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BMC Pulmonary Medicine
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Patients with overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD: is livestock exposure a risk factor for comorbidity and coexisting symptoms and infections?
Christos Baliatsas1,
Lidwien A. M. Smit2,
Michel L. A. Dückers1,
Christel E. van Dijk1,
Dick Heederik2 &
C. Joris Yzermans1
BMC Pulmonary Medicine volume 19, Article number: 105 (2019) Cite this article
Epidemiological research on health effects of livestock exposure in population subgroups with compromised respiratory health is still limited. The present study explored the association between livestock exposure and comorbid/concurrent conditions in patients with overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD.
Electronic health record data from 23 general practices in the Netherlands were collected from 425 patients diagnosed with both asthma and COPD, living in rural areas with high livestock density ("study area"). Data of 341 patients with the same overlapping diagnoses, living in rural areas with lower livestock density ("control areas") were obtained from 19 general practices. First, the prevalence of comorbid disorders and symptoms/infections were compared between the study and control area. Second, the examined health outcomes were analyzed in relation to measures of individual livestock exposure.
Pneumonia was twice as common among patients living in areas with a high livestock density (OR 2.29, 99% CI 0.96–5.47); however, there were generally no statistically significant differences in the investigated outcomes between the study and control area. Significant associations were observed between presence of goats within 1000 m and allergic rhinitis (OR 5.71, 99% CI 1.11–29.3, p < 0.01), number of co-occurring symptoms (IRR 1.69, 99% CI 1.03–2.77, p < 0.01) and anxiety (OR 8.18, 99% 1.5–44.7, p < 0.01). Presence of cattle within 500 m was associated with pneumonia prevalence (OR 2.48, 99% CI 1.05–5.84, p < 0.01).
Livestock exposure is not associated with comorbid chronic conditions but appears to be a risk factor for symptomatic effects in patients with overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD.
Patients with obstructive lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are characterized by substantial morbidity. Among the different phenotypes that have been identified for asthma and COPD [1,2,3], the largest one represents a patient group that has features and characteristics of both diseases [4, 5]. Overlapping diagnoses of COPD and asthma is commonly referred to as Asthma and COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS) [6]. The health-care burden of ACOS seems to be considerable; recent studies suggest that, compared to COPD or asthma only, ACOS patients have higher comorbidity and exacerbation rates, lower health-related quality of life and make more often use of healthcare [7,8,9].
It is well documented that particulate matter and its components contribute to the development and exacerbation of respiratory diseases [10,11,12]. Individuals with asthma for instance suffer more exacerbations and they appear to be at high risk of developing ACOS when exposed to air pollution [13, 14]. Livestock farming is one of the continuously expanding sources of ambient air pollution worldwide [15, 16]. In the international literature different population-based studies have described the relationship between livestock farming and health effects such as asthma, allergy, respiratory complaints, pneumonia, and lung function deficits [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25].
Fewer studies have focused on specific respiratory patient groups, although these seem to respond to a greater extent to exposure from livestock farms. In an experimental setting, the study of Sigurdarson et al. [26] demonstrated adverse reactions in individuals with asthma after being exposed to inhaled grain dust and Harting et al. [27] found that COPD patients had greater systemic responsiveness to ex vivo stimulation with swine dust extract than healthy volunteers. In a more recent epidemiological study in the Netherlands, it was shown that COPD patients living at shorter distance from livestock farms reported more respiratory symptoms [28] and had a higher exacerbation rate when compared with a control area in COPD [29]; however, no consistent associations were observed between individual exposure estimates and diagnosed comorbidity or exacerbations in COPD patients [29, 30].
Considering the growing evidence, it seems important to lay more emphasis on investigating whether the effects of livestock exposure on morbidity and symptomatic reactions are more pronounced among respiratory patients with other clinical phenotypes. To date, no epidemiological study has been conducted on the association between health outcomes and livestock density in patients with ACOS. The present study uses electronic health record data from general practices to address the following questions: 1) Does the prevalence of the examined health outcomes in those patients differ between areas with high livestock farm density ("study areas") and rural areas with a substantially lower livestock density ("control areas"); 2) What is the association between indicators of exposure to livestock farms and comorbidities and symptoms and infections in ACOS patients? Following prior findings on other respiratory vulnerable subgroups, it is hypothesized that a) the prevalence of the investigated health outcomes will be higher in the "exposed" area; b) higher individual exposure, as indicated by the employed proxies, will be more consistently associated with higher prevalence of comorbid conditions and symptoms.
Study design and population
This study is part of a larger study in the Netherlands, entitled "Livestock Farming and Neighbouring Residents' Health study" (VGO). Patients were sampled from 23 general practices in rural areas with high livestock farm density (eastern part of Noord-Brabant province as well as the northern part of Limburg); more than 95% of the included patients were living within a km from an animal farm. General practices in the "control area" (n = 19) were located in other rural areas in the Netherlands with a substantially lower livestock farm density (control area) [29, 31], particularly in the provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid- Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Zeeland, Overijssel and Groningen (for additional details, see van Dijk et al., 2017 [31]).
Diagnosed conditions were registered by the general practitioners (GPs) on the basis of the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) [32]. For the present analysis, 766 (n = 425 in the "study area" and n = 341 in the control group) ACOS patients (registered with ICPC codes R95 or R91: COPD and R96: Asthma) with an age of ≥40 years were included. The study focused on non-occupational exposure, therefore patients possibly working or residing on a farm (defined as a distance of < 50 m between house address and the closest farm) were not included. Additional information regarding study design is presented in previous publications [29, 31].
Health outcome assessment
Data from electronic health records (EHRs) from primary care (general practices) were used [33]. These practices participated in the Primary Care Database (PCD) of NIVEL [33, 34]. Prevalence rates of the year 2012 were estimated [30]. Contacts for the same health problem within a specific time frame were clustered into episodes of care, which were used to estimate the prevalence rates. For the construction of care episodes, all records with an ICPC code were considered [31, 34]. Selection of comorbid conditions (Fig. 1) was based on the literature [9, 35,36,37,38].
Prevalence (and corresponding ICPC codes) of comorbid conditions and coexisting symptoms and infections in the sample of ACOS patients living in the study area (n = 425) and control area (n = 341). Abbreviations: ICPC; International Classification of Primary Care; GERD; Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. * The heart disease (risk) cluster consists of coronary heart disease, heart failure, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia
Exposure indicators
For the same year (2012), data regarding characteristics of farms was obtained from databases of environmental licenses for livestock ("Bestand Veehouderij Bedrijven"). These include information on animal type and number, geographic coordinates of farms and fine dust and ammonia (NH3) emission estimates from each farm per year. The distance between home addresses and farms was estimated based on a geographic information system (GIS) (ArcGis 9.3.1, Esri, Redlands, CA). Similar to recent studies [28,29,30,31] we examined the following variables: 1) distance (meters) from participant's home to the nearest animal farm (binary) and 2) presence of farm animals (various types) within 500 m and 1000 m (binary). In additional analyses, inverse-distance weighted fine dust and NH3 emissions from all farms within 500 m and 1000 m were also analyzed, as continuous variables. These were rescaled using interquartile range (IQR) as a scaling factor.
The prevalence of morbidity rates and coexisting symptoms in the sample as well as basic sample characteristics were estimated on the basis of descriptive analyses. Given that the study data have a hierarchical structure (observations clustered in general practices), exposure-outcome associations were examined using multilevel logistic and Poisson regression models. Analyses were adjusted for gender and age (including a quadratic variable to allow for a potential non-linear trend between age and morbidity). For each regression model, Odds ratios (OR) for the binary outcomes and incidence rate ratios for the count variables (IRR) and 99% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.01, to correct for multiple testing. Analyses were performed with STATA version 13.0 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA).
