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Confronting diaphobia
Interview | Scholar David R. Hodge on spirituality and social work
David R. Hodge, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a professor in social work at Arizona State University, has published more than 50 journal articles and other academic pieces, mostly on topics involving spirituality.
WORLD: You wrote recently about the controversy concerning "release time" programs that allow students to be excused from classes to receive off-site religious instruction during school hours.
HODGE: Apart from school choice programs, many observers view release time programs as the best option for parents wishing to provide their children with a holistic education that includes a spiritual component. But with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, local schools are under increasing pressure to raise test scores, so some school officials have prohibited release time programs, believing that excusing students from classes hinders academic achievement.
Preliminary research, however, suggests that attending release time does not negatively affect academic test scores and may positively affect students' academic achievement by helping to instill self-discipline, cooperation, and so forth.
WORLD: Faith-based drug and alcohol treatment programs have also been questioned for purportedly not respecting "client autonomy."
HODGE: To those who hold modernistic assumptions, secular programs seem better-positioned to respect client self-determination than faith-based programs. Enlightenment-based modernists typically believe secular individuals are neutral, seeing reality impartially, while religious people are biased, viewing reality through a spiritual lens. Modernism, however, has been largely discredited. As is now widely acknowledged, no neutral ground exists from which reality can be impartially viewed. Every person views the world through a particular lens.
This means that every program "imposes" certain values upon clients: Secular programs and faith-based programs are on equal grounds in terms of their ability to respect client autonomy. My own exploratory research confirms this.
WORLD: How do social work's ethical mandates relate to a Christian worldview?
HODGE: They're highly compatible. Key values in the profession's code of ethics include social justice, the inherent dignity and worth of persons, the centrality of relationships, and service-particularly to people who are poor and disenfranchised. These values echo those held by most Christians and many other theists. This high degree of compatibility is unsurprising since evangelical Christians played a major role in founding the profession and developing its guiding values.
WORLD: How do the religious beliefs and practices of social workers compare with those of the general public?
HODGE: In contrast to professionals in many other disciplines, social workers are just as likely to report attending religious services weekly as members of the general public. The difference is in the content of their religious beliefs. As a group, social workers hold beliefs that are significantly more liberal than those held by the general public.
The most pronounced difference in beliefs occurs between social workers and members of the working and lower classes. This is somewhat ironic, since social work has historically been committed to advocating on behalf of people who are poor.
WORLD: Do those liberal beliefs foster bias toward theistic clients-and if so, how?
HODGE: In many cases, yes: The lack of diversity in social work, as well as academia in general, means that social workers are often unfamiliar with common theistic values. For instance, research suggests that for many theists, complementary marriages are an important family strength-but, since their understanding of theistic worldviews is distorted, some therapists may believe that complementary marriages are dysfunctional. Consequently, they may implicitly coerce couples into adopting egalitarian marriages.
WORLD: What is "diaphobia" and how does it affect the relationship between mental health professionals and evangelical Christians?
HODGE: Diaphobia is an animus toward a worldview in which a transcendent God is the ultimate point of reference. Although relatively few social workers would be considered diaphobic, diaphobia may help explain textbook comments that "Christian values are a cornerstone of racism," or that religious conservatives are spearheading a "war against the poor."
Here's one extreme example: Those who believe that Jesus engaged in a homosexual relationship with the apostle John supposedly have a living, dynamic Christian faith, while those who believe in traditional sexual morality have rigid, moralistic beliefs similar to those of the Pharisees that murdered Christ. As future mental health practitioners assimilate these negative characterizations, it affects their ability to provide effective, unbiased services to evangelical Christians.
WORLD: Overall, does social work oppress evangelical Christians?
HODGE: Oppression is a strong word, but concern appears to be warranted. For instance, attempts have been made to de-accredit the few private Christian social work programs in the nation. In at least one state university, a formal interview process was set up to screen out students who held traditional theistic beliefs on homosexuality, such as "loving the sinner but hating the sin." The interview focused not on behaviors, or how one treated people, but personally held beliefs. In other words, the state was placed in the position of determining appropriate religious beliefs and excluding those who disagreed.
Fortunately, these efforts have not succeeded due to their illegality. However, the willingness of some social workers to violate the separation of church and state to use the power of the state to exclude traditional theists from obtaining an education suggests that many evangelical Christians may encounter discrimination in some social work forums.
WORLD: How were those efforts-for example, the interview process to screen out theistic students-exposed and stopped?
HODGE: In the case of the interview, some very courageous students worked with a broad coalition of civil-rights organizations, including the American Jewish Congress, the Christian Legal Society, and the state chapter of the ACLU, to get the state university to revise the screening interview.
WORLD: So what should social work students or clients do when they encounter discrimination?
HODGE: A student or client should contact those responsible, gently explain his understanding of the situation, and offer an alternative way of addressing the issue. In many cases, social workers inadvertently engage in discrimination and are willing to remedy the situation, particularly if other options are brought to their attention.
If one-on-one communication fails to address the problem, then the appropriate authorities can be contacted and, finally, legal challenges can be brought to bear. Organizations such as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) exist to protect students' rights in educational and other settings.
WORLD: How can social workers be equipped to address spiritual issues?
HODGE: Perhaps the most important factor is developing a more diverse academic environment. Although social work has done a good job fostering diversity in areas such as race and gender, in other areas, such as religion, very little diversity exists, and that hurts the ability of social workers to address spiritual issues competently.
WORLD: Are any positive developments occurring in social work?
HODGE: Yes, a number. Many mental health professionals are realizing that spirituality and religion are fundamental dimensions of existence for many people and they see that training is needed to work with such individuals in a professional manner. In addition, many social workers support the concept of developing a more inclusive, representative profession.


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Mitchell I Karmel, MD
3416 Upstate University Hospital - Downtown Campus
750 East Adams Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
315 464-8668
750 East Adams Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
315 464-8668
Current Appointments
- Associate Professor of Radiology
- Director of Vascular and Interventional Radiology
- Director of Cardiovascular Radiology
- Medical Director of University Radiology Associates, Interventional Radiology
Hospital Campus
- Downtown
- Community
Clinical Section Affiliations
- Radiology: Vascular and Interventional Radiology
- Upstate Cancer Center: Radiology
- Women's Health Network: Women's Imaging and Radiology
Research Programs and Affiliations
- Radiology
- Cardiovascular Radiology
Upstate University Hospital - Downtown Campus
Google Maps & Directions
3601, 750 East Adams Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
315 464-8035
- University Radiology Associates, Interventional Radiology
Upstate Specialty Services at Harrison Center
Google Maps & Directions
Suite B, 550 Harrison Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
315 464-7715
- Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Program
Upstate Specialty Services at Harrison Center
Google Maps & Directions
Suite M, 550 Harrison Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
315 464-6297
Education & Fellowships
- Fellowship: Harvard Medical School, 1989, Cardiovascular/Interventional Radiology
- Residency: Cornell University, 1987, Diagnostic Radiology
- Internship: Cornell Cooperating Hospitals: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 1984, Medicine
- MD: University at Buffalo School of Medicine, 1983
Clinical Interests
Vascular/Interventional Radiology
Interventional Oncology
Treatment of Hepatic Metastatic Disease
Uterine Fibroid Embolization
Education Interests
Improving the Practice of Interventional Radiology
Research Interests
Computed Tomographic Angiography, Magnetic Resonance Angiography, Interventional Oncology, Hypertension
Specialties & Certification
- Radiology
- Cardiovascular/Interventional Radiology
- Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Diseases & Conditions Treated
- Abdominal Abscess
- Arterial/Venous/Lymphatic Malformation
- Bile Duct Cancer
- Cirrhosis
- Jaundice
- Kidney Cancer
- Kidney Infection
- Liver Cancer
- Nephrolithiasis (Kidney Stones)
- Pulmonary Embolism
- Renal Failure
- Trauma
- Tube Feeding Dependency
- Uterine Fibroids
- Adults and Children
- Billiary Drains
- Central Venous Access
- Chemotherapy
- Internal Radiation
- Interventional Catheterization
- Intra-Arterial (IA) Chemotherapy
- Liver Biopsy
- MR Imaging
- Nephrostomy Tube
- Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG)
- Sclerotherapy
- Thoracentesis
- Trauma Embolization
- Vena Cava Filters
- Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
Current Hospital Privileges
- Upstate University Hospital
ResearchNaidich JB, Karmel MI, Mossey RT, Bluestone PA, Stein HL,
Osteoarthropathy of the head and wrist in patients undergoing long term hemodialysis. Radiology 1987; 164:205-209.
Naidich JB, Mossey RT, Atkinson BM, Karmel MI, Bluestone PA, Mailloux LU, Stein HL, Spondyloarthropathy from long-term hemodialysis. Radiology 1988; 165: 761-764.
Naidich JB, Karmel MI, Mossey RT, Bluestone PA, Stein HL,Articular erosions in the hand and wrists in patients undergoing long term hemodialysis. Letter to the Editor, Radiology 1988; 166:285-286.
Naidich JB, Feinberg AW, Karp Harman H, Karmel MI, Tyma CG, Stein HL, Contrast venography: Reassessment of its role. Radiology 1988; 168-97-100.
Clinical Profile Shortcut: http://www.upstate.edu/findadoc/karmelm
Faculty Profile Shortcut: http://www.upstate.edu/faculty/karmelm
Faculty Profile Shortcut: http://www.upstate.edu/faculty/karmelm

