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Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at http://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/7784, first published Mar 30, 2017.
Facilitating Factors and Barriers to the Use of Emerging Technologies for Suicide Prevention in Europe: Multicountry Exploratory Study
Juan-Luis Muñoz-Sánchez1, MD ;
Carmen Delgado2, PhD ;
Andrés Sánchez-Prada2, PhD ;
Esther Parra-Vidales3, MSc, Psych (Clin) ;
Diego de Leo4, MD, PhD, DSc ;
Manuel Franco-Martín1, MD, PhD
1Department of Psychiatry, Zamora Hospital, Zamora, Spain
2Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
3Intras Foundation, Zamora, Spain
4Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Juan-Luis Muñoz-Sánchez, MD
Zamora Hospital
Av Hernán Cortes, 44
Zamora, 49021
Phone: 34 980521816
Fax:34 980548572
Email: jlmusa@icloud.com
Background: This study provides an analysis on the use of emerging technologies for the prevention of suicide in 8 different European countries.
Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the potentiality of using emerging technologies in the area of suicide prevention based on the opinion of different professionals involved in suicide prevention.
Methods: Opinions of 3 groups of stakeholders (ie, relevant professionals in suicide field) were gathered using a specifically designed questionnaire to explore dimensions underlying perceptions of facilitating factors and barriers in relation to the use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention.
Results: Goal 1 involved facilitating factors for the use of emerging technologies in suicide prevention. Northern European countries, except for Belgium, attach greater relevance to those that optimize implementation and benefits. On the other hand, Southern European countries attach greater importance to professionally oriented and user-centered facilitating factors. According to different stakeholders, the analysis of these facilitating factors suggest that professionals in the field of social work attach greater relevance to those that optimize implementation and benefits. However, professionals involved in the area of mental health, policy makers, and political decision makers give greater importance to professionally oriented and user-centered facilitating factors. Goal 2 was related to barriers to the usability of emerging technologies for suicide prevention. Both countries and stakeholders attach greater importance to barriers associated with resource constraints than to those centered on personal limitations. There are no differences between countries or between stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is a certain stakeholders-countries interaction that indicates that the opinions on resource constraints expressed by different stakeholders do not follow a uniform pattern in different countries, but they differ depending on the country.
Conclusions: Although all countries and stakeholders agree in identifying resource constraints as the main barrier to the use of emerging technologies, factors facilitating their use in suicide prevention differ among countries and among stakeholders.
JMIR Ment Health 2018;5(1):e7
suicide;
prevention;
The use of emerging technologies involving Internet surfing, virtual social networks, videogames, or mobile phones has led to significant changes in the way people interact, especially the younger population [1]. Applied to health sciences, emerging technologies offer advantages such as easy access to resources and information, personalized medical care, and real-time communication [2,3]. The usefulness of mobile communication technologies in the health area has been known for a number of years [4-7]. Telemedicine has proven effective in various health sectors through the use of apps to treat patients and by facilitating interactions among health professionals [8].
In the area of mental health, the use of emerging technologies has proven effective in the treatment of different mental disorders [9,10], especially anxiety and depression [11,12]. Indeed, interventions in mental health through the Internet have appeared as more cost-effective than traditional interventions [13,14]. However, acceptance by patients and professionals of emerging technologies in the treatment of mental disorders is currently limited, but it could be increased by providing more information about it [15,16]. In any case, it seems clear that these technologies represent an opportunity to supplement many of the treatments carried out in the mental health area by increasing contact and accessibility to therapies, especially for patients living in rural areas and those who usually avoid, for different reasons, mental health facilities [17-19].
Suicide is a serious public health issue, representing one of the main causes of unnatural death worldwide [20]. More than 800,000 people die each year by suicide, the global suicide rate being 11.4 per 100,000 population (15.0 men and 8.0 women) [21]. Although the overall suicide rate in Europe is high, its epidemiology differs considerably among countries [22]. Suicide rates are higher in northern and eastern European countries, the highest being detected in Finland, Hungary, and the Baltic countries, alongside Russia and Belarus, whereas the lowest correspond to southern European countries, such as Italy, Spain, and Greece [23].
It is known that suicidal behaviors are usually preceded by thoughts of death or suicide ideation [24]. Addressing risk factors and an early detection are essential to reduce suicide rates [25]. Currently, there is an awareness of a number of risk factors for suicide, which include neurobiological factors [26], socioeconomic factors [27], and personality traits [28]. Likewise, suffering from or having a history of mental illness and previous suicide attempts are the main risk factors among the general population [29-31]. In this regard, affective disorders, and major depressive disorder in particular, are the mental conditions that involve the highest risk for suicide [32], especially in the elderly [33].
Development of strategies to counteract suicide is one of the priorities of European and worldwide public health systems [34]. In recent years, this has led to the establishment of a growing number of intervention programs in many health care networks [35-37]. However, the stigma associated with mental health care and the difficulties in early detection of the risk for suicide have led to considering the possibility of using emerging technologies to facilitate the access of young people, an at-risk population, to these services while combating the stigma that obstacles help-seeking [38,39].
Suicide prevention programs using emerging technologies [40-42] have also proven effective in the detection of suicide risk [38,43] and in reducing suicide ideation [18,44,45]. Young people look at the Internet also as a useful and accessible tool to express suicidal feelings, seek support, or even try to help other young people having thoughts of suicide [46,47]. This is why technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, forums, text messages, and mobile apps can be of relevance in the area of suicide prevention [48-56]. However, their use is still far from being widespread, and it would be important to be aware of the barriers and limitations that hinder generalized usage.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the potentiality of using emerging technologies in the area of suicide prevention based on the opinion of different professionals involved in addressing this public health issue, as well as possible differences between European countries. The objective was to assess the disposition of professionals to incorporate such resources into the design of a suicide prevention program for the health area of Zamora (Spain). This investigation is encompassed within the European project entitled European Regions Enforcing Actions against Suicide (EUREGENAS), which includes 11 regions with diverse experiences and attempts to advance in the field of suicide prevention in Europe. In particular, we wanted to explore the perception of facilitating factors and barriers related to the use of emerging technologies. So, our goals were as follows:
To explore the structure behind the assessment of the facilitating factors for using emerging technologies and compare the relevance attached to them by different countries and stakeholders.
To group the barriers to the use of emerging technologies into clusters to determine the importance attached to them and to compare the assessments between countries and between stakeholders.
Pursuing the aim of efficient intervention in suicide and effective courses of action to be followed for its prevention, a study of the needs at European level was conducted in the context of the Euregenas project. This project brought together 11 European regions with diverse experiences in an attempt to advance the area of suicide prevention in Europe. We wanted to understand the different points of view of those involved in suicide prevention (stakeholders) and the courses of action that could be taken.
First, a consultation with the partners involved in the project and an in-depth review of the literature, and a list of possible stakeholders of interest was proposed. Three main categories of stakeholders were established with different subcategories. The first category corresponded to stakeholders in the political and public management context, designating this category as decision and policy makers (DPM). The second category of stakeholders corresponded to professionals working in the area of mental health, designated as mental health professionals (MHP), and the third one corresponded to professionals related to the social area and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), designated as NGO/social area (Table 1).
A total of 416 participants were recruited in 11 regions of 8 different European countries according to the following inclusion criteria:
Workers belonging to the 3 professional groups selected for this study: DPM, MHP, and NGO.
High professional experience in the field of suicide.
Age between 18 and 65 years.
Variables and Instruments
Customized questionnaires including questions on the use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention were prepared for each stakeholder category as tools to gather the necessary information to assess the needs. They included closed questions about the use of emerging technologies for the prevention of suicide. These technologies applied to suicide prevention were defined in the questionnaires as follows: Technology-based suicide prevention is a form of e-mental health aimed at suicide prevention, making use of information and computer technology. Some examples of emerging technologies applied to suicide prevention were provided in the questionnaires (Textbox 1).
