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Traumatic Cataract and Mydriasis
A 68-year-old physician had suffered a bungee cord injury to his right eye 8 months prior to surgery. He had symptoms of bothersome glareand photophobia due to a traumatic mydriasis that left him with a pupil permanently dilated to 7 mm in diameter. Because a progressive cataract had impaired his vision to a level of 20/50, he elected to undergo cataract surgery. There was no preoperative phacodonesis. As this case illustrates, traumatic cataracts challenge surgeons to diagnose and manage intraoperative zonulopathy, optimize the IOL's long-term fixation and centration, and consider or repair concomitant iris defects.
CRST October 2010: Complex Cataract Cases
- Multifocal IOL Exchange
- Unexpected IFIS: Avoiding a Challenging Case
- Traumatic Cataract and Mydriasis
- Dislocated Multifocal Lens
- Glare After Damage to the Iris
- Successful Visual Results in Cataract Surgery for Patients with Prior Refra…
- Complications From Prior Cataract Surgery - IOL Exchange with Iris Repair
- Premium IOL Complication
- The Elusive Nuclear Chip
Comments (3)
This is just a personal preference, and there is no major advanatage. In general, I perform my CCC using an irrigating cystotome (#25 needle) because I get a better view. If creating the CCC is more challenging because of weak zonules, for example, then I would do this with a forceps under OVD to get more control. In this case, because I kept the CCC initially on the smaller size, it wasn't necessary to use forceps. Most surgeons will prefer to use forceps because it is easier to control the CCC.
Dr. Chang what are the advantages of performing capsulorrexis without OVD ? . Thanks for this magnifique video.
impressive surgery, thanks!!


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Party Goods
Looking for items of stationery, decorations, tableware, jokes or novelties or just trying to get ideas for a future event, you have arrived at the right place! At Fun 'n' Frolic we have everything that you need to make your function different from the rest. Whatever the event, whatever the occasion browse our party goods section, and you will be amazed at the fantastic selection available. If you are in the Reading area why not use our party decorating team to create outstanding balloon décor that will make your party or event one that your friends, and/or guests will be talking about for the rest of the year. If you can't see what you are looking for why not send us an email or give us a call, one of our Fun 'n' Frolic team members will be happy to help, advise, or point you in the right direction.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hyatt Place Chicago/O'Hare celebrates its official opening nearby the Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The new 8 story, 200-room hotel features the Hyatt Place brand's intuitive design, casual atmosphere and practical amenities, such as free Wi-Fi and 24-hour food offerings.
"Chicago is a world-class city and key business and leisure destination, and Hyatt Place Chicago/O'Hare will provide a relaxing and uncomplicated place for guests to pause before beginning the next leg of their journey or while visiting Chicago," said General Manager Michael Hunt.
Hyatt Place Chicago/O'Hare is located next to the Allstate Arena, where guests can enjoy family shows and sports and musical performances. Additionally, the hotel is only six miles away from Chicago O'Hare International Airport and minutes from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Travelers seeking entertainment can find venues such as Rivers Casino, Fashion Outlets of Chicago and MB Financial Park, a complex with eateries and entertainment including a comedy club, theater, bowling alley, and live music venue. Nearby corporations include Life Fitness, Culligan, Capgemini, LifeWatch, and Abbot Laboratories.
"I am so proud to be able to work with the best associates in hospitality to produce this world class hotel. We are all very excited to open our doors and welcome the community and visitors to the hotel," continued Hunt.
Hyatt Place Chicago O'Hare offers:
• 200 spacious guestrooms with separate spaces to sleep, work and play, as well as a Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper
• A.M. Kitchen Skillet™, a free hot breakfast for guests available daily in the Gallery Kitchen, features hot breakfast items, fresh fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, cereal, fresh-baked pastries, and more
• 24/7 Gallery Menu & Market serving freshly prepared meals anytime, day or night and perfectly packaged sandwiches and salads
• Coffee to Cocktails Bar featuring specialty coffees and premium beers, as well as wines and cocktails
• Odds & Ends program for forgotten items that guests can buy, borrow or enjoy for free
• Meetings Spaces offer more than 4,000 square feet of flexible, high-tech meeting/function space
• Banquet Kitchen offers anything from Meeting Packages to an extensive Banquet Menu
• 24-hour Gym featuring cardio equipment with LDC touchscreens and free ear buds
• Free Wi-Fi everywhere and remote printing
"We are extremely proud of the redevelopment of this building, the innovative thinking and efficiency exercised by our team and affiliates has made this project a true success. We are looking forward to continuing our success and growing our relationship with the Hyatt Place brand," said Samir Lakhany, Superhost Enterprise.
Hyatt Place Chicago/O'Hare is under the leadership of General Manager Michael Hunt and Director of Sales Millie Carrasquillo. In his role, Hunt is directly responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the hotel, including overseeing the hotel's 80 associates and ensuring guests encounter the purposeful service for which the Hyatt Place brand is known. Carrasquillo will be responsible for providing sales service and support to travelers and meeting planners frequenting the Rosemont area.
Hyatt Place, a brand of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, combines style, innovation and 24/7 convenience to create a seamless stay with modern comforts. There are more than 240 Hyatt Place locations in the United States, Armenia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, The Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates. To learn more about Hyatt Place hotels or to make a reservation, visit www.hyattplace.comor call 1-888-HYATT-HP (888-492-8847).
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Vidhu Vinod Chopra is arrogant. He says, with great assurance, 'I am a great director.'
With critically acclaimed films like Khamosh, Parinda, 1942 - A Love Story and Mission Kashmir, it would probably be hard to be modest.
Munnabhai MBBS, produced and co-written by Chopra and debutant director, Rajkumar aka Raju Hirani, shows Chopra attempting comedy: a first for the writer-filmmaker, known for dark, hard-hitting subjects.
Munnabhai MBBS, featuring Sanjay Dutt in the title role, along with father, Sunil Dutt, Gracy Singh, Arshad Warsi, Jimmy Shergill and Boman Irani, hits the marquee on December 19.
Sukanya Verma and Shruti L Mathur spoke to the filmmaker on the art of filmmaking:
Why are you not directing this film?
Let me tell you very honestly. Though I think I am a great director, I don't think I am capable of directing this film. This film needed Raju Hirani and only Raju Hirani.
Please explain.
I am a great admirer of Charlie Chaplin. But if you ask me if I am capable of directing Gold Rush, my answer would be no.
More on Rediff:
Top 5, 2003: Shah Rukh Khan!
Wish John Abraham!
Now, Indians-Pakistanis together!
BO: KHNH reign continues
Watch Munnabhai MBBS and Mission Kashmir or 1942-A Love Story and you will know what I mean.
So only dark films for you?
I am not saying that. There is Aditya Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which I liked but I cannot make that movie. I am not pitching myself against Raju Hirani or Adi. We are just very different.
I still remember the premiere of DDLJ. I said, 'Wow, what a movie!' But if you ask me 'can you direct it?' I could have written it because it is one thing to write, to conceive characters who are all from the heart. It's completely another to make them, direct them in the fashion Raju Hirani has done in Munnabhai MBBS. There are certain kind of films only certain directors can direct.
This is your first attempt at comedy. What was the experience like?
It was like a breath of fresh air. I loved it. Frankly, it is a cliché, but I am very proud of this film. I am very proud I had the courage to go ahead with a movie of this kind.
How different is Munnabhai MBBS from most commercial comedies?
No one is running around the bush here. No one is going to Switzerland, New Zealand or Australia. There is no car chase. Well, there is a cabaret at a hospital. This is the first time my film has a cabaret. So we had a big debate about whether or not or how to do it.
But it doesn't have the clutches of a commercial film.
I believe it has the potential of becoming the biggest hit we have had in our company. It's like when I did Parinda, it didn't have a smuggler in a red muffler and coat. Because never before have you seen a don in a kurta pyajama and chappals.
Munnabhai... is an attempt at a huge box-office success.
So are you aiming to make a full-fledged commercial film with Munnabhai MBBS?
I always wanted to make a commercial film. I want all my films to be huge hits.
My aim is to make films that I believe in. I will never make a film that I don't believe in. You can hold me to that.
I strongly believe cinema has a social responsibility. I strongly believe that what is happening in our country is partly due to the kind of cinema people are being exposed to.
So when you ask me why do I take so long or make these kind of films, the answer is simple. This is not just a movie I am producing, this is a movie I believe in. I am willing to stand by every line, every dialogue, everything about this film. That's why I co-wrote it.
The intention to do this film is not just produce any other movie. Nobody has got one rupee from this film so far. No signing amounts. No dubbing amounts. Nothing at all. We pay only when we make money.
That means I, The Vidhu Vinod Chopra, am not alone in saying this. My whole crew made this film with that conviction.
What was it like to have someone else direct what you had written?
Oh, it was crazy. He [Raju Hirani] was the boss! I used to write a scene and think this is the best scene I have ever written. Next day, Raju Hirani would come and politely tell me the lines I had written were bullshit. Then I would write all over again. It was a humble experience.
What inspired to write a story like this?
The idea that Raju had was wonderful. It's about a gangster with a heart. He is trying to tell the doctors to have a heart. It was fascinating. You need to give your patients human warmth rather than a cold, sterile injection.
Does Munnabhai MBBS have any resemblance to Patch Adams?
No, I saw Patch Adams only last month. I saw it only because someone mentioned the same thing to me. With due respect to Patch Adams, and I am not saying this for the sake of it, Munnabhai MBBS is a far superior film.
Why did you choose Sanjay Dutt for that part?
Sanjay Dutt is a wonderful, warm-hearted guy. He is one of the best actors I have met in the movies.
How was the chemistry between him and Sunil Dutt?
Oh it was wonderful. Their scenes together are my favourites. I am very grateful to Sunil Dutt for doing this film. Munnabhai MBBS would not have been the same without him.
He brought a sense of reality to the film. His disillusionment with his son was so real. Finally, his love and affection for him at the end of it was so real. Those scenes bring to tears in my eyes.
Who came up with the title, Munnabhai MBBS?
There is saying by Akira Kurosawa, 'Filmmaking is actually based on its individual human talent that works in its co-operative work forms.' So the workforces cooperated, individually we are all talented.
Raju Hirani is very talented. [Cinematographer] Binod Pradhan is very talented. It is very difficult for me to tell you who came up with the title. Raju Hirani and I had several discussions. In the beginning Raju wanted to call the film Jeeo Mere Yaar and I hated it.
Then we came up with Munnabhai MBBS. That was appropriate --whether Munnabhai becomes a doctor or not will remain an MBBS. Like it says, Miya Biwi Bachchon Samet.
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easy wall art update
Last week, my mom brought over these two wall art that hung in my old bedroom from my younger days. I believe they were bought at garage sale in the late 80s, which makes them at least 22 years old (but most definitely a lot older).
I really like them. Cute and vintage-y.
Anyway, we decided to switch out the frames for an updated look. At first we considered just painting them white, but upon close examination, it was clear that they were cheaply made and the glass was actually glued to the frame – which made painting very unfriendly. And also, hubby said the yellow velvet ribbon around it had to go.
We ended up replacing the frames with new ones that we found at Walmart. They were originally black, but a few coats of white spray paint later, they are now brilliantly white.
I had just been thinking about how we needed to add a little somethin' something' to the main level half bath and these are perfect. Seriously, they look great in there.
All for less than $20.
In hindsight, hubby said we could've painted them a different color (he mentioned pink) to give it more color...and I think I agree. But this is another project that he's not doing it over. Haha.
Oh, my camera is playing tricks again and I will just have to mention that the soft yellow color of the wall art in the last photo is fake. The actual color is more represented in the top photo.


