Cadillac Fairview and the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario say they are now ready to proceed to construct a long-anticipated, 46-storey office tower at 160 Front Street West in downtown Toronto.
The development, on the northeast corner of Front and Simcoe Streets, will feature 1.2 million square feet of office space, 339 parking stalls, 12,290 square feet of retail space and is slated to open in the fall of 2022. The cost is projected to be $800 million.
The inaugural tenant will be CF's owner, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which will relocate its head office from North York to 160 Front Street.
"Toronto is a vibrant and international city, and the downtown core is a major hub of finance," Teachers' president and CEO Ron Mock said in the release. "We believe this is the right time to plan our move closer to our partners and the pool of talent we will need to see us into the future.
"This new building will have many attractive elements to help foster teamwork and innovation, in a healthy and sustainable environment that is close to many different transit options.
The development has been in the works for several years, with an original design for a 54-storey office complex submitted back in 2014. That design has been refined in the interim, though the overall exterior look of the building is quite similar to renderings from 2014.
CF says this latest development reflects the demand for high-quality, amenity-rich office environments across the country.
"Our current momentum in commercial development speaks to a trend where best-in-class employers are seeking prime urban locations, and we take great pride in our ability to ultimately work with our clients to meet those needs," said Sullivan.
– the $25-million redevelopment of a former Sears location at CF Champlain in Moncton for TD Bank Group.
Designed by world-renowned Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, in collaboration with B+H Architects, the building will offer a "distinctive silhouette on the downtown skyline while meeting prospective clients' desire for efficient design and environmental sustainability in both construction and operation" says CF in the release.
160 Front Street will seek LEED Platinum and WELL Building Standard certifications.
Located a block from Union Station and with easy access to the Gardiner Expressway, the site is also close to amenities including a diverse range of retail, food, restaurant and hotel choices.
CF's partnership with IMCO represents a continued collaboration on a number of projects on behalf of the Ontario Pension Board (OPB). These include an office tower under construction at 16 York Street in Toronto, as well as ownership of existing office properties in Toronto and Vancouver, including RBC Centre and Toronto-Dominion Centre.
Cadillac Fairview is one of the largest owners, operators and developers of office, retail and mixed-use properties in North America. The company also invests in retail, mixed-use and industrial real estate in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
With assets valued at more than $29 billion, Cadillac Fairview owns more than 38 million square feet of leasable space at 73 properties in Canada, including landmark developments such as Toronto-Dominion Centre, CF Toronto Eaton Centre, CF Pacific Centre and CF Chinook Centre.
Cadillac Fairview has been wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan since 2000.
The plan is Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with $189.5 billion in net assets as of Dec. 31, 2017.
It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80 per cent of which is managed in-house, and has earned an average annualized rate of return of 9.9 per cent since the plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto.
IMCO is one of Canada's largest investment management firms with $60 billion of assets under management. Designed to serve public sector clients in Ontario, IMCO's primary objective is to achieve long-term results that enable its institutional partners to meet their financial obligations to members and beneficiaries.
IMCO's clients include the Ontario Pension Board (OPB) and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).
Created in 2016, IMCO was established as an independent organization, operating at arm's length from government and its institutional members, and guided by a highly experienced and professional Board of Directors.


