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FIREFIGHTER EXPOSURE TO SMOKE PARTICULATES
By Christopher J. Naum, SFPE on Dec 22, 2010 with Comments 0
Under a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighter Grant, Underwriters Laboratories in collaboration with the Chicago Fire Department and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, recently completed a sixteen month study on the smoke and gas exposure firefighters confront during firefighting operations and subsequent contact exposure resulting from residual contamination of personal protective equipment.
The project included investigations on three fire scales: (1) fires in the Chicago metropolitan area, (2) residential room content and automobile fires, and (3) material-level fire tests. Detected effluent gases, airborne chemicals and smoke particulates were assessed by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine for their potential adverse health effects to fire service personnel.
The potential for firefighters to experience acute and/or chronic respiratory health effects related to exposures during firefighting activities has long been recognized. Specific exposures of concern for firefighters, because of their potential respiratory toxicity, include:
Asphyxiants (such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide),
irritants (such as ammonia, hydrogen chloride, particulates, nitrogen oxides, phenol and sulfur dioxide),
allergens, and
carcinogens (such as asbestos, benzene, styrene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and certain heavy metals).
An additional cardiovascular risk factor that is receiving increasing attention is exposure to respirable particles in the ultrafine range (particles less than 0.1 micron in diameter), which have been detected in smoke. Exposure to these gaseous and particulate agents has been linked to acute and chronic effects resulting in increased fire fighter mortality and morbidity (higher risk of specific cancers and cardiovascular disease).
Currently gaps exist in the knowledge concerning the size distribution of smoke particles generated in fires and the nature of the chemicals absorbed on the particles' surfaces. Some gaseous effluents may also condense on protective equipment and exposed skin, leaving an oily residue or film. These chemicals can pose a significant threat to firefighter health directly (via the skin and eyes, or by inhalation) or following dermal absorption. This fire research study fills gaps identified in previous studies on fire fighters' exposure to combustion products. The study focuses on gaseous effluents and smoke particulates generated during residential structure and automobile fires and subsequent contact exposure resulting from residual contamination of personal protective equipment.
The information developed from this research will provide a valuable background for interpreting fire hazards and can be used by:
the medical community for advancing their understanding of the epidemiological effects of smoke exposure;
first responders for developing situational assessment guidelines for self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) usage, personal protection equipment cleaning regimen and identifying the importance of personal hygiene following fire effluent exposure;
organizations such as NIOSH and NFPA for developing new test method standards and performance criteria for respirators used by first responders and the care and maintenance of personal protection equipment.
This study investigated and analyzed the combustion gases and particulates generated from three scales of fires: residential structure and automobile fires, simulated real-scale fire tests, and material based small-scale fire tests. Material-level tests were conducted to investigate the combustion of forty-three commonly used residential building construction materials, residential room contents and furnishings, and automobile components under consistent, well-controlled radiant heating conditions. In these tests, material based combustion properties including weight loss rate, heat and smoke release rates, smoke particle size and count distribution, and effluent gas and smoke composition were characterized for a variety of natural, synthetic, and multi-component materials under flaming. The results from these tests were used to assess the smoke contribution of individual materials.
Nine real-scale fire tests representing individual room fires, an attic fire, deck and automobile fires were conducted at UL's large-scale fire test laboratory to collect and analyze the gas effluents, smoke particulates, and condensed residues produced during fire growth, suppression and overhaul under controlled, reproducible laboratory conditions. During overhaul, firefighter personal atmospheres were sampled and analyzed for gases and smoke particles. Smoke particle analysis included mass and size distributions, and inorganic elemental composition. These tests also served as a platform for developing and refining the condensed residue sampling techniques for field usage.
Over a period of four months Chicago Fire Department designated personnel conducted personal gas monitoring and collected personal aerosol smoke samples at residential fires (knock-down, ventilation and overhaul). Replaceable personal protective components (gloves and hoods) used by the firefighters during this time period were analyzed to identify the chemical composition of accumulated smoke residue.
Collected data was forwarded to University of Cincinnati College of Medicine to assess the potential adverse health effects of the observed gaseous effluents and smoke particles on fire service personnel.
The key findings of the research were as follows:
Concentrations of combustion products were found to vary tremendously from fire to fire depending upon the size, the chemistry of materials involved, and the ventilation conditions of the fire.
Material-Scale Tests
The type and quantity of combustion products (smoke particles and gases) generated depended on the chemistry and physical form of the materials being burned.
Synthetic materials produced more smoke than natural materials.
The most prolific smoke production was observed for styrene based materials commonly found in residential households and automobiles. These materials may be used in commodity form (e.g. disposable plastic glasses and dishes), expanded form for insulation, impact modified form such as HIPS (e.g. appliances and electronics housing), copolymerized with other plastics such as ABS (e.g. toys), or copolymerized with elastomers such as styrene-butadiene rubber (e.g. tires).
Vinyl polymers also produced considerable amounts of smoke. Again these materials are used in commodity form (e.g. PVC pipe) or plasticized form (e.g. wiring, siding, resin Chairs and tables).
As the fraction of synthetic compound was increased in a wood product (either in the form of adhesive or mixture such as for wood-plastic composites), smoke production increased.
Average particle sizes ranged from 0.04 to 0.15 microns with wood and insulation generating the smallest particles.
For a given particle size, synthetic materials will generate approximately 12.5X more particles per mass of consumed material than wood based materials.
Combustion of the materials generated asphyxiants, irritants, and airborne carcinogenic species that could be potentially debilitating. The combination and concentrations of gases produced depended on the base chemistry of the material:
All of the materials formed water, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
Styrene based materials formed benzene, phenols, and styrene.
Vinyl compounds formed acid gases (HCl and HCN) and benzene.
Wood based products formed formaldehyde, formic acid, HCN, and phenols.
Roofing materials formed sulfur gas compounds such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
Large-Scale Tests
The same asphyxiants, irritants, and airborne carcinogenic species were observed as in material-level tests supporting the premise that gases generated in large-complex fires arise from individual component material contributions.
Ventilation was found to have an inverse relationship with smoke and gas production such that considerably higher levels of smoke particulates and gases were observed in contained fires than uncontained fires, and the smoke and gas levels were greater inside of contained structures than outside.
Recommended exposure levels (IDLH, STEL, TWA) were exceeded during fire growth and overhaul stages for various agents (carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide) and arsenic.
Smoke and gas levels were quickly reduced by suppression activity however they remained an order of magnitude greater than background levels during overhaul.
99+ % of smoke particles collected during overhaul were less than 1 micron in diameter. Of these 97+ % were too small to be visible by the naked eye suggesting that "clean" air was not really that clean.
While not the focus of this research, it should be noted that the ion alarm activated sooner than the photoelectric alarm in every room fire scenario (living rooms, bedroom, kitchen). This is consistent with results reported in the Smoke Characterization Report for model flaming fire tests conducted in the smoke alarm fire test room. Carbon monoxide alarm activation lagged behind both ion and photoelectric alarms, furthermore.
Field Events & Controlled Field Tests
Concentrations of certain toxic gases were monitored at field events during the course of normal firefighter duties. These results were analyzed to determine:
Average gas concentrations and exposures calculated for the field events, which may be useful for estimating total exposure from repeated exposures during a firefighter's career.
Potential gas concentration and exposures calculated for the field events, which may be useful for planning firefighter preparedness.
Gas exposures in excess of NIOSH IDLH, STEL, and OSHA TWA. These were repeatedly observed at the monitored field events. Carbon monoxide concentrations most often exceeded recommended exposure limits; however instances were observed where Firefighter Exposure to Smoke Particulates other gases other than carbon monoxide exceeded recommended exposure limits yet carbon monoxide did not.
Collected smoke particulates contained multiple heavy metals including arsenic, cobalt, chromium, lead, and phosphorous.
The NIOSH STEL concentration for arsenic was exceeded at one fire and possibly at a second. Gas monitors would not provide warning for arsenic exposure.
Chemical composition of the smoke deposited and soot accumulated on firefighter gloves and hoods was virtually the same except concentrations on the gloves were 100X greater than the hoods.
Deposits contained lead, mercury, phthalates and PAHs.
Carbon monoxide monitoring may provide a first line of gas exposure defense strategy but does not provide warning for fires in which carbon monoxide does not exceed recommended limits but other gases and chemicals do.
The OP-FTIR was difficult to successfully implement in the field and even for the controlled field events in passive mode.
While the OP-FTIR could be set-up in less than 2 minutes, it typically took as long as 5 to 10 minutes to start data collection. This time frame is too long when compared to the aggressive time frames of fire suppression.
Poor thermal contrast led to insufficient signal-to-noise ratios.
Multiple asphyxiants (e.g. carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide), irritants (e.g. ammonia, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen oxides, phenol and sulfur dioxide), allergens (e.g. isocyanates), and chemicals carcinogenic for various tissues (e.g. benzene, chromium, formaldehyde and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were found in smoke during both suppression and overhaul phases. Carcinogenic chemicals may act topically, following inhalation, or following dermal absorption, including from contaminated gear.
Concentrations of several of these toxicants exceeded OSHA regulatory exposure limits and/or recommended exposure limits from NIOSH or ACGIH.
Exposures to specific toxicants can produce acute respiratory effects that may result in chronic respiratory disease.
High levels of ultrafine particles (relative to background levels) were found during both suppression and overhaul phases.
Exposure to particulate matter has been found to show a positive correlation with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality for general population studies.
The high efficiency of ultrafine particle deposition deep into the lung tissue can result in release of inflammatory mediators into the circulation, causing toxic effects on internal tissues such as the heart. Airborne toxics, such as metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can also be carried by the particles to the pulmonary interstitium, vasculature, and potentially subsequently to other body tissues, including the cardiovascular and nervous systems and liver.
Interactions between individual exposure agents could lead to additive or synergistic effects exacerbating adverse health effects.
Long-term repeated exposure may accelerate cardiovascular mortality and the initiation/progression of atherosclerosis.
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS Based upon the results of this investigation, the following areas were identified for further research:
Greater in depth analysis of the obtained results in relation to previous studies such as those of Jankowic et al on firefighter exposure, LeMasters et al on firefighter cancer epidemiologies, and the first responders at the World Trade Center collapse.
Characterization of potential fire scene exposures including:
asphyxiants,
irritants,
carcinogens.
Better definition of the potential long-term respiratory, cancer and cardiovascular health impacts of varied and complex mixes of exposures such as those identified in this report. Such information could help guide decisions on the selection and utilization of respiratory protection, especially during overhaul activities.
Determination of the relative contribution of respiratory and dermal absorption routes to exposure and adverse health risks of firefighters to combustion products.
Factors determining coronary heart disease risk among firefighters. Such studies could help elucidate the mechanistic link between ultrafine particle exposure and coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality and identify measures to decrease its impact on this population.
Characterization of contaminants accumulated on firefighter protective equipment and the subsequent potential for firefighter exposures to these contaminants and resulting health effects.
Usage and industrial hygiene practices related to firefighter protective equipment, including cleaning patterns, length of use and storage practices.
UL Final Report Project Number: 08CA31673 April 1, 2010 Firefighter Exposure to Smoke Particulates Report, HERE
Underwriters Laboratories Inc., HERE
The Voice of Reason with special guest Shawn Longerich, Executive Director for the Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) Podcast, HERE
The Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit comprised of firefighters and medical personnel. The mission of the CPTC is to increase awareness about the risk of fire smoke cyanide exposure as it relates to Awareness, Prevention, Protection, Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment. Web Site HERE
Filed Under: Anatomy of Buildings • Fire Dynamics & Behavior • Fire Protection Engineering • Research • Research Hub
Tags: Anatomy of Buildings • chemical composition of accumulated smoke residue • Chicago Fire Department • Christopher Naum • Commandsafety.com • epidemiological effects of smoke exposure • Fire Dynamics & Behavior • Fire Protection Engineering • Firefighter Exposure • Firefighter Exposure to Smoke Particulates • Firefighter PPE • Firefighter PPE Contamination • Firefighter Safety • Firefighter safety & health • heat and smoke release rates • irritants • real-scale fire tests • Research • Research Hub • SCBA • Smoke and gas levels • smoke particle size • smoke particles • smoke particles and gases • Smoke Particulates • smoke particulates generated during residential structure • Toxic gases • UL • UL's large-scale fire test laboratory