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Asana goes after the large enterprise market with "Organizations," a more IT-friendly version of its collaboration software
Asana, the collaboration software company started by Facebook insiders Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, has always sold to businesses. The company has said it does not want to be called "Facebook for the enterprise." But today, the enterprise part, at least, becomes true. The company announced the launch of Asana Organizations, a product tailored for big enterprise clients with thousands of employees.
Asana's software lets teams manage various tasks, showing team members things like who is responsible for what, how their progress is coming along and when its due. The company's software has already been used by A-list Silicon Valley companies like Dropbox, Airbnb and Pinterest. Asana won't disclose how many customers it has, but Kenny Van Zant, the company's head of business and operations, says the number is in the "tens of thousands" of teams. A paid version, for teams larger than 30, has "high hundreds" of customers.
The main difference between the Organizations product and versions meant for smaller teams is a focus on IT administration. Large companies have compliance requirements that smaller ones don't have. With Organizations, an administrator can view user activity across several different teams within the company. The administrator can also set access policies and remove old users. In other versions of the product, users needed to be invited into the system. Now anyone with a company's email address can have access to the dashboard of teams, but must have the proper permissions to join a team and see what it's working on.
Organizations, which launches today, is primarily for big companies looking to use Asana on a large scale, but it will be available to everyone, even the smallest teams. Pricing varies by the size of the company. It costs $100 a month for a 30-person team, with the price increasing per every 25 users.
Asana is riding the wave of the "consumerization of IT," where employees use their own devices and favorite software at work. As a result, IT departments have had to catch up. Asana plans to market Organizations to teams that already use the product, pitching it as a way to expand deployment throughout the company. One large company already using Asana's software is publishing conglomerate Pearson.
One of the biggest challenges for companies trying to court the big enterprise companies is convincing reticent chief information officers that data is secure in the cloud. Van Zant says that's never really been a problem for the company, since it has always catered to businesses, though on a smaller scale. The company hosts data in a SAS-70 Amazon data center, which he says usually puts hesitant CIOs at ease. Still, there have been a few high profile instances of AWS outages.
Asana is also challenged to break away from the pack of all of the other software companies trying to help teams manage their work. "There's no real household name in collaboration software," says Van Zant. As such, it means the title is theoretically there for the taking, but it also means navigating through a fragmented market. And the usual suspects like Oracle, which has a few collaboration products of its own, including one called Beehive, are always lurking.
Jack Stahl, a product engineer who led the development of Organizations, thinks the company's lineage from Facebook -- and its enviable engineering culture -- can give Asana an edge in the market. "Facebook ships code really fast, they use open source tools. These are not necessarily things you associate with enterprise software companies."
Still, he said the goal is to balance serving IT administrators with individual users because the stakes are so high at the enterprise level. "We realize that this is hosting people's crucial data. And when Asana goes down, people can't get work done. And that's really important in a way that Facebook going down isn't."


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Tom Crean made the short drive up Indiana State Road 37 to Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday and joined ESPN College Gameday for a brief segment on Michigan State.
Crean offered insights into what has propelled the Spartans and former boss Tom Izzo into tonight's Final Four matchup with Duke. His comments are below:
On what changed for Michigan between January and March?
Crean: "I think what Tom did is what we all want to do. He managed the distractions of his team, whether it was the injuries, whether it was somebody not playing as well. Travis Trice really got on point, not just as a point guard but on point with what he needed to do to be a leader on that team. He played with even more confidence. He's always had a sense of confidence based on the size that he had, but really this year, he took it to another place during the Big Ten (season). I think the fact that Branden Dawson has been up and down in some areas, he's starting to really play at a good place. He didn't even play in the last game of the regular season against us, they win the game by two and then they go into the Big Ten tournament and, a week before, people were questioning where they were at. Well, Branden had something to do with that. All of a sudden, Branden is playing so much better. To me, the constant has been Denzel Valentine. I think he has continued to steady the ship when the other guys may not be playing as well. Now that they're playing so well, Denzel can be the multi-dimensional big-time versatile player that he is."
On what the Spartans are doing better defensively:
Crean: "I think that (Bryn) Forbes — I think the advantage that Forbes gives them now is not only do you have to be aware of him when he's shooting the ball, but you have to screen him. You've got to be able to shake him and you've got to be able to play around him now in the sense that he's not the weak link defensively. I think that's been a big, big step for them. But they're inside presence is good. No matter who he puts in there, they're going to be forceful down low, they're going to rebound, they're going to defensive rebound in a big way and I think the thing that they do — he's adjusted so much. He's always been an elbow helper, where he always gets up into those elbows, but they're doing such a great job of making that pass tough to the corner. So the length of a Valentine and the way that Dawson has improved; they make it really, really hard for you to run your offense anywhere on the side. If you get it into the corner, now you're dealing with more length. So I think they just really adjusted to shrinking the floor even more than usual for him."
On helping build Michigan State in the 1990s:
Crean: "There's no question it was the rebounding drills and the toughness that went inside of that. The thing that Tom (Izzo) did from the very beginning was we were never going to not have at least 15 or 30 minutes of defensive breakdown drills. No matter what we did with the fastbreak, no matter what we did with the set plays, and he's been tremendous with execution after timeouts for a long time, but they were never going to not have a day where we didn't do 15-to-30 minutes of breakdown. So guys like Charlie Bell, when they come in at a young age and they're really not ready to guard, all of a sudden as the year goes on he's one of the best defenders on the team, along with Mateen (Cleaves) in the backcourt because he knew how to maneuver so many different ways. When you look at the toughness level that Mateen and Antonio (Smith) brought, it made Morris Peterson tougher, it made Charlie Bell tougher and, all of a sudden, there weren't any weak links. Tom's done a great job of that."


