(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak pushes his team through drills as the Utah men's basketball program begins fall practices with a fairly new roster of players on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017.
Larry Krystkowiak's summer has been anything but a break.
Not that it ever was before, but when change hovers over a program, as it has under Krystkowiak in recent seasons, you have to get your batch of newcomers up to speed. This summer his Runnin' Utes welcomed five members of a lauded freshman class who will be leaned upon to not only contribute, but be integral parts of a program in its eighth season under the watch of the 53-year-old head coach.
During the start of the few weeks of the offseason — student-athletes will return to campus when the fall semester starts on Aug. 20 — Krystkowiak was in the middle of a lengthy drive back to his home state of Montana when he discussed a number of topics regarding these young gun Utes, the vaunted nonconference schedule pieced together for the upcoming season, and what expectations he has for such a youthful squad.
It started this summer not on the court, but in the weight room.
Utah's loss to Penn State in the NIT final in late March served as a lesson for Krystkowiak's group that while the 2018-19 team will be stocked with young talent, it must be ready for what will be a significantly upgraded schedule. The Utes struggled physically against Penn State, so this summer, it has been all about bulking up.
"We've given our strength and conditioning staff the direction to, 'Hey, let's put some beef on,'" Krystkowiak said.
Utah was able to practice four hours a week for eight weeks during the summer semester, which is made a bit more tricky considering coaches are recruiting as much as five days a week. When the coaches were on the road, the Utes were turned over to the training staff in the gym.
And when you have five new freshman plus some JC transfers, you've got a lot of paperwork to sort through just to get off the ground.
Which Krystkowiak feels Utah's on target with.
No spring or summer during his seven previous years was as fruitful or productive as this one, he said. The 2018 class of guard Naseem Gaskin, wings Both Gach and Timmy Allen and bigs Riley Battin and Lahat Thioune has acclimated. Transfer guard Charles Jones Jr., last year's NJCAA Player of the Year, has too.
Utah's 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes are their most hyped to date, so what, if anything, has changed?
"A lot of things in life don't happen overnight," Krystkowiak said.
Plenty has changed, but also, not that much. Utah has been in the Pac-12 long enough now, Krystkowiak says, that it has produced star players (see Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl and Kyle Kuzma), contended for conference titles and even added that spiffy new basketball facility to wow recruits. Utah lost four seniors to graduation and five more to transfers after missing out on March Madness.
Fans might be drooling over the potential, but potential isn't quantifiable. For Krystkowiak, outmuscling the other dude for a rebound, or soaring just a bit higher to block a shot is. Utah, as it is every year, has completed its first phase of the calendar year. Senior Parker Van Dyke said as much when the team held its last squad meeting at the conclusion of the summer semester.
"You can never win a golf tournament on a Thursday," Krystkowiak summed up.
But you can certainly put yourself in position to.
That's why Utah's nonconference schedule, which for some time has been scrutinized by fans and media, has been bolstered. Utah hits the road for games at Kentucky and Minnesota, faces rival BYU at Vivint Smart Home Arena in the Beehive Classic, and hosts the likes of Tulsa and last year's Sweet 16 team Nevada. Why has Utah loaded up for this season? "Sometimes, your mindset changes a little bit," Krystkowiak said.
If Utah's in the mix for an at-large bid come next March, there won't be any questions regarding the bubble. Beyond that, a trip to Rupp Arena or facing a veteran-heavy Wolfpack team will ensure the annual road trip at Arizona isn't an eye-opener for this young Runnin' Utes crew.
The Utah coach didn't want to single out any player when asked who has turned heads or who is exceeding expectations this summer. But Krystkowiak does believe he's got a bunch of players who are willing to guard, and as far as length and athleticism, well, there's never been a previous team that has rivaled this year's roster.
They'll be tested this upcoming season. All of them. And it'll start early in November, not January.


The remains of the Bulli Jetty C1954. The remaining section pictured here collapsed into the sea during the 1960s.
THE heavy seas which were running during the week swept away a portion of the eastern end of the Bulli Colliery Jetty. The seas were too heavy to enable an inspection to be carried out to ascertain the full extent of the damage.
The old Bulli jetty, damaged in heavy storms last year, was further demolished and only the frame work was standing on Sunday morning. The beaches from Bulli to Austinmer were strewn with debris from the jetty.
–Illawarra Mercury Friday 21 May 1943.
FOUR fishermen were marooned for about half an hour on the end of the old Bulli Jetty on Sunday, when about 30ft. of the centre collapsed and fell into the sea.
The portion on which they were fishing is about 50ft. high and the men had to slide down a wire cable into a boat, which had to be rowed out by Messrs. A. Chate and J. Darcey.
Just before the collapse a man and woman had walked across the section which fell into the sea. The concussion killed thousands of small mullet in the channel near the jetty.
Thirroul Surf Life Saving Club sent its surf boat and several members on surf skis to assist in the rescue, but by the time they completed the two miles, the marooned men had been taken ashore in Mr. Chate's boat.
The jetty, which was formerly used by the A.I.S.' Colliery, Bulli, for shipping coal, was severely damaged in May, 1943, during the heavy gale which blew the American freighter, City of Boston, onto the rocks, where it was wrecked at Shellharbour. For many years it has been a favourite fishing spot used by local fishermen.
-Illawarra Mercury Thursday 10 February 1949.
A large portion in the centre of the Bulli jetty collapsed and fell into the sea on Sunday afternoon and four fishermen were trapped on the end. They were rescued by a fishing boat which put out from the nearby boat harbour.
This jetty has not been used by ships since 1943 when it was extensively damaged by heavy seas and the end washed away. Since then further damage has been caused by storms but it has remained a popular spot for fishermen.
When the jetty collapsed Thirroul Surf Club sent its surf boat to the rescue of the stranded men but in the meantime the fishing boat had reached the scene and the men slid down a cable into the boat.
–South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus Thursday 10 February 1949.


text:
Lactic acid/citric acid/potassium bitartrate, sold under the brand name Phexxi, is a non-hormonal combination medication used as a method of birth control. It contains lactic acid, citric acid, and potassium bitartrate. It is a gel inserted into the vagina.

The most common adverse reactions include vulvovaginal burning sensation, vulvovaginal pruritus, vulvovaginal mycotic infection, urinary tract infection, vulvovaginal discomfort, bacterial vaginosis, vaginal discharge, genital discomfort, dysuria, and vulvovaginal pain.

Medical uses
The combination is indicated for the prevention of pregnancy in females of reproductive potential for use as an on-demand method of contraception.

History
The combination was approved for medical use in the United States in May 2020.

References

External links

Barrier contraception
Combination drugs
Methods of birth control
Spermicide
Vagina

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Ken Davidoff
Why A-Rod passing Mays in Boston would be absolutely ideal
Social Links for Ken Davidoff
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The pain of the MLB lockout, directly from the fans witnessing it firsthand
A simple request to the baseball gods, from whom I haven't asked a darn thing since the time Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez threw his entire glove (with the ball inside) to Tino Martinez for my favorite Subway Series out…
Please, please, please let Alex Rodriguez go deep once more, and only once more, before the Yankees leave town for Boston.
And then please have A-Rod hit another homer next weekend at Fenway Park.
You could cancel the rest of the season after that one-two combination, for all I care.
Yes, A-Rod is poised to make history and noise of all kinds after his first-inning solo blast Sunday night pulled him within one career homer of Willie Mays. Rodriguez's shot off Jon Niese, and off and over the top of the fence in right-center field, sparked the Yankees to a come-from-behind, 6-4 victory over the Mets and gave the home team the 2-1 edge in this most-electric-in-years Subway Series.
"Willie was my father's favorite player," A-Rod said after the game. "… He's one of my heroes. I'm excited about the win today, the home run and I'm having fun."
The Yankees, 11-8 and tied with the Rays for first place in the American League East, don't need the A-Rod sideshow to keep them compelling, which is somewhat of a surprise in itself; they roared ahead Sunday with a four-run second inning, and their bullpen picked up shaky starter Nathan Eovaldi as the Mets committed four errors.
But man, is A-Rod compelling, too!
He now has 659 career home runs to his name, five in this return season after sitting all of last year to serve his Biogenesis suspension. When he hits his next one to catch up to Mays at 660, he'll set in motion his next legal battle with the Yankees over the $6 million marketing bonus A-Rod does or doesn't deserve as per the 10-year, $275 million contract he signed during the 2007-08 offseason.
[mlbvideo id="91025683″ width="612″ height="360″ /]
The Yankees don't believe A-Rod's milestone is marketable; Rodriguez and the Players Association will assert the contrary. The hearing to determine who's right might be pushed all the way to next offseason, as neither side is particularly anxious to reintroduce acrimony into their second (or is it third?) honeymoon.
A-Rod just has to tie Mays at the Stadium; the Yankees start a three-game home series, a battle for first place, against the Rays on Monday. The scene is too good not to happen. You'd have the masses in the stands, tired of all the finger-wagging moralists trying to shame A-Rod, embracing their imperfect slugger and demanding a curtain call out of the dugout. You'd have Rodriguez's teammates, most of whom seem to like him just fine, offering him hugs and high-fives.
And on the Stadium scoreboard … probably not much of anything, out of concern of not wanting to give A-Rod any ammunition in the upcoming grievance hearing. Even a simple "Congratulations" could prove damaging.
"I don't have a marketing degree," A-Rod said, smiling. "I'm just focusing on playing baseball."
(It should be noted the Yankees' postgame press notes pointed out A-Rod's proximity to Mays.)
Then let's send A-Rod to Beantown, tied with Mays and with the legal battle set in motion — as soon as A-Rod hits number 660, the Yankees will have two weeks to formally file that this doesn't qualify as a marketable milestone — and let's see him pass Mays with 661 at Fenway.
Why? So Red Sox fans can boo A-Rod as passionately as their Bronx counterparts cheer him, and whine about how horrible A-Rod is for the game, and how his statistics shouldn't count, anyway, thanks to his involvement with illegal performance-enhancing drugs. And then properly schooled Yankees fans can lean back, chuckle and point out the Red Sox scouted Mays in 1949 but passed on him.
Perhaps the Red Sox's "Curse of the Bambino" wouldn't have lasted so long if Boston hadn't been so slow to sign African-American players. Definitely, institutional racism goes down as a far greater stain on the game than illegal PEDs.
A-Rod added a double and drove in another run with a fielder's choice Sunday, and he has a .267/.405/.583 slash line. He deserves a nice chunk of credit for the Yankees overachieving this early in the schedule, and all eyes will be on him until he gets to 660.
"Obviously, you hope it comes [Monday]," manager Joe Girardi said of number 660. "And you hope there's a couple of guys on when he hits it."
Now it's time to get greedy. On top of this already compelling New York baseball season, can't we have some more fun this coming week? Baseball gods, if you deliver, I promise: No more wishes for another 16 years.
Read Next Yanks tab familiar sixth starter to give rotation a break

