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Blog Building New Foundations: Recent Advances in Tissue Engineering
Building New Foundations: Recent Advances in Tissue Engineering
A bio-engineered heart-valve, a small example of the top-down approach. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Since the development of in-depth stem cell research and particularly the ability to induce pluripotency – the ability to differentiate cells into many or all cell-types – the promise of generating replacement tissues and organs for patients has been a virtual "holy grail" for the field of regenerative medicine. Many advances have been made in transforming somatic body cells into pluripotent stem cells, and pathways have been uncovered to differentiate those cells into almost any known cell type in a controlled manner. However, these cells need to be organized into a defined structure for the engineered tissue to be of any use for transplantation. Two conflicting camps have advocated for distinctly different methods, one using a framework of biodegradable polymer treated with drugs to encourage cell growth within the matrix, and the other using direct cell "printing," which deposits individual cells to create complex structures. Both of these methods have their merits, and the argument essentially boils down to building top-down versus bottom-up – there is, however, a lot of common ground between the two.
As early as the late 1990's, the most popular idea for organizing cells into an organ was the top-down scaffolding concept. This approach involves developing some biocompatible structure on which seeded cells could grow and differentiate in a controlled way. This idea was in development in multiple forms before the big stem cell boom —when it became possible to reprogram somatic cells to stem cells instead of finding a donor — when it became possible to reprogram somatic cells to stem cells instead of finding a donor – and subsequently became massively popular as the potential to combine the potency of stem cells with the organization of a scaffold electrified the regenerative medicine field. Numerous methods of producing a scaffold have since been developed. The most organic, though perhaps least clinically relevant, is a method that involves de-cellularizing a cadaveric organ using detergents delivered via the organ's vasculature.4 After this, the remaining connective tissue structure is re-populated with cells. This method has demonstrated a degree of potential: one group reported success using neonatal rat cardiac cells to repopulate an adult heart to create a functional organ, and another group used a similar procedure on an adult mouse kidney and repopulated it with murine embryonic stem cells, with similar success.4 While these experiments present the promise of scaffolds in tissue engineering, they also come with severe drawbacks, namely the need for an existing cadaveric organ (which in the clinical case would have to come from a different individual than the patient, introducing complications to the transplantation procedure).
To address these issues, scientists have been pursuing multiple avenues for the generation of artificial, biodegradable polymer scaffolds, using techniques ranging from photolithography to syringe-based gel deposition to freeform solid fabrication. However, most of these methods lack important features, such as internal architecture resolution, which allows for more complex internal structures to develop (such as, very importantly, vasculature), flexibility or simply the capacity for "high-throughput" production, the ability to produce tissue quickly and efficiently.1 It has proven difficult to find a balance between the ability to carefully define intricate internal structures, defined by multiple cell types, and the fabrication time necessary to produce a prototype which can then be seeded with organs. Furthermore, many cell-types (typically mesoderm-derived types, like muscle cells) often require a biomechanical force to be applied to promote cell growth and organization, which is something that current polymer scaffolds cannot address.8 As a result of these drawbacks, scaffolding methods have had the most success in tissue generation that involves relatively simple layouts, such as the engineered cartilaginous tissue developed by Feng-Huei Lin's group for the potential treatment of osteoporosis.5
An alternative camp developed sometime around 2003, when Roger Markwald and Thomas Boland modified a commercial inkjet printer to print protein solutions and individual cells on glass and gel surfaces.2,6 The software they developed to accompany their custom cell-printer allowed them to deposit cells on a gel in pre-defined, high resolution patterns with very high cell viability. Further modifications to the system by subsequent researchers allowed for printing inside of a three-dimensional block of gel to create intricate cell structures, internal and external, of varying cell-types, with very high viability and cell-cell fusion to create solid surfaces of tissues. Using this method, very intricate organ structures can be designed using the computer software and then printed using "bioinks" made from partially or fully differentiated cells and proteins that promote cell adhesion.2 The drawback, however, is the time necessary to produce the organ itself, since the process involves building the organ cell by cell, layer by layer, which is a lengthy process for something as complex and large as an adult heart, for instance. Other groups have been experimenting with alternate printing methods to improve printing speed and resolution further, such as Fabien Guillemot's group, which used laser assisted printing to print slightly faster with increased cell density and resolution depending on the laser's scanning frequency (how rapidly it passes over the surface to be printed).3 The scaling and throughput issue intrinsic to this approach to organ building is a continuous source of new work in the field, with new innovations coming in by the droves.
Finally, Ulrich Schubert's group has arrived at an unconventional middle-ground between these two methods: organ weaving. Their method involves using suturing threads that are coated in an alginate gel with suspended cells, and then taking multiple threads, coated with either the same or different cell types, and literally weaving them around a base structure.7 They experiment using gradients of cell types based on the pattern used in the weave, and in all cases achieve very high cell viability. Their method combines the high-throughput ease and speed of artificial scaffolding with the ability to better control the resolution and cell types used like with cell-printing. This is a unique and very promising approach to tissue engineering.
As stem cell technology advances further, making patient-specific stem cells easier to make, maintain, and differentiate into target cell types, tissue engineering is evolving to keep in step with the demands of the clinical promise of custom organs. Though some critics are concerned that in vitro organogenesis is the first step on the "slippery slope" of human cloning, the promise for highly beneficial clinical application under careful and insightful oversight is enough to calm most opponents' fears. As the technology develops, we see less conflict between the top-down and bottom-up approaches, and instead see a harmonious combination of the two approaches, melding the benefits of both to create new avenues for successful organ growth in the future.
Boland, Thomas, et al. "Advances in Tissue Engineering: Cell Printing." Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 129, no. 2, (2005): 470-472.
Boland, Thomas, et al. "Cell and Organ Printing 1: Protein and Cell Printers." The Anatomical Record, Part A 272A, (2003): 491-496.
Guillemot, Fabien, et al. "Laser Assisted Bioprinting of Engineered Tissue with High Cell Density and Microscale Organization." Biomaterials 31, (2010): 7250-7256.
Kobayashi, Eiji, et al. "Kidney Organogenesis and Regeneration: A New Era in the Treatment of Chronic Renal Failure?" Clinical Experimental Nephrology 12, (2008): 326-331.
Lin, Feng-Huei, et al. "A Highly Organized Three-Dimensional Alginate Scaffold for Cartilage Tissue Engineered Prepared by Microfluidic Technology." Biomaterials 32, (2011): 7118-7126.
Markwald, Roger, et al. "Organ Printing: Computer-aided Jet-based 3D Tissue Engineering." Trends in Biotechnology 21, no. 4, (2003): 157-161.
Schubert, Ulrich, et al. "Organ Weaving: Woven Threads and Sheets As a Step Towards a New Strategy for Artificial Organ Development." Macromolecular Bioscience 11, (2011): 1491-1498.
Stoica, Adrian. "Robotic Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering and Organ Growth." NASA Tech Briefs. Jan 23, 2012. http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/10747.
HIA. "Herzklappe." Wikimedia Commons. Dec. 2, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herzklappe.JPG
Aleks Penev is a third year student at the University of Chicago majoring in Biology with a minor in Computer Science. He is also currently doing research with induced pluripotent stem cells and hopes to extend his research focus into the translational aspects of patient-specific organogenesis and transplantation. Follow The Triple Helix Online on Twitter and join us on Facebook.
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Home Finance Ask the Experts: Breaking down the Paycheck Protection Program
Ask the Experts: Breaking down the Paycheck Protection Program
Eric Strauss
The Paycheck Protection Program is perhaps the biggest item for business owners in the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act that was passed last week by the federal government.
The Paycheck Protection Program allocates $349 billion to provide businesses with a short-term cash infusion. Critically, those committed to keeping employees on their payroll during the pandemic have the potential for those loans to later be partially, if not totally, forgiven.
Businesses can begin applying Friday.
Through the program, businesses can apply for a loan of either 2.5 times their average payroll over a 12-month period or $10 million, whichever is lower. The funds can be used to pay employees, rent, utilities or certain other overhead costs.
Keith Krauss.
Keith Krauss, counsel at Genova Burns, said there are some important things to know about it: There are roadblocks for those with high employee counts (many businesses with more than 500 can't apply), as well as those with high employee salaries (the loan can't cover compensation of more than $100,000 annually for full forgiveness).
"I was just on the phone with a client that has to pay too many employees over $100,000 to be able to really benefit from this," Krauss said. "Another problem we ran into was a car dealer who was going to be over the 500-employee limit because of the way the dealerships, which were all different companies, were going to be aggregated into one corporation."
However, businesses in certain industries may have more than 500 people on their payroll and still apply for the loan if they meet the Small Business Administration's size standards for those particular industries.
"There's all sorts of twists and turns," Krauss said.
As an example of the winding road a company might have to travel with an adviser: An enterprise such as Calandra's, which has around 850 people on staff, would normally be too big to qualify by the SBA's criteria. But under the agency's classification system is a carve-out for accommodation and food service businesses to remain eligible, providing the business has less than 500 workers at individual locations, and revenues under a certain threshold at those locations.
Ken Biddick.
That's according to Ken Biddick, senior managing director at KB Consulting Group, a Sewell-based firm that serves as a contracted chief financial officer to small and medium-sized businesses. He's one of the many financial advisers working around the clock to help business owners understand how this program might help them.
Businesses feel a particular urgency to figure out the details, and they're not wrong to. The program covers a period beginning Feb. 15 and ending June 30 and includes time-sensitive aspects, such as the need for companies that have laid off employees to rehire them within that window to be eligible for the loan forgiveness.
Keeping the doors open at some businesses may depend on it, Biddick said.
"A restaurant with zero business that has already let people go can possibly apply for this program and have their loan forgiven, as long as they're pledging to keep payroll intact and can bring people back by June 30," he said.
Read about Calandra's worries about the economy.
The amount of the loan businesses can expect will be forgiven diminishes in proportion to how much the average annual payroll went down, starting at a 25% reduction.
Tricia Gasparine.
Tricia Gasparine, co-chair of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi P.C.'s Public Finance Group, said it's all about how much a business is paying its workers — not what those workers are doing.
That's an important distinction, given that some businesses, especially those deemed "non-essential" by various states' quarantine orders, have to consider paying workers despite not having much — or anything, for that matter — for them to do remotely.
"To my understanding, what the government wants is for you to maintain your workforce, keep people paid," she said. "To the extent they can work from home, great. But if they can't, that's OK, as we try to get this thing under control. I've seen nothing tied to productivity or output."
Many businesses are coming to Gasparine and other busy advisers aware of these distinctions.
"My experience is that clients have done their best to educate themselves already on the options that are available," she said. "They're looking to us to make sure their read is correct … and they have narrow, nuanced questions about the programs, 'What happens if I do X instead of Y?'"
The problem for those trying to provide the answers is that they're working with some unknowns. A crucial one is this: No one is quite sure when all the forms for applying for these loans will be available (SBA officials have indicated possibly this week) or when they will be awarded.
Heidi Hansen.
Heidi Hansen, also of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, said a network of community banks and larger financial institutions is gearing up at the same for the implementation of this program. And as those actually dispensing the funds to businesses, they'll play a major role.
"While it is still early, one piece of practical advice for businesses looking to get these loans is to first look to connect with your own bank," Hansen said. "Because of the 'Know Your Customer' rule, if they don't have an account already established, they might be slowed down going through this process."
Banks have to be SBA-approved lenders to participate in the loan program. It's possible that even certified banks will take applications for loans only up to certain sizes.
Alisha Jernack, senior manager for entrepreneurial business services at Mazars USA LLP, said her team has not only been working with clients to optimize their potential proceeds from the program, but presenting their plans to major banks.
Alisha Jernack.
"We want to make sure we have their buy-in on this," she said. "The feedback so far from banks is just that they haven't received guidance yet, despite them being the ones to distribute the money. Outside of that, they're not quite sure where to go with this."
When it comes to her clients, Jernack calls for a "peeling back the onion" approach to looking through the different layers of a company's expenses to find cost centers that might not be immediately apparent for what the loan money could be used for, such as storage fees.
Financial guidance, like everything else, is changing by the minute.
Just about a week ago, business advisers were directing clients worried about going under during the pandemic to the Small Business Administration's disaster relief loans.
"So, I had a lot of clients immediately asking, 'If we previously applied for these SBA loans, are we able to still apply for this new program?'" Jernack said. "The answer is yes, but it has to be applied to different costs."
For now, the Paycheck Protection Program is the go-to device for staying afloat.
"The bottom line is, even if there's nothing for employees to do, even if you're not getting a nickel at the cash register, this can potentially bail you out for two months," Krauss said.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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July 28, 2016 / 3:21 PM / 3 years ago
Exclusive: Claire's Stores to begin debt restructuring talks - sources
Jessica DiNapoli, Greg Roumeliotis
(Reuters) - Claire's Stores Inc has decided to start negotiations with its creditors about restructuring its debt, as it seeks to avoid becoming the latest U.S. teen retailer to file for bankruptcy protection, according to people familiar with the matter.
Claire's, known for its affordable jewelry and ear piercing services, has seen losses widen while its debt load has swollen to $2.4 billion, as more people shop online and take their teen and pre-teen girls to malls less frequently.
Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N), the private equity firm that owns Claire's, has asked law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP to represent the retailer in its talks with its creditors, the people said this week.
Infographic ID: '2adKZVI'
The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Apollo, Claire's and Morgan Lewis & Bockius did not respond to requests for comment.
At least eight teen apparel retailers have filed for bankruptcy over the past two years amid fierce competition and stagnating sales, including Aeropostale Inc AROPQ.PK, Pacific Sunwear of California PSUNQ.PK and The Wet Seal Inc.
Claire's has shuttered more than 150 stores over the past year to help trim costs, and as of the end of April had 2,831 company-operated stores across the U.S. and Europe. The company generates annual revenue of around $1.4 billion.
Apollo, which took Claire's private in 2007 in a leveraged buyout valued at approximately $3.1 billion, has already tried to give the company some debt relief. Earlier this year, Apollo bought Claire's bonds maturing in 2017 and in May swapped out that debt for new debt that also matures next year, according to a regulatory filing. This has the effect of pushing back interest payments.
Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service Inc last month called Apollo's $175 million debt repurchase a "distressed exchange" that was carried out because of Claire's inability to fully service its quarterly interest expense.
In May, Claire's hired Ron Marshall as CEO. He was a member of the company's board who had extensive experience working with distressed companies. He was previously the CEO of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co Inc, a supermarket operator, before it filed for its first bankruptcy. He also worked as the CEO of bookseller Borders Group Inc before it filed for bankruptcy.
Michael D'Appolonia, a former principal at turnaround advisory firm DeNovo Perspectives LLC, also joined the board of Claire's in June.
Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Bernard Orr


