their enthusiasm and engagement.

6- Empty fridge and cupboard: Again, it may be that you’re helping out by doing grocery shopping for your parent and therefore know what items they’ll have in their fridge and cupboards. Are they eating them though or is prepping for meals too much? Ask them how they enjoyed a specific item you bought, or if you’re making meals for them, if they could tell that you’d changed the recipe for example. A lack of appetite can indicate depression or cognitive decline, and a disinterest in making food or preferring something frozen or tinned, can indicate it’s too hard to follow instructions or to do any food prep. Accessing food could also be their problem, if you’re out of town and they’re having to rely on transportation to get to the stores. Delivery services are becoming far more popular and there are many community groups at the moment pooling together to offer grocery shopping and delivery to those most viulnerable.

When visiting or chatting with your aging parent if you’re noticing any of these warning signs it is important to have a conversation with them about it and not just ignore it. All of these warning signs alone and in combination can be a sign that they are not able to cope at home anymore.

Whether they are in denial about it or seeking assistance a Senior Living Advisor can help. We can facilitate that conversation between you and your mom or dad and help guide the conversation about what life might be like if they were to live at a Retirement Home or in Assisted Living. We can also help educate about what aging at home can look like and help get resources in place to ensure your parent is safe while staying at home, with the addition of home care, companionship, meal preparation and cleaning services.

If a Retirement Home is the preferred option or something you’d like to explore, we’re able to quickly provide you with information, pricing, care support levels and other information to help you make informed decisions today, with the future in mind.

Next Steps?
Call us at 613-421-6073 or email

We provide the following free services:

1 – Rapid Resources & Referrals.
2 – In Person Visits (Zoom calls or phone chats right now unfortunately as we all socially distance).
3 – Arrange and Escort on Tours (again, we can provide virtual tours and presentations or get pictures of specific accommodations and living areas sent to you).
4 – Advocacy during the selection and move in process.
5 – Resources for additional services.


text:
Non U.S. Customers: Order through our Cratejoy Shop!

Back to top

Summer Cooling Mask w/ 10 filters

2-3 day shipping by USPS First Class
Free 10 filters included
  • Mask : 90% POLY
  • Filter : 100% Polypropylene
  • Washable , Reusable, only change Filter
  • No Return Accepted
  • Replaceable filter

SKU: N/A Categories: ,

Additional information

washed jean, black, white

2 Free Masks!

*Offer only valid on monthly subscription. Coupon code will be mailed to the email address provided above. Code only valid for one time use. Cannot be combined with other offers. Offer subject to change at the discretion of Sooni Pouch


text:
I found the following article about Engineering Sounds on the BBC.co.uk website.

It talks about how engineering influences the sounds we hear.

Which to me begs the question "as audio people, what sounds do we create that have influenced engineering?"

I'd argue that sound design for appliances and devices has, in some cases, obviated the need for equivalent interface or user feedback elements. The Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner happens to be a good example. Its audible tones, major ascending melodies or minor descending melodies, indicate all manner of machine state: Malfunction while cleaning, startup malfunction, job completed, low battery, and more. Just by having those audible tones, the top of the Roomba has gotten simpler and simpler since its introduction, and it's never had the kinds of status bars that clutter our mobile devices or the notification patterns that pop up on our computer desktops. In real-world terms, this saves on manufacturing costs by simply having an audio output device and doing all the notifications and messaging in firmware with audio files (or their MIDI-esque equivalents).

| improve this answer | |

Its definitely about user experience. Now since a lot of the things we interact with require using screens, people want to feel like they are manipulating something "real." Like when you type a text message you can choose to have both sound and vibration and turn them on and off. Now other appliances are going "digital" and require less and less work from our part but in order to have us feel like we have control over things or can manipulate them, we add sounds.

| improve this answer | |
  • It's strange that we're in some cases fixed to expecting new technology to be in some ways similar to older technology (and therefore find new technology "more familiar", when it's even artificially made to have something that we already know). A sound-related example would be electric cars that people think need to have a traditional car engine sound. Or a computer or mobile phone keyboard that has to have noise feedback (like typewriters had). – Internet Human Jun 7 '13 at 19:18

As NoiseJockey puts it, sound influences user interfacing and/or user experience, not engineering (which builds up to user interfacing, not the other way around).

I'm not so sure if the given point about manufacturing costs is the reason (or a reason) for using sound messaging in products, although it's arguable that it does happen to be cheaper to implement. But sound messaging is more intuitively understood simply as a more immediate message that doesn't need to be read to understand, which makes it more suitable for simple messages or messages that need immediate response than a LCD.

Depending on the product sound can be an important part of the brand and non-tangible appearance of the product (what does the product feel like, rather than what it is). Few examples include mobile phones and mobile phone application sounds, computer application sounds and car doors.

Which to me begs the question "as audio people, what sounds do we create that have influenced engineering?"

If you'd like to understand this question, I'd advice looking at movies (e.g. scifi) and seeing, whether you find films that have or may have projected some kind of technological inventions and their usage or consequences. That I think is the most direct way to influence engineering and technology development through sound.

| improve this answer | |

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.


text:
Your cart

Shipping and discount codes are added at checkout.

Dancing Stream

for SATB choir with SSA soloists

Year:  2005 Instrumentation:  SSA soloists from within the choir

Year:  2005
Instrumentation  SSA soloists from within th...

Cheryl Camm

Composer:   Cheryl Camm

Films, Audio & Samples

Cheryl Camm: Christmas Chor...

Embedded video
See details ➔
Sample Score

Sample: page 4

See details ➔

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at

An evocative and rhythmic exploration of a winter landscape in Upper Weardale with a dancing stream chuckling through it. It can be used as a Christmas song as it is a lullaby and the text refers to a stable and a magical baby. This is part of the Winter Wear Songs, a song cycle exploring the historic river in the north-east of England.

