Lilla, a historian and professor of humanities at Columbia University, acknowledges that identity-based social movements "have made this country a more tolerant, more just, and more inclusive place than it was fifty years ago." His complaint is with two aspects of the way many left-of-center activists and intellectuals practice identity politics today. First, he argues, they define identity in a way that drives away support. Second, too often they don't really do politics at all.
AS Lilla tells the story, progressive social reformers, battered by the conservative counterrevolutions of Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich and disappointed by the cautious centrism of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, grew discouraged with electoral politics and turned to the courts and regulatory agencies to bring about social change. They won battles there, but as they came to rely more on lawyers and bureaucrats and less on political organizing, they lost touch with the blue-collar workers and white populists of their original New Deal base.
Lilla's brisk account leaves out a lot of nuance, but the endpoint is right: liberals lost their common touch. What had been a problem became a crisis in 2016, when Republicans commandingly added working-class whites to their coalition. According to tabulations by the Pew Research Center, Trump won whites by almost exactly the same margin as Mitt Romney won them in 2012. He did about as well among women as Romney did, and he improved among men, but only by five percentage points. In other words, not much changed in the racial and gender composition of the vote. What won the election for Trump was an earthquake among voters without four-year college degrees: a twelve-point net increase in the Republicans' margin among all non-college-educated voters compared with 2012, and an increase of fifteen points, no less, in the Republican margin among non-college-educated whites. "Trump's [thirty-nine-point] margin among whites without a college degree is the largest among any candidate in exit polls since 1980," Pew reported.
Many liberals hope to win blue-collar and middle-class support with jobs programs and skills training and health insurance and child care. They argue that there is no need to downplay the concerns of minorities in order to appeal to whites without college degrees. Lilla's rejoinder is bold: today's version of identity politics is framed in a way that inherently restricts its appeal and marginalizes its influence. Adding more programs and policies to the dozens, even hundreds, proffered in 2016 by Hillary Clinton may be good policy, but it cannot by itself repair the Democratic Party's shattered credibility among working-class whites.
Politics in America is about storytelling more than policy, and the narratives that tend to be the most politically attractive—Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, for instance—tell stories about making Americans better off individually and nationally. The benefits of the New Deal may not have been extended equally to all Americans, but the liberal rhetoric of that period spoke of the national good and the need to build broad electoral coalitions. In their campus redoubts, Lilla argues, liberals forgot how to talk that talk. They began to conceive of and practice politics not as a common struggle for national improvement but as a diverse set of quite distinct struggles against specific forms of oppression.
Mainstream liberals, including Hillary Clinton, have expended no little effort searching for a persuasive story about national betterment. If Lilla is right, however, no amount of effort will suffice until liberals remove the identitarian blinders that impede their vision. Similarly, progressives can offer job training and day care and health insurance, but until they frame their calls for minority rights and social justice within a story of common uplift, they will fail to fire moral imaginations in ways that consistently win elections. That failure is costly not only politically but also substantively, for if ever there were a time when progressives had reason to make common cause with less-educated white men, that time is now.
Women have entered the workforce in large numbers since the 1970s, but for reasons that are unclear, working-class men have exhibited a very different trend: they have dropped out of the labor market in unprecedented and alarming numbers. In the 1970s, 90 percent or more of men aged twenty-five to sixty-four were working, regardless of their education level. In 2011, 90 percent of men with college diplomas were still working—but almost a quarter of men with only high school diplomas had dropped out of the workforce, as had a third of men without high school diplomas. That may be partly because wages for less-skilled men plummeted: the inflation-adjusted earnings of men with only high school degrees fell by about a fourth, and men who didn't finish high school fared even worse. Education is today's great divide between haves and have-nots, and it is widening rapidly.
That is not to say that women and black Americans don't still fare worse economically than men and whites, on average. The median income of black Americans in 2016 was 40 percent lower than whites', and less than half of Asians'. But liberals' preoccupation with the historically marginalized has desensitized too many of them to the plight of many of the currently marginalized.
LILLA'S second complaint is his deepest and strongest, I think. The biggest problem for movement liberalism, he believes, is not that it has embraced identity but that it has eschewed politics. The political machines of yore in New York City (Irish), Providence and New Haven (Italian), the District of Columbia (African-American), and others like them were steeped in identity politics and did not shrink from ethnic favoritism. Lilla's critics are right to point out that identity politics is something whites have practiced since the dawn of the republic, invariably to their own advantage.
movement politics began to be seen by many liberals as an alternative rather than a supplement to institutional politics, and by some as being more legitimate. That's when what we now call the social justice warrior was born, a social type with quixotic features whose self-image depends on being unstained by compromise and above trafficking in mere interests.
Conservatives, in contrast, made a priority of taking over the Republican Party. An example that Lilla does not use, but might have, is the difference between Occupy Wall Street, an ephemeral protest movement that captured headlines but had no decisive effect on electoral politics, and the Tea Party, which held its share of rallies but also concentrated, very effectively, on challenging Republican moderates in primaries and establishing an influential presence (the Freedom Caucus) in Congress. Or consider an example Lilla does use, Black Lives Matter. Its cause—fairer policing and an end to police brutality toward black Americans—is morally unimpeachable and by rights should be widely appealing, but the movement's accusatory rhetoric alienates moderates who are sympathetic to cops as well as to the victims of police brutality.
WHAT to make of this audacious critique? As a generalization about all of liberalism, or even about all of identity liberalism, it fails. The dominant figures in the Democratic Party, from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Tom Perez on down, think intensely about how to win swing districts. The party's presidential nominees for four decades, from Jimmy Carter to Hillary Clinton, have been consensus-seeking pragmatists. Liberal interest groups like the Human Rights Campaign and EMILY's List count votes for a living, and do it shrewdly. Barack Obama, well aware of the dangers of sectarianism, devoted his acceptance speech at the 2012 Democratic convention to the theme of citizenship, sounding exactly the way Lilla wants liberals to sound. The most galvanizing voice in the Democratic Party today, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, talks about corporations and monopolies and economic fairness in ways that would quicken the heart of any New Dealer. Even Bernie Sanders, an ideologue and outsider, has a populist message, not an identitarian one.
Still, Lilla is onto something, in two respects. First, he is right that over the past half-century progressive priorities drifted too far from power politics, with too little investment by activists and intellectuals in the sort of organizing and messaging that swings state legislatures and influences congressional redistricting. Obama, let it be said, also deserves a goodly portion of blame: by building his campaigns largely outside the Democratic Party organization and neglecting party-building as president, he weakened the party's institutional capacity and denuded its bench. A stronger party organization probably could have pulled Hillary Clinton across the finish line.
Second, Lilla is correct to regard the academic wing of progressivism as neurotic and out of touch, and consequentially so. He is a creature of the academy and perhaps exaggerates its influence. Still, his claim that universities encourage students to think dogmatically and naively about social reform—thus handicapping them when they move out of school and into politics—seems plausible.
The academic left has also powerfully shaped the way the culture perceives liberalism. Headlines about censorious students and radical professors suggest to millions of centrist and conservative Americans that liberalism is hostile to their values and perhaps to their liberty. Most liberals who read the newspapers acknowledge that backlash against political correctness had an important part in propelling Trump from preposterous to president. Something Lilla implies, without quite saying, is probably true: to regain relevance and credibility the Democratic Party will have to reform, repudiate, or at least distance itself from its campus wing.
From the perspective of today's left, our previous two Democratic presidents had checkered records. In the early 1990s, Bill Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it" and placed crime fighting at the center of his domestic policy, and the Democratic Leadership Council (which he chaired in 1990 and 1991) repudiated minimum-wage increases in favor of tax credits for low-wage workers. Obama marginalized the identitarian left: he promised to transcend party and ideology by finding and implementing the best ideas of both sides. But critics of Clinton's crime policies and Obama's health care compromises should not forget that Clinton delivered not only the presidency but also income gains for lower-income and middle-class Americans (median income rose 17 percent under Clinton, the fastest rate since the 1960s, and income in the bottom quintile rose even more), and Obama delivered not only the presidency but also health coverage to twenty million additional people.
Liberals surely made more gains under Obama than they will under Trump, or for that matter than they would have under President Romney. Lilla is asking them to change their strategy and rhetoric, yes; but more importantly, he also wants them to change their style of thinking. He wants them to integrate practical politics into their conception of social justice, rather than treating politics as a distraction or an afterthought.
TO a remarkable degree, in just the brief time between the November 2016 publication of Lilla's New York Times article and the August 2017 publication of his book, progressives have reengaged with practical politics. For the left, Trump's election was a wakeup call. Liberals have responded as never before in my adult lifetime: not just with rallies (though there have been big ones), but with organizing. After the election, when EMILY's List put out a call for pro-choice women to run for office, an astonishing 17,000 women responded. As of August 2017, Indivisible, a progressive startup that did not even exist in 2016, boasted more than 6,100 local affiliates, an average of fourteen in every congressional district. Equally impressive, it was organizing in deep-red areas, not just in comfortably blue ones. I could cite many more examples.
Though diverse in their aims and strategies, and in many cases quite ideological, progressivism's emerging organizers have in common their implicit recognition that principles count for little if you can't win an election. That is good news for the likes of Mark Lilla. It is also good news for conservatives, or at least for conservatism. Although I am not a progressive, I'm thrilled to see the left reengage with workaday politics. The left's impotence has cleared the way for some of the worst people in America to take over the Republican Party and vandalize the conservative movement. In safe Republican districts and states across the country, liberals cannot compete, and so they effectively cede the election to any right-wing extremist who manages to win a Republican primary. The best hope of restoring sanity to the right is by restoring competitiveness to the left.
Critics who charge Lilla with analytical imprecision, programmatic thinness, or overgeneralizing are not wrong, but his book is by design a polemic, not a sociological study or a comprehensive history or a policy brief. Its slap-in-the-face approach should be judged by the standards of, say, a behavioral intervention rather than academic scholarship. By that measure, Lilla could not have chosen a better moment or a more usefully provocative message. Thankfully, the fever he diagnoses may already be breaking.