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Gymnacranthera maliliensis är en tvåhjärtbladig växtart som beskrevs av R.T.A. Schouten. Gymnacranthera maliliensis ingår i släktet Gymnacranthera och familjen Myristicaceae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Magnoliaordningen
maliliensis

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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New book series: Connected Youth and Digital Futures
Audience, Book, Culture, Identity / Privacy, Teens
Building on research supported by the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning initiative, New York University Press launches Connected Youth and Digital Futures, a new series that explores young people's day-to-day lives and futures.
This series offers books – available free online – that describe the ways that the day-to-day lives and futures of young people are being reconfigured at the intersection of civil and political reform, transformation in employment and education, and the growing presence of digital technologies across all domains of social and personal life.
(Read this short piece by Julian Sefton-Green on DMLCentral for more background on the initiative.)
The first two books are:
By Any Media Necessary The New Youth Activism
by Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Liana Gamber-Thompson, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, Arely Zimmerman
There is a widespread perception that the foundations of American democracy are dysfunctional, public trust in core institutions is eroding, and little is likely to emerge from traditional politics that will shift those conditions. Youth are often seen as emblematic of this crisis—frequently represented as uninterested in political life, ill-informed about current-affairs, and unwilling to register and vote. By Any Media Necessary offers a profoundly different picture of contemporary American youth. Young men and women are tapping into the potential of new forms of communication such as social media platforms, spreadable videos and memes, remixing the language of popular culture, and seeking to bring about political change—by any media necessary. In a series of case studies covering a diverse range of organizations, networks, and movements involving young people in the political process—from the Harry Potter Alliance which fights for human rights in the name of the popular fantasy franchise to immigration rights advocates using superheroes to dramatize their struggles—By Any Media Necessary examines the civic imagination at work. Before the world can change, people need the ability to imagine what alternatives might look like and identify paths by which change can be achieved. Exploring new forms of political activities and identities emerging from the practice of participatory culture, By Any Media Necessary reveals how these shifts in communication have unleashed a new political dynamism in American youth.
The Class Living and Learning in the Digital Age
by Sonia Livingstone, Julian Sefton-Green
Do today's youth have more opportunities than their parents? As they build their own social and digital networks, does that offer new routes to learning and friendship? How do they navigate the meaning of education in a digitally connected but fiercely competitive, highly individualized world? Based upon fieldwork at an ordinary London school, The Class examines young people's experiences of growing up and learning in a digital world. In this original and engaging study, Livingstone and Sefton-Green explore youth values, teenagers' perspectives on their futures, and their tactics for facing the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. The authors follow the students as they move across their different social worlds—in school, at home, and with their friends, engaging in a range of activities from video games to drama clubs and music lessons. By portraying the texture of the students' everyday lives, The Class seeks to understand how the structures of social class and cultural capital shape the development of personal interests, relationships and autonomy. Providing insights into how young people's social, digital, and learning networks enable or disempower them, Livingstone and Sefton-Green reveal that the experience of disconnections and blocked pathways is often more common than that of connections and new opportunities.
[Book] A City Is Not a Computer
The drive for privacy and the difficulty of achieving it in the digital age


