text:
¡Viva el partido comunista [bolchevique] de toda Rusia! El partido de Lenin-Stalin, la vanguardia del pueblo soviético templada en batalla. ¡Quien inspira y organiza nuestras victorias!
Categoría: Stalin
Tamaño: 37.5x27.5
Tipo de cartel: Lithograph and Offset
Información sobre los editores: Editor N. Vladimirskii.
Información técnica: Volume 1 sheet of paper. N.7. Price 1 ruble.
Número de Glavlit: A-10949.
Información en el catálogo: PP 202 Stalin b
Artista: Druzhkov, Aleksandr Vasil'evich — Дружков, Александр Васильевич
From 1928 to 1931, Aleksandr Druzhkov studied at the Polygraphic College of Gosizdat State Publishing House. From 1928 to 1930, he was a member of the October Group of artists. While working with the October Group, he produced drawings for the journals Smena [Change] (1929-1931), Nashi dostizhenia [Our Achievement] (1932-1934) and, Bolshevisticheskaya pechat' [Bolshevik Press] (1932-1934). By 1928, he began an artistic foray into political posters producing such titles as, Above Ground and Below Ground We will Choke the Enemy with a Noose (1942) co-authored with poster artist Sokolov-Skalia; Long Live the Party! (1947); Honor to the Defenders of our Motherland! (1948) co-authored with I.M. Shagin and, Long Live the Soviet Cosmonauts (1969). Druzhkov became a member of the Communist Party in 1943.
Imprenta: Printer not indicated —
Editorial: Iskusstvo (Art Publishing House), Moscow-Leningrad — Искусство, Москва-Ленинград
Iskusstvo was the Art Publishing House (A.K.A. Visual Arts Publishing) that was created in 1936 from Ogiz-Izogiz (State Art and Literature Publishing House). It disseminated books and journals dealing with graphic design and the fine arts, and it issued numerous posters. Since the Iskusstvo banner was part of the State Printing Works in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow, its two main offices were located in those two cities.


Nakenterprise is proud to release another beat compilation, filled with 13 Hip Hop Beats. It is entitled Hip Hop Beats 4. Hip Hop Beats 4 is a compilation of 13 hot new hip hop beats for all to enjoy and write to. Nakenterprise Corp is an independent record label. We make beats manage artist and provide music for all to enjoy. The compilation entitled Hip Hop Beats 4 by Nakenteprise is filled with 13 hot beats to be enjoyed by all. For more music by Nakenterprise visit noglokel.com.


text:
Der Yema T70 ist ein SUV der chinesischen Marke Yema, das unter dem 2017 eingeführten Yema T80 positioniert ist. Das SUV ähnelt sowohl von außen als auch von innen dem VW Touareg II.

Geschichte
Das Fahrzeug wurde auf der Chengdu Auto Show im August 2014 vorgestellt und wurde in China ab Ende Januar 2015 verkauft. Im Juli 2016 bekam der T70 ein Facelift, das neben kleineren optischen Veränderungen und einem neuen Infotainmentsystem einen neuen 1,5-Liter-Ottomotor von Mitsubishi Motors mit sich brachte.

E350
Im September 2015 führte die Marke mit dem Yema E350 eine Elektroversion des Fahrzeugs ein. Die elektrische Reichweite des E350 gab der Hersteller zunächst mit 150 km an. Im August 2017 und im November 2018 wurde das Elektromodell überarbeitet. Damit ging jeweils eine Erhöhung der elektrischen Reichweite und der maximalen Leistung einher.

Technische Daten
Angetrieben wird das SUV von einem aufgeladenen 1,5-Liter-Ottomotor mit  oder , einem 1,8-Liter-Saugmotor mit  oder einem 1,8-Liter-Turbomotor mit .

Weblinks

 Offizielle Website (chinesisch)

Einzelnachweise

Sport Utility Vehicle
Kombi
Elektroautomodell

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Use a named range in a scatter chart I would like to plot data that is not consecutively written in a column in an Excel 2010 scatter chart. In order to do it I named two ranges that look like =A5,A10...A1000as name1 and name2. I had to use names as the ranges were to big to be handled by the "select data" windows, despite the amount of data is perfectly plotted if they were consecutively written in a column. Then I tried to write the defined names when selecting the data, but an error was prompted. I could avoid the error by writing ={"name1"}, which worked just for the X axis data. When I use the same syntax for y axis, it is transformed to ={0}.
I have read about many dynamic charts using the offset function, but I think this is too much for what I wanted: simple fixed named ranges.
Is there any way to assign named ranges to a scatter chart without using the offset function?

A: Very good question, I've asked this myself but never bothered to get the answer Before! For some reason, charts do not seem to take workbook global variables for input. You have to use sheet local named ranges, as I show below:

Edit: it works with named ranges of non-consecutive cells too, as the question asks for

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Personally, I look forward to the annual spring clean. I am by no means a clean freak—I've been known to let dust bunnies and socks accumulate in alarming numbers under the bed.
I more so enjoy the process of reorganizing and getting rid of things—things that seem to multiply as the months go by. Things that get tucked away as "someday I'll have a reason to wear this" or "someday I might have a use for this." In reality, they sit sad and forlorn in my closet, drawers and garage collecting dust and taking up valuable space. Worst yet, I get a little pang of guilt each time I eye these neglected items.
I have come to love purging so much that I keep an ongoing donation box in the basement that I try to drop off at Goodwill each month. Every time I drop off a box, I leave feeling that much lighter. And now my friends compliment how minimal our home has become. But let me tell you, I didn't become a minimalist overnight—it's taken me time, discipline and practice.
For me, minimalism and zero waste go hand-in-hand. I became a minimalist before I became a zero waster. I love the feeling of looking around my home and seeing uncluttered surfaces with only the few bare essentials. I love the process of going through each of my drawers, closets, rooms and evaluating what I really need and cultivating simple everyday objects that bring me joy.
Similarly, I've found that zero waste is connected to having fewer things and maximizing objects that are long-lasting, high quality and not designed for disposal. With both minimalism and zero waste, I'm getting down to the bare essentials and taking good care of the few things I have so they last a long time.
So with this year's spring clean drawing near, I wanted to share a few of my tips for creating a zero waste, minimal space that will bring joy and clarity to your environment.
Be ruthless. I have become really good at letting go of things. It takes practice and being a little ruthless. I used to hold onto clothes that didn't fit, didn't look good or make me feel awesome, needed repair, were expensive, had stains or tears, were gifted by a loved one, etc. Over time, I've gotten really good at being ruthless. I will often hold the item in question in my hands and connect the purpose it serves and why I feel guilty for letting it go. I try hard to only cultivate things that I use often and make me feel great. I highly checking out Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Try homemade. I am amazed by how much cleaning I can accomplish with white vinegar and reusable cleaning cloths. There are so many awesome homemade, zero waste recipes out there for cleaning every different types of surface, but I like simplicity. I use Bea Johnson's recipe from her book Zero Waste Home and add 1 cup of water, ½ cup of vinegar and 10 drops of lavender oil in my spray bottle and use it as an all-purpose cleaner on everything from tile counters to wood tables to mirrors.
Create piles. I like to have three piles to choose from when I am doing a cleanse, especially when it comes to my closet. I have my donate pile and my maybe pile which I put into a box in the garage for one month. If I haven't used anything from the maybe box during the month, then it goes into the donate pile next month.
Repair. Another pile I make during a spring clean, or any closet purge, is a repair pile. These are clothes that need to be altered or mended, boots that need to be resoled, jewelry that needs to be fixed or shined. Similarly, if I don't fix the item and start using it within the month, I likely will donate it the following month.
Repurpose. Some of my best cleaning tools are repurposed items—I like to use my bamboo toothbrush to clean grout and small nooks and crannies. I also cut up some old towels into rags so I don't need paper towels.
Rot. Remember that dryer lint, vacuum dirt and floor sweepings can all be composted. They do not belong in the garbage.


Additional offer Statuses can be created depending on need and preference.
1. From the Admin tab, click on the Statuses sub tab at left. A series of tabs will appear at the top of the screen to the right, as shown below. Click the Offer tab.
3. Select the desired weight of the item from the Weight drop-down box. The status weight controls the sorting order of each status in menus where they can be selected in the Properties > Offers tab. The lower the number, the higher the item will appear on the list. Before you set a weight, review the current statuses beneath the Offer Status List bar. These are the current offer statuses and are listed in order by weight.
4. Set the desired offer order using the Offer Order drop-down box. This option controls the order in which offers will appear in the offer list for a property. The lower the number, the higher it will appear on the list. The only exception to this is for Public Pending offers, which are those that were submitted via the public website. These will always appear at the top. This cannot be changed.
6. If the status is specific to a particular type of asset, select the appropriate type from the Asset Type field.
7. The Include in total offer count field was designed to give you the ability to control which statuses an offer has to be in to be included in the offer count for a property. Place a check mark next to the status if it should be included in the count, and leave it unchecked if you wish to exclude it.
8. If you enable the Public Counter box, agents will see a counter offer option appear on their Public Offer Follow up page when an offer is placed in this status. They can submit a counter offer directly from that page. See Counter Offers on Public Site for more information.
9. Click the green Add button. The new status will be added to the Offer Status List.
Directly above the Offer Status List bar you will notice a statement that says, NOTE: To include Public Pending offers in total offer count, see Admin > Site Settings. This statement means that you have the ability to choose whether or not an offer submitted via the public website that has not yet been reviewed should be included in the offer count. If you wish to include public offers in the offer count, you will need to select the Include Public Pending Offers in Offer count check box in Admin > Site Settings > Public Offers (see Public Offers).
You can change the defaults on an existing status at any time by making your changes and then clicking the green Update button at right of the status details.


