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Opening Ceremony | MGM | Trade Show | Lucasfilm
ShoWest got to its official start, as is tradition, with remarks by National Association of Theatre Owners president John Fithian and Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti. But before they took the stage at Le Théâtre des Arts, Ocean's Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub got the ball rolling with a hilariously deadpan speech in which he recounted a recent appearance at the Palm Springs Film Festival, where he drunkenly presented an award to Ocean's co-star Andy Garcia. After that completely tangential anecdote, it was back to business, and a clip package paying tribute to 2001's 17 $100-million-plus grossers--American Pie 2, Dr. Dolittle 2, The Fast and the Furious, Hannibal, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Jurassic Park III, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Monsters, Inc., The Mummy Returns, Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes, The Princess Diaries, Rush Hour 2, Shrek, Spy Kids, and Weintraub's Ocean's Eleven--was presented via Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology. An interesting footnote: two of these films--Shrek and Spy Kids--were screened to a remarkably favorable response at last year's ShoWest.
The business attitude continued with the speeches by Valenti and Fithian, but with occasional and rather sickening instances of brownnosing to Valenti. Weintraub introduced the MPAA president as "one of the best speechmakers in the world," and Fithian began his speech by saying that the hardest part of every ShoWest is having to speak after Valenti. But as with his speech at last year's ShoWest--or any speech I've ever heard him give, for that matter--Valenti didn't fail to make my eyes roll more than once with his overripe prose style and/or crushing sanctimony, such as stating that the events of September 11 "fired our emotional capillaries" and rather boldly declaring that the "tumult by critics" over the ratings system has faded (since when?). To his credit, though, he did impart some information of value, such as the fact that the total theatre admissions in 2001 were the highest since 1959, proving that the video and DVD market has actually increased moviegoing as opposed to cutting into it.
In his speech, Fithian hit some of the same points as Valenti, but did so without the condescension and pretension. He reiterated the fact that admissions in 2001 did go up--while screen count went down; and, like Valenti, he praised exhibitors for their wide enforcement of the MPAA rating system. When pointing out that of the $200 million grossers of last year, none were rated R, and that only 3 of the $100 million grossers carried the restricted rating, he concluded that family films were the films that sold--a statement that was met with a round of approving applause.
Paramount Pictures president of distribution Wayne Lewellen closed out the opening ceremonies with handing out the top award for exhibitors, ShoWester of the Year, to Kurt C. Hall, President and CEO of the United Artists Theatre Circuit.
ShoWester of the Year:
Kurt C. Hall, President and CEO, United Artists Theatre Circuit
With all the talk of ratings and the greater commercial viability of family films in the opening ceremony speeches, how ironic that the film screened immediately afterward would be a very hard R-rated film: MGM's WWII film Windtalkers, which attracted quite a bit of buzz with a trailer and a combat scene clip at last year's convention. The reaction to the John Woo film, which stars Nicolas Cage and Adam Beach, on the way out of Le Théâtre des Arts appeared rather muted. However, if the generally admiring discussion of the film at the studio's ensuing luncheon in the Paris Ballroom was any indication, people were perhaps too moved and/or depressed to really muster up the energy to applaud at the end.
MGM certainly earned creativity points for this luncheon. It's one thing to aggressively push your slate through the décor--a huge 007 scrim was placed over the wall outside the ballroom, and inside hung many huge banners and posters touting various upcoming titles from the Lion--and quite another to offer a themed menu that quite literally sold their product through exhibitors' stomachs:
Special cocktail
The 007: Stoli Ohranj with orange juice and a splash of 7-Up
The Aussie Salad: Mixed greens topped with shrimp off the "barbie," mango, papaya salsa--fit for a Crocodile Hunter
Native American breads: In honor of Windtalkers
A Guy Thing: Grilled New York strip served with steak fries and ketchup
A Girl Thing: Filet of salmon with champagne buerre blanc accompanied by haricot verts
The Barbershop: A shaving mug filled with coffee chocolate mousse and topped with fresh whipped cream
Instead of giving the guests quiet time for themselves to dine, MGM didn't waste a single moment and had Steve Irwin, the Australian "Crocodile Hunter" of the nature TV series and the forthcoming caper comedy The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, entertain patrons while they ate. Irwin trotted out a menagerie of various jungle creatures, starting with snakes and then climaxing with a large alligator. While showing off one of the snakes, the film's producer, Bruce Willis, made a surprise appearance.
Once he was done with all of his monkey business (ha ha), it was time for the Lion's big product reel. Quite a few of the titles peddled--such as Windtalkers; the '50s gang drama Deuces Wild; the Christina Ricci starrer Pumpkin; and Roman Coppola's CQ--were holdovers from last year's reel. The more noteworthy new clips:
Barbershop: Ice Cube toplines this ensemble comedy set in and around a Chicago barbershop. Sean Patrick Thomas and, in her film debut, Eve also star, but from the looks of the short trailer, it's Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson who will provide most of the amusement.
Bulletproof Monk: No actual footage from this buddy action romp, starring Chow Yun-Fat as a monk protecting an ancient scroll and Seann William Scott as his most unlikely partner, was ready, but the premise alone and the odd mix of talent made an impression on the audience.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course: That the trailer showed very little actual footage from the film--let alone made any attempt to talk about the plot--and instead focused on Irwin doing his schtick with Leo the Lion isn't exactly a promising sign. Then again, any film tailored as a star vehicle for a nature TV show host wouldn't exactly set off my "quality entertainment" alarm. I'm not so sure I'm quite ready to buy Irwin as the star of an action comedy, which, given all the explosions on display in the trailer, this film appears to be.
Dark Blue: Curiously placed with the major MGM releases was this gritty from the studio's specialty division, United Artists, where Kurt Russell stars as a Los Angeles police detective in the days leading up to the Rodney King verdict and ensuing riots. If for nothing else, the film could be interesting just to see director Ron Shelton tackle something non-sports-related for a change.
A Guy Thing: Groom-to-be Jason Lee wakes up from a wild bachelor party in bed with a woman (Julia Stiles) who turns out to be his fiancée's (Selma Blair) cousin. Looks like formulaic fluff, but here's hoping the gifted (and too-often undervalued) leads can turn it into something worthwhile.
Getting token mentions were a few projects currently in development: Out of Time, the project that finally pushes Denzel Washington into the $20-million-a-picture club; Family Jewels, the first on-screen teaming of Kirk and Michael Douglas; Jeepers Creepers 2: Bat Out of Hell, which has succeeded in making the title even more laughable; and another sequel to a sleeper success from last year, Legally Blonde 2.
While all of the touted pictures from MGM's specialty division, United Artists, are already in the can, most of the titles, such as Mike Leigh's All or Nothing and Sundance faves Igby Goes Down and Personal Velocity, received more fleeting mentions than the MGM in-development projects. The one exception that did have a full trailer shown was the Irish drama Evelyn, but that's undoubtedly because it stars Pierce Brosnan--allowing for a nice tie-in to the reel-ending push for the then-still-untitled 20th James Bond adventure (which has since been given the horrid title of Die Another Day). Going conspicuously unmentioned in the entire reel was a project trumpeted as being in production at last year's ShoWest and is currently rolling out in overseas theatres: Killing Me Softly, an erotic thriller starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes and directed by acclaimed Chinese director Chen Kaige.
Lessons learned from this year's trade show:
It's good to be different, but not too different.
Last year, the big buzzed-about trade show item was the Popcorn Fork, a plastic instrument with which you can eat popcorn without having to deal with butter fingers; the talk even led to a little blurb in Entertainment Weekly. Yet the people behind the Popcorn Fork and the item itself were nowhere to be found this year; also noticeably absent was the hot dog alternative known as the BurgerPipe. I guess it just goes to show that novelty is fun but doesn't exactly sell--and that when attempting innovation, baby steps are the way to go; case in point: last year, the company behind Icee introduced stuffed pretzels, and this year the tasty items were back for an equally popular return engagement.
A tale of two soft drinks:
The Coca-Cola and Pepsi displays on the trade show floor
If you give it away, they will come--especially if it can be eaten. But make sure it's relevant.
