This entry was posted in In My Kitchen and tagged antipasti, birthday cake, crepe cake, cupcakes, easter eggs, emoji, geanola, gnocchi, maple, oatmeal squares, pecan, salad, snacks, Thai, vegan, vegetarian, wine.
Your kitchen was full of treats and good eats, and some interesting Oregon wines. The antipasto salad and crepe cake have my tummy runbling in anticipation, but Evie gets the top honors for smiles and cupcake decorating.
love the crepe cake. looks like 30 crepes? i used to make savoury versions years ago must do it again sometime. and the patty cakes look pretty tasty too. thanks so much for joining in on IMK this month and thanks heaps for adding my badge to your post. CHeers!
It is about 30 crepes, took forever to make them all! Mmmmm savoury crepes for dinner sounds good.
Great crepe cake! Love the girl genius tee.
Thanks for stopping by. I do have recipes for both recipes and will try to post them on the blog soon. I will let you know when they are posted.
I've been meaning to make a crepe cake, thanks for the reminder! I think it must be a kid thing to pour the sprinkles on, I know my boys do it as well. Granola is a staple around here, can't have enough in the house. Oregon has some excellent wines, I loved visiting many wineries there a few years ago.
Love it all- but especially the crepe cake. Fabulous!


It's an exciting week for South African school hockey and we are sure that we don't need to remind anyone that the St Mary's Investec Hockey Festival takes place this week, from 5 to 8 April at participating schools and the final at St Mary's Waverley.
We've partnered with the Festival to celebrate girls' hockey in South Africa, and welcome 32 teams from South Africa, Namibia and England, as well as over 3 000 supporters.
If you are a participant, a proud parent or an avid fan of school hockey, we want to make sure you know all the important information to win great prizes and to stay up-to-date with all the latest news.
Get the St Mary's Investec Hockey Festival App and stay connected with every second of the 2018 festival; including festival fixtures, pools and rules, love scores, daily results, general information and much more.
You should now have successfully downloaded the St Mary's Investec Hockey Festival App!
We are giving away a bursary to a girl hockey player! Follow our Facebook and Instagram pages and keep a lookout for our "Caption This!" competition. Each day of the Festival, we will be posting a picture, entrants must create a clever caption for the image.
The winner of each day's caption will be announced the following day on our social media platforms and will win a spot prize!
By the end of the week, one of the week's winners will be announced as our overall "Caption This!" competition winner and will receive a bursary to any of the academy flagship courses, nationwide. The overall bursary winner will also be announced on our social media pages.
What are you waiting for? Make sure you follow our Facebook and Instagram (@investechockeyacademy) platforms now to be sure you don't miss out on a chance to win an opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to work one-on-one with SA Hockey icons to improve your knowledge, skills and training techniques! Become one step closer to reaching your goals and dreams by following the St Mary's Investec Hockey Festival and the Investec Hockey Academy!


Finding similarities and connections are important factors when dating. Sometimes the connection comes through the shared hobbies, interests or physical attraction. Physical features – similarities of our appearance. You see it all around town. Eves and Adams who look alike – sometimes even wearing matching outfits – you know the ones I mean. It is also a trait between owners and their pets. I have always had a theory that people choose partners that look like them when they feel comfortable with their own appearance.
Similarities are what connect us. We find we have that common interest and it increases our feeling of being connected. Recently I met an Adam who seemed interesting from the start, but as I found out more about him I began to wonder if soulmates existed. (Not something I'd given much thought to prior to now). Let me show you why….
Spontaneous Adam Asks you on a date to an unusual location once and then it's home on the lounge with pizza Collects me to drive to holiday destinations, and concerts, and the movies, and restaurants, and art shows or where ever next?
One of the most incredible things about this Adam is that the 'Similar Adam' column is a mixture of multiple Adams – where as the 'Soulmate Adam' column is actually just one Adam. I know that if this Adam isn't a soulmate he is certainly a sensational Adam. I know that your list of scenarios and Soulmate activities will not be the same as mine. This is the point when going on dates – to find compatibility. So whether you are having great connections with a similar or soulmate Adam enjoy the activities that light you up. Smile and laugh and be yourself. See yourself having freedom and frivolity. Finding a great Adam has you floating through your life.
Seems to me like Surely Eve has met her match.
This is what I began online dating for – to find someone I connected with to spend time with. I had no idea that this Adam was out there and would have had no other way to find him. As the name Surely Eve suggests I always thought there would be an ideal Adam out there for me. This is what kept me looking. From where I'm standing now the future and Adam look sensational.
Here's to you finding that sensational Adam.
Let me know whether you believe in soulmates. Have you found yours?


The Festival hosts conferences targeted at cinema, TV and multimedia professionals and teachers, to explain the process of making a film, from creation to distribution, and provide a clear vision of the industry and its future.
The Work in Progress sessions give you the chance to discover the various stages of animated feature films and TV series in production..
Annecy gives attendees the opportunity to meet the teams behind the projects and questioning them on their artistic choices, the production process and the challenges they are meeting along the way.
Annecy invites you to attend keynote speeches given by industry personalities whose career, success and vision have made them emblematic representatives.
An opportunity to discover their points of view about the animation of today and tomorrow.
A well-known figure in the animation world will come to lead a discussion around different topics: film, studios or even film genres.
Rare moments to discover what's going on off-camera, explore behind the scenes, understand the challenges inherent to creativity, manufacturing or production, as well as the options chosen.
The Studio Focus sessions are a great way for delegates to find out about the creative or technical processes of large studios and talk about current projects with the creatives.
Open to all participants, these sessions are yet another way for studios and production companies to reveal their latest work.


This one and a half hour fun filled paddle on the bay is designed for those new to Stand up Paddleboarding and those enthusiasts who want to do a little more than go in a straight line. Come out and work on paddle strokes, pivot turns, and having fun. Want your picture taken getting wet under the fountain, or with the spirit catcher in the background? We have it covered, we will bring the camera!!! This is a great evening out for singles, couples, and families. All necessary equipment including Paddleboard and safety gear is included.


Schoolchildren are set to take to the stage in a series of concerts at a town bandstand.
Wellingborough School's brass band gave a short concert at the Castle Fields bandstand in Wellingborough on Monday (March 21).
But anyone who missed it has several more performances to enjoy in the coming months.
Wrenn Academy's orchestra will be performing at 3.30pm on Friday, April 22, pupils from Croyland School will be singing and dancing at 4pm on Thursday, May 19, and the dance group and choir from All Saints School will be putting on a concert at 4pm on Wednesday, June 22.
But the concerts, which are free and about 30 minutes, are not the only events taking place in the park.
A team of volunteers went out earlier this month to take part in the Clean for the Queen event.
They helped clear up Castle Fields and it is hoped that monthly clear-ups will now take place in the future.
A new Street Watch scheme was recently launched at the park.
Anyone interested in volunteering can send an email to dave@beckstudios.co.uk.
It is also hoped that more sports can be offered in the park, with a touch rugby session due to take place in April.
Marion Turner-Hawes, chairman of the Castle Fields Community Group, said: "Other adhoc events, like a community picnic, may also be arranged so keep your eyes peeled for further information.
"We look forward to hearing from you and enjoying a wonderful spring and summer of events in the park.
For more information contact Marion Turner-Hawes on 01933 381467.