Bright Idea Marketing has built a wonderful website for me. The website has appealing design and super functionality. James has been a pleasure to work with. He is insightful, timely and quality driven. He is always looking for the right way to build things so they appeal to the customer and operate in a way that is effective for me. He is very in the know as to the world of technology as well as marketing. I would highly recommend him to other businesses, large or small.
Bright Idea Marketing came in and totally helped redesign a new website for Elevate Studios. Everything that we needed on the site was no problem for them. They were able to execute everything we needed in a quick turnaround. They even pointed out items that would help make our jobs easier for the website.
They didn't just build a website, they gave us ideas and were passionate about improving our website!


Can a Nonprofit Own a For-Profit Business?
It's not only legal for a nonprofit to set up a for-profit subsidiary, sometimes it's necessary. Your nonprofit can legally engage in money-making activities, but if the activities aren't related to your core purpose, that can jeopardize your tax status. Spinning the money-maker off into its own company protects you.
If an art museum sells reproductions of famous paintings or a hospital markets disease-tracking software, those projects tie in to the core mission. Even so, too much profit-making activity could trigger an IRS crackdown on your nonprofit status. The IRS doesn't spell out how much is too much, but creating a separate for-profit business avoids the problem. Founding a new business also protects the nonprofit from legal liability for the money-making ventures. It may encourage investors to take the business more seriously as it isn't a charity.
To gain the best deal on taxes, most nonprofits set up the subsidiary as a C corporation, in which the nonprofit owns some or all of the stock. A nonprofit can also enter a partnership or become an owner of a limited liability company. The subsidiary pays taxes like any other for-profit business, but the parent nonprofit's dividends are usually tax-free. A nonprofit has to move carefully as there are many ways this arrangement can go south. The IRS, for example, has held that if the nonprofit and the for-profit have identical boards of directors, they aren't really separate.
Grantspace: Can My Organization Have a Subsidiary?


The DI-SC120R is a compact chassis-type camera delivering unparalleled low light performance for video applications seeking HD digital video output.
The DI-SC120R is a compact chassis-type camera delivering unparalleled low light performance for video applications seeking HD digital video output. A built-in zoom lens permits the user to monitor the scene from variable viewing angles — ranging from wide to telephoto. Remote focus, iris and zoom control are possible via the RS-232C connection. These features plus a 1/3-inch color CCD sensor makes the DI-SC120R suitable for surveillance, traffic, low vision, in car video or telepresence applications.


text:
Here's How Much Tom Brady's Possibly Stolen Super Bowl Jersey Is Worth
We talked to an expert appraiser.
By Kyle Scott Clauss·	 2/8/2017, 11:22 a.m.
Photo via AP
It's the most sought-after piece of sports memorabilia in the world right now. But how much would Tom Brady's Super Bowl LI jersey be worth at auction if anyone actually found the thing?
The Patriots quarterback suspects the jersey, worn as he led New England to the most historic comeback in Super Bowl history, was stolen.
"I put it in my bag, and then I came out and it wasn't there anymore. It's unfortunate, because that's a nice piece of memorabilia," he said Monday. "If it shows up on eBay somewhere, someone let me know. Try to track that down."
Josh Evans is an expert appraiser at Lelands, the same auction house that sold Larry Bird's rookie year Converse All-Stars and Boston University legend Jim Craig's goaltending gear from the 1980 Miracle on Ice. He says that putting the jersey on eBay would be an especially poor decision for anyone trying to maintain a low profile.
"It would be on there for about seven seconds, and the feds would be at the guy's door in a couple hours," Evans laughs. "Who knows what beats in the hearts of men. I believe that this person had no clue what he was getting into."
If there were ever a legitimate sale of the jersey, Evans said it would fetch around $1 million, the "standard rate for truly iconic and important pieces of sports memorabilia." Lelands claims the record for the most expensive item of sports memorabilia ever sold at auction, selling Babe Ruth's circa 1920 New York Yankees jersey for $4.4 million in 2012.
"It's not the authenticity. That's not the issue here, because the jersey has markings that can't be replicated," Evans says. "So the issue is title. There's no doubt that the jersey is so 'hot' on all levels that it's virtually impossible to sell it. That's the conundrum."
And in case you were wondering, Evans says the elusive Brady jersey probably doesn't smell nearly as bad as you would think.
"The only time I saw an odor in game-worn jerseys was when I had them collectively. I had all the jerseys from the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore. They were all stacked up, and there was a lot of them, and it was awful. Really, really bad," Evans says. "But the stuff was so great and so fresh from the game, it was kind of a good smell. You know what I mean?"
Go for the Goals

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to adapt function to new points (MATLAB)? Say I have a function that I've obtained as a fit of a certain data set. I want to make that function go through two different points that it doesn't currently go through, while making it so the rest of the function adapts to that change and keeps its shape. Something like this:

Right now I have a rational fit with 9 coefficients (5th power numerator and 5th power denominator, 5 coefficients in the numerator and 4 coefficients in the denominator while the coefficient of x^5 in the denominator is 1). I can, however, choose a different fit (polynomial, sum of sines etc.) if it would help here.
I have tried changing two coefficients at random to force the function to fit the two new points, but it produces something that doesn't make sense.
Here's what I have:

This is a rational fit to a set of Excel data produced with Matlab cftool:
p1 = 0.09503;
p2 = 0.8033;
p3 = 2.654;
p4 = 4.375;
p5 = 3.691;
p6 = 1.221;
q1 = 6.399;
q2 = 21.65;
q3 = 34.98;
q4 = 29.02;
q5 = 9.704;
m = (x - 0.9857)./0.1235;
y = (p1*m.^5 + p2*m.^4 + p3*m.^3 + p4*m.^2 + p5*m + p6) ./ (m.^5 + q1*m.^4 + q2*m.^3 + q3*m.^2 + q4*m + q5);

I need to make the function go through points (0.78; 0.002) and (1.05473536553; 9.869964329717e-2), while keeping the shape.

A: Rather than a matlab question this seems to be a purely mathematical question. So I'm going to give you my thought on the algorithmic solution I would use:
There is literally an infinite number of ways to do this. From what you've shown I suppose you mean you only want to do vertical scaling and translation.
Let's call the points through which the function should pass (x_1; y_1) and (x_2, y_2) and your function f.

*

*Dilate the function by m along the y axis f_dilated(x) = m *f(x) with m such that f_dilated(x_2)-f_dilated(x_1) = y_2 - y_1 = m * (f(x_2) - f(x_1)). You can then solve for m and find m = (y_2-y_1)/(f(x_2) - f(x_1)).

*Now f_dilated(x) has the right amplitude to fit your two points but is not centered along the y axis.

*Center the function f_dilated(x) by adding a constant: f_centered(x) = f_dilated(x) + c so that f_centered(x_1) = y_1 = f_dilated(x_1) + c. Solving for c, this means c = y_1 - f_dilated(x_1)

*The final function you're looking for is f_centered(x) which can be expanded as: f_centered(x) = y_1 - (y_2-y_1)/(f(x_2)-f(x_1)) * f(x)
If I did not make any stupid mathematical mistakes this should work. It is probably very feasible to show that f_centered(x_1) = y_1 and f_centered(x_1) = y_2 if you want to be sure.
From that I believe you should not have any trouble implementing a solution in matlab.
I hope this is the algorithm you were looking for, if not please provide more information.


Ayurveda, "The Science of Life" in Sanskrit, was born in India 5000 years ago. Recognized as a natural traditional medicine by the World Health Organization, it is at the origin of Yoga, Aromatherapy and most of holistic Asian and natural medicines.
It is a life philosophy which offers a personalized and natural path to health, so as to restore a perfect balance between body, soul and mind, in order to preserve health.
Ayurvedic medicine considers beauty as the reflection of a general balance.
It is an holistic medicine that considers the individual and its environment as one and that reconciles three components of each individual: body, soul and mind.
This medicine aims to restore an emotional and physical balance to preserve health and beauty, and optimize well-being.
As skin is the first shield between inside and outside, TAAJ strives to develop formulas that have beneficial effects on skin.
At the heart of each formula, TAAJ judiciously combines sensoriality and expertise to offer skincare products with beneficial properties on body.
Ayurveda defines three fundamental energies named Doshas, known in Sanskrit as Vata (Air), Pitta (Fire) and Kapha (Water and Earth).
These energies are part of us and their proportions determine each person's profile.
According to the Ayurvedic medicine, these three Doshas should be balanced in order to reach an optimal well-being state.
In beauty care, the ayurvedic medicine uses this classification to define care products adapted to our personality, our way of life and our skin type.
Vata's skin is pale and little sensitive to sun, dry or normal, thin and reactive. Hair is fine, flexible, rather dry and fragile.
Pitta's skin is rather clear, hot, irritable and supple. Freckles and sun sensibility characterize this skin with acne tendency. Hair is rather fine, flexible, fragile, fair or copper-colored, and can become grey prematurely.
Kapha's skin is rather oily, resistant, elastic and well hydrated with enlarged pores. Hair is dense, bright and strong.
TAAJ skincare products have the feature of adapting themselves to your skin type as well as to your Ayurvedic profile, Vata, Pitta or Kapha, so as to offer you a personalized beauty solution.