These days we're surrounded by good quality design pretty much all of the time.
It's all created to either make us stop in our tracks and take notice or to paint a reassuring picture we'll want to buy into.
Did you know that the visual appearance of a product accounts for over 90% of the reason we choose to buy it?
Great presentation is therefore, a very fundamental driver when it comes to your sales process.
Here are five tips to guide you as you design your print marketing materials.
With a well-known brand for example, the brand colour by itself can make you think of the organisation and their products.
Cadbury's use of their signature purple and Easy Jet's use of orange and white are just a couple of examples.
Triggering this brand 'recall' is important but if you're not an already established brand then powerful colours such as bright red are associated with passion and therefore, impulse purchases and taking action.
Pastel shades appeal to conscientious shoppers and strong and pale blues (especially with white) are seen as 'healthy'.
Dark, cool colours create a feeling of security and reassurance. Think of the colours used in traditional Scottish tweeds for example.
Similar rules apply to the use of fonts and typesetting.
Think therefore of the tone of the conversation you want to have with your customer. Is it a formal, one sided and 'information giving' conversation or is it a relaxed and friendly two way chat?
Get a good feel for this and you'll soon get a good feel for the kind of fonts to use. As a rough guide, you'd need no more than two or three typefaces.
As a final check, ensure it's all very easy to read.
Take care however to ensure that everything you produce does not look too uniform. This is because once people have understood your offer, and then decided it's not for them, they will not come back to you even when you have a new product or service.
So, whilst your brand colours and fonts should be included they do not have to take centre stage every time.
This is of course, a fundamental part of your design and print marketing materials.
As a rule of thumb, try to come up with a killer headline, keep the overall copy brief and ensure it shows the benefit to the customer (you should always therefore, be talking about them, rather than you!).
When it comes to the best use of images you should go for something that is either a little out of the ordinary (remember, it's all about catching the eye) or something that paints a lifestyle picture that people will really want to aspire to.
Overall then, it's all about designing marketing materials that are attention grabbing and memorable.
Here at PPS Print our specialism is in creating highly effective marketing, branding, advertising, promotional and graphic design materials.


Several relationships in Salem will be facing challenges during Thursday's episode of Days of Our Lives. The Hernandez clan has been reunited after a great deal of time apart, but it's not an entirely joyful reunion. Summer and Maggie are working on growing closer to one another, but Summer has some difficult choices to make. In addition, Hope gets a call that will leave her quite shaken. Where are things headed in the March 24 show?
As We Love Soaps details, Maggie will open up to Victor about Summer being her biological daughter. This news has left her shaken, especially given the fact she is still processing Daniel's death. According to Soap Central, Victor will have some concerns about this newfound daughter. However, Days of Our Lives spoilers indicate that as the week plays out, Summer and Maggie will spend some quality time connecting and trying to make up for lost time.
Unfortunately, Summer may be pulled into a different direction when it comes to her relationship with her biological mother. Days of Our Lives spoilers indicate that Dario will be talking with Summer, and he thinks she should approach things with Maggie differently. It seems he sees an opportunity to score big, and he will try to convince her to position herself to take advantage of Maggie's financial assets. From the sounds of things, however, she is a bit resistant to his ideas.
Thursday's episode also brings more with Eduardo, his kids, and Adriana. Rafe was stunned to see her being held captive at Ling's facility, and she has reunited with her kids. However, Eduardo is in the picture now, as well, and this creates some tense moments for the Hernandez family. Days of Our Lives spoilers detail that there will be some chaotic moments in this next show as a result of this reunion.
Hope has been dealing with some guilt over killing Stefano, considering that she has also learned that he was not the proper target in terms of avenging Bo's kidnapping. Days of Our Lives spoilers share that she will get a phone call during Thursday's show that shakes her up quite a bit. Will she be learning of the connection between Deimos, Ling, and the serum that sparked Bo's kidnapping?
As the week wraps up, Days of Our Lives spoilers detail that Deimos will make an attempt to smooth things over with Victor to an extent, though that is unlikely to work. In addition, Philip will have a grand plan to offer up to Belle, and it involves Claire. Nicole and Dario will spend some time together and very soon, Victor will be facing a medical crisis.
Viewers will see plenty more regarding Ben, Chad, and Abigail soon, and Days of Our Lives spoilers say that the Hernandez family is said to soon come together to give Eduardo a fresh start with them. Will Ben's return drive Abigail over the brink as some suspect, given what is known about big changes ahead for the character?
There are other big things ahead with other characters in Salem, including the return of Daniel Cosgrove soon. When will Hope learn that Aiden Jennings is apparently still alive, and what does that mean for Rafe, Chase, and Ciara? Fans know there is plenty more drama on the way, and they can't wait to see what comes next on Days of Our Lives.


Sherlock Holmes has a new case: the murder of Mr Douglas, the owner of a big manor house in Vermissa Valley. But an unexpected twist makes the case more complicated. The villainous Professor Moriarty puts in an appearance and the suspense of the story takes hold of us and carries us along to the depths of the valley of fear.
Opiniones "EL VALLE DEL MIEDO"