text:
module CtAngularUiCalendarRails
  class Engine < ::Rails::Engine
    isolate_namespace CtAngularUiCalendarRails
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Assessing Professional Knowledge: Iowa
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
The state should use a licensing test to verify that all new teachers meet its professional standards.
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2013). Assessing Professional Knowledge: Iowa results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/IA-Assessing-Professional-Knowledge-20
Analysis of Iowa's policies
Iowa requires all new teachers to pass a popular pedagogy test from the Praxis series in order to attain licensure.
Iowa is part of the Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) consortium and began a pilot program in Spring 2011.
http://www.ets.org/praxis/ia/requirements/
Recommendations for Iowa
Verify that commercially available tests of pedagogy actually align with state standards.
Iowa should ensure that its selected test of professional knowledge measures the knowledge and skills the state expects new teachers to have.
Ensure that performance assessments provide a meaningful measure of new teachers' knowledge and skills.
While Iowa is commended for considering the use of a performance-based assessment, the state should proceed with caution until additional data are available on the Teacher Performance Assessment. Additional research is needed to determine how the edTPA compares to other teacher tests as well as whether the test's scores are predictive of student achievement. The track record on similar assessments is mixed at best. The two states that currently require the Praxis III performance-based assessment report pass rates of about 99 percent. Given that it takes significant resources to administer a performance-based assessment, a test that nearly every teacher passes is of questionable value.
Iowa recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
Admission into Teacher Preparation
Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
Middle School Teacher Preparation
Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
Assessing Professional Knowledge
Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Alternate Route Eligibility
Alternate Route Preparation
Alternate Route Usage and Providers
Part-Time Teaching Licenses
Identifying Effective Teachers
State Data Systems
Evaluation of Effectiveness
Frequency of Evaluations
Compensation for Prior Work Experience
Differential Pay
Performance Pay
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Extended Emergency Licenses
Dismissal for Poor Performance
Reductions in Force
Pension Flexibility
Pension Neutrality
Pension Sustainability
Evaluation Timelines
A good pedagogy test puts teeth in states' professional standards.
In order to ensure that the state is licensing only teachers who meet its expectations, all standards must be testable. State standards that cannot be assessed in a practical and cost-effective manner have no value. Examples of knowledge that can be tested include the basic elements of good instruction, how to communicate effectively with children, how to use class time efficiently, effective questioning techniques, establishing smooth classroom routines, the importance of feedback, engaging parents, the best methods for teaching reading as well as other subjects, appropriate use of technology, knowledge of testing and the fundamentals of addressing individual learning challenges.
States use too many tests to measure new teachers' professional knowledge that utterly fail to do so, either because the passing score is set so low that anyone—even those who have not had professional preparation—can pass or because one can discern the "right" answer on an item simply by the way it is written.
Performance assessments are an important step in the right direction.
Many states are considering—and a few now require—performance assessments to evaluate teacher candidates' pedagogy before an initial license is granted. A performance assessment can be of much more value than a traditional multiple choice test. However, states need to make sure that such tests are technically sound, especially given the significant resources that it takes to administer and score performance assessments. The past track record on similar assessments is mixed at best. The two states that required the Praxis III performance-based assessment reported pass rates of about 99 percent. a test that nearly every teacher passes is of questionable value. Additional research is needed to determine how the next generation of performance assessments, including the edTPA, compares to other teacher tests as well as whether the test's scores are predictive of student achievement.
Assessing Professional Knowledge: Supporting Research
For evidence of the importance of pedagogy tests in improving student achievement, see C. Clotfelter, H.Ladd and J.Vigdor, "How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement?" Working Paper 2, Calder Institute (2007).
For further information regarding the use of performance assessments and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC) in California and other states see L. Darling-Hammond, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching" Center for American Progress, (October 2010).
For a perspectives on the issues with teaching dispositions, see W. Damon, "Personality Test: The dispositional dispute in teacher preparation today, and what to do about it" in Arresting Insights in Education, Volume 2, No. 3, September 8, 2005; J. Gershman, "'Disposition' Emerges as Issue at Brooklyn College," New York Sun, May 31,2005.
For evidence on the low passing scores required by states on pedagogy tests, see the U.S. Department of Education's The Secretary's Seventh Annual Report on Teacher Quality: A Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom. (2010). Also see K. Walsh, "A Candidate-Centered Model for Teacher Preparation and Licensure," A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom?: Appraising Old Answers and New Ideas, eds. F. Hess, A. Rotherham, and K. Walsh (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2004), pp. 223-253.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to concat all values of single column in mysql I have column A in the Sample Table1.
Column A has values as follows.
+----+
| A  |
+----+
| a1 |
| a2 |
| a3 |
| a4 |
| a5 |
+----+

I need a query that should give the following output.
All the Values should be
"a1","a2","a3","a4","a5"

Is there a way?