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Home :: Military :: Facilities :: Army Depots ::
US Forces Korea Facilities
Masan Ammunition Depot
Masan Ammunition Depot Pictures
Chinhae Navy Base
Masan is about 35 miles west of Pusan. The facility at Masan was the site of a former Japanese ammunition depot with an airstrip. It had been selected because it was close to the action, had a 2,600-foot grass and concrete runway (already being used by a combined US-ROK Air Force training squadron), and included a pair of completed hangars with a third under construction.
Masan was also located just across the bay from the Chinhae Naval Base and was a major road and rail hub in South Korea. Supplies could therefore be quickly unloaded from ships docking at Chinhae and then loaded onto trucks or trains for further distribution. Masan was the the southern starting point for the MSR 4 roadway linking Masan and Chunchon by way of Taegu. It was also along MSR 6 which ran along the ROK's southern coastline. The rail lines originating at Masan had been laid by the Japanese during the colonial period. These lines connected to Seoul and to Sinuiju in North Korea, where they were linked with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The railroad network was badly damaged during the Korean War, but it was later rebuilt and improved.
During the war the haul from Masan to Chongju and back was 460 miles, and the turnaround took approximately 36 hours. In May 1955 the 142nd Quartermaster Battalion was moved from Masan and assumed the mission of providing Quartermaster support to US/UN Forces in the Southern area plus Class I perishable support for all US Forces in Korea.


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Health Administration Resource Guide: Research Centers and Policy Institutes
National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM)
The NIHCM Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization seeking to improve the quality of America's health care system through research, policy analysis, and educational activities. This website offers full-text research publications, news, and extensive web links.
Rand Health
Rand is a nonprofit research organization, and the health division conducts research on health policy and decision making. Publications include full-text congressional newsletters and searchable journal abstracts with some full-text. Rand's surveys and tools are available in full-text.
Alliance for Health Reform
The Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group whose goal is to provide information on health care issues to elected officials, journalists, and policy analysts. Publications, issue-briefs, and news are available in full-text.
A nonprofit, private foundation which focuses on health care issues and conducts its own research. Health care topics covered include health insurance costs, Medicaid and Medicare, HIV, prescription drugs, state health policy, and more. Reports and surveys are available in full-text. Includes State Health Facts , containing state data on health and health policy.
"The largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care in the United States." Concentrates on grantmaking in health care access, quality of care, community health, and substance abuse. Provides some searchable, full-text grant results reports and briefs, newsletters, occasional papers, and other publications. This site provides access to the RWJF Publications.
NBER. Health Economics Program
NBER, National Bureau of Economic Research, is a private, nonprofit, research organization. Its "Health Economics Program" emphasizes economics of substance use, the economics of obesity, economic models of the determinants of health, and the determinants of the cost of medical care. Free downloadable working papers are provided. Suffolk community members may access and download from the NBER Working Papers database
Georgetown University Health Policy Institute
The Institute is a group of faculty and staff at Georgetown University who conduct research on health policy and health services. Research topics covered include Medicare and Medicaid, consumer protection, health insurance, hospitals, long-term care, and more. Some publications and articles are available in full-text.
Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation, supporting research on health and social issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. This website offers the full-text of publications, data, surveys, program summaries, and news.
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When I last sat down to write this we were preparing for a winter storm and I was rather sick. The weather experts kept putting off the arrival of the winter storm until they eventually cancelled it all together. Too bad they couldn't cancel the record cold temperatures…brrr. The worse part of my illness lasted until a couple of days ago…no more fevers, headaches, and body aches. All I have left is a nagging cough that will likely take a week or so to clear up.
I spent the weekend finishing up our lessons for the 4th/2nd grade year. We'll be finishing up in the next ten weeks. So I must begin planning in earnest for the next few months. The next school year begins in July so I still have the months of April through June to fill. This year I plan to fill those months with extra math work and a United States geography course and possible road trip to the nation's capitol. Next year I will plan out our school year differently so that we do not have a large break.
We usually finish up our day by 2:30 or so. We finish up much earlier on Thursday and Friday due to tests and some subjects are finished up in four days. Many times our labs and hands on projects are reserved for the end of the week so we can take our time and have s bit of fun.
Littlest started preschool this week. Sometimes I help him do a page in his book and other times oldest works with him. Other than not being able to physically hold a pencil properly he is zooming along. Sometimes I can see Littlest's frustration with his physical development not keeping up with his intellectual development. He really wants to write and spell but just cannot physically do so…the fine motor skills are not yet present. I am not sure what to do for him…some things come with time (and physical development). Got any ideas???
Glad you are feeling better! My daughter had similar frustration with writing and spelling. She wanted to learn before it was "her time". We used a couple of hands on activities for her. Jr. Boggle was a good one because she could just take the cards and spell the words on her own. She also enjoyed a learn to read puzzle that had 3 letter words on puzzle pieces with a picture of the word on it.
Sorry you've been unwell! We've been dealing with nagging sickness here too.
Can't believe your so close to the end of your school year! I'm in planning mode right now too (5th grade history!).
This cough is slowly going away…very slowly. We are a little ahead of schedule and so I plan to fill our in between time with some geography and work on math facts until we start back up in July. I think we are going to move to a four day school week and keep Friday for all day enrichment, educational games, art and music appreciation.
I am planning history right now too! I am really leaning toward combining history and science next year using Beautiful Feet Books History of Science and we'll continue to work our way through The Story of the World.
Thank you for the tips!!! I'll have to look into some of those.


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Founded in 2000, the Lake Isle Hotel and Restaurant is a gastronomic experience not to be missed. Boasting an impressive 2AA Rosette and Michelin Guide recommendation, guests will not be disappointed when they visit!
Head Chef, Stuart Mead, has a passion for creating stunning and exciting dishes using locally sourced ingredients. His unique combination of flavours and visual presentation ensures that diners will enjoy a feast for the eyes, as well as the taste buds.
The reputation and size of the growing wine cellar at the Lake Isle boasts an impressive collection that will please any connoisseur; with over 200 wines and more than 20 champagnes available – from a simple yet satisfying Sauvignon Blanc, through to a vintage Louis Roederer 'Cristal'.
In addition to the fine dining restaurant, their business meeting facilities will ensure that your discussions can take place undisturbed and confidentially.
Business customers and their associates will be treated to a wide range of refreshments - from homemade pastries with coffee and juices for your breaks to sandwiches or a full lunch, serviced in either your meeting room or the award winning 2AA Rosette restaurant.
**Lake Isle takes their guests dietary requirements very seriously. Advance notice of your needs allows the chefs to design a menu suited perfectly to you. So you won't miss out on anything!


Flu season is upon us and the 2013-2014 Ontario flu vaccination campaign in in full effect. More than 4,000 pharmacists in Ontario are now certified to administer the flu shot so it is easier than ever to protect yourself and our community.
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu," is a serious, acute respiratory illness that can lead to pneumonia. It is caused by a virus.


