While traveling the first thing you look for is an accommodation which fits your budget and saves you a lot for other activities. This applied to most of all irrespective whether you are a solo traveler touring Cape Town for few days or traveling with family or friends. If this is what you are looking for then you should have a look at some of the best hostels in Cape Town which are sure to fulfill your requirements.
'Cape Town' is South Africa's one of the most happening and lively city is blessed with amazing natural beauties. A city like Cape Town which offers one so much to see and experience will make you stay for a longer period of time. Staying in hotels for such a long period may take more than half of your budget. That's where hostels come in to play. Hostels not only offer cheap staying but it also gives you a chance meet people of different background and cultures. Few hostels in 'Cape Town' also offer a great nightlife with great bars.
This hostel is one of the best hostels in 'Cape Town' city center. This hostel is just a few minutes' walks away from the Green Market Square and Long Street. You are welcome at any time of the day in this hostel. This hostel offers a restaurant, a bar and a yard with facilities of outdoor seating.
Furnished with all the contemporary amenities the hostel offers private rooms, dormitory, and air-conditioned rooms. The hostel room features, reading lamps, long beds, private locker, electric plug points. Towels and linen are also provided.
In the ground floor, you will find a cool 'Honey badger Bar and Restaurant'. It serves seasonal dishes made from local fresh produce. It also offers free Wi-Fi. The hostel also offers free walking tours of 'Cape Town', tour and travel arrangements and movie nights.
This amazing hostel is located just a few minutes' walks from 'V&A Waterfront' and 'Sea Point Promenade'. There are two types of rooms available private rooms and dormitory rooms. The hostel also houses a pool. Offers free Wi-Fi and a continental breakfast every day. There are two contemporary kitchens for guests to share. The hostel neighbors a lot of cafes and restaurants.
The hostel building has two terrace and outdoor chilling space. While in the indoors you will find lounge areas, game rooms, and a library. Sites to visit near the hostel are the Robben Island, 'Cape Town' Aquarium, Clifton's beaches, Signal Hill, Camps Bay, and Lion Head Hiking Trail. The hostel also helps you in organizing these trips and provides airport shuttle services for which they charge extra. This is an ideal place to stay for those who are looking for some adventurous activities in 'Cape Town'.
'Once in Cape Town' hostel is located in the lively and happening 'Kloof Street'. The hostel offers dorms containing single beds for individuals with shared bathroom and TV. It also offers private rooms which provide a marvelous view of the mountains.Every bed in the dorm has its own charging socket and private lockers. Private rooms are furnished with all modern conveniences, a TV, private bathroom and a king size bed. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hostel area. 'De Waal Park' is just 500 m away and the 'Castle of Good Hope' is 1.2 mi away.A light breakfast is offered every day. The hostel staffs are very friendly and helpful. Couples like to stay in this hostel.
The 'Long Street Backpackers' is one of the preferred hostels in 'Cape Town' Long Street. The hostel offers three types of accommodations dormitory, double and single. Each room is accessible to a shared bathroom. Rooms are modern and clean. The hostels house a shared kitchen and a common lounge area. There is a cash machine on the premises of the hostel and a bar.
Facilities to hire a car and airport shuttle service are also available at extra charge. The Garden is 300m away from the hostel and the Long Street supermarket is just a few steps away. The hostel also facilitates free Wi-Fi, BBQ amenities and an open terrace. The hostel staffs are always keen to provide you with the best service. As this hostel is centrally located it is highly recommended.
This trendy hostel is located in the suburbs of Green Point. The hostel offers contemporary dormitory, private rooms. Private rooms have private bathrooms but dormitory shares a common bathroom. All the rooms are air-conditioned, dormitories contain bunk beds, private lockers and separate reading lights for each bed.The hostel is just 800m from the 'Cape Town Stadium' and the popular 'V&A Waterfront' is just a few minutes from the hostel. 'Randy Warthog Bar & Grill' is open 24 X 7. The hostel welcomes guest at any time of the day.The hostels are very helpful. The hostel is quite popular in the area so the hostel is very easy to locate as most of the drivers know about the hostel. The hostel away from the hustle bustle of the city is a perfect place for a quiet and calm stay.
The 'Urban Hive Backpackers' is situated in a heritage building which is built in Victorian architecture. The hostel is located on the always lively 'Long Street' in 'Cape Town'. The hostel offers various kinds of accommodation like single, double, twin and dormitories. All the rooms are provided with all modern facilities. Sheets and towels are available on request. All the rooms share a common bathroom on all floor.
Guests staying in the hostel can use the common kitchen which is equipped with all the modern and necessary facilities. There is a bar in the hostel from where you can avail drinks. Moreover, BBQ facilities are also available. There are two balconies in the hostel which gives you an overlook of Long Street with the great Table Mountain in the background.
The hostel staffs are very welcoming and cooperative and can help you in organizing your trips, cabs and airport shuttles.
This hostel is South Africa's one of the most renowned and award-winning hostel. This hostel is the best in providing relaxed, comfortable travel experiences to the guests. 'The Backpack' offers a different type of rooms like private rooms and dormitories equipped with all sort modern amenities. The hostel provides a continental breakfast every day. The bar in the hostel remains open until late hours every night. The hostel house a kitchen which guest can use to make their own food.
Free Wi-Fi facility is also available. There are a craft outlet and a travel desk in the hostel premises. Private lockers are also there.The hostel is in short distance from Kloof Street, Long Street, and Bree Street. All these streets are lively and trendy and available all sorts of amenities like bars, restaurants, and other popular attractions.
'Cape Town' is a global city which is always lively and happening. These hostels in 'Cape Town' is located at the city centers are the best options to stay here during your visit. It saves your money and time too. There are a lot more hostels in 'Cape Town' Long Street which you can check out. So when you are visiting South Africa, you can stay in one of these hostels and experience the beauty of this amazing city.


