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Women and Agriculture
About 4.8 billion hectares of land- more than a third of the earth's total land area- are used for agriculture. [World Book]
Table of Contents
Women in agriculture
"Women play a significant role in agriculture, the world over. About 70% of the agricultural workers, 80% of food producers, and 10% of those who process basic foodstuffs are women and they also undertake 60 to 90% of the rural marketing; thus making up more than two-third of the workforce in agricultural production (FAO, 1985). In West Africa, up to 80% of the labour force in all trade is female. Yet, the role of women in these activities, so important economically, has remained obscure for long because women seldom played any major roles in political activities or decision making processes . Despite the fact that women produce much of the food in the developing world, they also remain more malnourished than most men are. In many rural societies, women eat less food than men do, especially when the food is scarce, such as just before the harvest, or when the workload increases without a corresponding increase in the food intake." (Roodkowsky, 1979)[Participatory Assessment of the Impact of Women in Agriculture Program of Borno State, Nigeria]
"Although women do the majority of work in agriculture at the global level, elder men, for the most part, still own the land, control women's labor, and make agricultural decisions in patriarchal social systems." [Carolyn Sachs]
In the EU, agriculture is the seventh largest employer of women (3%). However, in Greece about 38% women (of all family workers in agriculture) are employed in agriculture. In Portugal, over 50% of the agricultural workforce is female. [EASHW]
Throughout the South Asian region, women account for about 39 percent of the agricultural workforce, working as managers of land to agricultural laborers. [IFPRI]
In India, in over all farm production, women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% …In the Indian Himalayas a pair of bullocks works 1064 hours, a man 1212 hours and a woman 3485 hours in a year on a once hectare farm, a figure that illustrates women's significant contribution to agricultural production. (Shiva FAO, 1991) [NCW]
Women provide one half of the labour in rice cultivation in India (Unnevehr and Stanford, 1986). In the plantation sector women are the crucial labourers (Shivaram, 1988). Depending on the region and crops, women's contributions vary but they provide pivotal labour from planting to harvesting and post-harvest operations…In rural India, agriculture and allied industrial sectors employ as much as 89.5% of the total female labour. [FAO]
In China, women constitute about 70 percent of the agricultural labor force and perform more than 70 percent of farm labor…the general pattern is- the poorer the area, the higher women's contribution, largely as subsistence farmers who farm small pieces of land, often less than 0.2 hectares. [AGNET/UNIFEM]
Diversion of income from women
According to FAO, the rapid modernization of agriculture and the introduction of new technologies, such as those that characterized the green revolution, have benefited the wealthy more than the poor, and men more than women. This premise is also supported by the ILO, which has found that new techniques in agriculture, particularly those involving commercialization, "often shift economic control, employment and profit from women to men". The diversion of income from women causes increased suffering for families because studies have found that, in general, income controlled by women benefits families more than income controlled by men. [UN]
Feminisation of agriculture
Feminisation of agriculture refers to women's increasing participation in the agricultural labor force, whether as independent producers, as unremunerated family workers, or as agricultural wage workers. Specifically, feminisation of agriculture entails:
1. An increase in women's participation rates in the agricultural sector, either as self-employed or as agricultural wage workers; in other words, an increase in the percentage of women who are economically active in rural areas.
2. An increase in the percentage of women in the agricultural labor force relative to men, either because more women are working and/or because fewer men are working in agriculture.[Feminization of Agriculture: Trends and Driving Forces]
According to the FAO, while the proportion of the labor force working in agricultural declined over the 1990s, the proportion of women working in agriculture increased, particularly in developing countries. In some regions such as Africa and Asia, almost half of the labor force is women. This trend has been called the feminisation of agriculture. This feminisation of agriculture is caused by increased "casualization" of work, unprofitable crop production and distress migration of men "for higher casual work in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors", leaving women to take up low paid casual work in agriculture.[AGNET/UNIFEM]
FAO facts
- In 2007, women made up about 41 percent of total employment in agriculture globally.
- FAO's projections through 2010 indicate that of the percentage of economically active women in least developed countries, more than 70 percent work in agriculture.
- In developing countries, most women's work is devoted to agriculture. Women are involved in every stage of food production.
- A recent FAO survey found that female farmers receive only 5 percent of all agricultural extension services worldwide.
- The census data that are available suggest that in most regions of the world one out of five farms is headed by a woman
- In the rural areas, where most of the world's hungry people live, women produce most of the food consumed locally. Their contribution could be much greater if they had equal access to essential resources and services, such as land, credit and training.
- In developing countries, women tend to work far longer hours than men. In Asia and Africa, studies have shown that women work as much as 13 hours more per week.
- On average, rural women and girls spend almost an hour each day gathering fuel and carrying water, needed to prepare meals. In some communities, these activities may take up to four hours a day.
- A study in Africa found that, over the course of a year, women carried more than 80 tons of fuel, water and farm produce for a distance of 1 km. Men carried only one-eighth as much, an average of 10 tons for 1 km each year.
- Studies have shown that women use almost all that they earn from marketing agricultural products and handicrafts to meet household needs. Men use at least 25 percent of their earnings for other purposes.
- In Africa, women perform 80 percent of the work associated with rural domestic tasks, including collecting water and firewood, preparing and cooking meals, processing and storing food, and making household purchases.
- In the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80 percent of the basic foodstuff.
- In 15 EU countries, women hold 20 percent of agricultural land, compared to the 77 percent held by men and 3 percent by government.
- In Africa, women provide nearly 90 percent of the wood for household consumption and 70 percent of wood collected for sale.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, women comprise 60 percent of the informal economy, provide about 70 percent of all the agricultural labour and produce about 90 percent of the food.
- In India and Thailand, fewer than 10 percent of landowners are women.
- In several countries in sub- Saharan Africa and Latin America, the number of female-headed households is increasing, largely due to male migration, divorce, illness (especially AIDS) and conflict.
FAO's approach to gender equality
"FAO advocates gender equality and promotes the economic and social empowerment of rural women. By actively focusing attention on the discrimination rural women face daily, FAO supports government efforts to ensure that their policies and programmes promote and support women as equal contributors to agriculture and rural development." [FAO]
IFAD's gender perspective
"In its operations, IFAD aims to: expand women's access to and control over fundamental assets – capital, land, knowledge and technologies; strengthen women's agency – their decision-making role in community affairs and representation in local institutions; and improve well-being and ease workloads by facilitating access to basic rural services and infrastructures. IFAD's action is guided by the principle that development initiatives should incorporate the priorities and needs of both women and men and give them equal opportunities to access benefits and services. In this way, IFAD seeks to address the structural inequalities that prevent women from realizing their potential as human beings, producers and agents of change in the fight against poverty." [IFAD]
Lack of comprehensive data
Although all international conferences have highlighted the need for accessible information and data as a starting point for any programme for the advancement of women – from the First World Conference in Mexico in 1975 to the Fourth World Conference in Beijing in 1995, according to FAO nearly all countries face constraints in producing and using gender data and statistics. These include:
- (i) a lack of adequate concepts, definitions and methods to reflect the different roles of men and women across different socio-economic groups and their contributions to agriculture;
- (ii) stereotypes and biases that make women less visible and prevent survey enumerators and respondents from providing correct and reliable information;
- (iii) under-utilization of existing data for gender analysis; and,
- (iv) a lack of communication between producers and users of data.
The FAO also found that out of a sample of 93 national agricultural censuses conducted worldwide from 1989 to 1999, only 53 contained information on female-headed holdings. [FAO-WFS]
See also
- Enhancing Rural Women's Voice in Agriculture Policy Formulation: ASIADHRRA
- Gender Equality in Agriculture: DANIDA
- Gender in Agriculture: A World Bank Learning Module
- Gender Roles in Agriculture: ELDIS
- Gender Checklist- Agriculture: ADB
- Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture and Rural Development: Commonwealth Secretariat
- Gender-Disaggregated Data for Agriculture and Rural Development: An FAO Guide
- Women, Agriculture and Rural Development: Findings of an FAO Study in Africa
- Gender Dimensions of Agriculture, Poverty, Nutrition, and Food Security in Nigeria: IFPRI
- Gender and Agriculture in Botswana: UN
- The Role of Women in Small-Holder Rainfed and Mixed Farming in India
- The Invisible Workforce: Women in the Traditional Farming Systems of Kerala, Southern India
- Indonesian Rural Women: The Role in Agricultural Development
- Gender Roles in Agriculture- Case Studies of Five Villages in Northern Afghanistan: AREU
- Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook
- Women and Disasters
- Women and the Environment
- Women and Water: The Forgotten Glass Ceiling
- Women and the Informal Economy
- Women and Biodiversity
- Feminization of poverty
- Small Farmers, Big Solutions


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The BattleRiddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.
Eight in a row,
with nowhere to go,
except for the two
who can jump straight through.
Eight out in front,
not one a runt.
Across the range,
to make a change.
By foot or by horse,
they stay the course.
Til the victory is won,
And the battle is done.
What does this represent?
HintThink games
AnswerA chess match
The first stanza is about the 8 pieces in the back row who can't move because of the pawns in front of them, except for the knights who can 'jump right through'.
The second stanza refers to the pawns, not one a runt, as they are all the same size. And the second part refers to them moving across the board to change into another piece on the far side.
The last stanza refers to movement by regular, 'foot soldiers', or by the 'horse', knight pieces and that the game continues until one side wins.
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this riddle, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
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subset: commoncrawl