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"We want it to be more productive, we want it to be healthier, we want it to be a problem-free cow," said Mr Tricarico.
Methane accounts for 9 per cent of US greenhouse gas emissions and does not linger in the air as long as CO2, but it has a global warming effect more than 20 times greater than CO2, the White House says.
However, financial barriers are hampering the adoption of tools to limit methane from cattle, as was the case with early technology to curb pollution from power stations and motor vehicles.
The costs are prohibitive for dairy and beef farmers and the kind of research that could make the tools more cost-effective would require public funding.
C-Lock, a South Dakota company, sells a feeding station that gives animals dietary supplements such as basil to cut methane production and measures the content of their breath by pulling it towards trace gas sensors with a vacuum.
Patrick Zimmerman, C-Lock's founder, says prices start at $45,000 but stresses the economic benefits of improved efficiency. "Of the energy the animals eat, 3 to 15 per cent is lost as methane and that's a waste," he says.
At Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology, scientists have created backpacks that collect gas via tubes plugged into cows' stomachs. A typical animal emits 250-300 litres of methane a day and researchers say this could be used to power a car or a refrigerator for a day, but Jorge Antonio Hilbert of the institute says the tanks' use on a large scale is "totally improbable".
Ilmi Granoff of the Overseas Development Institute said an alternative to controlling cattle emissions would be to cut the number of cows.


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For press inquiries regarding Mimi's fiction books, please contact Emma Boyer at Smith Publicity.
For press inquiries regarding Mimi's non-fiction books, please contact the Marketing and Publicity department at Pen and Sword Books.
For fiction sales/subsidiary rights inquiries, please contact Sarah Hershman at Hershman Rights Management.
For all other inquiries, please contact Mimi Matthews.


It's here! Economics: The Remarkable Story of How the Economy Works is out on Amazon in both Kindle ebook ($3.99) and paperback ($7.99) formats. It will appear on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iTunes over the next few weeks.


Episode Five of the podcast is live here and on most channels where podcasts are heard.
The first part of the story, as most of my podcasts start with something personal, is an honest look at loss, love and my journey to be grateful each and every Thanksgiving.
I share the recipe for Mother's fabulous Sweet Potato Delight, which Miss Bee will be making for the first time on her own this year – I am taking a break from cooking and I am SO EXCITED!
Here's the video I mentioned on the hilarious Friends episode over Ross's dismay that someone ate his "Moist Maker" sandwich. I gafaw at this every time I see it.
Then, I talk about Ina Garten and her new cookbook Cooking Like Pro. I have managed to collect most all of her cookbooks – she has ten. In her book Make it Ahead she shares "Ten Make Ahead Tips" when hosting a dinner party.
While we are on the subject of Ina, I shared her recipe for Cranberry Martinis which I am serving to guests on Thanksgiving as my welcome cocktail. I cooked the cranberries and orange rind last night on the stove and the house smelled like a citrus grove. You then pour into a pitcher of vodka and let it sit in the fridge for a few days to infuse. Serve over ice with triple sec and POW! it's a Thanksgiving miracle!
Let's see, I think we finished up with some fun ice breaker activities you can play with guests to create conversation and connection. I've got 81 Ice Breaker ideas posted on my Pinterest board here. I'm especially enjoying the "This or That" versions.