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Reading: Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care ...
Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization
Lucas W. Thornblade ,
University of Washington, US
David R. Flum,
Abraham D. Flaxman
Background: Recurrent diverticulitis is the most common reason for elective colon surgery and, although professional societies now recommend against early resection, its use continues to rise. Shared decision making decreases use of low-value surgery but identifying which patients are most likely to elect surgery has proven difficult. We hypothesized that Machine Learning algorithms using health care utilization (HCU) data can predict future clinical events including early resection for diverticulitis.
Study Design: We developed models for predicting future surgery among patients with new diagnoses of diverticulitis (2009–2012) from the MarketScan® database. Claims data (diagnosis, procedural, and drug codes) were used to train three Machine Learning algorithms to predict surgery occurring between 52 and 104 weeks following diagnosis.
Results: Of 82,231 patients with incident diverticulitis (age 51 ± 8 years, 52% female), 1.2% went on to elective colon resection. Using maximal training data (152 consecutive weeks of claims), the Gradient Boosting Machine model predicted elective surgery with an area under the curve (AUC) of 75% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 71–79%). Models trained on less data resulted in less accurate prediction (AUC: 68% [64–74%] using 128 weeks, 57% [53–63%] using 104 weeks). The majority of resections (85%) were identified as low-value.
Conclusion: By applying Machine Learning to HCU data from the time around a diagnosis of diverticulitis, we predicted elective surgery weeks to months in advance, with moderate accuracy. Identifying patients who are most likely to elect surgery for diverticulitis provides an opportunity for effective shared decision making initiatives aimed at reducing the use of costly low-value care.
Keywords: Diverticulitis, General Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Decision Making, Patient Preference
How to Cite: Thornblade LW, Flum DR, Flaxman AD. Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization. eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes). 2018;6(1):1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Accepted on 28 Nov 2017 Submitted on 30 May 2017
Diverticular disease is common, affecting more than 50% of adults over age 60, of whom a third will go on to develop diverticulitis [1, 2]. The burden due to diverticulitis in the United States is also significant, with over 300,000 admissions annually at a cost of more than $2.6 billion [3]. While diverticulitis can be treated with antibiotics, historically surgeons have recommended colectomy after only two episodes of diverticulitis [4]. However, guidelines from professional societies now strongly advise against treating patients with uncomplicated diverticulitis by elective colectomy [5]. This represents a shift in guidelines away from use of surgery in most cases. Despite these recommendations, rates of elective colon resection for uncomplicated diverticulitis have continued to increase [6]. Elective colon resection that is performed after fewer than three episodes of diverticulitis represents potentially low-value surgery and, to date, analyses have failed to identify driving factors for use of low-value surgery [7]. To our knowledge, prediction modeling has not previously been used to determine which patients are most likely to elect surgical resection for diverticulitis.
In the era of big data, there is growing interest in the automated use of patient data. Health care claims (e.g., diagnoses, procedures, drugs, and clinical variables) provide a wealth of diverse information pertaining to a patient's clinical history [8, 9, 10]. However the heterogeneity and volume of this data have only limited utility with conventional analyses. For problems in health care that contain high-volume data with diverse variables, Machine Learning methods, which apply computer science algorithms to analyze complex non-linear relationships, can be applied towards prediction [11]. By exploiting variable diversity, sequence, and timing embedded in HCU data, Machine Learning algorithms may provide a more precise prediction than afforded by conventional regression-based models.
Patterns of prior health care utilization (HCU) may hold a key to predicting future health care events [11]. A patient's unique pattern of existing diagnoses, past procedures and prescriptions, and frequency of outpatient visits and hospitalizations contains rich information about that patient's state of health, symptom burden, and willingness to seek care. The hundreds of thousands of unique diagnostic, procedural and drug codes contained within health care claims provide a substrate that may be useful in prediction through advanced algorithms. Further, identifying high-volume users of the health care system may play a role in cost savings. To that end, HCU data remains an untapped resource. In prior work, we assessed whether hypothesis-driven variables (patient age, use of laparoscopy, or timing of disease recurrence) could explain the rise in elective surgery for diverticulitis but to-date, no compelling associations have been found [7]. In this study, we took an alternative approach and hypothesized that a patient's unique pattern of HCU around the time of diagnosis of diverticulitis could be used to predict future elective surgery. We aimed to develop a model for predicting low-value care in diverticulitis by testing several Machine Learning algorithms. We also aimed to ascertain whether prediction modeling can be performed accurately as far as weeks to months in advance of an event. Future applications of robust prediction include informing patients for the purpose of shared decision making to reduce low-value surgery.
Because prediction is typically most accurate when performed on large datasets, we selected commercial claims as a source of diverse data from a large cohort of patients. We tested prediction models on a retrospective cohort of adult patients (ages 18–64) with a new diagnosis of diverticulitis between 2009 and 2012 using the Thompson Reuters MarketScan® Commercial Claims database. Because of the de-identified nature of this data, it was not considered human subjects research and therefore this study was exempt from review by an Internal Review Board. MarketScan® includes person-level health care utilization data including inpatient, outpatient and pharmaceutical claims for employees and their dependents who are covered by employer-sponsored private health insurance and contains data from more than 30 million Americans annually. In this database, diagnoses are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9), drugs are coded using the National Drug Codes (NDC), and procedures are coded using the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) system.
Cohort Selection
We identified patients with a new diagnosis of diverticulitis using diagnosis codes (ICD-9: 562.11 & 562.13) between 2009 and 2012 who had been free from this disease during at least two years of continuous prior insurance enrollment (claims reviewed from 2007, onwards). In order to ensure equal follow-up, we included only patients with at least two years of continuous enrollment following diagnosis (claims followed through the end of 2014). Patients were excluded if they had any prior colon surgery or a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Details of cohort selection are summarized in Appendix A.
Defining HCU Time Periods
In order to train models using HCU from both before and after a diagnosis of diverticulitis, we excluded any patients who had colon resection during the first 52 weeks after diagnosis. HCU data were sampled for any claim for elective colon resection between 52 and 104 weeks following the diagnosis of diverticulitis (Figure 1). To avoid including surgeries that are were potentially emergent (i.e. non-elective), patients were excluded if colon resections occurred within one week after an emergency room visit. We developed models using all inpatient, outpatient and pharmaceutical claims from four periods of varying length (A–D) around the time of diagnosis with diverticulitis: Period A) 104 weeks prior to diagnosis; Period B) 116 weeks (104 weeks pre-diagnosis to 12 weeks post-diagnosis; Period C) 128 weeks (104 weeks pre-diagnosis to 24 weeks post-diagnosis; and Period D) 152 weeks (104 weeks pre-diagnosis to 48 weeks post-diagnosis) (Figure 1). We specifically did not include HCU data from the 4 weeks before the period of eligibility for elective surgery (washout from 48 to 52 weeks post-diagnosis) because this period may include variables that are specific indicators of an upcoming surgery (e.g., prescription for bowel preparation, or pre-anesthesia and surgery clinic appointments etc.).
Timeline of health care utilization data in relation to diagnosis of diverticulitis and corresponding periods A–D.
To perform prediction using a large number of variables from data that are as diverse as health care claims, we selected a number of candidate Machine Learning models for testing in this study. Prior work by our group has identified these algorithms as candidates for prediction in claims data [12]. Random Forest (RF) is an algorithm made up of a number of regression trees that are created using bootstrap samples from training data [13], and predictions are made as aggregates of the estimates from all regression trees. Penalized logistic regression (PLR) is an algorithm based upon standard logistic regression but which applies a penalty to the absolute value of coefficients using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) ultimately selecting certain variables for inclusion and thereby enhancing prediction of the final model [14, 15, 16]. Although penalized logistic regression is not strictly considered Machine Learning, because of this model's capacity for handling many types of variables in prediction, it was included as a candidate model. Finally, Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) is an algorithm that performs prediction via stage-wise assembly of weaker prediction models to develop a more precise estimate [18, 19]. Links to source code for algorithms used in this study are available in Appendix B. Details and code for data processing and model selection for the purposes of reproduction are outlined in Appendix C.