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Basilea at a glance
Our products and pipeline
Investing in Basilea
Current presentation
Working at Basilea
Basilea reports data from poster presentations at ESMO Virtual Congress 2020
Gene expression data may explain differences in clinical adverse event profiles of FGFR inhibitors
Antitumor activity of derazantinib in preclinical cancer models with FGFR aberrations supports planned gastric cancer study
Full results from the completed phase 1 study in patients with brain cancer underscores the potential for lisavanbulin to be developed in a targeted patient population using end-binding protein 1 (EB1) as a patient selection criterion
Basel, Switzerland, September 22, 2020
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) today reports on several e-posters with new preclinical and clinical data on its fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor derazantinib and its tumor checkpoint controller, lisavanbulin, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020, which took place from 19-21 September, 2020.
A preclinical study showed that treatment-specific gene expression patterns in tumor models may help elucidating the biological processes driving differences in the clinical adverse event profiles of FGFR inhibitors. Moreover, the results from this study may explain low rates of adverse events reported with derazantinib for retinal events, mucositis and nail toxicities.
Results from a series of preclinical efficacy models of breast, colorectal, head & neck, lung, ovarian and gastric cancer with confirmed FGFR1-3 genetic aberrations, showed that FGFR2-fusion-positive gastric cancer models were particularly sensitive to treatment with derazantinib. In addition, gastric and lung cancer models showed the strongest correlation of FGFR1-3 expression versus the anticancer activity of derazantinib. The results support the planned clinical investigation of derazantinib in gastric cancer as its next indication.
Full results from a phase 1 study with once-daily oral lisavanbulin in adult patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), or high-grade glioma, showed an overall clinical benefit rate of 44% at six months at daily doses of 25-30 mg. There was an exceptional long-lasting response in a patient, whose tumor tissue was positive for end-binding protein 1 (EB1), a previously identified response predictive biomarker for lisavanbulin in preclinical studies. A phase 2 expansion study will be initiated shortly, which will use EB1-positivity as a patient selection criterion.1 Lisavanbulin is dosed at the recommended phase 2 dose of 25 mg/day in this phase 2 study in patients with recurrent GBM. The prevalence of EB1-positivity in GBM is estimated at 2-5%.
Dr. Marc Engelhardt, Chief Medical Officer, said: "The results presented at ESMO support our differentiation strategy for derazantinib, which is based on its unique kinase inhibition profile and its clinical safety profile. They also provide the preclinical rationale for our decision to initiate a clinical study of derazantinib alone and in combination with other therapies in patients with advanced gastric cancer. The full results from the completed phase 1 study with lisavanbulin underscore its potential to be developed in a targeted patient population. Our initial focus will be on glioblastoma. We may decide to explore other tumor types upon achieving clinical validation of EB1 as a response-predictive biomarker in glioblastoma."
The following e-posters were presented at ESMO Virtual Congress 2020:
Presentation # Title
1960P Differential induction of gene expression may explain differences in reported adverse event profiles between the FGFR-inhibitors derazantinib and erdafitinib: an analysis in safety relevant normal tissues from urothelial cancer (UC) patient-derived mouse xenograft (PDX) models.
541P Derazantinib (DZB), an oral Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor inhibitor (FGFRi), shows promising activity in PDX-tumor models with aberrations in FGFR1-3
382P The potential utility of end-binding protein 1 (EB1) as response-predictive biomarker for lisavanbulin: Final results from a phase 1 study of lisavanbulin (BAL101553) in adult patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM)
For further information, please visit https://www.esmo.org/meetings/esmo-virtual-congress-2020
About derazantinib
Derazantinib is an investigational orally administered small-molecule FGFR kinase inhibitor with strong activity against FGFR1, 2, and 3.2 FGFR kinases are key drivers of cell proliferation, differentiation and migration. FGFR genetic aberrations, e.g. gene fusions, mutations or amplifications, have been identified as potentially important therapeutic targets for various cancers, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), urothelial, breast, gastric and lung cancers.3 In these cancers, FGFR genetic aberrations are found in a range of 5% to 30%.4
Derazantinib also inhibits the colony-stimulating-factor-1-receptor kinase (CSF1R).2, 5 CSF1R-mediated signaling is important for the maintenance of tumor-promoting macrophages and therefore has been identified as a potential target for anti-cancer drugs.6 Preclinical data has shown that tumor macrophage depletion through CSF1R blockade renders tumors more responsive to T-cell checkpoint immunotherapy, including approaches targeting PD-L1/PD-1.7, 8
Derazantinib has demonstrated antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in previous clinical studies, including a biomarker-driven phase 1/2 study in iCCA patients,9 and has received U.S. and EU orphan drug designation for iCCA. Basilea is currently conducting two clinical studies with derazantinib. The first study, FIDES-01, is a registrational phase 2 study in patients with inoperable or advanced iCCA. It comprises one cohort of patients with FGFR2 gene fusions and another cohort of patients with mutations or amplifications.10 The second study, FIDES-02, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Roche's PD-L1-blocking immune-checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq®)11 in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, including metastatic, or recurrent surgically unresectable disease, expressing FGFR genetic aberrations.12.
Basilea in-licensed derazantinib from ArQule Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A.
About lisavanbulin (BAL101553)
Basilea's oncology drug candidate lisavanbulin (BAL101553, the prodrug of BAL27862)13 is being developed as a potential therapy for diverse cancers.1, 14, 15 In preclinical studies, lisavanbulin demonstrated in-vitro and in-vivo activity against diverse treatment-resistant cancer models, including tumors refractory to conventional approved therapeutics and radiotherapy.16, 17, 18 Lisavanbulin efficiently distributes to the brain, with anticancer activity in glioblastoma models.19, 20, 21 In preclinical studies, end-binding protein 1 (EB1) was identified as a potential response-predictive biomarker in glioblastoma models.21 The active moiety BAL27862 binds to the colchicine site of tubulin, with distinct effects on microtubule organization,22 resulting in the activation of the "spindle assembly checkpoint" which promotes tumor cell death.23
About Basilea
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on the development of products that address the medical challenges in the therapeutic areas of oncology and infectious diseases. With two commercialized drugs, the company is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Additional information can be found at Basilea's website www.basilea.com.
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Derazantinib and its uses are investigational and have not been approved by a regulatory authority for any use. Efficacy and safety have not been established. The information presented should not be construed as a recommendation for use. The relevance of findings in nonclinical/preclinical studies to humans is currently being evaluated.
Peer Nils Schröder, PhD
Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
E-mail media_relations@basilea.com
investor_relations@basilea.com
This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com.
T. G. Hall, Y. Yu, S. Eathiraj et al. Preclinical activity of ARQ 087, a novel inhibitor targeting FGFR dysregulation. PLoS ONE 2016, 11 (9), e0162594
R. Porta, R. Borea, A. Coelho et al. FGFR a promising druggable target in cancer: Molecular biology and new drugs. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017 (113), 256-267
T. Helsten, S. Elkin, E. Arthur et al. The FGFR landscape in cancer: Analysis of 4,853 tumors by next-generation sequencing. Clinical Cancer Research 2016 (22), 259-267
P. McSheehy, F. Bachmann, N. Forster-Gross et al. Derazantinib (DZB): A dual FGFR/CSF1R-inhibitor active in PDX-models of urothelial cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2019 (18), 12 supplement, pp. LB-C12
M. A. Cannarile, M. Weisser, W. Jacob et al. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitors in cancer therapy. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2017, 5:53
Y. Zhu, B. L. Knolhoff, M. A. Meyer et al. CSF1/CSF1R Blockade reprograms tumor-infiltrating macrophages and improves response to T cell checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer models. Cancer Research 2014 (74), 5057-5069
E. Peranzoni, J. Lemoine, L. Vimeux et al. Macrophages impede CD8 T cells from reaching tumor cells and limit the efficacy of anti–PD-1 treatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 2018 (115), E4041-E4050
V. Mazzaferro, B. F. El-Rayes, M. Droz dit Busset et al. Derazantinib (ARQ 087) in advanced or inoperable FGFR2 gene fusion-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. British Journal of Cancer 2019 (120), 165-171. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01752920
FIDES-01: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03230318
Tecentriq® ist eine eingetragene Marke von Hoffmann-La Roche AG.
FIDES-02: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04045613.
J. Pohlmann, F. Bachmann, A. Schmitt-Hoffmann et al. BAL101553: An optimized prodrug of the microtubule destabilizer BAL27862 with superior antitumor activity. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2011, abstract 1347; Cancer Research 2011, 71 (8 supplement)
A. Sharmq, A. Broggini-Tenzer, V. Vuong et al. The novel microtubule targeting agent BAL101553 in combination with radiotherapy in treatment-refractory tumor models. Radiotherapy Oncology 2017 (124), 433-438
G. E. Duran, H. Lane, F. Bachmann et al. In vitro activity of the novel tubulin active agent BAL27862 in MDR1(+) and MDR1(-) human breast and ovarian cancer variants selected for resistance to taxanes. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2010, abstract 4412; Cancer Research 2010, 70 (8 supplement)
F. Bachmann, K. Burger, G. E. Duran et al. BAL101553 (prodrug of BAL27862): A unique microtubule destabilizer active against drug refractory breast cancers alone and in combination with trastuzumab. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2014, abstract 831; Cancer Research 2014, 74 (19 supplement)
A. Schmitt-Hoffmann, D. Klauer, K. Gebhardt et al. BAL27862: a unique microtubule-targeted agent with a potential for the treatment of human brain tumors. AACR-NCI-EORTC conference 2009, abstract C233; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2009, 8 (12 supplement)
A. C. Mladek, J. L. Pokorny, H. Lane et al. The novel tubulin-binding 'tumor checkpoint controller' BAL101553 has anti-cancer activity alone and in combination treatments across a panel of GBM patient-derived xenografts. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2016, abstract 4781; Cancer Research 2016, 76 (14 supplement)
R. Bergès, A. Tchoghandjian, S. Honoré et al. The novel tubulin-binding checkpoint activator BAL101553 inhibits EB1-dependent migration and invasion and promotes differentiation of glioblastoma stem-like cells. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2016 (15), 2740-2749
A. E. Prota, F. Danel, F. Bachmann et al. The novel microtubule-destabilizing drug BAL27862 binds to the colchicine site of tubulin with distinct effects on microtubule organization. Journal of Molecular Biology 2014 (426), 1848-1860
F. Bachmann, K. Burger, H. Lane. BAL101553 (prodrug of BAL27862): the spindle assembly checkpoint is required for anticancer activity. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2015, abstract 3789; Cancer Research 2015, 75 (15 supplement)
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd.
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© 2021 Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: redirect all traffic from just the sub domain to new domain I have the following setup. I used to have my api as a sub domain on my main website for instance.
example.com
api.example.com

I have completely removed my api to its own domain on a different server example.
myapi.com

I want to redirect all the traffic from my old sub domain.
api.example.com

to
myapi.com

without affecting the main website traffic, I would really appreciate some help with this my knowledge of advanced redirects is limited, so thought it was worth asking the community.
Thanks

A: To redirect the subdomain to domain, you can use the following Permanent Redirect in htaccess :
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sub\.domain\.com$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [NE,L,R=301]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Check in while you check out the brand new video for Hawksley's "Chemical" from Hawksley's Album "Milk" just released on Six Shooter Records. Directed by Senior Kindergarten.
A Hockey Musical, directed by Michael McGowen, co-starring Olivia Newton-John and featuring a cameo and musical contributions by Hawksley (along with other Canadian musicians), will open the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year–marking the first time a musical film has opened the festival.
Hawksley stops by the TORO Garage for an acoustic performance of "Devastating" off his new album 'Milk'.
The Globe's Brad Wheeler lists Hawksley's song, "Not Your Parents' Music" in his Essential Tracks for June 22nd, 2010.
Hawksley's Meat made the Long List for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize along with 39 other impressive albums from Canadian artists. The Short List will be announced on July 6th, 2010.
Hawksley will be performing at Lee's Palace in Toronto next Thursday, June 17th as part of the Outlaws and Gunslingers Showcase.
In fitting with the theme of Hawksley's Canadian-themed show in London, UK, here is a video of Hawksley discussing tracks on the album, Canadian embassies abroad, and touring the world through the lense of someone who grew up in rural Ontario.