Not surprisingly, the booths with freebies--particularly food items--were the most popular destinations at the trade show. Coca-Cola and Pepsi once again did battle with large, shiny displays and unlimited free beverages (though Pepsi had one leg up in that they gave away a reusable drink container); Eisenberg hot dogs attracted long lines and return visits; the Ben & Jerry's booth routinely ran out of their famous ice cream; and with the Jelly Belly company inexplicably gone this year (please, oh please, come back!), the Mike & Ike company was the big winner in the candy department as greedy trade show guests grabbed box after box of their chewy candies. But edibles didn't seem to work for the companies peddling, say, reupholstery services or the latest in ticketing machines, for those that had bowls of sweets ready for the taking found few takers. What appared to work better for non-food companies were basic non-food items: keychains (from the plain to ones featuring compasses and thermometers), pens, and buttons.
As will gimmicks.
The award for "most clever use of a booth," in my opinion, goes to DigiFlicks, a company that was showing off their digital movie distribution system and projection kiosks. Instead of running loop reels of trailers and various other clips, however, the company used their screen as a venue for digitally-shot shorts. So in addition to demonstrating their product, the company offered some refreshingly unique content to the showroom floor.
A grand archway leads to a photo-op with a bikini-clad model
But, of course, leave it to the big studios to offer attention-grabbing glitz. Universal had a two-booth set up that displayed pictures from and trailers for their upcoming releases, including those UIP favorites, The Scorpion King and About a Boy; the E.T. reissue; The Bourne Identity; the new film version of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon; and the girl surfer flick Blue Crush, which received attention through the showcase "display": a photo op with bikini-clad women and surfboards.
Paramount:
The K-19 submarine simulator and accompanying warning sign,
which didn't warn patrons about actors yelling in bad Russian accents.
The other studio that held real estate on the trade show floor, Paramount, tried outdo their big Tomb Raider green-screen video experience of last year with what appeared to be a motion simulator for their Russian submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker. But it actually was something more elaborate and, alas, certainly less thrilling than a simple motion simulator would have been. People were let in four at a time to a cramped gimbal that was all done up like a submarine--complete with actors sporting Russian military duds and matching (bad) accents. The actors instructed guests--or, should I say, barked orders at them--on what they were to do at certain cues, such as hitting buttons or ducking and covering. At various junctures the gimbal would shake and steam and sparks would rise from control panels and whatnot. When I was having the "experience," I and the three other guys I was with couldn't help but look and each other and laugh during the five minutes of shaking and, above all else, heavily accented yelling. Once out of there, one was given a souvenir photo taken during the little show and could get a souvenir K-19 dogtag, which was personalized on an actual machine from WWII.
Courtesy counts.
A word of advice to the Paramount exhibitor relations people who manned that studio's exhibit (and let me further emphasize that these were exhibitor relations employees, not representatives from the studio's publicity department)--just because a press member does not hold one of those vaunted ShoWest passports is not an excuse to be rude to him or her when he or she has questions about your display. After all, your less than courteous attitude could reflect badly on your company should said media member decide to point out your rudeness in an article that will be read by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Such as this one. I won't sink to their level and name names, but let's just say that the one male studio rep who lorded over the goody bag boxes should've thought twice before being so plastic, brusque, and dismissive. *cough*BillSaugez*cough*
Buy Attack of the Clones posters here NOW!
"Star Wars producer Rick McCallum talks about the digital filmmaking process," read the official program for the 30-minute March 6 pre- and post-dinner presentation at ShoWest, the annual Las Vegas-set convention for the National Association of Theatre Owners. McCallum's speech indeed covered that topic, but any discussion of it was squarely in relation to Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones--culminating in the unveiling of some never-before-seen footage from the film as well as its newest trailer.
McCallum admitted that the program description was a deliberately misleading one given to the ShoWest organizers by Lucasfilm Ltd., who wanted to keep their centerpiece a surprise. That the footage would be screening was not at all a surprise--in fact, word of it was fairly widespread and, accordingly, widely anticipated-but the footage itself did. Anyone whose expectations for any future Star Wars installments were diminished after seeing Episode I--The Phantom Menace immediately had their hopes for this next prequel elevated.
The approximately eight-minute reel was a wordless and, at times, random assemblage of scenes from the film set entirely to John Williams' score. McCallum described the footage as a "technical reel," and as such the "official" purpose of this presentation was to show off the pristine quality of the images captured by Sony's high-definition digital video cameras, on which Episode II was entirely shot. On this tech level, the reel did not disappoint; featuring footage shot in different time and place settings, it showcased how these digital cameras could capture remarkable clarity, vibrancy, and detail in scenes of varying light, speed, and motion. Later in his presentation, McCallum further demonstrated the digital image's astounding quality by presenting a blow-up test where various Clones shots (including one really va-va-va-voom shot of Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala wearing a figure-hugging corset-like top) are magnified up to 300%; while some distortion was apparent in some of the images by the 150-200% mark, the clarity still astonished. It must be said, however, that all the videos shown during the presentation were digitally projected via Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology, so it remains to be seen just how good the image will look when transferred to actual film for conventional 35mm projectors. With the opinion of the image quality met with virtually unanimous enthusiasm, post-screening discussion largely centered on making sense of what exactly the reel reveals about the film.
Some quiet FX images of spacecraft traveling toward a planet soon make way for the first fairly coherent stretch of the reel: a boisterous scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) breaks through a high-rise glass window and grabs onto a flying droid of some sort, which then flies around a hectic, otherworldly urban skyline. Someone shoots down the droid, and Obi-Wan takes a Fifth Element-like plunge into skyway traffic, only to be picked up in a ship piloted by Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). The scene then shifts to the ground, where a glimpse of Anakin running in a street is followed by the sight of he and Obi-Wan casually walking into one of the series' classically alien-populated bars; at the bar, a mysterious figure pulls out a gun.
The scene then quickly shifts to the jarring sight of Obi-Wan talking to an alien creature in an eating establishment that could very well pass for a 1950s diner. The food theme continues with a shot of R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) apparently in line and assembling a tray of food at a cafeteria. The first glimpse of Queen Amidala, still modeling an array of ornate costumes, comes with a shift of setting to Tatooine, where she and Anakin apparently meet up with R2 and a now-completed C3PO (Anthony Daniels). The randomness of this stretch of images continues: a winged creature emerges from water and flies past a building that's on the water; a tall, long-necked alien walks and talks with Obi-Wan; children with headsets sit at computers.
A master shot of a seaside residence begins the romance portion of the reel. Anakin and Amidala kiss on the terrace, much to Yoda's apparent dismay. The pair walks along a multipillared structure, with Anakin carrying what appears to be luggage (are the two on holiday of some sort)? This passage ends with a tight and rather provocative shot of Anakin, sweat glistening on his face, appearing to be lying in a bed.
It's back to action when a rain-drenched battle between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) atop the aforementioned floating building is joined in progress. Shots fired by Jango are deflected by Obi-Wan's light saber. Obi-Wan kicks Jango off of the building only to have the tables quickly reversed, for Jango caught him with his grappling hook; Obi-Wan falls along with him, and soon Jango flies away and literally leaves him dangling. Meanwhile, a very young Boba Fett fires up the ignition on the Slave-1 ship.
More random quiet--Anakin cruises the Tatooine desert, meets up with some Jawas; Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and Yoda have a Jedi-to-Jedi confab--is followed by another elaborate action scene. A bridge retracts from underneath the feet of Anakin and Amidala, and she falls onto the conveyor belt of what appears to be one big factory assembly line. Anakin jumps onto the belt and does his light saber magic on the robots manning the line as well as some malevolent flying creatures. Amidala crafitly dodges a rather large press on the assembly line, only to then get into a struggle with one of the flying creatures, who overpowers her and tosses her into a silo of some sort. More action images-Anakin in a big light saber duel with an unknown figure; Yoda employing some Emperor-like electrical powers-are then capped off with the reel's final shot, one of a planet or moon as shot from outer space.
Lest anyone in the audience thought that Attack of the Clones is just a love story "about Jar Jar Binks getting funky with the Ewoks" (as McCallum joked), a number of the eye-popping sights were put into their proper plot perspective by Episode II's latest trailer. McCallum then closed out his presentation with bold statements. "We [Lucasfilm] didn't want to push the envelope; we wanted to lick it." "All of you [exhibitors] lucky enough to get [Attack of the Clones] are going to make a shitload of money." After seeing the footage, it's hard to argue with either declaration. The revolutionary manner in which the film (that is, if it can even be called that, given that not a single frame of celluloid was printed) was produced certainly would qualify as "envelope licking"; and if these brief, tantalizing tastes are any indication, even a commodity as pre-sold as Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones could very well exceed the already-lofty box office expectations.