Predicting elective surgery
Using all available HCU data contained within MarketScan® claims as predictors, including codes for diagnoses, procedures, and drug prescriptions (including those not pertaining to diverticulitis), we compared the performance of three Machine Learning methods (RF, PLR, and GBM) [13, 14, 17] in their ability to predict which patients would go on to have elective colon surgery between 52 and 104 weeks following diagnosis. Unlike conventional modeling, no codes were pre-screened for use in each model. Instead, we exploited the capacity of Machine Learning algorithms for high-dimensional data by using all codes provided by claims. The ICD-9 and CPT procedural codes for colon surgery sampled from claims during this period are listed in Appendix A. While Machine Learning methods typically allow for some bias in order to minimize variance, all models were tuned for the purposes of maximizing predictive performance. In order to balance the tradeoff of bias and variance, model performance was measured by C-statistics based upon area under the receiver operating curves (AUC). Because of the very high volume of predictor variables applied in this study, we did not seek to define features of individual predictors.
Although the aim of this study was to determine the relative performance of several Machine Learning models, in order to determine levels of uncertainty, we applied a Train-Test-Validate approach [20]. We undertook internal validation to avoid diminishing sample size through subdivision of the cohort. This form of validation does not meet the standard of external validation as all training data were also used in validation. Models were validated using 10 replicates of 10-fold cross validation, where the cohort was randomly divided into 10 "folds", the model was trained on 9 of them, and the performance was measured on the tenth [20]. Validation estimates were used to generate 95% Uncertainty Intervals (UI) (a correlate of the confidence interval) [21, 22, 23]. Missing data were treated as case-complete as these models were envisioned for application to existing HCU data.
Identifying Low-Value Surgery
Based upon existing guidelines for colon resection in diverticulitis, we defined low-value surgery as an elective operation that occurred after two or fewer episodes of diverticulitis (either inpatient or outpatient) [5, 7]. In order to identify surgeries that qualified as potentially low-value, we counted the number of episodes of diverticulitis preceding any colon surgery. Inpatient episodes are identified as a single inpatient claim for diverticulitis. Outpatient episodes were identified by an outpatient claim for diverticulitis and a prescription of ciprofloxacin and metronidazole within 1 week of the encounter. Antibiotic drug codes were identified from the MarketScan® RED BOOK™ Supplement. All subsequent diagnosis codes for diverticulitis that occurred within six-weeks of a prior episode were considered part of a single episode.
Identifying Utilization Parameters
Using the highest performing prediction model, the cohort was divided into quintiles based upon predicted probability of undergoing future elective surgery. HCU data from a period of 2.5 years (104 weeks pre-diagnosis and 24 weeks post-diagnosis, Period C) was sampled for differences in utilization including the number of days in health care, number of emergency room visits, number of outpatient visits, number of unique diagnoses, number of prescriptions, number of claims for diverticulitis, and total health care costs. The differences in utilization between patients in the highest and lowest quintiles for likelihood of future surgery was assessed using t-tests (normally distributed continuous values), chi-squared tests (categorical values), and Mann-Whitney U tests (non-normal continuous values). All analyses were performed using free/libre open-source software (Python) [24, 25].
We identified 82,231 adult patients (mean age 51 ± 8 years, 52% female) with incident diverticulitis between 2009 and 2012. Patient characteristics are summarized in Table 1. During the period of 52–104 weeks following diagnosis, 1.2% of patients went on to elective colon resection. Using 128 weeks of training data, we identified that the GBM method achieved the highest performance for predicting future surgery with an AUC of 68% (Uncertainty Interval (UI) 64–74%) compared with RF (59% [UI 53–65%]), and PLR (55% [UI 48–59%]) (Figure 2).
Demographics and utilization parameters of patients in the lowest and highest quintiles for likelihood of undergoing future elective surgery for diverticulitis from the Gradient Boosting Machine algorithm.
All patients (n = 84,791)
Lowest Likelihood Quintile (n = 16,958)
Highest Likelihood Quintile (n = 16,958)
age, mean ± SD 51.0 ± 8.6 51.3 ± 8.8 50.0 ± 8.7 <0.001
female, % 52.4% 54.9% 53.5% 0.18
Elective surgery, n (%) 947 (1.2%) 5 (0.3%) 49 (3.0)
Utilization parameters*
Days in health care, mean ± SD 57.2 ± 46.9 57.0 ± 45.8 58.2 ± 46.0 0.34
ER visits, mean ± SD 1.1 ± 2.1 0.8 ± 2.0 1.8 ± 2.3 <0.001
Outpatient visits, mean ± SD 33.9 ± 30.4 34.3 ± 29.6 34.6 ± 31.1 0.96
Unique diagnoses, mean ± SD 29.8 ± 18.9 29.3 ± 18.7 30.8 ± 18.2 <0.001
Prescriptions, mean ± SD 43.4 ± 51.8 42.2 ± 50.3 43.4 ± 50.2 0.25
Diverticulitis claims, mean ± SD 7.6 ± 11.0 1.4 ± 1.4 22.9 ± 14.2 <0.001
Total health care costs, median (Interquartile Range) – $25,298
($11,761–52,846) $44,475
($24,356–82,379) <0.001
*For all health care data from 104 weeks prior to diagnosis until 24 weeks following diagnosis of diverticulitis.
Receiver operating curves (ROC) of three machine learning algorithms using data from 104 weeks before to 24 weeks following diagnosis of diverticulitis: Gradient Boosting Machine, Random Forest, and Penalized Logistic Regression. Gray shading indicates 95% Uncertainty Interval.
Using pre-diagnosis HCU data (Period A), the GBM model predicted elective surgeries with an AUC of 57% (UI 53–63%). Each addition of post-diagnosis HCU data led to greater prediction. GBM models trained on 116 weeks (Period B), 128 weeks (Period B) and 152 weeks (Period D) successfully predicted surgery with AUC of 66% (UI 62–71%), 68% (UI 64–74%) 75% (UI 71–79%) respectively (Figure 3). Figure 4 demonstrates continuous change in AUC with additional post-diagnosis HCU data. The most influential codes from each model are listed in Appendix D. Review of these codes did not reveal clear patterns either within or between models.
Receiver operating curves for Gradient Boosting Machine performance using data from Period A (104 weeks) Period B (116 weeks) Period C (128 weeks), and Period D (152 weeks). Gray shading indicates 95% Uncertainty Interval.
Trends of model performance with the addition of HCU data after diagnosis for four machine learning algorithms including Gradient Boosting Machine, Random Forest, and Penalized Logistic Regression. Gray shading indicates 95% Uncertainty Interval.
Of the 947 patients who went on to elective surgery between 52 and 104 weeks after diagnosis, 809 (85%) were identified as having low-value surgery with only two or fewer episodes of diverticulitis prior to resection (397 with two prior episodes, and 412 with only a single prior episode of diverticulitis).
Compared with the lowest quintile, patients in the highest quintile for likelihood of future elective surgery demonstrated more utilization of health care resources by several parameters (Table 1). High-likelihood patients had more emergency room visits (mean 1.8 vs. 0.8, p < 0.001), more unique diagnoses (mean 30.8 vs. 29.3, p < 0.001), more individual claims for diverticulitis (mean 22.9 vs. 1.4, p < 0.001), and greater median health care costs ($44,475 vs. $25,298, p < 0.001) during 128 continuous weeks of health care.
Through the application of Machine Learning methods to the diverse data present in health care claims around the time of a new diagnosis of diverticulitis, we can predict with moderate accuracy, future elective colon resection. In this study we found that, for all algorithms tested, longer periods of claims capture yielded better prediction model performance. Of the three types of Machine Learning methods examined, the GBM algorithm demonstrated the best performance possibly by capitalizing on the co-occurrences of codes and code types. We performed experiments testing the inclusion of sequence and timing embedded within claims data by encoding bigrams and trigrams of codes and found that they did not increase the model's predictive power. The GBM model's superior performance over other methods (e.g., RF and PLR) may be explained by its ability to search out the most informative combinations of codes. Importantly, the GBM method achieved prediction with AUC of 69% at 24 weeks after diagnosis of surgeries that occurred between 52 and 104 weeks after diagnosis. In other words, as far as six months in advance, HCU data can be used to predict patient behavior related to low-value care.
By predicting future health care events, we have not made inference about the factors associated with low-value surgery [11, 26]. The Machine Learning algorithms used in this analysis can provide prediction based upon a wide variety of data features, and as such may not be sufficiently logical to be understood in an inferential framework. In order to further explain the drivers of low-value surgery, we examined utilization features of patients classified as either high- or low-likelihood for future surgery as determined by the prediction algorithm. When comparing these groups, those patients who are most likely to undergo an elective resection for diverticulitis appear to be high utilizers of health care. These patients have more frequent ER visits, carry a greater number of diagnoses, and have more health care claims related to diverticulitis. It may be these features of higher utilization which drive the prediction model in identifying future surgery. Concurrent to this work, our group is enrolling patients in a large prospective study of diverticulitis. By surveying both patients and surgeons about symptoms and preferences that influence decision-making around surgery, we aim to gain clinical and patient-level data that cannot otherwise be ascertained from claims data alone.
