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Fentanyl Citrate (Actiq®)
Pronounced: FEN-ta-nil SIT-rate
Classification: Opioid
About Fentanyl Citrate (Actiq®)
Opioids are the strongest form of medication used to treat pain. Opioids work by attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors, which are found in various organs of the body including the brain, spinal cord and gastrointestinal tract. An opioid will attach to the opioid receptor, which then reduces the transmission of pain messages to the brain, therefore reducing pain. Opioids are used to treat moderate to severe pain that is not well managed with other pain medications. However, they do not treat the underlying cause of the pain. If a cancer is causing the pain, any cancer treatment is working to reduce pain related to the cancer.
There are several different formulations of fentanyl. Fentanyl citrate is a rapid acting form of fentanyl used to treat breakthrough pain in people who are already taking long-acting pain medications for chronic pain. Breakthrough pain is typically severe pain that comes on quickly and occurs intermittently (or "flares"), despite the use of long-acting pain medications. When this pain occurs, a fast-acting pain medication is needed to ease the pain flare quickly.
How to Take Fentanyl Citrate
Fentanyl citrate delivers pain relief by a lozenge that is attached to a handle and dissolves as patients move it along the inside of their cheeks. The fentanyl citrate unit should be sucked, not chewed. The drug should be consumed over a 15 min period.
This medication can interact with other medications that depress the central nervous system like barbituates (including phenobarbital), tranquilizers (including Haldol®, Librium® and Xanax ®), other narcotics and general anesthetic. The blood levels of this medication can be affected by certain foods and medications, so they may require dose adjustment or should be avoided. These include: grapefruit, grapefruit juice, verapamil, ketoconazole, rifampin, phenytoin, St. John's wort, and modafanil. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider about all medications and supplements you take.
Fentanyl citrate is only to be used by patients who are opioid-tolerant (taking opiod medications on a daily basis). DO NOT share this medication or give it to someone else, as severe breathing problems and death can occur.
Storage and Handling
Store this medication at room temperature in the original container. Due to the risk of diversion (someone else taking your narcotic medication to obtain a high, rather than for symptom relief), you may want to consider keeping your medication in a lock box or other secure location. After usage complete and the medication is totally dissolved, throw away the handle in a trash container that is out of the reach of children. If any of the drug matrix remains on the handle, place the handle under hot running tap water until all of the drug matrix is dissolved, and then dispose of the handle in a place that is out of the reach of children. Ask your oncology team where to return any unused medication for disposal. Do not flush down the toilet or throw in the trash. Keep this medication out of reach of children and pets.
Where do I get this medication?
Fentanyl citrate is available through retail/mail order pharmacy. Your oncology team will work with your prescription drug plan to identify an in-network retail/mail order pharmacy for medication distribution. Mail order delivery must be hand delivered and signed for. This medication cannot be "called in" or electronically prescribed to your local pharmacy; you must provide the original prescription to the pharmacist. Many pharmacies do not keep this medication in stock, but will order it for you. There may be a delay in availability, so plan prescription refills accordingly.
This medication requires the patient, prescriber and pharmacist enrollment in the TIRF-REMS program (risk evaluation and mediation program). The purpose of this program is to provide education to patients, caregivers and providers to reduce the risk of misuse, abuse, addiction and overdose. You or your caregiver will be required to read and sign a patient-prescriber agreement form before you can start treatment with this medication.
Insurance Information
This medication may be covered under your prescription drug plan. Patient assistance may be available to qualifying individuals without prescription drug coverage. Co-pay cards, which reduce the patient's co-pay responsibility for eligible commercially (non-government sponsored) insured patients, are also offered by the manufacturer. You insurance company may require you to utilize other narcotic pain medications prior to authorizing a prescription for fentanyl citrate. This is called step therapy. Due to risk for diversion and misuse, the quantity of medication you receive may be limited to a 2 week or 1 month supply.
Possible Side Effects of Fentanyl Citrate
There are a number of things you can do to manage the side effects of fentanyl citrate. Talk to your doctor or nurse about these recommendations. They can help you decide what will work best for you. These are some of the most common side effects:
Constipation Caused by Pain Medications
Constipation is a very common side effect of pain medications, but one that can often be managed with an ounce of prevention. Be sure to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Warm or hot fluids can be helpful. Increase physical activity when possible. Attempt a bowel movement at the same time each day. It is helpful to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Some folks do find that 4 ounces of prune juice or 3-4 dried prunes/plums help promote bowel movements. However, high fiber foods (ex. bran flakes, high fiber cereals) and fiber supplements (such as Metamucil) can actually make constipation from pain medications worse and should be avoided.
Your doctor or nurse may recommend a bowel regimen, using stool softeners and/or laxatives, to prevent or treat constipation. Stool softeners (such as docusate sodium or Colace) work by bringing water into the stool, making it softer and easier to pass. A stimulant or laxative (such as Bisacodyl, Dulcolax, or Senakot) works by stimulating peristalsis, moving the stool through the bowel. Your provider may recommend Miralax (Polyethylene glycol 3350), which is an osmotic laxative. It works by causing water to be retained in the stool, softening the stool so it is easier to pass. These medications can be taken together. Untreated constipation can lead to a bowel blockage, so be sure to notify your healthcare team if you do not have a bowel movement for 3 or more days.
Sleepiness (Somnolence)
Feeling sleepy, drowsy or lightheaded may accompany the use of opioid painkillers. Some people just don't "feel like themselves" on these medications. Avoid driving or any other potentially dangerous tasks that require your concentration and a clear head until you feel normal again. Avoid alcohol or other sedatives while using these medications unless they are specifically prescribed by your doctor. Most people will begin to feel like themselves after a few days on the medications. If you continue to feel "out of it" after a couple of days, talk to your doctor about adjusting your dosages.
Slowed Breathing or Low Blood Pressure
You may experience low blood pressure or slowed breathing while taking an opioid painkiller. This usually only occurs when the dose of medication is too high or it is increased too quickly. This rarely happens to patients who have been taking opioid medications for a long time.
These side effects can also result from an overdose of opioids. If you suspect that you or someone you know has taken an overdose of opioids, call 911 immediately. If you feel extremely tired, lightheaded, dizzy, sweaty, nauseated, or short of breath, you need to see a doctor immediately. Sometimes patients who have taken too much opioid medication will be so sleepy that they can't be awakened or aroused. These side effects are emergency situations. If any of these symptoms occur, you should seek emergency medical attention.
Nausea and/or Vomiting
Nausea, with or without vomiting, can be a side effect of opioid medications. For some patients it lasts just a few days to weeks at the start of taking the medication but for some it is a long-term side effect. Nausea and vomiting can interfere with opioid therapy and ultimately pain management if the nausea and/or vomiting affect the patient's ability to take the medication. You may find that eating or not eating when taking this medication may be helpful. Talk to your doctor or nurse so they can prescribe medications to help you manage nausea and vomiting.
Concerns About Addiction, Tolerance, and Dependence
Many people who are prescribed opioid pain relievers are worried that they may become addicted to these medications. This fear stems from the fact that opioid medications can cause euphoria and pleasure when used by people who are not in pain. However, when these medications are used to treat physical pain, it is extremely unlikely that patients will become addicted to them. Addiction is a psychological need for the drug that very rarely affects people who take opioids for pain control. "Feeling high" from opiates does not happen to people who take them for pain control. People often confuse withdrawal and addiction, but they are different.
Just as a person on long-term opioids stops experiencing some of the negative side effects after a few days, they may also stop getting proper pain relief after taking them for a while. This phenomenon is called tolerance. As patients develop tolerance, they will need higher doses of the opioids to get adequate levels of pain relief. Tolerance is a completely normal aspect of taking opioid painkillers, and is nothing to be concerned about. The point of using these medications is to keep pain well controlled, therefore the exact doses that any patient requires are not important as long as they can be kept comfortable. If you think you need to change the dose, always ask the provider that gave you the prescription. Do not try to change the dose on your own, as this may cause unwanted side effects.
As a person remains on regular doses of opioids, for as little as a week, their bodies will begin to adapt to the medications. This causes tolerance, but it can also cause dependence. Dependence means that the body "gets used to" the opioids. Dependence DOES NOT equal addiction. Dependence is a natural, physical phenomenon that happens to everyone on long-term opioid therapy. The only important thing to know about dependence is that once a patient becomes dependent on opioids, they will feel very sick if they stop the medication abruptly. Patients who are dependent on opioids and stop them all of the sudden will feel lousy, like they have the flu. This is called withdrawal and the symptoms related to it can start within 2 days of abruptly stopping opioids and may last up to 2 weeks. Withdrawal is preventable if you decrease the opioids slowly, generally over a week or so. The exact amount of time to wean is different based on dose, length of time on opioids, and some other individual factors. It is important to remember that dependence is normal, and happens to everyone who takes opioids for a long period of time. Talk to your provider if you have any concerns.
Reproductive Concerns
Chronic exposure of an unborn child to this medication could result in the child being born small and/or early, or having symptoms of withdrawal (including respiratory distress, behavioral changes and seizures) after birth. Effective birth control should be used while on this medication. Even if your menstrual cycle stops or you believe you are not producing sperm, you could still be fertile and conceive. You should not breast while receiving this medication as it is passed through a mother's milk.


