text:
If a space ship accelerated constantly, would its astronauts constantly feel the forward movement?
I know that if a space ship suddenly traveled very fast, its astronauts would be fly against the back wall, potentially getting hurt. If the space ship suddenly stopped, they would also fly against the front wall.
Suppose that a space ship could accelerate at a constant rate, e.g.:
Time    | Speed
1:00 pm | stopped
1:10 pm | 100 Kph
As the space ship is accelerating at a constant rate, would the astronauts constantly feel the forward motion of the craft for the duration of their journey?
Would the astronauts begin to feel that the motion is becoming faster and faster?
If the space ship continued to accelerate in this manner for many hours, would the astronauts eventually be injured by the great speed?
newtonian-mechanics forces reference-frames acceleration space-travel
Qmechanic♦
VillageVillage
I'll try to give as simple an answer as possible to each of your three questions.
The astronauts will always feel the acceleration (but as Muphrid pointed out, in this case it's tiny and might not even be noticed)
It is not possible to feel speed while in a spacecraft. Astronauts in orbit travel at 28000 km/h but feel absolutely nothing, even if they're outside. Similarly, inside a car you do not feel the speed, only the change in speed (i.e. acceleration - and note that acceleration can be in any direction: forward, backward, left, right, up or down). You feel the speed only if traveling through the air, where you feel the air dragging at you.
Speed does not cause any harm at all, as you never feel any of its effects.
Now a couple of provisos.
First, if your speed became a large fraction of the speed of light, any particles (even single atoms or nuclear particles) you encounter would fly clean through the spacecraft and through the astronaut. If you're going fast enough, these particles in effect become nuclear radiation, and that can indeed harm you.
Also, it is not possible, even in theory, to keep on increasing your speed by 100 km/h every 10 minutes. You will never be able to go faster than 300,000 km/s even if you keep on accelerating forever. The same force will give you smaller and smaller acceleration as you go faster. This is what Einstein discovered with his theory of Special Relativity.
hdhondthdhondt
$\begingroup$ I do wonder if an object (or astronaut) would still experience the same normal force/acceleration when the "acelerating" spaceship is getting close to the speed of light. $\endgroup$ – fibonatic Jul 23 '13 at 16:56
$\begingroup$ If you keep applying ever larger forces as the mass grows with speed, then yes the astronauts will feel the same acceleration. If the force stays the same, then the acceleration will diminish as mass increases. $\endgroup$ – hdhondt Jul 25 '13 at 10:11
$\begingroup$ @hdhondt What you said is incorrect. If a ship is moving due to a constant force, the astronauts will feel a constant force. The force will not diminish as the ship approaches the speed of light, even thought the ship's acceleration is slowing down from an outside observer's perspective. Inside the ship, the astronauts will not notice anything different as their ship approaches light speed. An increasing force is not necessary to maintain the astronauts' sense of forward motion. $\endgroup$ – Mark H Jul 10 '15 at 9:12
$\begingroup$ "Astronauts in orbit travel at 28000 km/s"... I think you mean km/h, lol $\endgroup$ – Stephen Holt May 2 '17 at 8:30
$\begingroup$ Thanks, @Stephen. I fixed it. Wish we could go that fast though. It sure would improve travel time to Mars! $\endgroup$ – hdhondt May 2 '17 at 10:23
Suppose the spaceship was accelerating constantly at 1g, what would that feel like? Well Einstein gave us the answer to that: it would feel exactly like standing on the surface of the Earth where the acceleration due to gravity is 1g. This is (one statement of) Einstein's equivalence principle. If the acceleration were continued for many hours that wouldn't be any different to being on the Earth's surface for many hours, which of course we all do.
John RennieJohn Rennie
You're describing constant acceleration, and this would result in the astronauts feeling a constant force in the direction of travel exerted on them by the spacecraft.
This particular acceleration is actually quite small--about $.005g$--and as a result, it might hardly be noticed, let alone be dangerous.
MuphridMuphrid
The overall speed doesn't matter, and the astronauts would have no way of directly perceiving their velocity, but yes they would constantly perceive the acceleration. The effect of acceleration would not accumulate over time---i.e. if it wasn't harmful at one point in time, it wouldn't be harmful later. This is neglecting longer-term biological effects like re-distribution of blood, etc.
DilithiumMatrixDilithiumMatrix
$\begingroup$ Here is a handy NASA chart of acceleration effects on the human body accounting for duration: history.nasa.gov/conghand/fig15d5.gif Note that duration is important in the short term: they say you can survive 20g for a minute (lying down) but not more than a few minutes. And a technical report that goes into great detail on the physiological effects: ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/… $\endgroup$ – Michael Brown Feb 11 '13 at 10:10
The situation is a very interesting one. The answers given are nice answers, but I would like to see what would happen if the force (acceleration) kept acting, 'pushing' the space-ship for 'infinitely' long time.
The acceleration of the space-ship 'forward' would be equivalent to a gravitational field acting backwards. This is according to the principle of equivalence and the law of inertia. Had the acceleration been $g = 9.8ms^{-2}$ the astronauts would feel as if they were in their room, at their home, here on earth.
As long as the acceleration is maintained the astronauts would have this experience, and the speed of the space-ship would be constantly increasing. But I don't think this would be without consequences. I am saying this because the mass of the space-ship would be increasing, adding to its inertia. Assuming the power (force) remained fixed, then the space-ship would tend to the speed of light, but never actually reaching it. This is because its acceleration would be decreasing up to a point where it would become zero, which would happen when the speed of the space-ship reaches the speed of light. It resembles the situation of the terminal velocity of an object falling through the air, but the physics is different. Other more interesting effects could take place.
JKLJKL
$\begingroup$ It is possible for an observer to accelerate uniformly from their own perspective for an indefinite period of time in special relativity (the motion traces out a hyperbola in spacetime asymptotic to the lightcone). The person undergoing the acceleration doesn't notice anything changing as time goes on. All of the relativistic slowing down and time dilation effects etc. that you mention are seen in an inertial reference frame looking at the accelerating ship. $\endgroup$ – Michael Brown Feb 11 '13 at 10:08
$\begingroup$ @Michael Brown That is correct Michael, motion makes sense in relation to a reference frame. I have not made detailed reference to how the astronauts would feel. Other respondents have, and it is a good thing you mention it too. $\endgroup$ – JKL Feb 11 '13 at 10:30
protected by Qmechanic♦ May 26 '16 at 8:07
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged newtonian-mechanics forces reference-frames acceleration space-travel or ask your own question.
How is space ship's acceleration perceived if the acceleration is perpendicular to the velocity?
How does acceleration feel compared to gravitational pull?
Quantum Mechanical Effects of an object accelerating near speed of light $c$?
Is it possible to tell whether the space ship is moving or not?
Is it possible to counter-act centrifugal force by moving at the same speed in the anti-spin direction?
Take advantage of time dilation or create a warp drive?
Can we make high acceleration safe to our bodies thanks to this gravity trick?
Since the Earth orbits the Galaxy, why doesn't it "fly away" from astronauts?
does thrust have to come from a balanced area on an object for straight trajectory in a vacuum?
Can a system's orientation relative to direction of motion create additional relativistic effects?
Does a black hole have thrust? Could they be acting as galactic engines?
How exactly does artificial gravity work?


*Rochester police have accused a Pittsburgh woman and 17-year-old girl of stealing more than $85 worth of items from the borough's Kmart.
Police said they were called around 9 p.m. Feb. 28 to the store after security caught Abria Devonne Hollins, 18, of 125 Rhine Place, Building 138, Apartment 2, and her companion leaving without paying for several houseware and ladies health and beauty items without paying for them.
According to the police report, Hollins was charged with misdemeanor retail theft because she had previously pleaded guilty to the same offense on Feb. 3. She also is charged with criminal conspiracy and corruption of a minor. The other teen was charged in juvenile court.


text:
Q: jest ReferenceError: Cannot access '' before initialization I'm getting the error:
ReferenceError: Cannot access 'myMock' before initialization
Even though i respected jest documentation about the hoisting:
A limitation with the factory parameter is that, since calls to jest.mock() are hoisted to the top of the file, it's not possible to first define a variable and then use it in the factory. An exception is made for variables that start with the word 'mock'.
I'm doing this:
import MyClass from './my_class';
import * as anotherClass from './another_class';

const mockMethod1 = jest.fn();
const mockMethod2 = jest.fn();
jest.mock('./my_class', () => {
  return {
    default: {
      staticMethod: jest.fn().mockReturnValue(
        {
          method1: mockMethod1,
          method2: mockMethod2,
        })
    }
  }
});

as you can see both of my variables respect the "standard" but are not hoisted properly.
Am I missing something ?
Obviously it works when I just pass jest.fn() instead of my variables, but i'm not sure how to be able to use these in my test later on.

A: The problem that the documentation addresses is that jest.mock is hoisted but const declaration is not. This results in factory function being evaluated at the time when mocked module is imported and a variable being in temporal dead zone.
If it's necessary to access nested mocked functions, they need to be exposed as a part of export object:
jest.mock('./my_class', () => {
  const mockMethod1 = jest.fn();
  const mockMethod2 = jest.fn();
  return {
    __esModule: true,
    mockMethod1,
    mockMethod2,
    default: {
      ...

This also applies to manual mocks in __mocks__ where variables are accessible inside a mock only.

A: You should move your mocking above your imports; that could be the source of your issue. Imports are also hoisted, so multiple hoisted entries would be hoisted in order.
jest.mock('./my_class', () => {
  const mockMethod = jest.fn()
  const default = { staticMethod: jest.fn().mockReturnValue({ method: mockMethod }) };
  return { default, mockMethod };
});

import MyClass, { mockMethod } from './my_class';  // will import your mock
import * as anotherClass from './another_class';

However, if you for some reason can't do that, you could use doMock to avoid hoisting behaviour. If this happens on the top of your file, it should be a 1 to 1 change.
const mockMyMethod = jest.fn();
jest.doMock('some-package', () => ({ myMethod: mockMyMethod }));

A: None of the answers above solved my problem, so here's my solution:
var mockMyMethod: jest.Mock;

jest.mock('some-package', () => ({
  myMethod: mockMyMethod
}));

Something about using const before the imports feels weird to me. The thing is: jest.mock is hoisted. To be able to use a variable before it you need to use var, because it is hoisted as well. It doesn't work with let and const because they aren't.