A: Use GROUP_CONCAT() function to achive this.
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(<Type your column name here> SEPARATOR ', ') FROM <Table Name>;

Query for your provided sample example :
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(A SEPARATOR ', ')  FROM Table1;

A: You could use a combination of CONCAT and GROUP_CONCAT
Query
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT('"', A, '"')) AS `combined_A`
FROM `your_table_name`;

And if you want to remove the duplicates. Then use DISTINCT with GROUP_CONCAT.
Query
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT CONCAT('"', `A`, '"')) AS `combined_A`
FROM `your_table_name`;

SQL Fiddle demo

A: You will have to use a group concat function to accomplish something similar
SELECT , GROUP_CONCAT(A SEPARATOR ', ')
FROM Table1 GROUP BY
In the event you don't have an id you will have to use a constant for the grouping. Also note that the result you have  has a 1024 byte character limit unless you override it

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The public can get a closer look at the skills and equipment used by electric utility linemen on June 3-4 when teams from Virginia and surrounding states compete in the 14th annual Gaff-n-Go Lineman's Rodeo and the Terex® Equipment Operator's Rodeo at the Meadow Event Park in Doswell, Virginia. The event is hosted by the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives (VMDAEC).
Activities begin Friday, June 3 at 10:00 a.m. with the Terex® Equipment Operator's Rodeo. Participants will demonstrate their skills operating bucket trucks, digger derricks and other utility equipment. The Gaff-n-Go Lineman's Rodeo begins the next morning, Saturday, June 4, at 8 a.m. and concludes at 3 p.m. The rodeo is the only event of its type held in Virginia. The name Gaff-n-Go refers to the "gaff" (metal spike) linemen attach to their boots to assist in climbing wooden utility poles.
The public is encouraged to attend the event. Admission and parking are free. On Saturday there will be children's activities from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. For more information on the rodeo and directions to the Meadow Event Park, visit www.gaff-n-go.com or www.facebook.com/gaffngo.


text:
News | Top Story
Gov'ship race: Uncertainty over fate of PDP, APC candidates in 4 states
There is uncertainty over the fate of the governorship candidates in four states as litigations continue to trail the primaries of the two leading political…
FILE PHOTO:
Wed, 9 Nov 2022 6:14:25 WAT
There is uncertainty over the fate of the governorship candidates in four states as litigations continue to trail the primaries of the two leading political parties.
Daily Trust reports that six months after the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the leading opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted their governorship primaries, litigations are threatening the chances of the two parties to participate in the March 11, 2023 governorship primaries.
Bandits abduct 20 children in Niger, demand N40m
NIGERIA DAILY: How Many Youths Are Wiling To Take Advantage Of The New 'Oil Money'?
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had fixed the governorship and state houses of assembly poll for March 11, 2023. Chairman of the electoral body, Professor Mahmood Yakubu had on Monday, said the commission is confronted with over 600 cases arising from primaries of the various political parties for the 2023 general elections.
INEC had on October 4 published the final list of nominated candidates by political parties for governorship and state houses of assembly election.
However, the primaries that brought in the candidates of the APC in Adamawa and Taraba states have been nullified even as those of the PDP in Ogun and Zamfara states have suffered the same fate.
It would be recalled that the litigations that trailed the primaries of the APC in Zamfara State in 2019, cost the party all the elective positions including the governorship seat in the state. The party however reclaimed the state when the governor, Bello Matawalle led key players in the PDP back to the APC.
Again, court nullifies Zamfara PDP's primary
For the second time in seven weeks, a federal High Court in Gusau, on Monday, nullified the Zamfara State PDP governorship primary that produced Dauda Lawal Dare as the party's flag bearer.
Justice Aminu Aliyu Bappa ruled that the party has no candidate for the 2023 governorship election in the state.
In September, the court nullified Dare's election as PDP's governorship flag bearer following a suit by a former federal lawmaker, Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Gusau. Gusau, who had contested the primary against Dare, had approached the court seeking the nullification of the election, alleging gross irregularities.
However, one week after the judgement, the party conducted a rerun and Alhaji Dauda Lawal Dare was re-elected as the party's candidate for the Zamfara governorship election.
Not satisfied with the development, Gusau went to court for the second time, seeking the declaration of the September governorship rerun null and void, saying that the exercise had contravened the electoral guidelines.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Bappa said the party had contravened section 82 subsection 1 of the electoral act and that was what made the court invoke section 84 subsection 13 of the electoral act and ruled that the party cannot field any candidate for the forthcoming 2023 governorship election. The court also restrained the first defendant from forwarding the name of the third defendant as its governorship candidate for the 2023 general election over non-compliance to section 84 and subsection 1 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The court also restrained the fifth defendant from publishing the third defendant's name as the governorship candidate in Zamfara State over non-compliance to section 82 subsection 1 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Barrister Ibrahim Ali, said the new electoral guidelines stated that any party conducting the primary must give INEC at least 21 days' notice before the conduct of the exercise. He said PDP flouted the provision of the act in conducting the second primary.
"In the same vein, any party conducting a primary election must also notify the contestants in that election at least seven days before the commencement of the exercise and the PDP flouted the law. That is why the court ruled that the party has no candidate for the 2023 governorship election," he said. Acting Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmad Lugga told Daily Trust that they would study the judgement and take the next action.
Binani, Bwacha, Adebutu fight to reclaim tickets
The trio of Aishatu Binani (APC, Adamawa), Emmanuel Bwacha (APC, Taraba) and Ladi Adebutu of the PDP in Ogun State are battling to regain their seats after they were sacked by the courts.
The battle for the governorship tickets of the APC and PDP in the three states has shifted to the appellate court as Binani, Bwacha and Adebutu struggle to reclaim their seats.
Daily Trust reports that a Federal High Court in Yola had nullified the APC governorship primary that produced Binani. The primary was nullified on October 14 following a suit by a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who alleged votes buying, over-voting and delegate inducement.
In Taraba, a Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo presided over by Justice Simon Amobeda, had on September 20, sacked Bwacha sequel to litigation by one of the governorship aspirants, Chief David Kente.
Similarly, a Federal High Court in Abeokuta on September 27 nullified the primary election of the PDP in Ogun State that produced Ladi Adebutu as the party's governorship candidate for the 2023 general election. The court ordered that the party should hold an all-encompassing primary with the duly elected delegates.
INEC must stand by rules of the game – Dons
A renowned political analyst, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage noted that the plethora of litigations that trailed the gubernatorial primary elections of the two major political parties was just another indication that the majority of the politicians are not true democrats, advising the electoral umpire to stand by the rules of the game regardless of whose ox is gored.
"Many of them go into the process with the mindset of rigging their ways to power; so it becomes a rat race of who out-rigs the other and if that doesn't happen, they go to court and try their luck there," he said, adding that going into the election, this would lead to confusion because parties that are not able to resolve the problem maybe until the late hour may suffer from the new electoral rules.
The professor of political science at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) also said this may likely lead to "Anti-party activities because whoever loses at the last minute is likely going to sabotage the party. Whatever it is, it is not going to be good for the parties".
On his advice for the candidates, political parties and INEC, Fage said from the beginning it has always been that candidates and political parties should allow democracy to reign.
"For the electoral umpire, they should stand by the rules irrespective of who wins or loses (in court). Their concern should be who complied with the rules of the game. If they stand neutral and apply the rules, I think things will be fair," he said.
On his part, an associate Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Abuja, Dr Abubakar Umar Kari, said litigation has an inherent tendency to distract those involved and disrupt plans and preparations for campaigns.
"The spate of pre-election litigation does not portend well for the parties; it is an ill wind that blows no good for all concerned: the litigants, their supporters, the parties, INEC, and even the political process.
"The fact that its outcome is uncertain, keeps everyone in suspense and unsettled. The outcome may necessitate conducting the primaries all over again – with the attendant demands and problems associated with that – or it may lead to a complete loss for a party even before Election Day (where the court rules that a party is now ineligible to field candidates, as happened severally)," he said.
He advised politicians to imbibe the spirit of good sportsmanship and accept the outcomes of contests.
"Political parties should be fair to their members and always provide a level-playing field for contestants; INEC should simply be firm and ensure that everyone plays by the rule of the game."
By Ismail Mudashir, Haruna Ibrahim (Abuja), Shehu Umar (Gusau) & Clement A. Oloyede (Kano)
governorship race
2023: Stop hate speech, Yiaga Africa tells candidates, parties
Police arrest gunman at APC rally in Kwara
Your constant gaffes no longer a laughing matter, Atiku's aide tells Tinubu
Tinubu refers to Akwa Ibom gov as a boy, says Atiku was Senate President