text:
Bard LifeStent Solo Vascular Stent: Class 1 Recall – Failure to Deploy
AUDIENCE: Cardio-vascular Surgery, Interventional Radiology
ISSUE: FDA notified health professionals and medical care organizations of a class 1 recall of this product due to deployment issues that range from failure to deploy, partial deployment, and difficult deployment. This product may cause serious adverse health consequences, including possible complications of bleeding, loss of limb, heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke, vascular surgery, and/or death.
BACKGROUND: The LifeStent Solo Vascular Stent is an implantable self-expanding stent and delivery system used to improve the inner open space of a blood vessel (luminal diameter) in the treatment of lesions caused by the abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel (symptomatic de-novo or restenotic lesions). The affected products were manufactured and distributed from November 2011 to June 13, 2012. To locate product codes and lot numbers of affected products, refer to FDA's Class I Recall information under "Additional Links".
RECOMMENDATIONS: On September 30, 2013, Bard Peripheral Vascular sent an "Urgent: Medical Device Recall Notification" letter informing affected customers of the product, problem, and actions to be taken. Customers were instructed to (1) Complete the Recall and Effectiveness Check Form (even if you no longer have the recalled product) and fax form to Bard Peripheral Vascular at 1-800-994-6772, and (2) Call Bard Peripheral Vascular's Recall Coordinator to receive a Return Authorization Number or Consignment Recall Number.
Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc. can be contacted at 1-800-321-4254 (Option #2, Extension 2727) Monday through Friday, 7 am to 4 pm MST.
Read the MedWatch safety alert, including a link to the Class I recall notice, at:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Therapeutic Effects of Cryotherapy on Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition in Patients With Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) injury is one of the most common sport injuries. The major problem after ACL reconstruction or rehabilitation program is quadriceps weakness. Previous studies suggested that cryotherapy and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(TENS) can effectively reduce the arthrogenic muscle inhibition caused by experimental swelling.
To exam the effects of 12 weeks cryotherapy and TENS on arthrogenic muscle inhibition in subjects with ACL reconstruction.
Prospective study.
Male subjects with isolated ACL injury, age between 18~40 years old are going to receive an ACL reconstruction surgery.
Quadriceps activation level, quadriceps peak torque during maximal voluntary contraction and rate of force development are measure at presurgery, 3-month, 6-month after surgery. After surgery, subjects will receive 12 weeks, 3 days/week, training programs included 20 minutes cryotherapy and exercise training with TENS.
Data analysis:
Data will be analyzed using SPSS 13.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). One-way ANOVA will be used to analysis data.
|Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury
|Device: cryotherapy
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Therapeutic Effects of Cryotherapy and Transcutaneous Nerves Stimulation on Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition in Patients With Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
- Muscle activation [ Time Frame: 6 months ]To provide information of individual muscles for the correlation analyses, parameters of muscle activation, such as the integrated electromyography (EMG) normalized to the maximal M wave, are favored.
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|January 2011
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|December 2014
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|September 2014 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: ice, rate of force development
to monitor the long term effect of cryotherapy in rate of force development.
Device: cryotherapy
cryotherapy is given with other physical training
Detailed Description:
Examination procedure:
- Skin preparation and EMG setting.
- Fill out knee joint function questionnaire.
- Warmup with a stationary bike.
- Single hop for distance.
- MVIC test and EMG recording.
- Endurance test.
- Record surface EMG of vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, biceps femoris and semitendinosus during maximal voluntary contraction.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|20 Years to 40 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Male subjects with isolated ACL injury, age between 18~40 years old are going to receive an ACL reconstruction surgery.
Exclusion Criteria:
- meniscus lesion, bony fracture and osteochondral lesions
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01273649
|Contact: HK Wang, PhD
|National Taiwan University
|Taipei, Taiwan, 100
|Contact: HK Wang, PhD 00886-02-33668134 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator:
|HK Wang, PhD
|National Taiwan University Hospital
|Responsible Party:
|National Taiwan University Hospital
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01273649 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|January 6, 2011
|Last Updated:
|May 27, 2014
Keywords provided by National Taiwan University Hospital:
muscle activation
ACL reconstruction
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


text:
Honda Now
Finance Plans, making our New Cars more affordable than ever. Finance plans start from €189* per month with 6.9% APR* on cars registered before 31st June 2016. To discover more about Honda Now
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Renowned for sophisticated engineering innovative technology.


text:
Azaria Moyse, aged 11, is taking on a big challenge with a 10km tomorrow to raise awareness of Pompe, a rare disease that has affected her since birth.
Azaria, of Maple Close, Calne, was eight months old when she was tested for the disease, which affects one in every 40,000 births.
It is caused by an excess build-up of glycogen, a stored form of sugar used for energy, which means muscles struggle to work normally.
The walk, in aid of the Association of Glycogen Storage Disorders (AGSD UK), will see Azaria and her family re-visit the Plymouth hospital where she was born.
She will also visit her first pre-school, first school and the church where she was baptised, along with parents Jo and Ian, brother Isaac, 13, and sister Kezia, 15.
Mrs Moyse, 44, said Azaria was able to study in mainstream education at Holy Trinity School, Calne, thanks to enzyme replacement therapy available on the NHS.
Her daughter began the therapy aged one, and the walk celebrates ten years of a treatment that gave her a new lease of life.
Mrs Moyse said: "When we were first told, the drug she's now taking wasn't licensed, so effectively we were given a terminal diagnosis. But there was to be a drug trial and we found out about it.
"I wanted to do something to mark the 10th anniversary. We always consider that she's got two birthdays: the day she was born and the day she started treatment. That was the day she started living, because before that she was struggling." Azaria's walk coincides with a call from Allan Muir, AGSD UK's development director, for every newborn child to be tested for Pompe.
Mrs Moyse, an assistant at Pewsey Library, said her daughter could walk and swim, but struggled to run so would walk at her own pace.
She said: "She's a very strong character and I'm sure it's the disease that has given her this strength of character.
"Azaria is incredibly lucky, because a lot of Pompe children do end up in wheelchairs. They believe it's down to whether they get treatment early enough.
"It's a very easy test they can do and it would hopefully save lives."
To sponsor the family visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.


text:
Find hotels in Harrison using the list and search tools below. Find discounted hotel accommodations in or close to Harrison, NY for your business or personal leisure travel. Discover the most popular Harrison New York hotel/motel rooms. Review the Harrison hotel list below to find the perfect lodging. We also have a map of the Harrison hotels.
The Harrison center point is around 3 miles southeast of Hospital For Special Surgery and 3 miles southeast of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital.
How should we direct your call?


text:
GP Practice Prescribing Presentation-level Data - April 2013
Warning: Large file size (over 1GB).
Each monthly data set is large (over 4 million rows), but can be viewed in standard software such as Microsoft WordPad (save by right-clicking on the file name and selecting 'Save Target As', or equivalent on Mac OSX). It is then possible to select the required rows of data and copy and paste the information into another software application, such as a spreadsheet.
What does the data cover?
General practice prescribing data is a list of all medicines, dressings and appliances that are prescribed and dispensed each month. A record will only be produced when this has occurred and there is no record for a zero total.
For each practice in England, the following information is presented at presentation level for each medicine, dressing and appliance, (by presentation name):
the total number of items prescribed and dispensed
the total net ingredient cost
the total actual cost
the total quantity
The data covers NHS prescriptions written in England and dispensed in the community in the UK. Prescriptions written in England but dispensed outside England are included. The data includes prescriptions written by GPs and other non-medical prescribers (such as nurses and pharmacists) who are attached to GP practices.
GP practices are identified only by their national code, so an additional data file - linked to the first by the practice code - provides further detail in relation to the practice.
Presentations are identified only by their BNF code, so an additional data file - linked to the first by the BNF code - provides the chemical name for that presentation.
Key facts
Using and interpreting the data
Practice prescribing data requires careful interpretation, and the information should not be looked at in isolation.
Related linksReturn to Find data
Have your say about our statistical publications
Publications calendar
See the Publications Calendar for latest and upcoming statistical publications
Contact us
Call 0300 303 5678 or email firstname.lastname@example.com


text: AJ Lee is doing nothing for Dolph Ziggler, I feel Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston are perfect together, kind of like an HBK and Diesel type duo. I feel AJ should go wrestle as a singles competitor. I'm not saying AJ is completely spent but I feel she should be with someone else other than Ziggler.