Greetings to all, it is my pleasure to introduce myself and launch this new column for astrology. My name is Belle and it is my great joy to be here with you all. I'm a very amateur, but also rather long time and curious astrology practitioner, of Western Astrology in particular. I started over 25 years ago, as a skeptical yet mystical and romantic teenager. The skepticism remains to this day and keeps me somewhat vigilant and questioning like a detective and the mysticism remains keeping me fascinated, amazed, and open to the myriad patterns and songs the sky sings through us.
My approach to astrology, and to most things in general, is to learn, to listen, to be open minded, to research, and then to check it out deeply for myself, using my common sense, my intuition, my body, contemplation, observation, waiting and cross checking. Somewhat like a scientist. Somewhat like a meditator. Somewhat like an artist. I don't and never have taken things on blind faith, and I would highly recommend you don't either when you read my posts. Please receive that as an important drop of guiding advice for all my sharings in this post and all future posts.
Astrology is an extraordinarily vast and complex kind of psychological cosmology, of which anything I could ever say is less than the smallest speck. Each astrology interpreter has their own way, their own emphasizes, interests and of course style of expression. And it is most important to note that anything I could ever say is never as important as what your own heart tells you and your own common sense. Please remember that.
It is my wish to make things that I am aware are apparently, I say apparently because it is best to take it lightly, going on, somewhat simple to understand as astrology can be as complicated as the most obtuse language or abstract mathematical computation and I have neither the skill nor the interest to relay that! All that now being said, let's get started on our first meal of some hopefully digestible star-chewing shall we?
Firstly, I feel compelled to say, this month of March and all the way to mid-May are astoundingly NOT the BEST TIMES FOR MAKING BIG LIFE CHANGING DECISIONS, COMMITMENTS, OR MASSIVE DEALS.
In a bit more detail: Venus is retrograde all this month until at least mid next month, bringing up much to reflect on, possibly dredge through, review, recalibrate and either deepen into, return to or get ready to release when it comes to all matters of love and what we value and our finances.
Examples of how this backward trajectory of Venus may play itself out on the ground, in your life, may include such things as past lovers coming into your mind to haunt you, or even re-appearing by making some kind of contact or perhaps you towards them; or belated lessons may be learnt now from your relationships in the past, informing you about what matters most to you now. Other ways this could play out for us all is that we may be experiencing the dawning of new understandings about what we enjoy and appreciate on the level of our senses, are we deciding we want to be more glamorous in the future, admiring different clothes or colours than usual, conceiving of relationships differently than we have before?
Venus rules our physical senses and our own unique appreciation and perception of beauty. Venus also rules our financial affairs, and more specifically how and what we value, and how and what we feel about possessing and possessions in general. Venus shines her light on the way we adorn, decorate, offer, receive, enter and operate within the sensory sphere. On a higher octave, it is what we most value in life and how we work to attract/make/create/gather/keep/cherish that. Venus can be pure finance and wealth itself. We may be opening ourselves to unexpected approaches to our money and material assets at this time of the retrograde, are we wanting to be more generous, to sell something precious, invest in something we realize is truest to hearts or take up a new enterprise that reflects what we love? These kinds of questions may appear as Venus becomes more introspective. Though as mentioned, it may be best to implement and fully commit to what you are now imagining and preparing for, especially major changes to your body like cutting all your very long hair off, or plastic surgery, tattoos, or even buying a new house, because you may regret it after Venus comes out of her reverie, later in May 2017.
Mercury, planet of communication, and all things related to communication in every way, be it spoken, written, messaged, posted, signed, sealed, delivered, contracted, and also all matters to do with travel, journeys, tours, and the nuts and bolts of our voiced energies, is going into shadow and then also retrograde all next month.
How might this touch our actual lives? Typically, when Mercury, related to the Mythical God Apollo, puts on his breaks and starts creeping backward, we may all experience some hesitation and some confusion when it comes to matters of communication. Like all retrograding planets, when Mercury turns around, it brings a turn around in our life, particularly in the area where Mercury is moving through your personal natal chart, which will differ for everyone, depending on factors of birth time, date, and place. However, it will always suggest one of a few key aspects. A change or at least big questioning of mind, word, opinion or vow. A slowdown of movement in general of mind or/and body, or a delay or change or challenge in travel plans and activities. A return of something from the past, a return on money owed or promised or due is possible or a reminder of a debt.
A return of an old friend or love. A return of something you thought was gone or lost. Mercury when retrograde can also famously manifest in crossed-wires, having to re-do things we have written or re-state things we have said, perhaps repeatedly, so that our message comes through more clearly than we would otherwise have to ensure. Many astrologers suggest, that this is typically not the best time to sign any major contracts. We are also cautioned to be more patient with technology and all forms of transportation which may be affected by delays and glitches.
Mercury moves retrograde around three times each year for chunks of several weeks so this might not always be practical. But in our case during April 2017, if we can postpone making major proposals that may radically change our life and require our full backing or at least hold off on closing on them in a locked way until the direct motion of this Lord of all matters Linguistic, Lawful, Social and Civilised- we may find out some more information during April that will come in handy for when, and if, we do decide to go forward in whatever communication area this may apply to in our lives by May. If we must send off those requests or confirmations during April, that is fine, but be prepared that we may need to do more fine tuning, re-doing, or even reneging on it at a later stage after Mercury clears his head when racing forward by June.
Saturn, sometimes called Lord of Karma, planet of duty, maturing and maturity, responsibility, and whether we are taking it or not, commitment, hard lessons leading to sobriety and wisdom, will also retrograde on April 6th for many months, until stationing direct on August 25th., but planets always take a while to get back on track, so give that until September to really be back in gear. When Saturn turns retrograde, what we tend to find is the onus of responsibility is more inwardly thrust. Instead of feeling like we are duty-bound and answerable to some kind of big authority outside of us, we are somewhat more supported, and this may feel daunting depending on where we are at in our growth, to really see what we are responsible for, of our own accord, not because somebody else is reminding us or pushing us.
Pluto, the planet of power, empowerment, hidden treasure and hidden poison, death, rebirth, sexual energy, profound transformation, purification, is also retrograde, April 20th to September 28th.
With Pluto going retrograde, the common theme will be taking back our own power where we may have been misplacing it onto others. This is a huge reprieve and somewhat of a blessing for us all, but also entails potential strong emotions as we pry ourselves away from our projections and unearth deeper layers of psyche for purification and integration. Who is the real boss of our lives? What have we been hiding from ourselves? How have our relationships become unbalanced? What is eating at us deep inside, what is lurking in the dark? What do we need to let die, so that we can rise up from the ashes like a phoenix? These may be a few questions for us to courageously ask during Pluto's powerful retrospection.
Jupiter, the giant planet of optimism, expansion, good fortune, beneficence, growth and luck, has been retrograde since February 6th. Jupiter is the energy within us that is potentially overdoing things, but because Jupiter has so much generosity can usually fall on her feet. Jupiter presides over a range of life areas including learning, teaching- particularly higher level learning, philosophy, religion, things at a distance, long distance travel, foreign affairs, law and the internet.
Jupiter's current retrograde has supported good fortune when it comes to internal growth and spiritual work and will continue to particularly assist us if we apply ourselves to well-motivated activity in that way at this time. Anything involving behind-the-scenes preparation for growth, large scale travel, and launching big new bright moves benefiting many may be large in hearts now. It is in celestial harmony to take more outward action on these ideas and big plans after Jupiter goes into forwarding motion from June 9th.
So, as can be seen, we are experiencing personally and as a collective, an astoundingly retrograded astral weather period of many months, particularly intense in its impact, or let's say: an invitation for some inner-book-keeping, during April 2017. What does this mean in a nutshell? Retrograded planets appear to be moving backward in space. The resonance they are known to have by those long schooled in these matters, even on a theoretical level of astrological portents alone, but more incisively and insightfully perhaps, by those long observing, even somewhat skeptically, in the laboratory of their own bodies and minds and perceptions, is that retrogradation of planetary bodies does cause more of an introversion of energies.
What does this mean in a nutshell? Retrograded planets appear to be moving backward in space. The resonance they are known to have by those long schooled in these matters, even on a theoretical level of astrological portents alone, but more incisively and insightfully perhaps, by those long observing, even somewhat skeptically, in the laboratory of their own bodies and minds and perceptions, is that retrogradation of planetary bodies does cause more of an introversion of energies.
A retreating, reflecting, reforming, repeating, reckoning, refining, researching, reviewing, recasting, recalling, rewiring, rewriting, renovating (inner), reminiscing, reconstituting, recognizing, but perhaps not yet announcing or doing, realising, retracing, renouncing, repaying, reposing, resisting, reserving, resolving, reversing, reclaiming, redressing, redeeming, rebalancing. Ok, yes, you get it: anything pretty much with a 're' at the start of the word may be applicable here.
All those planets mentioned above being or imminently going retrograde and thus doing these backward prostrations (thank you for that term, Lama Rangbar, when you used it for the action of deliberate falling back in a faithful surrender from a standing position into deep snow), gyrations and reversed circumnavigations, have their own sphere of influence, as briefly touched on when I announced the planets, and in any particular individual's natal chart will be affecting each and every individual in a specific way and area of our day to day existence according to how it is transiting any of the 12 houses within a personal natal chart. That kind of detail can be discerned only by looking at your own birth chart or by having an astrologer go through it with you.
But for general purposes, based on this mega retro season for the planets, and certainly as April unfolds, the planets and their motions backward have their discernible influences ( see above again, for the 're' words to get the basic gist). We may well be wise to heed the signs if things don't feel quite right yet or quite ready yet. Be open to some extra introspection and extra effort when it comes to communication. And also, wherever possible it will be helpful to say yes to some extra rest.
My prediction is that by September a lot, and I mean a lot, will have shifted into a new light and feel lighter and feel much more aligned with everybody's true callings, integrity, love, direction, and purpose. It is an excellent time now and in these next few months to really be as honest as possible with ourselves, to see what is coming up inside, to hold a non-judgemental space for it, always a good thing any time of year but extra helpful this month and next, to write down or express these things in a more private way, either just for yourself or the most trusted, and let things percolate and marinate a bit.
In summary, March to Mid May is not, I'm sorry if this feels inconvenient to plans and agendas, the very best time to push hard for anything or to make huge external leaps. It is ok, you have time. And this time now is important for what will ripen and start to be harvested for the better later in the year if you let some important seeing and releasing happen in this now and this short term.
I will see you again in a month for your next astrological update, with features including the new moon and the full moon pearls of wisdom for May, and how mid-May onward won't be stagnant for you, but rather, loaded with opportunity and auspiciousness to get things moving!
Enjoy being more retro this April.
Belle has been studying astrology privately for over 25 years. Belle studied Creative Arts at University of Melbourne, Australia, and then spent several years training towards ordination as a Buddhist Nun. After nearly losing her life in retreat in a Thai Jungle Monastery, Belle returned to Melbourne, where she is now based. In recent years, watercolor painting has been a sweet daily revelation. Belle is available for private skype-based astrological readings and intuitive counsel.
Wonderful wishes! You are a great wishing Star shining brightly for all! I'm quite sure your wishes often come true too! 🙂 Thank you for your reading and commenting! Wishing you and everyone a kind month !