A: The accepted answer does not handle when you need to spy on the const declaration, as it is defined inside the module factory scope.
For me, the module factory needs to be above any import statement that eventually imports the thing you want to mock.
Here is a code snippet using a nestjs with prisma library.
// app.e2e.spec.ts
import { Test, TestingModule } from '@nestjs/testing';
import { INestApplication } from '@nestjs/common';
import * as request from 'supertest';
import mockPrismaClient from './utils/mockPrismaClient'; // you can assert, spy, etc. on this object in your test suites.

// must define this above the `AppModule` import, otherwise the ReferenceError is raised.
jest.mock('@prisma/client', () => {
  return {
    PrismaClient: jest.fn().mockImplementation(() => mockPrismaClient),
  };
});

import { AppModule } from './../src/app.module'; // somwhere here, the prisma is imported

describe('AppController (e2e)', () => {
  let app: INestApplication;

  beforeEach(async () => {
    const moduleFixture: TestingModule = await Test.createTestingModule({
      imports: [AppModule],
    }).compile();

    app = moduleFixture.createNestApplication();
    await app.init();
  });
)};

A: To clarify what Jason Limantoro said, move the const above where the module is imported:
const mockMethod1 = jest.fn(); // Defined here before import.
const mockMethod2 = jest.fn();

import MyClass from './my_class'; // Imported here.
import * as anotherClass from './another_class';

jest.mock('./my_class', () => {
  return {
    default: {
      staticMethod: jest.fn().mockReturnValue(
        {
          method1: mockMethod1,
          method2: mockMethod2,
        })
    }
  }
});

A: This solution works for me and it's pretty easy for vuejs+ jest.
Two points to note:

*

*you should declare the absolute path and not '@/js/network/repositories'

*the getter helps to defer the instantiation

    const mockGetNextStatuses = jest.fn();
    const mockUpdatePrintingStatus = jest.fn();

    jest.mock('../../../../../../src/js/network/repositories/index.js', () => {
        return {
            get printing() {
                return {
                    getNextStatuses: mockGetNextStatuses,
                    updatePrintingStatus: mockUpdatePrintingStatus,
                }
            }
        }
    });

or
jest.mock('../../../../../../src/js/network/repositories/index.js', () => ({
    printing: {
        getNextStatuses: jest.fn(),
        updatePrintingStatus: jest.fn()
    }
}));
import { printing } from '../../../../../../src/js/network/repositories/index.js';

// and mock the module
printing.getNextStatuses.mockReturnValue(['XX','YY']);

A: Example of using TypeScript with Jest and mockDebug.js module
jest.mock('debug', () => {
  global.mockDebug = jest.fn();
  return () => global.mockDebug;
});

// usage
describe('xxx', () => {
    test('xxx', () => {
        expect(global.mockDebug.mock.calls.toString()).toContain('ccc');
    })
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Conflicting Generic Types between interdependant classes I am attempting to write JUnit tests for my Expression Tree. The tree is composed of BaseExpressionTree< ValueType> (terminal nodes), ExpressionOperator< T> (non-terminal nodes), and CompositeExpressionTree< ValueType> (Sub Trees).
The Data Structure is supposed to be compatible with String, Double, and List< String> or List< Double> as BaseExpression (terminal leaves).
The classes are implemented with generics. there were no problems with the Double and String implementations, however List< String> and List< Double> implementations are causing conflicts with the Generics.
The heart of the problem is the ListOperator constructor. ListOperator is ment to represent operations on structures such as ArrayList and LinkedList. I would like to declare the class as following:
public class ListOperator<List<T>> implements ExpressionOperator<List<T>>{

...
but instead I can only declare it as follows:
public class ListOperator< T> implements ExpressionOperator<List<T>>{
    // a private field to store the String or Double operator to be used on the lists
    private ExpressionOperator<T> scalarOperator;

    /**
     * a constructor that takes one expression operator and stores it in the scalarOperator variable
     * @param       operator        an operation to be executed on a set of List operands
     */
    public ListOperator (ExpressionOperator<T> operator){
        this.scalarOperator=operator;
    }
}

basically the < T> in ListOperator (which represents a List) is conflicting with the < T>  in ExpressionOperator (which is supposed to represent what is inside the list).
Eclipse gives the following error output:
The constructor ListOperator<List<Double>>(DoubleOperator) is undefined

Is there a solution that doesn't involve using wild cards? The homework instructions were fairly explicit, the generics for class definitions are how they were described in the prompt.
I could use wild cards in the constructor parameters, but so far I haven't been able to do this.
    public ListOperator (? extends ExpressionOperator<T> operator){

and
    public ListOperator (< ? extends ExpressionOperator<T>> operator){

both give errors.

A: I think your problem has to do with using ArrayList<Double> for the ValueType type parameter, instead of List<Double>, which results in a conflict with ListOperator.
Try using List<Double> everywhere instead of ArrayList<Double>.
UPDATE:
Your ListOperator class should look like
public class ListOperator<T> implements ExpressionOperator<List<T>> {
    // unchanged
  ...
  public ListOperator(ExpressionOperator<T> operator) {
    ...
  }
}

and you should be invoking it as new ListOperator<Double>(myDoubleOperator).


text:
using System;
using QuantConnect.Securities;

namespace QuantConnect.Orders.TimeInForces
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Day Time In Force - order expires at market close
    /// </summary>
    public class DayTimeInForce : TimeInForce
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Checks if an order is expired
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="security">The security matching the order</param>
        /// <param name="order">The order to be checked</param>
        /// <returns>Returns true if the order has expired, false otherwise</returns>
        public override bool IsOrderExpired(Security security, Order order)
        {
            var exchangeHours = security.Exchange.Hours;

            var orderTime = order.Time.ConvertFromUtc(exchangeHours.TimeZone);
            var time = security.LocalTime;

            bool expired;
            switch (order.SecurityType)
            {
                case SecurityType.Forex:
                case SecurityType.Cfd:
                    // With real brokerages (IB, Oanda, FXCM have been verified) FX orders expire at 5 PM NewYork time.
                    // For now we use this fixed cut-off time, in future we might get this value from brokerage models,
                    // to support custom brokerage implementations.

                    var cutOffTimeZone = TimeZones.NewYork;
                    var cutOffTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromHours(17);

                    orderTime = order.Time.ConvertFromUtc(cutOffTimeZone);
                    var expiryTime = orderTime.Date.Add(cutOffTimeSpan);
                    if (orderTime.TimeOfDay > cutOffTimeSpan)
                    {
                        // order submitted after 5 PM, expiry on next date
                        expiryTime = expiryTime.AddDays(1);
                    }

                    expired = time.ConvertTo(exchangeHours.TimeZone, cutOffTimeZone) >= expiryTime;
                    break;

                case SecurityType.Crypto:
                    // expires at midnight UTC
                    expired = time.Date > orderTime.Date;
                    break;

                case SecurityType.Equity:
                case SecurityType.Option:
                case SecurityType.Future:
                default:
                    // expires at market close
                    expired = time >= exchangeHours.GetNextMarketClose(orderTime, false);
                    break;
            }

            return expired;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Checks if an order fill is valid
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="security">The security matching the order</param>
        /// <param name="order">The order to be checked</param>
        /// <param name="fill">The order fill to be checked</param>
        /// <returns>Returns true if the order fill can be emitted, false otherwise</returns>
        public override bool IsFillValid(Security security, Order order, OrderEvent fill)
        {
            return true;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A postdoctoral position with primary focus on tissue mechanics is available immediately in the Shenoy Research Group at the University of Pennsylvania. We are looking for a strongly motivated candidate to work on an NIH supported project on the interactions of cells in 3D micro tissues mediated by extracellular matrices using analytical and finite element methods (for example, H. Wang et. al, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 110(52): 20 923-20928 NOVEMBER 2013).
The ideal candidate will have a background in solid mechanics with expertise in finite element simulations, in particular numerical implementation of non-linear material models. This individual will have the opportunity to be directly involved in complimentary experimental investigations in the medical school at UPenn and our collaborators elsewhere.


Math is a subject where students can get behind really easily, and once they do, it can be quite difficult to catch up. For students with a learning disability in math, it's pretty much a guarantee. After all, if you get lost when learning low level basic skills, it's going to be awfully hard to catch up and figure out the more difficult concepts. Teachers working with learning disabled students must play the catch up game before any real progress can be made. An individualized mastery learning program is a great way to "catch up" on the lost basics, and build on those skills to bring students up to grade level in math. Here's an easy way to get started teaching math using mastery learning.
1. Test each student on basic skills.
Find the skills the student has already mastered, and determine the point where the student has fallen behind. Once you know where to begin, you have a place to work from.
2. Provide instruction and repeated practice on the skills that need to be addressed.
Give each student a folder with a set of lessons to work on. At the front of the folder, place a chart that lists the lessons, and has a place for a small sticker. Once each lesson is complete, the student will bring it to the teacher and get a sticker.
The student will then be tested on that skill. When a high level of mastery is achieved, they will be permitted to move on to the next concept. If the concept is not retained, the teacher will work one on one with the child, re-teaching the skill in a slightly different way, and a new lesson set will be given for the student to work from. Again, the student will complete the lesson, and get a sticker. Homework will center around the concept that the student is working on, and parents will be encouraged to help.
For students with learning disabilities in math, concept development may be slow. Students will be working at different speeds and should be taught on an individual level. Skill improvement may take time, so teachers should give lots of encouragement and positive reinforcement, especially when difficulties arise. Each child will be at a different level, and some will progress slowly, but skills cannot be skipped. Instead, re-teach and give a new set of practice exercises, different activities from the ones used before.
Lesson folders can be labeled in numbers and letters so that students always see a logical progression in order to alleviate anxiety. For example, if a student has lesson 3, and it's the 4th time he's had to do that skill level, instead of just giving it back and telling him to do lesson 4 again with a new set of activities, label the lesson 4:a, 4:b, 4:c, 4:d. This shows the child that he's moving on, but the teacher can easily see that he has been on the same set of skills 4 times. (d) Students will get a sticker upon completion, even when they must proceed to another letter and haven't obtained mastery.
Lesson skill folders are just one way mastery learning techniques can be used with learning disabled students. Teachers can creatively develop many ways of teaching to individual student levels and progressing only when the student has obtained mastery. Do you have a mastery learning technique that has worked well for you? Post a comment and let us know.