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Non-specific symptoms as clues to changes in emotional well-being
Andre Matalon1,2,
Andy Kotliroff1,
Gari Blumberg1,3,
John Yaphe4 &
Eliezer Kitai1,3
Somatic symptoms are a common reason for visits to the family physician. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between non-specific symptoms and changes in emotional well-being and the degree to which the physician considers the possibility of mental distress when faced with such patients.
Methods -
Patients who complained of two or more symptoms including headache, dizziness, fatigue or weakness, palpitations and sleep disorders over one year were identified from the medical records of a random sample of 45 primary care physicians. A control group matched for gender and age was selected from the same population. Emotional well-being was assessed using the MOS-SF 36 in both groups.
Results -
The study group and the control group each contained 110 patients. Completed MOS questionnaires were obtained from 92 patients, 48 patients with somatic symptoms and 44 controls. Sixty percent of the patients with somatic symptoms experienced decreased emotional well being compared to 25% in the control group (p = 0.00005). Symptoms of dizziness, fatigue and sleep disturbances were significantly linked with mental health impairments. Primary care physicians identified only 6 of 29 patients (21%) whose responses revealed functional limitations due to emotional problems as suffering from an emotional disorder and only 6 of 23 patients (26%) with a lack of emotional well being were diagnosed with an emotional disorder.
Conclusions -
Non-specific somatic symptoms may be clues to changes in emotional well-being. Improved recognition and recording of mental distress among patients who complain of these symptoms may enable better follow up and treatment.
Somatic symptoms are the main reason for visits to the family physician in primary-care clinics [1–5]. Often the visit yields no clear etiology or diagnosis that can explain the symptoms and the physician may describe it as "idiopathic," "atypical," "functional," or "non-specific" [3]. A broad study regarding symptoms in primary care [4] revealed that only 16% of the symptoms presented had a clear, organic etiology; for 74% no etiology was established over a three-year follow-up period, and the symptom remained the diagnosis. Frequently symptoms will pass without any treatment, and very often people do not even consider visiting their physician when symptoms first appear.
Although not tied to a definite diagnosis, non-specific symptoms can interfere with patients' daily routine and be as detrimental to their quality of life as can organic and mental diseases that have been diagnosed unequivocally [5–8]. For example, decreased functioning from chronic fatigue is identical to that observed in patients with unbalanced hyperthyroidism or in those recovering from myocardial infarction [9].
Lasting non-specific somatic symptoms initiate a "journey of clarification." The co-travelers on this costly journey are the patient, who wants to know "what's wrong with me," and the physician, who wants to rule out treatable organic diseases. The journey includes repeated visits to primary care physicians, countless lab tests, many medications and other treatments, as well as referrals to a variety of specialists [10–12]. In addition, it is well known that mental stress, difficult life events and somatization, of course, can be experienced as somatic symptoms. At times, the symptoms can be the only expression of emotional distress or a psychiatric disease [13–15].
The two psychiatric diseases that family physicians most frequently encounter in the primary care clinic are depression and anxiety [16]. A Dutch study [17] looked at medically unexplained symptoms in the elderly and found a high rate of co-morbidity with anxiety and depression. Often these disorders are not diagnosed or treated [16, 18–22] and cause reduced daily functioning and an over-use of health services. Frequently they present as somatic symptoms, and disregarding them may deepen their hold and harm doctor-patient relations [16].
The aim of this study was to examine the relation between non-specific symptoms and changes in emotional well-being such as depression and anxiety among patients consulting their primary care physician. The study also examined whether the clues of mental distress become stronger with an increase in the number of the non-specific symptoms and also the degree to which primary physicians consider mental distress when faced with a patient who complains of these symptoms. Our hypothesis was that multiple non-specific somatic symptoms are predictive of emotional distress, specifically anxiety and depression, and that this tends to be under-diagnosed by general practitioners.
This was a cross sectional survey, conducted in the community among individuals insured by one of Israel's four HMOs (health maintenance organizations). Patients were identified from the medical records and clues for anxiety and depression were assessed by a questionnaire at one point in time.
Data were derived from patients' medical files and from questionnaires. We obtained approval form the Research Regulation Committee of the HMO (Leumit Health Services) to use the data. Ethical approval for our study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Tel Aviv University.
Research population
This study, performed in 2002, examined the last 60 patient-doctor meetings (consultations) of a random sample of 45 physicians selected from among all the primary-care physicians in the HMO. Included were 15 general practitioners, 15 specialists in family medicine, and 15 internists. Data regarding the consultations were gathered using the computer program which the HMO uses for maintaining medical records.
A total of 2,700 medical consultations were examined. The patients were men and women, 20-70 years old. Patients with active cancer, dementia, congestive heart failure and those under psychiatric care or on dialysis were excluded from the sample. The symptoms noted were headache, dizziness, fatigue or weakness, palpitations and sleep problems. The research group consisted of 110 patients who complained of two or more of these symptoms at one visit or who complained of one symptom in more than two consultations within the year prior to the last meeting.
The control group consisted of individuals who were matched to each person in the research group for gender and age (+/-5 years) and who had visited the same doctor on the same day, but did not have the symptoms of which the member of the research group complained.
Research procedure
The MOS-SF 36 Questionnaire, which measures patients' perception of their physical and mental health and social functioning, was used to assess the mental state of participants in both groups [23–25]. Two domains in the questionnaire which relate to emotional well-being and limitation of function due to emotional distress and which reflect the study hypothesis were selected as the outcome measures of this study. A previously validated Hebrew version of the questionnaire was mailed to the participants' homes [26] with an accompanying letter and stamped, self-addressed envelope for sending the replies to the HMO headquarters. A month after the questionnaires had been sent, those who had not yet returned them received a telephone reminder and a new questionnaire was mailed to them on request. One month later, another round of telephone calls was made to those who had not yet returned the questionnaires.
Results were processed in accordance with the procedures detailed by Hays and Sherbourne in the MOS-SF 36 questionnaire [25] according to which a low score suggests that the patient suffers from a mental health problem. Patients whose score is lower than 50 on a 0-100 scale on questions of emotional well being and functional limitations due to emotional problems are at high risk for problems in these areas.
Statistics were calculated using BMDP Statistical Software (1993) and Epi-Info.
Correlation between each of the five symptoms and functional limitations due to emotional problems and emotional well being was assessed using the chi-squared statistic.
Correlation between the number of somatic symptoms of which the patient complained and functional limitation due to emotional problems and emotional well being was calculated using the chi squared statistic.
The chi squared test was also used to compare ratios between the research and control groups.
After retrieving from the questionnaires those patients who were at high risk to suffer from emotional problems or from lack of emotional well being, the researchers then checked to see whether the physician listed a mental health disorder as a possible diagnosis. The medical records of the patients in the control group were not examined to see if their physicians had later recorded mental health disorders.
Statistical significance was set at the level of p < 0.05.
The researchers surveyed 2,700 consultations from the computerized medical records of 45 primary physicians. Of the total research consultations, 1,545 meetings were with women and 1,155 with men. The examination of these consultations yielded 110 patients who complained of functional somatic symptoms (Research Group), and 110 patients were matched to form the Control Group (see Methods).
The symptom that was most frequent among the 110 patients in the research group from the review of the electronic medical records was headache (N = 32, 29.1%), followed by fatigue (N = 29, 26.3%) and dizziness (N = 27, 24.5%). Twenty patients in this group of 110 (18.2%) had a single symptom. Complaints of two of the five symptoms were voiced by 46 patients (41.8%), 32 patients (29%) complained of three symptoms and twelve (10.9%) of four while no patients complained of all five.
After telephone calls and repeated reminders, 92 completed MOS-SF 36 questionnaires were returned (41.8%), of which 48 were from the research group (43.6% of questionnaires sent) and 44 from the control group (40% of questionnaires sent).
Of the remaining 128 questionnaires, 8 were returned by the postal service (addressee unknown), 17 arrived without demographic details, rendering them unusable, and 103 questionnaires were not returned at all. Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of the study sample, showing no significant differences between responders in the cases and control group by age, gender, marital status or number of children.
Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the study population in the study of somatic symptoms and emotional well being (n = 92)
Two domains from the MOS SF-36 questionnaire were addressed - functional limitations due to emotional problems and emotional well being. A score of 0 to 100 is possible. A lower score indicates more distress.
Table 2 presents the results of the questionnaire scores. Sixty percent of the patients in the research group suffered from lack of emotional well being (with a score less than 50), while in the control group the rate was 25.0% (p = 0.00005). Forty five percent of the patients in the research group suffered from functional limitations due to emotional problems as compared to 43% of the patients in the control group (p = 0.48, n.s.).
Table 2 MOS SF-36 scores for emotional well being and for limitation of function due to emotional distress for the research and control groups (n = 92)
The mean score for emotional well being was lower in the research group (a score of 42.3, as compared to the control group score of 76.1; p = 0.0003). There was no significant difference found in functional limitations due to emotional problems (mean score for cases 54.1; mean score in control group 55.6, p = 0.7, n.s.).
Comparisons between the research and control groups with regard to functional limitations (MOS Score < 50 for functional limitation) by individual symptoms are given in Table 3. There were no significant differences found regarding functional limitation when the two groups were compared by the presence of individual symptoms (headache, insomnia, dizziness, palpitations or fatigue).
Table 3 Comparisons between research and control groups with regard to presence of symptoms and functional limitations (MOS Score < 50 for functional limitation)
Comparisons between the research and control groups with regard to a lack of emotional well-being (MOS Score < 50 for emotional well-being) by individual symptoms are given in Table 4. There were significant differences found between the proportion of patients with a lack of emotional well-being in the research group for four of the five symptoms studied (headache, insomnia, dizziness, and fatigue). There was no significant difference in emotional well-being for patients with palpitations compared to the control group.
Table 4 Comparisons between research and control groups with regard to presence of symptoms and lack of emotional well-being (MOS Score < 50 for emotional well-being)
Among patients who complained of one symptom, 16.7% suffer limitations due to emotional problems. Among patients who complained of two symptoms, this rate is 60.0%, which is significantly higher than the rate among those with one symptom (p < 0.05). Among the patients who reported one symptom the percentage of patients with low emotional well being was the lowest (33%), and went up to 83.7% among patients with two symptoms (p < 0.01). No correlation could be made between the number of symptoms greater than two and increased functional limitations or lack of emotional well being.
Finally, among patients whose responses revealed functional limitations due to emotional problems (N = 29 - out of 48 total), only six (20.7%) received a psychological diagnosis from their physicians: two were diagnosed with depression, two with anxiety, and two with stress. At the same time, among those patients whose responses revealed a lack of emotional well being (N = 23), also six (26.1%) received a mental diagnosis: two were diagnosed with depression, three with anxiety, and one with stress. The medical records of the patients in the control group were not examined to determine the prevalence of recording of mental health diagnoses so a comparison of rates between the two groups could not be made.
Our research supports the hypothesis that patients who complain about nonspecific somatic symptoms suffer more from emotional distress, as seen by decreased emotional well being. It was surprising that such patients do not suffer significantly more from functional limitations due to emotional problems. Our study is a retrospective one which makes it difficult to ascertain whether the somatic symptoms cause the emotional distress or whether the opposite is true. As in most other studies on this subject, we can only say that there is a relationship but can not determine cause and effect.
As a tool for examining this relationship, we selected the MOS SF-36 Questionnaire, mostly for its "friendly" qualities in reference to a generally healthy population that sees a family physician for various reasons and its ability to assess a patient's functional state and health which has been proven reliable in previous studies [23–25].
The relationship between non-specific somatic symptoms, depression, and anxiety has been suggested in previous studies [2, 16, 27–29]. A perception of poor health, pain, or disability has been correlated with anxiety and depression symptoms in primary care patients [30]. 50%-80% of patients suffering from depression and anxiety first pay a visit to the family physician because of somatic complaints, without expressing any mental complaints [3, 21, 31, 32]. Kroenke's work demonstrated that the rate of psychiatric disorders among patients who complain of somatic symptoms is at least twice as high as that in the general population of primary care clinic patients [6, 16].
Studies have tried to characterize the patients who come to a physician for somatic symptoms such as headache, fatigue, and gastrointestinal complaints as compared to those who do not turn to a physician when these symptoms appear [33, 34]. Findings indicate that those in the first group had suffered more stressful events throughout their lives, and were closer to meeting DSM-IV criteria for anxiety disorders or depression disorders. It seems that stressful events increase the negative perception of symptoms. Dirkswager and Verhaak [35] found that patients with medically unexplained symptoms were more likely to have psychological distress, functional impairment and social isolation.
Certain somatic symptoms may serve as indicators of emotional distress, and their appearance alerts the physician in a more pronounced way than do others. Headache, insomnia, fatigue and dizziness were found in our research to be potential indicators of emotional distress. Kroenke et al. also described these symptoms as being strongly linked to depression and anxiety [2]. Sloane's survey, too, shows that dizziness is a very common symptom in the primary care clinic and in a large number of cases is related to psychiatric disorders [36]. Haug, et al, did a large study in Norway and found associations between depression, anxiety and certain somatic symptoms, including headache, nausea, heartburn, breathlessness, palpitations and trouble walking [37]. In our study, among patients who complained of dizziness, the rate of functional limitation due to emotional problems and lack of emotional well being was higher than the rate among patients without dizziness. In addition, we found that 66% of the patients who complained of fatigue suffered from functional limitations due to emotional problems, while this percentage was much lower among those without fatigue.
A larger number of somatic complaints is associated with a greater possibility that the patient has an emotional problem [15, 38]. According to Kroenke [6] the risk of an emotional disorder in a patient visiting a primary clinic increases with the number of somatic symptoms of which he or she complains. Our research supports this, too; there is a significant difference between lack of emotional well being and functional limitations due to emotional problems in patients who report two or more somatic symptoms and between those who report just one.
Most primary physicians were trained with a biomedical orientation, in which the main purpose of the visit is to rule out organic disease [21]. This medical model often leaves mental etiologies as a "diagnosis of exclusion" [2]. Therefore, patients who have mental illness or emotional distress, and complain of somatic symptoms, are usually diagnosed later than those who report psychological or social symptom [22, 31, 32, 39]. Similarly, our research revealed that the medical records of only 25% of patients with functional limitations due to emotional problems or lack of emotional well being contained a mental/emotional diagnosis. At the same time, it is likely that not every injury to emotional well being translates into a diagnosable mental/emotional or psychiatric disease. Another point to take into account is that the physician may be reluctant to write such a diagnosis in the file based on the first visit.
The study has some limitations. Even with a "friendly" questionnaire, one of the weaknesses of our research is the low (41.8%) response rate, despite two telephone reminders. Nevertheless, this rate was close to that described in a broad study that examined the percentage of patients who responded to questionnaires and surveys in published research during the period 1985-1995 [40]. According to the study, only about 60% of patients respond to questionnaires mailed to them by their personal attending physician, and only about 50% respond to general surveys. Our questionnaire was sent to the patients from an unknown person, although with an accompanying letter from the HMO headquarters. There is also the possibility that some of the patients were not fluent in Hebrew or even illiterate as at least 20% of the HMO population is new immigrants to Israel. At the same time, the finding that the group of patients that returned the questionnaires is similar in all attributes to the group that did not return them does help to validate our data. A similar study was done in Scotland [41] using an electronic diary instead of questionnaires, but numbers were very small. Another limitation is the retrospective evaluation of symptoms. However, the work is strengthened by the use of a control group which is very similar to the research group. A further limitation was the lack of a review of the medical records of the patients in the control group for mental health diagnoses made during the follow-up year by the family physicians which would have allowed comparison with the research group.
We conclude by stating that because of the frequency of non-specific somatic symptoms seen by the primary care physician, and the possibility of a "hidden" mental disease or at least emotional distress accompanying them, it is the physician's duty to make use of every available clue in order to diagnose these conditions as early as possible. Our study shows that headache, fatigue, dizziness and insomnia are especially related to lack of emotional well being and to functional limitations due to emotional problems. Despite this, additional research is needed to examine the relation of these somatic symptoms to a diagnosis of depression and anxiety.
Kroenke K, Harris L: Symptoms Research: A Fertile Field. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2001, 134: 801-802.
Kroenke K, Price R: Symptoms in the Community. Archives of Internal Medicine. 1995, 153: 2474-2480.
Kroenke K: Studying Symptoms: Sampling and Measurement Issues. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2001, 134: 844-853.
Kroenke K: Common Symptoms in Ambulatory Care: Incidence, Evaluation, Therapy, and Outcome. The American Journal of Medicine. 1989, 86: 262-266. 10.1016/0002-9343(89)90293-3.
Kroenke K: Symptoms in Medical Patients: An Untended Field. The American Journal of Medicine. 1992, 92 (supp. 1A): 3S-6S.
Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB: Physical symptoms in primary care. Predictors of psychiatric disorders and functional impairment. Archives of Family Medicine. 1994, 3: 774-9. 10.1001/archfami.3.9.774.
Servan-Schreiber D, Tabas G: Somatizing Patients: Part 2. Practical Management. American Family Physician. 2000, 61: 1423-8.
Duddu V, Husain N, Dickens C: Medically unexplained presentations and quality of life: a study of a predominantly South Asian primary care population in England. J Psychosom Res. 2008, 65 (4): 311-7. 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.05.002.
Kroenke K, Wood DR, Manggelsdorff : Chronic Fatigue in primary care: prevalence, patient characteristics, and outcome. JAMA. 1988, 260: 929-940. 10.1001/jama.260.7.929.
Barsky AJ, Borus JF: Somatization and medicalization in the era of managed care. JAMA. 1995, 72: 127-135.
Holloway KL, Zerbe KJ: Simplified approach to somatization disorder. Postgraduate Medical Journal. 2000, 108 (6): 89-95.
Jackson JL, Kroenke K: Difficult Patient Encounters in Ambulatory Care. Archives of Internal Medicine. 1999, 159: 1069-75. 10.1001/archinte.159.10.1069.
Smith GR, Monson R: Patients with Multiple Unexplained Symptoms. Archives of Internal Medicine. 1986, 146: 69-72. 10.1001/archinte.146.1.69.
Servan-Schreiber D, Tabas G: Somatizing Patients: Part 1. Practical Diagnosis. American Family Physician. 2000, 61: 1073-8.
Katon W, Sullivan M, Walker E: Medical symptoms without identified pathology: Relationship to psychiatric disorders, Childhood and adult trauma, and personality traits. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2001, 134: 917-925.
Kroenke K, Jackson JL, Chamberlin J: Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in Patients Presenting with Physical Complaints: Clinical Predictors and Outcome. The American Journal of Medicine. 1997, 103: 339-347. 10.1016/S0002-9343(97)00241-6.
Hilderink PH, Benraad CE, van Driel D, Buitelaar JK, Speckens AE, Olde Rikkert MG, Voshaar RC: Medically unexplained physical symptoms in elderly people: a pilot study of psychiatric geriatric characteristics. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2009, 17 (12): 1085-8. 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181b975a1.
Kressler D, Lloyd K, Lewis G, Gray D: Cross sectional study of symptoms attribution and recognition of depression and anxiety in primary care. BMJ. 1999, 318: 436-440.
Schullberg HC, Burns BJ: Mental disorders in primary care: epidemiologic, diagnostic, and treatment research directions. General Hospital Psychiatry. 1988, 10: 79-87. 10.1016/0163-8343(88)90092-8.
Kessler LG, Clearly PD, Burke JD: Psychiatric disorders in primary care: results of a follow up study. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1988, 45: 1100-1106.
Katon W, Kleinman A, Rosan G: Depression and Somatization: a review. The American Journal of Medicine. 1982, 72: 127-135. 10.1016/0002-9343(82)90599-X.
Teng EJ, Chaison AD, Bailey SD, Hamilton JD, Dunn NJ: When anxiety symptoms masquerade as medical symptoms: what medical specialists know about panic disorder and available psychological treatments. J Clin Psychol Med Settings. 2008, 15 (4): 314-21. 10.1007/s10880-008-9129-4.
Brazier JE, Harper R: Validating the SF-36 health survey questionnaire: new outcome measure for primary care. BMJ. 1992, 305: 160-4. 10.1136/bmj.305.6846.160.
Mc Horney CA, Ware JE, Rogers W: The validity and Relative Precision of MOS Short and Long Form Health Status Scales and Dartmouth COOP charts. Medical Care. 1992, 30: 253-265.
Hays RD, Sherbourne CD, Mazel RM: The Rand 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 Rand Health Sciences Program. Health Economics. 1993, 2: 217-227. 10.1002/hec.4730020305.
Lewin-Epstein N, Sagiv-Schifter T, Shabtai EL: Validation of the 36-item short-form Health Survey (Hebrew version) in the adult population of Israel. Medical Care. 1988, 36: 1361-70.
Whooley MA, Simon GE: Managing depression in medical outpatients. New England Journal of Medicine. 2000, 343 (26): 1942-50. 10.1056/NEJM200012283432607.
El-Mallakh RS, Wright JC: Clues to depression in primary care practice. Postgraduate Medical Journal. 1996, 100: 91-8.
Nakao M, Yano E: Somatic symptoms for predicting depression: one-year follow-up study in annual health examinations. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2006, 60 (2): 219-25. 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01489.x.
Wu LR, Parkerson GR: Health Perception, Pain, and Disability as Correlates of Anxiety and Depression symptoms in Primary Care Patients. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice. 2002, 15 (5): 183-190.
Bridges KW, Goldberg DP: Somatic presentation of DSM III psychiatric disorders in primary care. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1985, 29: 563-569. 10.1016/0022-3999(85)90064-9.
Kirmayer LJ, Robbins JM, Dworkind M: Somatization and the recognition of depression and anxiety in primary care. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 1993, 150: 734-41.
Robbins PR, Meyersburg HA, Tanck RH: Interpersonal stress and physical complaints. Journal of Personality Assessment. 1974, 38: 578-85. 10.1080/00223891.1974.10120020.
Mechanic D: Effects of psychological distress on perceptions of physical health and use of medical and psychiatric facilities. Journal of Human Stress. 1978, 4: 26-32.
Dirkzwager AJE, Verhaak PFM: Patients with persistent medically unexplained symptoms in general practice: characteristics and quality of care. BMC Family Practice. 2007, 8: 33-42. 10.1186/1471-2296-8-33.
Sloane PD, Coeytaux RR: Dizziness. State of the Science. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2001, 134: 823-832.
Haug TH, Mykletun A, Dahl AA: The association between anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms in a large population: the HUNT-II study. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2004, 66: 845-851. 10.1097/01.psy.0000145823.85658.0c.
Spitzer RL, Williams JB, Kroenke K: Utility of a New Procedure for Diagnosing Mental Disorders in Primary Care- The Prime MD 1000 Study. JAMA. 1994, 272 (22): 1749-1756. 10.1001/jama.272.22.1749.
Wilhelm KA, Finch AW, Davenport TA, Hickie IB: What can alert the general practitioner to people whose common mental health problems are unrecognized?. MJA. 2008, 188 (12): S114-8.
Cummings SM, Savitz LA, Konrad TR: Reported response rates to mailed physician questionnaires. Health Services Research. 2001, 35 (6): 1347-55.
Burton C, Weller D, Sharpe M: Functional somatic symptoms and psychological states: an electronic diary study. Psychosom Med. 2009, 71 (1): 77-83. 10.1097/PSY.0b013e31818f2acb.
No one else except for the authors made significant contributions.
Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Israel
Andre Matalon
, Andy Kotliroff
, Gari Blumberg
& Eliezer Kitai
Department of Family Medicine, Clalit Health Services, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Hospital, Petach Tikva, 49100, Israel
Department of Family Medicine, Leumit Health Services, 23 Shprintzak Street, Tel Aviv, Israel
Gari Blumberg
Community Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
John Yaphe
Search for Andre Matalon in:
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Correspondence to Gari Blumberg.
Declaration of competing interests
AM and EK conceived of the study. AM, AK and EK designed the study together. Data was collected by AK and EK and the analysis of the data was carried out by all five authors. Statistical analysis was performed by AK and JY. GB wrote the paper with help from AM, AK, JY and EK. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Matalon, A., Kotliroff, A., Blumberg, G. et al. Non-specific symptoms as clues to changes in emotional well-being. BMC Fam Pract 12, 77 (2011) doi:10.1186/1471-2296-12-77
non-specific symptoms