Next Day: Wednesday, March 6
ShoWest 2002 Awards
ShoWest 2002 Movie Impressions
Inside ShoWest 2002/© Michael Dequina
Click here to buy movie posters!


Heather Fischer, the 2018 Atlantic Cape Community College Employee of the Year, was recognized for her achievement at the Dec. 19 Board of Trustees meeting. She is pictured with Dr. Barbara Gaba, president of Atlantic Cape, and Dave Coskey, chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Our deepest condolences to Nancy Hand on the loss of her beloved husband Jeff. He was 63.
A Celebration of Jeff's life will be held on Friday, December 22nd, from 2-4 p.m. at Boakes Funeral Home, 6050 Main St., Mays Landing. Services will be held at 4 p.m.
Expressions may be sent to Nancy at 1112 12th Avenue, Dorothy, NJ 08317.
It is with great sadness we share the unexpected passing of Sandi Greco's beloved brother Joseph "Joe" McGowan of Absecon. Joe is also the son of Atlantic Cape retiree, Kathy McGowan.
Joe and his band entertained everyone at the ACCCEA holiday party on Saturday, December 9.
Information regarding the services will be shared as soon as the information becomes available.
Expressions may be sent to Sandi at 7426 Driftwood Lane, Mays Landing, NJ 08330 and to Kathy at 910 Elm Street, Absecon, NJ 08201.
The winner of the 2017 Atlantic Cape Holiday Decorating contest is…. Institutional Research! They received 270 votes as of 1 p.m., Dec. 21.
Stress relief comes in many forms, especially during the therapy dog's visit to the Atlantic City Campus on Dec. 19.
Valedictorian Katherine Jensen of Brick addresses his fellow graduates and the audience at the Academy of Culinary Arts Awards Ceremony Dec. 21.
The Academy of Culinary Arts awarded culinary medals and certificates to 10 new chefs and baking and pastry professionals prepared with the latest culinary knowledge on Thursday, Dec. 21.
Five graduates honed their skills in the Academy's Culinary Arts program, and two completed the Baking and Pastry program. One short-term specialization certificate in Baking and Pastry was awarded, as well as one short-term specialization certificate in Food Service Management and one short-term specialization certificate in Catering Specialization.
The awards ceremony was held in Careme's Restaurant located in the Academy of Culinary Arts at the Mays Landing Campus, and honored the graduates with gold, silver or bronze medals or certificates based on their grade point averages and criteria established by the American Culinary Federation. Specialization graduates received certificates of completion. A reception at Careme's, the on-campus, student-run gourmet restaurant, followed the ceremony.
Imtiaz Chowdoury, Jan. 1; Nicholas Alexander, Shawn Gorman, Marilyn Keiner, Jan. 3; Anna Simmons, Jan. 5; Eileen Bakley, Jan. 7; Al Ebinger, Bruce Johns, Jan. 8; Barbara Long, Jan 9; Loretta Dicker, Jan. 12; Michael Forest, Lori Monzo, Deborah Rogers, Linda Wohlman, Jan. 13; Anthony Booker, Jan. 14; Charles Mettille, Jan. 16; Annmarie Chelius, Jan. 17; Nelson Bugas, Leslie Murtha, Jan. 19; Laura Batchelor, Jan. 21;Maria Kellett, Jan. 24; Barbara Kozek, Angela Stewart, Jan. 25; Susan DeCicco, Jan. 26; Jennifer Lashkari, Colin Mc Fadden, Jan. 27; Michael Sargente, Jan. 30; Liriana Samuel, Jan. 31.
Registration is underway for the spring semester at Atlantic Cape Community College. Spring semester classes begin Jan. 16. Seats are still available in astronomy, aviation, business, communication, criminal justice, hospitality, math and many other courses during the spring semester.
Sharon Maurer of Egg Harbor Township with her "Tweeterville" birdhouse representing the Smithville business, Paw Dazzle.
Twelve Academy of Culinary Arts students in Chef Educator Tree McCann's Centerpiece Artistry Class worked on several projects during their final class, including designing birdhouse centerpieces that each represent a Historic Smithville business. The students had to make pastillage to create their birdhouses, which is a sugar-based dough used in decorating and creating decorations for pastry, showpiece work and decorative molded forms. "Tweeterville Village" is on display at the Smithville Inn, Dec. 21 through mid-January. Other mediums the students worked with in the advanced baking class were tempered chocolate, sugar and marzipan.
Atlantic Cape Community College's Alumni Association Advisory Committee is accepting nominations for the Atlantic Cape Community College President's Distinguished Alumni Award. The award recognizes Atlantic Cape graduates who have distinguished themselves through professional, personal, public or community-based accomplishments.
We would like to help and assist students during the first week of classes (January 16 – 19) for the spring semester. Once again we ask for volunteers to be at welcome tables. Please sign up for date/times you can participate. We will send everyone specific location assignment in the new year.


eSilva+Phillips announces that its client Venture Direct Worldwide, an advertising and list management firm, has sold its List Services Division to MeritDirect, a White Plains, NY based direct marketing agency. The List Services Division, which includes the Xactmail email and postal databases, provides a full range of list rental and list management services.
MeritDirect is a recognized leader in the B2B and B2C direct marketing industry, offering marketers integrated marketing solutions with an array of products and services. Mailers and list owners achieve a superior return on their marketing investment through MeritDirect's list brokerage, list management, customer list enhancement and optimization, marketing databases and interactive services.


Mater Information and Technology currently have an exciting and rewarding opportunity for a Senior Applications Specialist to join the team in a permanent full time capacity based at our South Brisbane campus. Supporting Pharmacy Information Management Systems for the organisation, the role will be responsible for implementation, maintenance and support in the digital environment to ensure effective and efficient use of pharmacy information systems. A commitment to maintaining and improving the medication management processes, outcomes, patient safety and efficiency is required.
The Senior Applications Specialist role will lead upcoming key Pharmacy ICT implementations, providing expert advice and supporting applications used across Mater Group. This role has expert content knowledge to ensure maintenance, support, problem solving and continuous improvement are managed in a timely and customer focussed manner to meet business needs. The role will engage with Mater business teams and leaders, as well as vendors and third parties to maintain effective working relationships.
In return for your skills you will have the opportunity to work for an Australian leader in the field of Health and work with a team who make a real difference to the lives of our patients. Mater provides benefits not offered in other workplaces. In addition to being part of a workplace that offers compassionate care in the spirit of the Sisters of Mercy, pioneers in the provision of healthcare to Queensland for over 100 years, you will have opportunities to increase your take-home pay with our salary packaging options.


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NewsUK News
Merkel's party suffers beating in state election
Voters in Germany's most populous state strengthened a centre-left regional government which Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives sought to portray as irresponsibly spendthrift, and inflicted an embarrassingly heavy defeat yesterday on the German leader's party, projections showed.
Monday, 14th May 2012, 7:00 am
The centre-left Social Democrats and Greens – Germany's main opposition parties – won combined support of about 51 per cent in the election in North Rhine-Westphalia state, according to exit polls and early counting.
That would be enough to give them a majority in the state legislature, which they narrowly missed in the last regional election two years ago.
Support for Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats was seen dropping to 26 per cent from more than 34 per cent, their worst showing in the state since the Second World War.
But the pro-market Free Democrats, Mrs Merkel's struggling partners in the national government, performed respectably.
The incumbent government of popular governor Hannelore Kraft had been favoured to win, particularly after a much-criticised and sometimes gaffe-prone campaign by conservative challenger Norbert Roettgen, Mrs Merkel's federal environment minister. "This is a crashing defeat for Mrs Merkel and her minister," said Andrea Nahles, the Social Democrats' general secretary.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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AXIS II COMORBIDITY AND ITS EFFECT ON AXIS I DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT
Nr.3/2017 | Autor: Dan PRELIPCEANU, Elena Raluca Barbu, Andreea Cuștureac-Popescu
Cuvinte cheie: "treatment", associations, mental illness, personality disorders
Abstract: Ongoing research demonstrates a striking tendency for personality disorders and mental illness to co-occur, almost all Axis I categories being associated with maladaptive personality traits/criteria across the three personality disorder clusters. The high comorbidity rates between the two axes can be explained by models of association, the structure of personality and even common genetic vulnerabilities. As these links are being identified, the distinction between Axis I and Axis II traditional diagnostic formulations are becoming increasingly blurred, indicating the need for new nosological systems. We present a brief review on the implications of Axis II comorbidity in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of mental disorders.