text:
Anton Chuvakin
Shashishekar Suda
Raj Chopra
Cisco Security Business Group
Polly Ralph
Carnegie Mellon University Survey Insights: Why Boards of Directors Don't Get it
December 5, 2008 20 Minutes
Interview with Jody Westby, Adjunct Distinguished Fellow at CyLab and CEO at Global Cyber Risk At a time when risks are high and consumer confidence is low, corporate boards of directors aren't paying nearly enough attention to information security and cyber threats. This is the key takeaway from a new Carnegie...
The 2009 Banking Agenda: Interview with Doug Johnson of the American Bankers Association
Tom Field • December 5, 2008 10 Minutes
It's been a wild year for the banking industry, and 2009 promises to be an eventful one, too, with a new Presidential administration and discussion of new industry regulations. To reflect on the year behind us and consider the year ahead, we caught up with Doug Johnson, Vice President of Risk Management Policy...
GLBA
Automated Compliance: Making the Case and Reaping the Rewards
Interview with Dwayne Melancon, VP of Corporate and Business Development, Tripwire Regulatory compliance - it's the priority that never goes away for banking institutions. And in today's economy, it's the lynchpin of the safety and soundness that customers need to see to retain confidence. In this exclusive...
2009 Career Trends in Information Security: W. Hord Tipton, (ISC)²
The recession is officially here, and major banking institutions are announcing thousands of layoffs weekly. And, yet, now is a good time for information security professionals, whose skills and expertise are in greater demand than ever. In this exclusive interview, W. Hord Tipton, Executive Director of (ISC)²,...
Phishing: How to Help Protect Your Customers -- Interview with Dave Jevans of the APWG
Interview with Dave Jevans, Chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group Amidst the volatility and confusion in the marketplace, the threat of fraud is heightened - which means ... beware of phishing. In this exclusive interview, Dave Jevans, chair of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, discusses: The state of...
BAI 2008 Retail Delivery Conference - Vendor Interviews
BankInfoSecurity.com • November 26, 2008 130 Minutes
The annual BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo was held in Orlando, Fl in late November, focusing on innovative strategies and technologies. Nick Burke, Director of Sales for Information Security Media Group (ISMG), publisher of BankInfoSecurity.com and CUinfoSecurity.com, attended the event, meeting with many of...
Regulatory Compliance Priorities: Interview With David Schneier of Icons, Inc.
Tom Field • November 21, 2008 10 Minutes
Interview With David Schneier of Icons, Inc. The market fluctuates, budgets shift, staffing resources change. But regulatory mandates? They stay the same. Despite the economic downturn and its broad effects, banking institutions continue to be held to - and measure up to - exacting standards from regulatory...
Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery
2009 Business Drivers for Banks: Interview With George Tubin, Research Director, TowerGroup
Interview With George Tubin, Research Director, TowerGroup Keeping the customer satisfied - and getting more of them. Many more. These are among the priorities of banking institutions in 2009, according to a new survey by TowerGroup, "2009 Top 10 Business Drivers, Strategic Responses and IT Initiatives in Retail...
New Year's Resolutions: A Look Ahead to Banking. Security Priorities in 2009
Interview With Christine Barry, Research Director, Aite Group LLC An unpredictable market, a new financial services landscape, and an incoming Democratic administration. This year has been full of change, and the New Year promises even more. To gain some perspective on banking/security priorities in 2009, we...
3rd Party Risk Management
ID Theft Red Flags Examinations: What to Expect?
Interview with Banking/Security Expert Bill Sewall As of Nov. 1, banking institutions are now eligible to be examined by federal regulators for compliance with the new Identity Theft Red Flags Rule. So, what should banking/security leaders expect from their initial examinations? In an exclusive interview,...
Economics, Banking and Education: What to Expect in 2009
Tom Field • November 7, 2008 15 Minutes
Interview with Dr. Stephen Happel of Arizona State University Not only is it an interesting time to be in banking; it's an interesting time to be learning about banking. Dr. Stephen Happel is Professor of Economics at Arizona State University, and he's also a longtime instructor at the Pacific Coast Banking...
Banking Agenda: Beating the Drum for Safety & Soundness
Interview with Chris Williston of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas We're amidst an historic economic juncture, and we've just experienced an historic Presidential election. So, what's on the community banking agenda, and how are institutions strengthening - and expanding - their relationships with...
Analyzing the Election: The Impact on Banking
Tom Field • November 5, 2008 5 Minutes
Interview with Eva Weber of the Aite Group So, given the results of the Presidential and Congressional elections, what does a Democratic federal government mean to the U.S. banking industry? In an exclusive interview, Eve Weber, analyst with the Aite Group, a Boston-based financial services consultancy,...
Post-Election Insights: What Does it all Mean to the Banking Industry?
November 5, 2008 10 Minutes
Interview with Stephen Verdier of the Independent Community Bankers of America On Nov. 4, America elected Democrat Barack Obama as its next President, and the Democratic Party also cushioned its majorities in both the House and Senate. So, what does a Democratic federal government portend for the U.S. banking...
View from Main Street: Interview with Dennis Angner, CEO of Isabella Bank Corp, Michigan
With double-digit unemployment, central Michigan saw today's financial crisis long before much of the rest of the nation. And Dennis Angner has been front and center to see it. Past chair of the Michigan Bankers Association, Angner is CEO if Isabella Bank Corp., a $1.5 billion community banking institution. In this...


text:
Join us for the next webinar in the
Industrializing Gene Therapy
Webinar On Demand! Register to watch now!
Solving the Capacity Crisis for Viral Vector Manufacturing
Viral vectors for gene therapy have shown tremendous clinical promise which has spurred a huge increase in demand for manufacturing space, resulting in a capacity crisis. This is currently delaying the commercialization of these gene therapies for which time to market is critical.
Integrated solutions for viral vectors designed within modular cleanroom facilities streamline manufacturing and reduce time to market. Pall Biotech and G-CON manufacturing have partnered to design and deploy an integrated manufacturing solution to address the current capacity constraints for viral vector manufacturing.
Participants will learn:
The manufacturing challenges facing the viral vector industry
The advantages of an integrated manufacturing solution
How to develop and deploy a new manufacturing facility in 10 months within a modular cleanroom
Dr. Clive Glover
Pall Biotech
Director, Cell & Gene Therapy
Dr Clive Glover is the Director of Cell & Gene Therapy at Pall Biotech. Clive leads Pall's cell and gene therapy business. He has over 15 years of experience in cell and gene therapy. His work has been published in numerous scientific journals, and he has presented at many conferences. Previously he was responsible for driving product development efforts around cell therapy at GE Healthcare and has also held positions in marketing and product management at STEMCELL Technologies. Clive holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of British Columbia. When not at work, Clive spends a lot of time singing in Welsh choruses and hiking the Welsh hills.
Jeremy Rautenbach
Global Product Manager, Integrated Solutions
Jeremy Rautenbach is a Global Product Manager for Integrated Solutions at Pall Biotech. He has worked on several activities focusing on industrializing bioprocesses in a way that brings life-saving therapies to market faster.
In a previous role, he was responsible for driving and managing new product development. He holds an MS in mechanical engineering from the MIT School of Engineering and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. His work on improving production yields of biopharmaceutical filter media earned him the best thesis in his MIT program, as voted by faculty.
When not working, Jeremy enjoys spending time with family either offshore fishing or taking long walks in the countryside.
Dr. Joseph Rininger
Latham BioPharm Group
Dr. Rininger possesses over twenty years of experience in basic biomedical research and biopharmaceutical product development, manufacturing and program management with an emphasis on AAV-based gene therapy and vaccines. Prior to joining Latham Biopharm Group (LBG), he worked at several small and mid-size biotechnology companies, growing into positions of increased responsibility at each organization. At Protein Science Corporation (PSC), he served as Director of Business Development and worked to secure and then manage new biologic contract manufacturing projects, grew an established research product business unit. In this role, he successfully oversaw project teams and the development of upstream and downstream processes for transfer to cGMP manufacturing of two biologics and four vaccine candidates to enter first-in-human trials. In addition, he licensed PSC's technology for AAV manufacturing and supported regulatory submissions for Glybera, the first AAV gene therapy approved in the western world. Dr. Rininger subsequently served as the program manager of a ~$150M HHS/BARDA contract for the advanced development and commercialization of Flublok®, the first approved recombinant hemagglutinin-based subunit vaccine for seasonal influenza. At LBG, Dr. Rininger leads product development engagements with gene and cell therapy companies and service providers and is actively supporting multiple early stage programs in this sector to advance them to Phase 1-2 clinical development. Dr. Rininger earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in Toxicology and a B.S. in Marine Biology with a Concentration in Biotechnology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has several awarded and pending patents and is well published in industry magazines and peer-reviewed journals.
Peter Makowensky
G-CON Manufacturing
Director, Sales Engineering
Peter has over 14 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. Peter held various technical roles in process solutions for the biotech industry prior to moving into management positions in technical and sales roles. He has extensive knowledge of bioprocess manufacturing and helped design new facilities and retrofit existing facilities with single use technologies. Peter joined G-CON Manufacturing in 2016 where he now consults with clients in the design of their facilities utilizing G-CON's prefabricated autonomous clean rooms.
Peter received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Minor in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. He received is M. Eng in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.
Register & Watch Now!
Which of these statements describes you best?
I would like to receive more information about Pall's products and services, and related product and services from Pall's related companies via email or phone.
Web Event Name:
Bio - Application: Other:
Bio - Other Areas of Interest Described:
Your Journey. Your Way.
Pall Corporation | 25 Harbor Park Drive | Port Washington | NY 11050 | Tel: 1-516-484-5400 | www.pall.com/biotech
© 2020 Pall Corporation. Pall and the Pall logo are trademarks of Pall Corporation. ® indicates a trademark registered in the USA