text:
Marketing Information
HP Translucent Bond can be used for reproducible drawings and check prints. It is an economical alternative to vellum. Translucency and dense blacks make it ideal for diazo and xerographic reprints.
General Information
|Product Type
|Bond Paper
|Manufacturer Part Number
|Manufacturer Website Address
|Packaged Quantity
|1 / Roll
|Product Name
|Bond Paper
|Brand Name
Product Information
|Media Size
|A1 24" x 150 ft
|Media Weight
|18.00 lb
|Print Technology
|Brightness Percentage
This product is shipped only within Canada and Warranty valid for Canada only.
Computer Valley makes every effort to provide accurate specifications, descriptions, images and price on all products that are found on www.computervalley.ca
However for complete and updated descriptions, compatibilities, specifications and actual photo we recommend our clients to consult with manufacturer's websites or simply call us for proper clarifications. Computer Valley is not responsible and will not accept returns for items purchased that are not compatible with your system. Please ensure that you have verified compatibility and actual photo with your system by visiting the manufacturer's web site prior to purchase or give us a call to make sure what you are purchasing.
For more information, visit our Shipping and Return policy.
Computer Valley wants to provide you with the best and fastest possible service. We try to ship in stock orders placed before 2:00pm EST the same day. For in stock orders placed after 2:00pm EST they are usually shipped the next business day. However there are always exceptions. Please contact us prior to placing your order if you need your purchase by a certain date.
We ship by UPS, FEDEX, USPS, CANADA POST , PUROLATOR and LOOMIS from the nearest locations possible based on stock in hand.
Please note: Computer Valley reserves the rights to accept and cancel any order at anytime due to pricing error or any other reason. An email will be sent as a confirmation of the order status.
|Read Reviews Write Review


text:
And, of course, the fine print:
Get free shipping on your next order when you spend over $100. The discount will be automatically applied to your purchase; no promo code required. The subtotal of your purchase must be $100.01 or greater after any promotional discounts have been applied. Additional fees such as tax or shipping and handling do not apply toward your minimum subtotal requirement of $100.01. Offer applies to standard shipping only. Certain items that require additional shipping and handling are excluded from this promotion and do not apply towards your $100.01 subtotal minimum. Offer subject to change.
Represent that great people of the even greater Midwest with this handprinted t-shirt. It features a badge boasting the famous Midwestern work ethic across the front, so wear it with pride.
- Printed by hand
- American Apparel tri-blend t-shirt
- Will not shrink
- Fits true to size
- Super soft t-shirt
Chest: S (34-36), M (38-40), L (42-44), XL (46-48)
Waist: S (30-32), M (32-33), L (33-34), XL (36-38)
Length: S (28.75), M (29.75), L (30.75), XL (31.75)
This product ships from the maker within 7 days, via USPS
If you're not happy with this item for any reason, you may return it for a full refund within 14 days.


text: Kids' Speedo® printed swim cap Item F4336 Color: BLUE RED Size: ONE SIZE All sizes are US sizes. ONE SIZE Size Charts Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prices do not include taxes. Add to Bag Wishlist Add to Bag Add To Wishlist share: size & fit Product Details A colorful swim cap from Speedo makes practicing the backstroke way more fun. Silicone. Import. Online only. Item F4336.


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Bring sophisticated style to your home with the clean lines of the Knightsbridge range
Knightsbridge Cream High Gloss And Oak Tall Double Mirrored Wardrobe
For more information, please visit our Delivery page
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text:
I am always getting a stupid error message every time I try.
It's a new feature. :P
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process.
Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!"
Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
Please explain.
What is this "Avator" you speak of?
If I had a plane I might change my aviator.
I mean avatar.
Or do you mean equator?
(english is not my native language, sorry for grammar.)
Al_Gore the Idiot:
Please explain.
Yes, mines disappeared it seems. And won't let me upload one.
Lewzur :P
Just move to the new forums which are super easy to use and active.
I had this problem recently. When you lose your current avatar it means you succesfully changed your avatar; for some reason there is a delay between then and it actually showing up. Till then your posts will show no avatar. Took me about two days before mines showed up.
I don't suppose we could switch to Phbb or a new forum system? Anything other than this thing. Well, other than this thing and the 'new community' forum they launched awihle ago. The present one is simply full with so errors that I'm tempted to think Bernanke is involved.
"Just move to the new forums which are super easy to use and active."
I can see your avatar just fine
Okay, I was actually able to change my avatar. Downloading the image from your computer won't work. You have to link the image to a URL.


text:
Theatre IV to Stage THUMBELINA at MCCC's Kelsey Theatre, 2/16
Friendship and bravery are the theme of Theatre IV's performance of the classic fairytale "Thumbelina," coming to Mercer County Community College's Kelsey Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 2 and 4 p.m. Kelsey Theatre is located on the college's West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.
This beloved Hans Christian Anderson tale of friendship and heroism comes to life in a joyous musical adaptation. Thumbelina and her friends --the toad, fish, field mouse, mole and swallow-will embark on a series of delightful adventures in a tiny, natural, enchanted world.
Founded in 1975, Theatre IV is the nation's second largest touring theater for young audiences, known nationally and internationally for excellence in children's theater. The company produces a wide variety of plays and musicals each year throughout 33 states and the District of Columbia.
Tickets are $10 for all ages and may be purchased online at www.kelseytheatre.net or by calling the Kelsey Box Office at 609-570-3333. Kelsey Theatre is wheelchair accessible and free parking is available next to the theater.


text:
Mail: Southern statutes symbolize suppession
Mail: Thanks for helping Aiden
More opinion
Fall: Good time to spray musk thistle in rosette stage
Robertson and Delsing re-elected chair, vice chair of NWB
More Ag News
After weeks of investigation, two North Platte men are charged with thefts in the area and a burglary at Maxwell school.
On Aug. 12, Maxwell school officials reported a burglary during the night. The burglary was unsolved until a few days ago.
On Oct. 10, a woman south of Maxwell told law officers that her purse was stolen from her car while she was working in a field with the harvest, Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer said.
Another person in the field saw a vehicle nearby, and later saw it again at an Interstate lake near Maxwell, according to the sheriff.
Deputies stopped the vehicle as it left the lake. Digiovani was driving. The sheriff said his deputies found some of the victims property and other suspected stolen items in Digiovanis vehicle, including a laptop computer that was missing from Maxwell school.
Deputies also found a place at the lake where Digiovani apparently tried to burn the stolen purse along with personal paperwork belonging to him. Deputies found the papers under the partially burnt purse, the sheriff said.
Digiovani was arrested that day.
When investigators searched Digiovanis house, they found four more laptops from the school, the sheriff said.
Some of the evidence found at the school indicated Kyer Feeney was the burglar, the sheriff said. Feeney and Diogivani are known associates.
Feeney was arrested Tuesday. Digiovani and Feeney are also charged with theft from Miller Repair in Maxwell. They allegedly took items from that business over several months.
Both men are also suspected of thefts in Frontier and Logan Counties and investigators are working to sort it all out, Kramer said.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc.
1300 E 4th St., Suite F
North Platte, NE 69101


text:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers John Lynch Super Bowl Champ Cap Forever Collectibles Bobble Head
These are hand crafted and highly detailed collectible bobble head dolls. The "Legends of the Field" line commemorates the most skilled & brightest stars of the NFL. These bobble heads display the emotion & intricacies of the individual players they portray, and capture the true essence of the field. They are 8" tall and made of a resin material. They are limited editions, and hand numbered on the bottom. Made by Forever Collectibles.
How long will my items take to ship?Most of the items we sell will ship within 1-2 business days from the date ordered. Every item on our website will tell you how long it takes to ship under the availability section when that item.
Once an item leaves the warehouse, Regular Ground shipments will be in transit for 2-5 business days & expedited shipments will be in transit for 1-3 business days.
You can click the "Estimated Delivery Dates" link next to the add to cart button on each product page to get an idea of when your merchandise will arrive to you.
How much does shipping cost?Our shipping charges are automatically calculated by our shopping cart after you enter your shipping information. Our shipping rates are based on the total cost of merchandise in your order:
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Regular price: $29.95
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text:
Also I really love lance. He gets so hyped up
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Also I really love lance. He gets so hyped up
Insurance fraud!
Title or bust. That's where we are. We can have a good, strong, respectable, whatever you want to call it, season if we don't win the championship. But'll be a disappointment.
Crazy to think that we would have been in the finals if we had Scola and Watson last year, we have a big chance this year though
Last edited by vnzla81; 11-06-2013 at 10:57 PM.
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
in all fairness it probably caused him to knock over a cup of liquid or something if his laptop got ruined , I would think.
"They want to be famous. We want to be champions. They want to be rappers and backup dancers. We want to play football." - T.J. Ward, Denver Broncos
I am just trying not to get too over the moon right now, but its so hard.
And why they continue to come to BLF is beyond me. All we do is beat their team.
They're wasting their time, money, and in this case someone is missing their lighter.
An absolute TEAM win tonight. Thats why I went with someone else on the poll. Can't give it to just one guy. Hibbert's defense, Scola killing it off the bench, West on fire in the second half, Lance totally turning it around like a bad ***, PG just being everywhere whether its on defense or rebounding and still scoring 20+.
Also major shout out to the point guards. Watson and Sloan did more than hold their own out there tonight. Just so good to have them as our back ups.
Bulls fans be like:
@YM1Mando: I hope you get the Greg Oden disease. You tall lanky piece of ****. @Hoya2aPacer
@YM1Mando: You are ****ing terrible @dsloan15 I hope your house is being broken into as we speak *****!
@YM1Mando: "@Quietstorm_32: "Shoutout to @starterbrand for my #starterjacket @denverbroncos" http://t.co/cjY9p4f0rw" You look like a ******...
I know it won't end up this way, but man would this be a crazy/unexpected playoff if it ended up like this (current standings):
1. Indiana
2. Philadelphia
3. Miami
4. Charlotte
5. Orlando
6. Cleveland
7. Atlanta
8. Detroit
Considering our start last year, and where we ended up I'm taking this with a grain of salt. Still interesting to see where teams start and finish. You know the tanking will begin at some point.
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
We just have that "look" to us like we're going to kick a** all season long and shoot for about 62 wins. Teams just simply cannot handle us.
Great win. From the Bulls perspective, man that bench is awful. You pretty much have Gibson and that's it. Huge liability come playoff time
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
This s;1730803]Do any of the people who were criticizing us for not taking the bad preseason play too seriously have anything they would like to say right now???[/QUOTE]
This game should bring a smile to Peck.
Former Knicks writer Alan Hahn was criticizing us for all of our posing, saying it will make us unpopular like Miami. I was thinking, "They're making big plays to beat a rival that used to beat them most of the time. The hell did you expect??"
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
I would guess it's a factor.
And there is another sizable benefit.
The second unit gets real minutes under fire to grow into their role and not feel like they're gonna get yanked if they struggle. Double confidence boost.
It's a gamble, but one I like. especially on a long week like this one.
And Hinrich.
Guys. There are people on Chicago's SB Nation blog that are wondering if they should blow it up. I shouldn't take such glee in schadenfreude, but **** it, this is hilarious.


