text: you asked... Glucose Challenge Screening Test? What happens during a glucose challenge screening test, and what is it taken for? Want to participate? Log in to share your thoughts Re: What happens during a glucose challenge screening test, and what is it taken for? The test, taken as part of the screening for gestational diabetes, will measure the levels of glucose (sugar) in your blood usually between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy. However, if you've had gestational diabetes before, or seem to be at a higher risk genetically, your doctor may choose to run the test as early as the 13th week.Don't sweat it: The test is simple and (relatively) painless. When you take the test, your doctor will ask you to quickly drink a sample of Glucola (basically a sweetened drink) that contains 50g of glucose. Make sure you clear your schedule (and a path to the bathroom) the day of your appointment -- you'll need to wait a full hour while your body absorbs the glucose before your doctor can take a sample of your blood. The results will show if your body has been responding to glucose positively or negatively.If your results are positive, you'll need to have another screening -- the 100-gram oral glucose tolerance test. During this one you'll be tested four times over a three-hour time span. (Make sure to pack some good reading material!) If two out of the four test results show abnormality, you will be clinically diagnosed with gestational diabetes and will need to discuss a health plan for the remainder of your pregnancy with your doctor. Source: American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists. Your pregnancy and birth. 4th ed. Washington, DC: ACOG; 2005 Plus, more from The Bump: Prenatal Diet and Exercise for Diabetes Your Guide to Prenatal Tests Hate Going to the OB? How to Deal The Bump Editors Glucose Challenge Screening Test? I just had the 1 hour glucose screening test. They told me to fast 2 hours before the test, but I fasted 10 hours overnight, because I needed other fasting labs drawn for insurance purposes. So when I drank the sugar drink, I was incredibly hungry. My blood sugar ended up being 136 (140 or lower is passing). Although, I hope I didn't mess anything up by being incredibly hungry (possibly starting with a low blood sugar before drinking the drink). a2fox83 | Want to participate? Log in to share your thoughts


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Mon, Aug 1, 05 at 12:46
i think the smartest people on the web are on this forum--so can anyone advise me on overwintering a mandevilla vine?every other year, i've lost mine-this year the one i have is especially beautiful, and i would like to save it. |
Follow-Up Postings:
I'm not particularly smart and have lost my share of plants..but the mandevilla and the bouganvilla do fine in our greenhouse. I would suppose that they would do about as well wintered in the house with good light and regular watering..no fertilizer. One thing..I cut them back severely before bringing them in..they go totally dormant and look dead..so don't throw them away! Bring them back out in the spring and they should take off again. I've had mine about 5-6 years doing this. |
Thanks Kaye! The local nursery has them on sale for $5.00 & I wanted one but didn't want to get one & then have it die. Now, I can get one without the guilt! |
- Posted by redhotflowermama Z7 (My Page) on Mon, Aug 1, 05 at 19:20
I kept mine in a room that was 60 degrees and min light. Went dormant but is blooming beautiful now. Judy |
I kept mine in a warmer room than Judy and they (2) did suffer some from drier air, but I had them under a shop light, so they stayed green and kept on vining up around the chains that I have to suspend the light on. I had cut them back as Kaye said, but they didn't want to stay that way. I had to cut over and over again during the winter. I took 6 cuttings as insurance...guess what happened?..Yep, had to get rid of 6 rooted cuttings that were trying to bloom. This winter if I don't take cuttings the old plants will probably die. |
Someone else said she kept hers in her crawl space along with geraniums.I kept mine on the unheated front porch and it looked wonderful for a while and then got mealybugs!!!I put some insecticide(systemic) on it and about killed it.It is just now starting to leaf out again.I thought it was dead.Posy Pet |
Can you just shear them back and stick them in the garage or is that too cold? The one on my front porch is a show stopper right now. By far the best looking plant in my yard except maybe my 'Cherry Parfait that Kaye helped me pick out. |
I think an unheated garage would be too cold. My neighbor lost hers in an unheated entry/mudroom that gets closed off at night, but it probably depends on how bad the winter is. |
So how short should they be cut back? |
Ron buried some deep in the ground after cutting them back..wintered just fine with the elephant ear bulbs. Beerhog has wintered them several ways. |
Duh..I had BRUGS on the brain when I posted that! |
Now Kaye that's funny!!!! Sounds like something I would do!!! I'm laughing with you |
Hey, maybe it would work! |
- Posted by redhotflowermama Z7 (My Page) on Thu, Aug 11, 05 at 7:26
Might be worth a try. |
Now, i'm wondering if the parts you cut off can be rooted? anyone ever try? |
- Posted by bobbie_2006 7-8 (My Page) on Sun, Dec 17, 06 at 22:46
I answered this under "wintering mandevillas", but here goes again. A lady here in Greenville, Texas has had beautiful Mandevillas the last 3-4 yrs. I have lost 2-3 in the last 2-3 yrs. I finally stopped one day and ask her if she bought new ones every year or what. She said it was the same plants every year. Right before the first freeze she cuts them down to about 3-6 " above the soil. She puts them in her dark garage and waters about once a month. She said the only heat they get is when she uses her car and pulls into the garage about once or twice a week. She brings them out in Feb. or Mar. and has to cut the new growth off and out they go again. I am trying it this year. We have had several freezes and I went out in my garage last week and I have new vines coming up. I don't put my car in so they have not had any heat. Hope it keeps working. |
We planted our Mandevilla in the ground...we live in New Jersey...can we leave it there in the winter? |
Strange to see this thread come back after 3 years--LOl--glad to report the vine I asked about is still thriving after these years--and doing great. If your weather is like ours here in the Ozarks-I doubt they would make it in the winter--my daughter lost her's planted outside. |
This is my first year with a Mandeville plant. I love it and would like to try saving it for next year. I live in Michigan (zone 5).Can anyone tell me the best way to winterize my plant in this zone? |
- Posted by gretchenmi Zone 5 (My Page) on Wed, Jul 15, 09 at 22:48
Definately fell in love with this one.....Crimson Mandevilla....$2.50 at Wal-mart......8" pot.....WANT TO KEEP THIS....Thanks in advance.... |
And--my Mandevilla Vine that I asked the Question on? Still going, by putting it in the dark garage overwinter--and watering when I think of it!! |
- Posted by christie_sw_mo Z6 (My Page) on Thu, Jul 16, 09 at 8:43
Yours has been going a long time now Ceresone. You must be doing it right. I had one for about five years but brought it in too late one year and lost it. I've been tempted to watch the clearance shelves for another. They're so pretty. |
I would like to pass on my experience with wintering in a garage that is insulated to the latest building code, whereby any snow on the cars is melted off by the morning. This is nice for the drive to work, but terrible for any bulbs or potted rhizomes you may have wintering in the garage. The dampness got to them and caused them to decay, what a mushy surprise the next spring.The basement is definitely the place to winter these. As for wintering plants, I have had success with my fig tree, which is just starting to put on new leaves, hooray! I also have a bay leaf that kept growing the whole time, right through the coldest nights. My passion flower on the other hand may have got to cold and just died one day, mind you it was an older plant that gave me many cuttings.Perhaps I should have cut it back? Perhaps a plastic cover, as I put over the fig tree, may have saved it? Overall, I would suggest that as long as they are protected from any cold drafts, and you give them a little drink once a month, you should be fine...good luck. |
My Mandeliva vine still growing after all this time |
- Posted by missourilark z5 Mo. (My Page) on Fri, Jul 16, 10 at 10:52
I hope to come back to this forum before winter comes. I'll read up on the wintering of my mandevilla. Meantime, I'm going to try the trick of tucking a few of the vines back into the dirt. Maybe I can get a new plant! This thread is 5 years old, but, just as we all hope our plants don't die, I see that the enthusiasm hasn't died off either. This has always been the place for the best advice, and I thank you all. Have a great summer! |
- Posted by lovesbears 10 (My Page) on Wed, Oct 20, 10 at 15:48
This is my first year with my beautiful vines.I live in the Houston, TX area and was wondering what I should do this winter so I don't lose them. It is now mid-October. Any suggestions appreciated. |
In zone 10 your vine should do fine. If it's in a pot don't let it drowned. Soggy roots are the biggest difficulty I have in zone 9. Shelter from frost and minimal water is what I do. It is slow to start up in spring so I leave it alone until night temperatures warm. |
- Posted by macart3 9(email@example.com) onSat, Jan 8, 11 at 13:17
I brought my mandevilla in this winter before the first frost. However, all the leaves are dry or dead and the vines are kind of dry as well. I did not cut back the plant before I brought it in. Do you think it'll come back in the spring? This is my first ever buying one and I would like to keep it. |
- Posted by CarolinaNina (My Page) on Sun, Oct 28, 12 at 12:45
This is my first attempt at a mandevilla wintering. I live in the mountains of western NC. First frost is predicted to head our way so she came inside but I've not cut her back yet. She has gorgeous dark red velvet blooms and we will have warm weather yet so mid Nov I will cut and try your suggestions for the winter. Thank you for all your info on this forum. |
- Posted by delreytropical 6 (My Page) on Fri, Nov 23, 12 at 21:37
Wow! what an amazing thread for such a beautiful plant, from my experience and what ive seen is that these do fine-- given light-- not cut back at all maybe for height and space convenience near a bright window, preferably south, and it will bloom still, not as much but still something to make you smile in december and january. Then once your area starts to get warm and nights are above 55-65, watch this thing take off! and pinch back for blooms if you like |
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Two buildings that have housed lower-income Winonans for decades may soon be overhauled. Winona may see $8 million dollars in renovations flow to local contractors and bolster city tax rolls. Two companies are separately applying for tax breaks to enable them to purchase and remodel Winhaven Court and Morningside Terrace. If approved by the state, work to revamp the two privately-run, low-income housing developments might begin in 2015.