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College of Arts & Letters' Creative Writing Contest
In the spring of 2014, The College of Arts and Letters (CAL) hosted its second annual Creative Writing Contest. Students from all Schools within Stevens were encouraged to participate by submitting original work to the prose and poetry categories of the competition.
"It was very gratifying to see the response that we got from students from every School," said Professor Billy Middleton, who ran the contest both this year and last. "I think one of the greatest strengths of the CAL Creative Writing Contest is that it encourages the student body to appreciate the creative arts for their own sake and also promotes the fact that creativity is going to be useful in any of the fields that they go into in a practical sense," Middleton added.
This year, Chris Chiu was the prose winner with his piece titled "Calloway City's Worst." Reflecting on time spent with an old friend, Chiu addresses topics like belonging and bullying with much humor and insight. Kyria Johnson was the runner-up in the prose category with her work of fiction titled "Red," and Sean Balanon received an honorable mention for his prose piece "Pretty Minutes."
Kyle Gonzalez took first place in the poetry category with his submission of two poems called "Privation Poems." Though short in length, they were extremely rich in imagery. Melanie Panosian was the runner-up for poetry with "Salmon" and Joseph Risi received an honorable mention for his work "Miss."
Last year when the tradition began, Tamar Boodaghians won the prose category with "(Dis)Affiliate: A Memoir," which explored the age-old question of what is in a name. Stephen Walter won with his poem "IV," which was also a piece of self-exploration.
By participating in the contest and expressing ideas freely, students are simultaneously developing a practical skill that can be translated to any profession. "While most Stevens students graduate into STEM fields and areas of study," noted Middleton, "even the issues that arise in those fields—environmental issues, safety issues, issues with growing technologies and the ethics involved in all of those areas—require creative and critical thinking skills." This is why opportunities like the CAL Creative Writing Contest are so valued by students and faculty alike.
Gonzalez, this year's poetry winner, viewed the contest as a way to get himself writing again. He was quick to point out the importance of this opportunity at Stevens. "There is a kind of relief in externalizing an experience, objectifying it into a poem," he said. "It becomes something you can hold on to."
Winners and runners-up had the opportunity to share their work publicly on CAL Senior Design Day. For students, it is an invaluable experience to have their voices heard in a supportive setting. In addition, the winning works in prose and poetry were featured in the spring issue of RedShift Magazine, the creative magazine on campus published every semester.
This year's number and quality of entries contributed to the overall success of the contest and foreshadowed many more to come. "I hope to have the contest become a fixture on campus," said Middleton, "something that we do every year and something that continues to grow every year; and I hope that we continue to get the same high quality of work." Pen to page or keyboard to printer, let's keep the ink flowing at Stevens!


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Facing an impending ban on 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, I headed to the hardware store in mid-December to stock up. I even bought the kind with double the life so I could stretch my supply as long as possible. Then, came a temporary reprieve — on Dec. 16, Congress agreed to delay implementation of the light bulb standards from Jan. 1 to next October.
Still, I am left wondering: why is the government intervening at all?
In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act which mandated more efficient light bulbs, leading to the eventual demise of the incandescent light bulbs in favor of those silly squiggly things known as compact fluorescent lamps.
That was the same legislation that greatly expanded the ethanol mandate — and we all know the trouble that has caused livestock producers because of its effects on corn prices.
When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, did they intend for Congress to get involved in the type of products we buy? Is Congress supposed to pick winners and losers in the marketplace?
I say this in light of another matter: The U.S. Department of Labor's proposed regulations on child labor on farms.
The proposed regulations set restrictions on the type of agricultural work that can be done by youth under the age of 16. For instance, the regulations would prohibit them from "operating or assisting to operate" farm machinery over 20 PTO horsepower, working at elevations over 6 feet, or working near manure-storage areas.
The regulations do not apply to sons or daughters of the farm's owner. However, it will be more difficult to recruit nieces, nephews and children in the community.
Criticism of the proposed regulations reached a point in mid-December where U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack felt compelled to respond.
"We all know that kids benefit from good old-fashioned farm work," Vilsack said. "It's a longtime way of life that has helped make this country strong, and it teaches kids lessons that last a lifetime.
"However, statistics show that while only 4 percent of working youth are in the agricultural sector, 40 percent of fatalities of working kids are associated with machines, equipment, or facilities related to agriculture. That's way too high. We don't want to blur the line between teaching kids about a good day's hard work and putting them in situations more safely handled by adults," Vilsack added.
Interestingly, Vilsack also had to explain the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's intentions — or non-intentions — when it comes to regulating dust on farms.
"EPA is not now, nor has it ever proposed regulating dust," he said in comments posted on the USDA's blog site.
Perhaps the child-labor regulations or the dust regulations are not as onerous as first reported. Yet, it does seem that the number of regulations coming out of Washington has picked up in recent years, leading to the question: Did the Founding Fathers really intend all of this?


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We know how you take your coffee: Ground before your eyes, then sprinkled into a filter that slowly receives water on a drip bar. No sizes. No syrup. Just a fresh, flavorful brew.
This type of coffee construction was unusual for a San Francisco cafe when James Freeman launched his first Blue Bottle Coffee Company kiosk in 2005.
These days, we know the value of meticulously sourced beans and diverse roasting methods. In less than a decade, Blue Bottle has become one of the country's most prominent artisan roasters,with six cafes in the Bay Area and roasteries on both coasts.
Now, Freeman, who founded the company in a 186-square-foot potting shed off the patio of Dona Tomas in Oakland, has written his first book, "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes" (Ten Speed, $24.99, 229 pages) about this farm-to-cup culture.
In the book, co-written by Tara Duggan and featuring 30 divine coffee-friendly recipes by Freeman's wife, Blue Bottle pastry chef and Miette co-founder Caitlin Freeman, he explains how to roast beans at home, make the perfect pourover or espresso and taste coffee like an industry pro.
Q Who is this book written for?
A This is for so many of our customers, the people who like coffee but might not have ever been to a coffee farm or a cupping event. They want to learn more, like how to roast beans at home. It's fun and easier than you might think.
Q In the book, you say coffee allows you to change the brain chemistry of your customers. Are you talking about caffeine, or something more?
A Caffeine is part of it, but coffee is very complex. For instance, coffee skin has a higher percentage of antioxidants than blueberries. Just like wine or chocolate, it contains many powerful ingredients.
Q After a decade in the biz, what kind of guy are you? Single origin or blend?
A I think there's a place for both. When I'm wearing my robe in the morning, sometimes I want it to be snug and sometimes I like it loose. Coffee's the same. I like being comforted by consistency or surprised by the complexity of a blend.
Q What are the origins of cupping, the industry method of evaluating coffee?
A Cupping started in San Francisco at places like Hills Brothers in the first part of the 20th century. They were doing it for quality control. Today, coffee guys go overboard with it. I think they have sommelier-envy.
Q What's the most important element of cupping?
A Like wine tasting, people feel put on the spot to come up with an adjective or descriptor. But, our senses are much more comparative, so focusing on noting the differences can often teach us more.
Q Any chance of opening a kiosk east of Oakland, or in South Bay?
A Not in terms of going through the tunnel — yet. Maybe we'll start in Berkeley and creep our way east.
Blue Bottle Coffee Company offers free public coffee cuppings at 2 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays at 300 Webster St. in Oakland. For more information, go to www.bluebottlecoffee.com.


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They may be pretty, but ice dams can be dangerous for you and your home. Heavy icicles can pull off gutters, crash to the ground, trap water on the roof deck, and cause serious leaks. There are plenty of ways to treat the symptoms, but Evergreen Home Performance can help you solve the problem for good.
Ice dams form when heat escapes from your living space into a leaky, underinsulated attic and melts snow and ice on the roof. The melted water drains along the roof, under the snow, then refreezes when it reaches the roof's cold overhang. The resulting icicles are called ice dams because they trap melting water and keep it from draining off the roof. The water has to go somewhere though – which is why you get leaks through your walls and ceilings.
Contact Evergreen Home Performance to schedule a FREE energy consult, uncover the root causes of your ice dam problems, and plan a comprehensive project to make your home warm, comfortable, and efficient.


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(A selection of Colorado Rapids U-13s is in Costa Rica participating in the Saprissa Cup. The kids, ranging from 10-13 years-old, provide updates from their trip).
By Marko, Triston and Cade
On Thursday morning we woke up bright 'n early. Cars were arriving at DIA with moms and dad with coffees in hand. Excitement was in the air along with the emotions of saying goodbye. We were going to Costa Rica!!! WOOOOP WOOOP!
Then there was Security. It was a long walk past Caribou coffee at the start of our adventure. As we were making our first costumes check there was a problem. We got hung up by the security guard for a strange reason and it was all Jake's fault. He had unknowingly brought a filled up water bottle! The old security then said his sorries and we were off once again.
We had just arrived in Houston. We were in a rush to get to our plane but, when we got to the plane we were early. So, our coach "Gary Evans" said to go eat lunch. All of us then headed to lunch in our groups. The Houston airport was very different from DIA - it looked a lot like a mall. After lunch we headed into the plane to Coast Rica. WE WERE OFF!!!
When we arrived in Costa Rica it was awesome, the humidity was unbearable. Also the scenery was very lush and colorful. We knew right away that America was very blessed. BY CADE!!!
First was immigration forms and check in. Many of the officers speaked Español so, it was very difficult to finish it. Also when we left the airport, everybody stared at us, it was so scary. The bus ride to the hotel Bougainvillea showed how simple these people are living in this region that is foreign to us.
As we arrived at the hotel, it was beautiful. Everybody greeted us with respect and kindness and were very excited to have us. The pool in a dark clear blue and is so dazzling. Additionally the campus has so many plants and animals to look at and enjoy.
This is such a good experience.


text:
May 18, 2012 all day – Seattle Seattle code now requires all commercial buildings be tested for air tightness. Spaces are limited! Register now and get all your large building testing questions answered! The Air Barrier Solution… Organized by Silvie Votrubova | Type: air, leakage, testing, for, large, buildings
© 2017 Created by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Powered by