text:
Publications starting with 'L'
Lamentations: A Commentary
Berlin, Adele. Lamentations: A Commentary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002.
Lamentations and the Tears of the World
O'Connor, Kathleen M., Lamentations and the Tears of the World. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2002.
Lamentations through the Centuries
Joyce, Paul, and Diana Lipton. Lamentations through the Centuries. Wiley-Blackwell Bible Commentaries. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
Land of Benjamin
Magen, Izchak, and Noga Haimovich-Carmin. The Land of Benjamin. Staff Officer of Archaeology, Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, 2004.
Land of Our Fathers The Roles of Ancestor Veneration in Biblical Land Claims
Stavrakopoulou, Francesca. Land of Our Fathers: The Roles of Ancestor Veneration in Biblical Land Claims. London: T&T Clark, 2012.
The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography
Aharoni, Y. The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography. Edited and translated by A. F. Rainey. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979.
Language, Literature, and History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner
Roth, Martha T. "Homicide in the Neo-Assyrian Period." Pages 351–65 in Language, Literature, and History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner. Edited by Francesca Rochberg-Halton. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1987.
The Last Temptation of Christ
Kazantzakis, Nikos. The Last Temptation of Christ. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960.
The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice
Spiegel, Shalom. The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice. New York: Pantheon, 1967.
The Later New Testament Writers and Scripture
Moyise, Steve. The Later New Testament Writers and Scripture. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker; London: SPCK, 2012.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Pertronic – a way to Success.
PERTRONIC is a global manufacturing and trading company in the field of cable and wires.
Until 2006 PERTRONIC was trading difficult to find cable types, but since the market couldn't cover all the customers' needs, we started manufacturing our own products according to highest industry standard.
Our customers can only benefit from our expertise and numerous years of experience in the cable business.
We stock cables others don't have and we ensure on-time delivery with our quick and uncomplicated ordering process.
We are specialized in customer designated cable solutions, and rejecting a request has never been an option for us.
To all our customers we offer consulting services with qualified experts who possess a consolidated knowledge of all cable types existing world wide.
Stock availability, customer oriented service and high quality standards are key indicators of our success.
Our annual double-digit sales are on the constant rise for many years now, and we are only going to get better at providing top quality products, servicing your every cable need.


Pulse 1/4 cup pecan pieces in a food processor until it becomes a fine grainy consistency. Add flour, softened buttery spread, and vegan cream cheese to the food processor.
Run food processor on low speed until a ball of dough forms.
For chocolate filling, in a bowl, mix together applesauce, sugar, melted buttery spread, soy milk, vanilla extract, and melted chocolate.
Press dough into bottom and up sides of a lightly greased miniature muffin pan.
Spoon chocolate filling into tartlet shells.
Top each with a pecan half.
Pulse 1/4 cup pecan pieces in a food processor until it becomes a fine grainy consistency. Add flour, softened buttery spread, and vegan cream cheese to the food processor. Run food processor on low speed until a ball of dough forms. Divide dough into 24 small balls. Press dough into bottom and up sides of a lightly greased miniature muffin pan.
For chocolate filling, in a bowl, mix together applesauce, sugar, melted buttery spread, soy milk, vanilla extract, and melted chocolate. Spoon chocolate filling into tartlet shells. Top each with a pecan half.
Bake at 375°F for 15-18 minutes or until lightly brown and chocolate filling is set. Cool for 5 minutes, remove tartlets from pan and let cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack.


Congratulations, YOU HAVE FOUND IT! The newest Escape Room in South Carolina.
First and foremost…it's great family entertainment!
Escape Room games are sweeping the nation. You and your team follow a story to reach an objective. This all-new form of reality entertainment is where teams of 2-8 players (recommended minimum of 4) must use and manipulate their surroundings to achieve a goal within a set amount of time. Wildly popular across the United States, these themed spaces utilize a series of clues and puzzles to thrill and challenge participants as they work together to 'win' before time runs out.
This immersive environment challenges and delights players of all ages. Hometown Escapes is a private room escape game. Where most escape games allow up to 8-10 players with people reserving the room until all slots are taken; at Hometown Escapes we close the game when you book your adventure. This means if you have 2 people (even though we allow up to 8) your group will play with 2 people (No Strangers in your room). This is a great night out for families, friends, girls' night, guys' night, date night, birthdays or whatever.
Choose one of three experiences!
Players have 60 minutes to work together to solve clues, uncover hidden messages, and achieve goals. The puzzles—and their answers—are all located in the rooms themselves, and players must use their eyes, ears, brains and each other to decode their clues and reach the finish line. Players don't need to know anything about the history of the Titanic, the inner workings of a jailhouse or Blackbeard's history to play the games, and children of all ages are welcome. However, games and puzzles can be played and solved by children as young as 10!
Copyright © 2018 HomeTown Escapes - All rights reserved.