text:
Compliance of systematic reviews in ophthalmology with the PRISMA statement
Seon-Young Lee1,
Harkiran Sagoo2,
Reem Farwana3,
Katharine Whitehurst4,
Alex Fowler5 &
Riaz Agha6
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are becoming increasingly important methods to summarize published research. Studies of ophthalmology may present additional challenges because of their potentially complex study designs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on topics in ophthalmology to determine compliance with the PRISMA guidelines. We assessed articles published between 2010 and 2015 in the five major relevant journals with the highest impact factors.
The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched to identify systematic reviews published between January 2010 and December 2015 in the following 5 major ophthalmology journals: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, and Survey of Ophthalmology. The screening, identification, and scoring of articles were independently performed by two teams, and the results were submitted to statistical analysis to determine medians, ranges, and 95% CIs.
A total of 115 articles were included. The median compliance was 15 out of 27 items (56%), the range was 5–26 (26–96%), and the inter-quartile range was 10 (37%). Compliance was highest in items related to the 'description of rationale' (item 3, 100%) and sequentially lower in 'the general interpretation of results' (item 26, 96%) and 'the inclusion of a structured summary in the abstract' (item 2, 90%). Compliance was poorest in the items 'indication of review protocol and registration' (item 5, 9%), 'specification of risk of biases that may affect the cumulative evidence' (item 15, 24%), and 'description of clear objectives in the introduction' (item 4, 26%).
The reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in ophthalmology should be significantly improved. While we recommend the use of the PRISMA criteria as a guideline before journal submission, additional research aimed at identifying potential barriers to compliance may be required to improve compliance with PRISMA guidelines.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are key study designs that are used to summarize published research findings that are replacing traditional reviews and expert commentaries. In these studies, the authors collect and critically assess all evidence that fits pre-specified criteria with the aim of answering a specific research question. They are therefore able to limit biases by including a wider range of populations than can be included in a single centre study. Moreover, they may quantify the heterogeneity in the available data and allow the results of multiple studies to be pooled into a meta-analysis, thereby increasing statistical power. In many cases, the goal is to identify the most appropriate treatment for a particular clinical paradigm [1,2,3]. Reliance on systematic reviews and meta-analysis by health care practitioners and policy makers, including those involved in ophthalmology research, in which approximately 1000 systematic review publications have been published, is increasing [4].
The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement was published in 2009 and consists of a 27-item checklist that covers each section of an article and includes a flow diagram. Its purpose is to help authors improve the quality of reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses [5]. Similar studies have been reported in different fields, including orthorhinolaryngology [6], orthodontics [7], radiology [8], gastroenterology and hepatology [9], and orthopaedics [10]. In a previous study, we also assessed the compliance of articles related to plastic surgery to the PRISMA statement. Our results showed that the reporting quality in plastic surgery was suboptimal [11].
Regardless of the field of research, poorly reported systematic reviews can be misleading and potentially dangerous in clinical practice. Studies in ophthalmology may present additional challenges to both researchers and readers because of the need for complexity in study designs. For example, there are two potential data points in each patient (i.e., two eyes), and accounting for this fact may require alternative designs and methods of analysis. Hence, the results and conclusions of such studies may be confusing if they do not provide an appropriate level of explanation [12]. Systematic reviews play a role in enabling the accurate appraisal of the literature because they allow large pools of data to be simultaneously interpreted, which can resolve some of the complexity in this field. It is also important for the authors of these studies to provide complete, clear and transparent information by using good reporting methods [5, 13]. The PRISMA statement is an objective index that can be used to determine whether systematic reviews are adequately performing this role.
The aim of this study was to determine the reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in ophthalmology according to the PRISMA statement. We evaluated articles published between 2010 and 2015 from five major journals with the highest impact factor.
This study is registered at Research Registry (unique identifying number: researchregistry952; http://www.researchregistry.com). Institutional review board approval was not required because the study did not involve human participants.
The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched to identify systematic reviews published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2015 in the five major ophthalmology journals with the highest impact factor (IF) according to the Thomson Reuter Impact factor 2014 [14]: The following journals were included: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research (IF 8.733), Ophthalmology (IF 6.135), Archives of Ophthalmology (IF 4.399), American Journal of Ophthalmology (IF 3.871), and Survey of Ophthalmology (IF 3.507), all of which represent a significant output for the field. The search strategies used in each database are described in Additional file 1.
The articles were manually and independently screened by three researchers, (H.S., K.W. and R.F.) who assessed their titles and abstracts. The following inclusion criteria were used: systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses published between January 2010 and December 2015. Any non-systematic reviews were excluded. Definition to identify systematic reviews has been adopted from PRISMA and the Cochrane Collaboration [15]. Examples of excluded works included narrative reviews, expert reviews and randomized controlled trials. Any disagreements were forwarded to another member of the team (S.Y.L.) for a final decision.
Articles were scored against the 27 checklist items described in the PRISMA 2009 statement [16] by two independent researchers (H.S., and R.F.). Each item was weighted equally, and the same number of denominators was applied to each article. A score was computed for each article. Items received a mark only when the article fulfilled the criteria described within each item of the PRISMA statement. If the article did not explicitly mention the terms specified in the guidelines, efforts made to report the requirements per the guidelines were considered. For example, if the article did not specifically use the term 'bias', if an effort was made to assess the risk of bias, the relevant items were still given marks. Any description of a justification to not fulfil a criterion was also given a mark. For instance, we scored the article as fulfilled if it justified why meta-analysis was not performed. In cases where the PRISMA item included multiple elements, marks were given when all elements were reported. Discrepancies were initially solved by consensus, and any remaining disagreements were referred to another member of the team (S.Y.L.).
All statistical analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel 2011 (Microsoft Corporation). Descriptive statistics, including the median and range and their 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs), were calculated. The level of compliance with individual items was computed for each article as a percentage. Cohen's Kappa statistic was used to calculate inter-observer agreement in scoring between two researchers. Cohen's Kappa statistic measures the magnitude of agreement that goes beyond chance alone [17].
Among the 5 journals included in this study, only one journal (Ophthalmology) required the PRISMA checklist to be used to report a systematic review or meta-analysis.
The initial electronic search identified 253 articles. Of these, 115 were selected for data extraction (Fig. 1). Arbitration was required to determine whether to include 8 articles, and disagreement occurred regarding 375 points across the 115 articles. The Cohen's Kappa statistic was 0.65, which indicates a good level of agreement between scorers.
Flow diagram describing process of articles being reviewed and selected
The median compliance across the 115 included articles was 15 out of 27 items (56%) and had a range of 5–26 (19–96%) and an inter-quartile range of 10 (37%). The compliance of the articles with each PRISMA item showed wide variance (Table 1). More than half of the articles achieved more than 50% compliance with the PRISMA checklist. However, approximately 10% of the articles failed to achieve compliance higher than 30%, and no single article met all 27 criteria (Fig. 2).
Table 1 Compliance with PRISMA checklist items (Table adapted from the PRISMA checklist, Moher et al.) [15]
The number of articles according to their compliance range with the PRISMA criteria
Meanwhile, compliance with individual items was variable, with three items achieving a level of compliance equal to or greater than 90%, while compliance was less than or equal to 30% for 5 items. The compliance was highest for items related to 'the description of the rationale for the study' (item 3, 100%). This was followed by the 'general interpretation of results' (item 26, 96%) and the 'inclusion of a structured summary in the abstract' (item 2, 90%). Compliance was poorest for 'indication of review protocol and registration' (item 5, 9%), 'specification of risk of bias that may have affected the cumulative evidence' (item 15, 24%), and 'description of clear objectives in the introduction' (item 4, 26%).
The median compliance was 15 out of 27 (56%), which is relatively low in comparison with most previous studies that investigated the reporting quality of systematic reviews in different specialties [8,9,10,11, 18]. Half of the articles (62 articles) achieved a compliance of less than 60% (Fig. 2), and no single article met all 27 criteria of the PRISMA statement. Considering that only one journal required the use of a PRISMA checklist prior to the submission of a manuscript presenting a systematic review or meta-analysis, there is a significant amount of room in which improvement can be made in reporting the quality of systematic reviews in ophthalmology.
Five items with compliance less than or equal to 30% include items related to describing the review protocol and registration, describing the risk of bias, describing the objectives using PICOS, and describing additional analysis (items 5, 15, 4, 23, and 22, respectively). Interestingly, poor compliance with these items has also been noted in other previous studies that examined the reporting quality of systematic reviews in different specialties [6,7,8,9,10,11, 18]. Regardless of their overall compliance with the PRISMA checklist, previous studies in specialties including orthorhinolaryngology [6], orthodontics [7], and radiology [8] all achieved compliance lower than 30% in items relating to describing the review protocol and registration and the risk of bias. A study of journals in gastroenterology and hepatology [9] showed that there was generally high median compliance with the PRISMA checklist (above 80%) but poor compliance (less than 20%) in describing the protocol and registration. Similar studies that evaluated orthopaedic journals [7], our previous study that assessed the compliance of plastic surgery articles to PRISMA [11], and a study of nursing journals [18] produced overlapping results that showed there was low compliance regarding items related to the protocol and registration, the description of bias, and the description of additional analyses. Moreover, a review of 300 systematic reviews [19] found that just under a quarter (23.1%) of authors reported assessing possible publication bias and that no single article in the study mentioned the review protocol or review registration.