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THIS was a day to remember, a day upon which Brett Lee made a startling first appearance for his country and Sachin Tendulkar stood alone at the crease defying formidable odds, and with courage and skill keeping his wicket intact.
It was a glorious confrontation between old and new, mighty and promising, an expression of the great gifts of the game, the brilliance of batsmanship, the excitement of pace and the powers needed to reach the gods. Meanwhile, a superb leg-spinner bowled with artistry and cunning as he pursued his own landmark. It wasn't a day to stay in bed. There haven't been many better.
Lee was a revelation. Thrown the ball as samosa-time approached and showing not the slightest inhibition, Lee began by bursting through Sadagopan Ramesh's loosely constructed defence with his fourth ball, whereupon the orange-topped paceman celebrated with undisguised joy. Probably he did not know that the previous Australian to strike with his fourth delivery was Fred Freer, later to make his name as a footballer with Carlton.
Recalled for a second spring-heeled spell from the pavilion end as the wind shifted around, Lee struck again as India's first drop fiddled at a ball too fast to permit an opportunity to think again. It was a fine start by a young man prepared to be himself in this most intimidating arena. Already Lee had shown his spirit by losing his wicket as fast bowlers ought, swiping at something subtle and lifting it into the clouds. Immediately the crowd took him to its heart.
Soon Lee was rested. Throughout he resembled a colt running a few furlongs for the fun of it. Recalled to the crease in the gloaming, Lee responded with the fiercest spell of the match, an explosion of athleticism and endeavour that destroyed the Indian innings. First he broke through Mannava Prasad's push with a fast inswinger that did not bother with such minor matters as bouncing and instead went straight to the stumps like some guided missile.
Seeing the wicket broken, the crowd roared. Lee is the sort of bowler popular in the public seats. He excites people with the incisiveness of his approach, with a vitality inevitably missing from more seasoned practitioners who've seen a thing or two and nowadays rely upon attrition and craft. Lee is not an innocent he comes from Wollongong way but he has the enthusiasm of youth. Also, his style is simple. He's been blessed with pace, a most precious gift and not to be wasted upon timid souls.
Lee struck again a couple of paragraphs later, removing Ajit Agarkar with another searing inswinger that crashed through the batsman's defence in a manner that brooked no argument. Nor was that all.
Lee was smoking and promptly greeted Javagal Srinath with a flyer that the lugubrious paceman could not subdue. Immediately Anil Kumble was struck on the helmet by another lifting delivery from a man whose run-up was long and smooth and whose action seems natural and not affected by any kink.
As it turned out, Kumble had no intention of surrendering his wicket lightly.
Meanwhile, Tendulkar stood firm like St Paul's Cathedral in the blitz. Any fool can score runs against tame bowling. Anyone can impress in easy circumstances. Like a true champion, Tendulkar rises in the tightest corners. He, too, had to keep an eye on Lee's yorkers and took evasive action as the speedster flung down a bumper. It was a tremendous struggle between them, as the master craftsman fought tooth and nail while the gregarious youngster streamed in.
Tendulkar alone could resist the force of this fierce assault. He seemed to be playing in a different match from anyone else except Sourav Ganguly. Unaffected by the wickets tumbling around him, and realising the need to push the score along, Tendulkar moved from caution to aggression as he launched a breathtaking attack upon the bowling. Eight long years ago he appeared in this land as a teenager with superb skills and enough spirit to fuel an entire team. Now he has reappeared as a man bearing responsibility and carrying it lightly, for he does not allow any situation to be his master. When Tendulkar reached his hundred the entire crowd rose in acclamation. His dismissal brought the crowd to its feet a second time.
It had been the perfect day. The visiting champion had scored a century, and a new fast bowler had arrived upon the scene.
This article was first published by Fairfax Media on December 28, 1999


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Flying Cars Are Coming Soon And They Will Force Us To Rethink Transportation
Christopher Benek
In the next decade the average commute time may decrease significantly.
That is because by 2023, Uber plans to have flying taxis. And if their plan comes to fruition, it is going to force humanity to reconsider how we implement global transportation.
In 2018, Uber hosted their first summit in Los Angeles, California to supercharge their airborne initiatives. The event, aptly named the Uber Elevate summit, joined 700 key players from industry, government and academia to discuss how to make Uber's aerial goals a reality. Interestingly enough, Uber is initiating these conversations, not because they want to actually build flying cars, but because they want to continue to do what they do now - connect passengers to their taxi service.
According to Wired Magazine, for flying transportation to most effectively work for Uber, they need a variety of manufacturers to build flying cars that they can then enlist into its taxi model. As a way of facilitating such future development, Uber used their initial summit as a neutral sandbox where people can share ideas to try and produce concepts that will speed up flying car production. To provide an initial point of iteration, Uber even designed a common reference model of the kinds of vehicles that they would like to see created.
Uber Unveils the Flying Taxi It Wants to Rule the Skies
The catamaran-like electric concept is the sort of vehicle Uber wants to integrate into a flying taxi network—it just needs other people to build the thing.
By 2023, Uber Elevate plans to have a flying taxi service to and from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and Los Angeles. They are currently estimating, based on their concept, the flying cars will travel between 150-200 miles per hour and will be electrically charged for up to 60 miles. Typical charging time will be as little as five minutes and the cars will ultimately be autonomous. While Uber's goal might seem far-fetched, other companies like Airbus and Workhorse are presently in the testing stages of usable flying cars.
Uber to Launch 'Flying Taxis' in LA and Dallas-Fort Worth by 2023
Uber plans to start offering "flying taxi" service in Los Angeles and the Dallas-Forth Worth area by 2023 the company announced last week.
Such increasing innovations pose numerous considerations for humanity. How will air traffic – planes, flying cars, drones, etc. be regulated in the future? Will flying cars be restricted to current roadways or will they be permitted to take more efficient, direct routes? Will such vehicles be permitted to traverse over residential areas? Will insurance providers insure such vehicles or will such insurance make them cost prohibitive?
All of these questions and many more will require consideration from governments, entrepreneurs, investors and the general public to provide the most safe, efficient and economical flying cars possible.
Reality Changing Observations:
Q1: How do you see flying cars impacting society, as you know it?
Q2: If cost effective, would you be willing to use a flying car?
Q3: If you would be willing to use a flying car, how do you think it would benefit you the most?