Commissioned note

Composed at the invitation of Rock Festival Choir, United Kingdom

Text note

Text by the composer


text:
Schedule your appointment today: 803-649-9797

Physical Therapist's Guide to Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common degenerative brain disorder affecting adults. (Alzheimer disease is the most common.) People of all ethnic groups can develop PD, but it occurs less among African American and Asian populations. Parkinson's disease was first defined as only a “motor” (movement) disease, but research has shown that it also causes “nonmotor” symptoms (such as lightheadedness when standing up) in other systems of the body. People with PD are at risk of falling and sustaining other injuries due to their movement and balance challenges. Treatment includes a combination of medication and physical therapy—and in some cases surgery. Physical therapists partner with people with PD and their families to manage their symptoms, maintain their fitness levels, and help them stay as active as possible.

What is Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson disease is related to a loss of nerve cells in the brain that produce a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine and other brain chemicals are normally in balance and are important for the control of body movements, thought processes, decision making, moods, and other behaviors.

The exact cause of PD is not yet known. Family history, aging, or exposure to certain environmental toxins may contribute to the onset of PD. It is a chronic degenerative disease, which means that it gets worse over time; however, people usually do not die from it.

The severity and symptoms of PD can vary widely. Some people have the disease for 20 to 30 years and experience a slower decline in mobility and thinking over a longer period of time. Others may experience difficulty with physical movements and thought processes within 5 to 10 years, as the disease progresses more rapidly.

Signs and Symptoms

Nonmotor symptoms of PD, such as a decreased sense of smell, sleep problems, and lightheadedness when first standing up, can begin many years before motor (movement) symptoms develop. Motor symptoms of PD, which typically include muscle and joint stiffness (rigidity), shaking (tremors) in the hands and limbs, slowed movement, and balance problems, most often begin at or around age 60. However, early-onset PD can affect people at a younger age.

The motor symptoms of PD can be very mild at first. A common early symptom is a tremor in 1 hand, most often when you are at rest. It might look like you are rolling a pill between your thumb and forefinger. Tremors also can occur in your legs or jaw when you are at rest. Since the tremors are most apparent during rest, they usually go away when moving and typically don't interfere substantially with daily functions.

As the condition progresses, people with PD may notice other motor symptoms, such as:

  • Movements that become smaller, possibly resulting in:
    • shuffling when walking
    • the arms swinging less when walking
    • the voice becoming quieter
  • Muscle stiffness or rigidity, causing discomfort in the neck, trunk, or shoulders
  • Pain due to muscle stiffness
  • Postural instability, resulting in poor balance and a greater risk of falling
  • Movements that become slower during daily activities such as dressing, showering, or moving in bed
  • A feeling of the feet being "frozen" to the floor, making it hard to take a first step, or to turn around when walking
  • Stooped posture
  • Difficulty speaking at a normal voice level
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Difficulty performing tasks that were once easy to do, such as gardening or swinging a tennis racquet or golf club
  • Difficulty making facial expressions
  • Difficulty holding and releasing urine (bladder urgency and incontinence)

Nonmotor symptoms might include:

  • Difficulty paying attention to a task for a long period of time or dividing attention between 2 or more tasks
  • Fatigue
  • Lack of motivation
  • Lightheadedness
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Disturbed sleep

How Is It Diagnosed?

Because there is not one definitive test for PD, it can be difficult to diagnose. A diagnosis is usually made based on a person’s medical history and a neurological examination. If your physical therapist suspects that you have symptoms of PD, you may be referred to a neurologist for further examination.

A diagnosis of PD may be made if a person is found to have:

  • Slowing of motion and
  • Tremor when resting, or muscle rigidity
  • A significant improvement in symptoms when taking a medication to treat PD
  • Initial symptoms on 1 side of the body only

How Can a Physical Therapist Help?

Because PD affects each person differently, your physical therapist will partner with you to manage your specific situation—now and as your condition changes. You are not alone!

Following a diagnosis of PD, your physical therapist will conduct a comprehensive evaluation, including tests to examine your posture, strength, flexibility, walking, endurance, balance, coordination, and attention with movement. Based on your test results, your physical therapist will develop an individualized treatment plan to help you stay as active and as independent as possible. Your program will include exercises and techniques to combat the symptoms of PD.

Depending on the nature and severity of your condition, your treatment program may focus on activities and education to help you:

  • Improve your fitness level, strength, and flexibility
  • Develop more effective strategies to get in and out of bed, chairs, and cars
  • Turn over in bed more easily
  • Stand and turn to change directions more efficiently
  • Improve the smoothness and coordination of your walking
  • Improve your ability to perform hand movements
  • Decrease your risk of falling
  • Improve your ability to climb and descend stairs and curbs
  • Perform more than 1 task at a time more efficiently
  • Participate in activities that are important to you

Some of the medications designed to manage PD symptoms may have an immediate positive effect. For example, movement is typically much easier shortly after you begin taking certain PD medications. Your physical therapist will know how to time treatments, exercise, and activity based on both the schedule and the effects of your medications to get the best results.

Parkinson’s disease can make daily activities seem frustrating and time-consuming. Your physical therapist will become a partner with you and your family to help you combat and manage the symptoms of PD. As your condition changes, your treatment program will be adjusted to help you be as independent and as active as possible.

Some people with PD benefit from using a cane or a walker. Your physical therapist can work with you to determine if any of these devices may be helpful to you. If you need physical assistance to help you with moving in bed or getting out of a chair, your physical therapist can team with you and your family to develop strategies to make moving easier and help prevent injury. In addition, your physical therapist can make suggestions on changes to your home environment to optimize safe and efficient daily function at home.

Can this Injury or Condition be Prevented?