The sociodemographic data collected in the questionnaires were gender, age, and professional category. The questionnaires were elaborated by some project partners and, subsequently, these questionnaires were revised by all the members of the project. They were drafted in English; each project partner was responsible for translating them into their own language and sending an appropriate number of questionnaires (approximately 60). Questionnaires were mainly administered as face-to-face surveys or via email.
Category Subcategory
Decision and policy makers European networks focusing on mental health promotion
Decision and policy makers from local and regional authorities (dealing with mental health, care, welfare, family matters, youth)
Decision and policy makers in public health institutions (mental health care centers, hospitals)
Private companies influencing policy (health insurance)
Educational setting, policy makers
Professionals working in financial services and human resources
Mental health professionals (for youth, adult and elderly) General practitioners
Psychologists (inpatient, outpatient)
Psychiatrists (inpatient, outpatient)
Emergency physicians (on call doctors in Accident and Emergency units)
Nursing staff who work with suicidal patient (primary health nurse, mental health nurse, emergency room nurse)
Rescue personnel (paramedic – ambulance crew)
Work setting (private companies and prevention advisors in occupational medicine)
Educational setting (schools, school counselors)
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)/social area Professionals in the social area (community social workers, home help workers, youth workers, social welfare services)
Staff of NGOs and agencies working in the following areas: youth, marital counseling, family and life counseling, welfare
Educational setting: teachers
Staff of suicide helplines
Representatives of religious group
Support groups with survivors
Work setting: employers, human resources, union representatives
Criminal justice stakeholders (police, penitentiary police, coroners)
Table 1. Categories and subcategories of stakeholders.
Textbox 1. Examples of emerging technologies applied to the suicide prevention provided in the questionnaires.
View this box
In Spain, 154 out of 213 questionnaires facilitated to the stakeholders (72.0 %) were correctly completed. The predominant way of administration was face-to-face (187 questionnaires via face-to-face and 25 questionnaires via email). The most frequent reasons for nonperformance of questionnaires were the incorrect filling of the questionnaire and the absence of a reply by the stakeholder.
Two questions from the survey have been selected for the purpose of this research; both questions aimed at exploring the use of emerging technologies applied to the suicide based on perceived barriers to be removed and facilitating factors to be promoted. These are listed below.
Facilitating Factors
What would encourage you to use/recommend suicide prevention based on emerging technologies?
(1=not at all; 5=absolutely):
Further information through training
Further information through newsletters
More automated apps
Guaranteed anonymity
Free, with no extra costs
What prevents you from using/recommending suicide prevention based on emerging technologies?
(1=yes; 0=no):
Lack of availability
Too time-consuming
Lack of reliable apps
I do not know their uses
I lack the skills
I lack the knowledge
The questionnaire was administered to a total of 416 participants from 8 European countries. Among this, Spain provided 37.0% of questionnaires; Finland 14.2%; Belgium 11.5%; both Italy and Romania 7.7%; Sweden 7.5%; and lastly, both Germany and Slovenia 7.2% (Table 2).
The gender distribution was 39.7% (165/416) men and 60.3% (251/416) women. According to age, 61.8% (257/416) were aged between 40 to 59 years, 26.9% (112/416) were aged between 20 to 39 years, and 11.3% (47/416) were over 60 years.
The data analysis of the questionnaires was performed through 2 different statistical methods. First, a multidimensional scaling (MDS) PROXimity SCALing (PROXSCAL) was used to detect the underlying dimensions of the facilitating factors for the use of emerging technologies in suicide prevention. PROXSCAL is a computer program for MDS and individual differences scaling (IDS) of proximities. The program, PROXSCAL, performs MDS of proximity data to find the least squares' representation of the objects in a low-dimensional Euclidean space. The analysis of the structure underlying the usability barriers of emerging technologies for suicide prevention was performed through hierarchical cluster analysis. Finally, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to estimate the differences between countries and stakeholders. The data analysis was performed using the statistical software IBM SPSS version 19.
Country DPMa MHPb NGOc
Percentage (%)
Belgium 14 19 15 11.5
Finland 7 21 31 14.2
Germany 9 9 12 7.2
Italy 10 13 9 7.7
Romania 10 19 3 7.7
Slovenia 10 11 9 7.2
Spain 17 92 45 37.0
Sweden 10 13 8 7.5
Total 87 197 132 100
aDMP: decision and policy makers.
bMHP: mental health professionals.
cNGO: nongovernmental organizations.
Table 2. Questionnaires administered by country.
Goal 1: Factors Facilitating the Use of Emerging Technologies
MDS PROXSCAL was applied to identify the underlying dimensions of facilitating factors for using emerging technologies in suicide prevention. This analysis provides a display of how the facilitating factors are structured and their weight in the different target populations.
The starting point is the exploration of a common space that reveals a structure in the assessments of the interviewees. If a common structure is found, the underlying criteria used for the assessments can be identified, which are not explicit, but deducible from the way in which the assessments accorded to the facilitating factors relate to each other. This technique is useful to identify the criteria used when assessing the aspects related to the use of emerging technologies. In this case, beyond specific assessments for each aspect, the interest lies in exploring the underlying criteria so that the actions to stimulate the use of emerging technologies can be linked to the aspects that are most relevant to each group of the target population.
The perceptual map resulting from this analysis reveals that there is indeed an identifiable structure the indices of which indicate a very good fit to the empirical data. A scatterplot matrix of coordinates of the common space is displayed in Figure 1. The structure presents a good fit to the obtained dimensions (Stress=.05; Tucker's Coefficient of Congruence=.973>.90).
As shown in Figure 1, Dimension 1 on the right-hand area of the chart brings together aspects related to cost for professionals: training costs (Training), cost in time (Time and Automated), and economic cost (Cost). At the opposite end are the facilitating factors related to aspects that are convenient for the user, which are as follows: Anonymity, Accessible, and Free. Therefore, Dimension 1 opposes professionally oriented facilitating factors and user-centered facilitating factors.
On the right-hand upper area of the graph, Dimension 2 brings together the aspects related to the implementation of emerging technologies, which are as follows: Training, Anonymity, Accessible, and Automated. The lower area includes facilitating factors related to the benefits from their use, which are as follows: Cost, Time, and Free. Therefore, Dimension 2 opposes facilitating factors that optimize implementation and facilitating factors that optimize the benefits.
Thus, the following 2 dimensions can be identified in the common space:
Dimension 1: professionally oriented facilitating factors and user-centered facilitating factors.
Dimension 2: facilitating factors that optimize implementation and facilitating factors that optimize the benefits.
Once the structure or common space has been defined, the weight of each dimension in the different target populations is obtained. In this case, the weight or relevance of each dimension was obtained for different countries and different stakeholders. Figure 2 shows the different weights for the different countries studied.
As shown in the chart, Dimension 2 (implementation-benefits) has greater weight than Dimension 1 (professional-user) in Sweden, Finland, and Germany, in that order. Thus, in these countries, emphasis should be placed on the adaptation of the characteristics involved in the implementation of emerging technologies (Training, Accessible, Anonymity, and Automated) and on the variety of benefits they provide (Cost, Time, and Free) because they attach higher relevance to these criteria in their assessments. On the other hand, in Spain, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, and Romania, in that order, Dimension 1 (professional–user) has higher weight than Dimension 2 (implementation–benefits). Thus, it is appropriate for these countries to emphasize the benefits to be obtained by the use of emerging technologies, both for professionals and for users.
Figure 1. Common space of the facilitating factors in the multicountry sample.
Figure 2. Dimension Weights of the facilitating factors for suicide prevention in the different countries.
Figure 3. Dimension weights of the facilitating factors in the different stakeholders.
The comparison of weights by stakeholders also reveals differences in the relevance attached to these 2 dimensions, as shown in Figure 3.
NGOs attach greater weight to Dimension 2 (implementation–benefits) than to Dimension 1 (professional–user). To promote the use of emerging technologies by NGOs and achieve greater usability, emphasis should be placed on the conditions for the implementation of such resources and the benefits they bring. On the other hand, DPMs and MHPs, in that order, attach greater relevance to Dimension 1 (professional–user) than to Dimension 2 (implementation–benefits). To promote the use of emerging technologies by these stakeholders and achieve greater usability, emphasis should be placed on the aspects related to the benefits they bring to both professionals and users.
Goal 2: Barriers to the Use of Emerging Technologies
The analysis of the structure underlying the barriers hindering the use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention was carried out through hierarchical cluster analysis (Figure 4). As shown in the chart, the barriers were gathered into the following 2 large groups or differentiated clusters:
