text:
How to tell your parents they can't drive anymore
Posted: Jul 21, 2016 / 07:41 PM MDT / Updated: Jul 21, 2016 / 07:42 PM MDT
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A hit-and-run crash that left a 14-year-old boy dead in Denver might have been prevented had the driver's family stepped in to get help. That's the opinion of an expert who deals with elderly drivers and their families.
Pat Livingston, 81, is accused of hitting Cole Sukle as he stood on the sidewalk and bike lane on July 13. She had another hit-and-run accident just months earlier.
"It's very, very sad," said Tara of Broomfield.
She didn't want to reveal her last name to maintain her father's privacy. She can relate to the difficulty of seeing her 85-year-old dad's driving ability diminish.
"Just a little bit slow on the reactions, maybe not seeing everything he should be seeing with bikes and things," she said.
She was so concerned, she hired a company that does driving assessments for senior citizens, Pro31 Safe Senior Driver in Fort Collins.
She's grateful for its work and recommendation that her dad give up driving.
"That's the thing you always fear is that not only will they hurt themselves, but hurt someone else," she said. "You fear it most because you don't want someone to get hurt because you didn't tell your parent, 'Maybe you shouldn't be driving.'"
"We do senior driving assessments in the comfort and privacy of the driver's home," said Jill Couch, an occupational therapist with the business.
Over three hours, Couch has an elderly driver do several pen-and-paper memory tests and puzzles, like getting through a maze, which should take less than a minute.
In one example, a driver took more than three minutes — and didn't complete it correctly.
"From this we have a good idea there are some serious questions about driving safety," she said.
The assessment also includes a driving exercise in their own car, on streets they're familiar with, in which the assessor looks at things like the senior's strength and stamina in maneuvering a car.
Do they have good neck motion to look for blind spots? Do their feet have enough sensation to tell the difference between the brake and gas pedals?
Tara said during her dad's driving exercise, he pulled out into the middle lane of a road instead of the closest lane — twice.
"A truck was coming and he pulled in front of the truck," she said.
The truck had to honk and move out of the lane.
"I believe he was in shock about it. He didn't anticipate it. He was very confident in his ability to drive," Tara said about the recommendation Pro31 gave her dad. "It's difficult because you're kind of taking on this role of being the protector that your parents did all of those years for you."
She also said hanging up the keys has affected his social life.
"This is his livelihood. This is a sense of pride for him," she said.
Now, he's getting the hang of public transportation. But it's not so easy.
"I know he's lonely. I need to come up with things to help him with that," Tara said.
If Pro31 Safe Senior Driver recommends a driver retire from driving, it steps in to find transportation alternatives to keep the senior engaged with his community.
Pro31 also said signs to look for that your parents shouldn't be driving include difficulty problem solving; a faulty memory — perhaps they tell the same story over and over; frequent falls; and dents and scratches on their car and garage.
'We're deeply disappointed by this deterioration': Union says no progress made with King Soopers
Colorado had a 20-year record number of fatal crashes in 2021
Data Desk / 7 hours ago
Lawsuit seeks to remove Colorado clerk accused of election fraud
Sexual abuse victim files suit 22 years later thanks to new Colorado law
Local News / 1 day ago


text:
Q: jQuery image doesn't .explode I'm working on adding some very basic jQuery to my website.  I want to explode an image of some balloons when it's clicked.  I tried adding a height to the section as suggested in the answer to another question but it still doesn't work...
Other effects I try on it, like fadeOut, work fine...
Please help!
script.js:
//fadeIn blue flower
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#blue_flower').hide().fadeIn('slow');
});

//fadeOut clover
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $('#four_leaf_clover').click(function(){
        $(this).fadeOut('slow');
    });
});

//explode baloons
$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#balloons').click(function(){
        $(this).hide("explode", {pieces:16}, 5000);
    });
});

index.html:
<!DOCTYPE html>

<title>Website Design and Development by Melanie Martin</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="author" content="Melanie Martin" />
<meta name="description" content="Content based website design and development services." />
<meta name="keywords" content="webstie design, web design, web development, kansas city, Melanie Martin" />

<link rel="stylesheet" href="baseline.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="template.css" type="text/css" />

Woohoo!  You made it here!

Hooray!  You found the site where Melanie shows off all her cool projects and recent freelance work!  Take a look around the site and let us know what you think.

Melanie Offers Freelance Services in a Variety of Areas

Website Design

Melanie specializes in content centered design.  Nothing is more important than the message you want to convey to your visitors.  That's why she starts with your articles and images and builds a custom website around them.  The site is just the pretty packaging that shows off all your cool stuff.

Social Media Integration

Add social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble, Reddit and others to your site to increase traffic and make the most of your advertising budget.  Social media also gets your visitors involved and benefits your search engine ranking.

Website Redesign

An outdated site can put visitors off and give your company a poor image.  Melanie recommends taking a fresh look at your current site at least once every three years.  Sometimes an entire redesign is needed but often just a little "face lift" can get you the results you need.

Website Maintenance & Monitoring

Melanie offers solutions for all your web needs. When you don't have the time or desire to update content, deal with host issues like setting up users and email addresses, and monitor your sites traffic, she can customize a plan to take care of it for you. There's no need to worry because she can cover it all.

Free Consultations

Consultations are always free.  Whether it's a large or small project doesn't matter just give us a shout and we'll give you free advice, recommendations, or estimates.

template.css:
/*Cork Background*/
html {
background:tan;
background-image:url(images/corkboard.jpg);
min-width:1100px;
max-width:1400px;
padding:none;
margin:none;
border:none;
}

@font-face {
font-family: popstarAutograph;
src: url(popstarAutograph.otf);
}

h2 {
font-family:popstarAutograph;
font-weight:bold;
}
#DryErase .oi {
font-family:popstarAutograph;
font-weight:bold;
color:navy;
font-size:2em;
line-height:1.125;
}

/*Cork Board Area*/
#CorkBoard {
float:left;
width:33%;
min-width:325px;
}
#CorkBoard .oi {
min-height:+VALUE;
margin:+VALUE;
padding:+VALUE;
background:VALUE;
border:VALUE;
}
#CorkBoard img {
margin:20px;
}
#business_card {
float:right;
}
#html5_badge {
margin:100px 0 0 0;
}
#blue_flower {
height:130px;
width:100px;
float:right;
}
#four_leaf_clover {
height:30px;
width:25px;
float:left;
}
section #balloons{
height:500px;
width:350px;
border:5px solid;/*added for debugging*/
}
#balloons img{
height:200px;
width:175px;
float:right;
border:5px solid;/*added for debugging*/
}

/*Post-it and Dry Erase Board*/
#DryEraseArea {
float:right;
width:66%;
min-width:720px;
}
#DryEraseArea .oi {
min-height:+VALUE;
margin:+VALUE;
padding:+VALUE;
background:VALUE;
}
/*Dry Erase Post-it Menu*/
#PostIt {
float:VALUE;
min-width:720px;
height:140px;
max-height:140px;
}
#PostIt .oi {
min-height:+VALUE;
margin:+VALUE;
padding:+VALUE;
background:plum;
}
.post-it img {
height:140px;
width:;
float:left;
}
#pink_post-it img {
margin-left:20px;
margin-top:;
}

/*Dry Erase Board Area */
#DryErase {
float:VALUE;
}
#DryErase .oi {
min-height:+VALUE;
margin-top:-42px;
padding:25px 35px 35px 35px;
background:white;
border-radius:15px;
border:VALUE;
}
/*Contact Page*/
#contactpostit {
width:150px;
float:right;
}

/*Projects Page*/
#projects {
margin:0 25px 0 25px;
}
#projects img{
vertical-align:text-top;
margin:-35px 10px 75px 10px;
width:250px;
}

/*Contact*/
#contact #contactpostit {
float:right;
margin:45px 15px 15px 15px;
width:150px;
}

/*Footer*/
footer {
float:VALUE;
width:100%;
min-width:VALUE;
max-width:VALUE;
}
footer .oi {
min-height:+VALUE;
margin:+VALUE;
padding:+VALUE;
background:VALUE;
clear:both;
}

A: Like several other hide effects, you need jQuery UI to add the explode effect:
Add this to your script tags:

See jQuery UI effects.

A: I made a jquery plugin for exploding image. It uses canvas for effecting.
https://github.com/blackmiaool/jquery-image-explode
And its source code here:  (recommend browsing it on github)

//github https://github.com/blackmiaool/jquery-image-explode
(function ($) {
    "use strict";
    const wrapperName = "explode-wrapper";
    if(!$){
        console.error("jQuery is needed.");
        return;
    }
    $.fn.explodeRestore = function () {
        this.each(function () { //explode separately
            const $dom = $(this);
            const wrapper = $dom.prop(wrapperName);
            if (wrapper) {
                wrapper.replaceWith($dom);
                $dom.prop(wrapperName, null);
            }
        });
    };
    $.fn.explode = function (opt) {
        if (!opt || typeof opt !== "object") {
            opt = {};
        }

        const {
            minWidth = 3,
                omitLastLine = false,
                radius = 80,
                minRadius = 0,
                release = true,
                fadeTime = 300,
                recycle = true,
                recycleDelay = 500,
                fill = true,
                explodeTime = 300,
                maxAngle = 360,
                gravity = 0,
                round = false,
                groundDistance = 400,
                ignoreCompelete = false,
                land=true,
                checkOutBound,
                finish,
        } = opt;

        let {
            maxWidth
        } = opt;

        const $target = this;
        let $targetImage;
        const args = arguments;
        if ($target.length > 1) { //explode separately
            $target.each(function () {
                const $dom = $(this);
                $dom.explode.apply($dom, args);
            });
            return;
        } else if (!$target.length) {
            return;
        }

        if ($target.prop("tagName") === "IMG") {
            if (!$target.prop("complete")) {