To date, there is no known way to prevent PD. Studies have shown improved walking, balance, strength, flexibility, and fitness in people with PD, who participate in a regular exercise program. However, these studies also indicate that people with PD gradually lose the gains they make when their supervised exercise program ends. It’s important to work with your physical therapist to help develop good long-term exercise habits.

Real Life Experiences

Bob is a 58-year-old store manager who was diagnosed with PD 6 months ago. Bob works full-time and does not currently exercise. His physician has recommended a course of physical therapy treatments. Bob has heard that exercise may be helpful for people with PD, but he doesn’t know which exercises are best for him and how much he should exercise. He calls a local physical therapy clinic for help.

At his first visit to the clinic, Bob reports slowness with walking, a tendency to drag his left leg, and a limited ability to swing his left arm when he’s walking. He notes that his neurologist has prescribed a drug for him that helps relieve tremors early in the course of the disease.

Bob's physical therapist conducts a full physical examination that includes an evaluation of his balance, and his ability to walk, turn, and rise from a chair. She tests his strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular (heart) responses to exercise. She also administers standardized tests that measure Bob’s quality of life, and his walking, balance, and neurological signs, to determine Bob's baseline status and to help set his treatment goals.

Bob’s physical therapist develops an individualized exercise program to help him improve his walking and prevent the onset of weakness and deconditioning. She teaches him specific exercises to help increase his strength and flexibility. She recommends that Bob start a brisk walking program using a metronome for 30 minutes, 3 times per week. A metronome is a device that produces regular “clicks.” Bob walks to the "beat" of the metronome, resulting in faster walking with less leg dragging and better arm swings.

Bob’s physical therapist also recommends he join a fitness center or other community exercise class. Once Bob chooses a facility and a program, she meets with the fitness staff to instruct them about Bob’s particular exercising needs related to his PD.

After 1 month of exercising, Bob's walking is faster, his leg is dragging less, and his arm is swinging better. Bob is carrying out his exercise program successfully. He thinks the exercises are helping, and he is more confident in his ability to exercise on a regular basis.

Bob agrees to consult with his physical therapist every 6 months to monitor his progress and to adjust his exercises, so he can maintain his highest possible levels of fitness and activity.

This story was based on a real-life case. Your case may be different. Your physical therapist will tailor a treatment program to your specific case.

What Kind of Physical Therapist Do I Need?

All physical therapists are prepared through education and experience to treat patients with PD. You may want to consider:

  • A physical therapist who is experienced in treating people with neurological disorders. Some physical therapists have a practice with a neurological focus.
  • A physical therapist who is a board-certified clinical specialist or who has completed a residency or fellowship in neurologic physical therapy. This physical therapist has advanced knowledge, experience, and skills that may apply to your condition.

You can find physical therapists who have these and other credentials by using Find a PT, the online tool built by the American Physical Therapy Association to help you search for physical therapists with specific clinical expertise in your geographic area.

General tips when you are looking for a physical therapist (or any other health care provider):

  • Get recommendations from family and friends or from other health care providers.
  • When you contact a physical therapy clinic for an appointment, ask about the physical therapists' experience in helping people with PD.

During your first visit with the physical therapist, be prepared to describe your concerns in as much detail as possible, and let the physical therapist know what you would like to accomplish by going to physical therapy.

Further Reading

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) believes that consumers should have access to information that could help them make health care decisions and also prepare them for a visit with their health care provider.

The following articles provide some of the best scientific evidence related to physical therapy treatment of PD. The articles report recent research and give an overview of the standards of practice both in the United States and internationally. The article titles are linked either to a PubMed* abstract of the article or to free access of the full article, so you can read it or print out a copy to bring with you to your health care provider.

Palamara G, Gotti F, Maestri R, et al. Land plus aquatic therapy versus land-based rehabilitation alone for the treatment of balance dysfunction in Parkinson disease: a randomized controlled study with 6-month follow-up. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2017;98(6):1077–1085. Article Summary on PubMed.

States RA, Sweeny TL, Rossi A, et al. Physical functioning after 1, 3, and 5 years of exercise among people with Parkinson's disease: a longitudinal observational study. J Geriatr Phys Ther. 2017;40(3):127–134. Article Summary on PubMed.

Ekker MS, Janssen S, Nonnekes J, et al. Neurorehabilitation for Parkinson's disease: future perspectives for behavioural adaptation. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2016;22 Suppl 1:S73–S77. Article Summary on PubMed.

Strouwen C, Molenaar EA, Münks L, et al. Dual tasking in Parkinson's disease: should we train hazardous behavior? Expert Rev Neurother. 2015;15(9):1031–1039. Article Summary on PubMed.

Duchesne C, Lungu O, Nadeau A, et al. Enhancing both motor and cognitive functioning in Parkinson's disease: aerobic exercise as a rehabilitative intervention. Brain Cogn. 2015;99:68–77. Article Summary on PubMed.

King LA, Wilhelm J, Chen Y, et al. Effects of group, individual, and home exercise in persons with Parkinson disease: a randomized clinical trial. J Neurol Phys Ther. 2015;39(4):204–212. Free Article.

Conradsson D, Lofgren N, Nero H, et al. The effects of highly challenging balance training in elderly with Parkinson's disease: a randomized controlled trial. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2015;29(9):827–836. Free Article.

Petzinger GM, Holschneider DP, Fisher BE, et al. The effects of exercise on dopamine neurotransmission in Parkinson's disease: targeting neuroplasticity to modulate basal ganglia circuitry. Brain Plast. 2015;1(1):29–39. Free Article.

ParkinsonNet. European Physiotherapy Guideline for Parkinson's Disease. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: KNGF/ParkinsonNet; 2014. ParkinsonNet.

Ellis T, Boudreau JK, DeAngelis TR, et al. Barriers to exercise in people with Parkinson disease. Phys Ther. 2013;93(5):628–636. Free Article.