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August 7, 1998 The Message
4 The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana August A medley of advice: Possessions, parables of warning By FATHER DONALD DILGER Gospel Commentary for August 9, 1998: Nine- teenth Sunday: Ordinary Time: Cycle C: Luke 12:32-48 dismiss it. Even if it were not directly from Jesus, it is from the gospel. Thus, whether Jesus made such state- ments directly or not, does not deter from its being a part of divine revelation contained in the gospels. Last week's commentarynoted that even Luke will qualify this radical advice with his later story of Zaccheus in Luke 19:1-10. We might be more comfortable with a gentler form of this advice as it is given in Tobit 4:7-11, "Set aside part of your goods for almsgiving. Never turn your face from any poor person and God will never turn his face from you. Measure what you give by what you have. If you have much, give more. If you have little, give less, but don't be mean in giving alms. By doing this you will provide for yourselves great treasure in hard times� Almsgiving delivers from death .... It is a most effective offering in the presence of God for all those who do it." The rest of today's gospel consists of two para- bles warning about being ready for Jesus' final return. The first parable or story applies to every Christian; the second parable to church leadership� In the first parable Christians are told to be dressed and have the lights on just like servants waiting for their employer to come home from a wedding party. They must be ready to open the door for him. If they are thus ready, the boss himself will tell them to sit down and will serve them supper. A bit farfetched, we might say. The details of parables may not be pressed too close- ly. The point is that a Christian must be ready at all times for the return of Jesus� Luke had to deal with this matter because both Paul and Mark had con- vinced themselves and convinced the Churches that Jesus was about to return. Luke and Matthew had to deal with the resulting crisis of faith when Jesus did- n't show up as expected. Instead of applying this parable to Jesus' return in the "parousia" or end time coming, let it apply to his coming as judge and friend to each individual at death. Thus Luke's final warn- The first part of today's Lucan gospel contains material which Matthew enclosed in his Sermon on the Mount. This is a good demonstration of how vari- ous Jesus traditions floated freely and were incorpo- rated into different contexts by different authors� Luke might have put this material into his Sermon on the Plain, his counterpart to Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, but he did not. Instead he included it in this potpourri of catechism-topics we call chapter twelve. The first topic serves well as a conclusion to the parable of last Sunday's gospel in which Christians were warned not to make the acquiring of posses- sions the goal of their lives, who "lay up treasures for themselves but are not rich with God." In other words, they are advised to share what they do not need. To give up wealth would perhaps have taken more of a leap of faith than many could muster. Thus today's gospel begins, "Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father will enjoy giving you the king- dom." Instead of building their own empire on earth, they are promised the kingdom of God. Therefore, "Sell your possessions and give alms. Provide your- selves wallets that don't grow old, containing heav- erdy treasure that will not fail you, the kind no thief will steal and no moth devour." This is radical advice and we may cringe as we read it. Recently a man, confronted with this advice found in both Matthew and Luke, dismissed it with an expletive and categorically denied it as Jesus' teaching. The evidence of authenticity is too strong to ing to every Christian rings true, "You also ready, for the Son of man, (Jesus) is ,coming at an unexpected hour�" Luke distinguishes the audience or object of next parable by portraying Peter as asking Jesus, "Are you telling this parable for us or for body?" Then Peter & Company get their own ble. They represent Church leadershil and all time. In his absence, the owner of or estate sets over it a trusted supervisor. to it that all in the household are cared for ly. When he returns, if he discovers that his agent has been faithful to his duties, he will putl in charge of everything he owns. What agent says, "My boss will be gone a long time." He mistreats the other servants and spends his tying and getting drunk. His employer will .... an unexpected hour and punish him w severe beating or a light beating according to deserves. The parable ends with whom much is given, much will be required." Were things really that bad in Church at .the end of the first century? Maybe so, find other evidence. For example, I Peter 5:2, shepherd's care to God's flock entrusted to for shameful money, but out of sheer devotion,: domineering over them but being examples The First Letter to Timothy warns cials must be "married only once, tern fled, able to teach, no lovers of money, violent, not quarrelsome, etc." Not a if the advice were not needed, it would given. Power, real or imagined, ly when, among Christians, it becomes for being a servant to others .... ;i Readings: Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, $  Luke 12:32-48. Golden Jubilarians Cornelius and laabelle (Wolf) Bittner of Haubstadt will celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving at 1-.30 p.m. Aug. 8 at St. James Church, Haubstadt. A reception will follow at Haubstadt Park. They were married Aug. 12,1948, at St. Joseph Church, Vanderburgh County. They are the parents of Mary Ellen Lane of Cherry Hill, N.J.; Martha Ringenberg of Fort Wayne, Ind.; Nancy VanNielen of Kingwood, "rex.; Patricia Farrell of Brandenburg, Ky.; Roy Bittner of New Holstein, Wis.; Tony Bittner of Owensville, and Kenneth Bittner and Greg Bit- tner, both of Haubstadto Their son Richard is deceased. They have 12 grandchildren. Mr. Bittner is semi-retired from farming. Mrs. Bittner is a homemaker. Special Jubilarians Victor and Louise (Snyder) Schutz of Jasper will celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving on Aug. 8 at St. Joseph Church, Jasper. They were married Aug. 16, 1938, at St. Joseph Church, Dale. They are the parents of Betty Lou Roos of Floyd Knobs and Mary Kaye Krieg of Jasper. They have five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Mr. Schutz is a semi-retired shoe repairman; MrSchutz is a retired cafete- ria employee for the Greater Jasper Schools. i \\; TRUCK AND TRAILER SALES 10000 STATE HW'Y 57 * EVANSVILLE, IN 47732 i i i Knights Co00 O00N, .... I FrL � OP-00.To SERVING C . Steak. Sea FOod"' DAVIESS COMPANY, Joan Grannan, M! Peoples Bank Washington, FLOWERS & Complete Floral "-I TY.WIDE I AREA LIVERY" & (812) 42, 1-80 Bob Jacobs 1000 West Frankli


It's Friday, which means I get to spend two days straight hanging with my boo thang. Fridays always get me excited because of that! I got a few Starbucks gift cards so I'm starting my morning out with an iced caramel macchiato! Love these things and love having iced coffee in the mornings now that it's blazing hot outside.
Alright, to the point here... Another installment of the Wedding Week series! Today I'm talking about my Bridesmaids Brunch. My sweet aunts (my mom's two sisters) threw it for me. They did my older sister's brunches as well when they got married a few years ago. So I was definitely excited about what they had planned for us! We held the brunch at my favorite breakfast spot in Lubbock - Pancake House! It was sweet because Ryan and I had been having breakfast there every Saturday morning since before we were engaged. It's just a really cute, local place with really yummy food and they even serve french vanilla creamer (that's a must in my mind)! My Auntie Lynne reserved a corner of the restaurant and they set up a few little decorations, which were adorable!
They had a fun little activity for us and then shared some bible verses about marriage. It was such a sweet time with my family and friends. Here are some more pictures!


Generous Health and Social Care students have been raising vital funds and donations for a homeless charity as part of their studies around safeguarding vulnerable adults.
The Year 13 students met with volunteers from the charity Coffee4Craig, who support vulnerable rough sleepers on the streets of Manchester.
During the visit, which took place at the College, the students learnt about the work of the charity and some of the many issues around homelessness before handing over the bags of donations they had collected from within the department and the wider College community.
Sarah-Jane Hair, Health and Social Care teacher at Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College, said: "Coffee4Craig has strong links with the HSC department and this is the third consecutive year that they have been to talk to our Year 13 students about what it means to be homeless or a rough sleeper, the causes behind homelessness and what can be done to support people living on the streets.


Visitors are always welcome – we'd love to have you join us!!
The NOLA STARs chapter of RWA® offers numerous opportunities for writers to connect, learn, network and promote themselves.
WHEN: Our regular meetings are held the second Saturday of each month with the exception of March and December.
TIME: Business Meetings begin at 10:00, with a writing workshop presentation kicking off at 11:00.
LOCATION: The 2nd floor of the University Center (Building #4) on the LSU-S campus, located at One University Place, Shreveport, LA 71115.