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Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access
Practitioners' learning about healthcare supply chain management in the COVID-19 pandemic: a public procurement perspective
Christine Mary Harland (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy)
Louise Knight (Faculty of Behaviourial Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands)
Andrea S. Patrucco (Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Business, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA)
Jane Lynch (Logistics and Operations Management, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK)
Jan Telgen (Public Procurement Research Centre, Barneveld and University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands)
Esmee Peters (Public Procurement Research Centre, Barneveld and University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands)
Tünde Tátrai (Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Petra Ferk (New University, Nova Gorica, Slovenia)
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
Article publication date: 9 December 2021
Issue publication date: 17 December 2021
pdf (180 KB) Article view Figure view Cited (10) cite article
The procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in "real time" in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges.
Developments across 23 countries and practitioners' learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors' emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations.
Originality/value
The application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities.
Supply markets
Harland, C.M., Knight, L., Patrucco, A.S., Lynch, J., Telgen, J., Peters, E., Tátrai, T. and Ferk, P. (2021), "Practitioners' learning about healthcare supply chain management in the COVID-19 pandemic: a public procurement perspective", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 41 No. 13, pp. 178-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-05-2021-0348
Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Christine Mary Harland, Louise Knight, Andrea S. Patrucco, Jane Lynch, Jan Telgen, Esmee Peters, Tünde Tátrai and Petra Ferk
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The medical supply system has turned into "Lord of the Flies" […] Every state, major city, and territory, and thousands of hospitals, are being forced into a bidding war, encouraging price gouging and hoarding [1].
These are the damning terms in which US Senator Chris Murphy described the state of procurement systems in March 2020, as they struggled to cope with critical shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), supplies for intensive care and other essential medical devices. Although procurement professionals made an unprecedented effort to procure essential goods (while also contending with new remote working conditions), it is clear that most – if not all – procurement organizations failed to effectively address all the novel challenges they faced in the early months of the pandemic. The emergency revealed several "black holes" in government procurement systems, such as the failure of national stockpile strategies, unbridled rivalries between federal, state and local procurement organizations and the inability to react rapidly to unexpected events such as "hijacked" cargos, price gouging and delivery of counterfeit and poor-quality products.
Now that private and public sector supply chains are trying to return to a "new normal", it is essential to analyze and reflect on why the speed and global scale of this health crisis, combined with the complexity of the healthcare procurement system, caused so many unprecedented problems (Van Hoek, 2020). With this in mind, between March and May 2020, we conducted interviews with 58 senior international procurement practitioners from local, regional and national procurement organizations, NGOs and procurement professional associations. The interview objectives were to better understand the main challenges these professionals faced as they developed awareness and motivation to act but were limited by their capabilities, and what lessons can be learned to make these systems better prepared to future emergencies.
2. Procurement challenges during COVID-19
2.1 Procurement for healthcare as a complex, multi-level system
Procurement and supply chain management for healthcare varies significantly internationally in structure, governance and management. Depending on the public and private healthcare provision mix, many organizations perform healthcare procurement, including procurement offices, regional and national government healthcare departments, hospitals, general medical practices and private sector group purchasing representing insurance-based healthcare providers (Scala and Linsday, 2021). Stringent public procurement regulations and procedures exist nationally and internationally in trading blocs such as the EU, and they often cover healthcare. Almost 40% of the hospital budget is used to buy different types of supplies and equipment; considering the rising healthcare costs experienced by both developing and developed countries, several governments started using procurement to obtain efficiency and improve health outcomes (European Commission, 2021). Due to the coexistence of private and public actors, healthcare supply chains implement different strategies, and they have different capabilities to respond to emergencies. In different countries, extensive use of distributors, lack of inventory visibility and reliance on foreign countries for several critical goods are among the most important factors that expose healthcare supply chains to vulnerabilities (Rakovska and Velinova, 2018). Additionally, the high fragmentation of actors, system inefficiencies and difficulty to establish collaborations makes it challenging to design and manage healthcare supply chains as a system, and SCM practices are usually adopted at the individual actor-level (e.g. at the hospital level; Dai et al., 2020).
Systems theory/thinking (Checkland, 1999) helps researchers to understand multi-level systems and has been applied to understand supply chains and supply networks (Choi et al., 2001) as complex systems. More than any other event, the pandemic has accentuated the interconnectedness of supply chains and networks (Harland, 2021); this represents a call for action for healthcare supply chains that need to introduce a real supply chain thinking in managing supply markets, as well as the balance between rivalry and cooperation across procurement organizations.
2.2 Procurement for healthcare (un)preparedness for a pandemic
Whether the crisis is a natural disaster, a military conflict, or an epidemic outbreak, procuring critical goods and services during a crisis presents several challenges. Uncertainty is commonplace, delays occur and urgent needs go unmet. So, agility and flexibility are crucial. The last century has already experienced several situations characterized by intense crisis contracting. Still, pandemics and epidemics are the most critical from a procurement and supply chain management perspective due to their impact on human lives (Ivanov, 2020). When looking at the healthcare supply chain literature, discussion about system preparedness to face emergencies (e.g. pandemics, wars, climate catastrophes) is limited. These events cause a rapid surge in demand for critical medical supplies that can be coped only with an appropriate inventory and logistic infrastructure (Leite et al., 2021). The emergency and disaster management research which uses the previous SARS and Ebola outbreaks as the unit of analysis already shows the risks of uncontrolled healthcare supply chain behaviors, with critical medical products being hoarded, procurement organizations lacking visibility on available inventory and insufficient support provided by national stockpiles (Dasaklis et al., 2012). Examples from other natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, also show the need for governments to improve their supply market infrastructure after the crisis to increase future preparedness (McGuire and Schneck, 2010). Although on a smaller case, those events were already suggesting that optimizing inventory strategies and establishing better coordination between agencies should have been a priority to improve healthcare supply chain preparedness (Calnan et al., 2017). Some countries were even able to catch the healthcare "system weaknesses" signals. For example, in 2016, the UK government organized "Exercise Cygnus", a flu outbreak simulation involving 950 officials to understand UK readiness for an epidemic outbreak [2]. The simulation concluded that the UK was clearly not prepared to face an event of this magnitude, with lack of central coordination and intra-state rivalry being the main reasons for failing to satisfy the peak demand for hospital and social care.
Unfortunately, once COVID-19 hit, all the above issues occurred, amplified by the magnitude of this global emergency. Scrutiny of procurement was triggered by buyer rivalry and supplier opportunism, "hijacked" supplies, international piracy, counterfeit and poor-quality products, price gouging and corruption (Patrucco and Kähkönen, 2021). Public authorities and private healthcare providers competed to secure critical supplies as international borders closed and societies and economies locked down (Kamerow, 2020). Prices rose, so new sources of supply were sought, and opportunistic entrants to the market appeared, increasing risks of fraud and uncertain quality (Atkinson et al., 2020). National stockpiles were allocated with no apparent distribution strategy (Handfield et al., 2020). The result was a free-for-all that should never be repeated.
As a result, these complex, dynamic healthcare supply chains failed to cope effectively with the impact of the pandemic, showing a lack of responsiveness on the procurement side (Scala and Lindsay, 2021). Thus, it becomes imperative, for governments, to learn once and for all from the COVID-19 experience and seriously rethink their procurement systems, increasing their capabilities to coordinate and minimize disruption of supply of critical goods and services and mitigate the effects of emergencies.
3. Analyzing procurement for healthcare during COVID-19: the awareness-capability-motivation framework
Direct interviews with public procurement officers and government representatives gave us the chance to capture key learning points and perceived organizational knowledge and skills gaps from a wide range of settings to identify common and differentiating themes and derive insights for future preparedness.
3.1 Data collection
We wanted to gather data early in the crisis to lower the risk of bias and retrospective sensemaking. To accommodate the severe time pressures faced by interviewees, and capitalize on interviewers' experience, we designed the expert interview (Döringer, 2021) around two overarching questions on pandemic procurement and supply (1) sharing learning by describing their key lesson learned so far (based on success or failure); (2) learning from peers by discussing the most significant challenge(s) they currently face for which they would like to learn from others.
Interviews were conducted from March to May 2020 using contacts within an existing research network. The number of interviews and targets were not predetermined, aiming for data and meaning saturation (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). Interviews were conducted via video links, with follow-up emails and communication with each participant, to verify interview notes and develop interim findings. A final convenience sample of 58 respondents across 23 countries was obtained. Respondents include senior public procurement practitioners such as National Directors of Procurement, State Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs), designated national and local COVID-19 procurers, senior category managers for healthcare and CEOs and board members of national public procurement professional organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), representing an average experience in public procurement of 17 years. We captured data from nations seen as coping relatively well with the pandemic, and those considered to be less effective (in terms of number of cases and PPE shortages), and from countries with a more law-focused approach to public procurement and those with a more strategic, policy-led approach.
3.2 Data coding: themes and conceptual interpretation
The approach used for coding and analyzing the data did not follow a traditional comparative case study but used a three-phase variable-oriented approach. The first phase was inductive; the data gathered from each respondent provide expert insights into their strengths and weaknesses in facing the emergency. The conversational approach enabled identifying issues experienced by the respondents as in a critical incident study design. The focus of the analysis is the issues, not a country comparison. By asking about challenges and successes, respondents focused on factors critical to performance that may be successful in one jurisdiction or failing in another. Thus, all issues discussed are considered important, and analysis takes account of outliers and extreme cases, as well as frequently mentioned themes. Where factors were mentioned with both positive and negative valence, data were appropriately combined. The nature of the responses gives a temporal aspect to the data, since interviewees spoke of how pre-crisis decisions/structures/capabilities affected their ability to respond to the crisis and of lessons learned and their priorities for improving their future capabilities for crisis response. Further, although public sector levels vary across countries, we tried to isolate information at local, state/national, federal/union levels. As a result of this phase, themes emerging from the interviews were organized in five different areas.
The first, "Governance", relates to issues internally to the procurement organization and externally to other buyers, suppliers and stakeholders in the systems. The second, "Skills and competencies", relates to individual knowledge and competence of procurement roles and professionals and distinguishes between the professionalism of procurement specialists and the need to shift role boundaries to incorporate supply chain management knowledge. The third, "Information systems", relates to the role of digitalization with a clearer, more coherent understanding of the many, varied ways in which the systems in place before the pandemic helped or hindered decisions and activities during the pandemic. The fourth, "Regulation and procedures", relate to how procurement systems were able to adapt and align standard procedures to the support urgent requests. Finally, the fifth, "Supply base management", relates to vulnerabilities and commitment that procurement organizations experienced in relation to the supply base.
The second phase aimed to identify an appropriate theoretical framework useful to elaborate on the five descriptive themes dynamically. Chen's (1996) awareness-motivation-capability framework (A-M-C) is one of ten theories highlighted by Craighead et al. (2020) as potentially helpful in analyzing supply chain management in this pandemic. It comprises three essential, behavioral factors determining firms' actions in response to strategic moves by competitors. It allows explanatory and predictive analyses of the firms' (inter)actions according to their awareness of others' actions, their own motivation to act and their capability to do so (Chen and Miller, 2012). Chen also recognized the appropriateness of A-M-C to be applied to situations of cooperation as well as competition (Chen, 2014), contrasting rivalrous and competitive-cooperative modes. However, most applications of A-M-C relate to the strategic management domain to explain rivalry between competitors, with only very limited application to a procurement and supply chain management context. Due to its ability to capture, along different dimensions, organizations' response to external, unpredictable events, we decided to adopt the A-M-C framework to frame the collected data conceptually. Thus, the third phase consisted in summarizing the findings from the first two phases to develop two complementary accounts, descriptive (based on the five themes) and conceptually framed (leading with awareness, motivation and capabilities).