Many patients seen in a clinical psychiatric setting often present with more than one problem. Aside from mental illness (clinical disorder), these problems may include personality disorders, substance misuse, as well as social difficulties and general medical conditions. The multi-axial classification system was first introduced in 1980 by DSM III and placed personality disorders (Axis II) on a different axis from other clinical disorders (Axis I), generating a wealth of research on the co-occurrence of mental illness and personality disorders. The comorbidity and relationships between Axis I psychiatric disorders and Axis II personality disorders varies within each disorder and across the personality disorders. The clinical significance of Axis I–Axis II disorder associations lies in the fact that the management of mental illness is more complex in the presence of personality disorder (1).
COMORBIDITY, PERSONALITY AND MODELS OF ASSOCIATION
The term comorbidity was coined by Feinstein (1970) and introduced in the medical literature to denote the presence of "any distinct additional clinical entity that has existed or may occur during the clinical course of a patient who has the index disorder under study" simultaneously with the primary disease (2).
Numerous studies have documented extensive comorbidity among psychiatric disorders and raise fundamental questions about psychopathology and the classification system, concern being expressed about the overlap in diagnostic categories, the lack of clear cut separation between mental illness and personality disorders and the difficulty of diagnosing personality disorders in patients that present with an acute episode of clinical disorder (3). Results from clinical and population studies indicate that comorbidity between disorders is actually the rule rather than the exception and diagnoses co-occur more frequently than it would be expected by chance (4, 5). This findings raise questions about the mechanisms resulting in these associations and their importance for the management of the disorder in question. Several models of association have been proposed. Klerman (1990) suggested a primary- secondary distinction approach to comorbidity: chronological, causal or symptomatic (6). Krueger & Markon (2006) propose the hierarchically organized liability spectrum model of comorbidity, in which comorbidity is understood as a function of underlying vulnerability for psychopathology. The model suggests that specific mental disorders are diverse expressions of underlying vulnerabilities and that psychopathology is rather continuous than categorical. The authors developed the following models to explain comorbidity: bivariate models that consider only two disorders occurring simultaneously, multiformity models (the expression of vulnerability is heterogeneous), causation models (i.e., one disorder vulnerability directly causes the development of a second disorder or reciprocal causation in which both disorders may cause one another), an independence model (disorders have independent vulnerabilities), and spurious association models (external factors create the association) (7).
A variety of characteristics could form the basis for distinguishing between the two diagnostic categories: stability, age of onset, treatment response, insight, comorbidity and symptom specificity, and etiology, but none of them have been proven to set a clear distinction between the two axis diagnosis. The most promising general direction for research would therefore focus on understanding how and why the two domains are so interconnected and the answer to this question could be provided by the structure of personality (8). The Five Factor Model (or Big Five) appears to represent a compelling model for organizing normal and abnormal personality variation, including the variation captured by the personality disorders categories described in the DSM–IV–TR (9). Comorbidity among common mental disorders makes sense when thought of in terms of the personological underpinnings of these disorders. Krueger et al. (1998) demonstrated that unipolar mood and anxiety disorders were indicators of a latent internalizing propensity (negative emotionality or neuroticism with two subspectrums: distress and fear), and substance dependence and antisocial behavior disorders were indicators of a latent externalizing propensity (negative emotionality and disinhibition) (10). Kendler et al. (2003) studied the genetic and environmental underlying comorbidity among seven syndromes (major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, phobia, alcohol dependence, other drug abuse or dependence, adult antisocial behavior, and conduct disorder) that delineate the internalizing and externalizing spectra, the results strongly suggesting that genetic factors are responsible for this pattern of comorbidity (11).
In comparison to other branches of medicine where diseases are relatively well delineated, psychiatry deals mostly with disorders, that is to say behavioral and psychological syndromes that are deviant from some standard of normality. Mental illnesses/disorders are polygenetic, multifactorial, and developmentally complex (12). Clinical assessment should lead to individualized diagnostic formulation, involving consideration for treatment and prognosis, as comorbidity results in more functional impairment than the cumulated effects of the disorder itself (13).
Research has suggested that between 66% and 97%of patients with personality disorders also experience mental illness, and that between 18% and 81% of those with mental illness also have a personality disorder (14).
In the following sections we will discuss the different associations that have been shown to exist between different personality disorders and mental illness.
M O O D D I S O R D E R S A N D C O M O R B I D PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Mood disorders, both unipolar and bipolar, are recurrent and frequently refractory to treatment and the presence of maladaptive personality features in these patients is often seen as a poor prognostic indicator, being related to increased suicide risk, worse therapeutic response, adherence problems, increased frequency of mixed and depressive features (15, 16). There is ongoing debate regarding the way we conceptualize personality traits as contributing or being tightly integrated in the clinical presentation of affective disorders.
The rate of comorbid personality disorders in patients with depression varies between 43% and 64%, suggesting that comorbid personality pathology, however defined, is common in depressed patients and potentially important in management consideration of each case. The most common personality disorders appear to be avoidant, borderline and more variably, paranoid and obsessive- compulsive personality disorders (17, 18). The relationship between personality disorder and depression can be conceptualized in several ways, three or four concepts have been proposed by researchers: "the vulnerability or predisposition model"(the tendency of maladaptive personality traits to predispose an individual to develop depression); "the complication or "scar" model"(the development or exaggeration in personality traits as a complication of depression-especially chronic or early onset depression); "the spectrum or coaggregation model"(depression and some personality disorders overlap phenomenologically, as a result of common etiology and vulnerability); "the pathoplasty model"(the influence of personality disorders on the clinical presentation of depression, its course and its response to treatment) (19, 20). None of these models are mutually exclusive, and they only represent a conceptualization of the association between personality traits and depression. Kendler et al. used a twin sample registry to demonstrate the relationship between depression and neuroticism, reporting a strong association between the two that was largely mediated through genetic factors rather than as a causal pathway, neuroticism implying a high genetic risk for depression, low self-esteem and early onset anxiety disorders (21). Mulder et al. reported an increased rate of chronic depression in individuals with comorbid personality disorders (22). It is believed that many personality manifestations, such as some avoidant, borderline, dependent traits and neuroticism scores as well are actually features of depression. There is consistent evidence that when individuals are no longer depressed, maladaptive personality traits have lower rates and so have neuroticism scores (23). These findings suggest that depression and personality disorders are not simply comorbid or independent, but they rather commonly tend to be found together. The most soaring problem posed by this Axis II-Axis I association is the clinical importance of it, opinions differing on this subject. Newton-Howers and Tyrer (2006) conclude that comorbid personality disorder with depression was associated with a doubling of the risk of a poor outcome for depression compared with no personality disorder, with the side note that it was not possible to conclude that personality disorder in itself caused the poorer outcome in depression (16). On the other hand, Bieger et al. (2002) reported that comorbid personality disorder was unrelated to the course or outcome of depression, except for age of onset, number of suicide attempts, and quality of life, and Mulder (2002) reported that there was no overall effect on outcome from having a comorbid personality disorder in 183 outpatients (22, 24).
Bipolar disorder is a common psychiatric illness. Estimates suggest that bipolar disorder affects approximately 2% of the population, although estimates of the lifetime rate of bipolar spectrum disorder approach 5% (25).
Conceptual models linking personality and bipolar disorder are relatively underdeveloped compared with models for major depressive disorder. The incidence of comorbid personality disorder ranges from 45% to 65%, with borderline personality as the most prevalent, followed by histrionic personality disorder (26). To avoid misdiagnosis and overlap, given the notion of bipolar spectrum, the presence of a personality disorder in a bipolar patient should be assessed only during the euthymic phase. Patients with bipolar disorder and a diagnosis of personality disorder are more likely to be hospitalized, require more time to achieve symptom stabilization, have more chronic impairments in occupational and social functioning, are less compliant to medication, have greater levels of suicidality and utilize more psychiatric services than patients with bipolar disorder alone (27). The presence of a personality disorder or maladaptive personality traits (cluster B, especially borderline personality disorder) was associated with higher rates of alcohol/drug abuse disorder, anxiety disorders and are a lower rate of full functional recovery in bipolar patients (28, 29). Bipolar patients who associate a personality disorder tend to respond less well to pharmacotherapy and it takes a longer time to achieve stabilization and there are larger number of relapses (30,
31). Furthermore, comorbid bipolar patients are more likely to have suicidal ideation than single diagnosis patients (32).