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Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons in North Vancouver
You can choose a cosmetic plastic surgeon in North Vancouver from this list with confidence, knowing that he or she possesses exceptional training, outstanding credentials and experience with all areas of the face and body.
This list features only plastic surgeons in the city of North Vancouver. To widen your search, choose a nearby city from the list to the left, or click here to search by ZIP code.
|Surgeons highlighted below have purchased an Enhanced Practice Profile
|Personal Website
Richard J. Warren, M.D.777 W. Broadway Suite 1000 Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-876-1774
|4.56 Miles
Benjamin Gelfant, M.D., FRCSC1333 W. Broadway Suite 100 Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-874-2078
|4.91 Miles
Leslie D. Kerluke, M.D.201-126 E. 15th Street North Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-983-9985
|0.17 Miles
Cameron Bowman, M.D.480-999 W. Broadway Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-734-1416
|4.69 Miles
Peter A. Lennox, M.D.100-777 W. Broadway Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-876-6552
|4.75 Miles
Nicholas Carr, M.D., FRCSC3578 West 41st Avenue Vancouver, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-733-9711
|7.85 Miles
Hanif Ukani, M.D.2502 St. Johns St. Suite 201 Port Moody, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-931-1893
|9.99 Miles
W. Lorne Brown, M.D.830-6091 Gilbert Rd Richmond, ALBERTA Tel: Click for phone number604-273-6449
|10.99 Miles
David K. Ward, M.D.14439 104th Avenue Suite 202 Surrey, BC Tel: Click for phone number604-582-2762
|14.2 Miles
James H. Blackburn, II, M.D.FACS3001 Squalicum Parkway Suite 5 Bellingham, WA Tel: Click for phone number360-676-0978
|46.44 Miles
The surgeons listed above are members of The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, licensed by the state of British Columbia and certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS).
Choose Your Plastic Surgeon Carefully
Remember, any licensed physician is legally allowed to advertise as a "cosmetic" surgeon, even if he or she has no formal surgical training. Your body is nothing to take chances with, so avoid the risk. Selecting a board-certified plastic surgeon from this list is your assurance that your doctor has the highest quality training and advanced surgical skills.
ABPS Certification and ASAPS Membership Matters
The ABPS is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties to certify doctors in the specialty of plastic surgery. Following medical school, ABPS-certified plastic surgeons must have completed a minimum of 5 years of surgical training, including an accredited plastic surgery residency program. Members of ASAPS must be in at least their third year of active practice following ABPS certification.


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"... Well Kid I don't know nothing else to say only that I hope to see your sweet face Sat. Good by from your Dear Husban to his sweet little wife. P. S. excuse bad writing and mispelled words take all mistakes as kisses. S.W.A.K. * * *" This letter was postmarked at Des Moines October 20, 1909, addressed to Carrie Sprague at Jefferson, Iowa, and reached the latter place October 21, 1909. [State v. Manning (a conspiracy-to-lure-women-to-prostitution case), Supreme Court of Iowa, Nov. 16, 1910, reported in "Northwestern Reporter," Volume 128, 1911]
Popularized in soldiers' letters home in World War I. It probably is meant also to echo the sound of a kiss. Compare Middle English swack "a hard blow" (late 14c.).


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Brett Corner founded the Concordia University Wisconsin Wrestling program in 1991 and directed hundreds of student-athletes during his 20 years at the helm. Following the 2011-12 season he was once again named Northern Wrestling Association Coach of the Year for his efforts.
During his tenure Corner's teams won seven Northern Wrestling Association titles and produced one All-American, along with 17 NAIA and four NCAA National Qualifiers. He was voted conference coach of the year eight times and Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association District 8 Coach of the Year twice (2006 and 2012).
Following 20 years as Falcon head
coach, Corner stepped down to concentrate on his full-time job as a
rubber product salesman. He will remain with the program as an
assistant coach.
Corner currently lives in Grafton, Wis., with wife Brenda, and daughters Monica and Sarah. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing from UW-La Crosse in 1986.
Wrestling Career: A three-time NAIA All-American at UW-La Crosse, Corner was 111-21-1 while competing at 142 lbs. He was sixth in 1984, fifth in 1985, and second in 1986 at the NAIA National Championships. Corner was selected to the NAIA/USA National Team that toured China in June, 1986, the first collegiate team to tour China in any sport. He was inducted into the UW-La Crosse Athletic Wall of Fame in 1998.
In 1982 at the AAU National Championships in Lincoln, Neb., Corner was fifth in Greco-Roman and seventh in Freestyle at 143 lbs.
Heading into his 21st season at CUW, Corner has guided the Falcons to seven conference titles with the most recent coming in 2006. His current career dual meet mark is 98-117-1.
Corner has produded one All-American (Edwin Allen) in 1997 and five NWCA Scholar All-Americans. He was voted the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association District 8 Coach of the Year in 2005.
In addition, he has produced 17 National qualifiers; (14 NAIA and three NCAA) and has been voted conference Coach of the Year six times. He is currently the WWCA District 8 Representative for Wisconsin college coaches.
Corner's teams have twice received NWCA Scholar All-America status at the NCAA Division III level. CUW's highest national finish was 16th in the NAIA national Championships in 1997.
Dual record:
1991-92 1-0
1992-93 1-1
1993-94 3-4-1
1994-95 2-5
1995-96 6-7
1996-97 4-6
1997-98 5-4
1998-99 9-5
1999-00 9-13
2000-01 4-9
2001-02 7-7
2002-03 8-4-1
2003-04 5-9
2004-05 10-6
2005-06 4-5
2006-07 4-7
2007-08 6-4
2008-09 4-9
2009-10 2-3
2010-11 4-9
2011-12 4-10
Total: 102-127-1


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Infographic: Social Media Evolution
Very nice infographic provided by the UK based company ProhibitionPR which outlines the evolution of Social Media Platforms. As most can expect, this area will continue to evolve rapidly with the utilization of cloud platforms and collaborative services to push it along at a quicker pace.
Infographic Source: Prohibition PR


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Crosseyed0811 wrote:I'm struggling to find the right discs for my wife. She wants to play but she gets frustrated very quickly and very easily. I feel like I need to find a set of 3 (max) discs and let her just play with them and nothing but them. Course wise we have it made, here in Rock Hill all of the elementary and middle schools have small 9 hole courses thanks to the EDGE program. I've bought her several discs but none of them seem to work out well. I fight over mold/plastic but most importantly weight. She seems to like the Buzzz and she has 2, a FLX and a D both around 168 or 169. She has a 150 DX Leopard but when we were first going out the wind was a little rough on it. She winds arent that bad around here now but she's not throwing it much. As you can probably tell I want her to be able to enjoy playing with me, but I'm struggling getting her off to a good start. She does enjoy going out but quickly gets frustrated when things don't go well. I know you've recommended some drivers already but what about mids and putters... what weights are good and such because I really don't know.
I always like the 150 valkyrie, it just glides forever. As far as mids, the cobra was the first one I fell in love with, mine is pretty close to max weight. Mids I tend to like heavier. I haven't had the arm to appreciate the roc until recently. Until I had some decent arm speed it was pretty overstable for me. Honestly though, until she is driving farther, you will find that she is throwing drivers more than mids. I have what I consider my off the tee drivers, the 163 Valk and the 169 Roadrunner, then my leopard and teebird are my approach drivers. By the time I have thrown both, I am usually within range with a rhyno. The viking and cyclone are also discs that I used a lot to approach with when I was newer.
You have to realize that a lot of the time, after a drive, she may still be 150-200 feet out depending on the hole. I felt a lot more comfortable throwing a driver than trying to push a mid out there.
How far is she driving right now, and what type of courses are you taking her to? Then I can give you more specific advice.