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This Solar Sunflower Provides Electricity And Clean, Hot Water
This floral fabrication may look luxurious, but in fact it has a rather down-to-earth aim: to take renewable energy and warm water to remote, off-grid communities.
The 10m structure is designed to fit, when folded up, into a single shipping container. Once it unfurls though, it becomes a sun-tracking device that can clean water, generate electricity and even heat or cool buildings.
Such functionality is a result of the solar cells it employs. Its water-cooled solar panels, developed by Bruno Michel at IBM, concentrate the sun by 2000 times. From their, 25 PV chips are cooled by water, which flows through micro-channels beneath them — leaving the cells at the optimal operating temperature to generate electricity.
The warm water can be used to run a desalinator, driving seawater through a polymer membrane to produce up to 2500 litres of fresh water ever day. Or, away from the sea, it can drive a water purifier to rid H20 of other unwelcome contaminants. All that, plus 12 kilowatts of electricity and 20 kilowatts of heat to boot.
The good news is that it's cheap too: the solar mirrors, usually made from glass, are constructed from metallized foil like in chip bags. Already being tested in prototype form, it's expected to see final testing in Morocco and India before going on sale in 2017. Then, it will bring a little more civilisation to even the most remote parts of the world. [New Scientist]
Picture: Airlight Energy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Relationship between cell-phone over-use scale with depression, anxiety and stress among university students
Hashemi, S., Ghazanfari, F., Ebrahimzadeh, F. et al. Investigate the relationship between cell-phone over-use scale with depression, anxiety and stress among university students. BMC Psychiatry 22, 755 (2022). doi:10.1186/s12888-022-04419-8
Background Cell phones have increased dramatically as a new communication technology in the modern world. This study aimed to determine the relationship between cell phone over use scale with depression, anxiety and stress among university students in Khorramabad, Iran.
Methods In this descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study, 212 students were randomly selected from the Lorestan University of Medical Sciences by a combination of stratified and clustered random sampling. Data were collected by two standard questionnaires including, Cell-phone Over-use Scale (COS) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS-21) and were analyzed using SPSS V.22.
Results Based on the results, 72.2% of the students were exclusively male, which a majority of them were in age of 21–23 years (46.2%), and 92.5% were single. Based on the multiple linear regression and after adjustment for the confounding effect, there was a significant relationship between cell phone over use scale on student's stress (t = 2.614, P = 0.010), and student's anxiety (t = 2.209, P = 0.028); however there was not a significant relationship between cell phone over use scale on student's depression (t = 1.790, P = 0.075).
Conclusions Harmful use of cell phones can aggravate psychological disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression and by controlling this factor can increase the level of mental health and improve the quality of life in students.
Open access paper: https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-022-04419-8
Trigger of a migraine headache among Thai adolescents smartphone users:
a time series study
Wanna Chongchitpaisan, Phongtape Wiwatanadate, Surat Tanprawate, Assawin Narkpongphan, Nipapon Siripon. Trigger of a migraine headache among Thai adolescents smartphone users: a time series study. Environ Anal Health Toxicol. 2021 Mar; 36(1):e2021006-0. doi: 10.5620/eaht.2021006.
The study aims to investigate the effect of modern technology in the trigger of migraine headaches in high school students by using generalized estimating equation analysis. The prospective time series study was conducted in one hundred and forty-five smartphones using high school students in Chiang Mai Province who each completed a headache diary giving a total of 12,969 data entries. The smartphone output power was measured and recorded by a smartphone application. Smartphone use, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression also were assessed. Results revealed that the prevalence of repeated headache be 13.4% and migraine 16.9%. The migraine had the strongest association with handfree device use and internet use, followed by age and anxiety. Furthermore, the strongest effect of smartphone output power in triggering a migraine was found at ≤ 1.79×10-5 and 1.80-1.99×10-5 mW ranges. Meanwhile, Lag_6 of daily smartphone output power exposure produced the migraine effect in a reverse dose-response manner. The smartphone electromagnetic radiation was a primary migraine trigger. The study results led to the recommendation to avoid triggers by use of smartphone talking with hand-free devices to prevent a recurrent migraine.
SOP, which is smartphone electromagnetic radiation, has a non-linear correlation with migraine headaches which has been called a window effect response. The result has also found migraine response to a delayed effect of SOP in the form of reverse dose-response. The delayed effect response on repeated exposure can recover and re-balance itself after exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Additionally, smartphone electromagnetic radiation has effects that fit the criteria for triggers that induce migraines. Finally, younger student, internet use and talking without hand-free devices were risk factors of migraines. It is recommended that limited time for smartphone talking with hand-free device and older age starting using smartphone be suggested in order to prevent migraine attack.
On the Clear Evidence of the Risks to Children from Non-Ionizing Radio Frequency Radiation: The Case of Digital Technologies in the Home, Classroom and Society
"The level of proof required to justify action for health protection should be less than that required to constitute causality as a scientific principle" --
Professor Rainer Frentzel-Beyme MD
Tom Butler. On the Clear Evidence of the Risks to Children from Non-Ionizing Radio Frequency Radiation: The Case of Digital Technologies in the Home, Classroom and Society. Cork, Ireland: University College Cork. 33 pp. 2019.
Children's health and well-being is under significant threat from everyday digital technologies, as the past 15 years have seen the proliferation of microwave non-ionizing radio frequency radiation (RFR) devices and related communication systems in the home, school and society. The safety standards for such devices—smartphones, tablets etc.—and the systems that serve them, were based on the proven thermal effects of microwave radiation in adults, not children. As comprehensive research published between 1969-1976 by the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute indicates, scientists have long been aware of equally harmful non-thermal effects—e.g. the risks of developing cancers, neurological, neurodegenerative, and other pathophysiological problems. However, physicists and engineers have operated on the theory that non-ionizing RFR could not directly damage human DNA and lead to cancer, as it was far less powerful than ionizing radiation (x-rays, nuclear etc.). That theory has been solidly and roundly refuted, as this paper illustrates. Nevertheless, industry-funded scientists continue to hold that non-thermal effects do not exist.However, thousands of independent research studies have demonstrated that low-intensity RFR elicits a range of pathophysiological conditions in experimental animals and humans. This is why parents, educators and governments should be alarmed, be better informed,and take immediate and appropriate action. This brief research review aims to inform by presenting the findings of scientific research, in a balanced, objective manner, on the risks to children. This information is based on proven scientific theories and clear empirical evidence. The paper concludes by offering practical advice on how the risks to children, and indeed adults, can be minimised.
https://e9a5d5c6.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/On-the-Clear-Evidence-of-the-Risks-to-Children-from-Smartphone-and-WiFi-Radio-Frequency-Radiation_Final.pdf
Association between estimated whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic fields dose and cognitive function in preadolescents and adolescents
Alba Cabré-Riera, Luuk van Wel, Ilaria Liorni, Arno Thielens, Laura Ellen Birks, Livia Pierotti, Wout Joseph, Llúcia González-Safont, Jesús Ibarluzea, Amparo Ferrero, Anke Huss, Joe Wiart, Loreto Santa-Marina, Maties Torrent, Tanja Vrijkotte, Myles Capstick, Roel Vermeulen , Martine Vrijheid, Elisabeth Cardis, Martin Röösli, Mònica Guxens. Association between estimated whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic fields dose and cognitive function in preadolescents and adolescents. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2020 Nov 19;231:113659. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113659.
Objective: To investigate the association between estimated whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) dose, using an improved integrated RF-EMF exposure model, and cognitive function in preadolescents and adolescents.
Methods: Cross-sectional analysis in preadolescents aged 9-11 years and adolescents aged 17-18 years from the Dutch Amsterdam Born Children and their Development Study (n = 1664 preadolescents) and the Spanish INfancia y Medio Ambiente Project (n = 1288 preadolescents and n = 261 adolescents), two population-based birth cohort studies. Overall whole-brain RF-EMF doses (mJ/kg/day) were estimated for several RF-EMF sources together including mobile and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications phone calls (named phone calls), other mobile phone uses than calling, tablet use, laptop use (named screen activities), and far-field sources. We also estimated whole-brain RF-EMF doses in these three groups separately (i.e. phone calls, screen activities, and far-field) that lead to different patterns of RF-EMF exposure. We assessed non-verbal intelligence in the Dutch and Spanish preadolescents, information processing speed, attentional function, and cognitive flexibility in the Spanish preadolescents, and working memory and semantic fluency in the Spanish preadolescents and adolescents using validated neurocognitive tests.
Results: Estimated overall whole-brain RF-EMF dose was 90.1 mJ/kg/day (interquartile range (IQR) 42.7; 164.0) in the Dutch and Spanish preadolescents and 105.1 mJ/kg/day (IQR 51.0; 295.7) in the Spanish adolescents. Higher overall estimated whole-brain RF-EMF doses from all RF-EMF sources together and from phone calls were associated with lower non-verbal intelligence score in the Dutch and Spanish preadolescents (-0.10 points, 95% CI -0.19; -0.02 per 100 mJ/kg/day increase in each exposure). However, none of the whole-brain RF-EMF doses was related to any other cognitive function outcome in the Spanish preadolescents or adolescents.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that higher brain exposure to RF-EMF is related to lower non-verbal intelligence but not to other cognitive function outcomes. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study, the small effect sizes, and the unknown biological mechanisms, we cannot discard that our results are due to chance finding or reverse causality. Longitudinal studies on RF-EMF brain exposure and cognitive function are needed.
Adolescence is a cognitive demanding stage of life, and one of the most rapid phases of human development. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that could compromise brain development at this stage and permanently impair cognitive abilities. Our results suggest that overall estimated whole-brain RF-EMF dose and specific dose from phone calls were related to lower non-verbal intelligence in preadolescents. However, our findings also indicate that whole-brain RF-EMF doses were not related to information processing speed, attentional function, visual attention, and cognitive flexibility in preadolescents or to working memory and semantic fluency in both preadolescents and adolescents. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study, the small effect sizes, and the unknown biological mechanisms, we cannot discard that our results might be due to chance finding or reverse causality. Our findings open the field to future longitudinal studies to further investigate the association between brain exposure to RF-EMF and cognitive function.
Estimated whole-brain and lobe-specific radiofrequency electromagnetic fields doses and brain volumes in preadolescents
Alba Cabré-Riera, Hanan El Marroun, Ryan Muetzel, Luuk van Wel, Ilaria Liorni, Arno Thielens, Laura Ellen Birks, Livia Pierotti, Anke Huss, Wout Joseph, Joe Wiart, Myles Capstick, Manon Hillegers, Roel Vermeulen, Elisabeth Cardis, Martine Vrijheid, Tonya White, Martin Röösli, Henning Tiemeier, Mònica Guxens. Estimated whole-brain and lobe-specific radiofrequency electromagnetic fields doses and brain volumes in preadolescents. Environment International. 142, September 2020, 105808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105808.
• We estimated overall and source-specific RF-EMF doses to the brain.
• Estimated overall whole-brain RF-EMF dose was 84.3 mJ/kg/day.
• Overall whole-brain or lobe-specific RF-EMF doses were not related to brain volumes.
• Whole-brain RF-EMF dose from mobile communication devices for screen activities while wirelessly connected to the internet was associated with smaller caudate volume.
• We cannot discard residual confounding, chance finding, or reverse causality.
Objective To assess the association between estimated whole-brain and lobe-specific radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) doses, using an improved integrated RF-EMF exposure model, and brain volumes in preadolescents at 9–12 years old.
Methods Cross-sectional analysis in preadolescents aged 9–12 years from the Generation R Study, a population-based birth cohort set up in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (n = 2592). An integrated exposure model was used to estimate whole-brain and lobe-specific RF-EMF doses (mJ/kg/day) from different RF-EMF sources including mobile and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) phone calls, other mobile phone uses than calling, tablet use, laptop use, and far-field sources. Whole-brain and lobe-specific RF-EMF doses were estimated for all RF-EMF sources together (i.e. overall) and for three groups of RF-EMF sources that lead to a different pattern of RF-EMF exposure. Information on brain volumes was extracted from magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Results Estimated overall whole-brain RF-EMF dose was 84.3 mJ/kg/day. The highest overall lobe-specific dose was estimated in the temporal lobe (307.1 mJ/kg/day). Whole-brain and lobe-specific RF-EMF doses from all RF-EMF sources together, from mobile and DECT phone calls, and from far-field sources were not associated with global, cortical, or subcortical brain volumes. However, a higher whole-brain RF-EMF dose from mobile phone use for internet browsing, e-mailing, and text messaging, tablet use, and laptop use while wirelessly connected to the internet was associated with a smaller caudate volume.
Conclusions Our results suggest that estimated whole-brain and lobe-specific RF-EMF doses were not related to brain volumes in preadolescents at 9–12 years old. Screen activities with mobile communication devices while wirelessly connected to the internet lead to low RF-EMF dose to the brain and our observed association may thus rather reflect effects of social or individual factors related to these specific uses of mobile communication devices. However, we cannot discard residual confounding, chance finding, or reverse causality. Further studies on mobile communication devices and their potential negative associations with brain development are warranted, regardless whether associations are due to RF-EMF exposure or to other factors related to their use.
Open access paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020317633?via%3Dihub
Delayed sleep in six-year-old children was associated with excessive use of electronic devices at 12 years
Kato T, Yorifuii T, Yamakawa M, Inoue S. National data showed that delayed sleep in six-year-old children was associated with excessive use of electronic devices at 12 years. Acta Paediatr. 2018 Aug;107(8):1439-1448. doi: 10.1111/apa.14255.
AIM: Cross-sectional studies have shown associations between adolescent sleep problems and the use of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, but longitudinal studies remain scarce. We explored any association between delayed bedtimes at six years old and the excessive use of electronic devices at 12 years of age. Texting was a prime focus.
METHODS: We analysed 9607 adolescents who owned mobile phones in 2013 using the Japanese Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the 21st Century, which started in 2001. The outcomes were daily excessive use of a mobile phone, television (TV) and video games.
RESULTS: Delayed bedtime at the age of six years was associated with excessive texting at weekends. The adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals obtained from logistic regression analyses were 1.88 (1.14-3.10) for the 10-11 pm group and 1.98 (1.08-3.63) for the after 11 pm group, compared with the before 9 pm group. Later bedtimes were also associated with increased risks of excessive TV viewing and video game use.
CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that six-year-olds who regularly stayed up late at night used electronic devices more frequently, or for longer, at the age of 12. Parents need to be more aware of links between sleep issues and electronic devices.
Long-Term Symptoms of Mobile Phone Use on Mobile Phone Addiction
and Depression Among Korean Adolescents
Park SY, Yang S, Shin CS, Jang H, Park SY. Long-Term Symptoms of Mobile Phone Use on Mobile Phone Addiction and Depression Among Korean Adolescents. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Sep 25;16(19). pii: E3584. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16193584.
This study aimed to compare the mean scores of mobile phone use, mobile phone addiction, and depressive symptoms at three-time points among Korean adolescents according to gender and to examine the differences in the long-term relationships among the three above-mentioned variables between Korean boys and girls in a four-year period. Data for 1794 adolescents (897 boys and 897 girls) were obtained from three waves of the second panel of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used for data analyses. The study findings showed that at each of the three-time points, Korean girls tended to use their mobile phones more frequently and were at a higher risk of mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms than Korean boys. Significant changes were observed in the longitudinal relationships among phone use, mobile phone addiction, and depressive symptoms in Korean adolescents across time periods, but no gender differences were found in the strengths of these relationships. These findings contribute to expanding the knowledge base of mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Korean adolescents.
Open access paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3584
Short-term longitudinal relationships between smartphone use/dependency
and psychological well-being among late adolescents
Lapierre MA, Zhao P, Custer BE. Short-term longitudinal relationships between smartphone use/dependency and psychological well-being among late adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.06.001
Purpose The aim of the study was to determine the short-term longitudinal pathways between smartphone use, smartphone dependency, depressive symptoms, and loneliness among late adolescents.
Methods A two-wave longitudinal survey was used using adolescents between the ages of 17 and 20 years. The interval between wave 1 and wave 2 was between 2.5 and 3 months. Using convenience sampling, the total number of participants who completed both waves of data collection was 346. Validated measures assessed smartphone dependency, smartphone use, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. The longitudinal model was tested using path modeling techniques.
Results Among the 346 participants (33.6% male, mean [standard deviation] age at wave 1, 19.11 [.75] years, 56.9% response rate), longitudinal path models revealed that wave 1 smartphone dependency predicted loneliness (β = .08, standard error [SE] = .05, p = .043) and depressive symptoms (β = .11, SE = .05, p = .010) at wave 2, loneliness at wave 1 predicted depressive symptoms at wave 2 (β = .21, SE = .05, p < .001), and smartphone use at wave 1 predicted smartphone dependency at wave 2 (β = .08, SE = .05, p = .011).
Conclusions Considering the rates of smartphone ownership/use among late adolescents (95%), the association between smartphone use and smartphone dependency, and the deleterious effects of loneliness and depression within this population, health practitioners should communicate with patients and parents about the links between smartphone engagement and psychological well-being.
https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(19)30337-4/fulltext
Night-time screen-based media device use and adolescents' sleep
and health-related quality of life
Mireku MO, Barker MM, Mutz J, Dumontheil I, Thomas MSC, Roosli M, Elliott P, Toledano MB. Night-time screen-based media device use and adolescents' sleep and health-related quality of life. Environ Int. 2019 Mar;124:66-78. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.11.069
OBJECTIVE: The present study investigates the relationship between night-time screen-based media devices (SBMD) use, which refers to use within 1 h before sleep, in both lit and dark rooms, and sleep outcomes and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among 11 to 12-year-olds.
METHODS: We analysed baseline data from a large cohort of 6616 adolescents from 39 schools in and around London, United Kingdom, participating in the Study of Cognition Adolescents and Mobile Phone (SCAMP). Adolescents self-reported their use of any SBMD (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, television etc.). Sleep variables were derived from self-reported weekday and/or weekend bedtime, sleep onset latency (SOL) and wake time. Sleep quality was assessed using four standardised dimensions from the Swiss Health Survey. HRQoL was estimated using the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire.
RESULTS: Over two-thirds (71.5%) of adolescents reported using at least one SBMD at night-time, and about a third (32.2%) reported using mobile phones at night-time in darkness. Night-time mobile phone and television use was associated with higher odds of insufficient sleep duration on weekdays (Odds Ratio, OR = 1.82, 95% Confidence Interval, CI [1.59, 2.07] and OR = 1.40, 95% CI [1.23, 1.60], respectively). Adolescents who used mobile phones in a room with light were more likely to have insufficient sleep (OR = 1.32, 95% CI [1.10, 1.60]) and later sleep midpoint (OR = 1.64, 95% CI [1.37, 1.95]) on weekends compared to non-users. The magnitude of these associations was even stronger for those who used mobile phones in darkness for insufficient sleep duration on weekdays (OR = 2.13, 95% CI [1.79, 2.54]) and for later sleep midpoint on weekdays (OR = 3.88, 95% CI [3.25, 4.62]) compared to non-users. Night-time use of mobile phones was associated with lower HRQoL and use in a dark room was associated with even lower KIDSCREEN-10 score (β = -1.18, 95% CI [-1.85, -0.52]) compared to no use.
CONCLUSIONS: We found consistent associations between night-time SBMD use and poor sleep outcomes and worse HRQoL in adolescents. The magnitude of these associations was stronger when SBMD use occurred in a dark room versus a lit room.
Prolonged mobile phone use is associated with depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
Liu J, Liu C, Wu T, Liu BP, Jia CX, Liu X. Prolonged mobile phone use is associated with depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. J Affec Disord. 12(259):128-134. Aug 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.08.017.
Background: Prolonged screen time has negative impacts on health and well-being. This study examined the association between the duration of mobile phone use (DMPU) and depressive symptoms in a large sample of Chinese adolescents.
Methods: 11,831 adolescent students participated in the baseline Shandong Adolescent Behavior and Health Cohort (SABHC) survey in Shandong, China in 2015. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure DMPU on weekdays and the weekend, sleep, mental health, and family environment. The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) depression scales were used to assess depressive symptoms.
Results: The mean age of participants was 15.0 (SD = 1.5) and 51% were male. The prevalence of depressive symptoms increased with prolonged DMPU. After adjusting for adolescent and family covariates, DMPU ≥ 2 h/day on weekdays (OR = 1.78, 95%CI = 1.48-2.15) and ≥ 5 h/day on the weekend (OR = 1.67, 95%CI = 1.41-1.98) was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms as assessed by CES-D. The DMPU-depression association was found to be partially mediated by short sleep duration or insomnia. Similar associations were observed for depression as assessed by YSR.
Study Limitation: This is a cross-sectional survey. Mobile phone use and depressive symptoms were measured by self-report.
Conclusions: Prolonged mobile phone use of ≥ 2 hours on weekdays and ≥ 5 hours on the weekend is associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms. The association appears to be partially mediated by sleep disturbances.
Problematic cell phone use, depression, anxiety & self-regulation:
3-year longitudinal study from adolescence to emerging adulthood
Coyne SM, Stockdale L, Summers K. Problematic cell phone use, depression, anxiety, and self-regulation: Evidence from a three year longitudinal study from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Computers in Human Behavior. 96:78-84. July, 2019.
• Problematic cell phone use is stable between adolescence and emerging adulthood.
• Self-regulation and problematic cell phone use are not longitudinally related.
• Early problematic cell phone use is moderately associated with later depression.
For a small percentage of cell phone users, cell phone use becomes problematic or addictive, characterized by excessive time spent on the cell phone, interference with social relationships and responsibilities, and difficulty disengaging from cell phones. Researchers have argued that depression, anxiety, and self-regulation may be risk factors or outcomes of problematic cell phone use, but there are few longitudinal studies on problematic cell phone use, making it unclear if these behaviors are predictors or outcomes of problematic cell phone use. The current study examined these factors during late adolescence and the transition to emerging adulthood. Participants included 385 individuals between the ages of 17 and 19 who completed a series of questionnaires once a year over a three year period. Problematic cell phone use, anxiety, depression, and self-regulation were all moderately associated at the cross-sectional level. Early problematic cell phone use predicted later depression when these variables were examined longitudinally, as opposed to the converse. There were no longitudinal associations between problematic cell phone use and anxiety or self-regulation. In sum, problematic cell phone use was fairly stable across the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood and was associated with depression in the future.
Social media use and adolescent mental health: Findings From the UK Millennium Cohort Study
Kelly Y, Zilanawala A, Booker C, Sacker A. (2019) Social media use and adolescent mental health: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. EClinicalMedicine. 10.1016/j.eclinm.2018.12.005. 2019. (In press)
BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests social media use is associated with mental health in young people but underlying processes are not well understood. This paper i) assesses whether social media use is associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms, and ii) investigates multiple potential explanatory pathways via online harassment, sleep, self-esteem and body image.
METHODS: We used population based data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study on 10,904 14 year olds. Multivariate regression and path models were used to examine associations between social media use and depressive symptoms.
FINDINGS: The magnitude of association between social media use and depressive symptoms was larger for girls than for boys. Compared with 1–3 h of daily use: 3 to < 5 h 26% increase in scores vs 21%; ≥ 5 h 50% vs 35% for girls and boys respectively. Greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores. Multiple potential intervening pathways were apparent, for example: greater hours social media use related to body weight dissatisfaction (≥ 5 h 31% more likely to be dissatisfied), which in turn linked to depressive symptom scores directly (body dissatisfaction 15% higher depressive symptom scores) and indirectly via self-esteem.
INTERPRETATION: Our findings highlight the potential pitfalls of lengthy social media use for young people's mental health. Findings are highly relevant for the development of guidelines for the safe use of social media and calls on industry to more tightly regulate hours of social media use.
FUNDING: Economic and Social Research Council.
Among 14-year olds living in the UK, we found an association between social media use and depressive symptoms and that this was stronger for girls than for boys. The magnitude of these associations reduced when potential explanatory factors were taken into account, suggesting that experiences of online harassment, poorer sleep quantity and quality, self-esteem and body image largely explain observed associations. There was no evidence of differences for girls and boys in hypothesised pathways between social media use and depressive symptoms. Findings are based largely on cross sectional data and thus causality cannot be inferred.
Open access paper: http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/publication/1621800/1
Telecommunication devices use, screen time and sleep in adolescents
Cabre-Riera A, Torrent M, Donaire-Gonzalez D, Vrijheid M, Cardis E, Guxens M. Telecommunication devices use, screen time and sleep in adolescents. 171:341-347. Apr 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.10.036
• Telecommunication and other screen devices use was collected in adolescents
• Both subjective and objective sleep measures were assessed
• Tablet use and mobile phone dependency were associated with poorer sleep
• Frequency of cordless phone calls was associated with poorer sleep
• Public health recommendations on telecommunication devices use should be a priority
Purpose To investigate the association between telecommunication and other screen devices and subjective and objective sleep measures in adolescents at 17–18 years.
Methods Cross-sectional study on adolescents aged 17–18 years from a Spanish population-based birth cohort established in Menorca in 1997–1998. Information on devices use was collected using self-reported questionnaires. Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale was used to assess mobile phone use dependency. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to assess subjective sleep (n=226). ActiGraph wGT3X-BT for 7 nights was used to assess objective sleep (n=110).
Results One or more cordless phone calls/week was associated with a lower sleep quality [Prevalence Ratio PR 1.30 (95%CI 1.04; 1.62)]. Habitual and frequent problematic mobile phone use was associated with a lower sleep quality [PR 1.55 (95%CI 1.03; 2.33) and PR 1.67 (95%CI 1.09; 2.56), respectively]. Higher tablet use was associated with decreased sleep efficiency and increased minutes of wake time after sleep onset [β −1.15 (95%CI −1.99; −0.31) and β 7.00 (95%CI 2.40; 11.60) per increase of 10 minutes/day of use, respectively]. No associations were found between other devices and sleep measures.
Conclusions Tablet use, mobile phone use dependency, and frequency of cordless phone were related to an increase of subjective and objective sleep problems in adolescents. These results seem to indicate that sleep displacement, mental arousal, and exposure to blue light emission might play a more important role on sleep than a high RF-EMF exposure to the brain. However, more studies are needed assessing personal RF-EMF levels to draw conclusions.
Cohort study of adolescents' memory performance & brain dose of microwave radiation from wireless EMF
Foerster M., Thielens A., Joseph W., Eeftens M., Röösli M. A prospective cohort study of adolescents' memory performance and individual brain dose of microwave radiation from wireless communication. Environmental Health Perspectives.126(7):077007. 2018. DOI: 10.1289/EHP2427.
BACKGROUND: The potential impact of microwave radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted by wireless communication devices on neurocognitive functions of adolescents is controversial. In a previous analysis, we found changes in figural memory scores associated with a higher cumulative RF-EMF brain dose in adolescents.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to follow-up our previous results using a new study population, dose estimation, and approach to controlling for confounding from media usage itself.
METHODS: RF-EMF brain dose for each participant was modeled. Multivariable linear regression models were fitted on verbal and figural memory score changes over 1 y and on estimated cumulative brain dose and RF-EMF related and unrelated media usage (n=669–676). Because of the hemispheric lateralization of memory, we conducted a laterality analysis for phone call ear preference. To control for the confounding of media use behaviors, a stratified analysis for different media usage groups was also conducted.
RESULTS: We found decreased figural memory scores in association with an interquartile range (IQR) increase in estimated cumulative RF-EMF brain dose scores: −0:22 (95% CI: −0:47, 0.03; IQR: 953 mJ=kg per day) in the whole sample, −0:39 (95% CI: −0:67, −0:10; IQR: 953 mJ=kg per day) in right-side users (n=532), and −0:26 (95% CI: −0:42, −0:10; IQR: 341 mJ=kg per day) when recorded network operator data were used for RF-EMF dose estimation (n=274). Media usage unrelated to RF-EMF did not show significant associations or consistent patterns, with the exception of consistent (nonsignificant) positive associations between data traffic duration and verbal memory.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings for a cohort of Swiss adolescents require confirmation in other populations but suggest a potential adverse effect of of RF-EMF brain dose on cognitive functions that involve brain regions mostly exposed during mobile phone use.
We found preliminary evidence suggesting that RF-EMF may affect brain functions such as figural memory in regions that are most exposed during mobile phone use. Our findings do not provide conclusive evidence of causal effects and should be interpreted with caution until confirmed in other populations. Associations with media use parameters with low RF-EMF exposures did not provide clear or consistent support of effects of media use unrelated to RF-EMF (with the possible exception of consistent positive associations between verbal memory and data traffic duration). It is not yet clear which brain processes could be potentially affected and what biophysical mechanism may play a role. Potential long-term risk can be minimized by avoiding high brain-exposure situations as occurs when using a mobile phone with maximum power close to the ear because of, for example, bad network quality.
Note: The original study appears below (Schoeni et al., 2015).
Open access paper: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/EHP2427/
Decreases in sleep duration among U.S. adolescents 2009-2015 & association with new media screen time
Twenge JM, Krizan Z, Hisler G. Decreases in self-reported sleep duration among U.S. adolescents 2009-2015 and association with new media screen time. Sleep Med. 2017 Nov;39:47-53. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.08.013.
• More adolescents in 2015 (vs. 2009) slept less than 7 h a night on most nights.
• Electronic device and social media use also increased in 2009–2015.
• Electronic device and social media use increases the odds of short sleep duration.
• Smartphones may be the cause of the increase in self-reported short sleep duration.
STUDY OBJECTIVES: Insufficient sleep among adolescents carries significant health risks, making it important to determine social factors that change sleep duration. We sought to determine whether the self-reported sleep duration of U.S. adolescents changed between 2009 and 2015 and examine whether new media screen time (relative to other factors) might be responsible for changes in sleep.
METHODS:We drew from yearly, nationally representative surveys of sleep duration and time use among adolescents conducted since 1991 (Monitoring the Future) and 2007 (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control; total N = 369,595).
RESULTS: Compared to 2009, adolescents in 2015 were 16%-17% more likely to report sleeping less than 7 h a night on most nights, with an increase in short sleep duration after 2011-2013. New media screen time (electronic device use, social media, and reading news online) increased over this time period and was associated with increased odds of short sleep duration, with a clear exposure-response relationship for electronic devices after 2 or more hours of use per day. Other activities associated with short sleep duration, such as homework time, working for pay, and TV watching, were relatively stable or reduced over this time period, making it unlikely that these activities caused the sudden increase in short sleep duration.
CONCLUSIONS: Increased new media screen time may be involved in the recent increases (from 35% to 41% and from 37% to 43%) in short sleep among adolescents. Public health interventions should consider electronic device use as a target of intervention to improve adolescent health.
The effects of EMF on the endocrine system in children and adolescents
Sangün Ö, Dündar B, Çömlekçi S, Büyükgebiz A. The effects of electromagnetic field on the endocrine system in children and adolescents. Pediatr Endocrinol Rev. 2015 Dec;13(2):531-45.
Children are exposed to various kind of non-ionizing radiation in their daily life involuntarily. The potential sensitivity of developing organism to the effects of radiofrequency (RF) signals, the higher estimated specific absorption rate (SAR) values of children and greater lifetime cumulative risk raised the scientific interest for children's vulnerability to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). In modern societies, children are being exposed to EMFs in very early ages. There are many researches in scientific literature investigating the alterations of biological parameters in living organisms after EMFs. Although the international guidelines did not report definite, convincing data about the causality, there are unignorable amount of studies indicating the increased risk of cancer, hematologic effects and cognitive impairment. Although they are less in amount; growing number of studies reveal the impacts on metabolism and endocrine function. Reproductive system and growth look like the most challenging fields. However there are also some concerns on detrimental effects of EMFs on thyroid functions, adrenal hormones, glucose homeostasis and melatonin levels. It is not easy to conduct a study investigating the effects of EMFs on a fetus or child due to ethical issues. Hence, the studies are usually performed on virtual models or animals. Although the results are conflicting and cannot be totally matched with humans; there is growing evidence to distress us about the threats of EMF on children.
http://1.usa.gov/1QhY253
Does exposure to environmental RF EMF cause cognitive & behavioral effects in 10-year-old boys?
Calvente, I., Pérez-Lobato, R., Núñez, M.-I., Ramos, R., Guxens, M., Villalba, J., Olea, N. and Fernández, M. F. (2016), Does exposure to environmental radiofrequency electromagnetic fields cause cognitive and behavioral effects in 10-year-old boys?. Bioelectromagnetics, 37: 25–36. doi: 10.1002/bem.21951.
The relationship between exposure to electromagnetic fields from non-ionizing radiation and adverse human health effects remains controversial. We aimed to explore the association of environmental radiofrequency-electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) exposure with neurobehavioral function of children.
A subsample of 123 boys belonging to the Environment and Childhood cohort from Granada (Spain), recruited at birth from 2000 through 2002, were evaluated at the age of 9–11 years. Spot electric field measurements within the 100 kHz to 6 GHz frequency range, expressed as both root mean-square (SRMS) and maximum power density (SMAX) magnitudes, were performed in the immediate surrounds of children's dwellings. Neurocognitive and behavioral functions were assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used, adjusting for potential confounders.
All measurements were lower than reference guideline limits, with median SRMS and SMAX values of 285.94 and 2759.68 μW/m2, respectively. Most of the cognitive and behavioral parameters did not show any effect, but children living in higher RF exposure areas (above median SRMS levels) had lower scores for verbal expression/ comprehension and higher scores for internalizing and total problems, and obsessive-compulsive and post-traumatic stress disorders, in comparison to those living in areas with lower exposure. These associations were stronger when SMAX values were considered.
Although some of our results may suggest that low-level environmental RF-EMF exposure has a negative impact on cognitive and/or behavior development in children; given limitations in the study design and that the majority of neurobehavioral functioning tasks were not affected, definitive conclusions cannot be drawn.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bem.21951/abstract
Two recently published studies on adolescents report harmful effects of mobile phone use. A cross-sectional study found that adolescents who were awakened by a mobile phone at least once a month during the night were more likely to report tiredness, rapid exhaustibility, headache and physical ill-being. A prospective cohort study found that greater wireless radiation exposure predicted lower memory test performance.
Symptoms & cognitive functions in adolescents in relation to mobile phone use
Schoeni A, Roser K, Röösli M. Symptoms and cognitive functions in adolescents in relation to mobile phone use during night. PLoS One. 2015 Jul 29;10(7):e0133528. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133528.
Many adolescents tend to leave their mobile phones turned on during night, accepting that they may be awakened by an incoming text message or call. Using self-reported and objective operator recorded mobile phone use data, we thus aimed to analyze how being awakened during night by mobile phone affects adolescents' perceived health and cognitive functions.
In this cross-sectional study, 439 adolescents completed questionnaires about their mobile phone use during night, health related quality of life and possible confounding factors. Standardized computerized cognitive tests were performed to assess memory and concentration capacity. Objective operator recorded mobile phone use data was further collected for 233 study participants. Data were analyzed by multivariable regression models adjusted for relevant confounders including amount of mobile phone use.
For adolescents reporting to be awakened by a mobile phone during night at least once a month the odds ratio for daytime tiredness and rapid exhaustibility were 1.86 (95% CI: 1.02-3.39) and 2.28 (95% CI: 0.97-5.34), respectively. Similar results were found when analyzing objective operator recorded mobile phone use data (tiredness: 1.63, 95% CI: 0.94-2.82 and rapid exhaustibility: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.01-5.36). The cognitive tests on memory and concentration capacity were not related to mobile phone use during night. Overall, being awakened during night by mobile phone was associated with an increase in health symptom reports such as tiredness, rapid exhaustibility, headache and physical ill-being, but not with memory and concentration capacity.
Prevention strategies should focus on helping adolescents set limits for their accessibility by mobile phone, especially during night.
Among Swiss adolescents, we have observed that nocturnal mobile phone use was associated with an increase in health symptom reports such as tiredness, rapid exhaustibility, headache and physical ill-being, but not with memory and concentration capacity. More studies to investigate these associations are necessary and education in sleep behaviour may be inevitable since the mobile phone is now the most familiar lifestyle factor for adolescents.
Public Health prevention strategies should focus on helping adolescents set limits for their accessibility by mobile phone, especially during night.
Open Access Paper: http://1.usa.gov/1NeP2lJ
Memory performance, wireless communication & RF EMF exposure: Prospective cohort study in adolescents
Schoeni A, Roser K, Röösli M. Memory performance, wireless communication and exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields: A prospective cohort study in adolescents. Environ Int. 2015 Oct 13;85:343-351. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.09.025.
• This is a prospective cohort study with approx. one year of follow-up.
• Self-reported and operator recorded mobile phone use data were collected.
• The cumulative RF-EMF dose for the brain and for the whole body was calculated.
• Associations were stronger for RF-EMF dose than for use of wireless devices.
• RF-EMF exposure might impair memory performance in adolescents.
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to investigate whether memory performance in adolescents is affected by radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from wireless device use or by the wireless device use itself due to non-radiation related factors in that context.
METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study with 439 adolescents. Verbal and figural memory tasks at baseline and after one year were completed using a standardized, computerized cognitive test battery. Use of wireless devices was inquired by questionnaire and operator recorded mobile phone use data was obtained for a subgroup of 234 adolescents. RF-EMF dose measures considering various factors affecting RF-EMF exposure were computed for the brain and the whole body. Data were analysed using a longitudinal approach, to investigate whether cumulative exposure over one year was related to changes in memory performance. All analyses were adjusted for relevant confounders.
RESULTS: The kappa coefficients between cumulative mobile phone call duration and RF-EMF brain and whole body dose were 0.62 and 0.67, respectively for the whole sample and 0.48 and 0.28, respectively for the sample with operator data. In linear exposure-response models an interquartile increase in cumulative operator recorded mobile phone call duration was associated with a decrease in figural memory performance score by -0.15 (95% CI: -0.33, 0.03) units. For cumulative RF-EMF brain and whole body dose corresponding decreases in figural memory scores were -0.26 (95% CI: -0.42, -0.10) and -0.40 (95% CI: -0.79, -0.01), respectively. No exposure-response associations were observed for sending text messages and duration of gaming, which produces tiny RF-EMF emissions.
CONCLUSIONS: A change in memory performance over one year was negatively associated with cumulative duration of wireless phone use and more strongly with RF-EMF dose. This may indicate that RF-EMF exposure affects memory performance.
http://1.usa.gov/1M6BCHW
... From a public health point of view potential effects of chronic exposure are more relevant, which needs to be investigated with epidemiological studies. So far there has only been one community-based epidemiological study investigating effects of mobile phone use on adolescents' memory. Abramson et al. (2009) showed in a cross-sectional analysis of 317 seventh grade students from Australia that mobile phone use was associated with faster and less accurate response on a number of tasks involving the memory. Since similar associations were found in relation to the number of SMS (short text messages), which produces negligible RF-EMF exposure, they speculated that these behaviours may have been learned through the frequent use of a mobile phone and may not be the consequence of mobile phone radiation. In a follow-up investigation one year later, in 236 of these students, an increase in mobile phone use was associated with a reduction in response time in one out of three tests involving the memory (Thomas et al., 2010). This study relied on self-reported mobile phone use only, which has been shown to be inaccurate. Adolescents tend to substantially overestimate their amount of mobile phone use (Aydin et al., 2011; Inyang et al., 2009).
Regular mobile phone use may affect adolescents in various ways. Thus, the main challenge for research consists in differentiating between RF-EMF radiation effects and other non-RF-EMF related effects from mobile phone use. For instance, frequent texting or gaming on a mobile phone may facilitate cognitive processes (Abramson et al., 2009). It was also observed, that calling and sending texts during night was associated with poor perceived health symptoms such as tiredness, rapid exhaustibility, headache and physical ill-being (Schoeni et al., 2015; Van den Bulck, 2007). Other studies showed that frequent mobile phone use was associated with anxiety (Jenaro et al., 2007), unhealthy lifestyle (Ezoe et al., 2009), depression (Yen et al., 2009) and psychological distress (Beranuy et al., 2009). Thus, to address RF-EMF effects of wireless communication devices, the development of a RF-EMF dose measure, which incorporates all exposure relevant factors, is inevitable.
Memory performance was assessed with a standardized, computerized cognitive test battery (IST, Intelligenz-Struktur-Test 2000R (Liepmann et al., 2006)). Verbal and figural memory was measured with the subtest of the IST. In the verbal memory task, word groups have to be memorized in one minute time. After 1 min the study participants give an account of the word groups that have been memorized. In total 10 points can be achieved by remembering the correct word groups. In the figural memory task, pairwise symbols have to be memorized in one minute time. After 1 min one part of the pairwise symbols is shown and the matching part has to be found. A total of 13 points can be achieved. For both the verbal and figural tests, 2 min is given to complete the test. Memory performance is considered as the right number of remembered word groups or symbols, respectively. For the statistical analyses of verbal and figural memory the continuous test score values
were used as outcome. Every test was conducted once at baseline and once at follow-up investigation.
In this study we considered objectively recorded data on mobile phone use collected from the Swiss mobile phone operators as well as self-reported data on wireless communication devices usage obtained from a written questionnaire referring to the 6 months period prior to each examination. In terms of RF-EMF related exposure measures we inquired about call duration with own or any other mobile phone (referred to as duration mobile phone calls), call duration with cordless (fixed line) phone and duration of data traffic on the mobile phone, e. g. for surfing and streaming. The duration of gaming on computers and TV and number of all kind of text messages (SMS, WhatsApp etc.) are not, or only marginally relevant for RF-EMF exposure and were thus inquired to be used as negative exposure control variables in the analyses.
Informed consent to obtain objectively recorded mobile phone use data from the mobile phone operators was given by 234 out of 439 study participants and their parents. This included duration of each call and on which network (GSM or UMTS) it started, number of SMS (text messages) sent per day and amount of volume of data traffic (MB/day). Data were obtained for up to 18 months, 6 months before baseline until follow-up investigation.
A particular strength of this study is the longitudinal design. To the best of our knowledge this is the first longitudinal study on memory performance in adolescents using not only mobile phone call duration as an exposure proxy, but calculating RF-EMF dose measures derived from objectively recorded operator data and propagation modelling. Compared to a cross-sectional design where changes over time cannot be assessed andwhere reverse causality is of concern, longitudinal studies allow for more robust conclusions.
.. Most relevant contributors for the brain dose are calls on the GSM network (on average 93.3% for the whole sample based on self-reported data and 58.7% for the sample with operator data using operator recorded information) followed by calls with the cordless phones (4.2% and 21.0%, respectively). For the whole body dose, calls on the GSM network (on average 66.9% for the whole sample and 19.5% for the sample with operator data), the use of computer/laptop/tablet connected to WLAN (12.0% and 29.1%, respectively) and data traffic on mobile phones over WLAN (8.1% and 22.3%, respectively) counted for the most part. Less important for the dose measures were exposure from radio and TV broadcast transmitters (brain dose: 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively; whole body dose: 0.3% and 0.9%, respectively) and mobile phone base stations (brain dose: 0.6% and 3.5%, respectively; whole body dose: 2.0% and 4.8%, respectively).
... media usage measures which are not, or only marginally associated with RF-EMF were not associated with figural memory performance (e.g. sending text messages, playing games, and duration/volume of data traffic on the mobile phone). On the other hand, mobile and cordless phone use,which involves RF-EMF exposure, tended to be negatively correlated, although not statistically significant, whereas the dose measures were significantly correlated in many models. The relative high correlation between dose measures and self-reported and objectively recorded mobile phone call duration respectively, limits the possibility to disentangle effects due to RF-EMF exposure or due to other factors associated with mobile phone use.
Since we found stronger associations between RF-EMF doses and figural memory but not verbal memory, one could speculate that this might be due to different brain areas involved in the verbal and figural memory tasks. The type of information being processed determines the brain activity during encoding and retrieval and as a consequence brain activity patterns during figural memory tasks differ fromthose observed during verbal memory tasks. During figural memory processes, encoding elicits bilateral prefrontal activity and retrieval increases the activity in bilateral or right-sided temporal regions and in bilateral prefrontal regions (Beason-Held et al., 2005; Roland and Gulyas, 1995; Wagner et al., 1998). During verbal encoding increases in prefrontal and temporal brain activity in the left hemisphere can be seen (Heun et al., 2000; Iidaka et al., 2000; Reber et al., 2002; Strandberg et al 2011) and during verbal retrieval the activity in bilateral or rightsided prefrontal regions, bilateral or left-sided temporal regions and the anterior cingulate are increased (Beason-Held et al., 2005; Buckner et al., 1998; Cabeza et al., 1997). Stronger overall effects observed for figural memory processes predominantly involving the right hemisphere compared to the verbal memory tasks mostly involving the left hemisphere is compatible with the fact that 81.2% of the study participants reported at follow-up to mainly use mobile phones on the right side but only 18.8% on the left side or with no laterality preference. Strikingly, our laterality analyses indicated indeed stronger associations for right side users for the figural memory task whereas the reverse pattern was seen for the verbal task. However, the sample size of the laterality analysis was small for the subgroup with left side or no side preference for mobile phone use (n= 80).
We considered a number of potential confounders and adjusted model estimates were relatively similar to the crude model estimates, which indicates that confounding seems not to have a substantial impact on the results. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude that we have missed a relevant confounder ....
The observed striking pattern with more consistent associations for RF-EMF dose measures compared to usage measures and no indications of associations for negative control exposure variables may indicate that RF-EMF exposure affects the figural memory of adolescents. However, given the complex correlation structure for various exposure measures and the uncertainty in the RF-EMF dose calculation, the observed associations need to be interpreted with caution.
Labels: adolescents, cell phone, children, cognitive, figural memory, headache, memory, mobile phone, night, physical ill-being, Swiss, symptoms, tiredness