Figure 1 summarizes the main output of this process. An overview of the main findings is provided in the next section, adopting the A-M-C perspective. Necessarily, we provide a rather linear account moving from awareness to motivation to capability. Especially given the highly dynamic and uncertain setting in which procurement and supply decisions were being made, there are multiple, important links between the three; for example, awareness of impending shortages motivates hoarding which, when observed, encourages rivalry.
4. Healthcare procurement systems' awareness, motivation and capability to perform
Public procurement systems became aware of the emergency and the need to support increased urgent demand for critical medical supplies (typically ordered directly by hospitals against longstanding framework agreements) at different times, even within the same country. In the US, for example, due to the uncertainty related to the federal government support, States officially involved procurement in emergency operations in different weeks between February and March, with the latest ones facing the hardest time to increase order volumes and find alternative sources.
As governments activated emergency plans, especially in Europe, the UK and the US, there was a false sense of security of procurement organization maturity, leading to unrealistic expectations about state and local procurement systems' ability to navigate the crisis. This perspective started to change as procurement leaders soon became aware of the inadequacy and inappropriateness of emergency stockpiles of healthcare supplies at the federal/union level. In some countries, like Wales and Scotland, this lack of central support left some authorities on their own, revealing the inadequacy of procurement officers' supply chain knowledge. Others such as Australia, China and the Netherlands established central taskforces with buyers joining the system from different levels in the public administration hierarchy e.g. government ministries tried to source directly from suppliers, where usually this was left to procurement or healthcare providers. In some cases, significant events unrelated to the pandemic countered or distracted from pandemic-related pressures, for example elections (e.g. the US, Poland), Brexit (the UK), recovery from other disasters (e.g. Japan).
Those leading procurement and supply initiatives – ministers, government officials and procurement professionals – with initial high expectations of their ability to coordinate a response soon recognized the limitations of information available across the diverse, disconnected healthcare providers and suppliers in the healthcare system. For example, in several countries in Europe (e.g. Italy, Hungary, Portugal and Spain) and South America the lack of prior investment in e-procurement and digital systems (especially at the local level) meant tenders could not be opened, ordering was slowed, and there was no visibility of inventory data.
While previously public procurement organizations paid little attention to suppliers beyond the first tier, they and key government stakeholders became aware of the "extended supply chain". Especially in those countries that lacked central leadership in coordinating the response, volunteers, donors and local manufacturers repurposing their factories to make critical supplies bombarded hospitals, procurement organizations and governments with unsolicited offers to help. This help was a crucial resource for some humanitarian-aid organizations that could not keep up with demand from less-developed countries. Unfortunately, in several countries (especially those under the EU Directives) it was difficult or impossible to receive and accept these offers, due to the need to be compliant with procurement regulations – which also raised awareness of, and frustration at, the lack of flexibility of procedures during emergencies. Increasing awareness of the severity of shortages and constraints on addressing them fueled extreme buyer rivalry and competition to secure goods from local suppliers. Awareness of the rivalry problem, in turn, drove more rivalry. For example, this was a severe issue in the US, where very few States sought to cooperate rather than compete, and some stole each other's' supplies.
4.2 Procurement practitioners' motivations to (re)act
As key actors came to understand the severity of the pandemic and the growing rivalry for scarce resources, national and local procurement organizations were motivated to increase orders and secure supplies, often at any cost and acting independently. Intra-country rivalry was exacerbated in countries with complex procurement systems with autonomous decision-making units at multiple levels (e.g. the US, Canada and the UK). With the supply system breaking down, federal and state governments started stockpiling where possible and preventing critical supplies from being exported legitimately to fulfill orders from other countries; piracy and hijacking exacerbated supply uncertainty. The urgency also motivated governments to relax some procurement regulations wherever possible; this generated flexibility but also "ingenuity", which motivated concerns about a potential increase in corruption, fake products, predatory suppliers and supplies being procured that were not fit for purpose.
In addition to motivating direct interventions to acquire materials, growing awareness of supply problems also inspired efforts to build capacity and capability in the short-term. In some cases, governments established new organizations to lead procurement (e.g. the Netherlands), and elsewhere governments boosted the legitimacy and authority of existing organizations and procurement organizations. In countries such as China, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Scotland and Wales, local procurement organizations were motivated to design and operate effective communication channels with other local procurement organizations, government departments and healthcare providers that previously had not been considered necessary. Knee-jerk reactions were evident as some impatient government leaders (e.g. in US, Canada and Russia) rapidly appointed management consultants and logistics experts to centralize and coordinate communication and action. These interventions, in turn, motivated extraordinary procurement practices and decisions.
Procurement leaders urgently needed to map key supply chains and markets and several public organizations in Australia, Europe and South America sourced massive volumes of critical medical supplies directly from international suppliers for the first time. These efforts, often supported by executives with international commercial experience, were successful. However, in other cases, primarily due to a lack of supply chain competencies, procurement organizations ended up buying critical supplies at any price and suffered from price gouging, receipt of fake and/or poor-quality products and lack of attention to local technical specifications and standards.
4.3 Capabilities to cope in a pandemic
Here we present the capabilities highlighted by the interviewees as being important for managing the procurement and supply of critical materials in a pandemic. In the sense used in the AMC framework, capabilities refer to organizational competencies, capacity and resources. It includes skills and competencies as one form of resource. As with awareness and motivation, the evidence for capabilities falls in the five themes: governance, skills and competencies, information systems, regulations and procedures and supply base management. Table 1 summarizes the findings, listing practices that the capabilities enable. These synthesize the most important strengths and critical gaps mentioned during the interviews.
These capabilities are proposed as a checklist for consideration, not a recommendation that they are needed across all levels of all healthcare procurement systems. Some measures would have much more impact in some settings than others. For example, in the US, where the national stockpile strategy was ineffective, opening doors for an uncontrolled rivalry between states due to a decentralized procurement authority, the development of capabilities in the governance area will be strategic. Conversely, in countries such as China, the Netherlands and Australia, where a more central coordination approach was adopted, the focus should be on developing skills and competencies and adapting regulation and procedures. Or again, in European nations such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Poland, that lag behind in the status of the digitalization infrastructure (also because of more decentralized healthcare procurement systems), more investments and capabilities development will be needed in this area.
5. The value of A-M-C in developing and sustaining preparedness of healthcare procurement systems
5.1 Key insights from applying AMC
While the themes identified through the initial round of coding had good descriptive power, in isolation, they did not provide a solid framing to explain performance (failures) in the extraordinarily complex and dynamic context of the early stages of the pandemic. In particular, it was necessary to address rivalry – the factors behind its rapid escalation and mechanisms that might reduce or contain it – which led to the AMC framework. Its use in analyzing our data leads to several observations.
The ubiquitous use of "unprecedented" when talking of the pandemic demonstrates that for all procurement and non-procurement professionals "there is no business-as-usual during an emergency". "Every-day", normal views of the procurement system no longer held in the pandemic. One aspect of awareness is the recognition of the emergency itself, and that extraordinary measures were called for. However, at a deeper level, procurement organizations needed to reframe their priorities, norms, standards, etc. fundamentally. Notions of what is efficient, effective, ethical were all challenged and often re-shaped. Furthermore, given the dynamism and uncertainty of the situation, they had to find ways of constantly updating and rethinking their understanding of the situation in support of local, short-term decision-making.
Regarding motivation, our analysis highlights a distinction between "motivation to act within the crisis versus motivation to improve future preparedness". Within the crisis, developing awareness of the situation motivated actions related to specific deals, rival buyers, suppliers, etc. On the other hand, it also motivated actions to address capability deficiencies, such as bringing in external experts, implementing new organizational structures and decision-making and communication processes. Communication channels and coordinating inventory data, for example, were explicitly aimed at reducing awareness gaps – reducing uncertainty by enhancing the quality and timeliness of intelligence. Experiences within the crisis also provide the motivation for longer-term developments, to strengthen capabilities, improve intelligence and align incentives.
The interview data show how procurement leaders and front-line personnel faced a series of competing pressures. Performance effectiveness in times of crisis is not simply a function of higher levels of capability. "Capabilities must be deployed to creatively, flexibly and pragmatically address a series of tensions that are inherent to the crisis setting". These tensions include, for example:
Procurement professionals within and between levels in the system need to be prepared for inter-buyer rivalry while also aiming to derive greater net benefits through cooperation.
Just as the reliability of the supply system fails, procurement professionals must rapidly find and put their trust in new suppliers and agents.
Regulations need to be eased to facilitate more agile decision-making by the best/trusted personnel, while simultaneously managing the increased risk of malfeasance on the buyer side.
Similarly, agile decision-making depends on more risk-taking and trust in suppliers, while simultaneously managing the increased risk of predatory behavior by suppliers.
These tensions are played out within the crisis. Looking at capabilities and future preparedness, two paradoxes are particularly noteworthy. First, as widely noted in the media and policy development documents (such as in a recent White House report [3]), addressing supply market capacity risk will require greater market intelligence and new capacity closer to home, but this would have to be based on shifting priorities from cost-focused efficiency to valuing supply security.
Digitalization capability presents a second paradox. Those procurement systems operating with centralization of data (if not contracting) fared much better than those without. However, it does not necessarily follow that there will be greater motivation to digitalize as part of preparedness for future crises, since digitalization also reduces opportunities for corruption by leaders within the system.
5.2 Moving forward – opportunities for research and practice
In summary, healthcare procurement systems have been in the global spotlight throughout the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting the need for better coordination in procurement and supply for fairer, better future public health outcomes. Locally, nationally, internationally and globally, preparedness for emergencies should incorporate far more planning of procurement, supply market capacity management and collaboration between contracting authorities. Internationally, trading blocs such as the European Union are communicating and attempting to manage supply flows to their members. This study and many others show how vital it is to gain greater visibility of supply chains and supply market capacities. Within procurement systems and their constituent organizations, increased awareness, motivation and capability are required, particularly relating to governance, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulations and procedures and supply base issues, all of which emerged as the source of critical failings to cope with the pandemic. Awareness of past inadequacies may apparently motivate change, but inertia in the procurement system is considerable, as indicated in the many aspects of capability summarized in Table 1.
Performance cannot be explained in terms of capability alone. As Chen and Miller (2014) found in the context of commercial firms competing in a market, performance also depends on actors' awareness of the competitive arena and others' moves within it and their motivation to act. The integration of the A-M-C constructs is critical for understanding the relevance and deployment of capabilities in the crisis. Their combination with the descriptive themes allows a more holistic, nuanced understanding of the procurement system in a state of extreme flux.