*PubMed is a free online resource developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). PubMed contains millions of citations to biomedical literature, including citations in the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database.

Authored by Terry Ellis, PT, PhD, Board-Certified Neurologic Clinical Specialist. Reviewed by the editorial board.

Provided by the


text:
About the Doctors

Dr. Margaret Zadnik-O’Connell

Dr. Margaret Zadnik-O’Connell earned a dual B. S. degree in chemistry and biology from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.

She joined the School of Dental Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) with magna cum laude recognition.

Dr Zadnik-O’Connell moved to Long Island, NY, and completed her residency, specializing in orthodontics from Stony Brook University.

She thoroughly enjoys her practice in orthodontics. The happy smiles from her patients and parents she comes across daily are enough indications how well our practice is appreciated.

Dr. Zadnik-O’Connell and her husband, Chip, have 3 very active children.

They fill their pleasure time with family and friends. They are also into playing baseball, running, boating, travelling, and peaceful visits to the arboretum.

Dr. Nicole Cuoccio

Dr. Cuoccio is a Long Island native. She attended Adelphi University where she earned a B.S. in biology and graduated summa cum laude.

She then earned her D.M.D. degree from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.

Besides her graduation with summa cum laude honors, Dr. Cuoccio was inducted into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon honor society. She also completed a humanitarian mission trip to the Dominican Republic and founded a community dental outreach program.

After dental school, Dr. Cuoccio completed her orthodontic training at Montefiore Medical Center, the teaching hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

She is a member of the American Dental Association, the American Association of Orthodontics, and the Northeast Society of Orthodontists.

Dr. Cuoccio lives with her husband and two dogs, Duncan and Stella. She enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and traveling.


text:
Text Size

Usually at this time of year, club members host garden tours to enjoy the summer blooms and yummy harvest. Hopefully we will get to do some tours later this summer but in the meantime club members have shared photos of their gardens in our first virtual garden tour.
We'll add more as they come in so do check back...

 A Big Thank You To Everyone Who Sent In Photos!

Be sure to click on the thumbnails to see the larger images

Lesli & Terry New!

Greg, Rose & Ron New!

Maria New!

Dan New!

Lucette & Vince  New!

Betty & Frank

Carolee & Nean

Martine & Charly

Louise (Video Presentation; click to view)
louise thumb 200 200


text:
Another great response

Now you’d have thought with all the recent reporting on cycle safety and awareness etc. that some people may be a little more careful when out on the roads or at least interested when complaints are made regarding bad driving.

Seems the message didn’t quite sink in with City Electrical Factor‘s who aren’t at all interested in following up my complaint regarding this piece of driving I recorded on the 27th February on my commute home

I’d say it’s fairly clear, I’m on a green at a crossroad, their van emerges from the right (narrowly missing the people coming the other way) and carries on up the road. If watched in slow motion I do a quick glance as I ride past the lights and you can see they are red!

The response I got from them having contacted them to notify them of this?

good morning sir

if you believe my driver and have proof that he broke the law then please refer your evidence to the police.

<name removed>

Well if you insist 🙂 Have now reported via Roadsafe


text:
Matthias Leanza

Dr. Matthias Leanza

Assistent / PostDoc (Professur Paul)

Petersgraben 27
4051 Basel

Matthias Leanza is senior lecturer (Oberassistent) in the Department of Social Sciences. He holds a Diplom in sociology from Bielefeld University (2009) and received his doctorate in 2016 from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. University College Freiburg awarded his dissertation on the genealogy of disease prevention and biopolitics in Germany (Die Zeit der Prävention: Eine Genealogie) the 2017 Erasmus Prize for the Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 2019, he was elected junior fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University. His current habilitation project (German Imperialism in the Age of the Nation: On Colonial Governance) is a study of the governance architecture of the German colonial empire. He also regularly publishes on social theory and the history of social thought. For a list of publications, please click here. His courses for undergraduate and graduate students cover a wide range of subjects and theoretical perspectives. Please click here for a full CV.

Together with Axel T. Paul, Matthias Leanza is currently organizing an interdisciplinary conference on “Comparing Colonialism: Beyond European Exceptionalism,” which will take place from September 26th-28th, 2019 in Basel. For the conference website, please click here.

Research Interests

Social theory and the history of social thought
Historical sociology
Prevention, medicine, and biopolitics
States, empires, and colonial rule
German colonial history

German Imperialism in the Age of the Nation: On Colonial Governance (habilitation project)

Instead of forming a neat historical sequence, as is often assumed, empires and nation-states overlap and intertwine in modernity. Drawing on archival sources from Germany, Namibia and Tanzania, this habilitation project reconstructs how the newly established, not yet fully consolidated German nation-state expanded overseas from the 1880s onwards and became part of a colonial empire, which began to disintegrate during the Great War and was then dissolved by the Treaty of Versailles. However, not only did the German overseas empire emerge at roughly the same time as the German nation-state was forming, but the relationship between both projects – the national and the imperial – was also the subject of heated political debates and broader social negotiation. Focusing on the “protectorates” of South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) and East Africa (present-day Tanzania), Germany’s most important colonies in terms of size and impact on the empire as a whole, this study seeks to demonstrate how specific governance regimes arose that mediated between the consolidating German nation-state and the emerging German overseas empire. By exploring the ever-changing, constantly rebuilt and expanded governance architecture that structured the relationship between these two spheres, the research project reconstructs the full life-cycle of this empire, paying equal attention to both its inception and its dismantling.


text:
Get your list of 15 Easy Ideas to Help you Raise a Bilingual Child

Download Spanish Classes

Shop induvidual classes by themes or topics that inlcuding printables, music and videos.  You will follow along, and will be able to reapeat your class as many times as you wish, until the material is mastered.


text:
1. In areas where there are pedestrian crossings, those who want to cross the road must do so precisely, without doing so in the vicinity, and when such steps are taken, the following rules should also be observed:

We see a pedestrian crossing in the middle of the street, when at 50 metres there is a pedestrian crossing regulated by traffic lights.