We missed the event by four days, but that's the way things happen.
Wifey and I last week spent a few days in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We camped at Smokemont, just north of Cherokee, NC, for two nights The skies were clear, the temperatures on the cool side. I loved it.
Earlier this year I told wifey that sometime in December or January, when snowfall was expected, I wanted to drive up and experience the beauty of the area in white.
Little did I know that the area was going to have an even earlier snowfall than usual. We left Monday morning and traveled to Marietta, Ga., to visit family. Weather reports indicated that north Georgia was possibly going to get a dusting of snow.
But what happened where we were camping, was unbelievable. A foot or more of snow fell in the area. We didn't realize that would happen when up there, and because of other obligations, we had to head on home.
Portions of the park were closed, Interstate 40 through the mountain pass was closed, as was other avenues of travel.
Gatlinburg had snow. Cherokee had snow. And we didn't.
But we did learn of a website that would give us daily updates of what is going on at the higher elevations.
On the top of Mt. LeConte is a lodge of sorts. We hiked up to it years ago, but never got around to spending the night.
Since I found out about their blog, I decided to steal a few pictures so others will know about their site and enjoy the beauty of the elevated areas during the year.
They offer an online store that allows ordering of different kinds of merchandise.
We have never met bloggers Chris and Allyson Virden, but hope to some day, although we would probably have to run across them at a lower elevation. Age sort of keeps us off the mountain tops.
We can only wish them the best of luck as they take care of one of the great places in the park.