The tax breaks, Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) administered by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA), are highly competitive. The two companies will find out whether either, one, or both will receive the credits in October or November of this year. The MFHA provides LIHTC to private developers who meet requirements, including a cap on rental prices, as an incentive for private industry to provide affordable housing.
On Monday, the Winona City Council voted unanimously to approve a letter of support for the two projects and to recognize their place in the city's plans for housing and redevelopment.
Built in 1972 on Sugar Loaf Road, Morningside Terrace provides housing for up to 69 low-income residents. Winhaven Court, located in downtown Winona, was constructed in 1979 and houses up to 118 senior and disabled residents.
"These buildings are quite a few years old and could use some renovations," said Winona Community Development Director Lucy McMartin, who discussed the projects with company officials.
Winhaven Court LP is a subsidiary of a Seattle-based development firm that seeks to purchase Winhaven Court and spend nearly $3 million on overhauling the building, from rooms to heating systems. Bryon Gongaware, a spokesperson for the company, said that residents will not have to leave the apartment building during the remodel.
"We try to make sure that we renovate in a way that is the least inconvenient to tenants," he said. Often, the company shuffles residents around to temporary apartments while work is done on a handful of units at at a time, he said. That work generally takes one to two weeks, Gongaware explained, meaning that residents are not out of their apartments for long. He added that in rare cases, the company will house residents in a hotel while work is being done. The whole process is estimated to take a year.
Minneapolis-based Community Capital Financial Advisory Services, Inc. which is seeking to purchase and remodel Morningside Terrace at a cost of $5 million, could not be reached for comment.
"These would be great renovation projects for the city," McMartin said, pointing out the need for affordable housing, the community benefit of revitalized buildings, the construction investment, and the fact that improvements to the properties would increase the city's tax base.
Family's appeal for dog grooming business denied
An emotional appeal ran up against the law on Monday night. Several city council members said they would have liked to approve a variance to allow Kemlyn Block-Stockstill and Thomas Stockstill Jr. to hire an additional employee or two at their home dog-grooming business, but the law clearly prevented it. The Stockstills sought a variance from the Board of Adjustment to give them an exception to zoning rules that forbid more than one non-resident employee to work for a home business.
The board denied their variance on the grounds that it did not meet state requirementsin particular, that the Stockstill's request was not based on a issue with the property not created by the Stockstills and that economics were the family's primary consideration. The board concluded if the Stockstills wanted to expand their business and hire more employees, they needed to find a location in a business district.
The Stockstills did not tell the Board of Adjustment that their son is developmentally disabled, and that his special needs preclude Kemlyn from working away from home. The Stockstills asked the council to reconsider the board's decisions, saying that their neighbors are in resolute support of the business and that they could never afford a storefront in a business district, much less leave their son home alone.
City Attorney Chris Hood advised the council that the case was clear cut, in his professional opinion: the Stockstills did not meet the legal standard for granting a variance. They did not have a difficulty with their property, as state statute requires for a variance, but rather with how they sought to use it, he said. Furthermore, economics were clearly a main factor in the Stockstills' request, Hood said.
"I think most of us would agree this is a legitimate reason to give a variance, but our hands are tied because of the wording," said council member Paul Double.
Council Member Allyn Thurley also expressed regret in denying the Stockstills' appeal. Perhaps the city should consider amending the restrictions on home businesses, he suggested. Hood said that would be a much more appropriate approach.


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Hambleton Hall and Restaurant listed in Conde Nast Travellers Gold Standard awards
Posted: January 08, 2013
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Country hotel and restaurant Hambleton Hall is the only UK hotel and restaurant to be listed in Conde Nast Traveller Magazine's Gold Standard List 2013.
The Gold Standard is a list of Conde Nast's all time favourite restaurants, hotels, bars and beach clubs throughout the World.
See picture gallery of Hambleton Hall.
Comments from Conde Nast
- "Hambleton Hall has remained impervious to fortune and is as fresh and magical as the day owners Tim and Stefa Hart first welcomed guests."
- "Brilliant seasonal cooking in chef Aaron Patterson's Michelin-starred restaurant."
- "Sophisticated yet deeply comfortable classic English interiors."
See article on ThisisLeicestershire.


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I have an early maturing variety of Japanese pickling eggplant from Seeds of Change that produces 10-16" fruit 1-2" diameter in 70-75 days. It needs a long warm growing season to produce, but our summers are cool & short.
Also have afghani sesame, Sesamum indicum 3-4' plant widely grown for nutritious tan seeds. Needs hot weather & 110 days to mature. Both need a long warm growing season to produce, but our summers are cool & better suited for other asian vegetables Chinese broccoli or kale, Brassica. oleracea var alboglabra (white flowering broccoli)
View my trade list for other seeds to trade.
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There was much glee about yesterday's publication of a report into the economic impact of immigration, which concluded eastern Europeans had provided a net benefit of £4.4 billion to the… Continue reading
99 CommentsWhat exactly, I found myself wondering, would jihadists do without modern four-wheel-drives? Car ads are customarily shot on the French Riviera's Grande Corniche or on a very particular road in… Continue reading
23 CommentsIt has taken a while, but finally the world appears to be taking the illegal trade in ivory seriously. Why now? Reports of a 'terror trail' that links al-Shabaab and… Continue reading
4 CommentsOn the Sunday Politics, William Hague confirmed that the greatest terrorist threat to the British homeland come from Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But he argued that without intervention, the Sahel… Continue reading
49 CommentsAndrew Mitchell has announced that DfID will provide £52.25 million in emergency aid to ease suffering in East Africa, which has been wracked by drought. The supplies will be distributed… Continue reading
34 CommentsIf there is one global index it is best not to be on, it is the Fund for Peace's annual Failed States Index. It ranks 177 countries using 12 social,… Continue reading
13 CommentsThe only readable part of Tony Blair's Lawrentian romp of a memoir, is the epilogue. He explains why the state must be trimmed in the future and how globalisation is… Continue reading
20 CommentsAl Shabaab and al Qeada are brothers in arms – Somalia is a hothouse for terror. Jonathan Evans, director general of MI5, has openly expressed his view that it is… Continue reading
17 CommentsAs Melanie Phillips says in her article for this week's issue of the magazine, the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab highlights the role of other, less frequently discussed, countries in… Continue reading
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Originally published August 26, 2013 at 5:05 AM | Page modified August 27, 2013 at 6:20 PM
Corrected version
5 artsy things to do at Bumbershoot 2013
A list of performance-art, theater and visual-arts picks at Bumbershoot 2013.
Seattle Times staff
Festival preview
Bumbershoot 2013
Saturday-Monday, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, at Seattle Center (www.bumbershoot.org).
Bumbershoot is light on traditional forms of performance this year — no ballet or modern dance or classical music. Still, there are arts offerings of note, if you look.