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iHome iW1 AirPlay® wireless speaker system
One portable system that's at home with my music
Ralph Graves is one of Crutchfield's blog editors, and part of the company's social media team. He writes about home audio/video gear, specializing in Apple-related and wireless technologies. Ralph holds a master's degree in music composition, and his works have been released on various labels. He's served as product manager for an independent classical and world music label, produced several recordings, and worked extensively in public broadcasting. Since 1984 he's hosted a weekly classical music program on WTJU, and is also active as a blogger and podcaster.
More from Ralph Graves
Heads up!Welcome to this article from the Crutchfield archives. Have fun reading it, but be aware that the information may be outdated and links may be broken.
I had an opportunity to take an iHome iW1 home for a long weekend and try it out. I'm always looking for simple wireless audio solutions, and was happy for the opportunity.
I've auditioned iHome products before, and have been generally impressed with the sound. The iW1 didn't disappoint in that area, and its portability made it doubly attractive.
The iHome iW1 is an Apple AirPlay-enabled wireless speaker system. So you need some type of iDevice — iPod touch®, iPad®, or iPhone® — or computer running iTunes® to use it.
The system has built-in rechargeable batteries that, according to iHome, can last from 6 hours at max volume to around 15 at medium volume. I didn't play the iW1 at full volume, and was able to get 8-10 hours of continuous playing without any trouble.
I really liked the simple design of the charging base.
One design feature I liked was the recharging stand. It's a small rounded ovoid that the speaker system just sits on. I didn't have to match prongs-to-outlet or anything like that. I just placed the system on the base, and the rounded edges made the it slide right into place. Simple!
Signing on with AirPlay — through a portable
There are two ways to sync the iHome iW1 via AirPlay, and I tried both of them. If you have an iDevice, you can sync it directly to the iW1. It took but a few seconds to download the free iHome app to the iPhone from the iTunes app store.
I then had to connect the iPhone to the system via a 30-pin charging cable. Every iDevice comes with one, but iHome thoughtfully included a cable in the box just in case. (Good thing, too. Mine was hooked up in the car.)
After the iPhone and iHome iW1connected, and recognized each other, I only needed to select the wireless network the two devices would use. Once that step was completed, I could go wireless.
Signing on with AirPlay — through a computer
Connecting with my home laptop was a slightly different - but equally easy - process. I turned on the iW1, which looked for my home network. In the instruction book, there was the address of a webpage I needed to go to.
I did so. The page had all the necessary instructions and code the computer needed to find the device. With the click of a button on the site, the instruction process started and within a minute the syncing process was complete. I then selected the network, and that was it. In my computer's iTunes window I could see the iHome iW1 as a speaker option, and I was ready to stream.
Plays more than iTunes!
With a portable device, I could not only play the music stored on it, but also steam audio from any app I was using. So I could listen to PANDORA® Internet radio through the iW1, or Slacker, YouTube™ audio, or even the sound effects from Angry Birds.
Most of the time I used the iHome iW1 at home with my laptop. I very quickly discovered that it played anything that would normally go through the computer's speakers. Of course that meant it played anything cued up from iTunes — songs, podcasts, Internet radio stations, etc. But it also meant AirPlay streamed audio from any source on the computer. So I could listen to movie soundtracks as I watched Netflix movies, or enjoy enhanced sound from the YouTube clips I played.
But I also had to be a little careful. If I left a browser window open, my music would be interrupted by little bleeps alerting me that a new tweet had come in. And one time when I was listening to the iW1 in the basement my wife got online on the computer upstairs and started playing a Facebook game. I heard every move! (We soon learned how to disable game sounds.)
The iW1 on the basement workbench, streaming music from upstairs.
Goes anywhere, upstairs or down
I had a great time with the iHome iW1. Anyplace my wireless home network covered, I could use it. So I could take it to the basement workshop, the upstairs attic, outside on the porch, and all around the first floor.
There are a few spots where the iW1 lost the signal (due to metal ductwork in the walls, I think) as I walked from one place to the other. But the system quickly locked into the signal again once I moved past the obstruction.
The iHome comes with its own remote, and also works with the Apple remote app you can get for your iDevice. I didn't really use either. The top of the system has basic touch-sensitive controls, and for the most part I just set the volume once and let it play.
Well-grounded sound
The system has two tweeters, two woofers and ported base, and although it was fairly compact, the sound never sounded small or tinny. The iHome features Bongiovi circuitry, which does a very good job at decoding digital audio. It fills in missing harmonics, and helps fill out compressed audio — which really helped with less-than-audiophile signals like those from Internet radio stations and some older MP3 files I had.
Passes with classical
As always, I tried a variety of music on the iW1, and was generally pleased with the result. Manuel Barrueco's classical guitar sounded clean and natural, with just the right amount of presence. So too did smaller instrumental combinations, such as the piano, violin, and cello of the Ames Trio, or the sackbuts, lutes and crumhorns of the King's Noyse early music ensemble.
The iW1 reproduced full orchestras with a nice wide range, although the overall sound stage sounded a little closed in. The higher I pushed the volume, though, the more the field seemed to expand.
The iW1 in our family room, in front of some of the CDs it replaces.
If you're planning a party, the iHome iW1 can handle your music. I pumped all kinds of electronic music through the system — including 2 Many DJs, Kanye West, Kraftwerk, Metallica, Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga, and even some Sass Jordan. It all hit with a satisfying crunchiness and razor-sharp responsiveness. And the system played the music at higher volumes cleanly and without distortion.
The only caveat I would give is this: if your ideal bass is the kind that enables car audio systems to rattle windows along the street, you'll probably be disappointed. The iHome iW1 delivered good, strong bass, but nothing with quite that punch. The bass boost setting helped, and got it to the point I think would be more than adequate for most social gatherings (at least at my home).
Simple setup, practical utility
On the whole, I enjoyed my time with the iHome iW1. It was easy to set up, and once the battery was fully charged, I could take it just about anywhere in my home (even a little outside of it). Sound quality was very good, and I especially appreciated the improvement the iW1 brought to my basement work area over the old AM/FM CD player currently residing there. Not only better sound, but a better variety of music!
It seems that each iteration of AirPlay-compatible speaker systems become more useful, more powerful, and more user-friendly. The iHome iW1 decidedly continues that trend.


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Sandberg calls for difference-makers among players
MIAMI -- Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg had indicated he might speak to his team before Thursday's series finale against the Marlins.
He did, but he said he spoke to players individually.
"We've got to do it between the lines, be ready to be the guy to make a difference," Sandberg said about his message. "That's what we need is somebody to make a difference and get it snowballing the other way. Create some momentum by any one guy, having a game or getting the job done."
Sandberg had two team meetings earlier this season: one in New York and one in Washington. They were short and sweet.
So far, Sandberg hasn't flipped tables or dropped a bunch of curse words.
"I do whatever comes to mind," he said. "That's happened in the dugout a few times, more within the action."
Sandberg said he thinks players are anxious to get things turned around, although it might be too late to change the minds in the Phillies' front office. They entered the game having lost 10 of their previous 12 games to fall a season-worst 12 games under .500.
Todd Zolecki is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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The proliferation of new wineries in Washington State has slowed in the past couple of years, but the landscape today is radically different from even 15 years ago. As recently as the early 1990s the Washington wine scene was dominated by a few large players who also owned a high percentage of planted vineyard land. Today, most of the excitement is being generated by small, quality-minded wineries, and the industrial-scale producers are mostly competing at the low end of the market.
Cabernet and Merlot are Washington's most serious and successful varieties, with Syrah rapidly increasing in popularity thanks to the efforts of some talented newcomers. Red wine is generally growing as a percentage of total production of premium wines, even if Riesling still has considerable commercial importance.
Most of Washington's grapes are grown in the desert east of the Cascade mountains, in the Columbia and Yakima River Valleys, where annual rainfall is so low that the vineyards must be irrigated. The vines in Washington benefit from long daylight hours during the summer, and a longer growing season than California (grapes are usually picked well into October). Although daytime temperatures can be quite hot, frequently surpassing 100 degrees, generally cool September nights allow the grapes to retain healthy acidity, resulting in wines with noteworthy intensity of varietal character. The greatest threat to grape-growing in Washington is winter frost, which can sometimes be severe enough to kill vines, as it did during the winters of 1996 and 2004.
Cabernet Sauvignon has been the flagship red grape of the California wine industry for decades, and its popularity shows no sign of abating. Napa Valley is the heart of Cabernet Sauvignon production and is clearly an ideal region for creating world-class wines. If any Cabernet-based wine is capable of giving Bordeaux a run for its money, it's Napa Valley's examples. However, due to the extremely high cost of purchasing and developing vineyards in California, and the cachet of Napa Valley on the label, this has largely become a category for the well-heeled wine lover.
At their best, Napa Valley's Cabernets are characterized by fruit notes of cassis, black cherry, and licorice and sweet oak notes of chocolate, mocha, cedar, and tar. Today, most of the best wines are aged entirely or almost completely in French oak barrels, which tend to produce somewhat more refined wines than do most American barrels. (These latter barrels often introduce exotic and pungent suggestions of scotch, bourbon, tar, coconut, and dill.) But the use of expensive French oak is no guarantee of a good bottle: too many wines today, due to high crop levels or insufficiently ripe fruit, do not have the stuffing to support their oakiness and can quickly be dominated or even dried out by their wood component. The best California Cabernets mellow and soften with five to ten years of bottle aging, developing more complex and less fruit-dominated notes of tobacco, leather, and earth, with mellower wood tones. Compared to the top Bordeaux, however, many California Cabernet Sauvignons merely endure in bottle rather than truly become more interesting. There are no shortage of quality producers, even if these wines are rarely values. And it remains to be seen if today's outsized showstoppers, made from superripe grapes and undeniably impressive on release, will reward extended bottle aging or will turn out to have been best suited for drinking in their youth.
Many wines labeled Cabernet Sauvignon contain small percentages of other so-called Bordeaux varieties -- chiefly Merlot and Cabernet Franc but also Petit Verdot and even Malbec (varietally labeled wines in California must contain at least 75% of the variety named).
Cabernet Sauvignon also flourishes in Washington State, Australia and even Chile. In Washington, prices have been creeping up at the high end, with some producers aiming to compete with cult wines from the Napa Valley. Consider Chateau Ste. Michelle and Woodward Canyon. In Australia, look to the Coonawarra and Margaret River regions. Chile can reveal excellent bargains to those who know where to look: Montes makes a strong range of quality bottlings, as does Casa Lapostolle.
As Cabernet Sauvignon is bold and assertive on the palate, it pairs best with foods like grilled red meats. Taken together, the proteins and fats in the food neutralize some of the stronger tannic qualities of the wine, leading to a harmonic combination that enhances both partners.
2008 had 7 regions scored 95 or above. Paso Robles and Champagne, both got the highest score, with a 98.
Other regions that scored 95 points or higher were Napa, Oregon, Pomerol, Germany, and Washington.
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David Magerman
The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches that there is "a time to reap and a time to sow." For Gladwyne resident David Magerman, that lesson seemed especially relevant in 2004, when he began to question the meaning of his life. On the surface, it seemed like the 43-year-old had it all: a loving wife and two (of his now four) children, a large home on eastern Long Island and a very successful career as head of production for a hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, in which he had accumulated significant personal wealth. "And yet, I found it all to be pointless," he reminisces. "I worried that one day my oldest son would ask me the meaning of life — and I would have no answer."
So began a personal odyssey for Magerman that involved reinvesting himself in the study of his religion ("I grew up in a Conservative family but lost my connection to Judaism during college," he says), moving his family to suburban Philadelphia and ultimately becoming one of the leading philanthropists on both the local and national Jewish day school scenes.
In 2008, Magerman founded The Kohelet Foundation (the Hebrew name for the Book of Ecclesiastes) to promote and support Jewish communal responsibility for day schools among parents, philanthropists and the greater Jewish community, in ways that are replicable and accessible to communities nationwide.
Among his first order of business was funding a series of tuition grants, hoping that by making day school more affordable, more families would sign up. He began with incentive grants for new students at the Perelman Jewish Day School. He expanded the offerings to other schools, became the benefactor for the new Kohelet Yeshiva High School and just recently announced a new round of grants for most of the day schools in the Greater Philadelphia and South Jersey communities.
The goal of the scholarships is to enable more children to realize the dream of an education rich in Jewish values and responsibility, where they achieve academically, all while connecting to the world through a Jewish lens. These students, believes Magerman, are our best hope for the future.
Another way in which The Kohelet Foundation is fulfilling this mission is through its Fellowships Program, a two-year Jewish learning experience for parents of students enrolled in Jewish day schools.
By committing themselves to learning and studying Jewish texts, either one-on-one with a study partner or in a classroom, parents of Jewish day school students earn tuition credits from their children's schools. The concept, according to Magerman, reinforces the principle that studying Torah is a lifelong pursuit, which parents demonstrate to their children. "If you can make parents more knowledgeable about the value of Jewish learning, you can make them stronger and more devoted proponents of day school education," he says.
A self-professed "systems guy," Magerman describes his approach to solving some of the affordability issues related to Jewish day school education by looking at what was broken and trying to fix it. "We need more creative models for making Jewish day school affordable," he says. "I truly believe that Torah education is necessary for a stable society. The alternative seems to be totally ineffective."


