text:
Reading Yesterday and Today: The NRP Report and Other Factors
Report of the National Reading Panel was published over 11 years ago. And since that time, the report—and, more so, the summary of the report—has had a major impact on what has been taught and tested in reading instruction in the early grades.
Influence of the NRP Report
Since the 1999 publication of the report, state content standards and commercial reading materials have been based on the organization and findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP). The panel, which based its findings on a review of research limited to replicable, experimental, research studies, emphasizes the reading areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.
The summary of the panel's report, in an effort to condense and simplify the complex findings covered in the complete report, exaggerates the importance of some areas such as phonemic awareness and phonics (over 4 pages) and gives insufficient attention to others such as comprehension (less than a half page).
It misrepresents some findings. For example, the report states that "Systematic synthetic phonics had a positive and significant effect on disabled readers' reading skills" (NICHD 2000b, p. 9). It does not include the finding that the effects were decreased after grade 2 and does not capture the conclusion from the full report that "specific systematic phonics programs are all more effective than non-phonics programs and they do not appear to differ significantly from each other in effectiveness although more evidence is needed…" (NICHD, 2000a, p. 2-132).
The report completely ignores the areas of oral language development and motivation, presumably because there was not sufficient experimental research in those areas.
The full Reports of the Subgroups provides support for many of the instructional practices that NEA endorses. The following statements, for example, are factors that NEA believes promote quality teaching and learning in reading:
- Literacy acquisition is a complex process for which there is no single key to success. (p. 2-43)
- Ultimately, though, teachers need to evaluate the methods they use against measured success in their own students. (p. 2-43)
- In implementing systematic phonics instruction, educators must keep the end in mind and ensure that children understand the purpose of learning letter-sounds and are able to apply their skills in daily reading and writing activities. (p. 2-135)
- It may be necessary to free teachers of the expectation that their job is to follow directions narrowly. (p. 4-47)
- Indeed, they (researchers) have found that reading comprehension instruction cannot be routinized. (p. 4-125)
NEA's Response to the NRP ReportNEA assembled a group of members who were recognized teacher leaders to develop a report on teacher-based recommendations for reading instruction. This report, Report of the NEA Task Force on Reading 2000, added the knowledge of experienced teachers to the reports on guidelines for reading instruction, thereby broadening the range of knowledge about teaching and learning to read.
Literacy Research Since 2000
Since the publication of the Report of the National Reading Panel, several comprehensive summaries of research related to literacy have been published that add considerably to the understanding of teaching and learning literacy. They include the following summaries:
- Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading
- Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, 5th ed.
- Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts, 2nd ed.
- Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III
Much has been learned from research about teaching reading in the past 11 years, and there is also information coming from international studies that indicate what countries with high achievement on international assessments do to teach reading.
Influence of the Common Core State Standards
Reading instruction today is coming under the influence of the new Common Core State Standards. They are fewer, broader, and more complex than most current state standards, focusing on goals for grade levels rather than a list of enabling skills. They leave room for flexibility and teacher decision making. Most important for early reading, comprehension receives major, constant emphasis from kindergarten through grade 12. It will not be possible for students to achieve these standards if they are spending too much time on phonics and word level instruction in the early grades.
The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts emphasize thinking skills and using reading for complex tasks:
- Grade1, Reading Standards for Literature, Number 5: "Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types" (p. 11).
- Grade 1, Reading Standards for Informational Text, Number 9: "Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures) (p. ).
These new standards and the new performance assessment being developed to determine their attainment will require reading instruction that moves far beyond the guidelines of the Report of the National Reading Panel. They offer flexibility but also demand a high level of teacher expertise. To find more resources on the standards visit the NEA web page on new standards and assessments. Insert link to NEA New Standards and Assessments.
References and Resources
- Common Core State Standards Initiative. Common Core State Standards.
- Flood, James, Lapp, Diane, Squire, James R., & Jensen, Julie M., eds. (2003). Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts, 2nd ed.. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
- Kamil, Michael L., Mosenthal, Peter B. , Pearson, P. David, & Barr, Rebecca, eds. (2000). Handbook of reading research, Volume III. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
- McCardle, Peggy & Chambra, Vinita. (2004). The voice of evidence in reading research. Baltimore, Md.: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.
- National Education Association. Report of the NEA Task Force on Reading 2000.
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2000a). Report of the National Reading Panel: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups. (NIH publication NO. 00-4754). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- National Institute Of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2000b). Report of the National Reading Panel: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Summary. (NIH publication No. 00-4769). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- Ruddell, Robert B.and Unrau, Norman J., eds. (2004). Theoretical models and processes of reading, 5th ed. Newark, Del.: International Reading Association.
- National Reading Panel Web Site: Publications and Materials. (April 2000). Research-based findings in two reports and a video entitled "Teaching Children to Read."
- Reading
NEA policy on reading and related links.
- National Reading Panel


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sally Pipes cites a recent poll that has 60% of doctors opposed to Obamacare. The reason? She thinks the doctors are opposed to Obama's attempt to nudge them toward Accountable Care Organizations, where doctors are encouraged to use "best practices" that have been established by electronic data over time instead of fee-for-service medicine, where doctors are paid each time they perform a test or a procedure. She thinks this is horrible. She is fabulously wrong. Last winter, I moved my parents from traditional fee-for-service Medicare to a nursing home that used doctors from the excellent Geisinger system, an Accountable Care Organization in central Pennsylvania. All of a sudden several things happened: people stopped sticking needles in my parents, who were in their last months of life; they stopped performing unnecessary and duplicative tests and procedures; and they started speaking to me in a completely candid, yet humane, manner about the best ways to let my parents pass on. It was an incredible experience, which I describe in some detail this week in the magazine, available online to subscribers and on newsstands Friday.
But Pipes has isolated the single most important reason why we're spending way too much on Medicare: doctors love fee-for-service medicine. One wonders how doctors can love fee-for-service medicine and hate the federal deficit. They are one and the same problem.


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I'm moving into a dormitory building and the bathroom sinks are very shallow. I want to be able to pour water into my Brita water filter but it doesn't fit beneath the tap. I was thinking of getting some surgical tubing and slipping it over the nozzle and putting the other end in the water filter. Can anyone think of a better idea? I also thought of cutting a gardening hose and using it in the same way. Obviously I don't own the building so I can't do anything permanent. This doesn't have to work super well, if some water leaks into the sink that's ok.
You could also get one of these items and use it to transfer water from the sink tap to the Brita water filter/pitcher.
There are lots of items you can use to build a path from the faucet to a pitcher outside of the sink. Get creative, or use the popular internet solution, a dust pan:
Take your Britta pitcher into the shower room and fill it from the showerhead.
you could use a tap-shower adapter and just cut the shower rose off. One example of a tap-shower adapter
In the same idea as a dust pan, you can cut down a 2L Coke bottle to make a long funnel.


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The Worst: Terrible Husbands Put The Boot In Their Wives! "She Must Brush My Teeth & Bathe Me Every Night. If The Bitch Dont Do It To My Liking. Il Make The Bitch Do It All Over Again" On Maury!
Controlling Abusive Husbands on Maury
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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The blogs are a-buzz today with news of what's being called the "Apple Store 2.0." The company has gone through and revamped its retail experience, making it less personal and far, far more iPad-y. Guess that explains the shortage, eh?
Instead of some lame, non-electronic sticker on a table with a list of specs, Apple has gone ahead and replaced the price tag with an iPad. iPad 2s, in fact! Now you can swipe and pinch and smudge your way through Apple's physical catalog, as the dozens of iPads serving as kiosks in each store — dubbed "Smart Signs" — are tailored to the product they're next to. It sounds a little overkill — there are iPad 2s next to iPad 2s, even! Wouldn't it have just made more sense to use the first generation tablet?
In the event that you do want to talk to an Apple employee, the iPads all have a summons button. From PC Mag:
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
"When you select this button, a message will be sent to employees through an iPhone app installed on staff devices called iQueue. When an employee accepts the help request, iQueue will provide a floor plan of the store that shows exactly where you are so the staffer can find you quickly and easily. When the request is accepted, a message will be sent to your iPad terminal saying that a specialist is on his or her way."
No word on if this system has been rolled out in every store yet, but it sounds like it could use a little work. From Engadget:
"…overall the whole system is surprisingly messy. Wires are running everywhere, twist-tied in place, and it just doesn't feel very... well, it doesn't feel very Apple. But, if you want to read all about the specs of an iPad 2 you can now do it on an iPad 2 — but you still can't walk in and take one home."
Via PC Mag