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Home / Knowledge / News / Apparel/Garments / IOM, H&M to work for protection of migrant workers
IOM, H&M to work for protection of migrant workers
IOM Finland Chief of Mission Simo Kohonen & H&M Group Head of Sustainability Anna Gedda sign MoU. Pic: IOM
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and H&M Group have joined hands to promote cooperation and mutual assistance for ethical recruitment and protection of migrant workers in global supply chains. The two have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in this connection. Migrant workers often face unethical recruitment practices.
The MOU was signed by the head of IOM's office in Finland Simo Kohonen and H&M Group's head of Sustainability Anna Gedda. IOM is the leading inter-governmental organisation in the field of migration and combats all forms of exploitation and abuse of migrant workers, while H&M Group is a public company that operates retail stores in more than 70 countries and partners with suppliers in over 30 countries.
Unethical recruitment practices and gaps in the governance of labour migration are leading risks that face migrant workers in the global economy. Fee-charging to workers, fraud during the hiring process, the confiscation of personal documents are all-too-common abuses that migrants encounter during the hiring process.
This MOU will leverage the strengths, expertise and global footprint of IOM and H&M Group to enhance migrant protections and improve the recruitment, employment and livelihood opportunities for migrants, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 10.
IOM deputy director general Laura Thompson said: "IOM is delighted to enter into this partnership with H&M Group. With this MOU, the company shows its true commitment and leadership in the fashion industry. We look forward to bringing our mutual strengths to tackle the complex challenges facing migrant workers in supply chains."
H&M's Anna Gedda said: "The partnership with IOM will strengthen our work to ensure fair working conditions for migrant workers in our supply chain. By joining forces, we can more efficiently address the systemic challenges migrant workers face. We see a need to collectively advocate for improved legislation and cross-border regulations at the same time as continuing the work on the ground, together with our business partners and other brands."
IOM's Labour Mobility and Human Development Division focuses on the protection of migrant workers and seeks to enhance the benefits of labour migration for all parties involved. The division operates the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS) – a global initiative designed to promote ethical recruitment with the support of governments, civil society, the labour movement, private sector and ethical recruiters.
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Expert, innovative research is essential in advocating for reform to prevent the theft of state assets and ensure their return.
Current research is listed below and in relevant project pages.
In 2011 and 2014, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals of former regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Ukraine freezing their assets in EU member states. This study analyses the effectiveness of this system as a tool against cross-border corruption and asset recovery. The research shows that while the misappropriation sanctions imposed on individuals in Tunisia, Egypt and Ukraine were certainly successful in showing political support to the new leadership, the success in recovering assets from the EU Member States has been very limited and the application of these sanctions have been inconsistent and opaque. The report suggests several reforms that could be taken up by policy makers to address the limitations of EU-wide sanctions to address grand corruption. Read the study here.
This paper, prepared by CiFAR in cooperation the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, explores the role that civil society organisations, independent journalists and researchers can and should play in this process. Through case studies of five of the most important current cases of cross-border corruption, it outlines how civil society can contribute to the tracing of stolen assets through independent investigations, can ensure the transparent and accountable use of assets once they are returned, and can help the public make sense of the complexities involved in cross-border corruption and asset recovery. Read it here.
Every year, over $1 trillion are lost in developing countries through corruption, tax evasion and other illicit gains. What are illicit financial flows and what is the role of countries from the "Global North", and in particular Germany, in hiding those assets and what should they do to prevent this? Find out in this comprehensive paper prepared by our group of young activists in Germany. This paper was published in the framework of a BMZ/Engagement Global sponsored project aiming to raise the awareness of illicit financial flows in Germany.
Read it here in English and German.
Organised crime has developed over the years creative and powerful ways to exploit the loops in the global financial system to launder their revenues from criminal activity. Millions of dollars are moved every year from the South to the North by Mafias, which has negative impacts both in developing and in "western" countries. Germany, as a major financial hub, plays a big role in this. In this paper, our group of volunteers in Germany analyses these movements and their implications for the Global North, particularly Germany. This paper was published in the framework of a BMZ/Engagement Global sponsored project aiming to raise the awareness of illicit financial flows in Germany.
Seven years after the uprising in Yemen and with a brutal civil war still ongoing, the asset freeze against former President Saleh is often forgotten. Our latest report details the asset freeze and provides new information on the status of that freeze in five European countries.
More and more countries use tax amnesty and asset repatriation programmes to push their citizens to declare their assets and bring back them back in exhange of favourable treament. But how effective are they, what counter-effects do they have? We looked at these issues in this study carried out in cooperation with the Transparency International Helpdesk. Read it here.
Countries are moving more and more to public, open data registers of beneficial ownership. These registers are already in place in a number of jurisdictions. We examine these here and draw conclusions on how existing registers should be improved and new ones created.
Read more here EN | DE.