subset: commoncrawl


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|Wearing: WE cardigan, Levis Jeans, Footwear boots, America Today top, F21 earrings, C&A scarf
Much Love,
|Wearing: WE cardigan, Levis Jeans, Footwear boots, America Today top, F21 earrings, C&A scarf
aw wow there's only 3.c and u wear like that!!!still pretty,though!<3
Dapper om dit weer zo te trotseren. Ik ga binnenkort ook eens wat oufit-posts doen.
My weekend was pretty much the same :D
This is an awesome outfit, but why the heck are you wearing it when it is THAT FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE?!
Roots, Wings, and Other Things.
Waauw wat een leuke outfit! En wat een leuke blog! Ik ga je volgen hihi!
xx Laura
LOOK AT YOU! :o You are so gorgeous, seriously. Love this outfit - the color combo is perfection!!!ReplyDelete
like the beautiful combination of blue and yelow.
I am loving the yello cardi! Super cute. :)
What a cute outfit! I love those boots. Your weekend sounds perfect...I'm definitely a Gleek ;)ReplyDelete
hahaha, bevroren :') poor nikon!
ik vind de nieuwe layout beter xx
Love the colors in this outfit Nikki - so cute :)
The Other Side of Gray
I so need to catch up on Glee... I'm loving yellow and navy together - you look so cute!
cute, I like the new poses. The photos have good light, and look nice.ReplyDelete
Dat geel staat je goed! XReplyDelete
Girl, you are so much better than me. When it is that cold outside, I stay inside lol. I don't think the photos look over-edited at all! I love the yellow, navy, and orange. You look so pretty! -DreamaReplyDelete
Gij zijt zot!!! Met die koude in een t-shirtje buiten staan, crazy woman! Maar wel weeral een leuke oufit!ReplyDelete
I like how your photos turned out with the editing, you really pop against the background, of course your fabulous yellow sweater doesn't hurt either!ReplyDelete
you look very sweet honey
X the cookies
Nice scarf and respect for making outfit photos when it's chilly :P ;)ReplyDelete
I'm with everyone else...it was 3 degrees and you are wearing short sleeves??? It makes me cold just looking at you!! :)ReplyDelete
I really love your scarf. The pictures don't look over-edited to me. I think you did a good job!ReplyDelete
3 degrees and a frozen camera? That's commitment! Love that little yellow cardigan. Hope you raced back inside and warmed yourself up with a nice cup of tea!ReplyDelete
You are brave for wearing short sleeves in such cold temps!! xo www.casualglamorous.comReplyDelete
cute color combo! xoxoReplyDelete
Oh girl, I feel you. It's been freezing here, my cell phone froze while I was on a hike the other day! Anyway, whether or not you think the pics turned out, I think they look amazing! Love the punch of yellow.
Alexandra xo
If you get all of the wrong things out of the way early, you leave time for perfection, right? (: I can't believe you went outside when it was that cold, silly. I'd die.ReplyDelete
I love the bright pop of yellow from the sweater!ReplyDelete
So cute!
haha, well I'm glad you were warm!
love your bright yellow cardi and cowl!
Chic on the Cheap
love your bootsReplyDelete
You have a really amazing blog! The yellow looks lovely on you!
Wardrobe Stylists, NYC.
I'm loving the color combination here, your scarf is so pretty!ReplyDelete
Love the pops of colour! Sounds like you had a lovely weekend :) xoReplyDelete
You look so casual and cute in your yellow cardigan and striped top. I really like your boots too!ReplyDelete
Such gorgeous scenery and that is one amazing yellow cardi!ReplyDelete
Brava for taking pics in the cold! The yellow sweater looks so cute on you.
Closet Confections - A Sweet Personal Style Blog
Brrr, ik krijg het al koud als ik je zo zie!
Heb het al koud als ik met mijn dikke winterjas rondloop :D
Anyway, ik vind het wel een hele mooie outfit!
Die sjaal vind ik leuk :)
Wow so it was really cold!! anyways these pics are lovely!
Nice photos and really cool outfit, you look great, I like your jeans, what a great color and that cardigan is so nice, the perfect touch to the outfit also you are really beautiful and your boots rock! You have an awesome blog by the way and I am a new follower! Hope you will like my blog and follow back!
Also make sure to enter my 100$ giftcard giveaway to spend at Shopbop.
Pop Culture&Fashion Magic
Your photos are so dreamy(: I love the colors!ReplyDelete
You look so pretty, I'm loving this outfit, and these photos are so lovely! Such a pretty location!! And yes, brr it has been so cold! xoReplyDelete


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All branches closed for Memorial Day, May 30th.
St. Cloud Offers Adult Computer Basics Class
Adults! If you are a computer novice, here's a chance to learn how to tame the mouse, click on target and cruise the Information Super Highway.
This class will offer an opportunity to learn the basics and practice your new skills. For beginners only. Please register online, over the phone, or in person at the library. Max attendees: 10. The class meets Tuesday, Oct. 22 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the St. Cloud Public Library in Room 208.


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Rediscovered in 1973, the sunken ship became America's first National Marine Sanctuary, a National Historic Landmark, and the subject of several expeditions by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Navy, and other partners. At the request of Congress, the Monitor 's anchor, engine, propeller, and finally her armored turret, with its two massive Dahlgren guns, emerged from the sea for conservation treatment and public display at the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, in sight of where her epic battle was fought.
When the turret was raised in 2002, the remains of two of the ship's crew were found inside. Respectfully recovered, they were sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There, scientists and archaeologists learned a great deal about those two men, extracted DNA, and began a long and as yet unresolved quest to learn their identities.
Genealogy also played a role, as descendants of the lost crewmen were sought to obtain DNA for a possible match. Working with Louisiana State University's Faces Laboratory in Baton Rouge, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has now revealed to the nation just what these two men looked like, although which of the crew they were is still undetermined even after a decade of a meticulous and dedicated quest by JPAC.
What should happen now, especially in this 150th anniversary year? I believe the time has come for the nation to recognize and honor that crew with the interment of the two Monitor sailors at the hallowed Arlington National Cemetery. NOAA has proposed, and I agree, that a monument to all 16 who paid the ultimate sacrifice be erected there, with each sailor's name, rank, and hometown. Beneath it the two who have been found would be laid to rest at last with all due dignity, ceremony, and recognition.


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Five Towns woman faces tiniest killer in the world
(Page 2 of 3)
Still, I really wanted to snorkel the reef. On one hand, having recently escaped the Komodo dragons on the island of the same name, I didn't want to push my luck. But I was there on the reef, one of the greatest wonders on Earth. I signed up, figuring I'd go out to the reef on the catamaran and decide at the last minute. Meanwhile, I had two days at sea aboard our ship to eat all the desserts in case it didn't go well.
On the day of the reef excursion, my years of watching "Sea Hunt" and Jacques Cousteau trumped my fears. Nothing to it. Fortified by two days of cream puffs, chocolate mousse and end-of-life éclairs, I went overboard.
The seas were angry that day, my friends, to quote George Costanza. We got out to the first stop on the reef after a two-hour haul on a small boat. The water was choppy, but we put on full-body stinger suits and went in. The crew didn't wear them; they consider them solely for the use of American wussies who think fatal jellyfish stings are something to fear. The boat boys had all been stung multiple times, but not yet by the dreaded box jellyfish. Great-looking group of mates, but not that smart, eh?
The water was 80 degrees, and once I was in, my galloping heart rate dropped to a wild trot. I saw brain coral and fan coral and gray and stark white coral, and also parrot fish, clown fish and giant angel fish. Most amazing, I saw two giant clams, like something out of Jules Verne. My swimming pal swam down and ran her hand over the opening of the clam, and it started to close! It was 3½ feet across. What a chowder, I thought.
Very quickly, it went from just choppy to rough out there. We sailed on to a second diving spot and dropped anchor. I went in again and saw fantastic branches and fans of coral, as if everything was on steroids. I actually felt comfortable in the water, but I know I would've had a heart attack on the spot if I saw a jellyfish. At one point I nearly did have a heart attack when I saw what I thought was a tentacle, but it was only the string from my suit. Ah, it is possible to die a thousand deaths.
KeywordsRandi Kreiss, stingers, Australia, Thursday Island, Great Barrier Reef, box jellyfish
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May 24, 2016
Thomasville, GA-October 12, 2012
A local human society is encouraging people in the community to run for a good cause.
It's the 21st Annual Run For Rover 5K and One Mile Fun Run.
Runners are encouraged to come on out Saturday morning and run or walk the course and bring your furry friends along too.
Proceeds will benefit the thousands of animals a year that the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society takes in.
"You obviously have to have a facility and food and medical care and you know, vaccinations and all these sorts of things for the animals; so all this fundraising that we do, the proceeds benefit that," said Edward Williams, the Executive Director of the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society,
It's not too late to register.
Race day registration starts at 8 a.m. October 13 and costs $20.
Run For Rover will kick off at 9 a.m. at Thomas University, located on Pinetree Boulevard and Milpond Road.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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For full-time Graduate students only.
This Fund aims to assist full-time graduate students at NYU who have significant financial hardship caused by unusually large medical expenses. The Student Health Center provides applicants medical financial counseling and assists them in accessing additional resources including the Medical Emergency Fund, if necessary. With the Medical Emergency Fund program, we are able to assist full-time graduate students who might otherwise be unable to continue their studies because of an unanticipated financial burden due to serious illness or injury.
In order to be considered under this program, you must meet all of the following criteria:
1. Obtain the required application forms (both forms must be submitted):
2. Complete the application forms and include the following attachments*: (All attachments must be in English or accompanied by an English translation.)
* It may be necessary to review your University Financial Aid file to further assist you.
3. Submit your application and make an appointment with a Medical Financial Counselor:
During your appointment, you and the Medical Financial Counselor will review your application. The Medical Financial Counselor may request that you provide additional documentation to complete your application, as well as identify additional sources of funding and help you in seeking that assistance. Based on the information you provide, the Medical Financial Counselor may decide to do one or more of the following:
The Medical Emergency Fund is a fund of last resort. If, after working with the resources outlined above, the Medical Financial Counselor is unable to assist you in resolving your medical expenses, your application will be forwarded to the Executive Administrator of the Fund who will present your application to the Fund Committee for consideration.
4. Keep a copy:
Make a copy of your application and its attachments.
Award determination:
The Medical Emergency Fund committee will meet quarterly to review all application submissions. The committee will grant awards based on the student's situation, financial need and availability of funds. Awards generally will range from $5,000 to $10,000. Awards are granted four times a year based on the following schedule:
Award notification:
Upon determination of an award, the Executive Administrator will contact you in writing indicating the amount of the award that you have been granted. Payment will be issued directly to you by the University.
Tax liability:
There is expected to be no tax to the Graduate Students under Section 104(a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which covers arrangements having the effect of accident and health insurance. In addition, there should be no tax to foreign students on receipt of these reimbursement payments, as they should have no greater liability to the IRS than U.S. taxpayers
More information on the Medical Emergency Fund and application process can be found by contacting the Patient Accounts office at (212) 443-1020.


