fluctuating US dollar exchange rates. Costs of the U.S. dollar in the past 2 years alone have increased our acquisitions costs by almost 30%. Since just over 80% of our acquisitions are from US vendors this exchange rate is a huge burden on our budget.
Our consortial partnerships with the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) have provided savings to us over the years by allowing us to leverage our purchasing power through big deal and group purchasing. In the past few years, however, the benefits of these partnerships have been far overshadowed by the continuing inflation and exchange costs we face.
As a result, the Library is grappling with almost a 50% over-expenditure in its acquisitions funds, specifically for electronic resources we purchase, which comprises over 95% of what we spend our acquisitions dollars on year over year. To begin to address this over-expenditure the Leddy Library is immediately implementing a cost reduction strategy to review our electronic resources collections and make cuts where it is advisable. Leddy's digital collections provide crucial support for research, teaching and learning. While there are difficult decisions ahead, the Library will strive to continue to be careful stewards of the collections so key to the campus community. As we move through this process, we will continue to communicate and engage with faculty and students to gather feedback on proposed changes. We will also make every effort to communicate with the campus on how the review will be conducted and how decisions will be made.
To this end, the Leddy Library has initiated a collections cancellation review. Details follow, and we are seeking feedback on the first phase of recommended cancellations from faculty, researchers and students.
Additionally, we are participating in a national project of 29 academic research libraries to assess and survey journal usage at our institutions. The bibliometric analysis of this project is being done by Canada Research Chair in the Transformations of Scholarly Communication, Dr. Vincent Larivière, at the Université de Montréal. More information on this project will be sent to all Windsor faculty on January 16, 2017. Input will be sought for the journal titles that faculty use for their current teaching and research.
Maintain full-text e-journal, e-book and other primary source databases as much as possible.
The immediate target in the review aims to identify $250,000 in cancellations. It will primarily focus on discovery tools such as indexes and abstracts as well as on a few full-text resources previously identified as low use. This list will be updated with further suggestions for cancellation, based on further resource review.
material, timelines, sets of internal links, and bibliographies.
This information is more readily available on the Web.
The Women Writers Project is a long-term research project devoted to early modern women's writing and electronic text encoding.
Very little use since 2012.
We will also seek to renegotiate contracts coming up for renewal, for electronic resources which fall outside of our consortial agreements.
Communications and concerns about the review process in general or about specific titles targeted for cancellation should be sent to eresources@uwindsor.ca or to the University Librarian Pascal Calarco ( pcalarco@uwindsor.ca).


text:
Home > Education > Classroom resources > Body Snatchers
Guys Hospital London Operating Theatre 1897 (COPY1/428)
View lesson as PDF View full image
Lesson at a glance
Suitable for: Key stage 3, Key stage 4
Time period: Empire and Industry 1750-1850, Victorians 1850-1901
Curriculum topics: Crime and Punishment, Medicine through time
Suggested inquiry questions: How common was the crime of Body Snatching? How successful was the Anatomy Act of 1832?
Potential activities: Case studies of 'The London Burkers', class discussion, exploration of different types of sources
Download: Lesson pack
What led to the Anatomy Act of 1832?
Teachers' notes
The early 19th Century saw many advances in science and medicine, in a time where scientific and religious ideas often clashed over what was morally correct. These ideas are explored in nineteenth century literature such as the novel Frankenstein, but the stories in the real world were often as shocking and brutal as the Gothic fantasy. This lesson explores the business of the grave robber and how they furthered the study of medicine through a grey area of the law.
May's Confession:
Becoming a resurrectionist:
What is a resurrectionist?
How and why did May become a resurrectionist?
Why does he discuss Patrick Murphy?
What do the hospitals think of resurrectionists?
Talking to Bishop:
Bishop asked May for the 'best price' – what does this tell us about the treatment of bodies?
How often are they making sales?
What does the word 'bid' imply?
May's involvement:
How well treated is the body?
Why might they sell the teeth separately?
Why is it important to arrive before the Friday evening lecture?
Selling the Body:
What is May's main concern at the beginning of the extract?
How many times is drinking mentioned? How trustworthy is his account? How responsible is he?
Was May expecting the arrest?
What do you think May's crime was?
Becoming a Resurrectionist
Talking to Bishop
May's Involvement
Selling the Body
Bishop's Confession:
The Murder:
Why was the boy vulnerable?
How did Bishop and Williams convince him to go with them?
What happened to the boy?
Making Plans:
Why does Mr Tuson turn down the sale?
What does 'The Lecture Room' imply about where he is selling the body?
How much does Bishop agree to sell the body for?
Why does Bishop check with May?
What was Bishop's offer to get May involved?
What does Mr Partridge demonstrate?
Describe May's behaviour during the sale.
How does Bishop help May?
How many bodies has Bishop sold during his career as a body snatcher?
What does this tell you about the trade?
The Murder
Look at the Newgate Prison Calendar.
What was the sentence at the trial?
What was Bishop's punishment?
What was May's punishment?
Newgate Prison Calendar
Look at the Anatomy Act 1832. This document is written in legal language so can be quite difficult, try to separate it into blocks of information.
Why did the Act come into force?
Why is the study of Anatomy necessary?
What policies are put in place to help prevent further crimes?
List the people who can now apply for licenses to study anatomy.
The Anatomy Act 1832
Read the Letter from the Medical students of Guys Hospital.
How successful was the Anatomy Act 1832?
What problems are the Medical Students facing in 1859?
Letter from Medical Students 1859
The study of anatomy had a troubled history. Religion dictated that dissection of human bodies was an offence leading to misunderstandings of human anatomy based on limited evidence. Galen's writings 'On Anatomy' in AD190 built on the theories of Hippocrates' Four Humours whilst applying observation of living humans and anatomical study of the deceased. As Human dissection was still not allowed outside of Alexandria, he recommended the dissection of animals such as apes and pigs, using his findings to suggest the anatomy of humans. Whilst some aspects of his observations were accurate, the differences between humans and other animals led to many mistakes but his detailed books on anatomy were believed for many hundreds of years before they were questioned. By the 16th Century, Vesalius had proven that more could be learnt through human dissection and the study of our own anatomy, and attitudes towards medicine began to change.
The industrial revolution brought social change, and significant medical advances through scientific enquiry. In an attempt to prevent murder through increasing the severity of punishment, the Government passed the Murder Act 1751 preventing the bodies of executed murderers from being buried. Instead their bodies would be strung up or given to medical science. As a result, medical students had a greater supply of cadavers to study legally than any previous period, and the study of anatomy through public dissection became a major part of the training of doctors and surgeons.
However, the opening of new medical schools and training centres in the 18th Century meant that even this new supply of subjects could not meet the needs of the students. Buried bodies were not considered property and therefore could be exhumed and sold without restriction, though the practice was hated by the general public. Cemeteries and mourners began to take measures against the business, installing gates, cages and mausoleums to protect their interred. Yet the need for bodies created a profitable black market and 'Resurrectionists' or body snatchers became commonplace, leading to notorious cases of murder for the sole purpose of selling the victim's corpse.
This is the background experience inspiring Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus' which sees an ambitious and driven young medical student turn resurrectionist in his quest to discover a cure for death. Through Victor we see several roles of the medical science of the day, with the position of body snatcher and surgeon in one character whilst his friends and colleagues display the public disgust and conflict within the profession in their shock at the character's descent into desperation.
The most famous Resurrectionists were Edinburgh's Burke and Hare but London had its own notorious cases including 'The London Burkers' or 'Bethnal Green Gang' whose case, alongside several others in the early 1830s would lead to the Anatomy Act of 1832 and the legal recognition of the rights of a corpse.
'The London Burkers' trial took place under a media spotlight with the accused changing their story several times following the statements of new witnesses. The Home Office documents presented here provide evidence of their trial at the Old Bailey including the final confessions of two of the accused, describing their involvement in the crime and the business of resurrectionism, and the record of their sentences and punishments from Newgate Prison's Calendar. Also provided is an extract from the Anatomy Act 1832, passed as a direct result of 'the Bethnal Green Gang' murders. The final source provided is a later letter sent to the Home Secretary describing the resulting shortfall in subjects for medical students twenty-five years on. This is one of many letters collected by the Home Office after the Act as the appointed inspectors began to keep closer contact with the schools of anatomy and medical profession.
This lesson can be used as part of several fields of study for GCSE, including:
Social Reform of the early 1800s
Historical Context of 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley.
The confessions of Bishop and May describe their daily lives in great detail. The full confessions are twelve pages long each, and so have been presented as extracts to provide the most relevant sections describing one particular case. The initial task can be completed as group work, in carousel, or individually as its own lesson before moving on to the rest of the sources. Care should be taken in providing the source describing the murder to students.
The final source shows the on going effects of the Act over twenty-five years later, asking students to consider these sources in the context of a larger narrative.
1833 Factory Act
Did it solve the problems of children in factories?
1834 Poor Law
What did people think of the new Poor Law?
19th century prison ships
What do these documents reveal about attitudes to crime and punishment?
A Victorian prison
Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
Foundling Hospital
What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Just a short one today. iPhone photos of poppies from a month ago. Their stems really have a mind of their own.
I love these! The crazy stems make them even more interesting to look at!
Oh goodness, I am in love with the whimsical bending of the stems!
What beautiful flowers! I love the contrast in the bottom right one between the shadows' hard lines and the flowers' "squiggly" stems.
these are so cute. so quirky looking.
I've never seen those flowers before in the markets. Gosh they are so beautiful!
I've just recently discovered your beautiful blog and your photos are just stunning!
So beautiful! I need to buy flowers more often.
So beautiful, love how you captured them in their 'wild' form. I adore poppies, and wish I could see more of them here.
Interesting!How did you get their wild form?