These areas suggest directions to orient future public and private procurement research. Coping in global crises has not featured substantially in SCM research till very recently. The application of A-M-C is relevant to researching supply in other crises where supply market capacity and rivalry for scarce resources are important features of global procurement and supply systems. As Craighead et al. (2020) have argued, SCM research will benefit from reaching outside our existing theory toolkit. Here we show how AMC is one such theory that can help understand and tackle wicked supply problems such as those arising from the climate crisis, poverty and displaced communities. Future studies can then use this theoretical perspective as a basis to provide a predictive framework that can be used as a resource for public procurement leaders to prepare for future crises. Ultimately, focusing the attention on these capabilities should improve planning for and performance in future crises.
The A-M-C view of healthcare procurement systems for emergency preparedness
Key capability areas to be developed by healthcare procurement systems
Capability areas to be developed and sustained to
Governance Coordination and rivalry
Coordinate/collaborate across procurement organizations, despite complex organizational structures
Pursue both early emergency procurement of critical supplies and collaborative procurement simultaneously
Organization and maturity
Exercise authority and lead the emergency response, grounded in the enhanced status of procurement
Put in place effective methods and levels of communication to cope with the volume, complexity and dynamics of the crisis
Build more agile and responsive organizations, able to move to online working at short notice and sustain parallel work on day-to-day procurement not related to the emergency
Skills and competence Individual professionalism
Evaluate new products and vet new suppliers rapidly and effectively to deal with high volumes of unsolicited offers to supply (e.g. donations)
Individual supply chain management
Invest in SCM, inventory and distribution management capability in procurement
Scout globally to speed up sourcing from new international suppliers
Information systems Digitalization
Act quickly by increasing visibility and transparency
Develop new e-procurement systems to support global scouting
Collate and exchange information quickly across the fragmented information systems
Generate and analyze common data on supply base, technical quality specifications and standards
Regulation and procedures Adaptation
Streamline emergency regulations and procedures that allow speed and flexibility to be balanced with integrity and fairness
Support local suppliers to stabilize local economies during emergencies and immediately after
Favor capacity development in local supply markets through adaptation of regulations
Facilitate addressing issues related to supply market capacity, risk and security in existing procedures
Supply base management Vulnerabilities
Map supply networks/chains, across multiple tiers and globally for better risk management
Reduce overreliance on single country supply
Build resilience through increased market capacity closer to home in national, regional and local contracting authorities
Develop effective relationship and network management across suppliers
Deploy project management is needed to enable suppliers to develop capacity over time
Use of trusted intermediaries to establish and manage supplier collaborations effectively (especially internationally)
See https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/no-national-response-one-senators-alarming-account-of-the-first-days.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pandemic-preparedness/annex-a-about-exercise-cygnus.
See https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/100-day-supply-chain-review-report.pdf.
Atkinson, C.L., McCue, C., Prier, E. and Atkinson, A.M. (2020), "Supply chain manipulation, misrepresentation, and magical thinking during the COVID-19 pandemic", The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 50 Nos 6-7, pp. 628-634.
Calnan, M., Gadsby, E.W., Kondé, M.K., Diallo, A. and Rossman, J.S. (2017), "The response to and impact of the Ebola epidemic: towards an agenda for interdisciplinary research", International Journal of Health Policy and Management, Vol. 7 No. 5, pp. 402-411.
Checkland, P. (1999), Systems Thinking. Rethinking Management Information Systems, Oxford University Press, New York.
Chen, M.-J. (1996), "Competitor analysis and interfirm rivalry: toward a theoretical integration", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 100-134.
Chen, M.J. (2014), "Presidential address – becoming ambicultural: a personal quest, and aspiration for organizations", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 119-137.
Chen, M.J. and Miller, D. (2012), "Competitive dynamics: themes, trends, and a prospective research platform", Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 135-210.
Choi, T.Y., Dooley, K.J. and Rungtusanatham, M. (2001), "Supply networks and complex adaptive systems: control versus emergence", Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 351-366.
Corbin, J.M. and Strauss, A. (1990), "Grounded theory research: procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria", Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 3-21.
Craighead, C.W., Ketchen, D.J., Jr and Darby, J.L. (2020), "Pandemics and supply chain management research: toward a theoretical toolbox", Decision Sciences, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 838-866.
Dai, T., Zaman, M.H., Padula, W.V. and Davidson, P.M. (2020), "Supply chain failures amid Covid-19 signal a new pillar for global health preparedness", Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 30 Nos 1/2, pp. e1-e3, doi: 10.1111/jocn.15400.
Dasaklis, T.K., Pappis, C.P. and Rachaniotis, N.P. (2012), "Epidemics control and logistics operations: a review", International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 139 No. 2, pp. 393-410.
Döringer, S. (2021), "'The problem-centred expert interview'. Combining qualitative interviewing approaches for investigating implicit expert knowledge", International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 265-278.
European Commission (2021), Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (EXPH), Opinion on Public Procurement in Healthcare Systems, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/expert_panel/docs/027_public_proc_healthcare_sys_en.pdf.
Handfield, R., Finkenstadt, D.J., Schneller, E.S., Godfrey, A.B. and Guinto, P. (2020), "A commons for a supply chain in the post‐COVID‐19 era: the case for a reformed strategic national stockpile", The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 98 No. 4, pp. 1058-1090.
Harland, C. (2021), "Discontinuous wefts: weaving a more interconnected supply chain management tapestry", Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 27-40.
Ivanov, D. (2020), "Predicting the impacts of epidemic outbreaks on global supply chains: a simulation-based analysis on the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) case", Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 136, 101922.
Kamerow, D. (2020), "Covid-19: the crisis of personal protective equipment in the US", BMJ, Vol. 369, m1367.
Leite, H., Lindsay, C. and Kumar, M. (2021), "COVID-19 outbreak: implications on healthcare operations", The TQM Journal, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 247-256, doi: 10.1108/TQM-05-2020-0111.
McGuire, M. and Schneck, D. (2010), "What if Hurricane Katrina hit in 2020? The need for strategic management of disasters", Public Administration Review, Vol. 70, pp. s201-s207.
Patrucco, A.S. and Kähkönen, A.K. (2021), "Agility, adaptability, and alignment: new capabilities for PSM in a post-pandemic world", Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 27 No. 4, 100719.
Rakovska, M.A. and Velinova, S.V. (2018), "A taxonomy of healthcare supply chain management practices", Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 4-24.
Scala, B. and Lindsay, C.F. (2021), "Supply chain resilience during pandemic disruption: evidence from healthcare", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 672-688.
Van Hoek, R. (2020), "Research opportunities for a more resilient post-COVID-19 supply chain – closing the gap between research findings and industry practice", International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 341-355.
Finkenstadt, D.J. and Handfield, R. (2021), "Blurry vision: supply chain visibility for personal protective equipment during COVID-19", Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, 100689.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Tobias Schoenherr for his significant suggestions to improve the article. The research did not receive external fundings.
Andrea S. Patrucco is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: andreastefano.patrucco@gmail.com
Christine Mary Harland PhD is Gianluca Spina Chair of Supply Strategy at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Her research interests are in the use of public procurement as a lever of government policy, procurement for healthcare, collaborative procurement and humanitarian supply chain management.
Louise Knight PhD is Chair of Public Sector and Healthcare Procurement at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Her research adopts a systems perspective on the development of strategic procurement by public and non-profit organizations and networks. This includes capability and capacity building, supply market dynamics and scenario planning.
Andrea S. Patrucco, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at Florida International University College of Business, US. His research interests are Supply Chain and Purchasing Management, focusing on performance management and organizational design in Public Procurement and orchestration of Buyer-Supplier Relationships.
Jane Lynch, PhD, is a Reader in Procurement for the Logistics and Operations Management (LOM) section, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. Her research themes include public procurement, social procurement and effective collaboration.
Jan Telgen PhD is an Emeritus Professor of Public Procurement and Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente, the Netherlands and managing director of the Public Procurement Research Centre PPRC, a social enterprise. His research interests are in policy implementation through public procurement and supplier selection methodologies.
Esmee Peters is a PhD candidate within Public Procurement and consultant and researcher for the Public Procurement Research Centre PPRC. Her research interests lie in innovation and policy implementation within public procurement.
Tünde Tátrai is a Professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Business Economics. Her research field is public procurement and e-public procurement.
Petra Ferk is an Assistant Professor for Public Administration at New University, Slovenia and a founder of the Institute for Public-Private Partnership. Her research interests are supplier selection methodologies, environmental LCC in procurement and e-procurement.
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text:
Business is booming at Bird
18 Apr Business is booming at Bird
Posted at 15:00h in Events, pr, social	by	Paige O'Grady
It's been a very busy few weeks at Bird HQ – from a new brand launch, a new partnership deal to dressing up a famous statue… let us explain.
The weekend saw the world famous horse race, The Grand National, take place. With this, Bird was a part of two TV firsts! You may have noticed the race aired on ITV this year (for the very first time!) so ITV dressed up the good news (literally) by clothing the King Edward VII monument. Standing at 8ft tall, the statue is located outside one of Liverpool's most iconic buildings, the Royal Liver Building. The photo op featured ITV Racing presenter, Ed Chamberlain and weather girl, Lucy Verasamy, whilst the former King… turned Jockey showed off his orange and green silks in the background.
Bird managed the launch of another TV first – The Virtual Grand National. Using sophisticated 3D CGI animations and software, 40 'virtual' runners and riders from the 2017 Grand National field ran over the famous Aintree course. The Virtual Race ran on ITV4 on Friday night prior to the big race itself. Bird's social campaign saw the TV trailer gain 90k views, and the press release 70k views. The virtual winner was Cause of Causes who came second in the real race… so close!
We mentioned a new brand launch – Bird managed the media communications for a new leisure brand, Whereabouts Holidays. Offering a fresh approach to active holidays, Whereabouts is aimed at anyone looking to discover the world differently. The brand has more than 200 tours to choose from, including cycling, walking, kayaking, rock climbing and snowshoeing. We secured coverage locally and nationally, via The Manchester Evening News, The Guardian and the Sunday Mirror. Over the last few months, Bird has been working behind the scenes to seal a very exciting deal for our client Footasylum, and last week we announced the good news! Footasylum became the official retail partner of legendary boxing manager and promoter Frank Warren. The partnership kicked off at Saturday's (8th) boxing match at the Manchester Arena, titled 'A New Era'. Last week, we attended two press conferences with Light Middleweights Liam Smith and long-time rival Liam Williams, and World lightweights Terry Flanagan and Russia's Petr Petrov. Bird managed an Instore meet and greet at Footasylum's Manchester Arndale store, with fans queuing to meet the boxers and have their picture took! We were also very privileged to meet Two-time Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams, Daniel Dubois and Footasylum's very own Jordan Thompson who made their debuts at Saturday night's fight too.
So, it's safe to say business is booming and we're very lucky to have such a great bunch of clients who make everything we do all the more exciting!
business, pr
JD goes all in for Esports
Unique Grand National Race Returns To ITV
Feminism and International Women's Day – #BalanceforBetter
Former Paper Boy becomes Executive Chairman at Quest Media
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onawire@birdconsultancy.co.uk | 0161 839 4846
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To say that our 2019 didn't quite start the way we had envisaged is probably an understatement. Although not technically in 2019, Mrs Majjak did have an incident just prior to new year which has made the start to the 2019 somewhat challenging.
On December 27th, on a reasonably challenging section of trails, Kerry had a mountain bike accident at a fairly remote part of the Nerang mountain bike park. Nearing the edge of the trail, she lost her balance and toppled down the side of a ledge. Her 22kg mountain bike crashed down onto her leg as she rolled down the hill, screaming in agony until she came to a stop a few meters away from the trail.
No doubt by now you're already thinking about Christmas. Some of you are probably well into your preparations for the festive season.
This morning I received a message from a friend from the other side of the world. He wanted me to know that the doctors had told him that he likely only had a few days left and he wanted to thank me for my friendship across the years we'd known each other.
He was saying goodbye. Forever.
We went to high school together - the only friend I have left from those days. Smarter, more athletic and naturally talented, passionate and driven than I ever was, his presence in my life pushed me to do better. A year older than me, at 45 years old he will leave behind a wife and three children under the age of ten.
Reaching that point in our lives where our children are fast becoming completely independent is a double edged sword. On one hand, the freedom that we both have now is liberating. We have a lot more time for us and the activities that we enjoy.
But on the other side of the coin, it can feel like that we're no longer needed in the lives of our children. And I think mothers probably feel this impact the most.
Recently my youngest brother had his first child - Sunday (that's his daughter's name, not the day she was born).