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Nokia brand has finally been embraced by the U.S. carriers, as Verizon and Cricket announced recently that they will offer two affordable Android smartphones to their customers. Nokia 2V and Nokia 3.1 are cheap, but they're not the cheapest Nokia-branded smartphones that you can find; that title belongs to the Nokia 1, a device that made its debut on the market back in April.
Although Nokia 1 will probably remain the cheapest Android smartphone launched by the Finnish company, it will soon receive a bigger brother – the Nokia 1 Plus. Unlike the Nokia which sports a 4.5-inch display, the Nokia 1 Plus has a bigger 5-inch screen with a better resolution.
The specs list also mentions the same amount of memory, 1GB RAM, and a very cheap, but slightly better, MediaTek processor. There's one other thing that differentiates the Nokia 1 Plus from its predecessor, it will run Android 9 Pie Go Edition, whereas the Nokia 1 is powered by Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition, the previous generation of Google's mobile OS.
Thanks to a picture that has just been leaked online, we also know that Nokia 1 Plus is quite different design-wise. Nokia dropped the rounded frames in favor of a more traditional rectangular shape.
We have yet to learn anything about the Nokia 1 Plus' availability and pricing, but we suspect it will be officially introduced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in later February, so we won't have to wait that long for that piece of information.
What are the specs in the specs list that you had trouble listing here??
I bought the Nokia 1 because at 4.5 inches it was the smallest Android device I could buy. Not because it was dirt cheap. It's slower than my 6 years old Sony Xperia with Android 4, but at least it's up to date. Making it bigger doesn't make it better. At 5 inches, the price is its only quality. We need something the size of the Iphone SE. That would be a bomb.