Please join us in celebrating our first annual Gala this December 15 2018 in Springfield Illinois. This is a special day, not only can we spend time with you guys in a great establishment and our amazing city of Springfield, but we get to meet each and every one of you, we get to share so many goals that we have achieved for the organization and for so many missing children and adults in Illinois, and their families.
See our progress through pictures, our annual report, share some entertainment and drinks with us and take pictures, meet the other companies, donators, friends and board members that do so much for such a great cause!
To purchase tickets please click on the STORE tab!


text:
Follow Bjork
"Very Good"
Dancer In The Dark Review
By Rob Blackwelder
For years filmmakers have been trying to reinvent the musical. "Evita" went big, "My Best Friend's Wedding" sneaked musical numbers into its semi-standard romantic comedy, the "South Park" movie mocked the cartoon musical while besting it with genuinely catchy tunes, "Love's Labour's Lost" was an homage to the Fred and Ginger sing-songs of the 1930s.
But no one has succeeded in making a truly modern movie musical, one that employs emerging filmmaking techniques instead of reaching back 50 years for inspiration. In fact, no one has ever even attempted something like "Dancer In the Dark."
Writer and director Lars von Trier -- the reclusive Dane behind the minimalist Dogme95 movement that espouses natural lighting, no props and handheld cameras -- discovers a way to marry his trademark sparseness with the unfettered showmanship of song and dance numbers in this daring retooling of the musical genre.
A tragic fable of innocence and injustice, the film stars elfin Icelandic alt-pop diva Björk as Selma, an immigrant factory worker in the American Northwest, circa 1964, who tries to hide the fact that she is rapidly going blind from friends and employers.
Working extra shifts and taking home products to package for additional pay, Selma squirrels away cash in fistfuls of small denominations, secretly saving for an operation that can save her 12-year-old son from an inherited disease that will eventually rob him of his eyesight as well.
A little naive, Selma is surrounded by protective friends. Kathy (Catherine Deneuve) is a motherly fellow immigrant from the factory floor. Jeff (Peter Stormare) is a timid romantic admirer and blue-collar grunt. Bill and Linda (David Morse and Cara Seymour) are a local policeman and his wife who rent Selma the trailer she lives in with her son.
More than a little absent-minded, at work Selma is easily distracted by the ambient rhythm of the metal presses, which become the beat for some of the sublimely spontaneous production numbers that emerge from her daydreams, fueled by years of attending Saturday musical matinees.
These sequences are an inventive, hypnotic cross between "Stomp"-style choreography, Björk's distinctive musical signature and von Trier's equally distinctive digital video vérité filmmaking. The songs themselves are not particularly catchy, but they are imaginatively staged and (unlike many musicals) occur naturally in the context of the story -- as when Selma walks home along a train trestle and the clickety-clack of the passing train cars start her singing along. (Some of Björk's costars sing too, with considerably less melodious results.)
Awarded best actress at Cannes (where the film also took the top prize, the Palm D'Or), Björk gives a startling, vulnerable, determined performance as Selma. Like Emily Watson in von Trier's masterpiece "Breaking the Waves," she plays this ill-fated heroine with a childlike disposition that invokes a custodial vibe in the audience, which kicks into high gear when her life takes a terrible turn.
During a heart-to-heart with friend and neighbor Bill, he confesses to being bankrupt and deadly afraid that his wife will abandon him when she finds out. Selma tells Bill of her son's illness and the hard-earned savings meant to cure him.
In his desperation, Bill betrays her trust. Taking advantage of her encroaching blindness, he hides in her trailer to discover where she keeps her money, setting off a chain-reaction of events with results so calamitous that Selma is jailed, charged with a brutal murder. This turn of events causes her to retreat further into a fantasy world where all of life is a musical in which another melody could be just around any corner.
Selma subsequently goes on trial, and "Dancer in the Dark" unravels somewhat under von Trier's gross misunderstanding of the American judicial system. The crime investigation is skipped over (but was clearly inept), and the courtroom scenes are badly abbreviated and so far-fetched they border on the absurd. (For starters, her lawyer doesn't have a single line of dialogue.) If von Trier did any research before writing this chapter of the film, he clearly abandon it when accuracy became a burden on his rushed narrative.
But while it's a little hard to brush aside such an obtrusive transgression, "Dancer in the Dark" is otherwise nothing less than a groundbreaking -- and magical -- art house reinvention of a genre that even Disney cartoons have been shying away from in recent years. The musical is not dead, it's just migrated into the arena of experimental film.
Run time: 140 mins
In Theaters: Friday 6th October 2000
Box Office USA: $2.8M
Distributed by: Fine Line Features
Production compaines: Fine Line Features, Zentropa Entertainments, Film i Väst, Blind Spot Pictures Oy, France 3 Cinéma, Danmarks Radio (DR), Arte France Cinéma, Angel films, Canal+, Constantin Film Produktion, TV 1000, Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Yleisradio (YLE), Memfis Film, Sveriges Television (SVT), Film4
Contactmusic.com: 3.5 / 5
Fresh: 78 Rotten: 37
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Björk as Selma Jezkova, Catherine Deneuve as Kathy, David Morse as Bill Houston, Peter Stormare as Jeff, Joel Grey as Oldrich Novy, Cara Seymour as Linda Houston, Vladica Kostic as Gene Jezkova, Jean-Marc Barr as Norman, Vincent Paterson as Samuel, Siobhan Fallon as Brenda, Željko Ivanek as District Attorney, Udo Kier as Dr. Porkorny, Jens Albinus as Morty, Reathel Bean as Judge, Mette Berggreen as Receptionist, Lars Michael Dinesen as Defense Attorney, Katrine Falkenberg as Suzan, Michael Flessas as Angry Man, John Randolph Jones as Detective, Stellan Skarsgård as Doctor, Paprika Steen as Woman on Night Shift
Also starring: Bjork, Zeljko Ivanek
Dancer In The Dark Movie Site