Barriers focused on resource constraints: expensive, time-consuming, not interesting, and apps are not considered trustworthy.
Barriers focused on personal limitations: lack of knowledge related to the programs and their use and lack of skills to use them.
The average ratings for each cluster were calculated to compare the ratings obtained and the differences among countries and stakeholders. A repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out. The results show significant differences among clusters (P<.001) with large effect size: 44%. Cluster 1 (barriers focused on resource constraints) scored significantly higher than cluster 2 (barriers focused on user limitations).
Therefore, to promote the use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention, emphasis should be placed on the shortcomings of the resource itself, meaning that difficulties are attached to resource constraints rather than to users experiencing difficulties.
Differences among countries and stakeholders were calculated using MANOVA. No differences among countries were observed (Pillai Trace Test: P=.86); barriers focused on resources were those that most hindered implementation in all of them. Neither were there differences among stakeholders (Pillai Trace Test: P=.08); all of them also attached the most relevance to barriers related to resources. Nevertheless, stakeholders-countries interaction effect (Pillai Trace Test: P=.01) was observed in cluster 1; barriers focused on resource constraints (P=.02) with an effect size of 13%. This interaction effect indicates that the valuations of resource constraints made by the different stakeholders do not follow a standard pattern in the different countries, but they are different depending on the country, as shown in Figure 5.
As shown in the graph, in Germany, for example, MHPs are the stakeholders that attach the greatest importance to resource constraints, whereas in Romania, it is DPMs, and in Slovenia, it is NGOs. In Spain, for example, the valuations of the different stakeholders are very similar. Each country has different profiles with regard to resource constraints, which should be taken into account according to the target stakeholders at whom promotion of the use of emerging technology for suicide prevention is aimed.
Figure 4. Clusters of barriers to the use of emerging technologies.
Figure 5. Cluster 1: barriers focused on resource constraints.
The use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention could prove an opportunity to ameliorate its results and the accessibility to intervention programs, especially by young people. Emerging technologies can be a means to address situations involving people at suicide risk who are otherwise difficult to engage in traditional intervention models. A recent study by Sueki supports the efficacy of the use of Internet for early detection of suicide risk. The study involved posting offers of psychological treatment on webpages that people at risk for suicide might visit. The psychological treatment was provided via email, and the presence of suicide ideation was detected in 74% of the consultations held [43]. Therefore, it improves accessibility to a population that does not usually turn to health services, and when they do so, they have already made a suicide attempt [57].
If we consider the factors facilitating the usability of emerging technologies according to the different countries, it is interesting to observe how northern European countries, except for Belgium, attach greater importance to the facilitating factors that optimize implementation and to those than maximize the benefits (Dimension 2) than to those focused on professionals and users (Dimension 1). To some extent, this result could be explained by the differences between northern and southern European countries in the use of emerging technologies, considering that the implementation of emerging technologies in northern Europe is more widespread than in the south. On this subject, when defining the type of intervention, northern European countries seem to attach more importance to ensuring efficacy than to it being different or more or less innovative. On the other hand, southern European countries seem more concerned with the development of the intervention than with its degree of efficiency. In this regard, the importance attached in Spain to barriers and difficulties hindering professionals' use of this type of technologies can be observed. This basically expresses that the use of emerging technologies involves changes in traditional welfare processes based mainly on routine clinical visits and scheduled appointments. It is also significant that in countries where psychiatric care is essentially community-based and health care has a solid social component, as is the case in Sweden, emphasis on barriers and facilitating factors centered on users and professionals is not as strong as that placed on the implementation and efficacy of the tool. This leads to the hypothesis that the use of emerging technologies to contact users or potential patients requires a more community-based health system, which is less constrained by clinical visits, and where the measuring of health care activities goes beyond a mere count of the number of medical consultations performed following conventional methods. How could the activity conducted by MHPs communicating with patients via social networks be calculated and measured? Or, could the Spanish system for the provision of posts envisage establishing a profile for MHPs with expertise in the use of emerging technologies to allow potential patients to access their services? Hence, the answers to the questionnaire provided by the different countries also reveal their care patterns and their capacity to integrate the use of new models, such as the use of emerging technologies, into the dynamics of their activity.
Likewise, although the stakeholders participating in the study are aware of the advantageous uses of emerging technologies for users, they stress the difficulties associated with their use by professionals and the costs in time, training, and activity involved in their implementation. This is the main barrier to their use, as there is an agreement (Dimension 2) on valuing the positive aspects related to accessibility and anonymity so that the user does not feel exposed to stigmatization.
On the other hand, the distribution of the 3 different stakeholder groups across the two dimensions draws attention to the fact that professionals in the social area (NGO) stand apart from the other 2 groups (DMP and MHP). The former (NGO) attach greater relevance to the facilitating factors that optimize implementation and to those that maximize the benefits (Dimension 2), whereas the other groups (DPM and MHP) believe that the most relevant facilitating factors are the professionally oriented and user-centered ones (Dimension 1). These results could answer to the usual need for professionals in the social area to obtain positive outcomes in their health interventions, because negative results or absence of results have a very strong impact on this group. It should be noted that when the health system fails in its interventions, this has a strong impact on the subject's social environment, which is often poor or lacking adequate supporting structures, thus requiring the intervention of social services. MHPs believe that the most important facilitating factors are those that are professionally oriented and user-centered (Dimension 1), although to a lesser degree than DMPs. This confirms what is stated above, that is, public-sector providers whose health care processes are more constrained and move away from the community-based ones are those who find the greatest difficulties in using emerging technologies. So, they do not take enough account to use the technologies as a tool for improving access to better care. It is significant that the further stakeholders from the community (political decision makers and policy makers) give a higher value to the barriers to their work, while the closer to the community underlie the greatest flexibility for organizing the delivery of care (NGOs), and increasing the efficacy that technology could make, while the difficulties encountered by professionals are given less relevance.
In general, although emerging technologies are a tool that can be used to address problems related to suicidal behavior, the knowledge required to design their use and obtain satisfactory results belongs to the MHPs. This explains why MHPs are more concerned with the elements that may facilitate implementation of the intervention than with its costs, even though they are aware of the limitations of the system of which they are part. Finally, the fact that political decision makers and policy makers (DPM) attach greater relevance to facilitating factors targeted at professionals and users (Dimension 1), leaving aside the economic aspect, is highly significant, because it illustrates the extent of the problem of suicide in the Western society and the increasing involvement of this group of stakeholders in addressing suicidal behavior. Nevertheless, they should be aware that, beyond the application of such technologies, it is essential to foster working on the community and directing (mental) health services toward (mental) health outcomes in the population of the area where they are located, rather than just measuring health care–oriented activity in a rigid fashion where there is no room for these new tools.
The use of technology applied to the health care area does not always yield expected or desirable results, but limitations or barriers may appear. However, in the area of suicide prevention, this type of communication technologies could provide major advantages, because limitations to intervention in these cases are frequently linked to the stigma attached to the issue of suicide in our society. Good examples of clinical uses of technology for the suicidal behavior are as follows: Mewton et al's work, which implemented a Web-based program of cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce suicidal ideation in people suffering from depression, obtaining statistically significant results in the reduction of self-harming ideation and symptoms of depression in general terms [18]; and Guille et al's work, which refers to an ease of implementation of Web-based cognitive behavioral therapy, emphasizing that it is cost free and user-friendly and very useful for suicide prevention [41].