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As we approach the final few days of the year please may I take this opportunity to thank all parents and carers for your continued support this year and to congratulate our Year 7s on all their achievements during their time with us in Westacre. We have thoroughly enjoyed teaching you this year and we know you will continue to thrive at the High School. I look forward to hearing all about your future successes.
Our Blood Sweat and T-shirts project surpassed all expectations again this year and the children proved just what budding entrepreneurs they really are. The sale had everything including egg shell candles, baked bean tin lanterns, t-shirt bags and chabby chic signs.
As part of the project the pupils also got to study the rights of children across the world and understand how fortunate we are in this country. We looked at case studies of children who have been forced into work to feed their families and empathised with their situations.
Overall, the year group managed to make a fantastic total of £600+ which just goes to show the quality and uniqueness of the products they managed to produce.
As part of the project, the winning group will also get the opportunity to select the charity they wish to support.
RA English set- some amazing 'show-not-tell' sentences. Fantastic vocab choices and phrases- loved reading them.
Millie Rowe for an improvement in Maths this week- has improved and was helping others.
Libby Mole for an unbelievable week in Maths, even completing some GCSE level questioning.
This half term the focus for our e-safety lesson is passwords. Year 7 have looked at creating strong passwords and protecting themselves by using a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.
We looked at the 'worst' passwords that people used: 123456 and password were still there!
It was great to welcome parents in this week to look at the unbelievable Mountain homework the Year 7s have been working on this term. So many people received the certificates which just demonstrated the quality which was seen across the year.
A group of year 7 students went to the NEC on Friday 16th March with the aim of learning all about possibilities in STEM. A great day was had, looking at different opportunities Science Technology Engineering and Maths could bring. A range of immersive and exciting stands, shows and experiences helped them to select future possible careers.
On Monday 60 pupils went to DSHS to watch a Science Show where balloons were frozen, liquid nitrogen was poured onto a member of staffs arm (not to be tried at home) and we saw the effect of pure oxygen on CocoPops!!!!
On Wednesday we all travelled to the Chateau Impney for a Skills showcase where pupils were able to talk to a variety of professionals ranging from marines to zookeepers to bank managers to chocolate welders. It was great to see the children so engaged in finding out their potential careers.
Thursday brought a live production of Macbeth to Westacre. It was great to see the children following the story and understanding the Elizabethan language that was used throughout.
Friday gave us a lovely end to the week, seeing so many of you attend the Mother's day event held in school.
Have a look at the Computing page to see how year 7 have risen to the challenge of Binary coding.
This term Year 7 will be practising their 'lay-ups' and 'alley-oops' in basketball as part of their PE lessons. Following the visit of the Worcester Wolves basketball team earlier in the year, we have seen a rise in the interest surrounding the sport and the MUGA is offering the perfect opportunity to develop skills from passing, shooting and dribbling. 7PC are clearly straight into it as you can see by the pictures.
This term Year 7 will be working on their Wellbeing with an hour-long Yoga session for each class every week. All the classes have fully embraced this opportunity and even staff have been trying out downward dog and mountain pose!
Year 7 created movie trailers in Computing.....view their movies here!
We are looking forward to the next batch of topic homework (set to be handed in on the Monday 11th December). We will be exhibiting the work around school to allow the children to showcase their talents before going around to award certificates for the 'best in show'.
Year 7 have been experimenting with the BitBot robots we purchased last year with the help of Droitwich Lions. They have been creating algorithms to make the robot move and debugging when it didn't work quite as they expected!
Year 7s are sew good!
Friday lunchtimes in Mr Cotton's classroom is now dedicated to the Arts since, Alice Stables, Georgia Andrews and Eva Palmer decided to share their talents with others in the school. They have been teaching others to cut materials, how to 'sign on' as well as how to finger-knit. It has been great to see the girls share their passion with other pupils across school.
On Wednesday afternoon (22nd November 2017) the whole of Year 7 got to go and see the dress rehearsal for DSHS's production of Little Shop of Horrors. The children's behaviour was exemplary and just went to prove how entertaining and energetic the performance was. It was a great chance for the children to see the wide range of opportunities available for them at the High school and, from a staff point of view, it was great to see ex-Westacre pupils performing on the stage with such confidence.
Year 7 have been investigating on-line friendships this week in their e-safety classes. After "meeting" a variety of characters in an "chat-room" they have to make quick decisions as to who their friends would be. They have to think quickly and made their decision based on very few facts - this has then led to a discussion on on-line personas and how truthful they might be. Hopefully this will raise awareness in their behaviour on-line and lead them to be more self-aware.
In September, Year 7 were set four pieces of homework relating to their Conflict topic. This week sees the hand in of round 1; two pieces from the choices available. The remaining two pieces are due in before Christmas.
We have seen some amazing work being delivered to School....students really showing a high level of creativity and reflection as well as making the most of their research and presentation skills.
•Zac Salsbury for handing in his homework on the same day it was given!
•Phenomenal homework in PC English- even if they act as a slight character assassination of PC!
•Sonny Priddey and Ellie Smith for their continued enthusiasm in a morning!
•7PC for running to Birmingham and back today.
•LB Maths group for a much better lesson on Thursday- keep it up!
•Tony Griffiths' horse drawing and improvement in productivity in CC.
•Mrs Allerton for going out of her way to provide rewards for reading- make sure she knows you are grateful.
•PC's Guided Reading group for having opinions and sticking by them.
•Amazing homework (Conflict homework) from AU. A lot of effort going in- keep it up.
•Jade Weston for her reaction to forgetting her homework.
•Tony Griffiths and Phoebe Davies in 7LB for there unbelievable questioning and interest in discovering more at the Commandery.
•Eva Palmer for being both Albert and Captain Nicholls at the same time.
•Paige Rowe for participation in Civil War day at school.
•Will Colley- excellent questioning on the trip.
•Matty Nestorowski for achieving his silver.
•7PC for the French mix up! You know what I mean!
•Rhianna Dunn and Chloe Hart for footballing prowess.
•Cameron Lock for trying to turn it around.
•Zac Salsbury for realising it is his responsibility to get his homework done.
•Mrs Underhill for organising the Commandery trip.
•Excellent work on newspaper articles completed in PC's set.
•PC's English group's homeworks about Headline writing- WOW!
This week the year 7s got the exciting opportunity to see the English Civil War come to life with a trip to the Commandery in Sidbury, Worcester.
Children got the chance to dress as pikemen, cavalry and foot soldiers and learnt about how the solders would have lived during the Battle of Worcester. Some children were also fortunate to experience what it would have been like to have a limb amputated during the time. There was also time to learn a range of different battle formations and discover how to load and fire both muskets and cannons.
Across the two days the whole of year 7 dd Westacre proud with their behaviour, participation and desire to discover more. Well done to you all!
•Logan Clark for a gesture of kindness to a year 6 pupil.
•7LB for excellent yoga sessions and the pupils who've led them really well.
•Aaron Green for his unbelievable headlines.
•Laoni Ryback for a plethora of different headlines.
•PC's English group and other classes that allow us to just teach.
•Mrs McDiarmid's maths set for improving their productivity this week.
•7PC for their ability to block out distractions.
Year 7 have been set a homework task that requires them to work on 4 different activities. Two of these are to be handed in after half term (on the first day back) and two before the Christmas holiday, allowing time and effort to be taken with these creative pieces of work. Previous year groups have excelled with their creative and original ideas which were peer assessed at a Homework Showcase.
We look forward to seeing what this year group have to show us, we are sure they will surpass expectations!
•Everyone who helped out on Open Evening/Day- real credit to Year 7. Lucy Brown neds a special mention for coming in on her birthday.
•Kaden Reed, Jacob Watson and Jamie Reeve for their fantastic art skills.
•Attitudes to Sports Leaders with Year 5s- we will do similar again.
•Those of you who still sought out staff to hand in Maths homework even though we missed it on Thursday.
•Eva Palmer for her chicken stories.
•Everyone who has brought in their letters- you have the chance of cake.
•Laoni Ryback for being Laoni Ryback.
•Jonathon Rodgers, Jordan Kiely, Frankie Walker, Rhianna Dunn, Will Colley and Verity Thomas for always giving their ideas in English- it would be a quiet class without you!
•7RM behaviour- still no slips! Also all passed DT safety!
•Katie Hodnett and Lymara Lines for their help in 7LB on open evening.
•The children from 7LB who helped Mrs. Johnson- apparently the best group she has ever had help.
•Edward Deane for giving his all to every aspect of school life- perfecting, class work, contributing to theme days.
•Lily Griffiths for working really hard in Maths to catch up after she'd missed a lesson.
•Jade Weston for always smiling, even when she is in the medical area!
•Fantastic help from 7AU for open evening, moving furniture, rearranging rooms etc.
•Pupils helping in the Gym at Open Evening were brilliant.
•Brilliant coaches within the year group, listening to them talk through activities and giving encouragement to the Year 5s was exactly what we are striving to achieve in Year 7.
After last weeks maturity and enthusiasm taking the computer cases apart to explore inside, this week year 7 are creating interactive presentations with all their information and diagrams on to explain how the computer components work. They will then move on to understanding the internet through an interactive lesson of data sending and receiving !
This week, it was great to see some of last year's yr7s coming back into school to deliver a donation of money raised in last year's Blood, Sweat and T-shirts. Daria, Katie, Daisy, Kim and Fran selected Danemere Animal Rescue as their chosen charity to support after making over £100 in the enterprise project run in school . It is clear to see form the photos that they were very happy with their choice which allowed them to get up, close and personal with the animals. We look forward to seeing future success with our current year 7s in the summer term.
A donation will also be made to Oxfam as part of the project.
•Tia Walker-Roberts and Matty Nestorowski for achieving their bronze award within two weeks of starting the year.
•Mr Cotton's English and Maths sets for their Homeworks (only one out of 57 missing).
•Porscha Bowen, Alice Stables and Megan Randle for sorting out differences without the drama.
•Rhianna Dunn's reading and writing- WOW!
•Bailey Dukes- contributing to discussion and challenging himself with advancing/deep tasks.
•All year 7s have worked hard creating French activities to teach to year 5 later in the term.
Term has started with a discussion on e-safety; how and why we need to be safe online. All children will be signing the School e-safety policy as their acceptance of our rules.
Our first topic is hardware, and understanding how the hardware and software work together. We have taken apart a computer and looked at the various components to understand the individual role they play, giving the children an opportunity to handle the parts and discover how they fit together.


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Public Defender-
How to Clean Up Your Record+
Clean Slate Program
Felony Reduction
DEJ for Immigrants
Certificate of Rehabilitation
Contacting the Public Defender Office
Departments » Public Defender
How do I obtain the services of a public defender?
Attorneys from the Office of the Public Defender are appointed by the Court. If you are charged with a crime and cannot afford to hire an attorney, ask the court to appoint a public defender at your first appearance before a judge. You will be asked to submit a financial declaration to determine your eligibility for appointed counsel. At the conclusion of your case, the Court may order you to reimburse the County for services provided.
Are Public Defenders lawyers?
Yes. All public defenders are lawyers licensed to practice law by the California State Bar. Fresno County Public Defenders are widely recognized as among the best criminal defense lawyers. The Fresno County Public Defender office has more attorneys certified by the State Bar as specialists in criminal law than any other public defender office in California.
If I am arrested, should I talk to the police?
No, if you are arrested, you should request to speak to a lawyer and obtain advice from a lawyer before answering questions from law enforcement. Generally speaking, that means waiting a few days until you're either brought to court or released.
Who pays for the Public Defender?
The County of Fresno provides most of the funding for the Public Defender office. The County does so in order to implement the constitutional right to counsel as required by the the United States Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainright (1963) 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 93 A.L.R.2d 733, 9 L.Ed.2d 799. The courts require clients of the Public Defender office to reimburse the County for the cost of their defense. However, the court may only order reimbursement after the case and then only if the client has an ability to pay it. The State of California also contributes funding for certain types of cases.
Does the Public Defender assist people with immigration law?
When a person who is not a United States citizen is charged with a crime and the Public Defender has been appointed to represent that person, the Public Defender will provide basic information on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. For non-citizen defendants, we attempt to reach dispositions that will avoid or reduce harmful immigration consequences. The Public Defender Office is unable to provide anyone information regarding immigration law in cases where the court has not appointed the Public Defender. The courts do not appoint the Public Defender solely to provide immigration advice. People who are citizens of Mexico are able to receive a free consultation with an immigration attorney by contacting the Mexican Consulate in Fresno.
Recently, the California legislature enacted Penal Code section 1203.43. If you are a non-citizen and completed deferred entry of judgment, it is recommended that you read Penal Code section 1203.43 and forms.
Does the Public Defender help people seeking reductions of sentence pursuant to Proposition 47?
Yes. See Proposition 47.
Does the Public Defender help people seeking early parole pursuant to Proposition 57?
No. The parole authorities, not the courts, authorize early release under Proposition 57. As a result, we are unable to assist people in those proceedings.