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Clinical Psychology (Ph.D.)
Clinical Psychology (Ph.D.) | Graduate
We prepare students to pursue clinical science research and applied clinical work, and for careers as leading clinical practitioners, research scientists, administrators, and university and college faculty. Our doctoral students produce and advance clinical science in promoting mental health and well-being, particularly in historically underserved communities.
The APA-accredited Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology at Howard's Graduate School prepares students to pursue clinical work and research addressing social determinants of health in underserved communities. You may pursue the adult or child clinical track of the program. As a first-year student, you'll complete a clinical experience focused on clinical interviews and administration of cognitive/ achievement tests in a school setting. You'll apply psychotherapy skills in a second practicum experience in your second year. In the third and fourth years, externship placements will strengthen your psychophysiological and diagnostic assessments and the application of evidence-based treatments. You'll also benefit from Howard's strong partnerships with top clinical training sites across the DC-Maryland-Virginia area, including the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the National Institute of Health, and the National Children's Medical Center, where you'll be exposed to behavioral, cognitive, familial, community, and mindfulness-based approaches to therapy. We also have international research programs in Africa and Asia. As a student in our Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology, you'll be part of an active research culture at Howard and collaborate with faculty in research labs on projects across a range of knowledge domains that extend to neuropsychology, stress and coping, aging and cognition, developmental psychopathology, childhood violence and trauma, illness and social stigma, and cross-cultural investigations of other clinical problems. You'll have numerous opportunities to present your research findings at key meetings in D.C. 100% of our students are successfully matched at APA-accredited internships in their final year.
Program Snapshot
❱ 72 credit hours
❱ Full-time
❱ On-campus format
❱ Degree: Ph.D.
❱ Fall entry: December 1, 2022
Hard deadline with rolling admissions decisions
Transfer credits accepted (reviewed by committee)
Apply Now (PSYCAS) View Program Details Print Program Details
Dr. Gishawn Mance
Director of Clinical Training
Dr. Debra Roberts
Lorena Daniels
Degree Classification: Graduate
Related Degrees: Ph.D.
Online PSYCAS application
Statement of purpose/ Statement of academic interest (500-1,000 words)
Critical writing sample
GRE scores not required
Official transcripts sent to PSYCAS
3 letters of recommendation
Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
Autobiographical statement (500-750 words)
GRE Required?
GRE Preferred Minimums
GRE Verbal Reasoning: N/A
GRE Quantitative Reasoning: N/A
GRE Analytical Writing: N/A
GPA Required Minimums
Overall GPA minimum: 3.0
Undergrad GPA minimum: 3.0
Reference Requirements
Evaluator type accepted:
Professor (Required)
Supervisor/Manager
Evaluator type not accepted:
Personal Statement Guidance
Statement of purpose/statement of academic interest should highlight why you wish to pursue a degree in clinical psychology and address the following:
Describe your academic and research interests, identifying specific faculty member(s) with whom you want to work.
Describe your personal, professional, and educational goals related to the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
How will obtaining your Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology enhance you in your current position and/or future career?
Letter of Recommendation Guidance
Provide three (3) letters of recommendation from individuals who are familiar with your ability and/or potential for rigorous graduate study, clinical work, and/or research. Whenever possible, Howard University recommends seeking recommendations from faculty members in psychology or practicing professionals in psychology or other mental health disciplines. Letters of recommendation should be submitted through the PSYCAS system.
Critical Writing Sample Guidance
The writing sample can include (but is not limited to) a senior thesis, master's thesis, or publication. If the publication is submitted, you must specify your contribution to the publication in your research statement.


Wow we have been nominated for our first award! Thank you to the lovely Your Designer Dog and A Spaniels Tails for nominating us you really need to check out their pawsome sites! Lottie and I are so honored to be nominated, it's great to hear how much other people are enjoying reading about our adventures!
Visit and thank the blogger that nominated you.
1. I have a disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Brittle Bones) it just means my bones break more easily than normal.
2. Due to my disability I have broken over 100 bones unbelievably that was the total count when I was 13. I'm now 22!
3. I had already chosen Lottie's name before she was even born.
5. Lottie is my first dog but I have had lots of other furry friends including 2 rabbits 3 birds 2 hamsters and a Chinchilla called Holly who is still living at the age of 18.
6. My middle name is Louise (Original I know, blame my parents).
7. I have a slight obsession with our local Pets at Home store and will normal visit once a week.
Lottie has so many play toys she even has an indoor and outdoor toy box.
Now on to the nominations. I really enjoy the following these blogs. They all have such great content and we love finding out what they all get up to in their doggy lives!
I follow all these fantastic blogs and encourage you to go and visit them too!
You're welcome, :-). And funnily enough, I had already chosen Lottie's name too!
Thanks for passing it on to me! We are honored :) Lots of interesting stuff about you. I think it's very cool that your Chinchilla is so old!