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Revealing analysis of national trends and local news you won't find in Miami's mainstream media. Dedicated to ethical government, saving tax dollars and a healthy environment. We aim to TRY to break the chokehold of Miami's developers and lobbyists on local government and the public commons. We offer our forum to that end.
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text:
- 1096Promote
Phone Cases
Anonymousby Dr. Lukas Brezak
Protect your iPhone with a one-piece, impact resistant, flexible plastic hard case featuring an extremely slim profile. Simply snap the case onto your iPhone for solid protection and direct access to all device features.
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this is BRILLIANT, I love it, and when I have sufficient spare cash I shall be buying a t-shirt :)
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We believe that it's the little things – like offering you a choice of cocktails and providing Chinese-speaking staff on every flight – that make the difference, and make our Economy Class the finest in the skies.
Extra-legroom Seats
You can now enjoy extra leg room on an Extra-legroom Seat located at exit row.
Learn about how to secure an Extra-Legroom Seat.
Economy Class Check-In Service
Click here for an overview of our Economy Class check-in service.
About Economy Class Baggage
As an Economy Class passenger, your check-in baggage allowance is 20kg. On flights to, from or via the US, Canada and some countries in South America, you may check in 2 bags with dimensions measuring up to 158cm (62 inches) in total and 23kg (50lbs) in weight for each bag. Click here for more details.


text:
Instructions for downloading:
1. Click on the link below—it will open in a new window.
• Canadian Gardening Index: 2002
2. Wait for the picture to load, then...
For Windows users, right click on the image and click on "Save As" to save to your computer. Then open and print!
For Mac users, control click on the image and save to your Pictures folder or wherever else you usually store images. Then open and print!
Read more in How to and Gardening Basics


text:
There are two users with strange names that we did not create. My coworker thinks there are temp users still hanging around from the installation. I think one is from the 3.0 GA Public release upgrade (from last Beta) and one is from the 3.0 GA Commercial release (from the 3.0 GA Public).
3v_c4nzzk and 4cef0fv4tu are the users. Is it ok to delete them? My coworke recalls they were created for testing during the install. We don't think it's used during normal operation, but we wanted to ask first.
Is it ok to delete those strange named users?
and the corollary question
What is/are/were they for?


text:
Free Harley Earrings with purchases above GBP 100*
Unfortunately this product is currently unavailable.
Simply irresistible! Fresh and feminine, this rhodium-plated set features delicate flowers adorned with a gradation of pastel-coloured crystals. It includes a pair of pierced earrings and a pendant on a chain and makes an ideal gift for Valentine's or Mother's Day.


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The Adult Antiretroviral Treatment and Resistance Study (Tshepo)
This study has been completed.
Harvard School of Public Health
Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana
Botswana Ministry of Health
McGill University Health Center
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Richard Marlink, Harvard School of Public Health
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: September 12, 2005
Last updated: September 14, 2012
Last verified: September 2012
- Full Text View
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- No Study Results Posted
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- How to Read a Study Record
The "Adult Antiretroviral Treatment and Resistance Study," hereafter referred to as "The Tshepo Study," is the first large-scale research study of antiretroviral therapy to treat AIDS and HIV infection in Botswana. The Tshepo Study is an open-label, randomized study comparing: (1) the rate of development and specific types of drug resistance mutations with various antiretroviral combination therapies to HIV-1C, the subtype of HIV found in southern Africa, and (2) the short and long-term effectiveness of two operational modifications of Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) medication adherence strategies for antiretroviral therapy. Specifically, treatment follow-up via the Standard of Care, the national standard of care as it evolves in Botswana, with intensive clinic-based follow up including regular adherence education sessions, will be compared to Community-Based Directly Observed Therapy (Com-DOT). Com-DOT involves the SOC with added community or family-based DOT. This Com-DOT component would involve a trained, community or family-based Medication Partner ("mopati") who observes the patient take his or medications daily.
HIV Infection
Drug: (A) zidovudine, lamivudine and nevirapine
Drug: (B) zidovudine, lamivudine and efavirenz
Drug: (C) zidovudine, didanosine, and nevirapine
Drug: (D) zidovudine, didanosine, and efavirenz
Drug: (E) stavudine, lamivudine, and nevirapine
Drug: (F) stavudine, lamivudine and efavirenz
Procedure: Adherence Strategy Standard of Care (SOC)
Procedure: Adherence Strategy Community-Based DOT
Phase 3
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Open Label
|Official Title:
|The Adult Antiretroviral Treatment and Resistance Study (Tshepo)
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: HIV/AIDS
Drug Information available for: Stavudine Zidovudine Didanosine Nevirapine Lamivudine EfavirenzU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by Harvard School of Public Health:
Primary Outcome Measures:
- Time to Virological failure, time to grade 3 or higher toxicity.
Secondary Outcome Measures:
- Time to drug resistance, rates of point mutations at virological failure, adherence to study medication.
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|December 2002
|Study Completion Date:
|December 2007
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older
|Genders Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:(1) HIV infection indicated by (a) positive ELISA in two separate blood samples, the second no more than eight weeks prior to randomization), (b) CD4 cell count of less than 200 cells/ml OR CD4 cell count between 201-350 with plasma HIV-1 RNA level of greater than 55,000 copies/ml, (c) Karnofsky (performance) score greater than or equal to 50; (2) no history of previous antiretroviral therapy, except for zidovudine and/or single-dose nevirapine administered during pregnancy to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission of HIV-1; (3) baseline hemoglobin of greater than or equal to 8.0 g/dl (4) baseline absolute neutrophil count greater than or equal to 1000 cells/mm3 (5) baseline serum creatinine level less than 200 micromol/L (6) baseline SGPT(ALT) less than 205 U/L and SGOT (AST) less than 170 U/L (7) baseline alkaline phosphatase level less than or equal to 330 U/L etc.
Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00197613
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00197613
|Princess Marina Hospital
|Gaborone, Botswana
Sponsors and Collaborators
Harvard School of Public Health
Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana
Botswana Ministry of Health
McGill University Health Center
Bristol-Myers Squibb
|Principal Investigator:
|Richard Marlink, MD
|Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative
More Information
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 26, 2016
|Responsible Party:
|Richard Marlink, Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00197613 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|September 12, 2005
|Last Updated:
|September 14, 2012
|Health Authority:
|Botswana: Ministry of Health
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Anti-HIV Agents
Anti-Infective Agents
Anti-Retroviral Agents
Antiviral Agents
Cytochrome P-450 CYP2B6 Inducers
Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C19 Inhibitors
Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C9 Inhibitors
Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A Inducers
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Inducers
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Inhibitors
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors
Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 26, 2016