text:
Can RFID Be Integrated With Other Technologies or Computer Programs?
Ask The Experts › Can RFID Be Integrated With Other Technologies or Computer Programs?
Can it be connected to a SAP system, for example?
Absolutely. The value of radio frequency identification is that it provides greater information regarding an item's location and movements. Typically, enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications track the unique serial numbers of pallets, and sometimes specific lots. But they usually lack fields for unique serial numbers for individual items, because goods have historically been identified via bar codes, which include only identifiers for the manufacturer and product.
We have written about a number of companies that have done this, including World Kitchen, which integrated RFID with its SAP system for pallets being shipped to customers, including Walmart (see How World Kitchen Got It Right).
Retailers tracking unique items have often chosen to have a standalone RFID application for tracking inventory. At the end of the day, they transfer information about the number of units on the floor as batch data without serial numbers. In other words, they have the RFID solution tell the SAP system, "We have 12 medium-size blue t-shirts in inventory," rather than saying "We have 12 medium-size blue t-shirts in inventory and here are their serial numbers."
As more companies adopt RFID for tracking individual items, SAP, Oracle and other software companies are likely to enhance their software applications to manage serialized data about individual products.
How Do Radio Waves Travel From One Radio to Another? »


text:
Home » New York City, EPA at Odds Over PCBs in Schools
New York City, EPA at Odds Over PCBs in Schools
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released guidance recommending that schools take steps to reduce potential exposures to <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/pcbs_nyc_schools">Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from older fluorescent lighting fixtures.
PCBs, man-made chemicals that persist in the environment, were widely used in construction materials and electrical products prior to 1978. PCBs can affect the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems and are potentially cancer causing if they build up in the body over long periods of time.
PCBs have been turning up in New York City schools and, the guidance, which is part of the EPA's efforts to address potential PCB exposures in schools, is based on evidence that older ballasts contain PCBs that can leak when ballasts fail, leading to elevated PCB levels in the air of schools.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that, despite the risks, city officials prefer a slower, multi-year program versus moving more immediately. According to the city, the cost to replace the lighting fixtures could end up being one billion dollars, which they feel is better used on academics, said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
In her mid-December letter to Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck wrote, "We have no understanding of how this figure was arrived at. Retrofits carried out at other school districts in this region and elsewhere have been considerably less costly. The New York City Long Term Action Plan for Reducing Energy Consumption, published in July 2008, projected an equipment replacement and retrofit cost of $1.8 billion for all city-owned buildings and schools," quoted the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
The Deputy Mayor disagreed saying, quoted the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "To our knowledge, we are still the only major municipality in the country that has entered into a binding agreement with the EPA to study the issues of PCBs in school buildings and to develop measures to reduce PCB exposures. We are also the only major municipality that has legally committed to drafting and negotiating a system-wide PCB management plan. At this point, we believe it fair to say that the New York City Pilot Study—which has been fully funded by the city, not EPA—has generated more data on PCBs in school buildings than any other study previously in existence."
The pilot study, which was initiated earlier this year, involved three New York City schools. A team involving elected officials, labor unions, and community groups has since demanded testing of some 700 schools that could be PCB contaminated. EPA believes many schools built in the U.S. before 1979 have light ballasts containing PCBs.
Given their widespread use before they were banned, if a school was built before 1979 or has not had a complete lighting retrofit since 1979, the fluorescent light ballasts probably contain PCBs. Intact, functioning ballasts do not pose a health threat; however, these lighting ballasts will all fail in time.
While replacing lighting ballasts requires an upfront investment, there are state, federal, and private funding programs available to potentially provide funding. Also, replacing older ballasts with newer lighting fixtures will result in energy savings that will increase energy efficiency in schools and likely pay for itself in less than seven years, depending on hours of operation and local energy costs.


While they sound similar, they are in fact very different in terms of how they help organizations plan for and manage risk.
RTO, or Recovery Time Objective, is the time needed to recover your business activities after a given outage has occurred. It can be thought of in terms of hours, days or weeks. You'll definitely want your RTO to be as short as possible (with a best-practice timeframe being around 15 minutes).
For example – a mid-sized company (such a general contracting firm or office supply company), might be able to work manually for a few days while their systems get repaired. However, an online retailer (such as eBay or Amazon) would be in big trouble if their systems were down for even an hour.
The lower the total outage time your business can afford to be out of commission, the higher the cost of the solution(s) needed to meet the required response expectation. Basically… if your cost of downtime is a lot (such is with financial services or e-commerce), then you most definitely want to invest in creating a detailed disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
RPO, or Recovery Point Objective, focuses on the data and essentially considers the time between data backups and the accounts of various backup periods that are to be saved. Basically, in the event of a disaster or outage, the RPO is the amount of data loss that your company or organization can possibly sustain. Think of it this way – how much data can you afford to lose if a disaster occurs?
For example – For an e-commerce business, the loss of even a few minutes of data can be devastating. However, for perhaps a small manufacturer, data loss of a few hours isn't so big of a deal.
Similar to RTO, the lower the amount of rework your business can absorb and the more copies that need to be saved, the higher the cost of the solution(s) needed to provide the expected response to a given outage.
An important item to note is that organizations should evaluate RTO and RPO for each application independently to ensure the best possible return on investment (ROI). Essentially, a business may need different RTP/RPO arrangements for email, accounting data, files saved in a LAN driver folder structure, etc. (as some data may be more critical than other data). Hence, each "application" should be evaluated separately to ensure appropriate coverage is provided. Successful Disaster Recovery Plans will give very specific RTO's and RPO's for every level of the business.
Stay tuned for future posts in this series focusing on best practices in disaster recovery and business continuity. Our next blog post will cover the environment assessment considerations involved in a Business Impact Analysis and Disaster Recovery Plan.


The flags outside of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) are flying at half mast today and its doors are closed. Tragedy befell the museum yesterday when Officer Stephen Johns, who had served the museum for six years, was fatally wounded by a gunman. To its neighbors and peers—USHMM is just a few blocks away from the National Museum of American History and the rest of the National Mall—the attack on the museum, and the motivations of the attacker himself, are heartbreaking.
As Ford Bell, President of the American Association of Museums expressed in a statement yesterday: "Museums have always been among the most safe and secure of public institutions, and museum staff work every day to ensure that they remain so." Security officers guard our national and community treasures, our sacred memories and monuments. Their jobs also demand that they protect something else that is precious inside museums—the people. Museum staff, volunteers, and visitors owe gratitude to the people who, like Officer Johns, work to protect not only our valued artifacts but ourselves as well.
We are thankful to all the men and women in uniform who safeguard us every day. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, its staff and its visitors.


Leaders who empower their team members get better results. They make faster decisions, have the ability to act, and create dramatically better experiences for customers. Here's how you can empower your teams.
Today's post is by Dianna Booher, author of What MORE Can I Say? (CLICK HERE to get your copy).
"Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," observed the Russian philosopher and novelist Leo Tolstoy. The same might be said of large retailers. Successful retailers operate on the same principles to achieve happy customers. Struggling retailers fail for different reasons.
Recently, I had to replace two major household items in the same week: a clothes washer and a TV console. The experience at Retailer A to buy the washer proved a disaster. For starters, we asked the salesperson several questions before making our final decision: 1) Is the advertised in-store sales prices the same as the online price? 2) Can we get next-day delivery? 3) Are both colors available now? 4) Are the "pedestal" drawers deep enough to store typical detergent containers? She answered yes to all four questions.
As it turned out, Retailer A could not deliver our color choice for a month. We opted for second choice. When they delivered the washer, it was badly damaged. The optional purchase "pedestal" drawers were not deep enough to store even the shortest detergent containers. When we called to get the damaged machine replaced, the contractor who delivered it confirmed that Retailer A had a backlog of "at least" another month before they could replace it with another machine. And it took more than an hour on the phone with two levels of management in three different departments (warehouse, scheduling, credit) to get the paperwork handled and the replacement machine rescheduled for delivery.
But by comparison, the tale at Retailer B put Retailer A to shame.
We selected a TV console there. They had only one left in stock—the floor sample, and it had a small nick on the side of the cabinet. The sales rep offered a great discount on the console, so we bought it and decided we could repair the nick ourselves. The only condition of our purchase, we told the salesperson, was that they deliver it in 5 days—before our holiday company arrived.
But here's how Retailer B handled the situation differently from Retailer A….
– The sales manager put the TV console in his personal SUV and drove it to our home within two hours of our call, and he and another staffer carried it up to our second-story game room and set it up for us.
– The store refunded the delivery charge.
– The store repaired the nick in the side of the console before delivering it.
– The sales manager apologized for our having to call them about the problem.
Retailer B consistently performs because they have created a climate of trust among their employees in this family-owned business that has spurred growth to multiple stores across the region.
So what do these two interactions with Retailers A and B suggest for leaders who want to instill and communicate a climate of trust that colleagues and contractors will "make it happen" for customers?
A foundation of trust cascades from employees to customers in many subtle ways—and gets communicated in such subtle ways that employees sometimes have difficulty articulating it themselves when asked.
Employees observe. They see what's acceptable in the leader's mind and what passes for truth. Then they use the same standards with other departments and with customers.
Establishing plans, processes, and procedures is foundational. Just acknowledge that everything doesn't go according to plan. Mistakes happen. Unusual situations develop. Weird requests crop up. So what's the process when things don't go as planned?
Can your executive team trust you to perform consistently when things out of the ordinary happen? Can customers trust you to perform consistently despite the unusual?
You communicate trust through competence—despite the unusual, strange, and weird.
"You don't have authority to say 'yes' in this situation" screams distrust. Ever stood at the grocery store checkout while the cashier waited for a supervisor, who looked nineteen, to come over, add his initials on your check, and circle your address and phone number?
At Retailer A, we had to wait for hours while various employers texted or emailed a higher authority before they could tell us whether they could make the obvious adjustment: refund the unworkable drawers, replace the damaged washer, and change the color.
When there's an obvious mistake to be corrected, communicate to your employees that you trust them to think well enough to correct a problem.
Repairing the scratch in the console probably took less than 10 minutes. But that extra few minutes turned a negative experience into a positive one.
Often "the little things" make the biggest difference in building a climate of trust: a leader's approachableness, tone of voice, word choice, and willingness to share information. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of these "little things," and never fail the first test.
Where competence is concerned, one mistake can cast doubt, two mistakes can put others on notice, and three mistakes can close your trust account—and maybe your business.
Dianna Booher is the bestselling author of 46 books, published in 26 languages, with nearly 4 million copies sold. She writes, speaks, and consults on leadership communication, executive presence, and productivity. Her latest book is WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?: Why Communication Fails And What To Do About It (CLICK HERE to get your copy). For more information visit www.BooherResearch.com.