A N X I E T Y D I S O R D E R S A N D C O M O R B I D PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Personality traits and most anxiety disorders are strongly related. Personality traits may relate to anxiety disorders as predisposing factors, as consequences, as results of common etiologies, and as pathoplastic factors (33). Regarding personality disorder traits, antisocial, borderline, dependent, depressive, histrionic, passive- aggressive, and schizotypal personality traits present in adolescence and early adulthood (between ages 14 and 22) were associated with increased risk of having an anxiety disorder by middle adulthood (mean age of 33), controlling for baseline anxiety disorders (34). Personality traits such as high neuroticism, low extraversion, and personality disorder traits (particularly those from Cluster C) are at least markers of risk for certain anxiety disorders (35). The existence of comorbid personality disorders predict worse outcome in patients with anxiety disorders. For example, in a treatment study of patients with panic disorder, comorbid personality disorders, particularly avoidant, were associated with a delayed response to treatment (36). Patients with generalized anxiety disorder and comorbid avoidant or dependent personality disorders had a lower probability of remission at 5 years than those without personality disorders and socially phobic patients with avoidant personality disorder were less likely to remit from social phobia (37). Obsessive-compulsive disorder associated with substantial schizotypal personality traits (for example, unusual perceptual experience) seems to have poorer response to treatment (38). The presence of comorbid paranoid or borderline personality disorder predicted suicide attempts, and avoidant personality disorder predicted suicidal ideation (39). Genetic factors may help explain why personality traits are so strongly related to most anxiety disorders and there is evidence that the same genes that influence neuroticism also influence risk for generalized anxiety disorder, for example (40).
SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS AND COMORBID PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Personality disorders, in particular, are considered to be an important contributing and/or predisposing factor in the pathogenesis, clinical course and treatment outcome of substance use disorders. Antisocial personality disorder has the strongest and most specific association with substance abuse/dependence. Although the association might reflect overlap in diagnostic criteria (i.e. drug use leading to antisocial behavior), it can still be detected when drug-related behavior is excluded from the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (41). Early antisocial behavior, in the form of conduct disorder, is a common antecedent of substance dependence, genetic studies suggesting etiological links between the two disorders (42).
Almost the whole spectrum of personality disorders can be encountered in alcohol dependence, such as the antisocial, borderline, dependent, avoidant, paranoid. The prevalence of personality disorders in alcoholism ranges from as low as 22-40% to as high as 58-78% (43).
Using the data from the NESARC epidemiological study of over 40,000 individuals and applying a revised method of diagnosing personality disorders, researchers found that the highest comorbidity rates for lifetime alcohol dependence were observed among those with antisocial (52.09%), histrionic (49.79%), and borderline (47.41%) personality disorders. Highest rates of comorbidity with drug dependence occurred among those with histrionic (29.72%), dependent (27.34%), and antisocial (26.65%) personality disorders. Finally, odds ratios are high for almost all personality disorders and nicotine dependence (44).
S C H I Z O P H R E N I A A N D P R E M O R B I D PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Kety et al. revealed a schizophrenia spectrum term for all disorders transmitted genetically to a degree together with schizophrenia (45). The disorder possibly varies in a broad, continuous range from subthreshold forms to severe clinical forms, in which schizophrenia represents the range's endpoint. Schizotypal personality disorder was included in this spectrum with strong evidence resulting from various family studies, and with moderately strong evidence paranoid and schizoid also (46). Avoidant personality disorder was also proposed for inclusion in the spectrum (47).In a study of premorbid personality disorders in schizophrenic patients with and without substance use disorders, the most common premorbid personality disorders in patients without comorbidity were avoidant (35%), paranoid (17.5%) and obsessive–compulsive (15%), whereas in the group with substance abuse comorbidity, the most common PDs were borderline (37.5%), antisocial (35%) and paranoid (22.5%) (48).
SOME CONSIDERATIONS
Eating disorders are multidetermined psychiatric disorders that may also be influenced by personality pathology. Anorexia nervosa, restrictive type is found to be in association with obsessive compulsive personality disorder, this personality pathology ocurring with a 22% reta of prevalence. Borderline personality disorder has a prevalence rate of 25% in anorexia nervosa, binge-eating purging type, borderline being also the most common personality disorder in bulimia nervosa (28%) (49).
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder portends risk for adult personality disorders, but the risk is not uniform across disorders, nor is it uniformly related to child or adult diagnostic status (50).
Clinical or mental disorders are recorded on the first of the five DSM axes used to classify psychiatric pathology, and personality disorders are described on the second of those five axes. Shall we continue to separate mental disorders into these two categories or is it time to reconstruct this arrangement? Current research on the association between personality and psychopathology indicates rather a closer connection between these two diagnostic categories than it is implied by their separation on the two axes. One way to understand this connection is from the point of view of general personality functioning and individual differences, providing a framework that is very useful to understanding psychopathology in general.
Furthermore, this close connection is backed up by genetic studies. A recent genome-wide association study of borderline personality disorder reveals genetic overlap w i t h b i p o l a r d i s o r d e r, m a j o r d e p r e s s i o n a n d schizophrenia, just to give one example (51).
There seems to be complex associations and a great deal of co-ocurrence between Axis I clinical disorders and Axis II personality disorders, relationships that vary within each disorder and across personality disorders. This situation appears to be the rule rather than the exception, raising questions about boundaries between disorders, the categorical method of classification and the overall clinical model of assesing and managing psychiatric pathology. Several models of association have been proposed in order to conceptualize the intricate relationship between clinical and personality disorders. The environmental and genetic underpinnings of psychopathology have contributed to explaining and enhancing these observations. It seems it is high time to acknwoledge that the boundaries between disorders are not quite as clear as previously thought.
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13.Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 2005; 62(6):617–27
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15.Leverich GS, Altshuler LL, Frye MA, et al. Factors associated with suicide attempts in 648 patients with bipolar disorder in the Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network. J Clin Psychiatry 2003; 64:506–515
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30.Colom F et al.. Clinical factors associated with treatment noncompliance in euthymic bipolar patients. J Clin Psychiatry 2000, 61:549–555.
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37Massion AO, Dyck IR, Shea MT, et al.: Personality disorders and time to remission in generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and panic disorder. ArchGenPsychiatry 2002, 59:434–440.
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40.Hettema JM, Prescott CA, Kendler KS. Genetic and environmental sources of covariation between generalized anxiety disorder and neuroticism. Am J Psychiatry 2004, 161:1581–1587.
41.Grant BF, Stinson FS, Dawson DA, et al. Co-occurrence of 12-month alcohol and drug use disorders and personality disorders in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and related Conditions. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2004; 61: 361–8.
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43.Mellos E, Liappas I, Paparrigopoulos T. Comorbidity of personality disorders with alcohol abuse. In Vivo. 2010 24(5):761-9.
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8th ed. Philedelphia: Lippincott Williams& Wilkins. 2005. pp.1502- 1512.
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8(3):14-18.
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Rachael Comer is a graduate of the Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing (Education) from School of Nursing and Midwifery, NUI Galway. She tells us about the course. Rachael is currently a Clinical Nurse Specialist at University College Hospital Galway.
My name is Rachael Comer. I was working as a staff midwife in a Gynaecology ward in the West of Ireland. I loved working in Women's Health. In particular I enjoyed educating women about their care, as well as being a preceptor to student nurses and midwives.
This motivated me to pursue a Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing (Education) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway. I thoroughly enjoyed this programme. It provided me with the theoretical knowledge as well as practical skills to educate nurses and clients, using different teaching methods to improve engagement with learning.
At times I did find the course challenging. As a result, it made me think about education in a different way. In addition, it pushed me to try new and innovative ways of teaching. Overall though the experience was really great. Furthermore, having lecturers who are encouraging and motivating contributed to a wonderful learning experience.
I now feel more confident as an educator and the programme has also opened up further career opportunities for me.


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More Music History for January 21, 2018
The Kingston Trio, one of the foremost groups behind the Folk music craze, receive their first Gold record for "Tom Dooley", a song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
Del Shannon records his first single, "Runaway", which will top the US charts by April. The song was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and would later be rated as #466 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Peter And Gordon record the Lennon / McCartney tune "A World Without Love", which will top the UK chart next June. Peter Asher's sister Jane was currently dating Paul McCartney.