The generally low compliance observed in this study is an indication that there is a lack of awareness regarding the importance of review protocols and registration information among authors. The use of protocol and review registration is important because a protocol allows more accurate comparisons to be made between authors and leaders and supports better transparency during the review process [5, 20]. There are web database registration sites that authors can easily use to obtain information regarding protocol and registration. These include the PROSPERO [20] and Research registry [21] databases, which we recommend. It is also disappointing that most specialties achieve a low level of compliance in items related to the assessment of risk of bias. The attempt to eliminate bias is a very fundamental component of randomized controlled trials, as is the assessment of bias in systematic reviews and meta-analysis [22]. Therefore, the poor compliance with items relating to assessing bias in most specialties is actually surprising. We suspect that this is caused by a lack of awareness regarding essential points of research reporting among authors because we noticed that many of the articles briefly mentioned 'bias' but then failed to describe the methods or results of their assessment of the risk of bias.
While improved awareness among stakeholders (i.e., journal reviewers and editors, funders, institutions, and readers) is required, we reiterate our previous call for journals to make the PRISMA checklist mandatory for the electronic submission of systematic reviews [11]. Enforcing these guidelines at the time of journal submission may improve the quality of reporting, and their endorsement has been shown to improve adherence [9]. Unfortunately, it is difficult to comment on this point with regard for the five ophthalmology journals included in this study because only one of them required the PRISMA checklist. However, it was recently demonstrated that journals increased their endorsement of reporting guidelines in their introduction to the authors between 2011 and 2014 (10% vs. 19%) [23]. The number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in the field of ophthalmology has dramatically increased over the last decade [24, 25]. While this is a positive indication that there is adequate recognition of the increasing number of original high-quality articles published in this field, it also means that there is increased room for error due to the large amount of data. Increased importance should therefore be placed on accurate and detailed reporting [25]. Clear and transparent information not only allows an adequate interpretation of results but also helps authors to correct errors during earlier stages of the study [5, 13].
Some limits need to be discussed regarding the methods used in our research. Because we focused on journals with high impact factors, our findings do not necessarily reflect adherence to PRISMA for systematic reviews published in journals with low impact factors. Additionally, the articles were electronically searched instead of handsearched, the latter of which would have ensured that we retrieved all articles that met the eligibility criteria. However, it was difficult to obtain access to paper copies of the journals, and using electronic search and screening procedures reduced the time that was consumed during the data search phase of this study. Additionally, we believe that MEDLINE and EMBASE cover a sufficient breath of articles (each contains over 20 million records) [26, 27].
We assigned equal weights to all items in the PRISMA checklist and used the same number of denominators in each article. However, this imposed a limitation on our study in that certain items on the checklist may have more impact than others on the reporting quality of systematic reviews. For example, it may be useful to weigh items related to the description of detailed methods more heavily than those related to the identification of the report as a systematic review in the title. Additionally, certain elements in the PRISMA checklist did not apply in some articles. For example, if the systematic review did not include a meta-analysis, items relating to meta-analyses, such as the presentation of the results of each meta-analysis (item 21), are not applicable to the review. Although we considered the article as fulfilled if it justified why meta-analysis was not performed, most articles failed to state such justification. Furthermore, the scoring of some items could vary according to the publishing style of each journal. For example, item 2 requires authors to provide a structured summary that includes many characteristics, such as the background, objective, data sources, and study eligibility criteria. However, compliance with this item can vary depending on how many words are used and what structure each journal requires the authors to provide. We attempted to be generous with such elements, but it remains possible that some articles may have lost a mark as a result of this type of limitation.
Systematic reviews in ophthalmology involve methodological issues that are specific to eyes and vision search, e.g. unit of analysis; we have not explicitly evaluated reporting of such items in this study. Because PRISMA was designed to cover a wide range of specialties, it has some limitations with regard for covering the specific details required in each specialty. In ophthalmology, PRISMA does not consider presentation of two sets of data, one from each eye (i.e., the right and left eye of each patient), a point that becomes even more complicated in studies wherein data can be obtained for only one eye in some patients [2].
Potential barriers to compliance with the PRISMA checklist may include a lack of awareness or understanding of the PRISMA guidelines, which we suspect is the most common cause of lack-of-compliance [28]. However, further study is required to assess such barriers among key stakeholders in ophthalmology because no research into these barriers to compliance with PRISMA has been published.
The reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in ophthalmology needs to be significantly improved, especially in describing the review protocol and registration, describing the risk of bias, describing the objectives, and describing additional analysis. We strongly suggest that journals require that all PRISMA criteria should be fulfilled before allowing electronic journal submission because we believe that this will eliminate ambiguity in the reporting of studies. Additional research aimed at identifying potential barriers to compliance may be required to improve compliance with the PRISMA guidelines.
PICO:
Patient/Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome
the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
Hemingway P, What is a systematic review? http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/whatis/syst-review.pdf (accessed 2 Sep 2016).
Haidich AB. Meta-analysis in medical research. Hippokratia. 2010;14(Suppl 1):29–37.
BMJ. 13. Study design and choosing a statistical test. http://0-www.bmj.com.brum.beds.ac.uk/about-bmj/resources-readers/publications/statistics-square-one/13-study-design-and-choosing-statisti. Accessed 15 Dec 2017.
Li T. Publishing systematic reviews in ophthalmology: new guidance for authors. Ophthalmology. 2014;121(2):438–9.
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, et al. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS Med. 2009;6(7):e1000097. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097.
Peters JPM, Hooft L, Grolman W, et al. Reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of Otorhinolaryngologic articles based on the PRISMA statement. PLoS One. 2015;10:e0136540.
Fleming PS, Seehra J, Polychronopoulou A, et al. A PRISMA assessment of the reporting quality of systematic reviews in orthodontics. Angle Orthod. 2013;83(1):158–63.
Tunis AS, MD MI, Hanna R, et al. Association of study quality with completeness of reporting: have completeness of reporting and quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in major radiology journals changed since publication of the PRISMA statement? Radiology. 2013 Nov;269(2):413–26.
Panic N, Leoncini E, Belvis G, et al. Evaluation of the endorsement of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement on the quality of published systematic review and meta-analyses. PLoS One. 2013;8(12):e83138. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1371/journal.pone.0083138. eCollection 2013
Gagnier JJ, Kellam PJ. Reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews in the orthopaedic literature. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2013;95(11):e771–7. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.L.00597.
Lee SY, Sagoo H, Whitehurst K, et al. Compliance of systematic reviews in plastic surgery with the PRISMA statement. JAMA Facial Past Surg. 2016;18(2):1–5. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1001/jamafacial.2015.1726. Published online December 17, 2015
Yao AC, Khajuria A, Camm CF, et al. The reporting quality of parallel randomised controlled trials in ophthalmic surgery in 2011: a systematic review. Eye. 2014;28:1341–9.
Agha RA, Lee SY, Lee-Jeong KJ, et al. Reporting quality of observational studies in plastic surgery needs improvement; a systematic review. Ann Plast Surg. 2015 Jan 30; [Epub ahead of print]
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Moher D, Tetzlaff J, Tricco AC, Sampson M, Altman DG. Epidemiology and reporting characteristics of systematic reviews. PLoS Med. 2007;4:e78. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040078.
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Smith TS, Kulatilake P, Brown L, et al. Do surgery journals insist on reporting by CONSORT and PRISMA? A follow-up survey of 'instructions to authors'. Ann Med Surg. 2015;4:17–21.
Cochrane Colloquium Abstracts, Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in eyes and vision: first steps in identifying gaps in ophthalmology research http://abstracts.cochrane.org/2013-qu%C3%A9bec-city/systematic-reviews-and-meta-analyses-eyes-and-vision-first-steps-identifying-gaps (accessed 26 Jun 2017).
Chen H, Jhanji V. Survey of systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in ophthalmology. BMJ. 2012;96:896–9.
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Elsevier R&D Solutions. Embase Factsheets http://0-www.elsevier.com.brum.beds.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/59011/R_D-Solutions_Embase-Fact-Sheet_Digital.pdf (accessed 3 Feb 2016).
Moher D, Shamseer L, Clarke M, et al. Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Syst Rev. 2015;4(1) doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-4-1.
none was received for this work.
Please refer to our separate spreadsheet file (Additional file 2).
Nottingham University Hospital, Trent NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham, UK
Seon-Young Lee
Guy's King's and St. Thomas' School of Medical Education, London, UK
Harkiran Sagoo
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Reem Farwana
University College London, London, UK
Katharine Whitehurst
Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Alex Fowler
Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and Balliol College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Riaz Agha
Search for Seon-Young Lee in:
Search for Harkiran Sagoo in:
Search for Reem Farwana in:
Search for Katharine Whitehurst in:
Search for Alex Fowler in:
Search for Riaz Agha in:
SYL: Research design, Data acquisition and/or research execution, Data analysis and/or interpretation, Manuscript preparation. HS: Data acquisition and/or research execution, Manuscript preparation. RF: Data acquisition and/or research execution, Manuscript preparation. KWt: Data acquisition and/or research execution. AF: Research design, Manuscript preparation. RA: Research design, Manuscript preparation. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Seon-Young Lee.
Not applicable. This study does not involve human participants, human data or human tissue.
Not applicable. This study does not involve individual data.
Search strategies. Search strategies used to identify systematic reviews and meta-analysis published from major ophthalmology journals between 2010 and 2015, via Medline and Embase. (PDF 13 kb)
Dataset of research. Raw data used for analysis and interpretation. (XLSX 48 kb)
Lee, S., Sagoo, H., Farwana, R. et al. Compliance of systematic reviews in ophthalmology with the PRISMA statement. BMC Med Res Methodol 17, 178 (2017). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12874-017-0450-1
Reporting quality