text:
The leveling guides on my site are essentially speed leveling guides. My leveling guides are the same guides I use myself to speedrun to 60 on new servers to get 60 server first. I list many occasions where I tell the player to "die on purpose" to go faster. I tell the player to skip certain quests, because some quests are just not worth the time/XP. I list tricks and shortcuts to go faster so you can reach level 60 much quicker. I am still constantly going through them over and over again perfecting the guides to make them faster and easier to follow. For the most part, the guide can be followed without the need from other player's help, as the whole guide was made from a solo run anyways. Although I do list quests that can optionally be done if you have a group.
Since WoW Classic server has been announced at Blizzcon 2017, there is not much info about the server revealed. It is known that the upcoming expansion Battle for Azeroth pre-order has been available at blizzard shop, and the system requirements of Mac and Windows has been unveiled Recently, Forbes has an interview with J. Allen Brack and Jeremy Feasel about the project and some of the vision that developers have.
A demo of the game was available at BlizzCon 2018, and was downloadable on home computers for anyone who purchased a BlizzCon ticket or virtual ticket. The servers became available when Opening Ceremony started at BlizzCon 2018 and was set to end on November 8, but was extended until November 12.[4] Players started at level 15, and the only available zones were Westfall and the Barrens.[5] It was based on patch 1.13.0, essentially patch 1.12.0 ported to a modern infrastructure. The first day of the demo, there was a playtime limit of a cumulative 60 minutes with a cooldown of 90 minutes, applied through the BlizzCon Exhaustion debuff.[6] The debuff was removed on the second day of BlizzCon 2018.[7]
So we asked ourselves, would it still be possible to deliver an authentic classic experience if we took our modern code, with all its back-end improvements and changes, and used it to process the Patch 1.12 game data? While that might seem counterintuitive, this would inherently include classic systems like skill ranks, old quests and terrain, talents, and so on, while later features like Transmog and Achievements would effectively not exist because they were entirely absent from the data. After weeks of R&D, experimentation, and prototyping, we were confident we could deliver the classic WoW content and gameplay without sacrificing the literally millions of hours put in to back-end development over the past 13 years.
14 Nov All we wanted was Vanilla Nothing more and nothing less - And we are almost there! Now we just need to get rid the last two things: 1) Sharding 2) Loot Trading And adjust the 4 Stages to 6ish Stages. We are so close, but im beginning to see the same trend I saw back in TBC/Wrath. Back then we called them Casuals, Treehuggers and Crybabies. Later they became Wrathbabies and god knows what they are called now. They are not bad people - They just want it to be Casual/Non time-consuming ect. They asked for better gear and got Welfare Epics in TBC. They wanted to see all the content and got LFR. Slowly chipping away at the game until we have BfA today. And now they are back! They want an easy launch via. Sharding - just for a few days. Chip Chip And just in a few zones - CHIP CHIP CHIP Or maybe some dynamic respawn? CHOP CHOP CHOP And all we wanted was Vanilla.Ståål18	14 Nov


text:
March 29, 2014 / 12:46 PM
Phil Robertson's comments about gays defended by son Willie [VIDEO]
"Duck Dynasty" star Willie Robertson defends father, Phil, saying the family believes in a literal reading of the Bible.
By Danielle Haynes
Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson defended derogatory comments his father, Phil Robertson, made about gays.
The elder Robertson came under fire late last year after he lumped together gay people with other types of people and acts he considered sinful.
"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men," he said.
"Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers -- they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right," he added, referencing Corinthians.
"It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's anus," he said. "That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying?"
In an interview with CNN, the younger Robertson said that though he and his family aren't perfect, they believe in what the Bible says literally.
"Phil just said what he thought, what was on his heart," Willie said. "He did some paraphrasing there."
"You have to read the Bible and make up your own mind," he added. "You have to decide, and God will ultimately decide then. We don't profess to be God, and we certainly don't profess to be perfect. Because we have our own sins that we deal with."
Willie's wife, Korie, also came to Phil's defense.
"Anybody who knows [Phil] ... any gay, straight, black, white, anybody who knows Phil knows that he is about love and his message is about God's love, God's grace and his forgiveness, ultimately," she said.
'Duck Dynasty' star Willie Robertson wants to take Obama hunting 'Duck Dynasty' star says show's purpose is 'to get the message of God out there' Paula Deen says she's like that 'black football player who recently came out' Duck Commander brand named title sponsor of Independence Bowl 'Duck Dynasty' star Willie Robertson catches up with Obama [VIDEO]
TV // 6 hours ago
BBC announces 'Dinosaurs: The Final Day' special with David Attenborough
Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The BBC announced plans Monday for a 90-minute special called "Dinosaurs: The Final Day."
TV // 16 hours ago
'America's Funniest Home Videos' pays tribute to former host Bob Saget
Jan. 17 (UPI) -- "America's Funniest Home Videos" paid tribute to its late host Bob Saget.
Entertainment News // 23 hours ago
Famous birthdays for Jan. 17: Dwyane Wade, Jim Carrey
Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Former basketball star Dwyane Wade turns 40 and actor Jim Carrey turns 60, among the famous birthdays for Jan. 17.
Movies // 1 day ago
'Scream' tops North American box office with $30.6M
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Horror sequel "Scream" is the No. 1 movie in North America, earning $30.6 million in receipts, BoxOfficeMojo.com announced Sunday.
Entertainment News // 1 day ago
Country music radio and TV broadcaster Ralph Emery dead at 88
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Beloved radio-TV broadcaster and author Ralph Emery has died at the age of 88, the Country Music Association announced.
TV // 1 day ago
President Biden blames 'Spider-Man' for COVID-19 surge in 'SNL' sketch
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- "Saturday Night Live" cast member James Austin Johnson once again played President Joe Biden in a cold open comedy sketch this weekend.
Final episode of 'Watters' World' airs on Fox News Channel
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The final episode of Jesse Watters' Saturday night program, "Watters' World," aired this weekend on the Fox News Channel.
Kelly Rizzo remembers late husband Bob Saget as 'most incredible man on Earth'
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Kelly Rizzo posted a lengthy, heartfelt statement about her late husband, comedian Bob Saget, on Instagram Saturday.
Bridget Everett: 'Somebody Somewhere' tells 'my story'
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Bridget Everett says her new HBO series, "Somebody Somewhere," is autobiographical. Everett plays a woman from Manhattan, Kansas, who discovers her passion for singing.
Famous birthdays for Jan. 16: Birgitte Hjort Sorensen, Debbie Allen
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Actor Birgitte Hjort Sorensen turns 40 and actor Debbie Allen turns 72, among the famous birthdays for Jan. 16.
'Live with Kelly and Ryan' goes back to virtual production due to COVID-19