Chat & Chew is a health study group, sharing talents and resources to achieve health. This meeting features Dr. Monica Aggarwal of the University of Florida Medical School via Skype. For more information contact 54321health@gmail.com. See the full 2017-18 schedule.


Although a GPS unit is designed to help a person find one's location, the owner of a GPS unit, and the State Police, want to know where it is.
Trooper Warner reported that a series of thefts occurred at Cove Point Lane in Lake Township, between 10 p.m., October 21 and 10 the next morning. Unknown persons entered an unlocked red Subaru in the victim's driveway and removed a Magellan Roadmate 1212 GPS unit.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Honesdale barracks at 253-7126.


With fossil fuels ever on the decline, modern environmentally friendly electric heating is on the up. Local family firm Northwest Heating Solutions is expanding and has moved from their Chester base into bigger premises to near-by Ellesmere Port. The way forward for all of us is clean renewable energy and highly efficient heating systems according to boss David Lukeman. No longer are homeowners prepared to put up with old technology and high running costs. Our German made heating system grows in popularity and we have taken on extra staff to cope with demand. Much of the work we carry out is for customers in apartments and when we install for one customer the word quickly spreads. Our energy efficient radiators come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours and are much slimmer than the old bulky inefficient ones that we replace – they are much safer too. Our system is compatible with solar panels and so can cost buttons to run, we have a smart app too so that people can remotely set heating for holiday homes from miles away. Generally fitted in just one day, this electric heating system is smart, clean and efficient. It could just be the solution that is right for your home?


text:
Die Kreisgrabenanlage Glöthe ist eine Kreisgrabenanlage der jungneolithischen Baalberger Kultur bei Glöthe, einem Ortsteil von Staßfurt im Salzlandkreis, Sachsen-Anhalt.

Forschungsgeschichte
Die Anlage wurde bei einer Luftbildprospektion des Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt entdeckt. 2005 erfolgte eine Probegrabung durch das Institut für Kunstgeschichte und Archäologien Europas der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg unter der Leitung von André Spatzier. Die Grabung erfolgte auf einer Fläche von 23 × 11,5 m im nördlichen Bereich der Anlage.

Befunde
Die Anlage besteht aus einem Doppelgraben und hat einen Gesamtdurchmesser von etwa 140 m. Sie besitzt im Osten eine Öffnung, die auf den 1,8 km entfernten Wartenberg weist. Beide Gräben wurden als Sohlgräben angelegt. Der äußere hat eine Tiefe zwischen 0,85 m und 1,05 m und eine Breite zwischen 2,30 m und 2,60 m. Der innere hat eine Tiefe zwischen 0,90 m und 1,00 m und eine Breite zwischen 2,40 m und 3,20 m. Beide Gräben waren mit Humus verfüllt, unmittelbar über der Sohle auch mit einem Lehm-Erde-Gemisch. In den Verfüllungen von beiden Gräben war Material eingelagert, dass ursprünglich von einem zwischen ihnen aufgeschütteten Wall stammte.

Funde
An Funden traten Knochenfragmente, Silexartefakte und Keramikscherben zutage. Aus letzteren konnten ein oder zwei Trichterrandschalen sowie eine Schale mit unter dem Rand verlaufendem Fingertupfendekor rekonstruiert werden.

Datierung
Mittels Radiokarbonmethode konnten einige der Kochen auf 3660–3370 cal. BC datiert werden. Hierdurch, sowie durch die Keramik kann die Kreisgrabenanlage der Spätphase der Baalberger Kultur zugeordnet werden.