text:
Forbes' lists only the tiny tip of Castro's empire
Fidel Castro's True Wealth
Forbes' lists only the tiny tip of Castro's empire
When Forbes magazine named him among the world's richest heads of state in 2005, a furious Fidel Castro denounced it as "infamy!"
"Do they think I'm some kind of Mobutu?" he raged. At the time Forbes estimated his fortune at $550 million.
This year Forbes raised his ranking to the world's seventh richest head of state, with an estimated fortune of $900 million.
"Repugnant slander!" Castro thundered on Cuban television (all 12 stations) this week. The "President" of Cuba's National Bank, Francisco Soberon, also chimed in:
"The Cuban revolution and its Maximum Leader are an example of honesty and ethical conduct in this chaotic and corrupt world into which the empire has cast humanity," he added.
Actually, Castro has a point. He has no business being lumped in with measely millionaire chumps like Mobutu Sese Seko and Queen Elizabeth.
Forbes admits that its estimate of Castro's wealth is "more art than science," and is based on his partial ownership of state enterprises, among them the Havana Convention Center, the Cimex retail conglomerate and Medicuba. But as Cuban-American scholar Eugenio Yanez asks: Why not include many other, and much larger, Cuban state enterprises like Cubatabaco, Artex, Cubacatricos, Cubatecnica, Gaviota, Acemex, Cubatur, Antex, Caribat, Cubatur, and many more? The list is much longer than those singled out by Forbes.
Another method used by Forbes was calculating that Castro owns roughly 10% of the Cuban GDP. Why only 10%?
All enterprises in Cuba are state enterprises, including so-called "joint-ventures" with foreign investors, as shown by a Miami Herald headline from June of 2005: "Many Foreign Investors Being Booted Out of Cuba" it read.
"It's outrageous!" the Herald quoted a Spanish businessmen leaving Cuba. "I've gone through endless meetings for more than a year with no result in terms of recovering our investment!"' he whimpered.
"What I can't accept," wailed another European businessman," is simply being booted out of here with no solid guarantee I will ever get my money back!"
Our hearts bleed for these unfortunate gentlemen. Also notice: the investors were being booted out of Cuba. But the investments remained, as did those of the 5,911 businesses valued at close to $2 billion stolen at gunpoint from U.S. owners and investors in 1960. A few owners who resisted like Howard Anderson, who had his Jeep dealership stolen, and Tom Fuller, whose family farm was stolen, were promptly murdered by Castro and Che's firing squads.
Interestingly, new Bolivian President Evo Morales had a lengthy meeting with Fidel Castro recently. Immediately upon returning to Bolivia, Morales announced the "nationalization" (looting) of all the foreign-owned (primarily Brazilian) natural gas companies in Bolivia. Rafael Dausa, Cuba's brand-new ambassador to Bolivia, is among Cuba's highest-ranking intelligence officers.
Fidel Castro is officially Cuba's chief of state, head of government, prime minister, first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, and commander in chief of the armed forces. Bank President Soberon didn't refer to him as the "Maximum Leader" for nothing.
So why does Forbes only estimate his control of Cuba's GDP at 10%?
"The right to enjoy and to dispose of things in the most absolute manner as he pleases," is how a legal dictionary defines property.
To "dispose" is the key phrase in the legal definition of property. In brief: something is genuinely yours only if you have the right to sell it. As such, Castro owns 100% of Cuban enterprises along with the full fruits of the labor of his 11 million subjects.
Article 33.1 of the Cuban "Constitution" states: "The workers in joint ventures who are Cuban shall be contracted by an employing entity proposed by the (Cuban) Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, and authorized by the (Cuban)Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Article 33.4. states: "Payments to Cuban workers in Cuba shall be made in national currency, which must be obtained beforehand from convertible foreign currency."
In other words, say the Cuban Ministry of Labor decides that the salary for your Cuban laborers (who are forbidden under penalty of prison or firing squad from striking) is 100 pesos a week. Then you would pay 100 dollars or Euros per laborer to the Cuban government (of which Castro is Maximum Leader.) The government stashes this currency and pays the hapless Cuban worker 100 worthless Cuban pesos, which varies in value from $15 to $20 per U.S. dollar. In in the Dark and Fascistic Batista Age the Cuban peso was always interchangeable one to one with the U.S. dollar. Elsewhere they call this chattel slavery. Neither Red China nor Red Vietnam have such mandates for foreign investors.
A Cuban resident is most valuable to Castro when he wants to escape Cuba. This writer's family paid $15,000 to get a cousin out of Cuba in the early '60s. This was not an easy amount for destitute refugees to round up at the time, but the firing squads were working triple shifts and Cuba's prisons were filled to suffocation. You weren't only paying for a loved ones' freedom, you might also be paying for his (or her) life. Armando Valladares, who somehow escaped the firing squad but spent 22 torture-filled years in Cuba's Gulag, described his trial very succinctly: "not one witness to accuse me, not one to identify me, not
one single piece of evidence against me." Valladares had been arrested in his office for the crime of refusing to display a pro-Castro sign on his desk.
One day in early 1959 one of Che's Revolutionary Courts actually found a Cuban army captain named Pedro Morejon innocent of the charge of "war-criminal". This brought Che's fellow comandante, Camilo Cienfuegos to his feet. "If Morejon is not executed," He yelled. "I'll put a bullet through his head myself!" The court reassembled frantically and quickly arrived at a new verdict. Morejon crumpled in front of of a firing squad the following day. As Castro's chief executioner, Che Guevara, explained it: "Judicial evidence is an archaic bourgeois detail." So you can see the sense of urgency of getting a relative out, especially if the authorities had set their sights on him as a counter-revolutionary. Elsewhere they call such a judiciary process at the hands of dictators, "death squads."
Most Cuban-exile families can relate similar cases of ransoming relatives. Elsewhere they call this "kidnapping and extortion."
Cuba's campesinos (country folk) were among the first to learn the bitter lesson of ownership in Castro's Cuba and consequently rise in arms against Castroism. In 1959 with cameras rolling, flashbulbs popping and reporters scribbling, Castro's much-lauded "Institute of Agrarian Reform" made a big show of handing out land "titles" to thousands of beaming campesinos.
Soon these new "owners" learned they were prohibited from selling "their" land. More interestingly, the produce grown on "their" land could only be sold to the government. More interesting still, the price paid for "their" produce was the government's whim. Elsewhere they called this "serfdom."
Castro quickly ended the charade and all agricultural laborers were herded into granjas, i.e. collective farms identical to Soviet kolkhozes. Indeed, Soviet agricultural "advisors," still flush from their success in the Ukraine, had been advising Cuba's INRA (Institute of Agrarian Reform) from day one. The Cuban campesino's desperate, bloody and lonely rebellion against their enslavement spread to the towns and cities and lasted from late 1959 to 1966. Castro himself admitted that his troops, militia and Soviet advisors were up against 179 different "bands of bandits" as they labelled these freedom-fighting rednecks. Tens of thousands of troops, scores of Soviet advisors, and squadrons of Soviet tanks, helicopters and flame-throwers finally extinguished the lonely Cuban freedom-fight. Elsewhere they call this "an insurgency."
This ferocious guerrilla war, waged 90 miles from America's shores, might have taken place on the planet Pluto for all you'll read about it in the MSM and all you'll learn about it from those illustrious Ivy-League Academics. To get an idea of the odds faced by those rural rebels, the desperation of their battle and the damage they wrought, you might revisit Tony Montana during the last 15 minutes of "Scarface." Enrique Encinosa documents this heroic rebellion in his superb book, Unvanquished. "We fought with the fury of cornered beasts," was a how one of the few surviving rebels described their insurgency.
In 1962 the Kennedy-Khrushchev swindle that "solved" the Missile Crisis — not only starved these freedom-fighters of the measly aid they'd been getting from Cuban-exile freebooters (who were rounded up for violating U.S. neutrality laws) — it also sanctioned the 44,000 Soviet troops in Cuba. Elsewhere they call this "foreign occupation."
Leftists wail about the U.S. "occupation" of Iraq, where 125,000 U.S troops are stationed in a nation of 25 million. Leftists also applaud how Castro "liberated" Cuba from "foreign imperialism." Cuba was a nation of 6.5 million in 1962, with 44,000 Soviet troops amongst them.
Put your calculator to those figures and calculate the ratio vs. the current one for Iraq. If we're occupying Iraq, what where the Soviets — at Castro and Che's behest — doing to Cuba?
A few years earlier, with Castro's rebels skirmishing against (mostly bribing, actually) Batista's army, U.S. reporters had swarmed into Cuba's hills lugging cameras and tape recorders for fawning interviews with the gallant Fidel and his strutting rebel comandantes. Print reporters from Herbert Matthews of the New York Times to Jules Dubois of the Chicago Tribune, TV figures from Robert Taber of CBS to Ed Sullivan, all interviewed (soft-soaped) the Cuban Robin Hood for the folks back home. Even a reporter for Boy's Life magazine made the scene. All this coming and going by foreign press agencies was somehow managed while Cuba suffered under "a stifling and murderous dictatorship!" or so these reporters and commentators constantly reminded their gaping audience. To accommodate the media mob, Castro's people camp finally assembled a separate building at his campsite with a sign "Press Hut."
Came a genuine rebellion against a genuine dictatorship — and one involving ten times the number of rebels (and casualties) as the one against Batista as well as lasting twice as long — and nary an intrepid reporter was to be found anywhere near Cuba's hills. Not that these "valiant crusaders for the truth," as Columbia School of Journalism hails their noble profession, weren't in Cuba. From Laura Berquist of Look Magazine to Jean Daniel of The New Republic to Lee Lockwood of Life they were all in Havana lining up for fawning "interviews"– not with the rebels this time — but with their jailers and assassins, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
If the Britain in V for Vendetta bordered Castro's Cuba she'd be mobbed with grateful political refugees who'd scale walls to bask in her relative freedom. At one point in 1961 one of every 18 Cubans was a poltical prisoner, a higher ratio than in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia.
Castro can dispose of every business on his captive island in any manner he chooses. He can do the same with his every Cuban captive. He can just as easily rent them out as slave labor, as sell them for ransom, as jail them, as shoot them. Forbes' lists only the tiny tip of the Castro-wealth iceberg.
Dana's Point
Jefferson Takes Cue from McKinney
Written By Humberto Fontova
Mr. Fontova is the author of Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant


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Home › Post Tagged with: "Children"
Song of the Sea is a modern-day Irish fairy tale with a 20th-century setting and roots in Celtic and Irish mythology – the folklore of selkies, the seal-people who can shed their seal-skins and become human. Ten-year-old Ben and his…
Once Upon a Dog
When a dog gets too old to bark at the burglars, becomes useless for his masters. Such is the dog from this cartoon. He is banished from his home and runs in the forest where he meets the wolf. Even…
The animated series presents episodes from the life of a young turtle, named Franklin. He lives with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Turtle, goes to school, plays with his friends, a snail, a bear, a beaver and other animals from…
The third movie in the Narnia series is well filmed, well acted and well scripted. Unlike the first two films, its plot strays from the original work – which is understandable, given that it contains, in fact, several somewhat independent…
Narnia has been conquered for several generations by a foreign human people, the Telmarines. The rightful king, the father of Prince Caspian, has been killed and his uncle usurped the throne. Caspian flees and finds refuge with the ancient inhabitants…
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The evil White Witch holds the realm of Narnia in the thrall of a hundred-year winter; psychotic and malevolent, the witch is a chilling icon of evil. Four children from the city of London travel through an enchanted wardrobe and…
On Christmas Eve a sleepless boy sees a stream locomotive arriving on his street and goes outside to see it. He finds that it is the Polar Express and goes to the North Pole. Finally, he decides to join. He…
Carl is an old widower who is being harassed by a corporation that wants to demolish his house to build some skyscrapers on that patch of land. Cornered from all sides, the old man has little choice: he will have…
Redwall (TV series)
The cartoons have as main character the orphan mouse, Matthias, adopted by Redwall Abbey. Wishing to become like Martin the Warrior, the founder of the Abbey, the young mouse has the opportunity to exercise his skills fighting the one-eyed rat,…
Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave
Inventor Wallace and his faithful dog, Gromit, are now running a small business as window washers. Their newest customer is the dazzling Wendolene, who runs a wool shop. Although there is a wool shortage on the market, Wendolene's store is…


Pax Christi International promotes sustainable security rooted in justice and emancipation. The movement offers a forum at which the major global security issues can be analysed and discussed. As an international network, Pax Christi presents strategies and campaigns with regards to weapons of war, in all their forms, and their effects upon human security.
Pax Christi International has set as its aim, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and fundamental control of all weapons production. In order to ensure the security of human beings now and in the future, Pax Christi believes that it is imperative that the production and distribution of arms be reduced as much as possible.
To make this feasible, international nonviolent security strategies and instruments must be strengthened and further developed. This means the creation of binding and enforceable multi-lateral treaties with regards to all aspects of the weapons industry.
Through this effort, nations and their peoples will no longer have to fear one another, and security strategies that ground themselves in such categories as "mutually assured destruction" or total dominance will become obsolete.
Our efforts at establishing such treaties currently focus on the elimination of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; the total ban on landmines; the regulation of small arms and light weapons; and the regulation of cluster munitions.


Most people struggle when they get sick or injured or when faced with illness of a loved one. Tune in to Being Here and learn how to be centered during challenging times. Callers welcome at Tel# 1-866-472-5795!


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U of T Closes Facilities Amid New Ontario COVID-19 Measures
Photo Credit: U of T Logo
All gyms and fitness centres are closed, effective October 10th
Emily Allison, Associate News Editor
As Canada battles through the second wave of COVID-19, the University of Toronto (U of T) is taking extra precautions in compliance with new provincial restrictions. Effective as of October 10, the university is closing all gyms and fitness centres, prohibiting seating in dining halls, and limiting social gatherings. All indoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people, and all outdoor gatherings will be limited to a maximum of 25 people to maintain social distancing measures.
Just as U of T students were beginning to adjust to the "new normal," with some students attending socially distanced in-person classes, the daily surges in new positive cases presented challenges to the safety of the entire U of T community. On October 9, Ontario reported 939 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily number yet amid a surge in cases over this month, with cases rising each week. Although in-person classes are exempt from these restrictions, U of T is asking that only courses that require hands-on learning, such as labs and music courses, continue in classroom settings.
"We are asking all faculties and divisions to consider carefully the limited in-person activities that are now taking place on our three campuses to ensure they are essential," said U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr in an interview with U of T News.
Approximately 90 percent of courses are being offered remotely through virtual learning. In a statement given to the U of T community, Melanie Woodin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science said, "All undergraduate courses that are currently offered both online and in-person will switch to online-only delivery for the remainder of the Fall 2020 academic term." Course delivery for the winter 2021 semester still remains somewhat uncertain with most courses gearing for online only delivery. Individual faculties will provide additional information if further decisions are made to move additional courses to completely remote instruction.
The Death of Cinema: Hollywood's Gambit
A World of Masks
United States House Republicans Choose a Speaker
February Is Coming…With Opportunities and Excitement!
Welcome to the Age of New Sincerity


Getting here took the help of students and faculty, university leaders and tireless deans, pet owners and clients, and many generous donors, including the Cummings Foundation, which made a record-breaking gift to the school that now bears its name.
In the pages listed below, Tuft's first veterinary students and professors tell the story of building a school from the ground up. And we highlight five of the key ways the school has had an outsized impact on the health and well-being of people, animals, and the world we share.
We also want to hear what Cummings School means to you, whether you're a student or alum, faculty member, or friend. Please send your thoughts and memories to genevieve.rajewski@tufts.edu.