Consequently, the growing deployment of Internet in our environment and its development as a way of communication offers an excellent chance to use it as a means for the detection and treatment of suicidal behavior and ideation. The possibility of distance intervention that does not require contact in a physical space is an advantage for the high number of individuals who perceive the issue of suicide as a taboo. In a recent study, Biddle analyzed the changes in accessibility to suicide-related information on the Internet between 2007 and 2014, obtaining as a result that the number of blogs and Internet forums on suicide grew considerably over this 7-year period [46]. This is why it is important to assess the results obtained and take them into account to be able to overcome the barriers to the implementation of emerging technologies in the health system.
A key aspect to be considered in the application of the emerging technologies to health care is the anonymity. This anonymity can be appreciated clearly in the Internet use by persons who look for information about issues relating to health. It should be pointed out that the use of Internet browsers such as Google is currently widespread in our environment, and the trend analysis of search for research purposes have grown in recent years. For its capacity to ensure anonymity, these Internet browsers can be used by persons with thoughts or ideas of suicide to search for help online. On the other hand, Internet browsers might also constitute a useful tool for the study and detection of behaviors related to suicide [58,59]. There are several studies that have used the potential of the Google Trends tool in the field of suicide and self-harm behaviors. One study by Bragazzi shows the usefulness of Google Trends to detect nonsuicidal self-injuries [60]. Another recent study by Parker could verify that the use of Google Trends can predict the suicide rate associated with the consumption of alcohol and drugs better than the conventional methods associated with the level of unemployment and economic incomes [61]. Solano detected that the search volume of the term "suicide" is significantly related with the suicide valuations in Italy [62], and Arora observed a cyclical tendency in the search activity of suicide and in the searches related to the depression, with peaks in autumn and winter months and a decrease in summer months [63].
Equally, attention should be drawn to the fact that the analysis of the results of this study on the barriers to the use of emerging technologies shows that barriers focused on resource constraints (cluster 1) are more relevant, both by countries and stakeholders, than those focused on personal limitations (cluster 2). Once again, this points out the difficulties in organization and in obtaining resources for the implementation of these new tools. The use of new technologies in the health sector requires appropriate organization and a care delivery model to facilitate their implementation, economic resources to acquire the material needed to build the tool's structure (hardware), and the availability of skilled technicians to update and develop the functioning of the structure (software). For this reason, it should be noted that, despite the fact that, in the mid and long term, intervention based on emerging technologies could prove more efficient than traditional methods, these resources are not always available, sometimes not at all. This would also justify the limitations observed for emerging technologies to become integrated into the health system, an example of this being telemedicine, the implementation of which is taking place at a much slower pace than expected [64].
In this regard, Donker's recent systematic review to assess the cost of Internet-based mental health interventions proved their greater cost-effectiveness [13]. Van Spijker conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial to analyze the cost-effectiveness of Web-based interventions for the reduction of suicidal ideation, and it was found that they were indeed more cost-effective than traditional interventions [14]. This means that there are advantages in terms of effectiveness and costs and that it is a relevant public health issue, which leads to the question of why their use is not more widespread.
Finally, solely considering the barriers focused on resource constraints (cluster 1), it can be observed that there are differences among countries and stakeholders. The most remarkable cases are Germany and Romania, where the differences among the different stakeholder groups are stronger, as opposed to the rest of countries, where there is greater consistency among the 3 stakeholder groups. Nevertheless, these differences are mainly associated with barriers observed by health professionals rather than managers, and it is necessary to study such differences in depth to assess the reason for their existence, which could perhaps be attributed to shortcomings related to the sample and should be confirmed in future studies.
Attention should also be drawn to limitations in our sample, which, though randomly selected from each country based on the subjects' experience in the area of suicide, is not representative of the entire group it is part of. Nevertheless, it is adequate for a first approach to the study of limitations to the use of technologies in the health care area, assessing contrasts among countries and differences in health care models. On the other hand, the heterogeneous distribution of the different professional categories taking the survey makes it difficult to ensure a representative sample for each of them. Still, the data gathered contribute an interesting approximation to the potential and facilitating factors and barriers involved in the use of emerging technologies for the prevention and treatment of suicidal behavior.
Limitations and Strengths
The stakeholders involved in the study were not selected in a randomized way; therefore, they are not representatives of the stakeholders as a whole. The number of stakeholders involved in the study is different in every country, and probably, the motivation for answering is different too. Besides, the sociodemographic data collected in the questionnaire (gender, age, and professional category) could have an impact on the findings, but it has not been possible to control these variables because of the small size of this study sample. It should be considered that the principal objective of the project was to analyze the knowledge of relevant professionals in suicide field to improve and create prevention programs of suicide in different regions of Europe. The questionnaire used to collect the data was elaborated internally by the members of the project, and this questionnaire was not validated regarding the psychometric criteria. It should be highlighted that the questionnaire was not designed like a useful tool in the prevention of the suicide and was elaborated just for the compilation of the data. The different translations of the questionnaire into each language of the country were not made in a homogenous way; every project partner made the translation from English using different translation resources.
Taking into account these limitations, the differences between countries can be associated to different perspective of the specific stakeholders selected instead of proper general differences between countries. However, the data are interesting for knowing the possibilities and potential benefits of technologies for being used in suicide prevention. In this sense, it is the first study in Europe comparing different countries (south-north/east-west) regarding this topic.
Conclusion and Clinical Implications
There is evidence that new communication technologies may help toward improving suicide prevention although their implementation and use in the health system is still quite limited. Barriers to their use are different from one country to another and also depend on the organizational models. Equally, assessments vary depending on professionals consulted. Southern European countries, such as Spain, where health care models are more traditional and not community-based, instead of focusing on the effectiveness and advantages that this new type of health care model could contribute, believe the main barriers are related to the organizational system, the characteristics of the health professionals, and the difficulties they experience when using emerging technologies for this purpose. In contrast, countries such as Sweden, with community-based health care models and, therefore, a more flexible organization that facilitates the implementation and use of these technologies, consider that the main difficulties lie in proving their effectiveness in the delivery of services and ensuring that they actually facilitate accessibility.
On the basis of the results of this study, we consider that a broader use of communication technologies in suicide prevention would facilitate accessibility and care of people at risk for suicide. However, to apply these tools it is necessary to change organizational models, taking into account both the investment required and the changes in health care provision, which should be more flexible and targeted at results rather than at specific activities (eg, medical consultations). This is probably one of the main obstacles that has so far limited the implementation of emerging technologies.
The authors thank all those who participated in this study and all the members of the Euregenas Project. The authors would also like to thank Salud de Castilla y León (SACYL) and Junta de Castilla y León. The Euregenas Project has been financed by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC) of the European Commission.
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Borges G, Nock MK, Haro Abad JM, Hwang I, Sampson NA, Alonso J, et al. Twelve-month prevalence of and risk factors for suicide attempts in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. J Clin Psychiatry 2010 Dec;71(12):1617-1628 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
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ANOVA: analysis of variance
DPM: decision and policy makers
EUREGENAS: European Regions Enforcing Actions against Suicide
IDS: individual differences scaling
MANOVA: multivariate analysis of variance
MDS: multidimensional scaling
MHP: mental health professionals
NGOs: nongovernmental organizations
PROXSCAL: PROXimity SCALing
Edited by G Eysenbach; submitted 30.03.17; peer-reviewed by N Bragazzi, S Berrouiguet, AE Aladağ; comments to author 10.08.17; revised version received 05.10.17; accepted 29.10.17; published 24.01.18
©Juan-Luis Muñoz-Sánchez, Carmen Delgado, Andrés Sánchez-Prada, Esther Parra-Vidales, Diego de Leo, Manuel Franco-Martín. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 24.01.2018.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.