A) If the crossing has traffic lights for pedestrians, their instructions should be obeyed.

Pedestrians who do not respect the red light at a pedestrian crossing may be sanctioned by the competent authority.

B) If there is no traffic light for pedestrians but the movement of vehicles is regulated by an agent or traffic light, they will not enter the road while the signal of the agent or the traffic light allows vehicles to drive through.

C) In other pedestrian crossings marked by the corresponding road marking, although they have priority, pedestrians should only enter the road when the distance and speed of the approaching vehicles allow them to do so safely.

When crossing a pedestrian crossing, we must verify that the approaching vehicles have seen us and are slowing down to give way to us. Then we can proceed to cross.

Please, never start crossing if you are not sure if drivers have noticed your presence and are going to give way.

Pedestrians, when in doubt, please wait.

2. To cross the road outside a pedestrian crossing, pedestrians must make sure that they can do so without risk or undue obstruction.

3. When crossing the road, they must walk perpendicular to the axis of the road, not delay or stop on the road unnecessarily and not hinder the passage of others.

4. Pedestrians may not cross squares and roundabouts on the road, and must go around them.

On roads where footbridges are installed there are frequent occurrences of pedestrians who want to shorten their journey by crossing the road instead of using these footbridges. When the installation of a footbridge is planned, it is because it has been verified that there is a high risk of crossing that road at that location, thus giving pedestrians greater safety. If a footbridge is installed, please use it.

Remember that if there is a walkway or crossing next to you, you could be sanctioned for crossing in an improper place.

Please, use crossings.


text:
Turkish Vehicle Part Manufacturers and Suppliers

Turkish vehicle part, Turkey vehicle part manufacturers/suppliers and exporters directory. High quality vehicle part from Turkish suppliers, exporters and manufacturer companies in Turkey.

auto spare, auto spares, vehicle spare, vehicle spares, auto part, auto parts, commercial vehicle part, commercial vehicle parts, vehicle part, vehicle parts, wet sump, cylinder head cover, water pump, oil hose, oil measuring bar, oil dipstick, coolant line, cylinder head, plug, constant throttle, piston, guide, spring retainer, sleeve, nozzle holder, engine mounting, spring mounting, valve stem key, pipe set, oil pipe, injection system valve, valve, fuel pump, fuel line, exhaust brake, fuel filter, fuel filter cover, filter, filter repair kit, water seperator, air filter cap, charger, air filter, compressor, truck parts, truck spare parts, wabco, pressure relief valve, switch, injector nozzle, belt tensioner, manifold, compressor repair kit, bracket alternator, heating pipe, oil filter element, pressure pipe, adblue pressure pipe, urea filter, suspension below sensor, oil pipe charger, overflow valve, oil filter insert, return pipe, turbo return pipe, deflection, guide pulley
engine valves, valve guides, seats, motor vehicle parts, motor parts, vehicle parts, engine valve, valve guide, seat, motor vehicle part, motor part, vehicle part, alfa romeo engine valves, audi engine valves, bedford engine valves, bmc engine valves, bmw engine valves, caterpillar engine valves, chevrolet engine valves, chrysler engine valves, citroen engine valves, cummins engine valves, daewoo engine valves, daihatsu engine valves, daf engine valves, ford engine valves, geely engine valves, g, gmc engine valves, hanomag engine valves, hatz engine valves, hino engine valves, honda engine valves, hyundai engine valves, isuzu engine valves, iveco engine valves, kia engine valves, lada engine valves, lancia engine valves, leyland engine valves, lister engine valves, lombardini engine valves, man engine valves, mazda engine valves, mitsubishi engine valves, lada engine valve, lancia engine valve, leyland engine valve, lister engine valve, lombardini engine valve, man engine valve
plastic parts, plastic spare parts, automotive parts, automotive plastic parts, tractor parts, tractor plastic parts, vehicle parts, vehicle plastic parts, milling plastic parts, milling parts, truck parts, truck plastic parts, greenhouse materials, plastic greenhouse materials, agricultural parts, agricultural plastic parts, door parts, plastic door parts, window parts, plastic window parts, giftwares, plastic giftwares, commercial vehicle parts, commercial vehicle plastic parts, forklift parts, truck part, giftware, plastic part, plastic spare part, plastic window part, automotive part, tractor part, milling part, greenhouse material, forklift parts, automotive plastic part, door part, commercial vehicle part, truck plastic part, vehicle part, tractor plastic part, vehicle plastic part, milling plastic part, plastic greenhouse material, agricultural part, agricultural plastic part, plastic door part, window part, plastic giftware, commercial vehicle plastic part, forklift part
auto parts, automotive parts, auto spare parts, automotive spare parts, auto spares, automotive spares, vehicle spare parts, vehicle spares, vehicle parts, auto part, automotive part, auto spare part, automotive spare part, auto spare, automotive spare, vehicle spare part, vehicle spare, vehicle part, fabric
truck spare part, truck spare parts, truck part, truck parts, vehicles spare part, vehicles spare parts, vehicle parts, vehicle part, trailer spare parts, trailer spare part, trailer parts, trailer part, semi trailer spare parts, semi trailer spare part, brake disc, brake discs, brake pads, brake pad, gearboxes, gearbox, gearbox part, gearboxes parts, engine, engines, engine parts, engine part, headlights, starters, alternators, clutch kits, clu, oil pump, compressors, clutch kit, oil pumps, silencers, exhausts, body parts, injectors, trailer parts, body part, wheel bearings


text:
Sick As Usual | The American Spectator

Sick As Usual

This article appears in the April 2007 issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe to our monthly print edition, click here.