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Aug 26
Gresham Will Be Another New Experience for Germain and No. 24 Germain.com Camry Team
Posted by: lori on Aug 26, 2010
Tagged in: Sherwin Williams , Germain Racing
Mooresville, N.C. (August 25, 2010) – With three races remaining on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule for 2010, Germain Racing's rookie driver Zach Germain and his No. 24 Germain.com Camry team are ready to put to use all they've learned when the series rolls into Gresham Motorsports Park for the American Fence Association 150 Presented By Mayfield Ice Creamier on Saturday night.
"Our Germain.com Camry team was able to test at Gresham last week and it gave us all a big confidence boost. Gresham Motorsports Park is a first-class facility. The track is super fast with great banking. I think the testing we did will help our team because I've had a chance to figure out the line and we have a good baseline for our chassis setup," said Germain, who captured a tenth-place finish in his first NASCAR career race at the season opener in Greenville, SC.
Continuous improvement was a primary goal of the No. 24 team at the start of the season. After 6 races, a top-ten finish and a 14th-place rank in the championship standings, it remains the most important goal on the weekly checklist.
"For the Germain.com Camry team to say we've had a good weekend at Gresham, we will want to see continued improvements in our qualifying effort and competitive racing with a strong result. We are still a young team and we've learned a lot together this year. We want to keep improving," explained the 25 year-old Columbus, OH, native, who earned his best starting spot of the season in the last K&N Pro Series race at Lee USA Speedway where he lined up 12th.
In addition to testing with the No. 24 team, Germain has been able to learn from his fellow Germain Racing teammates in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.
"Germain Racing competes in all three of NASCAR's top divisions. During the off-weeks, I've been able to utilize some of the resources we have here for a rookie driver. I observed our other race teams and listened to team radio communications. My perspective has evolved," said Germain, who will be part of Funopolis Fanfest at Funopolis Family Fun Center on Friday night in Commerce.
Jamie Jones will call the shots for Germain and the No. 24 Germain.com Camry again this weekend. Jones is looking forward to racing at Gresham after what the team learned in last week's test session.
"We had a good test at Gresham last week and I feel we'll have a good, competitive day," said Jones, who will lead the No. 24 Germain.com Camry team for the second race this season.
The Germain.com Camry races 150 laps at Gresham Motorsports Park on Saturday, August 28th at 8:30 PM Eastern. The American Fence Association 150 Presented By Mayfield Ice Creamier race will be broadcast on SPEED on Thursday, September 2nd at 6:00 PM Eastern.
Germain Racing is a championship-winning organization competing in all three of NASCAR's national series as well as the K&N Pro Series East. Sponsorship and branding opportunities are available. Visit GermainRacing.com for more information.
When shopping for your new or used car or truck, head directly to Germain.com to find the perfect vehicle or visit your local Germain dealer in Ohio, Florida, or Arkansas.
Follow Zach Germain or Germain Racing on Twitter @ZachGermain, @GermainRacing, or on the web, Germainracing.com or become a Facebook fan.


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Deputy Andy Poynter said an employee of the well service was working in a warehouse behind the business late Saturday morning when he noticed a box of plumbing fittings.
Poynter said the man realized he could use the fittings, so he lifted the box. What he found underneath, in a separate box, sent a chill down his spine colder then the 39-degree temperature of the air in the building.
The box contained several plastic bags of a white, powdery substance. But it was the red wires protruding from the bags that really worried the man. He remembered that the building had once been leased by Western Geophysical, an oilfield exploration company that worked in South Texas back in the 1980s.
Oilfield exploration companies often use explosives in seismograph operations. It was later determined that what was found in the box was indeed dangerous as it was old oil field explosives.
The employee immediately called the sheriff's office, and deputies rushed to the scene. What they found caused enough concern that they called in the Corpus Christi Police Department Bomb Squad and began blocking off U.S. Highway 59 west of town.
Within minutes, telephones at the sheriff's office were almost too busy for the dispatcher to keep up with them. Trucks and cars headed east on U.S. 59 were rerouted, beginning at about noon. But eastbound trucks and vehicles were caught in a blockade and ended up stranded for hours.
As Deputy Lt. Ronnie Jones coordinated the response over his telephone, Deputies Ryan Treviño and Poynter took charge at the scene.
Several vehicles from the Beeville Volunteer Fire Department responded to block traffic as firefighters stood by, a safe distance from the Hatcher Well Service building.
EMS vehicles from the Angel Care Ambulance Service also responded to provide immediate medical help if needed.
When the bomb squad finally arrived, the explosives experts worked slowly and methodically to isolate the suspicious box and then move it into a special container in a trailer pulled by a pickup truck.
Jones and Poynter confirmed that the bomb squad would take the material to the sheriff's office range on the western edge of the Bee County Expo Center property.
Meanwhile, a Bee County employee was dispatched to the range with a backhoe equipped tractor. He was told to dig a hole three feet deep and three feet square.
As the emergency crews tried to stay warm in a light drizzle, the bomb experts continued their careful handling of the box in the warehouse.
Finally, at about 3:15 p.m., the pickup pulled the specially built trailer out from the gravel driveway and headed toward the sheriff's office range. The highway was opened again as soon as the vehicles were safely inside the Expo Center property.
Poynter discussed the procedure with the explosives experts and told the deputies and EMS personnel at the Expo Center that it would be another hour before the bomb squad would be ready to destroy the box and its contents with a controlled explosion.
Poynter said the experts would weave a "mat" of detonator cord and place that at the bottom of the pit. They would then weave two more detonator cord mats and place those over the box.
Detonation would be by remote control. Deputies were told to keep the handful of spectators all the way over to the parking area behind the old rodeo arena at the Expo Center.
Finally, the officers drove their vehicles to the same spot where the spectators were waiting. One of the officers carried a yellow control box.
"When we do this, I'm going to shout 'fire in the hole' three times and then do a countdown to three and blow it," the officer said. He ordered all bystanders either to wear ear protection or place their fingers in their ears.
"There'll be a pretty good pop," he said.
Finally, after checking to see that everyone was ready for the blast, he began the countdown and ignited the explosion, throwing dirt and smoke more than 50 feet into the air.
The bomb experts when drove back down to the explosion site and checked to see that it was safe.
The area was cleared by 5 p.m.
Gary Kent is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 120, or at email@example.com.


text:
Mr. Chairman and Commission Members, I would like to add my voice to the rule of law concerns raised during the Commission's June 23, 2009 hearing entitled "The Medvedev Thaw: Is it real? Will it last?" In my view, Russia in many ways, continues to lack a fundamental respect for the religious, political and economic freedoms inherent in the Helsinki Process and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Commissions hearing is a testament to my concerns.
Beyond my strong concerns about these Russia's behavior in these individual areas, I also have broader concerns about U.S. national interests concerning rule of law. The lack of support for democratic principles inside Russia has implications for its external behavior as well.
In this regard, one key strategic area for the United States and Europe is energy policy. Russia's inability to consistently respect and honor international commercial and political rules has had, and will continue to have, a substantial impact on the United States and our allies. Rather than becoming more integrated into the global economy and its rules, Russia has chosen a path where it sets its own rules on matters of energy policy, largely because Russia controls much of Europe's energy supply.
However, there currently exists a mechanism for holding Russia accountable on rule of law commitments in energy – The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) – a 1990's treaty signed by Russia and 50 other nations, most in Europe. Russia is bound by the treaty, having signed it, and is bound by the requirements of the New York convention on international arbitrations that would be used to enforce claims under the ECT.
I raise this issue because the Russian government is engaged in the largest arbitration ever under the ECT – a $33 billion arbitration dispute with GML, the majority shareholder of Yukos, formerly Russia largest private oil company. How the initial phase of this case is decided later this year and Russia's reaction could provide the U.S. with clues on rule of law issues.
With these thoughts in mind, I would like to submit for the record and for my colleagues a recent Wall Street Journal article on Russian energy policy and the Energy Charter Treaty.
Please click here for a statement submitted by Commissioner Pitts


text:
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text:
I'm all ready for my first triathlon. Here are some of my preparations for tomorrow.
- Read the Beginner's guide to triathlons
- No shaving until after the race (It's been over a week)
- Bought a new bike and swimming goggles
- Warmed up with a 30KM bike ride earlier this evening
- Pasta for a late dinner tonight
- 7 hours of sleep (In bed by 10, up at 5)
- Powerbar for breakfast tomorrow
- Gameface is now on


text:
Do you guys know how hard it was NOT to post yesterday?
Does anyone know when they start charging credit cards? I will feel better once I see that charge.
I don't Break the rules, I Modify them.
Also, thats the 4 th depredation bull 101 tag ive heard of.


text:
Is there anyway to turn that off? I'm unable to find anything in options, and they're really a distraction.
Database Administrators Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for database professionals who wish to improve their database skills and learn from others in the community. It's 100% free, no registration required.
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Here's how it works:
- Anybody can ask a question
- Anybody can answer
- The best answers are voted up and rise to the top
There isn't a way to prevent this. Microsoft feels that it is better to prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot, probably since the number of people out there who create databases, objects or columns with bad names (e.g.
There was a Connect item asking for this option, and it was very quickly dismissed and closed as "Won't Fix." And in fact many more users were asking that square brackets be added to places where they previously didn't work.


text:
I've got a few (sort of new) items that I'm currently loving, and because I love you all so dearly, I thought I'd share them with you!
For those of you not into the video posts, here is a breakdown. Most of them are actually pretty, dare I say… cheap? One in particular was a bit of a splurge, but so freaking worth it. And those are my Lululemon High Rise Wunder Unders. I've been waiting to snag a pair of these for a while now, so when I found myself in Lulu while in Pittsburgh, I knew it was finally time. And these high rise guys are extra awesome because for high-waist-ed ladies like myself, they don't give you those awkward lines where they hit your hips, and actually kind of suck you in and flatten your belly. Please and thank you.
Speaking of extreme comfort, leopard smoking slippers, anyone?
(These guys are on sale at Target right now for $13.)
I also got a few items at T.J. Maxx, including this beautiful mirrored tray to place my skin care items on, and a lovely little rose gold votive holder that I'm currently using to corral my myriad of lip products.
Sooo fancy.
And, of course, I had to mention my re-purchased Marc Jacobs clutch from the Target/Neiman Marcus collection in rose gold.
So that's it, not too many items but all great little finds. What random things are you guys loving right now? Maybe don't tell me because I'll probably end up buying more stuff which is kind of forbidden right now… (And by kind of forbidden I mean shouldn't but probably will.)