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Ludlow Employment Lawyers
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Springfield, MA 01103
University of Connecticut School of Law
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Ben has successfully litigated claims of employment harassment and employment discrimination based on sex, race, disability, pregnancy, age, and sexual orientation. Ben has successfully resolved claims involving employers who retaliate against employees for complaining about unlawful activity. A large portion of Ben's practice consists of representing clients regarding complicated wage-and-hour issues arising under both state and federal law. Ben also has significant experience in the non-compete, non-disclosure, non-solicit, and trade secret context.
Prior to opening Steffans Legal Ben represented both employers and employees in employment claims. As a result, Ben...
Springfield, MA 01103
Springfield, MA 01105
Springfield, MA 01105
Springfield, MA 01103
I have significant experience in the defense of liability claims against property owners, retailers, product manufacturers and suppliers, and professional services providers, as well as contract claims, civil rights and insurance coverage claims.
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Amherst, MA 01002
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I received my B.S. from Wittenberg University in 2005. In 2010, I obtained my J.D. from Western New England University School of Law. I am a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, American Bar Association, Hampden County Bar Association, Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, Hampshire County Bar Association, and Intellectual Property Law Association. Additionally, I have been honored by...
Amherst Center, MA 01002
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I enjoy working with clients in all aspects of risk...
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McGill Law
If you are a Landlord or a Tenant that does not know what to do, I have the answers you need.
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Prior to joining GSK&G, Darren worked as an Assistant Public Defender with the Rhode Island Office of the Public Defender. In this position, he represented hundreds of clients facing criminal charges in state courts in Providence, Kent, and Newport Counties. His legal expertise, insight, and analytical skills resulted...
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Mr. Murphy graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and from Columbia Law School where he was a James Kent Scholar and the Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
Mr. Murphy is a member of the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,...
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Problems in the workplace?
Employment law governs the relationship between workers and their employers. This law, contained in federal and state statutes, administrative regulations, and judicial decisions, specifies the rights and restrictions applicable to each party in the workplace.
This area of law regulates such issues as employee benefits, discipline, hiring, firing, leave, payroll, and health and safety in the workplace. It also encompasses non-compete agreements, retaliation, severance, unemployment compensation, pensions, whistle-blowing, worker classification, wage garnishment, work authorization for non-U.S. citizens, worker's compensation, and employee handbooks.
Both federal and state laws govern the relationship between employees and employers. Federal laws such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibit employers from discriminating against employees based on certain characteristics. Many states have enacted their own laws similar to federal ones (and sometimes are more stringent). Cities and counties also can enact ordinances that affect employee rights, such as local minimum wage laws.
Employment lawyers can choose to accept only employees as clients, only employers, or both. Some attorneys focus on a specific area of employment law, such as workers' compensation, whistleblowing or discrimination, but many can handle a wide range of employment law issues.
Essential job functions: The fundamental job duties of the employment position that the individual with a disability holds or desires. The term essential functions does not include marginal functions of the position.
Exempt employee: An employee who is not entitled to the minimum wage or overtime pay protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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There really were a ton of these Hostess ads published between 1975 and 1981. I keep finding more, and I haven't even gotten into the Marvel series yet. I think I've mentioned this, but I still think it's really funny how on the one hand, since DC writers and artists took the time to script and draw these full page comic ads starring all the major (and some minor) comic characters, that DC would seem to be fully behind the Hostess product. I mean it's one thing to sell ad space, but to have the ad feature so much of the creative DC content, it just screams that DC endorses Hostess. When you think of it, the modern equivalent would be something like a series of say Frito Lay commercials starring the cast of C.S.I Las Vegas, set in their world with the crew trying to find corn chip thieves based on analysis of snack food finger dust or something.
But still, on the other hand, these DC characters never ever come into contact with any unwrapped Hostess product, and if a villain does, then it's invariably one created specifically for these ads, ala Cat Man or something. It actually sort of makes a statement for anti-advertising, where subconsciously maybe kids think that the product isn't all that good because it's obviously not good enough to cross Batman's lips. Of course, much like bad press, I'm sure negative advertising is just as good as any other advertising, getting the word out in any manner possible. I've had this argument a lot, but I tend to fully agree that even the most vile and annoying commercial is doing it's job well, because that one time you need that product it's the first thing you'll think of. There are these horrible jewelry store ads all over the radio here in Atlanta (much like everywhere else I assume) that make me want to strangle the store owners, all of 'em, but I guarantee that the first time I ever needed to (I say need but I mean want) buy a ring or something that would be the first place I went even though I'm sure there are plenty of independent jewelers that have fine product. I think I prefer my product placement/food ads to lean in the other direction. Like in the horrible Ghost Rider movie for instance, when Nic Cage/Johnny Blaze is promoting Jelly Belly jelly beans, he really promotes the hell out of 'em. Eats the damn things by the bucketful and everything.
Anyway, this is all beside the point, which is discussing the third volume in the Essential Hostess Ads series, of course this time focusing on Fruit Pies. Though I associate Hostess with Twinkies, their line of Fruit Pies must have been a huge part of their business at the time considering their large range of flavors, at least six during the 70's (apple, cherry, blueberry, blackberry, lemon, and peach.) It's also kind of interesting that the company focused only their Twinkies, Cupcakes, and Fruit Pies, but neglected the Ding Dongs, HoHos, and Chocodiles. I mean since a Chocodile is basically a chocolate covered Twinkie you'd think that, that would make for some awesome DC comics adventures, if not a nice twist on the villain speech, mixing dark, chocolate, creamed, and golden into a thousand possible combinations (or maybe just sixteen.) So before I write the encyclopedia Britannica of my thoughts on Hostess comic ads, lets get into the meat, er, real fruit filling of this week's Essential Hostess volume.
Ah Clark, you sly bastard, you filled your closet with fruit pies. Obviously it would be insane for a dude to have a Superman costume in his closet, but a boatload of fruit pies? Standard operating procedure. At least he didn't spin the world around backwards to make the "spy" forget, or kiss him. Man, all my knowledge of Superman is pretty much derived from that first Donner film.
Batman and the Captive Commissioner 1976
First off, Robin sure is being lewd in that first panel. Real, Deep, Big trouble is it Robin? Is it a Hot, Sticky, Load of trouble as well? Now did the writer of this comic just previously lean the definition of Svengali, because he sure goes to pains to both define it and massacre the reference all at the same time. I know I looked it up, because I'm a dork and I was tied of hearing the reference and not knowing exactly what it meant. This comic is also another perfect example of how Hostess Fruit Pies did absolutely nothing to help save the day, yet everyone seems to think otherwise. Apparently Batman can't knock out two thugs without the help of real fruit and tender crust that you just wouldn't believe.
Penguin in the Cuckoo Cuckoos 1976
What the hell is going on in this ad? There are ideas flying all over the place, the dissident cuckoos, hell, cuckoo clocks with talons and wings, double hell, talking cuckoo clocks with talons and wings, no super heroes with closets full of Hostess Pies, the police actually thwarting the Penguin? Jezz this thing is all over the place. Also what's up with the last panel full of cats and stuff? This is just the first of a slew of villain starring Hostess Fruit Pie ads, so I guess that flaky tender crust must bring out the flaky tender headed evil of the DC universe…
Batman in The Whole World's Upside Down 1977
Okay, this now wins, hands down, as my favorite DC Hostess ad of all time. Where do I begin commenting on this masterpiece of literature? I know that if I had the power to completely flip perception, gravity and the laws of physics as Mr. Topsy Turvy Man apparently can, I'd spend my days picking up loose change and fruit pies. Actually let me get this straight. Now, it's not that TT man is upside down and floating in the air, it's that he's managed to flip the entire earth upside down, gravity-wise I assume as it's kind of impossible to flip the earth upside down since there really is no up and down in space, I mean as I'm right side up in the US right now, Asia is technically "upside down" at the same time. So he has the unique ability to make everyone perceive that they are upside down by creating a second source of gravity working on the body, one that concentrates on clothing and one's sense of balance, while not disrupting the normal gravity that keeps people grounded on earth. So in reality, he is floating upside down and all fruit pies and loose change are losing gravity and floating up, and since he's upside down he can catch them, making him, well, the worst criminal in the history of stupid villains. I feel like I did after trying to describe Donnie Darko to a friend. This whole comic would have made so much more sense if TT man was making ladies skirts fly up around their heads or something.
By the way, that dumb kid never lost hold of his damn fruit pie so he should just shut his, well pie hole.
Green Lantern in the Fruit Pie Scene 1977
Two panels into this Green Lantern ad and I had high hopes. Already the writer has made both an awesome homage to a brilliant film (Bride of Frankenstein) and one of the worst "name explanation" gags ever. It started out with a high camp bang, and I was hoping it'd just get all John Waters from there, but alas it ended pretty weak. So Green Lantern's ring can just bigify him and the others? Well what can't it do then? Also, I'm getting to point where I believe that the DC universe of cities is populated by idiotic dorks that have no idea what they are talking about. They couldn't eat their fruit pies because they were small and their mouths were not large enough to bite into that tasty tender crust to get to all of that real fruit filling? Well, weren't the pies shrunk-ified as well? I didn't see those guys straddling giant fruit pies in those jars. I guess this strip was just gnitnioppasid (spell that backwards to see how I feel.)
Joker in the Cornered Clown 1977
The fruit pies are really starting to bring the evil side of the DC universe out to play as we get the first ad starring the Joker. Now even though they probably can't have him winning in this ad, I thought it would have been so cool to see this ruse work. I mean honestly, the reverse is true for most of the other ads. Throw a maniacal villain a fruit pie and he's libel to not only stop the crime he's committing but also put himself in handcuffs just to get at the damn flaky crusts and real fruit filling.
Also, on a side note, the first panel just reminds me of Spielberg's quest to ungunify the E.T. movie. Guns are neat, an this Hostess fruit pie ad shows how pointless it is to have cops standing around with walkie talkies instead of 12 gauge shotguns. I mean these awesome flatfoots managed to hold their rifles, eat some fruit pies AND catch the Joker (possibly with other limbs that weren't featured), all without seeming menacing, so I call bunk on you Spielberg.
Aquaman Mera Meets the Manta Men 1978
Sigh. So like why is this an Aquaman comic? Shouldn't it be an Aqualad and Mera comic? That is Aqualad right? There's just so much wrong with this comic. First we have some really pointless narration that says exactly what the characters will say, then there are Manta Men emitting deadly stun blows that work as mind control on sharks (jeez, couldn't they just pick a type of ray to emit, I mean these are neither deadly or stunning, they just blow), all of which is followed by the coupe de grace of a giant hand materializing out of water (I'll buy that as Mera's power), but where in the hell did the fruit pies come into the picture? Okay, so there are fruit pies as well, but aren't they freaking soggy underwater? You know, I believe I can think of about a million better things to do with my fingers, hands and mouth than eat fruit pies, Manta Men. I hate this ad.
Batman in the Corsair of Crime 1978
HA! Finally, a mainstay DC character eating a damn fruit pie! I can see that the artist on this piece was a maverick.
Joker, Joker, Joker, is crime paying off so badly that you have to stoop so low as to audition for the freaking Gotham circus? At least we get a tale of revenge in this fruit pie ad from 1978. Too bad there weren't clowns dying akimbo in mass amounts of real fruit filling, now that would have made for an exploitation masterpiece. Instead we get a very cinematic story where the plot is told in monologue flashback and we see that the Joker never had a chance. Um, so exactly how does this work. See apparently the Joker hates him some fruit pies. So since Joker didn't accept any deliciously tender and flaky pastry, and thus wasn't distracted, when exactly did these clowns switch darts on him? I wish the ending was worth the amount of plot they put in this ad.
Joker in Laugh, Clown, Laugh 1978
In this second Joker ad from 1978 we had a writer that totally screwed the pooch on the previous built up of the back-story on Joker's feelings towards fruit pies. Doesn't he hate fruit pies? Why would he be so glad he kept some at the end? Has that dude in the crown never seen five clowns all together at once? These questions sadly have no answers. Oh well.
And on this sad note, I'll end our investigation of this installment of the Essential Hostess Ads Vol. 3: Fruit Pies. Fear not though, because I have unearthed enough material for 3 more volumes of DC Hostess ads, not to mention at least as many posts on the Marvel ads (I don't think that's the sound of rejoicing I hear), so I'm sure we'll continue this dialogue another day.