HERE I AM, now in New York City, having moved from London to launch a TV show for Fox News — and the welcome gift I receive is mycoplasma pneumoniae. I hate New York for this very reason: whenever I’m here, I get bronchitis and my air passages cease to function. My chest cavity stuffed with detritus and muck, every cough flings pieces of Marlboro-stained lung from my mouth — usually in the unfortunate direction of my poor wife.

I hate coughing. It’s not like sneezing — which I love. I have always found sneezing to be a purely selfish pleasure — an expulsion of itchiness followed by a rush of relief. Coughing, however, offers no such joy. Coughing is like Sneezing’s loser ex-boyfriend — causing nothing but trouble while affecting everyone around him. I am coughing a lot — so much in fact that I actually cough while I am coughing — the equivalent of having a snack in the middle of dinner. I should go to the doctor.

But, sadly, going to a doctor in Manhattan often means more than just getting to read Harper’s in a plastic sheath. No, it also involves a lecture about smoking. I get that every time. Here in the land where everyone but you knows what’s good for you, if you smoke you’re not just a Nazi but a Holocaust denier as well, which pretty much cancels everything out anyway — making you Swedish.

Because he asked — I told the doctor my reason for returning to New York, and he appeared aghast at the thought of treating a patient who worked at Fox News. It was as though I had told him I was making beer out of babies. He made a crack about “fair and balanced,” and then he was off to the races. While I coughed, shivered, and dripped, the doctor instructed me on the evils of George Bush, breaking it down into three familiar refrains:

— He falsified reasons to go to Iraq.
— Now everyone in the world hates us.
— Did I mention he’s stupid?

I stared at his family pictures and realized I might have to hit him with them. But instead, as a response, I weakly said something like, “Surely Bush is not as evil as those who are spending every minute of their day trying to kill us.” He dismissed that, saying “extremists are very few in the world,” which is kind of an obvious point — since that’s why they’re called “extremists” in the first place. I began to stare at the prescription pad — trying to will the doctor to shut up and start writing. After ten minutes, it worked — and he wrote a few for codeine, steroids, and some crap I was supposed to shoot up my nose. He also gave me a pile of free samples of a new antibiotic — something those evil drug companies come up with every year or so that radically improves the lives of everyone. God I hate those heartless bastards.

Yet, it bothers me that no one ever makes a movie about them. In fact, no one makes movies about stuff people do that actually helps people in real life. Take Stephen Frears. Please. He’s British, so that makes him smart. And he was nominated for an Oscar for The Queen, which is not about Elton John or George Michael, but should be. Frears says he’s now doing a movie related to the London bombings of July 7, 2005. But true to his nature, he won’t be doing a movie really about the bombings at all — but the real tragedy that occurred days later, when British agents mistakenly gunned down 27-year-old Brazilian national Jean Charles de Menezes, who ran from the cops in the subway — probably a dumb thing to do just after a subway bombing. Doing something dumb doesn’t mean you should die, but it doesn’t need a movie to explain that point to us either.

Yet, somehow, Frears thinks this is a more important story — the death of one man — as opposed to, say, the wholesale slaughter of 50 plus Brits only days earlier — and I think I know why: He’s really into that moral ambiguity thing. And it’s just too easy to say who the bad guy was on July 7 (well, for those of us not in academia). But with the shooting — the bad guy could be YOU or ME! That’s right — our own paranoia, intolerance, and barely concealed racism is really the villain in this mess. And when de Menezes got shot, we all pulled that trigger.

In movies, the bad guy can never be the little guy. That’s the problem with doing movies about the war on terror. Because, in the minds of Hollywood and London, we’re not David — the terrorists are. And that makes us Goliath. And you can’t make Goliath a good guy. (Unless you animate him, and let Robin Williams do the voice.)

YEEHAW!!!! the codeine is kicking in!!!! I am levitating around the apartment — a light-headed zombie floating in space. I know it’s only 2007, but I am declaring myself president of my apartment. I swear this is how Al Gore must feel. My theory on Gore: Losing the presidency meant that he had to be president of something else — something you can’t vote on and something boring and intangible and where every media hack’s assumptions are the same. Gore is officially the President of Global Warming, an office that was there for the taking, since its critics simply don’t have the time or the energy to refute its preening disciples. He should make a movie about it.

Oh wait, he did. It was nominated for an Oscar — which must have thrown many Academy members into a tizzy since it was up against a number of other flicks that also underline America’s horrible place in this world. So which one would the Academy vote for? The one that says, we’re all at fault for killing the planet? Or the one that says, we’re all at fault for starting a war that’s caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people?

They went for the planet, for obvious reasons: Now the Hollywood glitterati could congratulate themselves on showing up to the event in Priuses — although if they really cared about the environment, they would have car-pooled. Wouldn’t that have been grand: to see Warren, Jack, Leo, and Ellen ride-sharing in a hybrid! That will be my next campaign.

I wish I were in the Academy — then I’d probably vote for the 1978 film, The Swarm. It involves two things I love: character actor Cameron Mitchell and killer bees.

I love killer bees. I remember that almost every month in the 1970s, we were always being reminded that the bees were only “200 miles off the coast” of Florida. They were always expected to arrive “late next year,” and when they did — the elderly, infants, and slow-moving pedestrians would suffer the worst. I grew up basically thinking that the killer bees were as inevitable as acne — and we better start stocking up on light clothed zippered suits and canned foods.

I probably wrote a handful of book reports on it. I might have even wondered aloud, if the bees were truly at fault. Maybe they weren’t “killers” to begin with. Maybe it was you and I who had turned them into these desperate revolutionaries in need not of elimination, but of understanding. Perhaps it was our collective “bee-gotry” that caused the problem.

Was America to blame, once again?