Literatur
 Ralf Schwarz: Pilotstudien – Zwölf Jahre Luftbildarchäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2003, ISBN 3-910010-72-5.
 André Spatzier: Kreisgrabenanlagen des 4.-1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. in Mitteldeutschland. Vorbericht zu den Grabungen 2005 in Sachsen-Anhalt. In: Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt. N. F. Band 6, 2012, S. 71–89 (Online).
 André Spatzier: Nach Bandkeramik und Lengyel – Kreisgrabenanlagen in Sachsen-Anhalt und Mitteleuropa vom Jungneolithikum bis zur frühen Eisenzeit. In: François Bertemes, Harald Meller (Hrsg.): Neolithische Kreisgrabenanlagen in Europa. Internationale Arbeitstagung in Goseck (Sachsen-Anhalt) 7.–9. Mai 2004 (= Tagungen des Landsmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle. Band 8) Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Halle (Saale) 2012, ISBN 978-3-939414-33-9, S. 363–388 (Online).

Weblinks
 Uni Halle: Grabungen des Jahres 2005

Glothe
Bauwerk in Staßfurt
Baalberger Kultur
Glothe
Erbaut im 4. Jahrtausend v. Chr.
Geographie (Staßfurt)
Archäologischer Fundplatz in Europa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


IDSC began servicing food processing plants in 1990. When IDSC originally opened its doors it had one part time employee. In 2004 IDSC incorporated and at that time acquired minority status. In 2010 IDSC gained national minority status through WBENC, the largest 3rd-party certifying agency. In an economic environment where companies are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs IDSC quickly grew. We have expanded to a primary warehouse and office in Illinois and a secondary warehouse in Missouri. Our staff has also expanded to include a full sales staff. Many companies are currently receiving benefits on a variety of levels for incorporating diversity suppliers for a share of their purchasing dollars. While IDSC grew in many ways we have maintained low overhead without reducing our quality and promptness of service. Our goal has been to provide quality products, accurate shipping and invoicing, timely delivery, all while maintaining personal service.
While representing nationally recognized vendors we have since expanded from food processing plants to other large organizations requiring janitorial supplies, paper products, maintenance goods, PPE, along with a variety of other products.
Our website is an overview of the many kinds of products we sell. It is by no means meant to be all inclusive. If you don't see a product or line you are looking for on our site please contact us for a quote. We are constantly adding new suppliers and merchandise to fulfill the needs of our customers.
Illinois Distributors Supply, Inc is a nationally registered minority business enterprise.


text:
National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls: Hours, fees and info
National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls NY
Gallery: National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls NY
By Charley Hannagan | channagan@syracuse.com
Seneca Falls is a landmark for women's history and one of its jewels is the non-profit National Women's Hall of Fame. The stories of the hall's inductees celebrate the accomplishments of distinguished American women from women's rights pioneers Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Stephanie Kwolek, who invented Kevlar and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The hall founded in 1969 is currently located in an old bank building where two stately columns and a blue door mark its entrance on Fall Street. It packs a lot of information about its more than 250 inductees into 4,000 square feet of space. You'll learn about inspiring American women, alive and dead, who made contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science. The hall is in the midst of a $25 million project to create a Center for Great Women in the 170-year-old Seneca Knitting Mill. The limestone building on a canal spur in Seneca Falls will have 16,000 square-feet for the hall of fame, museum and educational programs. The hall should be able to move into the building's first floor at the end of 2016, with all four floors built out and occupied by the end of 2018.
76 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, NY 13148
January through March the hall is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday and is closed on Sunday and Monday.
April through December the hall is open Sunday through Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. It is closed Sundays.
The gallery exhibit and gift shop are closed in January and on major holidays. Hours are subject to change. Call ahead for information on group reservations of 15 or more people at 315-568-8060.
Adults: $4
Students and seniors (65-plus): $3
Families: $8
Members and age 5 and younger: Free
Two-hour on street parking is available for visitors. Parking is also available in a municipal lot behind the hall. The lot can be accessed by entrances on State and Cayuga Streets.
Induction weekend is held the first weekend of October.
For more information about the National Women's Hall of Fame, visit the museum's official website. For more information about things to do in Seneca Falls, visit our Seneca Falls page. For more information about museums in Upstate New York, visit our museums page.