Descriptive analysis
An overview of sample characteristics is shown in Table 1. Patients with ACOS in the study area were slightly more often female (52%) and were on average 66 years of age. At least one comorbid condition was present in 67% of the patients while about 54% had at least one coexisting symptom/infection. About 50% of the patients in the study area lived within 500 m from an animal farm. Patients in the study area were also frequently living within 500 m of farms with cattle (31%) and pigs (19%). These rates were much higher within 1000 m (Table 1).
Table 1 Characteristics of ACOS patients included in the study
As shown in Fig. 1, among the examined chronic conditions, heart disease (study group 33.7% vs. control group 34.6%), hypertension (33.2% vs. 38.4%), diabetes (15.1% vs. 21.7%) and depression (9.7% vs. 11.7%) were the most prevalent in both the study and control group. Upper respiratory tract infections (22.1% vs. 26.7%), respiratory symptoms (19.1% vs. 20.8%), pneumonia (11.1% vs. 6.5%) and sleep problems (7.3% vs. 7.3%) were the most prevalent acute conditions.
Comorbid diseases and symptoms: comparison between study and control area
No significant differences were found in the majority of examined chronic conditions; in some cases (e.g. diabetes) prevalence was lower in the study area (Table 2). Higher but nonsignificant OR were observed for several coexisting symptoms/infections such as pneumonia (OR 2.29, 99% CI 0.96–5.47) and also for the total symptom/infection prevalence (OR 1.28, 99% CI 0.71–2.30) (Table 2).
Table 2 Differences (OR, 99% CI) a in prevalence of comorbidity and coexisting symptoms and infections, between ACOS patients living in the study area and those living in the control area (significant associations in bold)
Association of livestock exposure with comorbid chronic conditions
As shown in Table 3, analyses yielded no significant associations between distance to the nearest farm and the investigated outcomes. Only presence of goats within 1000 m was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety (Table 5). There were no significant findings in relation to modeled fine dust and ammonia emissions (see Appendix).
Table 3 Association (OR, 99% CI) a between distance to the nearest farm and primary outcomes among ACOS patients in the study area
Association between livestock exposure and coexisting symptoms/infections
Several significant associations were found between the examined exposure proxies and prevalence of co-occurring symptoms/infections. More specifically, presence of cattle within 500 m was associated with a higher prevalence of pneumonia (Table 4) and presence of goats within 1000 m with allergic rhinitis/hay fever and also with a number of co-occurring symptoms (Table 5). Overall, OR were consistently higher for most of the associations between presence of goat farms within 1000 m and acute conditions; a borderline nonsignificant association with pneumonia was also observed (OR 3.65, 99% CI 0.96–13.8). No statistically significant results were found in relation to distance to the nearest farm and modeled emissions but pneumonia risk was again, consistently higher (see Table 2 and Appendix). Analyses also showed a significant inverse association between pigs within 500 m and total prevalence (Table 4).
Table 4 Association (OR, 99% CI) a between presence of farm animals within 500 m and primary outcomes among ACOS patients in the study area (significant associations in bold)
Table 5 Association (OR, 99% CI) a between presence of farm animals within 1000 m and primary outcomes among ACOS patients in the study area (significant associations in bold)
Asthma and COPD overlap syndrome is a recently recognized phenotype gaining attention due to the associated morbidity and rapid decline in lung function, compared to other respiratory conditions. While there is increasing evidence that livestock density can be an environmental risk factor for adverse effects in respiratory patients such as those with COPD [28, 29], its role in ACOS has not been previously investigated.
Determining the health effects of modifiable risk factors could decrease (multi)morbidity and burden of disease associated with ACOS. The present study comprises a first effort to fill this gap. General practice-registered patients with a dual diagnosis of asthma and COPD were included as a subgroup of respiratory patients potentially susceptible to livestock exposure. We used two approaches to assess the associations between exposure and various comorbid conditions and symptoms: First, we compared rural areas of high livestock density with other rural areas of substantially lower livestock density. Second, we tested the association between health outcomes and individual measures of livestock exposure, based on distance between patients' home addresses and livestock farms.
In line with the broader literature, presence of comorbid conditions was found to be high in patients with ACOS [9, 37]. Overall, prevalence of the investigated outcomes did not differ significantly between the study and control area, but analyses in the study area showed several statistically significant associations with individual exposure. More specifically, presence of goats within 1000 m was associated with anxiety, allergic rhinitis and number of co-occurring symptoms. In addition, presence of cattle within 500 m was associated with pneumonia; the latter was clearly more prevalent among patients in the study area. Risk of pneumonia was consistently higher in relation to exposure estimates such as presence of goats within 1000 m and distance to the nearest farm, though these results did not reach statistical significance.
Considering the lack of studies on the effects of livestock exposure in this patient group, a direct comparison with prior findings was not feasible. A previous study on patients with COPD (without asthma) living in the same study area showed a comparatively lower prevalence rates of symptoms and infections and no convincing evidence for an association between livestock exposure and health outcomes [30]. Another study [28], showed a higher risk for self-reported respiratory symptoms among individuals with COPD who lived within 500 m from cattle, but that was not statistically significant. In the general population, a higher risk of pneumonia when living in the vicinity of livestock farms is well-documented, but only in relation to goat and poultry [22,23,24,25].
A plausible biological mechanism to explain the significant association observed between presence of goats and anxiety is unknown. Nevertheless, people who live in close proximity of goat farms, seem to have a more negative attitude towards farming [39], which might be related to the Q-fever outbreak in the study area several years prior to the study [40]. Concerns regarding the health effects of environmental exposures as well as perceived exposure are well-documented determinants of various clusters of "non-specific" symptoms [41,42,43], but this is highly unlikely for GP-diagnosed disorders or infections such as pneumonia [39].
For some health outcomes we could verify the risk of living nearby livestock farms. Although it is yet unclear which environmental agents could be responsible for the observed associations, it was recently shown that livestock farms are a source of endotoxins in the areas included in the present study [44]. Moreover, the proxies of livestock exposure that we used were significantly associated with measured endotoxin concentrations [45]. Despite our focus on risk, interestingly enough, a lower prevalence of comorbid conditions was often observed in the control area, and in some cases, in relation to exposure proxies in the study area. Currently the mechanisms of how exposure and other factors interact and develop across time are not well-understood. The analysis described in this article contributes to this lacuna, but further research into these mechanisms is needed to determine which risk mitigation interventions are recommended from a public health perspective.
An important strength of the study was the use of objective outcome data from medical records of general practices, based on a reliable registration system. We also employed two approaches to assess associations; a study vs. control area comparison and use of individual exposure estimates of livestock exposure. In addition, exposure was objectively assessed based on different proxies and information on livestock farm licenses and health outcome data were obtained for the same year.