How Does the Muscular System Maintain Homeostasis? ... Muscles are able to move because of the skeletal tissue attached to bones, explains Oswego City School District Regents Exam Prep Center. The skeletal muscles receive movement signals from the motor neurons in the nervous system. ... What Are the Main Functions of the Muscular System?
The nervous system is responsible for maintaining homeostasis. The sensory neurons, brain, motor neurons and spinal cord all play an important part in the relationship between the nervous system and homeostasis. If any part of the nervous system is damaged, homeostasis is difficult or impossible to maintain.
Start studying Homeostasis, Skeletal System, and Muscular System. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. ... small muscle fiber that functions in contraction and consists of myosin and actin protein filaments. ... When the body has reached homeostasis, the body stops producing that substance.
Further elucidation of the reciprocal interactions between SC and the other cell types within the niche will improve our understanding of skeletal muscle homeostasis, and identify novel targets for the pharmacological interventions to counter age-related muscle loss.


text:
T 0964/99 (Device and method for sampling of substances using alternating … of 29.6.2001
A61N 1/30
Decision text in EN (PDF, 68.466K)
Device and method for sampling of substances using alternating polarity
CYGNUS, INC
1. The expression "diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body" in Article 52(4) EPC or the equivalent expressions "Diagnostizierverfahren, die am menschlichen oder tierischen Korper vorgenommen werden" and "méthodes de diagnostic appliquées au corps humain ou animal" in the other two official languages should not be considered to relate to methods containing all the steps involved in reaching a medical diagnosis.
2. According to the principle, well-established in the case law of the Boards of Appeal, that the EPC has to be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context (Article 31(1) Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties), Article 52(4) EPC is meant to exclude from patent protection all methods practised on the human or animal body which relate to diagnosis or which are of value for the purposes of diagnosis.
3. A step of iontophoretically sampling a substance from the living human or animal body for diagnostic purposes has to be considered a diagnostic method within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) Art 31(1)
Diagnostic method (yes: main request, first and second auxiliary requests)
Remittal to the department of the first instance (third auxiliary request)
I. European patent application No. 95 924 591.1 (publication No. 0 766 577) was refused by a decision of the examining division dispatched on 25 August 1999 on the ground that the subject-matter of claim 1 then on file was excluded from patentability under Article 52(4) EPC.
II. The appellant lodged an appeal against the decision on 15. September 1999 and paid the prescribed fee on the same day. The notice of appeal also included the statement of grounds of appeal.
III. In oral proceedings held on 3 August 2000 at the request of the appellant, the pertinence of Article 52(4) EPC to the method claims on file as well as some aspects of lack of clarity (Article 84 EPC) were discussed. At the end of the oral proceedings, the appellant was given the opportunity to file further submissions and new requests so that a decision of the Board could concentrate on the issue of Article 52(4) EPC.
IV. The discussion was continued in second oral proceedings held on 27 March 2001 and concentrated on the aspects of whether the subject-matter of the method claims constituted a diagnostic method performed on the human or animal body or a treatment by surgery. At the end of the oral proceedings the proceedings were closed.
V. The appellant requested that the decision under appeal be set aside and the case remitted to the examining division for examination on the basis of the following documents:
Main request
Claims: 1 to 35 filed on 5 October 2000;
Description: pages 7 to 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 23. to 30 as published; pages 16 and 22 filed on 7 January 1997; pages 13, 19 and 21 filed on 17 May 1999; pages 1 to 4, 11 filed on 4 July 2000; and page 6 filed on 5 October 2000. Page 5 as published has been deleted.
Drawings: sheets 1/11 to 11/11 as published.
First auxiliary request
Claims 1 to 35 filed on 5 October 2000 with the description and Figures as for the main request.
Second auxiliary request
Claims 1 to 27 filed in the oral proceedings on 27. March 2001 with the description and Figures as for the main request.
Third auxiliary request
Claims 1 to 15 filed on 5 October 2000 as then second auxiliary request with the description and Figures as for the main request.
VI. Independent claim 1 of the main request reads as follows:
"1. A method of sampling a substance or substance metabolite from a human or an animal body and analysing the concentration of the substance or substance metabolite, which comprises the steps of:
(a) placing at least one sampling chamber at a collection site on a surface tissue of the human or animal body,
(b) extracting the substance or substance metabolite through the surface tissue into the sampling chamber by conducting electrical current through the tissue in a first polarity between two electrodes in electrical contact with the surface tissue, at least one of the electrodes being in electrical contact with the surface tissue at or adjacent to the sampling chamber collection site,
(c) analysing the sampling chamber for the concentration of the substance or a substance metabolite,
(d) reversing polarity to apply electrical current between the two electrodes in a second polarity to reverse reactions caused by the electrical current in the first polarity, and
(e) repeating steps b) to d)."
Further independent claims 21 and 33 of the main request are directed to an iontophoretic sampling device and a substance monitor, respectively.
Claim 1 of the first auxiliary request corresponds to claim 1 of the main request and is specifically directed to the sampling of glucose or a glucose metabolite by extracting the glucose or glucose metabolite through the skin by electrodes which do not penetrate into or beneath the skin and by analysing the concentration of the glucose or glucose metabolite.
Claim 1 of the second auxiliary request is based on claim 1 of the first auxiliary request, step (c) thereof, namely analysing the sampling chamber for the concentration of the glucose or glucose metabolite, being deleted.
The third auxiliary request comprises only device claims.
VII. As regards the question whether the method claims of the main request and the first and second auxiliary requests are to be considered as constituting a diagnostic method practised on the human or animal body within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC, the appellant's submissions may be summarised as follows:
An exclusion clause, such as Article 52(4), first sentence, EPC, had to be narrowly construed (cf. for instance T 385/86 (OJ EPO 1988, 308), headnote 3 and point 3.2 of the reasons).
The case law was clear and consistent on what would qualify as a method of diagnosis. A pertinent decision in this respect was T 385/86 supra, which had been widely accepted and confirmed in subsequent decisions T 83/87, T 400/87 and T 530/93 (not published in OJ EPO). According to T 385/86 (cf. points 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4.1 of the reasons), "the only diagnostic methods to be excluded from patent protection are those whose results immediately make it possible to decide on a particular course of medical treatment. This means that to answer the question whether a method is a diagnostic method for the purposes of Article 52(4), first sentence, it is necessary to ascertain whether the method claimed contains all the steps involved in reaching a medical diagnosis. Methods providing only interim results are thus not diagnostic methods in the meaning of Article 52(4), first sentence, even if they can be utilised in making a diagnosis." Diagnosis was found to comprise the phase of recording the case history, examining and data gathering phases, the phase of comparing the data with normal values and recording any significant deviation (symptom) and, finally, the phase of attributing the deviation to a particular clinical picture (deductive medical decision phase). The deciding board had held that even if only one of the last three steps was lacking, there was no diagnostic method but at best a method of data acquisition or data processing that could be used in a diagnostic method. Thus, what was decisive was whether the nature of the disease was already immediately clear from the very value of a parameter obtained from the examination of the body. Decision T 83/87 confirmed this finding specifically for a method of determining the concentration of blood sugar on a living body.
Although the sampling of substances from a body had not been the subject of previous considerations of the Boards of Appeal, the principles developed in T 385/86 and applied in T 83/87 did not rely on an evaluation of the factual situation to be decided in these cases. Therefore, even if the factual basis of the present case differed to some extent from that of the existing case law, the findings therein as to what would qualify as a diagnostic method within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC had to be respected. A clear distinction had to be made between a diagnostic method meeting the criteria developed by the established case law and a method of gathering data which at best provides an interim result in the course of a diagnosis.
In the present case, the taking of a sample from a body in a non-invasive manner merely constituted a method of collecting data and thus did not qualify as a method of diagnosis according to the principles developed in T 385/86. The present case was in fact parallel to decision T 83/87 dealing with a method of operating an implanted blood glucose sensor for which the deciding board had held that the measurement of a value representative of the sugar concentration, albeit being used in the context of diagnosing, merely gave an intermediate result which could not provide a diagnosis directly in the sense of recognition of a pathological condition. The same applied for the claimed methods according to the main request and first auxiliary request, which also provided for the determination of the concentration of a desired substance, such as glucose, but did not provide enough information to effect a diagnosis or directly and alone to suggest a course of treatment. The knowledge of the concentration of a blood glucose level did not permit either a diagnosis of diabetes or even of hypo- or hyper-glycaemia. Even for a patient who was already known to suffer from diabetes, a single reading of the blood glucose level alone was not sufficient to decide on the course of a treatment to be taken. Hence, if the Board was inclined to consider the method claims on file as relating to a diagnostic method to be excluded from patent protection, such finding would be contrary to the existing case law.
Moreover, the step of analysing the sample chamber for the concentration of the extracted substance was performed by purely technical means outside the body. The method claims of the second auxiliary request even did not comprise a step of analysing for the glucose concentration.
Finally, the application of electrodes to the skin and the passing of low iontophoretic currents through the skin had no significant or lasting effect on the body. Moreover, executing the claimed methods did not involve any risk for the health of a person treated nor did it require any medical knowledge. Thus the claimed methods could be performed by any person and did not require the participation of a medically qualified professional.
1. The appeal complies with the requirements of Articles 106 to 108 and Rule 64 EPC and is, therefore, admissible.
2. The amendments made to the independent method claims of the main request and the first and second auxiliary requests serve to clarify the non-therapeutic purposes of the steps of conducting electrical currents in opposite polarities. The Board is satisfied that the amendments have a basis in the originally filed application documents and thus comply with the requirements of Article 123(2) EPC.
Exclusion from patentability (Article 52(4) EPC)
3.1. Article 52(4) EPC excludes from patent protection methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body. The policy behind the exclusion of such methods is clearly to ensure that those who carry out such methods as part of the medical treatment of humans or the veterinary treatment of animals should not be inhibited by patents (cf. T 116/85 (OJ EPO 1989, 13), point 3.7 of the reasons).
3.2. The reasons for the present decision are concerned with considerations relating only to the exclusion from patentability of diagnostic methods. Thus, the Board does not consider it necessary to discuss herein the arguments put forward in the course of these proceedings relating to methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy.
3.3. In T 385/86 supra (cf. points 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4.1 of the reasons), the Board, having considered the historical origins of the exclusion made by Article 52(4) EPC with respect to diagnostic methods in the light of the travaux préparatoires to the Munich Diplomatic Conference, held:
"All this shows that the first sentence of Article 52(4) EPC is intended to exclude from the possibility of patent protection only methods of therapeutic treatment, so that no-one can be hampered in the practice of medicine by patent legislation. Like any exclusion clause, Article 52(4), first sentence, must be narrowly construed, a fact underscored by the statement in the second sentence that the exclusion from patentability does not apply to products for use in such methods. The Board is therefore convinced that the only diagnostic methods to be excluded from patent protection are those whose results immediately make it possible to decide on a particular course of medical treatment. This means that to answer the question whether a method is a diagnostic method for the purposes of Article 52(4), first sentence, it is necessary to ascertain whether the method claimed contains all the steps involved in reaching a medical diagnosis. Methods providing only interim results are thus not diagnostic methods in the meaning of Article 52(4), first sentence, even if they can be utilised in making a diagnosis.