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How the Ex-Im Bank Enables Cronyism and Wastes Taxpayer Money
Why Congress Should Pull the Plug on this Wasteful Agency
Ryan Young • 09/09/2019
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is a federal agency that seeks to boost exports by private U.S. businesses. It pursues its mission through loan guarantees, direct loans, reinsurance, and other financial products. Unlike most agencies, Ex-Im will close if it is not periodically reauthorized by Congress. Its current authorization expires on September 30, 2019. In July 2019, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) introduced a reauthorization bill to keep Ex-Im open through September 30, 2029.
Ex-Im recently emerged from a nearly five-year period of reduced activity, including an authorization lapse of nearly a year. Over the period 2014-2018, this resulted in total savings to taxpayers of $47.9 billion, or nearly $12 billion per year. A nearly $52 billion reduction in Ex-Im's total portfolio over this period reduced taxpayer exposure by an average of just under $13 billion per year. These are enormous figures for an agency with a $135 million FY 2018 budget—of which it spent only $60.5 million due to reduced activity.[1]
The Export-Import Bank should be closed for a number of reasons, including internal corruption, corporate rent-seeking, and economic inefficiency.[2] This paper, while it urges Ex-Im's closure as the best policy option, will focus on second-best reforms, given the likelihood that Ex-Im will be reauthorized. The Bank has bipartisan support—especially from the congressional delegations from Washington State and South Carolina, where Boeing has major manufacturing facilities—and President Trump has indicated support for Ex-Im as part of his trade agenda.
Background. Ex-Im was created in 1934, and until this decade mostly kept a low profile.[3] In its 2012 reauthorization cycle, there was a small amount of pushback, mostly from a few Republican legislators who opposed Ex-Im on grounds of cronyism. Historically, most such opposition to Ex-Im came from progressives, so the small GOP turnabout was seen as a minor curiosity. Ex-Im was reauthorized for two years without much trouble.[4]
These grumblings escalated into a major political fight during Ex-Im's 2014 reauthorization cycle, gaining national headlines. Ex-Im's September 30 deadline that year came and went without a bill passing. Ex-Im's authorization lapsed for nearly a year, and the agency virtually shut down. It could only administer existing projects and wind down its portfolio, and was not allowed to take on new business, which at that point was $20.5 billion per year. The lapse lasted until October 25, 2015, when Congress passed a reauthorization bill sponsored by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) by a 313-118 margin.[5] This bill authorized Ex-Im through September 30, 2019.
By the time Congress passed the Fincher bill, Ex-Im's five-member board was down to two members due to expiring terms. The Senate refused to confirm new board members until May of 2019. In 2016, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tried to evade the quorum requirement by giving the president authority to override it for specific projects on national security grounds.[6] He did not succeed, despite trying to tuck the proposal into a must-pass Defense Appropriations bill. For about three and a half years after reauthorization, although it was officially open, Ex-Im could only operate at about a sixth of its usual activity level.
While this affected Ex-Im a great deal, it barely affected anyone else. During Ex-Im's hibernation, annual U.S. exports increased by $128 billion.[7] Boeing, by far Ex-Im's largest beneficiary, recorded both the largest revenue and largest profits in company history while Ex-Im was limited.[8] Even so, Ex-Im's beneficiaries have continued to push for its reauthorization before it lapses again on September 30, 2019.
The Cramer-Sinema Reauthorization Bill and Potential Improvements. As noted, while the best reform option for the Export-Import Bank is to close it, the Bank is likely to be reauthorized via the Cramer-Sinema bill. While just six pages long, the bill has four main provisions, all of which need improvement.
The first problem is the 10-year length of the reauthorization. Ex-Im reauthorizations typically last for four or five years—and should be even shorter. Ex-Im-related legislation would likely almost never appear on the congressional calendar if occasional reauthorization did not require it to. At five years, two entire Congresses can come and go without having any say in Ex-Im policy. At 10 years, as many as five Congresses would have no say. This gives too long a leash to an agency with an unusually long list of corruption-related allegations and convictions.[9] Ten years is also too long of an interval between reform opportunities during a time of rapid economic and technological change.
The second problem is a 10-year extension of a pilot program for reinsurance that began in 2018. This program should be ended. In partnership with 10 private insurers, the pilot program covers up to $1 billion in risk for the aerospace industry—in practice, mostly Boeing. Ex-Im describes the program as "the largest public-private risk-sharing arrangement for a U.S. government agency."[10] Considering the federal government's track record in risk-sharing arrangements in housing, finance, and other sectors of the economy, this venture can be charitably described as unwise.[11] It is also an easy rent-seeking opportunity for both Boeing and the 10 insurers. Given Ex-Im's high corruption rates, this is an acute concern.[12]
The third problem is an increase in Ex-Im's $140 billion portfolio cap. It would increase by $5 billion per year starting in FY 2020 until reaching $175 billion in FY 2026. The cap would remain at $175 billion through 2029, when Ex-Im's authorization would expire. There is no solid case for Ex-Im's importance to increasing U.S. exports. As noted, U.S. exports increased by $128 billion from 2014-2018, even as Ex-Im's portfolio shrank by $52 billion over the same period.[13] At most, Ex-Im's portfolio cap should reflect its current size of $60 billion, and should decrease over time as its long-term projects mature.
The fourth problem is a change in Ex-Im's board composition intended to avoid the quorum issue that limited Ex-Im's activities from 2015-2019. Ex-Im currently has a five-member board of directors, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The Bank's charter requires a quorum of three members to approve projects larger than $10 million. Expiring terms reduced Ex-Im's board to two members during its authorization lapse, and the Senate intentionally refused to fill the vacancies until May 2019. Ex-Im's inability to approve large transactions resulted in a five-sixths reduction in the annual dollar value of its new projects.
To prevent this from happening again, the Cramer-Sinema reauthorization bill would implement a temporary board that would automatically trigger if Ex-Im's regular board loses quorum for 90 days. The temporary members would include the remaining board members plus the Treasury Secretary, the Commerce Secretary, and the United States Trade Representative. If all of the temporary board members are of the same party, the President is to nominate a member of a different political party, subject to Senate confirmation. This requirement applies "to the extent practicable," which in practice means it is optional. This temporary board proposal would reduce an important measure of democratic accountability at Ex-Im, and would further move the separation of powers away from the legislature and towards the President. This section, Section 4, should be struck entirely from the bill.
There are four other necessary Ex-Im reforms not addressed in the Cramer-Sinema bill.
First, Ex-Im should be required to use the same accounting standards as other agencies. Currently, Ex-Im uses Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) standards, which projected it to make a $14 billion profit over the period 2015-2024. However, in 2014, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Ex-Im would lose the government about $2 billion during the same period under fair-value accounting standards, which are used by most of the federal government and most of the private sector.[14]
Second, Ex-Im should have a 10 percent cap on what percentage of its business can benefit a single firm. Boeing alone benefited from roughly half of Ex-Im's projects in most years, leading to Ex-Im being nicknamed the "Bank of Boeing."[15] A cap to prevent this from happening again would make it more difficult for rent-seeking businesses to extract large grants from Ex-Im.
Third, Ex-Im should remove its quota for green projects, which are especially prone to rent-seeking and corruption. Ex-Im was involved in the Solyndra debacle, and the green quota makes a repeat more likely.[16] Such quotas also do little to reduce fossil fuel investment. Most major oil and gas companies have renewable subsidiaries, which are magnets for subsidies, quotas, and other special treatment. Companies such as BP-owned BP Solar have been Ex-Im beneficiaries in the past. The fact that such favorable financing frees up funds for more oil and gas exploration mostly flies under the radar.[17]
Fourth, Ex-Im's definition of "small business" can include companies of up to 1,500 employees. It needs to be made much narrower and stricter. Ex-Im's charter requires 75 percent of its projects to small businesses. Adopting this unrealistic definition of "small business allows Ex-Im to dodge the spirit of this requirement while staying within its letter. A good start would be to lower the threshold to 100 employees.
Lessons from the 2014 Ex-Im Fight. Nobel laureate economist Ronald Coase wrote in 1975 that "An economist who, by his efforts, is able to postpone by a week a government program which wastes $100 million a year (which I would call a modest success) has, by his action, earned his salary for the whole of his life."[18] By Coase's measure, the Ex-Im fight that began in 2014 was an enormous success, despite Ex-Im having been reauthorized. This fight resulted in $47.9 billion of dollars in reduced Ex-Im activity from 2014-2018, or an average of just under $12 billion per year.[19] By another measure, the size of Ex-Im's total portfolio went from $112.3 billion in 2014 to $60.5 billion in 2018, reducing taxpayer exposure by a total of nearly $52 billion, or an average of just under $13 billion per year. If this much in savings can come from temporary activity reductions in one agency, savings from successful permanent reforms of larger agencies could be substantial.
Moreover, the Ex-Im fight is not actually over. There will be fresh reform opportunities with each reauthorization cycle. The Ex-Im debate is not nearly on the same scale as entitlement reform, deficit reduction, or regulatory reform, each of which have implications ranging from hundreds of billions of dollars to well into the trillions. But unlike those ongoing battles, Ex-Im is winnable. If not in 2019, then in future reauthorization cycles.
Finally, Ex-Im's periodic reauthorization requirement should be extended to more agencies.[20] It offers regularly scheduled opportunities for Congress to enact possible reforms, or even close it entirely. It also adds a level of democratic accountability to agencies that mostly lack it. The burden of proof properly lies on agencies for justifying their existence, not on those advocating for reform or abolishment. If the federal government really needs, say, a Hass Avocado Board, that agency should have no problem making its case to Congress every few years.[21]
Conclusion. The Export-Import Bank should be closed, but will likely be reauthorized. The Cramer-Sinema reauthorization bill proposed in July 2019 contains many provisions that should be dropped or heavily amended. Congress should:
Shorten Ex-Im's reauthorization period to no more than three years, down from the proposed 10;
Shut down Ex-Im's reinsurance pilot program;
Cut the Bank's $140 billion portfolio cap to $60 billion or less, not raise it to the proposed $175 billion;
Maintain Ex-Im's board quorum requirement for transactions greater than $10 million;
Require Ex-Im to use the same fair-value accounting standards used by the rest of the federal government and much of the private sector;
Impose a limit of 10 percent on how much of Ex-Im's business can go to a single beneficiary, in order to avoid agency capture;
End requirements for green projects that are prone to rent-seeking and prevent projects from being assessed on the merits; and
Reform Ex-Im's definition of "small business" that covers firms with as many as 1,500 employees.
Fortunately, this battle is not over, regardless of how the 2019 reauthorization cycle plays out. Furthermore, Ex-Im's recent reauthorization history has provided a successful case study for reforming other agencies.
[1] Author's calculations based on Export-Import Bank annual reports, available at https://www.exim.gov/news/reports/annual-reports. The author's figure assumes Ex-Im activity would have remained constant at 2014's $20.5 billion level. If one assumes increasing Ex-Im activity over time, which is reasonable, the counterfactual savings would be larger. Ex-Im calculates its annual figures on the federal government's fiscal year. This lines up with its usual September 30 authorization deadlines, so Ex-Im's 2014 figures capture a full year of standard activity with no authorization lapse.
[2] Veronique de Rugy, Nita Ghei, and Michael Wilt, "Should the US Export-Import Bank Be Reauthorized?" Policy Brief, July 28, 2015, Mercatus Center,
https://www.mercatus.org/publication/should-us-export-import-bank-be-reauthorized. Daniel J. Ikenson, "The Export-Import Bank and Its Victims: Which Industries and States Bear the Brunt?" Policy Analysis No. 756, Cato Institute, September 10, 2014, https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/export-import-bank-its-victims-which-industries-states-bear-brunt. Diane Katz, "Export–Import Bank: Cronyism Threatens American Jobs," Issue Brief No. 4231, Heritage Foundation, June 2, 2014, https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/report/export-import-bank-cronyism-threatens-american-jobs. Bryan Riley, "Foreign Export Credit Subsidies: Kill Them, Don't Copy Them," Backgrounder No. 2948, Heritage Foundation, September 12, 2014,
https://www.heritage.org/trade/report/foreign-export-credit-subsidies-kill-them-dont-copy-them. Ryan Young, "Ten Reasons to Abolish the Export-Import Bank," OnPoint No. 195, Competitive Enterprise Institute July 15, 2014, https://cei.org/content/ten-reasons-abolish-export-import-bank.
[3] The only book-length history of the Export-Import Bank, published in 2003, covers the agency's first 65 years. It was commissioned and authorized by the agency, which chose the authors from among competing bidders. Ex-Im also provided the authors funding and office space. Ex-Im's history committee, chaired by then-Ex-Im President and Chairman James A. Harmon, had input during the editorial process. William H. Becker and William M. McClenahan, Jr., The Market, the State, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, 1934-2000, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. ix-xii.
[4] David Dayen, "Wingnuts and Liberals' Bizarre Role Reversal: Why Export-Import Bank Politics Are so Perverse," Salon, June 25, 2014, https://www.salon.com/control/2014/06/25/wingnuts_and_liberals_bizarre_role_reversal_why_export_import_bank_politics_are_so_perverse/.
Ryan Young, "Ex-Im Revival Passes House," Open Market blog, Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 28, 2015, https://cei.org/blog/ex-im-revival-passes-house.
[5] 114th Congress, H.R. 597, The Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act, https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr597/text. The roll call vote for Rep. Fincher's bill is at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll576.xml.
[6] Ryan Young, "Ex-Im Drama Continues," June 13, 2016, Competitive Enterprise Institute Open Market blog, https://cei.org/blog/export-import-bank-drama-continues.
[7] In chained, seasonally adjusted 2012 dollars, total U.S. exports were $2.400 trillion in Q4 2014, and $2.528 trillion in Q4 2018. This time frame was chosen to line up with the federal government's fiscal years. The increase is especially noteworthy given recent volatility due to tariff increases and other changes in trade policy. St. Louis Federal Reserve FRED database, "Real Exports of Goods and Services," https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EXPGSC1.
[8] Boeing news release, "Boeing Reports Record 2018 Results and Provides 2019 Guidance," January 30, 2019, https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2019-01-30-Boeing-Reports-Record-2018-Results-and-Provides-2019-Guidance.
[9] Diane Katz, then of the Heritage Foundation, found 74 cases of fraud allegations in publicly available Ex-Im documents between May 2009 and June 2014. Ex-Im had roughly 400 employees at the time. Diane Katz, "Careless Lending at Ex-Im Bank Invites Fraud," The Daily Signal, June 24, 2014, https://www.dailysignal.com/2014/06/24/fraud-corruption-rampant-ex-im-bank/.
[10] Export-Import Bank, 2018 Annual Report, p. 6, https://www.exim.gov/sites/default/files/reports/annual/2018/EXIM-AnnualReport-2018.pdf.
[11] See, for example, John B. Taylor, Getting off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis, (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2009), and Johan Norberg, Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuation With Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Financial Crisis, (Washington: Cato Institute Press, 2012).
[12] Some of the insurers are Aon Benfield, XL Catlin, Liberty Specialty Markets, and Everest. Export-Import Bank, "EXIM Bank Announces Landmark Risk-Sharing Program With Private-Sector Reinsurers," news release, March 29, 2018,
https://www.exim.gov/news/exim-bank-announces-landmark-risk-sharing-program-private-sector-reinsurers.
[13] Per Ex-Im's annual reports, its total portfolio went from $112.3 billion in 2014 to $60.5 billion in 2018, reducing taxpayer exposure by a total of nearly $52 billion, or an average of just under $13 billion per year.
[14] The difference is due mainly to discount rates. Under FCRA standards, a profit is shown if Ex-Im's portfolio outperforms Treasury bonds, which are among lowest-yielding investment instruments on the market. Fair-value standards use a more realistic benchmark, intended to approximate what an asset would sell for in the market. Congressional Budget Office, "Fair-Value Estimates of the Cost of Selected Federal Credit Programs for 2015-2024, May 2014,
https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45383-FairValue.pdf. Ex-Im profit estimates under FCRA standards are in its annual reports, https://www.exim.gov/news/reports/annual-reports.
[15] Veronique de Rugy, "Kill The Boeing Bank Once and For All," American Institute for Economic Research, March 29, 2019, https://www.aier.org/article/kill-boeing-bank-once-and-all.
[16] Export-Import Bank, Ex-Im Bank Provides $10.3 Million in Renewable Express Financing for California-Based Solyndra's Solar Exports to Belgium," news release, June 9, 2011, https://www.exim.gov/news/ex-im-bank-provides-103-million-renewable-express-financing-for-california-based-solyndras.
[17] Export-Import Bank, "Ex-Im Bank Approves Financing for B.P. Solar Exports to Power Rural Province in Argentina," news release, July 24, 2001, https://www.exim.gov/news/ex-im-bank-approves-financing-for-bp-solar-exports-power-rural-province-argentina.
[18] Ronald Coase, "Economists and Public Policy," reprinted in Essays on Economics and Economists, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 57.
[19] Author's calculations based on Export-Import Bank annual reports, https://www.exim.gov/news/reports/annual-reports. The author's figure assumes Ex-Im activity would have remained constant at 2014's $20.5 billion level. If one assumes increasing Ex-Im activity over time, which is reasonable, the counterfactual savings would be larger. Ex-Im calculates its annual figures on the federal government's fiscal year. This lines up with its usual September 30 authorization deadlines, so Ex-Im's 2014 figures capture a full year of standard activity with no authorization lapse.
[20] This is not a new idea. The state of Texas has reauthorization requirements for roughly 130 agencies. The policy is administered by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, https://www.sunset.texas.gov/. One agency that could be subjected to this model is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). For more on OPIC, see Ryan Young, "The Case Against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation," OnPoint No. 208, Competitive Enterprise Institute September 24, 2015, https://cei.org/content/case-against-overseas-private-investment-corporation.
[21] This agency actually exists. U.S. Department of Agriculture, "Hass Avocado Board," accessed August 6, 2019, https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/research-promotion/hass-avocado and https://hassavocadoboard.com/.