The cross-sectional design constitutes a study limitation. Second, analyses were not adjusted for covariates such as history of tobacco use and socioeconomic status, since this information was not provided/registered in the EHRs. Nevertheless, previous research has shown that controlling for socioeconomic status or smoking habits did not alter the associations between livestock exposure and health outcomes [28, 46]. Third, considering that this study focused on neighbouring residents and the fact that data on occupational livestock exposure were not available, we excluded patients living within 50 m from a farm. It is therefore possible that not all occupationally exposed people have been excluded, but this probably concerns a small fraction of the sample. A previous investigation in the same study area, using questionnaire data on occupational exposure, showed that only about 2.5% of the residents were living or working on a livestock farm, after exclusion of subjects living within 50 m from a farm [28]. Fourth, only health outcomes were included for which people visit a general practitioner; this could have influenced the prevalence of symptoms, to some extent. Fifth, the lack of a universally accepted case-definition and objective biomarkers of ACOS is an obstacle to the investigation and understanding of its pathophysiology and epidemiology [4, 5, 47]. As a result, estimation of prevalence as well as exacerbation risk is highly depended on the case definitions used in different studies. We therefore employed a rather arbitrary definition that requires further validation. Also considering that this is one of the first studies to explore ACOS comorbidity based on EHR data within the context of environmental health, we cannot ensure comparability with previous research. Finally, a larger sample would increase the study power for the identification of possible exposure-outcome associations.
In conclusion, this study supports the hypothesis that livestock farm exposures may increase susceptibility to respiratory infections in patients with overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD. However, we found no convincing evidence for an association between estimates of livestock density and prevalence of chronic comorbid conditions. Focusing on patient subgroups with different respiratory phenotypes can enhance our knowledge of the risk of environmental exposures in residents with compromised respiratory health.
In consultation with the Medical Ethical Committee that approved the study protocol, data from the VGO study are not publicly available due to privacy protection of participants. The study's privacy regulations state that only researchers from NIVEL, IRAS, and RIVM (consortium partners) have access to the study database. Sharing an anonymized and de-identified dataset is not possible as it would still contain Electronic Health Records and the personal data of participants, which could potentially lead to the identification of subjects. Researchers may contact the data access committee through Remco Coppen, PhD, LLM (r.coppen@nivel.nl) or non-personal departmental email (NIVEL: zorgregistraties@nivel.nl) or contact Christos Baliatsas, PhD (c.baliatsas@nivel.nl), Joris Yzermans, PhD (J.Ijzermans@nivel.nl), or Michel Duckers, PhD (m.duckers@nivel.nl).
ACOS:
Asthma and COPD overlap syndrome
COPD:
EHRs:
GERD:
Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
IRR:
Incidence rate ratios
Odds ratios
PCD:
Primary Care Database
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We would like to thank the participating general practitioners for their cooperation and our colleagues at NIVEL for their feedback.
The Livestock Farming and Neighbouring Residents' Health (VGO) study was funded by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, and supported by a grant from the Lung Foundation Netherlands (Grant number: 3.2.11.022).
Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), Otterstraat 118-124, 3513 CR, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Christos Baliatsas, Michel L. A. Dückers, Christel E. van Dijk & C. Joris Yzermans
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Lidwien A. M. Smit & Dick Heederik
Christos Baliatsas
Lidwien A. M. Smit
Michel L. A. Dückers
Christel E. van Dijk
Dick Heederik
C. Joris Yzermans
CJY, LAMS and CB made substantial contributions to the study conception and interpretation. CB analyzed the data and drafted the paper. MLAD, CEVD and DH critically reviewed and commented on the manuscript at all stages and together with the rest of the authors, approved the final version.
Correspondence to Christos Baliatsas.
The NIVEL PCD complies with the Dutch Data Protection Authority and national data protection regulations. The protocol used for the study (number 13/533) has been approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the University Medical Centre of Utrecht. Using a "Trusted Third Party" (IVZ Institute, Houten, The Netherlands), health and address data were kept apart at all times. The Dutch law allows the use of EHRs for research purposes under certain conditions. According to this legislation, neither obtaining informed consent from patients nor approval by a medical ethics committee is obligatory for observational studies that do not involve directly identifiable data (Dutch CivilLaw, Article 7:458).
Table 6 Association (OR, 99% CI) a between fine dust and ammonia emissions from livestock farms and primary outcomes among ACOS patients in the study area
Baliatsas, C., Smit, L.A.M., Dückers, M.L.A. et al. Patients with overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD: is livestock exposure a risk factor for comorbidity and coexisting symptoms and infections?. BMC Pulm Med 19, 105 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-019-0865-z
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-019-0865-z
Submission enquiries: bmcpulmonarymedicine@biomedcentral.com


The live mark , with its 'primitive' energy and 'artless' rawness is the essential ingredient of Roy Jackson's paintings and drawings. These marks, unforced, intuitive and spontaneously generated are instinctively spaced and paced - ultimately reaffirming the surface, the ground, the size and shape of the image as a whole. Jackson's marks can mutate from particle to cell, from line to shape, from wave to field. A mark can limn a represented figure, initiate a more or less legible script, develop into a luxuriant scrawl or an abstract thicket spreading into a dappled all- overness.
The broad, airy configurations that Jackson creates are often evocative of nature. This is one of the most striking impressions when his works are seen in the context of his studio, surrounded by bushland in Wedderburn, New South Wales. It is not nature-as-a-picture that we encounter here, of course, but a sense of nature which is not external - which is coextensive with ourselves, including and permeating us.


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Stepping down into Gem cove feels like walking into a sunken treasure chest. The walls of the boutique are painted with rich, ocean-blue murals. Written on the walls by owner Valentina Krochik (and edited by her daughter when it sounds too Russian) are lines of original poetry. And the treasure? Exquisite handmade jewelry. Opened last August, Gem Cove features Krochik's own creations, as well as those from artists Krochik has met on her journeys from her hometown of Siberia to Hastings. Aside from their beauty, what really makes her designs stand out are their rare precious and semi-precious stones, including: Charoite, a purple stone found only along the Chary river in Russia; white buffalo turquoise, a stone whose color most closely resembles white marble rather than the green/blue of traditional turquoise; dark, syrup-colored Baltic amber found along the beaches of Poland and Lithuania; and plum-blossom jasper, a Chinese stone with flower-shaped bursts of color throughout. 'I think all stones are different, just like people,' says Krochik, a Fashion Institute of Technology grad.


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Frontiers in Education: A recap | Opensource.com
Frontiers in Education: A recap
18 Nov 2010 Sebastian Dziallas Feed
A number of folks from the Teaching Open Source community had a panel at the Frontiers in Education 2010 conference, which is attended by college and university professors interested in improving engineering education. The panel's main thesis was that participating in FOSS communities was one way to give students a better educational experience.
Matthew Burke, George Washington University
First up was Matthew Burke on the topic of "open source across the curriculum." When you have students for a class "about FOSS" for only one semester, how do you get into their heads that they're not "done with FOSS" after the class ends, but should be using these skills and tools and methods for the rest of their academic and professional careers? One way is to build extracurricular activities for followup, such as internships or activities with on-campus clubs. Another way is integrating little bits of FOSS into the rest of the curriculum. Even if a class doesn't focus specifically on FOSS, it can use FOSS tools, delve into FOSS history, and use FOSS code examples to illuminate concepts.
"You get better at writing lots of software by looking and working with lots of software," said Burke, who also has a background in consulting for industry. "[We should] look at development techniques in open source projects... and incoporate these into our courses." Burke himself makes his students submit their homework assignments using the git version control system, and says his biggest challenge is that "open source projects aren't like textbooks." You can't just tell your class to "complete assignment 2.1" - problems in those communities are not the well-formed, fully scaffolded, guided learning experiences that students may be used to.