text:
The Ultimate Sleep
© 1998 Paul Cooijmans
I The Lecture - Inspector Longone - Dr Hölin's house
And with a well-meant "Sweet dreams!" famous occult author Sheila Lomanesco ended her lecture. The audience was stunned by this completely new form of mysticism, propagating the practice of occult one-legged dances so as to achieve what Miss Lomanesco called "The Ultimate Sleep". "We are all too much awake and need to get rid of this torturing state of awareness", the brilliant guru stated. "Sleep is our destiny; twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We must lose our awake-ness permanently as soon as we can."
Naturally, resistance was heard, mainly from a Sheng Fui master and reincarnation therapist seated in the front row named Dr Fabius. But Sheila waived his criticism away. "Dr Fabius needs a course in lateral thinking", she lectured. "I suggest he study the work of Wilhelm Reich and the Qabalists; of Mathers and Crowley; Steiner perhaps, and, most of all, Gurdjieff! If you learn Gurdjieff backwards, Dr Fabius, you will understand more of me." The crowd laughed; imagine the intelligent Dr Fabius, former hardware designer, AI researcher and IQ test pioneer, turn student of the occult!
Among the thousands who had attended Sheila Lomanesco's lecture was Inspector Longone of the New Amsterdam Police. Hardly had he left the Lomanesco Stadium or his mobile rang. Trouble! Hurrying to the scene of the crime the good policeman passed the house of Mr Ximpson, a respected citizen. There was screaming inside, which amazed the Inspector as this was otherwise a quiet neighbourhood where silence was broken by nothing but the peaceful whisper of complaint letters to the authorities. "Bust me, Inspector! I just brutally murdered my wife and children. Look, I've still got blood on my hands!" Mr Ximpson panicked out of his house. But Longone had to turn him down; "Sorry sir, can't help you now. Bad case of psychometrics in 50th Street. Illegal IQ testing, see."
Ximpson understood. "That's indeed more urgent Inspector. Disgusting. Shall I come along and help you? I'm the kind of guy you can call in to 'clean up dodge', so to speak. I can hit him for you if you want!"
"Excellent, Mr Ximpson. Please be so kind as to follow me. And don't worry 'bout the wife and kids, I'll give you legal advice later to get you off the hook. Law is my greatest field of expertise; I know an act of felony when I see one!", the conscientious policeman assured while he kindly shook Mr Ximpson's bloodstained hand. The proud citizen stood firm. "M.A. Ximpson, at your service! Let's give the scum hell!"
And off they went to the Hölin Institute For Decoding Philosophy. "I warned him sure enough, but he's gone too far. Sad to see such a learned man perish in the House of Many Doors, but law is law. And the law forbids unlicensed IQ testing, as sure as my name is Eric Hart!"
"Well spoken, Longone", Mr Ximpson applauded. "Call me Kevin", the Inspector nodded. "How traumatic it must be for you by the way to just have brutally slaughtered your family, and how well are you coping! I understand these things all too well, being a legal expert and all that." "Thanks Kev'. How was the Lomanesco lecture? I saw you sitting in the stadium on Solarweb." "Stunning it was! And how fascinating these events can now be experienced real-time anywhere from Muskogee right up to the Moon Hilton!" "Not to mention the iron mines of Mars, where our friend Dr L. Ron Hölin will no doubt be spending his remaining years!" Their merry laughter filled the deserted streets of New Amsterdam.
"And have you noted", the intelligent Mr Ximpson continued, "that if you take the full text of Sheila Lomanesco's latest book 'The Ultimate Sleep' and very carefully write it backwards in a 666 x 666 matrix, leaving out all interword spaces, you end up with all the letters needed to form the names of all Earth-crossing asteroids, including impact dates, up to April 4, 3556 ?" "You don't say?!", the baffled policeman gazed. "We must discuss that over a stiff drink after work. Chez Maxim allright, Max?"
"My favourite restaurant! One of the Northern Hemisphere's finest, so they say. Don't know why, but I feel at home there. 'Like their house wine. Still from Steinbeck Vineyard?" "The very same - knew you'd like that. But here's Hölin's house; let's put the boot in." With a tap of his shoulder the Inspector unlocked the door and shouted, "Dr Hölin! The game is up!". When no response followed, the two brave men entered.
"Look! Test sheets on his desk!" Longone picked up two forms by their corners and held them up with straight arms, one in each hand, as in a dumbbell exercise. "Hark!", he boomed, and shook his hands. "Hark the evil thunder of score sheet!!" Max Ximpson shuddered with horror, used as he was only to the peaceful rustle of complaint letter.
Dr Hölin walked home from the Sculpture of Freedom, where, up in the Torch of Good Taste, New Amsterdam's summit of civilized manners, he had attended a lecture by his favourite poet, Joe Dwight, "Poet of the 15-hour day", as his nickname was. The good philosopher was entertaining himself walking by mentally performing a cybernetic analysis of the great poet's magnum opus, the brilliant cycle "The Well-Tempered Grandfather". "Good anticipatory counterpoint; not too sure 'bout the quiescence though. And where does Gödel fit in? I wonder..." Thus pondering the learned man arrived at the remains of his front door.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
VETERAN-OWNED GUN STORE Has "Beto Special"...Sells Out in Four Hours
By Leisa Audette | Sep 19, 2019
A very smart Arizona gun store owner turned Beto O'Rourke's push for gun confiscation into big sales in just 4 hours.
The owner of Alpha Dog Firearms in Tempe, Arizona said he didn't intend to make a political statement but got the idea for the gun sale after he saw O'Rourke's comments on Facebook.
Matt Boggs, owner of Alpha Dog Firearms in Tempe, told host Fox & Friends host Heather Childers:
"I said, maybe I'll sell 20 rifles and see what happens. We're a really small store, so just the attention we've gotten from this whole thing and the positive response has been amazing,"
Boggs announced the sale of discounted AR-15s and other similar rifles for $350 then sold out in four hours.
Asked about O'Rourke's comments and the Second Amendment, Boggs said:
"You're giving up your Second Amendment right. It's not as simple as, 'Hey, I want someone's freedom and I'm gonna give away this cookie. He then said mass shootings are a "very complex problem" and there is no simple answer.
"This is not something that is going to be a one-step solution. This is gonna require some actual thought … As a law-abiding citizen, my firearms are as safe as my cellphone, in my opinion. … It's an inanimate object."
https://twitter.com/willbarrett_1/status/1174629031603527681?s=20
MATT BOGGS IS A VETERAN:
Boggs spoke about his business for VoyagePhoenix.com:
We're a small veteran owned gun store. We sell guns and gun accessories including Mace and less-lethal weapons–even Taser. We've worked hard to support other local businesses and veteran-owned companies. We're the largest dealer in Arizona of Black Rifle Coffee and we're top 10 in the US. We are extremely proud that we've grown so rapidly in less than a year in business. The support from the gun community and the community, in general, has been amazing. We really focus on being a gun store that people can relate to. We want people to feel comfortable in our store and we really focus on being female and new shooter friendly. We love meeting people who don't have a lot of experience and we take pride in being a resource for all.
Save big on MyPillow products. Use promo code FedUp at checkout and save big on the MyPillow Body Pillow.