text: Q: Salesforce Single Sign On with Delegated Authentication using Google App Engine I am trying to do delegated authentication using google app engine  I am getting multiple issues. First of all tortoize svn tells me that the svn checkout in this page https://code.google.com/p/sfdc-gae-sso-delegated-auth/source/checkout  is not found. Now when I am trying to install google  app engine plugin in ecilpse GALELIO resource not found error is coming how to proceed now. I am fine with identity provider other than  google also.


text:
Q: Tascam US 122 incompatibility with Yosemite I've got a Tascam US 122 and it will not work with Yosemite. I've spent months searching for a solution, but there doesn't seem to be one. I can't accept that. Tascam's official line is:
"The US-122 dates back over 12 years now.
As explained, the hardware used by it does not make it possible to operate with current Operating Systems.
It was supported by Mac OSX up to 10.3 and Windows XP 64."
I've read that the problem could stem from the fact that earlier Mac operating systems were 32 bit, and with Yosemite being 64 bit, it won't work. But it will work on 64 bit Windows systems. I've tried every driver that Tascam has available for download in the hope that one might just work, but no dice. It ran flawlessly on OS X  10.5.8 for years, despite that being unsupported.
And yes, I could just upgrade. But I won't. The unit is fine. I know it's still drawing power because the Phantom light still operates. I absolutely refuse to add this to landfill.
So my question is: Is there any way I can 'trick' the Us 122 into thinking it's a compatible unit? I did wonder about trying to give it the firmware upgrade for a compatible unit, but I couldn't find any info about that.
Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A: I'm afraid you've just hit that point where it's not going to work on anything newer.
Manufacturers will only keep producing compatible drivers so long as it's reasonably simple for them to keep doing so; for instance if there was a current & an obsolete interface that could both use the same driver set [presumably as internally they'd be using the same base chipset].
I've a drawer full of old audio cards, going back to the 90's... PCI, firewire, you name it - not really sure why I hang onto them any more, except for the fact there's nothing at all wrong with them that a new driver wouldn't fix.
My current Line6 UX2 is probably not long for this world either. It has new drivers for Sierra, but they stopped updating the input amp simulator software a long time ago, so it's only a matter of time.
On the upside, chances are a new system would actually have far better DACs & be lighter on the system, probably lower latency too.
The current replacement for the US-122, the US-2x2 right now has a buy-back offer for your old hardware [though US-only] so it might be worth having a look