Heidi Ellis, Western New England College
Ellis teaches a class of 11 senior undergraduates working on GNOME Caribou, a virtual keyboard for those with special accessibility needs. "Students working on open source are highly motivated," she explained, because they're surrounded by a community full of intrinsically motivated individuals. Her own involvement in FOSS began when a former student went abroad and came back talking about a project called Sahana that they had gotten involved with. Ellis encouraged the student to continue, offering to mentor an independent study so other undergraduates could become involved. The group demoed a volunteer management model to the Sahana community at the end of the summer. Fast forward several semesters, and Ellis now has her students working on a range of Humanitarian FOSS projects, with more experienced students returning to mentor the next round of undergraduate contributors.
One thing she pointed out was the issue of grading. Since the FOSS world is highly improvisational, it's hard to specify what needs to happen at the end of the semester product-wise in order to achieve an A--a student could do excellent work but not have a "finished product" because (for instance) the maintainer was on vacation and didn't accept a patch in time. Ellis therefore grades students on process rather than product, since community participation in a large-scale distributed project is specifically what she is trying to teach her class of software engineers.
Clif Kussmaul, Muhlenberg College
"FOSS projects and communities vary dramatically," said Kussmaul as he displayed a slide of various FOSS projects arranged by number of contributors and the degree to which the project was decentralized. Kussmaul tries to step his students through the process of becoming open source contributors in an accelerated manner, with a "use/study/add/build/leverage" framework.
First he has them use the software--just download it, try it out, see what it's like from the end user point of view. Next they crack the hood and study what the code looks like and what it works. Once they've gotten their bearings, they add minor enhancements to the code to get used to the workflow of contribution. When that feels comfortable, they start to build and own their own components for the codebase and to work on deploying the software they're developing, which teaches them how to leverage their software work to solve the actual problems of end users.
Greg Hislop, Drexel University
"It can be rewarding for an instructor to work in FOSS," said Hislop. This immediately reminded me of something community guru Greg DeKoenigsberg blogged months ago: "[FOSS participation] must, however, always be rewarding." Hislop told the story of how his own participation in the Teaching Open Source community led him into the SoftHum (Software for Humanitarian Purposes) and FOSS Learning Center projects. "Stop thinking about code and start thinking about community," he advised.
Hislop emphasized that teaching open source was not a trivial or easy thing to begin doing, but that the payoff could be tremendous. He described dealing with the undependability of people joining and leaving projects, which is something I had heard professors in the Teaching Open Source community discuss before. To teach open source community work is to give your students freedom to explore... and to give up control of the classroom. Giving up this control is risky. Will they succeed? Will they learn what you're require to teach? And the level of risk and how to balance that with the potential of FOSS community participation to give students a better learning experience is something that every educator who is teaching open source is struggling to find their own balance for.
Mel Chua, Red Hat
Academic communties and FOSS communties--and communities of all sorts--are places where people come together to work on common problems, explained Chua as she walked around handing out scribbled notes. Professors already know how to work within the rules of academia; the trick to bridging that world and the FOSS one is figuring out the parallel structures within them--how do you ask questions? Where do people gather to talk? What is considered a "valid contribution" in each world?
"Professors can help open source communities as much as vice versa," explained Chua. "We're terrible at scaffolding and recruiting new contributors... you [professors] know how to get large numbers of people new to an area quickly up to speed in it. Please teach us how!"
At this point, I stepped in and explained to the listening professors exactly why FOSS community members would be motivated to help them. When we see things like Allegheny College professor Matt Jadud's offer to have his class do interface design, we think "ooh, new contributors!" but also have the added reassurance that these contributors will:
Be around and accountable for at least a semester, which is a long time when your project has six-month release cycles.
Have a professor to help them navigate the process of learning about the project, so we don't have to answer the same question about wikis 20 times in a row.
Some helpful resources for those considering involving university-level students in open source projects
The Teaching Open Source Textbook, an open content resource intended to be a supplementary resource for professors getting their students started with FOSS development; it has exercises and assignments that teach fundamental FOSS participation tools such as version control systems and bug trackers.
POSSE, a one-week workshop for college professors interested in incorporating FOSS community participation into their courses.
A community characterization worksheet used as a class assignment at Rochester Institute of Technology to get students thinking critically about the structure of FOSS communties they are encountering for the first time.
A blog post by Mel Chua illustrating how experienced FOSS contributors might think about projects they are encountering for the first time.
If you want to "view source" for this article, my notes for it come in part from my Twitter stream starting here, and in part from Steve Jacobs from RIT who also liveblogged the sessions.
Sebastian Dziallas -
Certifications for DevOps engineers
Open education: There isn't an app for that
How to be good at creating and maintaining systems at-large
How a trip to China inspired Endless OS and teaching kids to hack
5 transferable higher-education skills
How to use the internet to learn IT skills
Mel Chua on 18 Nov 2010 Permalink
Kussmaul's "use/study/add/build/leverage" framework was something I found surprisingly useful, especially in its simplicity. One thing I appreciate more and more about academia is how it actually deliberately structures in time for reflection and evaluation (although I don't always agree with the usefulness of the evaluations). How are we doing things, how well are we doing them compared to where we thought we'd be, and how can we recalibrate and improve?
I was surprised by the number of people we got to attend the panel (maybe 20 or so?) and how (1) willing they were to listen to these ideas, but also (2) how discouraged they felt about implementing them in their own institutions. The general sense I got was "wow, that's great - but that would never work in my school." Which... is a bit discouraging. Teaching open source has worked for big schools, small schools, engineering schools, liberal arts schools...
I wonder what we could do - more case studies by type of institution? More outreach? More school visits? More academic conference presence? - to show that it's possible.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Through the Expiry Alerts Report, keeping track of expiries in the dashboard has never been easier.
If you've set up any competency/induction expiries for your field workers, document expires for assets, asset attachments, supplier, client and/or projects, all these expiry alerts can be found together in the expiry alerts report.
There alerts or flags then can prompt your staff to take action and renew these or follow the next step in your current internal workflow process.
Each of the above are split into different tabs in order to differentiate between each module.
Competency expiry alerts tell you when a fieldworker's competency (licence or certification) has expired or is expiring soon, so that you can update these in time.
Click on the Licence/Induction Expiries icon in the top menu bar.
Click on one of the fieldworkers in the dropdown menu. This will take you to the Fieldworker details screen where you can edit fieldworker competencies by updating the expiry date and attachment, or SMS the fieldworker asking them to update via the Fieldworker App.
Click on the Licence/Induction Expiries icon > Show all licence expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Expiries in the side menu and select the Competencies tab to view all expiring or expired competencies.
Click the Renew button next to a fieldworker in the list. This will take you to the Fieldworker details screen where you can edit fieldworker competencies by updating the expiry date and attachment.
Or you can choose to SMS the fieldworker by clicking 'Send SMS' to ask them to update this via the FieldWorker App. A 'View Conversation' button is also available, so you can see their responses to any messages you have sent about updating their competency.
Induction expiry alerts tell you when a fieldworker's induction has expired or is expiring soon, so that you can update these in time.
Click on one of the inductions in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Users > Fieldworkers > Manage Competencies where you can update the induction expiry date and attachment (if required) or SMS the fieldworker asking them to update via the Fieldworker App.
Click on the Licence/Induction Expiries icon > Show all induction expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Expiries in the side menu and select the Inductions tab to view all expiring or expired competencies.
Click the Renew button next to a fieldworker in the list. This will take you to the Fieldworker details screen where you can edit fieldworker inductions by updating the expiry date and attachment.
Or you can choose to SMS the fieldworker by clicking 'Send SMS' to ask them to update this via the FieldWorker App. A 'View Conversation' button is also available, so you can see their responses to any messages you have sent about updating their induction.
Asset expiry alerts tell you when an assets document has expired or is expiring soon, so that you can update these in time.