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Stocks That Soared Out of the Gate
The stock-market horse race of 2013 is under way. Of the 500 horses wearing the colors of the Standard & Poor's 500, the quickest start was by U.S. Steel (X), which rose 8.5% on the first trading day of the year. Galloping in second place was Lam Research (LRCX), up 7.2%. In third was MetLife (MET), up 6.7%.
Stumbling out of the gate were a pair of coal companies, Consol Energy (CNX), down 3.4%, and Peabody Energy (BTU), down 2.9%. Also trailing the field was Dollar General (DG), which slipped 2.6%....367 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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Its scientific name is Cimex lectularius. But it's commonly known as the bedbug. And it's made a comeback in places like Philadelphia in recent years, according to area entomologists. While some find bedbugs' ability to evolve with humans fascinating, these six legged creatures have also spawned stress, anxiety and even economic duress for area households. Some experts battling the bugs have been looking to the past and even south of the border for solutions.
One person's phobia
Mackenzie McAlpin does not like bedbugs.
"I think I'm wildly scared of them," she says, sitting in her immaculate South Philly apartment.
As a kid, she'd heard night after night mom recite 'sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite,' but didn't take the reference seriously. That is until learning about problems in New York City a couple years ago.
"They're real?!" she remembered thinking at the time.
A friend in Philadelphia later confided she'd been battling them. Ever since, McAlpin has admitted to taking some extra, though not always practical, precautions.
"I'm the one friend that crosses the street when we're walking past a bed," she says. "I don't want to know what's on it. Get me away."
One can't blame McAlpin for wanting to avoid them. Bedbugs typically (though not necessarily) feed off human blood at night, resulting in itchy red bite marks for those who are allergic. They hide in cracks and crevices, and their movements can be subtle.
But what if that paranoia turned into something else?
Another person's obsession
Michael Levy, an area epidemiologist, studies bedbugs and how they work inside and outside his lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Though he wasn't always seeking them out.
His bedbug fascination can be traced to time spent over the last decade in Latin America, where he met an insect called the Kissing Bug, kind of a "giant horrible cousin of the bedbug."
Like bedbugs, kissing bugs feed on blood at night. Unlike bedbugs, some can transmit a parasite to humans, which can damage the heart, among other things.
"Every night I'd have my flashlight out and I'd check my room to make sure there were none of these bugs," says Levy. But slowly, that fear turned into interest. "And then really kind of fascination. And eventually obsession."
Levy has been working to wipe out the disease in parts of Peru through an ongoing door-to-door extermination and community reporting effort. Though bedbugs pose less of a health threat in the U.S., Levy says they still warrant concern.
"Nursing homes are suffering, institutions are suffering, universities are suffering and everyone quietly deals with it but this is all very discrete," says Levy. "No one's kind of taking a global picture of how are we going to control the insects across the city as a whole."
Inspired by Peru's model, he's now leading door-to-door specimen hunts and household surveys around Philadelphia. What he's finding through that work and in reviewing city complaints is a lot of people have them, but not a lot of people are talking about it.
For one, there's the false notion that only people who are poor and dirty get bedbugs. Those who are better off, however, may have more resources to fight an infestation. Exterminators alone can cost more than a thousand dollars. The city doesn't treat bedbugs as a public health threat, so the onus is on individuals to react.
On the household battlefield
Robert DiJoseph and Jeff White, part of a New Jersey-based $1 million battle-the-bed bug business, recently headed a call from a suburban Philadelphia row home.
"We're bringing lots of little goodies in," says DiJoseph.
Their lines of attack include:
- Protected mattress encasements, which they say trap bedbugs in the bed while keeping others from getting in
- Entrapment devices, which look like dog bowls, but when placed underneath furniture and bed legs can trap bedbugs in its smooth surfaced trench as bugs try to crawl up
- Flashlights for better spotting bugs
- A steamer, as high temperatures can kill bedbugs on the spot
- Insecticide (ie: synthetic pyrethroids)
The resident – who describes the devastating mental toll of living with the threat of itchy bites, the feeling of helplessness in protecting one's kids, and the initial state of denial about the problem – had applied for extermination help through White's charitable program.
Combatting bedbugs can be expensive, costing upwards of $1,000. One exterminator visit may not guarantee the problem's solved. Depending on the severity of an infestation, people may need to scrap furniture. But contrary to popular belief, White and other exterminators say with treatment, people usually don't have to toss out any possessions.
Inside, White and DiJoseph hone in on beds and high traffic furniture, stripping and turning over the box springs, flipping picture frames, steaming a couch, spraying baseboards and inspecting nightstands.
"It's common to find the bedbugs in the bedding, especially tucked into the foot of the bed because they're never bothered there," says White. "Bedbugs want to be in areas of least disruption first. They don't want to be moved."
For that reason, White and DiJoseph say they're not worried about taking the bugs home with them. They also know not to sit down anywhere while on the job. Bedbugs may not be quick to leave a spot, but they may hitch rides on people's stuff (though they don't like to travel directly on people). DiJoseph, who deals with bedbugs on a more regular basis, takes an extra step, changing his clothes after leaving places, sealing them in a plastic bag, then throwing them in the dryer on high.
He and others say responding early makes all the difference, before the bugs really infest a place or become endemic in a building or community.
Not a new problem: bedbugs survived the Depression
Bedbugs may be making a comeback, but they are far from a modern phenomenon. Dawn Biehler, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Maryland, says bedbugs were a consistent problem in the U.S. up to the 40s and 50s.
"It was almost kind of an accepted condition of urban life that every once in a while, you were going to get bedbugs," says Biehler. "Some people had bedbugs pretty much constantly."
True, according to several longtime Philadelphia residents.
"It was awful," says Eileen Ashton, 81 years old, who recalls waking up with her military family in a Philadelphia hotel to walls crawling with bedbugs.
Families came up with all sorts of responses.
"When I was a little girl, my mother used to open the windows, take the sheets and mattress off the bed, and she used to have a bat and bang the springs with the bat, so all the bed bugs would fall out of the springs," recalls Phyllis Navo, now 90 years old, of growing up in South Philadelphia.
"We had a lot of bedbugs in them days. Our parents would use some kind of spray on our beds and it stunk," says John Rodrico, thinking back to the 30s and 40s. "We lived with it, though."
So what curbed the bedbug?
Biehler says as people "slaved away" at beds and other hotspots in their homes, as hygiene improved, bedbugs became a rarer thing. She points to some success stories during the FDR era, when housing units organized fumigation efforts, where no one person was singled out. Then after World War II, DDT hit the scene "and a whole family of effective, strong chemicals that were good for pest control at the time."
An evolving problem with some simple responses
Bedbugs didn't totally disappear, and in a now familiar tale of modern science, they've evolved and developed resistance to whole classes of pesticides. Experts also point to crowded cities and increased travel as factors aiding in their survival. It all makes individual responses and the jobs of exterminators White and DiJoseph even trickier.
"That's one of the really big problems," says White, who points to mattress encasements and other none chemical devices as important tools.
Reducing clutter, being careful about what goes in and out of the home, hot water laundering and vacuuming are other nonchemical ways to prevent and combat the spread, according to Biehler.
All the more important, says Biehler, because while bedbugs are not known to transmit diseases to humans, they can still cause a "degradation of mental health" with loss of sleep, resulting in family divisions, the feeling that bedbugs are around when they're not. People can also do themselves more harm in trying to prevent or battle the bugs, applying highly toxic or flammable chemicals excessively.
Meanwhile, Michael Levy, the epidemiologist at Penn, and others, want to get a better handle on the problem as a whole and figure out all the bedbug tricks for moving from place to place. He'll be starting up another round of door-to-door surveys around Philadelphia, during what's typically the peak months for bedbugs. So come summer, don't be alarmed if one day you see a soft-mannered guy knocking at your door, inquiring about bedbugs in your home.