text: Anthrax has hit Glasgow: the story of a desperate hunt for its source Magazine features 19 July 12 by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee This article was taken from the August 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.Scotland has an estimated 50,000 heroin users, many of whom can be found on the streets of Glasgow. Today, the signs of the city's drug problem are visible even in the city centre where addicts can be seen sitting on the pavement, leaning against walls and staring listlessly into the distance. Hope House, a hostel for the homeless on the edge of the Clyde, provides a refuge for many of them.It was at this shelter that a 35-year-old heroin addict called Donny (not his real name) woke up on a December morning in 2009 with an unbearable pain in his thigh. On most days, Donny followed a familiar routine that had been engraved upon his life by his drug habit. He would walk over a bridge across the river to a neighbourhood on the opposite bank that was once a leper colony, and is now home to council housing. There, Donny would buy heroin from a dealer and visit his partner and two children. After taking a hit in their flat, he would wander back to his hostel. But on this day, Donny could barely walk. His thigh, right where he injected himself, was so inflamed that he had trouble dragging himself out of bed. Donny's partner called an ambulance for him -- he would never have gone to the hospital by himself --and he was taken to the nearby Victoria Infirmary.The doctors at Victoria -- as at other Glasgow hospitals -- were used to seeing heroin addicts show up with lesions in the arms, legs and other parts of the body where the users had been plunging a needle into their flesh. Such infections, the doctors knew, are typically caused by a bacterium called Bacillus cereus that is often behind food poisoning. But, when pathologists examined some of Donny's blood under a microscope, they saw a far more deadly germ. It was anthrax.Donny died on December 16, eight days after being admitted. By then, doctors at Victoria had already encountered another case like his -- a young female heroin user from the same part of town, with a festering lesion at her injecting site that was confirmed as an anthrax infection. The woman was responding to antibiotics, and doctors were confident that she would survive. But the two cases set alarm bells ringing among public-health officials who began calling other hospitals around town to find out if any other similar cases had been detected. By the end of the day, they had learned of three other patients who had been possibly infected: blood cultures would subsequently confirm them to be anthrax. All the patients were heroin users.Colin Ramsay, an epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland in Glasgow, was about to leave work that evening when he got a phone call about the outbreak. Scottish authorities wanted him to lead a team to halt its spread and trace its origin. At a meeting of public-health officials, doctors and police officers the following day, Ramsay -- who is short and balding, with a silver-blond beard -- made a mental list of the questions that would have to be answered. It wasn't hard to guess that the infections were being caused by heroin contaminated with anthrax spores -- the oval-shaped vegetative form of the microbe that can survive extreme temperatures and lie dormant in the environment for decades, waiting for a host in which to germinate. But where did the contamination come from? Would the outbreak spread beyond Glasgow? And how could it be contained? The same questions were on the mind of others in the room, including a burly, moustachioed detective named Derek Robertson.Ramsay has an even tone that conveys a sense of certainty and assuredness. When he began looking into the outbreak, his first reaction was one of wishful thinking, the opposite of paranoia. "Well, it could be just these few cases, you know," Ramsay remarked to John Hood, a microbiologist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. "I don't think so," Hood responded. "I think this is going to roll on." It wasn't the first time that Ramsay had been called in to conduct a public-health investigation into anthrax. In 2006, he spent months trying to unravel the cause of death of a 50-year-old drum-maker in a village on the English border. A Buddhist who loved gardening, Christopher Pascal Norris suffered a brief flu-like illness before dying in an Edinburgh hospital. The cause of his death wasn't known until a month later, when blood samples were finally cultured at a lab in London, revealing the presence of Bacillus anthracis. The retrospective diagnosis left public-health officials worrying not just about the source of the infection but also about the likelihood that Norris's body may have exposed other people, such as postmortem technicians, to anthrax spores. Ramsay learned that Norris had been cremated. His remains had been scattered at his home, where a gust of wind had blown the ashes over everybody attending the wake, including a group of motorcyclists from Belgium. "We didn't know if the cremation was enough to get rid of the anthrax," Ramsay says. It took Interpol's help to track down the motorcyclists, and everybody exposed to the ash was put on antibiotics just to be safe.Norris used imported goatskins to make African djembe drums. Ramsay knew of a few rare cases in the medical literature in which drummakers contracted anthrax infections from shaving animal hides embedded with spores of Bacillus anthracis. Investigators searched Norris's house for spores, but "it was clean as a whistle", Ramsay says. Then, after learning that Norris had joined a local drumming class a few months before his death, investigators had the three drums being used in the class sent to the UK's top infectious- diseases lab in Porton Down. The hides on all of them tested positive for anthrax: each drum carried a different strain, one of which matched the strain that had killed Norris. Ramsay and his colleagues found anthrax spores at all the venues where the drums had been played, including the village hall. "It turns out that when you bang the drums, it liberates the spores from the surface of the skin," Ramsay says. Norris contracted his illness from inhaling those spores. Although Norris's death was a single, isolated incident that health officials analysed post-facto, the outbreak Ramsay was investigating was a tragedy still in the making. The first priority was to identify and treat victims as quickly as possible. Heroin users who showed up at hospitals with dark lesions and tell-tale signs of internal bleeding were taken to the operating theatre where surgeons cut away the infected tissue, in some cases removing kilograms of muscle and sinew from the patient's injection site. These so-called debridement procedures were not complicated, but the risk of infected blood drying in the operating room or anywhere else -- leading to the formation of spores -- put the outbreak-control team on edge. In one case, a surgeon forgot to put a tourniquet on a patient who was later confirmed as an anthrax case. The surgeon's overalls were splattered with blood. "By the time we found out about it, the blues that the surgeon had been wearing had gone through the hospital laundry along with other clothes," Hood says. "You know that the spores are not going to be destroyed by the hot water in the washing machine because it's not an incinerator or an autoclave." There was no way to trace those blues, and the control team ultimately decided that the risk was too remote for the hospital staff to have to track down the entire laundry batch and burn it. To warn heroin users, Ramsay's team had leaflets distributed at homeless hostels such as Hope House and other venues frequented by addicts. The leaflets emphasised that there was no safe way to take the drug: users could end up being infected with spores even if they smoked contaminated heroin instead of injecting it. Addiction experts scoffed at the warnings. "The attitude was -- you're telling people who are addicted to a substance to stop using the substance they are addicted to," Ramsay says. "But what else do you do?" As expected, the warnings did not help. By January 7, another 12 cases had been confirmed and the death toll had climbed to six. Like an eddying oil spill, the outbreak was spreading beyond Glasgow, with cases reported from the neighbouring regions of Lanarkshire and Tayside, and from as far as Stirling, 59 kilometres to the northeast of the city. The emerging pattern of cases was similar to an outbreak of Clostridium novyi -- another spore-forming microbe -- that occurred among Scottish heroin users in the year 2000. In that outbreak, just as in this one, there were almost no cases reported from Edinburgh, which is known to get its heroin through supply networks distinct from those that feed Glasgow. Read page 2 123 Read on one page Latest on wired.co.uk


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Human Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation to Trophoblast: Basic Biology and Clinical Translation to Improve Human Fertility
In addition to the important potential applications for transplantation and treatment of chronic diseases, human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are also a valuable resource to study early human development relevant to fertility and healthy pregnancies. After fertilization, the human zygote undergoes cell divisions and ultimately becomes the blastocyst that has an inner cell mass and a trophectoderm shell, the precursor of the placenta and the tissue that attaches to the surface of the lining of the uterus, initiating the process of embryonic implantation. After attachment, the placental cells invade into the mother's uterine lining to secure the pregnancy and to establish the placenta for fetal growth and development. Abnormalities in the implantation process can lead to infertility, small babies, and pre-eclampsia that have significant health consequences for women and children. It has been extremely difficult to study the early phases of human implantation because of lack of available tissues (human blastocysts), restrictions on using federal funds for experimentation on human embryos, and the advanced differentiated state (i.e., beyond the trophectoderm stage) of placental cells derived from early terminations of pregnancies. This grant focuses on differentiating hESC to trophectoderm, development of this specialized tissue, and interactions of it with the maternal uterus, as a model of events in the early stages of human implantation.
hESC and human embryos are essential to this project. We propose to study biological processes, biochemical pathways, and key genes expressed during the transition of hESC to trophectoderm and compare them with those of the outer shell isolated from human blastocysts. We shall also identify secreted products from these specialized cells and investigate their effects on human endometrial epithelial cells to get information about how the blastocyst communicates with the maternal uterine lining just as it is about to implant. Finally, we shall identify secreted biomarkers that can be used in future studies as a diagnostic to assess embryo quality in human IVF and as therapies to enhance endometrial receptivity to embryonic implantation in women with implantation-based infertility. This proposal has promise for important translation to improve practical issues in human infertility and pregnancy disorders associated with abnormal embryonic implantation.
We believe that our proposal has the potential to be of benefit to California and its citizens from three perspectives: 1. Basic knowledge to impart to our students. This proposal has the potential to elucidate genes, their products, biochemical pathways, and biological processes involved in the earliest stages of implantation – specifically in the shell of the blastocyst and its communication with the maternal uterine endometrium. This could add significantly to the education of our students in this important field of human development. 2. Clinical benefits from development of a diagnostic for the implantation potential of an embryo for individuals undergoing in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer, and also to improve the ability of the maternal uterus to accept and nourish an implanting embryo, important in women who have implantation-based infertility and/or a history of implantation-based pregnancy disorders, such as pre-eclampsia, intrauterine fetal growth restriction, and miscarriage.3. Commercial benefit. The development of a diagnostic test of the implantation potential of an embryo in clinical practice and of developing therapies to enhance implantation can be of major benefit to the economy of our State.
During the past reporting period, we have treated two different lines of human embryonic stem cells with a growth factor, BMP4, and differentiated them (i.e., made them change their character) down the pathway towards becoming a precursor of the human placenta. We have found that these cells initially lose their stem cell characteristics and change their appearance from stem cells to trophoblast (placental) cells. In addition, we conducted a study over 12 days in which these cells exhibited these changes, and we looked at not only their appearance, but also all the genes that they express, using whole genome array technology. We found that they lose their stemness and acquire genes important for commitment to be placental cells. Furthermore, we investigated the cellular pathways that are involved, and these are very fundamental for differentiating these cells to the placental phenotype (i.e., appearance and gene signature). Also, we are investigating whether another cell line has similar characteristics, and we are comparing all the genes expressed in the trophoectomer shell surrounding a human embryo (blastocyst) with the gene profiles in the trophoblast cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, we have studied the effects of products secreted by these cells on the first cells that the blastocyst encounters when it attaches to the mother's lining of the uterus during the process of implantation. We have used a human endometrial epithelial cell line, to see if there are any effects, since we do not know if the levels of secreted products can indeed result in a response from the mother's uterus. We found an interesting array of factors that are regulated, and we are now poised to study human endometrial epithelial cells (not a cell line), since we know that a response occurs in these pilot studies with a cell line. The ultimate goal is to define proteins secreted by human blastocysts and predict which blastocysts have a profile that is consistent with an ability to attach to the mother's uterus and then begin the process of implantation.
- Biol Reprod (2011) Transcriptomic Signature of Trophoblast Differentiation in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Model. (PubMed: 21368299)
- Biol Reprod (2011) Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Human Trophectoderm and Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Trophoblasts Reveal Key Participants in Early Implantation. (PubMed: 21865555)