text:
Veritas™ Extends Ransomware Protection for Kubernetes and Cloud Environments
SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Veritas Technologies, the global leader in enterprise data protection, today announced updates to its Enterprise Data Services Platform to extend ransomware protection to every part of the enterprise. Veritas' flagship NetBackup™ solution now provides the most robust backup solution available on the market by delivering ransomware protection for containerized environments, immutability for Amazon S3, and integrated anomaly detection. Further enhancements include the launch of the NetBackup Flex 5350 appliance, which offers data immutability, doubles the performance of its closest competitor, and completes the upgraded Veritas family of ransomware-hardened data protection appliances.
Doug Matthews, VP of Product Management at Veritas, said: "With the increase in ransomware attacks targeting mission critical infrastructure like oil & gas, healthcare, telecommunications and beef & dairy, our newest NetBackup release represents a significant advancement in Veritas' leadership of backup and recovery solutions by further protecting customers against increasingly prevalent ransomware attacks, irrespective of where their data resides: cloud, containers or on-premises."
NetBackup delivers more resiliency against ransomware
Integrated AI/ML anomaly detection: Veritas is folding Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-driven anomaly detection into NetBackup as an inclusive feature to alert backup admins of potential issues and ensure data is always recoverable.
New ransomware-hardened appliance: Veritas' new NetBackup Flex release delivers the industry's best ransomware protection, from the edge of the enterprise network to the core data center, and now includes the most complete family of hardened data protection appliances on the market today. The new Flex 5350 appliance, with 300% improved backup performance, delivers 40% lower total cost of ownership, twice the performance and twice the capacity of its closest competitor, making it the solution of choice for consolidating the most demanding core data center workloads.
CDP and NetBackup Instant Rollback for VMware: Veritasis now offering Continuous Data Protection and Instant Rollback capabilities enabling VMware users to quickly recover from ransomware and other events in minutes instead of hours.
Multiple service level objectives: Starting with VMware but eventually expanding to any application, NetBackup now allows organizations to improve resilience from ransomware and other unplanned data loss events by defining and automatically executing multiple service level objectives, including the recovery technique (e.g., recover from backup, recovery from replication, etc.) and data, for each application.
Immutable storage on Amazon S3: Veritas is extending Write Once Read Many (WORM) storage to AWS S3 cloud environments, enabling businesses to meet the most stringent compliance requirements while offering complete protection against ransomware.
NetBackup introduces fully integrated native protection for Kubernetes environments
Complete Kubernetes protection: NetBackup provides native protection across multiple Kubernetes distributions and layers including clusters, namespaces, custom resources and persistent volumes to ensure complete protection and flexible recovery options. Today, Veritas protects against ransomware from edge to core to cloud – and from traditional to virtualized to containerized environments.
Unparalleled breadth of Kubernetes integration: NetBackup has an agnostic approach to container protection allowing users to quickly add support for multiple Kubernetes distributions in the future. Today, NetBackup supports Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu and Google Kubernetes Engine, with support for additional Kubernetes platform distributions to follow. No other provider is able to offer this breadth of support or extensive level of integration and data protection for Kubernetes.
Alessio Carmazzi, Senior Cloud Architect at Sorint.lab, said: "We are implementing Kubernetes more and more frequently with our customers. The new features of NetBackup makes protecting Kubernetes application data as simple as any other task, providing high-level protection to on prem and cloud workloads."
Pat Lee, VP Strategic & Emerging ISVs at VMware, said: "VMware is helping enterprises use containers and Kubernetes in production—working to simplify access to and adoption of these technologies through the VMware Tanzu portfolio. To move with confidence, these enterprises need to enable data protection across their Kubernetes footprint. For that reason, we're excited to see Veritas' support of VMware Tanzu as part of the NetBackup platform."
NetBackup enhances ransomware protection in the cloud
Cloud resource autoscaling: Veritas NetBackup delivers cost-effective ransomware resilience in the cloud by automatically provisioning/de-provisioning cloud resources as needed, ensuring backups do not fail due to insufficient resources, while managing costs.
Cloud-based intelligent policies: NetBackup empowers businesses to simplify operations in the cloud while ensuring protection from ransomware and other unplanned data loss events by defining policies that automatically protect new workloads as they come online -avoiding data protection gaps.
Faster and more secure data to the cloud: Enhancements to the NetBackup transport security layer makes data movement to the cloud 20% faster while new cryptographic encryption across all data transports including replication, backup and recovery and deduplication improves security and reduces vulnerabilities from attacks.
Krista Macomber, Senior Analyst at Evaluator Group, said: "If containers aren't already a reality, they are coming down the pike for enterprises. More than one-third of respondents in our upcoming Hybrid Cloud Study said that their organization intends to use a mixture of container and more traditional environments, such as virtual machines, for the foreseeable future. For enterprise IT, this creates a complicated, heterogeneous environment that needs to be protected. This complexity can lead to poor data practices, where information is mismanaged or overlooked, and winds up unprotected. We hear from customers that being able to oversee, protect and manage all environments from a single platform would greatly reduce their risk of data loss."
Join us for the NetBackup Live Stream Launch Event on June 15 at 8 am PDT. Details: http://vrt.as/NetBackup.
About Veritas
Veritas Technologies is the global leader in enterprise backup and data recovery solutions. Over 80,000 customers—including 87 percent of the Fortune Global 500—rely on us to abstract IT complexity and simplify data management. The Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform automates enterprise data protection, ensures 24/7 availability of business-critical applications, and provides enterprises with the insights they need to comply with evolving data regulations. With a reputation for reliability at scale and a deployment model to fit any need, the Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform supports more than 800 different data sources, over 100 different operating systems, more than 1,400 storage targets, and more than 60 different cloud platforms. Learn more at www.veritas.com. Follow us on Twitter at @veritastechllc.
Veritas, the Veritas Logo and NetBackup are trademarks or registered trademarks of Veritas Technologies LLC or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
VMware and Tanzu are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.
AMS Contact
Jennifer Henderson
Jennifer.Henderson@veritas.com
EMEA and APJ Contact
Tony Murrant-Patrick
Tony.Murrant-Patrick@veritas.com