text:
DETROIT - A man charged in a shooting spree that targeted motorists along the I-96 corridor in four Michigan counties was found competent to stand trial Thursday in Oakland County.
Raulie Casteel faces 60 charges in Oakland County, including eight counts of assault with intent to murder, in connection with shootings in Commerce Township and in Wixom, where Casteel lived with his wife, daughter and in-laws.
Authorities have not said what they believe is the motive behind the two-dozen shootings in October across a broad swath of southern Michigan.
Only one injury occurred -- a man was shot in the buttocks.
Attorney General Bill Schuette late last year announced he was taking over the cases at the request of prosecutors in Livingston, Ingham and Shiawassee counties and brought new charges, including terrorism.
Casteel was found competent Wednesday for the charges in the other three counties.
He could be sentenced to up to life in prison if convicted of any of the attempted murder counts he faces in Oakland County. The terrorism and attempted murder counts that the state filed also carry a possible life sentence.
His next court date is March 1.
About Casteel:
On professional websites, the 43-year-old Casteel described himself as a geologist and soil scientist with experience in environmental cleanup. He's a Michigan native who lived in Taylorsville, Ky., before returning to his home state last year.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
BP Comment Quick Links
|Strength of Schedule Report
February 20, 2013
The Socratic Approach to PECOTA
And Why We Don't Hate Bryce Harper
When the PECOTA spreadsheet appears, one of the first things people do is pick out the players projected to make the greatest gains or suffer the largest declines. Then the questions start: Why does PECOTA like/dislike so-and-so so much? Is there a problem with the projections? Or is the system just picking up on something I'm not seeing?
Behind the scenes, the BP staff goes through the same thought process. Before we publish the projections, we approach PECOTA's output with a skeptical eye, on the lookout for anything that could be a bug. But even after we're satisfied with the spreadsheet and release it to our subscribers, PECOTA retains the capacity to surprise.
That PECOTA sometimes spits out surprising projections is a feature, not a bug. In that sense, it satisfies Bill James' "80/20 Rule", which says that a good statistic should conform to our expectations most of the time but still surprise often enough to be interesting. After all, if PECOTA simply confirmed what we already knew about player performance, it wouldn't be worth the work. But James also (probably) said something like "No statistical finding is immune to the laws of common sense." Granted, "common" sense might be more loophole than law, but the lesson seems sound: we shouldn't blindly accept what every statistic says. A surprising stat might be right, but regardless, we'll learn more by asking why it says what it says than we would by accepting it without question.
Earlier this week, I went on Clubhouse Confidential to talk about some of PECOTA's more eye-popping projections. This is part of the first of two segments we did:
Before I went on, I wanted to be sure I could explain every stat in an easily digestible way, since there's only so much time for talking on TV. As part of that process, I tried to anticipate and prepare for the questions and objections that might occur to someone seeing PECOTA projections for the first time.
They say that behind every great projection system is a great sabermetrician. (Note: no one actually says this.) PECOTA's current keeper is Colin Wyers. As I crammed in the frantic few hours before I went on the air, I queried Colin (with words, not SQL code, though his brain can process both) on GChat. We thought BP readers might enjoy reading his responses, so we've republished the IM exchange below. (The transcript has been condensed and cleaned up a bit, so we sound like more eloquent instant messengers than we actually are.) —Ben Lindbergh
Ben: What do you think would be the best way to explain why we have Darvish as the second-most valuable pitcher?
Ben: I can talk about how good he was down the stretch...
Ben: I can also talk about how his comps are Pedro and Clemens.
Colin: Darvish had a good season last year, pitched very well in Japan, and his peripherals (i.e. FIP) exceeded his ERA by a significant amount.
Colin: In other words, what PECOTA is saying is that Darvish has some talent he showed in Japan that exceeds what he did in MLB last year, and we think he'll start bringing it this year.
Colin: And we think his high K rates are more important to his projection than some of his other stats.
Ben: Also—What do you think I can say about why our projection for the Nationals is more pessimistic than the mainstream perspective? That I will almost certainly be asked.
Ben: And 88 wins does sound a little lackluster.
Colin: 88 wins is a good record.
Ben: I know. But they won 98 last year, seemed to get better this winter, and we're projecting five other teams to win more than that.
Ben: So it's a little counterintuitive, at least.
Colin: The core of the Nationals is their starting pitching.
Colin: Gio, Strasburg, and Zimmermann all had the best seasons of their careers last year.
Colin: In terms of WARP—Stras and Zimmermann mostly improved in innings, Gio dropped innings slightly but improved in rates.
Colin: Expecting the three of them to repeat 2012 as a group is essentially fantasy. The odds that at least one of them gets hurt/misses significant time/is ineffective are pretty significant.
Ben: But we are projecting Strasburg to be worth more because of the innings, and the other guys not bad...
Ben: We're projecting them to have a roughly league-average offense, I guess is the other thing.
Colin: We're talking about a team that was sub-.500 two years ago.
Colin: And not as a blip, for every year since they moved to Washington.
Ben: All right. So it sort of falls under the "PECOTA has a long memory" category.
Colin: Yes.
Colin: As for the offense, LaRoche is a 33-year-old who is coming off an Indian Summer season—guys with their career-best year at 32 typically don't hold onto those gains.
Ben: Yes, he's a good one to mention.
Ben: And Harper, specifically. What's the best way to explain his projected regression? There aren't a lot of successful 20-year-olds, he doesn't have a lot of comparables because he's such a rare talent?
Colin: His projected regression is, in fact, regression to the mean.
Colin: I mean, a .274 TAv is pretty good.
Ben: I know.
Colin: And a .291 TAv is really, really hard.
Ben: But people look at it and think: He was better than that last year, he's a year older now, and he's one of the best young talents in baseball, so why does PECOTA hate Bryce Harper?
Ben: His comps are Trout, Griffey, and Upton—those guys are pretty good.
Colin: We think he's pretty good!
Colin: We think he's an above-average major-league starter at age 20!
Colin: There aren't a WHOLE lot of those in MLB history.
Colin: Look at A-Rod's first full season.
Colin: Put up a .335 TAv.
Colin: At age 20.
Colin: At age 21?
Colin: .284.
Ben: I'll use that!
Colin: Those were both very good seasons for A-Rod, and we're expecting a very good season from Harper.
Colin: Very few hitters follow a smooth progression through their career—the platonic ideal aging curve doesn't exist in the wild.
Colin: Because there's a LOT else going on.
Colin: With Harper, put it another way.
Colin: His TAv last year is Adam Dunn's career TAv.
Ben: There's also the fact that he's playing left field.
Colin: The thing with guys like Harper.
Colin: Sometimes you get a Buster Posey. And sometimes you get a Chris Coghlan. And sometimes you get a Geovany Soto.
Colin: It's like that bit from Moneyball.
Colin: "It's not that hard, Scott. Tell him, Wash." "It's incredibly hard."
Colin: Everything in Major League Baseball is incredibly hard.
Colin: Looking at position players who won Rookie of the Year, on average we see a 10-point drop in TAv the following season.
Colin: And pretty much EVERYONE who won the Rookie of the Year is young and at an age when you would expect improvement.
Colin: You've stopped caring about Harper by now, haven't you.
Ben: I think I probably have enough to say about Harper for several segments now.
Colin: Okay.
Colin: You could probably turn that into an article.
Ben: Yes. [Ed. Note: So meta!]
Colin: The other thing you're probably going to be asked about is the AL East.
Ben: Yes. Red Sox and Blue Jays.
Colin: Pithy comments you can steal: The Blue Jays had a very impressive offseason, but they acquired most of their new talent from the Marlins, who won less than 70 games in an easier division and league. And the Orioles are a lot like the Diamondback team from a few years back whom everyone thought had figured out how to beat Pythag until they didn't.
Ben: The Jays seem to have a lousy projected defense.
Colin: I know you used to intern with the Yankees, but 30-year-old shortstops aren't out there for their fielding abilities.
Ben Lindbergh is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @benlindbergh
40 comments have been left for this article.
BP Comment Quick Links
Thanks for the insight. Colin or Ben, I have to ask about the Mets / Braves runs against projection. Atlanta is projected to give up 30 more runs, yet is projected to save 40 more runs on defence than Mets. This would suggest that Atlanta pitchers are giving up 70 runs more than Mets in FIP categories or hard hit balls etc. However, WARP for both pithcing staffs is basically the same (Atlanta a little higher). What am I missing that Pecota sees in terms of run prevention.
Feb 20, 2013 09:02 AM
Correction: Washington was not sub-.500 for every year since they moved to DC. They played .500 ball in their inaugural season.
Feb 20, 2013 09:43 AM
Dave Scott
Beating Pythag would be a good title to a baseball novel.
Feb 20, 2013 10:28 AM
So... Trout and Griffey are Harper's best comparables. Trout had a great sophomore season and Griffey improved throughout his career, but Harper is going to regress to the mean... whatever the mean of a 20 year old is...
Feb 20, 2013 10:55 AM
Richard, that's not how the comparables work and that's never how the comparables have worked. We calculate the comparables based not on one season's performance but on what's called the "baseline forecast," that is to say the weighted average of the past several seasons, regressed to the mean. The comps are meant to help build aging curves, not to allow us to throw out a player's long-term performance history or the concepts behind regression to the mean.
Feb 20, 2013 11:00 AM
I understand there's a baseline forecast and that comparables help to guide it.
Feb 20, 2013 11:13 AM
I think if Harper had batted .230/.290/.360 last year PECOTA would project him to improve, since the MLB mean is better than that. In other words, if you suck, then regressing to the mean helps you(you probably weren't as bad as your stats say). Harper didn't suck, he was good, so regression works against him as PECOTA assumes he was the beneficiary of some good luck.
Feb 20, 2013 11:29 AM
But, was he good because of luck or because of skill/talent compared to the "average" 20 year old player?
Feb 20, 2013 11:50 AM
Both. But PECOTA regressed his performance to the mean, considered the "luck" factor in his 2012 season (BABIP, etc) and produced its forecast. Likely it forecast him to improve by X and to regress by Y. In his case, he was such an outlier that Y > X.
Feb 20, 2013 12:47 PM
The outliers are always hard to play with. You're in a bit of a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't", kind of like with the Wieters projections.
Feb 20, 2013 15:46 PM
Fresh Hops
That we expect young players to improve at the minor league level is a good point. What I would take away from Harper's projection is this:
Feb 21, 2013 08:02 AM
Ben, first off, really great job on MLB Network yesterday. I know we all look forward to seeing more appearances from you in the future. Would be especially fun to see you square off against the likeable, but sabermetrically-disinclined Mitch Williams in a segment or two.
Feb 20, 2013 12:56 PM
Re: your middle paragraph, this is exactly where PECOTA should excel vs. other systems. Not because it will produce a better point forecast, but because it will produce a better spectrum of forecasts. Because young players like Harper are so unique, there are fewer comparable seasons as you mention, which should drive higher forecast dispersion. This is the most fascinating feature of PECOTA to me but it doesn't get much attention (are the percentile forecasts even published anymore?), maybe because it is difficult to consume, or maybe because it doesn't work very well. Ideally, PECOTA would not only adjust the width of the tails, but also the skew (provided there was a statistical basis for that, obviously). In this way it would do better than other systems not by better forecasting the mode, but by better forecasting the mean. I'd love to hear if Colin thinks there is room for further development or focus on this aspect of PECOTA given how competitive the forecasting market has become.
Feb 20, 2013 14:35 PM
Dave - you are undoubtedly on the right track about the outliers, but on TV, Ben needs to sell PECOTA, not tell the world about how it sucks.
Feb 20, 2013 19:38 PM
That's just it, these anomalies don't at all mean that PECOTA sucks. Sell it for what it actually is, which -- for 99.9% of players (for whom hundreds of comparable player-seasons are available) -- is something pretty great. If you embrace that it is a comparables-based model, it seems intuitive why it wouldn't work as well for freaks like Harper or Moyer -- or, for that matter, Trout -- who have few or no true comparables, either because of age or performance extremes (or in Trout's case, both).
Feb 20, 2013 21:02 PM
Ben Lindbergh
BP staff
Yeah, while I was certainly interested in portraying PECOTA in a positive light, I wouldn't want to defend it blindly. When I was asked about Hanley, I mentioned that the projection might be overoptimistic because the system doesn't really know about his injury history and the possibility that he's not the same guy physically. I had prepared to say something similar about Lincecum's velocity loss, if asked about his projection. For Harper, I went with Colin's explanation.
Feb 20, 2013 23:28 PM
Nate Silver also said that a decade ago. My understanding is that, back then, PECOTA was a massive spreadsheet of calculations. Colin's heavily revamped it since then (and using SQL?) so that statement might no longer apply...
Feb 21, 2013 07:14 AM
Except that's not what's happening here.
Feb 21, 2013 07:14 AM
So, in my other post, I say:
Feb 21, 2013 07:21 AM
Think of it as a Bayesian process. You have your 2012 performance for Harper. You also have your prior, in this case the population Harper comes from, along with Harper's minor league production. (We don't use "MLB players" as the population for everyone, we build our prior based on a player's peer group. This isn't comps based, it comes from looking at what levels a player has played at.) So you take Harper's 2012 performance and your prior and you get your estimate for Harper's "true talent" in 2012. From there, you find comps, estimate aging, adjust for league/park/etc. and you get your end result forecast.
Feb 21, 2013 07:37 AM
So, if Bryce Harper had an evil identical twin, who had posted identical stats as Bryce until they were both called up to the majors, at which time Bryce posted a .300 TAv while his evil twin posted a .250 TAv, assuming a league average TAv of say .275 PECOTA would roughly do the following. Since Bryce and his evil twin had identical priors, they would have identical 'true talent' entering 2012. The disparity in performance in 2012 would be attributed to some combination of luck and skill(according to the # of MLB PA's, fewer PA's more luck, more PA's less luck), and for 2013 Bryce would be projected to perform worse, and his evil twin would be projected to perform better. But, Bryce's projection would be better than his evil twin's, with the difference between the two corresponding to the # of MLB PA's. In other words, if they had 100 PA's the difference in projections would be smaller than if they had 500 PA's.
Feb 21, 2013 08:11 AM
The paradox or irony is that the more an individual's performance exceeds the league average(and assuming a reasonable sample size) the more confident we are that his 'true talent' > league average talent AND that he was the beneficiary of some good luck. Those two explanations are not mutually exclusive, you can be lucky and good.
Feb 21, 2013 08:18 AM
In addition, if Harper isn't appearing to perform as well as last year because he's good but the luck isn't breaking his way in 2013 like it did in 2012, he's more likely to get demoted or benched which has an additional chance of hurting his performance.
Feb 21, 2013 09:34 AM
"We do this because changes in performance are more frequent and more dramatic than changes in talent."
Feb 21, 2013 09:34 AM
Colin, I had meant to address this in my first post, but I also don't think that your Rookie of the Year based argument -- that there is, on average, a 10 point drop-off in EqA (OK, I'll humor you guys, let's call it TaV) for Rookies of the Year in the following year -- is a sound one. To me, it ignores the very point I'm making about how unusual Harper is, and why the "sophomore slump" cliche ought not reflexively be applied to him. Indeed, it is the same reason why expecting regression to the mean for a 19-year-old or 20-year-old who performed better than league average makes so much less sense than expecting such regression from an already-established player in his mid-20's.
Feb 21, 2013 14:30 PM
Also, it should be patently obvious by now that I own Harper in my fantasy league.
Feb 21, 2013 14:37 PM
Let's change it up a little bit, then. We'll use the same methodology, but confine ourselves to position players under the age of 21 who had a TAv of .290 or above. There were 58 of those, although if you put in a playing time cutoff of 100 PA, that drops to 19. We won't drop any players, though, we can use a weighted average (which is what I did for the example I gave Ben). For weight, we'll use the harmonic mean of PA in years one and two, or:
Feb 21, 2013 15:35 PM
By the way, the top five players (by the harmonic mean of PA):
Feb 21, 2013 15:41 PM
So you're using Vada Pinson's 20 and 21-year-old seasons, rather than his 19 and 20-year-old ones, for what reason exactly? Granted, he only had 110 PA at 19. But Pinson's improvement from age 19 to age 20 was enormous.
Feb 21, 2013 16:24 PM
Also, isn't it analytically unsound to use the .290 TAv cutoff in the first place? Let's say there are 500 age-19 seasons out there of 100 PA or more, but 490 of them are ones where the player had <.290 TAv. Wouldn't it still be more meaningful to look at all of those seasons, to see whether there is a general trend (as I'm betting there is) of overwhelming improvement in players from their age 19 to age 20 seasons? The only basis for excluding them is the assumption that those lower than average TAv seasons would be expected to go up the next year simply due to regression to the mean. But this is tantamount to assuming your conclusion (that Harper's higher than average TAv will regress downward). In other words, rather than look at all available data to see whether there is something to the notion that improvement at the MLB level from age 19 to age 20 can be expected for reasons other than regression, your cutoff seems to disregard most of it.
Feb 21, 2013 16:50 PM
Ooh, one more thing. Harmonic means are great and all, but I guess I'd be curious to see how many of those 39 seasons of <100 PA you mentioned involved September cups of coffee, when it's well known (or at least generally assumed) that the quality of competition decreases, both because these same young guys are given a chance to play, and because playoff teams often give their regulars extra rest. Also, players with that few PA in their first season necessarily will not have made it a "second time through the league," that inevitable adjustment period that will instead be saved for the following season (after which the player either successfully adjusts, or flames out because he fails to do so). Harper, on the other hand, has 597 PA under his belt now. And even just looking at his month to month stats, you can see that he clearly made it to that second time (corresponding with his summer swoon) and indeed, to that possibly very telling third time (corresponding with his monster fall).
Feb 21, 2013 17:08 PM
I know you guys have lives to lead. But I really would like to know whether (and why) PECOTA is using age 20 seasons as comparisons to age 19 ones. And if it isn't doing that, then why would it predict regression for Harper when (by my best count) only ten 19-year-olds in MLB history have had 1.0 or more oWAR in a season (Harper had 3.4), and 8 of those 10 improved significantly the next year? (h/t to Joe Sheehan for leading me to that tidbit, as he covered Harper in a recent edition of his great newsletter.)
Feb 24, 2013 22:48 PM
Did you just actually posit that it is more likely that Bryce Harper wins the NL MVP than that he experiences any offensive decline at all?
Mar 13, 2013 10:00 AM
Overall very interesting. About the NL East being an easier division and league, though:
Feb 21, 2013 11:01 AM
Ben Lindbergh
BP staff
If you're trying to assess league strength, it makes more sense to look at interleague records than World Series results, no? And those still suggest that the AL is stronger.
Feb 21, 2013 11:05 AM
Statistical arguments aside (I know, non-stats based arguments seem ill-fitting here), is there a player in all of baseball more driven to excel than Harper? If effort, preparation, intensity, drive, etc. count for anything, he may well exceed even optimistic predictions for his 2013 season.
Apr 02, 2013 06:32 AM
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Components 101: Hub
The hub is the center part of a bike wheel. The outside casing, called the hub shell, consists of two machined flanges to which the spokes are attached. The inside of the hub contains the axle and bearings which allow the wheel to rotate smoothly. The rear hub includes splines onto which the cassette (block) is fitted.