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Верхо́вино () — село у складі Тугулимського міського округу Свердловської області.

Населення — 1027 осіб (2010, 1125 у 2002).

Національний склад станом на 2002 рік: росіяни — 94 %.

Примітки

Джерела

Посилання
 На Вікімапії

Населені пункти Тугулимського міського округу
Села Свердловської області

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In order to successfully apply to one of our military academies or a ROTC program, students are well advised to start early, from the beginning of high school on! Although the actual application process doesn't start until the spring of a student's junior year, both programs are highly competitive and students need to compile a resume that demonstrates involvement in extracurricular activities, athletic endeavors of some kind (which don't necessarily need to be a school sponsored team --- karate is perfectly acceptable!), leadership development as well as a strong academic record. Students who are interested in the military academies, including the Coast Guard*, are strongly encouraged to attend annual information sessions, open houses, and receptions sponsored by our Congressional representatives. You just might make an impression on an admission officer or nomination committee member who recognizes you by the time your Junior year comes around!
*The Coast Guard Academy doesn't require a congressional nomination for admission.
Given the selectivity of the four academies requiring a nomination from one of your congressional representatives, along with the competition to acquire an appointment, students should seriously consider applying to all four academies as well as each branches ROTC program. Having choices in the spring of your Senior year is a nice problem to have!
The following handouts summarize the requirements and process of applying to our military academies and the various branches of the ROTC program. Be sure to be proactive about the application process for both programs ---- missing a deadline will eliminate you!!


Our new promotional film is now 'live' on the Barn Owl Trust website. The film is a short summary of the work of the Trust, tracing its foundations in 1988 right through to the present day. Conservation, education and research are all highlighted in the video, as well as information provision.
The film emphasises just how vital donations, adoptions and legacies are to enabling the Trust to continue its work. The Lennon Legacy Project is a fantastic example of how a legacy can really make a difference, allowing the Trust to transform 26 acres of intensive grassland into 26 acres of Barn Owl heaven – which now has two pairs of breeding Barn Owls!! As well as appearing on our website, the film will accompany funding applications to show the varied amount of work the Trust undertakes.
A big 'thank you' to Hilltribe Productions for a great production. Our new 'Wings of Change' educational film should arrive any day now. We can hardly wait!!