text:
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9:24 pm July 7, 2021
Government of India apart, the All-party meeting was equally important for the mainstream political leadership in Kashmir, who were feeling completely neglected and victimised, writes Zahoor Malik
A group photograph of 14 Jammu and Kashmir participants in the All Party Meeting that Prime minister Narendra Modi hosted on June 24, 2021, at his official residence. The photograph marked the beginning of the meeting.
Whatever posturing the local mainstream political parties will do now after attending Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's all-party meeting in New Delhi, the fact is that it was very important for them as well.
Having been completely sidelined and pushed to the wall for nearly two years, Kashmir's mainstream parties needed some kind of respectable access to the political and power corridors in Delhi. This lack of access and formal communication with the centre was adversely affecting their political interests here.
No doubt the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) particularly the National Conference, its main constituent had done significantly well in the district development council (DDC) polls. But the exit of Peoples Conference (PC) from PAGD and later actions against NC and PDP leaders by the centre had started creating an impression that Delhi has completely written off the major mainstream parties here and will scuttle all moves by them to be back at the centre stage of Kashmir politics.
There was a feeling that Delhi wants to change political players in Jammu and Kashmir completely. This had also started a kind of demoralisation effect on the workers and supporters of the two main parties that are competing for power in Jammu and Kashmir. There were apprehensions among the leadership of the two parties that they would lose support base.
Powerful Bureaucracy
For the last two years, the bureaucracy is enjoying sweeping powers with political leadership, who used to be in command earlier, made helpless spectators and victims. They have no influence on the official setup, which they used to have earlier even while being in opposition. This feeling had trickled down to the cadres to the level of frustration. There were reports that some newly floated smaller parties enjoying Delhi's patronage after reading down Article 370 were being accommodated by the official circles here in getting the smaller problems of people getting solved.
Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta chairing a meeting of officials regarding COVID-19 on Saturday, June 12, 2021. Pic: DIPR
The continuous neglect by the centre was not good for the political health of major political parties here. It is not a hidden fact that political parties in Jammu and Kashmir need some kind of goodwill from the centre to survive in the electoral process. That way no political party would like to have a head-on collision with Delhi even if the circumstances lead to that also. Their path to coming to power in Jammu and Kashmir moves through the centre. Free and fair poll exercise is among the vital keys to that.
The Election Politics
From Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time, the continuous free and fair polls have given confidence to local mainstream parties to go for the political posturing and fish in troubled waters at times as well. This exercise has also been helping the Government of India at the international level in building a narrative that they do not interfere with the verdict of people. Even after the reading down of article 370, the Modi government has not tried to disturb the reality of polling booths during DDC polls. However, there were allegations from the local mainstream parties from PAGD that they were not allowed free campaigning.
The fairness in polling and results helped PAGD to consolidate its position. Efforts were made to minimise the gains with the departure of PC from PAGD and making elected members of important mainstream parties to joining pro-centre groups. This caused a lot of panic among the cadres of NC and PDP, who felt that the government of India wanted to demolish them politically and keep them out of the scene.
Now after attending the All Party Meeting, the political scene has again started changing in Jammu and Kashmir.
New Lease of Life
Not going into the reasons behind the Prime Minister inviting the mainstream leaders for talks-whether he did so on his own or due to some external or internal pressure, but the fact is that the move has given a new lease of life to the electoral politics in Jammu and Kashmir.
A photograph from All Party Meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted at his official residence in Delhi on June 24, 2021. Fourteen politicians including four Chief Minister's and four Deputy Chief Minister's participated were invited.
The official machinery, which was reluctant till recently to listen to them even on small local issues, has to pay some attention to them now. Who knows these very leaders can be in power again. The leaders badly needed a change in the political situation. This will give confidence also to their workers and supporters that they are very much in the game. This confidence can help them in elections also.
The Delimitation Process
With the major political parties back on the scene, they would keep a close watch on the working of the delimitation commission. This is despite the fact that there is a feeling among NC and PDP that the final report and recommendations of the commission will surely help BJP as more seats will go to Jammu. This can strengthen the post-poll position of the BJP, which can come to power on its own in case the party swept the assembly polls in Jammu the same way as it did in the last election.
It may need some small help from the Kashmir based groups, which it is patronising presently. But in case the Jammu slipped out of its hands, the scenario can be altogether different.
Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)
Gupkar Declaration (PAGD)
National Conference (JKNC)
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
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Real Estate Concerns
Fierce Reactions
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A Grim Situation