I had accidentally stopped by Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and headed up the Big Sur River Gorge last summer when we stopped too early in an attempt to do the Tanbark Trail & Tin House loop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. I mean, the names are confusing. Really.
The last time I was here, we made it up the river to the swimming hole, but opted to come back at a later time to jump in. I was determined to check this place off my bucket list! And this weekend, I did. Headed down to the park on a hot Sunday morning with some friends. We were afraid it would be foggy and cool, but the fog quickly burned off to reveal blue, blue skies for a marvelous trek up the river.


text:
Players International was a company, based in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that built and operated riverboat casinos and a horse racing track.

History
The company was founded by brothers David and Edward Fishman in 1984. The company was originally known for its "Player's Club," a service which offered discounts on rooms, shows and dining at various casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and outside the country. Club members paid $125 for the first year's membership and a lower fee for annual renewals. The company advertised heavily on late-night television, with actor Telly Savalas as its spokesperson. In a time when casino gambling was only legal in Nevada and Atlantic City, casino ownership was much more fragmented than today and mass marketing was unheard of for casinos, the Player's Club concept proved popular. The company also arranged gaming tournaments for casinos and arranged travel for competing players.

After a brief foray into call-in telephone games based on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, the brothers decided to get out of the  discount travel business and into the casino business itself. Casino legalization was spreading rapidly, especially in the Midwest, and the Fishmans applied for and received a license for a riverboat casino in Metropolis, Illinois. Backed by game show impresario and former talk show host Merv Griffin, the company opened the casino in 1993. With little competition close by, it was an immediate success.

Flush from the success of the Metropolis property, Players developed a second riverboat casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana later in 1993. With its proximity to the Texas state line, the Lake Charles property attracted gamblers from the Houston market, and was extremely profitable. The operation expanded in 1995 with the addition of a second riverboat, purchased from a closed casino operation on Lake Pontchartrain. This allowed guests to board at more convenient times, getting around state regulations which allowed them to board only during a 45-minute window every three hours by staggering the "cruise" schedules.

Also in 1995, the company purchased Bluegrass Downs, a small horse racing track in Paducah, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Metropolis. Players hoped that the Kentucky legislature would eventually legalize casino gaming at its horse tracks (a concept now known as a racino), and that the purchase would serve to stem any potential competition for the Metropolis boat.

Players' first and only land-based casino was the Players Island Resort in Mesquite, Nevada, about an hour away from Las Vegas. This resort featured a spa and luxury hotel, and was unusual in that one of its main marketing efforts was toward casino workers from Vegas.

The company's final major project was a third riverboat casino facility in Maryland Heights, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. This project was a joint venture with Harrah's Entertainment, with separate adjacent casino barges sharing parking and boarding facilities.

Harrah's takeover (2000)
The company started to feel the effects of increased competition from further legalization of casinos throughout the country, and turned its focus to its existing operations in 1997. The company briefly returned to profitability, enough so to emerge as a takeover target. The company's stock also became publicly traded by NASDAQ.

In 1999, Players entered into an agreement with Jackpot International to be acquired for $8.25 per share. But later that year, Harrah's approached the company with an unsolicited offer for $8.50. Jackpot would not match or beat the offer, so Players paid Jackpot a fee to back out of the deal and accepted the Harrah's offer. The deal amounted to $825 million.

The Metropolis and Lake Charles casinos became Harrah's Metropolis and Harrah's Lake Charles, respectively. Harrah's assumed full control of the joint venture in Maryland Heights. Players Island in Mesquite was not included in the deal, and was sold to Black Gaming, which operated the Virgin River Hotel and Casino in that city; the property was renamed CasaBlanca Resort and Casino. Harrah's retained a 50 percent interest in Bluegrass Downs. The deal was finalized in 2000.

Casinos
Players Island Lake Charles
 Players Island Metropolis
Players Island Resort

Horse racing tracks
Bluegrass Downs

References

See also
Players (disambiguation)

Gambling companies of the United States
American companies established in 1984
Entertainment companies disestablished in 2000
Entertainment companies established in 1984
1984 establishments in New Jersey
2000 disestablishments in New Jersey