A: I can use my US-122 on OS 10.7.5, but have to do the following:
Reboot the Mac, then immediately hold down the 3 & 2 keys to reboot in 32-bit mode.  Totally works!
As for whether it'll work with Sierra, well, that's why I'm currently moseying around support pages...
Good luck!


Vietnam's increasing popularity as a tourist destination has begun to highlight its trekking potential and attractions.
More and more people, especially the youth, prefer to discover the country through its jungles and mountains.
While there are an abundance of trails across the country to satisfy trekking enthusiasts, there are some that require a more adventuresome and daring spirit.
Here are five great trekking destinations that you can try while you are in Vietnam, depending on how adventurous you feel and how willing you are to brave the elements.
Ba Den Mountain, dubbed the roof of southern Vietnam, is both an ideal weekend trekking destination and one that those on a holiday can explore during weekdays. It is not the easiest of treks, but it rewards visitors with heavenly views of floating clouds and unspoiled nature.
A bus or motorcycle will get you from Ho Chi Minh City to downtown Tay Ninh in a couple of hours, and from there to the foot of the Ba Den (Black Virgin) Mountain should take another 20 minutes.
From the foot of the mountain to Ba Pagoda, you can either take a cable car, which costs $7.50 for a return ticket, or climb up around 1,000 steps.
The view is stupendous and unforgettable. Make sure you have a camera to capture some of the magic.
Deep inside the Cat Tien National Park in the southern province of Dong Nai, the UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve Bau Sau, or Crocodile Lake, is home to around 200 of the reptiles that give the lake its name.
This is an easier trek. It involves a 10-km bike ride to reach the park and a 5-km trek through dense jungle to get to the lake.
Many tracks in the forests are ideal for leisure bicycle rides or you can try the full experience by going on a boat tour on the lake to see crocodiles gliding through the water.
There are no hotels or resorts here, just there homestay rooms, so it is wise to make a reservation in advance or bring tents for overnight stays.
The best time to take a trekking tour to Bau Sau is between December and May, when the climate is cool and dry. Trekking during the monsoon season is best avoided.
The 55-kilometer-long Ta Nang-Phan Dung route has a reputation for being the most stunning but dangerous trans-jungle road in Vietnam. Several inexperienced trekkers have lost their lives, hence the 'Evil genius' nickname.
Despite the danger, the stunning pictures of the diverse terrain, including grasslands and sand dunes, still attract hundreds of adventurous travelers.
At the height of over 500 meters above sea level, the route starts from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, passes through the mountainous Ninh Thuan Province and ends in the central coastal province of Binh Thuan.
The arduous trek takes three days and two nights. You pass through dense jungle and small rivers that can flood during the wet season. Trekkers on this route need more than just good physical health. They need knowledge of essential survival skills to navigate the rugged terrain and overcome other challenges.
The 2,000-meter high Pha Luong stands on the Vietnam-Laos border. It is the roof of the Moc Chau Plateau in the northern mountainous province of Son La.
This trek lasts just three to four hours, but it is the icing on the cake at the end of a scenic 200-kilometer ride from Hanoi to Moc Chau, followed by an 80-km ride from Moc Chau to the Pha Luong border station, and a 6-kilometer off-road challenge.
The border has been a notorious hotspot for smuggling and drug dealing, so you're not allowed to camp overnight and have to register with Pha Luong border patrol. Keep in touch with a local porter/guide before you set off, bring your passport or personal ID and pick a dry day.
The journey offers breathtaking views of northwestern mountains, challenging slopes, green forests and hair-raising cliffs, and a closer look at the H'Mong ethnic minority and their unique culture.
Lung Cung Mountain is named after a remote village in the mountainous district of Mu Cang Chai in the northern province of Yen Bai.
It is another scenic trekking route in northwestern Vietnam, which offers foggy, cloudy and chilly weather all year round.
It takes seven hours by car from Hanoi to the nearest base, Tu San Village. From there, the off-road challenge passes through vast fields of reed, dense primeval forests and rocky terrain before reaching the Lung Cung peak at 2,904 meters above sea level.
The trek takes approximately two days and a night, so it is good to be well prepared with food, tents, and other camping accessories.
Trekkers conquer the Lung Cung Mount in the northern province of Yen Bai.