text:
First Pitch: A Look at How Our Players of the Year Started Off Their Big Seasons
Over the last two days, we have looked at the past players who were named as our Player/Pitcher of the Month for April. We have named our winners for seven years, so there was a decent sample size to check out.
In most cases, the monthly winner for April tailed off for the rest of the season. Part of that is from being promoted to a tougher level, while another part is just from being the best from a large group of players. If you're the best for an entire month, then you performed at a pace that would be near impossible to keep up over the course of an entire season. It showed, for the most part, that a hot start to the season doesn't always lead to success.
Today I wanted to do the opposite article and look at our Pitcher/Players of the Year and see how they started the season. Even the best players over the course of a season will hit a rough patch, but a good start to the season never hurts. I'll begin with the hitters today and move on to the pitchers tomorrow. We started the yearly awards back in 2011, so it's a little bit bigger of a sample size for this group.
2019: Mason Martin – Martin hit .254/.351/.558 in 131 games last season, with 32 doubles, 35 homers and 129 RBIs. He split the year between Greensboro and Bradenton. In Low-A last April, Martin got off to a .222/.314/.489 start in 23 games. It was his worst month of the season.
2018: Kevin Kramer – Kramer hit .311/.365/.492 in 129 games with Indianapolis in 2018, before finishing the year with the Pirates. In April, he hit .284/.346/.378 in 19 games. It's a nice average, but it was also his lowest OPS for any month that year (not including the majors)
2017: Jordan Luplow – Luplow began the year in Altoona and finished it in the majors. In 117 minor league games in 2017, he hit .302/.381/.527, with 23 homers. With Altoona for all of April, Luplow hit .257/.313/.473 in 20 games. Just like Martin and Kramer, April was the worst minor league month for Luplow.
2016: Josh Bell – Bell hit .295/.382/.468 in 114 games for Indianapolis, prior to being called up by the Pirates. He batted .312/.411/.519 in 20 April games. Finally, someone who didn't have their worst month first. It was actually his second best month behind a 1.085 OPS in June.
2015: Josh Bell – Bell split 2015 between Altoona and Indianapolis, batting .317/.393/.446 in 131 games. In 17 April games with Altoona, Bell hit .352/.418/.451, in what ended up being the middle of the road for him. June and July were worse, May and August/Sept. were better.
2014: Josh Bell – Bell split 2014 between Bradenton and Altoona, batting .325/.375/.459 in 108 games. In 24 April games with Bradenton, Bell put up a .287/.323/.447 slash line. He did better in May and especially well in June, but July was worse and August was off to a slow start before he got injured and missed the rest of the season.
2013: Andrew Lambo – Lambo is another case of someone starting with Altoona and ending in the majors. In 120 minor league games, he hit .282/.347/.574, with 32 homers and 99 RBIs. In 25 April games with Altoona, he hit .287/.349/.457, in what was tied for his "worst" month. It feels wrong labeling an .807 OPS as the worst.
2012: Gregory Polanco – Polanco spent the entire 2012 season with the West Virginia Power. In 116 games, he hit .325/.388/.522, with 16 homers and 40 stolen bases. In 23 April games, he batted .286/.343/.495 with five homers and ten steals. In was his second worst month, but just like Lambo, he was over an .800 OPS every month of the season.
2011: Starling Marte – Marte spent all of 2011 in Altoona. He hit .332/.370/.500 in 129 games. In April he hit .326/.363/.453 in 20 games. Another case of this being the second worst month, though he had a somewhat rough July for a Player of the Year, posting a .719 OPS.
I started the article without knowing the results. I'm quite surprised that no one had their best month in April. The odds alone with a five-month season and nine season total tells you that there should be at least one, with a great chance for it to have happened two times. These players for the most part had strong Aprils, but overall they were much better over the rest of the season.
A YouTube wormhole led me to this video when I was just trying to see something completely different about 45 minutes earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB-HB3hKAYQ
Do you remember ten years ago?
RANDOM STUFF OF THE DAY
John Fredland, who contributed here in the past (and will likely/hopefully in the future), posted his game recap from a big day in the career of a young third baseman named Aramis Ramirez. You can check out the link on SABR here.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
By John Dreker
Two former Pittsburgh Pirates players and two trades for today. Also, Austin Meadows, who you all know and love, turns 25 today. He's too recent (and painful) to recap in a history column.
Ivan Cruz, first baseman for the 1999-2000 Pirates. He was originally drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 1989 amateur draft. Cruz didn't make his Major League debut until eight years later while with the 1997 Yankees. After spending three seasons in the Yankees system and getting into just 11 big league games, Cruz signed with the Pirates on December 22, 1998. He began the year in Triple-A, hitting .338 with 23 homers and 77 RB's through 65 games, when he was called up on June 24th to take the place of Jose Guillen, who was sent to the minors. Less than two weeks after being called up, Cruz strained his oblique during batting practice and was put on the DL. He returned to Triple-A briefly before going back on the DL. In 2000, he again began the year in Triple-A, getting recalled in mid-May. After going 1-for-11 at the plate, the Pirates designated him for assignment. He finished the year in the Mexican League, then signed to play in Japan in 2001. Cruz played for the Cardinals in 2002, spending the year in Triple-A until being recalled in September when the rosters expanded. He then spent his last season of pro ball (2003) in Japan. Cruz hit 254 homers in the minors and five times topped 90 RBIs in a season.
Chris Cannizzaro, catcher for the 1968 Pirates. He was originally drafted by the St Louis Cardinals in 1956. He played in the majors every seasons from 1960 until 1965, before spending the next two years in the minors. The Pirates acquired Cannizzaro from the Detroit Tigers on November 29, 1967 in exchange for minor league player Mike Derrick. For Pittsburgh in 1968, he spent most of the year in the minors, getting called up to the Pirates in August after hitting .243 at Triple-A with 31 RBIs in 88 games. Cannizzaro played 25 big league games that year, starting 18 of them behind the plate. In 58 at-bats, he hit .241 with seven RBIs. In his 11th at-bat after getting called up, he hit home run. It was significant in the fact he went 592 at-bats during his first six seasons in the majors without hitting a home run. On March 28, 1969, the Pirates traded Cannizzaro to the San Diego Padres in a four-player deal. He ended up playing in the All-Star game in 1969 and lasted in the majors until 1974. In 13 seasons, he hit .235 with 169 RBIs in 740 games. In his career, he attempted twenty stolen bases at the Major League level, he was successful just three times.
The Trades
On this date in 1947, the Pirates traded outfielder Al Gionfriddo and $100,000 in cash (some sources say $125k), to the Brooklyn Dodgers for pitchers Cal McLish, Kirby Higbe, Hank Behrman, catcher Dixie Howell and infielder Gene Mauch. The deal was originally going to be a straight up purchase of the five players, but the Pirates threw Gionfriddo into the deal. The day before the trade, the newspapers were reporting that the Pirates were going to purchase just two players. As for the players after the trade, Behrman was returned to the Dodgers after giving up 25 runs in 24.2 innings for the Pirates. With his return, the Pirates recouped as much as $50,000 from the original sale price. Mauch was just 21 years old at the time of the trade, with only five games of Major League experience. He ended up hitting .300 in 16 games for the Pirates before being dealt back to the Dodgers in a six-player trade.
Dixie Howell was signed by the Dodgers in 1938, but never played a big league game for them. With the Pirates in 1947, as a 27-year-old rookie, he hit .276 with 25 RBIs in 76 games. Ten months after being acquired, he was one of the players the Pirates sent (along with plenty of cash) to the San Francisco Seals in exchange for highly touted pitcher Bob Chesnes. McLish was just 21 years old when the trade occurred, with 24 games of Major League experience over two seasons. He pitched three games for the Pirates over two seasons before being traded to the Cubs. That trade was made exactly one year after the Mauch trade mentioned above. McLish eventually became a very good big league pitcher, but not until age 31, well after being dealt by the Pirates.
That left Higbe as the only player in the deal that was still with the team by the time 1949 rolled around. He was a serviceable pitcher for his two full seasons, pitching 102 games, 38 as a starter. He won 19 times and saved 15 games between 1947-48, but he quickly went downhill the next season and was traded to the New York Giants by the beginning of June. Before the deal, Kirby had a 70-38 record in five seasons in Brooklyn. Gionfriddo played 37 regular season games for the Dodgers in 1947 and hit .177 with six RBIs. He also played four games in the World Series and made one of the most memorable catches of all-time, robbing Joe DiMaggio in game six to help the Dodgers send the series to a seventh game. That game ended up being his last game in the majors.
On this date in 1952, the Pirates traded pitcher Bil Werle to the St Louis Cardinals in exchange for veteran pitcher Red Munger. Werle began his career in Pittsburgh and had been with the Pirates since 1949, going 28-35, 4.76 in 147 games, sixty as a starter. Munger at age 33 was just two years old than Werle, but he had nine seasons of Major League experience at that point, all with the Cardinals. He had a 74-49 record in 233 games, 144 as a starter. He was also a three time All-Star. Munger made one start for St Louis, two weeks prior to the trade, and he did not pitch well, giving up six runs in 4.1 innings. Werle had pitched five games in 1952, all out of the bullpen and he too, did not pitch well. In four innings, he gave up ten baserunners and four runs.
After the trade Munger showed no signs of the All-Star pitcher he once was, going 0-3, 7.18 in four starts and a relief appearance. He ended up going to the minors for the rest of 1952 and all of the next three seasons. The Pirates brought him back in 1956 after he went 23-8, 1.85 in 1955 for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. He ended up making 13 starts and 22 relief appearances in 1956, posting a 3-4, 4.04 record in 107 innings, in what would be his last season in the majors. Werle pitched 19 games for the Cardinals, all in relief, before being put on waivers in October, where he was picked up by the Red Sox. He pitched 19 games over two seasons in Boston (1953-54) before returning to the minors for good, although he was far from done. He last pitched at age 42 in 1963.
https://www.piratesprospects.com/author/81omar-2
First Pitch: What Do You Want To...
First Pitch January 24, 2023
First Pitch: The Pirates Have Added Veteran...
First Pitch: Baseball and Religion
First Pitch December 27, 2022
First Pitch: Pittsburgh, The Pirates, Major League...
jeffw3000 on Pirates Prospects Daily: Slow Start Suppressed Travis Swaggerty's Season Stats
PirateRican21 on Pirates Prospects Daily: Slow Start Suppressed Travis Swaggerty's Season Stats
joesolo6181 on Pirates Prospects Daily: Slow Start Suppressed Travis Swaggerty's Season Stats
1979andCounting on Pirates Prospects Daily: Slow Start Suppressed Travis Swaggerty's Season Stats
juniorkrz on Pirates Prospects Daily: Slow Start Suppressed Travis Swaggerty's Season Stats


Gain a global perspective…without leaving home.
For centuries, religion has been the foundation upon which societies around the world have been built. And for centuries, disagreements about religion have caused unrest throughout the world.
The comparative religion minor at WMU explores religions around the world and throughout history and looks at religion as a part of culture and in relation to other parts of culture. Students in the program are presented with a global mindset that is highly sought by employers and graduate schools.
This minor from the Department of Comparative Religion helps prepare students for graduate studies or a variety of employment options. In addition, courses in this minor are completely available online, which makes it incredibly convenient. The program strives to foster other marketable skills while students explore their interest in religion.
The minor provides a foundation for graduate study in religion and related fields.
Students will gain an understanding of cultural diversity throughout the world, preparing them to work in a global society.
Critical thinking and writing skills are stressed.
Any WMU students interested in enhancing their degree with a Comparative Religion minor should apply.
The Comparative Religion minor provides students with knowledge and skills that are relevant to a large range of professions including health care, government, business, culture and the arts, journalism and religious vocations.