"Detritus We Value": Kinetic sculptor Jonathan Schipper's projects usually play out over a period of months or years, so how will he handle a three-day limit in a piece described as a "continuously changing environment based on trash, salt, human will and hot-water bathing"? (11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday-Monday, Fisher Pavilion)
Fantagraphics Follies: Seattle's pioneering publisher of graphic novels and comics promises 75 unpredictable minutes of comedy, music, readings and more, presented by some of the area's best-known cartoonists, including Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge and Ellen Forney. (6 p.m. Saturday, Words & Ideas Stage)
"My Last Year with the Nuns": Matt Smith revives his monologue about growing up Catholic on Seattle's Capitol Hill in the 1960s, focusing on race, religion and puberty ("All the things you don't want to bring up at a cocktail party," Smith quips). (2 p.m. Sunday, Theater Puget Sound Stage)
Anna Oxygen: Working in a Laurie Anderson vein, Anna Oxygen takes a multimedia/audience-interactive approach to songs and electronica. (4 p.m. Sunday, Reel Grrls stage, Seattle Center Pavilion)
"Audrey & Nelson": Annex Theatre's "puppet-sex musical" features book and lyrics by Bret Fetzer and a score by Peter Richards (of the power-pop band Dude York). Will it rival the puppet-sex interlude in "Team America"? Maybe. (5:15 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Monday, Theater Puget Sound Stage)
Michael Upchurch: firstname.lastname@example.com; Lynn Jacobson: firstname.lastname@example.com.
Information in this article, originally published Aug. 26, 2013, was corrected Aug. 27, 2013. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the venue for Anna Oxygen's appearance.


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Weekend Jumpstart Healthy Getaway Program
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- Meet with nutritionist for an interview assessment.
- Inclusion in all Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts' custom designed fitness and nutrition classes and workshops.
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For about the last week, my nipples and areola have been hurting. I only notice when I take my bra off and something else, like my hand or a t-shirt, touches them. I cease to notice once I have been wearing my t-shirt for a few minutes, but if I touch them, they hurt.
Last night I googled this symptom and once I eliminated the breastfeeding and pregnancy pages, there were pages and pages of breast cancer info, and nothing else that I saw. I am 37. My aunt had BC when she was only a couple of years older than me. I am terrified. What I have not told anyone is that I have dreamed about breast cancer a couple of times in the last two months or so. I kept doing self-breast exams, just in case, and paying attention but nothing came up until this last week. I have a doctor appt. today at noon. My knees and hands are shaking. |
Follow-Up Postings:
Let us know how it turns out. At your age, hormones could be doing weird things to your body. Froggy |
I am getting a mammogram next week, to be sure, but the doctor said it is probably hormonal changes and gave me some natural progesterone cream to try. I feel much better, in spite of feeling like a wrung out sponge. |
- Posted by joann23456 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 15, 05 at 18:38
I have some idea how you feel. I had nipple discharge once for awhile and found all sorts of things on breast cancer. Turned out to be a cyst. Very frightening. I'm glad you have a mammogram scheduled - tell us how it turns out. |
There is so much propaganda about breast cancer, and it is so hard people and thier families to get through, and when they don't... I am glad I was able to get into the doctor right away. Medical stuff usually happens on Friday afternoon around here, for some reason, and getting to the doctor has to wait. I get my panties in a bunch pretty easily and I would have probably pulled all of my hair out by next week. I think everything will be OK. |
- Posted by socks12345 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 15, 05 at 20:50
sunnyco, let us know what you learn. |
I know how you feel. I had the same thing happen when I was actually working for a gynecologist. I told him I wanted him to check it out, he said he would, but we were very busy and we had emergency surgery, etc. Next day was his day off, then it was my day off. By the time we got our act together and we both had time, it had stopped hurting. That was over 30 years ago and it never bothered me again. But it scared the cr@p out of me while it hurt. |
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Wed, Jun 28, 06 at 14:30
Does someone know who might have the best (deleivered) price on mulch? I live in Winfield, DuPage County. Next to Wheaton, IL
Dan |
Follow-Up Postings:
- Posted by pitimpinai z5 Chicago (My Page) on Fri, Jul 14, 06 at 14:41
I am not sure how far you are from Palatine or whether you can find anything closer, but at Palatine Recycling Center on Smith & NW HWY, you can get mulch for free. Look for the great big blue water tower just west of NW HWY on Smith Rd. The mulch piles are just NE of the base of the water tower. Have fun. :-) |
I live in Palatine. The mulch is free, but remember "you get what you pay for"... The best time to go is a week or two after a big storm - all the fallen limbs & broken branches around town end up here, so the wood is 'fresh' & somewhat healthy. But you'll also get alot of leaves still green mixed in. Sometimes mid-summer the quality isn't too good - I've found lots of garbage ground up with the plant material (plastic grocery store bags, broken glass, empty cigarette packs...). Sometimes residents bundle up very diseased & bug infested material to be recycled, and the village employees can't be expected to inspect everything they grind, so you're just giving these problems a free ride into your yard. Because I live close, it's easy to stop by to check the quality, and come back later if if looks spooky. I've also taken a few bags of good mulch from a very massive huge pile, & gone back 2 days later to find it's all gone. But if you do go, bring containers (I use plastic 'contractor clean-up bags') & shovel & gloves. You're digging it yourself from a pile. And the mice are friendly... |
Perhaps you could do a walk around your neighborhood and notice the recyle bags of grass, etc. A couple of our neighbors were delighted when i asked if i could take their bags of grass. |
Call some local tree trimmers. Many times they are happy to get rid of their wood chips as otherwise they have to pay to get rid of them. That is how I get mine, delivered for free. Lee |
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I get busy. Sexy and I are BOTH busy. And sometimes the dinner dishes don't get done till the next morning. (We're human, it happens.)Last week I picked up my cast iron skillet which had been left in the sink from the day before and the sink looked like this…
Now I know what most of you are thinking… there's no way those "natural" cleaners she's always talking about are gonna REALLY clean THAT!
Think again my friend
First I sprinkled the area with baking soda
then I poured some vinegar over the whole area and let it bubble up and sit for about 5 mins.
Then I came back and sprinkled more baking soda and used my Skoy cloth to scrub the sink until it was clean.
So for all of you who are on the fence about the strength of "green" cleaning, I give you Exhibit A.
I rest my case.
- What are some of your "green" cleaning recipes?


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Big ideas start here
CSIRO aims to establish and build relationships with members of the community. We welcome people of all ages to come and explore our facilities, holiday programs and public events.
Phone: 1300 363 400
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.
Large-scale, long-term, multidisciplinary science to address Australia's major national challenges and opportunities.
CSIRO manages national facilities and collections that are opened to researchers around Australia and overseas.
An irrigation supply channel near Clare in the Burdekin Valley, Queensland. An enzyme developed by CSIRO shows promise at removing the herbicide atrazine from irrigation run-off.
Farmers around the world are expected to benefit from the successful trial of an enzyme that breaks down the herbicide, atrazine, in run-off water. (7:01)
The player will show in this paragraph
Atrazine is a widely used and useful herbicide used to stop broadleaf and grassy weeds in major crops. The downside, depending on its use, is that residue can make its way into run-off water. This has been a particular problem overseas, and in some cases, it's led to restrictions being placed on the use of atrazine in the EU and USA.
This situation is set to change thanks to a research team from CSIRO Entomology, and farmers around the world are expected to benefit from the successful trial of an enzyme that breaks down atrazine, in run-off water.
In this Podcast, Cameron Begley, General Manager, Business Development and Commercialisation at CSIRO Entomology explains how the enzyme works in breaking down residual atrazine, and how the search for the enzyme began with a hunt for bacteria that 'fed' on atrazine.
Read more about Bioremediation to keep atrazine from waterways (Media release 17 Feb 09).
General Manager, Business Development and Commercialisation
Phone: +61 2 6246 4033
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Alt Phone: +61 3 9545 2176
Ask a question or connect with us


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Creaking like the Tin Man?
Hip Flexors and why they matter!
Remember how the Tin Man needed his joints oiling in The Wizard of Oz? Well, so do you! Oiling your muscles and tendons with a good stretch will stop you creaking in the mornings and help you feel more comfortable when you're out running.
When I ask customers, 'do you stretch enough?' The usual response is, 'I don't stretch as much as I should.' And then everyone talks about the calf, quads, hamstrings, but rarely mentions the hip flexors.
What are the hip flexors? They're the muscles and tendons on the anterior (front) of your hip joint, linking your legs to your pelvis. They influence the movement between your top and bottom half. They effect the smoothness of your stride, feed into your quads, affect your hamstrings, and if they're tight, affect the spine and cause lower back pain.