Waymo is expected to launch the first ever commercial, autonomous driving service in the next couple of months. Would you ride in it? We'll also discuss a report about the future possible uses of autonomous vehicles. The Facebook Portal is officially out and we go hands-on with one in studio. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner, plus we showcase the Mobilimb.


The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that employers will be required to pay workers who earn up to $47,476 per year, or $913 per week, overtime if they put in more than 40 hours per week.
Previously, the Fair Labor Standards Act required overtime pay for workers who earned up to $23,660 per year, or $455 per week.
The higher income threshold will make 4.2 million salaried workers eligible now for overtime pay, DOL says.
The effective date of the final rule is Dec. 1, 2016. The initial increase to the standard salary level will be effective on that date. Future automatic updates to that threshold will occur every three years, beginning Jan. 1, 2020.
According to NPR, the new rule was more than two years in the making. DOL initially proposed an income threshold of more than $50,000 but scaled that back because of complaints that the proposed threshold did not reflect pay scales in low-wage parts of the United States. The new threshold will cover about 35 percent of salaried workers, Perez says.
Critics are urging Congress to block the new rule, NPR adds.


text:
Verdera is a major-label debut album Stages.
Verdera Biography
On their major-label debut album Stages, Vedera have at last been able to capture the magic that has made them such a hot live property over the past few years. The Kansas City, Missouri-based quartet, fronted by Kristen May, have toured incessantly since releasing their first EP in 2004, honing their sound and building their considerable fanbase the grassroots way — one fan at a time. "We've spent more time playing live than we probably ever will be able to spend in a studio," guitarist Brian Little (and May's husband) says, "and we think that's great. Feeding off a live audience has really shaped what we do and we wanted Stages to reflect that."
Those who have seen them live are already familiar with Vedera's sound: dreamy pop melodies, shimmering rock guitar, driving rhythm section, and the band's not-so-secret weapon: May's soaring vocals. Her glass-cut voice can swoop from a delicate hush to an open-throated keen on a dime as her passionate delivery provides the emotional uplift required of her lyrics, which address such themes as loss ("Loving Ghosts"), devotion ("Even I"), betrayal ("Forgive You"), romantic love ("Back to the Middle") and wondering if love is really all you need ("Satisfy").
"I'm always watching the way people relate to one another and how we can affect each other so much by our actions and the way we handle situations," May says. "I understand why people assume our songs are all about my personal relationships, but they're really about what it means to love someone and what you give up to be with the people you love, whether it's a partner, a friend, a family member, or even God. I want the themes of the songs to be relatable to everyone because music has been therapy for me for so long. I listen to a song and it can mean one thing to me one day and summon a completely different emotion the next."
May grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, as did the rest of her bandmates. Her entire family was musical; her mother was a singer who loved Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Jim Croce. "I listened to those artists, as well as my older brother's rock records," she says. He loved Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and Nirvana, so that rubbed off on me. Otherwise maybe I'd have holed up in my room and become a folk artist!" When May was 17, her father, a drummer, gave her a guitar and she began writing her own songs. "It felt really good for me to express myself in that way," she says. "That's when I began wanting to be in a band."
Meanwhile, Little's father gave his son his first guitar at age 13 and Little played in bands throughout high school. "I played trumpet as a kid and performed in competitions," he recalls. "It was so nerve-wracking to have to memorize six pages of a classical movement and perform it perfectly onstage, alone. So to play with a band was exhilarating for me." Little loved classic guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Lindsey Buckingham, whom he cites as someone who "knows how to add melody to a song, but not take away from what the singer is trying to say."
May and Little knew each other in high school and began playing in a band together after May returned home following an aborted stint at college in Nashville. "I didn't want to study music anymore, I just wanted to play it," she says. In 2003, the band she had formed with her brothers needed a guitarist and they called Little. "He and I clicked and our worlds collided in the greatest way," she says. With her brothers unable to travel and pursue the career musician life that May and Little craved, they asked Little's high-school friend Jason Douglas to join and also recruited Brian's younger brother Drew to play drums. Everything clicked and the quartet headed into the studio to record six songs that would become their 2004 EP This Broken City. Around that time, they hooked up with Thrice and hit the road for nine months. In 2005, they released their first full-length album, The Weight of an Empty Room and hit the road again, landing tours with Mute Math, Eisley, and Jason Mraz among others. (Vedera hit the road with The Fray, Plain White T's and All-American Rejects in 2009.)
Now comes Stages, which May describes as about "our blood, sweat, and tears over the past five years as a band on the road. It's about our relationships to one another and the changes we've gone through." Vedera recorded Stages with Epic Records A&R executive Mike Flynn, who co-produced the Fray's double-platinum album How to Save A Life and Augustana's 2008 album Can't Love, Can't Hurt, and engineer Warren Huart (The Fray, Augustana, Howie Day). "Mike is like our George Martin," Little says. "He has a great sense of melody," May adds. "As a vocalist and a songwriter, I've really benefited from working with him because of his great sense of a song."
The songs begin with May and Little ("we live together so we're constantly writing," May says), then the pair bring their ideas to Jason and Drew who "take it to the next level," May says. "That's the great thing about being in a band. Brian and I could have been a couple of folk songwriters, but Jason and Drew really make us who we are as a band."
The core relationships that these four people have with one another is at the heart of Vedera. "We're a family and we're very devoted to this life and to our music," May says. "We try to be as honest as we can and put everything we have out there with as much conviction as possible."
Contact a speaker booking agent to check availability on Verdera and other top speakers and celebrities.
HOW TO BOOK Verdera?
Our booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure talent like Verdera for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment for over 15 years. The team at All American Entertainment represents and listens to the needs of organizations and corporations seeking to hire keynote speakers, celebrities or entertainers. Fill out a booking request form for Verdera, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get pricing information and check availability for Verdera or any other celebrity of your choice.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BOOK Verdera?
Booking fees for Verdera, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. Pricing often varies according to the circumstances, including the talent's schedule, market conditions, length of presentation, and the location of the event. Speaker fees listed on this website are intended to serve as a guideline only. In some cases, the actual quote may be above or below the stated range. For the most current fee to hire Verdera, please fill out the booking request form or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak with an experienced booking agent.
WHO IS THE AGENT FOR Verdera?
All American Entertainment has successfully secured celebrity talent like Verdera for clients worldwide for more than 15 years. As a full-service talent booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Fill out the booking request form or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Verdera for your next private or corporate function.
All American Speakers is a "buyers agent" and exclusively represents talent buyers, meeting planners and event professionals, who are looking to secure celebrities and speakers for personal appearances, speaking engagements, corporate entertainment, public relations campaigns, commercials, or endorsements. We do not exclusively represent Verdera or claim ourselves as the exclusive booking agency, business manager, publicist, speakers bureau or management for Verdera or any other speaker or celebrity on this website. For more information on how we work and what makes us unique, please read the AAE Advantage.
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FAQs on booking Verdera
Verdera is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics . The estimated speaking fee range to book Verdera for your event is available upon request. Verdera generally travels from and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Arcade Fire, Lyle Lovett, Bacon Brothers, The Wallflowers and Butch Walker. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Verdera for an upcoming event.
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text:
Trump Family Travels
Taxpayers Paid More Than $76,000 for Don Jr. to Kill a Mongolian Sheep
The First Son's already-controversial hunting trip to Mongolia racked up $76,859.36 in Secret Service fees—which is nearly $60,000 more than the government had initially publicly disclosed.
By Alison Durkee
By Samuel Corum/Getty Images.
One of the constants of Donald Trump's presidency has been the president and his family's penchant for forcing American taxpayers to fund their lavish lifestyle, from weekend getaways at Mar-a-Lago to the Secret Service requesting jet skis to better facilitate the family's love of water sports. Among the charges taxpayers are forced to cough up for are Donald Trump Jr.'s hunting trips, as the elder Trump son's controversial big game expeditions require Secret Service protection. An August 2017 trip to Canada to hunt stone sheep cost the Secret Service $16,600, for instance—but it's the First Son's August 2019 trip to Mongolia that really required the federal government to pony up. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported Monday that taxpayers spent more than $76,000 on Secret Service protection for the eight-day trip, which is nearly $60,000 more than the government had initially disclosed.
According to documents obtained by CREW through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Secret Service spent a total of $76,859.36 on Trump Jr.'s Mongolian vacation, including the Trump son's hunting trip and subsequent private meeting with Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga. (Which, to be fair, is still cheaper than other Trump family travels, like Don Jr. and Eric Trump's $200,000 trip to the United Arab Emirates in 2017.) An official who works with Trump Jr. told CNN that outside of the Secret Service costs, all other costs associated with the trip were paid by the Trump son himself. The Secret Service had initially disclosed only $17,000 in costs to CREW in March, however, which excluded flight costs and the visit with Buttulga. "These Secret Service payments show how much taxpayer money directly funded Don Jr.'s trip, and show that the cost was much steeper than the agency originally admitted," the CREW report notes.
The substantial taxpayer bill is the cherry on top of what was already a controversial trip for Trump Jr., who hunted Argali sheep in Mongolia after winning the trip at a charity auction for the National Rife Association in 2015. Argali sheep are the largest species of sheep and are considered to be threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and their hunting is prohibited in Mongolia without a permit. Luckily for Trump Jr., ProPublica reported in December, the Mongolian government granted the First Son one of the "coveted and rare permit[s]"—but only did so retroactively after he had already killed one of the rare sheep. "What are the chances the Mongolian government would've done any of that to someone who wasn't the son of the United States' president?" Kathleen Clark, a professor specializing in legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, told ProPublica, suggesting that the Mongolian officials treated Trump Jr. favorably out of a "desire on the part of a foreign government to curry favor with the president's family." (As my colleague Bess Levin noted at the time, the reports of the Mongolian trip ironically came out around the same time as Don Jr. and Eric were publicly railing against nepotism in their attempts to attack Hunter Biden.)
Adding to the trip's not-so-great appearance was the fact that Buttulga had visited with the president at the White House—and gifted Barron Trump a small-breed Mongolian horse named "Victory"—just weeks before Trump Jr. traveled to the country and met with Battulga privately, raising the specter that Mongolian officials were trying to do Trump a political favor with the permit. Trump Jr. was also apparently accompanied in Mongolia by Republican donor Kevin Small, who ProPublica found substantially increased his donations to the GOP in the months preceding the trip. In their report on the trip's Secret Service expenses, CREW notes that the organization is still trying to find out even more details of Trump Jr.'s visit, including whether the State Department was involved and if the Interior Department granted the president's son a permit to bring the carcass of the sheep he killed back to the U.S. "As a son of the president, Donald Trump Jr. is entitled to Secret Service protection and should be protected," CREW notes, "but taxpayers deserve to know how much they are paying to facilitate his trophy hunting and interactions with major political donors and foreign leaders."
The $76,000 charge is, of course, a drop in the bucket in terms of the whole amount that taxpayers are spending on the Trump's travels, with CREW noting that the family takes 12 times as many trips requiring Secret Service protection as former President Barack Obama and his family did. The Washington Post found in May that the Secret Service has paid the Trump Organization nearly $1 million thus far in room fees alone, and the Government Accountability Office calculated that Trump's visits to Mar-a-Lago between February 3 and March 5, 2017 alone cost federal agencies $13.6 million. Though the coronavirus pandemic has kept Trump confined to the White House—for the most part—the charges have nevertheless still kept coming, with the Post reporting in May that the Secret Service had signed a contract to rent golf carts at the president's club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this summer for a whopping $179,000. And though journalists and organizations like CREW have been able to uncover many of the federal charges from Trump's trips, the total amount of taxpayer money being spent is still unknown. "This trip is just one example of the expenses the Trump family is incurring with American taxpayers," CREW noted in their report —"and if just one of Don Jr.'s trophy hunting trips cost more than $75,000, it's staggering to think how high the total bill must be."
— Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails
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— James Clyburn on the Floyd Killing and the Role of Race in the Coming Election
— Journalists Become Targets While Covering America's Unraveling
— Documents Expose FDA Commissioner's Personal Interventions on Behalf of Trump's Favorite Chloroquine Doctor
— Why Trump's New Campaign Slogan, "Transition to Greatness," Sends a Disastrous Message
— From the Archive: Inside Unspeakable Police Brutality in a Brooklyn Precinct Once Nicknamed Fort Tombstone
Trump Family Values
Don Jr.'s Mongolian Vacation Involved Killing an Endangered Species
By Bess Levin
Trump, Maskless, Goes Golfing As Coronavirus Death Toll Nears 100,000
By Charlotte Klein
Trump Organization
Report: Taxpayers Have Paid the Trump Organization Nearly $1 Million for Hotel Rooms Alone