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Editorial Staff and Contributors
This is surgery to remove a severely diseased and failing heart. It is replaced with a healthy heart from a deceased donor.
A heart transplant is done if you have:
Problems from the procedure are rare, but all procedures have some risk. Your doctor will review potential problems, like:
More than 80% of heart transplant patients live for at least one year after surgery. Most return to normal activities, including work and exercise.
People over 60 years old are at increased risk of complications. Some factors that may increase the risk of complications include:
Be sure to discuss these risks with your doctor before the procedure.
There is a shortage of donors, so you may be on a transplant list for some time. You may need to carry a cell phone with you at all times. This is to allow the transplant team to reach you if a donor heart becomes available.
You may need to stay in the hospital for monitoring. You may need to be on continuous IV medications to help stabilize the function of your diseased heart. Some may need to have a mechanical pump called a ventricular assist device (VAD). The device will help to stabilize your heart while you are waiting for a transplant.
Before the procedure:
Before the surgery, your doctor will likely do the following:
General anesthesia
will be used. You will be asleep during the procedure.
The doctor will cut through the skin and breastbone. The chest will be opened and you will be connected to a heart-lung machine. This machine takes over the functions of the heart and lungs during surgery. Your heart will be removed. The donor heart will be prepared and sewn into place in your chest. Next, the blood vessels will be connected. After this, the blood will start to flow and warm the heart.
The new heart may begin beating on its own, or you may be given an electrical shock to get your heart started. For safety, you will also have a temporary pacemaker attached to the heart to help the heart beat stay regular. After the doctor is sure that the heart is beating fine, the blood will be rewarmed. The heart-lung machine will be disconnected. Next, temporary tubes may be placed in the chest cavity to drain any blood that has collected. The chest will be closed with stainless steel wires. Lastly, the skin will be closed with absorbable sutures.
You will be closely monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU) with the help of some/all of the following:
You will also have your vital signs monitored.
8 hours
Anesthesia will prevent pain during surgery. Pain and discomfort after the procedure can be managed with medications.
This procedure is done in a hospital setting. The usual length of stay is at least 2 weeks. Your may need to stay longer if you shows signs of rejecting the new heart or have other problems.
While you are recovering at the hospital, you will need to:
Your doctor may need to take a
of your heart routinely and additionally as needed if you:
When you return home, do the following to help ensure a smooth recovery:
It is important for you to monitor your recovery after you leave the hospital. Alert your doctor to any problems right away. If any of the following occur, call your doctor:
If you think you have an emergency,
call for emergency medical services right away.
Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients
Transplant Living
Health Canada
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Explore heart transplant.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute website. Available at:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ht. Updated January 3, 2012. Accessed September 30, 2014.
Heart transplant.
American Heart Association website. Available at:
Updated September 9, 2014. Accessed September 30, 2014.
Last reviewed September 2016 by Michael Woods, MD
EBSCO Information Services is fully accredited by URAC. URAC is an independent, nonprofit health care accrediting organization dedicated to promoting health care quality through accreditation, certification and commendation.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Information Services. All rights reserved.


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19 fun car road trip activities
Turn an ordinary drive into a world of fun adventures and possibilities. more
Download our BUMPWATCH Pregnancy Tracker. Everything there is to know week by week. FREE
Pregnancy during your grandmother's generation saw women who were carrying multiple babies ordered to bed rest from about the 30th week of pregnancy. This practice was to help prevent premature births and take steps to improve the health of both the mother and her babies.
More recently, research into this practice has questioned the benefits of routine bed rest, with concerns that the disruptive impact this has on the lives of women and their families considered potentially stressful. Costs of hospital-based health care are also prohibitive. To date, there is no firm evidence to show that bed rest for women with otherwise uncomplicated pregnancies offers any health benefits.
This article was written by Claire Halliday for Australia's leading pregnancy resource, Kidspot. Sources include the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne and State Government Of Victoria
This article was created for Kidspot - Australia's parenting resource for during your pregnancy


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Philovitist wrote:Though I'm probably not interested in the Theravada sort of Buddhism (I may be wrong, since I know so little), I was wondering if you guys could lead me to resources to help get me started. I already know the very basics of Buddhism, but I don't know how to begin practicing it beyond going on through my life with those general principles in mind.
Philovitist wrote:Hi, I'm a Philovitist.
Dmytro wrote:Hi Philovitist,
Seems like your name means "one who loves life"?
Good luck!
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Kids may not get 'Head Start' if government shutdown continues
PORTLAND, Ore. - Thousands of families and children across the country could bear the brunt of the government shutdown if it doesn't end soon.
Head Start programs in Washington and Oregon are counting down to Oct. 31 when their money runs out. If that happens, thousands of children will be without school.
The Albina Head Start program in Portland serves 1,000 low-income children and families. About 52 percent of its budget will go away if the government doesn't get back to work by Nov. 1.
Ronnie Herndon, who runs the Albina Head Start program, said if that happens, he'll have to close the doors.
"We'll have absolutely no money. We can't buy food. We can't pay for the heat. We can't pay staff. We'll have no money," he said.
Herndon said he's already told his staff and parents to prepare for the worst. But he also knows what's best for the children right now is for life at school to be as normal as possible.
He said Head Start has dealt with budget cuts in the past, but he's never had to lay anyone off and kids have always been able to come to school. He said employees took unpaid days off to make the numbers work. This time he said that won't help.
Head Start is in almost every community across the country, and Herndon said children and families who use it are healthier and kids are more likely to graduate from high school and be productive members of society than they would be if the program didn't exist.
The children who come to Albina's Head Start learn how to share, play and are taught good manners. Herndon calls it "Pre-School Plus."
"We make sure that if there are any dental concerns, they get taken care of: vision, hearing, nutrition," he said.
Herndon said he also wants people to know the threat of shutting down Head Start programs across the country is much bigger than Head Start. He said it means tens of thousands of mostly single-parent families would be forced to choose between child care and work. Additionally, thousands of Head Start staff would be forced to go on unemployment.
Herndon has the following message to Congress: "You are pushing this suffering down on innocent people while you, yourself are sitting back fat and happy. I think it's one of the most cowardly acts I've ever seen."
On top of possibly losing funding on Nov. 1, Head Start programs across the country already suffered cutbacks last spring due to the sequester.
A Head Start program in Lincoln County will also run out of money at the end of the month if the government doesn't get back to work. It is a union program, so employees there have already gotten lay-off notices.


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Topic: Chemo
We just found out that my mom will most likely start with Chemo first then surgery then radiation. They will most likely give her Gemzar. My question is how many treatments would someone normally get in a week / Month?
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We just found out that my mom will most likely start with Chemo first then surgery then radiation. They will most likely give her Gemzar. My question is how many treatments would someone normally get in a week / Month?
From our experience with Gemzar, my daughter got it once every two weeks. She never had it by itself though. She had it with Cisplatin and 5FU and then just with 5FU.
We are supposed to get her " plan " on Monday, she had her port put in on Friday. I still can't believe this is happening... I'm just hoping her doctors know what they are doing....
Gemzar is often given on a 3 week cycle. Two weeks on, one week off. One treatment per week. That works out to 3 treatments a month, sometimes 4.
Thank you, have you had the Gemzar? Will she lose her hair or be very nauseated?
My wife did 6 cycles of Gemzar and Cisplatin after her surgery. 12 treatments in total. Her hair thinned a lot by the end of chemo but she didn't lose all of it. She started wearing a wig after a while. In retrospect, she regrets it. A very short haircut would have been more comfortable.
Nausea is hard to predict. Some people get very nauseated right off the bat, others don't. Keep in mind, she will receive anti-nausea medication before/after each treatment. It makes a huge difference.
Thank you, I appreciate all any information I can get.
I have finished 5 cycles of Gemzar and Cisplatin. 2 weeks on and 1 week off. Getting ready to start #6. Loss my hair - no big deal, have been sick and have not lost weight. The biggest side effects I have are with my blood. Low WBC, RBC and platelets. I have add several shots of Neulasta and 3 Pack Red Blood Cells transfusions. Other than the above, my Doc says I'm doing OK.
Good Luck going forward
Thanks Jim, I pray you continue to do well. My mom says she isn't concerned about her hair but we all know she is. She has always been so particular about it, but I guess when you look at it...it's not as important as it once was. She already has such a hard time with a lot of Gas, belching constantly. I'm hoping she will see improvement there. I guess we will find out tomorrow what they will plan. They first thought it would be a lite does of chemo but now we just don't know.
I ended up with 5 cycles (10 treatments) of Gem/Cis, didn't lose any hair, but it stopped growing. No nausea whatsoever, took the steroid shot they give you at the time of treatment and didn't have any other nausea at all. Radiation gave me more nausea to be honest... Good luck!
Thank you all.. I feel a little more prepared for my call with the doctor tomorrow. Because my mom and I live in separate cities ( for now anyway) she has given them permission to call me with all results to make sure nothing gets lost in translation.
Well they made the decision and they have decided that Gemzar alone for 2-3 months and the surgery again afterwards. The first appt is going to be on Thursday and it will be more of a learning session. They will tell her all about the chemo, what to expect etc... and give her a tour of the facility. The one thing I did forget to ask is how long will one session of chemo last? Is it different for each person?
My father's chemo lasts up to almost 6 hours. The first hour or so is anti nausea medication and the rest is the actual chemo. They also see the doctor prior to chemo. When they travel to U of M for treatment it is an all day ordeal, 9am to almost 8/9pm. Keep in mind, my parents live almost 2 hours (4 hours are travel time) away from the facility where treatment is held. Hope this helps.
My mom has been on Gemzar for 6 months. In addition to Gemzar she received 28 sessions of radiation treatments (IMRT).
She is has only 2 treatments of Gemzar remaining. She received Gemzar once a week for 3 weeks, then one week off.
As far as the hair loss, her hair thinned, but she did not lose all. Nausea was an issue for her, but they premedicated her prior to the infusion with IV Aloxi, dexamethasone and oral compazine. They switched her from IV Zofran to IV Aloxi because Aloxi lasts longer. Medications did work for her. She had good three days after the chemo, but then by the 4th and 5th day after, symptoms returned, but not as bad.
Chemo is tough, but I think my mom felt worse when she was receiving both chemo and radiation. That radiation, especially after the 3rd week was very tough on my mom. But, she pulled through it.
Oh I forgot about the low blood counts. My mom was transfused numerous time due to low blood counts.
Thank you Anna, if they do decide to do radiation on my mom it will be after the surgery. That's what we were told anyway. Can I ask what stage your mom was in when diagnosed and her age? My mom will be 75 in November and they are telling us she was diagnosed at stage 2. I'm hoping she can handle all of this ok. She has always been in pretty good health before all this came along.
My mom is 72. She was diagnosed Nov. 2011. She is stage 3, but inoperable due to involvement of portal vein. 9 years ago my mom had kidney cancer and they removed 1/3 of her kidney. She was followed by an oncologist for over 6 years with CT scans every 6 months and everything was clear until Sept 2011. It is really devastating...
It's great that they found the tumor at an early stage. From everything that I have read on the net as well as this great site is that majority of the time, it is not found until the later stages. I think my mom would have been able to have surgery if it was not for the vein involvement. Too risky of a surgery.
I very much hope everything works out for your mom, I really do. You sound like you're in the same situation like me. I know you hear it all the time, but stay strong for your mom. Several times during my mom's numerous hospitalizations I kind of lost it and I cried in front of her and it just makes her too sad. She asked me to promise her that when it is her time to go that I not cry because she was blessed to have her family and a good life. Of course that made me cry even more. It's hard to see your mom ill and the thought of losing her not being here is unbearable.
I just pray that the treatments she is going through will keep her here with us longer.
The last scan she had in May, her tumor size was approx 4.5 cm x 3 cm. The radiation treatments she received did decrease the size of the tumor by approx 1 to 1.5 cm. Where is the location of your mom's tumor and the size?
I wish your mom all the best. Moms are irreplaceable.
Before my mom started treatments she was completely asymptomatic. The reason why they found the tumor was because she was having occasional fevers and because of her history of kidney cancer, I asked her Primary MD for CT scan. We never expected cancer, but here we are. But then no one on this site expected to be diagnosed either. This is a wonderful group of men and women who have a wealth of knowledge and I am so grateful that this site exists.
I am a RN, but oncology is not my specialty. So I come on this site for expert advise.
I hope your mom's surgery is a success!!!
I have had 20 rounds of gemzar. Once every two weeks.
I also take tarceva once a day.
I do 1 week on 1 week off of xeloda.
I also had 13 rounds of cisplatin. It was one week on one week off.
Good luck!
This is working very good for me!
How are you handling all of those medications? Lot of side effects? I wish you all the best!
Pak001 - You may want to look into Nanoknife surgery. It was developed for small tunors that were deemed unoperable. It's Electroproton Ablation. My cancer came back at the surgery site and it's to close to the portis/hepatic vein for conventional surgery so I am meeting with a radiologist next month to discuss the Nanoknife.
jim....please keep us posted. Fingers crossed.
The information expressed is not medical advice. The discussion boards are not intended to replace the services of a trained health professional or to be a substitute for the medical advice of physicians or other healthcare providers. Read the full disclaimer.