Is monogamy dead, or is it a question of what is acceptable in your own personal relationship?
There are those who certainly believe in monogamy above all else – physical and emotional – and then there are those who believe a relationship is stronger when partners are encouraged to engage in "open relationships". I have no right to judge one or the other. If your relationship is strong and boundaries are communicated well, I suppose it can work. However, in my office, I tend to work with the fallout when the "open relationship" philosophy falls apart.
These drivers are not mutually exclusive but rather work in tandem with one another.
In a healthy committed relationship, each partner needs to feel some level of importance to the other, as well as a feeling of love and belonging, and which of these is a higher priority is a somewhat moot point.
Our brains adapt and are moulded by the experiences they have weathered — like it or not. The perspective of those experiences is what literally alters our expectations. For example, if your partner grew up in a family full of miserable relationships and/or had a long history of being in argumentative and conflictual relationships then the absence of conflict might cause them to believe that everything is alright on the home front. No chatter, no problems. They have no context for a partner experiencing a level of loneliness or unhappiness that is not discussed and so they don't pick up the less obvious clues.
Let's contrast that with the partner who has had such toxic past relationships that they have developed a trait of being insanely possessive, jealous and insecure. If you were dating somebody who regularly looked through your phone without permission, demanded to know where you were at all times, got angry or sobbed every time you went out with your friends, or screamed at you until blood vessels popped in their face when you go a single day without calling or texting — would this cause you conflict? Would you consider infidelity? This person is essentially acting as if you already cheated, so why not cheat? It can't possibly get any worse, can it?
It's not rocket science to say that the likelihood of infidelity in a relationship is directly proportional to how miserable the relationship feels to each individual within it.
A relationship is not an obligation. It is a choice. And how partners conduct themselves within that relationship is a choice as well, one made every day — regardless of website and the dark web controversy.
Intimacy requires constant nurturing and that happens with deep connection and attention to what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour between the partners themselves. When conflicts are creating added pressure, focus on opportunities that promote a sense of belonging and a sense of significance within your relationship. This can ease some of the strain and help to keep you committed on what brought you two together in the first place. Then you can define what monogamy means to both of you.
PreviousWas Richard the Lionheart gay?


Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that two new institutions of higher education have applied for and received research permits under the State's Industrial Hemp Agricultural Pilot program. Binghamton University and SUNY Sullivan are now authorized participants of the pilot program. Up to ten research permits may be issued to universities and private farms to grow and research the crop as an agricultural commodity.
"Agriculture remains a key driver in New York's economy and we are continuing to explore new ways to provide support for this industry to spur growth in communities across the state," Governor Cuomo said. "Expanding New York's industrial hemp pilot program will create a synergy of growth between some of this state's top-notch colleges, universities and private farms and encourage more growers to explore the potential economic opportunities associated with this crop. We will continue working to build this partnership and generate growth for local economies across the state for years to come."
The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets oversees the authorization of universities and farms to grow and research industrial hemp. Areas of research may include variety evaluation, harvesting, processing and manufacturing hemp into finished products and the marketing of the crop.
SUNY Sullivan, in partnership with The Center for Discovery, will focus its research on the effects of certain growing practices on hemp cultivation, and the key properties of cannabidiol extracted from the harvested plants, which has been shown to have important medical benefits. SUNY Sullivan is ranked 8thof the 121 two-year community colleges in the State. The Center for Discovery is an internationally recognized specialty center for individuals with complex disabilities and is well known for innovative models of healthcare, including integrating biodynamically-grown food with medical and clinical care.
Binghamton University's new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOPPS)'s will also research cannabidiol to study its potential in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. SOPPS is a research-intensive professional school offering the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree with plans to also offer a doctoral program leading to a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences.
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Morrisville State College were permitted to produce hemp for research in 2016. Over the past year, Cornell has conducted research on seeding equipment and plans to start a number of trials during the next growing season. Morrisville has led experiments with organic fertilizers and researched potential uses of hemp.
The Department is currently reviewing applications to issue the remaining six available permits under the pilot program, which now includes an opportunity for private farms to partner with the Department.
In January, Governor Cuomo announced new actions to advance New York's burgeoning industrial hemp industry as part of his State of the State address. Building on the success of the State's Industrial Hemp Agricultural Pilot Program, the Governor proposed to amend legislation to further the industry. The new legislation would expand the pilot program and authorize an unlimited number of farms to work with the state to research industrial hemp as an agricultural commodity.
Building on the momentum of the Southern Tier Soaring overall economic revitalization initiative, the Governor will also host the first-ever Industrial Hemp Summit in the Southern Tier that will bring manufacturers, farmers, researchers and other stakeholders together to identify challenges and opportunities to expand the industry and boost the agricultural economy throughout the state.
Many valleys throughout the State, including the Southern Tier and Hudson Valley, have the ideal climate and soil for this crop to flourish. With agriculture identified as one of the top economic drivers for the Southern Tier through the Upstate Revitalization Initiative, the summit will help set the stage for the next phase of the hemp program. The Hudson Valley also emphasizes agriculture and its related fields as a key component to a successful regional economic development plan.
State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said, "The State recognizes the importance of studying industrial hemp as a viable agricultural crop, which may help farmers diversify their production and provide new economic opportunities for agriculture. The addition of two excellent higher education institutions will help the State build on its pilot program and provide us with additional research capacity for this commodity."
SUNY Sullivan Interim President Jay Quaintance said, "SUNY Sullivan is thrilled about this program and the opportunities it provides our students to do innovative research with the staff at the Center for Discovery. We applaud the Governor and the Legislature for providing an avenue to grow this exciting new industry."
Gloria Meredith, founding dean of the Binghamton University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said, "Binghamton University is excited to explore hemp-related research that aims to create medicines and products that improve the lives of New Yorkers. This area of research has great potential."
Senator Tom O'Mara said, "Over the past several years, it's been a pleasure to work cooperatively with Assemblywoman Lupardo and Governor Cuomo to put in place laws that are significantly helping to place New York State at the forefront of a new industry with the potential to diversify our agricultural economy, generate revenue and create jobs. I continue to be pleased that we're moving forward to ensure the development and growth of an industrial hemp industry that will provide valuable new economic opportunities and a competitive edge for Southern Tier and Finger Lakes farmers and agribusinesses, together with the state's agricultural industry overall."
Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair Bill Magee said, "I am pleased to see New York's Industrial Hemp Pilot program take root and grow, as interest in this diverse agricultural crop is spreading across the nation. Our colleges are leading the way in researching and developing new opportunities for our farmers while helping to develop innovative uses for this sustainable, versatile crop which has varied and vast potential. "
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo said, "I am very happy to see that Binghamton University and Sullivan County Community College have received Industrial Hemp Pilot Research permits. Binghamton University's research proposal is a strong public and private partnership between their new School of Pharmacy and Nanticoke Gardens, one of the area's premiere greenhouses. I always envisioned Industrial hemp as a major agricultural and manufacturing opportunity for NYS and the Southern Tier in particular; these new research permits are a major step in that direction."
Broome County Executive Jason Garnar said, "With the addition of Binghamton University's planned research on industrial hemp, the Southern Tier has a great opportunity to capitalize on this nascent industry. We look forward to the work of the new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and their innovative research capabilities, which will have great potential to grow the agricultural industry and impact the medical field."
Chairman of the Sullivan County Legislature Luis Alvarez said, "Industrial hemp is becoming a critical player in the agricultural industry and through the state's Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, Sullivan County will play a major role in exploring new ways to bring this crop to its full economic potential. The partnership between SUNY Sullivan and the Center for Discovery will help farmers and researchers find new ways to cultivate this crop and explore opportunities to strengthen the region's agricultural economy. Under Governor Cuomo, New York continues to create jobs and economic activity through these targeted partnership and I look forward to the benefits this program will bring Sullivan County and the surrounding region."
Hemp is an emerging commodity in states across the nation, generating an estimated $573 million in sales in 2015. Both the stalk and the seed can be used to produce various goods, including clothing, building materials, fuel, paper, and other consumer products. Hemp that is classified as industrial has no more than 0.3 percent THC. New York has an opportunity to lead industry development by creating more opportunities for businesses to conduct research on the production and manufacture of the product.
The 2014 U.S. Farm Bill legalized the growth of hemp for research by departments of agriculture or higher education institutions in states where it has been approved by law. In New York State, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Senator Tom O'Mara sponsored legislation that created New York's pilot program. Governor Cuomo signed the law in December 2014. The Department released regulations on the pilot program in January 2016.
Today's announcement complements the "Southern Tier Soaring," the region's comprehensive blueprint to generate robust economic growth and community development. This initiative is focused on innovation, vigorous business growth and to creating an environment aimed at attracting the best and brightest talent to the region. The State has already invested more than $3.1 billion in the region since 2012 to lay the groundwork for the plan which includes investing in key industries such as advanced manufacturing, food and agriculture and in efforts that support the greater Binghamton innovation ecosystem.
Today, unemployment is down to the lowest levels since before the Great Recession; personal and corporate income taxes are down; and businesses are choosing places like Binghamton, Johnson City and Corning as a destination in which to grow and invest.
The $500 million "Southern Tier Soaring" Upstate Revitalization Initiative announced by Governor Cuomo in December 2015 will incentivize private business to invest well over $2.5 billion – and the region's plan, as submitted, projects up to 10,200 new jobs. More information is available here.


you made something good alot better ..
thx great work thumbs up ..
I like it alot, but do you think you can make it compatable with other ui's ?
To date i aint found a easier broker window to use.. plz help?
I had a similar issue, what I personally do before I ever install a new UI mod is backup all the ones it will replace, when it broke the eq2ui.xml file I just ran a comparison and saw that didn't call for some styles that had been in my previous eq2ui.xml. By doing a simple line-by-line comparison (really easy as there are only about 50 lines I think) I just copy-pasted the old style-calls into the new eq2ui.xml file and everything works perfect.
I dont know what's happened. Maybe the patch at 07/15, the preset doesnt work anymore. Please fix it. The UI is the best that I ever use.
Last edited by hibiki : 07-15-2006 at 05:45 PM.
Hi m8, whats your ingame name, I play on the same server as you. =) BTW great mod, way better than this new crap broker system.
Really nice, thankyou, just one thing, which I am *probably* sure you have had messages about, but anyways.
"<Data Class="0" ItemName="Advanced Armorer Volume" ItemType="0" MaxLvl="100" MinLvl="0" SellerName=" " Slot="0" Special="0" Text="Advanced Armorer" Tier="0"/>"
I don't know if it's me or what but I downloaded this mod and my game crashes. I deleted it and everything works fine now.
I added the line to include _ProfitUI_Styles.xml to eq2ui.xml but everytime EQ2 starts up it deletes that line from the file!
The window does work except that it doesn't show the seller name or amount of coin you have.
Last edited by Zenpo : 10-07-2006 at 12:34 PM.