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Shandong Huabang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Machinery Co., Ltd. is a specialized company that produces agricultural and animal husbandry machinery and equipment, and is a leader in the domestic automated chicken equipment brand. The main products of Winbond series chicken equipment include chicken feeding line, chicken automatic drinking line, chicken feeding line, chicken feeding line, broiler line, animal husbandry fan curtain, chicken hot stove and other modern chickens. device. Our company is a member unit of China Animal Husbandry Association. It aims to manufacture first-class products and build high-quality projects, and develops in the direction of serialization, quality and internationalization.
Technology first, quality first, service first is the company"s business objectives, excellence is the basic belief of the company"s employees. Our company has more than 40 professional and technical personnel, a number of patented products, each new product, each project has undergone rigorous performance testing, so that the quality of the product has been fully guaranteed. The chicken feeding automatic feeding line, the automatic drinking water line, and the chicken hot blast stove jointly produced with Beijing Agricultural University are sold all over the country. With advanced equipment and scientific management, we produce high quality and low price products. Winbond"s rich products and targeted design fully meet the different needs of users. The products are sold to more than 20 provinces and cities nationwide. Its superior performance is increasingly trusted by customers. The company is striving to develop, innovation as the development direction, honest and realistic business philosophy is willing to work with colleagues from all walks of life to create brilliant tomorrow.
Shandong Huabang Farming Machinery Co., Ltd.< /span>
National Toll Free :400-015-1001
hand machine: 13225364666 15662505818
Postcode: 261000Mail Box: firstname.lastname@example.com Address: Middle Section of Donghuan Road, Qingzhou City, Shandong Province
National toll-free number: 400 015 1001


text:
Please call us for pricing: 818-597-7800
With power motion, your comfort takes priority. You have complete control over your positioning, so finding the perfect, relaxing angle is easy every time.
With the push of a button, you can adjust your headrest to find the perfect angle for reading or watching TV. This control over your comfort helps you avoid neck strain and keeps your head supported.
Make the most out of your living space with a wall-saver recliner. You only need to place it a few inches away from the wall to fully recline, so your room can feel more open and welcoming.
Enhance the level of comfort and personalized support with the addition of an inch-thick memory foam wrap to your seat cushion. The Reclina-Pedic recliner models use the body-hugging foam to provide support where you need it most.
Bring your lounging experience to the next level with the SoCozi massage feature. With deep tissue air cell massage, deep tissue heat therapy, and lumber support, you have everything you could ever need to relax.
This cozy and casual recliner is just waiting for you to come home to after a long day. The slightly rounded profile of the track arms and the plush bustle back define comfort while the French seaming is there for added substance and style. This recliner has many customizable features, including: power and power plus mechanisms, power headrest, SoCozi massage, and iRecliner and memory plus technologies. Any of these features and the comfy cushioning will have you relaxing with your feet up in no time.
The Dawson Casual Power Headrest Wallhugger Recliner with SoCozi Technology by Southern Motion at Reeds Furniture in the Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Agoura Hills, Oxnard, Calabassas, Malibu, California area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.
Browse other items in the Dawson collection from Reeds Furniture in the Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Agoura Hills, Oxnard, Calabassas, Malibu, California area.
This item has been tagged as: Recliner, Reclining Chair, Glider Rocker Recliner, Rocking Recliner, High Leg Reclining Chair, Lift Recliner, Pop - Up Recliner, Reclining Chair and Ottoman, Motion Recliner, Standard Recliner, No - Rock Recliners, Wall Recliners, Easy Chair, Living Room Chair, Living Room Furniture, TV Chair, Chair Recliner, Massage Chair, Massage Recliner, Swivel Rocker Recliner, Massaging Recliner
Nothing on this page may be copied or reproduced without explicit permission.


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It's strange to return from November on the Equator to December in full swing in the Lone Star. To an unlit house, undecorated tree, unwrapped gifts. And six days of unturned Advent pages.
Motherhood and Christmas go together. It's mostly up to Mom to hang the stockings over the mantle with care, to make the house happy and bright, to play Santa if she so chooses, to handle the wrapping and coordinate the baking and to keep Christ in Christmas…. It's a pleasure and pressure pot, all this merry-making.
And throw in hectic calendars, three school band concerts this week, a 6 year old turning 7, a basketball game and the emotional ups and downs that sometimes accompany the holidays… oh, and jury duty on a Monday.
It's enough for an undoing.
"Mom, we are so behind on Christmas," my 6 year old said as I stood over an intimidating pile of unwashed laundry and unpacked suitcases.
She wanted to do the things of Christmas. And I was about to come unraveled.
Her words matched my own holiday To Do list, the one that reminded me that if we were really going to capture the magic, we would have to chase it down, and fill our days with pin-worthy recipes and memory-making and house-decorating, shopping and crafting, parties and handmade gifts in recycled jars.
She precariously carried a box of ornaments from upstairs where they'd been sitting since November-something. Itching to catch up, I opened the plastic lid and held a red glass Santa, a favorite from my childhood. And it slipped right thru my fingers and shattered.
Into a thousand bright pieces against the unforgiving tile.
It left me feeling shaky.
It left me looking around for something stable.
My oldest rushed into the room frantically looking for her winter scarf that matched the cozy sweater that went with the tall brown boots. She turned the house and the atmosphere upside down as only a teen girl can do and before I could say ho ho ho, it was a winter storm of attitude and anger.
Peace, it's what I crave. Not just in my home, but in my heart this Christmas.
Peace that says Rest.
Don't Do.
Be. Still.
Because this year, I've decided we won't catch up. We won't mark it all off our list. We won't get the best cyber deals or go ice skating at the mall (thankfully). We won't make homemade ornaments or trim our tree to be magazine worthy. There won't be an Elf on our Shelf.
We will be behind this Christmas.
But isn't that was followers do…stay behind? They are led. By a Leader. The One searchers found swaddled in a barn, born to die. To be the gift we unwrap this Christmas.
And He is saying Peace, be still. Not as the world gives, but as I give.
I swept up the glass on the floor and asked this Savior born in a messy stable and a broken world to give me a stable home this Christmas.
To fill me with peace, not more pieces, to quiet the raging, waiting list and help me focus on the unending gift of His presence. The Present.
How to Have a Stable Home This Christmas With Your Children:
1. Do less Stuff: Resist the urge to do it all. You don't have to make all your gifts, compete with the neighbors, be Mom of the Year this season. It's easy to get so tangled in the festivities that we are left exhausted and undone. I remember having a meltdown one year because I missed a couple of devotions on the Advent Calendar with my children. Oh, y'all. Christmas is not about doing and I've learned that the hard way.
2. Be the Gift: Want to bless those in your life? Want to give your kids the most memorable gift ever? Be the gift. Give your love and time. Turn off the distractions and live.
2. Stop Keeping Up: I'm not visiting Pinterest these days. Once I decided I can't keep up with all the perfection of matching Christmas pajamas and hand stamped gift wrapping, the desire to keep up left me. We can get so wrapped up in doing Christmas, we miss the true meaning altogether.
3. Seek Peace: If you long for peace this season-in your home and heart- find Jesus. If you're kids need peace, your marriage, He's there. That's where we will find peace. Jesus is Peace.
4. Be Still: I love Ann's new Advent Devotional, The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. If I could recommend one resource, this is it: It's short, daily, doable chunks of inspiration (even if we are days behind). It's a moment for our family to connect around the table, add an ornament to our simple Jesse Tree and pause our busy lives. I especially love the fill in the blank spaces for reflection.
5. Be Led: Instead of following our culture down a sparkly-lighted path that demands more is more, be a follower. Be a disciple of Jesus, our leader. The great thing about our children is they will generally follow where we lead. He will guide us if we let Him.
Sometimes life can feel precarious and uncertain this time of year.
The only way to remain unshaken is to start at the stable.