The Krystal is a stylish metal headboard from Bentley Designs. Highly recommended by us the Krystal is manufactured in a choice of antique brass or nickel finishes, both styles work great with the shiny crystal effect features to the headboard posts.
Floor standing the Krystal will easily fit any divan bed, and as with all Bentley models last for generations. The Krystal really does looks a class above many other headboards and imitations.


Thomas Willson is the Policy Officer responsible for contributing and coordinating activities related to electro-mobility, Smart Grids and Smart Cities at ECOS, since 2013. ECOS is an environmental umbrella organisation, representing 9 Pan-Europe organisations and 33 national organisations from 21 European countries. ECOS works to promote and defend environmental interests in the development of European and international standards, especially those produced in support of European environmental laws and policies.
ECOS activities on Electro-mobility, Smart Grids and Smart Cities stretch across both European and international standardisation, as well as European Commission expert groups and other stakeholder forums. This includes the European Commission's Sustainable Transport Forum and the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities Coordination Group (SSCC-CG).
Previously, Thomas acted as a Research Assistant for the Sustainable Food Trust and the Environmental Justice Foundation. Thomas holds a Master degree in Environmental Science Legislation and Management from Brunel University and a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom.


My final review now for the Aldi Wine Club, and what better way to go out than with a bit of fizz!
When the French turn their hand to making sparkling wine outside of the delimited region of Champagne, it is known as Crémant. Made in exactly the same way as traditional Champagne, you get all of the skill but without the baubles of prestige that drive up Champagne prices the world over.
Eight French regions produce a Crémant including Limoux, Alsace and the Loire, but today we are headed to the Jura which is located on the mid-eastern side of the country between Burgundy and Switzerland. Although many Crémants use grape varieties not used in Champagne such Pinot Gris, Savagnin, Pinot Blanc or Riesling, today we're trying one that is made with one of the thoroughbred Champagne varieties – Chardonnay.
Bottled under cork and muzzle exactly like its Champagne counterparts, this bottle has a very pleasing appearance, with it's squat bottle reminiscent to me of the uber-expensive Champagne, Krug.
Crémant is made in a lighter style than Champagne but in many other respects the look is similar, and this wine is a lovely golden yellow in colour with fabulous small bubbles trickling their way from the bottom to the top of your glass. When some sparkling wines are falsely carbonated to give the fizz, the bubbles will be bigger (as in a can of fizzy drink) and noticeably 'false', so the fact that these bubbles are incredibly fine is a good marker.
On the nose I can pick up lemon citrus with a touch of lime zest as well as some honey and peach, white pepper spice and cream.
On the palate there is the citrus characters mentioned, which seem to now have more of a confectionate lemon curd quality. There's also the fleshy notes of green apple and, more precisely, the apple pips. This quality hints to the fact that the fruit isn't fully ripened, which isn't something to worry about, but a fairly natural consequence of grapes grown in a marginal northern climate.
The wine is made in the dry Brut style which balances well with the medium acid levels. Underpinning the fruit you have the deep rich weight and texture of butter and cream coming from the Chardonnay grape, and also a slightly discernible light grip tannin. The weight is medium, and yet the wine is light and airy and the mousse completely quaffable prior to it dissolving in the mouth. The length is medium and the overall sensation is clean, refreshing and moreish.
It's very weird to be saying this, but at £7.29 this fizz represents the most expensive wine I've been sent as part of the Aldi wine club. This is of course completely competitive alongside the price-point of both Prosecco and Cava, but when compared to virtually any Champagne (including those 'on offer'), it is extremely good value.
The wine has also been especially well received with the critics and is the winner of several awards including a Bronze medal from Decanter, a Silver medal at the International Wine Challenge 2015, and a Gold medal at the IWSC (International Wines & Spirits Challenge).
As a reflection on the above bottle and indeed all of the others supplied by Aldi for this series of tastings, I can honestly say that the quality has been well above my expectations, and the prices substantially lower. My future wine-buying routine will well and truly be changed going forward and, even though I always look for merit in any wine no matter what it is, I would be being untruthful if I said that I wouldn't have previously been distrustful or perhaps dismissive of a wine priced up at £3.79.
My eyes have truly been opened – Cheers!
With thanks to Aldi UK for supplying the bottle used in this tasting.


In every language there are certain expressions which are not intented to be understood literally.
The more you read about Igbo Idioms english, the better you understand the culture of the people.
You're about to learn the rich cultural background and intimate knowledge of Igbo idioms english of igbo people.
The English phrase "I'm fed up!", for example, has nothing whatsoever to do with food.
Nor has the Igbo "Ihe i kwuru ejughi m afọ". The Igbo language is full of idiomatic expressions of this nature.
Some of them have only a limited currency, by which is meant that they may not be popular among a large number of people or for a very long time.
But others are widely known and well-established. The following examples fall into the latter category.
O siri ewu erighi ọkụkọ atụghi - Her food was badly cooked.
Ọnụ erughi ya n'okwu - He is not qualified to express an opinion.
Aga m abi gị aka - I shall thrash you.
ọ bụụsụ - He keeps very much to himself, or he never takes sides.
Ọ hịrị ọnụ saa aka - He showed signs of surprise.
Ọna-agba edere ebi aka n'ala - He is doing his best to disturb (us).
Ibute egbe na mkpu-mkpu ahịhịa - Expecting to find something where it cannot be had.
E si ebe gị eje olee? - Who do you think you are? (i.e. You're of no importance).
Leruo anya ala! - Be very carefull!
Ka m taa gi aru nti! - A word in your ear!
Welite ukwu - Hurry up!


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Poecilochorema circumvolutum is een schietmot uit de
familie Hydrobiosidae. De soort komt voor in het Australaziatisch gebied.

Schietmot uit het Australaziatisch gebied
Hydrobiosidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Trump's first official NY trip marked by protests, meeting with Australian PM
5 May, 2017 03:07
US President Donald Trump © Jonathan Ernst © Reuters
President Donald Trump made his first trip to New York City since taking office, where he gave a speech aboard the USS Intrepid and met with the prime minister of Australia for bilateral talks.
On Thursday, Trump commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, which has been turned into a museum parked on the Hudson River side of Manhattan.
The original schedule called for Trump to meet with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before making his speech, but he arrived from the White House late after celebrating the passage of a bill through the House of Representatives to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act.
At the event, the president and the first lady Melania Trump sat together with Turnbull and his wife Lucy Turnbull at the same table. Several speakers and veterans spoke about Battle of the Coral Sea, the first air-sea battle in history.
The 1942 battle was fought by Australian and American troops, who were able to cut off Japanese supply routes and win ground that would eventually lead the Allies to victory at the Battle of Midway.
The event also included several short videos depicting the alliance between Australians and Americans, which developed over centuries of fighting in wars together and trading together.
One of the videos was introduced by the Australian businessman and billionaire Anthony Pratt, who pledged to invest $2 billion in his Pratt Industries over the next 10 years, which he said would "create an additional 5,000 high paying manufacturing jobs in America, mainly in the Midwest."
When Turnbull took the stage, he began by congratulating Trump over the health care vote. He then thanked the veterans in attendance for their service and spoke about on the bond between the two nations since the Battle of the Coral Sea.
"As we reflect on the Battle of the Coral Sea, we are reminded of how the stability and prosperity of our region over so many decades has been secured and is secured today by the United States," Turnbull said. "A commitment to the peace and stability, the rule of law in our region, renewed by President Trump, for which we thank you, sir."
He also condemned North Korea and vowed to "defeat and destroy terrorism in the Middle East."
Trump was then introduced by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who said that "all Australians have a debt to the United States." Trump thanked Murdoch, whom he called "my very good friend."
Right away, Trump brought up the phone call that he had with Turnbull in January over a deal that was made under former President Barack Obama for the US to accept as many as 1,250 refugees from Australia.
"Everyone's talking about this phone call," Trump said. "The media was saying, 'What do you think about the phone call. You didn't really hang up? No, we had actually a very nice call. Good. Now the record is straight." Trump then pointed to the back where the media was seated and the audience erupted in laughter.
Quickly, Trump outlined the meeting that he had with Turnbull before the event, where the two talked about national security, trade, immigration and "enhanced economic cooperation."
Then, Trump spoke about a deal with Congress to end the "devastating cuts to the United States military."
"I don't know what they were thinking when they started cutting, but we've got it all coming back in big league, believe me," Trump said.
The president announced that he will add more than $25 billion to the national defense budget to ensure service members have the "equipment, tools, training and resources that they need and they so richly deserve."
At the end of his speech, Trump thanked the American Australian Association and each of the attending veterans by name.
"Americans have had no better friends that then Australians," Trump said, adding that the two nations were like "rebellious children of the same parent."
Before the event, a small group of protesters gathered between 43rd Street to West 46th Street on the west side highway where police blocked traffic outside the USS Intrepid. Protesters booed as the president's motorcade pulled up to the event.
Trump only received 18 percent of the vote in the very liberal New York City during the November election. While many gathered to protest on Thursday, the crowds were much smaller than the first days of the Trump presidency, when thousands in took to the streets to protest.
A few protesters did take to the water, hanging a large sign that read "#NoTrumpNYC" off the side of the Staten Island Ferry. Activists with Greenpeace floated around the river in a dingy with signs that read, "Resist." Activists with the Women's March were able to light up the side of the dock with the words "THE RESISTANCE WILL NOT STOP."
Trump was also met by many supporters, who welcomed the president with cheers.
Trump is not expected to stay in New York City long. After leaving the Intrepid, the president will not be going to his old home at Trump Tower, but will instead head to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he will likely spend the weekend, according to the Associated Press.