From Crime Smashers #2, December 1950, comes the second comic book appearance of our Hollywood Detective. This one, like last week's adventure, was probably a reprint from Dan's pulp mag. It was scanned for comicbookplus by loftypilot. If you missed Dan's gig in Crime Smashers #1, that's HERE.
Flag your slacks, flatfoot, it's bumpery.
Wish Bullwhip Bill Crider could have seen this one.


Renoir, Godard and Gauloises: eight "little prophets" in their early-to-mid-thirties live past 1968 in Alain Tanner and John Berger's heartbreakingly hopeful and tender romance of the earth and the wondrous humans thereupon. When I was discovering films as a child in college, the witty, hearteningly earnest "Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000" (Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000) from Swiss director Alain Tanner and British artist John Berger landed in the middle of a world of possibility, radical yet down home, with an offhanded sophistication that appeared to be just the thing, far, far from didacticism, as it assembled politically inflamed yet gently mortal roundelay of romance, hope and fear.
(Later, I learned Renoir: everyone has their reasons for going deeper into an art form.) There is an ensemble of eight characters, casually attractive, fierily alive but aware of impermanence, four men and four women—"ten are too many, six too few," Tanner said of the story's structure and the characters he dubbed his "little prophets"—and they tentatively live through their moment, 1975, in the city and suburbs outside Geneva, Switzerland. They face unemployment, and perhaps more uncomfortably, they face employment. Transactions are made, again, again.
This washed-out trailer is in the original French with German subtitles, but look at those faces.
They teach, they learn. "They are both in the mainstream end on the margins," Robert Stam wrote in Jump Cut in 1977. "Earning their daily bread in the capitalist kingdom of means, they have their eyes affixed and their ears attuned to a distant kingdom of ends." He writes later, "'Jonah' demystifies high art. Rather than something special and exalted, frozen into monuments and artifacts, art is shown to form part of the process of everyday life. 'Jonah' locates art everywhere—in a casual pun, a stylized gesture, an eloquent statement, a well-sung song." That aspect, locating the artistic impulse in each and every gesture, was instantly what made "Jonah" an influence and a favorite film to this day.
"Jonah…" plays at Siskel Saturday June 2 and Thursday June 7.


After lots of testing, here's what happens. If I run it, the field is converted to type "real" in the db. Running "Quick Repair and Rebuild" again will obviously complain because it is no longer a float. Changing the field back to type float in SQL Server requires a table drop first.
For the fun of it, I did a fresh install of Sugar on SQL Server and the db and vardefs appear to exactly match the migrated one. But the fresh install has no complaints when running a "Quick Repair and Rebuild".
I guess the real question is why is it complaining in the first place because the db and vardefs are both set to float(8)? What is the "Quick Repair and Rebuild" actually comparing so I can try and troubleshoot this issue further.
This is a known issue for MSSQL installs. You will see those get generated every time. What I do now is to look for "MISSING IN DATABASE" in the generated SQL to catch any new fields or tables. Then I check the generated indexes to see if any of those also need to be applied.
Funny enough, after I posted the question I decided to try one last thing and it worked! I only executed the "DROP CONSTRAINT" statements (i.e. ALTER TABLE campaigns DROP CONSTRAINT DF__campaigns__budge__47A6A41B) and not the "ALTER COLUMN" ones (i.e. ALTER TABLE campaigns ALTER COLUMN budget float(8) NULL). Then I ran a "Quick Repair and Rebuild" and voila, no more differences between the database and vardefs! I double checked the fresh install's db and it did not contain constraints for those 6 float fields. Nonetheless, thanks for the reply Jason.
Nice! I'm going to give that a try. Thanks.