Of course, the killer bees never came. And for that I am grateful. But what still bothers me was the lack of accountability on the part of news organizations that allowed this hysteria to prosper. What happened to all those journalists, reporters, and TV hacks who continually scared the beans out of us about the oncoming killer bee massacre? Did they lose their jobs for their shoddy lies? Did they print retractions? Did they move to Jamaica and open a jam hut?

I BELIEVE FOR EVERY SCARE a journalist falsely reports, he should be punished in a manner similar to the type of hell he was predicting in his stories. So, if you wrote that the entire state of Rhode Island would be buried under a sea of angry bees, then you should be placed in a tiny room smelling of violet, and stung relentlessly by millions of yellow jackets as the state song “Rhode Island, It’s for Me” is sung by the Providence Choral Group. Likewise, if you wrote scathing reports on silicone breast implants — scaring many exotic dancers into having their illustrious orbs removed — then you should be forced to pay. And by pay, I mean getting a shoddy implant inserted into your body. But not on your chest. On your face, so each day everyone can see what a boob you are.

Okay, time for a nap. Now remember to check out my new show on Fox. It’s on at 2 a.m. Eastern Time — every night. Wave to me, and I promise I will wave back.

Sign Up to receive Our Latest Updates! Register

Be a Free Market Loving Patriot. Subscribe Today!


text:
On Ignorance

On Ignorance

Spectrum Banner Image: Click for COVID-19 coverage

Written by:
March 30, 2016

One of the most insightful stories from antiquity is found in Plato’s “The Apology” (20c-24e). Here Socrates, at his trial, gives an account of how he developed a reputation for wisdom. It began, he relates, when his friend Chaerephon asked the Oracle of Delphi if there was anyone wiser than Socrates – and was told that no one was. Socrates was puzzled when his friend told him this because his self-assessment was that he possessed no particular wisdom at all.  So, to perhaps disprove the Oracle, he visited and questioned various men of Athens who were reputed to be wise. And the surprising result was that, while these people thought themselves wise, upon examination Socrates could see that they had a false sense of their own wisdom.  A “great abundance of human beings who suppose they know something, but know little or nothing” (23c). And, Socrates discovered, people generally are displeased when this knowledge-gap is pointed out to them. He was consequently executed by the Athenians for “corrupting” their youth.

Not knowing is the minimal, unencumbered definition of ignorance. Unfortunately the word is too often applied in pejorative sentences, like: “You ignorant #%&*@!!”  But, just beyond the simple “not knowing” definition is the question of whether we recognize it in ourselves. Better to know you don’t know than to think you do when you don’t.

To know that you do not know. This is intellectual humility and a foundation upon which wisdom can be built. Or, so suggests Plato, anyway.

Now, at this point I can envision various unsurprising ways a reader might dispute the idea I am expressing here. One would be to think it is simply inaccurate. “Hey,” you might say, “I know lots of things. I have competence. I’m employed, after all. And am good at what I do.” But Socrates has a response:

Finally, then, I went to the manual artisans... I knew that I would discover that they, at least, had knowledge of many noble things. And I was not played false about this: they did have knowledge of things which I did not have knowledge of, and in this way they were wiser than I. But, men of Athens, the good craftsmen also seemed to me to go wrong in the same way as the poets: because he performed his art nobly, each one deemed himself wisest also in the other things, the greatest things.” (22d-e)

What Socrates differentiates here is types of knowledge, and thereby its inverseignorance. It is the difference between the Greek words techné (technical know-how) and sophia (wisdomunderstanding of universal truths). The mistake is to presume that, because we may have demonstrable techné, we therefore also have sophia.

But, even if you grant this, there is another issue that is more central to my concerns in this essay. A God-believer also has access to another, presumably superior, source of knowledgerevelation. For the Christian this is the Bible. And here the argument might take this form: “It’s one thing to talk about man’s natural ignorance, but I have access to infallible, God-grounded knowledge—the Bible. This superior source totally washes out the ignorance I otherwise would have, replacing it with certainty and fully-trustworthy knowledge.” And, as Adventists, I suggest that we historically have doubled-down by adding Ellen White’s writings (a far larger collection of material, produced closer to our present day), as well as historically accepting the Seventh-day Adventist identity of being the major player in God’s eschatological game-plan. Consequently Adventists especially can feel secure that we, at least, do not suffer from ignorance.

Now, irrespective of whether you personally accept this traditional Adventist perspective, there are some caveats that should be addressed. Primarily, we ought to recognize that any acceptance of any revelatory source is initially a conclusion, not a self-evident truth that requires no proof. We do not spring from our mother’s womb as God-believers. We adopt beliefs, based on a mix of religious/social acculturation, information, reasoning and spiritual experiences. And, since there are large world-populations of differing and inconsistent believers, we should also recognize that not all god-paths result in correct god-knowledge. It is obviously possible to err in our understanding of what God is saying in our chosen revelatory source material—or if the material is even from God.

This is the Interpretation Problem. Even if one assumes an infallible source, the information is assimilated by fallible receivers. In my church experience I find this potential difficulty is too often ignored. Frequently as a simplifying move. There are myriad ways in which we humans can misunderstand and the maze of potentially erroneous paths is distressing. We want and need safety, familiarity, boundaries and trustworthy norms. Following a God-derived guidebook is an obvious and reasonable path to those ends. It is not surprising then, given the bewildering world we must navigate, that we are tempted to simplify/ignore the interpretative problems to arrive at comforting certainty. But we do so at the risk of grounding our beliefs on a foundation that may not be as secure as we think. And we correspondingly may resist explorations of that foundation (such as I presume to do in this article) that risk destabilization and discomfort.