a 4.8% increase in the value of used cars as measured by Manheim index; an 18% increase in the value of crushed car bodies; the beneficial mix of crushed cars sold as non-insurance cars and power.
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Episode 19 of the Date Night with Jake and Page podcast is here. And, oh snap, do we have a special one for you – we had Muggsy and Kim Bogues join us in studio!
Muggsy Bogues is, well, let's not mince words – he's a Charlotte sports icon. Point guard for those classic, throwback Hornets teams, Muggsy made a name for himself not only in the QC, but on the big screen as well, starring alongside Michael Jordan (and fellow Hornet Larry Johnson!) in Space Jam. Our kids (and Jake) may or may not have seen Space Jam 2,873 times.
He and Kim KEEP. IT. REAL. over the course of our hour together. Their relationship backstory is interesting to say the least, with Muggsy even stopping himself at once point and admitting that he had never told part of their story publicly before (which Kim acknowledged hilariously). We also talked post-NBA life, what they're up to now, and how Kim is trying to keep up with the crazy success of her catering business, Hearth-N-Soul.
We can't thank Muggsy and Kim enough for joining us on this episode, and as always, big thanks to Garrett Tichy, Hygge and Richard Brooke for having us as a member of their inaugural Hygge Podcast Residency! Please subscribe, share and comment on this episode. Past shows can be found on jakeandpage.com, iTunes and wherever you get your podcasts. We live stream most episodes on Facebook (Page Crawford Fox 46) and videos are posted to youtube.com/jakefehling.