                $target.on("load", function () {
                    $target.explode.apply($target, args);
                });
                return;
            }
            $targetImage = $target;
        } else if ($target.css("backgroundImage") !== "none") {

            const src = $target.css("backgroundImage").match(/url\(\"([\S\s]*)\"\)/)[1];
            $targetImage = $("", {
                src
            });
            if (!opt.ignoreCompelete) {
                $targetImage.on("load", function () {
                    opt.ignoreCompelete = true;
                    $target.explode.apply($target, [opt]);
                });
                return;
            }
        }

        const w = $target.width();
        const h = $target.height();
        const minorDimension = Math.min(w, h);
        const radiusData = getRadiusData();

        const ctxWidth = Math.max(w, radius * 2);
        const ctxHeight = Math.max(h, radius * 2, groundDistance * 2);
        if (!maxWidth) {
            maxWidth = minorDimension / 4;
        }
        const $wrapper = $("

", {
            "class": wrapperName,
        });
        const syncStyles = ["width", "height", "margin-top", "margin-right", "margin-bottom", "margin-left", "position", "top", "right", "bottom", "left", "float", "display"];
        syncStyles.forEach((v) => {
            $wrapper.css(v, $target.css(v));
        });
        //        $wrapper.css("background-color", "black");
        if ($wrapper.css("position") === "static") {
            $wrapper.css("position", "relative");
        }

        const startRatio = 0.3;

        //generate rags' body
        const rags = generateRags();
        getRagsFinalState();

        const $canvas = $("<canvas></canvas>");

        //standard canvas, to draw the ideal target
        const $canvas0 = $("<canvas></canvas>");
        $canvas0.css({
            width: w,
            height: h,
        });
        $canvas0.attr({
            width: w,
            height: h,
        });

        $canvas.css({
            position: "absolute",
            left: (w - ctxWidth) / 2,
            right: (w - ctxWidth) / 2,
            top: (h - ctxHeight) / 2,
            bottom: (h - ctxHeight) / 2,
            margin: "auto",
            width: ctxWidth,
            height: ctxHeight,
        });
        $canvas.attr({
            width: ctxWidth,
            height: ctxHeight,
        });

        $wrapper.append($canvas);

        const ctx = $canvas[0].getContext("2d");
        const ctx0 = $canvas0[0].getContext("2d");

        const {
            naturalWidth,
            naturalHeight
        } = $targetImage?$targetImage[0]:{};
        if ($target.prop("tagName") === "IMG") {
            ctx0.drawImage($targetImage[0], 0, 0, naturalWidth, naturalHeight, 0, 0, w, h);
        } else if ($target.css("backgroundImage") !== "none") {
            let dx = 0,
                dy = 0,
                dWidth = naturalWidth,
                dHeight = naturalHeight;
            let config = {
                'background-repeat': $target.css("background-repeat"),
                "background-size": $target.css("background-size"),
                'background-position-x': $target.css("background-position-x"),
                'background-position-y': $target.css("background-position-y"),
            }

            function warn(key) {
                console.warn(`Unsupported ${key} style:${config[key]}`);
            }
            const ratioW = w / naturalWidth;
            const ratioH = h / naturalHeight;

            if (config["background-size"] === "cover") {
                const ratio = Math.max(ratioW, ratioH);

                dWidth = naturalWidth * ratio;
                dHeight = naturalHeight * ratio;
            } else if (config["background-size"] === "contain") {
                const ratio = Math.min(ratioW, ratioH);

                dWidth = naturalWidth * ratio;
                dHeight = naturalHeight * ratio;
            } else {
                warn("background-size");

            }
            dx = parseInt(config['background-position-x']) / 100 * (w - dWidth);
            dy = parseInt(config['background-position-y']) / 100 * (h - dHeight);

            if (config["background-repeat"] === "repeat") {
                for (var i = 0 - Math.ceil(dx / dWidth); i < w / dWidth + Math.ceil(-dx / dWidth); i++) {
                    for (var j = 0 - Math.ceil(dy / dHeight); j < h / dHeight + Math.ceil(-dy / dHeight); j++) {
                        ctx0.drawImage($targetImage[0], 0, 0, naturalWidth, naturalHeight, dx + i * dWidth, dy + j * dHeight, dWidth, dHeight);
                    }
                }
            } else if (config["background-repeat"] === 'no-repeat') {
                ctx0.drawImage($targetImage[0], 0, 0, naturalWidth, naturalHeight, dx, dy, dWidth, dHeight);
            } else {
                warn("background-repeat");
            }

        } else if ($target.css("backgroundColor") !== "rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)") {
            ctx0.fillStyle = $target.css("backgroundColor");
            ctx0.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
        } else {
            console.warn("There's nothing to explode.");
        }

        const scaleX = 1;
        const scaleY = 1;
        rags.forEach((rag) => {
            const {
                left,
                top,
                width: ragWidth,
                height: ragHeight,
            } = rag;

            rag.naturalParams = [left, top, ragWidth, ragHeight];

        });

        $target.after($wrapper);
        $target.prop(wrapperName, $wrapper);
        $target.detach();

        let biasVy = 0;

        explode(function () {
            if (release) {
                doRelease();
            } else if (recycle) {
                doRecycle();
            }else{
                finish&&finish();
            }
        });

        function doRelease(cb) {
            const startTime = Date.now();
            let leftCnt = rags.length;

            rags.forEach((rag) => {
                rag.time1 = 1000 / (rag.ratio * (maxWidth + 1 - rag.width) / maxWidth + 0.1);
                rag.time2 = rag.time1 + fadeTime;
            });
            draw();

            function draw() {
                const time = Date.now();
                const duration = time - startTime;

                ctx.clearRect(0, 0, ctxWidth, ctxHeight);

                rags.forEach((rag) => {
                    ctx.save();
                    const {
                        width: ragWidth,
                        height: ragHeight,
                    } = rag;

                    ctx.translate(rag.biasx, rag.biasy);

                    ctx.rotate(rag.lastAngle || rag.finalAngleRad);

                    if (round) {
                        ctx.beginPath();
                        ctx.arc(0, 0, ragWidth / 2, 0, Math.PI * 2, false);
                        ctx.closePath();
                        ctx.clip();
                    }
                    let alpha;
                    if (duration < rag.time1) {
                        alpha = 1;
                    } else if (duration > rag.time2) {
                        alpha = 0;
                    } else {
                        alpha = 1 - (duration - rag.time1) / fadeTime;
                    }
                    if (alpha === 0 && !rag.released) {
                        rag.released = true;
                        leftCnt--;
                    }
                    ctx.globalAlpha = alpha;
                    ctx.drawImage($canvas0[0], rag.left, rag.top, rag.width, rag.height, -ragWidth / 2, -ragHeight / 2, ragWidth, ragHeight);
                    ctx.restore();
                });
                if (!leftCnt) {
                    cb && cb();
                } else {
                    window.requestAnimationFrame(draw);
                }
            }
        }

        function doRecycle() {
            setTimeout(function () {
                explode(function () {
                    $target.explodeRestore();
                }, true);
            }, recycleDelay);

        }

        function explode(cb, reverse) {
            const startTime = Date.now();
            let lastTime = startTime;
            let leftCnt = rags.length;

            if (!reverse) {
                rags.forEach((rag) => {
                    rag.vx = rag.translateX / explodeTime * 1000;
                    rag.vy = rag.translateY / explodeTime * 1000;

                    rag.biasx = rag.translateX0;
                    rag.biasy = rag.translateY0;
                    if (gravity) {
                        rag.transYMax = ctxHeight / 2 + groundDistance - rag.height / 2;
                    }

                });
            }

            draw();

            function draw() {
                const time = Date.now();
                let ratio;
                let angleRatio;
                ratio = (time - lastTime) / 1000;
                angleRatio = (time - startTime) / explodeTime;
                if (reverse) {
                    angleRatio = 1 - angleRatio;
                }
                if (gravity) {
                    biasVy += (gravity * ratio) * 300;
                } else {
                    if (angleRatio > 1 || angleRatio < 0) {
                        cb && cb();
                        return;
                    }
                    ratio *= Math.cos(angleRatio * Math.PI / 2) * Math.PI / 2;
                }
                if (reverse) {
                    ratio = -ratio;
                }
                lastTime = time;
                ctx.clearRect(0, 0, ctxWidth, ctxHeight);
                rags.forEach((rag) => {
                    ctx.save();
                    const {
                        width: ragWidth,
                        height: ragHeight,
                    } = rag;

                    if (!rag.land) {
                        rag.biasx += rag.vx * ratio;
                        rag.biasy += (rag.vy + biasVy) * ratio;

                        if (gravity) {
                            if (checkOutBound && checkOutBound(rag)
                                || rag.biasy > rag.transYMax
                               || rag.biasy < rag.height/2) {
                                leftCnt--;
                                rag.land = true;
                                rag.lastAngle = rag.finalAngleRad * angleRatio;

                                if(land){
                                    rag.biasy = gravity>0?rag.transYMax:rag.height/2;
                                }else{
                                    rag.biasy=rag.transYMax*2;//hide
                                }
                            }

                        }
                    }

                    ctx.translate(rag.biasx, rag.biasy);

                    if (rag.lastAngle) {
                        ctx.rotate(rag.lastAngle);
                    } else {
                        ctx.rotate(rag.finalAngleRad * angleRatio);
                    }

                    if (round) {
                        ctx.beginPath();
                        ctx.arc(0, 0, ragWidth / 2, 0, Math.PI * 2, false);
                        ctx.closePath();
                        ctx.clip();
                    }

                    ctx.drawImage($canvas0[0], rag.left, rag.top, rag.width, rag.height, -ragWidth / 2, -ragHeight / 2, ragWidth, ragHeight);
                    ctx.restore();
                });
                if (gravity && !leftCnt) {
                    cb();
                } else {
                    window.requestAnimationFrame(draw);
                }
            }
        }

        function random(min, max) {
            return parseInt(Math.random() * (max + 1 - min), 10) + min;
        }

        //generate final position and angle of rags
        function getRagsFinalState() {
            rags.forEach((v, i) => {
                const finalAngle = (((Math.random() * maxAngle * 2) - maxAngle) / ((Math.random() + 2) * v.width)) * 10;