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Happy New Year's Eve and wishing you a very Happy New Year!We put our sweet little ones to bed and started celebrating the end of this year and the beginning of 2017… Today, Jemma had said, "it's fun to eat dessert." And I couldn't say it better! Although for me, without a doubt, if it's a celebration, cheese is to be included -and so it was. My family. My home. It's a place of rest, a haven, a place of magic… where ever I go, I step on magical flowers that spring up after I pass unknowingly over them…the ones Jemma watered while dancing just moments before…I walk through a stage full of beautiful dancers, I teach a ballet class, and sometimes I turn into a doctor or nurse… whatever role I play- it's a fantastic one. And so I wish that your world may too be a colorful and magical one. You might not clearly see what's around you or under your step, but it's there.
À part of my heart celebrates- is full of joy and gratitude to the One who gives. Another part of my heart cries, is saddened for the ones who are in pain, hurt, struggle… it's hard to just laugh without a thought to what else is out there. But the solace and comfort I have is that our God is a good God and he has all in His hands… and what brings tears to many will someday be no more!


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Pope to commission Cathedral rector 'missionary of mercy'
Father John Ubel, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, is about to become one of Pope Francis' Missionaries of Mercy.
On Feb. 8, two days before Ash Wednesday, Father Ubel will travel to Rome and be part of a group of about 800 priests throughout the world that will be commissioned by Pope Francis at an Ash Wednesday Mass 5 p.m. Feb. 10 at St. Peter's Basilica.
"I'm really honored," Father Ubel said. "I think that what will happen on Ash Wednesday will be a real sign of the universality of the Church."
When Pope Francis announced the Year of Mercy, he noted that he intended to send out missionaries of mercy as part of the jubilee. "They will be a sign of the Church's maternal solicitude for the people of God, enabling them to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith," he wrote in "Misericordiae Vultus," the bull of indiction announcing the jubilee. "There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the Father's readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon."
Father Ubel didn't apply for the role, and he isn't sure who nominated him. He also isn't certain what specifically he will do as a Missionary of Mercy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, but he is aware that the designation will allow him to remit canonical penalties associated with certain serious sins, such as abortion. More than that, he thinks it will be a chance for him to make mercy more visible in the Church and from the pulpit.
"[Pope Francis] wants these priests to be able to preach mercy, he wants them to be heralds of joy and forgiveness," Father Ubel said. "If this is what he is asking us to do, then the first thing I'm going to do is ask myself a question: Am I a herald of joy? Am I a herald of forgiveness? And, if not, why not? Or, how can I do so better?"
Father Ubel sees his role as being an ambassador for the pope in terms of mercy. One practical aspect is hearing confessions, which he does six days a week at the Cathedral — 4-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 3:30-5 p.m. Saturday.
"It's a sacrament that has always been a very important part of my priesthood," he said. "Already, since the start of the Year of Mercy, we have seen a significant uptick in the number of people who have availed themselves of the sacrament of penance. It's already clear that this is having an effect."
And, it doesn't end with receiving absolution, he noted. It continues with showing mercy to others.
"I want people to know it's really a two-way street," he said. "It's our reception of God's mercy, but also our willingness to show mercy to others."
Category: Local News


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From when man first exchanged his food for a tool, the concept of business was born.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines business as "• noun 1 a person's regular occupation or trade. 2 work to be done or matters to be attended to. 3 a person's concern. 4 commercial activity. 5 a commercial organization. 6 informal a difficult or problematic matter. 7 (the business) informal an excellent person or thing. 8 actions other than dialogue in a play."
The business of trade is something in which the vast majority of us live our lives, to some it is a career we climb or trap of work we cannot escape.
Business is the world as we know it, grown in degrees through the ages. It is the selling of an item or an idea, a bond between more than one party, whether that be a villager bartering goats milk for rice or a global bank agreeing to fund a country's debt.
Man's spirit of enterprize shows no bounds. During the industrial revolution we built bridges, roads and railways of such magnitude that a generation before thought impossible. Now we are in the virtual revolution, where business is measured in seconds and billions move around the world via satellite and optical technology.
Business pushed our pioneers and explorers to new horizons, discovering new cultures, countries and of course riches to be traded. Ultimately proving the world wasn't flat after all!
Like it or not, our desire to earn money has created the society we live in, from amazing medical advances and cures, to increased food production and even the ability to fly.
An inventor's purest idea and genius is always monetized, an artist's masterpiece is traded and collected, a musician's composition is recorded and sold.
In our society we can categorize business into the following:
Agriculture and Land - Using the land and its product to farm or extract raw materials
Manufacturing - Turning raw products into an item that can be sold
Retail and Distribution - Selling manufactured goods and food
Finance and Banking - Management of capital used for investment and other services
Transportation - Delivery and logistical planning of the delivery of goods
Real Estate / Property - Ownership of land and construction of buildings and infrastructure
Utilities - Public services and essential supplies such as Gas, Water and Electricity
Information Management - Profit from intellectual property which could be anything from software development, a movie script, a weapons defense system and everything in between.
Business does indeed make the world go round. Business is our conscience and the nature of who we are. It is our duty for the next generation to find the balance of our base desire to trade and improve our lifestyle while at the same time protecting our environment and look after the resources that remain.
From when man first exchanged his food for a tool, the concept of business was born.


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This DIY Rustic Wedding Guest Book will have your guests talking and looks like you paid a handmade artisan big bucks for!
When I got married 13 years ago I DIY'd as much as possible. My now husband and I paid for most of our own wedding so we put my creativity to the test to help keep costs down. I made our invitations, wedding pamphlets, bouquets, and boutonnieres, to name a few. And luckily it's inherited because my mom made my wedding dress!
If you're like me, you'll DIY as much as possible to save as many pennies as you can. A lot of the accessories that go along with a wedding can be made by hand at much less cost and much more creatively.
One item you can definitely DIY is the guest book and sign in table! This rustic wedding guest book can be filled with handwritten messages on wood slices and hung in the new couples home after the wedding as memories for years to come. It looks like something you would spend big bucks on from a handmade artisan, but you can make it for ~$35!
Faux succulents
Scrapbook paper
Small wood slices
Wood heart pallet (Old Time Pottery)
If you turn the pallet heart over to the back you will see a recessed space. This is actually the side of the pallet we will be working with. It will create a perfect shadowbox!
First things first, unscrew the hanger. We'll cover the hole up shortly.
We are going to cover the "shadowbox" with scrapbook paper so we need to make it "see through" which we are going to do by covering the paper in small 1/2″ circles. The wood slices that are going to go in the shadowbox are pretty small (or I would have covered the pallet with chicken wire) but will not slip through 1/2″ holes. This can be achieved with a die cut machine, which is what I used, or you can find a 1/2″ circle punch that is not restricted to the edge of paper.
Create rows of 1/2″ circles all over a sheet of 12×12 scrapbook paper.
Place the paper face down on your work surface. Place the pallet face down on top of the scrapbook paper and trace the edge with a pencil.
Cut out the heart approximately 1/2″ inside the line you traced. Center it on the back of the pallet and glue down the edge, except for one corner of the heart. Leave this part loose so that the wood slices can be slipped inside. It can be glued down after the wedding.
Use a hot glue gun to add lace around the edge of the paper to hide it. Be sure to not glue down the corner that is going to stay open.
Trim the succulent stems to your desired length. Wrap ends with twine, hot gluing as you go. Hot glue and tie together the two succulents and wrap in lace. Glue to the side of the pallet.
Set up a bowl or basket for the wood slices and thin-tip Sharpies to write on them. Decorate the basket with more scrapbook paper. Add a pot of real succulents to dress up the table. The greeting is from the same scrapbook paper back as the other papers. I simply mounted it on a Popsicle stick and stuck it in the flower pot.
As guests sign their names on the wood slices, the guest book attendant can slip them into the shadowbox.
While the newlyweds are on their honeymoon have someone finish gluing down the paper and lace to complete the guest book.
This rustic wedding guest book will become a special keepsake that the new couple can hang in their new home.
Linking up to Flamingo Toes, Today's Creative Blog, Tidymom, My Repurposed Life,
Tatertots & Jello, and other great parties found on my party page.


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If you are a Level 3 Forest School leader then it is essential that you keep your first aid qualification up to date with renewals every three years.
We offer the Forest School First Aid (ITC) which takes 16 hours of learning, delivered over 2 days.
This outdoor focused course has been developed to suit Forest School practitioners, as well as other people who take groups into the outdoors such as school or nursery staff, Duke of Edinburgh supervisors, youth workers, play leaders, Scout and Guide leaders and countryside management staff. This year we have updated the course to include Paediatric first aid as well.
The course covers emergency first aid and incident management as well as first aid for young children and adults. There is an emphasis on activities that could lead to incidents in the outdoors.
As you might expect, part of this course is delivered outside, so please come with appropriate clothing for the conditions.
Our next course will be held on 28th and 29th September 2020. If you are interested in booking a place then please do get in touch as we can only take a limited number.
The Forest School First Aid course will take place at Rosliston Forestry Centre in Derbyshire in the heart of the Midlands, which is easily accessible from locations across Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
It is priced at £140 per attendee, which includes ITC First certification.
To book a place or find out more, please call us or contact us using our Contact us page.