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COLDEN Common residents have been celebrating the success of its children by awarding them at a special carol service.
Boys and girls in the Winchester 9th Cubs were given silver awards at the Christmas carol service in Trinity Church last month (December 19) and a special introduction from the Reverend Jonah Watts.
Presenting the service was Group Scout Leader Steve Cox who praised the contributions that had been made from all the scout groups in the village from the Beavers to the Explorers.
The Silver Awards, presented when challenges have been successfully completed, were presented to the cubs by Steve Feeney, Assistant Commissioner for Cub Scouts in the Winchester District.


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Is your kid a reluctant learner?
Find out how to get your kid excited about being back at school. more
It's a frightening event to witness – a toddler or young child holding his breath until he turns blue and passes out. And for some parents and carers, this can be an event they see on at least a daily basis.
It's estimated that about one in 20 kids are breath-holders – and as it can often start before the age of one, it's not generally considered a 'naughty' reaction by an attention-seeking child.
According to the Children's Hospital Westmead in Sydney, breath-holding spells are usually caused by one of two physiological reactions, either a change in the usual breathing pattern or a slowing of the heart rate. These reactions may be brought on by pain or by strong emotions, such as fear or frustration.
But why some kids become breath-holders is still a mystery. But recent research has found that in some children breath holding is triggered by anaemia, an iron deficiency which causes the body to produce insufficient red blood cells. Sometimes there is also a family history of similar episodes.
Breath-holding may share several bodily signs with seizure disorders like epilepsy, but they are not the same. Breath-holding does not cause long-term damage and there is no evidence that it has any harmful effects on the brain.
In fact, even though episodes can happen as often as several times a day, around 90% of kids will grow out of it by the time they're six years old.
This is the most common type of breath-holding. The child starts to cry after anger, frustration, physical pain or fright, then they lose their breath, turn red in the face followed by turning blue (especially around the mouth). This lasts only a short time and the child often goes limp, passes out or may even fall to the ground. A child may have a seizure after a blue spell, but this is rare.
These breath-holding spells can occur very early in life and very frequently. They also happen after a child has an upset or sudden startle. The child opens the mouth as if to cry but nothing comes out. They then go very pale and faint, usually going limp and falling to the ground. In longer spells they can arch the back and become stiff. The child may recover quickly or be drowsy and even sleep after.
The CHW has this advice for parents and carers dealing with a child having a breath-holding spell:
It's probably best to see a doctor after the first incident, just to make sure it was a simple case of breath-holding.
It is also advised to seek advice if your child:
This article was written by Fiona Baker for Kidspot, Australia's best family health resource. Sources include The Children's Hospital, Westmead.
Last revised: Saturday, 12 March 2011
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.


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Docetaxel Plus Oxaliplatin as Therapy in Patients With Pancreatic Cancer
The recruitment status of this study is unknown. The completion date has passed and the status has not been verified in more than two years.
Verified January 2010 by University of Ulm.
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
University of Ulm
Information provided by:
University of Ulm
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: June 2, 2008
Last updated: March 2, 2010
Last verified: January 2010
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The purpose of this study is to test a combination-therapy of oxaliplatin and docetaxel in patients with metastatic or locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the pancreas after failure of a palliative first line therapy.
|Pancreas Neoplasms
|Drug: Docetaxel Drug: Oxaliplatin
|Phase 2
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Phase II Study: Docetaxel Plus Oxaliplatin as Second-line Therapy in Patients With Advanced Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: Pancreatic Cancer
Drug Information available for: Oxaliplatin DocetaxelU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by University of Ulm:
Primary Outcome Measures:
- tumor response [ Time Frame: 12/2009 and end of the study 12/2010 ]
Secondary Outcome Measures:
- progression free survival [ Time Frame: 12/2009 and end of study 12/2010 ]
- overall survival [ Time Frame: 12/2009 and end of study 12/2010 ]
- Questionnaire for quality of life [ Time Frame: every three weeks ]
- Questionnaire for clinical Benefit [ Time Frame: every week ]
- toxicity / safety [ Time Frame: every week ]all adverse events will be documented every week with their correlation to Oxaliplatin and Docetaxel
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|January 2008
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|December 2010
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|December 2010 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Intervention Details:Detailed Description:
Drug: Docetaxel
75 mg/m2 IV on day 1 of each 22 day cycle
Other Name: TaxotereDrug: Oxaliplatin
80 mg/m2 IV on day 2 of each 22 day cycle
Other Name: Eloxatin
For years Fluorouracil was the established treatment for pancreatic cancer with median survival times up to 8 months. Since 1997 Gemcitabine is also a standard therapy with in comparison to Fluorouracil a significant better clinical benefit.
But after progression of the disease under a palliative first-line therapy there is no established second line therapy for pancreatic cancer.
So the purpose of this study is to test the combination of Oxaliplatin and Docetaxel in patients with metastatic or locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the pancreas after failure of a palliative first line therapy to get a reasonable second line concept.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Dated and signed informed concent
- Histologically or cytologically proven metastatic or locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the exocrine pancreas (stadium UICC III/IV)
- Presence of at least one measurable (according to RECIST criteria) marker lesion (primary tumor or metastasis) outside of an area that was previously subjected to radiation therapy
- Failure of a palliative first line therapy of a metastatic or locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the exocrine pancreas due to: Progress within 3 months after a first-line therapy Discontinuation of a first-line therapy due to toxicity
- Age >= 18 years
- Karnofsky index > 60%
- Expected live span > 12 weeks
- Sufficient bone marrow reserve: Granulocytes >= 1.5 x 109/L and Platelets >= 100 x 109/L and Hemoglobin >= 9 g/L
- Serum Bilirubin < 2 x upper normal limit or 2.5 x upper normal limit in case of hepatic metastasis (biliary drainage allowed)
- AST/ALT < 2.5 x upper normal limit
Exclusion Criteria:
- Every other cancer or secondary cancer besides the basal cell carcinoma of the skin or the carcinoma in situ of the cervix uteri. Inclusion of patients with other types of cancer that were successfully treated and that did not relapse within the last 5 years is possible
- Pregnancy or lactation
- Patients able to reproduce that do not adhere to strict contraception
- Presence of brain metastasis
- Severe, uncontrolled infection
- Preexisting peripheral neuropathy > grade I
- Preexisting severe illnesses such as unstable coronary artery disease or uncontrolled cardiac arrhythmia
- Justified disbelief in the compliance of the patient
- Parallel participation in another clinical trial
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: NCT00690300
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00690300
|Contact: Thomas Seufferlein, Prof. Dr.
|Contact: Goetz von Wichert, PD Dr.
|Städtische Kliniken Esslingen
|Esslingen, Baden Württemberg, Germany, 73730
|Contact: Michael Geissler, Prof. Dr. 49-711-3103-2451 email@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Michael Geissler, Prof. Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Caroline Hoerner, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Michael Klausner, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Christoph Winkler, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Hartmut Mahrhofer, Dr.
|Klinikum Schwäbisch Gmünd
|Mutlangen, Baden Württemberg, Germany, 73557
|Contact: Holger Hebart, Prof. Dr. firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Holger Hebart, Prof. Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Wolfgang Grimminger, Dr.
|Universitätsklinikum Ulm Klinik für Innere Medizin I
|Ulm, Baden Württemberg, Germany, 89081
|Contact: Goetz von Wichert, PD Dr. 49-731-500-44748 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Contact: Jochen Klaus, Dr. 49-731-500-44727 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Goetz von Wichert, PD Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Sven Walter, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Jochen Klaus, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Nadine Schulte, Dr. med.
|Universitätsklinikum Giessen und Marburg GmbH
|Marburg, Hessen, Germany, 35043
|Contact: Heiko Fensterer, Dr. 49-6421-286-6460 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Heiko Fensterer, Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Patrick Michl, PD Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Daniela Mueller, Dr.
|Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin I / Universitätsklinikum Halle
|Halle, Germany, 06097
|Contact: Thomas Seufferlein, Prof. Dr. + 49 345 557 2661 email@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Thomas Seufferlein, Prof. Dr.
|Sub-Investigator: Petra Büchner-Steudel, Dr. med.
|Sub-Investigator: Marc Porzner, Dr. med.
|Sub-Investigator: Philipp Thermann, Dr. med.
|Sub-Investigator: Alexander Zipprich, Dr. med.
Sponsors and Collaborators
University of Ulm
|Principal Investigator:
|Thomas Seufferlein, Prof. Dr.
|Universitätsklinikum Halle / Klinik für Innere Medizin I
More Information
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Keywords provided by University of Ulm:
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 19, 2017
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Ettrich TJ, Perkhofer L, von Wichert G, Gress TM, Michl P, Hebart HF, Büchner-Steudel P, Geissler M, Muche R, Danner B, Kächele V, Berger AW, Güthle M, Seufferlein T. DocOx (AIO-PK0106): a phase II trial of docetaxel and oxaliplatin as a second line systemic therapy in patients with advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. BMC Cancer. 2016 Jan 15;16:21. doi: 10.1186/s12885-016-2052-4.
|Responsible Party:
|Prof. Dr. Thomas Seufferlein, University Halle-Wittenberg
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00690300 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
EudraCT 2005-004236-40
|Study First Received:
|June 2, 2008
|Last Updated:
|March 2, 2010
Keywords provided by University of Ulm:
adenocarcinoma of the pancreas
pancreatic cancer
pancreas carcinoma
advanced pancreatic cancer
metastatic pancreatic cancer
second line
Cancer of pancreas
Pancreas cancer
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Pancreatic Neoplasms
Digestive System Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Endocrine Gland Neoplasms
Digestive System Diseases
Pancreatic Diseases
Endocrine System Diseases
Antineoplastic Agents
Tubulin Modulators
Antimitotic Agents
Mitosis Modulators
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 19, 2017