                //coordinate based on center point
                let x = v.left + v.width / 2 - w / 2;
                let y = v.top + v.width / 2 - h / 2;

                if (x === 0) {
                    x = i % 2 ? -1 : 1;
                }
                if (y === 0) {
                    y = (i % 4 < 2) ? -1 : 1;
                }

                const distance = Math.sqrt(x * x + y * y);

                let ratio = ((1 - startRatio) * (1 - (v.width - minWidth) / (maxWidth - minWidth)) + startRatio) * Math.random();
                ratio = 1 - (1 - ratio) * (1 - minRadius / radius);

                const finalDistance = (radius - distance) * ratio + distance;
                const distanceSquare = distance * distance;

                const attach = {
                    finalDistance,
                    ratio,
                    x,
                    y,
                    distance,
                    translateX: (finalDistance - distance) * Math.sqrt((distanceSquare - y * y) / (distanceSquare)) * (x > 0 ? 1 : -1),
                    translateY: (finalDistance - distance) * Math.sqrt((distanceSquare - x * x) / (distanceSquare)) * (y > 0 ? 1 : -1),
                    translateX0: (ctxWidth - w) / 2 + v.left + v.width / 2,
                    translateY0: (ctxHeight - h) / 2 + v.top + v.height / 2,
                    finalAngle,
                    finalAngleRad: finalAngle * (Math.PI / 180),
                };

                for (let i in attach) {
                    v[i] = attach[i];
                }

            });
        }
        //generate inital position and dimension of rags
        //rewrite it to fit for you demand
        function generateRags() {
            let rowCnt;
            const base = [[0, 1], [1, 1], [1, 0], [0, 0]];
            if (omitLastLine) {
                rowCnt = Math.floor(h / maxWidth);
            } else {
                rowCnt = Math.ceil(h / maxWidth);
            }

            const rags = [];

            const noRadius = radiusData.every(function (v) {
                return v === 0
            });

            for (let row = 0; row < rowCnt; row++) {
                generateRow(row);
            }

            function isInner(x, y) {
                if (x < radiusData[0] && y > h - radiusData[0] ||
                    x > w - radiusData[1] && y > h - radiusData[1] ||
                    x > w - radiusData[2] && y < radiusData[2] ||
                    x < radiusData[3] && y < radiusData[3]) {
                    return false;
                }
                return true;
            }

            function distanceLessThan(x1, y1, x2, y2, d) {
                return (x1 - x2) * (x1 - x2) + (y1 - y2) * (y1 - y2) < d * d;
            }

            function tryPushRag({
                left,
                top,
                width,
                height
            }) {
                const x = left + width / 2;
                const y = h - top - height / 2;

                if (noRadius || isInner(x, y) || radiusData.some(function (v, i) {
                        return distanceLessThan(x, y, base[i][0] * w + 2 * (0.5 - base[i][0]) * v, base[i][1] * h + 2 * (0.5 - base[i][1]) * v, v);
                    })) {
                    rags.push({
                        left,
                        top,
                        width,
                        height
                    });
                }
            }

            function generateRow(row) {
                let rowSum = 0;
                const topBase = row * maxWidth;

                function generate(width) {
                    const left = rowSum;
                    rowSum += width;
                    tryPushRag({
                        left,
                        top: topBase,
                        width,
                        height: width,
                    });
                    if (fill) {
                        for (let i = 1; i < parseInt(maxWidth / width); i++) {
                            tryPushRag({
                                left,
                                top: topBase + i * width,
                                width,
                                height: width,
                            });
                        }
                    }
                }
                let width;
                do {
                    if (width) {
                        generate(width);
                    }
                    width = random(minWidth, maxWidth);
                } while (w > rowSum + width);
                if (w - rowSum >= minWidth) {
                    generate(w - rowSum);
                }
            }
            rags.sort(function (rag1, rag2) {

                return Math.random() > 0.5 ? 1 : -1;
            });

            return rags;
        }
        //get an array of 4 corners of radius
        function getRadiusData() {
            let ret = ["border-top-left-radius", "border-top-right-radius", "border-bottom-right-radius", "border-bottom-left-radius"];
            const width = $target.width();
            ret = ret.map(function (key) {
                let radius = $target.css(key);
                if (radius.match(/px$/)) {
                    return radius.match(/^\d+/)[0] * 1;
                } else if (radius.match(/%$/)) {
                    return radius.match(/^\d+/)[0] / 100 * width;
                }
                return radius;
            });
            ret = ret.map(function (radius) {
                if (radius > width / 2) {
                    radius = width / 2
                }
                return radius;
            });
            return ret;
        }
    };
})(window.jQuery);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Download/ Politics
The Ryan reverberations
By CommonWealth Staff	Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan, Washington D.C.	0 Comments Apr 12, 2018
Wednesday was just another day in the nation's capital. Which is to say that the president seemed increasingly unhinged and the chaos and fear that he has unleashed within his own party prompted the most powerful member of the House to announce he's throwing in the towel and going home.
Paul Ryan says his decision to give up the Speaker's post was prompted by a wish to spend more time with his family in Wisconsin. It seems more driven by his wish to escape the dysfunctional family that his party now resembles and the increasing chances that its erratic leader in the White House may cause the House to flip to Democratic control.
Of the going-home-to-be-with-my-family line, the Herald's Joe Battenfeld writes, "if you believe that, we have some moldy cheese from Wisconsin to sell you."
For Massachusetts members of Congress, the convulsions on Capitol Hill are anything but upsetting. As CommonWealth's Bruce Mohl writes, a Democratic takeover of the House following this fall's midterm elections would catapult lots of the state's all-Democratic delegation from the wilderness to key positions of power. "From a Democratic perspective, it's all good," Rep. Michael Capuano tells him.
Rep. Richard Neal of Springfield would be poised to become chairman of the budget-writing Ways & Means Committee. Rep. Jim McGovern of Worcester would be in line to helm the powerful Rules Committee. Capuano, a 10-term veteran from Somerville, and Rep. Steve Lynch of South Boston would likely snag key subcommittee chairmanships.
Capuano may be right that the news is all good for Democrats in the bigger scheme of things. But his side's rise in polls seems to have as much to do with how unpopular Trump as it does with a fervent embrace of the Democratic Party, which is struggling to figure out its message going forward and to find leaders who will be effective in carrying it.
In that way, the Ryan news could elevate intraparty tensions on both sides of the aisle. The debate over whether Nancy Pelosi is the best flag-bearer for House Democrats is one thing when it's a fight over who stands as the House minority leader that Republicans regularly steamroll. Ryan's announcement — and the prospect of a Democratic House takeover that helped prompt it — lends more urgency to the question of Democratic leadership and who would be best to take the gavel as Speaker.
With some Republicans running and fundraising on an "anti-Pelosi message," there may be fresh calls within the Democratic caucus to replace her now, writes the Herald's Kimberly Atkins. But some Democratic wise-guys tell Atkins that Rep. Seth Moulton and others who have been itching to ditch the 78-year-old Pelosi would do well to hold pat and let the focus be on Republican infighting.
"The Democrats would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," Democratic strategist Jim Manley says of any move against Pelosi before the November election.
The arguments that the party needs fresh, younger leadership are also butting up against a wave of interest in women candidates — and respect for those like Pelosi who have blazed a trail for them.
Should Pelosi go?, Jim Braude asked Jesse Mermell, former communications director for Gov. Deval Patrick, last night on WGBH's Greater Boston. "I'm quite genuinely undecided," said Mermell, who has championed both women and younger people stepping up in politics.
Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez unveiled the House's budget proposal, which calls for more State Police oversight and rebuffs Gov. Charlie Baker's Medicaid plan. (Boston Globe) Ballot questions on the November ballot, primarily the millionaire tax and a proposed reduction in the sales tax, could complicate the budget math. (MassLive) Sanchez rejected an MBTA proposal to let some 200 workers continue being paid with capital funds, which added an extra $27 million to the T's delicately balanced fiscal 2019 budget. But the House leader solved the problem, at least temporarily, by giving the T an extra $27 million in its legislative appropriation. (CommonWealth) The House budget ups spending on inmate re-entry programs. (CommonWealth)
The Senate passed a law regulating student loan servicers that could run afoul of federal law. (MassLive)
A Lowell Sun editorial urged the Legislature to remove its statutory exemption from the state's Public Records Law.
A screw-up by the Department of Revenue caused letters with personal information about 6,100 individuals who owe child support to be sent to the wrong addresses. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
With reelection now behind him, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh hands out fat raises to top City Hall aides. (Boston Herald)
Brockton City Councilor Winthrop Farwell says he has no problem with marijuana shops coming to the City of Champions, but says it's important that city officials handle the issue deliberatively. (The Enterprise)
Boston approves new zoning regulations for pot shops that would allow them to open in any area of the city. (Boston Globe)
Colman M. Herman weighs in on the Yawkey Way controversy, saying even Jersey Street (the proposed rename) has negative connotations the further you go back. (CommonWealth) A city hearing that was scheduled for this morning to decide on the name change has been postponed, at the request of the Red Sox, until April 26. (Boston Herald)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Alan Dershowitz has become a favored whisperer to President Trump, thanks to his criticism of the special counsel, but he insists that the president isn't a legal client. (Boston Globe)
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, who came into office promising to pass no restrictions on gun ownership, signed gun control legislation on the steps of the state house as gun advocates yelled traitor. (WBUR)
A Pennsylvania school district is equipping teachers with small baseball bats to use if confronted with an active shooter, prompting ridicule as well as some support. (New York Times)
Mark Zuckerberg's apology before Congress rang hollow, says Dante Ramos. (Boston Globe)
House Speaker Paul Ryan's decision to step down at the end of this term is a destabilizing blow to Republican hopes for 2018 on almost every front. (New York Times) Time calls Ryan's departure a "dangerous moment" for the Republican Party.
At a Cape Cod debate, the three Democrats running for governor tried to distinguish themselves from one another. Jay Gonzalez stressed his experience working in the Patrick administration, Bob Massie portrayed himself as the true progressive in the race, and Setti Warren focused on his years as mayor of Newton and his concerns about income inequality. (Cape Cod Times)
Former Lowell mayor Bill Martin jumps into the already crowded race for the state Senate seat vacated by Eileen Donoghue, who took the job of Lowell city manager. (Lowell Sun)
Five candidates have signaled their intention to run against US Rep. Seth Moulton. (Salem News)
The Berkshire Museum sold its Norman Rockwell painting, "Shuffleton's Barbershop," to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is under construction in Los Angeles. The Rockwell painting will reside at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge temporarily. (Berkshire Eagle)
Former House speaker John Boehner and former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld join the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a major marijuana grower and dispenser. Boehner said his thinking on pot had evolved and both he and Weld said it was time for federal policy on marijuana to change. (WBUR)
Mark Erlich, the former head of the Carpenters Union, says 1099 Nation is spreading its tentacles everywhere. (CommonWealth)
Mt. Ida College turned down a deal two weeks ago that would have allowed the school to remain open by merging with nearby Lasell College. (Boston Globe)
CommonWealth interviews three young(ish) Turks at the MBTA who are part of an effort to change the "insular and slow-moving bureaucracy."
Uber CEO Dana Khosrowshahi signals a more conciliatory attitude in dealing with cities and transit agencies at an event in Washington, DC. (Governing)
Only four people turned out for a hearing in Billerica on the Lowell Regional Transit Authority's plan to hike fares, the first time the agency has increased them in 15 years. (Lowell Sun)
A Berkshire Eagle editorial laments the lack of state funding for the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority. The editorial said the Berkshires ships $30 to $35 million in transportation taxes to the state and gets back only about $2.5 million. Meanwhile, the Springfield City Council urges more state funds for the Pioneer Valley Regional Transit Authority. (MassLive)
Now that Sen. Eric Lesser has secured funding for a study of east-west rail, what's next? (Western Massachusetts Political Insight)
The Cape Cod Times ran a series of editorials on litter entitled Ashtray state and the Trashing of Cape Cod.
Gov. Charlie Baker says the winner of the offshore wind procurement will probably be announced in May. (South Coast Today)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A Fitchburg couple is being held without bail in connection with the death of their 6-year-old daughter. (Boston Herald)
CommonWealth Staff
The Boston Herald announced a number of appointments, including Tom Shattuck as the editor of the editorial page. (CommonWealth) Just who had been writing the editorials had been something of a mystery. (CommonWealth)
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham says fired radio host Tom Ashbrook's mea culpa, in the form of a Globe op-ed earlier this week, was not exactly…on point, and that he needs to apologize directly to those he worked with at WBUR "rather than to the people who had no idea what was going on."
Tagged in: Nancy Pelosi/ Paul Ryan/ Washington D.C.
‹ Boston Herald editorial page editor riddle answered The Ryan reverberations ›