So, they're pretty important!
And that's why I filmed this short video to show you an all in one stretch that will loosen you up from hip-to-toe.
The Grid is another great tool to enhance your stretching routine.
Find out how the Grid can act as replacement masseuse here »
Now, got any questions? Maybe you have a great tip on stretching you want to share with all of us? Drop me a comment below ↓
And make sure you get all our top tips on training by signing up to our newsletter →
And good luck with your training!


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Sun, Sep 11, 11 at 10:09
I have a Passiflora Incense that I'm rooting cuttings of, nothing fancy I know. But the mother plant is nice & big, I just love it :) I need another variety I can pollinate it with & get some seeds. Would anyone be willing to trade a piece of rooted Incense for another kind? It doesn't have to be anything fancy or rare, just another variety. I'd be willing to do postage if that's what you prefer. :) |
Follow-Up Postings:
Do you still have these? I have incarnata growing in my yard. I can send cuttings of others but they won't be rooted. LMK! Roxanne |
I would LOVE to get a start of 'Incense'! I have rooted caerulea or unrooted 'Lavender Lady' I could send. |
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3 Mar
I've been worrying, as only a mother can, about the variety in her diet. Since she'll eat just about anything, I've been pureeing every vegetable I can think of into a thick paste with some sort of meat. I keep a fish version, a lamb version and a chicken version in the freezer and alternate which one she eats each day.
Although she is not picky in general, she is particular about what she eats at which time of day. For example, her afternoon meal has to be fruit, and she won't eat savory food at dinner. So I can't feed her a vegetable-meat puree at any other meal but lunch. She has a strong preference for oatmeal at dinner, to which I add pumpkin or squash, yogurt and a little fruit all pureed together.
She's been eating probably two dozen bananas a month, and after a couple months of this I'm thinking it's time to switch things up. The problem is, it is so cheap and easy! I buy a bunch, and by the time we run out, it's time to go grocery shopping again any way. It takes less effort to mush a banana than anything else I've found (with avocados close behind, which is the one food she will not eat).
How do you mix things up? It's hard to get out of the habit of making a big batch of oatmeal, since I know she likes it. Maybe it's time to switch to another grain? Maybe buckwheat or quinoa or farro? Maybe all three at once? Do I add in lentils or legumes? It seems like making my own baby food is a slippery slope since there is an endless combination of ingredients to use. It can drive a mom crazy!
How do you keep your sanity while providing a variety of fruits and vegetables? How do you decide what "super-foods" to include versus "convenience foods"?
Have you tried just giving her whatever you are eating and not pureeing it? This might be a good way to change it up for her. By the time my kids were 1 they were not eating much if any purees. I would often feed them whatever we were eating for a given meal, either chopped to finger-food size or large enough for them to pick up and take bites of. Even though I worried about pretty much everything else, variety in my kids' diet was not a concern to me since I have a varied diet myself.
She loses interest pretty quickly with finger food, and most of what we eat doesn't translate easily to finger food. She can't really chew anything yet, so I see a lot of what goes in coming out the same way, and I figure she absorbs more nutrients from a puree.
Not to mention, Franci's purees are so healthy, I'd rather her keep eating them than anything else. We don't even like half the veggies she enjoys, like beets or winter squash!
Maybe I should stop worrying about what she's eating and think more about what I'm eating!
I'm sure they weren't getting large amounts of nutrients from their food by eating it that way. Now that I think about it, both of them were nursing significantly more often than 3 times per day at 1 so I guess they could afford to eat less solid food.


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Natural Progesterone Cream by Restored Balance
Premenstrual Menopausal Solutions Natural Progesterone Cream is the convenient and safe way to easily help premenstrual syndrome (PMS), menopause, and osteoporosis. Most people (including many doctors) have only a basic understanding of what hormones are and how they affect our bodies. The latest medical research shows that many of the afflictions that women take in stride as as being "normal for women" are actually the result of hormone imbalances that can be easily and safely corrected. Most people know about estrogen and testosterone (the female and male hormones), but what most people don't know about is progesterone. Progesterone is a crucially important hormone produced by the adrenal gland that acts as a "regulator" for the other hormones in our body -- kind like of a thermostat that keeps your body's various hormone levels perfectly adjusted. Most of the symptoms that women face during PMS or menopause are the result of either too much estrogen or not enough, and this is controlled by their progesterone. Sadly, in the case of estrogen imbalance, doctors usually treat the symptoms rather then the ailment (i.e. Prozac for PMS depression, estrogen for menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis). What is really happening in most cases is that there is a progesterone deficiency that is leading to their imbalance in estrogen. Without the regulating effects of progesterone, estrogen levels get out of control. Rather then trying to artificially adjust estrogen levels with pills, the smart thing to do is to correct the progesterone deficiency, and then let the estrogen problem correct itself. INGREDIENTS: Purified Water, Natural Glycerine, Stearic Acid, (Vegetable Source), d-Alpha Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Avocado Oil, Natural Progesterone (1800mg usp, micronized ) Aloe Vera Oil, Rosemary extract, Vitamin A Palmitate, Carrot Oil, Lemon Grass Oil. This Is A Top Quality Progesterone Cream You won't find a lot of chemicals or unproven herbs in our cream. Instead, Restored Balance Natural Progesterone Cream provides concentrated natural progesterone USP dissolved in a moisturizing cream base containing aloe vera oil. Restored Balance also tests their cream regularly with an independent laboratory which allows them to maintain quality and concentrations in the very top ranges. Each two ounce container lasts approximately two months. This amount is all you need to restore optimal physiological levels, and is consistent with proven guidelines. Actual Testimonials from PMS Cream Customers: "I wanted to tell you about my wonderful experience of using your progesterone cream during my pregnancy. Before we got pregnant, I read about the wonderful benefits of using a NATURAL, not synthetic progesterone cream during pregnancy. I used it, and pretty much ALL the benefits you can get from it were bestowed upon me and my baby! She was a very healthy size and she's developed early in everything, even from being in the womb. You could feel and see her movements and kicks sooner and she's been able to hold her head up since the day she was born. No joke! I was also worried about whether I was able to get pregnant because I've suffered from endometriosis for years and 1 month after starting your cream, I was pregnant. I hope more women can find out about your progesterone cream and I tell anyone I can about it. It's a wonderful product and I will be using it clear into menopause!" - Jennifer V. "Finally, after using the cream for a few weeks, I had relief from hot flashes. I ran out of the product, and my hot flashes returned! I'll never be without it again!" - Elizabeth P., CA Lab Test Results Regardless of all the magazine articles and books and all the testimony of experts -- regardless of what is printed on a label or what a company guarantees with their own in-house laboratory, a cream not backed by an independent laboratory assay may be questionable and may not offer consistent potency and results. Therefore, for your benefit and protection, we have submitted a sample of our Restored Balance formula to ZRT Laboratories, an independent F.D.A registered clinical laboratory, for objective testing and evaluation of potency, activity, and consistency. We are pleased that our Restored Balance progesterone cream was in the top range tested. If you are experiencing: Cramps Migraines Bloat Breast Tenderness Hot Flashes Inability to Lose Weight Lack of Energy Depression Mood Swings Fibroid Tumors Endometriosis Infertility Family History of Female Related Cancers Foggy Thinking Menopause Losing Height Osteoporosis or other symptoms, you may be experiencing a hormonal imbalance. Natural Progesterone Cream is a support supplement which contains the plant extract of the wild Mexican yam. This cream formula allows the powerful active ingredients to be optimally used by the body because they flow through the skin and directly into the bloodstream, completely by passing digestion. There is no way to overdose with this cream. Since the body uses only what it needs to restore hormonal balance, the cream can be used by women of all ages. Natural Progesterone Cream provides natural organic relief from: PMS Menopause Osteoporsis Estrogen Dominance In addition, it also Enhances libido Improves energy, stamina, and endurance Stimulates the body's own production of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and other hormones Provides women with an overall feeling of well being and euphoria Sounds too good to be true? Well that's exactly what I thought when I first found out about this remarkable product. But after reviewing the medical research that's been done and seeing the incredible results achieved by thousands of users worldwide, I am totally convinced that once you try this cream, you'll never want to be without it. The question is, are you curious enough to investigate the possibilities? There's an old saying, "Knowledge is power", and nothing could be more true when it comes to your health. With the knowledge we share with you here, you'll find the power to break the shackles of PMS, menopause, and osteoporosis forever. About Natural Progesterone: In 1936, Japanese scientists discovered that a species of wild yam (Dioscorea villosa -mexicana) growing in the south of Mexico contained a sterol called diosgenin which is remarkably similar to progesterone. Wild yam contains a "bank" of important precursors which could be used by the human body to biochemically synthesize DHEA, progesterone, and other hormones nearly identical to that produced by the adrenal gland. In 1943, Professor Russell Marker discovered how to synthesize diosgenin from the wild yam into progesterone. For a number of years following this discovery, wild Mexican yam was a primary source for the production of progesterone and other hormones. Until recently, wild yam (not to be confused with the sweet potato yam) was the sole source of the diosgenin used in making contraceptive pills. According to herbalist Rosemary Gladstar in her book, Herbal Healing For Women (Simon& Schuster, 1993), wild yam is the most widely used herb in the world today, with over 200 million prescriptions sold each year that contain its derivatives. *The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
"Finally, after using the cream for a few weeks, I had relief from hot flashes. I ran out of the product, and my hot flashes returned! I'll never be without it again!" - Elizabeth P., CA
All Prices in US Dollars


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Research Students
Students' Research Topics
This page contains an index of the research students undertaking Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) under the supervision of our academic staff. Students are listed alphabetically by surname, along with their project titles and supervisors.