text:
Western Mountaineering HighLite
|15 oz / 420 g
|1 lb 0 oz / 455 g
|1 lb 1 oz / 485 g
|Fill weight
|7 oz / 200 g
|8 oz / 225 g
|9 oz / 255 g
|3.5 in / 9 cm
|3.5 in / 9 cm
|3.5 in / 9 cm
|Temperature rating
|850 fill-power down
|850 fill-power down
|850 fill-power down
|Max user height
|5 ft 6 in / 165 cm
|6 ft 0 in / 180 cm
|6 ft 6 in / 200 cm
|Shoulder girth
|59 in / 150 cm
|59 in / 150 cm
|60 in / 152 cm
|Hip girth
|51 in / 130 cm
|51 in / 130 cm
|52 in / 132 cm
|Foot girth
|38 in / 97 cm
|38 in / 97 cm
|38 in / 97 cm
Where to Buy
As one of the lightest sleeping bags available, the…
Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $180
As one of the lightest sleeping bags available, the WM Highlite has high quality construction and a unique sewn-through design that enables it to compress into a 5.5 liter stuff sack and then regain full loft for a comfortable night's sleep into the mid-30s. It is a great choice for someone wanting ultra-light and still have a full sleeping bag.
- Lightweight
- Highly compressible
- Very warm for its weight
- Half-length zipper
In my pursuits to lighten the load carried for long distance treks, I came across the Highlite and was immediately drawn in by the overall weight. At one pound, it is one of the lightest sleeping bags on the market. I also knew Western Mountaineering has an excellent reputation and makes some of the best down products. After deciding to go ahead with the purchase, I was not disappointed.
After the box arrived in the mail, I opened it and was amazed at how light it felt. I stuffed the bag into its stuff sack and then was surprised at how it fit into that extra small stuff sack.
Zipped, showing box-stitch construction:
In use, the bag has proved itself many times. Of course, the small size takes little room in my pack and the weight has helped reduce what I carry.
One other benefit I have found is the dark colors used. When turned inside out, the black inner material absorbs heat and quickly dries the inside for the next night. The "ExtremeLite" fabric used has a very tight weave and to date have seen only a few feathers push through.
I am also very happy with how quick the bag compresses. I can stuff it into its 5.5 liter sack in about 30 seconds with little effort. I will also add the disclaimer that I have not pushed the bag to its limits for cold as I use it primarily in the summer months. I have used it down to about 40 and been very comfortable.
The only drawback I have come across is the half-length zipper. I know it cuts overall weight but, at the compromise of cooling in the warmest nighttime temperatures. I have awoke a few times sweating, wishing I could unzip the bag further.
Goose It was recommended to me to look through craigslist in you area or Denver or another trail area..I didn't believe it at first but on my first look I found a WM Apache for 100 listed called the guy.I went he had the bag and that's all she wrote...
2 years ago
Thanks for the review PNW...I'm with Goose...what a great price for a bag by WM (without a doubt one of the best bag makers in the world).
2 years ago
I really wanted this bag to work out since it was…
Source: bought it used
Price Paid: $280
I really wanted this bag to work out since it was made in the USA and at 16 oz along with small size would make it perfect for lightweight backpacking. Most temperatures I would encounter would not be below the bags 35 degree rating, however I would rate this at a 40 to maybe even a 45 degree bag.
- Light
- Compacts smaal
- Made in USA
- Great craftmenship
- Not warm enough
I used this on 3 different trips with a thermal sheet and bivy sack over it inside my tent and never got good quality warm sleep time unless it was above 50 outside. So the bottom line is I got rid of it and went back to the Mountain Hardware 32 Phantom bag that weighs in at a half pound more but well worth the extra warmth.
I had been eying this bag, but the price had kept me from moving on it. Thanks for the feedback.
3 years ago
amazing bag. highly specialized fringe product. not…
Design: mummy
Fill: 700+ fill down
Temperature Rating: 40 F
Weight: 15 oz.
Price Paid: couple of hundred
amazing bag. highly specialized fringe product. not for everyone. under one pound and small enough to fit in a fanny pack!! 1/2 zipper. combination baffles and sewn thru. extra down in foot section.
i have maybe 30 or 40 nights on my high lite and for me it far exceeds its temperature rating. in a tent it is good for at least 30 degrees. i guide in the sierras where it is dry and mild in the summer and sleep under the stars every night in this bag.
superb craftmanship. if you need a lighter secondary sleeping bag for summer bivvys this one has all my recommendations.
I already had a sturdy Polarguard for colder temperatures,…
Design: mummy
Fill: down
Temperature Rating: 40 F
Weight: 1 #
Price Paid: $210
I already had a sturdy Polarguard for colder temperatures, but it is bulky for most of my hiking in Florida. I chose this bag because it was the lightest in the gear reviews, would compress into an extemely small space and for the good reputation of the company. I'm sleeping in a tent about every 3 weeks, either backpacking, kayak camping or car camping, so it gets a lot of use. It's a delicate bag, I wish I'd chosen a longer zipper (I like to keep a leg out on warm nights) because I have to be very careful getting in and out of the bag. I'm usually careful with my gear and expect to get years of use from it. I haven't used it in very cold weather (I'd probably take my other bag.) But, in summary, I'm glad I bought it.
People might call me nuts, but I haven't used the…
Design: Mummy
Fill: 700+ fill down
Temperature Rating: 40 F
Weight: 16 oz
Price Paid: $210
People might call me nuts, but I haven't used the Highlite at or above its temp rating yet. I've been using it from 28 to 40F on every trip. I cannot believe how this 16 oz bag can keep me so warm. (At 28F I had to put on some mid weight capilene to keep warm)
The cut is quite tight (I'm 5'8" 160lbs) but that's part of the design idea. They save weight by not using their renowned zipper tape construction and the zipper is only 1/2 length, but I haven't noticed a single problem with zipper hang-ups.
If you are tough on a bag, consider the Iroquis for the tougher fabric, cause the Highlite is paper thin...but again, no complaints.
I absolutely love my HighLite! I call it my cloud…
Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $299 (savvy shopper!)
I absolutely love my HighLite! I call it my cloud because that is what it feels like you are sleeping in :). I think the temperature rating is accurate — I sleep a little cold so I wear extra socks and clothes to bed but works well for my section hikes on the AT. It's amazingly light and packs down so small in a compression sack.
- Weight
- Comfort
- Price, but well worth it!
When removed from the compression sack it regains all loft with a few shakes.
I got the 5'6" size which works great for a petite woman. The HighLite is well made, in the USA, and I especially chose my Western Mountaineering bag since the down is ethically collected.
I have had my bag less than a year, but think with good care that it will last for a very long time.
Where to Buy
Western Mountaineering HighLite
$339.95 - $360.00


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Faculty Access to other Libraries
Getting borrowing privileges from Orbis-Cascade Alliance Libraries in Washington and Oregon
Orbis-Cascade Alliance libraries include most academic and some community college libraries in Washington and Oregon. To get borrowing privileges you will be asked to present your current UW ID and login to your UW library account to verify your status. Once you are registered at the library you can check out books from that library and request that books from other Summit libraries be sent there for your use.
List of libraries with local visiting patron information
Getting borrowing privileges at other universities
Check our list of participants in the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program. If the university you are interested in is listed please read the following for more information.
The program generally applies to the faculty based on the main campus of the participating institution. The home institution determines who is eligible for a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card. The lending library determines whether the card will be accepted for on-site use and/or borrowing.
Materials may be used on the premises of the owning library or may be borrowed, depending on the policy of the lending library.
Privileges vary from institution to institution. A faculty member intending to visit a participating library should ask his or her home library to check online in the OCLC Name-Address Directory for the limitations and relevant policies and practices of the prospective lending library.
A faculty member from an institution participating in the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program may request a Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card from the home library. To borrow materials, the visiting faculty member must present the Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program card and any other identification the lending library requires at the main campus of any participating institution.
Library Account Services issues reciprocal faculty borrowers cards for UW faculty. Library Account Services can also provide you with more information about the program and specific information about the university that you are planning to visit.