Click on the Asset Expiries icon in the top menu bar.
Click on one of the assets in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Assets & Tasks > Assets > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on the Asset Expiries icon > Show all asset expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Alerts in the side menu and select the Assets tab to view all expiring or expired asset documents well as any disabled asset documents.
Click the Renew button next to a document in the list. This will take you to Assets & Tasks > Asset Attachments > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Asset attachment expiry alerts tell you when an asset attachment document has expired or is expiring soon, so that you can update these in time.
Click on the Asset Attachment Expiries icon in the top menu bar.
Click on one of the assets in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Assets & Tasks > Asset Attachments > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on the Asset Attachment Expiries icon > Show all asset attachment expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Alerts in the side menu and select the Asset Attachments tab to view all expiring or expired asset attachment documents well as any disabled asset attachment documents.
Supplier expiry alerts tell you when a supplier document has expired or is expiring soon, so that you can update these in time.
Click on the Supplier/Client/Project document Expiries icon in the top menu bar.
Click on one of the suppliers in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Suppliers > Suppliers > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on the Supplier Expiries icon > Show all supplier expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Alerts in the side menu and select the Suppliers tab to view all expiring or expired supplier documents well as any disabled supplier documents.
Click the Renew button next to a document in the list. This will take you to Suppliers > Suppliers > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on one of the clients in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Clients & Projects > Clients > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on the Supplier/Client/Project document Expiries icon > Show all client expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Alerts in the side menu and select the Clients tab to view all expiring or expired client documents well as any disabled client documents.
Click the Renew button next to a document in the list. This will take you to Clients & Projects > Clients > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on one of the projects in the dropdown menu. This will take you to Clients & Projects > Projects > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.
Click on the Supplier/Client/Project document Expiries icon > Show all project expiries in the top menu bar, or Reports > Alerts in the side menu and select the Projects tab to view all expiring or expired project documents well as any disabled project documents.
Click the Renew button next to a document in the list. This will take you to Clients & Projects > Projects > Edit where you can update the document expiry date and attachment.


Must include description and dmg lvl!
The winner gets the award of happiness!
Mine: Set up an explosive barrier to keep those darn eggs away from your territory!
What it does: Explodes from the air once an enemy egg steps on it. Stops the egg from moving anymore.
Great idea! Can enemies see it, or would it surprise them?
It would be in plain sight to let the enemies know: KEEP AWAY!
You, Fuel, Roman, b0b and I should get together and play!
I was gonna make something very sick, it will make you all laugh. Until I saw the rules .-.
1) A weapon with a "blast radius" of a Vortex equalizer, but instead of doing damage, it acts as a "Mass Teleporter" on everything within its effective radius.
A way to trap an egg on a flat map. If it hits an egg, it raises walls or unclimbable hills on both sides of it.
^ Loveboth ideas! The first idea most especially!
I like the reverse drill. Could help save a teammember.
A weapon that fires a small bullet which can pass through walls but is affected by gravity, when it hits the target the target is blasted of an inch backwards,it does 20 dmg. should be given to any one above level 32..
As Bad as Eggs come!
PM me if you need anything! Or you can find me at Gamer Clan HQ, SnoopyGamerz, I'm there pretty often.
4.no way. totally useless when you can just use normal drill.
5. Like an upgraded pan? good idea.
6. Similar to nuke? If so, we already have nuke.


When manufacturing bulk graphite, pores develop within the bulk during the carbonization process due to the volatile components of the fillers and the binders. As a result, the physical properties of bulk graphite are inferior to the theoretical values. Impregnants are impregnated into the pores generated in the carbonization process through pressurization and/or depressurization. The physical properties of bulk graphite that has undergone impregnation and re-carbonization processes are outstanding. In the present study, a green body was manufactured by molding with natural graphite flakes and phenolic resin at 45 MPa. Bulk graphite was manufactured by carbonizing the green body at 700 and it was subsequently impregnated with impregnants having viscosity of 25.0 cP, 10.3 cP, and 5.1 cP, and the samples were re-carbonized at 700℃. The above process was repeated three times. The open porosity of bulk graphite after the final process was 22.25%, 19.86%, and 18.58% in the cases of using the impregnant with viscosity of 25.0 cP, 10.3 cP, and 5.1 cP, respectively.
While many ceramic materials possess self-sinterability, cokes, which are the main material of bulk graphite, do not sinter, and hence are used after having been mixed with binders  . With petroleum pitch or coal tar pitch as a starting material, cokes used as fillers undergo a state of green cokes, which are generated from heating at approximately 500℃, and are manufactured through thermal treatment at 1200℃-1400℃ [2 , 3] . The manufactured cokes are mixed with binders having high carbonization yields. Subsequently, bulk graphite is manufactured through molding, carbonization, impregnation, graphitization, and high purity processes. During the carbonization process numerous pores are generated inside the bulk graphite due to the release of volatile components contained in the binders. The material's physical properties, such as its mechanical strength, are degraded due to these pores [4 - 6] . To fill the pores generated in the carbonization process, impregnants are penetrated through pressurization and/or depressurization and samples are re-carbonized. The impregnation process is an indispensable part of the bulk graphite manufacture process because it reduces the porosity and consequently improves the density, strength, and electric conductivity of the product  . Impregnant viscosity, impregnant surface tension, angle of contact at which impregnation occurs, reactivity during thermal treatment, and carbonization yield can be controlled as variables determining the impregnation effect [8 , 9] .
In the present study, after manufacturing bulk graphite by using natural graphite and phenolic resin, the porosity reduction effect according to the viscosity of the impregnants was examined. As an impregnant, phenolic resin was diluted in ethanol (henceforth "solvent") to adjust the viscosity, and then used. After subjecting the manufactured bulk graphite to depressurized impregnation three times, changes in the density and the porosity were measured.
For the filler used in the present study, HCP-198 natural graphite flakes (Hyundai Coma Industry, Inc.) were used. For the binder, CB-8081 phenolic resin (Kangnam Chemical Co., Ltd.) was used. The mixed powder was molded at 45 Mpa to manufacture the green body. The manufactured green body was carbonized for 1 h at 700℃ in a nitrogen atomoshere  .
The phenolic resin and the solvent were mixed at weight ratios of 6:4 (henceforth "IM-A"), 5:5 (henceforth "IM-B"), and 4:6 (henceforth "IM-C") to prepare the impregnants; a viscometer (Brookfield; DV-II+ Pro) was used to measure the viscosity. Pores generated by the release of impurities from the filler and volatile components from the binder were filled using impregnation and re-carbonization processes  . Depressurized impregnation was performed for 30 minutes and this process was repeated three times.
Changes in the density and the porosity according to the types of impregnants were measured using the Archimedes method (ISO 18754: 2003). The volumetric density, including the volume of the bulk graphite's open pores and closed pores (henceforth "density"), was measured. The open porosity (henceforth "porosity") was measured to confirm the impregnation effect. This is necessary because impregnation occurs in channels linked to open pores and thus open porosity data must be analyzed to confirm the impregnation effect according to the type of impregnant [10 , 11] .
When the green body manufactured with mixed powder was carbonized at 700℃, the density of bulk graphite was 1.66 g/cm 3 and the porosity was 23.40%.
Table 1 shows the average values after five measurements of the viscosity, according to the mixture ratios of phenolic resin and the solvent. The viscosity was 25.0 cP for IM-A, 10.3 cP for IM-B, and 5.1 cP for IM-C. As the proportion of the solvent was increased, the viscosity was confirmed to decrease.
Changes in the bulk density and the open porosity.