The Animals were forced to cancel a show at New York's Apollo Theater after the US Immigration Department forced the group to leave the venue. Their only New York appearance would be on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Byrds record "Mr. Tambourine Man" at Columbia Records' Hollywood Studios. The song was produced by Doris Day's son Terry Melcher, who replaced the rest of the group with session musicians to back Jim McGuinn and his 12 string Rickenbacker guitar.
Beatle George Harrison marries his long-time girlfriend, fashion model Patti Boyd, whom he met on the set of the Beatles' first movie, A Hard Day's Night. She would leave an unfaithful Harrison in the mid-'70s and hooked up with Eric Clapton, who would write the song "Layla" about her. Those two would marry in May 1979, but split in 1988.
Jackie Wilson passed away at the age of 49. He had suffered a heart attack while singing "Lonely Teardrops" at the Latin Casino in New Jersey during a performance in 1975 and hit his head in the fall. Wilson suffered brain damage and required permanent care the rest of his life.
Yes hits number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with their only Top Ten hit, "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". It reached #28 hit in the UK.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts The Coasters, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, B.B. King, Clyde McPhatter, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Smokey Robinson, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams and Jackie Wilson.
Steve Wahrer, drummer and vocalist for The Trashmen on their 1964 hit "Surfin' Bird", died of throat cancer at the age of 47.
Cannibal And The Headhunters lead singer Francisco Garcia died at the age of 49. The group's biggest hit was "Land Of A Thousand Dances", which reached number 30 in 1965.
Colonel Tom Parker, the former carnival pitchman who guided Elvis Presley's career for 22 years, died of complications from a stroke. He was 87.
81 year old Peggy Lee, best known in the Rock era for her 1958 version of "Fever", passed away after suffering a heart attack at her Bel Air, California home. Lee won a Grammy Award for her 1969 hit "Is That All There Is" and had charted 46 times from 1945 to 1969, ten times in the Top Ten. She had suffered a stroke in 1998 and had been battling heart disease and diabetes.
Rosemary Clooney, who had five US Top 40 hits, including two chart toppers in the 1950s, underwent lung cancer surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry issued a statement that said global government legislation is essential to the survival of recorded music. The IFPI said that "Copyright holders cannot hope to micro-manage the behavior of every consumer" and "there is a growing threat to local artists posed by piracy."
An Israeli man was arrested on suspicion of hacking into the computers of several international stars and selling unreleased songs online. Madonna, whose latest album, "Rebel Heart" was leaked online in December, said that she was "profoundly grateful" to those who helped arrest the hacker and described the experience as devastating and hurtful.


Applications are invited for the position of Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in research project titled "Exploring the Bacillus thuringiensis genetic diversity with anti-coleopteran, anti-lepidopteron specific Cry genes to combat agriculturally important insect pest from North-East (Arunachal Pradesh) India" sponsored under Early Career Research Award Project funded by SERB-DST. Interested candidates may attend the Walk-In Interview to be held on 10th September 2018 at 10.00 AM in the Conference Hall of the Department of Forestry, North-Eastern Regional Institute of Science & Technology, Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh.
Essential Qualifications Ist Class M.Sc. in Biotechnology/Microbiology/ Botany/ Life Sciences/ Forestry.
Candidates with experience in microbiology and molecular biology have been given preference.
No TA/ DA will be paid for attending the interview.


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The naval shore institution, HMS Vernon, contained the Royal Navy's arsenal – weapons and ammunition might be taken from ships as they entered the harbour and could be resupplied as they headed out to sea. The 1919 Southsea and Portsmouth Formal tutorial explained the institution as "the best collections of weapons outside the Tower of London, made up of over 25,000 rifles".[280] from the early nineteenth century, Gunwharf Quays equipped the fleet using a "grand arsenal" consisting of cannons, mortars, bombs, and different ordinance.
Portsmouth's debut year in the initial Division was a battle. another year they continued to falter, shedding ten–0 to Leicester metropolis, however a club record defeat. Inspite of their failings in the league, nonetheless, that year also saw Portsmouth reach the FA Cup final for the first time, which they shed to Bolton Wanderers.
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Southsea can be a seaside vacation resort and residential area which lies in the southern end of Portsea Island. Southsea originates from Southsea Castle; a castle about the seafront proven in 1544 by Henry VIII that can help protect the Solent and ways to Portsmouth Harbour.[291] The area initially Julian produced in 1809 as "Croxton Town", even though through the 1860s the suburb of Southsea experienced expanded to offer homes for working-course men and women.
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Q: How to run a Play application on my local machine and let someone else access it from the Internet My Play application defines a few callbacks (URLs) to be called by third party systems... and I need to test them.
Is it possible to run a Play application on a local machine and let someone else access it from the Internet? I know, I could deploy my application to Heroku... but it takes up to 30 minutes and this is not the best option when one needs to debug, fix possible bugs, and redeploy the application many times.

A: Try ngrok : https://ngrok.com/
Once installed, open a terminal, type ./ngrok 9000 and then you can access your play running on your computer at something like http://123456.ngrok.com

A: You could just open the port in your router, then your application would be available at [your-ip]:9000 (or whatever port you use with play).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Earnings season
China wine hit spoils cans jump for Orora
Simon EvansSenior reporter
Feb 18, 2021 – 2.44pm
Revenue ($m): 1814.1 v year-earlier 1835.2
Pre-tax profit ($m): 116.3 v 105.7
Net profit ($m): 97.4 v 97.3
Interim dividend: 6.5c, payable April 1
The chief executive of beverage can and wine bottle maker Orora said he took a "gulp" when the size of the official provisional tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on 800 Australian wine producers was announced in November.
Brian Lowe said on Thursday that about 10 per cent of the group's 900 million bottles produced at a large factory near Gawler in South Australia end up in China.
About 10 per cent of the wine bottles Orora makes in Australia end up in China, but that is likely to shrink dramatically. Sanghee Liu
The short-term hole from the hefty tariffs of up to 212 per cent for wine bottle customers selling to China will drag earnings in the June half lower in Orora's Australasian business.
This is despite heavy demand for beverage cans across its network of five factories making cans for beer, soft drinks and kombucha, stemming from pantry hoarding and robust in-home consumption.
Treasury Wine Estates – owner of brands including Penfolds and Wolf Blass, and the biggest customer of Orora in the wine sector – has seen profits from China slumping 37 per cent for the December half as the tariff hit began to bite.
Treasury Wines was hit with tariffs of 169 per cent. Australian wine producers had been exporting $1.3 billion of wine annually to China.
Mr Lowe said the immediate impact will pull earnings back for Orora's Australasian division in the six months ended June 30.
"We expect to come back a little," he said.
In contrast, the company's beverage can business is experiencing strong demand, driven by the swing to in-home consumption and stronger sales through grocery outlets.
"It's fair to say we are running pretty much flat out," Mr Lowe said.
"We're heavily loaded on our can facilities," he said. The company is looking to expand capacity, and will step up investment at its Revesby plant in Sydney, which specialises in manufacturing slim-line smaller cans.
The group has four can plants – in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales – along with one in Auckland.
Earnings before interest and tax for the Australasian business was up 4.2 per cent to $86.1 million in the six months ended December 31.
In North America, where the company runs packaging operations and a business that supplies in-store visual merchandise to retailers, EBIT was up 12.7 per cent to US$39 million ($50 million).
Orora kept its dividend steady at 6.5¢, with bottomline net profit after tax marginally ahead at $97.4 million.
Mr Lowe said Orora was carefully assessing potential expansion into the beverage containers sector in North America.
In Australia, Orora operates a beverage can manufacturing business for beer and soft drinks, where one of its largest customers is Australia's biggest brewer, Carlton & United Breweries, the maker of Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught and Crown Lager. CUB is now owned by Japan's Asahi after a $16 billion buyout which settled in mid-2020.
Stockbroking house Citi has a "neutral" rating on Orora and said there was good cost control in the United States but there are concerns about wine bottle earnings, with a low 2020 grape harvest adding to the volume worries from the China export hit.
Wine Australia figures show the 2020 Australian grape harvest intake was 1.52 million tonnes, 12 per cent below that of 2019 and about 13 per cent below the 10-year average.