We're happy to announce a small but very neat new feature added to automatic comments in GlobiFlow, for Podio Premium plan. You can now add comments silently, in order to automatically add comment to an item without notifying the people following the specific item. This is very handy in case you need to record action timestamps without sending tons of notifications to your team.


What Drives Employee Engagement? It's All About the "I"
Are You Ready for the New Workplace Reality?
Employees decide if they want to be engaged. But employee engagement also involves a rational component. What is the manager's influence?
Employee engagement is a business's backbone. It is the result of the psychological contract plus the experience that exists between employee and employer. The foundation of employee engagement is respect, trust, and performance. Engagement is dynamic because it changes over the course of an employee's tenure at a workplace and overall career as a consequence of multiple events and factors.
Engagement is intrinsic and individual. In conclusion, engagement is all about "I." It is a voluntary connection to the business and to its purpose; it includes an emotional component to the workplace in order to achieve its desired outcomes.
Employees decide if they want to be engaged. Thus, even though employee engagement entails an emotional connection, it also involves a rational component as the employee decides whether or not to be engaged given her individual circumstances. We have concluded that, even though many workplaces may seem to be similar, they are as unique as the individuals who belong to them, which in turn affects what it means for employees to be engaged with the organization.
As you may expect, the definitions and explanations of employee engagement are as varied as the authors who have proposed them; however, they have some similarities. These definitions include emotional, rational, and practical features that are connected to engagement's impact on businesses as well as on employees. In general, these definitions refer to engagement as voluntary. Each well-known definition includes these important components; in addition, there are other factors that contribute to move employee engagement in a particular direction. These factors are typically known as drivers of engagement.
We have found different types of drivers of engagement. As a manager, you will use some of these drivers to influence your employees' engagement. The impact of these drivers does not happen in isolation; the company's context and culture will mitigate or compound their impact on employee engagement.
The manager-employee relationship is the most important driver of employee engagement; this relationship has been tied to employees' satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their work or workplace and their subsequent decision of whether to stay in the workplace or go elsewhere. How you communicate with your employees and what you communicate to them are central issues in the relationship that lies at the heart of the psychological contract we mentioned in our definition of engagement. Therefore, you as a manager have the interesting challenge of forming genuine yet professional relationships with your employees that will benefit the company, the employee, and you.
We have already established that employee engagement has a solid emotional component because engagement is all about "I" (me) and my circumstances. Therefore, employees need to acquire a strong sense of purpose and autonomy in their work even when they may not control the final decision, product, or outcome. This sense of purpose and autonomy is directly tied to their ownership of their work.
Intrinsic motivation, defined by Kenneth Thomas in his second book on motivation at work, What Really Drives Employee Engagement (2009), is "a sense of meaningfulness and of progress" that will lead the employee to find value in what he does and to establish that emotional connection without depending on external factors, such as many mentioned in this section. In our work we have found several examples of employees who remain engaged with their workplaces or managers mainly as a result of their strong intrinsic motivation that often takes them through otherwise challenging times.
Leadership has different meanings in different companies. Leadership is an important driver of engagement that goes beyond job titles, because not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers. A manager, such as yourself (and others in the company at all levels), has an important responsibility to foster employee engagement. This responsibility comes through in how you enable your employees to do their work, how you conduct yourself, and how you, as a role model, convey messages through different channels.
Our interpretation of a leader is someone who drives people to a common purpose and brings confidence to her team, with the point to make things happen beyond herself. You do not need a title to be a leader.
Performance management is an area related to management that affects employee engagement. For us, performance management includes goals and objectives, as well as how work is distributed to meet company goals. It is an ongoing process that starts when an employee is hired and ends when he leaves the company.
As an ongoing process, performance management serves as the company's platform to align the employee's actions and behaviors to meet those company goals. Performance management comprises resource allocation, workplace flexibility, and work-life balance, as well as measures of an employee's progress in achieving the desired results. In addition, how high- and low-performing employees are managed, as well employees' perceptions of equity and justice, are included in this driver.
Career development is another driver of engagement. Even though most employees, especially those who belong to the younger generations, will have several positions at several companies throughout their work lives, those changes are career development. Its meaning may have changed for different groups, but long-term career potential and promotion opportunities are still as relevant today as they were many years ago. These issues are important because they relate to an employee's intent to stay in the workplace and the resulting decision will have an impact on the business.
An employee who finds opportunities for growth and development within a company will acquire a stronger sense of loyalty to that company and to you as a manager for facilitating those opportunities. This employee will be more likely to stay in the company for a longer period of time and to dedicate that additional time and effort that is often needed to obtain results.
Therefore, you as a manager must pay particular attention to the career development needs of your employees and help them to set realistic expectations for their future. At the same time, you should ensure that you match the right employee with the right opportunity at the right time. Don't be afraid of losing your best employees to other departments or divisions, because if they do not find what they need working with you, they will be more likely to leave your workplace altogether to go somewhere else. Minimize your losses. Keep the big picture of engagement in mind.
Even though employee engagement extends beyond financial and external incentives, these are still important drivers and need to be considered. Base pay, incentive pay, and total rewards are particularly significant in the current (and recent) economic climate where companies have had to implement tighter controls on costs, including pay and benefits, to survive.
Total rewards, defined by the not-for-profit World at Work as "the programs, practices, elements, and dimensions that collectively define an organization's strategy to attract, motivate, and retain employees" also will play a key role. Employees still focus considerable attention to their compensation and benefits packages when they make a decision to stay in a company or to go elsewhere.
Shifting our discussion to external components of engagement, we look at organizational image. The view that employees and the outside world have in their minds about an organization and how they feel about an organization becomes the organizational image.
In today's work environment, employees are particularly aware of a company's image and reputation. The emotional connection that employees feel with their company is composed of how others see it from the outside and how employees see it from the inside.
As individuals seek a place to work, they are very much aware of its reputation and how others perceive it because, by joining the company, they are overtly endorsing what it stands for. Let's look at these examples.
Pablo is very environmentally conscious. He would be attracted to a company known for implementing green programs. Pablo would be very pleased in a paperless environment.
Danielle is very structured and formal; she would be drawn to hierarchical workplaces where roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Danielle would feel more comfortable in an environment with a strict business dress code.
Steven is focused on creating new ideas that could become profitable products. He would be interested in a company that values results more than processes and procedures and where no one pays particular attention to his choice of attire. Steven would be happy wearing jeans or even shorts, weather permitting, every day.
Each of these individuals, with their varying personalities, would likely choose a different organization to join.
Brand alignment is another driver related to organizational image. With today's availability of information through multiple channels, often accessed simultaneously, it is very easy for an employee to find out if the company is acting consistently with its brand, or what makes it unique among its competitors.
For example, a company that prides itself on its community orientation and service would be initially appealing to an employee who likes to spend time working for the common good. Any contradiction between what the company says it would do and what it actually does would have a negative impact on that employee's engagement.
In this example, if the company's real connection with the community is limited to only collecting funds for nonprofit groups, the service-oriented employee will feel disappointed and will, very likely, begin to feel disengaged after joining the company.
Brand alignment ensures that people know and understand an organization's brand and purpose and that they demonstrate that they "live the brand" in everything that they do, everywhere that they do it, and every time that they do it.
Where do you start when you want to move employee engagement in a particular direction? If you had to select only one driver to address, focus on developing relationships with your employees.
By knowing your employees as individuals, you will be better positioned to decide which other drivers are more meaningful for each one of them and in which order to address them.
After all, engagement is all about the "I."
Wanda Piña-Ramírez is an action-driven, strategic management and executive consultant with a proven track record of contributing to the bottom line in companies spanning from multinational corporations to small businesses located in Puerto Rico, the continental United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Her innovative, energetic, and open-minded consulting style is an asset when dealing with ambiguity and challenging business situations. As the longest-serving member of AON Puerto Rico's Mejores Patronos (Best Employers) Committee, she has firsthand knowledge of industries as diverse as restaurants, insurance, medical laboratories, pharmaceuticals, hospitality, professional associations, hospitals, banking, pharmacy information systems, general information processing, refrigeration, medical devices, and building materials. Wanda is certified as a coach from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, as a practitioner in neurolinguistic programming and applied kinesiology by the International NLP Trainers Association, as a human resources administrator by the Escuela Avanzada de Administración de Recursos Humanos y Legislación Laboral de Puerto Rico, and as a legal intercessor for cases of domestic violence and aggression in Puerto Rico. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, where she brings together the legal and business components of talent development and human resources management, tackling such topics as business metrics, labor law, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Wanda also contributes her expert opinion on the latest issues affecting today's workforce to news outlets and other forums such as professional associations, business groups, and nonprofit organizations.
Wanda is a partner in the Human Factor Consulting Group, senior consultant for AON, and subject matter expert, program facilitator, and program translator for SHRM specializing in Latin America. This Certified DDI Facilitator is field editor for ATD Links and co-author with Norma Dávila of Effective Onboarding (ATD Press, 2018), Cutting Through the Noise: The Right Employee Engagement Strategies for You (ASTD Press, 2013) and Passing the Torch: A Guide to the Succession Planning Process (ATD Press, 2015), as well as of articles in TD, T&D, The Public Manager, and multiple blogs. She has presented at ATD's International Conference & Exposition, SHRM's Talent Management Conference, SHRM's Conference Preview Workshops, ATD's México Summit, and Ellevate, among others.