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seren wrote:Wilbon was on 1050 today. Was asked about the game yesterday. He said Shump/Fields make a great tandem and mentioned about the chemistry. He said he does not understand why Woodson is playing JR so much. They mentioned about the possibility that it is because JR is a CAA client. Is this true? Do anyone think this may have some contribution to overusing JR? Dude is getting minutes he never got in Denver.
Wilbon is a Bulls fan so he wants Fields on the floor..The Bulls got away with putting Noah on Fields. That shows you how much respect the Bulls coaching staff has for Landry Fields! That put a center on him and were never worried.. JR is way better than Fields on the defensive end of the floor and its not even close when it comes to ball handling and 3 point shooting and free throw shooting. Its a no brainer to have JR finish games over Fields. Dantoni would of quickly yanked JR out of that game. Give Woodson credit for sticking with JR even when he is struggling because he helped win that game at the end.


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
I had intended to post this weeks ago. I guess I'm still postponing my New Year's resolution to stop procrastinating.
We're organizing our first SQL Saturday event in Dallas on May 22nd, hoping to make it an annual event. It will be held at the Region 10 Education Center in Richardson, and we currently have 4 tracks slated: Development, Administration, Business Intelligence and Beginner. I'm particularly excited about the Beginner track since we so rarely find those at the big conferences. This could be a valuable set of sessions, especially for those that are moving from one area of focus to another. If you live in or around the Dallas area and have been hoping to find one of these events near you, here's your chance! The event, like all SQL Saturdays, is free. We are collecting a fee of $10 for lunch onsite. Click here to register. Registration is limited, so don't...um...procrastinate.
Our call for speakers is open and will be open until mid-February. We've already received some great abstracts from well-known speakers, and I hoping we'll see even more. Even if you've never presented before and want to get your feet wet, this is a great opportunity. Everyone has something interesting to share with their peers and this is a good opportunity to do so.
I was preparing for my presentation at PASS and wanted to show some code for automating usage-based optimization. This is the process that allows for creating aggregation designs based on past query activity. I was surprised to find that there were no code examples posted on the web on how to do this, at least none that I could find. BIDSHelper and AggManager have similar functionality but, upon examining the code, they both use a more manual approach of examining each Dataset column in the query log and creating an aggregation when it encounters a "1" in the bit string. I believe they did so due to the inferiority of the UBO algorithm in SQL Server 2005. That being said, using the out-of-the-box UBO algorithm leveraged here is only recommended for use with SQL Server 2008.
I felt sure that this functionality had to be available in AMO (Analysis Management Objects) because it existed in its predecessor, DSO. It turns out that there is supporting documentation in Books Online, but it took some help from some of the folks at Microsoft to find it. Note to self, when looking for detailed documentation of functionality in AMO, look under XMLA. This kind of makes sense - I just would have expected it to be replicated in the AMO documentation. Maybe it just takes a developer to know how to find it. XMLA can also be used as a means of automating UBO but I find the AMO method to be a little more elegant.
The methods used for leveraging query logs when designing aggregations are the same as those used in generic aggregation design. The only difference is that a collection of queries is passed in addition to the other parameters. There are two things to note, however:
First, the Dataset column that is read from the query log must be preceded by a weighting factor, usually the number of times the query appeared in the log.
Second, the queries string collection must only be passed the first time the method is executed. If you pass this parameter in on subsequent calls you will get an error. The DesignAggregations method is executed in a loop that is terminated when the size and/or optimization goals are met. I'm not sure why it couldn't just ignore the queries parameter in subsequent calls, but it doesn't, so you need to code accordingly.
Both of these nuances are documented in Books Online.
Here's an AMO code snippet for adding an aggregation design based on query history. Note that development is not among my primary skill sets, so you'll probably want to clean it up - but it works. For the sake of the session demo, I hard-coded a measure group and created a brand new aggregation design. Best practices indicate that you should add these new aggregations to the existing design so that you won't throw away aggregations that were leveraged by previously well-performing queries. In a real-world scenario, you'd also want to filter the query log so that you only design aggregations for queries that had a long Duration:
Public Sub Main()
' Declarations
' Get Server and Database name from DTS connection object
Dim oSSASConnection As ConnectionManager = Dts.Connections("Analysis Services")
Dim oSQLConnection As ConnectionManager = Dts.Connections("SQL Server")
Dim sSSASServer As String = CStr(oSSASConnection.Properties("ServerName").GetValue(oSSASConnection))
Dim oSSASServer As New Microsoft.AnalysisServices.Server
' SQL Connection
Dim strSQLQuery As String
Dim strConnection As String
Dim sqlCn As SqlConnection
Dim oServerProperty As ServerProperty
Dim sqlDataAdapter1 As SqlDataAdapter
Dim dsQueryLog As DataSet
Dim dvQueryLog As DataView
Dim dRow As DataRow
' Aggregation variables
Dim Queries As New StringCollection
Dim strAggPrefix As String
Dim aggName As String
Dim aggDesign As AggregationDesign
Dim optimization As Double = 0
Dim storage As Double = 0
Dim aggCount As Long = 0
Dim finished As Boolean = False
Dim firsttime As Boolean = True
' Measure group variables
Dim DatabaseName As String
Dim CubeName As String
Dim oMeasureGroup As MeasureGroup
Dim MeasureGroupID As String
Dim oPartition As Partition
' Initialize
DatabaseName = "Adventure Works DW 2008"
CubeName = "Adventure Works"
MeasureGroupID = "Fact Sales Summary"
strAggPrefix = "PASS2009_"
' Initialize connections
oServerProperty = oSSASServer.ServerProperties("Log\QueryLog\QueryLogConnectionString")
strConnection = oServerProperty.Value.Substring(oServerProperty.Value.IndexOf(";") + 1)
sqlCn = New SqlConnection(strConnection)
oMeasureGroup = oSSASServer.Databases(DatabaseName).Cubes(CubeName).MeasureGroups(MeasureGroupID)
' This would be a good place to update the EstimatedRows in the measure group and partitions
' Set oMeasureGroup.EstimatedRows = to the count of rows in the source fact table
' Get select queries from the query log
strSQLQuery = "SELECT dataset, COUNT(*) FROM OLAPQueryLog WHERE MSOLAP_Database = '" & DatabaseName & "' " & _
" AND MSOLAP_ObjectPath = 'ERIN-PC\SQL2008." & DatabaseName & "." & CubeName & "." & oMeasureGroup.ID & _
"' GROUP BY dataset"
sqlDataAdapter1 = New SqlDataAdapter(strSQLQuery, sqlCn)
dsQueryLog = New DataSet
sqlDataAdapter1.Fill(dsQueryLog, strSQLQuery)
dvQueryLog = dsQueryLog.Tables(strSQLQuery).DefaultView
' Populate the Queries string collection with the distinct queries from the query log
For Each dRow In dvQueryLog.Table.Rows
Queries.Add(dRow(1).ToString & "," & dRow(0).ToString)
' Add a new design to the Fact Sales Summary measure group and design aggregations based on the passed list of queries
aggName = strAggPrefix & "_" & oMeasureGroup.Name
aggDesign = oMeasureGroup.AggregationDesigns.Add
aggDesign.Name = aggName
Do While ((Not finished) And (optimization < 100))
If firsttime Then
aggDesign.DesignAggregations(optimization, storage, aggCount, finished, Queries)
firsttime = False
aggDesign.DesignAggregations(optimization, storage, aggCount, finished)
End If
' Assign the new aggregation design to all partitions in the measure group
For Each oPartition In oMeasureGroup.Partitions
oPartition.AggregationDesignID = aggDesign.ID
' Process the indexes to build the new aggregations
' oMeasureGroup.Process(Microsoft.AnalysisServices.ProcessType.ProcessIndexes)
Dts.TaskResult = ScriptResults.Success
Catch ex As Exception
Dts.Events.FireError(0, "Design aggregations failed - ", ex.Message, "", 0)
Dts.TaskResult = ScriptResults.Failure
End Try
If oSSASServer.Connected Then
End If
End Sub
It's been awhile since I've blogged. Every time it seems I'll get some spare moments, something comes up to direct my attention elsewhere. My current engagement keeps me busy and embedded in SQL Server 2005. Though I've presented on some of the cool features of SQL Server 2008, I feel I have very little new insight to publish on that topic that hasn't already been covered on this site. It occurs to me that I'm most readers are in the same position that I am. Unless driven to SQL Server 2008 by particular features, I suspect many remain on 2005 (and, dare I say it, 2000).
One of the many aspects of SQL Server 2008 that appeals to me is the cube designers in Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). For example, attribute relationships are a commonly misunderstood aspect of cube dimensions in SQL Server 2005/2008. Later SQL Server 2005 service packs added some warnings when attribute relationships were not designed into dimension hierarchies, but these are easy to ignore and ARs are not well understood by many cube designers. Why are attribute relationships so important? That's something I may save for another blog, but I suspect it has already been blogged about elsewhere on this site. My point is that BIDS in 2008 provides far more feedback on various cube/dimension design aspects, attribute relationship definitions being one. I'm including a screen snapshot of the attribute relationship designer in 2008 BIDS to demonstrate my point.
As you can see, it's far more intuitive.
And for those courageous enough to take on the manual design of aggregations, the aggregation designer in 2008 is killer. I'm not recommending this. In fact, I use it more to view the aggregations that have been designed by the aggregation design wizard or usage-based optimizer. There is a separate application that could be downloaded prior to 2008, but I found the interface to be difficult to work with. Here's what the aggregation designer looks like in BIDS 2008:
What I learned from a Tech Ed presentation by Donald Farmer is that these tools can be used to manage a cube implemented in SQL Server 2005. How cool is that?! So, if your organization plans to stay on SQL Server 2005 on the server-side for a little while longer, it doesn't mean you can't take advantage of some of the great new client tools in SQL Server 2008 to make life a little easier in the meantime.
The SQL Server 2008 version of the Analysis Services Performance Guide was published last month. I've yet to read it - it's 80 pages (which is actually less than its 2005 predecessor). I'm sure there's some overlap with that one but, since it has different authors, the information is presented differently. And, of course, it has been updated for SQL Server 2008.
I'll admit that I haven't spent a lot of time in Reporting Services. And it's been quite awhile since I've written a report against an Analysis Services cube - since SQL Server 2000, in fact. I was kind of looking forward to using the MDX designer in Reporting Services 2005 but soon found it's limitations (which are well-documented). I needed to implement drilldown on the Account hierarchy, which required pulling the preceding parent levels in a parent-child dimension. This quickly moved me to the OLE DB data source type and out of the nifty query designer that is only available when using the Analysis Services type :-( As such, I was back to implementing parameters by concatenating them in the query string - it was looking like SQL Server 2000 all over again.
But that's not the jist of this blog entry.