Smoke taint from bushfires and poor weather conditions pulled the 2020 grape intake lower, and experts say it should rebound to between 1.75 million to 1.8 million tonnes this harvest, which is in its early stages and runs through until the end of April.
Simon Evans writes on business specialising in retail, manufacturing, beverages, mining and M&A. He is based in Adelaide. Connect with Simon on Twitter. Email Simon at simon.evans@afr.com
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…is not so little anymore. Had a checkup this week: 18 lbs, 9 oz and 27 1/4 in. Still only the 2 teeth that it seems he's had forever (since about 3 months, but started teething at about 2 1/2.) Has began eating baby food because he showed the signs (teeth, interest in food, attempting to grab our food). Sitting, standing with help. Something like 6+ months if we age-adjusted, but he's only 4 1/2 months old!
Still seems like only yesterday sometimes that we spent that week in the hospital with him and were not sure what would happen. But has he ever rebounded!


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Digital National Security Archive – an update
Back in 2013, you may remember from our previous blog post, the University Library and the POLIS department purchased a subscription to the Digital National Security Archive (DNSA).
The DNSA offers one of the most valuable collections of declassified US government documentation – it offers access to incredible primary source material across a huge range of topics. Since it's purchase in 2013 the archive has grown to over 104,000 individual documents held within 44 collections.
The new collections available include:
The Kissinger Conversations, Supplement: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969–1977
Electronic Surveillance and the National Security Agency: From Shamrock to Snowden
Mexico-United States Counternarcotics Policy, 1969-2013
Presidential Directives on National Security, Part II: From Truman to George W. Bush
Other collections available:
Terrorism and U.S. Policy, 1968–2002
Afghanistan: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1973–1990
The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983–1988
Presidential Directives on National Security, Part I:…
Science of Synthesis – free trial access until 31st March
Chemistry Library blog
The University of Cambridge currently has a free trial access to the new Science of Synthesis 4.0 until 31 March.
This full-text database for organic and organometallic chemistry focuses on the most effective and reliable methods for functional group transformations. It contains evaluated and detailed experimental procedures.
Furthermore the Houben-Weyl content is still available as a back file.
Science of Synthesis now also contains a new reference library covering special subjects such as:
Asymmetric Organocatalysis
Water in Organic Synthesis
Stereoselective Synthesis
To access Science of Synthesis (on and off-campus) please use this URL: http://ezproxy.lib.cam.ac.uk:2048/login?url=https://science-of-synthesis.thieme.com/
In order for you to have the best possible result from using Science of Synthesis, a Getting Started Manual can be found at http://www.science-of-synthesis.com/prod/pdf/SoS-40-Quick-Start-Guide.pdf
There are also several video tutorials at https://www.thieme.de/en/thieme-connect/science-of-synthesis-tutorials-50028.htm
It is really important that you give your feedback on this product so we know whether it is worth recommending for purchase, and to…
Springer Materials Database (aka Landolt-Börnstein)
10/02/2015 06/03/2015 1 Comment
Trial access has been arranged to the complete Springer Materials Database until 13 April 2015.
Please send feedback on the trial to yn235@cam.ac.uk. Thank you.
This is the world's largest resource for physical and chemical data in materials science, but also contains material of interest to physics, engineering, chemistry and many other disciplines.The service contains the complete Landolt-Börnstein database of physical and chemical properties in Materials Science, with over 3000 properties of over 250,000 materials and chemical systemsAccess to a number of subset databases on subjects like inorganic solid phases, thermophysical properties, adsorption, chemical safety, and more…
About SpringerMaterials:
SpringerMaterials is a comprehensive database that covers the physical and chemical properties in Materials Science
All content is critically reviewed by 1000+ external experts in the relevant fields
The database contains the complete Landolt-Börnstein New Series, which spans from particles, atoms and nuclei to multi-phase systems.
Users can browse for element systems using the periodic table, draw chemical structures and substructures.
Complete bibliographic data is provided, along with links to the original content
Quarterly updates to the database, with new books added, databases acquired and updated
The building blocks of SpringerMaterials
The Landolt-Börnstein Database: 400 volumes, 250,000 substances and 1,200,000 citations
The complete Linus Pauling Files: A comprehensive database about the properties of inorganic solid phases, consisting of 255,000 documents
A subset of the Dortmund Database of Software and Separation Technology. Covering the Thermophysical Properties of pure liquids and binary mixtures, with 425,000 data points
An Adsorption database covering over 1,000 reversible, equilibrium isotherms
A Polymer Thermodyamics database that contains 140,000 datapoints about 150 polymers
44,000 Chemical Safety Documents
REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals, GHS Globally Harmonized System RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances, WEEE Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Benefits for researchers
Unrivaled database containing the most comprehensive collection of the properties of materials and chemicals, with the greatest scope and depth to ensure the researcher finds all the content in a single location.
SpringerMaterials features a critical review process that ensures that the researcher can rest assured that the data is accurate, relevant and up to date.
Intelligent search and content retrieval system, based on metadata that tags each of the 100,000+ documents with information describing its content like name and type of material, properties names, etc. This ensures the searches are accurate and efficient and the document contains exactly what you are looking for.
Powerful and unique Periodic Table and Chemical Structure Search tools enable the researchers to search in an expansive way, and discover related materials for comparison.
SpringerMaterials is highly relevant to research in the fields of
Chemistry,
most Engineering
SpringerMaterials is highly relevant to Research and Development in the following areas: Automotive, Aerospace and Aeronautics, Chemical Manufacturing, Electronics, Engineering, Materials and Steel, Oil, Gas and Geosciences, and Energy, Utilities and Environment
New content – Theatre and Performance
Here's a quick update on the content available from Digital Theatre Plus and Routledge Performance Archive
Love's Labour's Lost joins As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet in the growing collection for Shakespeare's Globe.
The New York Times ("Pledge week at that Elizabethan animal house" by Ben Brantley, 11th December 2009) said of this production:
"This London-born production … provides a high-spirited study of that limbo time in life just before adulthood, when many adolescents take up residence in the sanctuaries of so-called higher learning. It's a time for playing at — rather than being in — love and for thinking that few things are more satisfying than feeling you're the cleverest kid in the room."
Digital Theatre Plus have also made available the recent Old Vic production of The Crucible starring Richard Armitage.
From the Guardian's review of the production ("The Crucible review, an engrossing, fiery evening" by Susannah Clapp, Sunday 13th July 2014″):
"The play looks newly acute about religious fundamentalism, and the way a sexual encounter between a young girl and an older man can come back to haunt him. Its eloquence about the unreliability of confessions made under duress also strikes with fresh force."
Routledge Performance Archive has been updated and now includes over 100 hours of resources for theatre and performance students and researchers.
The latest update includes 13 new video pieces by Alexander Iliev, one of the most celebrated mime artists in the world. He has professorial expertise in Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism, dervish Mevlyaana dance, Balinese wayang kulit and topeng, Royal Nepalese dhime nrittya dance, Tibetan Cham mystery, _kathakali_ dance,
traditional theatre of Kampuchea and Thailand (_lakhon_), traditional Chinese theatre and opera, traditional Vietnamese_ thuong nam_ theatre, Brechtian theatre, martial arts of all kinds, and over forty years of experience as a professional pantomime.


As small winery owners, we do everything! No staff! But we love it.
The team at Pyramids Road Wines consists of a husband and wife combination who carry out all tasks of the wine growing and wine making operations. Inspired by a change in life style and leaving the busyness of the Sunshine Coast behind, Warren and Sue headed to the Granite Belt for a tree change.
A passion for fine wines drives all operations at Pyramids Road Wines. Our focus is on the production of high quality low volume hand made wines. All our wines are hand crafted on the premises. Small scale production means most operations are hands-on – from pruning, training, picking in the vineyard to basket pressing, bottling and labeling in the winery.
Meet the winemaker in the cellar door.
Estate grown grapes used to produce our red wines.
Become part of our wine family and join our loyalty club.
Have fun at our winery events.
Inspired by his love of chemistry, Warren completed his Associate Diploma in Applied Science at Charles Sturt University in 2001. He hand planted this Granite Belt vineyard in 1999 on an old orchard in the foothills of Girraween National Park. Small volumes of wine produced in the early years from estate grown fruit and now white wines produced from fruit grown locally.