The systematic list of the steps leading to a diagnosis contained in the relevant literature includes recording the case history, observing, palpating and auscultating various parts of the body and carrying out numerous medical and technical examinations and tests - the examination and data gathering phases - and comparing the test data with normal values, recording any significant deviation (symptom) and, finally, attributing the deviation to a particular clinical picture (deductive medical decision phase) - cf. Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, Vol. 4, 1968, page 684; The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 1977, Vol. 5, page 684; La Grande Encyclopédie Larousse, 1973, Vol. 7, page 3833. Even if only one of the last three steps is lacking, there is no diagnostic method but at best a method of data acquisition or data processing that can be used in a diagnostic method.
For a case where the result of the measures claimed is a quantitative expression of an isolated physical variable, the board arrived at the conclusion that "what is decisive is whether the nature of the disease is already immediately clear from that very value".
3.4. Apparently the reasoning in decision T 385/86 supra on the aspect of diagnostic methods rests on two observations (cf. point 3.2 of the reasons):
- that Article 52(4) EPC was intended to exclude from the possibility of patent protection only methods of therapeutic treatment, so that no one could be hampered in the practice of medicine by patent legislation,
- and that Article 52(4), first sentence, being an exception, must be narrowly construed, a fact underscored by the statement in the second sentence that the exclusion from patentability does not apply to products for use in such methods.
For these reasons, the then deciding board arrived at the conclusion that the only diagnostic methods to be excluded from patent protection were those whose results immediately made it possible to decide on a particular course of medical treatment and that therefore a method was a diagnostic method for the purpose of Article 52(4) EPC only if it contained all the steps involved in reaching a medical diagnosis (emphasis added).
3.5. This line of reasoning equates the meaning of the expression "diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body" in Article 52(4) EPC with the conventional meaning of the term "diagnosis" and thus implies that "diagnostic methods" cover activities which are not normally practised on the body but predominantly involve mental acts, i.e. activities of non-technical nature performed by a medical professional, such as the steps of comparing the data with normal values and recording any significant deviation and of attributing the deviation to a particular clinical picture.
Though the above interpretation of the wording of Article 52(4) EPC would exclude from patentability procedures providing a more or less complete diagnosis as the result of a fully automated operation of technical devices, a strict adoption of the principles set out in T 385/86 would lead to the conclusion that typical diagnostic procedures practised on the human body, like percussion, auscultation or palpation could, in principle, be patentable because they do not constitute a complete diagnosis and certainly do not fall within the further medical categories of surgery and therapy referred to in Article 52(4) EPC. However, the Board considers that it would go against the spirit of Article 52(4) EPC to interpret its provisions in such a way that "manual procedures" of physical examination essential for making a diagnosis and executed by a medical practitioner would not constitute an exception to patentability.
3.6. Moreover, the Board wishes to note that the restrictive interpretation of the patent exemption for diagnostic methods adopted by T 385/86 amounts to setting a different standard for diagnostic methods than that established for methods of surgery or therapy, the latter being excluded from patent protection if they comprise only a single step of a surgical or therapeutic nature (cf. for instance T 35/99 (OJ EPO 2000, 447) and T 82/93 (OJ EPO 1996, 274)). It is thus not surprising that literature on patent law considers the interpretation of the law by T 385/86 as resulting in a practical dissolution of the legislative exclusion of diagnostic methods (cf. R. Moufang: "Methods of medical treatment under patent law", 24 IIC, no. 1, 1993, 18-49, at 46 and 47).
3.7. Furthermore, the appellant's view that the case law on diagnostic methods has consistently adopted the restrictive interpretation of T 385/86 is not correct.
In T 329/94 (OJ EPO 1998, 241, cf. point 4 of the reasons) withdrawal of blood from a living body was considered to fall under the exclusion of Article 52(4) EPC, if it could be regarded as a step of a diagnostic method, for example with a view to a blood analysis for determining the cause of a disease.
In T 655/92 (OJ EPO 1998, 17, cf. headnotes 2 and 3; and points 5.2 and 5.3 of the reasons) a method including a step of parenteral administration of a diagnostic contrast agent was considered a diagnostic method within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC. This finding was derived from distinctions in the factual basis of the case as compared with that of T 385/86. The board in T 655/92 noted in particular that "unlike the processes of the previous cases, the present diagnostic process, when considered in its totality, comprises at least one step essential for the desired diagnostic result, which cannot fall under the exclusive responsibility of the technician skilled in NMR technology. While for a process whose steps as a whole are non-medical but technical it is legitimate not to derive the in vivo diagnostic character from its final diagnostic purpose, this does not apply to a process for a diagnostic purpose which is to be implemented in its essential steps by medical staff or under the responsibility of a doctor. A different interpretation would be in clear conflict with the spirit of Article 52(4) EPC."
4.1. It is not contested by the Board that, in order to arrive at a medical diagnosis, all the steps referred to by the appellant and indicated in point 3.3 of the reasons in T 385/86 supra are required, including a symptom recording phase and a deductive medical decision phase. However, for the reasons given in points 3.5 and 3.6 above, the Board is of the opinion that the expression "diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body" in Article 52(4) EPC or the corresponding expressions "Diagnostizierverfahren, die am menschlichen oder tierischen Körper vorgenommen werden" and "méthodes de diagnostic appliquées au corps humain ou animal" in the other two official languages of the EPC should not be considered to relate to methods containing all the steps involved in reaching a medical diagnosis.
4.2. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, Oxford University Press, 1999) "diagnosis" means the "determination of the nature of a diseased condition" or the "identification of a disease by careful investigation of its symptoms and history" and also the "opinion resulting from such investigation", whereas "diagnostic" means "of or pertaining to diagnosis" or "of value for the purposes of diagnosis". Hence, the straightforward meaning of "diagnostic methods" would be "methods pertaining to, or of value for the purposes of, diagnosis". Within this meaning, any medical activity concerning the gathering of information in the course of establishing a diagnosis qualifies as a diagnostic method. A corresponding differentiation exists in the German language between the meanings of the terms "Diagnose" and "Diagnostik" (cf. Roche Lexikon Medizin, 3. Auflage, Verlag Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1993), the latter being used as a generic term for medical activities ("Diagnostizierverfahren") relating to the examination and collection of data required in establishing a diagnosis. In the French language, the term "diagnose" means "connaissance qui s'aquiert par l'observation des signes diagnostiques" and "diagnostic" means "action de determiner une maladie d'après ses symptômes" (cf. Le Petit Robert, Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1990). Although the term "diagnostic" as such may be interpreted as encompassing all steps required for reaching a medical diagnosis, it appears that it can also define an individual step of a diagnostic examination when used in the expression "méthodes de diagnostic". Thus, the French text of Article 52(4) EPC does not favour an interpretation limiting the exception to patentability to methods encompassing all steps required for reaching a medical diagnosis.
4.3. The medical art knows of a broad spectrum of diagnostic methods applied by the medical practitioner ranging from general observations of the appearance of a patient and purely manual interventions, such as palpation or auscultation, to diagnostic techniques utilizing sophisticated physical instruments and chemical or bio-chemical tools. Diagnostic methods can be classified in two categories: those which are practised on the living body and those whose performance takes place outside the body. It appears from the wording of Article 52(4) EPC that the legislator has intended to exclude from patent protection only methods "practised on the human or animal body", whereas for instance extra-corporal laboratory tests would be patentable.
4.4. For these reasons and adopting the principle, well-established in the case law of the Boards of Appeal, that the EPC has to be interpreted "in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context" (Article 31(1) Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, cf. G 5/83 (OJ EPO 1985), 64, points 4 and 5), the Board is of the opinion that Article 52(4) EPC is meant to exclude from patent protection all methods practised on the human or animal body which relate to diagnosis or which are of value for the purposes of diagnosis.
5.1. All method claims on file comprise the step of sampling a substance from a living human or animal body.
One significant and specific commercial embodiment of the claimed methods is the analysis of blood glucose as it has been found that the levels of glucose below the skin correlate with the level of glucose in the blood. The sampling of glucose relieves diabetes patients, who require a more or less continuous monitoring of their blood glucose levels, of the painful procedure of pricking a finger several times a day in order to obtain a blood sample for analysing the blood glucose level. Further envisaged applications include optimization of the blood level of an administered drug during a chemotherapeutic regimen (cf. page 12, lines 18 to 20 of the original description) and the sampling of therapeutically introduced metabolites, anaesthetics or psychotherapeutically acting agents (page 12, line 28 to page 13, line 2 of the description). All of these examples concern activities exercised in the course of a medical treatment of patients and serve particularly for diagnostic purposes.
5.2. In the Board's view, the taking of a body sample for the purpose of a medical examination belongs to a fundamental diagnostic activity, regardless of the technical means used, be it a spatula for taking a swab or smear, a syringe for taking a blood sample, or, as in the present case, a iontophoretic current forcing a substance through the skin. For these reasons, the claimed step of sampling a substance relates to diagnosis and constitutes in this context an essential diagnostic measure practised on the living human or animal body. Consequently, the subject-matter of the method claims on file has to be considered a diagnostic method within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC.
6.1. In order to arrive at this judgment, it is immaterial that the claimed methods could be performed by a patient himself and that their execution would not have a significant impact on the body nor involve a serious health risk. What is decisive is the fact that all method claims on file comprise the step of taking of a body sample for the purpose of diagnosis and that such a step is to be regarded as an essential activity pertaining to diagnosis and practised on the living body.
6.2. It is in this respect that the present case is factually distinguished from decisions T 385/86, T 83/87, T 400/87 and T 530/93.
In case T 83/87, the claimed method does not comprise any step which is explicitly practised on the human or animal body. In fact, the method exclusively defines steps concerning the internal operation of an electro-catalytic sugar sensor when analysing a bodily fluid, using certain electrodes operated with a specific sequence of potentials. The other three cases all relate to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) procedures which, although performed on a living body, only define steps which concern the technical operation of exciting and detecting resonance signals and thus fall in terms of design and performance within the exclusive competence and responsibility of the technician skilled in NMR technology.
As a matter of fact, none of the methods judged in the above decisions comprises a step which would have to be attributed to basic medical activities exercised on the human or animal body. Thus, although the present decision does not adopt the approach chosen in former decisions T 385/86, T 83/87, T 400/87 and T 530/93, it does not question the fact that a process, the claimed steps of which amount to nothing more than the (internal) operation of a technical device and thus without exception fall within the competence and under the exclusive control of a technician, may be regarded as patentable, even if it generates and detects physical signals on a living body and its results may be evaluated for diagnostic purposes. In fact, the method claims on which the aforementioned decisions were taken, can be considered (and could have been formulated) as containing only steps which concern the control and internal operation of a technical device, in the specific cases either a tomographic NMR machine or an electro-catalytic sensor, so that no specific step of diagnostic character can be recognized.
In contrast thereto, in the present case, the crucial step of diagnostic character is the extraction of a body substance for diagnostic purposes, which is to be considered as constituting an elementary diagnostic activity performed under the ultimate responsibility of a physician.
7. In conclusion, the main request as well as the first and second auxiliary requests, in seeking protection for diagnostic methods within the meaning of Article 52(4) EPC, are not allowable.
2. The case is remitted to the department of the first instance for further examination on the basis of the third auxiliary request (cf. point V above).