Did you know that we throw out 25% more waste this time of year? Listen to Capitol Public Radio's Insight segment with CalRecycle from Monday, for tips on how to reduce your holiday waste.
Here are the top-trending changes as modern consumers rethink holiday traditions.
Re-Gifting Glory -- The stigma of re-gifting is pretty much gone now as consumers see the benefits of passing on unwanted gifts to those who would appreciate them. Attitudes are also shifting when it comes to shopping at thrift stores for those vintage finds.
Custom Wrapping -- Presenting a gift is now an opportunity to show off your creativity. Reusing paper bags or newspaper is good, but savvy gift-givers are reaching for fabrics, reusable baskets, or reusable gift bags instead for their wrapping needs. The ideas are endless, and that's part of the fun.
Sustainable Shopping -- Buying locally-sourced items like wine, honey, or olive oil allows consumers to reduce their carbon footprint and support the farm-to-fork movement at the same time. Buying from eco-conscious merchants or purchasing energy-efficient gifts provide even more options to find that perfect present.
Also, here are some additional tips from us: Make "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" Your Holiday Mantra!
Wishing you and your family a warm and happy holiday season!
CAW is on Facebook and Twitter.
Individuals like you are the key to Recycling's success. Consider supporting our work.


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Eureka Pioneer Museum
The Eureka Pioneer Museum came into existence because of the dreams and hard work of many people. The initial monetary gift was given by Leroy and Claudia Hoffman in 1975. Rev. Walter Kranzler was chosen to design the building. In 1976 the Hoffman's gave an additional gift which was matched by donations from the Eureka community. The ground breaking and dedication ceremony was held on May 15, 1977. The museum opened its doors the following spring.
The purpose of the Eureka Pioneer Museum is to preserve and display artifacts and documents of our German/Russian heritage. Walter and Marian Kranzler were the first curators. The first officers of the museum board of directors were President Mel Geist, Vice-President Walter Kranzler, Secretary Glenda Lindemann and Treasurer Sarge Kary: board members included John Smith, Martha Mehlhaff, Paul Hausauer, Lenore Schick, Andy Koerner, Verlena Mehlhaff, Arlo Mehlhaff and Bruce Mehlhaff.
In addition to the original building the following structures were brought into the museum complex; a country school house, a country church and a sod house. A 60 by 100 foot building to display antique farm machinery was constructed.
Edmund and Hulda Opp were curators of the museum for 29 years. In 2015, Arlo and Bonnie Mehlhaff became the curators.
The current board of directors is President Barry Lapp, Vice-President Donald Fischer, Secretary Nancy Hemmingson, Treasurer Jean Bertsch, Hunter Heinrich, Charlie Hoffman, Sally Odenbach, Stanley Schaffer, Willis Schnabel, Dale Opp.
The museum is open from mid April until the end of October.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is 1-5 PM
Saturday and Sunday is 2-5 PM
There is no admission charge but donations are welcomed.
Museum phone: 605.284.2711; Curator phone: 605.284.2331


IRS.gov/taxreform. The IRS created the Tax Reform page to highlight what taxpayers need to know about the tax law changes and how they affect taxpayers. This page also links taxpayers, businesses and tax professionals to news releases, recently updated publications, notices, legal guidance, Tax Reform Tax Tips and other resources related to the legislation.
Fact sheets. IRS posts fact sheets on a wide range of topics, including tax reform. The depreciation fact sheet has information about new rules and limitations for depreciation and expensing under the new law.
Publications. To help business owners understand the new law, the IRS has updated several publications, including Publication 15, Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide.
Tax tips. Business owners can subscribe to get tax reform tips and other easy-to-read tax tips by e-mail from the IRS throughout the year.
E-News. The IRS issues regular updates on small business topics, including tax reform. It's easy to subscribe to this email service.
The IRS will give more information about business-related tax law changes throughout the year. The agency will update IRS.gov/taxreform to reflect changes as they develop.


The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' move to a state of the art facility on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is transforming medical education in Buffalo. Faculty are leveraging new technologies to introduce modern concepts of teaching and learning. Students are interacting with the material, each other, patients, and faculty in different ways.
Dates, semester theme and registration below.
Throughout the 2018-2019 academic year, Mini Medical Students will gain an "inside look" at the changes in medical education, as well as participate in some of the new techniques from "flipped classrooms" to "problem based learning" to "simulations". Basic science and clinical sciences will be explored using these new methodologies. Please join us for an exciting semester!
All sessions take place in the Ronald I. Dozoretz MD '62 Auditorium (room 2220) on the second floor of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 955 Main Street, Buffalo. Parking is available on the street after 5pm, or in the Conventus parking ramp (for a fee), located across the street from the main entrance to the medical school at Main and High streets. NFTA Metro Rail transprotation is also available from UB South to the Allen/Medical Campus Station.
Enrollment will be available online in Summer 2018.
$100 "Subscriber" Option: includes registration for all 8 Mini Medical School sessions in 2018-19 (no advance registration required), reserved seating, access to special enrichment opportunities, and a patron listing to thank you for your loyalty and support.
Registration is encouraged for the whole semester at once rather than individual sessions. Registration at the door for individual sessions has increased to $10 per person, per session.
As always, high school and college students, with valid ID, are free to attend.