Ex school teacher now cellar hand, vineyard worker and admin manager. Having a business background certainly helps keep the small business flourishing. You'l meet me when you book for our events, order wine, visit our offsite festivals and occasionally in the cellar door.
We planted our vineyard in 1999 starting with the traditional varieties of Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. We also had a patch of old bush grown Black Muscat grapes which Warren resurrected by mowing them down with a chain saw, re-trellising and training them onto a cordon wire. We have never planted white varieties hence we source all our white grapes from local grape growers.
From little things, big things grow! Starting with just a milk vat, a crusher, a manual basket press and a couple of barrels, we've extended the winery and now run out of space. Now we need a new shed.
Our production has increased slowly to meet demand. In the beginning we made only 4 wines however now we have 10 wines in total. More tanks, more barrels, a new shiny basket press (pneumatic) and a screw cap machine. How lucky are we.
Merlot has the classic characters of ripe cherries and red berries with bright crimson hues. It features fine soft tannins backed by some silky oak characters.
An elegant Shiraz that is hand plunged in open fermenters before being basket pressed and racked into barrels to complete the malolactic fermentation.
The fruit used to produce this wine was sourced from the Rosemary Hill vineyard west of Stanthorpe. The nose features fresh fruit characters of pineapple and passionfruit.
The fruit used to produce this wine was sourced from Bungawarra Wines and were whole bunch pressed and then the juice was separated into individual ferments.


Guess one of the main issues is, I don't use the KF5 based version of Kate that much ATM. At home, it is the only editor I use, but I have not much time to hack at home anyway.
Therefore today I installed the same setup on my work machine and will now use the KF5 based Kate for all of my day job, perhaps that motivates me more to take a look at the issues the Qt5/KF5 port still has.
First update: The Get It page got an update to show how to install KF5 based Kate/KWrite from kate.git on openSUSE 13.2 ;) Feel free to send in the needed hints for other distros (to kwrite-devel@kde.org).
The installation hints for KDE 4.x based Kate got moved to Get It – KDE 4.x, to keep them intact!


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Mobile Outreach
Home » COVID-19 » Mobile Outreach Program
AMI is a trusted strategic partner for community outreach and service coordination.
AMI Expeditionary Healthcare Mobile Outreach Program is designed to support federal, state, and county COVID-19 initiatives to deliver vaccine and testing services to vulnerable, underserved, and hard-to-reach communities. Our unique outreach program ensures rapid deployment of mobile services to engage communities and support healthcare systems by closing the gap on critical and urgent needs.
AMI has proven experience and expertise in mobilization and preparedness globally and has developed and implemented successful staffing models and work plans. AMI tailors a comprehensive work plan for programs that include initiation, planning, mobilization, execution, monitor/control, and demobilization while providing high-quality service delivery to all populations in an equitable manner. AMI has the cultural and socioeconomic sensitivity to address the needs of diverse communities.
AMI's Mobile Outreach Program includes these essential elements:
Vaccine Implementation
Medical Information System
Contracting Mechanism
Contact AMI
Email info@ami.health
Please fill out the form below for more information.
I'd like to learn more about:
Covid-19 Testing Covid-19 Vaccination Other
"AMI has been a significant partner to the Department of Health… Thanks to our ongoing partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, we can continue offering COVID-19 testing to anyone who feels they need or want a test… testing is still the best way to determine your exposure to and to ultimately stop the spread of COVID-19."
Alison BeamActing Secretary of Health, Pennsylvania
"Operations at Kreider Farms are extremely appreciative to PA Emergency Management Agency and AMI Expeditionary Healthcare for facilitating a mobile vaccination clinic to our farm. The convenience of an on-site clinic made it possible for many of our employees, who otherwise would not have received the COVID-19 vaccine, to get vaccinated and keep their families and communities safe."
Ed ShuelyVP Human Resources and Safety at Kreider Farms
"The AMI mobile vaccination team was highly organized and efficient. Everyone from the organization was very kind and addressed any concerns that we had as a host site. We are grateful to be able to provide a local option to vaccinating our students, their families and other community members against COVID-19 and keeping our schools safe."
Richard HeffernanPalisades High School Principal and Assistant to the Superintendent
"The farm workers were very grateful for the chance to get the COVID-19 vaccine in a safe and efficient manner with qualified healthcare professionals. Many of these workers would not have gotten vaccinated if it was not set up specifically for them. It was really rewarding to care for this special population and help keep their communities safe."
Kerri Devaney AMI's Project Manager
Pennsylvania Department of Health
AMI Expeditionary Healthcare has been providing turnkey mobile COVID-19 testing services for the PA Department of Health (PA DOH) since September 2020 through the provision of five mobile testing teams.
AMI has been providing turnkey mobile COVID-19 testing services for the PA Department of Health (PA DOH) since September 2020 through the provision of five mobile testing teams. The teams are staffed with 12 trained and qualified clinical, administrative, and logistics personnel who set up the sites, conduct testing, dismantle the sites, and transport samples to the lab. AMI partners with MHS Labs to perform specimen lab testing, as well as the Pennsylvania DOH State Laboratory, and the AMI call center notifies patients of their results. The teams are supported by the AMI field project management office (PMO) centrally located in State College, PA. Each team can conduct 450 PCR COVID-19 tests per day per team and are deployed to testing sites across Pennsylvania at the direction of PA DOH. The AMI mobile testing teams have conducted approximately 85,000 tests across 60 locations ranging from homeless shelters to county fairs.
AMI has been providing turnkey COVID-19 vaccination and testing services since May 2021 to schools and static sites in the South, West, and Central districts for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
AMI has been providing turnkey COVID-19 vaccination and testing services since May 2021 to schools and static sites in the South, West, and Central districts for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). LAUSD is the largest public school system in California and the second largest public school district in the United States. AMI is now at 1,400 personnel on the ground and has established an LA-based project management office (PMO) to support 100+ teams who test students and staff once per week, conducting approximately 250,000 tests per week. AMI testing services include procurement, logistics, staffing, human resources, travel and accommodation, clinical oversight and training, monitoring and evaluation, and information technology, as well as specimen lab testing by our partner, SummerBio. To date, AMI testing teams have conducted 4+ million PCR tests and 40,000+ antigen tests. AMI also supports 36+ vaccinations teams. To date the teams have vaccinated 2,000 5-11 year old and 8,000 12+ school age children have been vaccinated.
AMI has been providing turnkey COVID-19 testing services since May 2021 to schools and static sites in the South, West, and Central districts for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). LAUSD is the largest public school system in California and the second largest public school district in the United States. AMI have over 500 personnel on the ground and have established an LA-based project management office (PMO) to support 60 teams who test on-campus students and staff once per week, conducting approximately 100,000 tests per week. AMI testing services include procurement, logistics, staffing, human resources, travel and accommodation, clinical oversight and training, monitoring and evaluation, and information technology, as well as specimen lab testing by our partner, SummerBio. To date, AMI testing teams have conducted over 500,000 tests.


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home/ neurology center/ neurology a-z list/ education, intelligence might protect your brain article
Education, Intelligence Might Protect Your Brain
Latest Neurology News
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FRIDAY, June 14, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Being smart and highly educated may not prevent Alzheimer's disease, but it appears to delay the disease's impact on everyday life, a new study suggests.
Researchers can't prove that that's the case, but their data suggests it might be.
"Our study was designed to look for trends, not prove cause and effect, but the major implication of our study is that exposure to education and better cognitive performance when you're younger can help preserve cognitive function for a while, even if it's unlikely to change the course of the disease," said study author Dr. Rebecca Gottesman. She's a professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
For the study, Gottesman and her team collected data on 331 middle-aged and older people without dementia who were followed for 20 years and had brain scans as part of a separate study. The scans revealed how much plaques were in their brains, a hallmark of Alzheimer's. The group included people with less than a high school education and those who went to college.
The researchers found that those with more education scored better on tests of memory and language than those with less education, no matter how much plaque their brains contained.
They also found that cognition scores in midlife did not affect the amounts of plaque found later in life.
"Our data suggest that more education seems to play a role as a form of cognitive reserve that helps people do better at baseline, but it doesn't affect one's actual level of decline," Gottesman said in a university news release.
The report was published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University, news release, June 13, 2019
Brain Food Pictures: What to Eat to Boost Focus See Slideshow
Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and Aging Brains
Get the facts on dementia and disorders such as Lewy Body dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and more. Learn the warning signs of dementia.
Read more: Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and Aging Brains