I hope you all are having a good time. Today i am going back to the memory lane to my wonderful time in University, where we always wanted to wear something comfortable. Here this chic look is inspired by a typical Delhi Lover.
I have always believed in styling every outfit that i wear and when it comes to style not only your outfit matters but also the footwear you carry along should be stylish. The old school time has gone when we used to wear those rubber slippers or simple shoes. Shopping recently, I came across Reliance Footprints and well, I was left absolutely stunned. I totally loved the Wedges heels collection. Also when you find a pair of heels that goes with almost all your outfits and not just that, they are also comfortable. What else do i need? Also you know the best thing about the "Back to college look" Yes you guessed it right!! Its always affordable! This what Reliance Footprints is known for "Affordable footwear".
Also I believe that we all have experienced that the off-shoulder tops/dresses have suddenly captured the market everywhere. This trend has catched fired to even the smallest of towns making the off-shoulder varients from tops to dresses,jumpsuits,swimwear and gowns etc. I have paired this metallic wedge heels from Reliance Footprints with the Green Off-shoulder Dress. You can carry this a pink scarf and a pink clutch to complete the whole look. Such looks can be easily pulled off for a college or Lunch/Dinner Date .
Also if you are looking to buy your favourite pair from Reliance Footprints, you can head to your nearest Reliance Footprints store but well if you don't have time and are looking to shop online, you would be saving a lot on your pocket, as a lot of discounts are going on.
Winter Key Trend: Jersey Dress!