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Random Restaurant
0Good luck getting through three courses at this popular chain. The portions are huge, the waitstaff is friendly, and the Bloomin' Onion has never been better
Please login to leave a review for this restaurantPlease login to leave a review for this restaurant
Dinner Tu-Th 5pm-10pm
Fri-Sat 5pm-10:30
Sun noon-9pm
Lime Leaf Thai
1958 Rio Hill Center, Charlottesville, VA
$26-40 (average dinner bill for 2 excluding alcohol)
We've heard great things about this Thai place with chef specials like soft shell crab, pasta seafood, and kapao catfish along with traditional Thai dishes. Carryout and catering also available.
The HooK
CUISINEFar east
NEIGHBORHOODRoute 29 North
HOURSLunch Tu-Sat 11am-3pm
Dinner Tu-Th 5pm-10pm
Fri-Sat 5pm-10:30
Sun noon-9pm


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This may have come up before but I have searched and haven't found any extensions yet that can do this. For products options, 1.5.4 only lets us use the + and - modifiers to adjust the weight, price, cost and points in the Option section. Has anyone created an extension that changes the inputs so that we can just enter the actual values instead? For example, I have a product that has two sizes, 2 oz. and 4 oz. I'd like to be able to enter the actual weights and prices of these options rather than have to add to the base data values on the main product. I did just install the Options Modify Product Dimensions extensions which allows us to set dimensions on product options. This extension adds an = modifier so that we can type in the actual dimensions. Something similar to this functionality would work for the price, weight, cost, and points modifiers I would think. I appreciate any help you can give. Thanks!
I did find this extension http://zuma-design.com/custom-input-option by Zuma Design that appears to allow this functionality. It looks like it adds the = modifier for the price, weight, cost and points options. I'm waiting for a response from the developer to make sure it does what I expect. If anyone has any other solutions that do this, I'd still love to hear them. Thanks.
It turns out that Custom Input Option doesn't do exactly what I had expected. I did just find Option Values Equals Sign (https://www.opencart.com/index.php?rout ... n_id=20200) which DOES do what I need. Thanks.
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Also known as: A commercial, part 1
Yesterday I finally set out to clean out some of the plastic bags in my room where it's been in the same state ever since we moved back to the house. This made my mom slightly happier at the state of my room and my OC tendencies slightly pleased too because there were two less plastic bags in my room.
But this isn't a Housekeeping post. While I did clean out some things and I basically organized some books, I found something else entirely interesting too: old journals. Some coming from 1998, if you will believe it. :P I had a grand time flipping through some of them and laughing at how petty some of my concerns were. And how stupid I sounded. Ah, journals, the perfect time machine.
Anyway, I had to laugh at how much I exaggerate things, too. Case in point, sometime in 2001, I wrote this:
This depression thing is very new to me. I'm somewhat always been in the verge of depression, but never truly depressed. That's why I'm writing on you, maybe I can release my depression so I can function properly again.
And I really don't want to be depressed. I bet this isn't even major depression, and I don't want to be depressed.
Say what, 15 year old me?
Anyway, I highly doubt that was depression anyway, but just
good old teenage angst. I can't believe I used that term so much back then, especially since depression is a serious thing. I haven't experienced it and I don't know someone who have experienced it, but I know that it's something that should not be dismissed. Imagine waking up everyday and facing a black hole that you just don't want to move. (Of course, I'm writing that line based on a book I read that had a depressed character, not because I had firsthand experience)
I found this really nifty infographic (Sidenote: I am loving infographs lately) about depression, and it has pretty much all the basic info needed about this condition, be it for yourself or someone you know. I guess I should be careful with using that word now — sometimes, these bouts of sadness are really just leftover angst.
Via: Canada Drug Center


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Below are the available bulk discount rates for each individual item when you purchase a certain amount
Anemone 'Curtain Call Deep Rose' PPAF (20)ct Flat Common Name: Japanese Anemone, winlowers.
Anemone is one of the final performers in your garden for the growing season. Beginning in late summer, this perennial produces dark rose pink flowers that are positioned right above a small mound of green foliage. The flowers are fuller than single, producing a double row of petals. Its shorter stature lends itself well to containers, both as monoculture and in combination with other perennials. It spreads by underground rhizomes.
Height: 14 to 18 Inches; Spread: 16 to 180 InchesHardiness Zones: 4 - 8Flower Color: Pink shades; Foliage Color: Green shadesFull Sun to Part Shade Average to Consistent Water NeedsBloomtime: Late Summer - Early FallAttracts ButterfliesDeer and Rabbit ResistantGrowth Rate: MediumBorder Plant, Cut Flower, Cut Foliage, Mass Planting
Twenty (20) plants per flat (or tray). Approximate Plug Measurements: 3.25 inches deep x 2.6 inches wide.
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Richard came into town to visit Jenny so yesterday we woke up and went to:
Kumori Sushi & Teppanyaki
700 East Sonterra Blvd. Suite 308
San Antonio, TX 78258
(210) 853 – 2001
The atmosphere was really peaceful. I'm actually do not remember what songs they were playing but the decorations were so simple. It was bright in there too because of all the sunlight shining through which is what I like. Better than restaurants with a romantic ambiance.
They started off by giving us a Miso Soup [a soy bean paste soup with scallions, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and seaweed] | free. If you were to order it, it would cost $1.79. It was really good. It's such a simple soup but a lot of places tend to mess it up when they add a little of their "something something" so this was just perfect.
Jenny and Richard ordered the Hiyashi Wakame | $4.99. It's pretty much a seaweed salad. At other Japanese restaurants they give you a about half a cup but this place piles it on! It's amazing because this stuff costs a lot. Jenny and I have been thinking about buying a whole box to eat. We are in love with this stuff.
Our waitress then proceeded to give us some sauces. Let's start from the top with the little tin tea pot: Lemon Soy Sauce (I couldn't really taste the lemon but more of the soy sauce. Maybe I didn't get enough? I don't know. It was definitely not a favorite.), Hot Sauce (My favorite. The first time I dipped my sushi in there it tasted a little funky. Kind of sweet, kind of spicy. But after a few times, I got addicted. Please Kumori, teach me!), Spicy Mayo (This is like any other sauce they use for their sushi. It's delicious, but I know it has to be fattening. Mayo? Come on! But we did use a bit of it.), and Eel Sauce (Theirs is kind of weird. It was very watered down. I'm use to the thick dark eel sauce from other Japanese restaurants. We didn't use much of this.).
What's this you ask? It's so cute, right? I know!! This is the Hand Grenade [fresh sushi rice wrapped with shrimp and nori seaweed, topped with fresh scallop and spicy mayonnaise, baked and drizzled with our special sweet soy sauce] | $2.99. This was my favorite out of everything I ate that day. It costs a lot and I would probably need to order fifteen to get full but I would so go back to get just this! Oh, if it counts for anything, Richard said it's his favorite too.
You can see Richard is already trying to cut through it. This is the Jalapeno Firecracker [fresh jalapeno stuffed with crab cream cheese, tempura fried and drizzled with our spicy mayonnaise and special sweet soy sauce] | $1.99. I actually did not get to taste this but Jenny kept saying it was very spicy so Richard had to finish it up for her. They said it wasn't that great either.
The sushi started rolling out. First up, Fried Philly Roll [fresh salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber, tempura and topped with sweet soy and scallions] | $6.49. This tastes like a regular Philadelphia roll but fried. It was very good though. And I liked how the sauce made the fried part look like a zebra. Cute.
Next up we have the Fiji Roll [crab, cream cheese, tempura crumbs, tempura with spicy crab on top] | $7.19. I guess what made this so expensive is all the crab. It wasn't the ones that were preserved but real crab. It was delicious. I actually liked this one better than the Fried Philly Roll.
The next two are ordered by Jenny and Richard. This one is the Plaza Roll [salmon, tuna, white fish and avocado, tempura and topped with masago, scallions, spicy mayo and sweet sauce] | $10.99. This was so worth the price. So much fish in one bite! Esp with the masago, it makes it amazing. I would buy masago by the bowl and just eat it there. Ha … only for the rich. I can't do that.
The last one on the list is the Kalypso Roll [sashimi grade salmon, cream cheese, and crab topped with shrimp, avocado, and masago] | $7.69. I did not get to try this (they offered) but it seemed to be good. Richard seemed to like it a while lot. Sadly as you can see in the picture, I don't see any masago anywhere.
This was a great experience. It was a real sushi experience. Usually when I get sushi I get a bento box or a sushi ship. This was something different. After this we went to watch The Green Hornet. I suggest you make it to the theater. It's a great funny movie.


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I detest the New York City subway system with all my heart. But this story actually put a smile on my face because one random guy did what a person is supposed to do: help a pregnant woman out by giving up a seat.
During Yvonne Lin's first pregnancy, she figured she would hand out a nice card to any man who offered her a seat, but unfortunately no one earned the card. So during her second pregnancy, she decided to up the ante and went out and designed a statue to give out.
According to DNAinfo, it took eight months into her pregnancy for Lin to hand out her "Decent Dude" award. On Feb. 24 on the A train, Lin ran into Mr. Decent Dude.
"He looked up at me and looked super startled and embarrassed, and he immediately stood up and said, 'Please take this seat; I just noticed,'" Lin told DNAinfo.
The anonymous man is a father of two, and smiled as Lin took his photo. Now, that's a decent dude. Can we clone him?