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Fresno, CA (Sports Network) - Anthony Drmic scored 28 points as the Boise
State Broncos defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs, 72-63, in a Mountain West
Conference bout at the Save Mart Center.
Drmic shot 8-of-13 from the field and 12-of-15 from the foul line for Boise
State (18-8, 6-6 MWC), which has won three of four. Jeff Elorriaga drained 6-
of-10 from 3-point range for 20 points, while Derrick Marks dished out seven
assists for the visitors.
For Fresno State (9-17, 3-10), Allen Huddleston netted 21 points, Tyler
Johnson had 15 points, and Kevin Olekaibe and Marvelle Harris scored 10 points
apiece. The Bulldogs fell back on their losing ways following a 69-64 overtime
win versus Nevada last Tuesday, and they have now dropped four of five.
Fresno State shot nearly 48 percent from the field in the first half as it
took a 26-25 lead into intermission. Boise State made less than 32 percent of
its field goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes, but it kept the game close
by shooting 7-of-9 from the foul line.
The Broncos ran off a 25-5 run early in the second half to take control of the
Boise State outscored Fresno State at the foul line, 25-16.
The Sports Network


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SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA9) -- Police say two men walking with a third man assaulted and then attempted to rob him on Piney Branch Road in Silver Spring.
According to police, approximately 1:45 a.m., an officer in the 8200 block of Piney Branch Road saw a man throwing something at an apartment window above the El Sitio Restaurant. He was with two other men.
The three then left and began walking on Piney Branch Road, said police. At the intersection of Piney Branch Road and Dale Drive, two men began to assault and attempt to rob the man who had been throwing objects at the window.
The officer approached the group, say police, and one man started to run away. the officer was able to catch up with him, and took both suspects into custody.
Carlos Bosque, 28, and Edgar Cruz, 27, both of Hyattsville, were both charged with attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, second degree assault, and conspiracy to commit second degree assault, according to police.
Bosque is being held on a $25,000 bond while Cruz is being held on a $20,000 bond, say police.


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Inside Lane: Why Vertonghen signing is vital to Spurs' image
11:57 28 May 2012
EMPICS Sport
Tottenham supporter Daniel Grigg underlines the importance of completing the protacted move for Ajax's Jan Vertonghen
I've always been a supporter of the way Daniel Levy runs things at Tottenham, and the club that his style of chairmanship has created.
Unlike other outfits near the top of English football, he has never really allowed the players' weekly wages - or their egos - to get drastically inflated.
Levy also did well to negotiate the tricky pitfalls which came with all the positives of Champions League qualification in 2010, and has continued to watch the pennies despite the continued rise of the Premier League.
I even like the way Spurs have largely steered clear of those established and obvious names who demand the big-money wages that we simply cannot afford.
Instead, we focus on spotting, attracting and building strong bonds with the talents who continue to come through from many of the poorer clubs - both domestically and abroad.
Strong bonds like the one Levy seems to have built with the Belgian centre-back Jan Vertonghen, who continues to speak of his desire to join Tottenham above any other club.
Vertonghen will be expensive, given that he is entering the final year of his contract - but who cares.
Signings like Luka Modric and Gareth Bale also had their costs, but their impact on the club's progression were enormous - and not just for what they brought individually on the field. Picking up talent when it's been available, especially when it's been undervalued by other teams, has been key to Spurs' success.
On-lookers questioned us for spending £16.5million on Modric, given his lack of size and limited experience outside of Croatian football, and queried whether he'd really flourish in the Premier League.
Bale's original fee wasn't inconsiderable either for a 17-year-old left-back with a somewhat concerning injury record in his youth days at Southampton.
But I have to say that, even at that time, I was nothing short of delighted to have beaten Newcastle to Modric's signature, and Manchester United's to Bale's.
Those signings, when combined with a few others, have fundamentally altered and shifted the whole image of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League era, giving the team a real injection of quality.
Spurs used to be another perennially mid-table club with great history and prestige who could occasionally tempt a David Ginola or a Jurgen Klinsmann with their attractive brand of football but little else.
Now they have been transformed into a club which can attract some of the most talented young players from across Europe and even Brazil - players who see Tottenham as a club where they can make their mark up near the top of what has become the most marketable league in world football, surrounded by other hungry, like-minded players.
Signing Jan Vertonghen (if it happens) would certainly continue to foster that image, which is vital if Spurs want to keep portraying - both to their transfer targets and fans - the young, ambitious image of their Champions League run, rather than the penny-pinching picture of recent transfer windows.
Money, as important as it always is in football, pales into insignificance against the ignominy and damage to both morale and belief that would result from the failure to now complete this long-protracted move for Vertonghen, after coming so close and putting in so much effort. The fans really need a boost after the heartbreak and awful frustration of last season.
Whatever it costs, it doesn't matter. Solving the problem of who to play alongside Younes Kaboul in defence - and doing so with a player that the likes of Arsenal and AC Milan were all thought to have coveted recently - would provide a real lift.


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Wedding Dress by Jenny Packham Follow
Featured in Endless Glam & Breathtaking Backs—15 New Bridal Stunners from Jenny Packham.
Spring 2013 Wedding Dress Jenny Packham bridal gowns Tuberose.
Create Account
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Plan, book and shop for your wedding with inspiration as your guide. Plus, save photos to your favorites!


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Laughter Clubs have been extremely beneficial in the case of seniors. At the fag end of their lives, faced with loneliness, depression and a loss of belonging, they find these Clubs, a refuge for filling a void in their lives. Their lost laughter is regained and they gain their confidence and self-worth. These Clubs are like an extended family providing joyful support and love – the essentials of happiness.Besides the emotional care, these Clubs also help them to exercise and regain their strength, stamina and energy which diminish with age and lack of physical activity.
Healing Through Laughter Clubs
Members of Laughter Clubs laugh together daily, or weekly. The healing effects of laughter are different for each person according to their physical, mental, emotional problems and needs. Many members with chronic pain, migraines, headaches and asthma have found attacks to become less frequent, and in some cases, to disappear completely. Some with high blood pressure, severe spinal, neck or shoulder problems and even diabetes have found their life normalizing eventually requiring no medication.
Many members with depression, anxiety and chronic Stress-related diseases have reported moving from debilitating fear and anxiety to a more positive state of mind, transforming their quality of life. People who have harbored bitterness, hatred and other long-term emotional problems that poisoned their bodily systems and their lives, have found their problems released through the cathartic effects of laughter, leaving them joyful and free.
Even members with cancer have managed to shrug their fear and pain after a period of laughter. It has helped them and their families to accept the situation in a more positive manner, and has helped reduce the trauma. Many students with emotional problems that have left them incapable of learning, have reported that after a period of laughter they have been able to continue their education and succeed.


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Sure, you can sit and surf the web for medical information. But what if you could obtain trusted information from a real, live doctor - and get some exercise at the same time?
You can! Hartford HealthCare's Walk with a Doc is a free program, open to the public, in which Hartford HealthCare physicians lead monthly walks throughout central Connecticut (April through December) and share tips and information on a wide variety of health topics. Everyone is welcome!
What to Expect
8:30 am: Registration
9:00 am: 10 minutes of health tips followed by 30-minute walk.
Join us for one or all walks and you'll receive a free Walk with a Doc hat, pedometer and water bottle.


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I'm from South Louisiana, born and raised. I have hunted all my life, ducks and geese mostly. I deer hunt in Central Texas now. I have been west a couple of times, though I never got to hunt during those trips. My sister lives in Loveland, Co.
The older I get(28), the more consumed I become with hunting out west, Elk hunting in particular. My last trip up to Estes Park, Co sealed it for me. I've been on Eastman's website for a while now, just reading and trying to learn as much as I can. I have hit a bit of a road block with a lot of the terms/words used to describe terrain, hunting tactics, etc..
Would anyone be of help by giving me a description/definition of these words? I have a good idea of what these words mean but I could us some clarity. Maybe turning me to one of Mike Eastman's books that really break things down for beginners would also be helpful.
Thank you for the help.
I know there are a lot of terms I'm forgetting. All help is appreciated.


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One feature that was on the Zimbra Desktop 2.0 road map was a MAPI connection to communicate with MS Exchange 2007.
1. Is this feature no longer on the road map for 2.0?
2. What is the main issue with MAPI that prevents e-mail clients from connecting to Exchange 2007?