From saying "I Do" in front of a snow-capped mountain to having an intimate backyard affair, adding a touch of nature creates the perfect feeling on your Wedding Day. Whether you choose to have an open-air wedding ceremony, an alfresco cocktail hour, a reception dinner under the stars, or the entire celebration outdoors, bringing in the fresh air for your affair may be the perfect addition you were looking for. Outdoor weddings - when executed properly - can be perfect during any season!
We encourage our couples to note that with each outdoor option comes a significant amount of preparation. Let these tips be your guide when planning the outdoor wedding venue of your dreams!
Two of the most important aspects to consider when determining your needs for any outdoor wedding are venue and time of year. A beach wedding will have a different set of logistics versus a mountain wedding. When selecting your venue, be sure to understand how weather will play into the planning process. Depending on the season and location of your wedding, it is imperative to consider what type of natural elements your specific date may bring.
Choosing an Environment: From sand to snow, nature offers a variety of options when planning your outdoor event. Destinations such as Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean offer warmer climate stability and oceanic views, while locations such as Colorado, Arizona, and Tennessee provide for dramatic rocky mountain scenery. Our MAE Bride, Rian Horney, never expected to have an alfresco wedding, but the Park City, Utah landscape won her over.
"I never thought I wanted an outdoor wedding because I didn't want plans to change. Then, we saw how beautiful the outdoor space at our mountain venue was, and I couldn't give it up," newly married Rian said.
Couples tend to choose stunning natural backdrops for their nuptials, such as rolling Italian hills or white sand beaches. While these options exude romantic ambiance, it's crucial to plan for the challenges that may come with these settings.
Venues & Vendors: Once the destination is set, pinpointing a venue is key. The Knot is an excellent starting point that allows you to search their database based on specific location, ceremony type, price range, and setting. Likewise, your planner will assist you in this vetting and planning process basing selections on your vision and budget.
Set the Date: According to ABC7 Meteorologist Cheryl Scott, picking an ideal date isn't easy, especially when preparing for the natural elements that could impact your event.
"In Chicago specifically, it's very difficult because weather is ever-changing. It can be absolutely beautiful on a summer day or a winter day, so picking that month can be challenging," Scott said, suggesting early Fall as her best option for a Windy City alfresco affair.
While your wedding day may be the day of YOUR dreams, the experience should be enjoyable and comfortable for EVERYONE. For their Park City, Utah wedding, MAE Couple Rian and Matt Horney made sure their guests' comfort was a priority.
"My husband and I would rather make everyone more comfortable than ourselves," Rian said while providing blankets and advance instructions for their attendees.
Communication Is Key: It is important to let your attendees know what to expect by being completely transparent on your invitation and wedding website. Be descriptive about where your wedding will take place so your guests can plan accordingly - whether that means they wear a jacket or bring comfortable shoes, your guest will be appreciative for the head's up.
Keep Guests Comfortable: Depending on the season of your event, there will be different weather conditions to outline that will allow your guests to have a positive experience. For warmer months, try something fun such as turning your program into a fan. To remain practical, be sure there are always refreshments available and provide a shady area to bear with blazing hot sun. For colder seasons, consider having heat lamps or fire pits to cozy up the space and add to the ambiance. Providing a warm drink bar and blankets can also help keep guests toasty and tolerable.
Having an outdoor wedding likely comes with logistical hurdles you may not have initially considered. Regardless of your venue, these details need to be discussed before signing on the dotted line. *MAE always recommends consulting with a season professional whether it be our team or another non-biased consultant.
"My advice would be to really know and understand what your options are if things go haywire, and remember your planner and vendors are fully prepared if things do go crazy," Rian said.
Have a Plan B (and Plan C!): Mother Nature is known to be unpredictable, no matter the location of your wedding or the time of year. Be prepared for unforeseen circumstances by always having a backup plan and mentally and physically arming yourself with alternate options to remedy your Plan A going awry. Your wedding planner can assist you with this much-needed reality check.
Watch the Weather: "Always have that Plan B, just in case there is rain all day, a severe thunderstorm, extreme wind, or a significant drop in temperature," Cheryl Scott said. She also encourages couples to begin watching the weather on the AccuWeather App for their Special Day two weeks in advance. This will provide for the most accurate forecast possible for the Chicagoland area.
"No matter what the weather, always have a sunny outlook," Scott cheerfully advises!
Plan for Bare Essentials: "Some things that aren't always considered with alfresco events and weddings are some of the most basic necessities," MAE Owner Brianne Garritano Vajaria shared with the team. Although the venue of your dreams may be beautiful, it is also necessary to consider how convenient it is or isn't. Kitchen space, refrigeration, accessibility, electricity, running water, and restrooms are all absolute essentials to factor in. This is especially key to consider for celebrations set within national parks and forests.
MAE's Tip: When building your budget, keep in mind that additional costs are highly likely due to weather. If predictions call for rain, you should have a tent on hold. If a sudden drop in temperature around the corner, heaters will need to be booked for in advance for timely delivery. While these items can certainly add up, it's important to always be prepared for even the most unthinkable circumstances. We suggest preemptively accounting for them in your budget, as this will save you the surprise later on.
Enough with the woes! One of the upsides of having your wedding outdoors is that nature gets to play a large part in setting the tone of your décor. Not only will this allow you to save within your budget by using the surroundings of your venue, there is nothing more beautiful than a natural backdrop itself!
Let the organic elements be your canvas and have your décor be the complement. Whether you want to keep it minimal or prefer to vamp up the space, open air will allow for many options. Rather than using décor to cover up, have it highlight the aspects of your outdoor venue that you love the most! Hosting your wedding outside allows your designer the opportunity to get inventive. Play with symmetry, architectural elements and lighting to define your wedding personality and tell your love story. Work with your planner and design team on inevitable rentals and décor components to best utilize the natural space you have, as well as emphasize the organic ambiance.
The most important design element will be the natural landscape itself, after all, this is why you chose it!
"I remember sitting on the gondola with my husband heading up to our [mountain-top] ceremony," Rian shared. "It's such a crazy day and morning, that being able to have that moment where it's just us, taking in the beautiful scenery and reflecting back on everything was probably my favorite moment."
To see how Marquette Avenue Events can help you plan a seamless outdoor affair to remember and, most importantly, assist in making your dream wedding come to life, please visit us at www.marquetteavenueevents.com or call us at 312-585-7265.


This is an exclusive business profile of Sharayu Synthetics located in , Bhiwandi. From this Page, you can directly contact Sharayu Synthetics from the enquiry form provided on the right. On the left you can get the Verified Mobile Number of Sharayu Synthetics – feel free to call us to know more about our products & services. We will soon update our Catalog which you can download to get latest information about all our products & services and latest deals & offers by Sharayu Synthetics. Do check out our Job Openings section to know about all the vacancies in Sharayu Synthetics. You can also check out our Photo Gallery section to see latest photos of Sharayu Synthetics. Before leaving, do not forget to give us your review and rating if you have been a customer of Sharayu Synthetics in the past.
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Q: Связь один к одному внутри одной таблицы Есть таблица категорий. Категории могут быть вложенными, поэтому у каждой категории есть родительская категория. Вопрос: как установить связь внутри модели? Вообще возможно ли такое?
Categories
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id
title
parent_id

A: Мне знакомы три способа организации подобной древовидной структуры:

*

*Adjacency list - классический пример с parent_id и рекурсивным обходом

*Nested set - использование некоторого диапазона на каждом из подуровней

*Matherialized Path - плоское представление всего пути к элементу от root-а, а-ля раздел "содержание" любой книги (1.1.2)