Because the penetration depth was inversely proportionate to the solution viscosity, impregnants with low viscosity were deemed to have a considerable penetration effect into the pores.
The following conclusions were obtained regarding the effect of impregnant viscosity on changes in the porosity when manufacturing bulk graphite using natural graphite and phenolic resin. When the density and the porosity of bulk graphite manufactured using impregnants with disparate levels of viscosity were analyzed, compared to the density before impregnation, after being impregnated three times, the density increased by 1.23% for bulk graphite impregnated with IM-A, by 2.47% for bulk graphite impregnated with IM-B, and by 3.70% for bulk graphite impregnated with IM-C.
The porosity before impregnation was 23.40%; the porosity of bulk graphite impregnated with IM-A after being impregnated three times was 22.25%, that of bulk graphite impregnated with IM-B was 19.86%, and that of bulk graphite impregnated with IM-C was 18.58%. Thus there was a decreasing trend with lower impregnant viscosity.
In the present study, the porosity reduction effect was considerable for bulk graphite impregnated with IM-C. In the future, the carbonization yield according to the type of impregnant and the distribution of pore size of the impregnated bulk graphite will be analyzed to develop methods for the impregnation process in the production of high-density bulk graphite.
 SM Lee , DS Kang , HS Kim , and JS Roh , "Changes in the porosity of bulk graphite according to the viscosity of resin for impregnation", Carbon letters, vol. 2, no. 2, Apr 2015.


The family of a man who died following a road traffic collision on the A66 near Workington have paid tribute to his life.
James Huntington, 25, from Wigton, died following a collision on the A66 near Workington on Monday (22 October, 2018).
"Today is the darkest day we have ever had to face as a family. Following a tragic accident, we have lost a loving and caring friend and member of our family.
"James was brought up in Wigton, studied at Nelson Thomlinson School and Hull University. He worked for Enterprise Rent-a-Car for the past two years. He was a fan of rugby and spent many hours watching both local and international matches.
"He selflessly put others before himself and will be sorely missed by his mother and father Gillian and Tony, sister Robyn and his many family members and friends.
"We would also like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the emergency services who attended and thank them for their professionalism in dealing with this tragic event.


Generally speaking, I do my best not to ingest synthetic chemicals. While that's probably not entirely possible in today's world, I definitely don't want a petrochemical listed as an ingredient in my family's food. Artificial colors, once derived from coal tar (yum), are now derived from petrochemicals (double yum). If your family eats candy, fruit drinks, colorful breakfast cereals, or any of a host of packaged foods, you're eating them.
Artificial colors have a long history of controversy, and several have been banned or discontinued voluntarily by industry. Remember in Peggy Sue Got Married, when Peggy Sue (having traveled from the enlightened future back to her teenage-hood) tells her sister while eating small candies: "Don't eat the red ones"? That's because by the time Peggy Sue Got Married debuted in theaters in 1986, everybody knew that red food dye was linked to cancer. Even the FDA admitted that Red 3 is a carcinogen.
Guess what? The dye Red 3 was never banned, and about 200,000 pounds annually still enters the food supply, through products such as Betty Crocker's Fruit Roll-Ups and ConAgra's Kid Cuisine frozen meals.
Another surprising fact: companies like Kraft, Coca Cola, and Wal-Mart make two sets of food products. One set without artificial colors destined for the U.K. and other countries (in response to the Southampton Study), and another set with artificial colors destined for the American market. Scientists have linked artificial colors still used today to cancer, allergic reactions, and hyperactivity, among other things. The FDA recently considered problems associated with artificial colors, but instead of banning them or requiring special labeling of products with artificial colors, the FDA instead decided that what we need is "more research."
I, myself, don't need any more research to decide that I don't want my family eating artificial colors. Given the potential risks and nonexistent benefits (except to the food industry: artificial colors are cheaper), I don't understand why they should exist at all. If you agree, you can sign this petition asking Kraft to remove food dyes from their U.S. products too.
Make more foods from scratch at home.
Limit consumption of processed and packaged foods.
Drink mostly water (and sometimes milk or 100% juice).
Read ingredient labels carefully. Artificial colors are easy to spot, since they usually use numbers (or a letter, in the case of Orange B). Here are some examples: FD&C Blue No. 1, Red 3, Orange B, Citrus Red No. 2. Sometimes the ingredient "artificial color" is actually a natural color, just to make life a little more confusing.
Buy our processed foods at Trader Joe's (or Whole Foods), since Trader Joe's does not allow artificial colors in any of their own products. Or buy organic packaged foods. Organic foods cannot use artificial colors.
Find more acceptable versions of our must-have junk foods. I noticed that my husband was frequently sharing a little bag of peanut M&Ms with our 3-year-old. He protested ending the ritual, so I bought a container of chocolate-covered peanuts for them to enjoy together instead.
Buy dye-free medicine, especially for your kids. Target has their own generic brand that is dye-free for infant ibuprofen and tylenol.
Use natural food coloring (derived from natural ingredients) for cake frosting, Easter eggs, or homemade play dough.
Throw away most of the candy my kids receive from others. Yes, it's true. So far, they haven't really noticed.
Do you avoid artificial food coloring? How?
I think it's so ridiculous that they make two sets of food, one to sell in other countries and one to sell here. Why can't they be a little more proactive and make the healthier version for everyone? Argh!
Thanks for the tips and resources though. I am getting more and more determined to make most of our food from scratch. I will have to get some natural food coloring, though.
I have a friend from Japan and a couple years ago when her parents visited the States, she told me about how they were totally freaked out by all the fake colors of the food here. They refused to touch any of it during their visit, she said.
I'm with the previous commenter -- it's completely ridiculous that they have two sets of food. Reminds me of the quote at the end of Food, Inc. -- you vote with your dollar when it comes to food. Hopefully, people will become more informed and shop accordingly so things will change.
Thanks for the great list! I am gradually working to give my kids less and less processed stuff and this is great practical advice!
We're trying to go more natural ourselves, and the food dye is a big one. You're realistic approach to it all is helpful.
megwrites, yes, maddening. At first when I read that I thought, well, maybe they're just getting rid of their leftover stock by dumping it on the unsuspecting Americans who don't know any better. But then I read about how much cheaper artificial colors are. They'll keep using them here until consumers or gov't demands otherwise.
Heather, I love your comment. Some friends from South America came here and refused to eat the chicken (they have a farm in Colombia) because they were so freaked out by how gigantic they are here (esp. the breasts). Welcome to Willy Wonka's Food Factory: the United States.
oh amanda, my husband agrees, and told me to move it to #1 (which I did).
Jessica and Messy Mom, good luck with your efforts!
I throw away my kids candy too. If I'm feeling indulgent I'll trade them laffy taffy (bad) for chocolate (not so bad).
omg I had chills reading this. It's just scary!
Go figure about the Red Dye though, my dog can't eat it or he gets sick. I knew it was no good!
Thanks for this list! If you can get the link to work, I'll sign that petition!
Thanks, ICStarzz. Yeah, that link has been on the fritz. I've gotten it to work a few times, and not others. If you refresh it 2 or 3 times, you might get it to work. Phooey.
We were in Canada this last month and I noticed that many of their products did not contain all the artificial colors that ours do.
It is crazy! We try to eat mainly organic but it is not always easy. I need to crack down a little harder on this.
Thanks for sharing this with us though. It is important to keep our children healthy.
I am visiting from WFMW. I hope you have a blessed Easter!
And remember Dr. Steve Edison from the Wedding Planner (played by Matthew McConaughey) who only eats the brown m&ms because he figures there's less artificial coloring in them since chocolate is already brown!