This novel application of Machine Learning algorithms to HCU data likely has implications in other realms of health care. However at present, predictive modeling in health care has limited applications. Prediction can refine disease prognosis, can be used for risk stratification, or can aid providers in clinical decision making. For diverticulitis, this type of prediction can also be used to inform decisions made by surgeons and patients. Diverticulitis is typically not life limiting and is considered a preference sensitive condition, meaning patients may make therapeutic choices based upon cost, symptom burden, lifestyle, or some other factors other than survival. For preference sensitive conditions with documented excess of HCU, predictive modeling may be applied in shared decision making. Aids for shared decision making have been shown to reduce rates of costly elective surgery in other common conditions [27, 28]. The application of Machine Learning to existing health care utilization data presents a unique opportunity to inform decision making for patients and physicians choosing between surgery and continued non-operative management for uncomplicated diverticulitis. Importantly, the methods described here predicted health care events as much as six months in advance, providing ample time for implementation of a shared decision making tool. Early future application of this form of prediction includes an ongoing prospective mixed-methods study at our institution of patients with diverticulitis. This research aims to understand the clinical and personal reasons that physicians and patients choose surgery to treat this disease. To do so, however, would require real-time access to claims within an integrated health system.
The application of Machine Learning to health care claims is a novel approach to this type of data and does have several important limitations. First, claims include diagnostic and procedural codes but are not a record of care received. There may be diagnoses which are preliminary when billed but later confirmed as an alternate diagnosis and patients may carry forward in time diagnoses from prior episodes of disease. We attempt to account for this by applying strict time criteria for defining episodes of disease. Second, because of the limited number of fields allowable per claim, these data do not provide comprehensive information of care received. For example, the MarketScan® claims data do not include facility or provider identifiers which would otherwise be important predictors of health care utilization. Nonetheless, claims do provide intricate structural and longitudinal patient-level data which may otherwise go unused in health services research. Third, prediction of future health care events in this study was structured around the concept of "low-value care" which we defined as surgery occurring after two or fewer episodes of diverticulitis. However, value of care may be perceived differently by patients. Determining how patients value the tradeoffs of elective surgery and symptom burden of diverticulitis is an active area of research in our group. Finally, prediction modeling should be interpreted with caution in the context of validation. Here we validated internally using repeated samples. Future iterations of these models should be validated using independent samples (i.e. external validation) [11].
Using each patient's unique HCU data from around the time of diagnosis of diverticulitis, we trained machine learning models to predict future elective colon surgery, as far as months in advance. Of three models tested, the GBM demonstrated highest performance prediction which may be due to its ability to search out the most informative combinations of codes in HCU data. We also found that use of low-value surgery is driven by patients who are high utilizers of health care. By predicting future low-value surgery for a preference sensitive condition, we can inform shared decision making between patients and surgeons.
The additional files for this article can be found as follows:
Cohort Selection. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193.s1
Data Processing (Model Selection). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193.s2
Data Preparation and Modeling Process. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193.s3
Most influential codes for each model. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193.s4
We would like to thank Rebecca Symons, analyst at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center. We would also like to thank Corinne Jones and Sham Kakade in the Department of Statistics at the University of Washington, School of Computer Science & Engineering. This study was funded in part by the National Institutes Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Grant number R01DK10391. Dr. Thornblade is supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32DK070555. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Clark, A, Ng, JQ, Morlet, N and Semmens, JB. Big data and ophthalmic research. Surv Ophthalmol. 2016; 61(4): 443–465. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2016.01.003
Obermeyer, Z and Emanuel, EJ. Predicting the Future — Big Data, Machine Learning, and Clinical Medicine. N Engl J Med. 2016; 375(13): 1216–1219. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1606181
Jones, CL, Kakade, SM, Thornblade, LW, Flum, DR and Flaxman, AD. Canonical Correlation Analysis for Analyzing Sequences of Medical Billing Codes. 2016; (Nips 2016). http://arxiv.org/abs/1612.00516.
Svetnik, V, Liaw, A, Tong, C, Culberson, JC, Sheridan, RP and Feuston, BP. Random Forest: A Classification and Regression Tool for Compound Classification and QSAR Modeling. J Chem Inf Comput Sci. 2003; 43(6): 1947–1958. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/ci034160g
Breiman, L. Random Forests. Mach Learn. 2001; 45(1): 5–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010933404324
Fan, R, Chang, K, Hsieh, C, Wang, X and Lin, C. LIBLINEAR: A Library for Large Linear Classification. J Mach Learn Res. 2008; 9: 1871–1874.
Park, MY and Hastie, T. Penalized logistic regression for detecting gene interactions. Biostatistics. 2008; 9(1): 30–50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biostatistics/kxm010
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Friedman, J. Greedy Function Approximation: A Gradient Boosting Machine Author(s): Jerome H. Friedman Source: The Annals of Statistics, (Oct., 2001); 29(5): 1189–1232. Published by: Institute of Mathematical Statistics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/. Ann Stat. 2001; 29(5): 1189–1232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1214/009053606000000795
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Adams, KF, Johnson, EA, Chubak, J, et al. Development of an Algorithm to Classify Colonoscopy Indication from Coded Health Care Data. eGEMs (Generating Evid Methods to Improv patient outcomes). 2015; 3(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.13063/2327-9214.1171
Kuhn, M and Johnson, K. Applied Predictive Modeling. New York, NY: Springer New York; 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6849-3
Hoekstra, R, Morey, RD, Rouder, JN and Wagenmakers, E-J. Robust misinterpretation of confidence intervals. Psychon Bull Rev. 2014; 21(5): 1157–1164. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0572-3
Instead of "confidence interval," let's say "uncertainty interval." Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. http://andrewgelman.com/2010/12/21/lets_say_uncert/ Accessed September 28, 2017.
Pedregosa, F, Varoquaux, G, Gramfort, A, et al. Scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python. JMLR. 2011; 12(Oct): 2825–2830.
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Arterburn, D, Wellman, R and Westbrook, EO, et al. Decision aids for benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. Am J Manag Care. 2015; 21(2): e130–40. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880488.
King, J and Moulton, B. Group health's participation in a shared decision-making demonstration yielded lessons, such as role of culture change. Health Aff. 2013; 32(2): 294–302. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1067
Thornblade, L.W., Flum, D.R. and Flaxman, A.D., 2018. Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization. eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes), 6(1), p.1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade LW, Flum DR, Flaxman AD. Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization. eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes). 2018;6(1):1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade, L. W., Flum, D. R., & Flaxman, A. D. (2018). Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization. Egems (generating Evidence & Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes), 6(1), 1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade LW, Flum DR and Flaxman AD, 'Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization' (2018) 6 eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes) 1 DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade, Lucas W., David R. Flum, and Abraham D. Flaxman. 2018. "Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization". Egems (generating Evidence & Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes) 6 (1): 1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade, Lucas W., David R. Flum, and Abraham D. Flaxman. "Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization". Egems (generating Evidence & Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes) 6, no. 1 (2018): 1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193
Thornblade, L. W., et al.. "Predicting Future Elective Colon Resection for Diverticulitis Using Patterns of Health Care Utilization". Egems (generating Evidence & Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes), vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, p. 1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/egems.193