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Ripe and ready aromas of dried apricots, almonds and honey come together on the nose of this sweet wine from Lazio. Berries of the unusual Malvasia Puntinata grape are left to dry out on the vine following the hot summer months in Lazio near Rome, concentrating the sugars and maturing the flavours and aromatics. Viscous and syrupy, this is the perfect dessert or after-dinner white.


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Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Gymnastics Firsts & Record Holders
This year, our third year profiling Black Gymnasts in History, we've given a different focus. We've highlighted some of the most unique accomplishments of gymnasts, from going viral to winning World Championship medals. On this final day of February, we honor the gymnasts whose accomplishments were the first of their kind among black gymnasts and sometimes among gymnasts of any race (and in some cases, the athletes below established records that still stand).
Please click on the names to read our individual profiles, as available, for each athlete below.
James Kanati Allen
First black male gymnast to be named to the U.S. Olympic Team (1968)
Simone Biles
Most decorated American gymnast in history, with 19 Olympic & World Championship medals
American gymnast, male or female, with the most gold medals won at a single Olympic Games (4 in 2016)
Dickie Bivins
First black male gymnast to win an individual medal at the World Championships (1980: Platform tumbling, Bronze & Power Tumbling, Bronze)
First black Sports Acro Mixed Pairs world champion (2002, 2004)
Luci Collins
First black female gymnast to be named to the U.S. Olympic Team (1980)
First black female gymnast to attend more than one Olympics (1992, 1996, 200)
First black female gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal (Floor bronze, 1996)
Only American gymnast to be a member of three medal-winning Olympic teams (1992, 1996, 2000)
First black Olympic all-around champion (2012)
First black gymnast to win the U.S. Classic (1983)
First black female U.S. all-around champion (1983)
First black female gymnast to win an individual national event title (1983 Vault, Balance Beam, Floor)
Ron Galimore
First black male gymnast to win an individual national event title (1977 Floor, Vault)
Rayshine Harris
Most decorated black U.S. power tumbler (12-time World Champion and 5-time National Champion)
Wendy Hilliard
First black gymnast to represent the USA in rhythmic gymnastics (1980s)
Jair Lynch
First black male gymnast to attend more than one Olympics (1992, 1996)
First black male gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal (Parallel Bars silver, 1996)
Alexandra Nicholson
First black female gymnast to win an individual medal at the World Championships (1972: Trampoline, Gold)
First trampolinist, male or female, to complete the triffis
Sig Oglesby
First black NCAA individual event champion (Vault, 1964):
First black All-American gymnast
Betty Okino
First black gymnast, male or female, to win the American Cup (1991)
John Orozco
First black male U.S. all-around champion (2012)
Taqiy Abdullah Simmons
First black NCAA male all-around champion (2007)
Corrinne Wright
First black NCAA female all-around champion (1980s)
We are proud to salute these record-setting athletes on this final day of Black Gymnasts in History 2018!
Posted on February 28, 2018 March 1, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, dianne durham, dominique dawes, female athletes, gymnastics, gymnasts, olympics, shenea booth, team usa, trampoline, trampolining, world championshipsLeave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: James Kanati Allen
James Kanati Allen was a pioneer in Men's Gymnastics for the U.S. A Los Angeles native, James attended UCLA, where he studied phsyicas and earned an all-around bronze medal in the NCAA Championships. He then went on to be the first black male to be named to the U.S. Olympic team (in 1968). After the Olympics, he earned a PhD in physics from the University of Washington.
James passed away in December 2011 but his accomplishments in and out of the gym will always be remembered. We are proud to salute you!
Please take the time to read this profile on James from International Gymnast.
Posted on February 28, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, gymnastics, gymnasts, male athletes, NCAA, olympians, olympics, team usa, uclaLeave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Winners of the U.S. Classic
Every year, the U.S. Classic precedes the National Championships, and during an Olympic year, it's especially significant. Since the competition's start in 1983, won by Dianne Durham, seven black gymnasts have won the title of U.S. Classic champion. Please take the time to watch these ladies in action!
Dianne Durham, 1983
Dominique Dawes, 1993
Tasha Schwikert, 2001
Annia Hatch, 2002
Olivia Courtney, 2009
Mattie Larson, 2010
Simone Biles, 2014 & 2015
We are proud to salute our Black Gymnasts who have won the U.S. Classic!
Posted on February 26, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, dawes, dianne durham, dominique dawes, female athletes, gymnastics, gymnasts, olympians, olympic medalists, olympics, team usa, uclaTagged simone biles. Leave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: American Cup Winners
Winning the annual American Cup is a big deal. Since the competition's debut in 1976, six black gymnasts have won the coveted title of American Cup champion. Please take the time to watch the winners' performances!
Betty Okino, 1991
Elizabeth Price, 2014
Simone Biles, 2015
Gabby Douglas, 2016
We are proud to salute our Black Gymnasts who have won the American Cup!
Posted on February 25, 2018 February 25, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, dawes, dominique dawes, female athletes, gymnastics, olympians, olympics, team usaTagged american cup, elizabeth price, gabby douglas, simone biles, tasha schwikert. Leave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Gymnasts with Skills Named After Them
What a unique honor and feat when gymnasts get skills named after them! To do so, gymnasts must successfully complete a skill at a World Championships or an Olympic Games.
Four black U.S. gymnasts have skills named after them that are still included in the current FIG Code of Points.
– Uneven bars: clear underswing with 180 degree twist to back flip in stretched position
– Balance beam: triple turn on one leg
– High bar: Tkatchev with a half turn prior to the catch to a mixed el-grip and swing back up to handstand
– Floor exercise: Double layout half out
Donnell Whittenburg
– Still rings: Triple back pike dismount
We are proud to salute these gymnasts who added something new to the sport while at the top of their game!
Posted on February 25, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, female athletes, gymnastics, gymnasts, male athletes, NCAA, olympians, olympic medalists, olympics, team usa, world championshipsLeave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Multi-Year Olympians
It is such a feat to reach Olympian-status in the sport of gymnastics — it is truly the pinnacle of the sport. What's remarkable is that three Black Gymnasts have not only earned that honor more than once (Dominique Dawes 3x in 1992, 1996 and 2000; Jair Lynch 2x in 1992 and 1996; and Gabby Douglas 2x in 2012 and 2016), they've also all won individual medals. Dominique won a bronze on the floor exercise in 1996; Jair won a silver on parallel bars in 1996; and Gabby won a gold in the all-around in 2012.
Please take the time to read these athletes' individual profiles (click the links above) and enjoy some videos of their performances at multiple Olympics!
Jair Lynch at the 1992 Olympics
Dominique Dawes at the 1992 Olympics
Gabby Douglas at the 2012 Olympics
Posted on February 23, 2018 February 23, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, dawes, dominique dawes, female athletes, gymnastics, gymnasts, male athletes, olympians, olympic medalists, olympics, team usaTagged gabby douglas, jair lynch, medalists, olympic medalists. Leave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Dave Green
Dave Green and Flip City – legends indeed!
Here are a few photos Dave has been kind enough to share.
Posted on February 22, 2018 February 23, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, male athletes, world championshipsTagged tumbling. Leave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Steve Butcher
As we gear up for our annual Harlem Gymnastics Invitational, I am reminded that gymnastics is a sport of rules. Each discipline has a book of rules called the Code of Points! The Code of Points is the responsibility of the Technical Committee of the International Federation of Gymnastics ("FIG"). And Steve Butcher is the technical coordinator for the FIG! Most recently, he also served as president of the FIG Men's Technical Committee.
For ten years I was on the USAG Executive Committee with Jackie Fie, who was the President of the Women's Technical Committee. I was in awe of her knowledge, passion, and fairness, and also how she had to so carefully navigate this international group of gymnastics officials.
Posted on February 22, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history monthTagged FIG, international federation. Leave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: Olympic Coaches
Alan Hatch has travelled the world as a coach for several other countries and has instructed a long list of champion athletes on many levels. The journey that brought Annia Hatch to the U.S. National Team, World Championships, and then onto Olympic success after suffering a massive knees injury was masterful indeed!
Miles Avery was Paul Hamm's coach during the Athens Olympics in 2004. Who can forget Paul Hamm's stunning rise to all-around gold after a fall on his fourth event?!
See a behind-the-scenes video with Alan here.
Posted on February 20, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in UncategorizedLeave a comment
Black Gymnasts in History 2018: The Jesse White Tumbling Team
Today we feature the Chicago-based Jesse White Tumbling Team.
Check out this video on the tumbling team below.
Today we are proud to salute the incredible Jesse White Tumbling Team as part of our Black Gymnasts in History projecte.
Posted on February 19, 2018 by whgfnyPosted in Black Gymnasts in History, black history month, gymnastics, gymnasts, male athletesTagged chicago, jesse white, tumbling. Leave a comment