Book Publishing in the 21st Century.
Copyright © 1991, 1993, 1996 by J. Neil Schulman. All rights reserved.
"Informational Property: Logorights" was published in The Journal of Social and Biological Structures, JAI Press, 1990.
Copyright © 1983, 1989 by J. Neil Schulman.
Foreword copyright © 1996 by J. Neil Schulman.
All materials created for SoftServ Publishing Services, Inc., copyright © 1996 by J. Neil Schulman.
Volume 2 compilation copyright © 1996 by J. Neil Schulman, and non-exclusive reproduction rights of writings drawn from the SoftServ RoundTable assigned back to their respective authors.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner except in the case of quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This edition has been previewed using Netscape Navigator® Version 3.0. Optimal results will be achieved using Netscape Navigator® to read this book. Users of Microsoft Windows® Version 3.1 might need to download the file Nullsock.Zip from Pulpless.Comtm to enable offline use of your web browser. Microsoft Windows95® and Apple Macintosh® users will find that their web browser is already functional while offline. Unix users should rename ".htm" file extensions ".html."
The rights to all previously published materials by J. Neil Schulman are owned by the author, and are claimed both under existing copyright laws and natural logorights. The usage rights granted to readers of this paperless booktm are limited by the License Agreement.
Author photograph of J. Neil Schulman by Kevin Merrill.
Appendix 1: "Here Come the Paperless Books!"
Appendix 2: "Informational Property: Logorights"
It was periodically augmented and updated.
SoftServ Paperless Bookstore BBS was opened.
New books published on SoftServ by Cadenza Communications, Inc.
File included in downloaded paperless books.
"Paperless Books" by J. Neil Schulman, President of SoftServ Publishing.
A general introduction to paperless book publishing.
Introduction to The SoftServ Toolkit.
Documentation on SoftServ's "Digital Signatures"
represents a discussion topic in that category.
What you are about to read is a set of paradoxes. It is a book which talks about the future but which takes place in the past. So, it will perhaps be of as much interest to those who are interested in the history of "paperless" book publishing as it is to those who are interested in its future.
In my writings, I've been a fairly good prophet on a number of things, but, interestingly, I never managed to predict the two specific forms of electronic book distribution which I have primarly used in my two ventures. In my novel, The Rainbow Cadenza, completed at the end of 1981, I have scenes where my heroine, Joan Darris, reads books on discs using a handheld reader. I show her purchasing one of these discs in a store called "Civilization And Its DisContents"--which I still think is a pretty funny play on the title of Freud's seminal essay.
But it never occurred to me in 1981 that she might bypass retail distribution completely by downloading the book directly onto the reader.
Further, when I was writing the business plan for my first paperless publishing venture, SoftServ Publishing, it never crossed my mind that the Internet would become in only a few short years a network which, by allowing commercial ventures, would drive the existing dial-up computer networks and bulletin-board systems into near extinction--and solve every formatting, software, and distribution problem which was making my first entry into paperless publishing a personal financial disaster.
When I finally closed the "doors" on SoftServ, I knew that all I had to do was wait a few years and the problems I'd been facing would solve themselves. And I did, and they did, and here you are reading this.
In spite of its never breaking even, much less showing a profit, I consider SoftServ Publishing to be a complete success in testing the "paperless book" concept, and proving it viable. In looking back at what we all accomplished, I am all the more impressed. We had a good list of books written by impressive authors such as Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Robert Anton Wilson--and two authors you'll recognize from their participation in Pulpless.Comtm, Victor Koman and Keith Kirts.
We did a good deal of market research on the problems that need to be solved to make paperless editions attractive to book readers. We discovered a lot about the special needs of the visually impaired.
We had our share of controversies, headaches, and heartaches. But, overall, we had an awful lot of fun.
Book Publishing in the 21st Century appeared once in an earlier electronic edition from SoftServ. That edition used an early hypertext program called DART to read it. DART worked only on MS-DOS systems, had no ability to integrate graphics into text, had no font controls, and was extremely difficult to understand.
Perhaps we on the World Wide Web may still feel like we are in the age of the Model-T sometimes, but at least we have paved roads and vehicles that run more than they break down. In the days of SoftServ, we were driving on potholed, dirt roads, and we had to get out and push every few miles.
This new edition includes not just the original course I taught via computer conferencing for Connected Education/The New School, but I'm also including, in a second volume, some of the vital history of SoftServ.
The first resource in Volume II contains almost a four megabyte plaintext database with all the public discussions of the SoftServ Bulletin Board in the SoftServ RoundTable on GEnie -- the General Electric Network for Information Exchange. GEnie was the most economical computer network for its time--averaging half the costs of its best competitor of the time, CompuServe--and I believe it is the only network that could have made what we did at time as successful as it was. In this collection of computer messages, archived by category and topic, you will find discussions not only directly on subjects relating to SoftServ and electronic publishing, but also to a wide range of topics -- everything from literature to politics to what you should snack on while reading a paperless book. In here you'll find article-length essays by myself, Victor Koman, James Audlin, Paul Levinson, Keith Kirts, and other pioneers of this medium.
The second volume also contains the final version of the SoftServ Toolkit, the set of resource files we distributed to publishers, authors, media, and any customers who were interested in learning more about what we were doing.
Finally, I have selected the best Real-Time Conferences from the weekly conferences we held each week on GEnie--on such topics as literature, the causes of AIDS, cyberspace, literacy, guns, and discordianism, with such authors as Robert Anton Wilson, L. Neil Smith, Victor Koman, and Jon Rappoport.
All these files in Volume II are plaintext. You can read them using your web browser (there's no HTML coding so it will just give you the text as it appears) or load them into any word processor or text editor to read them or print them out -- just like in the old days.
It will become apparent, if you choose to wade through Volume II, how many people spent a good deal of their imagination and lives to make SoftServ an exciting expedition into the future. I certainly wasn't able to thank them by making money for them, so let me now take this opportunity to thank all of our publishers, authors, and supporters, with particular thanks to Victor Koman and Kate O'Neal, who served with me as officers of the corporation and were always there for the dirty work (they're still with us -- Victor's new meganovel Kings of the High Frontiers is one of our biggest sellers and you can hear Kate singing the Pulpless.Comtm radio jingle on our website); Paul Levinson, James Audlin, Keith Kirts, and Nick Dotson--who gave freely of themselves to authors and customers alike ... and to everyone from GEnie who participated in discussions in the SoftServ RoundTable.
We made history, guys ... and here's my chance to begin showing the world just what we accomplished.
On April 1, 1991, I began teaching a class for The New School in New York which ended in June, 1991. The title of the class was "Book Publishing in the 21st Century." The class was part of a Master's program in Media Studies, and students ranged from a vice president with the largest book publisher on the east coast, to TV and radio news executives, to a computer company sales executive going for an MBA. All of the students lived in the New York area.
I was living in Hollywood at the time I taught the course, and never left Los Angeles for its duration.
What resolved this seeming paradox is that the class was taught via a computer conferencing program which Connected Education, Inc., of New York City ran under contract to The New School. I sat at my computer and dialed up a computer in New Jersey via modem, and so did the students. The "classroom" was a computer messaging system. I left messages for the students; they left messages for me.
Book Publishing in the 21st Century is the record of my course material--the messages I left for the students. My comments from the class are verbatim. In the following presentation, I have fictionalized names and comments of the students to protect their privacy and comply with Fair Usage provisions of the copyright laws.
In my course material, I tried to ask what the impact of computer communications will be on the print publishing industry. I utilized my experience as founder and president of SoftServ Publishing Services, Inc. (now defunct), which was the first company to offer a line of books by major authors via modem and on computer floppy disk. I included as part of the course my original business plan for SoftServ, and additional articles of mine related to the course topics.
If you want to know whether the book you buy in the twenty- first century will be bound and printed--or as text which you read from a pocket-size electronic screen--this paperless book will clue you in.
You are the only member active.
No items have been written.
of java before we started ... then got lost on the way back.
want.  But leave the brownies back in the cafe where they belong.
I'm supposed to be on a diet.
to pretend that we are.
a mystery to me -- and who are God Knows Where reading this.
something physical that you hold in your hands?
years now.  I have been selling what I call "paperless books"
the text to their liking and print it out before reading it.
of book publication and distribution during the 21st Century.
published in both hardcover and paperback by major publishers.
special thrill at seeing my books on the shelves of libraries.
have been spent with a book in my hand than anything else.
incorporeal "thing" which an author writes and a reader reads.
for me, is taking down the Berlin Wall of "retail marketing"
Roberts Connected Education Library (+LIBRARY).
Connect Ed library as +nopapro.
printed books in the marketplace.
an artifact as "real" as a physical bound book.
to a deeper and more practical discussion of the subject.
experience compares to reading a traditional bound book.
introductions from each of you, and any initial questions you have.
Do I "see" any "hands"?
Go to Lesson Seven: "Paperless Books".
some considerable updating as well.  So I decided to upload it here.
think will address some of the comments you all have been making.
interested in reading that composed Work.
little mediation between them as possible.
to have it unceasingly available to all Readers who desire it.
painlessly as possible, whenever and wherever desired.
closely approach the ideals of both Authors and Readers.
not of the carriage but of the horse.
racetrack and at the riding academy.
So it will be, I expect, with "Paperless Books."
surely as did the Horseless Carriage, and for the same reasons.
better than bound books at getting Works from Author to Reader.
their times, in the largest quantity and lowest price possible.
judged is by their covers.
what editors wish to buy for publication.
it comes to creating display space for a book.
Retailers consider book-purchasing largely an impulse "buy"
as a remainder unprofitable to either publisher or author.
payment to publishers for another month.
denominator to sell at mass-market quantities.
not few units of many products.
packaging sell it on the shelf.
products already available, and selling them as "just as good."
customer will know where to find it.
what books are publishable today.
on celebrity books, movie and television tie-ins, "formula"
risk is almost never taken.
By rule four, literary invention is an undesirable risk.
warehousing, and (for paperbacks) destruction.
production--because the acquiring editor has left the company.
electronic media are, for all practical purposes, unlimited.
Storage costs approach zero: about $1.00 per Work, period.
Manufacturing cost before placing a title on sale: $0.00.
modem in somewhat more minutes--but minutes nonetheless.
while every order can be filled as if it were a special order.
destroyed copies.  We can reduce inventory to one copy per title.
can make it available in all marketable categories.
the same profitability as one title selling very well.
publication approaches its being a non-existent market feature.
retailer) can approach that of hardcovers.
to describe in twenty words or less.
brilliant--which is often the case.
to sell one the wrong year, tough luck.
received by the author who created it.
they are likely the only ones who'll show up.
bestseller list is a Shangri-La, never to be found.
to make a full-time living out of writing.
Work on which an electronic bookseller can't take a chance.
of a Work, leaving only crumbs for the Author.
marketing and electronic dissemination services.
will be free to contract elsewhere for these services.
their client's Works for electronic publication.
authors are held back as "reserve against returns."
returns" because there will be no returns.
packaging, and promotion of the Work.
Author's Problem 5: Little or no advertising for the Work.
Author's Problem 6: Few reviews of a Work.
such as GEnie and Compuserve.
question, "How did I ever put up with it?"
I know you just saw the author on TV, but--"
"We don't have it in yet."
"The library only has one copy, and it's out."
"We just sent all our copies back to the warehouse."
"It's out of stock at the distributor."
"We only have volumes two and three of the trilogy."
"It's out of print from the publisher."
"I haven't seen a copy of that for years."
library to carry that book."
Student Council to be racist or sexist."
"We burn books like that!"
off all telephone service or banning computers and modems.
unavailability: many hardcover books never sell to paperback.
Works available electronically a year before the first printing.
storable on one compact disk.
Reader's Problem 6: Shipping weight of books when moving.
Solution: Take the shoebox (or CD) with you when you move.
Reader's Problem 7: Small type.
Reader's Problem 8: Difficulty of replacing worn-out copies.
onto a permanent medium such as CD-ROM will store it permanently.
it ready for the creation of a new printed copy at will.
in a book, or a particular scene, or a character.
Reading Dysfunctions, or English-language difficulties.
have a voice synthesizer read them aloud.   Or just the latter.
in determining which Works are worth purchase.
media then selling them to book publishers.
VI. Why Hasn't It Happened Yet?
standard that can universally integrate text and graphics.
outweigh its disadvantages are, however, visible on the horizon.
America and Europe by the end of 1991.
prepared to pay for their use.
package to be engineered and marketed.
and bulletin-board systems, both nationally and internationally.
to read on the plane than the in-flight magazine.
"DOWNLOAD," and the screen tells you "READY TO SEND."
you want to apply your points to frequent-flyer miles.
your pocket, and head for your plane.
buy a pack of chewing gum.  It costs you another $2.95.
you'd have to choose from at the airport newsstand today, no?
[This article is updated from "Here Come the Paperless Books,"
Go to About The Author.