Name | Project | Supervisors |
Mohd Shahrudin Abd Manan | Architecture, Body and Pop Culture: Weaving the Critical Fabric(ated) Spaces of the T-Shirt |
Assoc Prof Chris Smith, Dr Dagmar Reinhardt |
Judith Ainge | Walls of Iron: The Architecture of Habitable Prefabricated Iron buildings |
Mr Trevor Howells, Prof Richard Hyde |
Saeed Ali H Alburgawi | Makkah's Urban Morphology | Dr Lee Stickells, Mr Barrie Shelton |
Craig Allchin | Increasing Supply of Housing in High Density Centres to Improve Housing Affordability |
Dr Lee Stickells, Mr Barrie Shelton |
Philippa Nicole Barr | Atmospheres | Assoc Prof William Martens, Assoc Prof Glen Hill |
Graham Bell | Patterns of Failure: A Pragmatic and Theoretical Response to Negligence in Architecture from 1975 |
Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Assoc Prof Greg Castillo |
Nikolina Bobic | City as Target: Urbicide of Belgrade in 1999 | Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Assoc Prof Chris L. Smith |
Sarah Breen Lovett | Expanded Architecture: the Intersection of Avant-garde Film, Expanded Cinema + Architecture |
Dr Lee Stickells |
Douglas Brown | Bushfire Risk Perception: A Study of the Perceived Vulnerability of Domestic Architecture in Bushfire Prone Areas | Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Dr Peter Armstrong |
Anne Burgess | Aboriginal Stories of Victoria Park Design and Research Project | Dr Glen Hill, Prof Peter Read |
Peter Chivers | Architecture: Three Concepts. An Inquiry into the Sites of Architectural Transformation | Prof Michael Tawa |
Bayezid Choudhury | The Genesis of Sangsad at She-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka | Dr Peter Armstrong |
Rachel Couper | The Theatre of Festivals |
Dr Glen Hill, Dr Dagmar Reinhardt |
Sunil Dubey | Comparative Evaluation of Governance and Management in Public Property Assets in Commonwealth Countries |
Dr Peter Armstrong, Geoffrey Gallop |
Haris Dzonlagic | Derrida and Architectural Philosophy/Theory |
Dr Glen Hill, Assoc Prof Chris Smith |
Allison Earl | The Language of Sustainability |
Prof Michael Tawa, Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Monika Bednarek |
Jennifer M Gamble | Spatialisation Writing/Thinking | Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Dr Simon Hayman |
Farzaneh Haghighi | Bazaar as Event: An Architectural Exploration of the Bazaar and its Relation to Key Socio-Political Events in Tehran, Iran (1980-2010) |
Assoc Prof Chris Smith, Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Dr Pamela Karimi |
Scott Hill | A "Suitable" Residents | Dr Glen Hill |
Maroun Kassab | The Heritage of the Modernist Movement in Lebanon |
Assoc Prof Chris Smith, Assoc Prof Glen Hill |
Seyed Mahdi Khatami | Modesty in the Islamic City; An Investigation of the Islamic Concept of Modesty and its Implication for Urban Form. | Prof Michael Tawa, Assoc Prof Glen Hill |
Simon Kringas | The Topological City |
Assoc Prof Chris Smith, Dr Lee Stickells |
Fontaine Liu | Conserving Architecture as Living Heritage: A Reading of Heideggerian Thinking in Relation to Current Heritage Conservation Theory and Practice |
Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Mr Trevor Howells |
Margaret Liu | Energy, Environment and Buildings: Retrofitting Existing Tertiary Education Buildings to Improve Energy Efficiency | Prof Richard Hyde, Dr David Leifer |
Pamela Lofthouse | Semi-detached Houses as a District Dwelling Type in NSW |
Dr Peter Armstrong, Mr Trevor Howells |
Peter Maganov | Improving the Take-up of Findings in Jurisdictional State of the Environmental Reports |
Dr Edward Blakely, Dr Rafael Pizarro |
Shu Min | The Evolving Vernacular Space Case Studies in Sichuan, China, 1644-1911 |
Assoc Prof Duanfang Lu, Prof Gary Moore |
Sanja Mladenovic | Notion of Becoming Child: Interdisciplinary study in the Field of Philosophy, Film and Architecture | Assoc Prof Chris L. Smith |
Paul O'Donnell | The Curatio Project - Remember and Recognise: Towards Developing a National Instrument for the Conservation of Australian Catholic Church Heritage |
Dr Peter Armstrong, Mr Trevor Howells |
Jun Yi Ong | Building the Garden City: The Clean Movement in Singapore, 1965-2010 | Assoc Prof Dianfang Lu, Assoc Prof Glen Hill |
Anne Watson | Peter Hall and the Sydney Opera House: The 'lost' years 1966-68 |
Dr Peter Armstrong, Dr Glen Hill |
Peter Williams | Architectural and Liturgical Design of Church Buildings for the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council - Assessing the Response to the Documents of the Council | Dr Peter Armstrong, Dr Gerard Moore |
Michael Zanardo | Shaping Affordable Housing: An Archtitectural Typological Investigation of Workers' Housing in Sydney 1900-1940 | Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Dr Lee Stickells |
Serena Yanjing Zhang | Transdisciplinary Practices: A Rising Mode in the Architectural Profession in Australia Since the 1990's |
Dr Peter Armstrong, Assoc Prof Glen Hill, Assoc Prof Chris Smith |
Architectural Science
Name | Project | Supervisors |
Judith Ainge | Iron Buildings |
Prof Richard Hyde, Mr Trevor Howells |
Hana Al-Jawder | The Impact of Window Design on Visual Privacy in Home |
Assoc Prof Wendy Davis, Prof Michael Tawa |
Hisham Allam | Retrofitting Adaptive Comfort Strategies Into conventionally Air-Conditioned Buildings |
Prof Richard de Dear, Dr David Leifer |
Mansour Alulayet | Energy Effciency Through the Building Envelope in office Buildings in Saudi Arabia | Prof Richard Hyde |
Rui Chen | Using Tangible Augmented Reality to Support Urban Design Learning |
Assoc Prof William Martens, Prof Mary Lou Maher |
Ralph Collins | Music Practice Rooms: Acoustic Effects on One's Own Voice | Dr Densil Cabrera |
Alistair Duncan | Lighting for the Aged Care |
Assoc Prof Wendy Davis |
Elizabeth Gallagher | Beyond "Green" Streets – Transforming Streets to Address Climate Change | Prof Richard de Dear |
Arosha Gamage | Exploring the Potential of Biomimicry as a Design Approach to Enhance Ecological Sustainability in Architecture |
Prof Richard Hyde, Assoc Prof Glen Hill |
Petar Gligorov | Tunable Passive Resonant Sound Absorber | Dr Densil Cabrera, Dr Jingfeng Xu |
Jungsoo Kim | Relationship Between Perceived Indoor Environment Quality and Office Workspace Satisfaction |
Prof Richard de Dear, Dr Christhina Candido |
Ben O'Callaghan | The Impact of Sustainable Housing Design and Environmental Attitudes on Resource Consumption |
Prof Richard Hyde, Dr David Wadley |
Mark McKinnon-Bassett | Testing the Relative Influence of Two Training Methods on Reporting Difference in Tone Colouration |
Assoc Prof William Martens, Dr Densil Cabrera |
Luis Alejandro Miranda Jofre | The Spacial Complexity of Auditory Scenes | Dr Densil Cabrera |
Thomas Parkinson | Alliesthesia and Thermal Perception in Transient Environments |
Prof Richard de Dear Dr Christhina Candido |
Claudiu Pop | Auditory Perception of Room Size | Dr Densil Cabrera, Dr Craig Jin |
Craig Roussac |
Saving Energy in Australian Commercial Office Buildings | Prof Richard de Dear, Prof Richard Hyde |
Daniel Ryan | An Historical Exploration of the internal Thermal Environment | Prof Richard Hyde |
Trevor Seymour-Jones | An Assessment of Emerging International Best Practice in the Integrated Management of Public Sector Property Assets, and Its Application to the Australian Public Sector |
Dr. David Leifer |
David Spargo | Role of Diffusion in Listening Rooms | Assoc Prof William L. Martens |
Ian Stevenson | Auditory confusion and the Poetics of Sonic Reverie | Dr Densil Cabrera, Dr Kirsty Beilharz |
Shiuan-Ru Su | Perceived Control in outpatient Departments of Taiwanese Hospitals from the Patient's Perspective: A Naturalistic Case Study |
Prof Gary Moore, Prof Richard de Dear |
Anir Upadhyay | Constituents of Environmental Quality of Life in Sustainable Housing in South East Queensland | Prof Richard Hyde |