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Local Review: Bat Manors – Literally Weird
By Alex Gilvarry
Bat Manors
Literally Weird
Bat Manors = Fleet Foxes + Grizzly Bear + Band of Annuals
Bat Manors are the latest in the growing tradition of indie whisper-core bands from Provo with punny names who manage to transcend their silly titles with some really great songs. This album is definitely of the acoustic-led singer/songwriter variety, but most of these tracks have a warbly quality that reminds me of Sigur Rós, if they were a little less ambitious. Each of the songs is based around singer and guitarist Adam Klopp, with various instruments and vocal harmonies coming in and out to help build his fragile compositions into something grand and beautiful. It's a rare thing for a debut album to be this consistently great—with any luck, Bat Manors are going to be a prominent force in local music for a long time. They're the band Utah deserves, but not the one it needs right now … or something. –Alex Gilvarry


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Q: Autofocus HTML input when app is opened I have an iOS web app with a WKWebView. I would like an HTML input to auto focus when the app is opened. What I've tried and hasn't worked:

*

*html autofocus tag
<input autofocus />

*JavaScript
document.getElementById("my_input").focus();

Thank you for your help.

A: It is not possible in iOS due to security issues. The input can only be focused on a tap event.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Companies with contact centers are migrating to the cloud at an even faster pace than we previously noted in June. Many others are moving from the public cloud to the private cloud. And why not?
Today's IT contact center environment demands agility to support industry trends like BYOD, server virtualization, social media, and fast-growing video usage. Contact center managers are demanding more from their cloud so they can continue to stay ahead of their customers' communications demands and improve their organization's competitive advantage.
Operating in a real-time, 24/7 world increasingly requires unified communications applications that utilize voice, video, e-mail, IM, presence, conferencing, and unified messaging to ensure your customers– both internal and external–have their needs serviced quickly.
Contact center agents are also increasingly required to help navigate online purchases, or deliver customer support in a multichannel environment.
For contact centers, the ideal private cloud can mean many things and come in different forms.
Offering great flexibility, private clouds can be dedicated on-premise, off-premise or can even be half-on and half-off.
For contact centers of large healthcare and finance companies, the private cloud offers the ability to maintain a large customer database at the enterprise where it can be controlled, while applications that can support and access the database can be hosted offsite at the contact center.
This hybrid configuration provides the best of both on-premise security and off-premise cloud flexibility. This model also can set up a simplified migration path to a full, private cloud infrastructure.
Moving from a traditional, on-premise solution to the cloud can become tricky in the case of large, complicated, customized applications, such as contact centers.
Lack of standards, bad heritage, poor flexibility and complex APIs can lead to extraordinarily complicated migrations. Challenging migrations require experienced, contact center-centric vendors to handle all of the porting, routing, setup, and dealing with customization of workflow, which can mean extensive rebuilds of application scripts and processes.
The best clouds–based on ITIL standards, active monitoring and service desk support–will support complex unified communications and diverse contact center environments, and multi-vendor equipment.
#10: Does the vendor have the expertise and experience to build a technology transformation roadmap that evolves your current solution to leverage the cloud while minimizing current service disruption?
#9: Can the vendor's standard, dedicated hosted solution–complete with voice, multimedia agent, off-site agent, and voicemail applications–meet the needs of various sizes of business (small, midsize and large)?
#8: Does the vendor's expertise come with a common SIP-based communications core with an open, enterprise-wide, cloud-grade network infrastructure?
#7: Does the vendor's architecture enable easy management and building of a contact center virtualization strategy, from the data center to the desktop?
#6: How easy is streamlining to ensure a great user experience with applications?
#5: Is there a standards-based approach to their private cloud that provides maximum flexibility and investment protection in a rapidly evolving cloud landscape?
#4: Does the vendor have enough experience with APIs and offer customization capabilities for easy integration and migration of your current customized solution to a cloud-based offering?
#3: Can the vendor candidate offer a turnkey approach that combines applications, servers, storage and networking and management components?
#2: Is deployment easy, with ready-to-use packages and single-call support?
#1: Can the private cloud solution service be customized to include remediation, multi-vendor equipment support, eBonding, custom billing, reporting and software upgrades?
What are your top 10 must haves in a private cloud vendor?


Caring for children is both rewarding and challenging. Everyday is fun, and certainly never the same! Join Working Mums Daycare & Pre-School and we can help you achieve your dreams and aspirations, because like you, we have a strong desire to succeed. Working Mums are innovative and professional in every way and communicative with employees. We are always looking to recruit at all levels including mature, domestic and relief staff.
Working Mums' is a fabulous company with many opportunities for personal growth. Because of this, internal promotions often create opportunities for new Practitioners and Team Leaders to join our company at qualified practitioner level and become a part of our professional growth network.
It's hard to know where to start, but with our three nurseries in Mortlake, East Sheen and Battersea, we certainly have the variety of settings and teams to be able to find the right location for you and as a company, our support for apprentices is outstanding.
If you have a passion for working with children in the early years, Working Mums' will give you a great start and a great future.
Working Mums Daycare & Pre-School are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. In order to be committed to safeguarding children, all staff must have an enhanced DBS certificate.


Concentrated flavouring for professional use only. Capella sweet mango is a delicious mango flavouring that can be used by itself or as an excellent enhancer for a tropical eliquid fruit blend or drink. Use lots and have fun!


We recently flew business class with between Australia and New Zealand onboard the Air New Zealand Dreamliner.
Air New Zealand's Dreamliner business class is laid out in the sometimes controversial herringbone configuration with all seats angled toward the middle of the plane.
The 'unusual' configuration of the Air New Zealand Business Class cabin has passengers facing towards the middle of the plane.
The biggest gripe from passengers about this configuration tends to be about feet. And we must admit, if you look down the aisle, the most noticeable thing is everyone's feet pointing out into the aisle.
However, once tucked away in your seat, especially with your screen extended and your seat reclined a little, this configuration is very private, you'll find yourself tucked away in your pod.
High walls between the seats means the pods are actually very private once you are in your seat.
Inside your pod you'll find all your gadgets, storage and control panels within easy reach. Over your shoulder you'll find a drinks table, below which is your TV controller (moveable) and 2 storage holes, one magazine/tablet sized and a smaller compartment which was perfect for small items eg phone, glasses.
Drinks table, controllers and storage options to your side.
TV Controller and storage options.
There are 2 control panels to operate your seat. One panel has your in-seat controls including buttons to recline your seat and return it to the upright position. Along with lumbar support adjustment and a 5th button that releases your tray table from its compartment in your seat wall.
In-seat control panel to adjust seat and table positions.
The panel to convert your seat to a bed is located at the aisle end of your seat pod as the seat is required to be vacated to convert to a bed.
Buttons that convert your seat to a bed.
WATCH: Business class seats convert to a fully flat bed at the touch of a button.
At the press of another button, your personal entertainment screen is released from the wall on an adjustable arm, allowing you to move the screen position to your preferred viewing position.
Your personal entertainment screen can be moved to your preferred viewing position.
A handy video is available within the inflight entertainment system explaining how to use all of the controls in your seat. The flight attendants also offered to run each passenger through the controls and systems.
As our flight was in the morning we were offered breakfast onboard. I'm always keen to sample airline breakfasts as I think it is the hardest dish for airlines to perfect on long haul flights.
Air New Zealand Business Class inflight dining - breakfast menu.
Full drinks service was available on the flight.
We started with the choice of pre-departure juice, water or champagne. Following take off we were offered a mixed berry, coconut yoghurt, and chia seed smoothie which was delicious and very refreshing.
Mixed berry, coconut yoghurt and chia seed smoothie onboard Air New Zealand business class.
The inflight meals were served restaurant style with each course being delivered separately to the each passengers needs. Following the smoothie a choice 'From the pantry' was offered including fresh fruit salad, yoghurt, or muesli (or all of the above).
Fresh fruit salad and coffee onboard Air New Zealand business class.
Next came the choice 'From the bakery' a selection of fresh danish pastries, croissants and fruit or regular toast were offered by the flight attendants. I chose the danish pastry which was light and flaky and served warm.
Fresh danish pastry onboard Air New Zealand Business Class.
The cooked portion of the meal 'From the stove' included a choice of Scrambled eggs with kransky sausage, Apple hot cakes with lemon curd yoghurt (vegetarian option), or a Bacon and egg panini served with green tomato and jalapeno chutney. Heavily swayed by the chutney, I chose the panini and was not disappointed.
Bacon and Egg panini onboard Air New Zealand Business Class.
No amenity kit was available onboard this flight due to it being the shorter leg, however the flight attendant happily brought me a toothbrush kit when I requested one.
All in all, I found Air New Zealand business class to be very comfortable, I even managed an hour or so sleep on the short flight. I was dubious about the herringbone configuration, compared to the more traditional 'reverse herringbone' configuration as seen in Finnair or Cathay Pacific. The seats do take a little getting used to and there are some glitches like making sure your screen is on the correct side of your tray table when the food is placed down to be able to continue watching your entertainment while you dine. The flight attendants were very happy to assist with these issues though if anyone did find themselves a little restricted. The pods were also a lot more private than I imagined. With the seat reclined an the screen extended into viewing position the high walls between the seats created a very enclosed space.
The Dreamliner is a beautiful plane, the noise from the plane it's self was non existent and the lighting inside the plane was calming and inoffensive. Beyond all of this the service from the Air New Zealand flight attendants was exceptional, making this an extremely enjoyable flight.
Contact our Flat Beds Airfare Consultants to book your Air New Zealand Business Class flights.