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Royal expert on 'shameful' Downing Street apology to Buckingham Palace over No 10 party
Royal biographer and broadcaster Angela Levin reacts to Downing Street's apology to Buckingham Palace over a party held in Number 10 on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Speaking to the PA news agency, Ms Levin said: "What's ingrained in anybody's mind who watched the funeral of Prince Philip was the Queen sitting in a corner of the room at the end of a row, looking suddenly 20 years older. "How she might deal with the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, when she next sees him is anyone's guess. "She might be very, very cold towards him. On the other hand, she might feel that my job is to see what's going on and keep up to date, and she might do that. "I think a lot of other people will feel quite shameful that that is what happened the night before a very, very sad occasion."
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Studies have demonstrated seasonal variability in rates of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Synthesising all available information on seasonality is a necessary step in identifying large-scale epidemiological patterns and elucidating underlying causes.
Three medical and life sciences publication databases were searched from inception to October 2014 for longitudinal epidemiological studies written in English, Spanish or Portuguese that reported the incidence of CDI. The monthly frequency of CDI were extracted, standardized and weighted according to the number of follow-up months. Cross correlation coefficients (XCORR) were calculated to examine the correlation and lag between the year-month frequencies of reported CDI across hemispheres and continents.
The search identified 13, 5 and 2 studies from North America, Europe, and Oceania, respectively that met the inclusion criteria. CDI had a similar seasonal pattern in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere characterized by a peak in spring and lower frequencies of CDI in summer/autumn with a lag of 8 months (XCORR = 0.60) between hemispheres. There was no difference between the seasonal patterns across European and North American countries.
CDI demonstrates a distinct seasonal pattern that is consistent across North America, Europe and Oceania. Further studies are required to identify the driving factors of the observed seasonality.
Data Availability: Data used in the review were extracted from: * Archibald LK, Banerjee SN, Jarvis WR (2004) Secular trends in hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile disease in the United States, 1987–2001. J Infect Dis 189: 1585–1589. * Gilca R, Hubert B, Fortin E, Gaulin C, Dionne M (2010) Epidemiological patterns and hospital characteristics associated with increased incidence of Clostridium difficile infection in Quebec, Canada, 1998–2006. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 31: 939–947. * Jagai J, Naumova E (2009) Clostridium difficile-associated disease in the elderly, United States. Emerg Infect Dis 15: 343–344. * Brown KA, Daneman N, Arora P, Moineddin R, Fisman DN (2013) The co-seasonality of pneumonia and influenza with Clostridium difficile infection in the United States, 1993–2008. Am J Epidemiol 178: 118–125. * Gilca R, Fortin E, Frenette C, Longtin Y, Gourdeau M (2012) Seasonal variations in Clostridium difficile infections are associated with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus activity independently of antibiotic prescriptions: a time series analysis in Quebec, Canada. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 56: 639–646. * Furuya-Kanamori L, Robson J, Soares Magalhaes RJ, Yakob L, McKenzie SJ, et al. (2014) A population-based spatio-temporal analysis of Clostridium difficile infection in Queensland, Australia over a 10-year period. J Infect. * Slimings C, Armstrong P, Beckingham WD, Bull AL, Hall L, et al. (2014) Increasing incidence of Clostridium difficile infection, Australia, 2011–2012. Med J Aust 200: 272–276. * Wong-McClure RA, Guevara-Rodríguez M, Abarca-Gómez L, Solano-Chinchilla A, Marchena-Picado M, et al. (2012) Clostridium difficile outbreak in Costa Rica: control actions and associated factors. Rev Panam Salud Publica 32: 413–418. * Burckhardt F, Friedrich A, Beier D, Eckmanns T Clostridium difficile surveillance trends, Saxony, Germany: Emerg Infect Dis. 2008 Apr;14(4):691–2. doi: 10.3201/eid1404.071023. * Camacho-Ortiz A, Galindo-Fraga A, Rancel-Cordero A, Macias AE, Lamothe-Molina P, et al. (2009) [Factors associated with Clostridium difficile disease in a tertiary-care medical institution in Mexico: a case-control study]. Rev Invest Clin 61: 371–377. * Damani N, Trudy R, Markey M, Wallace S (2011) C. difficile associated diarrhoea-don't blame community or norovirus. BMC Proceedings 5. * Deorari S, McConnell A, Tan KK, Jadavji N, Ma D, et al. (1999) Differential yield of pathogens from stool testing of nosocomial versus community-acquired paediatric diarrhea. Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases 10: 421–428. * Dubberke ER, Butler AM, Hota B, Khan YM, Mangino JE, et al. (2009) Multicenter study of the impact of community-onset Clostridium difficile infection on surveillance for C. difficile infection. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 30: 518–525. * Faires MC, Pearl DL, Ciccotelli WA, Berke O, Reid-Smith RJ, et al. (2014) Detection of Clostridium difficile infection clusters, using the temporal scan statistic, in a community hospital in southern Ontario, Canada, 2006–2011. BMC Infect Dis 14: 1471–2334. * MacDonald KS, McLeod J, Nicolle L (1993) Clostridium difficile enteritis in a Canadian tertiary care hospital. Can J Infect Control 8: 37–40. * Reveles KR, Lee GC, Boyd NK, Frei CR (2014) Regional and seasonal variations in clostridium difficile infections in United States hospitals, 2001 to 2010. Value in Health 17: A267. * Sonnenberg A Seasonal variation of enteric infections and inflammatory bowel disease: Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2009 Jun;15(6):809. doi: 10.1002/ibd.20770.
Funding: LFK is funded by an Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship (#3781_2014), an Australia National University Higher Degree Scholarship, and a Fondo para la Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología Scholarship (#095-FINCyT-BDE-2014). ACC is funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship (#1058878). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea among hospital inpatients . The incidence and severity of C. difficile infection (CDI) have increased worldwide in the last two decades .
Understanding the seasonal patterns of infectious diseases is crucial to identify factors associated with an increased risk of infection and to implement control measures during the time of year when interventions are likely to have the greatest impact . Epidemiological studies have documented a seasonal variation in the frequency of CDI, yet the mechanisms responsible for its variability remain poorly understood. Specifically, in the USA and Canada, the incidence of CDI has been reported to increase during boreal winter months (February–March) [4–6]. Antibiotic exposure is strongly associated with CDI [7–10]; consequently, it has been proposed that the observed CDI seasonality in the Northern Hemisphere is associated with the higher incidence of respiratory infections, which leads to an increase in antibiotic prescriptions during winter months [11,12].
In Australia, even though antibiotic consumption also peaks during winter (August) ; recent epidemiological studies have found that the seasonal pattern of C. difficile is not characterized by an increased number of CDI during winter months [14,15]. This indicates that CDI in Australia may not conform to currently proposed mechanisms of C. difficile seasonality, suggesting that factors in addition to antibiotic exposure might be driving the seasonality. Therefore, the aim of the current review was to pool the existing evidence to describe the global patterns of CDI seasonality and to facilitate improved understanding of underlying mechanisms.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed in this systematic review . A systematic search was undertaken in three medical and life sciences databases (PubMed, Embase and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature [LILACS]) from their inception to October 1st 2014 for longitudinal epidemiological studies that reported the incidence of CDI. Search terms included were "Clostridium difficile" and "season", the specific keywords and connectors used in the systematic search strategy for each database are listed in S1.A Search strategy.
The inclusion of studies was restricted to human studies, full-text articles or abstracts written in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Studies with at least 12 months follow-up that reported the incidence of CDI or the proportion of stool specimens examined in which C. difficile was detected, per month or per season, were included. CDI intervention studies were excluded from the review because of the interference that interventions might have on transmission dynamics. Exclusions were also made for studies that reported the number of positive samples detected for C. difficile without reporting the total number of samples that were tested; unless the authors stated that the number of stool samples examined per month was constant across the follow-up period. Corresponding authors were contacted for further information regarding the total number of samples examined per month/season. The characteristics of the excluded studies are listed in S1 Table.
Two authors (LFK and LY) independently examined all the citations by title and abstracts for studies that met the inclusion criteria. Full-text version articles of all potentially relevant studies were retrieved and independently extracted. Data presented in a graphical format were extracted using Plot Digitizer version 2.6.6 (http://plotdigitizer.sourceforge.net/). Data from all the included studies were extracted and summarized in a spreadsheet. The extracted data were cross-checked by the two authors, discrepancies during the selection of studies or data extraction were resolved through discussion and consensus. The quality of the selected studies was assessed independently by the same two authors using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) .
The extracted data (incidence of CDI or proportion of positive stool specimens for C. difficile) were standardized to have a mean = 0, a minimum value = −1, and a maximum value = 1 for comparison across studies. A weight between zero and 1 was assigned to each study proportional to the number of months of follow-up. The number of months of follow-up for each study were divided by the number of months of follow-up of the study with the longest follow-up period; this ensured that the study with the longest follow-up period received a weight of 1.
The weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence were then plotted by hemispheres and continents to compare the seasonal patterns of CDI in each setting. An additional plot in which weighted average of the standardized CDI data from the Southern Hemisphere was shifted 6 months to align the meteorological seasons between hemispheres was created for ease of comparison.
Cross correlation coefficients (XCORR) were used to examine the correlation and lag value (in months) between the weighted average of standardized monthly incidence of CDI across hemispheres and continents using the extracted temporal data.
The search identified 244 publications; after screening the publications by title and abstract, 171 publications were excluded. After a full-text review of 41 publications was conducted, 20 studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the review (Fig. 1). Of the 20 studies, 18 were conducted in Northern Hemisphere countries and only 2 in the Southern Hemisphere. Among the studies from the Northern Hemisphere, 13 were from North America and 5 from Europe. The 2 studies from the Southern Hemisphere were from Oceania (Australia; Tables 1 and 2). No studies from South America, Africa or Asia were identified despite additional efforts to target these regions in our search strategy (S1.B Search strategy). Using the NOS, all the studies but two were identified as high quality (⩾80% NOS score; Table 1 and S2 Table).
Fig 1. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) flowchart of the literature search conducted on the 1st October 2014.
Table 1. Characteristics of included studies.
Table 2. Measures of monthly C. difficile infection incidence.
A similar seasonal pattern was observed between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, CDI rates peaked during March – April (early boreal spring) and were at their lowest during the second half of the year. CDI increased in the Southern Hemisphere during the second half of the year and peaked in the last trimester of the year (October – November, the mid austral spring – Fig. 2A and 2B). The XCORR peaked (0.60) at lags = 8, indicating that the rise in the weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence of CDI in the Southern Hemisphere lagged the Northern Hemisphere by 8 months (i.e. it occurred two months later relative to the onset of spring in the Southern Hemisphere as compared to the Northern Hemisphere). The lowest value was identified (–0.76) at lag = 1, which indicates that at lag = 1 month the weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence of CDI in the Northern Hemisphere decreases while it increases in the Southern Hemisphere.
Fig 2. (a)Weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence of C. difficile infection by hemisphere.
(b)Weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence of C. difficile infection by hemispheres. For ease of comparison, the Southern Hemisphere plot was moved 6 months (in the x-axis) thus the meteorological seasons align between hemispheres.
When the studies were grouped by continents, a similar trend was observed in the Northern Hemisphere between North American and European countries. This observation was confirmed by the peak of XCORR = 0.69 at lag 0 months. Both presented a higher frequency of CDI during the first half of the year, with peaks of CDI in March and April in Europe and North America, respectively (Fig. 3).
Fig 3. Weighted average of the standardized monthly incidence of C. difficile infection by Northern Hemisphere continents.
The findings of the current systematic review suggested that the Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries exhibit similar seasonal patterns characterized by CDI peaking in spring and being at their lowest during summer/autumn months. Antibiotic consumption in the community also follows a seasonal pattern. In North American and European countries the consumption of antibiotics mainly peaked in January-February, whereas in Australia antibiotic consumption peaked in August . Hensgens et al. found that after cessation of antibiotic therapy, patients remain at higher risk of CDI for up to 3 months . Therefore, the observed seasonality may indicate a lag of 2–3 months between antibiotic exposure and CDI. It is not surprising that several studies have found co-seasonality of CDI and respiratory tract infection [11,12,19]. In these studies, the respiratory infections often lead CDI by 1 month which could be explained by the corresponding incidence of respiratory tract infection and antibiotic prescription in the community .
Risk factors in addition to antibiotic exposure such as environmental variables (temperature, precipitation, altitude, etc.) could also be involved in the observed seasonality as they have also been demonstrate to affect the dynamics of numerous infectious diseases [3,21]. In a previous study we found that the odds of CDI infection increased by 9% (OR: 1.09; 95%CI: 1.02 to 1.17) per 100 mm increase in monthly rainfall in Queensland, Australia . Respiratory tract infection transmission dynamics are highly dependent on environmental factors ; therefore, caution is advised for future studies drawing an association between CDI and environmental factors because of the possible confounder of co-seasonality in CDI and respiratory infections. Because CDI was traditionally viewed as a nosocomial disease, studies that assess the relationship between environmental factors and CDI are scant and this is a research gap that requires substantial development. The observed difference of two-month lag between the Southern and Northern Hemisphere (relative to the onset of spring) may be explained by the climatic zones where the studies included in the review are located. Australia, which is located in tropical and sub-tropical zones was the only country included in the review from the Southern Hemisphere; whereas the Northern Hemisphere countries included were mainly located in a temperate zone (USA, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and England). Von Boeckel et al. found that countries further from the equator (temperate zone) have a prominent seasonal pattern in antibiotic consumption characterized by peaks during winter, whereas antibiotic consumption is fairly constant across the months in countries located in tropical and sub-tropical zones . Furthermore, Tamerius et al. described a similar one-month lag between the start of influenza epidemic in temperate Northern Hemisphere countries (November, end of boreal autumn) and the start of influenza epidemic in Australia (June, start of austral winter). In both cases, the influenza epidemic starts 3–4 months before the peak of CDI (March – April in Northern Hemisphere and October – November in Southern Hemisphere).
Despite contrasting antibiotic prescribing practices in outpatients between North America and Europe, the results indicate a similar seasonal pattern between European and North American countries. Patrick et al. found that the antibiotic consumption in the community was higher in British Columbia, Canada, than in Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark and The Netherlands . Of particular interest is the high consumption rate found in Canada compared to Denmark for some antibiotic classes such as fluoroquinolones (1.44 versus 0.15 defined daily doses [DDDs]/1000 inhabitant-days), macrolides (1.59 versus 0.92 DDDs/1000 inhabitant-days), and cephalosporins (1.86 versus 0.02 DDDs/1000 inhabitant-days) as these antibiotic classes have been associated with an increased risk of community-acquired CDI [7,8]. A similar trend in antibiotic prescribing was observed in children; higher rates of use of cephalosporins (89.1 versus 0.2 prescriptions/1000 children), lincosamides (2.3 versus 0.1 prescriptions/1000 children), macrolides (148.0 versus 42.6 prescriptions/1000 children), and fluoroquinolones (1.4 versus 0.5 prescriptions/1000 children) were reported in Canada compared to Denmark . This finding supports the need to investigate additional factors (other than antibiotic exposure [11,12]) that would contribute towards a broader understanding of CDI seasonality.
Exposure to proton pump inhibitor (PPI)  and glucocorticoid  has been associated with an increased risk of CDI, however no study has yet examined the temporal relationship between monthly PPIs or glucocorticoids prescription rates and CDI seasonality. Additional factors such as the introduction of new strains of the pathogen via trade in livestock, commodities and/or movement of people (asymptomatic colonized patients such as tourists or business travellers, or hospital transfers) across boundaries should be evaluated when assessing possible factors associated with the seasonality of CDI . Rodriguez-Palacios et al. reported a possible seasonality in contamination of retail meat in Canada with higher prevalence of C. difficile in January – February (11.5%) compared to other months of the study (4.0%) . Riley has implicated the importation of onions and garlic from USA and Mexico into Australia in the increase in CDI during October – December in Western Australia .
Although a comprehensive review was carried out, several limitations were noted. First, only two studies were identified that reported the seasonality of CDI in Southern Hemisphere countries [14,15]. Furthermore, both studies were conducted in Australia. This may limit the generalizability of the findings for Southern Hemisphere countries only to Australia. However, the identified gap in information should encourage further investigation particularly in countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Second, there was a small number of studies from countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The study conducted by Wong-McClure et al.  in Costa Rica was the only study from the Northern Hemisphere located in a tropical zone, precluding the comparison between the seasonality of CDI in temperate and sub-tropical/tropical climates. Despite the documented changes in CDI epidemiology , the increase in community-acquired CDI , and the different risk profiles between community- and hospital-acquired CDI patients , our study was also limited by the inability to compare the community- and hospital-acquired CDI seasonal patterns. Despite the increasing incidence of CDI among the paediatric population  only one study (Deodari et al. ) was identified that described the CDI seasonality in children; therefore, generalizability of the findings may be limited among this population. Potential factors that may contribute to differences in monthly CDI incidence that could not be accounted for in this review, such as hospital characteristics (e.g. staffing, overcrowding), CDI diagnosis ascertainment, severity of underlying illness, infection control practices, and CDI strain need to be assessed in future studies.
As the studies included in the review reported the measures of monthly CDI using different units, the values were standardized to compare the monthly CDI incidence across the studies. By doing so, the magnitude of the seasonality measured by the amplitude between the peak and the trough was lost. Although, the magnitude of the seasonality could be masked, the observed patterns should not be affected by the standardization. Finally, the weight allocated to each study was based on the number of follow-up months and not on the sample size as the number of participants or stool samples examined during the study period was not available for all the studies included in this review.
Understanding the seasonality of an infectious disease and the driving factors are of utmost importance for planning prevention and control strategies [21,35]. Recently, several epidemiological models of CDI have been constructed to inform control strategies for this disease of increasing incidence and severity [36–39]. However, none has yet incorporated the effects of seasonality and this will be difficult to achieve without better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The current review provided evidence of a similar CDI seasonal pattern across hemispheres which differs from the seasonality that was previously proposed. Further studies are required to identify exposure to medications and environmental factors associated with the observed seasonality.
S2 Table. Study quality assessment.
The authors would like to thank Professor Lutz von Müller, Dr. Alexander Halfmann and Dr. Kelly Reveles for kindly provide us with additional data from their studies.
Conceived and designed the experiments: LY. Analyzed the data: LFK SM AC. Wrote the paper: LFK SM LY JC DP TR AC. Conducted the systematic review: JC.
17. Wells GA, Shea B, O'Connell D, Peterson J, Welch V, Losos M, et al. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessong the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses. Available: http://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp. Accessed 2015 February 2.
26. Furuya-Kanamori L, Stone JC, Clark J, McKenzie SJ, Yakob L, Paterson DL, et al. (2015) Comorbidities, Exposure to Medications, and the Risk of Community-Acquired Clostridium difficile Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Infec Control Hosp Epidemiol 36: 131–141.
29. Riley TV (2013) Clostridium difficile infection: the Australian experience. Available: http://www.hqsc.govt.nz/assets/Infection-Prevention/CDI-workshop-Feb-2013-Riley.pdf. Accessed 2014 October 30.
36. Codella J, Safdar N, Heffernan R, Alagoz O (2014) An Agent-based Simulation Model for Clostridium difficile Infection Control. Med Decis Making (Epub ahead of print).
39. Yakob L, Riley TV, Paterson DL, Marquess J, Clements ACA (2014) Assessing control bundles for Clostridium difficile: a review and mathematical model. Emerg Microbes Infect 3: e43.
42. Damani N, Trudy R, Markey M, Wallace S (2011) C. difficile associated diarrhoea-don't blame community or norovirus. BMC Proc 5(Suppl 6): P186.
48. Reveles KR, Lee GC, Boyd NK, Frei CR (2014) Regional and seasonal variations in Clostridium difficile infections in United States hospitals, 2001 to 2010. Value in Health 17: A267.
50. Von Muller L, Speck K, Herrmann M (2011) Surveillance analysis of C. difficile genotyps demonstrates decreasing frequencies of 027 infections in a tertiary care hospital. Clin Microbiol Infec 17: S577.
Is the Subject Area "Southern Hemisphere" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Northern Hemisphere" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Clostridium difficile" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Epidemiology" applicable to this article?