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OK, so this is a bit off-topic, but since Paulie graced me with the ability to post here, I figured I might as well use it to promote something good. And it is good, and free, and once complete, will benefit our movement. So perhaps it's not that off-topic after all.
Anyway, George Donnelly and I have started a project to create a set of web-based tools for pro-liberty organizations, with a specific focus on LP state and local affiliates. It should also be easily portable to the needs of organizations such as pro-liberty PACs, other pro-liberty parties, etc. This will be based on some existing open source software projects, tie them together neatly (single sign-on via a unified authentication backend and use of the same AAA cookies), create a single frontend for installation and management, and add some additional tools targetted at our specific audience.
What we need specifically are volunteers who can write PHP code, XHTML/Javascript/AJAX/CSS, folks with extensive MySQL development experience, and possibly some additional Perl and Ruby experience. PHP developers with user interface experience are probably the highest priority, followed by folks who can do front-end user interface coding. Let me know if you're interested. If you post here, I'll reply via email.
You can check out the project over at http://developer.berlios.de/projects/lptools/


text:
ECOM are the UK's leading Digital Recruitment specialist. Established in 1999, our depth of experience and expertise in all things digital is unique. Our business has evolved in-line with the digital industry itself, and having only ever recruited for the digital marketplace - we can truly call ourselves specialists. With over 75 specialist consultants in London, Manchester, New York and North West Europe we have teams covering the full spectrum of digital disciplines: UX, Creative, Technology, Project Management, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Content, Strategy, Web Analytics and Client Services - across permanent, contract & freelance positions.
Our diverse client base includes the most respected Digital Agencies, High Street Retailers, Global Consumer Brands, Media & Publishing, Dotcoms, Tech Start-ups, Financial Institutions, Not For Profit, Charities & Public Sector bodies.
Our reputation for delivery and quality of service is second to none.


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|Safe Haskell
An implementation of linear hash tables. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_hashing). Use this hash table if you...
- care a lot about fitting your data set into memory; of the hash tables included in this collection, this one has the lowest space overhead
- don't care that inserts and lookups are slower than the other hash table
implementations in this collection (this one is slightly faster than
Data.HashTablefrom the base library in most cases)
- have a soft real-time or interactive application for which the risk of introducing a long pause on insert while all of the keys are rehashed is unacceptable.
Linear hashing allows for the expansion of the hash table one slot at a time, by moving a "split" pointer across an array of pointers to buckets. The number of buckets is always a power of two, and the bucket to look in is defined as:
bucket(level,key) = hash(key) mod (2^level)
The "split pointer" controls the expansion of the hash table. If the hash
table is at level
k (i.e.
2^k buckets have been allocated), we first
b=bucket(level-1,key). If
b < splitptr, the destination bucket is
calculated as
b'=bucket(level,key), otherwise the original value
b is used.
The split pointer is incremented once an insert causes some bucket to become fuller than some predetermined threshold; the bucket at the split pointer (*not* the bucket which triggered the split!) is then rehashed, and half of its keys can be expected to be rehashed into the upper half of the table.
When the split pointer reaches the middle of the bucket array, the size of the bucket array is doubled, the level increases, and the split pointer is reset to zero.
Linear hashing, although not quite as fast for inserts or lookups as the implementation of linear probing included in this package, is well suited for interactive applications because it has much better worst case behaviour on inserts. Other hash table implementations can suffer from long pauses, because it is occasionally necessary to rehash all of the keys when the table grows. Linear hashing, on the other hand, only ever rehashes a bounded (effectively constant) number of keys when an insert forces a bucket split.
Space overhead: experimental results
In randomized testing (see
test/compute-overhead/ComputeOverhead.hs in the
source distribution), mean overhead is approximately 1.51 machine words per
key-value mapping with a very low standard deviation of about 0.06 words, 1.60
words per mapping at the 95th percentile.
Unsafe tricks
Then the
unsafe-tricks flag is on when this package is built (and it is on by
default), we use some unsafe tricks (namely
unsafeCoerce# and
reallyUnsafePtrEquality#) to save indirections in this table. These
techniques rely on assumptions about the behaviour of the GHC runtime system
and, although they've been tested and should be safe under normal conditions,
are slightly dangerous. Caveat emptor. In particular, these techniques are
incompatible with HPC code coverage reports.
- W. Litwin. Linear hashing: a new tool for file and table addressing. In Proc. 6th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Volume 6, pp. 212-223, 1980.
- P-A. Larson. Dynamic hash tables. Communications of the ACM 31: 446-457, 1988.
- data HashTable s k v
- new :: ST s (HashTable s k v)
- newSized :: Int -> ST s (HashTable s k v)
- delete :: (Hashable k, Eq k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s ()
- lookup :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s (Maybe v)
- insert :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> v -> ST s ()
- mapM_ :: ((k, v) -> ST s b) -> HashTable s k v -> ST s ()
- foldM :: (a -> (k, v) -> ST s a) -> a -> HashTable s k v -> ST s a
- computeOverhead :: HashTable s k v -> ST s Double
delete :: (Hashable k, Eq k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s ()Source
lookup :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s (Maybe v)Source
insert :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> v -> ST s ()Source
mapM_ :: ((k, v) -> ST s b) -> HashTable s k v -> ST s ()Source
foldM :: (a -> (k, v) -> ST s a) -> a -> HashTable s k v -> ST s aSource
computeOverhead :: HashTable s k v -> ST s DoubleSource


text:
You are here
WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selection of 28 new wind energy projects for up to $13.8 million in funding - including $12.8 million in Recovery Act funds. These projects will help address market and deployment challenges including wind turbine research and testing and transmission analysis, planning, assessments. Along with the new awards, Secretary Chu announced the release of DOE's 2008 Wind Technologies Market Report, detailing $16 billion in investment in wind projects made in the U.S. in 2008 - making the U.S. the leader in annual wind energy capacity growth, as well as cumulative wind energy capacity.
"American families and businesses are struggling in a recession and an increasingly competitive global economy. The Recovery Act was designed to rescue the economy from the immediate dangers it faces while rebuilding its fundamentals, with an eye toward new industry and opportunity," Secretary Chu said. "To help meet these challenges, the Recovery Act invests significant dollars to put people to work to spur a revolution in clean energy technologies."