Comparison of morning vs bedtime administration of the combination of valsartan/amlodipine on nocturnal brachial and central blood pressure in patients with hypertension.
The aim of this study was to compare the effect of morning and bedtime administration of valsartan/amlodipine combination therapy (80/5 mg) on nocturnal brachial and central blood pressure (BP) measured by ambulatory BP monitoring in patients with hypertension. This was a 16-week prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label, crossover, noninferiority clinical trial. Patients underwent 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring at randomization, at switching, and at the end of the study. Twenty-three patients (mean age, 68.0 years) were studied. The difference in nocturnal brachial systolic BP between the morning and bedtime administrations of combination valsartan/amlodipine was -3.2 mm Hg, and the two-sided 95% confidence interval ranged from -6.8 to 0.4 mm Hg. The difference in nocturnal central systolic BP was -4.0 mm Hg (95% confidence interval, -7.6 to -0.4 mm Hg). The upper limit of the 95% confidence interval was below the margin of 3.0 mm Hg in both nocturnal brachial and central systolic BP, confirming the noninferiority of morning administration to the bedtime administration of valsartan/amlodipine combination therapy.


Under products liability theories of law, the manufacturers, designers and/or distributors of the products may be held liable for injuries to those individuals who use the product and are injured or harmed by the product. Product liability law can also involve the failure of a designer or manufacturer to warn a consumer on the proper or safe use of the product. Often cases arise out of the failure of the product manufacturer to provide warning stickers or instructional information with the product so that the consumer will properly use the product in a safe manner.
Can I File A Product Liability Lawsuit?
There are different types of product liability lawsuits and cases. A defective product lawyer can identify the proper theory to pursue, which may be specific to a certain set of facts. Many times a product is not necessarily designed or manufactured in an unreasonably safe manner but the consumer is injured because the consumer does not understand how to safely use the product. In that case, a product liability attorney might analyze whether the manufacturer provided a proper warning or instruction for proper usage of the product to the consumer. Other product liability cases involve implied warranties that are created by under statutes or case law. For instance, in Florida, there is an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. Under this theory of liability, a ladder manufacturer, for example, could not disclaim liability for a defective ladder if a consumer was operating the ladder in a normal fashion.
If you have been injured by a product, even if you don't know it to be defective, it is important for you to talk to an attorney who is experienced in product liability law. Sometimes a consumer can be partially to blame for the injury and the law will still provide some degree of compensation from the manufacturer under what is known as comparative fault law in Florida. This allows the jury or factfinder to assign a certain percentage of fault to each party. Many times a product manufacturer will defend a case on the basis that the consumer was not properly using the product, however, it is not always necessary that the consumer use the product only in the exact manner as instructed as long as the consumer was using the product in a reasonably known or foreseeable manner.
The laws of products liability in Florida can vary whether the case is brought in state court or federal court and it is important for you to speak to an experienced product liability attorney as quickly as possible. Many lawyers do not understand the tremendous differences between state and federal court unless they are experienced with product liability lawsuits. This can affect the value of the case. Additionally, any case involving a potentially defective product requires prompt attention to and preserving of the evidence.
In order to pursue a viable product liability case, it is often mandatory for the injured party to allow the manufacturer to have access to the product so that the alleged defect can be investigated. Therefore, it is important for you to contact a product liability attorney as soon as you're injured so that the attorney can put the proper witnesses on notice to preserve the evidence. For example, sometimes a simple automobile accident can result in severe injuries because of defective products such as seatbelts which were not designed or manufactured properly. In such a case, it is imperative that the attorney contact the owner of the vehicle or the tow yard and make arrangements to videotape, photograph and preserve any of the evidence that may be necessary to pursue a lawsuit later. A lawyer who does not understand product liability issues would not likely take steps to preserve such evidence.
Why Should I Contact Warner, Sechrest & Butts P.A.?
At our law firm in Gainesville, FL, we have experience in defective product issues including automobile, tire defect, construction equipment, electrical equipment, household appliances, and many other product liability cases which lend to our experience. Additionally, our firm is able to bring claims against large manufacturers and insurance companies because we have the experience and resources to take them on. Not every lawyer or law firm is able to keep up with the large amounts of expenses and workloads that are required in in product cases. Large automobile manufacturers and insurance companies will be certain to provide a vigorous defense in these cases and it is important that you choose the right law firm to fight for you and your family.
If you or a family member have been injured as a result of a defective product or because of improper warning stickers/safety data, contact Warner, Sechrest & Butts in Gainesville, FL.


text:
Jura's complete package
From the October 2016 issue.
Jura strives to provide excellence in every facet of its offering.
With more than 80 years of history, Jura is no stranger to the need to innovate to remain ahead of the pack.
Founded in 1931 and based in Niederbuchsiten, Switzerland, Jura is a market leader in the field of high-end automatic coffee machines.
While Jura's range includes coffee machines for domestic use and professional models for the office and food service industry, it is in the field of superautomatics that the company has been making significant waves of late.
In recent years the long-established Swiss brand has also grown to become a global player, operating in around 50 countries.
While all of Jura's machines are developed in Switzerland and produced in line with stringent Swiss quality standards, new technologies have begun to emerge over the past five years that have catapulted superautomatic coffee machines into the internet age.
With superautomatic coffee machines now being connected to smart devices such as smartphones and tablets it is possible to operate and monitor them in real-time via their app.
With its strong focus on innovation, Jura is up to date and ready to meet these needs with its products. Thanks to Jura Smart Connect, controlling their automatic coffee machines via smartphone or tablet has been simplified also enabling communication with smart accessories and offering brand new programming options.
The new Jura Smart Connect uses Bluetooth communication, based on a transmitter that is simply plugged into the coffee machine. This then works in conjunction with the Jura Connect App. The Jura Connect App allows users to wirelessly operate the machine and link up to various accessories.
High-quality, robust and durable products are the result of the creativity of the Jura team, with 70 engineers who put a painstaking love for detail into the new generation of machines, developing the hardware and software, the preliminary models, the fluid systems and components and putting everything through its paces in the laboratory.
Jura's stated objective is to create the perfect cup of coffee thanks to innovative technologies, an intuitive operation and cleaning and an elegant design. Jura also has several hospitality centers worldwide which offer a high standard of service for its customers.
With the WE8, Jura has created a superautomatic coffee machine perfectly suited for offices and workplaces.
With a bigger capacity, but still small in size, the WE8 features accessories such as a payment box, wireless milk cooler, and of course the machines are connected through smartphones and tablets.
Featuring a water tank with a 3-litre holding capacity, a bean container for 500 grams of coffee beans and a coffee grounds container with a capacity of 25 portions, the WE8 is the ideal solution for locations where around 30 coffees are consumed per day.
Water of the highest quality is essential to creating the best possible coffee experience. The Claris Smart from Jura revolutionises water filtration. For the first time, thanks to modern Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology, a coffee machine can continually communicate with the filter. It recognises whether a filter has been inserted and automatically activates the appropriate mode. It continually collects information about filter use and alerts the user when the filter capacity has been exhausted. This not only makes changing the filter easier than ever before, but also allows the Claris Smart to achieve optimum effectiveness.
For the larger workplace, the Giga-X-line Professional offers everything needed by staff in a large office or staff room. The Giga X3 delivers up to 34 individually programmable speciality coffees and 12 barista recipes at the touch of a button, including the flat white.
The machine is designed for simple operation and minimal topping-up thanks to the large bean container with a holding capacity of one kilogram and aroma preservation cover as well as an optional drip a set and coffee grounds disposal function set.