In-Depth Reversing of Recent Gozi ISFB Banking Malware Version 2.16 & "client.dll"
A Look Into Signal's Encrypted Profiles-Can this feature get abused for OSINT discovery?
tools Imaginary C2 is a python tool which aims to help in the behavioral (network) analysis of malware.
tools Vba2Graph - Generate call graphs from VBA code, for easier analysis of malicious documents.
tools WAM is a platform powered by Python to monitor "Web App"


One such gap is in the provisions laid down for convening the meeting of the Committee of Creditors (CoC).
As per Regulation 22 of the CIRP, 2016, minimum 33% of voting rights is required to be present for any meeting to hold good. Such members may be present either in person or by video conferencing or by any audio-visual means.
However, as per Regulation 21(3)(b) read with 25(5) of the CIRP, 2016, no voting can take place at the meeting in case even a single member of the CoC is absent. The Resolution Professional conducting the meeting has to provide for e-voting facility in case any (even single) member of the CoC is absent from the meeting.
On reading of the two Regulations referred above, it seems that in IBC – there are effectively two quorum – (a) 33 % of the total voting rights of the CoC - for the meeting to hold good for discussion; (b) 100 % of the total members of the CoC - for allowing voting at the meeting.
This is unlike the age old practice being followed for Companies Act purposes where once quorum is present, deliberation can be done and voting can be sought.
As per Regulation 21(1) read with Regulation 23(1) of the CIRP, the notice of the meeting "shall inform" of the option available to the members to participate through video conferencing or other audio and visual means.
Also, as said above, in case any member of the CoC is not present at the meeting, votes with respect to such meetings have to be sought via e-voting.
In its intent to make use of technology, it seems that the provisions of the law have missed on the practical difficulty and cost burden on the corporate debtor (which is anyway financial unhealthy). E-voting is surely a costly and time consuming affair as one needs to develop model with respect to assigning voting percentage to each of the member of the CoC. This should be noted that for general meetings of members in corporate – the voting rights are aligned to the shareholding and the same is always updated on real time basis with the RTA. Therefore no extra calculation / programming needs to be done for conducting a voting by electronic means. However, since in IBC, the votes are aligned with the individual claim amount vs the total claim amount of all the financial creditors put together – the same has to be set in the system of the service providers to enable e-voting.
Also, as a matter of fact, unlike in case of corporate e-voting, in IBC e-voting is after the meeting. In corporate e-voting, the voting happens before the meeting.
The concept of e-voting is to allow such members to vote who are unable to attend the meeting in person. Accordingly, where all the members of the CoC are present at the meeting and ready to vote at the meeting, the requirement of providing video conferencing facility and voting by electronic means may be done away with.
However, where some members are not present, or where members want to take time (for example, consultations at their respective offices / heads), members may vote electronically.
Meetings are meant for decision making. Unlike Companies Act, while there is not explicit provision for voting remotely (by circulation or through e-voting only), however at the same time, the law has not expressly ruled out the same.
As such, participation by audio visual means is permitted and also encouraged. Meeting by circulation and voting remotely is a convenient mode for fast decision making and particularly for such a time bound process as resolution; therefore, there is nothing wrong in the COC deciding to adopt a resolution by circulation, particularly for matters which are not covered by the statute (that is a non-section 28(1) matter).
The same is also hinted in Regulation 25(1) and 25(2) of the CIRP. Where clause (1) for section 28 items mentions that the same "shall" be considered at the meeting; clause (2) for non-section 28 items mentions that such items "may" be considered at the meeting. To infer, a non-section 28 item may be considered through voting by circulation.
For any resolution to sail through, minimum 75% of votes in favour is required. Practically, there can be three situation – (a) assent; (b) dissent; and (d) present but did not vote i.e abstained from voting. The age old practice for corporate meetings have been that only "present and voted" is counted for the purpose of drawing conclusion for any agenda item. The reason for the same is that the ones who were present and still chose to abstain from voting were unable to make up their mind to either go for the resolution or against- hence they choose to remain with the majority.
The same is hinted in section 21(8) of the Code.
Accordingly, the 75% votes required for a resolution to sail through is 75% of those who casted their votes.
For example, at e-voting or voting at the meeting, a particular creditor may not vote at all (within the time allowed for evoting), or may refrain from voting. Such creditors' vote is not counted at all (the same is disregarded in both the denominator and the numerator).
PCS Nitu Poddar is an Associate in Vinod Kothari & Company.