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

App::uses('Component', 'Controller');

/**
 * Provides "Remember me" feature (via CookieAuthenticate) by listening to
 * to Controller.Users.adminLoginSuccessful event and creating the appropriate
 * cookie.
 *
 * PHP version 5
 *
 * @category Component
 * @package  Croogo.Acl.Controller.Component
 * @since    1.5
 * @author   Rachman Chavik <rchavik@xintesa.com>
 * @license  http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php The MIT License
 * @link     http://www.croogo.org
 */
class AclAutoLoginComponent extends Component {

/**
 * components
 */
	public $components = array(
		'Cookie',
		'Auth',
	);

/**
 * Controller instance
 */
	protected $_Controller;

/**
 * User Model to use (retrieved from AuthComponent)
 */
	protected $_userModel;

/**
 * Field setting (retrieved from AuthComponent)
 */
	protected $_fields;

/**
 * Constructor
 */
	public function __construct(ComponentCollection $collection, $settings = array()) {
		$settings = Hash::merge(array(
			'cookieName' => 'CAL',
		), $settings);
		return parent::__construct($collection, $settings);
	}

/**
 * Component startup
 */
	public function startup(Controller $controller) {
		$this->_Controller = $controller;
		$controller->getEventManager()->attach(
			array($this, 'onAdminLogoutSuccessful'),
			'Controller.Users.adminLogoutSuccessful'
		);

		// skip autologin when mcrypt is not available
		if (!function_exists('mcrypt_decrypt')) {
			return;
		}

		$this->Cookie->type('rijndael');

		$setting = $this->Auth->authenticate['all'];
		list(, $this->_userModel) = pluginSplit($setting['userModel']);
		$this->_fields = $setting['fields'];

		$controller->getEventManager()->attach(
			array($this, 'onAdminLoginSuccessful'),
			'Controller.Users.adminLoginSuccessful'
		);
	}

/**
 * Prepare cookie data based on request
 *
 * @return array cookie data
 */
	protected function _cookie($request) {
		$time = time();
		$username = $request->data[$this->_userModel][$this->_fields['username']];
		$data = json_encode(array(
			'hash' => $this->Auth->password($username . $time),
			'time' => $time,
			'username' => $username,
		));

		$mac = hash_hmac('sha256', $data, Configure::read('Security.salt'));
		return compact('mac', 'data');
	}

/**
 * Helper method to write autologin cookie
 *
 * @see CookieComponent::write()
 * @return void
 */
	protected function _writeCookie($key, $value = null, $encrypt = true, $expires = null) {
		$this->Cookie->name = $this->settings['cookieName'];
		$this->Cookie->write($key, $value, $encrypt, $expires);
	}

/**
 * Helper method to read autologin cookie
 *
 * @see CookieComponent::read()
 * @return string or null, value for specified key
 */
	protected function _readCookie($key = null) {
		$this->Cookie->name = $this->settings['cookieName'];
		return $this->Cookie->read($key);
	}

/**
 * Helper method to check autologin cookie
 *
 * @see CookieComponent::check()
 * @return boolean True if variable is there
 */
	protected function _checkCookie($key) {
		$this->Cookie->name = $this->settings['cookieName'];
		return $this->Cookie->check($key);
	}

/**
 * Helper method to delete autologin cookie
 *
 * @see CookieComponent::delete()
 * @return void
 */
	protected function _deleteCookie($key) {
		$this->Cookie->name = $this->settings['cookieName'];
		$this->Cookie->delete($key);
	}

/**
 * onAdminLoginSuccessful
 *
 * @return bool
 */
	public function onAdminLoginSuccessful($event) {
		$request = $event->subject->request;
		$remember = !empty($request->data[$this->_userModel]['remember']);
		$expires = Configure::read('Access Control.autoLoginDuration');
		if (strtotime($expires) === false) {
			$expires = '+1 week';
		}
		if ($request->is('post') && $remember) {
			$data = $this->_cookie($request);
			$this->_writeCookie($this->_userModel, $data, true, $expires);
		}
		return true;
	}

/**
 * onAdminLogoutSuccessful
 *
 * @return bool
 */
	public function onAdminLogoutSuccessful($event) {
		$this->_deleteCookie($this->_userModel);
		return true;
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