"Wind energy will be a critical factor in achieving the President's goals for clean energy, while supporting news jobs," said Secretary Chu. "While the United States leads the world in wind energy capacity, we have to continue to support research and development as we expand renewable energy deployment."
DOE's new report, a comprehensive overview of developments in the U.S. wind power market released today, found that wind power capacity increased by 8,558 megawatts (MW) in 2008. This $16 billion investment in wind projects made the U.S. the fastest-growing wind power market in the world for the fourth consecutive year. Wind power contributed 42% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2008; for the fourth consecutive year, wind power was the second-largest new resource added to the U.S. electrical grid in nameplate capacity.
The report, which has been issued annually since 2007, analyzes a range of developments in the wind market, including trends in wind project installations, turbine size, turbine prices, wind project costs, project performance, and wind power prices. The report also details trends in project financing, a key concern for the wind industry in the current economic climate, as well as trends in project ownership, public policy, and the integration of wind power into the electrical grid. DOE's report provides the wind industry, state and local policy makers, and the general public with valuable information on the state of wind power in the United States.
Some of the key findings of the report include:
- The U.S. continues to lead the world in annual capacity growth and overtook Germany to take the lead in cumulative wind capacity. For the fourth straight year, the United States led the world in wind capacity additions, capturing roughly 30% of the worldwide market.
- The cumulative wind capacity installed in the U.S. at the end of 2008 would, in an average year, be able to supply roughly 1.9% of the nation's electricity consumption.
- Soaring demand for wind has spurred expansion of wind turbine manufacturing in the U.S. As a result of this continued expansion, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that the share of domestically manufactured wind turbine components has grown from less than 30% in 2005 to roughly 50% in 2008, and that roughly 8,400 new domestic manufacturing jobs were added in the wind sector in 2008 alone.
- Texas led all states with 7,118 MW of total wind capacity installed, followed by Iowa (2791 MW) and California (2517 MW). Seven states now have more than 1,000 MW installed, and 13 have more than 500 MW.
- Iowa and Minnesota have the highest levels of wind penetration (in-state wind generation as a percentage of all in-state generation). Seven states have wind penetration levels greater than 5%; six utilities have in excess of 10% wind on their systems.
- Wind power remained competitive in wholesale power markets in 2008, with average wind power prices at or below the low end of the wholesale power market price range, although upward pressure on wind power prices looks set to continue.
Download the full 2008 Wind Technologies Market Report (PDF).
Award Selections Announced Today. Award amounts are subject to final negotiation.
Supporting Wind Turbine Research and Testing
- Alpha Star Corporation - Advanced Composite Wind Turbine Blade Design Based on Durability & Damage Tolerance (Long Beach, CA) - $200,383
- Analatom, Inc. - Remote Structural Health Monitoring and Advanced Prognostics of Wind Turbines (Sunnyvale, CA) - $200,000
- Bayer Material Science, LLC - Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polyurethane Composites for Wind Turbine Blades (Pittsburgh, PA) - $750,000
- Board of Regents, Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln - Online Nonintrusive Condition Monitoring and Fault Detection for Wind Turbines (Lincoln, NE) - $380,398
- DNV Global Energy Concepts, Inc. - Supporting Wind Turbine Research and Testing - Gearbox Durability Study (Seattle, WA) - $399,616
- Dow Corning Corporation - Lifetime Lubricating Fluid for Gearboxes to Increase Efficiency and Durability of Wind Turbine Drive Trains (Midland, MI) - $745,189
- General Electric - Wind Turbine Manufacturing Process Monitoring (Niskayuna, NY) - $697,769
- Honeywell International, Inc. - Condition Based Monitoring for Wind Farms (Golden Valley, MN) - $626,086
- Michigan Aerospace Corporation - Turbine Reliability and Operability Optimization Through the Use of Direct Detection LIDAR (Ann Arbor, MI) - $748,002
- Native American Technologies Company - Automated Welding, Forming, Coating for On-Site Fabricated, Self-Erecting Utility Scale Wind Towers (Lakewood, CO) - $749,739
- Northern Power Systems, Inc. - Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chain Automation (Barre, VT) - $683,388
- PPG Industries, Inc. - Wind Blade Manufacturing Innovation (Shelby, NC) - $741,754
- QM Power, Inc. - Advanced High Power Density Permanent Magnet Wind Generators (Greenwood, MO) - $398,005
- University of Massachusetts Lowell - Effect of Manufacturing-Induced Defects on Reliability of Composite Wind Turbine Blades (Lowell, MA) - $499,886
Transmission Analysis, Planning and Assessments
- Areva Federal Services - Best Practices and Advances in Strategies and Decision Support Systems for Integrating Wind Energy for Reliable Grid Operations (Bethesda, MD) - $275,610
- Western Electricity Coordinating Council - Balancing Authority Cooperation Concepts to Reduce Variable Generation Integration Costs in the Western Interconnection (Salt Lake City, UT) - $319,200*
- Electric Power Research Institute - Integrating Midwest Wind Energy into Southeast Electricity Markets (Knoxville, TN) - $399,135
- EnerNex Corporation - Documentation, User Support, and Verification of Wind Turbine and Plant Models (Knoxville, TN) - $749,868
- Hawaiian Electric Company - Hawaii Utility Integration Initiatives (H.U.I.) to Enable Wind (Honolulu, HI) - $750,000
- Illinois Institute of Technology - WINS: Market Simulation Tool for Facilitating Wind Energy Integration (Chicago, IL) - $749,877
- Regents of New Mexico State University - Investigating Short Circuit Models for Wind Turbine Generators (Las Cruces, NM) - $272,816
- Regents of the University of Michigan - Techniques for Voltage Control and Transient Stability Assessment (Ann Arbor, MI) - $413,534
- Tennessee Technological University - Multi-Level Energy Storage and Controls for Large-Scale Wind Energy Integration (Cookeville, TN) - $265,677
- The Regents of the University of Colorado - Upstream Measurements of Wind Profiles with Doppler Lidar for Improved Wind Energy Integration (Boulder, CO) - $233,082
- University of Texas at Austin - Techno-Economic Modeling of the Integration of 20% Wind and Large-scale energy storage in ERCOT by 2030 (Austin, TX) - $510,688*
- University of WI-Milwaukee - Lithium-Ion Ultracapacitors integrated with Wind Turbines Power Conversion Systems to Extend Operating Life and Improve Output Power Quality (Milwaukee, WI) - $422,266
- V&R Energy Systems Research, Inc. - Improving Reliability of Transmission Grid to Facilitate Integration of Wind Energy in Tri-State G&T and AECI (Los Angeles, CA) - $195,002*
- WINData, Inc. - Use of Real-Time Off-Site Observations as a Methodology for Increasing Forecast Skill in Prediction of Large Wind Power Ramps One or More Hours Ahead of Their Impact on a Wind Plant (Great Falls, MT) - $398,966
(*Three awards are being made by DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability using annual appropriated funds.)
Media contact(s):
(202) 586-4940