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High-stakes states
Politics | The race for the White House could be decided by just nine key battleground states. Here's an Election Eve preview of what's at stake
By the time voters finally go to the polls on Tuesday, campaigns across the nation will have spent an estimated $6 billion. That's about $700 million more than what was a record amount spent in 2008. The presidential contest between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will account for about $2.6 billion of that total, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And the bulk of that campaign cash has been poured into a handful of battleground states. While the race for the White House is a national election, it is the fights in the following nine states that will likely determine which candidate wins the 270 electoral votes needed for victory:
Colorado (nine electoral votes)
In 2008 President Obama became just the second Democrat to win Colorado in more than 40 years. His 9-point victory was largely due to a growing Hispanic population, which could represent 8 percent of Colorado voters in 2012. Republicans have a 100,000-plus edge over Democrats in registered voters this year, but more than a third of Colorado voters identify themselves as independent. That's a higher percentage than those who say they are Republicans or Democrats. While many states that Obama won in 2008 saw Republicans make gains in statewide races during the midterm elections two years later, Democrats here won a U.S. Senate seat and the governorship in 2010. The epicenter of the fight is Denver, which is the third most saturated market in the country for campaign ads this election season.
Florida (29 electoral votes)
Wonder why Republicans held their convention in the Tampa area during the humid month of August? It's because the corridor along Interstate Highway 4 is the most hotly contested region in one of the nation's most competitive states for presidential elections. Three of the four Florida counties that flipped from Republican to Democrat in 2008 are situated along this corridor from Orlando to St. Petersburg. A Republican has not won the White House without Florida since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
No state has a greater history of tight presidential elections. Obama won by 3 percentage points in 2008. This time Gov. Romney is spending more money than Obama, but the president has a decided advantage in field offices with almost 100 across the state. Romney has a solid roster of surrogates in the Sunshine State to help him make his case, including GOP Sen. Marco Rubio and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's mother who lives in Florida and has helped rebut Democratic attacks that Romney and Ryan will dismantle Medicare. With seniors making up 30 percent of the state's electorate, the future of Medicare is Florida's key issue. Romney counters Democrats' attacks on Republican Medicare plans by accusing Democrats of stripping $500 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare. And with Ryan as Romney's running mate, Florida will be a test ground for the Ryan-led argument that voters' fears over federal debt now outweighs voters' desire to protect entitlements. In Florida, the GOP holds the governorship, both houses of the state legislature, and every statewide office but one.
Housing and Hispanics are the state's other top issues. Florida has the nation's third highest foreclosure rate. Hispanics make up 13.5 percent of state's electorate, up from 12 percent in 2008.
Iowa (six electoral votes)
Obama's surprise victory in the 2008 Iowa Democratic caucuses was a catalyst toward the presidency. He won the state by 10 percentage points in the 2008 general election. But this year Iowa's results should more closely model the 2000 election when Democrat Al Gore won the state by less than a percentage point. Polls show that Iowa voters today are disappointed in the president's job performance and are worried about the nation's economy. While Democrats held a 17-percentage point advantage in registered voters four years ago, a dramatic shift has given Republicans a current lead of about 20,000 registered voters. Romney struggled in the GOP Iowa caucuses against candidates with better conservative credentials, but the former Massachusetts governor's moderate reputation may help him win over independents and moderate Democrats on Tuesday.
New Hampshire (four electoral votes)
With just four electoral votes, New Hampshire is the smallest of the battleground states. But the fact that neither candidate has ignored the Granite State illustrates that both camps believe Election Day will be tight. Seniors made up 14 percent of the vote here in 2008 when Obama won the state by 9 percentage points. In 2004, New Hampshire was the only state to switch from Republican to Democrat, with John Kerry winning that year by 1 percentage point over George W. Bush. Bush won the state in 2000, also by 1 percentage point over Al Gore. The state currently is split with a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor. Republicans won both U.S. House seats and retained a U.S. Senate seat in 2010. The fiscal conservative reputation of the state favors Romney, but the socially liberal views of most of its voters (in 2010 the state enacted a law authorizing same-sex "marriages") benefits Obama. Romney, as the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, won New Hampshire easily during the GOP primary earlier this year. He also has roots in the state, owning a summer residence in Lake Winnipesaukee.
Nevada (six electoral votes)
With one of the nation's highest home foreclosure rates and an 11.8 percent unemployment rate that is worst in the country, Nevada is unlikely to give Obama another 12-point victory like he had here in 2008. The dismal economic numbers should suggest that Romney the challenger has a decided advantage over Obama the incumbent. But that conclusion doesn't include the Harry Reid factor. Reid, the Senate majority leader, has spent more than a decade building a formidable Democratic political machine. When most pollsters counted Reid out during his 2010 reelection contest, his machine flexed its muscle and sent their leader back to Washington. Now Obama will call on Reid's army to help the president win the state despite its dismal economic numbers.
Romney may get a boost from the state's Mormons, who makes up 7 percent of Nevada's population. Obama is counting on a Hispanic population that has grown by 82 percent since 2000. Hispanics made up 15 percent of the state's electorate in 2008 after accounting for just 3 percent in 1996.
With the state having voted for the eventual White House winner in every election since 1912 but one (1976), the battle here is fierce: In mid-October, with still three weeks to go until Election Day, Las Vegas set the record for the most televised campaign advertisements in a single year at 73,000 and counting.
North Carolina (15 electoral votes)
This was the state that Republicans lost by the closest margin in the 2008 race for the White House. A mere 14,000 votes, or four-tenths of a percentage point, gave Obama the victory—the Democrat's first in the Tar Heel state since 1976. Now North Carolina appears to be the most vulnerable of the battleground states for the president. The state's unemployment rate of 9.6 percent is the fifth highest in the nation and more than a half a point higher than when Obama took office. Facing such dire numbers, incumbent Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue decided against running for a second term. The Democratic brand in North Carolina has suffered since 2008. Twenty percent of Democratic voters in North Carolina selected "no preference" over Obama in the party's state primary in May, there are 116,000 fewer registered Democratic voters in North Carolina compared to four years ago, and Republican took over the state legislature in 2010 for the first time in a century.
Democratic House members running for reelection distanced themselves from the party's convention in Charlotte this September, including Rep. Larry Kissell, who stayed away even though his district was less than 10 miles from the convention center.
North Carolina has the largest percentage of black voters (22 percent) among all the battleground states. While African-Americans went overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008, some socially conservative blacks are dismayed that the president endorsed same-sex "marriage" earlier this year. North Carolina voters passed a referendum favoring traditional marriage in May with 61 percent of the vote.
Ohio (18 electoral votes)
All you need to know about Ohio is the fact that a Republican has never won the presidency without winning the Buckeye State. Obama won here by 4.6 percentage points in 2008, becoming the first Democrat to top 50 percent of the Ohio vote since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Republican George W. Bush won Ohio with a 2-point margin in 2004 and a 4-point margin in 2000.
In just two months over this summer the campaigns bombarded the state with $43 million in commercials. Ohioans endured nearly 400 television ads each day, or 16 every hour.
The state's 7 percent unemployment rate is below the national average. Two years ago Ohio suffered from a 9.4 percent unemployment rate. The debate now is over who can be credited with the turnaround. Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, in his first term, argues that his conservative, small government policies have led to the job market rebound while Obama's team touts its federal auto bailout. In Ohio, one-in-eight jobs are tied to the auto industry. In parts of the state, Obama backers placed billboards with the GM logo above the word "alive" and a headshot of Osama Bin Laden above the word "dead."
With 120 field offices and about 600 paid staffers, Ohio is the focal point of Obama's ground game. Some of these Obama offices never closed their doors after the 2008 election. By contrast, the Romney campaign had more than 40 Ohio offices and 160 paid staffers by October.
It's a battle for the blue-collar vote, as the white working-class demographic makes up about 54 percent of the state's electorate. Labor unions backing Obama, buoyed by a collective bargaining victory over Gov. Kasich in a 2011 referendum, were expected to reach 2.3 million Ohio voters in the campaign's final month. But Ohioans last year also voted 66 percent to 34 percent for an initiative declaring that the insurance mandate in Obamacare should be illegal in Ohio. (See also "Church hopping in Ohio," by Daniel James Devine, Nov. 3.)
Virginia (13 electoral votes)
Obama won the state by 7 points in 2008, but don't expect that kind of victory this year. That win four years ago marked the first time the Republican presidential candidate had lost Virginia since 1964. In fact, 2008 and 1964 are was the only presidential election years that Virginia went Democrat between 1952 and 2008.
But Virginia is no longer a reliable Republican state. Changing demographics—particularly in Northern Virginia near the nation's capitol where a growing population of minority and younger voters favor the Democrats—helped Obama win. Republicans continue to have the advantage among the state's rural voters in the south and southwestern parts of the state.
In short, Virginia is a divided state politically.
The state's unemployment rate of 5.9 percent is lower than the national average, but there are swaths of rural Virginia that suffer from double-digit unemployment.
The regions that went for Obama in 2008—Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads/Eastern Shore, and the central part of the state—had the biggest increase in registered voters over the last four years, totaling nearly 215,000 added to the rolls. Still, the years since 2008 have been more favorable to Republicans in Virginia: Republican Bob McDonnell won the governorship in 2009 (capturing 53 percent of the Northern Virginia vote), Virginia Republicans won back three House seats in the 2010 midterm election, and Republicans won control of the state Senate in 2011.
Virginia is home to 800,000 military veterans, the highest concentration in the country, and military families have concerns over deep Pentagon cuts set to take effect next year.
Wisconsin (10 electoral votes)
More than 72 percent of registered voters here cast ballots in the 2008 presidential race—the second highest turnout rate in the nation. Now four years later, Wisconsin voters who go to the polls will find one of their own listed on the presidential ballot: vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Romney's tapping of the Wisconsin congressman helps boost Republican chances in a state where the last Republican to win was Ronald Reagan in 1984. While Democrats Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2008 each won Wisconsin by less than a percentage point, Obama won by nearly 14 percentage points in 2008. Wisconsin contains 31 counties where the majority voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 but went for Obama in 2008—the most of any state. Romney's bid to recapture those counties will be aided by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who won the governorship in 2010 and then won a recall election this June after labor unions tried to oust him from office. The groundwork laid by Republicans for the Walker battles should benefit Romney on Tuesday as conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity have already cultivated thousands of grassroots activists in the state. Republicans also took a U.S. Senate seat and two House seats away from Democrats here in 2010.