birdsoup is on a mission. A mission to help women and organisations to promote change in the workplace. In the first of a series of interviews celebrating Norfolk's finest, I speak to birdsoup co-founder Jo Hind about what drives the company and where she sees it going in future.
Our paths met on a birdsoup Women in Leadership course in Norwich in 2017. What is it that brings you to the area?
I was born and raised in Norwich, before going to uni in Leicester. I then moved to London where I worked for Yorkshire TV, before going to various other companies, including Channel 4, Google and AOL, which is where I met birdsoup co-founder Alison [Wilde].
I still have brothers and sisters in Norwich, so I still spend a lot of time there and I'm a Norwich City FC supporter!
After AOL, Al worked at various advertising agencies in global marketing and new business roles. After having her daughter, she was disillusioned with life as a working mum so went back to school to do a Masters degree in Organisational Development and Coaching. Her focus was on helping women who have been on maternity leave to get back into the workplace.
I left Google four years ago and independently did some coaching training. The company Al was working for was considering pitching for some female leadership work and the stars aligned and Al called me. Although the company decided not to go ahead with the training, it was the catalyst for us setting up together.
It took us a while to work out exactly what we were going to do, but we launched at the beginning of 2017.
Why is birdsoup focused on supporting women?
We felt that, through all of the training and coaching work we'd done individually, what came out clearly for us both was that women need a different kind of help.
For instance, there were some really strong themes around what happens if women want to start a family. And even if they don't want children, there can be a perception that when a woman gets to a certain age, that's what they'll want to. That can affect how they're viewed in terms of their potential.
Yes, there's still this much publicised idea around the number of women who sit on boards. Even though the same number of women go into the workplace, we still end up with women making up just 25% of board members if you look at FTSE 100 companies.
So why are companies losing all of their female talent? What we've found is that there's a real issue around confidence. This is backed up by stats that show women only apply for a job if they feel that they meet 100% of the criteria, while men only feel like they need to meet 60%.
Women believe that confidence is a key skill they need for leadership and they often feel they're not confident enough. We saw there was a job to be done to get organisations to recognise that they're not helping themselves and they're adding to the difficulties of women in the workplace.
Do you exclusively work with women?
What's interesting is that we do work with men as well. It isn't about saying that if we want to help women, we don't value men in the workplace. In fact, there are groups of men who feel they don't quite fit into the in-group, particularly in some of the big corporates, so we can help them.
However, we felt that we had the experience and the credibility to [focus on women] and there's still a lot to be done. That's why we launched a business that is, at its core, all about helping women.
How have businesses reacted to it?
It's been really well received. In the past 11 months we've been talking to as many organisations as we can and we haven't had a single person say that what we're doing isn't valuable and that they're not interested in some element of it.
There is a real change in how society's looking at it too. It's not just about not letting women leave organisations but also getting women with a lot of experience and skills back into the workplace. If you don't, you're going to have a real problem on your hands.
What has been the most rewarding part of the past 12 months?
It has been delivering courses and getting feedback. We love to hear that women are thinking: "I'm going to make a real change".
We've done lots of really interesting things and we've met lots of really interesting people. We spoke at an Inspiring Females event last summer, to school kids, which is a brilliant opportunity.
We also like changing people's opinions. Businesses are recognising that they want to hold onto their high potential women. Those things have been really rewarding.
We've also developed our own ways of delivering certain training courses. We've developed a resilience model and series of workshops and it's really helping people.
What's the plan now for the next 12 months?
More of the same really.
I think flexible working is really interesting. All the research I've read says that it's not just women that want to work more flexibly but it's men too. There's lots of evidence to show it can increase productivity rather than decrease it. And the UK is in a real crisis in terms of its productivity at the moment. Some stats that have just been released showed that it's lower than prior to the financial crash. So we're looking at what we can do around that.
We're really excited about a couple of projects we've got in the pipeline with some big organisations that have some challenging issues in terms of not having enough women in their pipeline or having a culture that isn't conducive to women. We're taking on some of those big thorny projects.
The other area that is a real focus for us is millennials. I don't like the term, but everybody uses it. We've done a survey of 220 millennial people, both male and female and some focus groups. What has come out of that is what millennials really want from their careers. We want to help dispel the myth that they're lazy and expect lots from work. Actually they're really focused and they're really passionate, but a lot of the things they want from their careers they're not getting. Things like training and development and role models and mentors. They want to feel like they're getting some meaning from their work too.
We're quite passionate about that level. There's so much emphasis from a government standpoint, saying we need to get more women on boards, which is absolutely right, but unless you start with that opinion early in your career, that's not going to happen.
Plus, there's lots of evidence that says that male millennials are key to helping more women succeed in the workplace. They're coming into work with very different expectations than older generations. They're much more about equality, so we're really excited about that and want to help organisations that are finding millennials hard to manage.
Are there any industries that are better than others?
If you look at The Times Top 50 Employers for Women, a lot of them are legal firms, consultancy firms and there are some financial firms as well.
However, if you go and talk to people within those organisations, they're often quite skeptical. When you dig down into what a lot of those companies are doing, they'll say they've got a mentoring program, or a women's group, but much of it is about fixing the women rather than the organisation. Plus, there's a big PR element [to that activity] and I would argue that, for instance some of the big financial organisations, just want to be seen to be doing the right thing.
That said, I also know that a lot of the big banks have given themselves quite a hard target. They don't just want a percentage of women at board level but at every level of management. Senior management are targeted financially on achieving those numbers, which I think helps change to happen.
There are almost degrees of maturity, in terms of what businesses have done, but I don't think there's any sector that, hand on heart, could say they've done it brilliantly. There's still a lot to do and it's not just one thing, it's a combination. One of the ideas behind setting up birdsoup is that we're aiming to create real change rather than lip-service.
Why do you think there's been so much noise around women's issues recently?
There's been a lot in the press, including the Women's March, when Donald Trump was elected. Then there was the news about Harvey Weinstein and the awareness of sexual harassment. This has come out alongside the government pushing the number of women on boards and gender-pay-gap reporting, which comes into play next April for any organisation that employs more than 250 people.
On the one hand you've got legislation and government policy and on the other you've got the social pressure of people saying that they've had enough of this now. It's 2017.
Next year is the also anniversary of the first woman MP to be elected. So 100 years on, there's been some progress and there have definitely been some really good things. But there's still a lot to be done. I think it's no longer one person in the organisation that's got diversity in the their job title saying we need to do something. I think it's much more visible and becoming even more visible.
Why have you had run sessions in Norwich?
We would do a session anywhere, but one of the reasons we started thinking about Norwich is because a couple of weird things that happened. When we were setting up, we ended up with a female web designer, who also does our marketing, who is Norwich-based. And our accountants are Rostrons. They have an all-female board and are Norwich-based too.
Rostrons said that they wanted to set up a female mentoring programme in Norwich called We Can. They're looking to launch that in the new year and we have helped them facilitate initial meetings with a few local businesses.
As a result of doing that, we found that a lot of businesses said there isn't very much training available in Norfolk. Particularly of the sort of things that might support young women. We were lucky enough to have a few contacts with local businesses by that point, so we built on that and have run sessions in Norwich.