text:
Black Eye Sunglasses
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text:
It was good to see DaMarcus Beasley back in Chicago for Saturday night's 2-1 win over Columbus.
With the five-year Fire veteran still an active player and unable to get away from Mexican side Puebla for next month's 15th Anniversary celebrations, he took advantage of a little schedule gap after playing 90 minutes for the side in a 1-1 draw with Leon Friday night.
Named earlier this week as one of the #Fire15 players, Beasley was welcomed to roaring applause at halftime of Saturday night's game but what was most interesting was what he said to our camera before the match.
When asked where he would want to play if he return to Major League Soccer, Beasley replied, "There's no other team I would want to play for. No other team I'd want to be a part of."
Given the swirling rumors recently about a Carlos Bocanegra return to the Fire, this response inevitably leads us to a fun poll question...


text:
Economy of Nicaragua
|1 cordoba = 0.0418 US dollar
|Calendar year
Trade organisations
|$19.89 billion (2012 est. PPP)
|GDP rank
|131st (2012, PPP)
GDP growth
|3.7% (2012, Real)
GDP per capita
|$3,300 (2012 est.)
GDP by sector
|agriculture: 17.5% industry: 25.8% services: 56.7% (2012)
|7.4%(2012 est.)
Population below poverty line
|52.3 (1992-2007)
Labour force
|2.961 million (2012 est.)
|7.4% underemployment of 46.5% (2008)
Main industries
|food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, knit and woven apparel, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear, wood (2012)
|$4.16 billion (2012 est.)
Export goods
|coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, tobacco, sugar, gold, peanuts, cigars, automobile wiring harnesses, textiles and apparel (2012)
Main export partners
United States 54.0%
Canada 8.4%
Venezuela 7.4%
El Salvador 4.5% (2012 est.)[3]
|$6.519 billion (2012 est.)
Import goods
|consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products (2012)
Main import partners
United States 18.8%
Venezuela 14.4%
Mexico 12.1%
Costa Rica 8.8%
China 7.8%
Guatemala 7.6%
El Salvador 5.1% (2012 est.)[4]
|Public finances
|70.5 of GDP (2011 est.) Note: Official data - Central Gov & instruments issued by entities other than Treasury & borrowed from social funds. Debt % reduced by rebasing of 2012 GDP.
|$2.619 billion (2012 est.)
|$2.56 billion (2012 est.)
Foreign reserves
|$1.9 billion (31 December 2012)
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.
Nicaragua's economy is focused primarily on the agricultural sector. It is the least developed country in Central America, and the second poorest in the Americas by nominal GDP. In recent years, under the administrations of Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan economy has increased dramatically, although it has also been subject to the global recession. The country's economy actually contracted by 1.5% in 2009, due to decreased export demand in the US and Central American markets, lower commodity prices for key agricultural exports, and low remittance growth, but saw 4.5% growth in 2010 thanks to a recovery in export demand and growth in its tourism industry.[5] Nicaragua's economy continues to post growth, with preliminary indicators showing the Nicaraguan economy growing an additional 5% in 2011.[6] Consumer Price inflation have also curtailed since 2008, when Nicaragua's inflation rate hovered at 19.82%.[7] In 2009 and 2010, the country posted lower inflation rates, 3.68% and 5.45%, respectively.[7]
Remittances are a major source of income, equivalent to 15% of the country's GDP, which originate primarily from Costa Rica, the United States, and European Union member states. Approximately one million Nicaraguans contribute to the remittance sector of the economy.
In early 2004, Nicaragua secured some $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. In April 2006, the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement went into effect, expanding export opportunities for Nicaragua's agricultural and manufactured goods. Textiles and apparel account for nearly 60% of Nicaragua's exports. In October 2007, the IMF approved an additional poverty reduction and growth facility program in support of the government's economic plans. Nicaragua relies on international economic assistance to meet internal- and external-debt financing obligations, although foreign donors curtailed this funding in response to widespread allegations of electoral fraud in Nicaragua's November 2008 elections.
- Economic history 1
Economy 2
- Agriculture and food production 2.1
- Services 2.2
- Current economic outlook 3
- Other statistics 4
- See also 5
- References 6
- External links 7
Economic history
Nicaragua's economy was devastated in the 1980s by the Contra War, which saw the destruction of much of the country's infrastructure. At the same time, the US staged an economic blockade from 1985 onward.
Following the civil war, Nicaragua began free market reforms, privatizing more than 350 state companies and commencing a general trend of economic growth. Inflation has been reduced from a high of 33,603% during the early years of the Sandinista period to more normal levels, averaging an annual rate of 9.5% over the 2000-2010 decade (based on World Bank figures).
Growth was slow (3%) in 2001 due to a combination of factors (a global recession, a series of bank failures, low coffee prices, and a drought), and in 2009 the economy actually contracted 1.5% in reaction to the 2008–2012 global recession). But even with the recessions, growth has averaged 3.4% between 2001 and 2011 (again, based on World Bank figures).
Unemployment is officially 3.8% (2006 est.). Nicaragua suffers from persistent trade and budget deficits and a high debt-service burden, leaving it highly dependent on foreign assistance—which represented almost 25% of GDP in 2001.
One of the key engines of economic growth has been production for export. Although traditional products such as coffee, meat, and sugar continued to lead the list of Nicaraguan exports, the fastest growth is now in nontraditional exports: textile and apparel; gold; seafood; and new agricultural products such as peanuts, sesame, melons, and onions. In 2007, exports topped $1 billion US dollars for the first time in Nicaraguan history.[8]
Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country, but construction, mining, fisheries, and general commerce also have been expanding during the last few years. Foreign private capital inflows topped $300 million in 1999 but, due to economic and political uncertainty, fell to less than $100 million in 2001. In the last 12 years, tourism has grown 394%,[9] the rapid growth has led it to become Nicaragua's second largest source of foreign capital. Less than three years ago, the nation's tourism budget was U.S. $400,000; today, it is over $2 million.[9] Nicaragua's economy has also produced a construction boom,[10] the majority of which is in and around Managua.
Nicaragua faces a number of challenges in stimulating rapid economic growth. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) program is currently being followed, with the aim of attracting investment, creating jobs, and reducing poverty by opening the economy to foreign trade. This process was boosted in late 2000 when Nicaragua reached the decision point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative. However, HIPC benefits were delayed because Nicaragua subsequently fell "off track" from its IMF program. The country also has been grappling with a string of bank failures that began in August 2000. Moreover, Nicaragua continues to lose international reserves due to its growing fiscal deficits.
The country is still a recovering economy and it continues to implement further reforms, on which aid from the HIPC program. According to the World Bank Nicaragua's GDP was around $4.9 US billion dollars. Recently, in March 2007, Poland and Nicaragua signed an agreement to write off $30.6 million which was borrowed by the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.[11]
The U.S. is the country's largest trading partner, providing 25% of Nicaragua's imports and receiving about 60% of its exports. About 25 wholly or partly owned subsidiaries of U.S. companies operate in Nicaragua. The largest of those investments are in the energy, communications, manufacturing, fisheries, and shrimp farming sectors. Good opportunities exist for further investments in those same sectors, as well as in tourism, mining, franchising, and the distribution of imported consumer, manufacturing, and agricultural goods. There also are copper mines in northeastern Nicaragua.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2012 was estimated at $20.04 billion USD, and GDP per capita in PPP at $3,300 USD, making Nicaragua the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.[12] The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 56.7%, followed by the industrial sector at 25.8%(2012). Agriculture represents 17.5% of GDP and it's the largest percentage in a Central American country. Nicaraguan labor force is estimated at 2.961 million of which 28% is occupied in agriculture, 19% in the industry sector and 53% in the service sector (2012).
Agriculture and food production
|Food and agriculture
|World rank1
|Coffee, green
|Beans, Dry
|Groundnuts in Shell
|Indigenous cattle meat
|Sesame Seed
|Sugar Cane
|Castor Beans
|Cocoa beans
|1Source: FAO (2005) Major Food and Agricultural Commodities and Producers
Coffee became Nicaragua's principal crop in the 1870s, a position it still held in 1992 despite the growing importance of other crops. Cotton gained importance in the late 1940s, and in 1992 was the second biggest export earner. In the early 20th century, Nicaraguan governments were reluctant to give concessions to the large United States banana companies, and bananas never attained the level of prominence in Nicaragua that they reached in Nicaragua's Central American neighbors; bananas were grown in the country, however, and were generally the third largest export earner in the post-World War II period. Beef and animal byproducts, the most important agricultural export for the three centuries before the coffee boom of the late 19th century, were still important commodities in 1992.
From the end of World War II to the early 1960s, the growth and diversification of the agricultural sector drove the nation's economic expansion. From the early 1960s until the increased fighting in 1977 caused by the Sandinista revolution, agriculture remained a robust and significant part of the economy, although its growth slowed somewhat in comparison with the previous postwar decades. Statistics for the next fifteen years, however, show stagnation and then a drop in agricultural production.
The agricultural sector declined precipitously in the 1980s. Until the late 1970s, Nicaragua's agricultural export system generated 40 percent of the country's GDP, 60 percent of national employment, and 80 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Throughout the 1980s, the Contras destroyed or disrupted coffee harvests as well as other key income-generating crops. Private industry stopped investing in agriculture because of uncertain returns. Land was taken out of production of export crops to expand plantings of basic grain. Many coffee plants succumbed to disease.
In 1989, the fifth successive year of decline, farm production declined by roughly 7 percent in comparison with the previous year. Production of basic grains fell as a result of Hurricane Joan in 1988 and a drought in 1989. By 1990 agricultural exports had declined to less than half the level of 1978. The only bright spot was the production of nontraditional export crops such as sesame, tobacco, and African palm oil.
The service sector was estimated to account for 56.8% of the country's GDP, and employs 52% of the active population.[12] This section includes transportation, commerce, warehousing, restaurant and hotels, arts and entertainment, health, education, financial and banking services, telecommunications as well as public administration and defense.
Tourism in Nicaragua is one of the most important industries in the country. It is the second largest source of foreign exchange for the country and is predicted to become the first largest industry in 2007.[13] The growth in tourism has positively affected the agricultural, commercial, finance, and construction industries as well.
Current economic outlook
Nicaragua has transformed itself into one of the safest and fastest-growing countries in Latin America. A stable, multi-party democracy, Nicaragua has ratified Free Trade Agreements with major markets such as the United States, the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), Taiwan and Mexico, among others. As evidence of continuous efforts in improving the business climate, Nicaragua has been ranked favorably in a variety of independent evaluations.
The 2011 Doing Business Report, published by The World Bank Group, a report that benchmarks various indicators of the investment climate in 183 nations, ranked Nicaragua as the top location in Central America in starting a business, investor protection, and closing a business. Additionally, the country improved in the following categories: ease of doing business, registering property, paying taxes, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
Other statistics
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1.4%; highest 10%: 41.8 (2005)
Industrial production growth rate: 2.4% (2005)
Electricity - production: 2.778 billion kWh (2006)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 53.43%; hydro: 35.34%; nuclear: 0%; other: 11.23% (1998)
Electricity - consumption: 2.929 billion kWh (2006)
Electricity - exports: 69.34 million kWh (2006)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2006)
Agriculture - products: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco, sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products; shrimp, lobsters
Exports - commodities: coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco, beef, peanuts, sugar, bananas; gold
Imports - commodities: consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products
Currency: 1 gold Cordoba (C$) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates: gold Córdoba (C$) per US$1 – 17.582 (2006), 16.733 (2005), 15.937 (2004), 15.105 (2003), 14.251 (2002)
Price inflation:
- 2007: 16.88%[14]
- 2008: 13.37%[14]
See also
- ^ http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kaosenlared.net%2Fnoticia%2Fpobreza-extrema-desigualdad-social-disminuyeron-nicaragua&act=url
- ^
- ^
- ^
- ^ http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=nu&v=66 IndexMundi Real GDP Growth Rate Chart
- ^ http://en.centralamericadata.com/en/article/data/Nicaraguan_Economy_Grows_by_5 Nicaraguan Economy Grows by 5 Percent
- ^ a b http://www.indexmundi.com/nicaragua/inflation_rate_(consumer_prices).html Nicaragua Inflation Rates via Consumer Price Index, IndexMundi
- ^ Monstersandcritics.com Close scrutiny after President Ortega's first 100 days
- ^ a b Rcalvet.com Government Gets Tough on Environmental Scofflaws
- ^ CostaRicaPages.com Nicaragua Information
- ^ english.people.com.cn Poland forgives nearly 31 million dollars of debt owed by Nicaragua
- ^ a b CIA - The World Factbook - Nicaragua
- ^ Canal2tv.com Turismo en Nicaragua: aportes y desafios parte I
- ^ a b http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUSN0930941520090110
External links
- U.S./Nicaraguan embassy economic reports
- Labor Conditions in the Nicaraguan Sugar Industry A 2005 study by PASE and the International Labor Rights Fund
- cia.gov factbook on Nicaragua