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Posts Tagged 'chemical disaster'
Chemical Danger: Houston At-Risk For Toxic Exposure
Posted in Harvey, Health, Houston, Pollution, Right to know, Safety, Toxics, tagged chemical disaster, Chemical Disaster Rule, Chemical facilities safety, chemical safety, EPA, risk management, Texas on August 31, 2018 |
Flares along the Houston Ship Channel during Hurricane Harvey.
Public Citizen has been pushing back against the EPA's rollbacks of the Chemical Disaster Rule. The Chemical Disaster Rule came into being following an explosion at a Texas fertilizer facility in 2013, an incident that killed 15 people and injured 160. The Chemical Disaster Rule would put further protections in place to better ensure the safety of communities surrounding facilities.
Under the Trump presidency, the EPA delayed the implementation of the Chemical Disaster Rule, which was finalized in early 2017. However, that delay was met with a legal challenge, Air Alliance Houston v. EPA. (Public Citizen's Litigation Group provided an amicus brief to the court on this challenge).
On August 17th, an appeals court ruled that the delay of the Chemical Disaster Rule was unlawful. The judges went so far as to say that the EPA's tactics made a "mockery" of federal statute. But even though the judges shut down the Trump Administration's attempt to delay the Chemical Disaster Rule, the EPA is still looking to rollback the rule through a proposed reconsideration rule.
Petrochemical processing and storage stretches for miles along the Houston Ship Channel.
Houston's Chemical Footprint
To better understand the impact of the Chemical Disaster Rule and the Risk Management Program under the EPA, Public Citizen analyzed data publicly available through rtk.net from facilities that are required to submit risk management plans. Basically, these are facilities that store or use large amounts of hazardous chemicals.
In our new report, we found that chemical facilities currently registered as RMP facilities use 2.4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals and 38.5 billion pounds of flammable chemicals in their processes. And the bulk–two-thirds–of those toxic chemicals reside in the eight-county area of the Houston region.
In the Greater Houston region, 442 facilities have reported to the Risk Management Program (RMP) database over the past 5 years, and 314 facilities meet the conditions that require them to report to the Risk Management Program (RMP) database as of April 2018. Among the 314 facilities that are currently reporting, there are 892 processes that could have offsite consequences. This means that should an accident happen, these processes could harm communities.
The RMP facilities within the 8 county region use 51 different toxic chemicals in processes, which total to over 1.6 billion pounds. Those chemicals include chlorine, chloroform, formaldehyde, and hydrofluoric acid. Many are known to be hazardous to human health, and some are carcinogenic. Those facilities also use 29.9 billion pounds of flammable chemicals, which is 78% of the total of flammable chemicals in RMP facilities across Texas.
Every five years, companies submit risk management plans. When data is pulled from rtk.net, it reflects companies' latest submissions. For instance, Company Y's last plan may have been submitted in 2018, but Company Z's last plan was submitted in 2013. In that way, the information summarized here doesn't necessarily reflect an apples-to-apples comparisons, and is not entirely current. But all these RMP submissions taken together gives us a broader understanding of the chemical risks that Houston faces.
The report shows that 89 5-year accidents were recorded in the Greater Houston area. What that means is 89 accidents happened during the 5 years that the reports are compiling. For some companies that could reflect 2008-2013, for others it could be 2013-2018, or some other five year period in the mix.
For those 5-year accidents, 5 deaths and 112 injuries were reported. The amount of property damage from 5-year accidents exceeded $175 million. Again, because RMP facilities are supposed to provide reports every 5 years, this number does not reflect the amount of property damage that took place from 2013-2018; this number reflects the amount each facility has reported over the 5 years previous to their last RMP submission.
Chemical Safeguards
The Chemical Disaster Rule helps protect workers, first responders, and the wider community from potentially injurious or life-threatening chemical exposure. With 1.6 billion pounds of toxic chemicals in a region that is home to nearly 7 million people, let's keep the rules that protect human life.


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