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Currency Bird of Chile Joins the Ripple Network
By Dalmas Ngetich
As per a Ripple report, by the beginning of 2019, the blockchain startup had over 200 RippleNet customers. Ripple officially launched in Brazil in mid-2019, and now it has gained a foothold in Chile via its partnership with Currency Bird. Formed in Santiago Chile in 2015, Currency Bird's operations center around international electronic remittances.
The payments company is now the first Chilean transfers startup to join the Ripple network. Announcing the development on their website, Currency Bird said:
" Ripple Net will bring many benefits for the more than 12,000 Currency Bird customers, as it will allow the company to add new routes to its more than 50 destinations, new currencies, better prices, and faster transfer speeds, all using the technology developed by Ripple based on blockchain, which allows the transfer of digital data with sophisticated and secure coding."
Chile Remittance Market Ready for Disruption
Currency Bird has been the to-go remittances channel for Chileans living abroad. It is also a popular payments channel with foreigners with temporary Chilean residency. Businesses operating in Chile but have foreign trade deals that require payments also use the platform.
According to a World Bank report, remittance flows hit a record high in 2018. At least $529 billion was sent to low and middle-income economies, a 9.6 percent rise from 2017's figures. The global value for remittances in 2018 was at $689 billion, up from 2017's, $633 billion.
According to the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database, the cost of sending $200 stands at 7 percent in 2019. This value is too high and is besides, higher in Pacific's small islands and the African corridor, often at 10 percent. Banks have been charging a 11 percent charge for most cross-border payment transactions. A Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) has consequently been set to cut down these costs to 3 percent by 2030.
The revitalized US economy has led to a 10 percent increase in remittance in Latin America. Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador receive the highest number of payments on the continent. Chile may not receive hefty amounts of remittances as its sister nations, but it is leading in internet access.
Over 72 percent of Chileans can access the internet. Unfortunately, over 71 percent of all Chileans online have no access to international credit cards for payments. The population is mostly reliant on cash-based methods and local cards for trade. The cross border-trading environment in Chile is therefore ripe for disruption since it has all the ingredients for success, set up.
Central Banks Working with Ripple Network
Currency Bird now joins other world-renowned institutions like MoneyGram, Banco Santander, American Express, Banco Itaú and Standard Chartered Bank profiting from Ripple's services. RippleNet provides these payments oriented businesses, on-demand liquidity that fuels faster, affordable, and efficient services.
Ripple uses its native altcoin XRP, for its payments platforms. Its InterLedger Protocol solutions have enjoyed a lot of beneficial interest from many banks of the world, keen on embracing the benefits of blockchain technology. This affinity with banks has not been well received in the cryptoverse, giving XRP a somewhat controversial aura. The token's decentralization has also been put to question.
This contention has nevertheless not slowed down Ripple's executives, who have made even greater forays into banking territory, establishing relationships with central banks. In the ongoing US Congress onslaught against Libra, Brad Garlinghouse has written to Washington asking for leniency in its approach to crypto.
In his open letter, the Ripple CEO praised central banks and their monetary policy, the very thing crypto was designed to counter. Brad Garlinghouse said:
"We don't take for granted the vital role of central banks in issuing currencies and setting monetary policy in concert with the complex dynamics of economies around the world. For centuries, governments have been well suited for the job because paramount to the acceptance of any currency is trust."
Brad Garlinghouse CurrencyBird ripple
Dalmas Ngetich
Loving Crypto, Open to Technology, Engineer, Trader


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//  Created by Jonathan Graham on 9/6/17.
//  Copyright © 2017 Jonathan Graham. All rights reserved.
//

#ifndef ModelLoadingUtilities_hpp
#define ModelLoadingUtilities_hpp

#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream>

#include "Mesh.h"

void loadModel(std::string path, std::vector<MeshData>& meshVector);

#endif /* ModelLoadingUtilities_hpp */


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Born in Philadelphia PA and raised in Oceanside CA. Cayoz is a 27 year old emcee affiliated with the likes of STILL FRESH, The BrainStormers and The Mighty Animal Gang. After a couple singles released earlier this year, Cayoz looks to make his mark with his latest effort "Out The Box". Over a jazzy boom bap back drop from French producer Cool FD, homie is joined by the talents of Vandalyzm and Add - 2 as all three lyrically imprint the beat with a fair warning to contenders while True Masterz DJ Grazzhoppa adds a nice scratch hook.


These 60 second nuggets are intended to bring some useful tools and tips to your attention. Many of the business communication techniques I blog about form part of our professional training sessions and as such, are things that you can put into practice to help you perform more effectively in your own workplace – all without paying us a penny! Just click on the title underneath the picture to read the full blog. Sonya O'Sullivan, Principal Consultant.
The Unforgiven – Public speaking boo-boos we love to bash!
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