text:
The report was prepared with the assistance researches the best approaches to improving the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of patient care." I've mentioned it and its bylaws in this blog in the past as a model for independent, unbiased testing and reporting of healthcare techonlogies.
Regarding the Patient Safety Authority:
The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority was established under Act 13 of 2002, the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error ("Mcare") Act, as an independent state agency. It operates under an 11-member Board of Directors, six appointed by the Governor and four appointed by the Senate and House leadership. The eleventh member is a physician appointed by the Governor as Board Chair. Current membership includes three physicians, three attorneys, three nurses, a pharmacist and a non-healthcare worker.
The Authority is charged with taking steps to reduce and eliminate medical errors by identifying problems and recommending solutions that promote patient safety in hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, birthing centers and certain abortion facilities. Under Act 13 of 2002, these facilities must report what the Act defines as "Serious Events" and "Incidents" to the Authority.
The Authority maintains a database of serious events and incidents:
Consistent with Act 13 of 2002, the Authority developed the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS, pronounced "PAY-sirs"), a confidential web-based system that both receives and analyzes reports of what the Act calls Serious Events (actual occurrences) and Incidents (so-called "near-misses").
Cutting right to the chase, the paper's summary:
As adoption of health information technology solutions like electronic health records (EHRs) has increased across the United States, increasing attention is being paid to the safety and risk profile of these technologies. However, several groups have called out a lack of available safety data as a major challenge to assessing EHR safety, and this study was performed to inform the field about the types of EHR-related errors and problems reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority and to serve as a basis for further study. Authority analysts queried the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System for reports related to EHR technologies and performed an exploratory analysis of 3,099 reports using a previously published classification structure specific to health information technology. The majority of EHR-related reports involved errors in human data entry, such as entry of "wrong" data or the failure to enter data, and a few reports indicated technical failures on the part of the EHR system. This may reflect the clinical mindset of frontline caregivers who report events to the Authority.
... Reported events were categorized by their reporter-selected harm score (see Table 1). Of the 3,099 EHR-related events, 2,763 (89%) were reported as "event, no harm" (e.g., an error did occur but there was no adverse outcome for the patient) [a risk best avoided to start with, because luck runs out eventually - ed.], and 320 (10%) were reported as "unsafe conditions," which did not result in a harmful event. Fifteen reports involved temporary harm to the patient due to the following: entering wrong medication data (n = 6), administering the wrong medication (n = 3), ignoring a documented allergy (n = 2), failure to enter lab tests (n = 2), and failure to document (n = 2). Only one event report, related to a failure to properly document an allergy, involved significant harm.
A significant "study limitations" section was included that addressed:
- Issues regarding reporting statutes of the PA-PSRS errors database;
- lack of awareness of EHRs as a potential contributing factor to an error;
- limitations of narrative reporting affecting both the types of reports queried and the tags applied (the study used textual data mining methodolgies);
- query design of the study; and
- the need for further refinement of the machine learning tool used in creating the working dataset, which may have missed relevant cases.
Some of these impediments to knowing the magnitude of extant HIT issues are also present in the 2008 Joint Commission Sentinel Events Alert on HIT, the 2010 FDA internal memorandum on HIT Safety, and the 2011 IOM report on the same topic.
(The IOM report specifically observed that the "barriers to generating evidence pose unacceptable risks to safety.")
The major obstacle to this study in my view, though, was the nature of the dataset. The database is for general reporting of medical errors, and it contains no specific fields or reminders about EHRs or the known ways in which they can contribute to, or cause, medical mistakes.
The attempt was made, as acknowledged in the study, to glean information about EHR-related events from, in large part, textual analysis of narrative in the hopes that the reporter recognized the role of IT, and reported it using terms that could be detected by the search algorithms. In other words, the data was not "purposed" for this type of study.
It is axiomatic that one cannot find data that is simply not present, no matter how fancy the search algorithm. Further, passive analysis of clinical IT risk/harms data in an industry where lack of knowledge of causation and misconceptions abound will produce only partial results that suggest further study is needed, and not give an indicator of just how incomplete the results are.
Thus, this cautionary statement was made in the new PA Patient Safety Authority report:
"Although the vast majority of EHR-related reports did not document actual harm to the patient, analysts believe that further study of EHR-related near misses and close calls is warranted as a proactive measure."
My comments:
The report is welcome.
The most important part of the paper, I point out, is the "Limitations" section. FDA, IOM and others have made similar observations – we don't know the true magnitude of the problem due to systematic limitations of the available data.
Therefore, at best what is available must be deemed as risk management-relevant case reports, a "red flag" that could represent (using the words of FDA CDRH director Jeffrey Shuren regarding HIT safety), the tip of the iceberg.
It is imperative far more work be done in post-market surveillance as this technology is deployed nationally and internationally. This is to ensure that good health IT (GHIT) prevails and bad health IT (BHIT) is either remediated or removed from the marketplace. I had defined those in other writings as follows:
Good Health IT ("GHIT") is defined as IT that provides a good user experience, enhances cognitive function, puts essential information as effortlessly as possible into the physician's hands, keeps eHealth information secure, protects patient privacy and facilitates better practice of medicine and better outcomes.
Bad Health IT ("BHIT") is defined as IT that is ill-suited to purpose, hard to use, unreliable, loses data or provides incorrect data, causes cognitive overload, slows rather than facilitates users, lacks appropriate alerts, creates the need for hypervigilance (i.e., towards avoiding IT-related mishaps) that increases stress, is lacking in security, compromises patient privacy or otherwise demonstrates suboptimal design and/or implementation.
An additional major factor that also contributes to lack of knowledge of EHR-related adverse events is hospital reporting non-compliance. For instance, I know of cases from my own legal consulting work and personal experience that I would have expected to appear in the database, but apparently do not.
But don't take it from me alone. Here is PA Patient Safety Authority Board Member Cliff Rieders, Esq. on this.
From "Hospitals Are Not Reporting Errors as Required by Law, Phila. Inquirer", pg. 4, http://articles.philly.com/
... Hospitals don't report serious events if patients have been warned of the possibility of them in consent forms, said Clifford Rieders, a trial lawyer and member of the Patient Safety Authority's board.
He said he thought one reason many hospitals don't want to report serious events is that the law also requires that patients be informed in writing within a week of such problems. So, if a hospital doesn't report a problem, it doesn't have to send the patient that letter. [Thus reducing risk of litigation, and, incidentally, potentially infringing on patients' rights to legal recourse - ed.]
Rieders says the agency has allowed hospitals to determine for themselves what constitutes a serious event and the agency has failed to come up with a solid definition in six years.
Fixing this "is not a priority," he added.
This coincides with my own personal experience precisely. In a case where my relative was permanently injured as a result of EHR-related medication error, and then died of the injuries, I never received the required report in writing from the hospital. I also do not believe the case was reported to the Safety Authority, at least not as IT-related.
I suspect the true rates of EHR-related close calls, reversible injuries, permanent injuries and deaths is significantly higher than the limited data available suggests. That data is merely a red flag that much more education, stringent reporting requirements, templates of known causes of error, and enforcement are needed. (An April 2010 "thought experiment" on this issue I wrote about at "If The Benefits Of Healthcare IT Can Be Guesstimated, So Can And Should The Dangers" certainly suggested as much.)
Slides where I made those types of recommendations to the Patient Safety Authority, at a presentation I gave in July 2012 at their invitation, are at http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/
A major concern I have is that the HIT industry will use this new report in a manner that ignores its limitations.
(Disclosure: I was an invited reviewer of this new PPSA report.)
Addendum Dec. 13:
Also worth review is "Patient Safety Problems Associated with Heathcare Information Technology: an Analysis of Adverse Events Reported to the US Food and Drug Administration", Magrabi, Ong, Runciman, and Coiera, AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2011.
Data here came from FDA's voluntary (i.e., also tip of the iceberg) Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database. Ironically, the study was done in Australia using Australian grant funds.