College. At Boston College, he worked with Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley on the Northwest Rural Innovation and Student Engagement (NW RISE) network project. This project, and specifically his work with ELA teachers participating in the network, informed his dissertation work on examining secondary students' language choices in authentic, community-based writing activities and the ways in which teachers collaborated to support student writing across rural contexts. His work with NW RISE also served as a key case for his work on collaborative professionalism, resulting in the publication of his book with Andy Hargreaves: Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning for All (Corwin Press).
and other educators. How are we considering teacher well-being, in addition to student well-being? How are we considering equity and diversity in school leadership opportunities? How do empirically-informed proposed educational change strategies impact schools and communities, especially those that have been historically or are currently marginalized? I have seen members of our field take up these issues in their work and I look forward to seeing how research evolves going forward.
This week, we share a cross-post from Sam Abrams, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, which initially appeared on the Center's website. Abrams was in San Juan last week to give a lecture on charter schools and vouchers at a symposium on governance hosted by the University of Puerto Rico Law School. While there, he learned about hearings for charter school proposals. The hearings, in fact, took place the same day as the symposium.
Puerto Rico is currently home to one charter school but may soon be home to 30 more, according to hearings held by the island's Department of Education on Friday, February 8.
The island's Education Reform Act, approved in March 2018 in the wake of Hurricane María, which wrought havoc the previous September, introduced charter schools as well as vouchers, with the stipulation that no more than 10 percent of schools could be charter schools and no more than 3 percent of students could attend private or non-district public schools with the use of vouchers.
In the first year following the Education Reform Act, one charter school opened: Vimenti, an elementary school in San Juan operated by the Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico.
According to an article published by Noticel,Vimenti started in August 2018 with a kindergarten and first grade, enrolling 58 students in total–31 of whom come from the neighborhood, 27 of whom come from nearby, and 13 of whom are classified for special education. The plan is to add one grade per year as students progress through school.
Supplementary funding for Vimenti, reported Noticel, comes from the Colibri Foundation, which donated $1 million, and the singer Marc Anthony, who gave $500,000.
In the hearings last week, the Department of Education considered proposals for four more charter schools in San Juan, five in Humacao, one in Bayamón, three in Caguas, six in Ponce, two in Arecibo, and nine in Mayaguez.
In contrast to Vimenti, these schools would not be new schools built one grade at a time but, rather, conversions from traditional schools to charter schools.
According to a school administrator with direct knowledge of the hearing process, it is expected that at least 13 of the proposed conversions will be approved for the 2019-2020 year while the remaining 17 will be approved for the 2020-2021 year.
For charter schools, the baseline for determining the 10 percent was the number of schools as of August 15, 2018, which means that if additional public schools across the island are closed, the proportion of charter schools could in time exceed 10 percent. The government of Puerto Rico closed nearly 25 percent of the island's schools following Hurricane María. Before the storm, there were 1,110 schools. A year later, according to a report by Education Week, there were 847.
Whether 14 schools or 31 in 2019-2020, the number of charter schools in Puerto Rico would mark striking growth. By comparison, Minnesota, the state that introduced charter schools with legislation in 1991, opened one charter school in 1992 and six more in 1993. By 2017, there were 164 charter schools across the state, enrolling 6.5 percent of the state's public school students.
Growth in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, however, sets the standard for the rapid increase in charter schools. Following the devastating storm in August 2005, charter schools replaced traditional public schools at a fast clip. Of the city's 87 schools today, all but one, McDonogh 35 Senior High, is a charter school. According to an article published in December 2018 by The Times-Picayune, McDonogh 35 will also soon be a charter school. The school is slated to assume charter status for the 2019-2020 year, making New Orleans the nation's first all-charter district.
While the response of New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina established a precedent for the response of Puerto Rico to Hurricane María, the impact on schools of Katrina and María differed substantially. María left Puerto Rico hobbled, but it did not leave an entire school system in ruins, as was the case in New Orleans, allowing the state to take over and dismiss all teachers to clear the way for the imposition of a largely charter system.
With the summary dismissal of all teachers in New Orleans, the teachers' union had little if any countervailing power. Teachers in Puerto Rico retained their jobs after María, and the presence of their union remained strong, constituting a significant obstacle to plans for a transformation of the island's school system akin to the overhaul in New Orleans.
Although charter schools and vouchers are new to Puerto Rico, the concept of alternative forms of public school management is not new. The island's Instituto Nueva Escuela (INE), in fact, sets the international standard for running neighborhood public Montessori schools.
INE, celebrated in a recent story published by El Nuevo Dia, comprises 44 schools across the island enrolling 14,600 students. Like conventional neighborhood public schools, schools in the INE network require no application. Unlike conventional neighborhood public schools, the schools in this network all employ the Montessori child-centered curriculum and get significant supplementary funding from foundations.
According to Ana María García, the founder and director of INE, the network spends 10 percent more per pupil–or $6,600 compared to $6,000.
García was pressured by the Department of Education, she said in an interview in San Juan last week, to transform INE into a charter network, but she refused, contending that fundamental to INE was the idea that the network's schools be open to all students in the neighborhood, without any application process. García prevailed.
In recognition of García's work, as El Nuevo Dia reported in a separate story, the American Montessori Society will be presenting García with its highest honor, its Living Legacy Award, at its annual meeting in March.
Mark Bray is Distinguished Chair Professor in Education at East China Normal University, Shanghai, and is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He began his career as a secondary school teacher in Kenya and Nigeria, and later joined universities in the United Kingdom and Papua New Guinea. He has long links with UNESCO, first as a consultant and then as Director of its International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). His decades of work at the University of Hong Kong commenced in 1986 (with four years of absence for the IIEP role), and in 2011 he was designated UNESCO Chair Professor in Comparative Education. Mark Bray has been President of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), the US-based Comparative & International Education Society (CIES), and the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). He has also played a major leadership role in the Board of Directors of the Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA). He can be reached at mbray@hku.hk.
countries as diverse as Dubai, Malta, Myanmar, Sudan, and Solomon Islands.
After the election of Victor Orban in 2010, Hungary saw a sharp turn towards nationalism. For many people there was a distinct sense of fear as nationalists routinely marched through the streets, espousing anti-roma and anti-semitic rhetoric. This atmosphere echoed the notion that "wars do not start with bullets – they start with words." Rather than retreat, there were those who started to reach out to talk to people with very different views from her own, asking them questions and striking up conversations. These conversations provided the foundation for what Maja Nenadović calls the Applied Debate program, an informal education workshop she developed, which aims to fight discrimination and depolarize communication.
These initial experiments began with a flexible approach, but broadly followed three basic aims. First, Applied Debate seeks to find a "lowest common denominator" between people engaged in a dialogue. Doing so allows them to see each other's humanity. Second, the dialogue aims to confuse, to create some uncertainty in thinking, though not as a way to "win" or assert one's own certainty. Instead, uncertainty acts as a productive point of engagement. Third, Applied Debate looks to understand, to see where people with such different views are coming from. Understanding does not mean accepting or compromising. Applied Debate views understanding as a way to both humanize and alleviate fear.
The program was first publically presented at the Qatar International Conference on Argumentation, Rhetoric, Debate and the Pedagogy of Empowerment. It was here that Nenadović outlined Applied Debate's basic plan. From here, it grew into wider conversations and a more specifically structured program. It has so far been taught with NGO's, student organizations, and at universities across over 20 countries.
Though Applied Debate differs from place to place, in general, participants engage in a 3-day seminar that explores rhetorical self-defense, demystifies hate speech, exercises sharing definitions (many misunderstandings come about from simply having different ideas of what things mean). Throughout, the activities and discussion address the polarization that permeates so much of life and work today, including education. Applied Debate's informal setting opens a unique space to depolarize discussions and confront issues like hate speech, which is rarely addressed in schools. At the same time, these programs are not educational workshops on how to win arguments or gain "rhetorical supremacy." If understanding is an ultimate aim, one cannot enter with a goal of winning. Yet, depolarizing is not the same thing as neutralizing. Building on that idea, instead of teaching a method for "beating the opposition," Applied Debate develops strategies for listening. In a similar vein, the workshops offer activities that interrogate stereotypes. Where common approaches to teaching about stereotypes is to shame or deny one's thinking, the Applied Debate program suggests that we can educate by identifying and engaging these ideas. While talking with participants from international education foundations in Hungary, for example, many wanted to examine their own biases but admitted that they were afraid of fueling the fires of polarization. They wanted to spend the seminar distancing themselves from hate speech and rhetoric. Yet, this tension is exactly the point. Applied Debate offers the opportunity to productively move out of one's echo chamber.
In many of the places where the workshop has occurred (from Colombia to Bosnia and Herzegovina), Applied Debate could easily fit into a school's curriculum. Yet, the program exclusively remains in informal education spaces. At issue is a broad conception that school is supposed to remain an apolitical, neutral space. Even in divisive political contexts, many people want to maintain the view school as a neutral space (often as a way of maintaining the current order). Meanwhile, Applied Debate directly takes on and brings up political beliefs. Of course, school is already a political space, and, what's more, students constantly encounter divisive political issues around the globe, whether it be online and somewhere else.
As more take note of it, the Applied Debate program continues expanding. Its developers and practitioners keep introducing workshops and developing the concept with those who practice discriminatory behavior and those impacted by discrimination. However, there have been a number of requests to expand the program or at least offer a manual so that others can run their own workshop. Although there are now plans to develop such a manual, this development raises the challenge of keeping the design highly localized. Education systems adhere to and reflect larger political structures, making it difficult to drop in this highly contextualized program. As a result, Applied Debate is intended to remain open and flexible, both to avoid creating a "script" that others have to follow and to encourage adaptions in both local languages and content. But, the enduring goal remains to create the conditions that support a renewed sense of agency in polarizing and isolating times.
Maja Nenadović developed the Applied Debate program. Nenadović is an experienced debate coach, public speaker, political consultant, researcher, human rights and advocacy trainer and identity de/construction educator. She holds a special affinity for challenging and transforming societal stereotypes through applied debate, "radical" empathy and dialogue as means of resolving miscommunication and conflicts – particularly amongst vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. As a global trainer and consultant with 18years experience, she has taught in more than 40 countries worldwide. Her recent work throughout Europe focuses on dealing with the rise of populism and extremism. Maja is one of the initiators of the Model International Criminal Court Western Balkans (MICC WeB), the project that brings together high school students and teachers from all over Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia to simulate war crime trials and learn about human rights and their violations, throughout history as well as in the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia. She is currently also working as the Anne Frank House coordinator of the EU-funded project 'Historija, Istorija, Povijest – Lessons for Today.' She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam.
Happy New Year to all our readers! Continuing an International Ed News tradition, we begin this year with a reflection on our posts and coverage of international education stories from the previous year. In 2018, our most popular posts included a two-part piece about the Luminos Fund's accelerated learning program in Liberia and Ethiopia, an article on the education system and out-of-school education in Singapore, and a post on the beginnings of Sesame Workshop's work with young children displaced by conflict in the Middle East.
On Twitter, our top Tweets covered stories ranging from Singapore abolishing school exam rankings to Macron's attempts to "fix" France's education system.
Looking at some of our statistics, IEN had visitors from 161 countries. Next to the United States, the majority of visitors came from Philippines, U.K., Singapore, and Australia. Other visitors came from Bahrain, South Africa, Turkey, and Canada. We covered stories on dozens of countries and five continents, focusing on everything from informal education programs to education policies.
In 2018, we continued our examination of educational improvement efforts in the U.S. with posts on ExpandED/TASC and Collective Impact.
Throughout the year, we scanned headlines around the world. Highlights of these roundups focused on examining the migrant caravan and a timeline of Trump's war on immigrant families. Given current news, we will certainly revisit these stories on IEN in 2019.
We also continued posting work from our colleagues and partners. Each month, we featured interviews from AERA Education Change SIG's Lead the Change series. Among other interviews, Lead the Change interviewed IEN co-founder Thomas Hatch. Additionally, we continued the Leading Futures series, including a post on Flip the System.
As we move into 2019, we look forward to continuing to share these ongoing pieces as well as many new posts from stories around the world.