I got a nice looking report that drilled down a parent-child Account hierarchy on the rows and displayed various time periods on the columns. Yes, it looked good, but it took, on average, 1 minute 37 seconds to refresh! Every time the user would select a new job to display they'd have to wait over a minute and 1/2 for the report to come up. Unacceptable! What's worse is that the MDX was only taking 7 seconds to execute. I can tune the MDX/cube but I had no idea what Reporting Services was doing that resulted in such a long render time.
My first resort was to google on the problem. I found very little information on the topic. One useful blog by Chris Webb suggested that I remove the cell formatting options. Alright, that was nice - it removed 15 seconds and my report now refreshed in 1 minute 23 seconds (average). Still unacceptable.
In thinking about the problem it seemed strange that RS required such a flat query that took an aggregated source, required you to unaggregate it, so that RS could re-aggregate it itself. Yet all examples I could find put all measures (and only measures) on the columns axis, and all remaining dimension members on the remaining axes. This returns a resultset that is long and narrow. The report is short (relatively) and wide. Why can't I make the query look just like the report?
So that's what I tried. I put the column header dimension members on the column axis. Bingo - the report rendered in 15 seconds - now that's a significant improvement!
Note that this solution will not fit the need of all reports. In placing dimension members on the column axis I lose the ability to drill down or up that dimension - the column headers become static. In my case, that's precisely what I wanted since that happened to be the design of the report. It also is a little more tedious to manually enter the values associated with 10 static columns compared to the 1 column in the original report. I felt this was a small price to pay for over 5x performance improvement.
MDX Before (condensed)
SELECT NON EMPTY {[Measures].[Value]} ON COLUMNS, {([Time].[Fiscal Month].[Current Month], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[ITD], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[EAC], {[Scenario].[All Members].[EAC], [Scenario].[All Members].[Budget]})} ON ROWS, NON EMPTY ([Version].[All Members].[Version].[0], [Job].[Job_Hierarchy].[Level 03].[1234], { [MeasureType].[All Members].[Units] * DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [MeasureType].[All Members].[Dollars] * {DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Revenue]}}) ON PAGES FROM [Job Planning] CELL PROPERTIES VALUE, BACK_COLOR, FORE_COLOR, FORMATTED_VALUE, FORMAT_STRING, FONT_NAME, FONT_SIZE, FONT_FLAGS
SELECT NON EMPTY {[Measures].[Value]} ON COLUMNS,
NON EMPTY ([Version].[All Members].[Version].[0], [Job].[Job_Hierarchy].[Level 03].[1234], { [MeasureType].[All Members].[Units] * DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [MeasureType].[All Members].[Dollars] * {DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Revenue]}}) ON PAGES
FROM [Job Planning] CELL PROPERTIES VALUE, BACK_COLOR, FORE_COLOR, FORMATTED_VALUE, FORMAT_STRING, FONT_NAME, FONT_SIZE, FONT_FLAGS
MDX After
SELECT {([Time].[Fiscal Month].[Current Month], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[ITD], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[EAC], {[Scenario].[All Members].[EAC], [Scenario].[All Members].[Budget]})} * {[Measures].[Value]} ON COLUMNS, NON EMPTY ([Version].[All Members].[Version].[0], [Job].[Job_Hierarchy].[Level 03].[1234], { [MeasureType].[All Members].[Units] * DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [MeasureType].[All Members].[Dollars] * {DESCENDANTS([Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Costs],, LEAVES), [Account].[Account Hierarchy].[Total Revenue]}}) ON ROWS FROM [Job Planning]
SELECT {([Time].[Fiscal Month].[Current Month], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[ITD], {[Scenario].[All Members].[Actual], [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast]}), ([Time].[Fiscal Month].[EAC], {[Scenario].[All Members].[EAC], [Scenario].[All Members].[Budget]})} * {[Measures].[Value]} ON COLUMNS,
FROM [Job Planning]
I just heard about this from Len Wyatt, who's a Principle Program Manager on the SQL Server Performance team. Microsoft and Unisys announced a record for loading into a relational database, using SSIS (SQL Server 2008) to load over 1 TB of data in under 30 minutes! The previous known record-holder was Informatica, who reported loading 1 TB in 45 minutes. Note that that this is not a TPC benchmark, since none exists for loading tools (yet).
Len blogged about the details on the SQL Server Performance team blog, where he mentions that a whitepaper will follow with more information on how they did it. I, for one, can't wait to read all about it!
Horizontal partitioning can be a great benefit to data warehouses, as it greatly facilitates the management of very large databases. Of course, querying on partitions can also have performance benefits, especially when only a small percentage of the database is queried and partition elimination can occur. SQL Server 2005, however, can have some unexpected behavior when querying few partitions.
In SQL Server 2005, one thread is allocated per partition when multiple partitions are queried. These threads then work in parallel to retrieve the rows to satisfy the query. If only one partition is queried, however, SQL Server 2005 allocates as many threads as are available to the one partition. As you can quickly see, there is a vulnerability when it comes to queries that query very few, but more than 1 partition.
The common scenario is when only 2 partitions are queried. For example, let's say you have a data warehouse database that is partitioned on a sales date by month. You write a query to compare last month's sales to this month's sales. Now, let's say this runs on a 32-processor server. How many threads get allocated to this query? The answer is 2, one per queried partition.
This last scenario can become even more complicated when a window of time causes the query to fluctuate between 1 and multiple partitions. Let's say we compare today's sales to the same day of the week last week. If both weeks are in the same month, we get full thread allocation. If the weeks span two months (= 2 partitions), however, we only get 2 threads allocated and the query can appear to slow down considerably, for no apparent reason (at least, probably not to the issuer of the query).
Note: All of these scenarios assume that the queries are able to eliminate partitions due to a direct search on the partitioning key. Be sure partition elimination is occurring in order to gain the best partitioned table query performance.
Note: All of these scenarios assume that the queries are able to eliminate partitions due to a direct search on the partitioning key. Be sure partition elimination is occurring in order to gain the best partitioned table query performance.
SQL Server 2008 behavior changes the way in which threads are allocated. It allocates all available threads to each partition relevant to the query in a round robin fashion. This results in fast and consistent query execution, no matter how many partitions are queried.
Note that this makes it all the more important to allocate partitions to filegroups that are spread across many disk spindles, allowing the query on a given partition to be as efficient as possible.
But wait, there's another improvement to partition query behavior in SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2005 only allows lock escalation to the table level. Let's say your query eliminates 75% of a table's partitions, but scans all of the remaining partitions (1/4 of the table). If SQL Server decides to escalate the lock, all other queries will be locked out even if they are querying completely different partitions. SQL Server 2008 provides a table option to override this default behavior. Note that the default is still to escalate to table locks (at least for now) so this option will need to be changed to take advantage of partition-level lock escalation. Find out more about this, like I did, on über blogger Paul Randall's post.
Long gone are the days when you can reasonably expect to know all aspects of SQL Server at a deep level. When a new version starts to emerge, I try to put some scope around the features that I will dive more deeply into. I'm publishing my list here so that like-minded SQL Server enthusiasts may become aware of a feature or two that was lost in that one-page Powerpoint slide you see in most of the presentations on SQL Server 2008.
Note: I put together this list during the summer as an roadmap for personal testing with the CTP releases. In December 2007, a whitepaper, "An Introduction to New Data Warehouse Scalability Features in SQL Server 2008", was released that includes a short writeup on each of these features, as well as some additional improvements to SSAS, SSIS and SSRS. If you are interested in the types of features I mention below, I highly recommend you check out this whitepaper.
My focus is on Business Intelligence and performance (particularly in terms of relational data warehouse performance). With that said and in no particular order, here is my list of top 10 features in SQL Server 2008, and why. I plan to post more detail about several of these in the future:
I sent this to our local user group when I installed Vista Ultimate on my new laptop a few months ago. Yesterday, I did a quick search to see if this information was readily available and found that it still was not (at least not in one place), so I decided to post it here. I hope it helps!
· You must install SQL Server 2005 SP2. I was able to successfully install RTM, then followed by SP2, but an attendee at our last user group meeting had no such luck. One of our local Microsofties mentioned there is an SQL install that combines the core install of SQL with SP2.
· OWC 11 component install fails. This has a domino effect on the installation of most of the other SQL components. You know, the important ones, like database services, SSIS, SSAS and SSRS. The newsgroup solution was to uninstall OWC 11 through Add/Remove Programs. This solution worked for me, as well.
· IIS is required for Reporting Services. Nothing new here, but the configuration of IIS was not as simple as I recall it on XP. Be sure the following options are selected (Start --> Control Panel --> Programs and Features --> Turn Windows features on or off):
o Web management tools
§ IIS 6 Management Compatibility
· IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
· IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility
o World Wide Web Services
§ Application Development Features
· ISAPI Extensions
· ISAPI Filters
§ Common Http Features
· Default Document
· Directory Browsing
· HTTP Redirection
· Static Content
§ Security
· Windows Authentication
· You must install Visual Studio SP1, then another patch for Vista. I initially tried installing the patch for Vista first but it wanted SP1. I was unable to run BIDS until I installed these. Here are the download files (available for download at Microsoft.com):
o VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU (VS SP1)
o VS80sp1-KB932232-X86-ENU (patch for Vista)
There was mention of having to turn off UAC at one of our user group meetings. I did not have this issue. During the install, I was asked if I wanted to be added to the sysadmin role during the SQL SP2 setup, because Builtin\Administrators is not automatically added to sysadmin like it used to be.
I'm excited to be blogging with several of my SQL Server comrades. My name is Erin Welker and SQL Server is my passion - I've been working with the product since version 1.11! In the last few years I have been sharing my lessons learned through presenting and writing. I've been honored to present at SQL PASS for the last 3 years and at Tech Ed 2007. I was part of the Project REAL team and authored a whitepaper on partitioning as a result. I also wrote 2 whitepapers on large relational data warehouses on SQL Server, one on managing and one on performance. I'm currently working on my second article for SQL Server Magazine, which should appear in the March 2008 issue.
My focus is on Business Intelligence and performance, and that's what I intend to blog about most. On my current engagement, I'm working with PerformancePoint Planning, so you may see that slip in here and there.
I look forward to sharing information on this site and hope to learn from other bloggers and readers, as well.
I hope you enjoy!