I have no desire to destabilize belief, per se. What I think should be a lifelong engagementfor every believeris to repair, replace and strengthen our faith foundations. This could mean some discarding if a belief cannot measure up, but it also has the potential to produce a more consistent, defensible world-view. And one of the problems preventing dispassionate belief-examination is an under-appreciation of limited human perspectiveour ignorance. Thus the starting point of knowledge, suggests Plato, is to recognize this lack. Not catering to ego – thinking ourselves wise in our own eyesand not mistakenly misidentifying technical skill, education or even native intelligence – for life-directing wisdom.

This is a human problemnot a failure of Adventism, or any specific religious viewpoint. Human. Beyond any possible hubris it is the confines of our perspective. And, in my remaining but limited space, let me try to begin unpacking this idea and hopefully stimulate you toward further exploration.

We seek to understand what God communicates and the information is made available via inspired, yet human vehicles. We read their words, and they frequently seem to communicate information that is clear and unambiguous. Yet we interpret what we receive via the lens of our very specific experience, context, capability potential, and influences from surrounding authorities. This all usually takes place subliminally. So it is difficult to appreciate the risks of misunderstanding when God is funneling His truths down through our limitations.

One phrase that captures this dilemma well is this: a God’s Eye View. Consider this poorly-drawn (I’m no artist) visual metaphor:

Gods Eye

You and I are like the right-hand stick-figure human standing somewhere in the mountains. God is represented by the eye looking down. He “sees” (understands) everything and His vantage point is inaccessible to us. You and I might (metaphorically-speaking) even “see” more than some other human (represented by the left-side figure, standing on a lower peak), but there is much we cannot understand, both because of our specific circumstances (where we’re “standing”) and our inherent limitation as humans (we’re not God). This concept should not be controversial, irrespective of whether you consider yourself religiously conservative or liberal. We have a dual-component problem with our field of “vision”.

But next consider a very common mistake we make, derived from this limitation. We are prone to commit the Fallacy of Composition. This is where we take experiences that we can properly understand and relate to—and inappropriately extrapolate them into universals, as if the broad perspective is nothing more than a sum of the small ones writ large. Some examples:

·         A sand dune is more than just a collection of a zillion grains of sand. It also operates at a macro level, with properties that are very difficult to guess based merely on knowing something about a grain of sand.

·         Similarly, a human body is more than a collection of a zillion cells. It is organized into sub-functions, aggregates of functions and finally consciousness producing a soul. Each level of organization displays properties far exceeding, and fundamentally different from, merely a large collection of cells. Thus, for example, cellular biologists would be unwise to think themselves adequately competent to opine on anatomy and/or medicine.

·         One of the most common financial-comprehension mistakes people make is assuming that a country’s (or world) economy is nothing more than a kind of really big family budget. We take what we understand about personal money management and think we can properly extrapolate those principles to the macro-economic level[1].

These illustrations of the Fallacy of Composition (with a multitude more possible in various contexts) stem from trying to move validly from our tiny specific experience into the fully general realm. Note that it’s not that we always fail to produce reasonable, workable world-views in this way. My point is that we are at risk of oversimplification and misdirection, stemming from an inescapable human limitation.

Now, how might all this relate to Adventism? It seems uncontroversial to me that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is presently struggling to work through a considerable breadth of difference in theological understandings, even to the level of different and incompatible world-views. And such divisions are distressing to a church that has the self-perception of being the world’s present-day repository of “The Truth.”  It’s no wonder then that the undeniable dissonance in our ranks elicits responses like “an enemy has sown tares among the wheat." But, while there are no doubt tares in every wheat field, I suggest that Plato’s story might have a beneficial effect in reminding us of how little we humans really know, and thus how humble we should be in our search for understanding. Such humility, besides being realistic, can also produce a calmer climate where people of good willyet who disagree about important matterscan actually hear one another, and perhaps grow in understanding if exchanges of viewpoint can occur in safety.

At least, that’s how it appears to me. But then, what do I know?  smiley

[1] This problem is frequently exemplified in what is known as the Paradox of Thrift.

Rich Hannon is Columns Editor for SpectrumMagazine.org.

If you respond to this article, please:
Make sure your comments are germane to the topic; be concise in your reply; demonstrate respect for people and ideas whether you agree or disagree with them; and limit yourself to one comment per article, unless the author of the article directly engages you in further conversation. Comments that meet these criteria are welcome on the Spectrum Website. Comments that fail to meet these criteria will be removed.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Spectrum Magazine Donation Page: Help Support Independent Adventist Journalism


text:
Share Email Print

Proceedings Paper

Tunable glass laser in UV and visible range by auger-free luminescence
Author(s): Kaya Nagasawa; Yuryo Sakurai
Format Member Price Non-Member Price
PDF $17.00 $21.00

Paper Abstract

This paper presents a principle of tunable glass laser that is able to be used from 350 nm to 600 nm by using hole transition between splitting valence bands of glasses.

Paper Details

Date Published: 17 June 1993
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 1864, Solid State Lasers IV, (17 June 1993); doi: 10.1117/12.146889
Show Author Affiliations
Kaya Nagasawa, Shonan Institute of Technology (Japan)
Yuryo Sakurai, Shonan Institute of Technology (Japan)

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1864:
Solid State Lasers IV
Gregory J. Quarles; Milton A. Woodall II, Editor(s)

© SPIE. Terms of Use
Back to Top
Sign in to read the full article
Create a free SPIE account to get access to
premium articles and original research
Forgot your username?


text:
17:09  +04,  July 23, 2020

Roma repeat club's record

Roma's clash against SPAL became historic for the squad.

For the third time in the history of the club, Roma had an away victory with a difference of 5 goals.

Earlier, Roma managed to achieve such a result in 1985.

Roma defeated SPAL 6-1.

Follow NEWS.am SPORT on Facebook and Twitter

Thank you for your comment. Your comment must be confirmed by the administration.

  • Poll
Total votes (13)
  • Facebook
  • NEWS.am Sport Exclusive
  • Archive