Manuj Yadav | Auditory Room Size Perception |
Dr Densil Cabrera, Assoc Prof William Martens |
Design Lab
Name | Project | Supervisors |
Phillip Gough | Visualising Science for Non-Expert Users Through Affective, Interactive Digital Art | Dr Caitlin de Berigny, Dr Tomasz Bednarz |
Luke Hespanhol | Designing Interactive Environments and Ubiquitous Engagement by Augmenting Public Spaces with Electronic Installations | Dr Martin Tomitsch |
Steven Janssen | Autonomous Robotic Construction | Dr Rob Saunders |
Mohammad Ashraf Khan | 'wePlan'-Spacial Design Communication for End-Users: An Alternative Model Based on the Application of Geo-located Augmented Reality and Reference |
Dr Lian Loke, Dr Ilan Dar-Nimrod, Dr Kurt Iveson |
Crighton Nichols | Cross Cultural Design: A Capability Approach to Technology Appropriation by First Australians |
Assoc Prof Andy Dong, Dr Caitlin de Berigny |
Morteza Pourmohamadi Mahounaki | Designerly Ways of Customizing | Dr Rob Saunders, Assoc Prof Andy Dong |
Nikash Singh | Investigating User-Interface Solutions to Personal Information Management in Email |
Dr Martin Tomitsch, Hon Prof Mary Lou Maher |
Anhong Zhang | The Evolution of Languages for Design in Artificial Creative Systems | Dr Rob Saunders, Dr Ollie Bown |
Jie Zhu | Human-Robot Interaction Design - Improving Situation Awareness Through Mixed Reality | Dr Rob Saunders, Dr Martin Tomitsch |
Urban and Regional Planning
Name | Project | Supervisors |
Sarah Hill | How Can We Better Protect Employment lands When Residential is the Higher and Better Use? | Prof Peter Phibbs, Assoc Prof Nicole Gurran |
Adrienne Keane | Planning for the Interface Between Natural World Heritage and Neighboring Cities | Assoc Prof Nicole Gurran |
Pall Jakob Lindal | Project: Restorative Environment Design for Densifying Cities |
Assoc Prof Nicole Gurran, Prof Terry Hartig |
Sally Lewis | Reconciling Planning, Development and Housing Outcomes in Australia |
Assoc Prof Nicole Gurran, Dr Paul Jones |
Martin Nichols | Infrastructure Costs Associated with Differing Australian City Forms |
Prof Peter Phibbs |
Ninik Suhartini | The Relevance of Spatial Plans and Policies on Urban Disadvantaged in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Jayapura, Indonesia |
Assoc Prof Paul Jones, Assoc Prof Nicole Gurran |


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Director of Education and Workforce Development
Director of Education and Workforce Development will help align education and training programs with needs of Massachusetts employers
BOSTON – Wednesday, January 4, 2011 – Governor Deval Patrick today announced Marybeth Campbell as the new Director of Education and Workforce Development, a joint position among the Executive Offices of Education, Labor and Workforce Development and Housing and Economic Development. In her new capacity, Marybeth will work with public and private partners to create a more coherent and flexible education and workforce development system that will connect well-trained, highly-qualified employees to jobs in every corner of the Commonwealth.
"To compete in the global economy, we must connect our residents to meaningful work in the industries that have helped lead Massachusetts out of the recession faster than any other state in the nation," said Governor Patrick. "Marybeth's range of experience in workforce development will help us better serve our students and our employers, and I am delighted to welcome her to the team."
"As we continue to address the needs of the business community, this new position will increase collaboration across secretariats and enhance education and workforce training resources for students and employees," said Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray. "With Marybeth's leadership on this joint initiative, our Administration will continue to develop opportunities to better prepare students and employees with skills to compete in the growing, innovative economy."
At the Governor's direction, Greg Bialecki, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development; Joanne Goldstein, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development; and Paul Reville, Secretary of Education have jointly developed a strategic plan to achieve the Patrick-Murray Administration's workforce development goals in four key sectors – health care, life sciences, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. One of the primary goals is to better align existing educational and workforce training programs across the state with clearly defined industry-specific pathways to employment.
As Director of Education and Workforce Development, Marybeth will coordinate efforts among the three Secretariats to pool expertise and resources in the development of a workforce pipeline aligned with labor market demands in health care, life sciences, information technology and advanced manufacturing.
Marybeth will work to strengthen partnerships between community colleges and workforce development entities including Workforce Investment Boards, employers and Career Centers across the state; increase the alignment of courses and programs across high schools, vocational technical schools, community colleges, state universities and University of Massachusetts campuses; and develop online tools to provide students with clear descriptions of different pathways to multiple careers and employers with recruitment opportunities, among other initiatives.
"One of our advantages here in Massachusetts is a strong, educated workforce. A key part of our economic recovery strategy is to ensure that the skills of this workforce continue to meet the evolving needs of our businesses," said Secretary Bialecki. "We are pleased to have Marybeth on board in this new role, to help ensure that our education and workforce development programs are responsive to the needs of our employers."
"We are delighted to welcome Marybeth Campbell to this newly created position," said Secretary Goldstein. "Marybeth will help us with our innovative cross-secretariat endeavor as we work together to build workforce training and development programs that prepare workers for the Commonwealth's diverse industries and employers."
"Community colleges play a vital role in providing our students with multiple pathways to lifelong success – whether in preparation for continuing education or for entry into the workforce," said Secretary Reville. "Our community colleges must provide not only an excellent education, but also a clear trajectory to meaningful employment for students, and Marybeth's work will be central to ensuring that happens."
Prior to her selection for this position, Marybeth served as the Director of Workforce Development at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) where she designed and implemented MassCEC's Workforce Development programs, including the creation of four programs that have trained, educated and placed hundreds of individuals in clean energy sector jobs. While at MassCEC, Marybeth also cultivated strategic partnerships within the community college system to implement MassGREEN, the Commonwealth's statewide energy-efficiency training initiative. Marybeth has also worked at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, where, as Public Education Manager, she initiated and implemented a workforce pipeline grant and task force for vocational and technical high schools interested in renewable energy training and education programs. Marybeth is a graduate of Providence College and currently resides in Worcester.
"I am very excited to be working with the three Secretariats on this important strategic plan to align our workforce and education systems and respond to the skill needs of industry in the Commonwealth," said Marybeth Campbell. "I look forward to developing strong partnerships with our stakeholders in workforce development, education and business.