text:
Images By Tang Ming Tung / Getty Images
Getting America Back to Work Safely, Now
Commentary | April 16, 2020
Dr. William J. Parker III
Keeping America safe from the coronavirus and getting America back to work are not diametrically opposed goals. In fact, returning U.S. citizens to work, with the right protective equipment and policies, is preferable to keeping everyone at home for an indefinite period.
Don't get me wrong; we are facing a very dangerous pandemic.[i] But, if handled correctly, we could infuse the national healthcare system with new money, new ideas and the resources needed to deal with the current pandemic, while preventing—or at least better preparing—for the next.
This virus will end only if one of the following occurs:
We find a vaccine;
Herd Immunity takes over—some 70-90 percent of the population is immune to the virus after vaccination or having survived infection; or
In 12-18 months or more, depending on containment and prophylactic practices, the curve fluctuates and eventually declines.
POLICY STEPS
In the meantime, the following nine policy recommendations provide a prescription to get the U.S. population back to work safely and effectively:
Step One: Test. We cannot determine rates of infection, transmission or mortality unless we test methodically, consistently and aggressively. Tests must be made available to corporations, government entities and of course, health care facilities.
Step Two: Collect data. All individuals who have contracted COVID 19 must be identified and entered into a central database. There is currently no way to know how many individuals have been infected, or have died from the disease.
Step Three: Return America to work. Those who have tested positive and are asymptomatic for three days or more should return to work. Anyone who has tested negative should also return to work. This goes with the caveat that workers must continue to be tested to ensure their health and the health of their co-workers and fellow commuters.
Step Four: Establish work groups of people who test negative. Healthy people, who test negative, can safely work together. Testing must be repeated frequently. As an example, if we test all patternmakers at John Deere and five of them test negative, those five individuals can go back to work as long as they meet only with others that have tested negative and are isolated from the rest of the population. Again, retesting workers regularly will ensure they do not infect their group.
Step Five: Establish work groups of people who have tested positive and are asymptomatic. All those individuals who test positive and are asymptomatic for at least three days can go back to work without concern of spreading the disease or being impacted themselves. Those individuals can go back to work as a separate herd or team.
Step Six: Those who should NOT return to work. Those individuals who have tested positive and are symptomatic should not go back to work. Untested individuals, or segments of the population with compromised immune systems that are extremely vulnerable to the negative impacts of the coronavirus should also not be allowed to return to work.
Step Seven: Rely on corporate America. With the right policies and laws in place, corporate American will determine how to bring their employees back to work safely and quickly. In addition, new federal law should state that businesses are not allowed to operate any store or company until appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided for every customer and employee. As customers and employees arrive at the front door, they should be handed a sealed plastic bag containing PPE.
This precaution should be strictly enforced. If PPE is not available, the individual should not be allowed to enter the premises. If the individual does enter without PPE, drastic, punitive actions should be taken, including forced closure and significant fines.
These measures significantly protect other customers and workers, putting the onus on stores to take responsibility for mitigating safety issues. Some will argue that corporate America currently does not have access to enough masks and gloves. If it means the difference between re-opening their doors or staying closed, however, I am confident corporate America will either obtain or produce the right numbers and appropriate types of personal protective equipment for both their employees and customers.
The U.S. government should continue to do all it can to help ensure a domestic supply of PPE, produced in American factories.
Step Eight: Colored-coded PPE. Color codes would be helpful to identify expired PPE. This would work in a similar manner to how the Department of Motor Vehicles use color-coded stickers so that police can quickly identify who has expired registrations on their vehicles. With a nationally standardized color-coded system, expired masks and gowns could be immediately identified on sight.
Step Nine: Require everyone on mass transit to wear PPE. If commuters do not have the proper personal protective equipment they should not be allowed to utilize public transportation of any kind.
Similarly, office workers should be prevented access to their office spaces unless they have the right personal protective equipment.
If, on occasion, employees need to take off their personal protective gear momentarily, to be more comfortable—for example to eat or take a coffee break—there must be specially-designated areas and rules for removal, akin to those public areas now designated for smoking. This kind of precaution would soon become the norm. At the time of the initial institution, designated smoking areas were considered an invasion of personal rights, yet now, such smoking practices are a standard safety measure.
The successful enactment of these policy measures is contingent on the following hurdles:
The federal and state governments must provide the appropriate laws and policies in a timely manner, in order to get America back to work.
The nation must manufacture enough PPE.
PPE must be developed with built-in, color-coded expiration dates to ease the process of identifying those out of compliance.
The scientific community must continue its herculean efforts to develop a vaccine quickly. This is by far the most challenging and time-critical effort the country must focus on to control the pandemic. Historically, vaccine development takes years. The U.S. must continue to streamline the process, while ensuring that any vaccine produced is safe for dissemination.
Now is the time for the federal government to continue to set corporate America up for success by maximizing America's medical, artificial intelligence and computing capabilities.
[i] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the first COVID-19 case was detected in February of 2020. By mid-February, all 50 states and Washington, D.C. had positive cases, hence, demonstrating a high level of transmission (RO). RO (pronounced R-Naught) refers to the number of people one infected person can transmit the disease to. We use RO to determine how fast and how widely the disease will spread. Early studies show this to be significantly higher for COVID-19 than seasonal influenza. RO is not a fixed number and can be adjusted based on human intervention. According to CDC, early numbers (since a low percentage of the world population has been tested) show the mortality rate at 6.9 percent in week 14.
Navigating the Geopolitics of COVID-19 Around the Globe
Dr. Parker Discusses Policies for Returning Americans to Work on MSNBC
Our Pharmacists Can Help Get Us All Back to Work
Kawa Hassan Talks to EL MUNDO on How ISIS Benefits from Coronavirus Spread in Iraq
Dr. Parker Discusses Strategies for Containing Spread of Coronavirus on Cowboy Logic Radio
When Do We Dial Back the Coronavirus Red Alert?


text:
Q: Async Ping PingComplete only in Console firing I ran into a problem with a async ping. The static methode should send 10 pings to the network. After that the waiter is waiting until all answers are there. I decrement the activepings in the PingComplete methode.
public static List<string> Scanner()
{
    PingOptions Opt = new PingOptions(1, true);
    byte[] pingdata = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("abababababababababababababababab");
    SpinWait waiter = new SpinWait();

    for (int i = 10; i <= 20; i++)
    {
        Ping ping = new Ping();
        Ping.PingCompleted += Complete;
        lock (l)
        {
            activepings++;
        }

        ping.SendAsync(192.168.0. + i, 2000, pingdata, Opt);
    }

    while (activepings > 0)
    {
        waiter.SpinOnce();
    }
}

Here is the event-methode:
private static void Complete(object s, PingCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    lock (l)
    {
        activepings -= 1;
    }
}

If I call this methode in a normal console application it works great. But in a WPF or WinForms application the PingComplete event never fires. I have no idea whats wrong here. No response mean i am hanging all the time at my waiter.
EDIT:
Solved it similar to the postet problem. Started the code in a Thread like this: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/LIBRARY/7a2f3ay4%28v=vs.90%29. Working fine. Thanks for helping!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Susan Byrne, Ficino in Spain. U of Toronto P, 2015. 364 pp.
With Ficino in Spain Susan Byrne has made a long overdue intervention in the "purist, all Spanish approach" to intellectual—and therefore, literary— history of Spain. Her revision covers four major centuries, 1500-1900, and a broad range of disciplines: theology, astrology, political philosophy, mysticism, medicine, magic and poetry (both verse and prose). In this groundbreaking study, Byrne combines meticulous research into the textual and circulation history of Ficino's texts with equally attentive close-readings and analysis of the ways in which his writing and thought were transposed, reiterated and reimagined by Spanish authors. Byrne illuminates the Ficinian presence in authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, Francisco Aldana, John of the Cross, Luis de León and Juan de Pineda in such a way that she both augments the scholarly understandings of the Italian philosopher, and creates new hermeneutical insights into Spanish Golden Age authors. Due to the dearth of true comparatist studies of this kind focused on the Spanish context, Byrne's study will be difficult to situate within intellectual and literary discourse on early modern Spanish Letters. Her study is and should be viewed as an exemplary and pioneering work which resituates the motley culture of Renaissance and Baroque Spain within a comparative European context. She opens a door which consistently has been closed by hegemonic readings of this period through the historiography of a strictly Counter-Reformation—often deceptively modern—and Nationalistic perspective.
Bryne's study is divided into six chapters which document and examine Ficinian texts from ownership and readership through authorship and influence. Chapter 1 undertakes the nearly quixotic challenge of cataloguing and studying the holdings in Spanish libraries of texts by Ficino or related to Ficinian readership. In chapter 2 Byrne examines the ways in which several of the Ficinian texts chronicled in chapter 1 appeared either in direct citation or in reformulations by Spanish authors. Chapters 3 and 4 expand the Ficinian corpus to Hermes Tirsmegistus and other Neoplatonic texts which were inextricably woven into the fabric of Ficinian thought. Chapter 5 more closely examines Ficino as a figure in the Spanish imagination, frequently allied with the creative faculties of the poet in important thinkers such as Juan Huarte de San Huan and Lopez Pinciano, both of whom have been noted for their remarkable influence on Cervantes. Chapter 6 augments the core [End Page 523] of this study by exploring the place of Ficino's Neoplatonism in the development of political philosophy in Spain. In doing so, Byrne implicitly recovers a historiography which nuances and complicates the standard approaches to the Spanish empire and its articulation as a historical phenomenon. Of remarkable breadth and depth, Byrne frequently surmounts the unappreciated challenge of writing on an author whose range of influence demands an interdisciplinarity which few contemporary scholars have demonstrated.


SPORTS MINISTER Shamfa Cudjoe says Special Olympic TT athletes who participated in the recent games in Abu Dhabi will be rewarded for each medal.
During a post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Cudjoe said each athlete would be rewarded $12,000 for gold medals, $6,000 for silver medals and $3,000 for bronze medals.
She said Cabinet had taken the decision to include Special Olympics athletes in the national sports policy's athletes incentive programme.
The athletes' medal haul at the Special Olympics World Games was 57 medals – 19 gold, 15 silver and 23 bronze.
This amounts to a reward payout of $387,000.
Cudjoe said, "Cabinet would have made a decision today to include the Special Olympics in the incentive and reward framework, so these athletes will now be rewarded for each medal."
The Sports Minister said the new incentive is something other countries have started doing. "This is a new development not just for TT, but for the rest of the world because so far we know of roughly three other countries that have now established giving these incentives for Special Olympics and those are India, Pakistan and Seychelles."
Cudjoe said encouraging special athletes is part of the Ministry's participation policy.
"We have decided to join (the rewards policy drive) and to offer the necessary incentives to inspire and encourage these young people with these special abilities to participate in sport. It is a part of our total participation in sport policy and we intend to continue to work closely with the Special Olympics Committee of TT to get more people of all abilities to participate in sport in TT."