Treatment of energy as a fluid in attempts to control high-temperature excinerative reactions. The process of applying magnetic and other fields to fluids and gases to modify their energy, and thus become effective agents for other purposes.
Magneto Hydro Dynamics is the science responcible for the effective control of Ætherine mediums such as Veridigen and Retrogen for propulsion and industrial uses.


Everyone's got traditions in their families or community. Putting cookies out for Santa? Dying Easter eggs for the Easter Bunny? Making a special valentine for a favorite family friend? These are all traditions many people celebrate, but are there any Halloween traditions? Here are some tips for making some un-forgettable Halloween traditions.
Cook or eat. Do you eat anything special or cook anything creepy on Halloween? It's an easy tradition to keep, and can turn out delicious. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Attempt a Halloween Dinner poem. On each bite at dinner on Halloween, whisper, "Halloween night is full of fright," and you will have good luck all Halloween.
Do some pumpkin seed baking! After carving the pumpkin, save as many seeds as possible and keep them in the refrigerator. On Halloween, cook them and salt them on cookie sheets.
Do a Lemon Morning. Every Halloween morning, before anything else is done, eat one single lemon with no water, keeping your Halloween both sour and sweet.
Keep the orange devil out. Put an orange by the window and the devil will not come in, knowing Halloween is celebrated there and he is not wanted.
Know that your Aunt will know who to spare. Keep a key from one of your Aunt's houses and put it under the mat. Each trick-or-treater must step on it if they deserve any candy. If they do not, give no candy to them.
Don't say, "red," "rabbit," or "calendar" before 8:35 on Halloween.
Avoid doing specific things. Sometimes, instead of doing specific things, don't do something. The five-year-old will love correcting you dramatically if you do something you shouldn't. It's a great and easy way to keep a simple tradition. Try this one, for example.
Never be selfish. Don't ever take more than ten pieces of candy, or the sugar will join and take over the household.
Honor your traditions. It's part of having the traditions in the first place! Make sure to follow your rules and traditions every Halloween, but remember that if you slip, it's not the end of the world.
Have a list of rules you should follow on Halloween that your family or friends need to follow.
Do what you do every Halloween. Do you go trick-or-treating? Do you have a Halloween party? Consider those your own traditions. Keep doing this, and consider putting a little twist on them.
Try the candy corn ritual. Many kids trick-or-treat. This time, on every different place you go, whether it's each floor of the building you trick-or-treat in or the block you trick-or-treat on as well as live on, leave one candy corn on each stop along the way, leaving all the bad luck behind in each corn and leaving the rest of the candy delicious!
Get the candy and leave the bad luck behind. When the house gives you the candy, cross your fingers while they're handing it to you.
Do not worship any traditions. They are only more ways to have fun on Halloween with your friends and family.
wikiHow is a "wiki," similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 6,230 times.
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Well, It's a social game mostly, so the amount of time put into that aspect depends on the player. At the very least, you should be able to check in a few times a day and respond to anybody that might be talking to you.
As for the challenges, they're mostly going to be very quick to complete for the players. On a weekday, I don't expect any challenge to take more than an hour to do, if that long. If a challenge will last any longer, it'll be on a weekend, and announced well in advance to get player feedback. Most challenges will also have a time-span when they can be completed, as well.
Time wise... I expect this game to last over 2 months of real time. There will be built in break days, and there may be a few extra break days thrown in depending on the general morale of the playerbase/the host's availability.
From personal experience, I've played in or helped host every game since 2012. They're tons of fun, and it's a great way to meet fellow forum-goers!


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Just Mortgages doubles number of area directors
Just Mortgages has doubled its number of area directors to 22, from 11 at the start of 2021.
Related topics: Mortgages | Rozi Jones
"We've recently expanded our operations in Wales and Scotland, and brought in a number of experienced area directors to support in these areas."
The firm says expansion has been essential to support the growing numbers in the self-employed team, which recently hit 400 brokers.
Each director is responsible for approximately thirty self-employed brokers. Alongside providing professional advice, the area directors also work with the self-employed team to develop business plans and support them to hit their goals.
Ben Allkins, head of mortgages and protection for the Just Mortgages self-employed division, said: "With the self-employed team expanding so quickly, it was essential we grew the number of area directors alongside. We've recently expanded our operations in Wales and Scotland, and brought in a number of experienced area directors to support in these areas.
"Our area directors are an invaluable resource for our self-employed team to tap into. They are all experienced brokers themselves, and can advise not just on the professional side of things, but also balancing your home life alongside being a broker.
"A growing number of our brokers are now looking to set up principal partnerships, and our area directors can support them, giving them advice on recruiting, and how to manage a team of people.
"With our ambitious plans for 2022, it will be essential that we continue expanding the area director team so they can continue to support our brokers to deliver best advice."


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Get in touch to get involved with SHE IS MORE 2020! Contact the SHE IS MORE Team to explore a partnership, make an in-kind donation, receive updates about the program, or sign up as a volunteer!
She takes the lead in changing the world
She is Courage
Because SHE IS MORE.
Empowering women and girls isn't a one-off initiative.
For us, it means sparking a movement that celebrates
the different roles women play in society.
Through SHE IS MORE, we want to celebrate the women
who are making the world a better place for
the next generation, using the medium of art.
Join us for the second year of SHE IS MORE!
In 2020, we're shining the spotlight on women and girls who
are leading the revolution to create a better tomorrow for all.
With the theme of SHE IS COURAGE, we celebrate
women who have the courage to lead, the courage
to explore, the courage to innovate, and the courage
to change the world!
The SHE IS MORE Youth Art Competition and Exhibition invites
all youth to share their voices through personal pieces of art,
celebrating how women are courageously creating solutions
to change the world.
SHE IS COURAGE: Join #SheIsMore in 2020
MAR – MAY 2020
JOIN OUR COALITION OF SUPPORTERS
Your generous support will go a long way in empowering women across the world.
SHE IS MORE is a wonderful opportunity for your brand or company to position itself as a champion of gender equality. Take this opportunity not only to support our programs that empower underserved women, but also to create deep, lasting change.
For sponsorship and partnership opportunities, contact the SHE IS MORE Team at sheismore@iixglobal.com
Helaine Dryden
Helaine is the General Counsel and the Chief Compliance Officer at Episteme Capital, an alternative investment management firm with offices in London and Rye Brook, New York. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona and is an avid traveller and loves cooking. Helaine received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley and her JD from Harvard Law School.
Edna Wong
Edna obtained her BA in Economics from Barnard College and started her career in media advertising. After receiving her MBA from Columbia University, she was a management consultant in New York before returning to Hong Kong to work at American Express. She is now Senior Consultant within the Jewellery Group at UBM Asia.
Christine Amour-Levar
Christine is a French-Swiss-Filipina Philanthropist, Adventurer, Entrepreneur and Author. A passionate advocate of environmental conservation and female empowerment, she set up Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth, two award-winning, not-for-profit organisations, to take all-female teams on pioneering expeditions as a way to support worthy causes.
SHE IS MORE 2019
To enable everyone to be an advocate for women's empowerment, IIX Foundation launched the inaugural SHE IS MORE initiative in 2019: a global competition for young adults to celebrate the value of women through art, culminating in an Art Exhibition Opening Night Celebration and Fundraiser Night on May 9, 2019 at the renowned Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Singapore.
Funds raised for SHE IS MORE 2019 are going towards conducting computer literacy programs in Bangladesh and providing arts therapy programs in Singapore for underserved women.
SHE IS MORE 2019 EXHIBITION OPENING
SHE IS MORE 2019 ARTWORKS
About IIX Foundation
IIX Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 organization and registered Singapore charity dedicated to building a more inclusive world. As a community of defiant optimists, we take a new approach to building a more, inclusive and sustainable future by empowering women as solution-builders to address the pressing problems of today.
Proceeds from SHE IS MORE will go towards IIX's work in empowering underserved women. We do this by supporting beneficiary programs that are mobilizing society-wide support through women-centered advocacy and education.
For more information on SHE IS MORE partnerships, contact us at sheismore@iixglobal.com