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RE: what plants do you have in sandy soil? long post (Follow-Up #4)
posted by: nhbabs on 05.31.2013 at 08:57 am in Perennials Forum Some plants that have done well for me in dry situations:
They aren't very formal, but rugosa roses have a strong, sweet scent, beautiful foliage, and large red hips. They only bloom once, but I like them quite a bit. Flowers are single or double in shades of pink, magenta and white. They sucker some and have wicked thorns, but will grow in beach sand. Penstemon pinifolius is a relatively short plant with typical tubular penstemon flowers in early summer in shades of red, orange, and yellow and fine needle-like foliage. If you typically have good snow cover, it is worth trying Caryopteris which I have found works for me, rather to my surprise: small tidy shrub, late summer violet-blue flowers, and either silver or gold foliage. In the coldest areas it works more like a perennial, dying back to the ground each year. 'Arthur Simmonds' has trialled as the hardiest selection, though I haven't grown it. (available at Lazy S's Nursery via mail order.) I have 'Sunshine Blue' with gold foliage which experiences some dieback but comes back every year and either 'First Choice' or 'Dark Knight' which has survived just fine for several seasons. This does better than lavender for me which survives, but takes too long to recover to look good most seasons. I do replant lavender (small inexpensive plants) most years and it grows well as an annual since the insects and humming birds like it. The only western Agastache that has survived at least one winter for me has been A. rupestris. It is a short-lived perennial for me, lasting at most 4 or 5 years, but I really like the silvery foliage and August salmon and smoky lavender blooms, so I replace it when it hasn't survived a winter. You may find that some of the blue Agastaches work for you, but I haven't grown them since they have a reputation for self-seeding. I have had Weigela grow well on a completely unwatered slope, so it should be fine. However, the Cornus kousa that is in an unwatered dry spot doesn't look nearly as nice as the one in a more average setting, and the serviceberry that I planted in a dry spot died the second season, despite my hauling water to it all of its first season. Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' is a long-blooming, bright red selection of a native vine that does fine without supplemental water in a well-drained bed. I have only had mine a couple of years, but I really like it. It should do fine being trimmed to its support, an iron trellis of 3/8" rod, if I decide it needs it. Daffodils should be fine if you are looking for spring bulbs. Plants that others have mentioned that have also done well for me in well-drained situations include bearded iris, flax, rose campion (though it self-seeds ferociously unless deadheaded), coreopsis (both lanceolata and verticillata), daylily, Baptisia, Liatris, Sedum, Semperivirens, Amsonia hubrichtii, Nepeta/catmint, Alyssum, and columbine. NOTES: <none>
clipped on: 06.14.2013 at 04:37 pm last updated on: 06.14.2013 at 04:37 pm


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The Colby College Museum of Art's Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects-designed expansion will officially open as the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion on July 13. Inaugural exhibitions at the enlarged museum will highlight the recently donated Lunder Collection, which has been acknowledged as one of the most important holdings of American art assembled by private collectors. The 26,000-square-foot addition includes a light-filled pavilion attached to the existing museum for an additional 10,000 square feet of exhibition space.
"This new pavilion is conceived as a glass prism that will reflect its natural and architectural context in continuously changing images," says Frederick Fisher. "The reflecting nature of the glass expresses the theme that art provides the opportunity to reflect on life. This was central to the museum's position as a beacon of creativity and innovation on campus."
The pavilion's minimalist design contrasts with the campus' existing Georgian-style brick architecture. As the museum's new main entrance, the addition completes a circuit among its three existing wings. A spacious lobby will include a sculpture gallery and terrace, as well as new exhibition galleries, classrooms, a conference room, and staff offices. A glass-enclosed stairwell will permit visibility from the campus' main thoroughfare to a three-story wall drawing by Sol LeWitt. The pavilion's upper floor will hold the college's art department with new studios for photography and fine arts foundation classes, faculty offices, and a student lounge.
"Until now, our museum may have been something of an underappreciated gem—though not to our students, faculty and alumni, and the citizens of Maine, who have embraced it as one of their finest resources," says William D. Adams, president, Colby College. "But now, as we celebrate the bicentennial of the college, we can look forward as never before to welcoming visitors from around the country and the world who are going to discover that our museum has risen toward the top in its field."
The inaugural exhibition in the new Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion will be the Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College. A special exhibition of early Chinese works comprised of the College's collection and loans from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will simultaneously be on view, in addition to recent acquisitions from the Alex Katz Foundation, works from the museum's holdings of John Marin's work, and photos from the Norma B. Marin Photography Collection.
For more information, visit colby.edu/museum.


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Today's post continues where yesterday's left off regarding the state of internet in Mexico, and further down what its advancement means for businesses and SEO. The difference in web use and access between urban and rural areas in the country is great, and closing this gap is important for internet's growth. In cities with more than 15,000 people (where 71% of Mexican homes are) only 40% have a computer and 30% are online. In the almost 190,000 Mexican towns under 2,5000 people, only 6% of the homes have a computer and only 3% are online. Penetration isn't terribly high in urban areas, and the drop-off to rural regions is significant. Reasons are infrastructure, the inability of many to afford computers, and the lack of education in the use of computers within some populations. The government has taken some actions already to make the technology more widely available and has set some goals to be reached by 2015:
- 55% of both urban and suburban homes with at least 5 Mbps broadband access
- Fixed and mobile broadband reaching at least 38 out of 100 inhabitants, with universal access by the end of the decade
- All basic education schools, public health facilities and public offices connected to the Internet, with digital competence curriculum being developed
- 70% of SMBs with over 20 employees having broadband access
Takeaway for Businesses and SEOs
As the internet in Mexico grows there will be more opportunity for everyone as end-users will have access to more information and drive more traffic pushing the web space forward.
- Mexican businesses will be more competitive locally, regionally, and internationally as a result of more online activity and exposure at each level.
- SEO companies that serve businesses with an online presence in Mexico will benefit as essentially there will be more requests for services that increase ranking on search engines and drive more traffic. Thus, they need to stay abreast of developments in the Mexican market and cater their international SEO services to the needs of these businesses. Included in this is the use of social media in the country, as more users come online, trends regarding platform preference and behavior tendencies will become apparent and should influence internet marketing strategy in the region.
- Local SEO is enormous and I expect that to be one of the first elements of the developing Mexican market to catch fire and take off from its current degree of utilization. More businesses will be online and more will want to optimize for local. This will be aided by the expected increase in mobile smartphone penetration and searching on the devices similar to the mobile trends in other markets. SEO companies can leverage local directory placement and additionally employ geo-targeting practices.
For more information on internet in Mexico, how SEO can improve your Mexican online presence, or how marketers can negotiate the challenges associated with expanding their online presence in a new market like Mexico, reach out to me directly at firstname.lastname@example.com.
The major sporting vent in the UK this summer is a truly global event with people from all corners of the world not only participating but following and supporting the actual events and accompanying activities. Many will travel to the UK to see the events and festivities in person, but for the millions of fans that will not, media coverage will be expansive to bring the happenings to everyone else. The committee guiding the major event in the UK has pushed the events in various ways online and through social media in years past, but this year the efforts are enhanced and more purposeful creating more engagement and an improved experience for fans.
In an interview with The Next Web, the Head of Social Media for the committee guiding the event, Alex Huot, describes the ambitious ins and outs of their social strategy. It is worth profiling here because what they are doing stands a great example for businesses in utilizing social media to successfully engage with its audience. The social team is focusing on engaging with a younger audience and this strategy was cemented when they launched a Facebook page for the upcoming games in January of 2010 and with Facebook insights they found that 65% were under 24 years old.
In the year prior to the games, the social team has been connecting with fans and learning what it is that they want to have available to them. This is a critical point. Although messages are instant and exposure can gain traction very quickly, that represents the time-frame of implementation. The planning and strategy can take much longer. As such, the social team did their formative research so they know exactly what their fans wanted, and now they can deliver it.
As a result, they have outlined 2 separate initiatives, the Athlete's Hub and the I Copy U campaign. The first enables fans to connect with athletes from the Games asking them questions and gaining an inside the ropes perspective. The second gives fans the chance to mimic a photo of an athlete and post it for a chance to win a trip to the events and the team has been creating social chatter primarily on twitter over this campaign.
As a side note, there is a currency that the events have that cannot be denied and that is their exceptional product, the games themselves, so that does make it easier for the guiding committee social media marketers to achieve results. With that said, just because there is great interest and a great number of followers from the target audience does not mean there isn't potential for failed strategy. The guiding committee knows this and has done their due diligence to develop and implement a meaningful social campaign.
Further, the team has established accounts in several different languages including English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and also connecting with those in China – so catering to specific markets. The biggest growth they indicate is in microblogging where across all accounts, they have 6.5 million followers. Facebook, Twitter, and Sina Weibo are the essential platforms they are using.
In sum, the biggest take-away for businesses is planning the time to do the formative research to establish exactly what it is that your audience wants. Engage them to understand them better and formulate a proper strategy, and them implement accordingly.