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Slow Clap
Megan Garber gives an exceptionally detailed breakdown of applause in this essay, which analyzes the history and evolution of the everyday gesture.
So the subtleties of the Roman arena — the claps and the snaps and the shades of meaning — gave way, in later centuries, to applause that was standardized and institutionalized and, as a result, a little bit promiscuous. Laugh tracks guffawed with mechanized abandon. Applause became an expectation rather than a reward. And artists saw it for what it was becoming: ritual, rote.
Put your hands together for critical theory.


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Autodesk BIM 360 Ops is a mobile-first asset and maintenance management solution that enables general contractors and building owners to realize the value of BIM in building operations. General contractors transform the handover process by connecting BIM asset data created during building design and construction to building operations. Owners begin operations on day one, with a mobile-first solution and the information they need.
BIM 360 Ops was designed to get the right asset data to your maintenance personnel when they need it, where they need it.
- Ticket descriptions are streamlined and can include photos and videos
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- Clamp the outgoing electrical wire from the circuit breaker with a Panoramic Power sensor
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- Sensors monitor flow of electricity and wirelessly send real-time circuit information


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Clinical Study | Open Access
Samer Mansour, Denis-Claude Roy, Vincent Bouchard, Louis Mathieu Stevens, Francois Gobeil, Alain Rivard, Guy Leclerc, François Reeves, Nicolas Noiseux, "One-Year Safety Analysis of the COMPARE-AMI Trial: Comparison of Intracoronary Injection of CD133+ Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Placebo in Patients after Acute Myocardial Infarction and Left Ventricular Dysfunction", Bone Marrow Research, vol. 2011, Article ID 385124, 6 pages, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/385124
One-Year Safety Analysis of the COMPARE-AMI Trial: Comparison of Intracoronary Injection of CD133+ Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Placebo in Patients after Acute Myocardial Infarction and Left Ventricular Dysfunction
Bone marrow stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising approach to improve healing of the infarcted myocardium. Despite initial excitement, recent clinical trials using non-homogenous stem cells preparations showed variable and mixed results. Selected CD133+ hematopoietic stem cells are candidate cells with high potential. Herein, we report the one-year safety analysis on the initial 20 patients enrolled in the COMPARE-AMI trial, the first double-blind randomized controlled trial comparing the safety, efficacy, and functional effect of intracoronary injection of selected CD133+ cells to placebo following acute myocardial infarction with persistent left ventricular dysfunction. At one year, there is no protocol-related complication to report such as death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or sustained ventricular arrhythmia. In addition, the left ventricular ejection fraction significantly improved at four months as compared to baseline and remained significantly higher at one year. These data indicate that in the setting of the COMPARE-AMI trial, the intracoronary injection of selected CD133+ stem cells is secure and feasible in patients with left ventricle dysfunction following acute myocardial infarction.
1. Introduction
Despite improvements in survival rate after myocardial infarction (MI) with recent medical and surgical advances [1], the reduced heart function attributed to irreversible loss of viable cardiomyocytes remains a major clinical problem [2]. Intracoronary (IC) injection of progenitor cells emerged as a valuable therapeutical approach to improve healing of the ischemic heart. Despite the use of various experimental protocols with mixed cells showing mixed results [3], four recent meta-analyses of bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) transplantation in the setting of acute MI proved the feasibility and safety and demonstrated a slight but positive functional effect [4–7]. However, there is currently uncertainty as to which of the BMSC population is most potent in stimulating angiogenesis and cardiac repair. The hematopoietic CD133+ cells possess high engraftment, multipotent, and angiogenic capacity and appear to be valuable for cardiac repair in experimental myocardial infarction [8–11].
In a phase I study, Bartunek et al. tested the IC injection of CD133+ cells in patients following acute MI and demonstrated a significant improvement of the left ventricular (LV) function and perfusion as compared to controls [12]. However, they noted in the treated group an increase of coronary events with greater in-stent proliferation and larger luminal loss in the nonstented segments of the infarct-related (IR) artery [13]. Of note, these data were obtained from retrospective analysis and they lack randomized controls. Hence, we designed the COMPARE-AMI trial, the first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II single center study comparing the IC injection of CD133+ cells to placebo on the cardiac repair in patients with acute MI and persistent LV dysfunction [14, 15]. Herein, we report the one-year safety analysis on the first randomized patients.
2. Methods
2.1. Study Design and Objectives
COMPARE-AMI study is a single-center, randomized, prospective, double-arm, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II clinical trial investigating the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of the IC administration of selected autologous CD133+-enriched hematopoietic BMSC versus placebo in patients following acute MI with persistent dysfunctional myocardium despite successful catheter reperfusion. The flow chart of the trial is detailed in Figure 1. The primary end point of the study is a composite of safety and efficacy end points aiming to determine the change in the coronary atherosclerotic burden progression proximal and distal to the stented segment of the culprit artery at 4 months as compared to baseline, and the change in the left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) at 4 months relative to baseline. The secondary end points include the occurrence of a major adverse cardiac event (MACE) defined as death, MI, stroke, and target vessel revascularisation (TVR) or the occurrence of major arrhythmias defined as sustained ventricular arrhythmia or survived sudden death. Patients are followed for 2 years, and the data will be unblinded 12 months after the randomization of the last patient.
2.2. Study Population and Protocol
In brief, patients between 30 and 75 years are eligible if they presented an acute ST elevation MI successfully reperfused by means of coronary stent implantation and demonstrated a substantial persistent LV dysfunction defined by a LVEF ≤50% but ≥25% on echocardiography obtained within 48 hours after the successful reperfusion therapy. Written informed consent is obtained within 7 days after the onset of acute MI if the patient is free of any exclusion criteria such as known previous MI, cardiogenic shock, chronic cardiomyopathy, liver disease, renal failure, concomitant disease with a life expectancy of less than 1 year, alcohol or drug dependency, contraindication for bone marrow (BM) aspiration, blood transfusion in the previous 24 hours, hematopoietic disease, chronic inflammatory disease, malignancy, stroke in the previous 3 months, or transient ischemic attack in the previous 24 hours. The study protocol was approved by Health Canada (CTA 113925 and ITA 123840) and by institutional ethics review board.
Until September 2009, 20 patients were successfully enrolled in the trial. A total of 18 patients completed the 4-month followup and 13 patients reached the 1-year followup. All patients underwent BM aspiration 3 to 7 days after receiving reperfusion therapy for acute MI. An average volume of 100 mL of the BM was obtained and transferred immediately to the cell processing laboratory where patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo medium (normal saline containing 10% autologous plasma) or autologous CD133+ cells. CD133+ progenitor cells for this trial are immunomagnetically selected using the CliniMACS® system (Miltenyi Biotec GmbH) according to manufacturer's protocols. Within 12 hours of BM harvest, the study suspension is sent back to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory for IC administration in the IR artery using intermittent balloon inflation as previously described in [16]. In summary, the infusate is delivered via an over-the-wire percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty catheter over 3 min of balloon inflation within the previously placed intracoronary stent. Three minutes of reperfusion are incorporated after each cycle of cell infusion. A total of 4 cycles are given. Patients are routinely discharged 48 hours following the infusion procedure with the usual postacute MI care medications.
Myocardial functional evaluation is done with echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), left ventricular angiography, echocardiography, technetium 99 m sestamibi single photon emission computed tomography, and positron emission tomography with [17] fluorodeoxyglucose at baseline and 4 months of followup. Cardiac MRI and echocardiography are repeated at 1 year of followup.
2.3. Safety Evaluation
To determine the safety of the IC injection of CD133+ cell suspension, standard laboratory tests including white blood cells (WBC) count, C-reactive protein (CRP), creatine kinase (CK), and creatine kinase-muscle and brain (CK-MB) type and troponin T measurements were performed before, 30 and 60 minutes, 6 hours, and 24 hours after the IC injections. In addition, all patients were continuously monitored until discharge and underwent 24-hour ECG monitoring at baseline, 1, 4, and 12 months after the procedure. Furthermore, a quantitative coronary angiography, pressure-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR), and an IC ultrasonography were performed in the IR artery and a remote artery at baseline and 4-month followup.
2.4. Statistical Analysis
Baseline demographic and clinical variables were collected for all patients. Invasive and noninvasive analyses were performed by operators blinded to all clinical and other functional data. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation or median and interquartile range when appropriate. Continuous variables were analyzed using Student's -test. Fully parameterized longitudinal mixed effect models were built for echocardiographic measurement, including a coefficient for each point in time at baseline, 4 and 12 months (the MIXED procedure in SAS software, version 9.1; SAS Institute, Cary, NC). These models account for the correlation between repeated measurements in the same patient. For all analyses, were considered statistically significant.
3. Results
3.1. Clinical Characteristics