text:
Q: Dictionary of lists from tab delimited file I'm attempting to load a tab delimited text file into a python program. It has the following format,
AAAAAA    1234    5678     90AB    QQQQ    JKL1
BBBBBB    QWER    TYUI     ASDF    QQQQ
CCCCCC    ZXCV    1234     PPPP
 ...
ZZZZZZ    1111

In short, variable numbers of columns for each row, but always at least two and each column within a row is unique. The first column I would like to use as a key, and load the rest into a list with the key pointing to it. I tried looking into the csv module already as was suggested in other threads, but I've not quite found a way to make it work for me. So yeah, apologies if this should be more obvious, very much a newbie question.

A: simple str.split should work just fine for splitting the columns.  Using that, you just need to read each row and split it into columns taking the first element as the key and the rest as the value:
with open(file) as fin:
     rows = ( line.split('\t') for line in fin )
     d = { row[0]:row[1:] for row in rows }

A: import csv

d = {}
with open('tab_delimited_file.txt', 'rb') as csv_file:
    for row in csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter='\t'):
        d[row[0]] = row[1:]

print(d)

Output:
{'AAAAAA': ['1234', '5678', '90AB', 'QQQQ', 'JKL1'],
 'CCCCCC': ['ZXCV', '1234', 'PPPP'],
 'BBBBBB': ['QWER', 'TYUI', 'ASDF', 'QQQQ'],
 'ZZZZZZ': ['1111']}

A: >>> import csv
>>> with open('eggs.csv', 'rb') as csvfile:
...     spamreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter='\t', quotechar='|')
...     for row in spamreader:
...         print ', '.join(row)
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Baked Beans
Spam, Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam

This is just an example of how you can take a delimited file, and print the row data.
Obviously this can be expanded and put into a dict or a list or something..
More info (and where this was taken from): http://docs.python.org/2/library/csv.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Office 365 Integration with AD
Through Active Directory, it becomes convenient for IT to manage the user identities across applications. CloudCodes provides seamless Azure AD integration with Office 365 and Active Directory, leveraging existing enterprise directory as an identity provider.
How is integration with Active Directory good to have?
Other than identity provision, there are several other advantages of AD integration with Azure.
As users are authenticated with Active Directory users, they do not need to maintain multiple credentials. Therefore less overhead for end-users and IT administrators.
As Active Directory is the identity provider, even if the enterprise uses cloud technology, control remains with Active Directory, i.e., policies that can be applied using AD.
For enterprises having complex directory infrastructure with multiple directories can combine all the lists via AD integration with Azure.
The office 365 Server should be in the same domain as the Active Directory. The Azure Server act as an authentication agent for CloudCodes within the enterprise network..
Hybrid Environment
CloudCodes provides a powerful way to support complex Active Directory structures such as multiple forests or a scenario where all of the organization's users are not part of the Active Directory.
With CloudCodes, the IT can configure users to a particular domain controller of Active directory, i.e., if an organization has three domain controllers for each location, users of that location can be bound to a specific domain. This way, scenarios like multiple forests can be supported.
CloudCodes also support scenarios such as if an organization doesn't have all the users on the Active Directory domain such as the external vendors, they can configure the users of the organization to use their existing Active directory as IdP. In contrast, external users can use CloudCodes as IdP.
Password Synchronization
CloudCodes supports synchronization of the user's password between Integrated Active Directory and Office 365, i.e. when a user changes a password in Active Directory. It gets synchronized with Office 365.
Free Trial Request a Demo Contact Us


text:
Q: Question about 'const' functions, c++ I understand that when I declare a member function as const I actually say that I will not change the class. My question - does 'class' refer to (*)this instance or to the class in general?
For exmaple - if I have a const member function that create a new instance of the same class and edit this instance, is that legal?
thanks!

A: The const refers to the instance on which you call the function, which is also why static member functions cannot be declared const. A const function can read, but not write, the fields of the this instance, and it can only call static and const methods of this, but it has full access to the global scope.


text:
Sitati, Joseph W. (1952– )
While Sitati embraced Mormonism, the Kenyan government, wary of Western religions, did not recognize the LDS Church as an approved faith. The government also limited assembly of all non-recognized religions to nine people. Sitati maneuvered around the assembly law by organizing nine-person groups overseen by a qualified LDS presiding officer. Still, there was significant difficulty in retaining members and gaining new ones. Sitati's high educational and professional profile, however, helped reverse Kenyan governmental policy.
Sitati attended the University of Nairobi and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1975. He also received a diploma in accounting and finance from the Association of Certified Accountants. His education and training enabled him to gain a position with Total, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations. At Total, he served in multiple positions, including strategy manager and consultant. Sitati used his corporate position to gain an audience with Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi. The two met privately in 1991, and soon after the LDS Church was recognized by the government and could purchase property for meeting houses. Sitati offered the dedication prayer in October 1991 in Nairobi, officially proclaiming Kenyan Mormons under the aegis of the LDS Church.
In 2009 Sitati was summoned to be a member of the LDS First Quorum of the Seventy. He was the first black African to achieve this position which entailed serving as a general authority of the LDS Church throughout the world, working directly under the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and sometimes giving sermons at the LDS General Convention. Since the lifting of the black priesthood ban in 1978, Mormon members grew exponentially in sub-Saharan Africa, and Sitati became the leader and spokesperson for the faith throughout the continent. Prior to becoming part of the First Quorum, Sitati served as stake president in Nairobi (a stake being comprised of seven to ten "wards" or congregations), an Area Seventy (church
Source: Black Past
Southern United States Facts
Missouri Compromise encated
Roman Slavery and the Question of Race
The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed | An Online Reference Guide to African American History by Professor Quintard Taylor, University of Washington
History of African Americans in Texas
Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868).
Birth of William Seymour
(1871) Congressman Robert C. DeLarge, "Speech on the Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment"
Sarah Parker Remond, African American Abolitionist
King County Colored Republican Club (1915-1945)
Turner, Benjamin Sterling (1825-1894)
American Civil War Facts
Paul, Alice
(1879) John Mercer Langston, "The Exodus: The Causes Which Led The Colored People of the South to Leave Their Homes – The Lesson
African-American newspapers
Boseman, Benjamin Anthony (1840-1881)
Arvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013: An Historian's Life
Harriet Tubman Day: March 10
Mikal E. Belicove
African American Freemen In Louisiana: African Americans in Louisiana had alread
Lee Roy Young becomes the first African American Texas Ranger in the police forc
Harriet Tubman in the Civil War: Nurse, Scout, Spy
Business Facts
Mine workers set for second quarter wage talks
Jay-Z Backed, Black-Owned Vegan Cookie Company Expands Into Target
David J. Mason, Author, Entrepreneur, Scientist, And Military Officer, Created An Improved Electronic Book (Ebook)Please Enter a Title
OP-ED: Stop Excluding People of Color in Environmental Policies | BlackPressUSA
Wells Fargo Waives Collection of Negative Balances, Provides Stimulus Check Tips | BlackPressUSA
2020 Chevy Bolt running on volts rather than octane | BlackPressUSA
Wall Street slides again on more worries about recession
Community banks get $30 billion as OneUnited takes lead for black business
Restaurants in America Hard Hit by COVID-19 Face Uphill Battle to Return to Normal | BlackPressUSA