Reach out to me directly at email@example.com if you want more information regarding how your business can utilize social media or international SEO when catering to specific contexts.
Businesses must cater to each local context – have I said that before on this blog? Yes, it is a recurring theme but only because it holds great utility for businesses and it bears consistent repeating. This is especially the case when others are offering the same advice, like say Tom Smith, managing director of the market research firm GlobalWebIndex.
The research firm recently finished their sixth installment of current research that addresses how social media is used in markets across the globe. Interestingly, the research shows that certain indicators are slowing in the US like that of messaging friends which as a behavior fell 12% over the six installments of the research. Other behaviors that fell were searching for contacts (down 17%) and joining groups (19%). These trends are not seen in other markets, specifically emerging markets, where engagement and behavior is on the uptick, especially managing social profiles and uploading videos.
Such emerging markets are Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia where growing access to internet and interest in social media are driving surge in behavior. The behavior currently experienced in these markets mirrors those experienced in mature markets like the US, UK, and Germany during the first 3-6 years the platform was launched. One cannot help but wonder if behavior will eventually slow in the emerging markets the same way they recently have in the US.
Regardless, at the present time, the slowing of behaviors in mature markets and the surge in emerging markets points to a varying social engagement landscape that requires varying strategies by SEO experts and businesses catering to each audience. "The sixth wave of GlobalWebIndex shows increasing fragmentation of the global internet," said Smith, as quoted in an article by The Next Web. "This creates a more localized Internet, where each market has a different behavior type, relationship with brands and attitudes towards the role of the Internet. The concept that the Internet would drive a singular global culture is false. Brands and content producers will need ever more localized strategies," contended Smith. This has been a theme of this blog: "cater to the context."
Looking at the stats it is hard to ignore China who leads the growth of all social behavior as platforms like Sina Weibo, RenRen, Kaixin, and Qzone are bring users from forums and blogging to micro-blogging and social networking.
What SEO Companies and Internet Marketers need to Know:
- Social media is by means declining, the landscape is only adjusting with declines in some practices in some markets – mature markets.
- Businesses need to conduct diligent market research on the countries they are catering to, assessing not only the social media platforms that are used, but how they are used by those in that context.
- Businesses and SEO companies assisting them need to thus choose context-specific strategies (e.g., engage users with more quality content and inspiration or spur them to participate with calls to action motivating them to create content) and be consistent with them to achieve the established marketing goals.
For more information, reach out to me directly at email@example.com regarding how social media is fragmented across international markets and how this could impact you businesses' online traffic and internet marketing goals.
I want to circle back to news from Google that broke earlier in the month regarding encrypted search and address how it can impact international markets. Google made a change several months ago to google.com where users who are logged in have secure socket layer (SSL) encryption added to their web searches providing an added layer of privacy. Google pushes the security and privacy aspects of the default SSL measure and calls on more companies to adopt SSL in their offerings. This move also set up the then forthcoming launch of Google Search Plus your World. A byproduct of this SSL measure, though, is that less search data is available for advertisers. It brings the "not provided" keyword return in Google Analytics into existence and pushes SEO companies and internet marketers to reassess and adapt their practices.
Now local Google sites in international markets (such as google.co.uk, google.com.au) will have SSL as a default too. International SEO experts must utilize informational resources learn from their counterparts here in the US market as this rollout begins to happen because they too will start to experience the impact that marketers in the US have been negotiating for a few months now. To that end, there has been some quality writing on the subject, and I'll address some essential take-aways that international SEO experts can use as a jumping off point applying each to their own market:
- Overall organic search traffic numbers are not affected by this change, but specific keyword referral information is. As such, conversion numbers relating to overall organic search traffic will still be available.
- Advertisers will continue to have access to certain keyword referral data.
- Utilize Google Webmaster Tools for further keyword information taking advantage of aggregated lists showing the top 1,000 searches that sent users to the site of interest for the previous 30 days.
- Echoing an important point made here, each individual website and domain will be impacted to different degrees by the SSL encrypted search. Marketers thus should attempt to quantify the effect of the "not provided" terms and then segment the data because the is simply no way to establish what specific keywords those search securely are using to end of at the site of interest.
In Monday's post, I introduced the idea of cultural characteristics and looked at power distance. Certain characteristics of culture influence the way people act and experience their world and, of most interest to those in international SEO, experience the internet. Many aspects of certain cultures have changed over time, however core elements of culture tend to remain unchanged, they only adapt to the times. As such, certain tendencies of those from a specific culture can be expected, and as internet marketers, we must cater what we do to best suit the tendencies of a certain market.
With that said, by no means is it a hardened rule. Tendencies are just that, the ways people tend to act when looking at an overall collection of a group – averages. So there are people in a given culture that will receive information differently as they experience the internet, but we are trying to cast the biggest net to purposefully engage the greatest amount of people in the target market. With this understanding, we press on to look at another characteristic of culture, whether a culture is high or low-context. I describe this pair of characteristics in our Casual Friday video for today -check that out for more detail and to hear Todd and I discuss other international SEO issues.
High Context vs. Low Context Cultures
High and low context addresses how much meaning is in the literal words versus the meaning that is attributed to the context in any given conversation or communication interaction. In low context cultures, meaning is more literal and received mostly through explicit descriptions utilizing more in-depth explanation and examples – essentially resulting in more words. In high context cultures, more meaning is given to the context of the interaction, the time of day, the roles of those involved, the place of the business in their industry, the standing of their brand, and any other unspoken understandings – so less explicit, fewer words.
It's Relevant Impact
How does this impact internet marketing? In terms of web design, on-site content, and social media content, you want to connect with your audience, so if you are targeting those in a low context culture, like German culture for example, you want more explicit detail and explanations, utilizing many examples and thoroughly presenting information. This will give members of the target audience meaning in the form that are most used to dealing with. Conversely, with low context environments, like Japanese and Chinese cultures, content should be more based on contextual understandings based on unspoken understandings like the company's place in the society, their relationship to their customers, their place in the industry and their resulting responsibilities to the environment for example. Here, marketers want to be less explicit overall, concentrating on offering interesting features that will engage the audience instead of extra detail and descriptions.
In this case with high context-cultures, you do not want to take detail away at the detriment of SEO value, so this needs to be weighed against each other. On one side of the spectrum, you can go high on detail for SEO purposes (while moving away from the cultural norm for high context cultures). On the other side, you can offer less overall detail (appropriate for high context cultures) which equates to less opportunity for SEO. In the end, it is not a black and white issue, there is a middle-ground that you can strike, balancing informative detail for SEO gain and catering to the high context characteristic. Working with search engine optimization consultants to strike this SEO-culture balance without sacrificing either is ultimately a business' best option at successfully navigating these matters.
Culture is a dynamic, living thing. This may be an exaggeration of sorts, but the point is culture is an evolving entity that impacts just about every aspect of our lives. It impacts the way we experience our days, structure our time, share with friends, work at our jobs, and – how we experience the web. Cultures adapt as time passes, but core elements of cultures can and do remain unchanged. These core elements account for cultural tendencies that exist from culture to culture influencing the way people behave and, for our purposes, experience the internet.
As a result, it is important for international SEO companies to recognize such differences and optimize accordingly, presenting unique culture or country-specific strategies. Culture is a relevant and recurring issue that I discuss on this blog, but for good reason, its reach and impact on internet marketing and SEO is undeniable. Today, I'm going to look at one cultural characteristic in particular and how it can impact marketing efforts.
Power Distance
One important cultural characteristic is called power distance which addresses how a culture negotiates power and status in relationships. As a concept, it is the extent to which those in less powerful roles accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Superior roles are thus respected and revered to a greater degree. In lower power distance cultures, everyone is seen as more equal, whereas with high power distance, more social rank and distance is put between subordinates and those higher than them.
So in terms of web design, if a company is catering to a lower power distance culture, they want to think about how they present their management. If transparency is an element of the company culture, for example, a company may have a desire to put the direct contact information of management on the site or provide a feature for connecting with the CEO or C-level executives. The company may want to seem accessible to customers. This may present a disconnect though with the local culture as people may question the professionalism of the company.
A business in tern should weigh their own culture against that of the audience they are targeting when deciding which should dictate practices. As such, businesses may want to override local influences with elements of their own organizational culture to present a certain identity. There is no correct "one-size-fits-all" solution, and decisions need to be made on a per-country basis.