На практике использую первый подход (Adjacency list) для категорий, ибо может возникнуть сценарий, при котором необходимо некую подкатегорию перенести из одной категории в другую. Последний (Matherialized Path) для древовидный комментариев. Оба подхода реализую на уровне бизнес-логики проекта.
Если используется PostgreSQL, то с помощью логики рекурсивных запросов можно реализовать Adjacency list подход (пример реализации). Не думаю, что какая-нибудь ORM поддерживает данную специфику, а потому: плоский запрос с использование Query Builder-а/DBAL фреймворка вам в помощь.
Дополнительно можете почитать официальную документацию MongoDB, где реализация всех этих подходов описана.
Видео лекции по БД представителя mail.ru, где эти подходы затрагиваются.
Связь 1:M при Adjacency list с использованием первичного и внешнего ключей в рамках одной таблицы можно и нужно для поддержки ссылочной целостности.
P.S. Здесь всё-таки связь 1:M, ибо у категории может быть множество подкатегорий.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A piercing alarm went off in Harold Chapman's room. "Good morning, Harold!" sounded a robotic voice.
"It's Harry," he grumbled, his voice croaky from just five hours of sleep, as he crawled out of the cot.
It was Wednesday, Dec. 15—the 478th day of Harry's work on Neo Cleveland. He still couldn't call himself a morning person.
In space, though, there was no real way to know the time of day. His dimly lit, 10 x 7 foot room was filled with simulated sunlight pouring in through the panes of a fake window.
Before floating out the door, he grabbed the coffee held out to him by a robotic arm. "Have a nice day, Harold!" the room said enthusiastically.
"You too," he said with a sarcastic laugh. Outside, he bounced up to a ladder and worked his way up past other rows of rooms, towards the watch tower.
Harry, the lead watchman of Neo Cleveland, had an important but boring job. His two shifts (9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. – 2 a.m.) allowed for very little personal time. The station's AI helped notice things, but even in the year 3000 C.E., computer detection was no substitute for the human eye.
Before Chapman came aboard, the colony was in full operation, nestled in a captive asteroid orbiting around Earth. Construction had taken decades, but the decision to secede had been long in the making.
For centuries, taunting of the Cleveland Browns had worn away at the city's sports scene, until the football stadium stood empty at every Sunday game. Despite continued earnest reconstruction efforts, lasting socioeconomic stigmas kept outside investors away. When the 23rd "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video" reached one trillion views on YouTube with no noticeable boost to the local economy, the town had had enough of Earth.
Since departing from the surface, Cleveland has seen continuous economic growth. The city has profited greatly from sales of vacation travel packages to "Earthers" eager to see the once humble Cleveland skyline set against the breathtaking backdrop of space. The Cleveland sports scene has similarly been revitalized as orbital training under variable artificial gravity has given the Cleveland Browns the upper hand against their planet-bound competitors. All in all, Cleveland was doing pretty well.
Perched high above the colony in the bubble watch station, Harry Chapman wasn't seeing much of the point.
He sipped a blob of coffee, checking a few screens for anything unusual. "Nothing. What a surprise," Harry said, leaning back.
beep beep…. beep beep… The almost quiet but persistent proximity beacon in the otherwise silent room woke Harry from his slumber. He'd never heard a single peep at work before.
This beeping couldn't be a good sign.
He scanned the glass pane, and saw a small pale dot. It could be nothing, but just in case… Harry called the captain. "I think I'm picking up on something. I'll send you the coordinates," he said, keying numbers into his console.
He did. Over the still chirping "beep beep…," Harry could see the object had doubled in size on his visual feed.
When Harry zoomed in, he saw a large, glowing asteroid. It was larger than Neo Cleveland.
He ran some quick calculations, hoping to be wrong, but the results confirmed his fears. "A direct hit," he muttered to himself.
The calls came streaming in from planetside. Neo Cleveland was not Earth's only orbital colony, but it was by far the largest controlled object between Earth and the danger.
The governments of Earth knew what needed to be done, and Harry did too.
It could cost them their lives, but if Neo Cleveland was used as a shield between Earth and the asteroid, Harry explained, the planet could be spared. With enough momentum, Neo Cleveland could collide with the asteroid, break it apart, and direct the wreckage away from Earth. They would have to start accelerating the colony soon which meant they were quickly running out of time to evacuate the colony.
Sirens, klaxons, and evacuation alerts swept through the colony, but Harry continued to simulate the collision – they were only going to get one shot at this. He sent directions to the captain, and the demise of the satellite was set.
He joined hordes of passengers rushing to the emergency shuttles. Havoc ensued as the panicked, floating citizens pushed and shoved trying to reach the shuttles to safety.
As the vessels started to break away from the colony, it became apparent there wasn't going to be enough ships to hold everyone. The once-deafening alarm could no longer be heard over the screams of the terrified colonists.
Harry contacted the captain as ushers did their best to direct women and children to board the remaining escape pods first. "Sir, there are not enough escape pods for everyone," said Harry.
On the other end, the captain's sobs were soft before the com line clicked off.
Stuck in space on a colony speeding toward certain annihilation, the people of Neo Cleveland were trapped. For a moment, Harry stared down at his hands, helpless in the chaos. A small girl floated by him, looking for her mother. She rubbed her teary eyes, her cries barely audible over the screams and alarms.
We'll make everyone fit, Harry thought. Joining the ushers, Harry pulled the small girl by her hand to an open escape pod. He urged passengers to cram together, heedless of the crafts' recommended safe operating capacities. The craft would lose maneuverability, but as long as they left the colony, they'd be safe. Harry hoped the rescue crews from Earth would arrive soon: the life support systems on these shuttles couldn't support this level of overcrowding for very long.
"Stay calm," he told the passengers.
He pushed through the crowds, throwing stragglers into the remaining shuttles. Even the captain, whimpering in a corner, found a spot. As the final emergency shuttle launched from Neo Cleveland, Harry and the other colonists watched from rows of portholes as the colony shot off into space, headed directly for the asteroid.
The asteroid grew larger, approaching. The colony grew smaller, departing.
Come on… urged Harry, clutching his fists.
In 42 escape shuttles, the entire population of Neo Cleveland held its breath.
There was no sound from the explosion, thousands of miles away in space, as it spread into the surrounding area sprinkling bits of debris like a burst piñata.
Indistinct wreckage of Neo Cleveland drifted by the shuttles, and Harry saw a block of wires with a robotic arm attached, twitching back and forth as if to wave goodbye.
Cleveland's greatest accomplishment had been destroyed.


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Drink Of The Week: Cablegram by Eric Alperin
Isn't It Time You Started Drinking Rye?
Liquor.com Editors
A little history with your buzz...
Los Angeles is famous for being a town of excess — from flashy sports cars and Beverly Hills mansions to gratuitous plastic surgery. But up until recently, when it came to drinking, L.A. was surprisingly B-list.
Cut to New York. After getting an acting degree in 1999, Eric Alperin took a job "slinging Cosmos" at the Screening Room in TriBeCa while he looked for movie-production work. Life behind the bar suited him (cue the montage), and after a few years he found himself bartending at celebrity chef Mario Batali's restaurant Lupa. By 2005, Alperin was working for Sasha Petraske at his bar Little Branch, and also occasionally at his other establishment, Milk & Honey.
Two years later he took a big chance and moved to Los Angeles (enter violins). "I wanted to open a West Coast Little Branch," he says.
His timing couldn't have been better. He was quickly hired to help launch Batali's restaurant Osteria Mozza, and around the same time local real estate developer Cedd Moses opened a string of upscale cocktail bars in downtown L.A. One of his most ambitious projects was restoring the legendary restaurant Cole's to its former glory. Moses offered the back room at Cole's to Petraske and Alperin, which they transformed into a cocktail bar called The Varnish.
While it's been open for less than two years, the bar has established itself as one of the country's best. (The Varnish is a finalist for the Best American Cocktail Bar award and Alperin is up for the American Bartender of the Year award at next month's Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans.) What makes it even more impressive is that The Varnish serves just five cocktails, mostly classics such as the Daiquiri and the Cablegram. You also have the option of asking the bartender to make you something special. And like at Petraske's other bars, each drink is made from scratch.
"I'm not a cocktail geek," Alperin is quick to insist. "I just wanted to open a bar." (Roll credits.)
Cablegram
Contributed by Eric Alperin
3/4 oz ginger syrup*
1/5 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz rye whisky
Club soda
Garnish: Ginger candy
Shake all the ingredients without ice. Pour the mixture into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with club soda and garnish with ginger candy.
* Ginger Syrup
Add 2 cups of finely chopped or puréed fresh ginger root to 1.5 cups of water. Boil for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover and let stand for 2 hours. Strain the mixture into a bowl and add 1 cup of superfine sugar. Stir and keep the syrup refrigerated.
For more great articles and drink recipes visit Liquor.com, your expert guide to all things cocktails and spirits.
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Drink Of The Week: Irish Coffee


text:
Back To Basics -- Conflicting Stories or 'Why is IRQ 9 So Popular?
By ServerWatch Staff (Send Email)
Deb Shinder
One of the things about Windows NT 4.0 that was a major inconvenience was its inability to report accurate information regarding resource allocation. Another, and perhaps even more problematic aspect of Windows NT 4.0 was that it wasn't fully Plug And Play compliant. This meant that if you had resource conflicts on your machine, the operating system wasn't geared to handle the arbitration of these conflicts.
One of the things about Windows NT 4.0 that was a major inconvenience was its inability to report accurate information regarding resource allocation. Another, and perhaps even more problematic aspect of Windows NT 4.0 was that it wasnt fully Plug And Play compliant. This meant that if you had resource conflicts on your machine, the operating system wasnt geared to handle the arbitration of these conflicts.
The good news is that Windows 2000 has come to the rescue! One of the reasons why Windows NT 5.0, ahem, Windows 2000 was so late to the party was problems with getting the Plug And Play functionality to work correctly within the confines of the security and operating system architecture. However, they did get it to work, and it works great!
But, have you ever checked your hardware resource allocation on a Windows 2000 computer? This information can be accessed via the Device Manager applet, which is located on the Hardware tab of the System Properties Control Panel applet. When I open mine and change the view to Resources by Type and expand the Interrupt Request (IRQ) node, I find something that looks a little disturbing.
Indeed, I have four devices using IRQ 9! These include:
3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX)
ATI Technologies Inc. RAGE 128 GL AGP
Creative AudioPCI (ES1370), SB PCI 64/128 (WDM)
VIA USB Universal Host Controller
But I don't seem to have any problems with resource contention. What is even stranger is that if I look at the IRQ assignments in my BIOS, they look nothing like the assignments displayed in the Device Manager. What gives?
If you find yourself mystified by this state of affairs, check out Deb Shinder's article on how Windows 2000 manages shared resources. It's a real eye-opener.


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Madeenaguda is a neighbourhood of  Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is located between Chanda Nagar and Hafeezpet and Miyapur in the north western part of the city. This neighbourhood has grown intensively after the IT boom in the Madhapur area.

Commercial area
There are many shops catering to all budgets. There is a big market at Miyapur, which is quite popular among people of surrounding suburbs. It is just 11 km away from Hi-tech city therefore attracting the IT people.

madeenaguda consists various malls like GSM mall and many textile shops

Transport
TSRTC connects Madeenaguda with all parts of the city.

The closest MMTS Train station is at Chanda Nagar and Hafeezpet.

The closest Metro station is at Miyapur

References

Neighbourhoods in Hyderabad, India


The Nobel Peace Laureate Project would appreciate your help in bringing the Nobel Peace Park to life. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor and making a cash contribution, you can click on the Donate or Subscribe buttons located below. If you are interested in a more personalized contribution, consider purchasing a peace rock, paver, a memorial tree with paver, plaque honoring an American Nobel Laureate, or a larger legacy gift; please see the directed contribution options further down this page.
(A) Purchase a Paver: Join your friends and neighbors in helping us Pave the Way for Peace! Pavers are 4" by 8" or 8" by 8" bricks that are placed in the kiosk entrance to the Nobel Peace Park. The smaller paver can have 3 lines of up to twenty characters per line. The larger pavers can have six lines of up to twenty characters per line. Download the mail-in Paver Order Form here.
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