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HomeActressTaapsee Pannu: Net Worth, Relation, Age, Full Bio & More
Taapsee Pannu: Net Worth, Relation, Age, Full Bio & More
ActressBollywood
Taapsee Pannu is an Indian actress and model currently working in the Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi film industries. Born in Delhi, she completed her graduation in Computer Science Engineering and worked as a software professional before making her appearance in films.
Taapsee Pannu Father Dilmohan Singh Pannu and her mother Nirmaljeet Pannu. She has a younger sister named Shagun Pannu. She has spent her childhood in Ludhiana, Punjab. Taapsee was good at studies in her school and college days.
She also perused her career in modelling and became a full-time model after she auditioned and was selected for Channel V's talent show Get Gorgeous. She appeared in many commercials and won the "Pantaloons Femina Miss Fresh Face" and "Safi Femina Miss Beautiful Skin" in 2008.
She was born on 1 August 1987 in New Delhi, India. She is among the few South Indian actresses to have had 7 releases in a single year (2011). Taapsee came into the limelight after playing the role of 'Minal Arora' in the Bollywood film 'Pink'.
Pannu made her acting debut in a Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam in 2010, directed by Raghavendra Rao. She made her debut Hindi film industry in 2013 with the comedy film Chashme Baddoor, directed by David Dhawan. In later years, she appeared in critically and commercial hit films Baby and PINK, which gave her special and strong recognition.
She was awarded Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female Award at the 2014 Edison Awards for her performance in the Tamil film Arrambam. The career of Taapsee Pannu did not stop there, soon her acting talent was appreciated and recognised by many big filmmakers, and therefore she was signed for Judwaa 2 with Varun Dhawan and Jacqueline Fernandez in 2017, Naam Shabana with Akshay Kumar in 2017, Manmarziyaan with Abhishek Bachhan and Vickey Kaushal, Game over in 2019, Saand Ki aankh in 2019 and she is booked for three more movies.
Taapsee Pannu's Basic Personal Info
Favourite Things
Hobbies, Likes & Dislikes
Style Quotient
Controversies & Interesting Facts
Name Taapsee Pannu
Born 1 August 1987
Profession Actress, Model
Birth Sign Leo
Country New Delhi, India
Father Dilmohan Singh Pannu
Mother Nirmaljeet Pannu
Spouse Single
Debut Movie Telugu- Jhummandi Naadam (2010)
Hindi- Chashme Baddoor (2013)
Debut TV Channel V's talent show Get Gorgeous
Salary 70-80 lakh/per film (INR)
Awards Edison Awards for Most Enthusiastic Performer-Female (2014)
School Mata Jai Kaur Public School, Ashok Vihar, Delhi
College Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology, New Delhi
Sibling Shagun Pannu (Younger)
Spouse Name –
Married Year –
Children –
Boyfriend Dated Mahat Raghavendra (Tamil Film Actor)
Mathias Boe (Badminton player from Denmark)
Build –
– in cms 171 cm
-in meters 1.71 m
-in feet inches 5'71/2"
-in KG 55 kg
-in Pounds 121 lbs
– Chest/Bra 34B
– Waist 27 inches
– Biceps/Hips 36 inches
Hair Type –
Shoe Size 8 US
Favourite Food Papri Chaat, Chinese cuisine, Danish pastries, Chole puri, Kachori, Chole Puri
Favourite Sport –
Favourite Film Rockstar (Bollywood), The Twilight Series (Hollywood)
Favourite Destination Maldives, Europe
Favourite Color Yellow
Favourite Actor Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roushan, Suriya, Ranbir Kapoor, Prabhas
Favourite Actress Priyanka Chopra, Priramani
Favourite Fashion –
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Pannu said that Pannu was the reason behind the fight between Kollywood actor Mahat Raghavendra and Tollywood actor Manchu Manoj at a party after the Filmfare awards in Chennai in 2012.
In a chat with the comedy group East India Company, Pannu spoke out against the sexist portrayal of women in the cinema of the South and ridiculed Telugu filmmaker K Raghavendra Rao. Her comments went viral and received much flak from Raghavendra Rao supporters and the general audience that enjoys southern cinema. Later, Pannu apologized in a video on Facebook.
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Better Web
The advent of responsive design over the last five years has provided a rare opportunity for organizations to strengthen the distinctive qualities of their brands and engage a wider audience.
Yet, because of budgetary constraints or a lack of human resources, when nonprofits wanted to make the leap to the modern web, many of them fell into one or more of the traps along the way.
Instead of identifying what's unique about their work and sharing it through memorable stories and design, the voice and the visual language on their new sites are often a collection of lifeless clichés.
Lacking a coherent creative concept built around the organization's strengths, they've not only become impersonal and forgettable, but sometimes also unintuitive and cumbersome to navigate.
This turns away first-time visitors, and weakens the commitment of core supporters.
Why were the last five years such a watershed?
What makes the transition difficult for nonprofits?
Read our analysis to learn more.
Better Web for Nonprofits
Yet, because of budgetary constraints or a lack of human resources, when nonprofits wanted to make the leap to the modern web, many of them fell into the traps along the way.
Instead of highlighting what is unique about their work through memorable stories and design, their new sites often communicate through lifeless visual and verbal clichés.
Lacking a clear creative concept built around the organization's strengths, they've not only become impersonal and forgettable, but also incoherent and clumsy.
This not only turns away first-time visitors, but also weakens the commitment of core supporters.
Ask Questions / Book a Free Consultation
Why were the last five years
such a watershed?
What makes the transition
difficult for nonprofits?
Read our analysis
The Problems
Over the past five years, for the first time in the Internet's short history, the way the web looks and functions has been thoroughly transformed.
The advent of mobile browsing has led to the near-universal adoption of a new kind of layout: vertical and long, with vast white spaces and vibrant full-screen images framing carefully selected statements.
Every detail is labouring to grab and hold our attention, and make sure the key takeaways sink in and lead to action.
Those who have adapted to the trend well, are able to engage a wider audience—people with only a casual interest and a shorter attention span.
Those who have not, are now competing in an environment where audiences are significantly more impatient and harder to impress than they were even five years ago.
Many organizations are struggling—because the challenges of the transition are genuinely difficult.
It's tricky to condense your complex activities into a few short sentences. It's even trickier to see yourself from the outside and identify the qualities and the stories that will resonate with your visitors and create attachment.
Similarly, when you're used to thinking about your website as an all-inclusive repository of your press releases and blog posts, it's hard to switch perspective and compose user journeys that your visitors will want to walk.
Also, this new layout often calls for your images to take the lead—however, if you've never focused on photography, you'll need something more than your snaps before you can make full-screen visual statements.
Most importantly, when every detail is enlarged, you need a bold and distinctive visual language that feels like a natural extension of your brand. But the people who can actually create that are difficult to get—and their fees tend to be steep.
It's a lot to handle. Especially for NGOs, whose typically small communications staffs and budgets were never meant to navigate seachanges in trends.
While some NGOs adapted their distinct identities to the new format successfully, most simply tried to squeeze what was on their website into the first more or less decent Wordpress template they could find.
Because the structure did not fit the content, their new websites ended up being more cluttered and harder to navigate than before—instead of delivering the clarity that the transition promised.
Adopting the standard clichés of responsive templates uncritically also resulted in looks that are bland, impersonal and incoherent, eroding many previously strong nonprofit brands.
When visitors find relevant and engaging content on a site that conforms to the most common visual trends, after only a day they struggle to recall where that content came from. Research also shows that when brand identities become less distinguishable, even the commitment of long-time supporters gradually weaken.
There are also those who haven't yet made the leap. There may be many reasons for this, but to most visitors in 2018, the lack of a modern, responsive website is a signal that there's something wrong with the organization.