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An original, one of a kind drawing of Barbès of South Slope Brooklyn, one of the Great Good Places of New York.
Size is 8" by 10", drawn in pen and brush with black India ink on 300-pound Fabriano art paper.
Barbès is a place with heart, and that heart is in the tiny back room where some very big music happens. It's a listening room, and when you're in there, you give the musicians your attention, whether it's one guy playing gypsy jazz guitar, or a nine-piece Slavik brass band blowing the roof off. Whoever's playing that night—and somebody's always playing—you're going to have a good time at Barbès.


British military intervention in Libya had no coherent strategy and ultimately contributed to the growth of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in North Africa, according to a parliamentary report.
Since Qaddafi's death, Libya has descended into a political vacuum and witnessed the growth of armed militias and extremist groups, including ISIS . The U.N.-backed GNA was tentatively formed in December 2015 following a period where the country had two rival governments, in Tripoli and the eastern city of Tobruk, but the GNA is still struggling to gain backing from all sides.
ISIS has established a base in the coastal city of Sirte, although it has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks from Libyan government forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes. The group is thought to have several thousand fighters in Libya.
The British government failed to identify the possibility that extremist groups might take advantage of the vacuum left after Qaddafi's toppling, according to the report. "The possibility that militant extremist groups would attempt to benefit from the rebellion should not have been the preserve of hindsight," the committee said.
The British Foreign Office defended the intervention as an internationally backed decision and said that Qaddafi was "unpredictable" and has the "means and motivation" to carry out his threats towards civilians. "After four decades of Qaddafi misrule, Libya undoubtedly faces huge challenges. The U.K. will continue to play a leading role within the international community to support the internationally recognised Libyan Government of National Accord," said a Foreign Office spokesman.
Who Is Khalifa Haftar, Libya's Divisive General?


text:
Q: gradle module resolution based on build types I'm fairly new to android development and gradle configuration in general but all the same have been tasked with this challenge. I need to disable a specific plugin/module (sorry not sure what even to call it) based on build types.
A bit more information is that the dependecies I want to disable are firebase dependencies. Not sure if this matters but I'm adding this to the question as well.
We have types as follows:
        debug {
           ...code here
        }
        qa {
           ...code here
        }
        release {
          ...code here
        }
        stage {
          ...code here
        }
        sft {
          ...code here
        }
        sandbox {
          ...code here
        }

And then we have dependencies as follows:
dependencies {
    ... dependencies that need to be there

    // these are the main concerns
    Implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:11.0.4"
    Implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:11.0.4"
}

My questions here are

*

*Can I shut down the dependencies in question here?

*If I can how can I do so conditionally for only specific build types?

Alternately:
If either cannot be done here, how is this done?
OR
is it possible to disable firebase messaging via the
resValue("bool", "FIREBASE_MESSAGE_ENABLED", "false")

I'm not sure where to look for what values are allowed for resValue in a built types.
thanks in advance for any and all help.

A: debugImplementation "com.url.thing-support:version.subversion"
for debug buildType
qaImplementation "com.url.thing-support:version.subversion.1"
for qa buildType
and so on...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
…and a whole lot more
The End Times / Last Days
2000 Years & Counting
Apocalyptic Language
Heaven and Earth – David Chilton
The Siege of Jerusalem
Dating the REVELATION
The Apocalypse in Space and Time – Bruce Gore
Dr. Kelly Birks – Sermons
Dr. Kelly Birks on the Apocalypse
Dr. Kelly Birks on the Parousia
Earthquakes & the End Times
Thy Word
Books and Excerpts
Ed Stevens' Podcast pdf's
Mike Winger on Homosexuality
American Vision
Charles Coty
Don Preston
Ed Stevens' site
Fulfilled Bible Commentary
H. Richard Neibuhr
Riley O'Brian Powell
Ryan McKittrick
Sovereign Grace Preterism
Christ Eternal Christian Church
The Antiquities
Bible Tools
The Reliability of the Bible
Greek Lex – Studylight
Biblebrowser
Bible.org
Was the NT Originally Written in Hebrew or Greek?
David Simonson's Custom Knives
Dr. Nelson Kelly Birks on the Apocalypse
This page is dedicated to a truly gifted teacher and loving pastor who passed away 4 years ago on March 12, 2015. I believe Kelly preached this series circa 2004. Thanks to his dedication to and his passion for the Word of God, his legacy lives on into perpetuity. Just as an FYI, there is an updated version of his Second Coming series here. ENJOY!
Revelation Series
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-01-When-Where-Who-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
1. When, Where, Who 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-03-The-Church-at-the-End-of-the-Age-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
3. The Church at the End of the Age 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-07-View-from-the-Holy-of-Holies-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
7. View from the Holy of Holies 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-09-Meaning-7-Seals-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
9. Meaning of the Seals 01
10. Meaning of the Seals 02
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-11-Sealed-Spirits-Saved-Nations-Trumpet-Solos-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
11. Sealed Spirits, Saved Nations & Trumpet Solos 01
12. Sealed Spirits, Saved Nations, & Trumpet Solos 02
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-15-7th-Angel-Sounded-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
15. 7th Angel Sounded 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-17-Temporary-Temple-2-Witnesses-Kelly-Birks.mp3
17. A Temporary Temple – 2 Witnesses
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-18-Woman-Explained-Wickedness-Inflamed-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
18. The Woman Explained & Wickedness Inflamed 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-20-Rome-Rears-its-Ugly-Head-Kelly-Birks.mp3
20. Rome Rears its Ugly Head
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-21-Nero-Had-a-Little-Lamb-Kelly-Birks.mp3
21. Nero Had a Little Lamb
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-22-Christs-Choir-Three-Angelic-Flyers-Kelly-Birks.mp3
22. Christ's Choir Three Angelic Flyers
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-23-On-Earth-As-It-Is-In-Heaven-Kelly-Birks.mp3
23. On Earth As It Is In Heaven
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-24-The-Whorehouse-of-Jerusalem-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
24. The Whorehouse of Jerusalem 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-26-Babylon-is-Fallen-Kelly-Birks.mp3
26. Babylon Is Fallen
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-27-Annihilation-Ethnic-Israel-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
27. Annihilation of Ethnic Israel 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-29-The-Saviors-Second-Marriage-Kelly-Birks.mp3
29. The Saviors Second Marriage
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-30-Meaning-of-Mill-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
30. The Meaning of the Millennium 01
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-32-Great-White-Throne-Judgement-Kelly-Birks.mp3
32. The Great White Throne Judgement
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-33-Particulars-of-New-Heaven-Earth-Kelly-Birks.mp3
33. The Particulars of the New Heaven & Earth
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-34-Touring-the-Holy-Jerusalem-Kelly-Birks.mp3
34. Touring The Holy Jerusalem
http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Revelation-Series-35-Final-Vision-Instructions-Warnings-01-Kelly-Birks.mp3
35. Final Vision Instructions & Warnings 01
Bible Prophecy Fulfilled (Day, Kashian, Parrish)
Charles Meek
CharlesCoty.com
Dr. Nelson Kelly Birks
Ed Stevens
Renewed Mind
Revelation Revolution
Riley O'Brian Powell
Spotlight on Movies


text:
Is it the capital cost of solar still too expensive
02 November 2020 | Answered by The Solar Hub
Especially when compared to equivalent diesel-based solutions?
The Solar Hub
The Solar Hub Official User
That used to be the case. However the price of solar panels have dropped 80% in the last 10 years, making the technology more affordable. Typically for the small schemes solar capital cost can be compared to diesel-generator ones. What is important however, it is to look at costs over the life of equipment. As good solar panels have a lifespan of 25 years and the running costs are so low, the cost advantages will become clear when looking at it over time. On average, Return on investment period ranges between 0 to 4 years and cost savings are of 40% to 90% when compared to equivalent diesel systems.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar PV Water Pumping Schemes
Solar panels efficiency.
Solar Water Pumping Training at SERC
Solar Powered Water Systems - Online Training