Hearing Hearing difficulties in boys are usually first noticed around the age of ten. That is around the same time that they start to show signs of kidney disease. A hearing test (audiogram) at this time will reveal hearing loss for high-tones while the ability to hear lower frequency sounds is less affected. We need high frequency hearing to understand speech. Hearing aids are therefore a good idea, especially for school or college. Once hearing loss has started, it usually slowly worsens over a period of ten years or more. As hearing is normal at birth and during early childhood, speech develops normally. Overall hearing loss is moderate and it is unusual for an Alport patient to become completely deaf.
Kidneys One of the early signs of Alport Syndrome is having blood in the urine. In children, particularly boys, you can sometimes see the blood mixed into the urine. This occurs without any pain. At other times the blood is present but in such a small amount that it is invisible and only detected by a stick test, or by looking at the urine under a microscope. Urine tests may also find protein in the urine, and these urinary findings help doctors to consider the diagnosis. The abnormal urine tests occur long before there is any problem with kidney function.
Most men with Alport Syndrome develop kidney failure in their twenties or thirties. Women tend to develop hearing problems later than men and are less likely to get kidney failure, although both can still happen in later life.
Eyes Some people with Alport Syndrome also have eye problems. These are usually minor and easily treated. They tend to occur in adults rather than children, and rarely lead to problems with vision. Small white flecks can sometimes be seen in the eyes. These have no effect on vision but can help in the diagnosis of Alport Syndrome. In some Alport patients the lens of the eye becomes cone-shaped. If this becomes a problem, the lens can be replaced. This is like a cataract operation.
There is recent evidence that a simple treatment can slow down the disease in the kidneys. This is why it is now useful to make the diagnosis as early as possible. The treatment uses a well known type of medicine that lowers blood pressure, called an Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. It reduces scarring in the kidneys so that they last longer. Side effects are rare, and usually a dose and make of ACE inhibitor, or a related drug known as an Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) can be found that is acceptable for long term use.
Decline in kidney function is not noticed by a patient until very late in the course of the illness. This is why it is important to have regular health checks where the level of kidney function will be worked out from a simple blood test. Various lifestyle adjustments can then be made that are appropriate to the stage of kidney function. For example keeping good control of blood pressure, ensuring good nutrition and preventing anaemia can all help to maintain wellbeing.
Different Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are based on levels of kidney function, ranging from mild to severe. When a patient approaches severe kidney failure, preparations will be made for renal replacement treatment. This may consist of dialysis or transplantation. Patients with Alport Syndrome usually respond well to transplantation and the condition does not recur in the new kidney.
Action for Alport's aims to raise awareness and understanding of Alports, provide better care for patients, improve the future for sufferers and ultimately facilitate faster diagnosis and better management for those affected by this condition.
The first National Alport Family Support Day was held on 1st December 2012 in London. A report of the day can be found here.
The second Alport Syndrome Support Day was held in Edinburgh on Saturday 7th September 2013. Details can be found on the Alport pages of the EdRen site or downloaded here. To contact the Alport Patient Support Group please e-mail meetings@alport.info.
The 3rd National Alport Syndrome Information Day was held in Birmingham on Saturday 7th February 2015. Details about the day can be found on the Alport UK website or downloaded here.
Each kidney contains about a million tiny filters called glomeruli that filter the blood stream. During the filtering process, fluid passes through the glomerular basement membrane which is made up of a fine mesh of collagen fibres. In Alport Syndrome one of these fibres, Collagen IV, is either faulty or missing because there is an error in one of the genes responsible for its production. Without normal Collagen IV, the filtering membrane is weakened. The body attempts to repair the weakened filters, however, over time they become scarred and can no longer function. Kidney function will then decline.
Collagen IV is also essential in the inner ear in the Cochlear membrane. This transmits sound vibrations to the nerve sensors in the ear. The weakening of this membrane eventually leads to hearing loss.
Carriers are people who have one abnormal copy of the Alport gene, and another normal copy. Mothers of Alport boys, for example, are always carriers.
Women who carry the disease on one of their X chromosomes usually have no or only minor kidney trouble. Tests often show small amounts of blood, and sometimes protein in their urine. However some are unlucky enough to get more severe disease and develop kidney failure. The lifetime risk of getting significant kidney disease for women who carry Alport's may be as high as 20-30%, but most never get severe trouble, and those who do are usually much older than men who are affected.
The Alport Rare Disease Group (RDG) is working with international partners with the aim of finding new and improved treatments, and to empower patients. A first step is to compare the symptoms and genetic markers of Alports. To do this the RDG is registering patients with this condition in the National Renal Rare Disease Registry (RaDaR).The registry will be used to find suitable participants for future research trials into the effectiveness of new treatments. If you are interested in finding out more about the registry RaDaR or the activity of the RDG please visit the Alport RDG page.
The website of the Edingburgh Renal Unit (EdREN) contains a wealth of information on Alport Sydrome, including brief and detailed overviews of the condition, information on normal kidneys and Thin GBM disease, which is often related to Alport Syndrome.
There are two UK patient organisations. AlportUK is a patient charity, and Action for Alport's is an initiative to fund research run by Kidney Research UK. There are also a number of Facebook groups related to Alports, including Action for Alports in the UK and the Alport Syndrome Foundation in the USA.
The Kidney Patient Forum, designed for UK patients with all types of kidney disease, is also very good.


text:
Scheme Managers
Practice Administrators
We are proud to be working with some of the country's leading experts in wellbeing. Here you will find examples of case studies and testimonials.
Testimonials by Date
Testimonials by Category
Health Trainers
Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure
Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure reviewed its Exercise on Referral scheme in 2014, moving from a paper based referral system to a software solution from ReferAll, which specialises in software to enhance the efficiency of exercise referrals from healthcare...
Camden Sport and Activity Service
Camden Sport and Physical Activity Service has a goal to reduce health inequalities and support more vulnerable people in the community. As part of Camden Council they were also tasked with becoming more efficient so as to free up resources to invest in activity...
London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark has been running its Exercise Referral scheme for over a decade. Throughout this time, as an industry innovator, the local authority has constantly sought to find ways to develop and improve its service. In 2010, the council...
In 2012, ReferAll was tasked with creating a software hub to assist with the running of the Footsteps for Health service in Wandsworth. This umbrella service commissions lifestyle services for patients via GPs using a single form to refer their patients to a...
e sales@refer-all.net
e support@refer-all.net
Office 5, The Mill Building,
31-35 Chatsworth Road, Worthing,
West Sussex, BN11 1LY
© Refer-all Ltd 2019