Moreover, the majority of surfers are on mobile now, and the difficulty of navigating a non-responsive site usually results in instant "bounce"—leaving without interaction.
In the fall of 2017, our team got together to discuss how we could
A. Accelerate the transition of organizations who are still ahead of the switch, and save them from the clichéd, unprofessional, clumsy websites that most NGOs are getting stuck with.
B. Reinvigorate the online presence of those who've had an ill-advised redesign early on and are willing to consider a new, better planned refresh.
We decided to reach out to designers and developers whose work we loved, talked with them about our cause, and asked if they'd like to contribute. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive, and several of them ended up joining us full-time, enriching our agency with exceptional talent.
We've also began to set aside half of our profits for the program, which today enables us to give discounts to organizations on a small budget.
We are proud to have pulled this together. If you have any doubts about your online presence, explore what our program can offer on the next page, and feel comfortable to reach out for more information or a free consultation.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at betterweb@windandway.org.
If you'd like to book a free consultation, please send a note about your organization's needs along with a rough timeframe and a ballpark budget to the same email, or fill in the form to the right. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
The advent of mobile browsing has led to the near-universal adoption of a new kind of layout: vertical and long, with vast white spaces and vibrant full-screen images framing a handful of carefully selected statements.
Adopting the standard clichés of responsive templates uncritically also resulted in looks that are bland and messy at the same time, eroding many previously strong nonprofit brands.
When visitors find relevant and engaging content on a site that conforms to the most common visual trends, after only a day they struggle to recall where that content came from. Research also shows that when brand identities become less distinguishable, even the commitment of long-time supporters can weaken.
Moreover, the majority of surfers are on mobile now, and the difficulty of navigating a non-responsive site usually results in "bounce"—leaving instantly, without interaction.
In the summer of 2017, our team got together to discuss how we could
We decided to reach out to designers and developers whose work we loved, talk with them about our cause, and find out if they'd like to contribute. Their responses were overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and several of them ended up joining us full-time, enriching our agency with exceptional talent.
If you'd like to book a free consultation, please send a note about your organization's needs along with a rough timeframe and a ballpark budget to the same email, or fill in the form below. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
We've set out to help nonprofits emerge from the transition to responsive design with brand identities that are attractive, distinct, and easy to identify with, and websites that convince a wide variety of people to get involved.
Our initiative has drawn accomplished designers and developers from diverse backgrounds across culture, entertainment, and corporate branding.
Our new team offers creative excellence and a strategy-driven process. We deliver a fusion of content and aesthetic that stands out not only among nonprofits, but also in the wider web, where countless high-budget advertising campaigns vie for attention.
How can the web do more for you?
Explore our principles and our process to find out.
Get in touch, and see how the web can do more for you.
Explore our principles & process
Most non-profits contract small web design studios which tend to have a narrow, technical focus and lack the interest or the expertise to explore the bigger picture.
What is unique about an NGO? What are the most intriguing stories and images that capture the essence of its work? What are the niches that it could occupy in its market? What gains and losses would come from pursuing them?
Who can the organization reach beyond its current audience? And how can those people be made to care?
We are thrilled by these questions. And we know that a captivating web presence can only be crafted around the right answers.
We lay the ground for the design process with thorough audits, in-depth research, and strategic planning that is meticulous and creative at the same time.
These days it feels as if every other person you meet is a designers or a developer—yet most websites look dull and messy. The reality is that it's hard to find people with both talent and experience, especially at low to mid-range firms.
Wind & Way attracts a gifted and seasoned workforce partly because there's a purpose to what we do—but mostly because we're just as passionate about craftsmanship as about using it in service of the right causes.
Our management is obsessed with excellence in design. We recognize outstanding work, we respect colleagues who deliver it, and we go out of our way to keep them.
That's why no matter how small a job is, the result will turn eyes—even in a space saturated with brilliant for-profit brands and campaigns.
These are the foundations that we build on. If you go on to look at our process, you'll see that for nonprofits, we offer some benefits on top of this.
As an agency specializing in impact work, we understand the market you're operating in, and there's a good chance that everyone engaged with your project is personally committed to your cause. This puts us in a good position to
1. Learn everything there is to know about you, your brand, your goals, and then
2. Learn as much as possible about your current and desired audiences, their habits, preferences, interests and specifically about how you might affect their lives and their wider world.
Based on this information,
3. We create a series of typified, imaginary audience members with personalities, and look at design decisions through their eyes.
4. We research and observe your organization's activities closely to find the stories and thoughts that are most likely to surprise, excite and engage this audience.
5. If there is a need for it, we help you distill your content into fresh copy that resonates with your target groups, and helps them spread your stories.
6. We think carefully about structuring your content, and we design pathways that allow people to find what they're looking for without effort, while drawing them deeper into your activities, and encouraging them to commit to your cause.
7. Since our company is fueled by a passion for design, we will not stop until we give you a unique and compelling aesthetic that strengthens your brand as well as your content's impact.
8. Catching up with the changes of the last 5 years would still leave you at the tail end of the industry. We're constantly exploring the trends and technologies that will define the next 5 years.
We want other non-profits to cite you as their ideal when they discuss how their website should function and look. We want your supporters to feel that you're an exceptional organization that is pointing the way forward for the sector.
9. All the while, we will make sure your website is accessible on older and newer devices alike.
10. Even if we use the latest technology, we will embed it into a CMS that you're comfortable with.
11. Nonetheless, if you feel there is a need for it, we will also train your staff.
The best thing is that all of this is most likely within your budget. Please go ahead and take a look at our Discounts section.
Our management is obsessed with excellence in design. We recognize outstanding work, respect colleagues who deliver it, and go out of our way to keep them.
These are the foundations that we build on. If you go on to look at our process, you'll see that for nonprofits, we offer some special benefits on top of this.
PRINCIPLES & PROCESS
Our aim is to allow movements and NGOs of any size to take advantage of creative services usually reserved for advertising-intensive companies. To achieve this, we are allocating 50% of our profits to discounts for organizations with smaller budgets.
We've also become aware that many NGOs did not attempt a redesign because they could only afford freelancers, and did not have the time or experience required to manage them.
As a boutique agency, we offer comprehensive services and turnkey solutions, with minimal strain on our clients' time and human resources—and our discount rates may very well be on par with those of freelancers.
Discounts are based on need and on funds currently available in the Program.
When you book a free consultation, tell us about the budget you have in mind, so we can see if we still have enough to suit your needs.
Please feel confident to get in touch—we'll do our best to make this happen.
Discounts are based on need, and on funds currently available in the Program.
Where You Can Reach Us