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Ziploc bags are not considered a bare essential for most, but finding these babies are like pure gold on my island. The Ziploc brand simply doesn't exist here. There is only this cheap local brand whose zippers stick and don't seal properly. Flimsy and quick to tear, they are a major disappointment when you're used to the real thing. After making the mistake the first time, I no longer bother buying the local brand. Whenever I return from the States, my suitcases are always filled with boxes and boxes of various sizes of Ziploc baggies. Who would have ever thought a box of Ziploc gallon-sized bags would make the best gift for my mother-in-law?
Ziploc bags symbolize all that is totally right and, at the same time, totally wrong with the US. In the US, Ziplocs are so so cheap, right? A box of 12 gallon-sized runs you under $2. You can find them everywhere – Walmart, Target, Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS, heck – I think I may even be able to find them at The Dollar Store or Dollar Tree! Because they are so plentiful and relatively inexpensive, people tend to use and toss these ridiculously durable, inorganic little baggies after only one use. Forget about biodegradability. That's the point of them, right? To not degrade and keep sauces/foods from slipping out. Ziploc bags are a perfect fit with the Western mentality – they are easily found, inexpensive, tough, and replaceable.
But not on the rock. In Cyprus, as on most other remote islands I've ever been to, we islanders save our bags. And not just bags, we save nearly everything because we know the replacement cost is not as easy as it is in the US. It's not even the exact cost on the box that we respect. Beyond the fact that we tend to live closer to the earth on an island and thus tend to be (hopefully) a bit more eco-minded, it's availability of goods here that really sticks with us. Some days Ziploc bags (or their very cheap equivalent) will line the shelves at the local grocer. Other days, they will have simply run out. And no one quite knows when they will return. If ever.
So I save my American Ziploc bags. I use them, and unless they are holding raw meat/chicken/fish (in which case, I will gladly throw them out), I wash them, flip them inside out, hang them to dry, and reuse. I know it sounds ridiculously cheap, but I love these transparent WWII-era bags with their famous blue zipper. It's the little things like Ziplocs that make me realize how much I miss America, aka the Land of Plenty. But in my years on the rock, they also have given me a newfound appreciation for all that I once considered "replaceable". And I think I'm definitely better for it.
Has island life made you less wasteful too? What do you hoard on your rock (besides Ziplocs, of course)?


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Tag: CBMS-APP
Mayor Montilla shares Tacurong's CBMS experience in a national forum
"We count to make our people feel that they really count". This statement summed up Mayor Lina Montilla's presentation during the 12th Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) National Conference held at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria in Quezon City from February 29 to March 2, 2016.
Mayor Montilla shared the city's experience CBMS implementation especially on how it served as an essential guide in two aspects of local governance: policymaking and program implementation. The mayor's presentation also highlighted the use of CBMS in the formulation of the Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan (LPRAP) as well as the allocation of the Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) funds.
Tacurong's successful implementation of CBMS paved way for it to be invited as resource person in the conference attended by more than 600 participants including local chief executives (LCEs), partners and other stakeholders in the national and local government units across the country.
Notably, Tacurong was also the first in Region XII to implement the CBMS Accelerated Poverty Profiling using android tablets in collecting survey data. Aside from the help of technology, the city's success in CBMS implementation is largely credited to the integrity of the survey process. Competent enumerators and supervisors, under the close supervision of the City DILG and City Planning Office, closely coordinated with barangay leaders and health workers to reach even the farthest households and ensure the participation of the residents in the survey.
CBMS is a survey tool that collects information at the household level in the barangays for use of Local Government Units (LGUs) and other agencies for planning, program implementation, and monitoring. A major objective of CBMS is to assist in poverty reduction.
Held annually, the CBMS conference aims to provide a venue for participants to discuss current developments, findings and best practices on the implementation of CBMS. This year's conference was organized by De La Salle University – Angelo King Institute, Partnership for Economic Policy and CBMS Network International, in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Economic Development Authority, and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.
Carrying the theme "Pursuing Meaningful Devolution through CBMS", the conference fittingly coincided with the 25th year of the implementation of the Local Government Code, which devolved to LGUs the responsibility of delivering the services to the public that were previously under the domain of the national government.
DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero, who represented Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento as one of the keynote speakers in the conference, lauded the LGUs who invested in the CBMS project in their areas. He said that as more responsibilities are given to the LGUs, the local officials need evidence-based policymaking and program implementation, which the CBMS had appropriately provided.
He specifically acknowledged Mayor Montilla as one of the LCEs who effectively implemented the CBMS project, which in turn benefited her city in responding to the felt needs of the constituents.
Mayor Montilla's presentation during the conference also elicited praises from the organizers and the participants. CBMS Network Team Leader Dr. Celia Reyes congratulated the mayor for the well-delivered sharing and even asked for a copy of the CBMS video that was used in the latter's presentation.
Two of the mayors who also served as speakers in the conference, Atty. Gladys Razonable-Gascon of Padada in Davao del Sur and Mayor Mariano Martinez of San Remigio in Cebu , also commended Mayor Montilla for her well-prepared presentation.
One of the highlights of the conference included the recognition of six cities that successfully implemented the CBMS project in the last two years. The cities that were recognized included Tacurong, Escalante, General Trias, Tabuk, Tanauan, and Tandag.
Mayor Montilla is happy that she was able to impart Tacurong's CBMS experience to other LGUs through the conference adding that the city's CBMS team is very much willing to assist the LGUs that intend to embark on the said project. Recently, several municipal LGUs from the provinces of Sarangani and Cotabato had already made benchmarking activities in Tacurong. (A. Freno, LGU Tacurong City Information)
Sarangani LGUs Learn CBMS from Tacurong
Representatives from eight other LGUs in the region visited Tacurong-LGU on February 9, 2016 for a Cross-Learning Visit on Community-Based Monitoring System – Accelerated Poverty Profiling or CBMS APP. A tablet-based household survey of different barangays, CBMS enumerators gather data to be used on disaster risk reduction and management. Tacurong City was the first LGU in the region to implement CBMS-APP.
The visiting LGUs were from the provincial office of Sarangani and municipalities of Glan, Malapatan, Kiamba, Maasim, Alabel, Maitum, and Malungon. The municipal delegates represent their respective Municipal Local Government Office and Municipal Planning and Development Office, which are the main proponents of the CBMS technical working groups.
During the visit, the delegates made a courtesy call to City Mayor Lina O. Montilla where they were welcomed and briefed on Tacurong's experience in conducting their own CMBS survey last November 2014 to March 2015. The cross-learning was conducted at the CDRRMC building where overviews of the Tacurong City CBMS Implementation was given by Mr. Alberto Sero, CLGOO and CBMS Over-all Coordinator; and Tacurong City CMBS Experience, which was given by Elmer B. Felongco, CBMS Project Coordinator.
The presentations highlighted Tacurong's own CBMS cross-learning experience in Tanaoan City in Luzon, the processes involved to get the project up and running, and the results attained during the duration of the project.
Tacurong-LGU made sure to advice the visitors on the possible pitfalls of the project, important improvements they can implement in their own CBMS monitoring, and other important tips that can help address idiosyncrasies in LGUs as regards the CBMS project.
The same cross-learning visit has been conducted by Arakan-LGU and Kidapawan-LGU in November 2015. (Yen Robles, Tacurong-LGU)


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The 1879 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 4.

Republican nomination

Candidates
John Davis Long, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
Henry L. Pierce, former Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative

Declined
Thomas Talbot, incumbent Governor

Campaign
On June 20, Governor Talbot announced that he wished to retire at the end of his term and would decline the Republican nomination if offered. He formally withdrew on August 20.

Following Talbot's withdrawal, the field was divided between Lieutenant Governor John Davis Long and former Mayor of Boston Henry L. Pierce, with Pierce stronger in the cities.

Long (or his supporters) felt that he was guaranteed the nomination by agreement, having stepped aside for Talbot in 1878. However, this agreement quickly made way for the necessity of defeating Benjamin Butler, whom Republicans decried as a demagogue and communist. Supporters of Henry L. Pierce entered his name into consideration soon after Talbot's withdrawal in hopes that Long supporters would again concede to a stronger candidate, but they did not. Long and Pierce were in agreement on many issues, so the issue of electability decided the campaign. Pierce's supporters argued that he would better appeal to liberals, independents, and Democrats while Long had to rely on Stalwarts and prohibitionists. Though Long was conceded to be as liberal as Pierce, Pierce supporters argued that his brief public record was insufficient to appeal to swing constituencies.