Integrated rinsing and cleaning operations can be started at the touch of a button, minimising the amount of work needed to maintain the machine on a daily basis.
In the food service and Hospitality, Retail and Catering (Horeca) segments, Jura has developed its line of Giga machines. The high-performance Giga X8c Professional comes with a unique speed function, allowing it to prepare perfect coffee in record time. The optimally extracted coffee is mixed with hot water inside the machine by means of an extra bypass to ensure that absolutely no flavour is lost during the process.
Also the machine's speed function and time-saving, intuitive operation make the Gigaa X8c Professional ideal for use in catering.
Inside all of these Jura machines are three components that form the pillars of the company's commitment to delivering quality and consistency.
Jura only uses high-quality grinders with low wear and great durability. By perfecting the cutting angle inside the grinding cones, Jura engineers have managed to increase efficiency significantly. This gentle grinding process allows the flavours to be retained in all their natural fullness and is twice as fast as conventional grinding.
When it comes to preparing the milk, Jura's innovative frothers were specially designed to crown specialty coffees with milk and milk foam. With revolutionary fine foam technology, they create finely textured milk foam with a long-lasting consistency to professional barista standard.
And Jura's patented brewing unit with variable brewing chamber is the most important part of any Jura coffee machine. Thanks to its sophisticated design, it creates the perfect pressure and optimum brewing conditions for any amount of ground coffee between five and 16 grams. The Intelligent Pre-Brew Aroma System and the Pulse Extraction Process, which optimises the coffee flavour, work together to allow the flavours to fully unfold.
Jura's machines are also built with the environment in mind.
Jura's automatic speciality coffee machines come with innovative technologies and energy-saving modes to avoid unnecessary power consumption and actively save energy.
Overall, Jura's commitment to excellence sees the company striving to perform ahead of the pack in just about all of the key areas of its business.
All the innovations that Jura presents to its customers are the result of its quest for perfection and for the perfect coffee quality, from a ristretto to a flat white. GCR


Ms. Devi Erna Rachmawati is founder and owner of many companies, but she has spent a lot of her time for community activities and network connection. She now plans to open the Women Leaders International Networking (WLIN) in Indonesia.
Ms. Devi Erna Rachmawati has Ph.D. Graduate of East Asian Economic and Business Study, Economic Faculty, Major in Risk and Finance Business Management Yamaguchi University, Japan.
She is very busy as founder of "LeuMart" (PT. LEU Ritel Indonesia); owner and finance director of PT. Kymmoshi Global Indonesia; owner and commissioner of PT. Kymmoshi Indonesia Makmur, PT. Techno Global Indonesia, PT D'Pom Global Indonesia, PT. Aliyad Tour and Travel, PT. Ritel Global Solusi; CEO of Toko Indonesia (KO-IN), Founder and CEO of KOIN-go (export import), Founder and CEO of PT. MTE Nusantara Sakti (KOPay).
Ms. Devi Erna Rachmawati is known as a successful woman and devotes for community.
However, she is also the chairwoman of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Japan Committee; founder and secretary general of Economic Institution, advisor of Indonesia-Japan Business Network, secretary of Cooperation between Institutions and Overseas "Indonesian Moeslim Merchant Networks", chairwoman of the Association Concerning the Environment of Indonesia-Japan, chairwoman of Kymmoshi Indonesia Foundation and chairwoman of KOIN Foundation Indonesia.
"During the period of education, I was known as an active individual, who conducted many activities and social organizations, including a network of business in collaboration with a consortium of Japanese entrepreneurs to implement technology transfusion in the industry through the Kymmoshi Global Group, the Indonesia-Japan," Devi Erna Rachmawati said.
On March 2018, as Business Support Director, she led PT. Kymmoshi Global Indonesia in bestowing Indonesian Improvement Award 2018, "The Best Quality Product of The Year 2018".
On November 2018, as CEO, she helped PT. Ritel Global Solusi in bestowing Indonesian Achievement Best Performing Award 2018, "The Best Trusted Retail Company of The Year 2018".
Early this month in Hà Nội, Devi Erna Rachmawati won the Top 50 Women Leaders International Award 2019 for what she had done for community.
"I am very excited because I have business with vision and mission to create social effects through KO-IN (Toko Indonesia) in giving empowerment for small and medium enterprises, also for women," she said.
"I would like to develop WLIN in Indonesia in order to give more social effects for businesswomen, help them more beautiful, happier and more successes."./.


I am trying to create a spreadsheet that tracks increases or decreases in reps, times and scores for the Army Physical Fitness Test. The only problem I am having is finding the difference between two, 2 mile run times. I want to input the two times as mm:ss and get a result of the difference in the same format whether it is an increase or decrease in time.
Doing Date & Time math can be tricky, some examples of your expected input and results would be helpful.
enter a leading zero, so for 10 min 30 sec you should enter 0:10:30 and the result will be 10:30.
To get a result in the same format you use the format [mm]:ss in your totals.
Lets say I have a Soldier that runs 2 miles in 15:34 (mm:ss), a month later he runs 2 miles in 14:32. I want to be able to track the difference in time, but I want the outcome to be in minutes and seconds. I have been trying to find a solution for a few days now. It looks like I might have to leave the solution as a manual input. I was just hoping excel would do it for me but it handles times as a time of day rather than just an amount of time.
Format Cell C1 as [mm]:ss, the brackets are necessary.
The leading zeros are necessary even thought they will not be used.
In cell C1 enter the formula =A1-B1, you should get the result of 01:02.
Here is a macro that allows you to enter times as mm.ss (using a decimal point) and no need to enter 0 for hours.
The macro is driven by the cell change event, so that when you enter a decimal value it converts the value to minutes and seconds (only in the selected time entry columns).
The macro is written on the basis that the first time and the second time are in adjacent columns, and the difference is in the third column.
When the second time is entered, assuming that the first time is already present, the difference is calculated.
Change the first time column if necessary (the above example uses column B for the first time entry) and save the macro from the VB File menu. Use Alt+f11 to return to the main Excel window.
Note that entering a first time when a second time is already present does not result in the time difference being recalculated - this could be added if required.


Rachel Peters, Year 2 class teacher, takes the #FridayFastFive challenge this week.
Why teaching? I took a rather long route into teaching; doing a degree, then becoming a TA before doing a PGCE because I knew I wanted to work with children but I didn't know in which form! I chose teaching because I think every child deserves to enjoy learning and going to school – that is what I aim for in my teaching.
What's your favourite children's book? I love children's books! I love Matilda, and The Witches by Roald Dahl as he uses such brilliant description. I also love Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo…a brilliant adventure with lots of nail-biting cliff hangers!
What was your favourite subject at school? My favourite subjects as a child were History and English. Now as a teacher I really love teaching History and Sports and I am passionate about Outdoor Learning. I love taking lessons outside and showing children the links between in natural world.
Favourite teaching moment? I have so many favourite teaching moments! Some are inspiring, some funny and some heart-warming. My favourite moments at RSM have definitely been during Outdoor Learning lessons – it is lovely to see a child's moment of wonder and understanding, when they learn something new outside.


Make your Valentine's Day sweeter with a box of Kumori's new Red Velvet Hanjuku Cheese. So fluffy, and cheesy with the right amount of sweetness. These are available at all Kumori stores for a limited time only.
G/F The Block, SM North EDSA, Q.C.
G/F UP Town Center, Katipunan Avenue, Diliman, Q.C.
**Photo and styling by Alvin Ong.