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Cognitive Science and the New Testament
Since the early 2000s, a handful of biblical scholars started to turn to scientific explanations of human thought and behavior to understand cognitive processes behind the creation and use of biblical texts, including the biblical concepts of the divine, the rituals of the first Christ-believers, and the social interactions that influenced the formation and growth of their communities.
See Also: Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research (Oxford University Press, 2017).
By István Czachesz
University of Tromsø
Understanding the social, cultural, and historical setting of the New Testament is an essential part of any exegete's toolbox. There is widespread agreement among biblical interpreters, for example, that we should avoid reading our modern notion of a family into the gospel narratives, or understanding the rituals of the first Christian assemblies in terms of modern-day liturgical practices and concepts. While the importance of appreciating the differences between contemporary (Western) bible readers, on the one hand, and people of the ancient Mediterranean world, on the other, has become almost self-evident, it poses a new set of challenges. How can we understand ancient people if our ways or thinking are mutually incompatible? How can Christian believers ever find guidance in the New Testament if it was written by people who were completely different from us?
As it appears, although ancient people were indeed different from us on some level, we share with them our basic human cognitive architecture, which is largely determined by having similar brains and bodies. In other words, while we might think and feel differently in many respects than people of the ancient Mediterranean world did, both our similarities and differences can be understood better if we study them in the framework of the evolved foundations of human thought, emotion, and behavior. Since the early 2000s, a handful of biblical scholars started to turn to scientific explanations of human thought and behavior to understand cognitive processes behind the creation and use of biblical texts, including the biblical concepts of the divine, the rituals of the first Christ-believers, and the social interactions that influenced the formation and growth of their communities.
Three research areas influenced the emergence of cognitive science approaches to biblical studies. (1) Following some initial attempts in the 1970s, the field of the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) started to emerge in the 1990s and played an important role in the study of religion in the past two decades. In the beginning, CSR focused mainly on god concepts and rituals. More recent research areas of CSR include the role of religion in social cooperation, experimental studies in ethnography, and computer modeling of texts and historical processes. (2) The neuroscientific study of religious experience started in the 1980s and gained momentum with the rapid development of new neuroimaging technologies in the 1990s. Work on religious experience in biblical studies draws on insights from this area. (3) Finally, the field of cognitive linguistics also started in the 1980s and examines the role of the human body in shaping human thought and language. Biblical scholars have drawn especially on cognitive poetics and conceptual metaphor theory.
In this survey I will discuss three research foci: memory studies and their use in the research of the gospels, cognitive approaches to rituals, and the formation of early Christian networks. Other topics that are equally important for the cognitive study of the Bible but cannot be discussed in more detail in this article include magic, religious experience, and the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of morality.
Insights from memory studies have been used in biblical scholarship for some decades, including the concept of collective memory, which was originally proposed by Maurice Halbwachs. More recently, biblical scholars discussed so-called "flashbulb memories" in the context of the gospel tradition. A more nuanced engagement with the current state of memory studies have yielded new understandings of the transmission and performance of sayings and miracle stories, as well as the process of literary composition and production in the cultural context of ancient literacy (Czachesz 2017: pp. 62–87).
Let us take the influence of cognitive constraints on textual transmission as an example. Maturationally natural ontological expectations develop in children consistently under a wide range of circumstances and enable people to respond to information in the environment quickly and efficiently (McCauley 2011: pp. 31–82). For example, we know that animals move, humans speak, and tools are designed for some purpose and we can interact with them accordingly, without testing those features in every instance of them. It is important to note that such ontological divisions are not necessarily identical with categories that people use to describe the world when we ask them to do so explicitly (or ontological categories that philosophers establish). Maturationally natural ontological categories include HUMAN, ANIMAL, PLANT, ARTIFACT, and (natural) OBJECT. A donkey that talks (e.g., Acts of Thomas 39–41 and 68–81) or a statue that hears what people speak violates expectations about animals and artifacts, respectively. Such ideas will be remembered longer than ideas that do not violate our maturationally natural ontology. However, if the violations are multiplied, the advantage diminishes. As a consequence, as Pascal Boyer (Boyer 2001) suggested, minimally counterintuitive ideas are passed on across generations at higher rates than either ordinary or maximally counterintuitive items. Subsequent experiments have shown that counterintuitive details especially enhance the memorability of ideas especially in long-term retention. Boyer's theory has generated a growing body of experimental work, but presenting his main idea is sufficient to see how the theory can help in understanding biblical transmission.
Many miracle stories in the gospels include a counterintuitive element. The multiplication of bread in Mark 6.39–44 and parallels violates maturationally natural expectations about artifacts. We do not expect natural objects or artifacts (such as bread) to multiply spontaneously, which we only attribute to living things. Another food miracle, the changing of water into wine (John 2:2–11), also implies a crossing of ontological boundaries. Whereas water is a natural substance, wine is an artifact. Arguably, we do not expect natural objects to transform into artifacts without human labor: artifacts are produced by investing time and energy. Miracles about resurrecting dead people (2 Kings 4:32–35, 13:20–21; Mark 5:21–43 and parallels; Luke 7:11–15; John 11:1–44; Acts 20:9–12) are strictly counterintuitive. Dead bodies and decomposing corpses (John 11.38–44) are not expected to resume biological function. Such details made miracle stories attention-grabbing and salient in cultural transmission, resulting in the generous use of miracle stories in oral transmission at the cost of other types of materials.
However, not all miracle stories include strictly counterintuitive elements in a technical sense. For example, catching extraordinary amounts of fish (Luke 5:1–11) at an unusual time of the day is unexpected but does not violate innate ontological categories. Healing with saliva (e.g., Mark 7:33) is an intuitive technique that relies on demonstrable physiological effects: saliva contains healing substances (Oudhoff et al. 2008). Many therapies in biblical literature change intuitive healing processes (which might or might not comply with modern scientific theory) into paradoxical (but not strictly counterintuitive) events by adding extraordinary difficulties. For example, the man healed in John 9 has been blind since birth and the one at the pool of Bethsaida (John 5:1–20) had been crippled for thirty-eight years. Although minimally counterintuitive concepts play a major role in religious traditions, other concepts that violate cultural (but not maturationally natural) knowledge can be also salient. Further, the combination of intuitive and counterintuitive elements is the best recipe for culturally successful packages of information (Norenzayan et al. 2006; Norenzayan and Atran 2004).
The influence of memory extends beyond oral transmission to literary composition and the success of various texts and ideas in early Christianity. Due to the low rates of literacy in the ancient world, stories and concepts that were attention-grabbing and remained in memory longer had substantially better chance to become widespread and popular than other concepts and stories, even if they were recorded in written texts (which remains true, mutatis mutandis, in the age of print press and electronic media). For example, the formation of the mainstream idea of Jesus' death and resurrection has been explained (Czachesz 2007) by the dominance of a minimally counterintuitive version, which presents the resurrected Jesus essentially as a human being with some characteristics that violate ontological expectations, such as appearing in a closed room or disappearing in the middle of a conversation (Luke 24:31; John 20:19,26). Ebionite and docetic alternatives, in turn, were too "ordinary" or excessively counterintuitive, respectively, and had little chance to be widely circulated. Counterintuitive ideas that involve agency (such as concepts of gods and spirits) are not only attention grabbing and memorable but also evoke reasoning about the knowledge, intention, and purpose of the counterintuitive agent. It is no wonder then that the minimally counterintuitive concept of the resurrected Jesus invited a rich and varied Christological traditon (cf. Theissen 2011).
In some, the gospel tradition and the development of Christology can be understood (to a great extent) in the context of human memory systems and other cognitive traits, without invoking church politics or random historical circumstances as explanatory factors. Other aspects of Christological and theological ideas can also be examined with the help of cognitive science, such as the emotional content of certain stories and images, the role of ideas as social identity markers, various preferences for identifying reliable sources of knowledge (so-called context biases), and the influence of religious texts and ideas on the wellbeing and success of social groups and individuals.
The interdisciplinary research program that eventually became known as the Cognitive Science of Religion started with an inquiry about the structure of rituals. According to E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley (Lawson and McCauley 1990; McCauley and Lawson 2002), the human mind represents actions in terms of an agent acting on a patient with the help of an instrument. For example, John (agent) hits (action) the ball (patient) with a bat (instrument). In a ritual, however, one of these components is connected to a superhuman agent (god). For example, in baptism a priest (connected to God by ordination) baptizes an infant (or adult in certain denominations) with the help of water. This is an example of a special-agent ritual because the agent of the action (the priest) is connected more directly to a superhuman agent than either the infant or the water. According to Lawson and McCauley, special-agent rituals have long-lasting effects and are performed only once with the same participants (i.e., a priest performs many baptisms, but only one baptism on any infant). Special-agent rituals generate intense emotions and people invest considerable time and resources into performing them. In any religion, according to Lawson and McCauley, there is a balance between special-agent and other types of rituals.
The application of Lawson and McCauley's theory to the New Testament resulted in an interesting debate about the nature of ancient Jewish rituals and the interpretation of the baptism of John against such a background. As Kimmo Ketola (Ketola 2007: pp. 102–03) and others observed, ancient Judaism lacked special-agent rituals: circumcision, for example, could be theoretically performed by anyone. Based on this observation, Risto Uro (Uro 2016: pp. 99–127) suggested that John's baptism as depicted in the gospels introduced a special-agent ritual that filled the void, which could explain its success. In other words, John was seen as God's chosen prophet and when he performed ritual washing it had "super-permanent effects" (to use Lawson and McCauley's term), which made it unnecessary (and even impossible, from the point of view of the participants) to repeat the ritual.
The Ritual Form Theory also offers an interesting framework for interpreting the Lord's Supper in the New Testament and in various Christian traditions. It is difficult to establish how far the Corinthian meal was a ritual in the form that Paul disapproved of. Paul's instructions (if absorbed and implemented by the congregation) transformed the meal into a special-patient ritual, inasmuch as he suggested that the bread and wine consumed were connected to the flesh and blood of the Lord. At the celebration of the Eucharist in historical and contemporary mainline Christian traditions, in contrast, the priest can be seen as the agent of the ritual who transforms ordinary bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ. This seems to lead to a contradiction because special-agent rituals are not supposed to be repeated, yet the Eucharist is repeated regularly; still one can argue that the ritual is not repeated with the same bread and wine. (The presence of the congregation is not needed for a mass to be valid.) If one considers the distribution of the elements as the main focus of the ritual, in turn, it can be conceived of as a special-instrument ritual: the priest gives the elements to the congregation. This interpretation poses the question of how the transubstantiation and the distribution are connected with each other. Is the former perhaps an enabling ritual needed so that bread and wine qualify to be elements of the communion? In fact, in the Catholic Church, deacons and other liturgists can distribute the host that was previously consecrated by a priest (Code of Canon Law 900.1 and 910.1). From a strictly Calvinist perspective, neither the minister (Second Helvetic Confession XVIII), nor the elements (Calvin, Institution IV.17.11) are closer to the divine than the members of the congregation. It is especially difficult to analyze the ritual when the elements are passed around instead of being distributed by the minister or some designated member of the congregation. If we asked about the intuition of the participants (which is the decisive factor according to the theory), most of them would probably see Christ as present in the bread and wine and interpret the ritual as special-patient. The fact that the Lord's Supper can be parsed into any of the three types of rituals in the Ritual Form Theory might explain why this sacrament has been the subject of so much controversy in the history of Christianity.
The study of rituals has been one of the most fruitful areas of the Cognitive Science of Religion. For example, participation in a ritual can be understood as a reliable (costly) signal of cooperation that helps the group thrive in joint endeavors (Bulbulia and Sosis 2011). Other theories suggest that rituals are based on an archaic hazard-precaution system that is activated by salient features of rituals (Liénard and Boyer 2006). For example, Paul's words that in the Corinthian church "many are weak and ill" and "some have died" (11:30) due to the improper performance of the meal practice can be understood as the result of the activation of precaution systems that evolved to avoid food contamination and predation. Finally, the theory of the Modes of Religiosity, developed by Harvey Whitehouse (Whitehouse 2004) distinguishes between two types of religious movements: on the one hand, in doctrinal mode of religion, systematic knowledge is transmitted in frequently repeated, tedious rituals; on the other hand, in the imagistic mode, participants undergo emotionally intense but infrequent rituals followed by so-called "spontaneous exegetical reflection." It can been argued that Paul's efforts to change the Corinthian practices are aimed at moving the congregation from the imagistic toward the doctrinal mode (Czachesz 2017: pp. 107–14).
Network theory and early Christian society
Our last example goes beyond cognitive science approaches in a narrow sense and provides a glimpse into the use of network science in Biblical Studies. What justifies the inclusion of network science in this survey? As we will see, social network patters are intimately related to the diversity of cognitive schemata and the emergence and propagation of new ideas. Further, ideas that spread on social networks also shape these networks by changing people's attitudes toward social interactions. Network models have also been used to analyze biblical texts, which we cannot discuss in this article. In sum, network science has the potential to integrate the study of social, textual, and cognitive components of religious systems in general, and of the early Christian movement, in particular.
As sociologist Mark Granovetter suggested (Granovetter 1973), if two people are connected by a strong social tie, it is likely that their respective social networks will largely overlap. The strength of an interpersonal tie is characterized by the amount of time, emotional intensity, intimacy (mutual confiding), and reciprocal services in the relationship. If two people are connected by a weak social tie (that is, by acquaintance rather than friendship), the number of their shared friends and acquaintances will be significantly smaller. The major importance of weak links, Granovetter argued, is that they can serve as bridges, that is, as the only links between two networks. Granovetter's theory of weak links has been tested in a number of empirical studies. An important domain of application has been the advantage of weak links on the job market. Granovetter found empirical evidence that people find new jobs with the help of individuals to whom they are connected by weak links (acquaintances), because they provide new information more often than close friends and relatives, who tend to be in the possession of the same information as the jobseeker.
An analysis of various documents of earliest Christianity suggests that the movement generated weak social ties in many ways (Czachesz 2011). First, some members of the movement opted for an itinerant lifestyle; second, the practice of charity helped the formation of weak ties with outsiders; third, being (relatively) gender-inclusive, Christian communities created opportunities for both genders to connect their respective networks.
The reliance on weak social ties in the spread of the Christian movement had many important consequences. (1) First, reaching out to distant social groups added efficiency in terms of the social and geographical expansion of the movement. This has been already observed by Rodney Stark (Stark 1996), who called the social networks of early Christians "open networks." (2) Second, weak links facilitated the interconnection of diverse cultural and socioeconomic groups, without forcing a uniform set of values, beliefs and attitudes on them. In terms of network science, we can say that early Christianity developed a modular structure. Many natural systems, such as the human brain, are organized as modular networks: the members of a module are connected by many links, whereas modules are connected to each other by only few links. Such a structure takes care of specialized tasks but allows for an exchange of information between specialized modules. (3) Third, as a consequence of its socioeconomic and cultural diversity, the Christ movement was able to incorporate various points of view. This feature of the network gave the movement versatility and enabled it to respond to changing historical circumstances. (4) Fourth, the interaction of various cognitive styles and cultural traditions helped the development of inclusive thinking (as in Paul's epistles) and the formation of new ideas. Already the New Testament demonstrates that concepts changed as they moved across Christian networks. This might have been a source of conflicts, but the modular structure of the movement made it possible to retain diversity without completely breaking ties, as we have seen above.
Boyer, Pascal. 2001. Religion explained: the evolutionary origins of religious thought. New York: Basic Books.
Bulbulia, Joseph A., and Sosis, Richard. 2011. 'Signalling theory and the evolution of religious cooperation'. Religion 41 (3): 363–88.
Czachesz, István. 2017. Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Czachesz, István. 2007. 'Early Christian Views on Jesus' Resurrection: Toward a Cognitive Psychological Interpretation'. Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 61 (1): 47–59.
Czachesz, István. 2011. 'Women, Charity, and Mobility in Early Christianity: Weak Links and the Historical Transformation of Religions'. In Changing Minds: Religion and Cognition Through the Ages, edited by István Czachesz and Tamás Biró, pp. 129–54. Leuven: Peeters.
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This is how the layout (most likely) will look like in the printed book (with a 2:3 (portrait) format image).
The size of the book is 20 x 25 cm portrait (about 8 x 10 inches). Text by John Slade on left (verso) side, and black and white photograph by Eirik Solheim on right (recto) side.
InDesign is used for the layout.