text:
Submariner Date
Submariner (No Date)
Submariner (1990-2010)
Submariner Yellow gold
Submariner Gold/Steel
Submariner Vintage
Submariner Ceramic Bezel Dark
Submariner Ceramic Bezel Light
Submariner White gold
Submariner James Bond
Red Sub
Submariner Sultan
Submariner Diamonds
In 1953, the Swiss manufacturer Rolex introduced the Submariner, one of the first diving watches in the world. These watches, with rotating bezels, matte black dials, and water resistance up to 100 m (328 ft), are highly coveted collector's items today.
The release of the Submariner in 1953 left the watch industry speechless. Rolex had presented an entirely new type of wristwatch that continues to define what we know as diving watches today. The model with the reference number 6204 had luminous oversized second, minute, and hour hands; luminous numerals and indices; and a matte black dial. Next to the first watch sat a small sign that read, "Submariner – the diver's friend".
In time, the watch made its way to Hollywood. In the first James Bond movie, Agent 007 is seen wearing a watch with the reference number 6538, now referred to as the "James Bond Sub". The identity of the watches Mr. Bond wore in the other films remains unknown. One exception is the Rolex Submariner with the reference number 5513, which was auctioned off at Christie's in November 2011. Roger Moore wore this model in the 1973 Bond movie Live and Let Die. The series' author, Ian Fleming, only mentions the Rolex Oyster Perpetual once in the entire 14-volume series. Otherwise, he only refers to the watch brand. Since 1995, the spy in Her Majesty's service has opted for models from the Swiss brand Omega.
While Steve McQueen was no secret agent, the actor and racecar driver also relied on the sturdy and precise Submariner. In one photograph, he is clearly wearing a watch with the reference number 5512. Revolutionary Che Guevara also wore a Submariner. This watch is so much more than just a diving instrument; it complements everything from racing suits to tuxedos. Looking back at its long history, Rolex holds it to be the archetypal diving watch.
|Price (approx.)
|Blue, Ref. 116619LB
|White gold
|Blue bezel, blue dial
|Kermit, Ref. 16610LV
|Stainless steel
|Green bezel, black dial
|Hulk, Ref. 116610LV
|Stainless steel
|Green dial, green bezel
|Date, Ref. 116610LN
|Stainless steel
|No Date, Ref. 114060
|Stainless steel
|No date
A Submariner No Date costs around 7,900 USD in mint condition and about 7,400 USD pre-owned. The value of never-worn models has risen steadily over the last three years. The Submariner Date has a date display and goes for around 9,300 USD in mint condition and almost 8,700 USD pre-owned. Its price has also gone up in the last few years.
The green Submariner models are especially popular among collectors. Connoisseurs differentiate between the so-called "Kermit", which has a green bezel and a black dial, and the "Hulk" with a green bezel and dial. The latter is still in production and costs around 11,100 USD. Pre-owned examples are a bit more affordable at 10,300 USD. Since these diving watches are highly coveted, purchases from offline vendors often come with multiple-month wait times. Buying online is quicker, though this also means higher prices. Production of the "Kermit" has already ended, making it much harder to find and more expensive. Be sure to have at least 16,000 USD on hand for a model in mint condition. You can find a pre-owned "Kermit" for around 11,500 USD.
Fans of gold watches will also find what they are looking for in the Rolex Submariner collection. This luxury diving watch is available in yellow or white gold. The latter only comes in the so-called "Submariner Blue" with a blue dial and bezel. The yellow gold version is also available with a black bezel and dial. Both yellow gold models cost around 28,800 USD new. At 30,100 USD, the 18-karat white gold version is a bit more expensive. Since gold Rolex watches are generally in lower demand, you can often find them online for several thousand USD less than at retail locations. The bicolor Submariner gives off a real 1980s vibe. You can purchase a never-worn version for around 12,500 USD. Similar to the gold watches, the models in stainless steel and gold are also often less expensive online.
Like most vintage Rolex watches, old Submariner models are highly coveted. Two examples of popular reference numbers are the ref. 5512 and the ref. 5513, which were introduced all the way back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, respectively. Even though both models were produced for a number of years, there are currently very few pieces on the market. You can get a ref. 5513 for around 11,700 USD, while you will need about 22,200 USD for a ref. 5512. Examples with the reference numbers 16800 or 168000 from the 1980s are more affordable. You can purchase one of these for between 7,100 and 8,100 USD.
Vintage Submariners like the so-called "Red Sub" or the "COMEX" are especially rare and therefore in high demand. Plan to spend at least 16,000 USD for a "Red Sub" and almost 39,500 USD for a "COMEX". That being said, prices vary greatly, meaning you may find a "COMEX" in very good condition that demands over 123,500 USD.
Today's Submariner models look almost the same as their predecessors. Over the years, the case has grown and a crown guard was added (1959) to protect the screw-down crown. In 1966, a version with a date indicator joined the collection. Other changes or additions to the watch have been small, such as polished armbands and cases, or blind lugs. Although its design is from the 1950s, the Rolex Submariner remains a modern timepiece.
Over time, these automatic watches have progressed to a water resistance of 300 m (984 ft) and feature rotating, scratch-resistant Cerachrom bezels with 120 clicks. The bezel can only be turned clockwise, which is a requirement for all modern diving watches. The bezel insert is made of Cerachrom ceramic, which is a particularly scratch-resistant material. The zero marker, as well as the hour markers, are filled with the luminous material Chromalight. They glow blue and are more luminous than SuperLuminova, the material typically used in watches. Furthermore, the watchmakers have added platinum dusting to the numbers and indexes on the bezel. The hands are domed and made of gold, as are the index markers on the dial. Aside from the hour and minute hands, the second hand also has a luminous spot. Compared to earlier models, the sapphire glass barely sticks out, protecting it from jolts.
The Submariner with a Cyclops lens date indicator is run by the caliber 3135. The manufacturer has produced this caliber in Biel since 1989. It was designed to be a robust, highly accurate movement and is protected by a stainless steel case back; however, it still offers aesthetically pleasing details. The red aluminum crown wheel and the blue Parachrom hairspring stand out the most, while the sunburst on the winding rotor and the automatic bridge are more subtle. Models without a date indicator are powered by the caliber 3130. Both movements are classified as chronographs, seeing as they've passed the tests of the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute).
Both calibers are considered to be among the best in the watchmaking scene. Rolex optimized important components, such as the balance spring, thereby improving the overall accuracy of their watches. They achieved this by using an anti-magnetic alloy, which prevents the watch from being affected by magnetic fields. The special Breguet spiral allows the balance spring to "breathe" and improves its precision. Master watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced this improvement to the balance spring in 1795. He raised its last coil, thereby reducing the curvature. The caliber is regulated by Microstella nuts, which are located on the inner side of the balance wheel. Unlike most mechanical movements, the watch is not adjusted using a regulator, but rather via the Microstella system.
Some Rolex watches make collectors' hearts beat faster. The so-called "Red Sub" is one such highly sought-after collectible. Rolex produced the Submariner with reference number 1680 between 1967 and 1980. The name "Submariner" was written in red on the dial until 1974, thus earning it the nickname "Red Sub." One can distinguish a real Red Sub from a fake by examining the dial. Between 1967 and 1974, Rolex used six different dials, which were labeled Mark I to Mark VI. The biggest change occurred between Mark III and Mark IV. Experts call the Mark I to Mark III dials "meters first," because "200 m = 660 ft" is written on the dial. Beginning with Mark IV, the dials are known as "feet first," because the meter and feet measurements switch places. Mark I dials are the rarest versions of the Red Sub. They can be recognized by the closed sixes in "660 ft."
Further distinctive features include the tropical dials that appear on the Mark II and Mark III. Due to exposure to direct sunlight, humidity, and heat over the years, the color of the dial and the bezel changed to brown. This most likely occurred due to a special color mixture used at the time by their supplier. These tropical dials are highly prized among collectors and increase in value with the intensity of the color change from white to yellow or brown. However, the color of the hands and indexes should be the same, as that is a sign of a true Rolex.
When buying a "red" Submariner, it's also important that the reference and serial numbers are readable. The manufacture date is also on the case back of earlier models and corresponds to the serial number.
Bold type numbers and indexes on the bezel indicate a genuine red Submariner. Later versions feature a thinner typeface. It is less important if there is a missing or damaged luminous point at the zero marker.
These vintage Submariners are powered by the automatic movement 1575, which also has a date indicator, unlike the 1570. The 1575 caliber also runs the Sea-Dweller with reference number 1665 and the GMT-Master with reference number 1675.
The Submariner has gone down in watchmaking history over the last six decades. It has developed into an icon and one of the most well-known watches in existence. The special Deepsea Challenge model even went to an impressive depth of nearly 12,000 m (39,370 ft) in the Mariana Trench in 2012 – the world record for a watch. The predecessor of the first Submariner, reference number 6200, was water resistant up to 100 m (328 m) thanks to its distinctive Twinlock crown. It had a bi-directional bezel that allowed divers to keep track of the length of their dive quickly and easily with just one glance. The Swiss watch manufacturer Blancpain improved this bezel in 1953 with their Fifty Fathoms model. Its bezel is unidirectional, meaning it can only be turned clockwise and therefore the dive time can only be shortened and never lengthened.
Rolex took the advice of René-Paul Jeanneret when designing the Submariner. The former Rolex director was an avid recreational diver and gave helpful suggestions for the dial, bezel, and case. The watch survived various tests and 132 dives to depths between 12 and 60 m (39 to 197 ft). It even fell on a concrete dock from a height of two meters and continued to function. The only damage was the loss of a small part of the luminous material from one of the hands. The successor of the original Submariner was water resistant up to 200 m (656 ft) and was the official watch of the British, Australian, and Canadian marines.
The year of 1953 was a special one for the watchmaking industry overall. In August of that year, New Zealander Sir Edmund P. Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. An Oyster Perpetual from Rolex was with them on top of the mountain. Rolex had sponsored the expedition led by Colonel Sir John Hunt. The automatic watches were not simply gifts for the mountain climbers, they had been sent along in order to test their reliability and strength under harsh conditions. Sir Hillary sent his watch back to Geneva after the expedition with notes. Countless tests led to the creation of the Rolex Explorer, a watch for adventurers.