Convention

Long formally accepted the nomination at a ratification meeting on September 26. Pierce sent a letter endorsing Long.

General election

Results
John Quincy Adams II, former State Representative from Quincy and nominee for Governor (1867–71) (Democratic)
Benjamin Butler, former U.S. Representative from Lowell (Greenback and Democratic)
 D.C. Eddy (Prohibition)
John Davis Long, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (Republican)

See also
 1879 Massachusetts legislature

References

Governor
1879
Massachusetts
November 1879 events

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Home News New State Senator Suing State
New State Senator Suing State
Jim Dooley
Photo courtesy of Bestonlinemedia.com
BY JIM DOOLEY – Newly appointed State Sen. Malama Solomon is suing the state over a water usage issue on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands pastoral property her family holds on the Big Island.
Solomon is among a group of plaintiffs who filed the suit last year, alleging that DHHL reneged on promises to provide water for livestock that graze on pastoral land leased to the plaintiffs.
The state has argued that it advised the lessees to depend on catchment systems to water their cattle and that bringing water lines to the land would be prohibitively expensive.
Access to water has been a chronic problem for the department and the Native Hawaiians it serves since much of DHHL's land inventory, transferred from federal control to DHHL in 1920, is arid and far-removed from dependable water supplies.
Governor Neil Abercrombie this week appointed Solomon, a former state legislator and unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006, to fill the senate vacancy created by the departure of Sen. Dwight Takamine, D-1st (Hilo-Hamakua-Waimea).
Takamine left the office to become Abercrombie's director of the Department of Labor and Industrial relations.
Solomon's personal involvement in the lawsuit could complicate her professional life in the senate as she considers such issues as DHHL legislation and confirmation of Abercrombie's appointments to posts including DHHL chairman and Attorney General.
The Attorney General's office represents the defendants in Solomon's suit, including the DHHL, its chairman and members of the DHHL commission.
The state won a partial victory in the case in October when U.S. Senior District Judge Alan Kay dismissed two federal claims included in the litigation and remanded the remainder of the claims to state court.
State Judge Mark Browning has scheduled a status conference in the case Feb. 22.
Solomon and other plaintiffs are represented by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.
Solomon has not responded to an emailed request for comment.
In 2007, Solomon's involvement in the Big Island cattle industry figured in her decision to seek a lenient criminal sentence in federal court for a man convicted of methamphetamine trafficking.
The defendant, Shawn Aguiar, was general manager of a cattle shipping firm, American Pacific International, Inc., that Solomon said played an important role in stabilizing beef prices on the Big Island.
"The only assurance we, the Hawaiian ranchers, have of continuing with the stable market is AmPac. They have had the highest prices for 15 years," Solomon said in a letter to the sentencing judge.
"With my knowledge of AmPac's operations and personnel I do not feel that they can survive very long without Shawn's involvement," the letter said.
Solomon attended the sentencing hearing with about 100 family members and supporters of Aguiar.
District Judge J. Michael Seabright sentenced Aguiar to seven years in prison and said Ampac would have to find another general manager while Aguiar was behind bars.
Aguiar admitted to smuggling 45 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into the state from 2002 to 2005. A codefendant, Big Island cattle rancher Audwin Aiwohi, admitted to smuggling 83 pounds of ice here. Aiwohi was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
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Jim Dooley joined the Hawaii Reporter staff as an investigative reporter in October 2010. Before that, he has worked as a print and television reporter in Hawaii since 1973, beginning as a wire service reporter with United Press International. He joined Honolulu Advertiser in 1974, working as general assignment and City Hall reporter until 1978. In 1978, he moved to full-time investigative reporting in for The Advertiser; he joined KITV news in 1996 as investigative reporter. Jim returned to Advertiser 2001, working as investigative reporter and court reporter until 2010. Reach him at Jim@hawaiireporter.com
Obama birthers discredited, Abercrombie meets with Hawaii mayors, new senator suing the state, fugitive causes ruckus outside Obama vacation home, job market up, Big Island doubles police discipline, Lahaina library gets facelift, Maui beach issues unreso December 24, 2010 at 7:49 am
[…] Newly appointed State Sen. Malama Solomon is suing the state over a water usage issue on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands pastoral property her family holds on the Big Island. Hawaii Reporter. […]


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Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Тере́нтьев (1932—2006) — российский химик, лауреат Государственной премии СССР.

Родился 16.07.1932.

Окончил химический факультета МГУ им. М. В. Ломоносова (1955).

С 1955 г. работал в ИНЭОС в должностях от старшего лаборанта лаборатории Р. Х. Фрейдлиной до заведующего лабораторией гомолитических реакций элементоорганических соединений (1986—1990), с 1990 ведущий научный сотрудник.

Доктор химических наук, профессор. Специалист в области радикальной химии. Под его руководством разработан и внедрён практически безотходный метод синтеза высших разветвлённых карбоновых кислот.

Соавтор монографии «Радикальная теломеризация» (М., «Химия», 1988).

Лауреат Государственной премии СССР (1986, в составе коллектива) — за цикл работ «Научные основы и новые прогрессивные методы органического синтеза с применением гомолитических реакций» (1961—1984). Заслуженный изобретатель РСФСР.

Источники
 Терентьев Александр Борисович (1932–2006)


text:
Benka Around the World Again
Ptuj, 11. october 2007
Franc Mihelic's Gallery, one of the most extraordinary exhibition spaces in Slovenia, publicly debuted Benka Pulko's photography show, Faces of the World. This exhibition marks the ten year anniversary of the beginning of her journey around the world.
In addition to the 36 large format photographs, each rich with colors and emotional expressiveness, a sampling of objects collected throughout her travels are also on display. Items include her passport, laptop, first aid kit, clothing, riding gear and of course, her motorcycle.
At the invitation of the Mayor of Ptuj, Benka's hometown, Faces of the World starts its journey around the world in the same place Benka began the adventure that gave birth to the exhibition's images.
"This is not an ordinary exhibition," says Pulko, "it has a very important additional purpose. It is a fund raising effort." All the profits collected from the show will be used by Benka's foundation Believe in Yourself & Kickstart the World and World in Hand group to fund the ambitious goal of putting a computer in every elementary school in Slovenia. Since the children are not yet old enough to follow in Benka's footsteps and see the world, virtual traveling is the most affordable and easiest way to learn about other places.
The foundation is exclusively sponsored by socially responsible companies like Si.Mobil Vodafone, Alpress, Perutnina Group and SRC.SI. And, in accordance with her strict guiding principle, every Euro donated finds its way directly to "those in need".
In November, the exhibition is scheduled to travel from Ptuj to Ljubljana and then on to Brussels, Zagreb, Belgrade, Prague, New York, Tokyo and Johannesburg. We hope this next journey around the world brings joy to many eyes and raises substantial funds for her bold project.


BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Beijing plans to spend more than 19 billion yuan (about 3 billion U.S. dollars) to fight air pollution this year, local authorities said Friday.
It marks a yearly increase of 590 million yuan, according to statistics released at the ongoing annual session of the 15th Beijing Municipal People's Congress.
The money will be used to control pollution sources such as coal, vehicles and dust, and to support projects to replace coal with clean energy in rural areas, according to a draft of the 2018 Beijing budget report.
The smog-prone Chinese capital has intensified measures in recent years to improve its air quality and has achieved remarkable results.
In 2017, Beijing switched 901 villages from reliance on coal to clean energy and phased out nearly half a million outdated vehicles. Almost no coal consumption takes place in Beijing's six districts and its southern plain areas.
The average density of PM2.5 in Beijing was 58 micrograms per cubic meter last year, meeting the target set by the State Council, and 20.5 percent less than in 2016.
According to the municipal congress, Beijing plans to invest more than 67 billion yuan for environmental protection this year in sectors such as air pollution, water and soil improvement, as well as integrated garbage treatment.


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