text:
Eastern Lowland Gorillas Heading Towards 'Genetic Meltdown'
By George Dvorsky on at
Eastern lowland gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have endured dramatic population declines in recent decades, leading to a startling lack of genetic diversity and a slew of harmful mutations, according to new research.
By comparing the genomes of living eastern lowland gorillas, also known as Grauer's gorillas, with genomes derived from museum samples, researchers from the Swedish Museum of Natural History (SMNH) and Uppsala University have shown that genetic diversity is declining in the species, while inbreeding is increasing. This double-whammy is due to declining populations, and it's causing an effect known as "temporal genomic erosion," whereby the lack of genetic diversity is introducing deleterious mutations in Grauer's gorillas, including fertility problems and a reduced capacity to ward of infectious diseases. The new research was published last week in Current Biology.
Needless to say, this is making an already bad situation for the Grauer's gorilla even worse. But while the genetic diversity of these gorillas is plummeting, it has yet to reach the point of no return—a state known as "genetic meltdown," after which time there isn't enough diversity left in the gene pool for reproductive viability. There's still time to bring these apes back from the brink, we just need to act.
Museum samples of Grauer's gorilla skulls. (Image: Love Dalén/Tom van der Valk)
Over the past two decades, the population of Grauer's gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has decreased by 80 per cent. As a result of poaching and loss of habitat, there are less than 4,000 individuals alive today, and the species is listed as critically endangered. To see if this population decline was mirrored by a loss of genetic diversity, the SMNH and Uppsala scientists behind the new study analysed eastern gorilla genomes over the past century by studying samples kept at museums. It's the first study to use historical genomes from an endangered species to investigate changes in genomic variation through time.
"We think there is great potential for this approach to be implemented on a much wider scale on endangered species in general," said Love Dalén, a researcher at SMNH and a co-author of the new study.
Dalén and his colleagues sequenced 11 genomes from eastern gorillas dating back 100 years. The DNA of the archived specimens, which were extracted from teeth and dry-tissue samples, were badly degraded, but by applying the same methods that are normally used to restore even older samples, such as mammoths and Neanderthals, the scientists were able to recover good and reliable genetic data.
"It would of course have been great if we could have sequenced even more museum specimens, since this would have allowed for higher resolution," Dalén said. "Overall, the finding of significant changes in Grauer's gorillas is robust in my opinion, since statistical significance takes into account the small sample size."
A juvenile Grauer's gorilla. (Image: Love Dalén/Tom van der Valk)
Results confirmed a loss of genetic diversity among living Grauer's gorillas, of which DNA samples were taking from seven individuals. What's more, an alarming batch of genetic mutations have crept in over the past four to five generations—mutations that are making these gorillas more susceptible to communicable and genetic diseases, and less capable of adapting to environmental changes. Many of these mutations are classified as "Loss of Function" (LoF), which, as the name suggests, happens when a gene loses its evolved function. Over the last 100 years, Grauer's gorillas have acquired several LoF mutations which, in humans and other related species, are related to changes in immune responses and male fertility. The researchers also detected LoF in genes associated with finger and toe development, which may explain why many living Grauer's gorillas have fused digits.
Interestingly, the researchers also conducted a similar study of mountain gorillas, applying the same techniques. No significant genetic changes were detected; these gorillas, a closely-related subspecies, appear to be sustaining their genetic diversity and reproductive viability despite recent population losses due to similar factors.
The reason for the observed increase in harmful mutations in Grauer's gorillas compared to mountain gorillas, said Dalén, may have something to do with differences in their long-term history. Grauer's gorillas went through a major population increase several thousand years ago, while the population of mountain gorillas remained low for several thousands of years. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the small population size of mountain gorillas could have allowed natural selection to weed out acquired deleterious mutations in a process known as genetic purging.
By contrast, the population increase in Grauer's gorillas introduced a large number of mutations—including harmful ones.
"Once the Grauer's gorilla started declining in recent decades, we think these low-frequency harmful mutations may have started increasing in frequency due to stochastic allele changes—so-called genetic drift," said Dalén.
As the new study suggests, it's critical that we stop, and ideally reverse, the demographic decline in Grauer's gorilla.
"The smaller the population gets, more harmful mutations are likely to increase even further in frequency," said Dalén. "This could lead to a negative feedback loop called mutational meltdown. So the decline really needs to be stopped."
Action won't be easy. Ongoing conflict in the DRC and the threat of Ebola has made conservation efforts difficult, if not impossible. Hopefully sanity will reign, and we'll be able to implement meaningful efforts to preserve this remarkable group of animals. [Current Biology]
Featured image: Love Dalén/Tom van der Valk