Herein, we are presenting the one-year safety analysis of the first twenty patients randomized and treated in the COMPARE-AMI trial. The demographic and clinical characteristics are showed in Table 1. The mean age was years with a predominance of males (90%) and the culprit lesion was located on the left anterior descending artery in 90%. A complete occlusion was noted in the proximal segment of the IR artery in 65% of cases. Maximum troponin T and CKMB were Ug/L and U/L, respectively, suggesting large infarcts. All patients underwent a successfully reperfusion with stenting using a drug-eluted stent (DES) in 75% or a bare metal stent (BMS) in 25% of cases. Adjuvant medical therapy included aspirin, clopidogrel, β-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and statins.
3.2. Safety Analysis
BM harvests were well tolerated by all patients without any related complication. For an average of CD133+ cells, we obtained a mean recovery of more than 95% when comparing before and after cell separation. Moreover, we obtained a mean purity higher than 65% for selected CD133+ cells. Cell purity is validated using flow cytometric analysis using standard techniques. Cell viability is assessed by trypan bleu exclusion, which is always greater than 95%. The IC injection was performed days after stenting. Two patients had a small hematoma at the arterial access site (one radial and one femoral) that did not require any specific treatment. As compared to baseline, no significant differences in the WBC count, CRP, CK, CK-MB, and troponin T levels were found at 24 hours (Table 2). In addition, in-hospital continuous ECG monitoring did not reveal any episode of sustained ventricular arrhythmia, and only two patients had at least one episode of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT). The serial 24-hour holter ECG monitoring performed at 1, 4, and 12 months revealed a small increase in the number of patients who had at least one run of a NSVT (five patients at 4 and 12 months as compared to two patients at baseline). In addition, despite a low number of isolated ventricular premature beats (VPB) at baseline of 6.5 [1.8, 14.8] and after treatment of 4.5 [3.0, 10.5], we observed an important increase at 1-month followup with 30.0 [13.0, 129.5]. Number of VPBs decreased thereafter at 4 months with a median of 9.0 [3.0, 117.0]. Until one-year followup, no spontaneous sustained ventricular arrhythmias or survived sudden death were noted and no patient required an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).
Furthermore, up to 12-month followup no MACE, angina, or stent thrombosis were reported (Table 3). During the initial hospitalization and before randomization, 2 patients had an episode of heart failure that required diuretics. Of note, one patient stopped for one week his medication and was hospitalized 3 months after his randomization for heart failure with a temporary drop of his LVEF down to 15%. Finally, at 4-month followup, restenting was necessary in 3 patients to treat in-BMS restenosis. No in-DES restenosis or de novo lesions in the IR artery were observed. Moreover, despite the significant lower pressure-derived FFR in the culprit artery as compared to the nonculprit artery at baseline:, versus , , no significant modification was noted in the delta FFR at 4-month followup as compared to baseline in the culprit versus nonculprit artery ( versus resp., ) suggesting the absence of local or diffuse acceleration of coronary atherosclerosis.
3.3. LV Function Assessment after Randomization
As shown in Figure 2, echocardiographic assessment of the LVEF demonstrated a significant improvement at 4-month followup () as compared to baseline ( versus resp., ). This improvement was sustained at 12-month followup (, versus baseline, ).
4. Discussion
In the setting of acute MI, several studies [4–7] have shown a functional benefit of IC infusion of BMSC compared with the standard treatment alone. Probably, the simplest approach to myocardial cell therapy in the clinical setting is the transfer of BM mononuclear cells into the myocardium. However, using unmodified marrow or unselected mononuclear cells can prevent the delivery of the "ideal" cell for myocardial regeneration that could be available in a small number or lost during the preparation process. In addition, few of the unselected mononuclear cells could formally meet the stem cell criteria and the vast majority are leukocytes that may primarily induce local inflammation, rendering the actual stem cell effects insignificant. Selected CD133+ BM cell population contains a small proportion of clonogenic cells, which have a very high potential to induce neoangiogenesis [18]. Furthermore, there is accumulating evidence that the CD133+/CD34- subpopulation includes multipotent stem cells with a significant potential for differentiation into mesenchymal and other nonhematopoietic lineages.
Therefore, Bartunek et al. conducted a phase I trial [12] testing the IC injection of purified CD133+ BMSC into the acutely infracted myocardium after successful stenting of the culprit artery. They showed a significant improvement in the LV function in parallel with an increase in the myocardial perfusion and viability suggesting a potent angiogenic effect of the injected cells. However, the following safety concerns in the cell-treated group were reported: first a small but significant rise in the CRP, second ventricular arrhythmias were observed in 4 treated patients, and third a higher rate of in-BMS restenosis and de novo lesion was found. Moreover, they raised the possibility of a "Janus-like" effect where they reported in a retrospective analysis a significant reduction of the luminal diameters and epicardial conductance of the IR artery, as assessed from the pressure-derived FFR [13] mainly in early compared to late IC CD133+ cells administration [17] which seems to be consistent with a higher risk for atherosclerosis progression. Yet, these data were obtained from retrospective analysis; they lack proper randomized controls and systematic use of IC ultrasound imaging to track changes in the vascular wall.
Accordingly, we initiated the COMPARE-AMI trial, a randomized, double-blind, controlled study testing the safety, feasibility, and functional effect of the IC injection of CD133+ cells as compared to placebo in relatively high-risk patients with acute MI and persistent LV dysfunction. The safety and functional effect will be addressed using time frames that are consistent with clinical applicability and emerging safety profile. To date twenty patients were successfully randomized and treated, eighteen completed 4 months of followup, and thirteen of them reached one year of followup. Herein, we are presenting our first safety analysis where we did not observe any major adverse events such as death, stroke, MI, angina, heart failure, or stent thrombosis within the first 12 months following randomization. One patient stopped his medication for one week and was hospitalized for heart failure. In parallel with other trial results, [12, 16] we did not report any complication related to the BM harvest or the technique of IC infusions. Cardiac enzymes levels remained unchanged during the initial 24 hours following injection. Furthermore, and in contrary to what was reported in the Bartunek trial [12], neither the WBC counts nor the CRP levels increased. Additionally, no sustained ventricular arrhythmias were recorded and none of the randomized patients required an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. However, the serial 24-hour ECG monitoring revealed a temporary significant increase in the number of isolated VPB at 4 months that spontaneously decreased at 12 months of followup suggesting a transient electrical irritability that could be related to the ischemic burden in the first months after the MI. Of note, only 5 patients had at least one run of NSVT until one year of followup. On the other hand, all randomized patient had a coronary angiogram control at 4 months after the IC injection; no in-DES restenosis was reported; however three over five patients treated with a BMS had a significant but asymptomatic restenosis requiring restenting with a DES because of a documented significant ischemia in the target territory. Interestingly, no de novo lesion was reported at 4-month followup, and no significant difference was found in the delta FFR as compared to baseline in the culprit versus nonculprit artery suggesting the absence of any acceleration of atherosclerosis. Finally, the 4-month echocardiography assessment showed a significant increase in the LVEF superior to what we observed in the placebo groups of the randomized trials [4–7] suggesting a potential effect on the cardiac recovery in the CD 133+ injected patients.
In conclusion, the proposed experimental protocol in which IC autologous CD133+ cells are injected after acute MI is safe, without any serious adverse events up to one year of followup. In addition, a potential beneficial effect on the LV recovery of the enrolled patients is observed. Final results will be available 1 year after the last patient has been randomized; meanwhile the presented one-year safety results justify the continuation of the COMPARE-AMI trial. This randomized clinical study should help to support the therapeutical potential of CD133+ cells for the treatment of the infracted myocardium.
The authors appreciate assistance of Drs. B. Lemieux and C. Ouellette, in performing the bone marrow collection. They are thankful to R. Duclos, RN and C. Lemay RN for management of the study. The authors received financial support from fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, Miltenyi Biotec, Inc., and Boston Scientific in Canada.
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Pearls are organic gems, created when an oyster covers a foreign object with layers of mother-of-pearl.
Since natural pearls are now extremely rare, most of today's pearls are produced using a grafting technique, whereby a shell bead is artificially inserted into the oyster, thus becoming cultured pearls.
The quality of pearls is judged by their orient – the iridescence caused by the refraction of light in the layers of mother-of-pearl – and their luster, or surface shine.
Van Cleef & Arpels selects only flawless pearls with regular shapes and beautiful color. The Maison mainly obtains cultured pearls from Japan, South Pacific, Australia and Tahiti.
From the Latin word "perla", which means shell, pearls are said to symbolize love, success, and happiness. They are the gemstones for the 3rd and 30th wedding anniversaries.
Maintaining your pearl:
Pearls are a living substance that are particularly delicate and sensitive to solvents and require certain precautions and very special care. They should not be stored in air-tight plastic bags. They are sensitive to acids, dryness, and humidity. If you wear cosmetics, perfume, or hair spray, please wait 10 minutes after application before wearing your pearls.
When taking off your pearls, wipe them with a dry, lint-free cloth. If needed, clean your pearls with warm soapy water. Dry your pearls flat on an absorbent soft (preferably lint-free) towel. Regularly worn necklaces or bracelets should be re-threaded once a year.