text:
Sale Book (Sep 2010)
Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice, 2nd Edition
by Patricia Wolfe
Chapter 1. Opening the Black Box of the Brain
We've learned more about the brain and how it functions in the past three decades than in all of recorded history. What is largely responsible for this explosion of information? The answer lies primarily in improved technology. Many years ago, the only way brains could be studied was by the initially illegal method of autopsy. While studying the brain after death provided a fair amount of information—delineating the areas that allow us to produce and interpret speech, for example—it did little to increase our understanding of how information is processed and stored or why certain students have difficulty learning how to read. Today, imaging techniques allow us to look at the specific brain areas a person uses when recalling a noun versus a verb or when listening to music versus composing a song. We literally can look inside a brain and see which areas are most active while the person is engaged in various mental activities.
We literally can look inside a brain and see which areas are most active while the person is engaged in various mental activities.
The chronology of brain imaging includes many methodologies that, although older and more primitive, remain viable today. As mentioned, the first method was autopsy, which has been in use since the days of Leonardo da Vinci and is still useful. Scientists have learned a great deal about what causes Alzheimer's disease, for example, by studying the brain tissue of those who died of the disease. Scientists have also learned much about the link between structure and function of the brain by studying people who have had brain injuries, strokes, or other traumas.
Animal studies have long been used to increase our understanding of how the brain works. This is possible because all mammalian brains function in a similar manner. Even though many of the methods used with animals cannot be applied to human subjects, we will see in later chapters that these studies often are useful to increase our understanding of human brain functioning.
Early Brain-Imaging Techniques
Today, the black box of the brain is beginning to share its secrets. With the advent of brain-imaging techniques, scientists no longer have to rely on autopsies or injuries to view the brain. Various new forms of technology have greatly increased scientists' ability to see— and sometimes change—what is happening inside the brain. The first of these technologies was developed in the 1800s, but the past 20 years have seen an amazing advance in the sophistication of ways to image the inner functioning of the human brain.
The journey to the present "electronic age" of imaging techniques began with the development of the X-ray, discovered in 1895. X-rays are high-frequency electromagnetic waves that easily penetrate nonmetallic objects. When they do, the atoms in the test object absorb some of the radiation, leaving the unabsorbed portion to strike and expose a photographic plate. The more dense objects show up lighter on the plate, while the less dense objects look darker. Although this process works well if we want to see whether a bone is broken (or what objects you are carrying in your luggage at the airport), it is of little use in depicting the brain and other parts of the body that are largely composed of soft tissue with little contrast in density between areas.
Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) Scans
In the early 1970s, a technique was developed to increase the gradations in shades of gray from the approximately 25 of the normal X-ray to more than 200. This procedure is called computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanning. It uses X-ray technology but combines several two-dimensional images into a set of three-dimensional "slices." The images that result from a CAT scan look like a grayish X-ray but give a much clearer and more detailed picture of the brain. Neurologists and neurosurgeons routinely use these pictures to locate and determine the extent of tumors or lesions and the loss of tissue. As sophisticated and useful as they are, however, X-rays and CAT scans do not address the brain's function, which is the primary concern of those of us whose job it is to understand the learning process.
Monitoring the Brain's Energy Consumption
To understand how some of the newer imaging techniques work, we need a little background information on the brain's use of energy. Your brain is the "greediest" organ in the body; the resting brain uses oxygen and glucose at 10 times the rate of the rest of the body. Thus, even though the brain makes up less than 2.5 percent of total body weight, it is responsible for 20 percent of the body's energy consumption. The major sources of energy for the brain are oxygen and glucose, which is a simple carbohydrate. When certain areas of the brain are active, cells in those areas have a greater need for glucose and oxygen. Scientists realized that if they could trace the flow and consumption of either of these substances in the brain, they could determine which areas were working the hardest and therefore were responsible for certain actions. In the 1970s, scientists began working to develop instruments that could construct an image of the brain by measuring the emissions given off as oxygen and glucose were consumed (Posner & Raichle, 1997). Positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are two of the resulting brain-imaging methods.
The resting brain uses oxygen and glucose at 10 times the rate of the rest of the body.
Figure 1.1 shows a comparison of three images of a slice of brain obtained by CAT, PET, and MRI. Starting at 9 o'clock in the figure and moving clockwise are images obtained with standard photography, X-ray CAT, PET (most often created in color), and MRI.
Figure 1.1. Imaging Techniques
From Gregory, R. (Ed.). (1987). The Oxford companion to the mind. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 348. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.
PET is one of the most exciting advances in brain imaging. This technique allows scientists to picture the general anatomical areas that become active while a person performs various mental tasks. The subject is injected with a small amount of radioactive glucose, which the blood carries to the brain. The subject is then placed in a PET scanner and asked to engage in a series of mental activities such as listening to words, saying words, or thinking about words. For example, a subject might be given a noun and asked to generate a verb that he or she associates with that noun. The brain areas responsible for these various activities will use much more of the radioactive glucose than other areas. When this happens, the radioactive material emits antimatter particles called positrons, which collide with the brain's electrons and produce gamma rays. These gamma rays travel through the skull and can be detected by sensors surrounding the head. From this information, a computer constructs colored images (tomographs). The areas of highest glucose use—and, therefore, of greatest activity—show up in white, red, and yellow, while areas of lesser use appear as green, blue, and purple (Posner & Raichle, 1997). Figure 1.2 is an example of a PET scan of a normal brain.
Figure 1.2. PET Scan
Courtesy of Phototake, Inc. Used with permission.
PET does have several drawbacks. Because it requires the injection of a radioactive tracer, PET is seldom used with children, and even an adult is generally allowed only one scanning session (usually 12 scans) a year. Another drawback is that neurons fire in milliseconds, but it requires about 40 seconds to obtain the data necessary to build an image of activity with PET. Therefore, how long an area remains active and the sequence of the activation of neural networks are not captured with this methodology. Finally, while a PET scan gives an excellent picture of overall activity in the brain, it does not show the specific area in which the activity is occurring.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Technology
A large part of the human body is water, which is made of magnetically polarized molecules. An MRI takes advantage of the fact that the hydrogen atoms in the body's water can be made to behave like tiny magnets if they are placed in a strong magnetic field. A beam of radio waves fired from an MRI scanner will make the water molecules resonate and give off radio signals of their own. These waves are detected by sensors, and the information is then assembled into an image by a computer (Greenfield, 1997). The imaging of specific organs by this technique far surpasses the detail produced by CAT because the spatial resolution is much finer. In brain research, MRI is widely used to locate tumors and lesions or to identify other areas of abnormalities. Figure 1.3 is a typical MRI scan of a normal brain.
Figure 1.3. MRI Scan
Courtesy of Jennifer Kresge. Used with permission.
Figure 1.4 compares MRI and PET images of the same area of the brain. The MRI is on the left, and the PET scan is on the right.
Figure 1.4. Comparison of MRI and PET Scans
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Technology
fMRI is one of the newest brain-imaging techniques to address some of the shortcomings of PET and MRI scans. The primary goal of fMRI is to show not only structures of the brain but also neural activity. First used in England in 1986, fMRI scanning in the United States has expanded over the past few years, partly because MRI scanners now are widely available and partly because they are much less expensive than PET scanners.
fMRI works much like a standard MRI. The subject is asked to engage in an activity such as tapping a finger or listening to a sound. The parts of the brain that are responsible for these activities will cause certain neurons to fire. These neural impulses require energy, so more blood flows to these regions. The oxygen in the blood changes the magnetic field so that the radio signal emitted becomes more intense. The fMRI scanner detects and measures these changes in intensity and produces a computer image. By subtracting this image from an image of the brain at rest, the computer produces a detailed picture of the brain activity responsible for moving a finger or listening to a sound.
The scanner produces a rapid series of images, which results in a sort of brain activity "movie." The latest scanners can produce four images every second. The human brain reacts to a stimulus in about half a second, so the rapid scanning of fMRI can clearly show the ebb and flow of activity in various parts of the brain as it reacts to different stimuli or undertakes different tasks. A powerful fMRI can thus assemble a functional image of an entire brain in two to six seconds, compared with one minute for a PET scan. In addition, the fMRI can be repeated within seconds, while a PET takes nine minutes for the radiation to dissipate (Carter, 1998). fMRI is also less invasive than PET because it does not require the introduction of a radioactive substance into the body and can therefore be used with young children. Figure 1.5 is an fMRI scan of a normal brain showing motor activity of the left hand.
Figure 1.5. fMRI Scan
Even though the speed of fMRI scanning is impressive, this technique cannot capture the much faster fluctuations in electrical activity that occur as neurons communicate with one another. In order to follow the moment-to-moment changes in neuronal activity, scientists must turn to other methods, such as EEG.
EEG is an imaging tool that has been in use for more than half a century. It measures electrical patterns created by the oscillations of neurons. On an ongoing basis, even during sleep, these electrical signals are constantly flashing throughout the brain. Body tissues conduct electricity well, so sensors placed on the scalp can detect impulses passing from the brain through the skull and the scalp. The electroencephalograph amplifies the signals and records them on a monitor or paper chart. You are probably familiar with the term brain waves, which is the name given to these various patterns of electrical activity.
Brain-wave frequency is measured by recording the number of cycles or oscillations per second. The more oscillations that occur per second, the higher the frequency of the wave. During wakefulness, the waves are small and fast and are called beta waves. Oscillations at this highest frequency occur during attention (beta I waves) and intense mental activity (beta II waves). Alpha waves oscillate a bit more slowly and occur when we close our eyes and relax. When we become drowsy and enter into light sleep, the waves slow down even more and are called theta waves. Entering into deep sleep produces large, slow waves known as delta waves.
Electroencephalography has provided a valuable tool for both researchers and clinicians, especially in the fields of epilepsy and sleep physiology, but it is also used in education-related issues such as language processing. Paula Tallal, language expert at Rutgers University, has used EEG along with MRI to determine that children with normal language skills have "lopsided" brains; that is, the left hemisphere is larger and more active than the right. This finding makes sense, as we know that in most people the left hemisphere specializes in language processing and the production of speech. Tallal has discovered, however, that children with language disorders often have balanced brains, with both left and right hemispheres nearly equal in size and activity. She determined that the underpowered left hemisphere was not fast enough to adequately process language at normal speeds (Tallal, 2000).
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
The imaging technologies we have looked at thus far detail the structures of the brain or measure blood flow. MEG scanners work a little differently; they track the magnetic signals that neurons emit as they communicate. (Neurons produce a magnetic field every time they are active.) MEG scanners work in "real time" with no delay, contrary to PET scans, which take a second or two for blood flow to move in the brain. This type of scan allows scientists to study changes in the brain and determine which areas are active each millisecond. Since MEG scans do not show brain structures, combining them with other technologies—such as fMRI—increases their accuracy and reliability.
Event-Related Potential (ERP)
The data obtained from EEG technology are gross changes in state. For example, the data from EEG look much the same no matter what the person is doing: listening to music, reading, or watching TV. To detect more specific, fine-grained changes in mental activity, researchers sometimes use event-related potentials (ERPs). These signals are obtained by time-locking the recording of an EEG to a specific event, such as a subject reading a word, listening to a musical note, or viewing a photograph. In other words, raw EEG is made up of all brain activity recorded from the scalp at a particular point in time, while the ERP records a specific part of that activity.
Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)
SPECT is a brain-imaging technique similar to a PET scan. Both use radioactive tracers; however, in a PET scan the tracer is absorbed into the tissues, while SPECT tracers stay in the blood stream, limiting the images to the areas where blood flows. SPECT scans are less expensive than PET scans, but the resolution is less refined. They are often used to view how blood flows through arteries and veins in the brain and can detect reduced blood flow to injured sites.
Several newer imaging techniques promise to give us even more detailed pictures of the brain and how it functions. Among these are near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM). Multimodal imaging, which combines two or more techniques, is becoming increasingly popular.
Brain-imaging techniques have already been used to delineate the neural differences that exist between dyslexics and non-impaired readers (Shaywitz, 1999). Another area of great concern to parents and teachers, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hopefully will also become better understood through brain imaging. Early studies support the idea that an underlying neurological dysfunction is linked to the behaviors of children and adults with this disorder. Attempts to understand autism, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and other problems that affect students' school performance are the focus of numerous current neuroscientific studies.
Interpreting Brain Imaging for Educational Purposes
Will the day come when educators have ready access to brain-imaging machines to assist them in diagnosing reading or attention problems? It may not be too far-fetched to think so; but until that happens, our best bet is to educate ourselves about how these various methodologies work and to understand what they can and cannot do for us. Rarely does neuroscience prove that a particular classroom strategy works, but the information coming from the neurosciences certainly can provide a more informed basis for the decisions we make in our schools and classrooms.
For example, PET scans of a reader show that much more frontal lobe activity occurs when the subject reads silently than when he or she is reading aloud to others. Activity in the frontal lobes often indicates higher-level thinking. On the other hand, the scan of a student reading aloud glows brightly in the motor area of the brain that governs speech but shows little activity elsewhere. One way to interpret these scans is that comprehension is greater when one reads silently. Do these scans prove that students should never read aloud? Of course they don't. Armed with this information, however, teachers are able to make more informed decisions about how to balance silent and oral reading both to obtain diagnostic information on decoding problems and to enhance comprehension of what is being read.
Synapse Strengtheners
Skim back over this chapter, and then close the book and see if you can explain the major differences between a PET scan and an fMRI scan.
If you are reading this book as part of a study group, ask each person in the group to identify one common student learning problem and speculate which brain-imaging technique might provide the most information toward understanding the problem and why.
Using the scans in Figure 1.1, explain to someone unfamiliar with the processes how these images were obtained and what they show.
Explain how new brain-imaging techniques affect our thinking about educational practice but do not necessarily prove that certain strategies work.
Copyright © 2010 by ASCD. All rights reserved. No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or chapters, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD.
For photocopy, electronic and online access, and republication requests, go to the Copyright Clearance Center. Enter the book title within the "Get Permission" search field.
To translate this book, contact translations@ascd.org