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Tiny flat: Downtown crèperie takes shaperie
Though recipes for crèpes date back to the 14th century, crèperies restaurants specializing in these portable, versatile, sweet, and savory French pancakes emerged only about a hundred years ago. A sign of their broad appeal (crèpes are fast, cheap, delicious, and require no flatware), creperies can now be found all over France and much of the rest of the world.
I've enjoyed crèpes in the shadow of the cathedral of Chartres, in a café on a quiet street in the Oltrarno district of Florence, under a yellow umbrella at the Los Angeles Farmer's Market, and even in a remote fishing village in the Dominican Republic. Soon, I will be able to add my hometown to this list.
Come September, a humble little brick building behind the Jefferson Theater on Water Street will begin a new life as The Flat, Charlottesville's first full-time crepe stand. While the property belongs to The Hook's editor, the tiny restaurant is the brainchild of 26-year-old Lauren McRaven, The Flat was inspired by a 2003 trip to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland with LiveArts (Lauren's sister is director/actor Amanda McRaven).
"There were crèpe stands on every corner in Edinburgh, and many were open 'til 3am," she says. "I've had the idea in my mind ever since."
McRaven returned to Charlottesville this year to "re-group" after eight years away. Her job with a youth ministry in Camden, New Jersey ended in May, which freed her up to become the new crèpe-mistress of Charlottesville. Though McRaven says she originally conceived The Flat as a coffeehouse (the idea for the name came from the European word for "apartment"), she admits it works just as well perhaps better– as the name of a crepe stand.
In Medieval France, crepes were connected with the Christian holidays Candlemas and Shrove Tuesday and were symbolic of good fortune and family life. Farmers also offered crèpes to their landowners as a symbol of allegiance.
The tiny two-story building had been used as part of an apartment for years. McRaven will need to make several changes to the structure she'll install a petite commercial kitchen, make some noticeable changes to the roof, convert the Water Street window into a take-out opening, and build a brick patio in front.
The downtown Board of Architectural Review approved her plan Tuesday, August 16, and McRaven expects to complete renovations by mid-September. The daughter of Charles McRaven, a stone and ancient building expert, Lauren will do most of the work herself.
"From working with my dad, I can do or figure out how to do– just about everything," she says.
The Flat will serve up a variety of sweet and savory crèpes, ranging from the simple (lemon juice and sugar, or cheddar cheese and onions) to the more complex or filling (black forest ham and brie, salmon and cream cheese, fresh fruit with vanilla yogurt). Since it's a take-out stand, made-to-order crèpes will be served either folded and ready-to-eat in parchment paper, or in special take-out containers.
McRaven aims to find the best coffee-roaster she can, and also plans to offer single origin (i.e. from one region) hot chocolates and Italian sodas. Cups made out of corn, and a composting and re-cycling program belie her "green" attitude. She also hopes to continue her support of area youths by hiring high school students to both work and study at The Flat.
Since a LiveArts theater trip inspired her little crèperie, it's only natural that McRaven plans to stay open late enough to give theater-goers something to nibble on after the show.
This little chunk o' brick may soon be the only crèperie in town.


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Patricia A. Easton (Patti)
Molecular Technician
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ONLY A MATTER of days after its release, the fact is that "Slade Alive" had swiftly established itself in the NME album charts - a rock-hard reminder that despite all their critics this screamers' band are now well in the running with others like the Faces and T. Rex.
These Wolverhampton-born rockers have built up an incredible following in only nine months since their first hit single, "Get Down And Get With It" smashed into the singles charts.
Are the band affected by this success? The answer to that one is definitely no. Maybe they're a little crazier, and maybe they'll buy flashier clothes than before. But that's about the most of it.
They love and respect their manager Chas. Chandler, the man who not so long ago did the same kind of work with Jimi Hendrix, and when I met Slade at his offices near Oxford Street it was a death-white and tired Chandler who'd been up all night working in the studios on the group's new single. 'Take Me Bak 'Ome"/"Wonderin' Y".
After a while he excused himself. pleading fatigue and I talked to Slade about just how instrumental he was in their success.
"Chas and John Steel. (once drummer with the Animals and now Chandlers right-hand man) have always worked very hard for us:' said guitarist Dave Hill. "We really respect them because it's been hard work promoting the group.
'We wouldn't have got anywhere without Chas. It took us a long time to break through. and anybody else would have given up.
But he believed in us. I can't think of anybody else in this business who has stuck it out with a group for so long. Two years is a long time when there is nothing happening."
Said Jimmy lea: "When we met Chas we didn't write any numbers, and he gave us confidence to write. He thought we were talented enough, only we didn't realise it.
"You need somebody who can look at you from a distance. He brought out all the good things in us. For instance, when we came down to London we thought it was all grooving and standing about. but Chas said no. He told us to do what we liked"
This new single is their follow up to "Look Wot You Dun" and probably stands a better chance than the others even though they all made the charts.
"We all think it's the best we've done." said Hill, "and feel it really represents what we're doing now.
'We could never reproduce 'Look Wot You Dun' on stage properly." interrupted Jimmy lea. "It was a good record and the excitement was there, but our stage version sounded nothing like it.
"'We go for numbers like 'Get Down And Get With It'. When we recorded that it was purely a stage number. This is in the same vein. It's good to play on stage and good on record:"
Had they expected "Slade Alive" to make the charts so rapidly?
"We were amazed that it got in so quickly," continued Hill. "The real promotion on the album hasn't even got going yet. This tour we start on May 10th is the main promotion - because the album is live and we sell it on our stage show:'
This is Slade's second album. The first, "Play It loud", was purely a studio recording whereas "Slade Alive" is really what they're all about - live entertainment.
They tried very hard to recreate a live atmosphere and they succeeded. I asked if they'd ever consider making another live album.
"We don't want people thinking that we're going to bring out live albums all the time, but if we feel that we've got enough live numbers we may try another one:" said Hill.
'We don't want to get typecast for anything, and want to keep trying new things all the while. So maybe our next album will be something different again.
"With every record and with each new number we write we're trying something different. We want to have an endless future for our records, so that no one will ever be able to label us.
"From the way we're writing now we feel our future will be great, because we're writing the right kind of songs for this generation, and we're very proud to be part of it.
"We don't ever want to get off the road because it's what we enjoy doing. Recording is just one little part of it all and a couple of days in the studio is quite enough for us before we're itching to get out again.
"A studio is OK as long as something is happening but it's too technical and can end up a real drag. We like to get a number done as quickly as possible, and if it doesn't happen right away then the right atmosphere is lacking, so it's a waste of time.
"The most enjoyable part of this business is playing live, when you can see what's happening. Actually playing to the people:'
Said Jimmy; "We tried something new a few weeks ago when we did a few concerts in theatres. and it went very well. There was so much room on stage that we were able to go absolutely berserk.
"Up to now we've been mostly playing in clubs, and we'll built up a good following on this circuit, but now we're venturing into big halls, because this is the way we planned it:' said Hill.
"Gradually we've worked our way through to the big halls, instead of planting ourselves there and expecting to draw people:'
Do they ever play to alien audiences?
"At some of the places they're all sitting on the floor concentrating and you have to break that atmosphere," said Hill.
"So sometimes we come in through the crowd, not from the side of the stage and they realise it's just a laugh and usually get up and loon about.
"Of course we can't do that when it's packed with screamers," said Lea. "Just at colleges where all they want to do is sit and groove.
"We look at our music and look at our appearance and figure that it's all show business, and everything about it is important.
"Don't get us wrong - we do care about what we play, the showmanship is just one part of it, besides all that we work things out. If we were to stand still and play our songs everything would be just right. But it would lack the atmosphere. We can play, there's no doubt about it.
"People tell us that all we do is romp about on stage, but that's a load of rubbish because we work very hard on our numbers,
"When you go in the studios to record something has to be well worked out, People don't see you jumping around on a record, do they? You can't make good records if you're not good musicians:'
Said Lea: "At the moment our stage act is quite varied. We don't restrict it to our own material because the people who see us for the first time like to hear a number they can associate with before they get into our own songs. People can't get into a group when it's all new to them.'