text:
Fresh off stomping a mudhole in the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday (which allowed Area55 to break out the previously suggested by Naptown Seth "Naptown-Beatdown" chant for the first time) , the Pacers return tomorrow to Bankers Life to welcome the OLD, yet almost as putrid as the new, Charlotte franchise from New Orleans (soon to be Seattle?) to town, and look for a chance to go for their third straight W.
Unfortunately for the Hornets and North Central High School, "hometown hero" and massively wanted on this forum Hornets SG Eric Gordon is still hurt. For that matter, so is Vincennes and Purdue alum Carl Landry, as he will not play tonight against Oklahoma City (yet ANOTHER former home of the Hornets). While Pacers ticket staff are probably a little disappointed that they likely won't draw the crowd they would have gotten if they were healthy, I'm personally disappointed for another reason: We can't hurt a fan's feelings for booing a "hometown hero" this time.
But let's look at the bright side, as I was looking at notes for New Orleans' game tonight, we can draw solace in the fact that there will STILL be a homecoming of sorts tomorrow night. Not only will former Pacer Jarrett Jack be returning to his home for a season, but as of last Wednesday, the Hornets signed THIS guy:
That's right, tomorrow night is the RETURN OF SOLO!
Anyway, so I can stop ripping off IndyHoya's pregame writeups and get back to the point, Area 55 is looking for chants focused towards Aminu, Ariza, Jarrett, and Gustavo Ayon (I have NO IDEA how to pronounce that by the way). but as always, the books is wide open for PG-rated chants.
As usual, put them here or send them over to @area55chants, @pacers_chants, @thesandman21 or @letstalkpacers on Twitter.
I know the Hornets are 7-26, but we (nor the Pacers themselves) can't overlook them tomorrow night. So let's BRING IT!