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BP Comment Quick Links
|Strength of Schedule Report
July 2, 2012
Resident Fantasy Genius
Does the Knuckleball Discriminate?
Back at the Baseball Prospectus Citi Field event on June 2, the BP crew and our guests had the pleasure of watching R.A. Dickey extend his impressive scoreless streak with nine innings of shutout ball against the St. Louis Cardinals. Sitting with industry friend Craig Glaser of Bloomberg Sports (who you may recall was on the Fantasy Baseball Panel with Eno Sarris and I at the SABR Analytics Conference), we got to talking about Dickey and how much we loved following him. Craig presented one interesting theory of his that I wanted to test out today.
When watching Dickey, Craig noted how, as a Mets fan, he's really not that much more scared of the opposing team's great players as he is of their average players. We know that the knuckler is a rare and not-completely-understood pitch, and Craig wondered whether the knuckleball has some inherent properties that neutralize batter talent. He wondered whether good hitters are just as susceptible to being fooled by the pitch as poor hitters are. And when you think about it, this makes some sense. After all, the pitch is rather unpredictable in its movement, and it's not as if batters have a lot of practice in hitting it. Coming up through amateur ball and the minors, hitters rarely see knuckleballs in the way they do fastballs, curves, and the like. While good hitters see these "normal" pitches over and over, adjust to them, and learn how to hit them, such a process doesn't really take place with the knuckleball.
To study this theory, I started by looking at all knuckleballs thrown between the start of the PITCHf/x era in 2007 and 2011, limited to known knuckleballers Tim Wakefield, Charlie Haeger, Charlie Zink, and, of course, Dickey. This gives us roughly 17,000 knucklers to examine.
Next, we need to separate the "good" batters and the "poor batters." There are a few ways to do this, any of which will be necessarily subjective in some respect, but I decided to go a very simple route and take the top and bottom 20 percent of batters in terms of seasonal TAv who faced at least one knuckleball that season and who accumulated at least 300 total plate appearances.
From here, we need to measure a batter's effectiveness against each individual knuckler. To do this, we need to compare the run value of the situation before the pitch is thrown to the run value of the situation that arises after the pitch is thrown. So, for example, a batter who hits a home run on an 0-2 count will be given more credit than a batter who hits a home run on a 3-0 count since the expectation to do something good is lower in a pitcher's count. Once we do this for every pitch, we can take the average change in the run value for each of our groups (the "good" hitters and the "poor" hitters) and compare them.
Now, onto the results! I've tried to put them into a format that is as easily digestible as possible. What I've done is converted the difference between "good" and "poor" batters into a Runs Allowed per Nine Innings format (i.e. ERA but including unearned runs too, assuming 15 pitches per inning).
Basically, imagine that a pitcher throws all knuckleballs for nine innings versus a team of "good" hitters and then does the same versus a team of "poor" hitters (ignore the game theory ramifications of throwing the same pitch every time and the compounding effects of facing so many good/poor hitters). The pitcher would allow 1.13 fewer runs versus the team of "poor" hitters than it would the team of "good" hitters.
Of course, this number doesn't mean a whole lot without some context. Using the same group of "good" and "bad" hitters, I also examined the gap for two other common pitch types: four-seam fastballs and curveballs. After all, maybe knuckleballs don't completely neutralize the batter's talent, but if it neutralizes it more than other pitches, then that's important to note.
The difference between "good" and "bad" hitters is a full run smaller for knucklers than it is for curves and nearly two and a half runs smaller than it is for fastballs. While the knuckleball may not completely eliminate the differences in hitters as Craig postulated, the pitch does indeed seem to diminish the importance of batter quality.
9 comments have been left for this article.
BP Comment Quick Links
Since batters so rarely face knuckleballs it almost totally eliminates the learned aspects of hitting. The advantages that good hitters get from correctly guessing which pitch is coming, picking up the rotations, and judging how far a pitch will break are eliminated. What's left is that the good hitters will tend to be better athletes with reflexes which still gives an advantage. Just as you'd expect the better hitters will also be on average better cricket players or golfers.
Jul 02, 2012 04:01 AM
Why aren't there more knucklers in middle relief? Also, does left or right handedness matter for the hitter or pitcher when dealing with knuckleballs? If that effect isn't as pronounced either, they'd be a great weapon in a bullpen since they could fire multiple innings, pitch to both sides of the plate, and face any part of the lineup.
Jul 02, 2012 05:16 AM
The answer is probably: if you have a guy that's good enough to get outs with a knuckleball, you want him to eat as many innings as possible and the way to do that is by starting him. If you have a knuckleball pitcher who's NOT good enough to get outs, well, nobody cares about that guy.
Jul 02, 2012 12:46 PM
Good question; would you have wanted Wakefield to bump someone in the rotation if he was willing to make 45 starts? That would seem to be one way to get a 300-strikeout season, since that hasn't happened since Randy Johnson in 2002.
Jul 02, 2012 12:54 PM
Something like Wilbur Wood 1972-1975? He between 42 and 49 starts each of those four seasons.
Jul 03, 2012 16:30 PM
Derek Carty
BP staff
I think dwinning provides a good answer to this. The other thing is that, up until now, we really haven't seen a knuckleballer as dominant as Dickey. Even at his absolute best, Wakefield topped out at a 7.9 K/9, and he was under 7.0 for 16 of his 19 years pitching. That's just not really good enough for a middle reliever, especially when a knuckleballer can do pretty much the same thing as a back-end starter.
Jul 02, 2012 14:44 PM
This is awesome stuff. It could provide some insight on managers to who they should play against Dickey. If I'm Charlie Manuel trying to work Chase Utley back into the lineup would I use him against Dickey? Ignoring Left/Right splits I would be better off resting him and playing Mike Fontenot (I'm assuming Utley is in the "good" group and Fontenot in the "poor" group). Then using Utley the next day against Santana. If Utley isn't going to provide that much of a bump against Dickey you might as well just play a replacement player and then use Utley against a more conventional pitcher where he provides a much higher premium. I've also heard announcers speculate that facing the knuckler can mess with guy's swings for a few at bats after. If there is truth to this, employing the "Dickey Vacation" strategy for your starters makes that much more sense.
Jul 07, 2012 12:51 PM
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