text:
Correlated entanglement distillation and the structure of the set of undistillable states
Brandão, F. G. S. L. and Eisert, J. (2008) Correlated entanglement distillation and the structure of the set of undistillable states. Journal of Mathematical Physics, 49 (4). Art. No. 042102. ISSN 0022-2488. doi:10.1063/1.2888925. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160524-091208947
Use this Persistent URL to link to this item: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160524-091208947
We consider entanglement distillation under the assumption that the input states are allowed to be correlated among each other. We hence replace the usually considered independent and identically distributed hypothesis by the weaker assumption of merely having identical reductions. We find that whether a state is then distillable or not is only a property of these reductions, and not of the correlations that are present in the input state. This is shown by establishing an appealing relation between the set of copy-correlated undistillable states and the standard set of undistillable states: The former turns out to be the convex hull of the latter. As an example of the usefulness of our approach to the study of entanglement distillation, we prove a new activation result, which generalizes earlier findings: It is shown that for every entangled state σ and every k, there exists a copy-correlated k-undistillable state ρ such that σ⊗ρ is single-copy distillable. Finally, the relation of our results to the conjecture about the existence of bound entangled states with a nonpositive partial transpose is discussed.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2888925 DOI Article
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jmp/49/4/10.1063/1.2888925 Publisher Article
Brandão, F. G. S. L. 0000-0003-3866-9378
© 2008 American Institute of Physics. Received 7 October 2007; accepted 24 January 2008; published online 9 April 2008. We acknowledge fruitful and interesting conversations with a number of people on these and very closely related topics, among them D. Gottesman, D. Gross, M. Horodecki, Ll. Masanes, B. Terhal, J. Oppenheim, M. Piani, M.B. Plenio, S. Virmani, K. G. H. Vollbrecht, and R. F. Werner. This work has been supported by the EU (QAP), the Royal Society, the QIP-IRC, Microsoft Research, the Brazilian agency CNPq, and the EURYI Award Scheme.
European Union UNSPECIFIED
Royal Society UNSPECIFIED
QIP-IRC UNSPECIFIED
Microsoft Research UNSPECIFIED
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) UNSPECIFIED
EURYI Award Scheme UNSPECIFIED
Issue or Number:
CaltechAUTHORS:20160524-091208947
https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160524-091208947
Official Citation:
Correlated entanglement distillation and the structure of the set of undistillable states Brandão, F. G. S. L. and Eisert, J., Journal of Mathematical Physics, 49, 042102 (2008), DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2888925


10 What is IRS Offshore Disclosure?
For many individuals who are either Indian citizens or residents of India, opening up a PPF (Public Provident Fund) is standard practice.
It is a great investment because it grows tax-free until the time of distribution. Unfortunately, once a person becomes a U.S. person, the PPF becomes a lot more complicated.
The reason that the PPF becomes so complex is because technically, since a PPF is generating interest income and dividends (even though it is not being distributed), it is taxable in the United States.
This is a major downfall for the PPF for individuals who are U.S. persons because instead of growing tax-free, it is now taxable in the United States.
Moreover, if the person is going to return to India in the future, he or she may have unnecessarily paid U.S. tax on earnings, and may not receive a tax credit down the line in India.
There are two major issues involving the PPF (noting that the PPF is not the same as a CPF or EPF in countries such as Singapore or Malaysia – where a provident fund is required).
Presuming that the PPF is not considered a PFIC, then the accrued but non-distributed interest and dividends could be immediately taxed by the US. Stated another way, there is no current exception as to immediate U.S. Tax liability for accrued but non-distributed PPF interest, dividends and gains.
Typically, a PPF is not necessarily a PFIC. A PFIC is a very complex type of analysis in which a foreign investment is considered a Passive Foreign Investment Company. For argument's sake, presuming that a PPF was actually considered a PFIC (which is a stretch), then the income – unless distributed and considered in excess distribution – would not be immediately taxable as a grows within the fund.
But, presuming that the US person did not make a mark-to-market election, then down the line the taxability of the distributions would be significant.
The first distribution would be considered an excess distribution, which is then subject to a very high tax rate since it takes into consideration each year that the investment was growing but not distributed – and it is taxed at the highest ordinary income tax rate (not as qualified dividends). Therefore, even if the person was in the 15 or 25% tax rate, it would be taxed at 39.6% tax rate – with daily interest tacked on for good measure.
Typically, the tax rate would reach somewhere around 50% to 80%.
Recently, India has passed regulation, which states that if individuals have a PPF but are considered NRI (nonresidents of India), they have to close the PPF. In addition, the interest rate which oftentimes can reach as high as 10% — is reduced to 4%.
This can cause many issues with individuals were considered US person and NRIs and already out of compliance.
According to the FATCA agreement between India and the United States, there are some exemptions and exclusions for reporting, and in many situations this will include the PPF. With that said, the PPF is still required to be disclosed on the FBAR and FATCA by the individual (presuming all threshold requirements are met for reporting), even if the institution does not need to report.
*Read about how the updated Aadhaar Card Rules Makes IRS & FATCA Reporting Even More Important.
If you are audited and the IRS inquires regarding the foreign accounts, they might find that you had money generating in the PPF. If in total, the amount of money generated from PPF and other account/assets exceeds $5000 annually, then the audit increases from three years to six years.
Therefore, if you did not properly report on form 8938 or the income generated from your foreign accounts/assets in prior years, you may be hit with additional penalties.
One of the best methods for avoiding these issues in the future is to get into offshore compliance through one of the approved IRS offshore voluntary disclosure programs. This typically includes traditional OVDP, the Streamline Programs, or a reasonable cause statement.


text:
SIC Code Frequently Asked Questions
Who Assigns SIC Codes to Businesses?
What is a SIC Code SIC Codes are self-selected and determined based on a company's primary line of business. Therefore there is not a central agency that handles the assignment of SIC Codes. SICCODE.com provides the tools and resources to assist you in determining your SIC Code. Please see the following pages for assistance: What is a SIC Code SIC Code Lookup/Directory What is a Primary
What is the Difference Between 4, 6, 7 and 8-digit SIC Codes?
SIC Codes - 4-digits Standard Industrial Classification ( SIC ) codes are four digit numerical codes created by the U.S. government to enable the identification of the primary line of business of the establishment. The classification was developed to facilitate the collection, presentation and analysis of data; and to promote uniformity and comparability in the presentation of statistical data
How Do I Select A SIC Code For My Business?
Selecting a SIC Code is a straight-forward process. The first step is to identify the primary industry your company operates in. Basic Guide for Selecting a Correct SIC Code The following links provide details on the Top Level - Divisions for all SIC Codes. 01-09: Agriculture 10-14: Mining 15-17: Construction 20-39: Manufacturing 40-45: Transportation 46-49: Utilities
What Are The Principles Of SIC Code Classification?
In reviewing the Classification, the Technical Committee on Industrial Classification was guided by general principles. The following are the basic principles underlying the Standard Industrial Classification as described in the SIC Code Manual: The classification is organized to reflect the structure of the U.S. economy. It does not follow any single principle, such as end use, nature of raw
What Abbreviations Are Used In The SIC Code System?
Throughout the SIC Code manual, a researcher will encounter various abbreviations. Although many may be recognizable in other usage systems, some are unique to the SIC Code Manual. Please see the list below for the full glossary terms for the abbreviations encountered on the SICCODE.com site, as well as the SIC Code Manual: admin - administration & - and etc - et cetera (and so
What Is An Establishment In The SIC Code System?
For purposes of this Standard Industrial Classification, an establishment is an economic unit, generally at a single physical location, where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. (For example: a factory, mill, store, hotel, movie theater, mine, farm, ranch, bank, railroad depot, airline terminal, sales office, warehouse, or central administrative
What Is An Auxiliary Establishment In The SIC Code System?
Specific Examples of Auxiliary Establishments Activities In the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, Auxiliaries are establishments primarily engaged in performing management or support services for other establishments of the same enterprise. An enterprise consists of all establishments having more than 50 percent common direct or indirect ownership. Auxiliary establishments are
What Is SIC Code Marketing?
SIC Code marketing is the process of using the SIC Code system for target marketing. Step 1: Match SIC codes to your current customer list Step 2: Analyze the results to determine the SIC Codes that contain the most customers, and even your best customers Step 3: Based on the analysis, use the data to target similar companies that are classified in the same SIC Codes as your top customers.
What Are SIC Code Short Titles?
The official Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code titles of the Divisions and the two-digit Major Groups, three-digit Industry Groups, and four-digit Industries are found throughout the SICCODE.com site, as well as the SIC Code manual. For various reasons, including presentation of statistical tables, short titles were created so that all agencies may use the same short titles for the
Email, Call & Mail Your Top Prospects
Free Sample & Industry Report


text:
@interface SplashViewController : UIViewController {
    UIImageView *background;
    UIActivityIndicatorView *spinner;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UIImageView *background;
@property (nonatomic, retain) UIActivityIndicatorView *spinner;

@end


text:
/ Education: Biographies
/ Comenius, John Amos
Comenius, John Amos
Comenius, John Amos kōmē´nēəs [key], Czech Jan Amos Komenský, 1592–1670, Moravian churchman and educator, last bishop of the Moravian Church. Comenius advocated relating education to everyday life by emphasizing contact with objects in the environment and systematizing all knowledge. He did not regard religion and science as incompatible. Teaching was to be in the vernacular rather than in Latin, and languages were to be learned by the conversational method. He worked for a universal system of education offering equal opportunities to women. His Didactica magna (1628–32; tr. by M. W. Keatinge, 1896; 2d ed., Pt. I, 1910, Pt. II, 1923, repr. 1967) contains an exposition of these principles. He also wrote Janua linguarum reserata (1631; tr. The Gate of Tongues Unlocked, 1659) and Orbis sensualium pictus (1658; tr. The Visible World, 1659), one of the earliest illustrated books for children. His collected works were first published in 1867.
See biography by F. H. Hay (1973); S. S. Laurie, John Amos Comenius (1892, repr. 1973); W. S. Monroe, Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform (1900, repr. 1971).
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Education: Biographies