The world of employment is changing dramatically. It is difficult to find a working person these days who hasn't been laid off, had a company go out of business while he or she was working there or even watched an entire industry and profession fade away.
Employers only make new hires when they have an expensive problem that needs solving. Tight-fisted Chief Financial Officers don't approve new job requisitions unless the need for more hands on deck is dire. We have to get good at spotting business pain, the kind that employers hire new team members to solve. We have to have our pain-spotting glasses on all the time.
At first it was confusing for the Marketing job-seeker to think about her value from the standpoint of her ability to solve problems for her employers. She was used to telling people "I write press releases, organize marketing databases and design newsletters." Everything this Marketer does for her employers is wonderful. The problem is that way too many other job-seekers do all the same things at work that this job-seeker does. The set of tasks she performs on the job is not unique. The set of tasks doesn't create a strong brand for her.
When the high-tech Marketer started to think about the way that she alleviates pain for her employers, her pitch got a lot stronger. She got some spring in her step, too. All of a sudden, she was in touch with her power. She realized – or, to be more precise, remembered – that every time she's had a marketing job, she has made a huge positive difference for her company.
"I solve three kinds of business pain," the Marketing pro began to say about herself. "A lot of mid-sized companies worry about every dollar of marketing budget, understandably. Most of them know that they've wasted marketing dollars in the past. I show my employers how to invest a modest marketing budget so that it makes a big difference in revenue. I have stories about having done just that at each of my last three employers, getting at least a tenfold return on every marketing dollar invested." Her first pain-solving example is a great one, already.
Now that our client is clear on the most painful kinds of business pain she rides into town to solve, she is in a much more powerful position in her job search. She doesn't have to scour help-wanted ads and reply to everything that comes across her desk. She knows she has something valuable to deliver to employers. She can seek out companies of the type and size she favors, and write to their CEOs about the very flavors of business pain we've described here.
Pain-Spotting(TM) is a critical business skill in 2013. We all need it, from new grads to seasoned veterans. We can't assume that hiring managers will see how we can help them unless we connect the dots for them, and make the connection clear.
Here is a downloadable E-Book with lessons in it, that will help you put your Pain Glasses on and get you thinking about pain-solving stories from your past. It is Lesson Nine of the 12-week virtual coaching group Reinvention Roadmap. Leave a comment below and tell us what business pain you solve!
I have difficulty expressing what my pain management is; as an executive administrative assistant, I don't have sales number to show, I don't have trophies to present…it's helpful to me to think in terms of "pain management" and rephrase my contribution to an organization. Without executive admin assistants, every office would be a disaster. Now to determine how to express that…. thanks for another great article. I always feel newly optimistic and energized when I read them.


text:
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH CROWNED ENACTUS UK 2018 NATIONAL CHAMPION
On the 9th and 10th April, the top 32 Enactus teams from across the UK competed in the Enactus UK 2018 National Expo at the ExCeL, London. The dynamic, energy-filled event brought together 700 university students, 70 academics, and over 300 senior UK business leaders across two days in celebration of Youth Social Action and Social Enterprise.
Enactus teams competed over two days for the title of 2018 Enactus UK National Champion, showcasing their social and community projects to business executives serving as judges. The students were evaluated on how successfully they applied business concepts and an entrepreneurial approach to improve the quality of life of those in need. The final round judging panel comprised of 80 senior business leaders including Lord Dr. Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick, CBE, Global Head of Corporate Citizenship, KPMG International, Peter Holbrook, CEO of Social Enterprise UK and Professor Sarah Underwood, Chair of Enterprise Educators UK.
Enactus Edinburgh won the competition after showcasing three of their inspirational social enterprises; Aiding Change, which is providing solar powered hearing aids for those with hearing impediments in Ghana and, Lilypads/Sanitree, two sanitation enterprises which provide reusable sanitary pads for women and girls in Kenya and India.
Enterprise Educators UK sponsored the University Adviser summit and the University Adviser awards. The winners of the awards this year, recognised for their consistent and dedicated expert support to their teams were Kellie Forbes-Simpson of Northumbria University and Beka Willey of King's College London.
Enactus Edinburgh will now go on to represent Enactus UK in the 2018 Enactus World Cup in Silicon Valley, USA in October this year.
Andrew Bacon OBE, CEO of Enactus UK was delighted with the success of the event. He said:
"Congratulations to the 2018 National Enactus Champion team from the University of Edinburgh and all of our 59 teams who delivered so much more social and community impact through their projects this year. Every stage of the competition was fiercely contested this year and that is down to the hard work of all involved in the programme be they the team members, the business advisers and volunteers or the support from the university and alumni mentors."


Trendbuild Contracts & Developments Malaysia is the branch office of Trendbuild Contracts Singapore established since 2010 by a young and dynamic team. Trendbuild is an internationally well recognized design &build company with expertise in Commercial,Residential,Hospitality,Retails,Healthcare and Government Projects . Trendbuild is committed to achieving the highest level of design with a "turn-key" approach through their services offered.


You have to accept the fact that Nancy Binay is now a senator. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is no longer interested in your complaints about the Filipino people being stupid to vote for a 20-year on-the-job trainee. One word for you: MOVE ON!
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Makati—(PHStocks)—The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has honored BDO Unibank Inc. (PSE: BDO) with a "Gold Hall of Fame" accolade in yesterday's BSP Stakeholders Awards.
The bank, which won its first Hall of Fame in 2010, was conferred the Gold Award after it was declared the "Top Commercial Bank that Generated the Largest Overseas Filipino Remittances" for 2016. BDO is the first local bank to receive the Gold Hall of Fame under this category.
BDO's consistent leadership in the remittance sector continues to garner the bank top honors from the BSP. Prior to this recent win, BDO was named the Top Commercial Bank that Generated the Largest Overseas Filipino Remittances from 2008 to 2010 and 2013-2015.
Through its remittance arm BDO Remit, the bank has been at the forefront of providing the OFWs various options and channels to send their hard-earned money to their beneficiaries in the Philippines. Over the years, BDO's remittance offerings have connected families across wide geographies while helping drive growth to higher levels. With BDO Kabayan Savings, OFW beneficiaries can effortlessly receive and withdraw money sent from abroad. There's also the Cash Pick-Up Anywhere, where beneficiaries can claim money at more than 8,000 locations nationwide, including from the over 1,100 BDO branches; BDO Remit counters inside SM malls; rural banks; and pawnshop partners.
BSO also named BDO the Outstanding PhillPaSS Participant Servicing Customer ePayments for Commercial Banks, an award the bank also garnered the previous year. Meanwhile, under the Clean Note Policy category, BDO Unibank Cash Hub was cited the Outstanding Regional Partner (Tuguegarao Branch).
The BSP Stakeholders' Awards is held annually to honor outstanding partner institutions for their strong support and contribution to the statistical undertakings, information requirements, and advocacy programs of the BSP.


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