text:
'"I did see (the shot coming), but I couldn't move," said Drury, who returned in overtime. "I don't know if it was going in the net or on net or where, but I just didn't have time. … Eight (stitches) on the outside (of my mouth), three on the inside. I didn't take X-rays because I've got to go to a dentist for that."'
You are here: Home / SabresBeat / Senators advance to first Stanley Cup Finals with OT win


text:
Patient Safety Tool Helps ID Hospital Errors
This article appears in the December 2012 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.
Reporting and analyzing every error that almost harmed a patient may be an expensive hassle. But for Paula Holbrook, RN, BHS, JD, CPHRM, associate director of risk management and clinical risk manager for the University of Kentucky Healthcare's A.B. Chandler Medical Center, it's just as valuable for preventing harm as reviewing those mistakes that did hurt patients.
Holbrook and her team want to capture the "near misses, the little things that don't reach the patient," she says. "They signal the need for change because of a potentially or actively defective process." Near misses happen more frequently, and thus are goldmines for process improvement.
Here's one example, she says. "A patient with the same last name as another patient is taken to the operating room and is nearly at the point of anesthesia induction when someone reports, 'Hey, we took the wrong patient.'
"It didn't result in harm, but we want to know how this happened, and as soon as I got the call, we mobilized people and analyzed it quickly. It gives us an opportunity to intervene early and prevent these hazards—even small ones—from becoming losses. You want to get this before you have that 'Oh my God' moment.' "
In this case, Common Formats, an electronic tool developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, helped Holbrook and her team identify failure points in communication and "the breach of the patient identification process at several points that didn't stop the line until it got nearly to the point where we put the patient to sleep. That was a big deal to us."
The 600-bed hospital is working with its patient safety organizations to use Common Formats, a taxonomic decision tree that allows providers to categorize each such event in one of three buckets—near misses, unsafe conditions, or actual patient harm incidents—and then drill down to what might have led to the circumstance and where it occurred.
Nine types of events are captured, including those involving blood products; devices, medical or surgical supplies, and health information technology; falls; healthcare-associated infections; medications; perinatal care; pressure ulcers; surgery or anesthesia; and venous thromboembolism.
The system also grades the level of harm to a patient, visitor, or staff member, as to whether it caused death, severe permanent harm, permanent harm, or temporary harm; required additional treatment; caused emotional distress or inconvenience; or did not cause harm.


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Don't strain your neck or your back when lying around watching TV. Just lie on your back with these special prism glasses from Thanko. No need to sit-up or use extra energy! You can even wear them over your glasses. Price: 1,980 [...]
Via Thanko


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New FAO funding mechanism makes its debut
Sweden and the Netherlands are the first partners with total contributions of $26 million
29 November 2010, Rome - Sweden and the Netherlands today became the first resource partners to provide funds to FAO's new multipartner programme, a direct follow up to FAO reform. The voluntary contributions agreed upon, to be used by 2013, amount to a total of roughly $26 million.
The new FAO Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) has been developed to enable FAO's resource partners to allocate their contributions in direct support of the agency's Programme of Work and Budget.
Greater trust in FAO
"The willingness of Sweden and the Netherlands to adhere so quickly to the mechanism is encouraging", said FAO Assistant Director-General José Maria Sumpsi, who signed the agreement with Sweden and the Netherlands.
"It also shows that FAO's renewal has engendered greater trust in the agency and the reforms underway. We hope that other countries will join this initiative", he added.
The novelty of the system is that the voluntary contributions are no longer tied to a specific programme or project but go right into the FAO budget along with the assessed contributions from member countries.
This means that FAO can use them wherever appropriate within the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, to deliver results that will make a difference for people suffering from hunger.
New funds to support global goals
The objective of the agreement is to promote the continuing contribution of food and sustainable agriculture to the attainment of FAO's Global Goals, namely access by all to sufficient and safe food, the contribution of sustainable agriculture and development to economic and social progress, and the conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources.
Sweden's contribution of approximately $19 million until 2013 will be used for activities designed to meet the climate challenge through sustainable management of natural resources and improved rural livelihoods.
For the first time, Sweden, a member of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, makes a significant contribution to the core administrative budget of the Treaty.
The Netherlands's contribution (around $7 million) will support policy assistance and capacity development activities at country level.